The Big Ugly

by Jake Hinkson

  "Yes. She's with me. She wants to meet with Kingston. Today. Morgan building downtown. Sixth floor."

  Hamill said, "Kingston's a busy man. Did it ever occur to you that he might be campaigning on the other side of the state right now? He might be meeting with donors. He might be having dinner with his family."

  "I didn't say he wasn't busy. I said if he wants to speak to Alexis, he can speak to her on the sixth floor of the Morgan building today at seven o'clock. Tell him he can bring his wife and kids. I'm sure they'd love to meet a member of the extended family."

  Hamill sighed and said, "I'll pass it along."

  I hung up.

  I called Kluge.

  When Mrs. Willhide put the call through to his office, he answered by stating tactfully, "I'd much prefer to speak to you in person, Ms. Bennett." The tact was a cover, of course. He just didn't want to talk about shady shit on the phone.

  "Seven o'clock at the Morgan building," I said. "Bring the governor."

  I listened to his breathing for a while before he said, "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know the governor."

  "Of course not. But this concerns him. I know he doesn't like to get his hands dirty with this low level stuff, but bring him along. I might have some things to say about that unpleasantness at the chicken plant a few nights ago. I can guarantee that he won't want to miss it. And I can guarantee that it won't cost him a dime."

  Kluge didn't say anything.

  After a while of listening to his breathing, I said, "Just pass the message along. We can end this thing tonight." I dropped in the real bait now. "I'll bring Alexis with me."

  Kluge finally said, "Is that all you have to say?"

  "Yes."

  He hung up.

  I had no idea if the governor would actually come. Kluge could negotiate for him. But I wanted him there. I hadn't lied to Junius. I thought I could end this thing tonight if I could get Kingston and Colfax in the same room.

  * * *

  I walked out to the bar to collect Alexis.

  "Let's go."

  "You talked to my father? We're going to meet with him now?"

  "Yes," I said. I didn't want to give her more information.

  Alexis rubbed Kaylee's head. "You're going to stay here with Tony while me and Ellie go see some people."

  The girl didn't take her eyes from the screen, but she nodded.

  As we walked out to the car, Alexis said, "That iPad is a lifesaver."

  I unlocked the car, and I didn't say anything. No one wants to hear from someone else how to raise their kid, especially when that someone else has no kids of her own. I didn't have any wisdom to impart, no great thoughts on how to be a mother. But you don't have to be a meteorologist to interpret the meaning of storm clouds. I could try to keep Kaylee safe from these powerful men, but I didn't know who, or what, could protect her from her mother.

  * * *

  I parked just down the street from the Morgan Building. I had a problem, though. I didn't have anywhere to carry my gun. I was still wearing the sleeveless top and black skirt that Morley had bought me. I'd look suspicious if I walked into this meeting with a purse.

  "Fuck it," I said. I'd have to leave it.

  "What?" Alexis asked.

  "Nothing. Let's go."

  As it had the last time I'd seen it, the building appeared to be deserted. No one waited for us in the lobby. We rode up to the sixth floor in silence, but Alexis chewed her thumb the entire way.

  When the doors opened, no one was waiting for us. At each end of the hallway, late summer light bled in through windows, but the corridor itself was dim.

  "Is anyone here?" Alexis asked.

  I led her down the hall to the office. The door was open. A light was on.

  Inside, Junius Kluge was sitting alone, his hands folded on his desk.

  "Ladies. Please, come in. Sit down."

  "No governor?" I said.

  Kluge lifted one hand from the desk as if to shoo away a fly or a stupid question, but then the door opened from a side office and Governor Lou Don Colfax walked in. He was taller than his brother had been, with a full head of dark hair graying at the temples, and cleft chin. He looked every bit like a politician on television, except that he wasn't smiling.

  "Governor," I said.

  He glanced at Kluge.

  Kluge nodded.

  The governor asked me, "What did you two want to talk to me about?"

  Alexis turned to me, confused. "Ellie?"

  Kluge watched us. "Did Ms. Bennett not tell you where you were going, young lady?"

