by Nick Russell
"What the hell's the matter with you? For such a little man, you're 'bout the biggest idiot I've ever seen," Flag said.
McRae cursed him and spat at the Chief Deputy."
"You got no right comin' on my property and treatin' me this way!"
"All you had to do was answer a couple of god damn questions, ya idiot."
Before the man could respond, John Lee heard a noise behind him and two deputies shouted warnings. He turned to see one of McRae's sons coming at him with a raised hammer. The boy swung it at his head, but John Lee managed to duck, hearing the air swish past his ear from the narrow miss. He drove his shoulder hard into the young man's chest, knocking him backwards against the International. The teenager still had the hammer, so John Lee grabbed his wrist and twisted, at the same time slamming his elbow into the side of the boy's head. Two more deputies swarmed over him and brought him to the ground, while another put his hand on his holstered pistol and ordered the other son to keep his hands up and not to move.
Just about the time John Lee thought the hostilities had ended, the door of the home flew open and a woman as short and thin as her husband, and just as mean, came out with a baseball bat.
"Y'all get your hands off my husband and boy or I'm gonna knock some son-of-bitch's head off!"
"Drop that bat right now," Bob Patterson ordered. "Do it, I won't tell you again!"
The woman ignored his orders and advanced toward him, the bat raised over her shoulder. John Lee knew that if she swung it she could kill the deputy. He drew his Browning from its holster and pointed at her.
"Stop, lady. Stop or I'll shoot!"
She ignored him, and just as John Lee centered his sights on the side of her head Maddy fired her Taser, sending 50,000 volts through her and sending her to the ground, where she convulsed in spasms, wetting herself.
The dogs were barking and snarling and threatening to attack, but the second son managed to keep them at bay. Meanwhile the girl on the swing had run inside, where she hid with her younger sister in the bathroom.
Finally, with three of the McRae's in handcuffs and lodged in the back of police cars, and a call in to a relative to come and take charge of the remaining children, the deputies searched the property. They found a dozen firearms, from the shotgun in Earl's truck and a small .25 semiautomatic pistol in the pocket of his overalls, to an assortment of .22 rifles and shotguns, and three other handguns. But there were no center fire rifles of the type that were used to shoot at the deputies' cars.
"So was all of this is just a big waste of time?"
"Don't know, John Lee," Flag said. "Let's haul these three back to town and do some talkin' to them. If nothing else, we'll charge 'em with assault on police officers and be'in stupid and ugly."
Chapter 26
It took most of the rest of the day to interrogate the McRaes and do all of the paperwork associated with the raid upon their home. And it all led to nothing.
While they were able to charge all three of them with assaulting police officers and resisting arrest, when they finally were able to get Earl to talk to them, he had an alibi for the day before.
"I spent the whole day at my brother Jerry's house helpin' him put a transmission in his car. You can ask him or his wife or his kids. Hell, ask his neighbors, we was workin' right there in the front yard!"
"Well then, why the hell didn't you just say that instead of actin' like such an asshole and startin' a big fight?"
"Cause it's the principle of the thing! I told y'all to get off my property and you didn't. None of this would'a happened if you'd a just listened to me."
"And none of this would've happened if you would've just acted like a rational human be'in," Flag said.
"I got my rights and I exercised 'em."
"Yeah, well you done exercised yourself into about 90 days in jail is what ya' did. Not to mention that you could've got yourself and your kid and wife all shot."
"You'd a liked that, wouldn't ya'? The law's been after us McRaes forever and we never bothered nobody."
"Yeah, you're just a god damn prince, ain't ya'?"
"Call it what ya' want, I made my point."
"Yeah, ya' sure did. If yer point was that ya' can't fix stupid!"
***
Like she did a couple of times a week, Beth Ann was waiting for him when John Lee got home. He didn't even try to talk to her about it. They grilled steaks on the back deck, and after they ate and washed the dishes they went into the bedroom. There had been no discussion about that, they both knew why she was there and they both accepted it for what it was.
Afterwards, lying together in the dark bedroom with her head in the crook of his arm, Beth Ann said, "You're awfully quiet tonight. What are you thinkin' about?"
"I almost shot a woman today, Beth Ann. My finger was on the trigger and I was just getting ready to pull it when Maddy zapped her with a Taser and put her down."
"That's awful, John Lee."
"Yes, it is. I don't know which is more awful, the fact that it came so close to happening, or the fact that I was ready to do it. I don't remember making a decision that I was going to, a lot of things were happening at once and I was just reacting."
"Well, ain't that what you're trained to do?"
"Yeah, but then what? No amount of training is going to prepare you for what has to happen if you do pull that trigger."
"You didn't think you'd ever have to shoot somebody?"
"I don't know. I mean, I always knew it was a possibility. Twice before I've had to pull my gun on somebody, but both times they backed right down. Not this time, not this crazy lady."
"Well, I'm just glad you didn't have to."
"Me, too."
Beth Ann rolled on top of him. "You just forget about almost shootin' that crazy lady, John Lee. 'Cause you've got a crazy lady right here, wonderin' if you're ready to shoot again."
