Even harder than that, well…
Hank’s mouth opened, his chest swelled.
“Don’t scream,” I reminded him. “Won’t take much to finish the job. Just a quick flick of my wrist and there goes the little guy.”
Hank whimpered. He took several breaths that puffed his cheeks. “Okay.”
“Going to be honest?”
“Yuh-yeah…”
“Good boy. Talk.”
“I hired them.”
“Figured that much. Who are they?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Just answer my question.”
“Are you related to the people they…killed?”
“None of your concern. Just tell me what I want to know!”
“Listen to me—you don’t want to go after these guys. They’re…monsters. They showed me what they did to that family.”
“Showed you?”
“Yeah. They videotaped everything. Showed up at my house and made me watch the tape with them. Even told me to make some popcorn. While we watched, they laughed and threw popcorn at the TV. Like we were in a theater or something.” Hank shook his head. “I didn’t want to see it. But I told them I wanted proof the deed was done. And…”
I tried to figure out how they could’ve videotaped it. Plus, Pappy hadn’t said anything about one of them recording everything. Did Seth know they were being filmed?
Were Hank and I talking about the same people?
Have to be, I told myself.
How many murderous bounty hunters were out there?
“Their proof was the footage?”
Hank nodded. “Brought the tape with them when they came to get the payment. Made me put it in the VCR.”
“You sent them to that family. Didn’t you want them to kill them?”
Hank looked up at me, jutting out his chin in his best prideful pose. “Hell yes, I did. I wanted revenge! But…there were kids…that was…I didn’t want that.”
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “You set the dogs loose, and you feel bad because they bit somebody. You’re still just as liable. It was your fault.”
“My son was killed!”
“And you got your revenge. Now it’s time to get mine. Where are they?”
“I told you…”
“Save the doom and gloom for somebody who cares. I want to know where they are.”
“It’ll be your funeral.”
“Wrong. It’ll be yours if you don’t tell me what I want to know.”
“I don’t know where they are.”
I slapped the knife handle, making it slant. Red blots appeared on Hank’s white underwear.
This time, there’d be no stopping Hank from screaming. So I smacked my hand over his mouth. His hot breath sputtered against my palm as he screamed. I put my mouth at his ear.
“Tell me what I want to know and I’ll stop.”
Hank started talking. I pulled my hand away as he finished up, “…the Wilson brothers!”
Wiping Hank’s saliva on my dress, I said, “Who?”
“The Wilson brothers…that’s all I know.”
“This was over twenty-five years ago. Are they still alive?”
“How should I know?”
“You know. I’m sure of it.”
Hank sighed. “Yes. I believe so.”
“Where can I find them?”
“Don’t do this…you’ll be sorry.”
“You’ll be sorry in a minute…”
“Fine.” Hank jutted his chin again. “They live in the hills, moonshine country. Off Route Fourteen, where the government won’t even install power lines. They live in a shack deep in the woods.”
“Great. Backwoods bounty hunters. Can’t wait to meet them.”
“When you do, they’ll be the last people you ever meet.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Hank. I appreciate it.”
“I told you what you wanted to know…please…” Hank looked down, grimaced. “Aw, look at that. I’m bleeding.”
“You sure are,” I said. Plucking the knife from the cushion, I wiped the blade on his windbreaker pants. Then I dropped it in the backpack. Nodding at his crotch, I said, “You might need to wash that off.” Turning around, I pointed at the stream. “What do you know? There’s water right there.”
“What?” Hank’s head whipped back and forth. “Don’t…”
I held up the duct tape and tore off another strip. Hank started to scream, but I shut him up by flattening the tape over his mouth. He continued to beg, though I couldn’t understand the words.
“How does this thing work anyway?” I asked, eyeing the steering bars of his scooter. There was a toggle switch on the right. Gripping the bar, I squeezed the switch. The scooter rolled forward.
“I see,” I said, standing straight. “Well then…” I ripped off a shorter piece of tape. Putting one end on the flat surface of the bar, I stretched the other end above the switch and held it. “Thank you for your time, Hank. Remember when you asked if I was related to the family they killed?”
Hank made muffled shouts behind the tape. His eyes were wide and terrified.
“I am related, by marriage. I married the boy. The one who survived.”
Hank’s screams petered off. His eyes somehow grew wider.
“That’s right,” I said. “Bet they didn’t tell you about the boy who lived, did they? Nobody knew. Turns out, they kept that fact out of the paper for his safety.” I turned away from Hank’s surprised expression and looked at the stream. The water gushed in a wet roar, splashing against jagged rocks here and there. “It’s time for you to take a dip.”
Hank started screaming again. He bucked against the tape, thrashing his head. Stretching the tape over the switch, I curled it around the bar.
Then I hopped out of the way as the scooter launched.
Well, not really launched. It took off, whirring as it headed for the creek. The handlebars jiggled, making the wheels shake. I worried it might veer off course and crash into the bench.
It didn’t.
The scooter hit the embankment, rolled upward. The ground went out from under the small wheels, but the scooter kept roving as if it were there. As if the stream wanted the scooter, the miniature vehicle was snatched out of the air.
