Hot Southern Mess

by Gen Griffin

  The night was inky and black. The stars were concealed by thick clouds that David hoped would turn into a nice, heavy rainstorm. Water was purifying and he had left quite a few incriminating items in the deep, alligator infested waters of Possum Creek that needed to be purified. Or eaten. David had staked his bet on them being eaten.

  He watched as the boat gurgled up a last burst of bubbles and sank to the bottom of the creek bed. He thought he heard the night groan of a gator in heat not too far away. Stomach churning, David hoisted the shotgun above his head and headed downstream towards his own property.

  A nice bright spotlight would have greatly lowered his odds of being eaten by an alligator, but David knew he couldn't risk running his spotlight just in case someone saw the light and decided to ask questions. He sure as hell couldn't afford to have Addison show up in the fish and game boat to see what he was up to. Not when Addy had Kerry on his heels every time he took a step. David vowed he would dedicate more of his time to getting rid of Kerry just as soon as he had Gracie safe and sound back in her dorm room at State University.

  Assuming he didn't get arrested or eaten by an alligator first. He moved through the water as quickly and silently as he could until he reached dry land. He'd never felt so relieved to have swampy, mucky mud under his bare feet as he did at this moment.

  Chapter 43

  “Asshole!” Kerry screamed as the tail lights of Addison Malone’s truck faded into the night. “You’ll pay for this.”

  He turned back to his cruiser. The already decrepit vehicle was up to its doors in black swamp mud. Kerry had been forced to climb out the driver’s side window because the doors wouldn't open. Kerry had cold, wet mud going halfway up his thighs. His one and only pair of uniform pants were ruined. For some incomprehensible reason, only having one pair of pants made the whole situation seem so much worse.

  Kerry could hear the big Ford truck roaring away on the dirt road, just on the other side of the trees from him. He felt like crying. “I'm such an idiot.”

  “Kerry, why don’t you follow me on this poaching call? I've been having a real problem catching these guys, and I think it’s because they go around the back and escape whichever way I don’t go. I sure could use your expertise to help me stop them.” He mimicked the words Addison had said to him only an hour ago when he'd sent Ian to the back side of Ray Johnson's pasture to block the gate and sent Kerry through the gate and into the pasture to run the hypothetical poachers up through the north gate, directly into Addison's waiting handcuffs.

  “Yeah, absolutely the cruiser can make it on the Johnson farm. No problem. Dry.” Kerry kicked at the thick, suctioning mud with his wet sock. The mud had sucked his left boot off his foot when he had gotten out of the cruiser in an attempt to chase Addison’s Ford on foot. “Dry as a bone.”

  “I'm way too trusting,” Kerry admitted out loud to the audience of cows who were gradually ambling over to him, curious as to why this strange human was standing in the middle of their field talking to himself. “It’s not like I don't know that Addison wants Sheriff Chasson to hire Ian. It’s obvious the two of them are good friends. Hell, they probably spend holidays together; Addison is Sheriff Chasson's nephew and Ian is practically his step-son. They might as well be cousins.” Kerry threw up his hands, making one of the cows jump and another one snort at him.

  “I might as well face the music. Sheriff Chasson doesn't want me hired either. He's the one who ordered me to help them tonight. He had to know they were going to pull some kind of stupid high school bullshit. I should have known they were going to pull stupid high school bullshit. Stuff like this is exactly why I left Possum Creek to begin with.”

  Kerry couldn't stop the hot, angry tears from escaping. He slammed his fist down onto the hood of the cruiser in frustration. The metal made his hand sting. Kerry sunk down to his knees in the mud next to the car.

  “Why won't anyone here just give me a chance?” He asked no one in particular. “I barely even know Addison. He was in the Navy when I was in high school. I went away to college before he got discharged. He doesn't know me and yet, he still hates me. Everyone in this entire stinking town hates me.”

