Savage Reckoning

by C. Hoyt Caldwell

  Chapter 93

  Randle parked the confiscated car in front of the ramshackle trailer. The sun was creeping up over the row of trees dotting the slope of the hill behind it. Sarah was fast asleep in the passenger seat of the car. The deputy considered waking her, but thought better of it. He knew Suzanna Campbell. There was a better than good chance she was either drugged out of her mind or bare-ass naked entertaining a stiff dick for half a tenth of crack. If by some miracle she were sober and alone, Randle wanted to chat with her first, ease her into the idea that her daughter was back.

  Being sensitive to the situation was a new feeling for him. Normally, he wouldn’t have put near as much thought into all the ways things could go wrong before doing something, but his mind kept on going back to the time just before he gunned down Bones. He felt a phantom tension in his finger from pulling the trigger. It felt like he had just done it. He couldn’t get the sound of the bullet hitting her out of his head. The moment of impact was stuck in his mind’s eye.

  Randle pulled himself together, tapped on the flimsy door of the trailer, and waited nervously. When enough time had passed without a reply, he tapped again, only harder. “Suzanna, it’s the police. Terry Randle. I got news about your daughter.”

  Still no answer.

  He pulled the door open and immediately drew back from the odor. He knew what he would find before he even stepped inside: Sarah’s mother dead on the couch, surrounded by filth, the stench of rotting flesh, and a spent crack pipe.

  Randle quietly exited the trailer and walked to the edge of the property. His brain was shutting down. His mind shuffled between images of Bones’s collapse and the lifeless body of Suzanna Campbell. Back and forth. Back and forth. Bones. Suzanna. Bones. Suzanna.

  He gasped when he felt the soft touch of a small hand on his trigger finger. He looked down to see Sarah’s face, yawning. A peaceful smile pushed up her cheeks. “Momma home?’

  “Um.” Randle looked at the trailer and then back at Sarah. “No, sweetie, she ain’t home. You got any other relatives around here?”

  “Daddy.”

  Randle knew Billy Campbell wasn’t an option. “You ain’t got no granny or aunt or nothing?”

  She shook her head.

  He stopped himself from letting a string of profanities dance off his tongue. “Well, my momma’s off the table. She’s got her shows, and trust me, you do not want to interrupt those.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Ain’t but one place for us to go.” He held down the number three on the dial display, and waited until he heard the tones of the call going through before he put the phone to his ear.

  When Friar picked up the phone, Randle said, “Got a problem. Which hospital you at?”

  Chapter 94

  Bonnie entered the Biscuit Shack paying no attention to her surroundings. She was worried and hungry, which made her scarier and more irritable than usual. She expected to have a cup of coffee waiting for her by the time she sat down at her booth. She expected that Darlene, her longest serving employee, would greet her with assurances that the rest of her breakfast would arrive before she took her second sip from the cup. She expected to be feared and doted upon by everyone who received a paycheck from her.

  It wasn’t until she took her seat that she realized none of her expectations would be met. Her coffee wasn’t waiting for her, and a quick survey of the restaurant revealed it was empty, not an employee in sight.

  The door to the kitchen swung open, and Dani stepped out with a smile.

  Bonnie, caught off guard, appeared unamused at first, but she quickly settled into her own smile. “Deputy Dani Savage.”

  “Bonnie,” Dani said as she moved down the counter. “I’d call you by your full name, but for the life of me, I can’t recall if I’ve ever heard it.”

  “Is it important?” Bonnie asked.

  Dani reached the end of the counter and made her way to the booth. “I figure I oughta know the whole, complete name of the woman who wants me dead.

  Bonnie considered her point. “I suppose that’s fair. Pike. Bonnie Elizabeth Pike.”

  Dani reached the booth and asked permission to sit. Her request granted, she sat across from Bonnie.

  “How would you like me to address you?” the deputy asked.

  “That depends.”

  “On?”

  “On what capacity it is you are here in.”

  Dani shrugged. “I’m just here to open the door.”

  Bonnie raised an eyebrow. “How’s that?”

