too—but not with her. And just in case you might feel you want to talk to someone about these boys being here. Someone like Brown. Don't do it. Something happens to these pieces of shit, it might make me feel bad on account of they put money in my charity cans. Are you readin' me here, son?'
'Chief—'
'The answer's 'yes sir,' ' Cantuck said.
'Yes sir,' Reynolds said.
'Now go on,' Cantuck said. 'Day's too bad to hang out here. Word is the dam's leakin' like a goddamn sieve. Next thing you know, we'll be digging bass out of our asses. Now get.'
Reynolds went out and closed the door.
'You really don't like him, do you, Chief,' Leonard said.
'Nope, I don't.'
I said, 'Thanks, Chief.'
'Don't thank me,' he said. 'I don't want you here neither.'
'You say that,' Leonard said, 'but you don't mean it.'
'Oh yes I do,' Cantuck said.
'This sort of rejection from authority figures,' Leonard said, 'it's exactly what makes a fellow go bad. I read that in a book somewheres.'
Chapter 28
Cantuck told us to go home, but he didn't make it an official order, so we waded over to Tim's station and went inside. He was sitting behind the counter with his feet up. When he saw us come in, his eyebrows went up.
'Sort of thought I'd seen the last of you two,' he said.
'You almost did,' I said. I looked at the pig's feet in the jar on the counter. It looked like the same pig's feet as before. I said, 'Thought you sold lots of those?'
'I lied,' Tim said. 'I try to sell them to the out-of-towners. What do you boys want? I mean, is this safe for you?'
'Can we sit?' Leonard asked.
'Sure,' Tim said. 'Go ahead. I'll get us a little coffee.'
He went and got the coffee. Leonard and I sat in the same chairs we had sat in before and Tim's long coat hung on the same chair where it had hung before. I put my hand in my pocket and fondled my .38, lovingly. We listened to the rain on the roof.
When I felt sure no one was about to charge through the door in a white sheet, I looked around the store, at the new pile of wood beside the stove—without a lizard this time—the crap under the barrel stove, the shiny blue something there, the dust bunnies, and the tobacco wrapper.
Everything seemed just the way it had that Christmas we had come into Grovetown, except the aluminum Christmas tree was gone. It was hard to believe it had been nearly a month. A bit of wind rustled through the place as Tim came in with coffee. It blew dust bunnies across the floor and into the corners.
When we had our coffee and Tim was seated, Leonard said, 'You think your dad was behind what was done to us?'
Tim thought a moment. 'Maybe he didn't have it done, but the ones done it done it 'cause he wanted it done I bet on that. But why are you guys back?'
'We're stupid,' I said.
'I believe that,' Tim said.
'What about Reynolds?' Leonard said. 'He behind any of this?'
'Christ, boys, I don't know. Why the third degree?'
'Sorry,' Leonard said. 'We're just a little down on our social skills today.'
'And nervous,' I said.
'I bet,' Tim said. 'Hell, boys, I'm glad enough to see you, but I think you ought to leave this to out-of-town law if you're thinking of doing something yourself.'
'We don't know what we're thinking,' I said. 'We still haven't found Florida.'
'She could still be okay,' Tim said. 'Run off somewhere for some reason we haven't got a clue. And I tell you. I'm thinking of leaving out of here myself, for a while. That old Grovetown dam, they say it's pretty creaky, all this rain. It's got more water in it now than last time, and when it broke that time it was bad news. I want Mama out of where she is, but I haven't been able to budge her. That dam breaks, her trailer park'll be the first place to get it. There's already places out there under four or five feet of water just from the seepage. Half the town has left already. Won't come back until the rain stops or the water goes down.'
'That's to our advantage,' I said.
'You two are fools,' Tim said. 'This time, someone might succeed at what they tried last time.'
'And you don't want to be in the middle of it?' Leonard said.
'Damn right,' Tim said. 'You heard what they did to Bacon.'
