Step looked to Gunner for help, but the fucker had already made his way into the kitchen.
“Can’t come in unless you proclaim your heart for Jesus, because you’re the devil if you don’t. Don’t want the devil in my house.”
“I ain’t the devil. That’s way above my pay grade.” He smiled to signal that he was trying to be charming.
“Only the devil would say such a thing, but you know what the devil would never say? The devil would never say that his love for Jesus purifies and saves his soul. He ain’t got the tongue for such a thing.”
Step sighed and proclaimed that his love for Jesus purified and saved his soul.
She still didn’t let him pass.
“I said it.”
“Waiting to see if you die from it. Don’t want no dead devil in my house.”
A few more seconds ticked by before she relented and let Step enter her home.
Once inside the house, Step felt an urge to bolt back outside. The walls were decorated with dozens of pictures of Jesus, deer heads, and a signed photo of some televangelist. The inscription read, Thanks for your donation. Jesus will bless your kindness with endless blessings in our Father’s kingdom.
A drooling, hunched-over old man sat in a wheelchair just beyond the small living room near the kitchen with a deeply unattractive woman in a housecoat standing next to him. Judging by her chin hair, Step pegged her as the daughter.
“Why you back so soon?” the daughter asked.
“Run into a situation,” Gunner said, grabbing a biscuit off a plate on the kitchen table. “Boss wants to close out the inventory.”
She crossed her arms and turned her mouth into a clownish frown. “What about Julio?”
“What about him?”
“Word’s been sent that he’s got a pickup. He’s due anytime. He comes all the way out here and there ain’t no inventory, he’s gonna go into one of his Mexican spins.”
“He ain’t Mexican,” the old woman said. “He gets mad as John the Baptist when you call him that. He’s from one of them countries way down south of here where they speak Mexican, but they ain’t Mexican.”
“If he speaks Mexican, he’s Mexican as far as I’m concerned,” the daughter said.
Gunner chewed on the dry biscuit. “I don’t give a shit if he’s Martian. Boss wants the inventory closed out, so the inventory is gonna get closed out. Julio can suck a pecker. He ain’t my problem.”
The old woman moved faster than seemed possible and planted a slap across Gunner’s face. “Don’t you say such a vile thing in front of Jesus.”
Gunner rubbed his cheek and grimaced. “Didn’t know Jesus was here.”
She thumped her chest. “Jesus is in my heart. Wherever I am, he is.”
Gunner was tempted to break the old woman’s neck, but he composed himself and turned to the daughter. “We gotta get on this. Boss is in a hurry.”
The daughter put her hands on her hips. “We ain’t doing shit until Julio gets here.”
“Fuck Julio.”
The daughter stepped forward and got nose to nose with Gunner. “I ain’t gonna be left to explain to Julio what Boss wants. You’re gonna tell it to him your own self. Once he’s got the idea it ain’t our fault, you can close out your precious inventory.”
Gunner growled. “Why they hell you give a shit what that Mexican thinks, anyhow?”
She blushed. “Done business with him a good many years. We got a good understanding of one another. I’m just trying to be professional.”
Gunner snickered. “You and the Mexican fuck-buddies?” He pointed at the old woman as she stepped toward him with her hand raised. “You slap me again, Ima forget how nice I’m supposed to be to you.”
The daughter’s cheeks turned bright red as she refused to answer his question.
Gunner laughed harder. “Bound to happen, I suppose. Man flies all the way up here from God knows where three or four times a year, has to arrive horny some time or another.”
“Don’t be vulgar in my house,” the old woman cried, pointing to the various pictures of Jesus.
Gunner rolled his eyes. “Ima have to override you people on this. Boss needs this done sooner rather than later. We’ll just close out the girl, and I’ll leave Step over there behind so he can make things right with Julio.”
Step became fidgety. The house, the toppers, the pictures of Jesus staring holes in him…it all put him on edge. On edge was not a good place for the closeout king to be. He did a lot of stupid things when he was on edge.
