by Phil Truman
“Wull,” Hayward scratched the side of his head before continuing. “If they ain’t going to get the map, like you say, does that mean it’s already been got? Maybe by you, or Ned Starr, or some other Cherokee brother?”
“No,” Soc said.
“No? Well, what would stop any of you?”
“No sane man would ever go into the den of the Forest Demon. I aim to see to it that the Ross clansman and his partner find out just why that is.”
“And how’re you going to do that?” asked Hayward.
“If you’re with me at the time, you’ll see,” the old Cherokee said.
“So what’re you going to do, walk up to them boys and say, ‘Here’s what the clues in the Ed Reed letter mean’?”
“Something like that,” Soc said. “I ain’t really figured that part out yet.”
Hayward shook his head in amused disbelief. Little Wolf had returned from his search and sat panting at the two men’s feet. “This should be good,” Hayward said. He reached down to pat the dog on his head, and Little Wolf rolled over and peed on Hayward’s hand.
* * *
“Are you sure it was her?” Red Randy asked.
“Pretty durn sure,” Threebuck responded.
Randy stretched out on the bed with his hands interlaced behind his head, looking at the ceiling. Threebuck had told him he’d spotted the Griggs woman leaving a supermarket, but lost her in traffic when he tried to follow her.
“We need to find that place so we can get out there and see if any of that stuff supposedly located in her barn is there and can lead us to the treasure,” Randy said. “I figure that woman knows some things about all this treasure stuff, too. Once we get her to tell us what she knows, we’ll get rid of her like we planned. Don’t want to leave any loose ends.”
* * *
Hayward looked worried. “I been thinking about what you said yesterday, Soc, and here’s what I figure we can do without raising any suspicion or getting anyone kilt. That thing about the deerskin you yapped about in Arlene’s might could work to our advantage now. I got an old buckskin coat I could cut the back out of and you could write some stuff on it like you talked about—the meaning of those clues in the Ed Reed letter. Hell, it don’t have to be accurate, just make it sound authentic. We just want something that they think they’re looking for. We’ll stick it in a corner of Buck’s old hay wagon in Sunny’s barn. Cover it up with a tarp or something, like it’s been hid a long time.”
The two old friends had re-convened at Arlene’s the morning after their meeting in the park. “How’d you come up with that brilliant plan?” Soc asked.
“Well, I re-read Nan’s minutes page and that’s kind of where the ‘clues’ go. I thought it would be best to let this thing play out, with some added ingredients, so them guys won’t realize they’re being played.”
“A few things you forgot,” Soc said.
“What’s that?” asked Hayward. He opened and poured two creamer cups into his coffee.
“As far as I know, those boys ain’t figured out where Sunny lives. And once they do find out, we need to make sure we’re out there with some law, or something, to make sure no harm comes to Sunny. So my question is, how’re we going to let those fellers know where Buck’s barn is, and how’re we going to know when they’ll go for the bait? You planning on setting up camp somewhere out there? Also, how’re we going to plant your deerskin without Sunny knowing?”
“Well, first off,” Hayward answered. “...that ain’t A question, it’s more like four, but they are dang good ones. Let’s think about this.”
Jo Lynn set cinnamon rolls on the counter in front to the two men. Hayward waited until Jo Lynn walked away before he continued. Soc sawed a two inch square piece off the side of his roll and stuffed it in his mouth.
“Punch told me they had some kind of cock ’n bull story about owing Sunny’s old man some money and they wanted to give it to her. It seems obvious to me they was trying to get Punch to tell them where she lived.”
Soc nodded and chewed, then forked another bite into his mouth.
“All we got to do is to get Punch to tell them Sunny wants that money, then he can tell them how to get to her place. We’ll also have him say she’s going to be gone on a certain night, so they can’t take her the money then. I figure they’ll go out there on the night she’s allegedly gone to go through her barn looking for the deerskin which we’ll plant. That afternoon, you and me will pull up in her driveway in my RV and ask her if she’d mind if we set up in her field for the night while we did some ’coon hunting. She told me she’s been having some trouble lately with something raiding her hens’ nests. I told her it was probably raccoons, and that I’d be glad to come over some time and set a trap for them. I figure she’ll be happy at the prospect of us hunting the varmints...as long as we promise her we won’t kill ’em.
