Desperation Road(56)

“I been right here.”

“Not yesterday. Or Saturday.”

Russell shrugged. “Wherever, Boyd. It’s not a big place.”

“Your daddy tell you I went out there looking for you?”

“I got an idea, Boyd. We can play grabass for a while or you can tell me what you really want.”

Boyd moved over to the couch and sat on the other end. “Thing is we got a dead man and we got only one thing to go on. I’m telling you what I’ve been told and not what I think and I probably ain’t supposed to tell you that but I am. But when you rode up that night in the middle of nowhere and you had that shotgun in the truck we had to look at you. I know it’s not the gun that did it but you’re still riding around with a loaded twenty-gauge for whatever reason. A fact that I have kept to myself so your ass isn’t on the first bus back to Parchman. So that’s what I’m doing now. I told the sheriff I wanted to come over here. Not him. Told him I’d find out. Then it took me a day and a half to find you. I guess you can see why I got to ask you about some things. And one of them is where the hell you been?”

Russell sat still and listened. The coffee seemed to have stopped. So he got up and went into the kitchen and brought back two cups.

“If you got to know I met this woman down at the Armadillo. Caroline, I think. Don’t know. I was pretty drunk. Ended up over at her house and you know the rest. It’s been a while, Boyd. I wasn’t in a rush to get out of there the next morning. And that’s why my daddy didn’t know where I was.”

“Hot damn. That didn’t take long. I know boys down at the office who ain’t got lucky in a couple of years.”

“Right place right time.”

“I guess it’d check out, huh?”

“Don’t see why not.”

“Now what about the other night at the scene?”

“Like I told you then, I was riding around. Got nothing else to do. You know how it is. Go out riding and end up God knows where. I’ve been locked up for eleven years.”

“I know it.”

“And that’s all. I don’t have nothing else to give you. I hate y’all are so stuck.”

“Stuck ain’t the word. If we had the pistol I’d swear he shot himself. But we got nothing. Only thing in the ballpark is some woman from the shelter downtown called the cops the other night about a woman staying there who had a gun with her and she took off with it. But we hear shit like that all the time. I don’t even think the sheriff wrote down the woman’s name. Might end up chasing after that one some, though. He don’t want us to look bad but it’s heading that way.”

“You still think he was doing something he shouldn’t have been doing?”

“Considering there was no call and no reason for him to be out there and he’s filled up with bullets from his own gun, I’d say yeah.”

“Everybody think that?”

“Mostly. Still, somebody did the shooting. Don’t matter if he was screwing around or not. I don’t guess you saw anything that night that might be worth mentioning. A car or motorbike or something.”

Russell shook his head. “Wish I did.”

Boyd took a few quick sips of the coffee and then he set the mug on the floor. Russell leaned back on the sofa. Stared at the spot on the mantel where the picture of Sarah had been.

“What happened to your windows?” Boyd asked.

“Tornado.”

“Your dad told me the brothers been having a go at you.”

“I told you the same thing already.”

“How serious you think they are?”

Russell sat up. “Don’t know how serious they are together. But I think Larry is pretty serious on his own.”

“He’s always been the crazy one. He went nuts on his wife a few times. Ex-wife now. Stupid shit. Knocked her around good with the kid in the house over next to nothing. Can’t even see them no more, I don’t think. Now he’s married to some looker but word is she’ll pass it around. She’d better be careful is all I know.”

“I’m not too worried about him.”

“I’d say riding around with a loaded twenty-gauge is a fair sign you are.”

“That’s the reason I’m not worried. If I didn’t have it and it wasn’t loaded then I’d be worried.”

“I got you,” Boyd said and he stood up. “I hated asking all this. You know that.”

“I know it.”

“And you know I believe every word you say.”

“I know it,” Russell said and he stood and they shook hands.

“It was good to see your daddy. And I was sorry about your momma.”

“Yeah.”

Boyd walked to the front door and let himself out and Russell stood in the window and watched him walk to the cruiser. Boyd sat down behind the wheel and glanced at himself in the rearview mirror and ran his fingers across the top of his thin hair. Then he backed out and he was gone.

Russell stood in the window like a store mannequin. Maben and the child will have to leave, he thought. There’s no way around it.

He walked back to the sofa and drank his coffee and when he was done he went into the kitchen for another cup. He poured it and stood at the kitchen window this time. Across the street a woman dragged a sprinkler into the front yard and she turned it on and then a small child just old enough to run came out from under the carport wearing only a diaper. He walked into the yard and when the water hit him he squealed and he ran away and then he kept running in and out of the water and kept on squealing and his mother laughed and laughed and laughed.