‘Vern, there are a lot of diamond shops here—’ Mike started.
‘Yeah, she does like her a diamond, don’t she?’ He shook his head and ordered a draft from the bartender. ‘That’s OK. I gave her a card with a $10,000 limit. She can’t hurt me too bad.’
‘I take it Crystal’s not the boys’ mom,’ I said.
Vern laughed. ‘Jesus, God, no! Their mama’s my first wife, Lois. She’s back in Houston waiting on her boys to come home. She’s got custody of ’em, and I didn’t fight that. Children belong with their mother, unless she’s unfit or something, and God knows Lois is a good mama. ’Sides, me and Crystal need some time to get to know each other.’
‘I take it y’all are newlyweds,’ I said.
‘Married at a JP’s in Galveston the day before the ship sailed! Boys were our witnesses,’ Vern said.
‘Wow,’ I said for want of anything more meaningful to say.
‘That’s not the half of it!’ Mike said. ‘Talk about a whirlwind romance! When was it you met Crystal?’
‘Well, now you’re just embarrassing me,’ Vern said. Then he turned to me. ‘Met her on a Friday night, filed for divorce on Monday. Gave Lois any and everything she wanted, got a judge friend to rush it through for me. That was twenty-six days ago. The divorce was final last Friday. We were married Saturday morning.’
‘Wow,’ I said again.
‘Hey, Vern,’ Mike said, ‘guess what old Milt here does for a living?’
‘A poontang inspector?’ Vern said, and laughed heartily at his own weak joke.
‘Now there’s a job,’ Mike said, a little wistfully. ‘No, he’s a sheriff!’
Vern turned and looked at me. ‘No shit?’ he said. ‘Where you the sheriff?’
‘Prophesy County, Oklahoma,’ I said. ‘County seat is a little town called Longbranch.’
‘Now ain’t that the damnedest thing!’ Vern said, a look of shock and, yes, respect on his face. ‘I want you to know I’m a card- carrying member of the 100 Club in Houston. And I don’t just pay my dues, either. I give righteously.’
‘That’s nice,’ I said. ‘What’s the 100 Club?’
‘It’s an organization in Houston, started back in the ’fifties,’ Mike said. ‘It’s to help the widows and orphans of police officers.’
‘Ah, hell, we do a lot more’n that now,’ Vern said. ‘We’ve included fire fighters and state cops like DPS, and even prison guards. It’s a fine organization, but all I’m saying, Milt, is I’m on your side, one hundred percent.’
‘That’s good to hear, Vern,’ I said.
‘Always wished I’d gone to the Academy,’ Vern said wistfully. Then he barked a laugh, hit me on the back and said, ‘But then I’d never be the rich fucker I am and have that beauty sucking my dick!’
Mike and I turned in the direction Vern was looking and saw our women coming our way. The ladies were using my wife’s scooter to pile up all their booty. I got up and met Jean as she drove into the open-air bar. I bent down, kissed her and whispered in her ear, ‘Help me! I’m being held hostage by the redneck from hell!’
Jean started coughing to cover a laugh and almost choked. She patted my hand and whispered, ‘You probably had the better end of it.’ Out loud, she said, ‘Any word from the kids?’
‘Nary a one,’ Vern said, ‘but Josh’ll take good care of ’em. At first he was acting like a shithead about Crystal and all, but he’s warmed to her and been acting like a little gentleman, huh, Crystal, honey?’
‘Oh, he’s a doll,’ Crystal said. ‘They both are! Vern’s got just the sweetest boys!’
Vern beamed.
‘Honey, help me with my packages,’ Crystal said, going to the scooter that Jean had vacated for a chair at a large table that would accommodate us all. Vern started pulling off packages as his new bride directed and when they were done there were two small bags left.
‘Whose are these?’ Vern asked.
‘The pink one’s mine!’ Lucy called out.
‘The brown one is mine,’ Jean said.
‘What did you get?’ Mike asked his wife.
She held up a small clown, one of those ones like the Christmas elf who sits on the shelf? You know, sits on the mantel or something. ‘I collect clowns,’ she told me, I guess me being the only one who didn’t know this fact about her.
‘What about you, honey?’ I asked Jean.