“We’ll set up near her barn there, plant the deerskin, and just wait until them two scalawags come around. Once they break into Sunny’s barn, we’ll bust ’em.
“You and me?” Soc asked.
“Sure, you and me. We’re deputy marshals, ain’t we?” Hayward referred to the fact that on Veterans Day two years past, he and Soc had been named Honorary Oklahoma Deputy Marshals for Life at a ceremony in Veterans Park. The city council thought up the gesture to honor Hayward and Soc for being two of the oldest living World War II veterans in the state. They’d received certificates signed by the governor conferring upon them all rights and privileges for being Deputy Marshals in the State of Oklahoma.
“What night?” asked Soc.
Hayward rubbed his chin and took another gulp of coffee. He looked up at the beefcake calendar Jo Lynn kept pinned to the wall next to the coffee maker. Every year the Tulsa Fire Fighters made a calendar with pictures of their most muscular and shirtless members to sell as charity fund raisers, and every year Jo Lynn bought one to hang on the wall behind the counter at Arlene’s. Mr. October glistened with a coil of fire hose slung over his well-tanned chest and shoulder, looking back with a pearly smile that suggested he knew how to put out a fire. “Halloween’s coming up in about a week,” said Hayward. “Looks like there’ll be a full moon that night. I think that’d be a perfect night.”
Soc kept eating his cinnamon roll, as if he heard not a word Hayward had said to him. Jo Lynn came by and topped off his coffee mug.
Hayward asked, “Whadda you think?”
Soc didn’t immediately answer. He polished off the last bit of his roll, then took up his mug and slurped some coffee.
“Not a bad plan,” Soc said. He scoured the inside of his cheeks with his tongue for remnants of the cinnamon roll. “You going to try to get Sunny to leave that night?”
“Didn’t plan on it,” Hayward said. “I figured if them guys think she’s gone that’ll draw them on out there. I don’t figure they got any interest in her, as long as they find what they’re looking for. If she stays in the house, she’ll be awright. We’ll tell her she’s got to do that in order not to scare off the ’coons.”
Soc nodded as if agreeing with Hayward. “Only flaw I see so far is involving Punch. You put that boy in the mix and ain’t no telling where the manure is going to fly... or land.”
Hayward pursed his lips and nodded. “Valid point,” he said. “Mebbe we better think up something else for that part.”
Chapter 25
White Helps Out
Red Randy didn’t know whether to believe this guy or not. He and Threebuck sat playing the slots at the casino when the guy walked up, and started talking. It was that wiry old guy they had hooked up with the day of the catfish noodlin’. He sidled up to the slot machine where Randy sat working it.
“Hey, boys, remember me?” he asked.
Randy glanced up at him and put another token in the slot. “Yeah, you’re the old fart that nearly got Threebuck here drowned.”
The guy laughed, and scratched the side of his neck. “Well, I reckon that’s partly true, but I can’t take all
the credit. The boy done most of that on his own, and he did win a hunnert bucks for his effort. “Name’s White Oxley,” he’d said. “In case you forgot.”
Randy nodded and continued with the slot machine. Threebuck eyed Oxley with contempt.
Oxley continued. “That noodlin’ tournament was a while back. I figured you boys’d be long gone by now. What, y’all decide to take up residence here in Tsalagee?”
“No sense moving on as long as our luck holds out,” Randy said with a smirk. “Sides, we got some business in town.”
“Is that right,” White said. “Well, I hear you boys are wanting to get in touch with Sunny Griggs. Got some money you want to give her.”
Randy looked at White briefly then back at the slot machine. “Who told you that?” he asked.
“She did. She got the info from Punch Roundstep, the ole boy you told that to at Arlene’s a few days back.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Randy said. “You tell us where she lives and we’ll take it out to her.”