“He’s a stranger. Don’t want no stranger hanging about longer than necessary…”
“Well, that’s the point, old lady. This is all very fucking necessary.”
The bucket entered Step’s peripheral vision as he turned slightly to get a lay of the house. It would take him three seconds to run to it and retrieve his gun. He’d shoot the old lady first just for being an annoying old hag. Then he’d take out the old man in the wheelchair for no other reason than to put the poor old drooling fucker out of his misery. Then he’d shoot Gunner right between the eyes.
The daughter he needed, but once she showed him where the girl was, she’d be just as dead as the others.
He managed only a half turn toward the bucket when he heard the cock of a gun. A quick glance to his left revealed a shotgun trained on him from the old man’s lap.
“I thought you didn’t allow no guns in your house,” Step said.
“Only champions of Jesus can have them in this house,” the old woman said. “Papa Paul beholds Christ in his heart like no one I’ve ever seen.”
Step stared at the drooling old man, trying to determine if he possessed the ability to actually aim the gun at a moving target.
“You got it in your mind to go after that bucket, you best get that notion out of there because Papa Paul will blow your guts out your asshole for trying such a thing. He may be crippled up and old as Methuselah, but he’s still quick on the trigger and shoots true as a man seventy years his junior, I can promise you that,” the old lady said with a proud grin.
The skinny closeout king gave the matter some thought. He had his doubts Papa Paul could do what the old lady claimed, but the house was too small to run out of the way of a shotgun blast. His mind shifted through idea after idea until he settled on one. “You folks hiding something?”
All eyes turned to him with a curious glare, including Gunner’s.
“What’s that you say?” the daughter asked. Her chin hair seemingly bristled at Step’s suggestion.
“It’s just curious. Y’all seem dead set on keeping me and Gunner from seeing the girl. Like there might be something wrong.”
“Wrong?” the old lady asked.
“Yeah. Wrong, like she’s dead.”
The daughter nearly growled in protest. “Mister, you questioning our caretaking abilities? We ain’t lost but one girl in all these years, and that one come to us half dead in her mind, so her passing can’t be pegged on us. As a matter of verified fact, most the girls leave here in better shape than when they arrive. Don’t nobody want to buy busted-up inventory, and we ain’t never lost but one sale.” Turning to Gunner she said, “Tell him.”
Gunner hesitated. He studied Step’s angular face and then shrugged. “You fucked up once. You can fuck up again.” He had no idea where Step was headed, but he’d play along if it meant he didn’t have to spend any more time with the hill-toppers than he had to.
The daughter’s cheeks turned red as fast as a flick of a switch. “Oughta let Papa Paul shoot you, is what I oughta do.”
Step snickered. “That’s what I thought. Let’s get on, Gunner. Boss needs to know the girl was closed out before we got here.”
Gunner returned the snicker.
“The girl ain’t closed out,” the daughter insisted, placing her hands on her broad hips. She glanced at her mother and then sighed. “Suppose there won’t be no harm in giving you a look, but by God, ain’t nothing to be done to her until
Julio gets here. Understand me?” She moved to the short hallway and disappeared into the first room on the right, emerging shortly after with a brown duster covering her ratty old nightgown.
Gunner grunted out a laugh. “You look as pretty as an old cowhand after a hard day’s work.”
The sturdy woman threw her brawny shoulder into him as she made her way through the kitchen.
Step smiled as she passed him and almost pleasantly invited him to follow her out the door. His closeout rush was back with a vengeance.
Chapter 66
They’d reached speeds of 120 mph at some points during their pursuit. Kenny’s fingers were cramped from hanging on to the door handle for dear life. Dani was pretty as hell, but she drove like a crazy woman. She whipped around turns and zipped through traffic like there was no tomorrow, and Kenny was pretty sure on a number of occasions there would be no tomorrow for him or the pretty deputy.
