A Tree Born Crooked Page 19

  They were on a long straightaway and after checking the mirrors again to make sure the Land Rover wasn’t still behind them, James eased off on the gas. Marlena was right. They had to slow down and think.

  “We can’t go to your house, or Rabbit and Delmore’s trailer. If they haven’t already done to them what they did the store, they at least know that’s where we would run to.”

  Marlena chewed on her bottom lip.

  “Okay, someplace else, then. Someplace they don’t know about and can’t follow us to.”

  “I’m thinking.”

  James wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans as he steered with his knee. Only one place was coming to mind, though it didn’t seem like it could help them. The last time he had been there was so long ago he wouldn’t even know which direction to head in. But Marlena kept staring at him, so he ventured to mention it.

  “There was this house.”

  “What?”

  James was quiet for another moment: the only sound was the roar of the engine and the screeching of brush on metal as they swerved too close to the edge of the road.

  “This old house out near Shearer Pond. But way back in the woods. It was like a hundred years old or something. Me and Rabbit and Delmore and our other cousin, Skinny, spent almost a whole summer out there when we were kids.”

  James remembered pieces of that summer, hidden in an empty house away from parents and uncles and teachers and the older kids who liked to stand around and show off their flashy cars in parking lots. It was the summer before Shearer Pond had been drained and they would go swimming there, even though it was full of parasites and plagued them with swimmer’s itch for days afterward. The four boys had discovered the house when they were trying to play a prank on Rabbit by taking his clothes and hiding them in the woods while he was passed out asleep on the bank of the pond.

  It was an old sharecropper house, vacant since the 1930s, but the roof and floorboards were still in good condition and held up as the boys wrestled through the one main room and climbed onto the blistering, rusted tin shingles to attach a rope swing to an overhanging oak branch. Once they had claimed the house as their own, James and his brother and cousins spent almost every summer afternoon pedaling their bikes down to the pond and then picking their way through the poison oak and Spanish bayonets until they reached the house.

  Once there, they lived in their own world by their own rules. They brought plastic grocery bags full of Little Debbies and cans of soda, most of which had been shoplifted from Buddy Joe’s bait and tackle store on the way to the pond. They set up the empty soda cans on the one remaining porch rail and took aim with their BB guns. More than once, they took aim at each other and on one occasion, Rabbit and Delmore had to hold Skinny down while James used his pocketknife to pry a shiny black ball out of his right shoulder. They went home every evening with casualties inflicted upon themselves and each other. They crashed down from the rope swing, sliced their bare feet on rusted gardening tools abandoned around the yard of the house and suffered from rashes, ticks, and red bug infestations.

  It was one of the most perfect summers of James’ young life, and it disappeared when the Pic ‘n Save put out its “Back to School Sale” signs. He then had to clean up, wear a shirt and shoes, and sit for hours listening to teachers drone on about things that held no interest for James and had no relationship to his life. The year progressed, the boys grew older, and by the next summer, things had changed. The pond had been drained during the winter and Skinny had received an Atari for his birthday right before school let out. James had a crush on a girl who liked to hang out with her friends in front of the Dairy Queen. The boys never went back to the house, and it faded away as all singular and remarkable childhood events do. James couldn’t think of anything better.

  “I think we should go there.”

  Marlena turned around and looked out the shattered back window. The road behind them was still deserted.

  “Can we get there from here? Without being followed?”

  James swerved the Jeep down another side road.

  “If I can remember where it is, I can get us there. The problem is remembering.”

  Rabbit’s voice, quivering, came from the back seat.

  “I know where it is.”

  James gripped the steering wheel tighter with his sweating palms.

  “You sure?”

  Rabbit pulled himself up from his crouched position in the backseat floorboard.

  “I went there a couple times after you left. Just, you know, to poke ‘round some. Had a lot a good memories from that house. Always felt kinda nice being back there. I think I can tell you how to get there from here.”

  James met his brother’s eyes in the rearview mirror.

  “Alright, I’m listening.”