“Well, no, she ain’t willing to do that. No offense, but I don’t think she much cares for you boys, for whatever reason. I really didn’t get into that with her, but she’s a friend of mine, and she asked me find you and give you this.”
White handed Randy a sealed pastel green envelope which had artwork of dancing fairies on it. Randy looked down at the envelope; then took it from White. He turned it over and ripped the sealed flap with his index finger, extracting the folded notepaper inside, which had more fairies at the top. Randy thought it looked like an invitation to tea. He flipped it open and read the note written in a swirling feminine script.
“Randy—I understand you have some money you want to give to my father. If you’ll give it to White, he can bring it to me, and I’ll see that Goat gets it.
Sunny Griggs.”
Red Randy looked up at White with a scowl. “How do I know you ain’t scamming me,” he asked. “I’d prefer to give her this money in person.”
“Well, I tell ya... Randy, ain’t it?” He ignored Randy’s cold stare. “I tell ya, Randy, that just ain’t going to happen. Alls I can say is I ain’t here to cheat you. I’m just trying to help out a friend. I told her I knew you boys, and I’d see what I could do for her.” White tapped the dancing fairy note card still in Randy’s hand with his index finger. “Why lookit that handwriting. You can tell it was a girl wrote it. I guaran-damn-tee you I can’t write like that.”
Jo Lynn, whom Hayward let in on the plan, had in fact, written the note. She even had the idea to use the fairy stationary. Hayward considered that a nice touch.
Randy appeared to give it a little more thought. “I don’t have the cash on me,” he said.
“I reckon she’d take a check,” White replied.
“Okay.” Randy said. “Checkbook is back in my motel room.”
“I hate to owe a man money,” Randy said as he tore the check out of the checkbook and handed it to White. White saw that it was made out to Sunny Griggs in the amount of one thousand dollars. He raised his eyebrows and gave out a short whistle. At that, Threebuck took a step forward and looked over Oxley’s shoulder at the check, too.
“Of course, I also don’t much like being swindled,” Red Randy added with a cool stare at White. “If I find out Sunny didn’t get this check, I’m going to have to hunt you down.”
“No worries there, pardner. I aim to take this to her right now,” White said. He folded the check and put it in the left front pocket of his shirt. “She’s planning on leaving town on the thirty-first—that’s day after tomorrow, ain’t it? Well, anyway, she won’t be back for a few days.”
“Much obliged,” Randy said. One could almost detect a smile on his face, but his eyes betrayed that.
After Oxley left the room, Threebuck said, “Are you nuts giving that girl a check for a thousand bucks?”
Randy had gone to the window and lifted one slat of the blinds. The last rays of the setting sun shone directly into his eyes, but he could still see Oxley walking to his truck. “All I gave that guy was a piece of paper with some numbers written on it. That check is as bad as your breath. Besides I signed your name to it.”
Before Threebuck could respond, Randy said, “We need to follow this dude. He’ll lead us right to the gold mine.”
White took his time getting to his pickup; glancing back occasionally to make sure the two men followed him. Satisfied that they’d stayed on his tail, he started his truck and pulled slowly out of the motel parking lot into the fading daylight. He kept looking in his rearview mirror to make sure he didn’t lose them. When he turned into Sunny’s drive, on the dark side of twilight, he slowed almost to a stop, looking back down the road to his left. Sure enough, he could see their headlights about a quarter mile back. He pulled on up to the house, stopping in front with his truck in full view from the road. He grabbed a Walmart sack lying in the seat next to him, got out, and walked up to the front door. He knocked twice.
“Hey, Sunny. How you doin’ this evening,” he said with a big grin when she opened the door. She looked surprised to see him.
“Well, hi, White.”
“Sorry I didn’t call ahead, but I’z passing by and happened to remember I had this belt and holster I been meaning to give to you. I’z cleaning out the closet in my gunroom t’other day, and I come acrost it. I plum forgot I had it when I sold you that pistol.”
White handed her the Walmart sack. As she opened it the sound of motorcycles went by on the road out front. Sunny looked up at the sound, but darkness hid the riders. White didn’t turn around.
Looking back into the sack Sunny said, “How much do you want for this?”
