Box

20

Darrell Lake.

“What do you mean he drove right past you?” Darrell yells into the phone. “You should’ve flagged him down!”

“I did flag him down,” Cletus says. “I jumped up and down and waved my arms and got halfway in the lane.”

“That’s bullshit. If he’d a’ seen you, he would a’ stopped.”

“He saw me, all right. Gave me the finger.”

“What?”

“He looked at Maisie and the baby sittin’ on the ground, then looked at me, swerved into me, to force me to jump off the road, then flipped me the finger as he went by.”

“What the fuck kind of doctor does a thing like that?” Darrell says.

“A bad one, you ask me.”

“Now what’re we gonna do?” Darrell says.

They pause, thinking about it.

“It was such a simple plan,” Darrell says. “He pulls over to help you, you bash his head in, and rob him.”

“And make sure he’s dead before drivin’ off,” Cletus adds.

“That’s right. We’re eighty-six hundred richer, and he can’t run off with my wife.”

“Sister.”

“Whatever.”

Cletus says, “You sure he’s got that much cash on him? ’Cause that’s a lot of cash.”

“Accordin’ to Scooter he’s got five grand and Trudy give him another thirty-six hundred this mornin’. ’Course, Trudy might a’ lied about that part. But even five grand’s a lot of money. And he’ll have drugs in his medical bag.”

“We still know where he’s headed. And I still got Maisie and the baby with me, if that helps.”

“Are you really that stupid?” Darrell says.

“What do you mean?”

“That’s a doll, not a baby. And there is no fuckin’ Maisie.”

“Right. I know that. I’m just sayin’, me and Renfro can keep pretendin’ to be husband and wife, with a baby. If it helps. So what do you want me to do?”

“Let me think on it a minute and call you back.”