It made a loud splash when it landed. The water rushed over the fizzy entrance the scooter made, making it disappear. The scooter emerged a few feet downstream. Hank, still strapped to the seat, whipped his head around to each side. Faintly, I could hear his muffled shouts.
Then he hit the first rock with his face, halting his movements. His glasses were gone. The water exploded against him, parted, making two separate streams around him. The scooter trembled against the slick rock for a few moments, then started to rise.
“Whoa,” I said, laughing. “Look at that!”
The scooter rolled over the rock, slid across the pointy top, and dropped upside down on the other side. An instant later it bobbed back to the rushing surface on its side, spinning slowly. Its unsteady progression reminded me of watching a paper boat zipping clumsily along a gutter stream.
I winced when Hank’s head ricocheted off a cluster of rocks. It cracked open like a watermelon on the third protruding point, spilling blood and brown chunks into the water.
Hank’s screams stopped, but his momentum did not. His head pounded more rocks, flattening his skull more and more with each brutal collision.
I’d seen enough.
Grabbing my bag, I zipped it up tight and threw it over my shoulders.
Then I started walking back to the park.
17
Seth
It was a long drive in deep mountain territory that took us the better part of a day. Maybe if I had some kind of four-wheel drive, it would’ve been easier to maneuver those bumpy roads, or at least quicker. Some of the roads looked so seldom traveled, grass nearly concealed them.
I might’ve said four words to Jody throughout the day. I was
still pissed. Jody’s intentions had been good, but what she didn’t realize was that I didn’t want to think about what had happened to my parents and my sister ever again. Whenever the anniversary rolled around, I’d usually start drinking the night before so I could spend the day in an alcohol-induced stupor. Not a healthy way to deal with it, I know. But it had worked for me for a long time.
Needless to say, I wasn’t too thrilled that she’d somewhat tracked down the men who’d invaded our house that night when I was a kid. Jody’s account of what Pappy told her was, well—Jody was given an extremely edited depiction of that night. And even now, I won’t elaborate any further than what has already been told.
We drove along the dirt roads, going up and down hills. I kept my foot riding the brake on the declines. If I didn’t, the car picked up so much speed the back end skated from side to side. I kept expecting us to drift right off the road and land on our side somewhere at the bottom of a ridge.
We took many short connecting roads and spent a good time on others that were longer and jostled us with each bump we hit. I hoped we wouldn’t get lost back there.
Eventually we wound up in something that was not unlike a gorge. The ground was rather flat, weeds growing on either side of the narrow road. Trees and mountains towered around us. The tops of the mountain peaks looked to be stabbing into the clouds. The sun was low in the horizon, shrouding the area in a golden glow. We had the windows down, letting the fresh scent of the isolated woodland drift in.
I was entranced by the natural beauty of our surroundings when Jody said, “Stop sign.”
“Huh?”
“Stop!”
Stomping the brakes, I glimpsed a rusted stop sign as the Nova skidded along the loose gravel. Dust floated through the windows. I could taste it. Coughing, Jody used her hand to fan it away.
What the hell was a stop sign doing in the middle of nowhere? It was the first one we’d seen since we left the main road. Must’ve been there a long time. It had eroded to a dull pink and was acned with bullet holes. Looking at Jody, I said, “I don’t think anybody was coming.”
“Look,” said Jody in a breathless voice. She pointed. I followed her finger to the stop sign. “What the hell?” I mumbled.
Three girls stood at the top of the ditch beside the sign. The one in front looked no older than thirteen. The other two were around ten. All had the same shabby hairstyle—long and unkempt, hanging below their shoulders, and wore matching dresses. The fabric had probably started off as white, but had turned a cream color, with patterns of dark spots like grease speckled here and there. These stains matched those on their skin. Filthy girls, but somewhere underneath the grime were pretty, innocent faces with the saddest brown eyes I’d ever seen.
No doubt they were a trio of sisters.
“How old do you think they are?” asked Jody.
“Too young to be standing out here alone,”
“Think they’re lost?”
“I don’t know,” I said, switching the gear to first so we could leave.
Jody put her hand on mine, pinning it to the gearshift. “Wait.”
“Why?”
Jody looked sad. “They look so…pathetic. Don’t they?”
Pathetic wasn’t the word I’d have used. Cursed. Doomed. Haunted. Those were closer to accurate. But pathetic seemed to work too.
“Maybe they need help,” Jody said.
“We can’t help them. Remember what we came here to do?”
Jody made a face, something that resembled both gloom and annoyance. “Don’t be an asshole.”
“I’m not.”
“What do you call it?”
I supposed maybe I was being a bit short with Jody. It wasn’t these poor girls’ fault that I’d been dragged out here to face a past I’d tried to avoid. And maybe the backwoods threesome did need help. Could I really drive off and leave little girls behind for something to happen to them?
Letting out a long breath, I nodded. “All right. I’ll ask them if they need help.”
“Thank you.”
