Savage Reckoning

by C. Hoyt Caldwell

  Step considered walking away without answering, but he thought better of it and gave a slight nod.

  “Perry will keep me posted on developments. If the family has to step in on details and particulars, Bonnie’ll do the stepping until I get back.”

  Step looked Bonnie’s way and furrowed his brow. “My hat,” Kenny said with his head tilted back.

  Step stooped and snatched the hat off the floor. As the two closeout kings exited the Biscuit Shack, Bonnie kept her eye on the skinny one until he climbed into the truck.

  Chapter 15

  The coffee was served in matching NASCAR cups. Laura Farrow looked only slightly more rested than when Dani had seen her at the high school gymnasium. The deputy fidgeted on the living room sofa, doing her best to look natural in her too-yellow dress. She kept telling herself she looked like a banana, that she should have worn jeans and a T-shirt. Better yet, she should have disobeyed her uncle and worn her uniform.

  “You all right, Deputy?” Laura asked after watching Dani adjust and readjust on the floral sofa over and over again.

  “She’s fine,” Uncle Otis said. “She’s just not used to wearing anything that don’t come with a gun belt.”

  Dani smiled. “Coffee’s good.”

  Laura nodded. “I make enough of it. I should be able to brew a decent cup by now.”

  Otis sipped from his cup and then said, “Mrs. Farrow…”

  “It’s Miss Farrow. There is no Mr. Farrow. In fact, just call me Laura.”

  Otis smiled. “Fine. Laura, I’m not exactly sure what it is I can do about your girl, but Dani here was filling me in, and I was just curious to hear more.”

  Laura choked up. “You’ll have to excuse me. I ain’t never had the law say they was curious to know more about Kate. Don’t nobody want to hear nothing from me.”

  “I understand you’ve felt ignored by Sheriff Rucker…”

  “Hell, I’d be happy if he’d ignore me. He comes just short of threatening me when I ask him about the case.”

  Otis sighed and said, “That is disappointing to hear. Stan and I have had a lot of dealings over the years, and other than him being a tad full of himself, I had thought him to be a committed law enforcement officer.”

  “Laura,” Dani said, “I talked to Sheriff Rucker after we spoke and he stated that Kate’s case is closed, has been for almost four years.”

  “What?” Laura sounded shocked. “Why would they close the case?”

  The deputy hesitated and mapped out her next question carefully. “Did the sheriff ever have a conversation with you concerning an accident…with a train?”

  “Train accident? No. What does that have to do with Kate?”

  Otis jumped in. “Nothing as far as we can tell, Miss—I mean, Laura.”

  A knock came at the door and Laura excused herself.

  Otis leaned over and whispered, “No need to bring up the train business. You and me both know it’s bullshit.”

  Six women of various ages filed through Laura’s front door. They all wore the same desperate expression. Otis and Dani stood and smiled politely.

  “I hope you don’t mind,” Laura said. “After you called last night, Deputy Savage, I invited some of the other mothers to come talk to you this morning.”

  Dani furrowed her brow. “Other mothers?”

  “Mothers of missing girls. Girls no one’s looking for.”

  Otis’s stomach tied in knots. “I don’t understand. You all have missing children?”

  They all nodded, and Laura added, “Girls. And there are more. These were the only mothers I could get ahold of on such short notice.”

  Otis and Dani shared a look. He then held out his coffee cup. “Laura, you got anything stronger you can add to this coffee? Ima need a little something to help me process all this.”

  Chapter 16

  Kenny sat in the passenger side of the truck with a plastic baggy full of ice pressed to the left side of his nose. He sported purple bruises under each eye, and tissue was shoved up both nostrils. “Am I wrong or did Boss go somewhere he just didn’t need to go?”

  “You ain’t wrong,” Step said, peering out the windshield and watching Laura Farrow’s tiny house.

  “I mean, I know I can touch a nerve with all my questions, but I just found it strange that Billy went from almost jumping onto our closeout list to settling up with Boss in less than a day. That is strange, ain’t it?”

