Maggody And The Moonbeams

15

Hammet was beginning to think he'd made one of those "sinful decisions" he kept hearing about in Sunday school every damn week. Some sinful decisions were like drinking water from the creek or stealing candy. Either way, there'd be hell to pay.

Crammed as he was on the floor behind the sofa, tired of Jim Bob's grumblin', Hammet decided he was gonna hafta do something if he didn't want to end up crippled. Jim Bob hadn't so much as gone to pee in over an hour, and seemed real intent on watching some stupid movie with folks gropin' each other and moanin' like their bellies was aching.

He'd watched for awhiles, thinking maybe monsters might come clawin' out, but the folks jest kept right on grabbin' each other and panting. He was about to do something desperate when Sonya and Tonya came clattering through the kitchen.

"Mister Mayor," they trilled in unison.

Jim Bob's beer splashed on the carpet under the coffee table. "I didn't think you two was comin' back," he said.

"Now why wouldn't we come back?" cooed one of them. "Husky man like you, with all kinds of stamina to take care of girls like us?"

"You want something to drink?"

"A little splash of bourbon might be nice," said one of them, plunking herself down next to him. "You been working all day?"

"Well, yeah," said Jim Bob, sounding as if he had no idea what he'd been doing. "Why doncha make yourselves comfortable while I get a bottle and some glasses? This here movie's been givin' me all kinds of ideas." He came darn close to whimpering, but managed to stop himself. "I reckon you girls have seen movies like this before."

"We didn't come all this way to watch a movie," purred Sonya, or Tonya. "We came to make one, starring you. Later, we'll snuggle down and watch it right here."

"Make a movie?" Jim Bob said uneasily. "Like tape it?"

"Now you just go get that bottle of bourbon and sit right here. We'll all three relax and enjoy what's on the screen. Later, if you want, we can go upstairs and have some fun-or Tonya and I can leave. It's up to you, Mister Mayor."

I sat down on the grass at the lake's edge and waited until Bonita joined me. "Let's go back to Dunkicker," I said. "I'd like to know if the department's heard back about the license plates."

"You planning to dump me in the motel room?"

"If I thought you'd stay put."

"Don't count on it," she said dryly. "My ass is the only part of me that doesn't ache, and I'm not about to rest on it. What'd you say to that boy? When he came back, he looked like he was ready to cry."

"I'll tell you on the way back to town." While she put on her socks and shoes, I stood up and gestured at Les, who took a final fling of the Frisbee and came across the road.

"You're going to have to spend the night at the PD," I told him. "Corporal Robarts has gone back to the Beamers' campsite, and Bonita's going to crash before too long. Need to swing by the motel and pick up your teddy bear?"

"I knew I'd forgotten something," he said. "Any chance I can grab a meal at the café before I settle in for the night?"

Voices and country music. "You go on to the PD. I'll get something for you and Duluth, presuming he hasn't been liberated by aliens again."

"So who do you think's been letting him loose? I can't see Brother Verber unlocking the cell in the first place, and, from what you said, nobody should have been there while you were having Sunday dinner with Mrs. Robarts."

I sank back down on the grass. "From what Duluth said, it must have been a Beamer. It doesn't make any sense, though. Why would any of them do him a favor?"

"To keep him from being questioned?" suggested Bonita as she sat down beside me.

"But why?"

"Until you talked to him, you thought he was the obvious suspect," she countered in a complacent voice that would serve her well after she'd joined the bar, or even bellied up to one. "Once he gave you his boogerwoods story about being drunk, you started having doubts. Maybe the Beamers would just as soon let you go on assuming he went crazy and killed Norella. If he'd been found facedown in a pond, the whole thing would have been written off as another abusive man going after his ex-wife."

Les stared at her. "Are you saying that one of the Beamers killed her? You prepared to pick one?"

"Well," she said, giving it serious consideration, "Judith and Naomi were at the campsite. I don't know about Rachael and Sarah, but they could have been there, too."

