Hot Southern Nights

by Gen Griffin

  “Yeah.” David turned back to face the trucks. He nodded at Addison. “How you want to do this?”

  “I don’t know.” Addison got out of the truck. He had his shotgun in his hand. “I can try to shoot the gator but I can't guarantee I won't hit him. If I hit that metal climbing thing the bullet could ricochet.”

  “Then don't try.” David chewed his lower lip as the deputy screamed again.

  “Help me! Goddammit Addison. Help me!” The deputy managed to struggle his way back to the top of the jungle gym. He was gasping and wheezing. His mouth appeared to be full of blood. “You can't let me die here!”

  “Y'all just need to let that gator eat him.” The blonde had gotten out of the driver's seat of the gold Chevy. She had a small revolver in her right hand. She was holding the little gun like it was a favorite accessory. “Really. It'll save everyone in town a lot of trouble.”

  “What?” Trish gaped at the girl. She was tall with cascading blonde hair and a figure most women had to combine dieting and plastic surgery to achieve. Her tiny denim shorts left very little of her long tan legs to Trish's imagination. The brown and pink leather cowboy boots she was wearing with the shorts made Trish think that maybe David had been onto something when he'd suggested Trish buy herself a pair boots.

  “Just sayin'.” The blonde shrugged and waved her gun in the general direction of the howling deputy. “No one would miss him.”

  The deputy screamed again.

  “David's not going to let him die. He's got a hero complex. He's got to save everyone.” Addison clucked his tongue and looked over at the guy who had arrived with the blonde. “Hey Cal, I'll bet you $20 that Breedlove will get the shot on that gator and kill it before Kerry falls off the jungle gym.”

  “No bet. You're right. David's always got to be the hero.” Cal shrugged his shoulders. The alligator sprung into the air and snapped its jaws together just inches from the deputy's head.

  “No offense, but shouldn't y'all be a little bit more concerned?” Trish cast a sideways glance at Addison. “That is one of your fellow officers, isn't it?”

  “Yes, but its Kerry.” Addison's tone implied that the name should explain everything.

  “Who is Kerry?” Trish asked.

  “Its a long story,” Addison said. “The gator is probably going to eat him before I can tell you the whole thing.”

  “Give me the short version.”

  “Kerry's got a pretty nasty grudge against the rest of us,” Addison explained. “He and David's cousin, Ian, were both up for the same job last fall. It was kind of bullshit because Ian actually wanted the job. All Kerry wanted was a way to get revenge on everyone who ever hocked a spitball at him during middle school.”

  “And he still got the job?” Trish asked.

  “Uncle Frank, the sheriff, wasn’t going to hire Kerry but then we wound up with two openings and lets just say shit has gone kind of screwy from there.” Addison sighed and held up his hands in a big shrug.

  “Kerry and Ian both got hired.” The blonde girl filled in the blanks in Addison's story. “Now Kerry’s using the minimal powers he was granted as an officer of the Callahan County Sheriffs Department to make all our lives a living hell. Especially David's.”

  “Why doesn’t he like David?” Trish asked.

  “Doesn’t like is an understatement,” the blonde said. “Kerry hates David with a passion. He keeps accusing David of murdering a girl who disappeared back when we were all in high school. He thinks that David will confess to the murder if he makes David’s life miserable enough.”

  “Wait, that guy thinks David is a murderer?” Trish frowned. She had no idea how to take this latest revelation. She supposed her reaction was going to depend on whether David decided to shoot the alligator or the deputy.

  “He didn't do it,” the girl said helpfully. “Really. We're sure. By the way, I'm Gracie. You are?”

  “Trish.” She felt a little dumb. She should have guessed the other girl’s identity when she'd noticed her turquoise eyes and too perfect blonde hair. She was Addison’s kid sister. Cal’s soon-to-be wife. Addison's Granny Pearl had been boring Trish to death with the details of the upcoming nuptials for weeks.

  “David's not a murderer.” Addison looked directly at Trish as he spoke. “But he might be better off he went ahead and killed Kerry off. Shit has not been going particularly well lately. Kerry tries to pin every crime in the county on him.”

