The Backwoods

all.”

Patricia immediately put her guard up. She was a lawyer; such a question from a police officer had to make her wonder. “What are the questions in reference to?” she asked back.

“Ernie Gooder . . . and your sister, Judy Parker.”

Patricia’s head throbbed; she couldn’t concentrate. “What on earth . . . Is everything all right?”

“No, ma’am. There was more trouble last night,” the officer said. “Do you have any idea where Judy Parker or Ernie Gooder is?”

“Well . . .” She rubbed her eyes. “Aren’t they here at the house?”

“Nope. We checked the house.”

Another flag shot up. “You need a search warrant for that, Sergeant.”

He put a piece of paper in her face. “I have more than that, ma’am. I have an arrest warrant for Ernie Gooder. The magistrate just signed it.”

This is crazy! “Why do you want to arrest Ernie?”

“Did you know that most of the Agan’s Point boat docks burned down last night? The boathouse, and about half of your sister’s crabbing boats?”

Patricia couldn’t think past the shock. “No, I had no idea.”

“The fire marshal’s down there now, says it was arson. Some coincidence, isn’t it? One night after someone bums down the Ealds’ shack—a crystal meth lab—then someone bums down the docks. Looks like more turf war; at least that’s what we think.”

“But what does this have to do with Ernie?”

“Several witnesses saw him in proximity to the docks shortly before the fire.”

Patricia pushed through some mental cobwebs. Wait a minute. I saw Ernie last night at 3:15. . . . “What time?” she asked.

“About three-thirty in the morning.”

The pause in her mind yawned. That didn’t sound good at all, especially when she remembered what else Ernie had been doing last night. He was peeping in my window, and . . . It didn’t add up, though. “I don’t understand why you’re here instead of Chief Sutter.”

Shannon’s rugged face remained blank. “Chief Sutter appears to be missing, too, along with your sister and Ernie Gooder. Sergeant Trey is down at the scene right now.”

The confusion was piling up on her headache. “My sister? You’re saying that my sister is missing?”

“Not officially, but no one can find her. Her vehicle’s in the driveway, and she’s not in the house. She’s the property owner, but she’s not anywhere on the property. We think Ernie Gooder might be working in collaboration with some kind of rival drug gang—”

“That’s ridiculous,” Patricia had to admit, even after what she’d caught Ernie doing last night.

“There’s been quite a bit of evidence lately involving sales and manufacture of amphetamine-based narcotics. These vagrants who live on your sister’s land at the south end of the Point. We already know that some of these vagrants or squatters or whatever they are have been producing and selling drugs in an operation run by a man named Everd Stanherd.”

Patricia sighed. More craziness. “Look, I don’t know about the Squatters—I guess some of them are involved in that—but there’s no way that Ernie Gooder is, and . . . what? You think my sister is too?”

“No, we just think it’s odd for her to have disappeared when all of this is going on. Two burnings in two days, a rash of missing persons, and drug-related murders between what are obviously rival drug gangs.”

Patricia couldn’t argue with the trooper. “And what did you say? Chief Sutter is missing too?”

“That’s correct, ma’am. Do you know where he is?”

The tone of Sergeant Shannon’s voice unsettled her. “Why would I know where the town police chief is, Officer?”

“I’m just asking, ma’am.”

“You seem to be implying something that rubs me the wrong way.”

“No implications, ma’am. We’d just be very interested in knowing why he’s not around when the town docks get burned down. It appears that sometime last night Chief Sutter released a prisoner at the town jail, a man named Ricky Caudill. He’s missing, too. And wouldn’t you know it? When we checked Caudill’s house, we found packets of crystal meth. Sutter’s personal vehicle is still at his house, and his wife doesn’t know where he is. And . . .” The snide trooper paused for effect. ”Wouldn’t you know it? The wife’s car is gone, stolen. In a town that hasn’t had a single stolen car reported in ten years. I got men at the Sutter house right now, searching the premises and his personal vehicle. And on top of all that, your sister is missing too. We’d be very interested in knowing where she is. A lot of people have been disappearing around here lately. More than anything else, we’re very concerned about the well-being of Judy Parker and the whereabouts of Chief Sutter and Ricky Caudill. And we’re going to arrest Ernie Gooder at the earliest opportunity.” Shannon held up the warrant again—a stolid reminder. Then he gave her his card. ”I’m sorry to have to wake you up so earl—? He paused, looked at his watch, and raised a brow. Then he discreetly sniffed the air, as if to say, Would that be alcohol I smell on your breath? “Sorry to intrude on your day. But please give us a call if you think you might be able to help us out.”

“I will,” she said, trying to not grind her teeth.

“Hey, Sarge!” a younger trooper called out behind him. ”Check it out.”

Shannon walked away without further word, retracing steps back to Ernie’s bedroom, where several other officers milled about.

Jesus, that rude bastard! She had a mind to file a harassment complaint. She closed the door, repressing her lawyer’s rage, and dressed quickly. Then brushed her teeth and gargled, hoping to quell any more remnants of last night’s drinking. Now let’s see what the fuss is in Ernie’s room. . . .

When she walked in herself, she didn’t need to be told. I don’t believe it, she thought.

A state trooper with acetate gloves was plucking tiny bags of crystal methamphetamine out of Ernie’s dresser drawer.

There were many such bags.

(II)

I’m not doing too bad here, no, sir, Trey thought. Even with those couple of surprises at the last minute, Trey was sure he’d done the right thing. Burying Sutter and Ricky Caudill had been a cinch; Felps had left some holes already dug at the condo site, as promised. And taking care of the docks, too, had been easy and kind of fun. But I sure as shit didn’t count on that fuckhead Ernie catching me at the pier last night. Son of a whore followed me all the way from Judy’s house! Trey had been caught by total surprise when he’d been pumping twenty or thirty gallons of marine gas from the boat pump all over the pier and the closest crabbing boats.

Ernie was a bigger, stronger man, for sure, but Trey was harder. He’d jacked the redneck out after not much of a tussle, busted some teeth, cracked a rib or two, then knocked him out cold with a bop to the head. Never did like that fucker. Shit, I shoulda just let him burn up in the boathouse. . . . Why hadn’t he thought of that? Can’t think a everything every time. Instead, he’d hogtied Ernie and driven him out to the abandoned shanty way off from Squatterville on the Point. Nobody even knows about this place, he thought, unlocking the front door now. He’d tried to look as official as possible for the state cops and firemen once the burning docks had been discovered. They’d all been out there for hours. Close to nightfall, the state began wrapping things up, so Trey took off in his patrol car to “start canvassing the neighborhood. Try to get me a line on Ernie Gooder,” he’d claimed.

Instead, he’d come straight to the shanty.

“Howdy, folks,” he proclaimed inside.

No one responded, but how could they, with gags in their mouths? Trey lit the lantern; light flowed around