A Tree Born Crooked

by Steph Post

  “No. I don’t know where he is. And that’s a good thing.”

  “Oh?”

  “Because when I hear what I think I’m about to hear, I’m gonna feel obliged to kick his ass.”

  James set his coffee cup down next to hers and leaned forward. The dog stood up, stretched, and sauntered down to the other end of the porch to sit despondently with its head resting between its paws.

  “Marlena, I don’t know you that well. I don’t know how involved you are with Waylon’s affairs, and I don’t know how much you want to get tangled up in what has somehow become mine.”

  He paused, but the expression on her face hadn’t changed. She kept her eyes level with his and waited for him to continue.

  “But I think you should know. I think Waylon has gotten himself into some kinda trouble. Something bad.”

  “You mean like robbing that strip joint up near the county line last night?”

  James was taken aback for a second.

  “You knew about it?”

  “I know about a lot of things. Don’t mean I take any part in them.”

  “But Waylon told you about it.”

  Marlena picked her coffee back up.

  “Daddy doesn’t tell me shit. But that don’t mean I’m not listening all the time. I didn’t know the particulars, but I knew your brother and that creep Delmore were planning on knocking over that place, and that Daddy was providing his usual services. I’m guessing supplying them with guns. Though what they would need them for, I don’t know. Guess that’s why I’m just a bartender and not involved in organized crime. But what does this have to do with you? Don’t tell me you went along with them.”

  “Ah, no. The invitation was extended and declined.”

  “So you are sitting on my front porch, because?”

  “Do you know what happened last night?”

  Now Marlena’s countenance changed. The barrier of bantering she had held up between them began to crumble. She stood up and leaned against the porch railing with her back to him.

  “No. I don’t.”

  “Rabbit called me this morning. Early. Very early. Things did not go as planned.”

  “How so?”

  “Apparently the money wasn’t the hundred thousand they thought it would be. It was about eighty thousand light of that. And one of the girls was still at the club and saw them.”

  “You’re joking, right?”

  “And Delmore shot her. And killed her.”

  Marlena whipped around, her eyes flashing and her hands gripping the railing behind her.

  “Are you kidding me? He killed someone?”

  “I guess Waylon met up with them after it happened. He was supposed to help Delmore do something with the girl. Only he never came back with Delmore, and Rabbit doesn’t know where he is. So I was hoping you did. I got a real bad feeling this is all about to go south.”

  Marlena didn’t say anything. She turned back around, leaned over slowly, and rested her forearms on the railing. She clasped her hands in front of her and stared out down the driveway for a moment. James let her think. He didn’t know if he had done the right thing by divulging everything to her. He couldn’t tell if the tightness of her mouth and the stiffness of her neck meant that she was afraid, angry, or something else altogether. James didn’t move. He toyed with a loose piece of wicker sticking up from the table and waited for her to turn back toward him. When she did, her eyes were steeled with resolve.

  “Okay. That’s where we’re at, then?”

  “That’s where we’re at. I’m waiting for Rabbit to call me once he knows more. Once he can talk to Delmore and fill in some of the blanks.”

  “And does anyone know that it was them? I mean, are there people out looking for them yet?”

  “I don’t know.”

  James set his empty coffee cup down.

  “But I do know that Rabbit said something about shell casings. About Delmore and Waylon being worried about not having as clean a getaway as they had thought.”

  “So the owner, Lyndell, is going to be after them. The law too, but I’d be a lot more worried about Lyndell.”

  “You know this guy?”

  Marlena picked at a gray splinter creeping up out of the porch railing.

  “I met him once when he came into the bar to talk to Daddy. Wasn’t a creep like Delmore, but didn’t exactly look like he cared for babies and kittens neither. And he’s connected.”

  James stood up.

  “Connected?”

  “Yeah, this new group of idiots turned criminals. Call themselves the Alligator Mafia. Stupid name, if you ask me. Mostly they just organize the doctor shoppers and the oxy buses in North and Central Florida. They run some of the pipeline from this area up into Tennessee.”