Leaning against my door, I draped my arm over the top and stuck out my head. I looked right, then left. Nobody seemed to be around other than us and the three girls. None of them had moved from their spot in the ditch.
I looked at the oldest of the three. Her eyes briefly widened before becoming droopy again.
“Excuse me,” I said.
“Is you him?” she asked in a low, hick voice.
“Um…” I glanced back at Jody, who shook her head and weakly shrugged. I faced the girl again. “Am I who?”
“Is you the man I s’posed to go with?” Her drawl lacked education, and was heavy with a Southern twang.
“To go with?”
“Paw says wait here for the man. Been waiting. Is you him?”
“What are you supposed to do with the man?” I asked, not really meaning to or wanting to know. I already felt like my insides were being coated in cold grease because I could tell the poor girl wore nothing under the dress. So it wasn’t hard to guess why she was there.
“Lay with him,” she said, matter-of-factly. There was no pride in her tone, just a knowing sadness, as if she’d come to accept what she was supposed to do.
My stomach twisted. “Do you…lay with men a lot?”
“The ones that pay Paw.”
“And are those your sisters?”
“Yes,” said the girl with a little bit of anger. “They’s has their owns to go with.”
“You can’t be serious.”
The girl wrinkled her nose. I could tell she didn’t quite understand what I was saying.
“We can’t leave them here,” Jody said behind me.
I looked at her from over my shoulder. “We can’t take them with us.”
“Huh?” said the girl.
I looked back at her. She still stood in the same spot, as if she’d been installed there like the stop sign. “Nothing. Listen…can you help me out?”
“Is you him?”
“No.”
Though the girl’s face didn’t falter, I noticed relief in her eyes.
“Ever heard of…the Wilson brothers?”
All three girls stepped back as if I’d shaken my fist at them. The one on the end with hair slightly lighter than the other two gasped. I supposed that meant they’d heard of them, and the reputation wasn’t a good one.
“Where can I find them?” I asked.
“Why’s you lookin’?” asked the girl.
“What’s your name?”
“Me?”
“Yes, you.”
The girl in the middle smacked her older sister’s arm. When the oldest looked at her, she shook her head, either to caution her of sharing her name or of talking about the Wilsons.
“Stop touchin’ me,” said the oldest. She looked back at me, her cheeks flushing. “I’m Lee.”
“Well, Lee, I’m Seth. Nice to meet you.” She stared at me, mouth hanging open. A fly buzzed around her lower lip. “Lee, I have unfinished business with the Wilsons that I need to take care of. Do you understand?”
“I s’pose so. Eye fer an eye?”
“You’re very smart, Lee. Yes.”
Lee’s cheeks were pink underneath the dirty smudges. “They’s bad people.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “Very bad. And they were very bad to my family. So we’ve come here to make it right.” Leaning back, I tried to give enough room for the girls to see Jody behind me. It seemed to work. “This is Jody.”
The girls waved.
“Hi, girls,” Jody said. “Can you help us find them?”
The middle girl grabbed Lee’s arm, spinning her around. Jody and I listened to the three argue in harsh, quiet voices. I’m sure Jody felt as uncomfortable as I did.
Finally, after a couple minutes of dispute, Lee faced us again. “We’s take you there,” she said.
I leaned close to Jody. “What do you think?”
“It’d get them away from here.”
“But how would Paw react to that? A guy willing to leave little girls out here to lay with men might be quick to react pretty harshly if they stood up a paying customer.”
Closing her eyes, Jody made a sickened face. “You’re right.”
“I know. I wish I wasn’t.”
“Me too.”
“I don’t want to leave them here.”
“Then let’s not.”
Sighing, I met Jody’s eyes. They were misting with tears.
I leaned back out the window, gave another swift look and saw nobody else. Then I looked Lee in the eyes. Like a deer’s eyes, big and brown and wet. “How much trouble would the three of you be in if you went with us?”
Discomfort seemed to spread through the girl. Looking down, she rubbed a dirty toe across the ground. “Not much.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Paw’d prob’ly be mad.”
“Would he…hurt you?”
Lee’s head snapped upward. She gazed at me with a defiant sneer. “I can handle it.”
“I bet you can. What about your sisters? Can they?”
“How’s you know they my kin?”
“I’m a good guesser.”
The middle one stepped forward. “We’s want to go with you.”
And that settled it.
We climbed out of the car, folded the seats upward, and let the girls into the car.
18
Jody
“This is Ruth,” said Lee, indicating the sister with the lighter hair.
“Huh,” Ruth said, nodding with her greeting.
“Hi, Ruth,” I said. Sitting with my back to my window, I had a knee resting on the seat with my leg folded over my ankle. I’d thrown off my seat belt, even though Seth hadn’t wanted me to. It was easier talking to the girls this way, and it felt good having the wind blowing against my back.
Besides, I don’t like having people behind me. Even kids.
Seth had started driving again. The road took us through a gap between two steep walls. When we were on the other side, the rocks shrouded us in shadows. It looked dark enough that we might need the headlights to see better. Every so often, jagged lines of sunlight showed on the trees that grew from the tops of the rock piles.
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