Gather Her Round

by Alex Bledsoe

  “I had the worst fucking nightmare,” she said, her eyes straight ahead. “Adam was in the woods, and there was that monster pig behind him. I kept yelling at him to turn around, or run, or do something other than stand there. But he didn’t. And the thing…” She suddenly choked up.

  Duncan said slowly, “I had the same dream.”

  “Your girlfriend and my baby brother,” she said, shaking her head. “Killed by a motherfucking pig. We raise pigs, you know that? And it was all I could do not to go out there and shoot every single one of ’em.”

  “That wouldn’t have accomplished anything.”

  “It would’ve made me feel better.”

  “Not for long.”

  She sighed. “That’s true. I bottle-fed some of them, when they were piglets.” She took back the bottle and drank again. “I can’t wait until they kill that thing and bring its worthless carcass through town.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “Oh, come on. If you and Adam had killed it, you mean you wouldn’t have showed it off?”

  “I suppose so.”

  “My parents are both passed out drunk,” she said. “That’s why they didn’t come to Kera’s wake today. My big brother is stoned out of his mind. He kept blowing shotguns for the dog, so even the dog’s high as a kite. I’m the only one sober, and I don’t like that at all.”

  “Maybe I should drive, then.”

  “Nothing’s going to happen to us.” She made an elaborate hand gesture, one that appealed to the night winds to watch over and protect them. Every Tufa learned it as a child, and Duncan mimicked it halfheartedly.

  “Where are we going?” he asked after a long stretch of silence, the only noise being the tires on the highway.

  “I have no idea,” she said.

  “Well, at least we’ll get there on time.”

  She laughed, took another drink, and belched again. “You’re a funny guy, Duncan. I didn’t used to think so. The whole time we were growing up, I thought you were just another punk who’d end up never amounting to anything.”

  “Not far off,” he muttered.

  “But not many guys would get off their ass and go after the monster that killed their girlfriend like you did.”

  He was glad it was so dark that she couldn’t see him blush from shame.

  “Okay, to be honest, I do wish you hadn’t gotten Adam to help you,” she continued. “But he was basically a dumb-ass, and he probably would’ve insisted on coming along anyway. So I don’t blame you for that.”

  “Thanks,” he said, and drained the first bottle. He put it on the floorboard and opened the second one.

  She slowed and turned off the highway onto a gravel road. He knew it, of course: it led up the mountainside to a scenic overlook that took in the whole valley. He’d last been there for a school picnic his junior year of high school, which now seemed decades ago. He and Kera had just been flirting then, catching each other’s eye and quickly looking away, trading insults and completely denying that either had any interest in the other. What had Adam been doing that day? He couldn’t remember.

  The truck’s gears struggled in a couple of places, and Renny shifted expertly. He was struck by the family resemblance in the way she drove, her body moving in the same way he’d seen Adam’s do so many times. It sent a weird jolt through him, because even though her feminine presence was almost overwhelming, he couldn’t shake the idea that Adam was there, too.

  At last they reached the spot. A picnic table and garbage can occupied a clearing, and on the other side, the open ground ended at a sloping cliff that gave them a spectacular view of the night sky, the mountains, and the cluster of lights that marked Needsville. Every surface was damp with dew, and she slipped as she stepped on the bench, and then up on the table.

  He stayed by the truck, uncertain what he should do.

  She threw back her head and let out a long, loud undulating cry, a combination of war cry and grief-stricken sob. In the night’s stillness, it rang through the air, silencing all the insects and disturbing sleeping birds. The only direct response was a distant owl cry.

  “Well, that figures,” she said. “You know, some Indians believe owls are the spirits of the dead who ain’t quite ready to move on?”

  “Didn’t know that,” Duncan said. The malt liquor had begun to seriously fuzz his thoughts.

  “Think that was Adam?”

  He shook his head. “No. I don’t think he’d have any reason to hang around.”

