“I know you and Carolyn Ann are upset,” Jerry said in a soothing doctor voice. “Your mama wasn’t hurt, though?”
“Naw. She said some pretty awful things. You know Mama! But then she forgot about it.”
“So you don’t need me and my doctor bag at your house, I take it.” Jerry sounded friendly, like he was the man’s uncle.
“Naw, naw. We just want to know where Willa May is.”
I couldn’t get a feeling from this man on what he wanted to know for. He didn’t sound forgiving. But he didn’t sound like he wanted to string Willa May up from a tree, either.
“All right, Norman. I still don’t understand why you’re here.” The doctor echoed my thoughts.
“Occurred to me that Willa May might run straight down here. You treat those blacks, too. They like you. She might think she needs to hide somewhere.”
I heard that trace of darkness in Norman’s voice. He surely did not think Jerry doctoring on black people was something to admire. Norman sure wanted to know where Willa May was, but it wasn’t because he was worried about her welfare.
“It’s just been us and our company this evening,” Jerry said in a neutral voice. “The ladies were about to cut the pie, and me and Eli here are about to have a drink. You want to have a glass with us, Norman? Or some pie? Or both?”
“I’d sure like to do both those things some other time, ’specially since you and me need to have us a talk about my mother. But I better go home and see how Carolyn Ann is dealing with Mama. We got to have someone with her all the time, and Carolyn Ann ain’t up to it more than a couple of hours a day. It makes her nerves all frazzled. We need Willa May to get back to work.”
“Then we’ll have that drink some other time,” Jerry said. “See you later, Norman.”
“Have a good night. Give Millie my regards.”
The front door closed behind Norman.
“Your husband’s coming,” I said, turning to Millie.
“Good,” Millie said from the bottom of her heart.
I stepped away from the swinging door so I wouldn’t get hit in the face as Jerry and Eli entered. The kitchen seemed real crowded all of a sudden.
“Now, Willa May. Tell me what happened,” Jerry said. He was good at firm-but-nice.
“Miss Evvie pinched me for the hundredth time,” Willa May said. “It hurt. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I didn’t think at all. I slapped her.”
“Willa May, what do you imagine will happen now?”
Willa May had quit crying, if she ever had been. She did not seem curious about Eli and me. “I think I better not go back to Mr. Norman’s,” she said. “I think he’ll do something bad to me if I do, even if I cry and repent and say I’ll try again. I’m the third person he’s hired to stay with his mama. The others found good reasons to quit. I think Mr. Norman hired me because I was the only one who showed up to apply. I think he and Miss Carolyn Ann figured I had to stay because I wouldn’t find work anywhere if I left another job. So I think I’m done in Sally, ’specially since Carolyn Ann was a Ballard before she married. She musta told me that five times a day.”
“Do you have a plan?” Millie said.
“I thought about it,” Willa May said. “A few times. Since Miss Evvie started pinching me. And she bit me once, hard enough to bleed.” Willa May was clearly angry when she thought about this. I was willing to bet this was a face Norman and Carolyn Ann Moultry had never seen.
“So what can we do to help?” Jerry said.
“You two are nice people,” Willa May said. “I don’t want to drag you into my trouble. Before Mr. Norman starts looking for me, I’m going to go home, grab my clothes, and head off to my cousin’s house in Arkansas. My brother will take me to the state line, at least. Maybe farther. Then I’ll decide what to do next.”
The girl sounded calm and sure.
“Here’s what we’ll do,” Jerry said. “You get in the back seat of my car, crouch down low, and I’ll run you home. At least no one will see you on the street.”
Willa May stared at him for a long moment. “No, sir. I appreciate you thinking of it, but I can get home without anyone seeing me. Or at least, anyone noticing me. Everyone knows your car: white people, black people. Someone will say you were out driving. It might get back to Mr. Norman. He’ll have it in for you. He’s already suspicious.”
“I thought as much,” Jerry said. He was trying not to be worried, but he was.
