The Big Ugly (20 page)

She scowled. "No," she spat out. "I just wanted to talk to him. To get to know him."

"You tell him about the letter?"

Her face softened and she twisted her mouth around before she said, "No." She shook her head. "Not at first."

"But then what? Why did you tell him?"

"He wanted me to go away. At first he was nice. He even said he was sorry. But when I kept coming around, he tried to get me to go away."

"So you got pissed and told him that there was a letter."

"Yes."

"And then what?"

She shrugged. "He didn't know what to say. He just turned white. And I left—I guess I just wanted to drop that bomb on him. But once I walked out, I wanted time to get away and think. I had to figure out what to think."

"How did Kluge and his people get involved?"

"Just the way I told you before. I skipped town, and they panicked. I didn't tell anybody why I was leaving, and they all flew off the handle and thought that I'd gone to the cops."

"Christ."

"When all that happened, I didn't know what to do, Ellie. I needed to get away and figure out how to make it right."

"But why the hell would you come back? After what I told you?"

She fixed me with a steady gaze. "What am I going to do? Run away my whole life? I'm twenty-five years old. Am I really going to lay low for the next sixty years?" She shook her head. "No. I know what I need to do now."

"Please, tell me. Sitting here, I'll be damned if I know."

"I need to talk to my father."

Kaylee was sitting by herself at a small table for two. As her mother walked over to the bar to arrange for someone to watch her, I sat down next to the kid.

"Hi," I said.

She paused her movie—some cartoon with talking squirrels—and said, "Hi."

"I'm Ellie."

"I know."

"You do?"

"Yes. My momma told me."

I nodded. I gestured at the iPad. "What are you watching?"

The girl looked at the technology in her hand and shrugged. She smiled and shook her head.

"You don't know?" I asked.

She started the movie again.

And that was that for talking to the kid. Neither one of us was much of a conversationalist.

I got up and walked outside and waited for Alexis. As I did, I wondered where Felicia was and what she was doing. I felt something—something that felt a lot like grief—whenever I thought about my niece. I guess I was grieving for myself, really. For the aunt I could have been to her, the aunt I'd always assumed I was going to be to her. Now, I guess that was ruined.

Wherever she was and whatever she was doing, though, I knew she'd be okay. That kid in the bar staring down at cartoons all day while her natural disaster of a mother tried to navigate increasingly bad options—that one I didn't know about.

Then I had a thought.

What if there was a way to negotiate with the people involved in this thing to ensure that at the very least, the little girl would be safe?

I walked across the gravel parking lot and stood by some rusted old tracks. They ran into the distance, past a couple of abandoned warehouses and a tall freight elevator, and disappeared behind a sloping, grassy hill. As the tracks vanished, they reached a point where it looked as if they were coming together. It was a trick of the eye, of course. The tracks stayed the same distance from each other, but from my vantage point it appeared as if they were forming one track.

I kicked some gravel.

Right then, out there somewhere, the most powerful people in the state were looking for Alexis. They each wanted something different from her.

It occurred to me, though, that all either one of them really wanted was security.

What did Kingston want? His reputation, his claim to authority, the chance to be a United States senator.

What Colfax wanted was insulation, from scandal and from possible criminal prosecution. He, too, also wanted the chance to be a United States senator.

Alexis and I would be crushed between the pincers created by those two men … unless I could wiggle us out from the middle, unless I could make them push against one another.

I ran back inside and told Alexis to wait for me, then I went into the back office and sat at Three Dollar Bill's desk and called Charles Hamill.

"Miss Bennett, I'm surprised to hear from you," he said.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Well, of course, it's a pleasant surprise," he said, "but our business has been completed."

That's when I knew that Frank Morley had sold me out to Hamill rather than Kluge.

"You think you know where Alexis is," I said.

"What?"

"But you don't."

"Miss Bennett, I don't know what—"

"She's not in Oklahoma," I said. "She never was. I lied to Morley."

Hamill was silent for a while. Finally, he cleared his throat and said, "Anything else?"

"Yes. She's with me. She wants to meet with Kingston. Today. Morgan building downtown. Sixth floor."

Hamill said, "Kingston's a busy man. Did it ever occur to you that he might be campaigning on the other side of the state right now? He might be meeting with donors. He might be having dinner with his family."

"I didn't say he wasn't busy. I said if he wants to speak to Alexis, he can speak to her on the sixth floor of the Morgan building today at seven o'clock. Tell him he can bring his wife and kids. I'm sure they'd love to meet a member of the extended family."

Hamill sighed and said, "I'll pass it along."

I hung up.

I called Kluge.

When Mrs. Willhide put the call through to his office, he answered by stating tactfully, "I'd much prefer to speak to you in person, Ms. Bennett." The tact was a cover, of course. He just didn't want to talk about shady shit on the phone.

"Seven o'clock at the Morgan building," I said. "Bring the governor."

I listened to his breathing for a while before he said, "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know the governor."

"Of course not. But this concerns him. I know he doesn't like to get his hands dirty with this low level stuff, but bring him along. I might have some things to say about that unpleasantness at the chicken plant a few nights ago. I can guarantee that he won't want to miss it. And I can guarantee that it won't cost him a dime."

Kluge didn't say anything.

After a while of listening to his breathing, I said, "Just pass the message along. We can end this thing tonight." I dropped in the real bait now. "I'll bring Alexis with me."

Kluge finally said, "Is that all you have to say?"

"Yes."