  “It is.” Someone walked past the living room window.

  Kenny removed the ice pack and turned to Step. “You think my nose is broke?”

  Step looked at the crooked, red swollen knob in the middle of Kenny’s face and said, “Yep, it’s broke.”

  “Goddamn! It ain’t like I don’t got enough strikes against me. Now I got a busted-up nose to work around with the ladies.”

  “What happened to ‘it’s a man’s world’?” Step asked.

  “There’s only so far I can take that, Step. I had a lot to overcome before, but now it’s just plain ridiculous.”

  Step grabbed the folder off the seat and examined its contents again. “I don’t feel good about this closeout, Kenny.”

  “Why?” Kenny asked, reapplying the ice bag to his nose.

  “I can’t shake the notion that I know her.”

  “That ain’t unusual. If she runs in the same circles as Boss and Harley and the like, you probably run into her a time or two.”

  “That ain’t it.”

  Kenny turned his attention to the house. “Whoever she is, she likes to throw day parties. You think that’s some sort of makeup party?”

  “What the hell’s a makeup party?”

  “One of them parties, you know? A lady comes in with lipstick and face paint and the like, and she takes orders there on the spot.”

  Step stared at the picture. “Oh, that kind of makeup party. I don’t know if they do that sort of thing anymore.”

  Kenny snapped his fingers. “I bet it’s one of them sex toy parties.”

  Step laughed. “What?”

  “They do that sort of thing. I read about it on a computer site. Ladies get together and test out sex toys.”

  Step angled the picture toward Kenny. “This ain’t the face of a woman that holds sex toy parties.”

  Kenny retrieved a pair of binoculars from the glove compartment. “You can’t go by faces no more, Step.”

  “It’s probably just a tea party or book club or something.”

  Kenny focused the binoculars. The ladies were sitting in a half circle. They were all facing something just beyond the window frame. “They got cups they’re drinking from. You might be right about that tea business—” He stopped when a woman in a yellow dress walked into the center of the window. “Hold on.”

  “What?” Step asked.

  Kenny twisted the focus ring. “I can’t say for sure…”

  “Can’t say what?”

  Kenny let out a restrained rebel yell. “That lady cop, Step, she’s in there having tea with them gals.”

  Step furrowed his brow and then ripped the binoculars out of Kenny’s hand. “Your busted nose has clouded your vision…” He took a look and his mouth dropped open when he realized his partner wasn’t seeing things. “Holy shit. What the hell is going on?”

  The two closeout kings were startled by the sudden appearance of three police cars coming at them from the other side of the street. Their lights weren’t going and the sirens weren’t blaring, but they were clearly in a hurry to get somewhere.

  “We best get,” Kenny said.

  Step cranked the motor and stopped short of putting the truck in drive when he saw the first cop car pull down the short street to Laura Farrow’s house. The other two followed.

  “What are you doing? Go,” Kenny said.

  Step shook his head. “I want to see this thing play out.”

  Kenny’s phone signaled that he had a text. He pulled it from his pocket, read the message, and then showed it to his partner. DC
. Delay Closeout.

  Chapter 17

  Laura stared angrily through the screen door at Sheriff Rucker. A slew of his deputies leaned against their cars behind him. He had made sure she could get a good view of every last one of them.

  “What’s this little gathering, Laura?” Sheriff Rucker asked.

  Laura divided her attention between the sheriff and one of his deputies who was showing special interest toward her cat, Crawley. “Just people I invited over.”

  “What for?”

  “Just to come over.”

  “You upset about something, Laura?”

  She chuckled. “Am I upset about something?”

  “I’m just not feeling that welcome—” The sheriff abruptly stopped talking when he saw Otis Royal appear behind Laura.

  “Stan.”

  Rucker worked up a phony smile. “What brings you to our bend in the mountains, Sheriff Royal?”

  “Not here as Sheriff Royal. Just visiting an old friend.”

  “Old friend?” Rucker said. “I had no idea you knew Laura.”

