“How many brothers and sisters does Alice have?”
“Ten Waltmans, counting Maebelle,” I answered. I drained the glass and gave it back to her. There was the tartness of lemon at the back of my throat, but other than that I hadn’t tasted a thing.
“Going to ride Cammie?” Jamey asked.
“Just around in the pecan orchard.”
“Bekkah, you want me to go with you?”
I smiled. “No, I think I’d rather be by myself.” I got the saddle and bridle from the barn, along with a pad. I’d catch her in the orchard and saddle her there.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“I just need some time to think.” I kept walking toward the orchard. I didn’t look back because I didn’t want to encourage Jamey to follow me.
Cammie came to me as soon as she saw me. It didn’t take two minutes to tack up, and then we were at the side gate to Kali Oka Road. I didn’t think much about what I was doing. I hadn’t intended to leave the orchard. I just rode to Cry Baby Creek.
The six old battered buses were in front of the church. Redeemer women were carrying bundles of things while the men were putting mattresses and bigger items in the first buses. They were leaving. It was exactly what I’d expected.
They had Maebelle, and they were going to make a run for it.
I saw Magdeline. She was standing at the back of the third bus. She’d stepped out of the way of an older woman who was carrying what looked like sheets. Her gaze roved over the church grounds, moving silently. She was saying goodbye, and she wasn’t upset about it. She was just marking the places in her mind where things had happened.
She stopped when she saw me, sitting on Cammie, just across the creek. She stared at me, her face not showing how she felt one way or another. Her skin looked too clear, almost like I could see through it. I was hoping she’d make a dash to the creek to talk to me. At least I could ask her about the baby if she got close enough. Instead she turned her back to me and walked in among a cluster of women. They looked up, and then went back to their work. They didn’t hurry, and they didn’t stop.
“Where’s the baby?” I cried.
My voice carried strongly on the creek. Picket stood poised just in front of me, her ruff standing on end.
No one even looked at me.
“Where’s the baby? Give her back and nothing bad will happen.”
They didn’t even look.
“My daddy’s talking to the district attorney. He’s going to put y’all in jail.”
One of the men started toward the bridge, but the preacherman grabbed his arm and roughly shoved him back toward the bus. They were loading pots and pans, big vat-like kettles.
“Magdeline?” I called out to her. “Come on over here and I’ll see that you’re safe. Don’t leave with them.”
From behind the bus Magdeline stepped forward. The Redeemer women froze in a cluster. The men stopped working. Even the preacherman halted in mid-command to some workers. Magdeline walked toward him. He put his hand on her shoulder, and she kissed his cheek and then went to get into the bus.
“Y’all better not try to leave Kali Oka Road.” I threw that at them at a last resort. Then I spun Cammie and we headed for the house. Instead of standing around yelling at the Redeemers, I needed to let someone know they were trying to run out. I hadn’t seen Maebelle V., but they had to have her. If they hadn’t sold her already.
The Judge was back from Jexville, and Cathi Cummings had arrived when I rode into the yard. I’d completely forgotten about her phone call. Mama Betts must have talked to her and told her about Maebelle V. Effie, Cathi and The Judge were all on the screened porch sipping iced tea and talking seriously. It was the same kind of voice Effie and The Judge had used when they were talking last night.
“Ransom won’t do a thing until he’s forced to act,” The Judge was saying.
“The Redeemers are packing up to leave,” I cried as I leaped to the ground, barely catching Cammie’s reins.
“Now?” Daddy stood up, concern furrowing his forehead. “Right this minute?”
“They aren’t planning on staying the night. They’re putting all the bedding and everything in the buses. They look like ants, all lined up and working.”
Daddy didn’t wait to answer. He went to the telephone and dialed the sheriff’s office. Joe Wickham was already on Kali Oka with the volunteer search and rescue. They were a bunch of drunks, Daddy said, and when he came back from the phone, he was even more worried.
“It’s liable to get out of hand,” he said. “They’re going to radio Joe and get him and the volunteers to go down there and stop the Redeemers from leaving until that baby is found.”