“Let me loan you a dress,” Millie said. “That uniform stands out.”
This offer really hit Willa May like a brick. Her mouth fell open. “All right,” she said, very slowly, as if she expected Millie to snatch back her offer.
“Come on,” Millie said, and off they went to look in Millie’s closet.
Jerry turned to us. He waited for us to say something.
“I knew they didn’t ask us over because we’re fun,” I said to Eli.
He laughed, and Jerry looked mortified.
“You know why I’m here in Sally?” Eli asked our host.
I was interested in hearing the answer, since I didn’t know myself.
“I’ve heard you’re here to help change things,” Jerry said.
“That’s a good way to put it. Did you put up some of the money?”
“I don’t really have enough spare money to make much of a difference,” Jerry said. “We gave what cash we could.”
Millie and Willa May came back in the kitchen. Willa May was wearing a dark blue skirt and a brown-and-blue patterned blouse. Better than the light gray uniform, if you wanted to blend in with the shadows.
Jerry did not look happy, though I didn’t know why. But he didn’t object, and with an awkward hug, Willa May thanked Millie and slipped out the back door.
Millie said, “What?” the minute the door closed behind her.
“Lots of people have seen you wearing that blouse,” Jerry said. “If she gets stopped, people are going to know who helped her.”
“I haven’t worn it in three months,” Millie said. “I’ll say I gave it to her when I cleaned out my closet last spring.”
Jerry didn’t look like he thought that would erase all doubt, but he shook his head and pushed away the worry. Millie went into the kitchen, and I hoped we were about to have some chess pie.
“So now you know way more about us than we know about you,” Jerry said to Eli and me. “You know if you talk about this to anybody here, we’ll get run out of town. Maybe not right away, but people will stop coming to me with their ills, and Millie and I will have to move. Our families are here.”
“I don’t know why you’d even imagine we’d tell anyone,” Eli said.
“It’s not like we’re so popular,” I said, and I had to laugh a little. “Especially after the Nellie incident.”
“Fool girl,” Jerry said, and he almost smiled. The air in the room lightened up a little.
“Let’s just carry on as we were,” I suggested. “Best thing is to look normal. Be normal.”
We all had pie. Millie and I washed the dishes while Eli and Jerry finished their drinks. After that, Eli and I took our leave.
He and Jerry didn’t finish their talk about change in Sally.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Walking in the dark with Eli was nice. Since I was supposed to be his wife, I could hold on to his arm. But I never forgot I was guarding him, too, and since the Willa May episode got me worried, I kept my gun in my hand. I hid it in the folds of the skirt. It would be better for someone to say, “Oh my God, that woman’s carrying a gun!” than for me to be caught unawares.
And it was lucky I did that, because two men came out of the hedge lining the yard of a big house. They positioned themselves right in front of us. Eli’s hands were ready and I moved a little apart from him, ready to bring up the gun and shoot. Wasn’t pointing it at them yet, but they weren’t armed. Not with guns. One had a length of wood.
“I’m Nellie Mercer’s intended,” the taller man said. The st
reetlights were on, and I could tell he was thin and broad-shouldered and a damn idiot. His buddy was shorter, broader, but no smarter.
“Listen, Intended,” I said. “No one can see us. Eli and I can kill you quick as quick, and no one will know. Why are you doing this?”
“Nellie got hurt,” Intended snarled.
“You two are a good match, ’cause you’re both dumb,” I said. He stepped back to get a good swing, and Eli hit him with some magic. While he went down, I put the gun to his friend’s head. “You want this fight?” I said.
“You’d really shoot me,” Friend said.
“In a heartbeat,” I said, and smiled. Because that would be his last heartbeat.
It was the smile that did it, I figure, because Friend broke and ran. He left Intended lying there on the sidewalk.
Eli and I circled the man sprawled on the sidewalk and went on our way. We were at the hotel in less than ten minutes, and then in our room with the door locked.
And then we were together.
