"That proves you never knew Marve Pooser. He would never come out here with money, not even to hide. He'd go somewhere he could spend it."
"Just the same he's out here. You could help me find him."
She laughed. "Even if you found him it would be a long way from spending any money that he might have. I don't believe he has it. But if he took it away from you and you're still alive, you be glad, Jake, and you stay away from him."
I looked at her. "I thought you really wanted money."
"I want it. But fooling around trying to take it away from Marve Pooser is not the way to get it."
"I'm not asking you to do anything. I'm just asking you to help me find him."
She laughed again, shaking her head. "You just going to walk up and take it away from him?"
"I don't know what I'D do. I just know I'm going to have it, whatever he's got of what he took, that's what I'm going to have."
"You go back to bed, Jake. You're sick."
***
I slept that night. It was hot and still and it was not that I got used to the noise. I was so tired that I slept through it. When I woke up the sun was blazing hot. I was lying on my sweated pillow and the room was like an oven beneath that tin roof. Old man Sistrunk was going into town. I asked if I could ride along with him. I didn't see Lily around anywhere before we left. I told myself I had been a damned fool talking about Marve's part in that robbery to anybody out here. No matter what I thought about him, he was one of these people and they were clannish. They had proved that to me.
I sat silently beside old man Sistrunk on the drive into town. We passed only a few cars, most of them people he knew. He spoke to all of them and doffed his straw hat every time he spoke. Here was a man wanted to get along with everybody, and a man like that is dangerous to trust. But it was not like that with Lily.
I thought about her and the black depths of her eyes. You couldn't see much in them; anger, defiance-and greed. She was a greedy little swamp girl on the lookout for the big chance. You could see that in her eyes, all right. I felt safe. I didn't trust Lily, but I trusted the greed I saw in her.
"Reckon to leave this part of the country?" Sistrunk said.
"No. I want to ride back to the camp with you when you're ready to go."
Sistrunk looked ill. "I can't understand any man like you. I just can't."
He parked the old pick-up truck on the square and told me he would meet me back there in two hours. I walked around looking in the windows until I found the best sporting-goods hardware store in town. I bought a roll of wire, a pocket model Smith and Wesson and a hunting knife. I was back at the car long before Sistrunk was. He stared at the package in my lap but made no comment.
***
I got out of the car when he parked at the fishing camp and went into my room. It was stifling in there, but I closed the door anyhow.
I put the wire and knife on the bed. I loaded the gun that weighed about two pounds with the magazine. I put it in my pocket and practiced getting it out. I was slow, and knew I would never get up any speed, and there was always the chance of snagging it on torn cloth or even loose threads. It was awkward pushed inside my belt. I wished I had bought a shoulder holster, but knew that took a lot of time too, getting used to wearing it, getting used to making a draw from it.
I shoved it into my jacket pocket, knowing I'd have to carry it there. I practiced drawing until I was sweated down, but I was no gunman. I stood there hating Marve Pooser and wondering if I'd be able to pull the trigger.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead, wondering what had happened to me. From an ordinary easy-going joker I had become a guy full of hate, obsessed with one idea, and now thinking about killing a man, planning how I was going to do it.
I shoved the gun in my pocket, tried to forget it was there. The sweat boiled out across my forehead again. It was not all because of the heat in the closed room, either. I admitted one more truth, the reason I had bought that gun. I was close to Marve Pooser now. The closer I got to him, the more I heard about him, the less I liked it.
For the first time in my life I knew what it was like to be scared in your guts. I wasn't about to turn back, but I wasn't fooling myself any more. It wasn't going to be easy. I had never even thought before just how bad it might be.
There was a knock at my door and I heeled around, facing it. My nerves were drawn taut.
"All right," I said. "Who is it?"
With my left hand I wiped the sweat off my face.
"You're sweating," Lily said.
"All right. So it's hot."
She looked at the wire and the hunting knife on the bed. "Planning a camping trip?"
"I don't know."
"Or are you going to run?"
"What does that mean?"
She shrugged. "You've had another day to think it over. You look smart enough to add."
I looked at her. She had been padding around in the mud again. It squeezed up between her toes, and her legs were marked up by briars. But under that cotton dress was a body that haunted you and you didn't have to sleep to dream about her. And in her eyes there was that other thing, that driving hunger that never let her alone.
"You want me to run?"
"I don't care what you do."
"Then what do you want?"
"Pa says you rode to town with him."
"Yes. I wanted to buy some things."
"Clothes line and a knife. You setting up business?"
She saw the outline of the gun in my jacket pocket. She glanced at it but didn't mention it.
"Why didn't you spend that money smart? Why didn't you buy a bus ticket home?"
"Why don't you be smart? Why don't you clear out of this place, Lily? You could go with plenty of guys. But they're not what you want. Maybe you're never going to find the guy you want. Maybe you've got to leave here with some guy and throw him over for the next one."
She spread her hands. "Maybe I will."
"Maybe you won't. Maybe you're scared. Maybe you know how tough it is away from your old man's fishing camp. Maybe it's easier just to stay on here and hate it."
Her mouth twisted. "If the man came along that had what I wanted, I'd go with him."
