Nobody in the bar paid him any attention when he went in. He ordered a beer and sat at the end of the bar. Country music played on the jukebox. The atmosphere was noisy, people starting to think about the weekend coming up.
He thought about Susan’s invitation to supper. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d sat down across a table with a woman, and he was unsure what they would talk about. Would they avoid the past?
‘Is this stool taken?’
He came to with a start, aware that somebody was speaking to him.
‘Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.’ Rachel Ellis smiled at him.
‘I was miles away.’ He made room for her and signaled to the barman for another beer. ‘Can I get you a drink?’ he asked.
‘I only came in for cigarettes.’ She offered him one, but he hadn’t smoked in a long time. ‘Maybe I will have that drink. I’ll have one of those too,’ she told the barman who brought Michael’s beer.
They touched bottles, and he asked her polite questions about her kids and about her job. When she mentioned her husband she looked away, scanning the back of the bar where the pool tables were.
‘Pete comes in here sometimes,’ she said.
The name was familiar. ‘Pete Ellis? I knew him at high school I think. Biggish guy?’
She nodded slightly, her expression enigmatic. ‘Yeah, that’s him.’
He wondered if he was remembering the right guy. The mental picture he had was of a loud-mouthed kid who liked to push people around and get in fights. It was hard to picture Rachel with somebody like that, but people change. Especially if they had the right motivation. He thought Rachel was motivation enough.
‘Can I ask you something?’ she said.
‘Okay.’
‘Why did you come back here?’
How did he answer that question when he wasn’t sure he knew himself? ‘I needed somewhere to go and I still own the house,’ he told her. He took a pull of his beer. He hadn’t felt the need for a cigarette for a long time but now he did. Perhaps it was because she was smoking.
‘Is that really why?’
He didn’t know what to say.
‘I shouldn’t have asked,’ she said. ‘It isn’t any of my business.’
‘No, it’s okay. The truth is there were a lot of reasons. Some were practical, and others were about getting some things sorted out. I’m not even sure I could tell you exactly. It’s something I’m still working on.’
‘Will you stay here do you think? I mean, it must be hard for you here. You could just go somewhere else. Who needs it?’
There was something in her tone that made Michael think she wasn’t talking about him anymore.
‘Have you ever lived anywhere else?’ he asked.
‘Me? No.’ She looked around. ‘I didn’t plan to stay here though. I thought I’d do things, you know. See different places. I wish I had.’
‘It isn’t too late.’
She smiled, her eyes melancholy. ‘I guess not. It’s complicated though. We can’t just up and go and leave our mistakes behind can we? It doesn’t work that way.’
‘No, it doesn’t,’ he agreed.
She finished her beer and set the bottle down on the counter. ‘Thanks for the drink. I have to get home.’
‘Any time.’
She hesitated and seemed on the verge of saying something else. ‘It was nice to talk to you.’
‘You too.’
The barman asked if he wanted another beer, but he’d had enough. He asked if there was a phone he could use and was directed to the back of the room. He went back there and found Louise’s Boston number in his wallet. He fed change into the phone and listened to the ring tone. Somebody at the other end picked up and a voice at the other end said, ‘Hello?’
***
Ellis was playing pool when he saw Rachel come in and go to the cigarette machine. For a moment he thought she was looking for him, and he experienced a sickening horror that she’d come over and start in about the money he took out of her purse. He could imagine the kind of grief he would get from Hanson and Red Parker if that happened. They’d say he was pussy whipped, and laugh about how he should run on home.
Maybe that would’ve been better than seeing her sit down at the bar next to a guy he suddenly realized was Michael Somers though. All Ellis could do was pretend he hadn’t noticed, and keep his head down so Rachel didn’t see him.
He was relieved when Rachel left. He wondered what the hell she was doing talking to Somers. It looked to him like they knew each other, and not from high school either.
He lined up the yellow ball as Somers came back to go to the phone. Red nudged him.
‘Ain’t that that guy Somers? What the hell is he doing in here?’
‘How should I know?’
He’s got some nerve.’ Red belched softly and put his glass on the table. ‘Your round, ain’t it?’
Ellis saw Red aim a sly grin at Hanson and waited for some smart remark about whether he needed a loan to pay for a couple of pitchers. All the stuff about when was he coming into the money he’d talked about had finally lost its interest, which was one thing he was glad about. He took his shot and the ball bounced off the edge of the pocket. Putting up his cue he went to the bar and ordered a round, fishing around in his pockets counting out change and crumpled bills. When he’d paid he had about a buck and a half left over, but Hanson still had to buy another to even things out, so he had at least one more coming, and there was a half pint of bourbon on the floor of his truck that wasn’t finished yet.
He was drinking a lot. More than he should, but he was going through a rough patch at the moment. It was bad enough that he had no work to speak of, but things were getting steadily worse at home too. Rachel barely talked to him anymore. He wanted to ask what was on her mind, but he wasn’t sure she’d tell him or even if he’d want to know if she did. He thought about the way she’d sat down next to Somers earlier, and it occurred to him that she seemed to have no problem talking to him.
