Savage Reckoning

by C. Hoyt Caldwell

  Otis groaned and rubbed the back of his neck. “Part of me was hoping Randle wouldn’t do us like that.”

  “If it makes you feel better, I’m pretty sure he ain’t got a clue what he did. He’s just looking for beer money.”

  “It don’t make me feel no better. A crooked cop is a crooked cop.” He whistled and yelled, “Friar!”

  A man in an ill-fitting uniform and sporting a poorly constructed comb-over appeared in the doorway. “Yeah, sir.”

  “Break out the vests and helmets. Stack the ammo out front and arm yourself with a Glock and 12-gauge.”

  Friar’s cheeks turned bright red. “What the hell’s coming?”

  Otis ignored his question and addressed his niece. “I want you on your way when your boys get here.”

  Dani shook her head. “I’m staying here.”

  “You ain’t.”

  “I am!”

  “Goddamn it, Dani! Me and Friar can handle a couple of slopers. Don’t worry about us. Worry about finding that little girl, you hear me?”

  The deputy didn’t offer a third protest. Otis was right.

  The sheriff shot Friar a death stare. “Did I not make myself clear, Deputy?”

  “Yeah, sir,” Friar said, sounding uneasy.

  “Then what the hell are you standing there for? Do what I told you!”

  Friar vacillated. “You still ain’t told me what’s coming.”

  Otis sighed and leaned back in his chair. “The mountains, boy.”

  Chapter 54

  Gunner was on the short side, but he was lean and unencumbered by any sense of right or wrong. His left arm was decorated with a sleeve tattoo that depicted scenes and quotes from Dr. Faustus. He didn’t have a clue who or what Faustus was, he just liked the sentiment. The words HELL HATH NO LIMITS arched along the ball of his shoulder as the cornerstone of his macabre, inked masterpiece. If he had the opportunity, he’d roll up his sleeves and show a man the quote just before he killed him. He didn’t show it to the women he killed. After all, his mother didn’t raise a total shitbag.

  He was greeted by an agitated Boss when he pulled his truck to a stop in front of Perry’s garage. “Where the fuck have you been?”

  Gunner stepped out of the truck sipping on a cup of coffee bought at a truck stop an hour earlier. It tasted like shit when it was hot, and it tasted even worse now that it was cold. “Place is hid good. Got lost going and coming. If you’d let me use my phone—”

  Boss barked, “No phones! Not on a delivery. Too easy to get caught on a recording. They just pick that shit out of the air.”

  Gunner looked past Boss and watched a half dozen hick henchman breaking out some heavy-duty weaponry. “What the hell’s going on?”

  “Got a mess to deal with.”

  Gunner downed the last of his cold coffee and said, “Let me take a shit, and I’ll bow up and load up.”

  “Not necessary,” Boss said. “I got other plans for you.”

  “Well if you ain’t gonna let me in on the fun, I hope you got it in you to let me sleep an hour or two.”

  “I don’t.”

  Gunner’s shoulders dropped. “You’re gonna bury me, Boss. Bury me right in the ground.” He almost couldn’t bring himself to ask, “Wha’cha got in mind?”

  “Close out our inventory.”

  Gunner looked at him, stunned. “Seriously?”

  Boss gave him a single nod of the head.

  “But I just come from there…”

  “Sounds like you’re complaining. Do I look like I have time for that kind of bullshit?”

  Gunner kicked at the gravel driveway. “I ain’t complaining, I just don’t know why you don’t send Tidwell. He’s been sitting on his ass this whole time. I know he ain’t never made the run before, but goddamn, I’m worn through and he’d probably be tickled to do it.”

  Boss glanced over at Step standing just beyond the entrance of the garage. “Tidwell’s been terminated.”

  Gunner was only momentarily shocked by the news. “I suppose that was bound to happen. Man grated on me, if you want to know the truth. Talked on and on about putting it to his stepdaughter all the time. You seen that girl? She’s uglier than a dimpled-up ass. Don’t know why anyone would brag on bagging that.”

