“Sorry if we frightened you.” Simon held out the basket.
“Are you all right, LeAnn?” Nona asked when she saw the worried look on the woman’s face.
“I’m fine,” LeAnn answered as she began to close the door. “Please give Mabel my thanks.” Simon and Nona stood still on the stoop as they heard the click of the door’s lock. They both wondered the same thing: Why hadn’t she asked them in? LeAnn usually welcomed someone to talk to.
“Who did she think would be knocking on her door this time of the night?”
“I was wondering that myself.” Simon scratched his chin. With his arm around Nona, they walked away from the cabin.
Nona looked back and saw that the light in the kitchen had been turned off. Why was that? Was she going to eat in the dark? Feeling uneasy, she allowed Simon to lead her back toward her cabin. “Do you think she’s all right?” Nona’s voice was full of concern. “She didn’t act like her usual self.”
“She said she’s fine, honey.” Simon’s brows were pulled together in a frown. Something wasn’t quite right there.
They walked for a while in companionable silence, the night sky full of thousands of twinkling stars. A slight breeze played with the ends of Nona’s hair.
“I want to talk to you about what happened today,” Simon said as they approached her cabin, “but not out here in the open. Let’s sit in the truck.” He opened the door and helped her up into the passenger side. A warning bell rang in Nona’s head.
After Simon slid behind the wheel, Nona warned him that if he expected her to neck with him, he was sorely mistaken.
“Why not?” He chuckled. “I’ve earned it.”
“Are you never serious?”
“I’m serious about this,” he said quietly, his joking demeanor gone without a trace. “The men in that boat would have taken Maggie and tried to get information about Harold from her.”
“Are you sure?”
“Nothing in this world is for sure, but I’d be willing to bet they’re looking for your half-brother.”
A feeling of disgust welled inside Nona. Harold had been nothing but trouble to her and Maggie. That her sister would be in danger because of something that Harold had done was sickening. “Maggie doesn’t know anything about Harold. She hardly knows him.”
“They don’t know that.”
“Maybe it would be best if Maggie and I went back to Little Rock.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. You and Maggie would be like two babes in the woods. You wouldn’t have anyone there to look out for you. When those men caught up to you, and they would, you’d be at their mercy.”
“The police would give us protection.”
“Don’t count on it. You’re better off right here with me. These guys mean business. Harold probably ran out on a deal, and the mob wants more than the money and jewelry; they want revenge. They wouldn’t hesitate to kill one of you to force the other to tell them what they wanted to know.”
“You’re just as much of a stranger to me as they are.” Nona frowned.
“You may think so. But you’re no stranger to me.” At the intensity of his gaze, color tinged Nona’s cheeks, but she returned his gaze steadily.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Just what I said, we’re not strangers. I often saw you at the apartment building. I missed seeing you when you went to work at the plant.” He grinned at the surprised look on her face. “I knew when you cut your hair short two years ago, just before Christmas, and I knew when Maggie was in the hospital with a kidney infection.”
“This is unbelievable.”
“Yeah, I know. I wanted to get acquainted with you then, but I’m here now.”
“You couldn’t stand against a hit man if he came after us.”
“I wouldn’t be alone. Jack Grant is a good man.”
“Does he know about this?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t have brought him out here without telling him.”
“I still think Maggie and I should leave.” Should I tell him about the package? He may be just giving me a line.
Simon threw an arm around her and pulled her close. “You’re not going, so get that thought out of your pretty head. You’re going to stay right here with me. When I first saw you at the apartment building, I found excuses to keep going back so I could see you again and again.” He hugged her tightly to him. “You’re right where I want you.”
“And I don’t have anything to say about it?”
“Not about this, you don’t.” He bent his head and kissed her softly on the lips. He rose back up and looked into her face, then gave her another quick kiss on the nose and said, “I mean it.”
LeAnn closed the door, threw the bolt, and stood with her back to it. The room was poorly lit, but her eyes easily found her husband, Ernie, where he stood in the corner of the room.
