Shotgun Moon

by K. C. McRae

  They’d break her in less than a week. Some women emerged from prison stronger, but Lauri wouldn’t be one of them. She’d be unrecognizable. It would break Shirlene’s heart.

  Lauri jerked her shoulder away. “Stop trying to scare me! I’m not like you. I’m not going to jail. I didn’t do anything.”

  “Neither did I.”

  “Sure you did. You killed a guy, didn’t you?”

  Merry licked her lips. “You know I didn’t have a choice.”

  “Fine. Whatever. But I didn’t kill Clay at all. I loved him, and now he’s dead.” Her throat worked and her next words came out a whisper. “I didn’t kill him.”

  “Lauri—”

  She sniffed hard and blinked back tears. “I’ve got stuff to do.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

  “But—”

  “A lot of stuff to do.”

  Hell. Let her rot, the little brat. Merry opened the door and got out. She started to slam it shut, but stopped herself. Took a deep breath. Leaned back into the car.

  “Let me know if you want to talk, okay?”

  “Yeah, okay.” Lauri waved her away.

  This time Merry did slam the door.

  ———

  Merry’s first trip to the grocery store had been for staples: bread, milk, butter, eggs, and the like. Now it was time for a more thorough shopping expedition. She was halfway to the local IGA supermarket when the police prowler pulled out from a side street and the blue and red lights began flashing.

  She pulled over, thinking it might be Jamie.

  It wasn’t.

  Rory Hawkins heaved his bulk out of the driver’s seat. As he approached her open window, she switched off the ignition and placed her hands on the steering wheel at two and ten so they’d be visible.

  Hawkins leaned his elbow on the doorframe and the smell of onions filled the cab. “Now, what do we have here?”

  In her rearview mirror, she saw Lester Fleck get out of the patrol car and lean against it, watching them.

  “What can I do for you, sergeant?” She kept her tone light, despite his hard stare.

  “License and registration. For starters.”

  She reached for her wallet on the seat beside her and saw his hand move toward his hip in her peripheral vision. She extracted the license and handed it to him.

  “The registration’s in the glove box.” Moving with slow care, she opened the box and took out an envelope, silently grateful for her mother’s foresight in signing the vehicle over to her before she died.

  He examined the documentation. “Just got this, I see.” He looked up from her license. “But what were you using when you drove to the station to bust my chops yesterday? Wouldn’t have been driving on an expired driver’s license, would you? Not a law-abiding girl like you.”

  She knew she didn’t have to answer that. “Why did you pull me over?”

  “You wouldn’t be carrying any contraband, would you?”

  “Of course not.”

  “No drugs? We’ve been having some problems with that in town, and I mighta got a tip that I’d find some in this very vehicle.”

  A thread of fear wended its way up her spine. She took a gamble.

  “Officer Fleck,” she called.

  Lester pushed himself off the car behind her and ambled toward them. He nodded to her over Hawkins’s shoulder. “Ms. McCoy.”

  “Your sergeant here says he ‘mighta got a tip’ that I have contraband in here. You know anything about that?”

  Lester glanced at Hawkins. Chewed the inside of his cheek. “Can’t say that I do.”

  She looked at Hawkins and raised her eyebrows. “Now what?”

  If he insisted on searching the Chevy, she couldn’t very well stop him. Did he have this planned, have something illegal already stashed up his sleeve to “find”? Would Lester stand by and let him do it?

  After a long moment, Hawkins looked away. He shoved the paperwork in his hand toward her. “Watch your step.”

  He turned and walked back to his patrol car. Lester hesitated, then followed him.

  She waited until they had driven past her before she let out an explosive breath and started the engine.

  seven

  Among the necessities in her cart, Merry tossed in a T-bone steak, a couple potatoes, a six-pack of Moose Drool ale, beef ribs, new peas still in the pod, a quart of fresh strawberries, a half-pint of whipping cream, and vanilla extract. At the last minute, she went back and added a ten-pound bag of carrots. Izzy deserved a treat, too.