"Rachael was working at the café," I said. "I think I would have noticed if she'd been soaking wet when I came looking for Corporal Robarts. Sarah seems to finish up by the middle of the afternoon, though. I suppose it could have been one of them."

"Or Duluth," said Les.

"Or some maniac wandering around the woods." I got to my feet. "Les, I've changed my mind. It'll be better if you stay here tonight. Everybody sleeps in the lodge again."

"What about you?"

"I'll stay at the PD to keep an eye on Duluth. Don't sleep too soundly; the kids may seem innocent, but they can be devious when their postpubescent urges kick in."

"Yeah, right." Grumbling, he went to rejoin the Frisbee game.

I told Bonita to wait and went into the lodge, managing to ignore both Mrs. Jim Bob's dark look and Brother Verber's piteous one. In the kitchen, Ruby Bee was regaling Estelle with her adventures as Mrs. Coldwater, implying that she'd alphabetized the children by name and packed them all off to some sort of mysterious shelter where they would be saved from brutal hardship and the influences of bald-headed women with smart mouths.

As reluctant as I was to interrupt a truly fanciful narrative, I said, "Bonita and I are leaving. I'll be back in the morning. Les is going to stay here."

"Then you don't think it's safe?" demanded Estelle, getting so agitated her beehive hair wobbled and several bobby pins clattered on the floor. "We still could be murdered in our beds? Mercy me, Arly! I didn't like the looks of this place since we first laid eyes on it, but I never in all my born days thought-"

"Feel free to sleep in the living room with ten teenagers, Les, Larry Joe, and Mrs. Jim Bob. Sleep with Brother Verber if you prefer, or out on the dock so you can enjoy the moonlight."

Ruby Bee caught my arm. "And just where are you planning to sleep?"

"I'll be at the PD. Les has the telephone number if you need me." I snatched up two squares of hot pizza and left before she could pepper (or even pepperoni) me with more questions, most of which I couldn't answer.

Bonita was in the station wagon. This time not even Jarvis looked up as we drove away. I tried to count up how many times I'd driven from the Camp Pearly Gates lodge to Dunkicker and back again since our arrival. The gas gauge indicated I could not continue to do so too many more times, but I had no cash to speak of.

"Do you have a county credit card?" I asked as I braked for a rabbit.

"What do you think?" muttered Bonita, sounding as though her stitches and bruises were catching up with her. "You want the rest of the pizza?"

"Toss it out the window. Do you want to lie down on the backseat?"

"And vomit? I don't think so, Chief Hanks."

"I told you to call me Arly."

"When we were interrogating the Beamers. You've made it real clear who's in charge." She leaned her head against the back of the seat and closed her eyes.

As we went into the PD, I heard clattering and curses from the hallway in back. "Call the sheriff's office about the license plates," I said to Bonita, then went to see what was happening. Duluth's cell door was open, but he was having a hard time dragging out the iron bunk. "What do you think you're doing?" I said, exasperated. "Should I add attempted theft to the charges? Get back in there! I don't even want to talk about it."

"This looks like the kind of town that could rally a lynch mob. I ain't about to-"

"Just shut up." I waited until he was back inside the cell, slammed the door, and locked it. "I'll keep the keys with me. If you're sitting there quietly when I get back, you can have something to eat. If you're not, I'm going to deputize Crank Nickle and issue him a license to kill. You want to end up as catfish food, Duluth?"

Tears filled his eyes. "I wanna go home."

Bonita was on the phone when I returned to the office. She glanced up, nodded, and resumed scribbling in her notebook. Although I was dying to peer over her shoulder at her notes, I started a fresh pot of coffee and kept a civil distance until she hung up.

"Got it?" I asked.

"All four of them, but I can't see how it's going to do much good. One of the cars was registered to Norella Buchanon. The other three are just names and addresses. Some guy in Cave Springs, another in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and a woman in Springfield, Missouri. You want me to try to send deputies to question whoever might be home?"