  “Why are we talking about this? I don’t want to hear about Tidwell and his daughter and dimpled asses. I want to hear the sound of your tires pulling out of this driveway. You understand?”

  “I’m going,” Gunner said, holding up his hands. “Ima fall asleep behind the wheel, but I’m going.”

  Boss groaned and then signaled for Step to join him. The skinny closeout king complied. “You’re this lazy shithead’s driver.”

  Gunner rolled his eyes because he hated Step. The skinny fuck was quiet. Gunner didn’t trust skinny fucks that didn’t say anything. “I can drive myself.”

  Boss fought to keep his cool. “I don’t recall me asking you to question every fucking thing I say. I said Step drives. Do you have a problem with that?”

  Gunner reluctantly shook his head.

  Step hid a smile because this was exactly what he was hoping for. Climbing behind the wheel of the truck, Step quickly typed a text to Kenny that read, On the move. Ping Dani. GPS hot. By the time he sent the message, Gunner was climbing in the truck.

  “Who the fuck you calling?” the short, lean man asked as he settled into the seat.

  “Bones. Letting her know I’ll be gone for a day or two.”

  “That’s another ugly one. You ain’t got no standards, that’s for damn sure.”

  Step agreed even though he felt like planting a bullet in Gunner’s head for saying such a thing. “Where to?”

  Gunner was about to give him directions, but then stopped himself. “You calling your whore give me an idea. Swing by The Rat’s Tail. I ain’t had a piece since I left. Dreama’s working the midday shift, I think. Hell, if she ain’t, some other bitch is.”

  “What about the inventory?”

  “It ain’t going nowheres.”

  Chapter 55

  Randle was both angry and ashamed as he turned his cruiser into the Baptist Flats Sheriff Department’s parking lot. He had been used to rile up a crime boss, but he had only been used because his colleagues knew he was an untrustworthy asshole.

  Kenny sat next to him in the passenger seat, oblivious to the deputy’s inner turmoil. He was fixated on the opportunity to see Dani again.

  Randle left the car idling in park as he sat behind the wheel and stared at the front door of the station. He felt tormented by a dark creep of erosion of his own making. He had betrayed Otis and the others, and they not only knew it, they had expected it of him.

  “Wha’cha doing?”

  Randle continued to stare at the door. “Thinking.”

  “We oughta head inside and get ready for Boss’s fellas.”

  “I ain’t so sure they ain’t gonna shoot me as soon as I step inside.”

  “Who? Your fella police folks?”

  “They sent me off to the snake’s den, didn’t they?”

  “They didn’t send you so much as they let you do what you do, Terry.”

  “I went for the spending money, Kenny.”

  “Yeah, but you turned on your people in the process.”

  “I didn’t know harm would come their way.”

  “You think Boss pays for information just to know stuff?”

  “I thought he just wanted to keep watch over the law in Baptist Flats.”

  “He does so he knows the best time to cut ’em down.”

  Randle groaned. “Don’t you preach on me about the right and wrong of the things I do. You kill folks for a living.”

  Kenny frowned. “I ain’t preaching. I’m just laying out the steps you took that got us here. If you’re finding wrong in it, you might want to step in a different direction.”

  “You should take your own advice.”

  “I aim to. I ain’t killing no more folks that I don’t
know for sure has got it coming.”

  Randle pushed his door open. “Why don’t you just not kill no more folks at all?”

  Kenny exited the car. “I thought on that, but there just ain’t no way around the fact that some folks need killing. I aim to fulfill that need, and nothing but that need, from here on out.”

  The two men walked to the station. Kenny had considerably more pep in his step than Randle. Once they were five feet from the door, it opened and Friar stepped out wearing riot gear and aiming his shotgun at the chubby closeout king’s head.

  “Hold on there, officer,” Kenny said, stopping abruptly.

  “Put the damn gun down, Friar,” Randle said. “He’s with me.”

  Friar turned the gun on his fellow deputy. “Talk is you’re on the wrong side of this.”

  “Talk is wrong,” Randle said. “Now put the damn gun down.”

