There was a pause for more sipping. Then Maud said, “What if he doesn’t turn out like your father?”
Viola pursed her lips and wiped them with an old flour sack. “Well, he might have the rabies. Or he might start living in a different world. It’s too early to tell. Watch him, though. Ifin you can find him. He needs more shots, don’t he?”
Maud recalled then that Dr. Ragsdale would be coming. Booker was also due with a horse for Lovely. She looked up from her plate and shook her hair. “Yes. What time of day is it?”
Her grandfather looked out the screen. “’Bout eight o’clock.”
“I slept late.” Maud looked to Viola.
Ame said, “I gotta see a man ’bout a dog.”
After he came back in, the old folks left in the buckboard.
Maud went about her chores, eyeing the section line every few minutes. Midday, she turned her father’s chair east so she could watch the road but not be glued to it while she ate and read. She was having a hard time retaining what she was reading when she heard the beat of hooves in the distance. She got up quickly and went inside. She checked her looks in the mirror and brushed her hair and bit her lips to make them fuller until the sound of the hooves was close to the house. She went out on the porch.
Booker was wearing a cowboy hat. He pushed it back on his head and put both hands on his saddle horn. He didn’t say anything. Maud said, “Look who turned up.”
“I keep my word.” He swung his leg over his horse. He tied the reins of both horses to the hitching rail and then stood facing Maud with his fists on his hips.
Maud figured he was waiting for an apology. She felt he deserved one, but she also felt justified in doing what she had to do. “Was the rain a problem for you last night?” she said.
He walked toward her. “No. I pulled my wagon into the potato barn.” He licked his lips.
Maud didn’t know what to say or do. “I’m almost done with Arrowsmith.” She pointed to the book beside the chair.
“Maud.” Booker took another step toward her. He licked his lips again.
“I’m worried sick. Lovely’s gone.”
Booker took his hat off. “Where to?”
“I don’t know. He’s taken to laying out. That’s not all that strange for the men around here, but he’s still not right.” She tapped her temple.
Booker ran the edge of his hand down the crease in his hat. Maud shook her hair. She sucked the insides of both cheeks. Booker said, “We could go looking for him.” He nodded toward the horses.
Maud smiled. “Let’s sit a while. Doc Ragsdale is due. I need to be here when he comes. I like your hat.”
Booker climbed the steps and looked Maud so deeply in the eyes that a blush came to her cheeks. She felt like a covey of quail had fluttered up in her heart. He brushed a strand of hair away from her face. “Is anybody else here?” She shook her head. He said, “It’s cool enough today to go inside.” He kissed her.
They were on Mustard’s bed when they heard a motorcar. Their clothes were partly on, partly unbuttoned, partly off. Booker jumped up. Maud said, “Did you leave the guards down?”
“No.” His fingers worked his bottom shirt button.
“It takes a while to get through them.” Maud straightened her slip, got up, and went to the mirror.
Booker said, “I got a problem that needs to get resolved before the doc gets here.” He flipped up his shirttail and smiled.
Maud turned from the mirror and took a good look. She raised both eyebrows and smiled. “Keep your shirttail out, then.”
“He’ll know what we were doing.”
“He’s gonna know anyway. He’s not a fool.”
“Maybe I could go out the kitchen door and walk around the side of the house?”
“Don’t be taking care of yourself in the pots and pans.”
Booker turned red. “I can’t believe you said that.”
“I’ve been around men all my life. I don’t see how you all live with those things. They take more time and energy than a woman puts into her hair.”
Booker looked down at the front of his pants. Maud looked there, too. She said, “Looks like your friend is dwindling away.”
“I’ll get you.”
“You’ll have to catch me first.”
Maud went out the door. She was at the edge of the porch smiling when Dr. Ragsdale stepped out of his car. But her lips tightened when she saw the doctor’s face. His eyes were wild. His cheeks were pale. He was breathing hard. He stopped at the steps as Booker came out of the house. The doctor looked away toward the river and back up at Maud and Booker. “I’ve been to the Mounts’. They’re dead. Or somebody is. There’re pieces of bone in the mud in the hog lot.”
