Summer of the Redeemers (40 page)

“Wait a minute. Who’s Nadine?”

“The horse woman, remember?”

“Right. And she’s got it written down. And the boy that was beaten. Where is he?”

“He’s sort of staying with Nadine.”

“Why hasn’t Walt done something about this?”

This was the question I knew she’d ask. “The Judge and Effie have gone to Hollywood. They’ve been out there for a while, and I didn’t want to tell him on the phone. There wasn’t anything he could do from that distance anyway.”

“Hollywood?” Shock echoed in her voice. “What in the hell is Walt doing in Hollywood?”

“Cathi, if you don’t come on, they’re going to kill Picket. Please! You can get here from Mobile a lot faster than Mama Betts can get the sheriff.” I wiped the tears from my face.

“I’ll be there in thirty minutes, Bekkah. I can’t make any promises about the dog, but I’ll try.”

Thirty minutes. Mobile wasn’t that much farther from Kali Oka Road than Jexville. Thirty minutes. Did Picket have that long to live?

I tried not to think about what they might be doing to her. My imagination had been called gruesome, but I didn’t need much imagination when I thought about Caesar. I paced the hall, then the kitchen, and finally the yard. By the time thirty minutes was up, I was at the end of the driveway walking up and down the road.

I’d decided that I wasn’t going to tell anyone about Nadine and Greg. If there was any way possible to get that memory out of my mind, I was going to do it. I felt like I’d lifted up a rotten board and exposed wriggling grubs and white creatures never intended to feel the sun on their slick skins.

Nadine and Greg were breaking some kind of law. It had to do with age, and I’d heard Effie and The Judge talking about it one time before. Old men weren’t supposed to do it with younger girls under the age of sixteen. Old men who did went to jail. I wasn’t certain if the same law applied to older women and young boys, but I thought that it must.

The entire thing brought up some feelings in me that I didn’t understand and didn’t want to think about. There had been a terrible kind of beauty in Nadine’s body glistening in the sun. The idea of what she was doing to Greg made me walk faster.

I thought about them in the barn, because as uneasy as it made me feel, it was better than thinking about Picket.

I heard the car coming down Kali Oka, and I knew it was Cathi before I recognized the shiny red Pontiac. She stopped and I ran around to the passenger side and got in.

“It’s at the end of the road,” I managed.

She gunned the motor and red dust blasted out behind us. She was going too fast over the rutted road, but I didn’t try to stop her, and to my relief, she didn’t ask any questions.

When we got to the creek, she pulled right up to the bridge and stopped.

“Stay in the car,” she said.

“No.” I got out even as I spoke.

“Bekkah, let me talk to these people. Maybe they’ll give me the dog. If you go up there, they’ll lose face in front of you. You’re a kid and that won’t be easy for them.”

I slumped against the car. “What if they’ve hurt her?”

“Don’t borrow trouble before you have to,” she said. “Get in the car and lock the doors. I left the keys in the ignition. If anything happens, drive home. Don’t wait for me. If I’m not back in half an hour, go on back to your house. I can walk if I have to.”

She was talking like she thought they might hurt her.

“Remember that my editor knows where I am. Tell your grandmother that.”

She wasn’t making a lot of sense, but I nodded.

“We are a lot alike, Bekkah.” She turned away and started over the bridge. I got in the car as she’d told me and locked the doors.

When she was about fifty yards on their property, one of the men came up to her. She took something out of her purse and showed him, and he went away. In a few minutes he returned with Rev. Marcus.

I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the preacherman was waving his hands and striding around like he was delivering the sermon on the mount. Cathi wiped her face, and I wondered if he’d spit on her. She took a notebook out of her purse and started writing.

The preacherman made a snatch for the notebook, and she twisted
it out of his grip. I could tell she was shouting at him. For a minute I thought she was going to slap him full across the face, but she got a grip on herself and didn’t.

I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I slipped out of the car and inched toward the creek where I could hear.

“If you don’t get that dog, I’ll have the district attorney’s office in here investigating before the sun goes down,” Cathi said. She was mad and her voice was raised. “My father and the attorney general happen to be very close friends.”

“There’s no dog here,” Rev. Marcus replied. His voice was strained, but it was under control.

“You’ve got two minutes. I have enough on you to keep a team of prosecutors busy for the next five years.”

“We haven’t seen any dogs around here. We don’t allow pets. It’s a church policy. We’re a God-fearing religious organization, and there’s nothing you can do to us. Nothing. Now you’d better get off Redeemer property before I have to press charges against you.”

“The dog or more trouble than you can manage. You have a minute and a half.”