  Friar hesitated and then dropped the barrel of the gun. “I ain’t never been so up on my nerves before.”

  Dani appeared in the doorway, staring straight at Randle.

  “Deputy Savage,” Kenny said with a smile.

  “Mr. Fable.”

  “Mr. Fable? I like the hell out of that.”

  Friar still blocked the door. “You wanna get out of the way, Deputy, so they can come in?”

  Friar turned to Dani not fully grasping what she was asking. When he realized Randle and Kenny couldn’t enter because he was standing in the way, he clumsily stepped aside so they could.

  Randle went in ahead of the closeout king. Kenny maneuvered his way around Friar but stopped when he heard the hard throttle sound of a speeding truck.

  All eyes watched the truck race toward them. Kenny squinted against the afternoon sun and then barked out, “Boss’s boys.”

  They frantically made their way inside the station with Friar quickly pulling the glass door shut.

  The truck came to a screeching halt at the edge of the parking lot. Only seconds passed before Boss exited the passenger side and calmly headed for the station.

  “A fella’s headed this way,” Friar said, his trembling hands gripping his shotgun.

  Randle pushed him aside to get a look at the man. “Boss.”

  Kenny was surprised by the man’s identity. “Didn’t expect him. He usually don’t make these runs.”

  Friar switched places with Randle again and peered through the glass. “He’s put his hands up like he’s surrendering.” The deputy grinned. “He come here to give himself up is what he did.”

  “He’s just showing you he ain’t armed,” Otis said. “They come quicker than I expected.” Scanning the station from corner to corner, he scrambled to come up with a plan. His eyes landed on Kenny. A second passed before he barked out, “You. Holding cell.”

  Dani looked at her uncle, stunned. “We can trust him.”

  “I come to take your side on this,” Kenny said.

  “It ain’t about that,” Otis said. “Boss is here because he thinks we’ve got this Billy in custody. Which is all well and good until he wants proof of such a thing. We may not have this Billy but we do got one of his boys. That’ll give us at least something to bargain with.”

  “He ain’t here to bargain,” Kenny said.

  “Then it may trip him up enough to make the wrong move.”

  “We need him, Uncle—”

  Otis cut Dani off. “Put him in the cell. Don’t lock the door.” To Kenny, “You armed?”

  Kenny nodded.

  “Good. You don’t draw unless you absolutely have to, you hear me?”

  The chubby closeout king shrugged. “Fine, but just so’s you know, I’ll have to.”

  Chapter 56

  Step propped himself against the passenger-side door of his truck and sucked on a Porter 100. The burning tobacco sizzled and popped as he inhaled the smoke. Every time he registered the sound, he imagined his nerves in the same volatile state. Gunner had been inside The Rat’s Tail for a good twenty minutes. The skinny closeout king wanted to throttle the son of a bitch.

  When the embers came up against the filter, Step flicked the spent cigarette to the ground and marched toward the front door of the strip club. Two of The Rat’s Tail’s regulars passed him on his way inside.

  “You here for your bitch?” one of them asked in a drunken slur.

  Without giving it a thought, Step snatched the cracker by his throat and shoved his head against the wall. “What are you talking about?”

  The other cracker stepped back and bolted toward the parking lot.

  “Bones,” the man said as his vocal chords were being squeezed. “Back booth, near the men’s room.”

  Step loosened his grip. “What about it?”

  “She’s been having herself a time.”

  Step flattened his hand and kept the cracker pinned to the wall.

  “I ain’t been back there myself, but they’s been talk.”

  “What kind of talk?”

  The man hesitated. “She’s getting done back there. By fella after fella.”

  Step looked at him blankly.

  “I talked to three fellas myself that says they obliged her when she flat out asked for it. She ain’t charging hardly nothing at all.”

  Step snarled as his blood started to boil. For no other reason than he was nearby, the skinny closeout king threw an elbow into the cracker’s nose and watched him collapse to the ground, hollering in pain.

  “I told you I ain’t been back there,” the man said as he sobbed.