  She stepped down off the table, strode over to him, pushed him against the truck and kissed him hard, her tongue forcing its way past his lips. She was only a little shorter than he was, and when she broke the kiss, she kept him hemmed in by bracing her arms on either side of him.

  “What was that?” he asked. He couldn’t look her in the eye.

  “A kiss, stupid.”

  “Why would you…?”

  “Because I am tired to death of death, and there’s only one way I know to feel alive at a time like this.”

  “I’m not sure I’m the right guy to—”

  “I don’t care if you’re the right guy. You’re the guy who’s here. Pretend I’m Kera if you want, I don’t care.”

  He looked up sharply, and his anger rose. “Don’t you ever say that, you fucking bitch.”

  She smiled. “Now, that’s more like it. Fuck me angry, because that’s how I intend to fuck you. Let’s show the night winds how we feel about what they’ve done to us.”

  The sudden rage had burned through a lot of his buzz. He grabbed her by the waist, spun her around, and slammed her back against the car. She laughed into his mouth as he kissed her with as much fury as he could, and she pulled his hands to her breasts, braless beneath her T-shirt.

  16

  Janet’s cell phone buzzed. She lay on her bed, eyes closed, listening to the music running through her head. It never went away, but not all of it was worthy of her concentration.

  Beside her, Ginny lightly snored. Ginny and Janet had been having sleepovers since they were five, and although they still shared the same bed, there had never been anything erotic between them. Ginny liked boys, and Janet liked music, or at least she hadn’t yet met a boy she liked as much as, let alone more than, music. Still, people talked about the two girls, even if for the most part they didn’t judge. Luckily, neither girl cared.

  Janet picked the phone up from her nightstand. It vibrated in her hand. “Hello?” she said softly.

  “Janet, this is Mandalay. I need a favor.”

  She sat up straight. “Hi.”

  “Hi. Can you take me somewhere?”

  Janet looked at Ginny, who continued to sleep. She crossed to the closet, stepped inside, and closed the door. “I beg your pardon?”

  “I need a ride somewhere, and you have a license.”

  “Oh! I mean … sure. Where do you want to go?”

  “Out to see Miss Azure.”

  “When?”

  “Now.”

  Janet glanced at the clock. It was just before midnight. “Okay. I mean … I guess.”

  “Good. I’ll expect you in a few minutes.”

  She hung up, and Janet stared at the phone. She quickly added the number as a contact. Then she quietly pulled on her pants and ran a brush through her hair.

  She started to wake Ginny—it was often easier to include her than to spend the time explaining things later—but Mandalay hadn’t mentioned her. And Ginny showed no sign of waking.

  Why the hell did Mandalay need a chauffeur? If anyone could ride the night winds, it was one of the Tufa leaders. And Azure’s cabin was neither hard to find nor dangerous to visit.

  But it wasn’t the kind of summons Janet could turn down. And with her insatiable curiosity, she wouldn’t have even if she could.

  * * *

  “Well, that was a surprise,” Bliss Overbay said breathlessly.

  “A pleasant one, I hope,” Jack Cates said. He looked down at the way her hair spread
over the pillow, and bent to kiss her. It started as a simple touch of lips, but then her arms slid around his neck, as tightly as her legs around his waist, and in moments, they kissed as passionately as they had earlier. They were naked beneath a scratchy blanket on a cot at the fire station, and what had just transpired between them would have seemed unlikely, if not impossible, mere hours earlier.

  When it broke, she said, “They say a kiss steals a minute off your life.”

  “It seems like a fair trade.”

  “You’re a good half hour closer to the grave, if I’m counting right.”

  “What about you?”

  She nipped at his chin. “Luckily, time doesn’t work the same for everybody.”

  They both laughed, the kind of intimate, exhausted laugh that comes after realizing just how compatible you are. Jack tried to slide off her, but she tightened her legs and kept him in position. He didn’t struggle.

  “Are you sure,” he said after another kiss, “that this is a good idea?”