  James shook his head.

  “Never heard of ‘em.”

  “They’re kinda new to the area, I guess. Low level rejects from the old Trafficante crew out of Tampa and the pill runners up in Jacksonville. They really just muscle people around and transport the pills. Hillbilly heroin kinda bullshit. But I heard they can be ruthless if their money gets messed with.”

  “How do you know this?”

  Marlena shrugged her shoulders.

  “I read the papers and listen to the nut jobs who come into my bar. People talk awful loud when they’re trying hard to be cool.”

  “And this Lyndell guy? He’s part of all this?”

  “Far as I know. But Delmore and Rabbit should have known all that before they hit that place up. Right? I’m sure Daddy did.”

  “I don’t know anything anymore. If what you’re saying is true, then I think they’re all in a hell of a lot more trouble than they think. Or at least, than Rabbit thinks.”

  James was starting down the porch steps when his phone rang. He stopped and looked up at Marlena, who was still leaning against the porch railing. She raised her eyebrows and shrugged her shoulders. Rabbit was talking before James could even say hello, and Marlena leaned over farther to hear James’ side of the conversation.

  “Wait, wait, slow down. Okay. Yeah, actually I just learned that myself ‘bout five minutes ago. Thanks for clueing me in to the local reject mafia. What? Wait, what? Shit, get outta there, Rabbit. Get outta there right now and meet me, hold on—”

  James paused, trying to think of a place where they could talk safely. Marlena interjected.

  “How about The Diamond? No one’s there and it can lock up pretty tight. And there’s at least two shotguns that I know of behind the bar.”

  James put the phone back to his ear.

  “Meet me at the bar. At The Blue Diamond. It’s okay, I’m with Marlena, I’ll get the keys from her. Yeah. Well, she knew already. Knew more than I did, anyways. Okay. Yes, go now. I mean it, now.”

  James snapped the phone shut and jammed it down in his pocket. He turned around and went back up on the porch to Marlena.

  “Look, the last thing I want to do is drag you into this.”

  “My daddy’s the one missing, remember?”

  “I know, but still.”

  “And don’t think I’m just gonna hand over the keys to my bar. I’m going with you.”

  “You sure about this?”

  Part of James wished that he had never seen Marlena sitting on her Jeep in the parking lot, never sat at the bar drinking with her, never drove out to her house to experience the stillness and serenity that seemed to come so naturally to her. But there was the selfish ache of loneliness inside James, too. Marlena smiled, but her eyes were hard, determined, and unyielding. James caught the glimmer of a force he dared not reckon with.

  “One thing you need to go ahead and know about me, James. I don’t say things unless I aim to do them. Let’s go.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Marlena sat on top of the bar fidgeting with a stack of coasters. Sitting at one of the scratched bar tables, James watched Rabbit and unconsciously rubbed the palm of his hand back and forth across his unshaven cheek. Rabbit refused
to sit, no matter how many times James told him to calm down and be still. He slugged the shot of whiskey Marlena had poured for him and paced back and forth across the bare cement floor, wringing his hands and continuously checking the locked door behind him. He was much worse than when James had seen him in the trailer that morning. This was not confusion or anxiety. This was terror. Rabbit was truly living up to his namesake, frozen in the glare of oncoming headlights. James was trying to be sympathetic, but his patience was wearing thin. He glanced over at Marlena, but she only shook her head.

  “Rabbit. I’m not gonna tell you again. You need to calm down, and you need to talk to me.”

  Rabbit checked the door again.

  “Are you sure that other door, the one in the back, is locked? Did she check it?”

  He turned his frantic eyes toward Marlena, as if realizing for the first time that she was there.

  “Did you check it?”

  Considering how Marlena had last spoken to Rabbit, James was surprised at the gentleness of her voice.

