The Facts of Life and Death

22

JUST AFTER MUMMY went to work, Daddy appeared at Ruby’s bedroom door in his cowboy clothes even though it wasn’t Friday. ‘Want to go catch a killer, Deputy?’

Ruby gasped in excitement and Daddy held up a warning finger. ‘Don’t tell Mummy.’

‘Cross my heart and hope to die,’ said Ruby, and bounced off the bed

Ruby kept craning forward on her seat, even though it wanted to tilt her backwards. She wanted to see the killer first; wanted to be the one to spot him; wanted to shout, ‘There he is!’ and point her finger, and feel the car swing around hard in pursuit.

If they didn’t catch him tonight, next time she would bring a cushion.

She looked at Daddy. ‘You should have a badge,’ she said. And then immediately, ‘Can I have a badge?’

‘What kind of badge?’

‘A deputy’s badge. And you can have a sheriff’s.’

‘We’ll see how it goes, Rubes. I don’t think the Gunslingers would want me to give out badges until they knew you were going to stick at it.’

‘I am going to stick at it,’ Ruby assured him.

‘We’ll see then.’

Ruby perched on the edge of her seat, even though they weren’t in Bideford yet. They passed tiny hamlets, no more than a house or three, but she glared at them all with raw suspicion.

They reached the outskirts of the town – the supermarket and the discount shops and the little industrial estates where little industry happened.

Here they saw people, out and about, walking their dogs, waiting at bus stops, eating chips from paper cones.

‘What does a murderer look like?’ Ruby eventually thought to ask.

‘The news said white and about six foot tall.’

‘How tall is six foot?’

Daddy showed her a few inches between the tips of his thumb and forefinger. ‘About yea much taller than me.’

‘What colour is his hair?’

‘Don’t know.’

‘What colour are his eyes?’

‘Don’t know that too.’

Ruby screwed up her face. ‘It’s difficult.’

Daddy laughed. ‘If it wasn’t, the police would have caught him, I reckon. That’s why we got up the posse, see? To keep an eye open.’

‘I thought we were on the posse to hunt him down?’

‘We are,’ said Daddy. ‘But that’s how we hunt him down. You keep an eye open and when you spot him you hunt him down. These things take time, Rubes. I told you it weren’t a game, didn’t I?’

Ruby nodded.

They drove through Bideford in a zigzag, and then went on towards Westward Ho!, slowly up the long hill, and quickly down the other side as if they were surfing a wave to the beach.

‘Where are the other Gunslingers?’ she asked.

‘Round and about,’ he said. ‘We split up so we can cover more area. Some of us on this side of the water and some on the other, off towards Barnstaple. Chip’s covering Torrington. Nobody knows where he’ll strike next, see, Rubes? That’s why he’s hard to catch.’

She nodded. That made sense, although she was disappointed that they weren’t all riding in convoy, the way she’d imagined they’d be. Of course, she was even more disappointed that they weren’t all on horses, but even she knew that that was unrealistic.

Now and then Daddy did flash his lights at another Gunslinger, or raised a hand as they passed. When he did, he’d murmur their names.

‘Shiny,’ he’d go. Or ‘Whippy.’

Just that. No more.

Ruby watched the men’s silhouettes pass and longed to ask questions about Shiny and Whippy and Blacky and Daisy. Wanted to know why they had those names; wanted to say hi and show them that she was a deputy, even though she was only a girl and only ten. But the Gunslingers didn’t stop to talk, just drove on – all hunting for the same killer.

It was very grown-up.

They looped through Westward Ho! and then went through the lanes to Appledore, past the shipyard, and back up to Northam.

They slowed a few times as they passed men walking alone, or sitting in parked cars, and Ruby peered from the window with her heart thudding in her ears.

What would she see? What would a killer look like? Would she be able to spot him? And if she did, would he know he’d been spotted? The idea made her shiver, and at those moments when Daddy took his foot off the pedal and they coasted past a stranger, Ruby wished she’d brought her guns. Even if they were sticks, somehow she’d feel safer with them in her pockets.