“Oh, I don’t want nothing for it. It come with the gun when I bought it. It’d be included in the price you already paid. Like I said, I forgot I had it until I found it in my closet. Old lady is always on my back to get rid of stuff. She says I’m a regular pack rat.”
White spoke mostly the truth, but he’d needed a reason to come knocking at Sunny’s door, so those yahoos would think he was delivering that check. Hayward had asked him to help him out on this deal and had let him in on some of what was going on, too. He’d called White a couple days back and asked to meet him in the Walmart parking lot; said he had a favor to ask White.
“Hey, Hayward,” White had greeted him. He had parked his pickup in the outlying, yellow striped area of the parking lot where the employees were supposed to park, but never did. It put him in plain sight where Hayward could find him.
“Hey, White. Thanks for meeting me.”
“What’s this all about?” White had asked.
“Well, we got us kind of a situation, and I thought maybe you could help.”
“Sure, Hayward. What’s going on?”
That’s when Hayward began to tell him about the two strangers in town up to no good, threatening Jo Lynn and Sunny, even suspected of killing Buck. He said that he and Soc were trying to set them up to get caught in the act of something against the law so they could be arrested. He told White about how the two boys had fed Punch this story about owing Sunny’s daddy some money trying to get Punch to tell them where she lived.
“That’s where I need your help, White,” Hayward had said. “You went noodlin’ with these fellas, you know ’em. I need you to approach them saying Sunny sent you to them to get the money, and let them know you’re going to take it to her right then. I’m hoping they’ll follow you to see where she lives. Then I want you to tell them she’s leaving town on the thirty-first. If this works like we hope it will, I figure them boys’ll be out there Halloween Night rummaging around in her barn.”
“Fer what?” White’d asked.
“It gets kinda complicated here,” Hayward said. He took off his Greg Norman Panama and rubbed the top of his head with his other hand. “They think there’s some instructions there that will lead them to the Belle Starr Treasure.”
“The Belle Starr Treasure? In Buck’s barn?”
; “I know, it all sounds crazy. I can’t go into all the details right now. But everything is just a set-up me and Soc has cooked up. Once they break into that barn, we’re going to make a citizen’s arrest on ’em for breaking and entering with maybe some burglerin’ thrown in. Them boys’re up to something no good. We aim to protect our own and get them put away.”
“Does Sunny know about any of this?” White asked.
“No, she don’t,” Hayward said. “We didn’t want to scare her. So, you think you could help us out with this?
White nodded thoughtfully, “Yeah, I reckon I can. Now, did you want me to actually give her this money them boys are going to fork over?”
“Well, no. I don’t figure they’ll give you actual money, ’cause I think that story is just something they made up. You can see if they’ll write you a check or something.”
White nodded some more, “Awright,” he said. “But how am I going to explain to her why I showed up at her door?”
“Oh, you’ll think of something. Take her a jar of Bernice’s award winning jalapeño apple butter. Sunny’d probably like that.”
White had gotten well into nodding by then, the wheels turning. “Yeah,” he said absently. “Them boys’re sure enough bad news. I wouldn’t want no harm to come to Sunny. She’s a little different, but I kinda like the girl.”
That’s when he came up with the idea of the holster and gunbelt. After the meeting with Hayward concluded, he’d gone on into the Walmart to buy a box of ammunition to fill the bullet loops in that gunbelt, just in case she was running low.
“Well, thanks, White.” Sunny pulled belt and holster out of the sack and held it up. “I’ll look like Annie Oakley with this on. Oh, look. It even has some bullets in the belt.”
“Yeah, they was already in there. You might as well have ’em,” White said. “Figured you might could use ’em.”
Chapter 26
The Moon Also Rises
Halloween
The sun hung about an hour from slipping behind the western hills when Hayward rolled the Fleetwood Jamboree RV to a stop in front of the pasture gate. Soc got out and opened the gate to let the lumbering RV pass through. Hayward had called Sunny earlier in the day to tell her he and Soc could trap those raccoons who’d been stealing her eggs and harassing her goats.