Booker said, “Human bones?”
The doctor nodded. “I need a drink of water.” He gripped the edge of the porch with both hands and lowered his head.
Maud went to the kitchen. She took the dipper off its hook and lowered it into the pan. She took it out carefully. Her hand was trembling. It would give her away. She set the dipper down in the pan and grasped its edges with both hands. Water splashed out of the pan onto her dress as she stepped to the door. She put a shoulder to the screen without splashing any more. “I thought you might need a lot.” Maud looked to Booker. He took the pan and lowered it to the floor of the porch, close to the doctor. Dr. Ragsdale looked up at him, tried to speak, but couldn’t.
Booker winced and bit his lower lip. He held up a dipper of water. “Take some.”
Maud sat down in the chair. The doctor was as pale as his shirt. His sleeves were shaking. He said, “I haven’t seen anything like it since the war. In Belgium, we came on a mass killing. The wild boars, or wolves, or something, had been at the bodies. Their bones were gnawed to splinters. But they’d been that way for some time. These bones are still wet.”
Maud said, “It rained.”
The doctor nodded. “Maybe that’s it. But John Mount couldn’t be dead long. I saw him day before yesterday.”
“How do you know it’s him?” Maud said.
The doctor wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I don’t. There’s nothing but parts of skulls. I’m not even certain how many bodies.”
“They ran a still, you know,” Maud said. “We hear shots from down there nearly every day. There’s no telling what kind of meanness goes on.”
Booker said, “Have you heard shots lately?”
Maud furrowed her brow and stuck out her tongue at the corner of her lips. “Hard to say. They’re as common as wolf howls. We don’t pay them much mind.”
Booker blinked several times and then turned to the doctor. “What do we need to do?”
“Get the sheriff,” Ragsdale replied.
Booker looked off toward the river. “Let me do that. I need to look law-abiding. You stay here.”
“Take my car,” Ragsdale said. “If you know how to drive.”
“I do. Traded my car for horses when I started peddling.”
Maud told the doctor to take the rocker. She went inside, pulled the last biscuits from the oven, buttered and jellied them, and returned to the porch with a plate. She held it over the doctor’s arm. He took it and set it on his lap. She sat down, her feet on a step, and watched the doctor out of the sides of her eyes. She was afraid she’d say something that would give her away. Ragsdale didn’t say anything, either. He finished both biscuits and dipped up some water. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I need to give Lovely his shot.”
“He’s not here. He’s taken to wandering.”
“Is this a recent development?”
“Yes. Daddy lays out all the time, but Lovely’s a homebody.”
The doctor took another sip from the dipper. “Do you happen to have a light?”
Maud went inside. She’d deposited her father’s lighter in a gourd bowl on the chest where he emptied his pockets. She picked it up. Anybody who knew him well would know he wouldn’t go anywhere without his B
anjo. She tucked the lighter in his drawer, went to the kitchen, and retrieved a box of wooden matches. She gave the box to the doctor.
He went through two cigarettes, one lit from the other, and had smoked down to the butt of the second one when he said, “Do you think your brother went visiting family?”
“Could be,” Maud replied. “But he left in the middle of the night. Aunt Viola was visiting. We watched for him for a while, but he didn’t return.” Maud spoke while looking toward the river.
“That’d be Viola Vann?”
“Yes.”
“I’d heard she was around. Her daddy, Fox, was a famous medicine man. Was he kin to you?”
“Her mama was, I think. But they’re mostly Creek.”
The doctor lit a third cigarette and drew long. “Her father had a concoction that everybody swore would heal an abscessed tooth without extracting it. Burnt the dickens out of the mouth but drained the puss and cleared the infection.” He shook his head. “I wish I’d paid more attention when I was a little boy. Mr. Singer’s mother was sort of a doctor, too. You don’t pay any mind to old folks. When they’re gone, you realize how much they took with them.”
