The Red Hunter(38)

“What are we doing?” Josh said again.

“Shut up,” Rhett hissed.

The waxing gibbous moon had dipped behind the clouds, no streetlamps lit the rural road. So outside it was just black. They turned off onto an unpaved drive, a wall of trees on either side. The driver turned off the headlights, and they drifted in what seemed to Josh to be total darkness. Finally a house, lit only by a light at the porch, came into view. They stopped a good distance, killing the engine, and sat silent.

“Where are we?”

Rhett reached back to knock him on the head, and Josh decided not to ask any more questions, rubbing at the spot. How long were they going to sit there? No one said anything.

Josh was pretty sure that he was the only one who saw her, a thin girl and her dog cutting across the side yard and disappearing into the trees.

What was she doing? Where was she going? He looked up at Rhett, but his brother was just staring off at nothing, his face twisted in a scowl.

He didn’t say a word, the pain on the side of his head still smarting. After a time—how long?—the man in the driver’s seat said, “Let’s go.”

? ? ?

“SO,” CLAUDIA SAID NOW, HANDING him a cup. “When can you start?”

“How’s Monday?”

She offered a slow bob of her head, her expression uncertain. He looked around at the mess she’d made of the wallpaper.

“Leave that,” he said, pointing. “I’ll take care of it.”

She released a breath, relief or defeat, he couldn’t say. Maybe both.

“Okay,” she said. “Monday.”

On his way back to the car, Josh leaned in close to inspect the hinges of the barn door. It did look as though someone had used a crowbar. He ran his fingers over the ridges and looked inside the large dim space. The gun locker he remembered was gone. The window had been covered with thick plastic and sealed with duct tape. There was a rusting old lawn mower, some boxes, a rickety bike. He stepped inside. That night was still with him. He still dreamed about it sometimes.

When Josh climbed back in the car, Rhett was on his back, arms folded across his chest as though he were lying in a coffin. He often slept in that position, too. Josh sat a second, staring at the barn door.

“Find anything?” asked Josh. He already knew the answer.

“Not shit.”

“I told you,” said Josh, backing up the drive and swinging the vehicle around. “I’ve been through this place a hundred times. Other people sneak out here, too, you know. Someone would have found something.”

“It’s in there,” said Rhett. He had the stubbornness of the unintelligent. If he thought the world was flat, he’d kill you before he’d let you convince him otherwise.

“It was never there,” said Josh. “He set you up. Someone wanted that cop dead. They used us.”

He’d had a lot of time to think about it, turn over and over what they’d done, why, how it had turned out. Josh watched in the rearview mirror as Rhett shook his head, thinking.

“In fact, maybe it never existed in the first place,” said Josh. “Ever think of that?”

“Shut up,” said Rhett. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Rhett never gave up on the idea of that money. It was his holy grail, the thing that was going to make every wrong thing right. Even from lockup, he’d call collect with ideas.

Maybe it was inside the walls; look for a seam in the drywall.

What about the attic?

For a long time, the Bishop house was empty. So Josh could just go over there and look around. Over the years, he’d inspected every square inch, never once thinking he’d find it. He knew that night that the money wasn’t there. He could hear it in the cop’s voice. The cop would have given it up to save his family. You’re making a mistake, he’d said, desperation making his voice quaver. What you’re looking for? It’s not here. Let my family go.

“I’ve been all through that house, all over the property, in that barn.”

“Yeah,” said Rhett. “But you’re a fucking moron. And you’re lazy. You give up. Remember when we were kids, we’d play hide and seek? You’d just wind up crying or telling Mom that you couldn’t find me. You could never find me.”

God, thought Josh. He is such an idiot. It was true, though; he never could find Rhett when they played hide and seek. But maybe it was really because he didn’t want to find Rhett. He’d usually just wind up using the time to get to the Nintendo and play by himself for a while.

“I’ll believe it’s not there when I’ve gone through that house,” said Rhett.

Josh didn’t say anything.

“While you’re in there working,” Rhett went on. “I’ll be in there looking. This is a perfect opportunity. It’s like the universe wants us to find that money.”

Josh felt that familiar tingle of unease he always had around his brother. He was a bully; he’d get what he wanted, no matter what he had to do to you to get it.

“She thinks I work alone.” Josh didn’t want Rhett around Claudia, or her daughter. Josh didn’t know them, but he knew what his brother would see when he looked at them.

“Tell her there’s too much work,” said Rhett. “You need another man. And jack up the price. Three-fifty a day? That’s bullshit.”