“We haven’t seen any dogs. The young woman you’re talking about is a liar and a troublemaker. She’s made up this entire story to torment us.”

I ran across the bridge and stopped at Cathi’s side. “You liar. You took Picket with her legs tied.” I saw one of the men who’d helped catch her. “He did it.” I pointed at him. “Ask him about selling the babies. Ask him about the horse he killed.”

Cathi shifted to my side, close enough so that I could smell the perfume she wore. “Go to the car, Bekkah,” she said slowly. “The reverend is going to get Picket and bring her to me right now, aren’t you, Reverend? Bekkah can identify the men who took her dog. You may be willing to spend several months in jail while the charges are being investigated, but are they?”

The man I’d pointed at stepped forward. Rev. Marcus tried to ignore him, but he moved closer still. “It ain’t worth all of this,” he said slowly. “You said this time would be different. You said we’d be able to settle down and live. You said—”

“We’ve done nothing wrong.” Rev. Marcus spoke to the man, but he looked at Cathi. “That girl was trespassing. You both are. If anybody has a right to call the law, it’s us.”

“Call them.” Cathi put her hand on my shoulder. “Call them while we stand here, if you dare.”

“Oh, I dare,” he said, his face twisting with hatred.

Rev. Marcus pointed at the man who’d tied Picket. “Get the goddamn dog now!” He leaned forward. “You don’t know anything about me, and you’d better shut up.” He stood right in Cathi’s face. “This had better end here, or I’ll slap a lawsuit on that newspaper of yours like it’s never seen before.”

“You’re right, this had better end here. Nothing had better happen to this girl or her dog, or anything else she loves. She told me about the threats you made. Bullying a child may excite you, Mr. Marcus, but I find it sick and disgusting. It had better stop.”

Picket raced through the trees toward me. She was a red and gold blur, and I stepped away from Cathi and called her to me. She almost knocked me over as she tumbled against me. I grabbed her collar and held tight as I kissed her and felt all over her body.

“Get out of here,” the preacherman snarled.

Cathi grabbed my shoulder and pushed me toward the creek.

“You’re going to burn in hell, bitch,” Rev. Marcus spat. “All of you. I can see you toasting in the flames. And I’m laughing.”

“Get that dog and get in the car,” Cathi said under her breath. Her fingers were about to break my shoulder as she pushed me toward the bridge. “Stay in front of me.”

Picket and I were almost at the bridge when I saw Magdeline. She was off to my left, hiding in the woods. If she hadn’t moved, I never would have seen her. I stopped on the bridge and Cathi slammed into my back. She was backing up, watching the preacherman and the other Redeemer men. There weren’t any women anywhere in sight.

“Move!” she snapped at me.

“It’s Magdeline,” I whispered. I motioned to her to come with us. In that instant she disappeared into the woods. I walked on to the car, afraid if I delayed any longer the Redeemers would see her and try to catch her. At least I knew she was still up and walking.

Thirty-six

C
ATHI
wouldn’t come into the house. I fixed her a glass of iced tea with lemon, and she drank it sitting in the swing. She knew Effie wouldn’t want her in her house, and there wasn’t any point making a big issue out of it. When she finished her tea, she got out her notebook and started asking me questions.

Selling babies was what she asked about first, then the beatings Greg had gotten, then Caesar and finally Nadine and how she might be Rev. Marcus’s ex-wife. She wanted me to take her down to Nadine’s, but I still had to figure out a way to keep Cammie, and I wanted to wait for Mama Betts to come back with Joe Wickham.

I was going to be in big trouble, but as I lay in the grass with Picket, I didn’t care. Her legs were real sore, and she whined whenever I touched them and rubbed them, but she wasn’t bleeding. Her muzzle was cut where they’d put a wire or something around it to keep her mouth shut, but I found some roast beef in the refrigerator and she ate that in two gulps.

“Bekkah?”

“What?” I got up on an elbow so I could look at Cathi. She looked worried.

“Will you give me Walt’s number in California? I want to call him. He should know about this. Some of the things you’ve told me are … extremely serious.”

My fingers curled in Picket’s ruff. “I can’t. It would hurt Effie too much if you called out there. That would be bad enough, but if she found out I’d given you the number, she wouldn’t give me a chance
to explain.” Cathi tried not to show her disappointment, but it was there. “What I will do is call The Judge myself, and I’ll tell him how you helped me.”

“You should tell him everything you’ve told me. I can’t believe this has been going on here and nobody but a thirteen-year-old girl knows.”

“Nadine knows.”

“Yes, and that’s another matter. We need to go down there.”

I explained to her about stealing the horse, an issue that didn’t seem as serious to her as it seemed to me. Maybe it was because she hadn’t seen what I’d seen in the loft.