  “You're not serious.”

  “Oh yes he is,” Gracie said. “My 13 year old cousin and three of his friends went around our neighborhood stealing the right rear hubcap off of every car they found. He had a pile of hubcaps in the shed that was 5 feet tall. It was a stupid prank and it was ridiculously obvious that kids had done it but Kerry still tried to arrest David for it.”

  “Help. Oh God help!” Kerry wailed as his arm slipped loose of the bar. “Why are y'all just standing there? Help me!”

  David raised the rifle back up to his shoulder. He straightened his spine and pulled the trigger just as the gator started to jump again. The shot echoed impossibly loudly through the night. Kerry screamed and released his grip on the jungle gym. He crashed down to the ground, landing on top of the newly deceased alligator and screaming at the top of his lungs.

  “Nice shot,” Addison told David.

  “Not really.” David lowered the gun back down. He didn't move a muscle as the deputy continued to scream and wail and roll around on the ground on top of the alligator.

  “It's got me!” Kerry howled. “It's got me. Oh Jesus its biting me. Help me! It's got me!”

  Addison tilted his head to the side and squinted at the scene underneath the play structure. “Does it have him?” He asked. “I don't have my contacts in.”

  “No. It doesn't.” Gracie sighed and began stomping across the playground towards the rolling, howling and crying officer of the law. She stormed past David and slipped through the metal bars on the side of the jungle gym. The heels of her boots appeared to be digging into the ground with every step. She straddled both the crying deputy and the alligator. “Get up, Kerry.”

  “I can't!” He bawled.

  “You can. It's dead. Breedlove shot the bastard.” Gracie crossed her arms over her tiny spaghetti-strap tank top. She still had the gun dangling casually from one hand. “You're rolling around in alligator blood and making a fool of yourself.”

  Kerry abruptly stopped flailing. He tentatively raised one arm and then the other. He slowly sat up. “Its dead?”

  “Very.” Gracie tossed her hair over her shoulder and sighed loudly. “Get up, Kerry.”

  Kerry scanned the entire playground twice before his eyes settled back on Addison. “I think that...um...I think the alligator farm has had a breakout.”

  “Duh.” Addison held up the shotgun he was holding. “We got that.”

  Kerry struggled to his feet. He was shaking badly. He wound up grabbing hold of the metal playground equipment just to avoid falling over. He looked over at Cal and Addison. “Real nice of you two to come running to my rescue.”

  “You're still alive,” Addison pointed out.

  “No thanks to you.” Kerry spat blood on the ground beside him.

  “Thank David. Technically, he saved you.” Addison shot Kerry a nasty grin. “Again.”

  “I need to stop doing that. Saving Kerry's life, I mean.” David pulled several rounds of ammo out of his pocket. He began systematically reloading his rifle as if he didn't have a care in the world.

  “You should be kissing David's ass right now, Kerry.” Gracie cuddled into Cal's side. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into him almost as if it were an automatic reflex. “No one else standing here could have made that shot.”

  “He shot at me.” Kerry attempted to use the bottom of his uniform shirt to wipe the alligator blood off of his hands and face. It would have worked a lot better if the shirt hadn't been just as bloody as he was. “Y'all didn't rescue me, so you can
stop gloating. Don't think for one hot second that y'all have me fooled. Every last one of y'all was hoping that bullet would hit me and not the alligator. The only reason you didn't just let the gator kill me is because you would have had a hell of time trying to explain how I got mauled to death by an alligator in the middle of Walker Park.”

  “You are the most ungrateful little bastard.” Addison's voice was surprisingly mild as he spoke.

  “Fuck you, Addy. You were going to sit there and watch me die.” Kerry's right eye was twitching furiously as he glared hard at Addison. “You want me to die. Don't bother denying it.”

  Addison yawned.

  Kerry glared at them for another minute and then turned on David. The deputy was so short that he had to crane his neck in order to meet David's eyes. “Don't you think for a minute that this changes anything between us, either. One of these days, I'm going to find Casey's body and you're going to rot in a jail cell for the rest of your sorry, miserable life.” He poked David in the chest with one finger.