Nearly as thin as his wife, Ernie Leasure was the kind of man who wouldn’t draw a second glance, except for one thing. He had thinning brown hair and an ordinary face, but a pink scar crossed his left cheek. His shoulders sagged as he pointed a finger toward the door.
“What did they want?” he hissed.
“They brought me something for supper,” LeAnn answered, her eyes never leaving the floor. She’d hoped that he would have been happy to see her after being away so long, but he’d done nothing but complain and accuse her of an assortment of things since he’d arrived.
“Well, what do you know?” Ernie chuckled. “Ya got in so good with them, they’re feeding you now.”
“They’re just being kind to me, Ernie.”
“They come here often?”
“Not really.”
“Do you go there?”
“Sometimes I go down there to see if I have any mail or to ask them to get me something from the store when they go. They’re nice people.”
“Did they tell you how long they were gonna be here?” Ernie continued.
“Mabel was talking about the start of school the other day. Maybe that’s it.”
“When’s that?”
“I don’t know.” LeAnn frowned. “But Maggie said something about them being here until fishing season was over. Honestly, I have no idea how long they’ll stay.”
“Hell. If they’re stayin’ until the end of the season, they could be here all year long!” Ernie stalked over to one of the kitchen cabinets and pulled out a whiskey bottle. He took a long drink as LeAnn, holding her protruding stomach, eased down into a chair.
“When are we leaving here, Ernie?” she asked hopefully.
“When I say so,” he answered curtly. “Have you talked to the women about their brother like I told you to?”
“I mentioned it to Maggie and she acted as if she didn’t have a brother.”
“Maybe she’s been told to keep her mouth shut. That makes me think they know something. I bet the older sister knows someone is after him.”
“Why do you want to know where he is, Ernie?”
“That’s none of your damn business!” he snapped. “You just do as you’re told, then we can leave.”
It had been a long time since Ernie had struck her, but LeAnn feared that he was now angry enough to do it. She frowned at the whiskey bottle; he was always worse when he’d been drinking. Finally, after she thought he might have calmed down, she dared to ask, “Where will we go from here?”
“I haven’t decided yet. If you get the information I need, we’ll have money to go where we want. All you need to do is find out if they’re in touch with their brother. Just make up some kind of story about how you knew him once, or how a girlfriend of yours dated him. Hell, tell them you used to work in the same bank he did.”
“Ernie, for God’s sake!” LeAnn complained, “One look at me and they’d know I’ve never worked in a bank in my life. They’d know I was lying!”
“Dammit! Just make somethin’ up! Surely you’re as smart as that kid. Talk yourself up to her and find out what I need to know!”
Ernie snatched his hat off the table and slammed it on his head. “I’ll be back tomorrow night. You’d better have some news for me.”
As quickly as she could, LeAnn hoisted herself out of the chair. “You didn’t give me any money. I can’t keep taking food from Nona and Mabel and not pay them back.”
“Then ask ‘em for a job. You can clean their cabin or the outhouse.” A wicked sneer came over his face as he stared down at her. “That’s about all you’re good for now. When I found you, you didn’t have a pot to piss in and weren’t touchy about taking welfare. Why’d you have to go and get so stuck up?”
“When we came here, you didn’t tell me that we’d have to stay for weeks. You said you were going to work with a road crew. If you had done that, we would have had enough money to get a little place and be ready for the baby when it gets here,” she argued, showing some spirit.
“Don’t get your ass over the line, LeAnn,” Ernie snarled. “I’ve got enough on my mind without having to listen to you bitch every time I come here.” He fished in his pocket and pulled out some crumpled bills. “Here’s twenty dollars. It’s all I’ve got to my name, but there’ll be more. The sooner you find out where Harold Conrad is, the sooner we can leave.”
Storm clouds crossed LeAnn’s face as it dawned on her that she was married to a man who cared nothing for her at all. “Are you doing something illegal?” she asked.
“Now, why would you say that?”