"Would you? Or would you decide at the last minute it might be too tough?"
"How tough are you?"
"What's that got to do with it?"
"Plenty… maybe."
I felt the accelerated beating of my heart. "Will you help me, Lily?"
"How do I know you wouldn't run out on me-even if you were able to get anything away from Marve Pooser?"
"You know." I looked at her and laughed. "It's all stacked in your favor."
She smiled. "Makes it nice for me, doesn't it?"
"Makes it nice for both of us, Lily." I moved closer to her, so close that the fragrance of her boiled against me in the breathless room. "You help me find him. You'll never be sorry."
She let her sullen gaze move slowly over me. It was not complimentary. Here was a girl who had seen Marve Pooser. "It's dangerous," she said. "I don't think you have any idea how dangerous."
"I know that son of a bitch ruined me and walked off with a fortune. Sure he had to divide it, but he's got part of it. I'll settle for that. Help me find him, Lily." I caught her arms. "That's all you have to do. Whatever I get, I'll spend it on you. You'll get out of here all right, that's for sure."
"Win or lose, I'd have to get out of here." Her voice was flat. She was still weighing it in her mind.
I pulled her closer to me. "Take a chance, Lily. God knows, I'm gambling my life. All I want from you is just to know where he is."
She nodded slowly. "I'll take you to him."
I grabbed her close, sliding my arms around her. She writhed free, shoving me back. I stared at her.
She shook her head, her mouth pulled down. "There'll be plenty of time for that… afterward."
And then she laughed, her dark eyes mocking me.
***
&nbs
p; It was the sort of thing that happens in a nightmare. By now I should have known that nothing was going right. Maybe I should have taken Lily's advice and run out of that scrub country. But I couldn't do that. All I could think was that Marve Pooser was out there, and he had robbed me and cost me everything and I wasn't going to let him get away with it. Now I knew what these people thought of Marve, the people who had known him all their lives. Anybody less obsessed with the idea of evening an account might have given up. But by three o'clock that afternoon Lily and I were moving upriver in one of her father's boats, powered along by a Mark twenty-five Mercury, and that's when this nightmarish thing happened. We cruised around a curve and there was Nat Sklute.
We had been on the river less than an hour. We didn't talk much. There wasn't much left to say. Lily had shown me that anything between us was on a cash basis, and that I didn't stack up in her estimation against Marve Pooser.
She wore an old blue denim shirt that must have belonged to her father. It was washed until it was salty, gray-streaked and lifeless. Her collar was open deeply at her throat and I found myself staring at her, my gaze magnetized by that triangle of soft gold flesh. Her dungarees were flesh tight and as faded as the blue shirt. On her it looked like Dior.
The sun glittered whitely on the water. We passed under a few bridges and then the river curved deeper into the scrub, moving away from the back-country roads. Sweet gum and bay and elder tangled together out over the banks of the river. When we drove near, white heron stalked up from the tangled brush still walking on log-stems as they got in flight.
It had been some time since we had seen anybody. I was conscious of the automatic in my jacket pocket. I felt the weight of it and it was never far out of my consciousness because I knew I was going to need it. I could see that in Lily's set expression though she said nothing.
The back end of the boat skidded slightly on the water as Lily put it around a curve and there ahead of us, moored to an overhanging water oak, was some guy fishing. He lifted his head and it struck me that I had seen him somewhere before. And then it hit me like a fist. It was the insurance investigator.
"Ho there." He stood up in his small boat and waves rippled up from it. He waved his arm and Lily cut the motor before I could shake my head at her.
The momentum of the motor thrust pushed us up near Sklute's boat. He caught our bow and for a moment our gazes clashed.
"Having trouble?" lily asked him. It was bred in her to inquire along the river. This was god-forsaken country and a man could be stranded for two days without seeing another boat.
Sklute pulled his gaze from mine and looked at Lily. I saw his eyes widen. He had the soul of an insurance investigator but even that appreciated the resilient pressures of Lily's body against those faded clothes.
He glanced back at me, and his glance said I had good taste. My mind was busy and I saw the only way I might get him off my back. He had to know why I was down here. He must have tracked me through every tavern and used-car lot. If so, he knew Marve's name and his birthplace. Maybe he even knew a lot more than I did. He was a professional snoop. I'd been getting no answers for almost a week. If he did not know who Marve was, then it was certain that he was still riding my back like a trained monkey.
"Thanks," Sklute said to Lily. "I'm getting some fishing done. Just wondered if you could tell me how far it is downstream to the nearest camp. I went pretty far upriver this morning, drifted back this far. I don't want to get caught in this scrub after dark."
"You better cut loose," I said before Lily could answer. "You're a long way from the nearest camp."
"That so? You people don't seem worried."
I socked it in good. I had to. I hoped Lily would keep still. I didn't know how far we'd travel to find Marve, but I'd as soon have had bloodhounds tracking us through that scrub as Sklute.
"We're not worried about a camp," I said. "We're going to make our own camp."
Sklute glanced at Lily again. I was afraid to look at her. I held my breath, hoping she'd keep her mouth closed.