Maud fell into a conversation with the doctor about old-time remedies that worked or didn’t. She didn’t often talk to anyone with a college education, so talking was a treat, and she noticed, too, that the doctor spoke to her like he would to a man and without appearing to have ulterior motives. Once again, she let her fears go and almost forgot the situation she was in. That reprieve lasted until she heard a rumble on the section line. They both looked toward the road. The doctor’s car appeared first. The sheriff’s car was following close.
The sheriff and the doctor had a short conversation. They went off in the sheriff’s car and left Maud and Booker on the porch. They sat down on the steps and swapped information. Maud was concentrating on not giving herself away and was facing the pump, so Booker noticed Lovely first. He came from the direction of the chicken house. Maud and Booker stopped talking. Lovely was smiling and had a glassy look to his eyes.
Before he got to the steps, Maud said, “Where have you been?”
“Visiting Aunt Nan, then over to Blue’s allotment.”
“Why did you leave out in the rain?”
Lovely stepped up to the porch. “Any biscuits left?”
“They’re all eaten. You didn’t answer my question.”
“Sorry. My stomach got me. My days and nights are mixed up. I couldn’t sleep. The rain seemed inviting.”
“Are you an idiot? You didn’t even take your rifle. You could get killed stepping on a snake.”
“I took a stick. And this.” He pulled his pistol from the back of his belt. “Could I have some biscuits or are you Judge Parker?”
Maud went in the door without saying another word, pulled out the biscuit bowl, and starting mixing flour and lard into dough. But she kept her ear cocked, and she heard Booker tell Lovely that the doctor and the sheriff were at the Mounts’ and that somebody down there was dead. She crept closer to the door of the main room and listened harder. Lovely didn’t seemed surprised. She hoped that was only because he had every right to hate the Mounts. She turned back to the kitchen; stirred the ashes from the morning fire; stuck some paper and two more sticks of wood into the stove; and as the fire got going, tiptoed to the door again. They were talking about how Lovely felt. He thought his fever was gone, and he didn’t want to take any more shots. The first one still hurt.
Lovely had finished eating, and they all were back out on the porch again when the sheriff and the doctor returned. They sat in the car for a long time. When their doors finally opened, the doctor walked toward his car and the sheriff wiped his boots on his runner. He walked toward the porch, stopped, and rested his hand on the butt of his gun. “Mr. Wakefield, we were in such a hurry I didn’t tell you that you’re no longer under suspicion. The fire was accidently set by boys smoking. You’re free to go, or stay, if you wish. As for the business down there in the wild, that’s another bucket of fish. The doctor and I suspect it’s murder. He says it’s two individuals. Not much doubt it’s the Mounts. But I’ll check with their town kin before I draw a line under that. Do any of you know anything about any of this?”
Maud said, “We’re not close neighbors.”
The sheriff rubbed his hand over his mouth and then put it back on his gun. “I understand there’s been some meanness.”
Maud said, “The Mounts could have easily killed each other.”
“Normally, I’d agree with you there, miss. But they didn’t kill each other and leave a quilt burnt in their still.”
Maud felt the color in her face rise all the way to her hair. She gripped the post she was standing near. Booker looked to her and back to the sheriff. Lovely said, “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying we found a couple of burnt pieces of quilt in the still’s pot. I’m guessing whoever killed the Mounts tried to burn a quilt for some reason. Then the fire got dampened by the rain somehow.” The sheriff scratched his head.
The doctor walked by the sheriff, carrying his bag. “I need to give Lovely his shot.” He stopped on the bottom step.
The sheriff said to the others, “Where’s Mustard?”
Maud said, “At work, I guess.”
“Did you see him this morning?”
Maud gripped the post until she felt her hand cramp. She let go of the wood, bit her lip, and ducked her head, trying to look a little embarrassed. “He laid out last night. I think he’s sparking.”
“Who’s he sparking?”
“I haven’t asked.”
