She pulled the trigger. The hammer snapped on either an empty chamber or a dead round. She squeezed the trigger again. And again.
“I took the cartridges out,” Darrel said. “You and
Broussard are the perfect couple, Jo Anne. Complete losers. Gee, I wish I could have gone to college.”
He walked toward me with the Luger swinging from his hand. I was on my knees. “Open your mouth,” he said.
There was a collective moan in the crowd, as though a collective sin were being imposed upon them. Their behavior surprised even Darrel. They seemed to shrink individually in size, trying to hide inside themselves or inside one another. “Don’t hurt ice cream guy!” Stoney called.
Then I saw him and Orchid and Lindsey Lou pick up stones and sticks. The others began to do the same. If they had possessed scythes and pitchforks and rakes, the scene would have been complete.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Darrel said to them.
Out of the darkness, I saw Cotton Williams running toward Darrel, his shoulders humped, his silver hair streaming, his Buck knife open in his right hand. I never saw a man hit another man so hard with his body. Darrel looked like he had been broken in half, his robes torn open, his love handles and soft stomach exposed, the inside of his mouth as red as paint. Cotton pinned him to the ground with his knees, then inserted the point of his knife in Darrel’s right nostril.
“Cotton—” I said.
Darrel’s eyes were bulging. A broken tooth was glued to his chin.
“Cotton—” I said again.
“He felt up Maisie,” Cotton said. “All over her. Same thing a guard did to her in one of those internment camps.”
“Don’t do it, Cotton,” I said. “This isn’t you.”
“I killed my own son. What do you call that?”
I knew my words were to no avail. He was going to do it, and I couldn’t blame him. Maybe I even wanted him to do it. Maybe we would all die that night. Maybe all of us had already entered eternity.
Maisie and Spud came out of the darkness. She placed her hand on Cotton’s shoulder and knelt beside him, then leaned close to his ear. “You good man,” she said. “You kind and brave, like Spud and Aaron. That why I love you. You give me knife now, Cotton.” She took it gingerly from his hand.
I looked over my shoulder to see where Jo Anne was. But she was gone. And I mean gone.
Epilogue
I WOKE IN THE morning by a railroad track miles away, with no memory of how I got there. My car was found by state foresters at the entrance to the box canyon. It had burned with such heat that the steering wheel had melted and all four tires had exploded. I told the cops I knew where several homicides had been committed. They found no evidence of any unusual events in the canyon and locked me in jail for two days because I was deemed a risk to myself.
I asked to see my friend Wade Benbow and was told he was out of town. I was released from jail and immediately went to Jo Anne’s house. Her car was gone, her windows sealed with plywood. The hog farmer next door said he had no idea where she went. That night I got drunk and put back in the can, this time in a tank with a bunch of stewbums. While there, I had a surprise visitor and was allowed to speak with her in a conference room to which only lawyers normally had access.
“How are you, Aaron?” she said. “I’m so sorry to see you in bad straits.”
“That’s very good of you, Mrs. Lowry.” I searched her face. She smiled pleasantly and seemed completely serene. I decided to turn the dial. “How is Mr. Lowry?”
“He’s visiting his family in New England,” she replied. She smelled as fresh as the morning dew.
“Do you know where Jo Anne McDuffy is?” I asked.
“Oh, the young girl you brought to dinner? No, I haven’t seen her.”
“How about Mr. Vickers? Is he out and about?”
“I wouldn’t know. Mr. Lowry and I keep our distance from him. It’s too bad about his son, though.”
“Has Darrel been up to something?” I said.
“I guess you haven’t heard. The Vickers boy and a college professor were found dead on a back road up by Ludlow. Their bodies were mangled. The police think that maybe a log truck ran over them. Are you sure you’re all right, Aaron?”
“I’m fine. I sure wish I could get some news on Jo Anne, though.”