  Otis moved past Laura, stepped out on the front stoop, and counted the deputies. “You expecting some trouble, Stan?”

  Rucker turned to quickly survey his men and then turned back. “You can never be too careful.” Dani stepped into his line of sight behind Laura. “This how you handle your crew, Otis? I call you to let you know that one of your deputies is stepping on some toes, and you come up here to step on the whole goddamned foot?”

  “Well,” Otis said, sticking his hands in his back pockets and stretching out his back, “I come up here to clear up some confusion. I figured we could put some notions to bed and ease my deputy’s mind if we just come up here and sort through some details with Laura. By the way, have you ever had any of Laura’s coffee? A coffeehouse could not brew it up any better.” He turned to Laura. “Laura, would you mind if Stan here had a cup of your coffee? I was just telling him how good it is.”

  “That backwoods country bumpkin shit might fly in Baptist Flats, Otis, but I ain’t buying it,” Rucker said. “I take personal offense to you conducting your own interviews with my witnesses.”

  “Witnesses to what?” Dani asked stepping up to the door. “You closed Laura’s case. All these cases have been closed.”

  “You don’t know what in the hell is going on here,” Rucker snapped. “You ain’t got no business in my town, talking to my people.”

  “Let’s all just hold on,” Otis said. “Now, I will admit we may have crossed a line coming up this way, Stan, and if it will ease your mind a bit, we’ll be on our way soon enough. We’ll just finish up our coffee and drive on out of here.”

  Rucker worked his snarl into a grin. “We’ll just wait out here until you do.”

  “Suit yourself.” Otis turned to go back inside, but stopped. “You mind me asking how you knew we was here?”

  Rucker smirked. “I got eyes and ears all over this county, Otis. There ain’t nothing that gets by me.”

  Chapter 18

  Step used the binoculars to watch the exchange between Rucker and Otis in front of Laura Farrow’s house. The only thing he could gather from the conversation was that Rock Hollow’s sheriff was not a happy camper. As Rucker stepped off the stoop and headed for his cruiser, a thought came to Step. He still had the lady cop’s card.

  He frantically pulled it out of his shirt pocket and read the name to himself. In the process, he caught something that had escaped his notice last night. “Holy shit.”

  “What?” Kenny asked.

  “That lady cop? She’s from the Baptist Flats Sheriff’s Department.”

  Kenny took the card from his partner and examined it. “No way!”

  “What the hell was she doing at Crazy Carl’s?”

  “She said she was looking for cheap cigarettes.”

  “What are the chances we pull a closeout in Baptist Flats one night and the next night we run into a Baptist Flats cop way the fuck out of her jurisdiction?”

  Kenny shrugged. “Stuff like that happens. It’s what you call a coincidence.”

  Step shook his head. “I don’t see it stacking up that way, especially after she started chatting it up with you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “A girl like that don’t go running down your kinda ugly, Kenny. I don’t care what you say.”

  “Well now, that is just downright mean…”

  Step snatched his cell off the dash and quickly searched through his contacts. The phone started ringing before he put it to his ear.

  “Hey, Cousin,” Terry Randle said, picking up the call.

  “Got a couple questions for you, Cuz. You available?”

  “Always.”

  “Meet me at Dark Valley Gap in fifteen minutes.”

  Chapter 19

  Neither Dani nor her uncle said a word as they drove out of Rock Hollow. One of Rucker’s deputies followed them to the county line. When the cruiser did a U-turn, Otis managed to guide the Civic through the twists and turns of the narrow mountain roads without giving rise to one thought having to do with driving. His mind was filled with the faces of the women he and his niece had just left behind. He felt his normally cool demeanor slip away until he lost any sense of himself. Without warning, he blurted out, “Fuck!”

  Dani turned from the passenger-side window, frightened by her uncle’s outburst. She felt the same outrage he did, but she didn’t like the fact that he couldn’t keep his emotions in check. If he was unable to maintain control, that could only mean something was horribly wrong and she wasn’t overreacting. She so wanted to be overreacting.

