And There He Kept Her (Ben Packard #1)(55)

“Fuck yeah, I know who Sam Gherlick is. So do you. He’s Danny Gherlick’s boy. He’s the goddamn sheriff’s grandson. Drives that cherry-red ’65 Mustang. He’s in here all the time asking me to order him parts. Wants to get into flipping cars, building hot rods, shit like that.”

The mention of the red ’65 Mustang made everything fall into place for Emmett. Sam Gherlick was the kid from Meals on Wheels. A couple of years ago, during the summer months, Sam Gherlick had started bringing the pale chicken breasts and the little carton of skim milk. Drove a red Mustang and was chatty as hell. Talking about the weather or the Vikings.

The first time Sam asked if he could come in and use the bathroom, Emmett told him he could pick any tree on the property he wanted. A couple of weeks later, on a hot day, the kid asked if he could get a glass of water. Emmett relented. The house was a dump, and he knew it smelled bad from the garbage and the mold and all the other filth, but the kid didn’t seem overly invested in Emmett’s welfare. After that time, whenever he heard the rumble of the kid’s engine as he pulled up to the house, Emmett didn’t even bother to come to the door. Just told the kid to come in and set the food on the kitchen counter.

“That motherfucker was in and out of my house two, three times a week,” Emmett told Carl. “The hell of the matter is that there were times back then that I thought for sure I had pills missing. This was before the goddamn break-ins. I thought I was just losing track. Cocksucker was skimming my pills the whole time.”

Carl sounded grim. “Emmett, you gotta get rid of that girl. If Sam was the one who sent them to your house, then what’s to stop him from telling the cops? They could show up any minute.”

“What’s he going to do? Tell the cops he sent them to break into my house and steal my pills? He can’t do that.”

“He could do it anonymously. If the cops link him to those kids somehow, they could offer him a deal.”

“So then getting rid of the girl doesn’t solve our problem at all, does it?” Emmett said.

“What do you mean, ‘our problem’?”

“Listen to me. That room might be in my basement but we’re both responsible for what’s gone on in there. I grabbed those first two, but you’re the one who wrecked the second one. You also brought that truck stop whore over and killed her in there.”

This was almost ten years ago now. Her face was already bruised from whatever had gone on between her and Carl before he brought her to Emmett’s that night and dragged her around to the back door. She was carrying her torn skirt and one of her shoes when Emmett first laid eyes on her as he came down the basement stairs. When she saw Emmett, she didn’t ask for help. She asked for drugs. “He said we could score here. What do you got?”

That was when Carl punched her hard enough that she dropped to the floor. He hauled her into the pink room and Emmett went back up the stairs. When her screams got loud enough that he could hear them through the floor, he turned up the TV.

“Not to mention you came running like a goddamn slobbering dog when I called you about the girl. Sam Gherlick is our fucking problem. You need to do two things. One, get rid of the car and the body in my garage.”

Carl laughed incredulously. “Shit. Why should I haul around a car with a body in the trunk that you killed?”

“I’m not asking you to drive the sonofabitch through town in a goddamn parade. Take it from here in the middle of the night and dump it somewhere it won’t be found.”

“What’s the other thing?”

“Get rid of the Gherlick boy.”

“No. No way. I didn’t sign up for that. I might help you clean up the mess with the car and that boy you shot, but I’m not taking out the sheriff’s grandson.”

Emmett pushed the phone closer to his mouth, almost hard enough to mash his lips. “You don’t kill that little motherfucker, you and I are going to spend the rest of our years behind bars. Is that what you want? That boy’ll sink you if the cops get to him.”

“He’s gonna sink you,” Carl said.

“We’ll go down together,” Emmett said.

***

Emmett drank the last of his beer, then opened the sliding glass door and stepped barefoot onto the raised deck just as Carl was getting out of his truck.

“Whatchya doin’ here, Carl?”

“Came to tell you I took care of our problem.”

“You sure?”

“Am I sure I left the Gherlick boy crushed under a car with his feet kicking like he was dancing a jig? Yes, I’m sure.”

Emmett leaned on the wobbly porch railing and hung his head. He hocked something from the back of his throat and spat away from Carl. “You did what you were supposed to. You could’ve called with that news.”

“I want to see the girl.”

Going down together was the threat it took to get Carl to do what he wanted. The girl was the reward. Emmett had dangled her on a hook during their phone call, going so far as to tell Carl about the blue panties he’d cut off her and what he’d seen when she showered. He tried not to think about her singing or the way she’d looked like a child getting ready for bed. She was a child. Sixteen.

“It’s late. I’m not letting you see her. You’ll go in there like a lawn mower over a nest of baby rabbits. Won’t be nothing left but blood and tatters.”