As it turned out, with just a little bit of effort, he was. Later, with her sleeping beside him, John Lee stared at the ceiling wondering if Doris McRae had any idea how close she had come to being dead, and how people like the McRaes could be so hostile toward authority that they were willing to die to make whatever kind of crazy point Earl thought he had to make.
***
John Lee wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep. After filling out the report on using her Taser, Maddy had returned home and tried to get some rest before going on her shift in the afternoon, but she was too wired to sleep. It had been a quiet night, with only a handful of routine calls. Obie Long was working the shift with her, and she had spent a long 90 minutes parked beside him in the Dollar General parking lot, listening to him complain about everything from his electric bill to the fact that Flag knew he only liked working the day shift, which was why he routinely assigned him to nights. Maddy wanted to remind him that it was a rotating schedule and everybody worked all shifts at some point. She also wanted to say that he should like the night shift, when there usually wasn't much happening and he could spend most of it sleeping, but she didn't want to encourage him.
When she went off duty at midnight she hung around the office for a while, talking to Kathleen Whitman. She and the dispatcher had gone through school together and been casual friends since they were girls. Kathleen had married her husband Steve right after graduation and they had spent ten years moving from one Air Force base to another, from North Dakota to Texas to Germany, and then back home after Steve was injured on duty and had to take a medical discharge.
It was after 2 AM when Maddy left and started home, but she knew sleep wouldn't come easy. She checked on her mother, who was snoring away, thanks to the sleeping pills that she took every night, and then watched half an hour of late-night infomercials.
"Screw this," she finally said. She went out to her car and drove away, with no real plan in mind. But she knew where she would end up. She circled the courthouse square and waved at Emmitt Planter, sitting in his city police car at his usual spot in the parking lot of Dogs-N-Suds. She dro
ve out past the abandoned gas station where the sniper had shot at Greg Carson, and then found herself cruising slowly toward John Lee's house.
Would he be awake? What would he say or do if she showed up at his door in the middle of the night? Was this a bridge she really wanted to cross? And if she did, what would happen afterward? How would it affect them long term? Should she just turn around right there and go back home and forget the whole thing? How many times had she made this same late night drive and backed down at the last minute?
No, not this time! John Lee was her friend, if nothing else. It wasn't like he was going to laugh in her face. It didn't have to mean anything more than just a night, did it? No, this was the night she was going to stop.
She slowed down at his driveway and started to turn in. Her headlights illuminated the Ford Focus and she stopped.
"Shit! God damn it!"
She shifted into reverse and backed out and drove away.
Inside the house, Magic had barked when the car pulled in the driveway. Still awake, John Lee had heard it and got out of bed and walked into the living room. By the time he got there all he could see were a set of red taillights driving away. He watched them for a moment until they were gone, then reached down in the dark and patted the dog's head.
"Good boy. Must have just been somebody turning around."
He went to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator door and took a long drink of milk from the plastic bottle. He put it away, thinking about how Emily had always complained when he did that, and how he had always asked her what the problem was, since it was just the two of them there and it wasn't like they hadn't exchanged plenty of other bodily fluids.
"John Lee? Where are you?"
He walked back into the bedroom.
"You okay?"
"Yeah," he said, getting back into bed and spooning Beth Ann. "I was just getting something to drink."
Chapter 27
"Who is the phantom sniper who has been shooting at Somerton County deputies in the past few days?" the television reporter on the early news asked. There was a picture of Greg's police car with the shattered back window and a close up of the bullet hole in the trunk lid.
"This is the second time in a matter of days that deputies in the normally quiet rural county have come under fire. In both instances, the first on Monday, and again yesterday, somebody with a high powered rifle has taken pot shots at deputies in marked police cars while they were parked. In the first incident, three shots were fired at Somerton County deputies investigating the discovery of three skeletons by a road construction crew on Turpentine Highway. And then yesterday, Deputy Greg Carson was parked at this abandoned gas station a few miles outside of the town of Somerton when two shots were fired at him. One bullet blew out the back window of Deputy Carson's police car and exited through the windshield, and the second penetrated the trunk and was found lodged inside the car. Reinforcements quickly arrived, but they were unable to find the person or persons responsible for these attacks. Fortunately, nobody has been injured to this point, but needless to say, Somerton County deputies are on high alert, as is the rest of the population."
The scene switched to an accident involving a bus and a bicyclist and John Lee's phone rang.
"Did you see that stuff on the news just now?"
"Yeah, I saw it, D.W."
"We need to do somethin' about this, John Lee. If we don't put an end to it real soon it's goin' to look like I'm some kind'a fool."
"Flag's got everybody out asking questions and trying to get any information on it," John Lee assured him.
"I don't trust Flag. He's lovin' every minute of this. You mark my words, he's goin' to use this against me if he decides to run for Sheriff."
John Lee was tempted to say that he was more concerned about people shooting high powered rifles at deputies than he was about his father-in-law's political future, but he didn't. With Beth Ann prancing around wearing just her tiny red panties, it seemed like the wrong thing to do.
