“Did you shoot anyone?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I was outside in the car. I was the driver. A bank guard shot Buddy. We hadn’t no more than driven out of there with the loot than Timmy was looking at Buddy like he had to go. He didn’t want to play nursemaid, drag him around. I could see it in his eyes. I was certain of it.”
“Good call,” Jane said. “He shot him, all right, and you’re next. We found you easy, and so will they. I’m surprised they haven’t already. They’re bound to show eventually.”
“I figure the same,” Strangler said. “My guess is they didn’t find me ’cause the carnival has been in Missouri and Arkansas. This is the first week we been in Texas. So if they been in East Texas, they been having to wait on me.”
“It’s not exactly sneaky,” Jane said, “to go back to your old line of work in a trailer with your name and likeness on the side of it.”
“I ain’t running. I sent the money back. I’m no criminal.”
“Yeah,” Jane said. “You keep saying that.”
“I’m through running,” Strangler said. “I’m just going to hit people in the ring.”
“And those bad boys are going to shoot you,” she said, “and when they find out you gave the money back, they’re going to shoot you a lot.”
“Let them,” Strangler said. “I don’t care. I ain’t running. I gave the money back. I just got sideways for a time there. This Great Depression, as they call it, it got to me. Not having any money and thinking my future wasn’t nothing but twisting people in knots and throwing them around. What do I do when I get old? So I got in with some bad people who wanted my muscle. I guess I’d seen too many gangster movies. My mama didn’t raise me that way, and I come to that conclusion after we robbed that bank and I saw Buddy take a bullet. We could have killed some of them citizens. I decided it was better to starve. Thanks for trying to help me, but you kids go away.… Wake him up.”
Tony was asleep on the couch. He had sort of wadded up there and gone right out.
“We’ve had a rough few days,” Jane said. “All because we were coming here to help you.”
“That was some of it,” I said. “Don’t forget the adventure part. Speaking symbolically, of course.”
“Oh, go to hell,” Jane said, and went out of the trailer.
“She likes you,” Strangler said.
“You think?”
“Oh yeah. Can’t say how much, but the ones you irritate like that, they like you. They got to like you to get that mad.”
“No daughter, huh?” I said.
“Nope,” he said. “Made it up.”
44
I woke Tony and pulled him off the couch, and we caught up with Jane as she was leaving the carnival lot. The carny we had first spoke to crossed our path on the way out.
He said, “He going to treat you right?”
“No,” Jane said, pausing. “I don’t believe he is.”
“I’m sorry,” the carny said. “That isn’t very stand-up.”
“No,” Jane said, “it isn’t.”
“I know it don’t help much, but here,” said the carny, and gave her a handful of tickets. “These will get you and your friends in, and give you all the rides you want.”
“Thanks,” said Jane, and she stuffed them in her pants pocket, headed across the street to where the truck was parked.
When we were all in the truck, I said, “I didn’t mean to make you mad back there.”
“It’s all right,” she said. “It isn’t you. I figured it was going to be like in a picture show where we save someone’s life, and his kid gets her foot fixed, and so on. I was expecting a happy ending. Now he’ll just get shot and nobody’s foot got fixed.”
“None to fix,” I said.
“That’s what’s disappointing,” Jane said. “Strangler is just like you said. He’s a big idiot. Let’s get out of here. He’s made his bed, now he can lie in it. Let’s go back to Tyler.”
“We going to look for your relatives now?” I said.
Jane sighed. “About that. We don’t really have any relatives here in East Texas.”
“We don’t?” Tony said.
“No, we don’t,” Jane said. “I made that up.”
“That ain’t right, Jane,” said Tony. “I knew that, I’d have stayed with that nice lady.”
“I wanted us to all go together,” Jane said. “I wanted there to be a place we were going.”
“That’s pretty low, Jane,” I said.
“I know,” Jane said. “I’m pretty low.”
“You’re the worst sister ever,” Tony said.
“I’m sure someone can find someone worse,” Jane said, “but certainly I’ll be getting no rewards for my sisterly manners.”
I stopped at a store between Lindale and Tyler with a Coca-Cola machine out front. Jane gave me three nickels, and I used them to get us each a Coca-Cola. We sat on the curb and drank them. Across the street, we could see a billboard with Strangler’s name on it. This one also had his picture, same one that was on the side of his trailer.
“They probably been all over East Texas looking for him,” I said, “and Strangler has been out of town. But a carnival ain’t hard to follow. Might as well be a brass band. If they’re going to catch up with him, this would be the place.”
“If they’re smart,” Jane said, “they haven’t been following him at all. They know the carnival is going to come through this area eventually, so all they got to do is hole up and wait, and it’s all over but the dirt in the face.” She took a big swig of her Coca-Cola. “Dang it,” she said. “We ought to go back and talk to him again. Get him to run or go to the cops. We can’t just leave him, and us knowing what’s going to happen. We got to convince him.”
“Well, we got carnival tickets,” Tony said.
45
It was nighttime when we got to the carnival, and it was shiny with lights and metal rides reflecting light. It was so bright you couldn’t see the sky. The air was thick with the smells of hot dogs, cotton candy, and popcorn.
We hadn’t no more than given our tickets and gone inside, when we saw Bad Tiger and Timmy. They didn’t see us. They were across the way, walking. They both looked rough, like they hadn’t changed their clothes in days. They each had a growth of beard, and they had a slump to their walk, like their feet hurt and their souls were no fresher.
Even though I’d been half expecting them to show up, my jaw still dropped. On some level, I think I figured they’d given it all up and we’d never see them again. Or that there wasn’t any chance of us showing up at the same time. But there they were.
They were wandering between gaming stands and stacks of cheap teddy bear prizes. We saw them walk in front of the freak show tent with crude paintings of freaks on the sides, bearded women and pinheads and wolf boys and so on. Barkers were beckoning to them, calling out to “Come and give it a try.” They didn’t break stride. Like us, they were on a mission.
They were going in the opposite direction of Strangler’s trailer, which meant they were using guesswork. After a moment, they passed out of our sight.
I caught Jane’s shoulder, and she said, “Yeah, I saw them.”
Tony said, “I can run around to Strangler’s trailer. I can warn him.”
“You’re nothing but a kid,” Jane said.
“Yeah,” Tony said, “but I’m a kid that can run fast.”