A couple of nights ago he woke up needing to take a leak. He realized Rachel wasn’t in bed and the sheets on her side were cold. He was half-way down the stairs when he saw the glow of a cigarette in the kitchen. When he went to the door she didn’t even see him. She was staring off into the darkness. When he said something she came to, and when she saw him she got a funny kind of guilty look as if she thought for a second he could read her thoughts.
Ellis looked back toward the phone again and Somers was still there. It still bugged him that Somers had practically stolen that gyr falcon from him. Two grand would have caught them up on the mortgage payments.
When he went back to the table, Red told him it was his shot. He missed an easy one.
‘Jesus Christ, Ellis. What the hell is wrong with you?’ Red complained.
‘Nothing.’
Hanson snickered. ‘I bet it’s that Somers guy. I wouldn’t let any wife of mine sit around bars drinking beer with jailbirds.’
‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’
‘Don’t tell me you didn’t see Rachel in here before?’ Hanson grinned. ‘Shit, you went as white as a damn sheet there for a minute.’
‘Shut your mouth, Hanson,’ Ellis warned.
Red looked into his beer as if there was something in there that was deeply fascinating to him. It was Ellis’s turn to shoot again. He lined up the yellow for the middle pocket and missed by a country mile.
***
It was Louise. Michael knew her voice immediately. Across the miles there was a faint hum, it was a bad line.
‘Hello?’ Louise said again.
He couldn’t speak. There was a long silence. It must have lasted for fifteen or twenty seconds. He could almost hear her thinking and then there was a soft click as she hung up and the line went dead.
He hung up the phone and left the bar. He was half-way across the street when the door opened behind him, music spilling out then fading again as it closed. He reached his c
ar, and when he looked back he saw two guys watching him. He ignored them, got in his car and backed out of his spot. Along the street he made a turn onto the road that would take him out of town, and as he did a set of headlights followed. He thought about what might happen if somebody decided to try and run him off the road out of town where there were no lights. People around there carried rifles in their trucks. While he was still within the town limits he pulled over and watched the approaching lights in the mirror. He thought whoever it was would drive past but then a battered Dodge came alongside and swerved in front of his car, blocking his way.
Two men got out. They were the same two he’d seen outside the bar. The driver was squat and thick in the body, brown-grey stubble growing over a head like a medicine ball. There was something about him that was vaguely familiar. The other guy was thinner, with a scar beside his eye that pulled the corner down a little and made him look mean.
Michael opened the door and got out. ‘Is there something I can help you with?’ he asked focusing on the driver. He kept an eye on the other guy who hung back around the tailgate of the pick-up.
‘Remember me, Somers?’ the driver said. ‘We went to high school together.’
‘Sorry,’ Michael said. ‘You’ll have to remind me.’
‘I’m Pete Ellis. You should remember me. You were talking to my wife in the bar a little while ago.’
‘Right, I do kind of recognize you now.’
‘I saw you with something else that belongs to me not long ago too. It’s starting to feel like you’ve got some kind of personal issue with me or something.’
The smell of booze and sour body odor came off Ellis like a gas. His eyes were small and angry. It was hard to imagine how somebody like Rachel had ended up married to this guy. At first Michael had no idea what he was talking about, but then he realized Ellis was the hunter he’d seen in the mountains when Cully was shot.
‘You know what I’m talking about don’t you?’ Ellis said. ‘I can see you do.’
‘What is it you want?’ Michael said.
‘What do I want?’ Ellis looked as if the question had only just occurred to him. He jabbed a threatening finger. ‘I want you to keep away from my wife, that’s what I want. You had a wife of your own didn’t you? Till you tried to kill her anyway. And your own kid too. I don’t even know why Rachel would have anything to do with someone like you. She probably feels sorry for you. She’s like that. She’s too nice for her own good sometimes, which means I have to look out for her, and I’m telling you now you need to stay the fuck away from her, you understand?’
Ellis had come closer and Michael took a step away. ‘You’ve made your point, Ellis. Why don’t you move your truck out the way and I’ll get out of here.’
In the side mirror he saw the parking lights of a vehicle back along the road. He hadn’t noticed it before and he wondered if Ellis had some buddies back there.
‘Hey, I’ll tell you when you can go,’ Ellis said. ‘I haven’t finished with you yet.’
Michael raised his hands. ‘I don’t want any trouble,’ he said though he was fairly sure trouble was what he was going to get no matter what. Ellis’s buddy slipped his hand over the back of the tailgate of the Dodge and Michael wondered what was there. He shouldn’t have come into town, he thought, much less a bar, but he knew it was too late to think about that now. Ellis and his buddy didn’t follow him so they could make threats or warn him off, and there was no way he was going to be able to talk his way out of the situation. Suddenly he didn’t want to. He was weary of people like this. He dropped his hands and changed his stance, widening his feet for balance.