  FIFTEEN

  They followed Rabbit’s directions and ditched the Jeep at the dead end of a narrow dirt road. James tried to drive it as far as he could into the underbrush to hide it, but at this point they were just hoping that they had enough of a head start on the men in the Land Rover. Even if they managed to find Marlena’s Jeep, James didn’t think the men chasing them would know to follow them through the dense, vacuous woods. He didn’t want to wait around to find out, though, so they immediately plunged into the wilderness of pines, palmettos, oaks, and brittle, brown kudzu that choked its way through the trees and underbrush. He had a vague idea of what direction he was heading in, but didn’t want to take the time to stop and try to orient himself. He kept looking back at Rabbit, but he seemed just as lost as James once they were among the trees.

  They tried to be as quiet, and move as quickly as possible, but it was difficult once the woods grew deeper and wilder. Dead logs collapsed underneath their boots and creeping, thorny vines reached for their shoulders and clung to their knees as they struggled their way through. Finally, Rabbit recognized a live oak whose long, skinny branches grew out nearly parallel to the ground. They stopped to catch their breath and went slower as James picked out a path in the direction the longest branch pointed. Rabbit followed directly at his shoulder, silently pointing out landmarks, and Marlena kept up the rear with her gun raised, listening for any footsteps apart from their own. After another ten minutes, they broke out of the woods into a small clearing blanketed with pine needles and the dead wood of ancient, fallen trees. In the middle of the clearing was the house of James and Rabbit’s childhood.

  It was just as James remembered it, only one panel of the tin roof was now hanging awkwardly down the length of the house, and one side of the front porch had finally collapsed in on itself. The air in the clearing was stagnant, and only a dim evening light filtered down through the layer of oak and pine branches. Marlena came up beside James.

  “I think this is as good a place as any for now.”

  “You don’t think anyone followed us?”

  “I didn’t see or hear anything. I think we should get inside, though, just to be safe. They could find us eventually and we need to come up with some kinda plan.”

  James nodded and they started to make their way across the clearing when a figure appeared in the open doorway. James immediately went for his gun.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa there, cousin. I don’t think I’m the one you want to be shooting at right now.”

  A man stepped out of the shadow of the darkened house and Rabbit heaved a sigh of relief.

  “Delmore! You asshole, where you been?”

  James lowered his gun, but didn’t run to shake hands with Delmore as Rabbit did. Marlena looked skeptical. She cut her eyes at James and didn’t move her .38 from its aim at Delmore’s head.

  Delmore smiled at them.

  “Now, come on, don’t be like that. Quit pointing those things at me.”

  He clapped Rabbit on the back and braced him by the shoulders.

  “I been worried like hell ‘bout you guys.”

  James put his gun away and stepped up onto the porch.

  “What’re you doing
here, Delmore?”

  “What’d you think? Hiding out from those psychopaths. Come on, get inside. From the looks of it, they must be after you, too.”

  James looked back at Marlena, and she slowly let her revolver rest against the side of her thigh. Rabbit had already gone inside the house, but Delmore waited for James and Marlena.

  “Really? What’re you doing? You gonna hold a grudge against me now? We ain’t got no time for that.”

  Delmore went inside the house, and James could hear him talking to Rabbit, shushing his manic questions. Marlena glanced behind her once more at the woods they had just come from and then slowly walked up onto the porch with James. She bent close to his ear.

  “I don’t like it.”

  “I know.”

  “Delmore shouldn’t be here. Something’s bad wrong.”

  James nodded.

  “I know. But we don’t got much choice. Let’s at least hear what he has to say. We can’t stand out here waiting for them to find us.”