  "Ellie?" she said again, her voice going higher.

  I turned to her. "Give it a second."

  "What? Where's my father?"

  Colfax frowned. Kluge made no move at all.

  From the hallway, the elevator bell jarred us all.

  Everyone looked at me.

  I told Alexis. "There he is."

  A moment later, Jerry Kingston appeared in the doorway trailed by Charles Hamill. Both wore suits. Hamill looked as pretty and composed as ever, but Kingston was scarlet and sweaty, like a man in the throes of a heart attack.

  Kingston's attention fluttered around the room, but it landed on Colfax.

  "What's he doing here?" Kingston asked.

  Colfax addressed Kluge, "I was about to ask the same thing. What the hell is going on?"

  Kluge smiled at me, a smile of real appreciation, from one chess player to another. "I suspect that Ms. Bennett is the one to ask."

  Knowing that the next words out of my mouth would either save me or fuck me, I took a deep breath and said, "Let me start by saying that I killed Vinton Colfax two nights ago."

  I let that reverberate around the room for a few seconds. Alexis gasped. Kingston and Hamill looked at each other with wide eyes. The governor's face stayed stony. Junius Kluge just kept smiling at me.

  "I say this right now, aloud, to all of you because I want everyone to know that no one's taping this. No one is being recorded. What is said in this room isn't leaving this room because no one in this room would survive the scandal intact." I addressed the governor. "Your brother, with the help of the Arkansas State Police, abducted me, beat me and tried to kill me. He didn't succeed on that last count, though, because I killed him first."

  I paused to let Governor Colfax say something, but his smooth, handsome face didn't flinch. His mouth remained tightly clamped down.

  I said, "Let's see where we are, all of us. Everyone here has been looking for my friend Alexis." I gestured at the trembling sack of nerves beside me. "But all you assholes have been wrong, dead wrong, about her intentions. Reverend Kingston has proceeded on the assumption that she was going to blackmail him—for money, for position, for a piece of the family pie—because she is his illegitimate daughter. Ugh, you know I hate that term, illegitimate. What's that even mean? Let's say she's his unclaimed daughter, the one he tried to abort all those years ago when it benefitted him not to have a daughter by someone he wasn't married to."

  Kingston didn't look at his daughter. Instead, he watched the governor process this new information.

  "Meanwhile," I said, "Governor Colfax has been trying to find Alexis because she used to deliver drugs to him. He thought she skipped town because she wanted to make a deal, to sell him out, to Reverend Kingston."

  I waved my hand around to indicate all of them. "What all this comes down to is that you both thought Alexis was going to sell you out to each other. What you both want is security. Security from each other. And everyone who can grant you that security is in this room."

  Colfax exchanged a glance with Kluge, and it was as if he'd passed on a silent instruction. Kluge asked, "What about the money you tried to extort from us yesterday?"

  "I guess that's your leverage against me. Because of my involvement in these illegal activities I ended up killing Vin Colfax. Then I tried to blackmail you to hush it up. With my criminal record, that would be enough to get me shipped back to
Eastgate. At this point, all I want is out."

  "What if some DA offered you a plea deal? Or what happens in five years when you're not on parole?"

  I turned to the governor. "You're not a stupid man, Mr. Colfax. You know a good deal when you see one. This is a good deal. All I care about is walking out of this deal with my skin attached. I'm not greedy and I'm not stupid. I just want to be free of this mess."

  I stopped and let him think about it.

  Governor Colfax stared at the floor. Kingston watched Colfax think. Hamill watched Kingston. Kluge kept smiling at me. Alexis gulped, hard, twice, and then left her mouth open to get more air.

  Then Governor Colfax raised his head and smiled.

  Smoothly, as if he was attempting to wind down a difficult television interview, he turned to Kingston and said, "Well, Jerry, partner, what do you say? I have things to get to tonight, and I'm sure you do as well. I think this little lady made a pretty compelling case that we should just shake hands, call this round a draw, and meet again next month for the first debate in … oh, where is that dang debate going to be held?"