"Do your best," I said. "I'm going to take a look at the cars, then stop by the café and get Duluth something to eat."

"You don't think I could read license plates?"

"Bonita," I said warningly, "don't make me hold you down and cram half a dozen pain pills in your mouth. I worked for a vet one summer, and I know how to coerce unwilling patients into taking medicine."

She picked up the receiver.

I drove to the body shop. The building itself was dark, as was to be expected, but I was surprised when my headlights shone on a ten-foot chainlink fence that prevented me from continuing around back. I parked and got out, glumly noted the padlock on the gate, and then walked along the perimeter, avoiding foul-smelling batteries, rusty cans, and other obscure automotive debris. A utility pole cast enough light for me to see the four pertinent cars parked along the back of the building. Examining them more closely was a problem, however.

I'd about given up when I saw a pile of splintered wooden crates. I rattled the fence to make sure guard dogs were not on the prowl, then clambered up the boxes and grabbed the top of the fence, trying to recall when I'd last had a tetanus shot.

I was dripping with sweat when I at last scrambled over the fence and dropped to the ground. Dogs within a mile radius were barking, but the only sound in my proximity was the scurrying of rodents that had been interrupted while gnawing upholstery.

One of the cars was the white Honda Accord that Sarah had acknowledged; in the dim light it was more of a dingy gray. The plate was from Oklahoma. The one from Missouri was a red Camaro with a headlight affixed with duct tape. I'd never asked Duluth about Norella's car, so I had no idea which of the remaining two was hers. One was the sort of behemoth that Elsie McMay drove, the other a subcompact that did not seem large enough to be allowed on a highway.

Being a professional and all, I ascertained that the windows were rolled up and the doors locked. I was trying to see what might have been left on the seat of the behemoth when I noticed a pungent smell. I squatted down and peered under the car, assuming that some vital fluid had leaked out of the engine.

Darkness was a factor. I stood up, took a last look inside the car, and had turned to examine the subcompact when I heard a blood-chilling sound along the lines of a shotgun being cocked.

"What the hell you think yer doin'?" said a voice from outside the fence.

I finally located the figure on the far side of the gate. "Conducting police business. Does your mama know you go prowling with a shotgun, Crank?"

"I ain't prowlin'. Lester pays me ten dollars a week to make sure the local boys don't come scroungin' for parts for their trucks. Preacher Skinbalder pays me the same to walk around the church and watch for broken windows. Not more than a month ago, the little assholes made off with three televisions and a VCR. Miz Rutledge says she's gonna hire me if her watermelons start disappearing like they did the last two summers." He poked the barrel through a gap in the fence. "How do I know you ain't lookin' for an exhaust pipe."

"I don't smoke," I said curtly. "Do you have a key to the gate?"

"Ain't locked." He dragged it open and motioned at me to come out. "If you're a cop, where's your badge?"

"At home in a drawer. You saw me earlier at the PD, for pity's sake."

He lowered the shotgun. "Mebbe I did, but that don't mean you shouldn't pay a fine for trespassin', same as ever'body else. I'll let you go this time for five dollars, but it'll be ten if I catch you again."

"Quite a little racket you have going," I said. "I hope you're not behind the thefts. You wouldn't have three televisions and a VCR in your barn, would you? Was that why you were so upset when you caught Duluth in there?"

"If you know what's good for you, you'll be about your business."

I make it a policy never to argue with those packing shotguns, rifles, handguns, crossbows, or even spatulas. I got into the station wagon and drove out of the lot before he decided for reasons of his own to blast out the rear windshield. Estelle would not take it well, and Harve most likely wouldn't pay for it.