He was hoping to use the time to get to know her, but every time he settled into a topic she was maneuvering her way through a deadly stretch of road that required her full attention. When they hit a straightaway stretch of interstate, his nerves settled, and he decided to try and lock her into a conversation.
“I was talking to Step the other day about that butt sex.”
She didn’t respond. Her mind was on a million other things. She didn’t even hear him.
“You’re familiar, ain’t you?”
“Familiar?”
“Yeah, it’s like regular sex…’cept it ain’t.”
She looked at him, confused. “Regular sex? What the hell are you talking about, Kenny?”
“I told you. Butt sex. Me and Step was considering it the other day.”
“Considering it?”
“Yeah, in conversation. We was wondering why butts’re getting bigger and the like. Got into the topic of hairy backs, too.”
“Kenny,” she barked.
He looked at her, shocked.
“This ain’t the time for this kind of discussion. I can’t imagine there would ever be a time for it, but if there is, this ain’t it.”
He nodded. “Step says my inquiries are irritating. I’m a curious person by nature. I’ll just prod on things until people punch me or walk away.” He shrugged. “Can’t say why I do it.”
Dani suddenly felt bad for yelling at him. “I tell you what, we get this Campbell girl home safe to her momma, I’ll talk about butts and whatever you want over beers.”
Kenny smiled. “Ima hold you to that, Deputy Dani. Yes, ma’am, Ima hold you to that.” His smile slowly flattened out. “ ’Cept, getting her back to her momma may not be a good thing.”
“Why not?”
“Woman’s a crackhead mess. She was deep in it last time I saw her. Wouldn’t trust her to raise a fuss, much less a little girl.”
Dani considered his comment and then said, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
Kenny’s phone beeped, and he retrieved it from the dashboard. “GPS alarm. We ain’t but five miles from Step.”
“Which way?”
He looked at the map that popped up on his phone. “Can’t say for sure. This thing’s hard to read.”
She slowed the cruiser.
He looked up from the phone. “Best I can figure is we go that way,” he said, pointing to the thick stretch of woods to their left.
She looked past him and examined the trees as they blurred by.
“I’m thinking you go up about another three miles and then just take a hard left into the woods. We’ll come up on Step soon after.”
Dani felt her heart beat faster.
Kenny absentmindedly removed his hat and molded the bill with his thick fingers. “We’ll get that Campbell girl, Deputy Dani. Easy as pie. And then you and me’re going dancing. For real, this time.”
She smiled nervously and nodded.
Neither of them noticed the small prop plane that soared overhead.
Chapter 67
Bones was not in the truck. Step uttered a string of profanities and then moved to the corner of the house.
The daughter sucked the mucus out of her sinuses and then spit on the ground. “Wha’cha doing? I thought you wanted to see the inventory.”
“She run off,” Step said.
“Who run off?”
“My friend. The girl that was with us.”
“The whore Momma was going on about?”
Step didn’t respond. He peered through the darkness in all directions.
“You wanna see the inventory or you wanna look for your whore? ’Cause I ain’t doing both.”
Step growled to himself. He wanted to find Bones so he could break her neck for running off. He reluctantly backed away from the side of the house and turned to the daughter. “Lead the way.”
Gunner shook his head. “Told you we shouldn’t have brung her. Girl’s an ocean full of trouble.”
The two men followed the daughter as she plodded through the high grass toward the barn. Step’s head was on a swivel looking for Bones the entire time. He barely noticed they were entering the barn until the overwhelming smell of gasoline got his full attention. Turning to his right, he saw a rusting five-hundred-gallon fuel storage tank.
The daughter continued to the center of the large open area, bent down, and lifted open a trapdoor. She pointed behind Gunner. “Grab me a flashlight.” He did as asked at the slowest possible pace. When he finally slapped it in the palm of her hand, Step was ready to break his jaw for being such a total shit.
The flashlight on, the daughter descended a steep set of stairs. Step waited for Gunner to follow. When he didn’t, the skinny closeout king shoved him in the back. “Go on, get.”