Eli went to sleep right away afterward, but I was awake long enough to reflect. There was so much I wasn’t clear about.
There was some kind of rebellion brewing in the Negro community, and Eli had come to ignite it … with a person Eli’d been supposed to bring with him, and that had some relationship with the Lucky Team’s lost cargo. So why hadn’t Eli brought the cargo? Who was the person, and where was he hidden?
The Negro community had been waiting for the arrival of that person. They didn’t think their plan would succeed otherwise. Also, there were white people in Sally who were on the side of this rebellion. The Fielders were among ’em. Millie and Jerry were doing what they thought was right, though they stood to lose everything by doing so. And they seemed like good people.
I was getting used to not knowing what was going to happen when I was around Eli. That wasn’t a good thing. I wondered if we could ever start out completely honest with each other. And then I fell asleep, because he was beside me snoring just a little. For now, that was good enough. But just for now.
I slept all night for the first time since I’d left Segundo Mexia, and that helped. A lot.
We went down to breakfast the next morning, each in our own silence. I had no idea what Eli had planned for the day. I hoped some of James Edward’s amigos would report they’d seen the chest.
When we walked into the dining room, I could see we wouldn’t get to talk to him anytime soon. The two Iron Hand people were waiting for us. When Seeley and Ritter saw us, they waved and smiled. Since they were sitting at a table for four, clearly they wanted our company. I said something unbecoming to my pretty rose blouse, and Eli’s hand tightened on my arm, but over we went.
“You look adorable today,” Harriet said, rising as if to kiss me on the cheek. I’d as soon be kissed by a rattlesnake, and I pulled back real definitely. Adorable, my ass.
“Thanks so much,” I said, with the broadest smile I could muster. I was pleased when she came close as dammit to flinching. “You look nice too.”
Which was a big fat lie. For once, Harriet Ritter looked tired and worried, and even Travis Seeley was not as smooth as usual. He’d missed a patch of whiskers on his chin.
A waiter, not James Edward, hurried over to see what we wanted to drink. Their coffee was so good, I was delighted to get a cup. I could hardly wait till it was drinking temperature.
When the waiter had gone to get our drinks, Harriet leaned forward to say, “There’s no trace of the chest. We have to find it, and if that means we have to team up with you two, so be it.”
“What will happen if you don’t trace it?” I asked. I was hoping it would be something bad.
“We might get fired,” Travis Seeley said. He was doing his best to look like that was something he didn’t care about. I didn’t buy that for a second.
“Why should we care?” Eli said, taking the words out of my mouth.
“Your gunnie was guarding it, and she has to find it too,” Harriet said. “And I suspect you are looking for the same thing. Else why would you be here?”
“I am here to be with my wife,” Eli said. “I’ll help her do anything she wants to do.”
“I hear you have a sister,” Harriet said to me.
The hair on my neck stood up, and all the fun seeped out of me right quick. I determined at that moment that I would enjoy shooting this woman. “I don’t know where you would hear anything like that,” I said. “I grew up without brother or sister, my mom’s only child.”
“Who was your father?” Travis Seeley was smoking a cigarette, and he tapped the ash in the glass tray in the middle of the table.
I felt Eli tense beside me, but if he got upset too, it would confirm everything the Iron Hand people thought they’d dug up. “I am a bastard,” I said. “I don’t know my father.” Both true things, in different ways.
“Hard to believe our informants were amiss,” Harriet said. “But I suppose if you help us look for the chest, I could forget all about what we heard.”
I turned to look at Eli. He gave a tiny nod. Somewhere along the line, maybe these two would die.
“Don’t know why you feel you got to threaten me,” I said, turning back to Harriet. “And I don’t know why you feel it’s got to be Eli and me who help you. Why do you think we’d want to or need to? We’re here on our own say-so.”
Just then the waiter poured my coffee and brought Eli’s orange juice. He took our breakfast order.