  Kerry laid his head against the cruiser's beefy bumper and stared miserably at the cows. He would be here until dawn, undoubtedly. He'd tried to radio for help when his cruiser had started to bog down. He'd discovered then that his radio didn't work. All the wires appeared to have been cut. He would have used his cellphone to call for help but he had exactly no signal down here. Cellphone signal had never been something you could count on in Possum Creek, regardless of who your carrier was or how expensive a plan you purchased.

  He was mulling over his misfortunes when he heard the sound of a motor approaching. Kerry closed his eyes and tried to focus on the noise. The vehicle was definitely coming closer to where he was sitting. It sounded like it was coming from the rear. Kerry realized someone must have driven up through the back gate. He quickly stood up, hoping against all hope that one of his lousy coworkers had felt guilty enough to come back for him.

  Kerry climbed to the roof of the cruiser and began waving his arms as headlights burst out of the trees on the far side of the pasture. He was too far away. The small truck sped northwest, away from him and towards the creek. Not thinking that he could flash his headlights, Kerry jumped off of the cruiser and began sprinting across the pasture as the truck slowed. He was still 200 yards away when the truck stopped abruptly near the edge of the tree line. Kerry could see that the truck was not a Sheriff's Department vehicle. It appeared to be an older model Toyota, similar to the one his father had owned before making millions off his mother's disastrous neurosurgery.

  The driver of the truck climbed out of the cab. Kerry could just barely see him moving as he opened the tailgate. The loud, cut-off exhaust prevented the driver from hearing Kerry's yells for help. The driver pulled a large bundle out of the bed of the truck and tossed it down onto the ground. No sooner had the package hit the ground than the driver was back in his truck and speeding away into the night.

  “No! No! Wait! Help! Please, wait!” Kerry, panting hard and sweating profusely, reached the spot where the truck had been just in time to watch the taillights fade away into the distance. He was almost certain the truck had been the same Toyota he'd seen David Breedlove driving at Walmart earlier tonight. They were probably in on this together. Addison's bitching about David had probably just been an act designed to make Kerry think they were arguing. Addison had probably called him to come see the stuck cruiser and get a good laugh at poor little pathetic Kerry.

  Searching for a place to sit down, Kerry stumbled over what he first thought was a log and then realized was the bundle that had been slung out of the truck bed.

  Looking down with curiosity, Kerry gingerly opened the blue tarp, which he expected to contain the remains of a deer poached two months before the opening of hunting season. Instead, a man’s lifeless eyes stared up at him.

  Chapter 44

  “Hi honey. Have you been having a fun weekend?” Jane May Malone's voice was too bright and too cheery for this time in the morning. Whatever time in the morning it happened to be. Gracie blearily glanced around David's bedroom but couldn't see any clocks as she pulled his comforter over her new pajamas and tried to focus on what her mother was saying.

  “Hmmumph?” she asked.

  “Did I wake you up?” Gracie's mother asked, her lilting Southern purr echoing through the phone.

  “Mmm hmm,” Gracie murmured.

  “Were you out late last night?” She asked. “It's already eleven o'clock.”

  “Mmm. Kinda.” Gracie debated rolling back over and going to sleep, but then remembered where she was and why she was staying there. She forced herself to focus on her mother's voice.

  “What were you doing?” Jane May asked.

  “Went out with a friend,” Gracie said evasively, remembering David's instructions to keep her story as close to the truth as possible.
>
  “Where did you go?” she asked.

  “Itali-,” Gracie caught herself before she named the local, family-owned restaurant. “Italian place. I don't remember the name of it.”

  “Did you go with someone from the dorm?”

  “No.” Gracie wished her mother would quit asking so many questions. “Just a friend.”

  “Oh, well, are you and your roommate getting along better?” Jane May asked.

  “No, she still hates me,” Gracie sighed. “Is this twenty questions or something?”

  “No. I'm just worried about you. I couldn't get a hold of you all day yesterday.” Jane May sounded like she was in a good mood, but Gracie knew better than to trust it.

  “I'm fine, Mom. Just busy.”

  “Well, that's about what Addison said too. He thought that you were probably just on a date and that I shouldn't worry.”