“Someone’s going to get hurt.” Effie stood also. “Is there anything I can do?” Cathi asked.
“I just wish you’d been able to find something concrete on those Redeemers. They look guilty as hell,” Daddy said. He paced the porch. “I just have a hard time convicting a person on appearances.”
“Who else could have her?” I asked. “Nadine said they sold babies. If she isn’t there, they’ve already sold her to someone.” I could hear my voice rising.
“What about Nadine? Did you find out about her ex-husband?” The Judge stopped pacing long enough for me to answer.
I could tell that the three of them had shared everything. And Effie wasn’t too upset. At least if she was, she was more upset by Maebelle V.’s disappearance than Cathi’s appearance.
“I forgot,” I said. “I’ll go now.”
“I think you should stay home,” Effie said. “Once those men get on the road … If they’re drinking, they might hit you and that horse.”
“I need to see if Greg is there. He might know where they’re planning on going.”
“That’s a good idea,” Cathi said. She stood up. “I’ll go ask him. You can wait here.”
“He won’t talk to anyone but me.” It was partly because I wanted to ask him, but mostly because he’d never talk to Cathi. The only way I was going to get anything out of him, if he was at the barn, was to threaten him with what I’d seen. And I didn’t want any witnesses to that. If I was going to make him talk, I had to be alone with him.
“Go on.” Daddy waved down the road. “Be careful, Bekkah. Cut through the woods and stay off the road.”
“Mama?” I turned to her. “Will you go check on Alice for me?”
“Mama Betts has made some pies. I was planning on taking them down to the Waltmans. I’ll see her then.”
“Bring her back here if she’ll come,” I requested.
“I’ll try.”
“I’ll go with you, if you don’t mind,” Cathi said. A look passed between her and Effie. It was one I didn’t understand at all.
“There’s four pies. I could use the help,” Effie answered her.
I didn’t wait to watch what happened between them. I couldn’t understand how all of a sudden they were talking all civilized and working together. Effie had even talked to Cathi about covering Ollie Stanford’s trial and how having a real reporter there might help him get a fair shake. It didn’t make sense, and I didn’t have time to gnaw on it. Cammie and I trotted through the woods to Nadine’s.
Even though the afternoon was breezeless, the old sign moaned on its rusty chains. Cammie hadn’t been nervous since I’d taken her away, but she crab-stepped down the driveway toward the barn. The crowded limbs of the chinaberry trees must have made her feel confined.
From halfway down the drive I could see the barn door was pulled shut.
The stench of the garbage was worse, even though the days had cooled considerably. The gruesome pile against the steps didn’t seem much bigger, just ranker. Nadine’s truck and trailer were parked in the barnyard, but there wasn’t a sign of life. I missed the darting shadows of the cats. It was strange how they’d all run away. Even wild cats usually stayed in a barn if they were fed.
“Nadine!” I called as loud as I could. I didn’t want to get off Cammi
e, and I didn’t want to go into the barn. If she and Greg were up to anything, I wanted to warn them that I was on the property.
“Nadine!”
Silence answered me back.
“Easy, girl.” Cammie was shifting and sidling under me. Her ears perked forward and her nostrils flared as the door of the barn opened a crack. No one came out, and no one said anything.
All of the flesh on my arms and back rearranged itself. I got off Cammie and against all of the rules tied her to the fence. I didn’t want her inside the barnyard, and I didn’t have a halter. I had to use the bridle and hope she wouldn’t pull and break the leather.
The gate creaked under my hand, and I left it hanging on one hinge. I wanted all the paths cleared for my getaway.
“Nadine?” I walked across the yard.
There wasn’t the sound of anything. Nothing. I stopped at the barn door. The interior was black, and at last I heard the snuffling of the horses. I let go of a sigh.
“Greg?”
His name echoed around the big old barn, not stopping anywhere.
“Greg? Are you in here?”
“Get out of here.”