  Kingston glared at his opponent.

  "Fayetteville," he said. "At the university."

  "Should be a good discussion," the governor allowed. "I look forward to debating the issues with you."

  "And what she said …" Kingston replied, "we leave this mess in this room? There's not going to be an anonymous leak pop up in the paper next week, or next month when I'm whipping your ass at the poles?"

  Governor Colfax crossed the room, ignoring the rest of us, and put his hand out to Kingston. "It's the nuclear option, Jerry. Mutually assured destruction."

  Kingston met his hand, and they shook vigorously. "You're gonna lose that debate, Lou Don."

  Colfax smiled. "We'll see, Jerry. We'll just see about that."

  They finally let go of each other.

  The governor stepped toward me. He smelled of good aftershave, but his smile dropped away, and his eyes were as cold as his brother's had been that night. "Me and you are back to zero, Bennett. You're just another ex-con. I don't blame you for what you did. Anyone would have done the same thing in the same situation. But I don't want to ever hear about you, or from you, ever again." He turned to Alexis. "Either one of you."

  Then he walked out of the office. We heard him open the door to the stairwell and disappear.

  Kluge patted the desk. "That was unexpected but welcome. Welcome nevertheless."

  Kingston took a deep breath and grinned at Hamill.

  Alexis regarded her father. "What about … me?"

  My heart sank a bit. Alexis could still fuck this up. She could demand too much, she could thrust her need right into the middle of my delicately brokered truce.

  Kingston didn't look directly at her. He'd stared the governor in the eye, but now he hung his head as he mumbled, "I don't … know what to say, Alexis. I failed you a long time ago. I want to make it right. I can give you money."

  Her eyes filled with tears. "I wasn't after your money. I wanted a father. Like your other children got."

  He nodded. "I know." His face reddened even deeper and his eyes searched the space between his daughter and himself. He held up his hands. "I failed you, Alexis. A long time ago. I don't see any way to fix that now. I can't be what you want, what you need, what you deserve."

  She pulled out the envelope with the letter. She held it at the corners, lifted it to her mouth, then dropped it on the floor.

  She turned and walked out of the room.

  His eyes followed her, and when she was gone he walked over and picked up the envelope. He opened the letter and read some of it. Then he placed it back in the envelope.

  He asked me, "What's going to happen to her?"

  I couldn't stand there any longer and look at his sweaty face. "Why even ask?" I said. "You don't care."

  I turned and left.

  * * *

  She was waiting for me down by the car. Not crying. Just standing there, arms folded, waiting. We got in, and I drove back to the bar to pick up her daughter.

  About a mile away from the bar, she started crying. I pulled over to the side of the road and put the car in park and pulled her close and let her cry into my shoulder.

  She cried a long time, cried out a lifetime's worth of pain and anger and neglect and failure. When she was done, I put the car back in drive and we went to pick up Kaylee.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  There was one more loose end. I hadn't forgotten that Frank was still out there, that he knew more about this business than was healthy for any of us, and that he was just the kind of guy to keep poking at the embers to see if he could get another fire going. I didn't want to do anything about it. I didn't want to see him or talk to him. I didn't want to think about him.

  But I had to.

  I dropped off Alexis at the bar with a promise that I'd see her the next day, and then I drove over to the Morley residence.

  I got there after dark, but I didn't stop at the house. I drove past it, and seeing that the lights were on, I went up a street and took a left.

  The backyards along Frank's side of the street stopped at some woods. I drove around the wooded area to see where they ended and found a strip mall. A Hallmark store, a Cold Stone Creamery, a liquor store, a Chinese restaurant. I drove around back and parked my car at the back edge of the building. Then I pulled out my purse from under the seat and removed the gun.

  The woods hummed and twittered with bugs and birds, but I moved among the gray trees easily. I could see a line of yellow windows glowing in the distance. After just a few minutes, I found my way to the backyard of the Morley house.

  The darkened yard wasn't fenced in. I half expected a motion light to kick on, but one didn't. I walked up to the sliding glass door that looked into the living room.