  Gracie didn't know whether to be grateful to her brother or to go get in David's truck, hunt Addy down, and strangle him.

  “Gracie?” Jane May's voice echoed through the line. “Were you on a date?”

  “It wasn't a date, Mom,” Gracie said patronizingly. “I just went out to eat with a friend. I hate the food here. The dining hall doesn't season anything.”

  “A guy friend?” Jane May was being extremely pushy. As usual.

  Gracie wondered what else Addison had shared with their mother. She sighed, trying to decide if it was more trouble to manufacture a guy out of thin air or just tell her it was a girl. Either way it was a lie, Gracie hadn't had a social life since leaving Possum Creek. “Don't worry about it.”

  “Well, I'm your mother. I need to know if you're seeing somebody.” There was an all too familiar hint of disapproval in her voice.

  “I'm not,” Gracie said flatly. She wondered how David was planning on fixing her relationship with Cal. He wasn't exactly known for his sparkling social skills or tactful delivery of information. Gracie wondered how many more of his bones were going to get broken while he tried to explain to Cal why, exactly, they had intentionally lied to him.

  “Oh. You're sure?”

  “I would know, wouldn't I?” Gracie growled.

  “Okay okay. I'm sure you would tell me if anything serious was going on. I worry about you being so far away from home. I know that's silly, of course. You made the best decision you could have made when you decided to go away to college. I'm so glad you're at State University and not just hanging around here, wasting your life at Callahan Community.”

  “There isn't anything wrong with Callahan Community.” Gracie didn't like where this conversation was headed. “Addison graduated from Callahan.”

  “Addison is wasting his life,” Jane May Malone sighed deeply into the phone. “You should have seen him yesterday. Covered in sweat and dirt from head-to-toe, his hair going in every which direction. It’s so shaggy it’s hanging in his eyes like he's a sheepdog. Chain smoking like cigarettes are going out of style. I told him he needed to go home and take a bath. He told me he didn't have time.”

  “Sounds like Addy.” Gracie had noticed her brother looked pretty rough yesterday, but she wasn't about to admit that to Jane May. The woman was always looking for something to pick at.

  “Addison is a washed-up loser, Gracie. You don't know how much it pains me to say that, but it’s the truth. He threw away his career in the Navy to come home and play in the woods with his buddies all day.”

  “He's the game warden, Mom. It’s his job.”

  “He's a bum with no motivation and a job my brother handed to him on a silver platter,” Jane May snapped. “I want you to know that I'm proud of you. I'm so relieved that you left this town and are going on to make something of yourself. Don't take this the wrong way, but I hope you graduate college and never come back here except to visit.”

  “I miss Possum Creek.” Gracie never knew what to say to her mother when she got this way.

  “You shouldn't. There is nothing here for you. I know you miss Calvin, but breaking up with him was the best choice you could have made for your future. I was so afraid he would drag you down and keep you here forever, barefoot and pregnant in the yard. I know you don't agree with me, but Cal Walker is no better than your brother. Loving him would keep you trapped in this small town hellhole. You have so much brighter of a future without him.”

  “Mom, I've got to go.”

  “Oh Gracie, don't take what I'm saying the wrong way. You've made the right choices for your future.”

  “Really?” Gracie knew she should keep her mouth shut but she just couldn't do it. “Because I think I've made a huge mistake.”

  “You've been talking to your brother again, haven't you?” Jane May's tone of voice was decidedly less friendly. “Gracie, don't you dare let him talk you into coming home. I know he misses you and you miss him, but he isn't looking out for your best interests when he tells you he wants you to leave college and move back here.”

  “Addison hasn't told me to come home.”

  “Are you so sure? Because he's told me he thinks it would be best for you to come home. He said those exact words to me yesterday. He said he thought you needed to come home.”

  “Did he really?” Gracie unexpectedly felt her eyes tear up. She loved her big brother so much. Personality flaws aside, he was the best brother a girl could ask for.