  “My capacity is as door opener. That’s it.”

  “Am I supposed to know what that means?”

  “It will be clear to you soon enough. Now, how should I address you? Bonnie or Athaliah?”

  Bonnie let a grin slide up slowly on her face. “Aren’t you the smart girl?”

  “I have my moments.”

  “Bonnie will do fine.”

  “Bonnie it is. I gotta say Athaliah is a strange choice for a code name. She ain’t exactly a hero.”

  “I ain’t exactly a hero.”

  “Still, she was always presented to me as a cautionary tale in the Bible.”

  “That’s because she ruled her kingdom like a man. Drew blood and cracked skulls to hold on to her power. A king does that and he’s revered. A queen does that and she’s a cautionary tale.”

  “You might have a point there…”

  “I can’t be arrested, you understand.”

  “You can’t?”

  “I can’t.”

  “And why is that?”

  “For reasons too long to list, but the most relevant to this situation is that this booth is way the fuck out of your jurisdiction.”

  Dani snickered. “That it is, Bonnie. That it is.” The deputy leaned back and studied the crime boss’s puffy face. “So is that a family name? Bonnie?”

  “Are we to get to know one another? Is that what this is about?”

  “I’m just trying to make conversation. Killing time before I gotta do what I came here to do.”

  “Open the door?”

  Dani touched her nose and winked. “Right.” She quickly peered out the window and then returned to her attempt at making small talk. “Now, I’m sorry to say that I’m named after my daddy. He was Daniel. Daniel Clark Savage. I got the Dani part of his name. Not the Clark part, thank goodness.”

  “Was? Your daddy’s dead?”

  “To me, he is.”

  Bonnie seemed to relax just the slightest despite her confusion. “My daddy was a bastard, too.”

  “Was?”

  “To everybody, he’s a was.” A broad smile found its way across Bonnie’s face. “Let’s just say I got a talent for making bastards go away.” Out of habit, she placed her hand on the tabletop to reach for her coffee cup. Drawing it back, she said, “Speaking of going away. You mind telling me where my staff went?”

  “I give them the day off.”

  Bonnie didn’t respond right away. She chuckled nervously for a few seconds before saying, “Well, now, if you ain’t here to arrest me, does that mean you aim to kill ol’ Bonnie?”

  Dani shook her head. “That is not my aim. Told you, I’m here to open the door.”

  Bonnie’s expression soured. “Fine. You’re here to open the door. Whatever the fuck that means. You wanna talk until then, let’s talk. Forget the bullshit. I don’t give a goddamn what your daddy’s name is or was or whatever state of alive he’s in, and you don’t give a goddamn that my daddy used to call me Piggy Pike. Ask me a real question, Deputy Dani Savage. Ask me something you really wanna know.”

  Dani worked to stay calm as Bonnie’s tolerance was wearing thin. “Okay. How does it work?”

  “It? What it?”

  “Your business.”

  “That’s a broad question, Deputy. I’ve got a big business. There’s a lot I got my hand in…”

  “The girls, Bonnie. Tell me how it works.”

  Bonnie mulled over her question before saying.
“You know what I think? I think you’re out of your depth, Deputy.”

  “Tell me how it works.”

  “How it works?”

  “From the bottom up.”

  Bonnie eyed her for a second before laughing. “Fuck it. You can’t hurt me. We procure inventory. A deal is made, cash arrives, inventory gets delivered. That’s how it works. It ain’t no big mystery. Now, would you like me to tell you what you really want to know?”

  Dani squirmed in her seat, feeling uneasy for the first time. “What do I really want to know?”

  “C’mon, you ain’t that thick in the head. You know what you really want to know. Why is it a little girl can go missing and no one gives a fuck? That’s the question you really want to know the answer to. Ask me that question.”

  “No need.” Dani rubbed the back of her neck and ran her fingers across the inked tribute to Colleen.

  “Why?”