“Because I know you, Ernie. If you could get your hands on some easy money, it wouldn’t make one bit of difference to you if it was legal or not, as long as you didn’t get caught.”
“You can bet your skinny little ass that what I’m doin’ ain’t no business of yours. But you can be damn sure of one thing . . . I won’t go back to the pen. I’ve had all of that hellhole I can take.”
“When you came home, you promised me you would never get mixed up in something crooked again,” LeAnn said as a tear trickled its way down her cheek. “You promised me!”
“Yes, I did,” Ernie said calmly. He took a step toward her and quickly raised his hand. LeAnn turned away and braced herself for the blow she was sure would follow. Instead, her husband patted her head as if she was a child. “Find out where Harold Conrad is and we can be out of here before you can say ‘scat.’ We’ll have money and you can afford to have that kid in the hospital. If you don’t do what I tell you, you’ll have it right here in this cabin in the middle of nowhere. It’s your choice. I’ll be back tomorrow night. Leave the back door unlocked. That damn dog almost gave me away tonight.”
“All right, Ernie.”
At the door, he turned and looked back at his pregnant wife. “What about that Wright fella, the one that was here tonight? Is he always pokin’ around?”
“Sort of. He owns the place. Mabel says he’s remodeling the cabins.”
Ernie nodded and cracked the back door. “Gotta go. Look out and see if it’s clear.”
LeAnn waddled over to the window and peeked out the curtain. “It’s clear.” When she turned to look at her husband, he was going out the door and into the dark night without even a good-bye. LeAnn sat down at the table, rested her head on her folded arms, and cried.
After all this time, Ernie hadn’t changed a bit. She’d believed his many promises, although her head had told her not to trust him ever again. He had disappointed her so many times, but when she’d become pregnant, there’d been no choice but to stay with him. She couldn’t go back to her parents’ farm. They had all they could to feed the three kids still at home. She fell asleep at the table, the cicadas’ song breaking the silence of the night.
Ernie slipped out of the camp and walked the quarter of a mile down the lakeshore to where he had left a rowboat. He dreaded going back and telling Frank and Webb that he didn’t have any news for them. Webb was all right, but Frank could be a wild man when he was mad. He shouldn’t have told them LeAnn could get the information they needed. He should have slipped over into Oklahoma and made himself scarce.
For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why she had become so bitchy! She’d managed just fine while he’d been in the pen. Besides, there was something else he really couldn’t understand. She hadn’t gotten pregnant the year they’d lived together, even though he’d screwed her morning, noon, and night. As soon as he got out of jail, bang, she’s knocked up. Hell, I’m not ready to settle down with a wife and kid! There were too many other things to do and see. As soon as he got the money from Frank, he was going to hightail it out of Arkansas to a big city and do all the things he’d only dreamed about.
The thin moon cast its reflection from the treetops onto the water. Ernie hugged the shore until he got halfway around the lake. He sure as hell didn’t want to tangle with that Wright fellow. He’d been warned that he could be full of hellfire when he got riled up. Everything had changed when they’d discovered Wright was involved. He was going to be a problem.
But problems could be eliminated.
Frank had been walking back and forth in front of the cabin for the last half hour. A cigarette dangled from between his fingers, an inch of ash having burned since he’d last taken a drag. Periodically, he would stop and strain for a sound that could be Ernie’s approach. Time and time again, there had been nothing. Webb sat silently on the steps. “Where the hell is he?” Frank snarled.
“Beats me.” Webb shrugged. “Why’d you hire that guy in the first place?”
“Because he said his old lady could find out what we needed to know. The bitch has been there for weeks now. She’s gotta know somethin’. If she don’t, he ain’t gettin’ one damn dime!”
“Seems to me he ain’t much more than a blowhard out to get some easy money.”
“I don’t give a good goddamn what he is, as long as he finds that sneaky Conrad bastard! Another day or two is all I plan to wait. I’ll shoot Wright if I have to, grab that redhead, and beat the shit outta her until she tells us where that lyin’, cheatin’ son of a bitch is!”