  Otis pulled over to a small scenic overlook, awkwardly grabbed the gearshift, and pushed the car into park. “We are in way over our heads on this thing,” he said.

  Dani nodded. “How could a thing like this be happening?”

  “How ain’t the right question, little deputy. Why this is happening is what needs to be explored.”

  “There are so many of them.”

  Otis unbuckled his seatbelt. “Too many of them.” He exited the vehicle.

  Dani did the same and followed him to a small stone wall at the edge of the overlook. She watched the haze smother the peaks of the Tennessee hills below.

  “State police should be all over this. A thing like this just don’t go unnoticed. Must be at least eight different jurisdictions involved.”

  “Ten, if you count the two missing girls in Georgia,” Dani said.

  Otis nodded in a daze. “Right, ten.” He bent down and picked up a rock. “And where are the feds?”

  “You heard those women, Uncle Otis. They’ve been shut down. Most of them say they’re being watched.”

  Otis threw the rock as hard as he could and watched it sink into the valley below. “I know these men, Dani, the lawmen that are supposed to be looking out for these women. They can’t all be bad, they just can’t. I gotta believe some of them are just as turned around on this thing as I am.”

  “Well, Rucker ain’t one of them, that’s for sure. The man just about had us arrested.”

  “I don’t count Rucker as a lawman. He’s an ass with a badge.” Otis looked back up the road.

  Dani rose up on her toes and leaned over for a better view of the slope coming up the mountain. “What about Laura? Rucker’s liable to come down on her for having us in her house. The other women will have their own problems to deal with when they get home, too.”

  “Rucker’s not that stupid. He knows if anything happens to her I’ll turn suspicion his way. He’ll keep his distance. For now. As for the others, I can’t make no promises there. I’d advise them to get as far from these parts as possible until we can get a handle on this, but they’d have to go clear to Memphis to get out from under this. Not to mention no mother is going to leave a missing child behind.” He covered his face with his hands and groaned. “This is one towering mountain of shit, little deputy.”

  Dani felt her stomach turn. “You
’re scaring me, Uncle Otis. I ain’t never seen you not know what to do.”

  He turned to her and tried to fake a smile, but he couldn’t. “The only thing we can do is take things one step at a time. Our first priority is Baptist Flats. We gotta make sure our own house is in order.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said, a little more at ease hearing the growing confidence in his voice.

  “State boys are in town for the next couple of days dealing with the Son Crow situation. They’ll be staying at your motel. Find out what room, and have a sit-down with them.”

  “Me?”

  “You gotta get information out of them without letting on what we come across today. Trust is not something we can afford to give out at this point in time, given what we know about the behavior of law enforcement personnel in these parts. As far as me and you are concerned, we’re the only honest cops in these parts until we can verify otherwise. You hear me?”

  Dani bit her bottom lip and nodded. “Yes, sir, but why me?”

  “Why you what?”

  “Why do you want me to talk with the state police?”

  He sighed. “A number of reasons. For one, I’ve gotta deal with Friar and Randle. They run around in the same circles as cops from these other jurisdictions, and I need to know what they know and how much I can trust them.” He hesitated and then said, “And as much as you hate to hear about your being pretty, it’s a fact, and that fact will be enough of a distraction so that you can work them state boys like a steel guitar. They’ll be telling you secrets from the third grade by the time you get through with them.”

  She shook her head. “That don’t sound like you want me to do police work. That sounds like you want me to host a cocktail party.”

  Otis grimaced. “Little deputy, I just left a houseful of mothers who ain’t got no idea what’s become of their children, and we’re the only two people that might be able to get them some answers. If you want me to strategize and formulate a plan that will put your needs above theirs, you’re shit out of luck because I ain’t got room in my head or my heart for such a thing. If you think I treat you differently because you ain’t got a dick and balls, you’re right. That don’t mean I value you any less, you hear me? You want to know the truth, you’re head and shoulders above those other two idiots I got working for me.”