  “Yes. Don't listen to him. He's trying to convince you to make the same bad choices he did. He doesn't have your best interests at heart, Gracie. He's just lonely and bored. I don't think your brother knows what to do with himself since he doesn't have you to take care of anymore. He's been lost since you left for college.”

  David walked into the room. “Time to rise and shine, sunshine.”

  Gracie put her finger up to her lips and shook her head at him, gesturing for him to be quiet. “Mom, I have to go.”

  “Who was that?” Jane May's tone had gone from lecture to suspicious parent in two seconds flat.

  “Just a friend, Mom.”

  “A friend who just walks right into your room?” Jane May's disapproval radiated through the phone.

  “The door was open.” Gracie wasn't technically lying. David leaned against the door-frame and rolled his eyes. “I love you. I'll talk to you later. Tell Daddy I miss him.”

  “Boys shouldn't be just walking right into your room. It’s not appropriate. Oh God, Addison's loose morals have probably rubbed off on you. I shouldn't have let you spend so much time with him and his friends when you were younger. You have all the wrong ideas about-.”

  “Love you. Goodbye.” Gracie cut her mother off and quickly hung up the phone. She flopped backwards on the bed and pulled the comforter over her head.

  “Jane May?” David asked.

  “Who else would spend 10 minutes telling me how much she loves me, followed by an explanation about how the worst decision I've ever made in my life was actually the best decision of my life? She decided to tell me how she's glad Cal and I split up and then called Addison a loser.”

  “Yup. Sounds about normal.” David walked over the bed and sat down on the edge next to Gracie's feet. “I never have liked your Mom.”

  “Me neither,” Gracie admitted. “I mean, I love her. I just don't really like having to talk to her. I don't think she likes me much more than I like her.”

  “Your Mom doesn't like anything or anyone. She hates me. She hates Cal. She hates every girl Addison has ever dated. I think she's part of the reason he whores around with everything in town. It doesn't matter who he's sleeping with. No one is ever going to be good enough for Jane May Malone.”

  “I think Mom is unhappy with herself. She's spent my whole life talking about leaving Possum Creek, going back to college to become an RN, and moving to a city. Dad won't go.”

  “Your Dad is never going to go anywhere. I can't remember the last time I saw him get out of his recliner.”

  “Me neither.” Gracie took a deep breath and then sighed. “I'm afraid of winding up miserable
the same way they are. Sometimes Cal and I remind me of my parents.

  “You have to stand up to Cal sometimes, Gracie. If you don't, he'll run you the same way that Pappy runs Possum Creek.”

  “Last time I stood up to Cal, I lost him.” Gracie felt a spurt of fresh tears blossom behind her eyelids. She hurriedly wiped them away. “He's stuck in his same old rut, doing whatever it is that he does. I'm spinning my wheels in his rut and getting nowhere fast. I tried to explain how I felt to him, and he blew up in my face.”

  “Oh, I think Cal's fixing to get himself out of that Walker Hardware rut.” David smiled sideways at Gracie.

  “What do you know that I don't?” Gracie asked.

  “I'm not telling you. It was a private conversation.”

  “You're such an ass, David.” Gracie shook her head at him. “Mom is going to be royally pissed when she finds out I'm dropping out of college and moving home. I'm not looking forward to telling her. Do you think I could just kind of let her find out on her own?”

  “You're dropping out?”

  Gracie nodded. “I can't go back, David. I realized that last night. I'm never going to be able to face Kelsey. I don't even want to try. I killed Brett. I can't just go back to class Monday morning and act the same way I did last Friday before any of this mess happened.”

  “Gracie, that's exactly what you're going to have to do.” He grimaced at her, placing one hand on her leg. “I'm sorry kid, but you don't have a choice.”

  “I'm getting sick to my stomach just thinking about having to walk back into that dorm.” Gracie crossed her arms over her tank top and tried not to cry. A knot of dread had been growing in Gracie's stomach since she'd been woken up by her mother's call. It continued to expand and tighten with every minute that passed. “How am I supposed to face my British Literature class tomorrow? Should I just sit there and listen to everyone wonder where Brett is when I'm the only one who knows the horrible truth?”