The Killing Moon: A Novel

two years older than his brother, but it was Bucky who was in charge, and had been ever since they were kids. Eddie's hair was straw blond to Bucky's dirty brown, but facially, especially in the tight eyes, there was no mistaking the Pail brand. Eddie ate green apples one after another like a horse, in big, choking bites?core, seeds, stem, and all.

Eddie would never have bothered showing his face out here just to help. He knew something about this. Bucky said, 'Walt here thinks he heard something in the Borderlands last night.'

'Not 'thinks,'' said Heavey. 'It was a gunshot. The crack of a handgun. I heard it carry.'

Chock-hunk. Eddie said to Bucky, his mouth full, 'That was Maddox.'

Just hearing the name changed the weather in Bucky's head from overcast to threatening. 'What are you talking about?'

'Hit a deer last night.' Eddie examined the apple like it was a kill. Chock- hunk. Bucky hated watching his brother eat. 'Had to put it down in the middle of the road.'

Bucky also hated these rare occasions when Eddie knew something Bucky did not. 'What road?'

'Edge Road. Out by the falls.'

Heavey was shaking his head. 'I heard it in the woods behind my house.'

'Sound carries,' said Bucky. 'You said so yourself. You live on Edge.'

'At the other end from the falls. The shot I heard came from the woods.'

Clown Man wasn't going to budge. Why was Bucky wasting his time with this anyway? 'Okay then, Walt. We'll be sure and follow up on it.'

'How so?'

Bucky stopped. He cocked his head at him. 'What's that, Walt?'

Heavey backed down, just a little. Just enough. 'I asked how so?'

Bucky said, referring to brother Eddie, 'Patrolman Pail here will swing by Edge Road after the parade.'

Eddie took another apple bite, chock- hunk. 'No, I won't.'

Bucky said, 'Enjoy the parade, Walt.'

Heavey turned, livid, and pushed out through the screen door to the front porch, starting away. Bucky imagined him doing so in big, floppy clown shoes.

'Heavey on the rag again?' said Eddie.

Bucky looked at him chewing. 'Most people don't eat the stem, you know. They leave that last little bit.'

'Gives me something to chew on,' he said, as Bucky started past him down the back hall. 'Hey. I don't actually have to go out there to Heavey's, do I?'

Bucky's focus was on Maddox now. 'I don't give a fuck what you do.'

He banged out the rear door, slowing at the top of the back steps, finding the others gathered around Maddox's patrol car in the center of the dirt lot.

Without looking, Bucky was aware of Maddox standing apart from them, and also aware that Maddox was aware of him. A reverse magnetism had developed between them.

'What's this, now?' said Bucky, coming down off the steps.

Mort Lees, who was third in seniority after Bucky and Eddie, straightened near the rear left passenger door. He and Eddie had run around together all through high school, Mort being the tougher of the two. 'Buck, check this out. Deer rammed Maddox's unit.'

Bucky went around the patrol car. The door was pushed in good, but he didn't reach out and feel it like the rest. He wouldn't give Maddox the satisfaction.

He looked over at the part-time rookie, and just by the way Maddox was standing thought he seemed more confident. Like Maddox was becoming one of the boys. Bucky felt camaraderie blooming here.

He would not ask to hear Maddox's thrilling deer story. He didn't fall in love so easy. Instead he focused on the trunk of the spare patrol car behind Maddox, which was open. 'What do you think you're doing?'

Maddox had a box of road flares in his hands. 'Moving my stuff into the extra car.'

Bucky shook his head nice and slow. 'For emergencies only.'

Maddox stared like he didn't understand. 'Mort took it when his windshield glass got that thread crack in the corner.'

'See, that's a safety issue there. Windshield. Yours is just bodywork, cosmetic. Bang out that dent if you want, but do it on your own time.'