The café was brightly lit, but the parking lot was again uncrowded. Hoping that Chief Panknine had a charge account, I went in and sat down on a stool. The threesome in the corner might have been the ones I'd seen the day before, or Sunday pinch-hitters. Two teenaged boys eyed me, scattered change on the tabletop, and left. I did not warn them that Crank Nickle, aka 005, was on patrol.

Rachael came out of the kitchen. "I heard it was Ruth who was killed," she said in a low voice. "We were damn scared when Anthony came out to tell us what happened. It could have been any of us."

"Any of you?" I said curiously. "The popular theory is that Ruth's ex-husband killed her. Why would he have hurt someone else?"

She turned around to pour a cup of coffee, then set it down in front of me. "I didn't mean him. It's just that we're women and children living in isolated cabins in the woods. The lodge was safer because we could lock the doors at night, but the cabins are wide open. Three days ago I took the afternoon off and went for a picnic with my kids down by the lake. It was getting dark before I could convince them to get out of the water and put on their shoes. I still get nervous sometimes."

"Shouldn't you find moonlight comforting?"

"I don't think moonlight's going to help much if some psycho comes charging out of the bushes with a baseball bat. We're used to drunks driving by, hollering and tossing beer cans all over the road."

"When you and your children were at the lake, did you notice anybody else?"

She thought for a moment. "A couple of geezers in a boat. They didn't look like they were having much luck. Then again, how would I recognize luck? I keep hoping someone's going to leave me a lottery ticket for a tip, and all of a sudden I'll have fifty million dollars in the bank. At the moment, I have twelve dollars in my pocket, and Judith will take most of it for bread and milk."

"So Judith's in charge," I said as I took a sip of coffee. "I thought Deborah was."

Rachael began to fiddle with the metal napkin holder. "We're not supposed to talk about her. I can't tell you how to get in touch with her because I don't know. There's no point in asking me any more questions. Ruth's dead and there's not a thing I can tell you!" She clamped down her lip until she regained her composure, then said, "You want to take a burger to the prisoner?"

"You may have twelve dollars," I said in an effort to regain whatever smidgen of trust I'd begun to establish, "but I don't even have twelve cents. Maybe Corporal Robarts has access to a petty cash box."

"Forget about it. The cook's gone on home, so I'll have to fix it. Wait here."

I wasn't tempted to join those in the corner booth for a debate about dawgs and hawgs. I wandered over to the jukebox and ran my finger down the glass, noticing the selections were disturbingly similar to those found on the jukebox at Ruby Bee's Bar & Grill. A cardboard sign thumbtacked to the wall directed me to the restrooms in a short corridor next to the end of the counter. I took advantage of the opportunity to use the facilities, wash my hands, and inspect my face in a mottled mirror. I was operating on very little sleep, I reminded myself as I splashed water on my puffy eyes, and I wasn't going to make amends in a chair at the PD.

I was back on a stool when Rachael emerged from the kitchen. She put down a brown bag and said, "Anything else?"

Before I could answer, the pay phone rang. "Hold on," she said, then went around the corner and picked up the receiver. After a terse conversation, she came back. "Merle, that was your daughter. She said if you don't get home in fifteen minutes, she's gonna bury your Penthouse magazines in the compost pile. She might just do it this time."

Merle shuffled to his feet, nodded at us, and hurried outside. After a minute, his compatriots followed.

Rachael sighed. "I'm ready to lock up. Francine's used to cleaning up that particular booth when she comes in every morning. She's welcome to the fifteen-cent tip they leave."

"I'll drive you to the campsite," I said.

"You don't have to do that. I can walk, you know. I do it all the time, even when it's cold and wet."

"But you don't have any reason to this evening. We'll have to swing by the PD to drop off the burger on the way." When she hesitated, I said, "I promise I won't ask you anything more about Deborah, okay?"

"Yeah, okay." She took my coffee cup into the kitchen, turned off all the lights, and waited until I was outside to lock the door. "I didn't mean to sound rude. I guess I'm jumpy because of Ruth. I hope that ex-husband of hers spends the rest of his life in prison."