  “Why wouldn’t it be? You’re not married, I’m not married. We don’t work together—”

  “But that’s how we met.”

  “Okay, we work near each other. And we don’t have families that are feuding. So why not?” She ran her hand through his hair. “Why the hell not?”

  He laughed. “I just can’t believe I’m this lucky.”

  “Maybe I feel the same way,” she said, and kissed him again.

  He truly couldn’t believe it. In her work clothes, Bliss had looked lean and angular, like so many mountain women. But naked, she’d proved to be exactly the kind of woman he’d always fantasized about. He kept expecting to wake up back home, but no, this had really happened.

  He and Dolph had spent the day looking for more signs of the killer hog, to no avail. It was as if the beast had simply vanished or, worse, moved on to another area, and more unsuspecting people. Disheartened, he’d dropped his friend at his truck, then called Bliss to take her up on her offer to shower at the fire station.

  She met him there after Kera Rogers’s memorial service, showed him the shower, and then surprised him mightily by slipping into the water with him. He started to protest, but she gave him no opportunity.

  After their first kiss, she held up his right hand. “Do this,” she said, and made a particular gesture with her own fingers.

  He repeated it, then said, “Why?”

  “Always pay the insurance,” she replied, and pulled him into another kiss.

  When the hot water ran out, they scurried together under the blanket on the cot, where they’d gotten to know each other even more.

  Now he looked down at her in wonder. “Tell me now if this is a onetime thing.”

  “Do you want it to be?”

  “A question with a question. That’s your standard response, is it?”

  She smiled. He’d never seen anything so beautiful. Her face was free of makeup, her skin flushed, her lips swollen ever so slightly. “No, I’m just teasing. It can be a onetime thing if that’s what you need. But I’d like it not to be.”

  He kissed her neck. “I would, too.”

  He thought back to recent events. The day after Adam Procure’s death, he’d accompanied Bliss and the inscrutable Trooper Darwin up to the site of the second killing in Half Pea Valley, where Dolph stood watch over the remains. Darwin took his time examining the site, something Jack ordinarily would have respected. But he seemed to be putting on an act for Jack and Dolph’s benefit.

  “Any questions about anything?” Jack had finally asked.

  “Hm? No, I figure I got all I need. I’ll need statements from everyone who was here—you two, Bronwyn, and the other guy, the one who was hunting with you. But I don’t think there’s any hurry for that.”

  “No hurry?” Jack said. “Two people have died.”

  “And the paperwork won’t bring ’em back. You got the word out about how dangerous this critter is, right? And I’ll sure keep repeating it. That’s really all we can do until somebody finally kills it.”

  “You with the Criminal Investigation Division, then?”

  “Not so’s you could tell it.”

  “But you’re out of District Five in Fall Creek?”

  “You bet. Troop E.”

  “Who’s your superior?” Jack asked suddenly.

  “Corporal Tom Hancock,” Darwin replied without missing a beat. “Junior, not senior. Senior retired last year. You know him?”

  “Yeah,” Jack said. “I might give him a call.”

  “You do that. Tell him I said howdy.”

  “You think he’ll approve of you handling a murder investigation all by yourself?”

  Darwin laughed. “This ain’t murder. This is an accident. And I do those by myself all the time.”

  “Really?”

  “Here in Cloud County … really.”

  And that had been that. The whole area was photographed. The one bit of human remains they’d found was bagged and tagged. These, along with the statements, would fill all the crucial spaces in the official files, and unless someone was driven to look into why all these pieces of evidence were collected by the same guy, it would never even be noticed. The right song, sung in the right way, would effectively hide them in plain sight.

  The bodies of the dead pigs were left for coyotes, other scavengers, and their own kind to dispose of. On the long hike back to the Rogers farm, Darwin said nothing, and in fact appeared almost jauntily preoccupied. Dolph and Jack exchanged looks of disbelief. Bliss brought up the rear, silent and inscrutable.