  Emerging from the IGA, she saw an old white RV at the edge of the parking lot, BLOOD MOBILE stenciled in red on the side. A green awning shaded five metal folding chairs. A corner of bright white fabric fluttered through the propped-open door.

  And there in the shade sat Anna Knight, wearing a sky-blue nursing uniform and sipping one of the Cokes from the cooler beside her. The woman of extremes who had caught Jamie’s eye the previous afternoon. Barbie Barnes’s roommate. Today she wore her glossy dark hair piled up on the back of her head. Even from this distance, Merry could see dark-rimmed eyes and lipstick the color of Merlot. Anna caught her staring and smiled.

  Merry loaded the groceries into Lotta, parked where two horse-chestnut trees cast a bit of shade, and headed toward the awning. A gaunt, gray man who looked like he didn’t have any of the red stuff to spare leaned back in the folding chair on the end. Anna sipped her Coke and watched Merry’s approach. Her coif glistened smooth and sleek, and her almond-shaped green eyes narrowed as her smile touched them. White teeth gleamed in a Cheshire grin against the tan of her face.

  Merry stopped in front of her. “Hi.”

  Anna cocked her head to one side. “Hi. You want to give blood?” The nasal voice whined and twanged through the words, startling Merry.

  “Um, sure. What do I need to do?”

  “You haven’t given blood before?”

  “Not intentionally.”

  Anna giggled, high and staccato. “Fill this out, and then I’ll hook you up inside,” she said, handing Merry a clipboard and a pen.

  She sat down and began filling out her name and address.

  The thin man rose to his feet and spoke in a rich bass. “Watch her. She stuck me four times before she found a vein. Hurt like hell. You’d think they’d send somebody out in this thing who knows what they’re doing.” He turned and walked across the parking lot.

  Great.

  Reading the form, Merry realized she had to provide an awful lot of information. She sketchily answered questions about travel, sexual history, and medications, skipped the rest, signed the release, and returned the clipboard. Anna drained her Coke while reviewing what Merry had written. She absently dropped the empty aluminum can onto the asphalt beside her chair with a metallic clank and made a notation.

  “You don’t know your type?” she asked without looking up.

  “No.”

  “You want me to mail that information to you later?”

  “Nah. I like a little mystery in my life.”

  Anna giggled again. Then the sound suddenly stopped, as if her amusement had run full tilt into a wall. She pointed to the clipboard.

  “McCoy. Aren’t you related to Lauri Danner?”

  “She’s my cousin.”

  She bit her lip, then rose and gestured Merry into the RV. Inside the cramped space, a recliner backed against one wall. A sheet, crisp and bleached, draped over the chair in folds hanging to the floor. On one side, a metal chair the color of putty faced a small stainless-steel table with a shelf below and wheels that allowed it to roll from one side of the recliner to the other. A small oscillating fan moved the hot air but failed to cool it.

  “Seems kind of warm in here,” Merry said.

  Anna indicated she should sit in the recliner. “It’s a freak
in’ oven

  in here, is what it is. I’m shutting down soon. I don’t care what they say at the clinic. I’m about to pass out.”

  Great.

  Perching on the edge of the metal chair, Anna gripped both of Merry’s hands, pulling them toward her and examining the veins running up her arms. She nodded once and unwrapped a cellophane packet, removed a cotton swab presoaked in alcohol. Selecting the arm closest to her, she rubbed the alcohol onto the inside of the elbow while gazing at her watch.

  “Idiots,” she said. “This blood mobile is so stupid. Who wants to donate blood in the IGA parking lot, for God’s sake? I sit here all day, and only two donors have come in. Most people only want to ask stupid questions.”

  “You’re making me feel really good about doing this, you know.”

  “Oh God. I’m sorry. I get kind of carried away.”

  “How long are you going to rub that stuff on my arm?”

  She looked back at her watch and bit her lower lip. Dark lipstick smeared across her teeth. “Five more seconds.”