Webb shifted uncomfortably on the wooden planks. This side of Frank Rice was the dangerous one, the one that could get the both of them killed. “We need to be careful,” he soothed. “We don’t wanna do anything that’ll bring the FBI down on us.”
“They ain’t interested in what happens out here in the sticks.”
“Don’t believe it. We go messin’ around with those women, it could be us they come down on.”
“Ain’t no one gonna pay attention to a dead, faceless woman in the lake.”
The calm way in which Frank spoke unnerved Webb. Killing was something that he was all too familiar with; it was part of the job. But the way Frank talked about it was wrong. To him, it seemed like a pleasure. “You’d go that far?” he asked.
“Hell yes, I would! Don’t forget the big boys are dependin’ on us and they don’t like to be let down.”
“They didn’t say anything about killin’ anyone.”
“If you’re too squeamish, just let me handle it.”
Frank went back to his pacing as Webb thought about what Frank might do to that young girl over at the camp. A chill shivered its way up his spine. He shook his head in an attempt to get it out.
“You suppose that damn fool’s run out on us?” Frank asked.
“I doubt it.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. He’s too big of a coward. He knows I’d hunt him down and beat the shit out of him. If there’s one thing he doesn’t like, it’s pain. He got a good taste of it in prison.”
“I’m goin’ to bed,” Webb said as he stood up and stretched. “If he doesn’t come back tonight, he’ll be here in the mornin’. Maybe he decided to stay and plow the old lady.”
“A man would have to be hard up to sleep with that pregnant cow.” Frank sneered as he followed the younger man into the cabin. “I ain’t waitin’ for that mule’s ass. All I’ll get is eaten up by mosquitoes.”
Webb sat down on his bunk and pulled off his boots. “He’ll be back
. He wants the money.”
Frank’s shoes dropped onto the floor with a clunk. “I’m goin’ to Home tomorrow mornin’ and make a call. Who knows? Maybe someone else found Conrad and collected the percentage the boss was payin’.”
Webb blew out the candle, lay on his back, and pulled the sheet up to his chin. A mosquito whizzed by so he pulled the sheet over his face. He turned onto his side and shut his eyes. The last thing he heard was the cicadas’ song.
Chapter 9
SIMON STEPPED OUT OF THE BACK of his cabin and looked out over the lake. The sun was just coming up over the treetops and its early morning rays stained the low hanging clouds a deep orange. The lake was calm and tranquil. Not a sound was to be heard except for the birds in the trees welcoming a new day. He walked down to the dock, looked out over the water, and then came back to the small frame house where Mabel was cooking breakfast. The smell of bacon and coffee reached him as he stepped up onto the porch. She came to the door with her fingers pressed to her lips.
“The girls are still asleep,” she whispered.
“That’s good. They had a rough day yesterday.” Simon pulled the squeaky door open slowly and went into the house. Mabel motioned for him to sit down at the table and brought him a mug of coffee. “Are you sure you don’t want to get married, Mabel?”
“I’ll have to wait for you to grow up.” She grinned before turning back to the stove and flipping the pancakes on the grill. She placed a stack of three on a plate and took them to the table, setting them down in front of Simon. “Help yourself,” she said softly, indicating the butter and syrup. “Is Jack coming over for breakfast?”
Simon grinned a toothy smile. “I couldn’t keep him away with a team of mules. I expect he’ll be here any minute.”
“He’s a good-looking fellow,” Mabel mused with a twinkle in her eye.
“Now, remember,” Simon warned with a sly glance, “I asked you to marry me first.”
Mabel chuckled as she went back to the grill and poured more batter onto the hot metal. She turned a couple of pancakes that were still cooking and readied another plate. Deep inside, she smiled. No matter what Simon Wright might say, joking or otherwise, she knew that he had far more than a casual interest in Nona. Maybe someday he’ll propose to her . . . and mean it!
On Tall Pine Lake Page 8