  “I did. I promise, no one is getting in here, Rabbit.”

  “And you sure both them things is loaded?”

  Rabbit pointed to the sawed-off 12-gauges Marlena had stacked on the bar. She slid her hand toward them, trying to let Rabbit know that they were not going to be caught unaware.

  “I’m sure. And if I’m not mistaken, so is that .45.”

  Marlena pointed to the gun on the table in front of James. When they had arrived at the bar, James had hesitated for a moment before pulling it out from under the seat of his truck. He had watched Marlena’s face, trying to discern if she was startled or even a little surprised. She had jumped down out of the pickup without ever taking notice.

  James drummed his fingers on the table next to the gun.

  “So, the doors are all locked and the guns are all loaded.”

  Rabbit nodded his head and made as if to sit down in one of the bar chairs. Instead, he gripped the back of it and used it as a brace to keep himself steady. He took a deep breath.

  “Okay. I didn’t wait for Delmore to call. I just couldn’t take waiting no more. Mama came home from the store and lit into me. She started asking me all these questions. Was I doped up? Had I just been in a fight? You know how Mama can be. She can’t shut her mouth to save her life. I finally gave up and drove back over to the trailer. I saw Delmore’s truck parked outside, so I knew he was still there.”

  Rabbit stopped for a moment. James crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows expectantly. Marlena was still, just watching.

  “So, I go inside, but I don’t see Delmore nowhere. I start calling out for him, but there ain’t really nowheres to get lost in that trailer, if you know what I mean. So, I think he must be still sleeping or something. I went on into the bedroom, but he weren’t there.”

  Rabbit paused again, his eyes enormous and his knuckles white, as he gripped the chair.

  “He weren’t there, but there was a mess a blood on the bed and on the wall behind it, too. But there weren’t no Delmore. Just the blood.”

  James leaned forward, trying to keep Rabbit focused.

  “How much blood?”

  Rabbit threw up his arms and started pacing the room again. He was sweating, and his white T-shirt stuck to his chest and lower back.

  “I don’t know! How much blood is a lot? Or a little? I ain’t known nothing ‘bout no blood ‘til today. Jesus, you know me. I pass out at the sight of someone else getting their blood taken outta one of them blood vans in the Winn-Dixie parking lot.”

  James nodded and lowered his voice.

  “I know, Rabbit. What I’m trying to get at is, do you think it was the amount of blood that someone loses when they die, or when they’ve just been shot?”

  “I don’t know! This morning, that girl, was the first time I ever seen a person shot for real.”

  Marlena slid down from the bar and straddled one of the bar stools, laying her arms across the back of it.

  “It’s okay, you don’t worry about that. Do you remember if there was anything else different about the room? Or the trailer? Anything?”

  Rabbit turned to Marlena.

  “You mean, ‘sides the blood?”

  Her voice was cool and level. It has a lull to it that James had not heard before.

  “Yeah. Anything different.”

  Rabbit stopped pacing long enough to think.

  “No. Well, maybe. I don’t know. The place was trashed, but that ain’t no different than usual. A tornado could rip through there and I’d like as not notice.”

  “Now, I know you don’t want to think about it, but can you try to remember if there was any blood on the floor? Coming from the bedroom, going to the front or back door?”

  Rabbit’s bottom lip trembled and he started rubbing his palms together in front of him.

  “No. I mean, I think I woulda noticed it. I didn’t see nothing ‘til I went into that room. That mean something?”

  James shared a look with Marlena.

  “What does that mean, James?”

  James turned back to face Rabbit.

  “It means that Delmore most likely isn’t dead.”

  Rabbit exhaled loudly.

  “You serious? Oh, man, this whole time I was ‘bout to lose my shit ‘cause I thought he was dead.”

  James drummed his fingers on the tabletop.

  “If there was no body, and it doesn’t appear that they dragged it out, or bothered to clean up after themselves, then he’s probably okay. Shot, I’m sure, but most likely not as bad as you think.”