  Marlena exhaled deeply and stepped in front of James to enter the house. He looked out over the woods one last time and then followed her. The interior was saturated with shadows, and he could barely see until his eyes adjusted to the dim light. Like the outside, the inside of the house appeared much as James remembered it. It was one large room, but at some point in time had been two. There was a mark along the length of the ceiling where a wall had been knocked out years ago. Rat and raccoon nests were built up all along the walls, and there were a few more holes in the floorboards opening up to the bare ground than there had been before, but the house was still standing. Rabbit and Delmore were talking at the back of the room, in front of the opening that led out to a small back porch. There were no windows in the house, just the two empty doorframes letting the dusky light in. Rabbit’s voice continued to strain even as Delmore tried to quiet him.

  “But we thought you was dead. I saw the blood. And then those men, those alligator nut jobs, they said you wasn’t dead, but that you gave me up.”

  “Shit, Rabbit. I didn’t give nobody up. Why would I do something like that? They was lying to you the whole time. It was Waylon, wasn’t it?”

  “But then why’d they say you told ‘em it was me? Dammit, Delmore, you don’t know what we been through the past couple days ‘cause of that. They was gonna kill me.”

  Delmore put his hand on Rabbit’s trembling shoulder. It seemed that once Rabbit had seen Delmore, the fight had gone out of him. James looked across the empty space at Marlena. She crossed her arms in disgust and wouldn’t even look at them. Delmore kept his grip on Rabbit.

  “Man, you’re ‘bout to hurt my feelings. I think you would know me enough by now to know that I wouldn’t never give nobody up like that to get killed. Especially you. We’re partners, right?”

  James stepped in and interrupted them.

  “You can come to terms with your feelings later. Right now we need answers, not apologies.”

  Delmore glared at James.

  “What’d you want to know?”

  “For starters, how’s that shoulder doing?”

  Delmore narrowed his eyes and clamped his jaw tight. The veins in his big, bull neck stood out.

  “You don’t believe me? You gotta question everything?”

  “It’s been a rough couple of days. I’m questioning shit every chance I get.”

  “Fine.”

  Delmore struggled out of his jacket. James could see the bulky bandage around his shoulder through his T-shirt.

  “Want me to take my shirt off, too? You want to stick your finger in the bullet hole to make sure it’s real?”

  James stood his ground. Rabbit was pacing in circles behind him, twisting his hands and twitching at every little noise. Marlena was leaning up against the back wall with her arms still crossed and a look like she was ready to kill someone, anyone, but James knew he couldn’t afford to lose focus.

  “Alright, next question. What happened to the money?”

  Delmore pulled his jacket back on.

  “What, you think I know?”

  James glowered at him.

  “Look, if I had that money, you think I’d be hiding out here in the middle of the damn woods like some kinda weirdo? I’d be halfway to Mexico by now.”

  Rabbit quickly spoke up.

  “What? You’d have just screwed me like that?”

  James cut him off.

  “Shut up, Rabbit.”

  “But did you hear what he said?”

  James kept his eyes on Delmore.

  “Not important right now, Rabbit.”

  Rabbit looked at Marlena, but she wasn’t paying him any attention either. He lowered his head and stepped away from everyone. James and Delmore continued to stare each other down.

  “You’re striking out for answers. So how ‘bout we go back to the first one? If you don’t have the money, and you already blamed everything on Rabbit, what the hell are you doing out here?”

  Delmore never got a chance to tell them. James heard heavy footsteps pounding on the narrow front porch, and suddenly there were six people in the room instead of four. By the time James and Marlena had their guns raised, they were staring at the barrels of a 9mm and a .375 Ruger. It was a silent standoff until the man crossing sights with James laughed gruffly.

  “Well now, I guess we finally got our invite to this little party. It’s ‘bout time.”

  The man Marlena had her gun trained on was one of the men who had been at her house with Big Ted. He was burly, with a slack neck and small, piggy eyes set too close together. He had his gun fixed on Marlena, just as she had hers on him, and neither one of them was wavering. The man who had spoken, however, was someone they hadn’t seen before. James tried to keep his voice steady.

  “You must be the one in charge. Sully Granger?”

