Does him tink it’s nummy? Does him?”
She sat on the edge of a cushion now, patted her thighs, looked at Leon, and said, “Uppy. Come on, uppy.”
Leon looked at her like she was crazy and then thought what the hell and lifted his front paws up. She grabbed them and said, “Thay, thay, thay…”
Then Celeste let go of Leon’s paws and slid off the couch on her knees, hugging the dog who went down and rolled over on his back, pink tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. Celeste scratched his chest and rubbed his neck. “Him’s tha big man, yeth him ith, yeth him ith.”
Leon rolled over and got back on his feet and Celeste gave him another pretzel. She said, “Him’s a cooter, ithn’t him?” She took his head in her hands and rubbed it. “Yeth him ith. Yeth him ith.”
Teddy took a swig of beer and said, “Why’re you talking in that stupid fucking voice? God, that’s annoying.”
Celeste said, “You’re annoying. You don’t like it, don’t listen.”
Jack was on the other side of the room by himself, sitting in a leather chair, cuffed to a belly chain. He looked helpless. Kate met his gaze, thinking, you brought this on yourself, don’t look at me for sympathy.
She went back in the kitchen and flipped the burgers that were sizzling, grease popping in a fourteen-inch skillet. She’d made six patties from a two-pound mixture of round and chuck. Teddy’d said he was hungry and told her to get her ass in the kitchen and make them supper. Her real motivation was to feed Luke, who said he hadn’t eaten much in three days.
Kate heated up a couple cans of Bush’s beans and made potato salad with red skins and celery and red onion mixed with oil and mayo. She was thinking about the scene in the yard as she watched the meat fry-the situation tense till Luke diffused it: Mom, just do what they want, will you?
After they released Luke she led them to the pump house, a log structure that looked like a mini version of the lodge and had a well inside. The pump house was in plain sight, nestled between the yard and the woods. She opened the door and there was the money stacked on the floor. She’d parked in the woods and unloaded it.
DeJuan said to Jack, “What’s the matter with you? Money right here, Jack still looking for clues.”
Jack said, “You got it, don’t you? What’s the problem?”
They’d turned on him after that, like it was their plan all along. DeJuan brought the chain from his car and cuffed Jack on the spot.
DeJuan said, “Check it out-Hiatt-Thompson belly chain, answer to all your security needs. Meets US National Institute of Justice tests for workmanship, strength and tamper resistance.”
He glanced at Teddy and said, “Best of all, it’s made right here in the good ole US of A.”
Kate was thinking a belly chain could’ve come in handy with the neighborhood men who’d hit on her-lock them down and send them home to their wives.
Jack said, “What is this?”
DeJuan said, “This payback, motherfucker.” He pulled on the chain. “How that feel? Feel like you back in the joint, I can see it.”
Teddy said, “We’ve been waiting a long time for this.”
“Jack,” DeJuan said, “he not loyal to no one but his self.”
Kate could relate.
She heard DeJuan’s voice now, turned and saw him come in the room, still carrying the shotgun. Teddy was on the floor hoisting handfuls of money like a pauper idiot.
“Yo, be cool,” DeJuan said. “Don’t be bruising the greens.”
Teddy said, “Huh?”
DeJuan said, “Give a brother some love.”
He threw a banded packet and DeJuan caught it with his right hand. He brought the stack of bills up to his nose, inhaling like it was something he’d just taken off the barbecue.
“Nothing like the smell of fresh green,” DeJuan said.
Luke was in bad shape-face beat up, wrists bleeding from the handcuffs. Kate rubbed Neosporin on the cuts and gave him Motrin for the pain. His clothes were mud-covered. He was standing at the kitchen counter stuffing food in his mouth: cheese and crackers, hunter’s sausage, slices of bread and butter. She’d never seen him so hungry. She held his little face in her hands and said, “What’d they do to you?”
“Teddy likes to hit people.”
Kate could feel herself getting angry. “Well, he’s not going to hit you anymore.”
“It’s my fault,” Luke said. “I shouldn’t have come up here.”
“They were going to do it anyway.”
“I thought Jack was your friend.”
“I did too,” Kate said.
Luke had tears in his eyes and she hugged him and said, “It’s going to be okay now.”
“No, it isn’t,” he said.
“They’ll be gone soon and we’ll go home,” Kate said.
He glanced down at the floor and back up, meeting her gaze. He looked like he was about to say something, but hesitated.
Kate said, “What?”
“I heard them talking,” Luke said. “We know what they look like. They said they’re going to… kill us.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Kate said. “They got what they wanted. There’d be no reason to.” Then she thought about the killers in In Cold Blood. They didn’t have a reason, either.
“No reason to do what?” DeJuan said, coming in the kitchen.
“You want something?” Kate said, her voice tense.
“Checking up on northern Michigan cooks. There a meal somewhere in our future?”
Kate said, “We’re all set. Everybody sit down.”
“Well halle-fucking-lujah,” DeJuan said.
She couldn’t stop thinking about what Luke said. There was no way, she told herself. They were going to eat and leave. Jack would never have agreed to that. But, as she analyzed the situation, Jack didn’t appear to have much sway at the moment. Kate brought the burgers to the table on a platter with slices of red onion and tomatoes and dill pickles. She went back in the kitchen and got the bowls of potato salad and beans and put them on the table next to the burgers. She said to Teddy, “Okay, here you go.”
Teddy and DeJuan and Celeste sat down and filled their plates and ate like it was the last supper. Kate thought it was odd that these people who’d just collected two million dollars were so concerned about their stomachs.
DeJuan held his burger in his hands and said, “You and the little man sit down, join us,”
“I’m not hungry,” Kate said.
“Don’t matter,” DeJuan said. “Want your company.”
She knew their names now: Teddy, Celeste and DeJuan-Teddy had introduced everyone earlier like they were neighbors getting together for the first time. Luke sat on the end next to DeJuan, with his back to the room. Kate sat next to Celeste, across from Teddy, who was shoveling potato salad in his mouth and had grease from the burger dripping off the end of his chin.
“What about Jack?” Kate said.
“What about him?” Teddy said.
Kate said, “Can I give him something to eat?” She wanted a chance to talk to him, find out what he thought, what he knew.
“Hell no,” Teddy said. “He gets to set there, smell it and get hungry.”
Kate could feel her patience wearing thin.
Teddy had mayo in the corners of his mouth, talking while he chewed his potato salad. “I was thinking I might get me a Harley-”
Celeste said, “Think you could stop talking with your mouth open, use your napkin? You got the manners of