It was Greg’s voice, but it scared the hell out of me. He sounded like a disembodied spirit. I hadn’t really expected to hear him. In my mind, he was down at those buses helping the Redeemers pack.
“Greg, somebody’s stolen Maebelle V.”
“Bekkah, get out of here now. This isn’t any place for you. Just get on your horse and get on home.”
I couldn’t see him in the barn. The light was bad, and he was deliberately hiding from me.
“Greg, the Redeemers have taken Maebelle V. If someone doesn’t do something, there’s going to be trouble. Half the men in town are in the national guard, and they’re all out in the woods hunting for that baby. When they find those church people have her, all hell’s going to break loose.”
“The Redeemers don’t have no baby.”
He spoke with such conviction, as if he knew where Maebelle was. “Then where is she?”
He hesitated. “I don’t know for certain, but I know the Redeemers don’t have her. They don’t steal babies. They didn’t steal me or anyone else. Folks give them babies sometimes, babies from unwed mothers and from families where children aren’t wanted. We take them in and give them to people in the church who want a child.”
“Nadine found evidence. She found records of babies being sold by Rev. Marcus.”
Greg mumbled a curse word under his breath. “Nadine found what she wanted to find, Bekkah. Can’t you see that?”
I wasn’t following him, and I was annoyed that I couldn’t see him. He was up in the loft, I thought. “What are you getting at?” I stepped farther into the barn, my eyes trying to penetrate the darkness.
“Take you, for instance. Nadine saw you as someone to buy a horse. Right from the beginning she meant to sell Cammie to you, a horse, by the way, that she got from a man up near Jackson. Cleaned out his stables for him, after she’d—”
“What are you saying?”
“That Cammie isn’t any fancy show horse. She’s just a horse. Nadine told me she met this man, rode his horses for a while.” Greg laughed and it was bitter. “Rode him, I suspect, and managed to get his horses from him.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know. I came back here to wait for her. As soon as I figure out what to do with these horses, I’m going to leave myself. I just didn’t want to go off without making some kind of arrangements.”
I was still struggling with the news about the horses and what it might mean. I didn’t believe Greg. Not right off. There was no telling why Nadine had concocted such a story, but just because she’d told him didn’t make it true. Nadine had a habit of lying, especially if she thought it was going to shock someone.
“I don’t care about the horses or where they came from. Greg, we’ve got to find that baby. Maebelle V.’s been gone more than twenty-four hours now.”
“Nadine quit feeding the horses at the first of the week. That’s why I’m still here. She said she’d had enough of them. Charlie and Earnest are dead. I found them Tuesday. Poisoned. Just like she’d done the dogs. And more than likely the cats too.”
“Greg, get down here and talk to me. I don’t know why you’re saying all of this. I saw you and Nadine. I saw you in the loft. I know what you’re doing together.” The words rushed out in clumps. “If you don’t help me find that baby, I’m going to tell everyone.”
“Go ahead. I don’t give a damn anymore.”
His body was a blur as he swung down from the ladder at the end of the barn and landed on his feet in the center of the aisle.
“I’d rather go to jail than go back with the Redeemers or stay here with her. John Singer, that crazy old bastard, was righter than he ever knew when he said she’d steal my soul and send me to hell I’ve been living here all this week, watching her, wondering what she was gonna do next. Knowing I couldn’t stop her.” He came down the aisle toward me, walking slow, catlike. “She’s hinted that she was the one who killed Caesar. That his foot was bad and wasn’t getting better fast enough. She was tired of taking care of him. She said he was a summer horse, good for only a season.”
Greg was panting. His breath was a harsh rasp. He kept coming toward me, and I had never been so afraid of anyone in my life. A shaft of sunlight from one of the stall windows caught his face, and his eyes glittered like narrow slits of some hard stone.
“You ran out on me, Bekkah. You left me here by myself with her. My back was a mess.” In the shaft of light he turned slowly. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and the scabs that still crisscrossed his back were black and ugly. The tissue around it was red welts, white at the edges.