‘Any good, Rubes?’ Daddy would say.

‘No good,’ she’d say.

Some were too short to be the killer. Some were too tall. Some were too fat or had dogs, or umbrellas, or were laughing, or holding hands with a girl.

‘Everyone looks just… normal,’ she said.

‘Well, everyone is,’ said Daddy. ‘But even normal people do bad things.’

Ruby didn’t like that idea. If that was true, then anyone might be the killer – and that made her feel a bit weird inside.

As they drove back along Bideford Quay, with the shops and pubs on one side of the road, and the masts and rigging and wheel-houses of little ships on the other, Ruby started to sing ‘Red River Valley’, and Daddy joined in.

Then he sang ‘Mama, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys’, and by the time they were halfway to Westward Ho! they were both singing ‘Stand By Your Man’ at the top of their voices. Daddy did the ‘boom boom BOOM’ in a funny deep voice that made Ruby laugh so hard she could barely catch her breath.

Then Daddy stopped singing.

‘Dad-deee!’ giggled Ruby. ‘You missed your booms!’

But he was looking at a young woman, who was walking back towards Northam with her thumb stuck out.

‘Look at this,’ he murmured, and shook his head.

He checked his mirrors, then swung the car around in the road.

‘What are you going to do?’ asked Ruby.

‘Take care of her,’ he said. ‘Before anybody else does.’

‘Where am I going to sit?’

‘In the back.’

Ruby made a face. ‘But I don’t want to. I can’t see the killer so well from the back!’

‘Taking care of people is part of the job, Ruby,’ said Daddy sharply. ‘Don’t spoil the whole night now.’

Ruby pursed her lips and crossed her arms. She didn’t want to spoil the whole night, but she also didn’t want to sit in the back. It wasn’t right. The back was where she sat when she was a little girl going to school with her Mummy and Daddy, not when she was a deputy on a cowboy posse.

The woman looked around with a frown as the car stopped beside her, then bent as the window squealed down slowly. It was electric but it didn’t work that well.

‘Hi,’ she said warily. She was younger than she’d looked from behind – maybe eighteen, and with hair pulled so tightly into a knot on top of her head that her eyebrows were miles above her eyes.

Daddy leaned across Ruby. ‘You shouldn’t be hitchhiking. We’ll take you anywhere you need to go.’

The girl looked at him, then up and then down the road, then at Ruby.

‘This your little girl?’

‘Yes,’ said Daddy. ‘She’ll get in the back if you want a ride home.’

The girl looked at Ruby, then smiled and said, ‘Yeah, OK. Thanks.’

Ruby huffed and puffed and squeezed between the seats so that the girl could sit in the front, and they set off.

The girl’s name was Becks. She was coming from her grandmother’s in Appledore, and walking the three miles home to Bideford.

‘Why don’t you catch the bus?’ said Daddy.

‘I do if it’s raining.’

Daddy leaned forward and made a show of peering up at the black sky through the windscreen wipers.

‘And it’s three quid each way,’ the girl amended.

‘Still,’ he said. ‘That Frannie girl got herself murdered around here, you know.’

‘Yeah,’ shrugged the girl, as if she doubted the relevance of that. ‘But everyone knows that were her druggie boyfriend, and six quid’s six quid, innit?’

‘It is,’ said Daddy. ‘Are you going to call your grandmother to let her know you’re safe?’

‘I don’t have a phone.’

‘You want to use mine?’

‘Nah, it’s fine. She’ll be in bed by now. Thanks.’

They slowed for a roundabout and Ruby hung between the front seats. She couldn’t resist telling the girl, ‘We’re going to catch the murderer.’

‘Yeah?’ said Becks, looking at John Trick with new eyes. ‘Are you a policeman?’

‘We’re just helping out,’ said Daddy. ‘The police haven’t got the manpower these days.’

‘I’m a deputy,’ said Ruby. ‘I’m getting a badge soon.’

‘What’s a deputy?’