The police department budget was a joke. Black Falls was a piss-poor town struggling to afford Bucky and Eddie full-time. No money existed for their uniforms beyond Tshirts and ball caps; no paid vacations for anyone; no overtime and no paid details. Bucky and Eddie were the only ones who rated health insurance coverage, which both of them had declined, opting to leave their contributions in their paychecks, their salaries measuring out to a measly $7.85 hourly wage.

But there were other advantages to running a town. A smart cop could more than make up for the pay discrepancy on the side. That was where the real benefits of the job were: out on the fringe.

The patrol cars were puttering '92 and '93 Fords. Bucky's had more than 140,000 miles. And since February they had been paying to gas up their own vehicles. They already bought their own weapons and ammo. And anything that broke inside the outmoded station was theirs to repair.

But then Maddox swept back to town, and old man Pinty strong- armed his fellow selectmen, somehow finding enough money in the budget to hire on another thirty-six-hour-a-week cop with no qualifications whatsoever. Because Maddox was a legacy, because the man's father had been Pinty's partner once upon a time and, oh yeah, had been stupid enough to get himself killed in the line of duty in such a sleepy town as this.

That Maddox was Pinty's special hire here was a little too obvious. Transparent, the old man trying to hold on to the police force, forgetting that he had retired ten years ago and that his time had long, long since passed.

'Heavey heard Maddox's deer shot,' Eddie announced to the others. 'Dumb cluck thought the gun went off in his own backyard. Wants round-the-clock surveillance.'

Bart Stokes, the fourth cop, thinner and dumber than the rest, said, 'Guy needs to buy himself a pair of long pants and some balls.'

Bucky asked, 'Where's this deer now?'

Maddox's eyes and mouth were tighter as he responded. 'Off the side of the road. Ripsbaugh said he'd pick it up today.'

'Mmm,' said Ullard, the fifth cop, the joker of the bunch, rubbing his chubby hands together. 'Venison stew all week at the Ripsbaughs'.'

Stokes said, 'Five bucks he mounts the head. Trophy of a retarded deer.'

Ullard said, 'You'd mount a retarded deer for five bucks.'

Stokes reached out to push Ullard as the others laughed. All except Bucky. And Maddox.

Bucky said, 'Show and Tell's over. Maddox, you got some forms to fill out.'

'Forms?' he said.

'Vehicle damage report. And discharge of a firearm. Tell you what, why don't you write me up a full report on the whole thing.'

Maddox checked this with the others. 'Write you the report, Bucky?'

'As your senior-ranking sergeant.' Bucky didn't like the look he was getting, the attitude. 'And for future reference, deer hunter? 'Bucky' is what friends call me. You can stick with 'Sarge.''

That woke up the others. Bucky was pretty much done waiting for Maddox to get bored of working his three-a-week, twelve-hour graveyard shifts all by his lonesome. Done waiting for him to sell his dead mother's house and move the hell out of Black Falls. If Maddox was entertaining any real- cop dreams and thinking he might catch on here full-time, then maybe he was stupider than Bucky knew.

But no. Maddox was anything but stupid. That was the thing. Maddox was too smart, he was too sure, and he kept things inside. Most of all, he had a knack for being around when things happened. The sort of knack that could get a man into trouble.

Bucky looked at the others. 'The parade extravaganza ready?'

Maddox was in the dark about that. No one had told him about the parade plans.

'Ready, Bucky,' said Stokes.

The way Stokes accentuated the 'Bucky' was exactly what Bucky wanted to hear. Rally these idiots, keep the station house lines drawn. Chase Maddox off the force, and then run this town exactly as he pleased, with no one trying to peek over his shoulder. Better careful than sorry.

Bucky said, 'Maddox, you're on parade duty. The rest of us? We got some marching to do.'

4

HEAVEY

GAYLE UNFOLDED HER OVERSIZED sunglasses and said to him, 'Walter, please. We came for a parade.'

And she was right. Here he was snapping at his boys, taking it out on them. The parade was about to start, and why should he let the Pail brothers ruin the town holiday, such as it was?

Because that pair of no-brains had laughed at him.