“I see. So you have no idea?”
“You know Daddy, sheriff. He doesn’t take to his kids meddling in his business.”
“But you feel sure he was sparking last night?”
“I didn’t say that. I said I thought he probably was. I was here. I can’t see into the distance.”
The sheriff drew a pad out of his shirt pocket and a pencil from behind his ear. He scribbled and then looked at the tip of his pencil. He looked at Booker. “Mr. Wakefield, you still working for Connell Singer?”
“Yes. I came down here to help Dr. Ragsdale by dropping off a horse. But I better be getting back.” He looked to Maud. But she turned her eyes to the sheriff. In a defiant tone, she said, “Sheriff, there’re plenty of people who would kill the Mounts. Whiskey and killing go together like ice cream and cake.”
Booker’s brow furrowed.
The sheriff said, “Mr. Wakefield, you can go on.”
“Maybe I should stay.”
“Look, you just got on my good side. Let’s leave it that way. Doc, you go on and give this boy his shot. Then I want to sit down with these folks and get some answers.” He turned and walked toward his car.
Booker looked at Maud. But she looked at Lovely. “Mind yourself,” she said softly.
Booker’s eyes cut to each of their faces. “What do you mean by that?”
The doctor moved to the porch. “Lovely, let’s go inside and let you lie down on the bed.”
Maud said to Booker, “Lovely hasn’t been in his right head. I don’t want him saying anything that could get someone hung.”
“Do they still hang people around here?” Booker’s right eyebrow went high.
“It’s a saying. Lovely, do you hear me?” He was going through the door the doctor held open.
Booker looked two or three different ways. Then he said, “Maud, do you want me to stay?” His mouth was close to her face. His hand on her arm.
Maud looked up at him. “You’d better go.”
He dropped his hand and took a step back. He squinted. “Okay, if you want to be that way, I will. But I have to say, Maud, this feels a little fishy. Your menfolk keep disappearing, and then these Mount people are dead. And now you’re telling Lovely to keep his mouth shut.”
“What are you suggesting?” She looked toward the sheriff to be sure he couldn’t hear her.
Book
er rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know, Maud. But I’m a Methodist. I’m not real big on killing.”
“I’m not big on killing, either, Booker. But we don’t even know for sure who’s dead. And if it is the Mounts, they’re moonshiners. Moonshiners get killed all the time. Surely that’s not any different over in Arkansas.”
“No, it’s not.” Booker ran his hand over his mouth. “But what about your daddy and Lovely disappearing?”
The sheriff had just shut his car door. Maud lowered her voice even more. “Look, Booker, you just heard me explain that to the sheriff. I don’t know what else to say.” She widened her eyes to emphasize her innocence.
“Okay, I guess. You’re sure you don’t need me to stay?”
Maud was sure she didn’t want Booker hearing any questions or answers. But she also didn’t want him to go, and he was so close that she felt the tug of his smell. “I’ll come to you.”
“You promise?”
“Of course I will.”
By that time, the sheriff was coming back with a couple of pencils in his hand. Booker said, “Let me know if there’s anything I can do,” to nobody in particular.
The sheriff stopped at the steps and let Booker pass. He put one pencil behind his ear and held the other one over his pad. “Miss Nail, is it still?”
“Yes.”
“Do you care to come down here?”
“I don’t care one way or the other.”
“Then why don’t you come out here in the yard with me. Let’s go over to the pump.” He turned and walked away.
Maud looked toward Booker. He was headed toward his horse. She hesitated momentarily and then stepped down. Booker turned when he got to the hitching rail. “Tell Lovely he can have Arlene as long as he needs her.”
“Thank you.”
Booker cocked his head and stood still. Then he put his hat on and mounted.
Maud turned her eyes from him. She walked to the pump, stopping short of it by a couple of feet. She said to the sheriff, “What do you want to know?”
“I want to know who killed the Mounts.”
“I understand that. But I have no idea. There’s no crime in being somebody’s neighbor.”
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