  “Because I know the answer. I lived the answer. I’ve seen a little girl get thrown away and no one care. She wasn’t good enough or rich enough or pretty enough: she wasn’t enough of anything so nobody cared what happened to her. You think no one gives a shit because you own them. You think you got them boxed in with your files and money and guns. Let me tell you something, Bonnie Elizabeth Pike, you’re putting way too much thought and effort in keeping people quiet. Don’t none of them have any desire to speak up because don’t none of them care.”

  Bonnie stared at Dani, observing her cheeks turning red as she talked. When the deputy was through, the crime boss said, “That’s a touch cynical. I own a good number of churches, sweetie. You should stop by one of them and get right with the Lord. You know what they say, folks that pray know the Way.”

  “No, thank you. I’ve done the church thing, and it ain’t nothing but a building full of people who think praying is caring enough.”

  Their attention was drawn outside as they watched four cars pull into the parking lot followed by Step’s truck.

  Bonnie turned back to Dani when she heard a gun cock. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m caring,” the deputy said with her gun trained on the crime boss.

  “But you said you weren’t going to kill me.”

  “I ain’t.” Dani motioned toward the parking lot with her head. “But they’ve got a different take on the situation.”

  Bonnie watched as women climbed out of the cars armed with gardening tools, knives, and baseball bats. A couple even had hunting rifles. Step emerged from his truck carrying a gym bag with Boss’s scratch gat in it. Laura Farrow pushed the truck’s passenger-side door open and stepped out onto the concrete surface carrying a hammer.

  “You’re right about one thing,” Dani said. “You can’t be arrested. Turns out that ain’t as enviable a position to be in as you might think because when you’re too big to go to jail, there ain’t but one other place for you to go.”

  Bonnie turned to the deputy feeling panicked. “I’ve got money.”

  “We got your money and your files.”

  “On the mountain? That ain’t but a fraction of it.”

  Dani started to slide down the cushioned bench but stopped. “Fraction of which, the money or the files?”

  “Both. You call this off, and I’ll hand it all over to you. Every bit of it.”

  Dani considered her proposal and then replied, “Nah.” The gun still on Bonnie, she stepped out of the booth and ordered the crime boss to do the same.

  Bonnie clumsily complied. “You kill me and you won’t ever know where the other files are.”

  “I told you, I ain’t gonna kill you. They are.”

  “Whoever’s to do it, dead is dead. It won’t get you no closer to knowing everything that there is to know.”

  Dani waved Bonnie in front of her and shoved her toward the front door. “I don’t reckon they’re gonna kill you right off. If it makes you feel any better, they’ll beat the information out of you before you leave this world.”

  They stopped in front of the door.

  “So, this is how the law gets done in Baptist Flats,” Bonnie said. “You let other folks do the dirty work?”

  “It ain’t the normal practice, but these are special circumstances. Besides, we ain’t in Baptist Flats, remember?” Deputy Savage suddenly got a pained expression on her face. “I hate to have to admit this to you, Bonnie, but I have lied to you.”

  “Lied?”

  “Yes, ma’am, as I have got to keep my gun pointed at you without distraction, I’m going to be unable to open the door. You’re going to have to do it.”

  Chapter 95

  Randle stood next to Kenny’s hospital bed, uneasy due to Step’s unexpected appearance. He couldn’t look his cousin in the eyes.

  “What’d the doctor say?” Step asked.

  Randle cleared his throat and stared down at his feet. “Broke arm, broke ribs, punctured lung.”

  Step recoiled at the sound of his cousin’s voice. He didn’t expect or want to, but it was like the sound of a gun being fired.

  “Ol’ lady sure could swing a chain,” Kenny grunted out with his eyes closed.

  “It’s my fault,” Step said. “I should have killed her right off.”

  “You sure as shit should have,” Kenny said.

  “Doc says you ain’t supposed to talk unless necessary,” Randle said.

  Step moved away from the bed to shake the vision of strangling his cousin to death.

  Kenny opened his glassy eyes and smiled. “Shoot, they got me pumped full of drugs. I feel good to go.”

  “Well, you ain’t,” Step said. “Do as the doc says and shut the hell up.”