“Maybe we should take the horse back,” Cathi suggested.

I shook my head. “She’s not going back. Nadine isn’t taking care of her right.”

“You said Nadine knew everything about horses. If I remember, she was the best thing since sliced bread.”

“She’s punishing me with Cammie. She got mad at me about something, so she threw me off her place.”

“All summer long I’ve thought of Kali Oka Road as this long stretch of red dust where the most exciting thing that happens is when two cars have to figure out how to pass each other. You’ve been thrown off two places in a matter of weeks. You’ve got wild religious cults who sell babies and beat children to a bloody pulp, horse theft, animal abuse and murder. If you had a little deviant sex going on here, it would be a complete Faulkner novel.”

She was staring at me, but I didn’t dare meet her eyes. “Is there something else, Bekkah?”

“I can’t take Cammie back. Mama Betts will figure out a way to work it out.”

Part of it was pure, raw hope. Mama Betts might tell me I had to take Cammie back too. I heard the car—I wouldn’t have long to wait.

Mama Betts saw Cathi—and Picket. When she got out of the car she called the dog over to her and inspected her carefully. “No permanent damage, but they weren’t exactly careful how they treated her.” She looked at me and then at Cathi.

“I called her and she came. She went down there and made them let Picket go,” I said as I stood up and went to Cathi’s side. Arly came around the car and gave Picket some pets and hugs. All the time he was casting these undercover looks at Cathi.

“The sheriff said if you and the dog were on Redeemer property,
we had no right to demand the dog back.” Mama Betts stood very still. “I want to thank you, Mrs. Cummings, for saving Picket. That dog’s a special part of this family, especially to Bekkah.”

“Mrs. McVay, there’re some things happening on this road you ought to know about.” She looked at me, and I knew she was going to tell everything. “I think it would be a good idea if you told all of this to the sheriff. I know I’m going to be doing some investigating for the newspaper. If what Bekkah tells me is true, there are some dangerous people living down at the end of this road.”

They went through the whole thing, and I had to answer questions with Arly listening to every word. After the first five minutes Mama Betts suggested we all go sit on the screened porch, and Cathi consented to that. I was telling the part about Nadine and I sneaking into the church when Arly exploded.

“Good Jesus Christ,” he said, “you’da been better off with Frank Taylor than running up and down the road. Only you could get in so much trouble on Kali Oka.”

“Hush your mouth, Arlington Rich,” Mama Betts warned him. “In fact, take that big mouth of yours out to the yard and finish waxing that car. You drive it so much the wind’s wearing the paint off.”

When I’d finally told everything again, I looked at Mama Betts. “What about Cammie?”

“Mrs. Andrews hasn’t missed the horse yet?” Mama Betts looked down toward Nadine’s like she expected to see her materialize in the driveway, shotgun and rope in hand, ready to lynch me for horse theft.

“She knows I have her,” I said before I realized my mistake.

“You saw her?”

“Well, she’ll see that my saddle is gone.” I was doing the very thing I’d vowed never to do again, sculpting the truth to protect different people.

“Go on down there with Mrs. Cummings. Tell Mrs. Andrews that you have Cammie and that you’d like to buy her. I’ll call the Welfords and make sure you can keep her in their barn for a while, until we can get something built here.”

“Will Effie let me keep her?” I couldn’t believe it.

“When she hears what you’ve been up to, I suspect she’ll want to keep you in the backyard for the rest of your life.”

I grinned. “It’s been a hellacious summer, but if I get Cammie, it’s
going to be worth it. And that mean preacherman said everything I loved would be taken from me.”

“He’s a sick man,” Cathi said softly. “Extremely sick to use cruelty to an animal to frighten a child.”

“And to use the name of the Lord as his own personal punishment.” Mama Betts brushed her apron even though it was spotless. “You two go on and get this done. If Mrs. Andrews is going to make trouble, I’d just as soon get it all over at once. Bekkah, if she won’t sell, you have to take that horse back.”

Cathi rode me down to Nadine’s in her car. She kept looking over at me, but I didn’t say anything. The closer we got, the more nervous I got. As soon as we turned in the drive, I saw Nadine’s truck, but my gaze went up to the loft. I dreaded what I might see.

The hay door was pulled shut.

“Bekkah?”

“Nadine can be pretty nasty.” She patted my hand. “So can I.”

She noticed the garbage as soon as we were out of the car. “Good Lord, nasty is right. What nightmares are hiding around here?”

“Nadine used to be rich. She’s not used to taking care of things around the house. She keeps the barn spotless, though.” I remembered Cammie’s stall. “Well, unless she’s mad.”