"Well, you've got all the equipment for a fine camping trip," Sklute said, bearing down on the double meaning.
"Yes. Haven't we?" I glanced at Lily. "Well, let's get moving, doll. We got a long trip."
Sklute didn't release the boat. "Going far?"
"We don't know," I said. "We might. What we're looking for is a good lonely place to camp."
"Oh? Well, I saw a lot of those drifting down this river today."
"Yes. But the place we're looking for is something special."
Sklute nodded, not convinced at all. I didn't know what I could say, because if the looks of Lily didn't convince him, I had no words that would draw a better picture.
"Had no idea you were taking a trip down this way," Sklute said.
"Are you two friends?" Lily said.
"Old acquaintances," I told her over my shoulder. "But nothing I'd want to waste any more of our time on, honey." I put sincerity in my gaze and stared at Sklute. "You can understand that, can't you?"
Sklute smiled for the first time. "I don't even see why you stopped."
"Lily is polite," I said.
Sklute glanced at Lily with a new interest that made my neck quiver. "Oh, is your name Lily?"
"Lily Sistrunk," she said.
"Nat Sklute. I'm pleased to meet you." He gave her that smile. "I don't blame Jake for not introducing us. If the situation were reversed, I'm sure I'd act the same surly way."
He was looking her over again, and I began to be ill. This was not the wolf-blood in him rising to the surface. This was a professional appraisal. I devoutly wished him in Hell.
"Well, Jake, you given any more thought to our little talk?"
I played it dumb. "I don't even remember our little talk."
"Our friend," he said. "You remember anything about him yet that might help me. My offer still stands."
"I'm sorry about that," I said. "I don't, Nat. Not a thing."
"Oh? Well, I'll be on the river for the next couple weeks. Fishing. Funny we both came down here on our vacations. Huh?"
"No," I said. "You're vacationing. I'm not. I don't have a job, remember?"
Nat Sklute looked at me for a long time. Lily started the motor. He raised his voice. "Well, Jake, have a good time. Glad to have met you, Miss Sistrunk. And, Jake, if you think of anything-anything at all-why don't you get in touch with me?"
"I will, Nat. I will."
I sounded so sincere I half-convinced myself. But I didn't breathe again until we were two miles up the river.
***
Lily cut the motor. "Who was that man?" she said.
I turned and stared at her. "Another one looking for Marve Pooser."
"What does he want with him? Who is he?"
"He's an insurance investigator and he wants him for the same reason I do. Maybe you'll believe me now about that robbery."
"I still don't believe Marve Pooser's got a hundred thousand dollars."
I lost my temper. "Why the hell not?"
"He'd never have come back out here if he had."
"Is he out here?"
She nodded.
"Then he came back. With money. I don't care what it looks like to you. Nat Sklute is down here for fishing like I'm out here to play camping trip with you. Pooser and two friends got away with a hundred thousand. Sklute's company had to shell out and make that loss good. They've written it off their books by now, but that silly bastard Sklute can't do that. He's got to keep after it until he gets that money back or gets a bullet in his back."
"Looks like he'll have to stand in line behind you for that."
I sat there for a moment staring at the black water rushing past us. I lit a cigarette but it was tasteless and I flipped it away.
"Don't worry about that. Sklute will be behind me all right. Especially now. Why in hell did we have to run into him?"
"Somebody must have told him Marve Pooser was in the scrub up here but didn't say exactly
where."
"Sure. Sklute recognized your name all right."
"What have I got to do with it?"
"You don't know Sklute. Anybody along this river that might know Pooser, Sklute will know all about, and he's heard about you. So surer than hell, that ties me up with Pooser, and he'll decide I'm looking for him, if he doesn't already know I am."
"You gave quite a show about why you and I were up here."
"Sure. And he almost fell for it. Until he heard your name."
"What are you going to do?"
"It stands to reason that if we go straight on to Marve Pooser now, we'll lead Sklute there. He's not going down the river while we're going up it. That's for sure."
"Will he stay out here all night?"
I laughed bitterly. "If it had been a ten dollar loss, Sklute would camp in the open without mosquito netting. And the loss was a hundred grand. What do you think?"
"You want to turn back?"
I looked at my watch.
"We're going to camp. We're going to make camp and we're going to spend the night. We can move out about four in the morning."
Lily was seeing something in the middle distance. She chewed her underlip a moment, finally sighed deeply and shrugged.
We pulled the boat ashore about five, beaching it at the foot of a six foot cleared bluff. I cut wood for a fire and Lily cleaned a couple bass with my hunting knife.
After we'd eaten it was dark. I had been thinking about nothing but the loneliness and Lily's nearness and the smell of her since before we started to eat.
She cleaned up the plates and I set up a single bedroll under a mosquito netting she'd packed. She watched me with a twisted smile but did not speak. I was having trouble with my breathing. It didn't matter that she made no conversation. I was prepared with an argument. Sklute might be watching. All we had to do was sleep separately and he'd be on us like a wood tick.
But she said nothing. When I had things looking cottage-shape, she got up, carried in another bedroll and spread it close to the first, under the same netting.
A Moment to Prey Page 7