She pulled out a cloisonné letter opener in a cloisonné sheath attached to a cloisonné base. (I only know it was cloisonné because she told me. I’m still not sure what cloisonné is, but it was sure pretty.) ‘For my office,’ she said, and actually blushed a little. Jean’s not big on geegaws, but this was real pretty.
‘That’s gonna look nice,’ I said, and smiled at her.
‘I ain’t even gonna ask what you got!’ Vern said to Crystal. ‘But I bet there’s a diamond or two in there!’
Crystal put her arms around Vern’s neck, looking up at him with googly eyes and said, ‘But baby, I like sparkly things!’ And then she giggled.
Johnny Mac – Day Three
‘Are you fuckin’ kidding me?’ Josh said to Johnny Mac, staring at the ballpoint pen Johnny Mac had placed in his hand.
‘All the jewelry was locked up,’ Johnny Mac said, blushing a little as Early, Janna, Josh and his brother Ryan all stared at him.
‘Well, you lose!’ Josh said, tossing the pen on the ground and smashing it with his foot. He looked at Johnny Mac and shook his head. ‘You disgust me. Go sit over there and stay out of my face.’
‘No way!’ Johnny Mac said. ‘And you can’t talk to me like that! You’re not the boss of me!’
‘Gosh, Mr and Mrs Kovak, I told Johnny Mac he shouldn’t steal this,’ he said, holding out a small sailboat one of the others had stolen, ‘but he wouldn’t listen to me.’
‘They won’t believe you!’ Johnny Mac shouted.
‘Early?’ Josh said.
Early looked from Josh to Johnny Mac and back to Josh again. Finally, albeit grudgingly, Early said, ‘Yeah, Josh, I heard you tell him not to.’
Johnny Mac looked at his best friend for the past five years and couldn’t believe it. Early had betrayed him, just like Harry betrayed his BFF Peter Parker, aka Spiderman.
Broken, Johnny Mac walked over to the short wall that looked out to the blue sea and sat down. This was the worst vacation of his life.
Meanwhile, Back In Prophesy County
There was nothing Emmett could do about Dalton’s gun at the moment so, as it was getting on toward three o’clock, he headed to the Christian school on the south side. A couple of churches had gotten together and bought a defunct grammar school the city had condemned, fixed it up some and made it a K-12 school. Classes were real small, which is why Jasmine wanted to put Petal in there, less than ten students per class, but the curriculum, as far as Emmett was concerned, left a lot to be desired. Emmett ascribed to the big bang theory, which he tended to keep to himself in rural Oklahoma, whereas the school, of course, taught creationism. There seemed to be religion in almost every subject. Helping Petal with her homework one night, Emmett read a math problem: ‘Noah brought in animals two by two. If he brought in elephants, zebras and monkeys, how many animals did he bring in?’ He was drinking a cup of coffee when he read that, and almost did a spit take.
There were quite a few cars in the parking lot of the Christian school when he pulled in, but he found a spot fairly close to the door. He’d discovered that the older he got, the more he liked to park close. He was thinking about maybe getting one of those handicap stickers, but wondered if you had to be actually handicapped to get one, rather than just old and lazy. He got out and headed into the school. Some of the older kids were still in the halls, the younger ones having all been picked up. This school didn’t provide buses, so you had to get your kid there and pick them up every day. Somehow Emmett and Jasmine had been able to work that into their schedules, even though it was on a daily basis.
He had never
met the principal but knew where the office was, so headed there. Reba Sinclair was at her desk, head down, writing with a ballpoint. Emmett knocked on the door jamb of the open door.
Sinclair looked up. ‘Yes?’ she said.
She looked to be around fifty or so, with frizzy salt-and-pepper hair, so thin she looked like maybe she had an eating disorder, a really large nose – probably looking so big because of the weight loss, Emmett thought. He hoped so. Her eyes were covered with tinted glasses. She was not an attractive woman, which may have been one of the reasons she dated through the prison system and bought her boyfriend expensive gifts.
‘Ma’am, I’m Deputy Emmett Hopkins from the Prophesy County sheriff’s department. I’d like to talk to you, if I may—’
She stood up at her desk, glaring at him. ‘You have no right coming here and harassing me!’ she fairly hissed at him. ‘My personal life is none of your business, Mr Hopkins, and just because you’re a deputy gives you no right to tell me who I can see in my private life!’