Ruby rolled her eyes. ‘It’s like a sheriff, but his assistant.’

‘That’s nice of you,’ said Becks. ‘More people should take care of each other like that.’

Ruby tickled the back of Daddy’s neck. It was an apology, and she was rewarded with a smile.

Then they drove down into Bideford in silence until Becks pointed and said, ‘Right here.’

They turned right into the lane that ran behind Blackmore’s Coal, and let her out halfway down.

‘Hold on,’ said Daddy. ‘It’s raining. I’ve got an umbrella in the boot.’

‘No need,’ said the girl, but Daddy insisted on going round to the boot and getting a big golf umbrella Ruby had never seen before and walking the girl to her door. While he did, Ruby clambered into the front seat once more with a sense of relief.

Daddy came back and opened the boot again, and Ruby could see a tiny strip of him shaking out the white and green umbrella before putting it in and slamming the boot shut. Then he got in and turned the car around and set out on another long, winding circuit.

‘She was a nice girl,’ said Ruby.

‘She was a very stupid girl,’ said Daddy. ‘Anyone could have picked her up and done anything they wanted to her. Women are just asking for it if they hitchhike, Rubes. I want you to promise me you’ll never ever do it.’

‘OK, I won’t.’ Ruby started to sing ‘Red River Valley’ again, but Daddy cut her off sharply.

‘Promise me!’

‘I promise,’ said Ruby in surprise. She was a little cowed. Daddy didn’t often shout at her.

He glanced over her way and softened. ‘It’s only because I love you hundreds, Rubes. You’re my little cowboy and I want you to be safe, that’s all.’

‘I know.’ Ruby nodded and hugged his arm. ‘I love you hundreds too.’

It was gone ten o’clock when Daddy pulled up outside the Blue Dolphin and bought them both chips. Just the smell was like heaven – the actual explosion of oil and salt and vinegar on Ruby’s tongue was almost too much. Mummy never made chips at home; she called them artery plugs.

They drove down to the end of the quay and parked on the corner near the statue with the road cone for a hat. There was a small gang of learner motorcyclists there too, admiring each other’s bikes in the drizzle, and an old yellow sports car with black stripes down the front. Now and then the driver tooted the horn and it played the first few bars of ‘Dixie.’ Ruby laughed at first, but Daddy said ‘That arsehole’ and after that she agreed that it was very irritating.

She finished her chips before Daddy was halfway through his, and so he gave his to her, and reached into the back to get a can of cider instead.

He handed her a bottle of Ribena. Not real Ribena, but blackcurrant squash in a water bottle.

‘Brought that for you,’ he said.

‘Thanks!’ She drank half of it in one go, she was so salty.

‘Yum!’ she said, and wiped her mouth just the way Daddy always did. ‘This is the best posse ever.’

Daddy laughed.

Ruby ate, but she never took her eyes off the people passing by. Small groups of drunken girls or shouting boys; old men with small dogs, fumbling poo into black bags; two teenagers peeing against the Arts Centre wall; a man alone, staggering a little and singing loudly as he emerged from Rope Walk, taking advantage of the flattering echoes from the high warehouse walls.

When Ruby had finished her chips, Daddy got out to throw away the chip paper. He walked back, wiping his hands on his jeans.

‘You’re doing a great job, Deputy. Ready for round three?’

Ruby yawned loudly but nodded and said, ‘Mmm.’ She was tired, but she didn’t want him thinking she was too young to be on the posse.

She didn’t want to be Em.

But round three of the posse turned out to be more like being a free taxi service than a posse. The pubs were coming out, and they picked up two more women and took them home. One from a bus stop in Northam to East-the-Water, and another from Bideford to Abbotsham. Each time Daddy made sure they got home safe and dry under the umbrella; each time Ruby had to get in the back. For a while she did her best to look for the killer, but it was much harder from there, especially when her eyes kept closing.

The last time someone got out of the car, Ruby didn’t even say goodbye. She was curled up in the back, fast asleep.

Posses were exhausting.