  He was shorter and skinnier than James had imagined he would be. He wore all black, heavy dark denim and a long-sleeved dress shirt, as if he were trying to pose as some sort of anorexic Johnny Cash. His shiny NASCAR belt buckle was almost as big as his head, which was dwarfed by a giant, black felt cowboy hat with a silver and turquoise hatband. A collection of alligator teeth strung on a long piece of leather hung around the loose skin of his thin and stubbly neck. Underneath the man’s hat was a stringy piss-blond mullet that reached to his shoulders and matched the scraggly horseshoe mustache that hung on his thin, pale pink lips. Although his gun was pointed directly at James’ chest, the man’s emaciated frame appeared relaxed. His expression, however, conveyed only irritation.

  “And I know vaguely who you are. I don’t care to know more. Listen here, boy, and ma’am.”

  His eyes moved lazily to Marlena.

  “I didn’t kill you before out of respect for Waylon. He and I did some good business over the years, God rest his soul.”

  James heard a small gasp emanate from Marlena, but couldn’t turn to look at her. Sully continued.

  “But we all make stupid mistakes.”

  He glowered past James at Rabbit.

  “Mine was thinking that this moon-brained brother of yours and his cousin wouldn’t have the balls to try and steal from me.”

  James could sense Rabbit slowly inching away behind him. His movements were a distraction to James, but Sully obviously didn’t see them as a threat. James was trying to think of something to say, some way to reason with this crazy, gator teeth-wearing, backwoods crime boss that would allow them to walk out of the house alive, when Delmore stepped out between them all.

  “Just a minute there, sir.”

  Sully furrowed his thick, blond eyebrows and was even more annoyed now. James wished to God that Delmore would move. He was making the whole situation more complicated. He could hear Marlena breathing beside him and knew that her arm must be getting heavy from holding the gun up, just as his was.

  Sully spit a glob of tobacco at Delmore’s feet.

  “What the hell do you want?”

  Delmore took anoth
er step toward Sully.

  “I don’t know why you’re including me in this equation. I told Big Ted where you could find ‘em and the money in the first place.”

  James felt the spark of anger inside of him erupt so wide and so deep that he wasn’t sure if he could keep his arm steady. If Marlena and Rabbit hadn’t been in the room with him, he knew that he would have already pulled the trigger. Sully frowned.

  “Your point? Waylon didn’t have the money. Hence, I don’t have the money. Therefore, you didn’t do shit for me after all. That’s your little equation, if you want to call it that. ”

  Delmore had raised his hands out in front of himself in protest when he stepped away from James’ side, but now he was slowly lowering them. In the dim twilight, James could see the small pistol handle sticking up out of Delmore’s back pocket, but he knew that it wasn’t going to do him any good now. Delmore continued to plead.

  “But, I did everything you said to. I told you ‘bout this place, told you that Rabbit was just stupid enough to hide out in a place we both knew ‘bout. I sat here all damn day, being eaten alive by mosquitos waiting for ‘em. And I called you when they come, just like you said to. I mighta been wrong ‘bout Waylon, but I’ll work it off. I’ll do whatever you want. Name it.”

  Sully Granger laughed and James saw the gleam in his eyes. It was over. Delmore couldn’t see it, but James could. He felt the weight of the gun breaking his wrist and the metal trigger warming against his finger. He listened to Marlena’s shallow breathing beside him. He tasted the burn of fear along his throat and knew. It all came down to this, and James just hoped that he could somehow keep them all alive.

  Delmore continued to beg as James watched his hand slowly reach around to his back pocket. Sully’s eyes flickered and he saw it too. This was it.

  “Mr. Granger, please—”

  And then, in an instant, everything happened. Delmore didn’t have a chance. James didn’t know who fired first, only that the first sound was Rabbit tripping as he edged his way out onto the back porch. At the thud of Rabbit’s heel slipping down into the rotted wood, the room was lit with gunfire. The noise was paralyzing and, after the first shot, James could only see small zips of brightness crisscrossing the room as he fell to the floor and pulled the trigger over and over until there were no more bullets and the room was filled with smoke and soot, and, finally, the loudest silence he had ever heard descended upon his ears.