Southern Discomfort

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It was quickly arranged after that. Nadine would go in the helicopter with Herman. Some of the girl cousins would drive Annie Sue home to bathe and change and pack a suitcase for her mother, then they would drive her over to Chapel Hill, which was about an hour or so west of us. Reese called Charlotte and Greensboro to let Edward and Denise know what was happening. Everyone else would either go on home to wait for news or head over to Chapel Hill to sit with Nadine.

Dwight had waylaid Nadine and Annie Sue for a few quiet words and before the rest completely scattered, he had another few quiet words for my hotheaded relatives.

'I don't want anybody here doing anything stupid, you boys hear what I'm saying? I'll take care of Bannerman as soon as I can swear out a warrant. It's gonna be done legal and by the book, so I want all y'all to give me your word you'll leave it alone.'

'Too late for Reese's word,' said Stevie. 'He and A.K.'ve already gone looking for him.'

As Dwight headed out to his car to radio for someone to head Reese off at the trailer park, I snagged Stevie.

'One of Herman's trucks is over at the WomenAid house,' I told him. 'I'll run you over and help you pick up the tools Annie Sue was using and you can drive it home, okay?'

'Sure,' he said. *      *      *

By the time we got to Redbud Lane, it was after ten, the rain had dwindled to a thin drizzle, and the convenience store on the corner was locked and dimly lit. Bannerman's Jeep was still parked beside the white van and I suppose we could thank the rain that the van hadn't been stripped because neither Annie Sue nor I had thought to lock it when we left.

All my brothers and I are in the habit of leaving our keys under the front seat if we aren't locking up, and Annie Sue had evidently picked up the same habit. Stevie, too, because he went right to the floor, fumbled around and came up with them jingling in his hand.

I found a flashlight and we went inside. He folded up the overturned stepladder and carried it out to the truck while I started gathering up the scattered tools. When we'd almost finished, I remembered the hammer I'd dropped at the rear of the house where I found Annie Sue.

Okay, easy enough to say I should have realized as soon as I first touched the hammer hours earlier, but dammit, my niece was battered and bloody. I thought she'd been raped. And then Herman—

But yeah, I suppose the minute I saw that stupid red phallic symbol still parked in the yard, I should have known Carver Bannerman had never left.

We found him draped over a saw-bench at the back of the house with his head smashed in.

Like Herman, he got sent to Chapel Hill that night, too.

Except that Herman went to Intensive Care and Bannerman went to the medical examiner's morgue.

CHAPTER 11

LINE LEVELS

'The line level is used to test whether a line or cord is level. It is particularly useful when the distance between two points to be checked for level is too long to permit the use of a board and the carpenter's level. However, the line level will show a disadvantage at a long distance because the line has a tendency to sag.'

Few crime scenes are what Aunt Zell would call neat, but the WomenAid house was a real mess.

Literally.

The yard was a muddy pigmire. Although it had been crisscrossed with car tracks and footprints, hours of rain had blurred them into a sameness impossible to differentiate.

Inside, the floors were littered with scraps of two-by-fours, bent nails, pieces of tar paper and insulation, and plastic drink cups. Plastic tarps lay crumpled in the corners or draped over the wall spacers. When we were there working in the late afternoon, Annie Sue and I had mucked back and forth to the truck, through the sawdust that had drifted over the concrete floor; and every time Stevie and I went in and out with stepladder and tools, we'd tracked yet another load of wet mud.

Dwight's crime scene people brought portable floodlights and they began to photograph every inch of the place inside and out, but I couldn't see as how they'd find much to help them. The heat they generated made the humid air even steamier.

I showed Dwight exactly where I thought I'd stumbled on the hammer near the front door. As it turned out, when I carried it back to where I found Annie Sue, I wound up dropping it less than three feet from where Carver Bannerman's body still lay, slumped over a sawbench like one of the plastic tarps, his pants unzipped but still in place.

'And you didn't see him lying there?' Dwight asked skeptically.

'Oh sure, you can say that, lit up like it is now. When I came in, though, there was nothing but my car lights. Everything was dark and shadowy. I told you I sort of thought Annie Sue was a roll of tar paper till I heard her moan, remember? And after that, taking care of her was all I thought about. It certainly didn't occur to me to start fumbling around to see if any of those other dark lumps were human bodies.'

'Come here a minute,' he said and took me off to the far side of the small house, out of earshot of his officers. His brown eyes were troubled as he looked deeply into mine. 'Now listen, Deb'rah, and don't mouth off at me, 'cause this is for real. You sure this is the way you want to tell it?'

'What?'

'Well, think about it. If Annie Sue was the one who bashed his head in, it seems to me it'd be a clear-cut case of self-defense. The doctor can attest to her bruises and that blow on her head. She might not even have realized