  “But who is they?”

  James stood and picked up the .45 on the table in front of him. He slipped the safety on and shoved it into the back of his jeans.

  “That, Rabbit, is the question we need answered.”

  SEVEN

  Marlena came silently into the kitchen, and James looked up when she sat down across the table from him. He picked up the bottle of Jack Daniel’s and poured out a shot for her.

  “Still nothing on the news?”

  Marlena sighed and brushed her hair out of her eyes.

  “Nope. I guess that a strip club getting robbed and a girl getting killed just can’t compete with the rising price of gas and that one reality TV star who just turned up pregnant.”

  “No, I guess it wouldn’t. Rabbit sleeping?”

  “Like a bear in a cave. I swear, for all his jumping ‘round all the time like he’s got ants in his pants, he sure can pass out in a hurry. Didn’t even take his shoes off.”

  “I really appreciate you letting him stay here.”

  She paused in the middle of raising the shot glass to her lips.

  “Why? Where else was he gonna go?”

  After some initial resistance, James had finally agreed with Marlena that the safest thing to do for the time being was to take Rabbit back to her house. He had been unable to provide any more information, no matter the different ways James had tried to frame the questions. Rabbit had only shaken his head and repeated over and over that he didn’t really know Lyndell or who his boss was. He didn’t know any more about the Alligator Mafia than they did. He claimed that Waylon and Delmore were the brains of the operation and that he was just a thief, going along for the ride. James suspected that Rabbit knew more than he was admitting, but Marlena had finally stepped in and suggested that they all go back to her place to wait the night out. Maybe Waylon would respond to the many messages she had left on his cell phone, and they could figure something out once they had more information. James had to agree with Marlena; Rabbit looked like he was about to crack into a million pieces. He had forgotten that Rabbit had been running on fear and adrenaline for the past twenty-four hours. Maybe he would remember something else once he had gotten some sleep.

  It had been the tail end of dusk when Marlena jumped out of James’ truck to drag open the cattle gate and let the vehicles through. As she held the gate open, a crack of thunder resonated through the air and Marlen
a had looked upwards. Even in the fading light, she could tell that the amassing clouds from earlier in the afternoon had taken over and were preparing to have their dance in the sky.

  Lightning was already streaking overhead when they had pulled up to the house. Marlena had called the dog inside from its hiding place under the front porch, locked all the doors, and taken her .38 caliber revolver down from the top of the refrigerator. She had microwaved Rabbit a cup of instant noodles, made up the couch in the living room for him, and did her best to make him comfortable. James was slightly surprised by the ease with which she could switch from a pistol to a pillow. She was unlike any woman he had ever met. She drank the whiskey, carefully set her glass back down, and looked past James out through the kitchen window. As darkness fell, so did the heavens.

  They talked quietly against the pulse of rainwater caressing the tin roof above them. James and Marlena spoke and drank in the yellow stove light, and as the night unraveled, and the darkness and rain enveloped their small world, they learned many things about one another.

  Marlena learned that James had not graduated from flight school, but had been tempted by avarice and stupidity to follow his friends into the life of petty crime that he now tried so hard to float above. She learned that he knew how to hotwire cars as well as fix them, that he had once broken his leg by jumping out of a second-storey window, that the name tattooed on his right bicep belonged to a girl who was no longer with this world. They had that in common: tattoos for the dead. The name Marlena harbored between her shoulder blades belonged to her aunt.

  “Ruth. This used to be her house, actually. When I came to Crystal Springs during the summer, she was usually off traveling somewhere, so I didn’t get to see her too much then. She loved to travel. Her son, Topher, worked for the airlines and she was always getting some kinda deal. One year, she went to Australia and went on a bus tour in the outback. When they stopped to take pictures, she forgot to get back on the bus and nobody noticed. She was lost out there for near three days before they found her. Said the dingoes just about ate her.”