"First we got those skeletons, and now this. This is making me look bad, John Lee. Real bad!"
"We're all working on it, D.W.," John Lee said again.
"Any more news on those skeletons?"
"Nothing new."
"Well, keep at it."
"Yesterday you said the shooter was the top priority. What do you want me to focus on, D.W.?"
"Both of them!"
"Okay, one may be tied to the other, but we don't know that."
"Just do somethin'," the sheriff said. "Wrap up either one and it will at least take some of the heat off of me."
John Lee was tempted to say that he couldn't concentrate his efforts on two things at once, but Beth Ann distracted him with a particularly emphatic wiggle of her butt as she walked by. He ended the call with promises to do his best and to keep D.W. posted on his progress. But it would be a while before he started on that, because the sheriff's daughter walked back into sight again, this time with the red panties hanging off of her finger and an inviting smile on her face.
***
"Yeah, I know where this place is," Paw Paw said. "We've got a power line that runs right down through here." He traced a line on the map with his finger.
"Is there anything left back there?"
"Beats me. Years ago when I was up on a pole I could look over in that direction and there was still some stuff laying around. Not much more than trash, but you could tell that something had been there."
"And what about this one," John Lee asked, pointing to the second turpentine camp near where the skeletons had been found.
His grandfather shook his head. "Nope, can't help you there. Want to go look?"
"I was thinking about driving out there to see what I can find."
"That car of yours won't make it back there," Paw Paw said. "We had to use four wheel drive trucks to get in and out. Let's take my Jeep."
"The Department's got a couple of 4x4s, I can get one of those."
"What for? My Jeep's just fine. And if we bang it up, you don't have to explain to Fig Newton how you did it."
John Lee couldn't disagree with that logic, though he dreaded riding in Paw Paw's ancient old gray Jeep Wagoneer. Built sometime in the early 1960s, the vehicle had seen a lot of hard use over the years. There was no air conditioning, the ride was rough, and the seats didn't have much padding left in them. But he had to admit that the old workhorse had never let them down on any of their backcountry adventures.
"When do you want to go?"
"No time like the present. Let me go tell Mama Nell."
"Grab a can of Off while you're in there so the mosquitoes don't eat us alive," John Lee said to the old man's back as he went into the house. While he was waiting he wandered over to the greenhouse and looked inside, shaking his head.
"Those beans are getting big, aren't they?"
"I thought I told you to get rid of those pot plants, Paw Paw."
"What pot plants?"
"The ones in there that I just saw."
Paw Paw climbed into the Jeep and started it, and asked, "You getting in, or what?"
John Lee got into the passenger seat and reached for the seatbelt, then remembered there wasn't one.
"Seriously, Paw Paw, you can't grow marijuana."
"What marijuana?"
"The marijuana that you have in your greenhouse. That marijuana!"
Paw Paw grinned at him and said, "Son, I don't know what you think you saw, but you need to get your eyes checked. You're going blind or something."
"Paw Paw..."
"Hey, you know what? Maybe, you should get yourself some cannabis. I've heard it's good for your eyesight!"
"Just drive the damn Jeep, Paw Paw, and try not to run us into a ditch or something, okay?"
The old man laughed out loud and said, "Don't you worry about my eyesight, John Lee. It's 20/20!"
They drove through town with Creedence Clearwater Revival blasting through the stereo, singing about a Bad Moon Rising and Green Riv
er.
"Now that's real music," Paw Paw said as the band segued into Proud Mary. "I love your Mama Nell, but that Elvis shit gets old."
He coasted through the third or fourth stop sign without touching the brake pedal. "Not that that's all bad, mind you. I got to tell you John Lee, some men want their women to dress up in that frilly see-through stuff because they say it makes the sex really hot. But all I got to do is put on a cape and one of those sequined Elvis costumes she's got, and she'll rock my world until all I can say is, "Thank you. Thank you very much."
"That's way more about your sex life than I need to know," John Lee said, shuddering.
"What? You think just because the hair turns gray the horny goes away? You have no idea, kid! That's about the time a woman comes into her prime."
"Can we talk about something else? Anything in the whole world, Paw Paw? Please?"
Paw Paw blew the stoplight at Third Street and Main, drawing blares of protest from the horns of two drivers who had to slam on their brakes to avoid a collision. He ignored them and turned to John Lee with a wicked grin and asked, "Do you want to know what I'm taking for my erectile dysfunction?"
***
"See, there's another one. Proves my point!"
Paw Paw was referring to a dead armadillo on the shoulder of the road. For as long as John Lee could remember, the old man had always pointed out the dead animals, which were a common sight along Somerton County roads.
"I'm telling you, John Lee. There's never been a live armadillo. They're all stillborn on the side of the road."
John Lee didn't want to get into the same old discussion again, but it beat the hell out of hearing about his grandparents' sex life and how it was flourishing thanks to Elvis and Viagra. Given the alternative, he played along.