‘Ma’am—’
‘The children are in no way affected by my relationship with Mr Hunt! He will not be coming near the school, I can assure you of that! Now if you will please leave my office—’
Emmett reached behind him and shut the door to her office. ‘Ms Sinclair, I’m not here about Petal. I’m here on official business. Ma’am, I need you to sit down a moment,’ Emmett said.
Reba Sinclair remained standing for a long moment, then slowly sat down. ‘What is it?’ she asked.
‘I’m sorry to inform you, ma’am, that Darby Hunt was killed last night.’
She covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide. ‘Oh, my God!’ Tears sprang to her eyes. ‘What happened?’
‘Drive-by shooting, ma’am,’ Emmett told her.
‘He was a wonderful man, Mr Hopkins,’ she said. ‘He was terribly sorry about Cheryl. He had a bad temper back then. He found Jesus with the help of the prison chaplin and,’ she blushed, ‘me, I guess. We were going to be married.’
‘I’m so sorry for your loss, ma’am.’
‘How is his mother?’ she asked.
‘Distraught, I’m sure,’ Emmett said.
Reba Sinclair stood up and wiped her eyes. ‘I must go to her.’ She stopped in her tracks and said, ‘Unless you have questions?’
‘Can you tell me where you were last night?’ Emmett asked.
She nodded. ‘At home going over administrative paperwork. Although I should have been with him. I was supposed to be, but . . . this problem . . . with the paperwork . . .’
Her voice trailed off and she sat back down. ‘I can’t believe he’s really dead,’ she said.
‘Again, ma’am, I’m really sorry for your loss. Would you like a ride over to Mrs Hunt’s house?’
‘No. No, thank you, Mr Hopkins. I’ll be heading over there in a minute,’ she said, and turned in her swivel chair to stare out the window.
Emmett left, again leaving behind the walking wounded.
While Emmett was interviewing Reba Sinclair, something wonderful was happening at the offices of the sheriff’s department.
Dalton was sitting at his desk in the bullpen, not even looking at Holly. He didn’t dare look at her, knowing what a mess he’d made of things. No way would she want to be with him now. He’d heard it all his life, but he never believed it until now. Dalton, he told himself, you are a screw-up.
But, as usual, there was an angel watching over Dalton, the same angel that got him out of that mess in Tulsa and led him to meet Holly in the first place. And that angel opened the front door of the shop and in walked a lady named Inez Walker, dragging in two boys by their shirt collars.
‘Anybody missing something around here?’ the lady said at a very high volume.
Dalton jumped up from his desk and ran to the counter, praying like it was Sunday. ‘Ma’am?’ he said.
‘My name is Inez Walker and these two terrors are my grandsons – my boy’s son Michael Walker and my daughter’s boy Taylor Dunham. Boys?’ She let go of their shirt collars and stared down at them.
‘We’re sorry, Deputy,’ the one called Michael said. ‘Yeah,’ echoed his cousin.
‘And why are you sorry?’ demanded their grandmother, handing Michael a bag out of her purse.
‘We stole your gun,’ Michael said.
His cousin echoed, ‘Yeah.’
Michael handed Dalton the bag and, sure enough, his service revolver was inside, the bullets tossed in separate.
‘I emptied it to be on the safe side,’ Inez Walker said.
‘Thank you, ma’am,’ Dalton said.
‘Now tell the man the rest,’ she said to the boys.
‘And we’ll pay to have the window and the inside thing fixed.’
‘It may not be cash, Deputy,’ Inez Walker said, ‘but these are two strong, strapping young men, and they sure can wash cars and clean toilets until it’s paid off.’
‘Nana!’ said the younger one.
She glared at him and he shut up.
Dalton was nodding his head. ‘Well, ma’am, I’ll take that up with our acting sheriff when he gets back, and if you leave your number, we’ll get back to you,’ Dalton said. ‘But, ma’am, may I ask the boys a question?’
‘Certainly, Deputy. You can even lock them up for a few hours if you want.’
Both boys stared up at their grandmother with wide, wounded eyes.