  David balled one hand into a fist. Trish decided it wasn't a good idea to let David to knock most of the deputy's teeth down his throat. She stepped in between the two of them without thinking.

  “You're really a piece of work,” she informed Kerry. “He just saved your life and you turn around and accuse him of trying to kill you. Are you serious?”

  “He did try to kill me!” Kerry yelled in her face. “Didn't you see him point that gun at me?”

  “He was shooting at the alligator that was trying to eat you.” Trish crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the deputy. He was short enough that the two of them were on direct eye level. “If I were you, I'd be thanking your lucky stars that he can shoot, not accusing him of trying to hurt you. I've seen David shoot. If he wanted to kill you, you'd be dead.”

  “Who the hell are you?” Kerry sputtered. His face was bright red with fury and drops of spit were running down his chin.

  “It doesn't matter who I am,” Trish said. “Consider me a concerned citizen who can recognize the signs of police harassment when I see them.”

  Kerry glared at her. “He's guilty,” he sputtered.

  “David didn't kill Casey,” Cal said the words with surprising fierceness. He intentionally stepped into Kerry’s personal space. Cal wasn’t a tall guy, probably no more than 5’8 or so, but he was a big guy. His shoulders were almost twice as broad as David’s and he had a barrel chest. He wasn’t exactly chiseled muscle but he looked plenty solid.

  “Yes. He did. I know he did. You can cover for him as much as you want to but I know the truth. He's a killer and you're all protecting him.” Kerry ignored Cal and stuck his finger in Trish's face. “You don't know the kind of monster you're standing up for.”

  “Kerry, you need to back off.” Addison stepped up beside Trish.

  “I've got this.” Trish waved her had dismissively at Addy. She turned her attention to Kerry.

  Kerry's eye twitched furiously as he cleared his throat. “Isn’t this nauseatingly sweet. David's finally found a girl who doesn’t know he's a cold blooded murderer.”

  “Kerry, don’t push your luck,” David had a warning tone in his voice. “I am not-.”

  “If you had any actual evidence that he'd killed a girl then he'd be locked up. The fact that David's not in prison tells me that all you're doing is running your mouth about old rumors.” Trish cut David off before he could get any angrier. If Addison said the accusations were total garbage then Trish trusted him. She intentionally gave Kerry a big smile. “You do know its illegal for a cop to run around accusing someone of a crime when he has no evidence, right?”

  “He did-. You can’t just-.” Kerry started sputtering.

  “You’re an extremely lousy police officer.” Trish waved her hand dismissively in his direction. “You're lucky you still have a badge. Cops aren't allowed to hold a bias and you seem to be clinging to yours like its the blankie that keeps you warm at night.”

  “Who are you?” Kerry stammered.

  “Who am I?” Trish tilted her head at him. “I'm the girl who's going to have your badge taken away of you don't back off.”

  “You can't...you can't do that.” Kerry stared at her in total shock. He wasn't the only one. Addison and David were both watching her with a kind of surprised awe in their expressions.

  “I can do it and I will. David put his own life at risk to save you and all you can do is make false accusations?” Trish crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head at him. “Even if David had murdered someone, you’d never be able to make the case stick. You’re too prejudiced for any courtroom to trust your evidence. You are pushing the case for a harassment lawsuit as we speak.”

  Addison let out a small laugh. “She's got you cold, Kerry.”

  “Screw y'all.” Kerry stared down at his feet, took two steps and then stumbled so badly that his knees hit the ground. No one moved to help him up. After a minute, he climbed back onto his own feet and stumbled away from them, heading through the park and back towards the lights of the street.

  “If another gator goes after him, I vote we don't save him,” Gracie said.

  “Deal.”

  David stared after Kerry for a long minute. His shoulders were visibly tense as he closed the distance between himself and Trish. “Thanks. You didn't have to take up for me, but thanks.”

  She stepped towards him and brushed the hair out of his eyes. “You make a better hero than you do villain. Even if the idiot you saved wasn't grateful. I'm still impressed.”