  When they reached their vehicles, Bliss said, “I’m going to see about the Rogerses. They’ll be having the funeral day after tomorrow.”

  “Give them my best,” Darwin said before he climbed into his Ford Explorer with blue lights on top.

  So Jack and Dolph had once again hunted without success. And this time, since Dolph brought his own ride, Jack had called Bliss to take her up on the shower offer. And now here they were.

  He propped up on one elbow and looked down at her. Her black hair was spread around her, and he was fascinated by the snake tattoo on her arm. It curled around her biceps and up onto her shoulder, where acorns fell from its mouth down onto her breast. He traced the path lightly with his finger, and leaned down to kiss the lowest acorn. “What’s the significance of this?”

  “It’s personal.”

  “I didn’t mean to be rude.”

  “No, that’s not what I meant. It’s just … it would be difficult to explain. Maybe, if this develops into something, then I can tell you.”

  “I don’t have a lot of free time for dating,” he said honestly.

  “Neither do I.”

  “It might end up being a whole relationship of things like this, where we just find out we’ve got a moment and grab it. Hard to plan around that kind of thing.”

  “What makes you think I need to plan?”

  He kissed her, and she ran her fingertips along his stubbly chin. He’d heard stories about men who trifled with Tufa girls to their peril, but at the moment, any such worries were far from his mind.

  “We’re bound to cross paths professionally, too,” he said. “Would that be a problem for you?”

  “No.”

  He grinned again, and somehow all the anger and frustration, for this moment at least, dissolved away. “Well, then, Bliss Overbay … do you want to go steady?”

  “I believe I do, Jack Cates. I believe I do.”

  * * *

  Janet glanced at Mandalay in the passenger seat. The younger girl wore a UT Vols hoodie and blue jeans. She had one foot propped up on the dashboard.

  “So,” Janet asked, “what are we doing?”

  “We’re driving down Max Welton Road.”

  “Ha. No, seriously. Why didn’t you just—” She made a fluttering motion with her hand, then finished, “—out to Azure’s place?”

  “Because I wanted to talk to you as well.”

  “Me?”
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  “Janet, you may not believe it, but in a lot of ways, you’re more important to the Tufa than I am.”

  Janet snorted. “You’re right, I don’t believe that.”

  “You’re the one who’s going to leave here someday and take the Tufa into the world.”

  “People don’t leave, Mandalay. Look at Rockhouse Hicks, or Bronwyn Hyatt. Sure, they left. But then the night winds blew ’em right back. And what about Rayford Parrish? He didn’t even get the chance to come back.”

  “That was then. This is now. Things change.”

  “Not for the Tufa.”

  “Even for us,” Mandalay said with a heaviness that made them both ride silently for a while. Then she asked, “You have a boyfriend, Janet?”

  “Not currently.”

  “You’re not dating Amos Collins?”

  Janet snort-laughed. “Good Lord, no. Who says I am?”

  “Just heard it around school.”

  “He has a crush on me, but I promise you, it ain’t mutual. I mean, he once failed a spelling test because he spelled ‘farm’ E-I-E-I-O.”

  Mandalay laughed. “I see what you mean.” Then, more seriously, she said, “I have a boyfriend.”

  “I know, I met him.”

  “You could tell?”

  “Well, I mean … like you, I heard about it around school. People tend to notice things about you, you being so important and all.”

  “You ever had a boyfriend?”

  “Sure. But they didn’t appreciate that I spent so much time playing music. You’d think a Tufa would understand that, but nope. They just wanted to make out and stuff.”

  “And you didn’t like that?”

  “Oh, sure, I liked it. I mean, who doesn’t? But if I have to choose between dick and guitar, then—” She caught herself. She’d relaxed so much, she’d forgotten whom she was talking to. She quickly made the hand sign for respect. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to speak out of line.”

  Mandalay smiled at her discomfort. “Relax. I brought it up, remember?”

  They rode in silence some more. At last Janet said, “You still haven’t explained why we’re going where we’re going.”