But our two uninvited companions stayed on point. “Eli, you’re clearly a wizard, and a powerful one. Lizbeth, you have a reputation as one of the best shooters in Texoma. And here you are together. That doesn’t happen by accident.”
“Actually, it did happen by accident,” Eli said after he took a sip of orange juice. “I had no idea I would meet Lizbeth here, and I was happy as a man can be to see her at the train wreck.”
“Not too many men would be happy to find their wives at a train wreck,” Harriet said. Her polish was wearing thin, and she was almost snarling.
“We’re a real unusual couple,” I said, bending forward as she had earlier. “One thing we got in common, Eli and me: we like to eat breakfast by ourselves.”
Harriet glared at me. After a moment, Travis said, “So be it.” They both rose and marched out of the dining room.
“I bet they stuck us with their bill,” I said to Eli. “What do you want to bet?”
“Not a nickel, Lizbeth. Not even a penny.” He smiled at me and I smiled back. We finished our breakfast in a much better mood. We’d found something to unite against.
I ran up to our room to brush my teeth after we’d eaten. I love a cup of coffee, but having the taste of it on my teeth the rest of the day … not a good feeling.
The maid had already made the bed and put out fresh towels. I had felt guilty the first time I’d been waited on like this, but now I just felt glad. Housework had never been a calling for me, just a chore I had to perform to be decently clean.
In all the hotels I’d stayed in, the maid had never written me a letter after cleaning the room. I found a sealed envelope in my little suitcase. I’d only opened it to put my washed and dried stockings inside; I was glad I’d done that. Though I was mighty curious, I stuffed the envelope into my purse and hurried downstairs.
Eli was waiting by the front doors, and something in me kind of twanged when I saw him. I froze on the bottom step, suddenly aware that I was way too happy to see him, way too used to him being there, waiting for me. I could see disaster in my future, a totally different kind of disaster from the ever-present chance that someone would shoot me.
He turned to look just at that moment, and his calm face went all puzzled and surprised. He was over to the stairs in a few strides. “What’s wrong, Lizbeth?” he asked quietly, taking my hand.
I had to jerk myself out of this bad moment, and I did, with a wrench that was almost physical. “Someone walked over my grave,” I said.
Eli looked startled. �
�What do you mean?”
“Oh, it’s an old wives’ tale. When you feel a sudden … shakiness inside, or a shiver, you say that someone must have walked over your grave.”
“Gruesome,” Eli said. “Are they off of it now? Your grave?”
“Yeah, I’m okay.” We went out the door side by side, me carefully not touching him. After we’d walked for a moment, I said, “We should find a bench or something. There was a letter in the room. I haven’t read it yet.”
Since we’d been headed nowhere in particular, and we had no plan for the day—at least that I knew of—we walked to the little park and settled on the same bench we’d used before.
“I hope this is interesting, because I feel we’re getting nowhere,” I said as I pulled the envelope from my handbag. I put my thumb under the flap to open it.
“Wait!” Eli took it from me and pressed his hand against the paper, his eyes closed. “Okay, no magic inside,” he said, and gave it back to me.
“Magic?” I didn’t know it could be put in an envelope.
“Could have been a spell inside, or it could have been spelled to react when you opened it,” he said.
I shook my head. “That is …” I couldn’t even think of the words. I felt real straightforward and simple. I opened the envelope to pull out a single sheet of paper. Hotel stationery. The message was not in cursive, but in the plain printing we’d learned when we’d first started writing. It was short. Meet tonight after dark behind Mount Olive Church on Lee Street.
“If it’s a trap, it’s certainly not a fancy one,” I said.
“The handwriting could be because the writer can’t do any better, or it could be a disguise.”
“We know nothing.” I was pretty disgusted with that state of affairs.
“We have to go,” Eli said. “We go fully armed, though. Vest and guns.”
I nodded. “I expect this is from John Edward, and it was the safest way he could communicate with us. But that’s just a guess. Could be from anyone. Maybe the Society of the Lamb.”
A Longer Fall (Gunnie Rose) Page 12