Gunner shoved him back. “What the fuck you touching me for?”
“We gotta see the inventory, ain’t we?”
“We ain’t gotta, you gotta. You go.”
“We both need to go.”
“It’s creepy as all hell down there. I ain’t got no interest in going. This was your idea. Go or don’t go, I don’t give a shit.” He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his shirt pocket.
Step rolled his eyes. “Well, if you ain’t gonna go, at least tell me you’re smart enough not to smoke in here.”
Gunner cocked an eyebrow. “Wha’cha talking about?”
Step pointed to the fuel tank. “There’s gas fumes all up in this place. You’re liable to blow everything all to shit with one flick of your lighter.”
Gunner examined the tank. Shrugging he said, “Hell no, I wasn’t gonna smoke in here. I was gonna go outside. Is that okay with you, shithead?”
Step put his foot on the top rung of the stairs. “Suit yourself. I’ll give you a full report.”
“And I’ll try to give a fuck,” Gunner said as he exited the barn. “Or I won’t, whichever.”
The daughter was ten feet ahead of Step by the time he descended the stairs. He saw her bulky frame in the darkness, outlined by the glow from her flashlight. “How far off are we?”
“Closer than we was. Getting closer every second.”
“That ain’t an answer.”
“It is. It just ain’t the one you was looking for.” The daughter turned a corner.
Step took the corner too sharply and bumped his shoulder against the solid concrete foundation. “What the fuck is this place?”
“It ain’t no big mystery. It’s a tunnel.”
“No shit. I mean, why is it here?”
“Because it got built. Things that get built tend be in the place they was built. This is the place where this tunnel got built, so it’s here.”
Step wanted to ram her head against the concrete wall and be done with the stupid cow, but he had no idea if the Campbell girl was at the end of the tunnel or if there was more to their journey, so he shook his head in silence and continued to follow the highly objectionable woman.
They continued another ten feet and turned another corner. Step nearly ran into the daughter before he no
ticed she’d stopped to unlock a large metal door. The sound of the dead bolt retracting was followed by the creek of the door as the daughter pushed it open. Reaching in with her left hand, she flicked on a hanging light in the center of the small room. Before stepping inside, she stuffed the flashlight in her coat pocket.
Step followed her into the room and blinked against the brightness of the naked lightbulb. He squinted and turned away from the light. That was when he saw her. Sarah Campbell. He felt the tension in his tangled mind drip away. He didn’t expect to be so relieved to see her. Why did he care so much? He’d never laid eyes on the girl before; she was nothing to him. Yet there he stood under the glare of a naked lightbulb, fighting the urge to blubber uncontrollably at the sight of the small girl.
She was laid out on a small cot, fast asleep with an IV connected to her arm.
“Satisfied?” the daughter asked.
Step didn’t answer right away. He couldn’t stop staring at the girl. Eventually he asked, “What’s wrong with her?”
“Wrong with her? Nothing. She’s healthy as can be.”
“But the thing…in her arm…and she ain’t waking up.”
The daughter waved him off. “Put her under. Do it with all the girls. Otherwise they work themselves up into a lather about the dark and the cold and they want their mommies, wah, wah, wah. Better for the lot of them just to knock ’em out with a little Propofol.”
“Ain’t that dangerous?”
She shrugged. “I’ve been trained how to do it up right. What do you think I get paid for?”
Step knelt next to the girl and marveled at how peaceful she looked. The daughter watched him suspiciously. “I’ve been doing this a long time, near seventeen years.”
“What’s your point?”
“I’m just saying I know how to spot things, is all.”
Step stood and turned to her. “Spot things?”
“Yeah, like a look.”
Step glared at her.
“I know when a man is wrestling with the right and wrong of a situation, and, mister, it is all over your face.”
“Is that right?”
She nodded. “A thing like that can make a man do stupid things. Things that’ll get him killed.”
Savage Reckoning Page 24