  Step turned and ignored the bouncer’s questions about the injured cracker. As he moved to the main stage area, he peered through the midday crowd and fixed his eyes on the booth. Four men stood in a half circle, blocking his view. They cheered and yelped wildly. Step barreled toward the scene like a grizzly running down a wounded deer. The music was blaring, but the skinny closeout king couldn’t hear anything over the sound of his heart thumping against his chest and the blood screaming through his veins.

  The first strip club patron didn’t have a chance. Step’s fist caught him square in the ear and he went stumbling hard into the man next to him. The third man raised his beer bottle to smash Step over the head, but the skinny closeout king’s other fist knocked his nose into a knot before he could bring the bottle down. The fourth man was on the other side of the main stage as soon as he saw his friends on the receiving end of Step’s rage.

  The cracker that had Bones bent over the table didn’t take notice of the commotion behind him. He had knocked a head or two to move up in Bones’s receiving line himself, so he assumed the same sort of thing was going on.

  Step slapped the man’s hat off and yanked his head back by his greasy hair. The cracker was flat on the floor, sporting an erection and a handful less hair before he knew what hit him. When he tried to get up, the skinny closeout king stomped his groin like he was squashing a bug.

  Bones lay lethargic on the table. She lazily lifted her head and looked behind her. In a weak, listless voice she said, “Next.”

  Step stared at her in disbelief. She was naked, lying facedown in a smattering of dollar bills. The anger that had fueled his charge was beaten back by a wave of heartache. He fought mightily not to break down in tears.

  The fat manager emerged from the back and stomped toward the booth. “What in the living hell is going on?”

  Step forced the sympathetic expression from his face and turned with a growl. “I thought she wasn’t allowed in here no more!”

  The manager examined the carnage. “You can’t go busting up my club like that, Step. You just can’t.”

  Step grabbed him by his collar. “Why is she here?”

  “I ain’t got the foggiest. I swear. I’ve been napping in the back, hand to God. If I’d known she was here, I’da sent her packing. She’s bad for business.”

  Step let him go. “I ever hear she’s in here again, Ima burn this fucking place down.”

  The fat man nodded.

  The skinny closeout king gen
tly lifted the naked Bones off the table and held her in his arms. Candy approached with a towel and a stack of clothes. “This come from her locker,” she said as she draped the towel over Bones and rested the clothes on her sunken belly.

  Step nodded in appreciation. “Where’s Gunner and Dreama?”

  “Dressing room. They’ve been pulling ass for fifteen minutes now. Poor thing’s so tired he can’t let loose. She wanted me to tag out, but I got a set to do.”

  Step’s expression soured even more. “Tell him he’s got five minutes before I put a call into Boss.”

  “I’ll tell him.” Before walking away she said, “She ain’t long for this world if something ain’t done.”

  The midday crackers parted in silence as Step carried Bones out of the club.

  Chapter 57

  Boss was surprised to see Randle in the police station. He smirked in his direction and shook his head, but he didn’t voice his dismay. If the deputy wanted to die with his people, so be it.

  Friar kept an unsteady hold on his shotgun as he pointed it at the sloper.

  “I’m unarmed,” Boss said with his hands raised above his shoulders.

  Otis approached. “Don’t mean to be rude, but we ain’t gonna take your word on that.” He patted Boss down. Finding nothing, he stepped away and ordered Friar to lower his weapon.

  Boss took in his surroundings. “Ain’t much to this place, is there? Seen bigger port-a-potties.”

  “A piece of shit like you should know,” Dani said.

  Boss smiled placidly. “That’s kind of you, Deputy.”

  “You wanna get to your business?” Otis demanded.

  Boss turned his smile on the sheriff. “I think you know my business. You’re holding a friend of mine.”

  “You don’t strike me as the type to have friends.”

  “Friends, associates, fuckups, call them what you want. I’m just here to get my man.”

  “Where’s Sarah Campbell?” Dani asked, barely able to contain her utter disgust for the thug.

  “Ain’t got a clue.”

  “That ain’t what Billy says.”

  Boss stared at her with his meek smile in place.

  “Where is she?”