  Moments later she tossed the swab in a wastebasket and struggled into a pair of thin disposable gloves from the box on the counter running along the wall behind her. Finally flexing her rubber-clad hands, she began dabbing a three-inch, purple-red circle of iodine on the inside of Merry’s arm. Two drops ran down and dripped off her elbow and onto the white sheet.

  Sweat beaded in tiny glistening dots on Anna’s forehead. Merry felt a trickle herself, inching down her left side under her T-shirt. Anna unwrapped a needle and a coil of clear tubing attached to a thick plastic bag. She poked the needle at a vein. Merry clenched her teeth. Anna poked again. She managed to slide the needle in on the third try and taped it in place. Then she attached the tubing, almost dropping it once in the process, and twisted the cap to allow the transparent pipeline to fill with deep maroon.

  “Sorry if I made you nervous. Just sit back and relax. It won’t take long.” She placed the slowly filling bag on the shelf under the table, a few inches above the floor.

  Just like siphoning gas.

  Merry watched her heart pump blood into the bag. “You didn’t make me nervous,” she lied.

  “Good. Squeeze this.” Anna handed her a rubber ball.

  “So you know my cousin Lauri?”

  Anna nodded. “She gave my roommate a hard time.”

  “Your roommate?”

  “Another nurse at the clinic. Barbie.”

  “She the one whose boyfriend got shot?”

  Anna gave her a speculative look. “Don’t play dumb. Everyone’s heard about it. And Barbie’s having a real hard time.”

  Merry felt a little chastened. “It’s got to be hard. I guess he and my cousin used to go out, too.”

  Anna snorted. “Yeah. Used to. Too bad she couldn’t get that through her head.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, I bet you know exactly what I mean. Practically stalking Clay, breaking into Barbie’s house and vandalizing her stuff. She left my things alone—good thing, too, because I don’t put up with that shit.”

  Merry said, “I just got back into town this week. I’m a bit behind on what’s been going on around here.”

  “Well, get this. Lauri pushes her way into Clay’s house, asks him to marry her, and then throws a fit when he says he doesn’t want to have anything to do with her! He had to throw her out. Thought he was going to have to call the cops.”

  Asked him to marry her? How many people had this story been through before making it to Anna Knight?

  “I don’t know what Barbie saw in him, anyway,” the nurse said.

  “Clay?”

  She nodded. “He was such a stick in the mud. Didn’t like to party, didn’t even drink. Didn’t like it when other people had fun, either. ‘Anna,’ he said one time, ‘sometimes people can have too much fun.’ ‘Not this girl,’ I told him. ‘Stop being such a downer.’”

  “What about your friend? What did Lauri do to her?”

  Anna removed the needle and tube. “Hold this gauze here, and keep your arm straight up. No, all the way up, from the shoulder.” She unrolled more gauze. “That Lauri’s a real piece of work, you know? I mean, she’s scary.”

  “Really?”

  “She’s your cousin. You ought to know.”

  Merry shrugged. “I never thought of her as scary.” Bratty, yes.

  “Well, you haven’t been paying attention, then. After that visit to Clay, she breaks into our house … well, I might have left the door unlocked, but that doesn’t mean someone should just walk in. She poked a big hole in Barbie’s waterbed. Flooded her bedroom and part of the living room. The carpet’s still drying out.”

  Jesus. “How do you know it was Lauri?”

  “Who else would do something like that? I mean, she didn’t leave a note or anything, but Barbie’s sure it was her.”

  So they were guessing. But Merry’s stomach began to roil.

  Anna pulled her arm down and removed the gauze. She fixed more folded gauze against her skin with iridescent lime-green tape. It crinkled like crepe paper, and, as she wound it in an elaborate figure eight around the elbow, it stuck to itself. She tore off the end and tucked it in, but it immediately flipped back out, and the tape began to slowly unwrap. Anna didn’t seem to notice.

  “And Clay told Barbie he’d spotted Lauri following him twice. Like I said: stalking him.” She gazed out the open door to the gray asphalt and blue sky outside, her expression pained. “And then she went too far. He wouldn’t marry her, so she killed him. I guess she figured if she couldn’t have him, then no one else would, either.”