  Kenny shook his head. “Ain’t taking orders from no one no more. Not even you, Step. Where’s the girl?”

  “With Dani,” Randle said. “Down the hall.”

  “You brought her here?” Step asked.

  Still unable to look at the skinny closeout king, Randle stammered through an explanation. “Suzanna, her momma, she…” The deputy couldn’t bring himself to say she was dead. She was too much like Step’s stripper—broken, junkie, far from happiness—to conjure up the image of her leaving her wrecked life behind. “She didn’t make it out of this thing is all. I guess it was too much for her. I didn’t have nowheres else to take the girl.”

  “She’s safe,” Dani said from the doorway. “The doctor’s checking her out now.”

  Kenny steered his eyes toward her voice and smiled. “The pretty deputy lady. You ready for that dance?”

  She approached. “You want that dance, you’ll do as the doctor says and keep your mouth shut.”

  “Otis—” Randle started, but Dani cut him off.

  “Otis is going to be okay. Talked to him on the drive here. He’s been patched up and being watched over by Ruby and Rafe at the house. He’s a bit worried there ain’t no deputies to keep the law in Baptist Flats at the moment.”

  Friar stepped out of the corner of the room. “I wasn’t for none of this in the beginning. I told Randle this was out of our jurisdiction.”

  “Shut up,” Randle said.

  Friar growled and left the room.

  Randle gave Dani a pleading look. “Otis don’t want me back. Not after…”

  Dani nodded. “You fucked up?”

  “That’s the best words for it. I ain’t got no excuse. But you gotta know I didn’t see it turning as bad as it did.”

  “I got two thoughts on the matter,” Dani said. “Bonnie put in a closeout on me and Otis before you even talked to Boss, so you didn’t turn things bad. They was bad to begin with.

  “Second, you’re just another cop in these parts that can’t be trusted. That don’t make you unique.”

  Randle didn’t respond.

  “The difference being, Randle, I don’t think you’re an evil shit, not like those other fuckers wearing badges.”

  Randle felt a tinge of hope in his chest, and he almost smiled.

  Dani smiled. “You are dumber than fuck. Can�
��t lie about that, and it ain’t up to me, but if Otis asks my opinion on whether you should be let go or not, I’ll tell him what I think.”

  “Which is?” Randle asked after a long pause.

  “That you’re the kind of dumb we can fix.”

  He turned away, afraid he would let a tear drop if he looked her in the eye.

  “Don’t make me regret giving you a second chance,” Dani said.

  Randle shook his head. “I won’t. Even if Otis sticks his foot up my ass and pushes me out the station door, Ima make up what I done to him…to you…to y’all.” He headed for the door, but stopped. “That goes for you, too, Cousin.”

  Step held up his hand and shook his head. “There’s nothing to be made up, Terry. If I seen what you seen from where you were standing, I would have done the same thing.” He hesitated. “But I guess given who I am and what I do, that ain’t really saying much.” An uncharacteristic warm smile set itself on his face. “We all got demons we serve, Cousin. There ain’t no avoiding it. Sooner or later we gotta forgive ourselves for it and move on.”

  When Randle was gone, Kenny tried to sit up, but Step forced him back down. “What the hell you doing?”

  “Ima get out of here is what. Can’t stand no hospitals or doctors and such.”

  “You ain’t going nowhere but asleep. You flinch again, and I’ll fetch a nurse to give you a needle full of sleep,” Step said.

  Kenny laughed. “You should get a load of that nurse of mine. Lord, she’s got an ass big enough to be famous…” His eyes drooped. “She must have…” His voice dropped and then picked up. “She must have a hell of a time at parties…” The snoring started almost as soon as the last slurred word escaped his mouth.

  When she was sure Kenny was asleep, Dani motioned for Step to join her by the window. When he was close enough to hear a whisper she said, “Got a call from Maggie.”

  “And?”

  “The pilot, the one that was to come for Sarah, he showed up.”

  “What she gonna do with him? Can’t arrest him. Too many questions will get asked.”

  “Turns out he’s for hire.”

  “For hire?”