  “You ain't seen nothing yet.” David rested his rifle against the bumper of Addison's truck. He stared at the front of Addison's truck. “Jesus, what did you hit?”

  “Hit?” Addison frowned at David and then shrugged. “I have no idea. I was just trying to get here quick.”

  “You don't know?” David reached for the brush guard and pulled a large chunk of wood free from between the winch and the grill. He held it up in midair. “Really?”

  “Honest to God. No idea.” Addison shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry.”

  David looked over at Trish. His casual good mood had evaporated during the last twenty minutes and the exhaustion was plain in his dark eyes. “You didn't happen to notice...?”

  “It was a picnic table,” Trish told him.

  “Oh yeah,” Addison said with suspiciously fake surprise. “Oops.”

  “A fucking picnic table.” David rolled his eyes and then started to laugh. He was still laughing when the Sheriff of Callahan County pulled up behind them and asked why he'd had to go and shoot poor Kerry.

  Chapter 17

  “Well, that was fun.” Cal leaned on the edge of the bed of Addison's truck and stared down at the heap of freshly deceased alligators.

  “It's been a fun night,” David grumbled.

  “Yeah, especially the part where your house burned to the ground and I thought you were dead,” Addison added.

  “Do what?” The expression on Cal's broad, rounded face went from vaguely bored to completely horrified in a matter of seconds.

  “Trailer. Went. Boom.” David made the last word into more of a hiss and crash. He spread his arms out and then wiggled his fingers to mimic the flickering of flames.

  “When?” Cal demanded.

  “What time is it?” David asked.

  “A little after 4 o'clock in the morning.”

  “I guess its been a few hours since the fire,” David said.

  Cal stared at David. “You're fucking with me.”

  “No, he's not.” Addison shrugged his shoulders. “The light show was pretty spectacular. I don't think there's going to be much left by the time the sun comes up.”

  “The fire department didn't get it put out?” Gracie's turquoise eyes were wide as her gaze went from Addison to David and then back to Addison.

  “They never responded,” Addison explained. “Between a massive fire at an apartment building in Canterville and the alligators that were actively
chasing people through town, we ran out of emergency personnel. David's trailer drew the short straw.”

  “Oh my God.” Gracie took two-steps forward and then flung herself around David's neck. “Tell me you weren't in the trailer when it caught fire?”

  “I was but I'm fine.”

  “You could have been killed.” Gracie's teeny tiny shorts were inadvertently showing off her long, tanned legs. Her tank top was equally skimpy. Her hair was long and loose, silky despite the late hour. It flowed almost all the way down her back as if she were some kind of storybook princess.

  An unexpected jealousy stirred through Trish's stomach as she watched David wrap his arms tightly around Gracie's slender waist.

  “I'm fine.” David stroked one hand through her hair. He cupped his hand under his chin and tilted her face up so that she was looking at him. “You should know better than to worry about me.”

  “You act like I could stop worrying about you.” She crossed her arms over her chest and clucked her tongue at him. “Besides, you’re not fine. You’re probably hurt. You're just too dumb and stubborn to admit you’re hurt.”

  “I'm a big boy. I can take care of myself,” David said. Trish was surprised to realize he was looking the blonde in the eyes, despite all of the exposed skin she was showing off.

  “Tell that lie to someone who doesn't know how self-destructive you can be.” Gracie pursed her lips at him in a frown.

  “My question is where are you planning on living?” Cal narrowed his eyes at David.

  “I reckon with Addy,” David said with a shrug. “I ain’t really thought about it much.”

  “Momma’s going to want you to move home.”

  “You’re still living there.” David pulled open the passenger’s side door of Addison's truck. He sat down on the edge of the seat, looking tired. “And Gracie. And Momma and Dad. And Pappy. It’s a big house, but it ain’t big enough.”

  “It’s big enough. You just don’t want to have to account to that many people about where you are and what you’ve been doing every minute of the day,” Cal said flatly. “I’m kind of sick of it myself. Can’t wait for the new house to be ready to move into.”