The Summer House(94)

“Hiram Tolliver,” she yells. “You up in there?”

Dogs bark inside, and then the door to the closest trailer opens up, and a tall, heavyset man stumbles out, tying tight the string around his dirty gray sweatpants. He also has on an Atlanta Braves tank top. His upper arms are hairy and flabby, and quiver as he comes toward the cruiser.

“You’re not Hiram,” she says.

“Nope,” he says, yawning, rubbing at the back of his head. “I’m his nephew Boyd.”

“Boyd,” she says. “I don’t think we’ve met.”

“No, ma’am,” he says, shielding his eyes with a beefy hand. “Look, can you switch off those headlights?”

“No,” Williams says. “What did your uncle tell you to do?”

He coughs, scratches at his stomach. “He told me to do whatever you wanted, no questions, no talk back.”

“That’s a hell of an open ticket, you know.”

“Uncle Hiram, he says he’d make it good for me. ’Scuse me.” Boyd turns and clears his lungs, spits twice on the dirt. Turning back, he wipes a hand across his mouth and says, “Whaddya need, Sheriff?”

She says, “You’re coming with me to the county jail. You’re going to be placed in a cell. Later this morning, maybe just before noon or somewhere close to that, a prisoner is going to be put in that cell.”

From her left pants pocket she takes out a slim knife. “After he’s placed in there with you, you’re going to slit his throat with this.”

She holds out the knife, and he takes it. “Gosh, ma’am, that’s pretty cold, you know? Killin’ a man I don’t know, I don’t have a grudge against.”

“He’s an uppity nigger that thinks he’s better than you.”

“Oh,” he says, taking the blade, sliding it into the pocket of his sweatpants. “That’s okay, then.”

“Good.”

“But…ma’am?”

“Yes?”

“How do I get there? I mean, there’s no warrants or anything out there on me. Ma’am?”

Williams smiles. This is going to be all right.

“Boyd, come over here and knock off my hat. Okay?”

“Um, okay.”

Boyd comes over, knocks off her hat.

“Now,” she says. “Pick it up.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He picks up her hat and hands it over, and she puts it back on. She grabs his wrist, turns him around, and quickly and efficiently puts on the handcuffs.

“Boyd Tolliver, I’m placing you under arrest for assaulting a law enforcement officer,” she says.

“Ma’am.”

“Yes?”

“My wrists are sore from chopping wood yesterday. Mind not putting on the cuffs too tight?”

Williams leads him back to her cruiser.

“Not at all,” she says.





Chapter 86



CAPTAIN ALLEN PIERCE gets up from his chair and kicks at Lieutenant John Huang’s legs. For the past couple of hours Huang has tried to sleep with three chairs pushed together, and that hasn’t gone well, with Huang falling twice onto the floor.

Huang jerks awake. “What’s up?”

“Circus is about to start,” Pierce says, looking at the crowds suddenly moving toward the door of the jailhouse. “A sheriff’s van just pulled in.”

Huang yawns, stretches, winces. “What’s our job?”

Pierce checks his service weapon. “Make sure the staff sergeant gets to the courthouse without a Jack Ruby getting in the way.”



The door flings open, and Deputy Sheriff Clark Lindsay comes in, looking the same as he did a few hours ago, except now he’s wearing a bullet-resistant vest over his uniform, with yellow letters denoting SULLIVAN COUNTY SHERIFF and a stylized badge underneath.

Two other deputies follow him, carrying shotguns.

Pierce says, “Good morning, Deputy Clark. Taking time away from ironing your white sheets to play bus driver?”

Clark comes up close to Pierce, and Pierce doesn’t budge an inch. Clark grins. “Boy, one of these days, you’re gonna leave. And I’m gonna stay right here, and Sullivan County will get right back to where it belongs.”

Pierce says, “In 1950?”

“No,” he says, “where people mind their business. Now get out of my way. Me and my boys got work to do.”

“No problem,” Pierce says, just as the Ralston police chief, Richard Kane, comes in, carrying a clipboard.

“Clark,” the chief says, looking worn down, his thick moustache drooping. “Glad to see you here. Let’s get this taken care of so we can get back to normal.”

The chief takes out a key set, unlocks the door leading into the cell area, and the three deputies walk in. Pierce follows as well, with Huang right behind him. Deputy Lindsay sees this and says, “Hey, Chief, those Army guys shouldn’t be here! Keep ’em out!”

Pierce won’t let the chief answer and says, “Let us in, Chief. You don’t want an accident or anything untoward to happen to the staff sergeant right now, do you? Dr. Huang and I will just be witnesses, representing the US Army.”