  Oh, God. How movie-of-the-week.

  “Maybe she just wanted him to take responsibility,” Merry said.

  Anna looked blank. “For what? Breaking up with her?”

  Either she didn’t know Lauri was pregnant or didn’t see a connection to Clay. Merry changed the subject. “I bet Barbie was mad about her waterbed.”

  “Well, she wasn’t very happy about it. Or about Lauri elbowing her way into Clay’s house to talk to him.”

  Merry tried a sympathy nod. “How long had Barbie and Clay been together?”

  “Six, seven months.”

  “She must feel awful. But it’s a good thing she wasn’t with Clay that night.”

  “Oh, I know. Her and Olivia—that’s Clay’s mom—were working at our house on some stuff for this volunteer thing we do.”

  It shot a big hole in Merry’s jealous girlfriend theory if Olivia was Barbie’s alibi.

  “Did you and Barbie report the break-in and the waterbed, um, stabbing to the police?”

  “Not then. I mean, what would they do, right? And Barbie figured if she ignored Lauri she’d eventually stop being such a little pain in the ass. But when your cousin shot Clay, well, of course Barbie told the police that Lauri had broken in. She’s pretty scared.”

  “She thinks she’s in danger?”

  “Wouldn’t you?”

  Merry shook her head, baffled. “Are you frightened?”

  “A little. You know, I was actually at Clay’s the night she shot him.”

  Merry’s heart tripped in her chest. “You saw her?”

  She shook her head. “Nah. I was out with Clay’s roommate, and we got back late.” She shuddered.

  The roommate would be the Teller guy Jamie mentioned.

  “But then you were there all night?”

  A suspicious look crossed Anna’s face. “You know, I already told the cops everything yesterday.”

  Merry shrugged. She’d learned enough. “Whatever. I was just curious. My family and I aren’t very close, so I don’t always hear what’s going on.” She stood. “I better get going. I’ve got groceries in the truck.”

  “I didn’t mean to be rude,” Anna said. The pink s
kin of her lips showed through in patches where she had licked off her wine-colored lipstick. “And I’d appreciate it if you don’t talk about me seeing Denny. We’re trying to keep it quiet because, well, he’s kind of married.”

  At the rate this one talked, everyone in town already knew.

  Wait a minute. “If he’s married, why is he living with Clay?”

  “He’s here working on a drilling rig. His wife lives in Kalispell. He goes back when he has days off.”

  Merry nodded her understanding. “Well, I can see why you don’t want to talk about it. I wouldn’t, either.”

  “Do you feel at all dizzy? Maybe you should sit outside for a while before you leave.”

  “I’m fine. I’ll take a Dr Pepper, though.”

  Merry ducked through the doorway and stood on the top step. After the stifling heat of the RV, the middle of the late June day felt like walking into air conditioning. A slight breeze cooled the sweat on the back of her neck and along her ribs. For some reason, the air held the cloying scent of lilies. Chartreuse leaves pulsed against the painfully blue sky, and fifty feet away a car throbbed a sickening red. Wild, surreal colors assaulted her eyes.

  Her head floating somewhere in the vicinity of her shoulders, Merry heard Anna intone her parting script, going from gossip to public service announcement without missing a beat.

  “Well, thanks for donating blood. It’s very important to the community. Don’t lift anything for at least an hour using that arm. Don’t drink any hot beverages for at least an hour. And make sure your next meal …” she trailed off, and Merry felt rather than saw her reach out.

  “Are you okay?” Anna said from far away, and the charcoal-colored asphalt reached up. Everything went dark.

  eight

  She’d be late for morning count, and one more time would mean being banned from the commissary for a month. Merry struggled toward consciousness as panic over this minor infraction seized her. But the voices that woke her murmured from above. Puzzling. A thumb lifted one eyelid, and she saw a man peering down at her. A piercing brightness brought her to full awareness.