I parked at the PD and asked her to wait. Bonita was nodding off, her face looking more and more as though she'd been hit by a freight train. Duluth, she told me, had been bellowing about how his civil rights were being violated, then calmed down. I gave her the bag and reminded her that Les had the key to the handcuffs and I had the key to the cell, so there wasn't a damn thing she could do even if a delegation from Amnesty International came through the door.

"I'm going to run Rachael out to their cabins and make sure Anthony is there. As soon as I get back, you're headed for the torturous confines of Woantell Motel. You can write your own letter to Amnesty International in the morning."

Rachael had pulled off her sandals and was massaging her feet as I got back into the car. "You'd think I'd be used to it by now," she said with a self-deprecatory laugh. "I was a third-grade teacher for fourteen years, so I spent a lot of the day standing in front of a blackboard."

"And now you're a waitress."

"I considered joining the army, but I don't look good in khaki."

I did not mention that her present appearance wasn't all that alluring. "I promised that we wouldn't talk about Deborah, but I'm a little bit puzzled about some of Ruth's actions. Are you going to fling yourself out of the car if I ask you?"

"There's not much I can tell you. Ruth was a bitch. Maybe it wasn't her fault, but it wasn't ours, either, and we're the ones who had to put up with her. That's why I didn't say anything when…"

"When she made a couple of telephone calls from the café?"

"Making calls was against the rules. We knew it before we ever arrived here. Sure, I've been tempted to call my mother and let her know we're safe."

"Safe from what?"

"The big bad world. We have adequate shelter and meals. The children are keeping up with their schoolwork. Before I started at the café, I sat down with Naomi and we individualized lesson plans for every child. I thought you wanted to know about Ruth."

"So she broke the rule?"

"Tuesday or Wednesday, I think. She came by late in the afternoon, asked for iced tea, then ducked around the corner. Guess she thought I wouldn't notice-or if I did, I wouldn't say anything to Judith."

I knew the answer, but I asked anyway. "Who'd she call?"

"Her mother, for one. About all she said was that she was all right and would be leaving shortly. Then she called somebody else and asked him to bring her some cash. It couldn't have been her ex-husband, could it? He'd be the last person she'd call."

"You didn't hear any details?"

"No, Merle put a quarter in the jukebox, then Anthony came out of the men's room and said the toilet was backed up again, and Francine started screaming because she saw a mouse run behind the refrigerator. One of these days she's going to set out the garbage and have a heart attack when she sees rats the size of raccoons."

"Did you know that Ester made long-distance calls while she was working for Willetta Robarts?"

She looked down at the floorboard. "A while back, whenever, Anthony came by the café and offered me a ride home. He told me Ester'd called a number in Florida several times, and he wanted to know if she'd said anything to me about having friends down there. I said that Ester and I never talked about anything personal, but he might do better if he asked Ruth. I also pointed out that all he had to do was call his long-distance carrier and dispute the bill."

"Refuse to pay it, you mean?"

"No," she said as if speaking to a third-grader destined for social promotion, "simply demand to know who was called. My ex-husband used to do that with every long-distance call I made. It took him years to learn that my brother lives in Boise and my roommate from college in Memphis. He even had trouble with the weekly calls to his own mother. He may be able to raise bail, but he's never going to raise his IQ."

"Do you think she might have gone to Florida?"

"As far as I'm concerned, she went to hell in a handbasket."

We drove in silence the rest of the way. I parked behind Corporal Robarts's car and was climbing out of the station wagon when Naomi and Judith dashed up.

"Thank gawd you're here," said Naomi, gulping for breath. "Anthony's been trying to call you!"

"This is serious," added Judith.

Rachael stared at them. "Did someone else get killed?"

Naomi collapsed in the mud and began to sob. Judith put a steadying hand on her shoulder and said, "No one's been killed. It's just that, well, that Naomi's children have disappeared."