“Your grandmother’s hair would stand on end.”

I hurried up the steps and knocked, hoping Nadine would come outside. I didn’t want Cathi to go inside for a couple of reasons. The inside was as filthy as the outside, and I had no idea where Greg was.

“Come on in, Bekkah, and bring your friend.” Nadine’s voice came from deep inside the house.

“Oh, shit,” I mumbled under my breath. There wasn’t time to hesitate. Cathi pulled the screen open and walked in ahead of me.

“The health department would have this place bulldozed,” she whispered.

“I hardly ever come in here,” I answered.

Nadine was in her favorite pose on the old Queen Anne. One foot tapped the floor lightly while the other was hooked over the back of the sofa.

“Where’s my horse?” she asked, not bothering to sit up.

“At Jamey’s.”

“I suggest you bring her on home.”

“Nadine, Mama Betts said I could buy her if you’ll sell her to me.”

Nadine eased up into a sitting position. Her face was in shadows.

“Could we turn on some lights?” Cathi asked.

I made the introductions and explained to Nadine that Cathi was a friend of my family’s from Missouri who was living in Mobile now. “Those Redeemer people had Picket, and Cathi came over and made them give her back. She’s going to—”

“Bekkah gives me too much credit. I’m not a child, and they couldn’t frighten me with their threats. Do you know anything about those people?”

“Not the first thing, and I want to know less.” Nadine reached over and snapped on a lamp beside the sofa. The glow cast one of her eyes in shadow, and the other was an amber dart aimed at me.

“But you said the preacherman—”

“So you want to buy Cammie?”

I was pulled up short. Nadine obviously didn’t want to talk about how the preacherman might be her ex-husband. At least not in front of a stranger.

“Bekkah would love to have the horse. She’s very attached to her, as I’m sure you know,” Cathi said smoothly.

“I’ve always wanted her, from the first day. Effie said back in August that maybe I could. If we have enough money.”

“How much do you think she’s worth?” Nadine was watching me, but pretending to be disinterested.

I looked at Cathi for help.

“She’s a nice mare,” Cathi said, even though she’d never seen her, “but the Riches aren’t wealthy people. They’ll pay a fair price.”

“I’ve never bought a horse.” I was telling Nadine the obvious. “What would you sell her for?”

“A thousand dollars.” Nadine grinned.

“Oh …” It was so much money. More than we’d ever be able to pay.

“Bekkah’s parents are coming home soon. Since the incident with the dog and the Redeemers, her grandmother wants to keep Bekkah right at home all the time. Would you consider letting her keep the horse in her yard for a few days, until her parents get home? Then they’ll either be able to buy the horse or Bekkah will bring her back.”

“What if something happens in the meantime?” Nadine asked. She didn’t act like she really believed anything would happen. It was some sort of duel between the two of them.

Cathi reached down into her purse and brought out a checkbook. She started writing a check. “It’s Nadine Andrews, right?”

“Right,” Nadine said.

“A-n-d-r-e-w-s,” Cathi spelled as she wrote, like maybe she wasn’t certain how to write Andrews. “Exactly,” Nadine said.

“Here’s a check for two hundred dollars. Consider it a damage deposit. If the Riches buy the horse, it can go toward the purchase price. If they don’t, you can tear up the check. If the horse is injured, apply it toward the vet bill.”

Nadine took the check. “She’s your responsibility now, Bekkah.”

“Bekkah tells me you’re from up around the Delta,” Cathi said, sitting back in her chair like she intended to visit for a spell.

Everything had happened so fast. There was a current going on between the two women. They were sizing each other up. I knew Cathi didn’t like Nadine. But Nadine had been so much more reasonable than I’d ever expected. I felt like I was swimming way over my head, and I kept trying to touch bottom but could never find it.

“Cleveland.” Nadine’s voice was bored. “Ever heard of it?”

“Oh, yes,” Cathi said. “I grew up around those parts. I spent many a happy evening at the Twilight Café. Best swing band in the state.”

“The Twilight was fun.” Nadine’s gaze never wavered from Cathi. “I spent most of my time in Memphis. I’d do whatever I could to get away from Cleveland. Nothing but cotton and dust.”

“And the prison.”

“And the prison,” Nadine agreed. She smiled. “It’s funny to come from a place where everybody knows it by a prison.”

“Well, the entire state has a reputation, doesn’t it?”

“So now you’re living over in Mobile, Alabama? Do you find it any different?”

“Not as many strange characters to write about in Alabama.”

Nadine actually laughed out loud. “I like that.” She picked up the check off the coffee table and read it. “Cathi Cummings. I don’t know the name.”

“I was a Newman. I married a Cummings.”