keep digging. Pete was in the house with Jim, seeing that he didn't get loose. Max had gotten a promise from Pete that he wouldn't kill Jim unless Jim got free. Still, Julie was anxious. She would have preferred being inside with them to being out here. But Max had insisted.
'You may not have had anything to do with this,' he said. 'But it'll do you good to see the end of it anyway. I don't want you getting smartass later on.' Watching her sister and her sister's friend bury the man they had killed would be good for her, he believed. Julie had to admit that it was a grisly experience. But not as grisly as it had been seeing him lie there on the kitchen floor all the time.
It was after midnight when they finally got him into the grave, and then they had to cover him up. Max sat against the back of the barn with Julie next to him, stroking one of her thighs idly, while the other two women worked doggedly, shoveling heaps of dirt back into the deep grave. They seemed to be in a hurry until they had enough dirt inside to cover the body. Then they slowed.
When they patted the last shovelful on top of the grave, Max stood. Julie came up beside him. 'All right,' he said. 'Let's put our tools away, girls. Then you can go inside and cook us something. As soon as you get cleaned up.'
When the shovels were both hung back in place, the damp smell of the earth still clinging to them, Max herded the girls back to the house, the rifle held at a lazy ready position. A car went by on the road, and the women all looked at it longingly, thinking of the people who were inside, going from somewhere to somewhere else, with nothing more to worry about than getting there on time. Max laughed.
'Why don't you yell?' he asked. 'Maybe they'll hear you.' It was just a joke, of course. The occupants of the car wouldn't be able to hear anything from this distance other than a shot. And even that would probably be ignored. The headlights flashed by, and then the tail lights winked between the fence posts until they disappeared. Max prodded Sally with the rifle. They started toward the house again.
When they were right in front of the stoop Connie stopped suddenly and fell to her knees. She began to wretch, her little body shaking all over with the convulsions. The vomit spewed, hot and steaming, to the ground. Max laughed again. 'Getting to you, cunt? Too bad. You should have thought of that before you shot him.' Sally looked as though she were only holding on by the skin of her teeth. Julie felt a new surge of contempt for them both. The burial hadn't been a pleasant experience, but she couldn't see that it was worth all this fuss.
Connie stood, and in the light from the window Julie noticed that some of the vomit had splattered on the girl's breasts and belly and thighs. It was a warm night, and Max had made them all come out in the nude.
The inside of the house seemed almost cheerful after the ghoulish scene outside. Max shoved Connie and Sally toward the bathroom, then told Julie to go inside with them. 'You could use a little cleaning up too,' he said. 'We like to keep our little whores smelling dainty, you know.'
When they were inside the bathroom with the door shut, Connie went straight to the toilet and knelt down to try to vomit some more. She couldn't manage to do it, and finally she stood up. Her face was white and drained looking, and her features looked pinched.
Sally turned on the water in the tub and held her hand under the stream, waiting for it to warm up. There was a gooseneck shower fixture hooked up to the tap, and when the water was adjusted to her taste, she pulled up on the cutoff, sending the water up through the shower pipe.
'Come on,' she said to Connie. 'Come on, honey. You'll feel better after you get cleaned up a little.' Connie allowed herself to be led to the tub, and stepped over the high side of it. She stood on the rubber mat, letting the steamy water wash over her. 'Now you wash,' Sally said, as though she were talking to a child. She handed a wash cloth and a bar of soap to the girl. Connie looked at the two articles blankly for a moment, as though she couldn't figure out what they were for, then she smiled meekly and held them under the spray to wet them. Sally pulled the shower curtain around the tub. Then she went to the toilet, closed it, and sat on the lid. She looked at the wall, pointedly ignoring Julie.
'You don't have to pretend I'm not here,' Julie said. 'I'm not really your enemy, you know.'
'As far as I'm concerned you are.'
'Because I saved you from doing something stupid?'
'Let's not go into that again.'
'You're still alive, you know. That's because I didn't let you go through with that idiotic notion you had. I warned Max to keep you from getting killed.'
'You warned Max to keep yourself from getting killed.'
'You're damned right I did. My family and I come first in my book. And I'll do whatever I have to do in order to keep the three of us alive.'
'You know, Sis, I really admired you when you did what you did with Pete to keep his mind off killing Jim. I thought, there goes someone who's willing and able to make any sacrifice for the good of those she loves. But now I don't think that's the case at all. I don't think it was all that much sacrifice for you. I think you just don't care much about what you do. You don't mind them putting their hands on you.' She shuddered, as though the thought of it were bad enough in itself to make her ill.
'I wouldn't be so Goddamn virtuous sounding if I were you, young lady. I heard the whooping good time you were having in there with Max, you know. You didn't sound to me like you were too horrified by what he was doing to you.'
Sally flushed deeply. 'Sure, it got to me. It would get to any normal woman, wouldn't it? That doesn't mean I didn't mind it. I don't go looking for it, you know. I'm not the one who grabbed Pete and practically raped him.'
'I did what had to be done. Pete had just lost a big showdown against Max. His ego was smarting, and he needed something to salve it. Otherwise he might have gotten mean again. There's just one way to keep his mind off killing, and that's to keep it on the thing he likes better than killing.'
'And you're just the gal who can do it, aren't you?'
'You're damned right I am, if it means saving my life, and lives of my husband and my little girl. If you're so Goddamn pure, why don't you just tell them that you've decided not to put out any more? Why don't you tell them that you've thought it over and decided that death really is better than dishonor?'
'You think you're so Goddamn smart, don't you, Sis? No, I'm not going to tell them anything of the sort. Death isn't better than dishonor. I'll put up with the pawing for as long as I have to, but the moment I get a chance to escape, I'm going to. And I won't go looking for a screwing, the way you did. If I don't get a chance to get away from here, I'll at least die knowing that I was a victim, not a whore.'
Angry words jumped to Julie's lips, but she bit them off. Instead she said, 'There isn't any reason why you have to die. He's not going to kill you.'
'Oh, sure. He's just going to leave us here alive and healthy.'
'That's right. Provided you don't make another stupid try.' Julie felt a momentary flash of guilt at the deliberate lie she was telling Sally, but it passed quickly. The girl should have used her head when she had the chance.
'You sound like you think you know what you're talking about.'
'I do know what I'm talking about. Max told me in the bedroom that he doesn't plan to kill either of you. He was mad right at first, and scared because you almost killed him. But after he thought it over he decided that there was no reason to kill you.'
'And does he have a reason not to?'
'Maybe you've got him wrong. Maybe he doesn't kill for the fun of it. I haven't seen any reason to think he does.' Julie suddenly got an idea. 'Besides, he's grateful to you, really.'
'Grateful?' Sally sounded skeptical, but she sounded curious, too.
'They have some money hidden away. Max does. The deal was that they would pull their escape together and then they'd all split the money. Now Max only has to split it two ways instead of three. Maybe he plans to kill Pete and keep it all. I don't know. Either way, he feels you and Connie have done him a favor.' Julie was amazed at the glibness with which the yarn sprang into her mind. She felt no guilt, not even a tinge. She was intent on making Sally believe her story.
The shower had stopped running, and now the curtain was pulled back. Connie looked at Julie intently. 'Is that the truth, Mrs. Bradford?' she asked. She looked eager to believe it.
'Connie, you don't really think…' Sally started, but Connie waved her silent.
'It's the God's truth, Connie, so help me,' Julie said. 'That's why I'm hoping that you won't try anything foolish. They shouldn't be here too much longer. And even if they are, it's better to put up with them and do
