Up Jumps the Devil

I took another look around the interior of his truck and decided I was probably imagining things.

Nevertheless, I took his sausage biscuit out of the greasy paper it’d come wrapped in and carefully tucked a fresh napkin around the bottom so he could eat while he drove without strewing crumbs.

A third of the sandwich disappeared in a single bite and his mouth was full as he said, “I could eat a horse.”

I broke off a small piece of my sausage and biscuit, barely enough to take the edge off my own appetite, and passed the rest over to him. He grunted his thanks and wolfed it down, too.

Yeah, this was Reese all right.

With the rich smell of sausage and coffee filling the cab, we drove aimlessly in a wide looping circle around Dobbs, enjoying the drive. Not going anywhere, just going.

“Dwight Bryant call you yet?” I asked.

“Nope. What about?”

“About what time you drove past Jap Stancil’s garage yesterday?”

“Who says I did?” His voice was wary.

“Saw your tracks.”

“Must’ve been from last week sometime. No, wait a minute, I remember now. I did cut through last Tuesday to see if I could fit a trailer between those willows near the long pond.”

“Oh, come on, Reese. It rained hard all day Friday. Didn’t stop till after midnight. Your tracks were laid down sometime yesterday morning. New crisp diamonds in a wide tread. You’re not going to tell me any of the other boys have tires like yours.”

“Okay, so it was me,” he said grumpily. “You don’t have to go telling the whole county, do you?”

“Why not?”

“ ’Cause I was suppose to be working. Finishing up a house there on Forty-Eight. But dammit all, Deb’rah! Dad and Ma don’t want me to work on Sunday, the state don’t allow Sunday hunting and I’ve not taken a full Saturday off in two months. Ruth and Jessica were riding their horses along the creek in the new ground Thursday evening and Jess told me she saw some pretty big deer tracks.”

Ruth is Andrew’s younger daughter by his second wife and Jessica is Seth and Minnie’s middle child. Both are still in high school.

“Well, you know how A.K. keeps bragging about that head he’s got mounted? I thought it’d sure be fun if I took a little drive through, maybe bag a big buck myself if I got lucky.”

“And did you?”

He shook his head. “Nope. Saw the tracks though and man, they’re humongous, but that’s all I saw.”

“What time was this?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I wasn’t paying much attention to the clock. I knocked off around ten-fifteen, ten- thirty, and drove straight on over. I was maybe ten minutes away. Say ten-thirty, maybe ten forty-five?”

“See anything of Mr. Jap when you drove past the garage?”

“Nope, not a soul. I would’ve stopped to ask Allen about a sticky valve, but his truck wasn’t there neither. You don’t think Dwight’s really going to come asking me stuff, do you?”

“If someone tells him those are your tire tracks, he will. You ought to go ahead and tell him yourself ’cause that could help narrow down the time range. Dwight’s got no reason to mention it to your dad, especially if you ask him not to.”

But Reese was getting a look on his face like a right-sided mule hitched up to left-sided traces. No way was he going to pull that load.

“Granddaddy already said he saw Mr. Jap at the crossroads around ten-thirty. I’m telling you I didn’t see anybody when I drove in or when I drove out, and I don’t see why I’ve got to get involved.”

He drained the last of his coffee, crushed the foam cup in his hand, and turned down the street that would bring us back to my car. I sipped my own coffee and tried to figure out why he was so reluctant to speak to Dwight.

There was a sour feeling between us when he pulled up beside the church.

“Thanks for breakfast,” he said stiffly.

As I opened the door to climb down, a gust of cold wind caught my hair and tangled it in the bolt action of the Winchester behind me.

Awkwardly, Reese reached over to untangle me and I said, “You do have a deer license, don’t you?”

He shook his head and looked at me sadly. “What do you think I am, stupid or something?”

Anger I might’ve believed. Ironic laughter I might’ve believed. But all that innocence shining in his bright blue eyes?

I held out my hand and wiggled my fingers. “Come on, Reese. Show me.”

He slammed his hand down hard on the seat between us. “Okay, so I don’t have a fucking deer license. You satisfied? When’ve I had the time to buy one? Will you tell me that? And now I suppose you’ll tell your boyfriend and I won’t be able to turn around without a game warden breathing over my shoulder.”