  The place had been cleaned, but Kitty still lay on the couch staring at the television.

  After a while, Frank walked into the room.

  He looked different than I had ever seen him. Smaller. Less impressive. Untucked shirttail. His hair looked as if he'd just awakened from a nap. Kitty didn't seem to notice. This was the Frank she knew.

  Seeing them together unaware they were being observed, I realized what a fool I had been to think I could ever understand the inside of their marriage. No matter how screwed up it may have been, it was theirs. Good, bad, functional, dysfunctional—those terms didn't really matter. The entity known collectively as Frank and Kitty was just the sum total of everything that had ever happened between them—love and struggle and lies and heartbreak—and I would never have entry into that world.

  I didn't want it, either.

  I leaned against the door so the gun in my right hand stayed out of view. With my left, I tapped on the glass.

  Kitty and Frank turned at the same time and looked at me.

  I waved.

  They looked at each other. It was so perfectly timed it was almost funny. Then they turned back to me.

  Frank walked over and unlocked the door and slid it open.

  I smiled. "Evening, Morleys."

  "What are you doing here?" Frank asked.

  I showed him the gun. "Want to back up, Frank?"

  "Ellie …"

  "Just back up, Frank."

  He backed into the room, and Kitty sat up as much as she could manage and stared at the gun.

  She blinked and rubbed her eyes. I don't think she was entirely sure she was awake. "What the fuck are you doing?"

  Frank shook his head. "This is a dumb move, Bennett."

  "Why? 'Cause I got a gun? Why do you think I'm here, Frank?"

  His mouth opened but no words came out. He laughed nervously at his own speechlessness. "Ellie …"

  Kitty said, "Why is she here, Frank?"

  Morley told her, "Just sit back and don't worry about it, Kitty. Everything is going to be fine, just fine."

  "You thought you sold me out, Frank. But you didn't. You tried, but you didn
't have anything to sell. Alexis never went to Oklahoma."

  Frank blinked a few times. "What?"

  "I just finished things with Alexis, and with every concerned party who was out there looking for her. It's over."

  "Is that a fact?"

  "That is a fact. So you sold me out for nothing."

  Frank tucked in his shirt while he processed that information. "I'm sorry to hear that. I guess Hamill's going to ask for a refund."

  "Maybe, maybe not. But it's over. For Alexis, Kingston, Colfax. All of them. And for you. You try anything stupid, and I'll rat you out."

  "Rat me out?"

  "Both of you."

  "For what? For what we did to you? No one cares, Ellie. You're an ex-con now. You just have to live with that."

  Kitty stared at the gun in my hand.

  I said, "Why don't you sit next to your wife, Frank. You two belong together. Sit there next to her."

  Frank moved to the couch and sat next to Kitty. She reached over and grabbed his hand. Frank grimaced, his hand limp in Kitty's trembling embrace, but he left it there.

  "That's sweet," I said. "You two really are made for each other. You'll go down together, too, if I tell Junius Kluge that you're the ones funneling drugs into Eastgate."

  Morley's face darkened.

  I said, "You're not going through him to move your product, are you, Frank? No, because if you were getting drugs from Kluge, you would have sold him the information about Alexis. But you didn't, you went to Hamill and Kingston."

  He sat up. "Now look, Ellie—"

  "Yes or no, Frank? You want me to tell Kluge who's been cutting into his penitentiary drug market?"

  "No."

  "No. I didn't think so. So you keep your fucking mouth shut about Alexis."

  "That it? That why you came in my house with a gun tonight, to tell me that?"

  "In part. But I also came in here with a gun tonight to tell you both to stay away from me. I don't want to hear from you. I don't want to see you. You see me coming, you turn around and start running. From this point on, you'll have to have to make do with each other."

  Kitty watched me with eyes that seemed to clear. Still holding his hand, she glanced over at Frank with something like hope. It was a horrible thing to see. I think even at that moment she wanted to get him back—like she thought that perhaps this was a chance.