‘No, ma’am,’ Dalton said. ‘That won’t be necessary.’ Turning to the boys, he said, ‘How come you broke the window in the first place? What made you think there’d be something to take?’
Michael, the older one, said, ‘Well, sir, we saw you take your gun out of its holster and put it in your glove box. We were standing there right across the street.’
‘Oh,’ Dalton said. He should have been paying more attention, he thought. As usual.
Inez Walker dug in her purse and came up with a card. ‘It’s got my home number, cell number, email address and website address right there,’ she said, pointing it out. ‘I had these made up to hand out to the men at the senior center. Gotten a few dates out of it,’ she said, grinning.
‘Nana!’ Michael said.
‘Don’t be embarrassed, child. Everybody needs a little lovin’.’
With that, she grabbed her grandsons by the backs of their shirts and headed out the door.
Milt – Day Three
My smart wife asked the Weavers and the Tulias which dinner they were going to; when they said the late one, we went to the early one. I was fixing to take Johnny Mac and Early down to the buffet when my son said, ‘I’d rather eat with you and Mom. Early can do whatever he wants.’
Kinda quick, Early said, ‘Me, too. I want to eat with y’all.’
Thinking maybe the boys had had a tiff of some sort, Jean and I welcomed them to what had become our table, up one step and down three tables to the left. That night I had mushroom caps stuffed with lobster and crab for an appetizer, an endive salad with a cucumber dressing that was weird but good, and a crispy-skinned duck served with candied sweet potato spears and a smidgen of cooked cabbage – I know, sounds homey, but it wasn’t. It was goddam wonderful. And for dessert I had cherries jubilee that they set on fire at the table. The boys were impressed enough to order their own each. They still weren’t in a sharing mood.
The boat pulled out of the Grand Caymans while we were eating dinner. By the time we’d finished, the ship had hit a squall and we could see lightning through the windows of the dining room. Because Jean and I both like a good storm, we made our way to the pool area where we could hear the thunder and watch the rain and lightning while safely under its half-roof. All the swimmers and sunbathers had deserted the area and we had the place to ourselves. The boys went with us, although I could tell Early wasn’t a storm aficionado like the Kovak family. He flinched every time he saw the lightning and covered his ears when the thunder boomed.
‘Is the ship going to sink?’ Early asked me at on
e point.
‘No, it’s not. They go through storms like this all the time, son—’
‘He’s not your son!’ Johnny Mac said, standing up and moving closer to me. ‘I am!’ He stared hard at Early, who moved away from us and sat down at the end of the covered area. I could see he was getting wet.
At that point I suggested we take the boys back to our suite. Letting them walk ahead of us, Jean said, ‘Let’s leave them alone in the cabin, OK? They need some time to work out whatever’s going on with them.’
I nodded my agreement. Looking at the menu of activities earlier, we saw this country singer we’d heard the first night was going to be on around ten in one of the smaller auditoriums, and I’d talked Jean into going. She’s not much into country music, but she’s a good sport, I’ll give her that. We got the boys ready for bed, kissed ‘em both goodnight and headed to see Miss Lily Sullivan White.
Johnny Mac – Day Three
‘I’m sorry,’ Early said from the bottom bunk.
Johnny Mac didn’t reply.
‘I said I’m sorry!’ Early said with a bit more bite.
‘Yeah, you’re a sorry asswipe!’ Johnny Mac countered.
Early stood up from his bunk and looked up at his friend. ‘I was scared, OK? I’ll admit that! Josh scares the crap out of me!’
Johnny Mac sat up and looked down at his friend. ‘And that’s supposed to make what you did OK?’
Early shrugged. ‘No, I guess not. It’s just that –’ Early shrugged again. ‘OK,’ he said, crawling back in the lower bunk. ‘I’m an asswipe.’
Johnny Mac jumped down from the upper bunk and leaned into the lower one. ‘Yeah, you are,’ he said, ‘and I can’t believe you stole that boat!’
Early sat up and grinned. ‘But I didn’t,’ he said. ‘I bought it with the money your dad gave us! I just threw away the sack before Josh could see it!’
Johnny Mac laughed. ‘Cool! And Josh thinks he’s so smart! What an asswipe!’
Dark Waters Page 9