‘Listen Ellis, let me tell you something now,’ he said. ‘I don’t have to listen to this kind of crap, so why don’t you and your shitkicker buddy over there just climb back into your truck and get the fuck out of my way?’
Michael wasn’t worried about Ellis; he was solid, but he had a fat gut and it wouldn’t take much to stop him. Time in prison taught people to take care of themselves because there was no other choice there. For a moment a flicker of uncertainty showed in Ellis’s expression, but he was buoyed by booze and he started forward. The other guy brought something that looked like an axe handle from the back of the truck.
A sudden howling whoop sounded loud close by, startling them all. They were caught in bright light, and a second later Coop’s four-by-four pulled up with lights flashing on the roof. He sat behind the wheel, his arm resting on the door, and looked them over with a nonchalant sweeping glance.
‘Ellis.’ He nodded and looked to the other man. ‘Hanson. Anything I can help you with here?’
The tension eased, and when Michael looked, the axe handle Hanson had been hefting a moment earlier had vanished.
‘We were just talking,’ Ellis said.
Coop looked at him silently, then nodded to his truck. ‘That’s kind of careless parking, Pete. Could be a danger to somebody.’
Ellis looked at his truck but he didn’t move.
‘I could tow you back into town if there’s a problem.’
‘There’s no problem.’
Ellis shifted his feet uncertainly, then spat on the ground. ‘We’ll be going,’ he announced and shot a threatening look Michael’s way before he and Hanson climbed back in the truck. He backed it up and swung it around then headed back toward town.
‘Thanks,’ Michael said.
‘What was that about anyway?’
‘Who knows. A few too many beers I guess.’
Coop nodded, though he seemed unconvinced. ‘I better follow them. Make sure they don’t get into any more trouble.’
‘Thanks again.’
As he watched Coop turn around Michael wondered how long he’d sat back there watching what was happening before he decided to intervene.
***
Coop drove into town and found Ellis’s truck where he’d expected it to be, parked across the street from Clancy’s. Ellis was alone, sitting in the dark drinking from a bottle. He could have just allowed whatever was about to take place back there happen, Coop thought. He asked himself if his dislike for Somers was rooted in who he was, or if it was about Jamie. If he was honest, he knew the answer. The truth was he’d be happy to see Michael Somers just get the hell out of Little River. He had a feeling that if that were to happen it would be the best thing for everybody.
He went over to Ellis’s window and rapped on it, giving Ellis a start.
Jesus, Coop, what the hell are you trying to do?’
Coop nodded to the bottle he was holding. ‘You shouldn’t be driving, Pete. I would have thought you had enough problems without causing any more for yourself.’
‘Yeah, well.’ Ellis looked at the bottle and screwed the cap back on. ‘I was going to walk home anyway.’
‘So what was that all about back there?’ Coop asked. He was curious to know the answer. Ellis had been drinking a lot lately and getting loud-mouthed with it, but he didn’t know what axe he had to grind with Somers. Ellis wasn’t exactly the type to get all righteously worked up about what Somers had done in the past.
Ellis didn’t answer right away. Then he muttered something that Coop didn’t catch.
‘What was that, Pete?’
‘I said he cheated me, dammit!’
‘Cheated you out of what?’
‘Out of two thousand bucks, that’s what.’
‘Somers did?’ He decided Ellis was drunker than he’d thought. He doubted Pete had ever seen two thousand dollars at one time. All the same he was intrigued. ‘How did he do that?’
‘That damn falcon he’s got. I spent days walking around up in those mountains looking for that thing. I saw it before he even arrived here, dammit! It should’ve been mine. I had a deal all lined up.’
He shut up abruptly, like he knew he’d said too much.
Coop wondered if it were true. After a moment he said, ‘Pete, you know if a guy cheated me out of that sort of money I don’t think I’d do what yo
u were about to earlier.’
Ellis looked at him slowly out of fogged eyes, trying to see what he was getting at.
Coop leaned in close. He could smell the booze coming out of Ellis’s pores. ‘What I’d do is go get the damn bird back. That would be the smart thing, don’t you think?’
CHAPTER 23
Susan had made a pot roast. She tasted it and added seasoning. Fresh broccoli was in a pan of water just waiting to be heated, and on the bench a bottle of Merlot was open to breathe. She went through to the TV room where Jamie was doing school work.
She looked over at what he was doing. ‘What are you writing? Can I see?’
He showed her. It was an essay for his English class. He’d written a story about a boy who found an injured falcon in the mountains and nursed it back to health and helped it learn to fly again.
‘That’s really good, Jamie.’ She kissed his head. His hair smelled of shampoo and a scent that carried echoes of when he was a baby at her breast. He let her hug him then squirmed free. Her eyes filled with inexplicable tears and she wiped them away.
‘I have to get ready. You haven’t forgotten Michael’s coming over have you?’
His expression clouded for a half beat, then it was gone. She went upstairs to change. She’d thought Jamie would be pleased about Michael coming to supper, but now she wasn’t so sure.
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