“Nadine saved my life,” he continued, turning back around to face me. “I owe her something for that, don’t I? She said she wanted a baby. She said I could give it to her. A little Redeemer baby to make up for everything she’d lost.”
Even though he was standing still, he was panting hard, like he’d run a long way.
“Greg, nobody will hurt you. Just tell us where the baby is and we’ll get her. Then we’ll find a place for you to be safe. Mama Betts wanted to ask you to stay at our house. Arly even said he’d share his room.”
Tears ran down my chin and neck, tickling my chest as they slipped away to soak into my bra. Where in the hell was Nadine? She couldn’t be far, her truck was in the yard.
“You have no idea what it’s been like here,” he said. “No idea,” he whispered.
“Jamey Louise wanted to come down here and talk with you, but I told her it wasn’t a good idea. Maybe I was wrong. She said she had some things to tell you—”
“Jamey doesn’t exist.” He waved his hand in the air. “This whole summer was a lie, Bekkah. All of it. It’s like spider’s silk. You don’t see the web. You just walk into it, and it has you.”
“My folks are waiting for me to come back. I wanted to ask Nadine something, but it can wait. You want to come back with me?” I had to get out of the barn.
“On that horse?” He laughed. “All this summer I’ve been here, and nobody thought to teach me to ride.”
“We can walk her home, Greg. We don’t have to ride.” I inched toward the door. Greg came forward, stepping out of the light so I couldn’t see him clearly anymore.
“Are you crying?” he asked suddenly.
“I’m worried about that baby. Maebelle V. is like my own sister. I keep thinking she may be hungry or scared. She’ll be crying for Alice to take care of her.”
“Are you trying to leave?”
“Greg, my parents are waiting for me.” He frightened me. I wanted to beg him to let me go, but I knew that would be the wrong thing. I wasn’t his prisoner unless I admitted that I was. “I have to go now. You can come with me if you want to, but I have to go.”
I sidestepped to the door. My hand was on it when he lunged at me, knocking me down and to the side. My head slam
med against the edge of the door, and Greg pulled it back with a half-strangled cry.
Sunlight poured into the barn. Greg ran to the other end and threw open that door, flooding the barn with light. I sat up, dazed but not really hurt. A whirlwind of frantic activity, Greg ran to the first stall and slammed open the latch and door.
“Run!” he cried. “Run! Don’t stay here or you’ll die!”
Bacchus bolted out of his stall, followed by all the rest of the horses. They thundered out of the barn, sending dirt flying. I noticed that their coats were matted and covered in filth.
“I can go now,” he said. “But we have to come back and do something with them later. We can’t leave them here. They’re innocent.”
He walked toward me, his thin body shaking. I managed to crawl to my feet. The blow to my head hadn’t hurt me, but the fear had made my knees rubbery. I looked back at him, but my eyes traveled beyond, into the interior of the old barn.
At first I didn’t believe it. I had to be imagining it. Greg saw the expression on my face, and he looked behind him quickly, as if he expected some demon to rush out of one of the stalls.
“Holy Christ,” he muttered. He almost dropped to his knees, but he stopped himself.
“Greg.” I whispered his name because I didn’t know what else to say.
Hanging above Cammie’s old stall was the crucifix with the blackened Jesus. The sunlight from the open doors caught it full, giving Jesus a purely satanic look as his blacked eyes turned to heaven, devoid of all expression.
There was something else dangling from the right side of the cross, material of some sort. I walked forward to look at it, and before I got much closer I knew what it was.
“Oh, no,” I whispered. “No.”
Greg stood in the doorway while I ran to the crucifix. I had to get the ladder from the end of the barn, but I finally got it and climbed to the top.
I knew the bib. It was one that had been handed down through several different Waltmans. It was Maebelle V.’s bib.
Forty-one
THEY found her in the creek, about two miles from the church.
The full skirt of the old christening gown had hung in the roots of a willow tree. The coroner said she was dead before she was put in the water, and that was a blessing, Mama Betts said.
Summer of the Redeemers Page 43