He hung up.

I had no idea if the governor would actually come. Kluge could negotiate for him. But I wanted him there. I hadn't lied to Junius. I thought I could end this thing tonight if I could get Kingston and Colfax in the same room.

I walked out to the bar to collect Alexis.

"Let's go."

"You talked to my father? We're going to meet with him now?"

"Yes," I said. I didn't want to give her more information.

Alexis rubbed Kaylee's head. "You're going to stay here with Tony while me and Ellie go see some people."

The girl didn't take her eyes from the screen, but she nodded.

As we walked out to the car, Alexis said, "That iPad is a lifesaver."

I unlocked the car, and I didn't say anything. No one wants to hear from someone else how to raise their kid, especially when that someone else has no kids of her own. I didn't have any wisdom to impart, no great thoughts on how to be a mother. But you don't have to be a meteorologist to interpret the meaning of storm clouds. I could try to keep Kaylee safe from these powerful men, but I didn't know who, or what, could protect her from her mother.

I parked just down the street from the Morgan Building. I had a problem, though. I didn't have anywhere to carry my gun. I was still wearing the sleeveless top and black skirt that Morley had bought me. I'd look suspicious if I walked into this meeting with a purse.

"Fuck it," I said. I'd have to leave it.

"What?" Alexis asked.

"Nothing. Let's go."

As it had the last time I'd seen it, the building appeared to be deserted. No one waited for us in the lobby. We rode up to the sixth floor in silence, but Alexis chewed her thumb the entire way.

When the doors opened, no one was waiting for us. At each end of the hallway, late summer light bled in through windows, but the corridor itself was dim.

"Is anyone here?" Alexis asked.

I led her down the hall to the office. The door was open. A light was on.

Inside, Junius Kluge was sitting alone, his hands folded on his desk.

"Ladies. Please, come in. Sit down."

"No governor?" I said.

Kluge lifted one hand from the desk as if to shoo away a fly or a stupid question, but then the door opened from a side office and Governor Lou Don Colfax walked in. He was taller than his brother had been, with a full head of dark hair graying at the temples, and cleft chin. He looked every bit like a politician on television, except that he wasn't smiling.

"Governor," I said.

He glanced at Kluge.

Kluge nodded.

The governor asked me, "What did you two want to talk to me about?"

Alexis turned to me, confused. "Ellie?"

Kluge watched us. "Did Ms. Bennett not tell you where you were going, young lady?"

"Ellie?" she said again, her voice going higher.

I turned to her. "Give it a second."

"What? Where's my father?"

Colfax frowned. Kluge made no move at all.

From the hallway, the elevator bell jarred us all.

Everyone looked at me.

I told Alexis. "There he is."

A moment later, Jerry Kingston appeared in the doorway trailed by Charles Hamill. Both wore suits. Hamill looked as pretty and composed as ever, but Kingston was scarlet and sweaty, like a man in the throes of a heart attack.

Kingston's attention fluttered around the room, but it landed on Colfax.

"What's he doing here?" Kingston asked.

Colfax addressed Kluge, "I was about to ask the same thing. What the hell is going on?"

Kluge smiled at me, a smile of real appreciation, from one chess player to another. "I suspect that Ms. Bennett is the one to ask."

Knowing that the next words out of my mouth would either save me or fuck me, I took a deep breath and said, "Let me start by saying that I killed Vinton Colfax two nights ago."

I let that reverberate around the room for a few seconds. Alexis gasped. Kingston and Hamill looked at each other with wide eyes. The governor's face stayed stony. Junius Kluge just kept smiling at me.

"I say this right now, aloud, to all of you because I want everyone to know that no one's taping this. No one is being recorded. What is said in this room isn't leaving this room because no one in this room would survive the scandal intact." I addressed the governor. "Your brother, with the help of the Arkansas State Police, abducted me, beat me and tried to kill me. He didn't succeed on that last count, though, because I killed him first."

I paused to let Governor Colfax say something, but his smooth, handsome face didn't flinch. His mouth remained tightly clamped down.

I said, "Let's see where we are, all of us. Everyone here has been looking for my friend Alexis." I gestured at the trembling sack of nerves beside me. "But all you assholes have been wrong, dead wrong, about her intentions. Reverend Kingston has proceeded on the assumption that she was going to blackmail him—for money, for position, for a piece of the family pie—because she is his illegitimate daughter. Ugh, you know I hate that term,
illegitimate
. What's that even mean? Let's say she's his unclaimed daughter, the one he tried to abort all those years ago when it benefitted him not to have a daughter by someone he wasn't married to."

Kingston didn't look at his daughter. Instead, he watched the governor process this new information.

"Meanwhile," I said, "Governor Colfax has been trying to find Alexis because she used to deliver drugs to him. He thought she skipped town because she wanted to make a deal, to sell him out, to Reverend Kingston."

I waved my hand around to indicate all of them. "What all this comes down to is that you both thought Alexis was going to sell you out to each other. What you both want is security. Security from each other. And everyone who can grant you that security is in this room."

Colfax exchanged a glance with Kluge, and it was as if he'd passed on a silent instruction. Kluge asked, "What about the money you tried to extort from us yesterday?"

"I guess that's your leverage against me. Because of my involvement in these illegal activities I ended up killing Vin Colfax. Then I tried to blackmail you to hush it up. With my criminal record, that would be enough to get me shipped back to Eastgate. At this point, all I want is out."

"What if some DA offered you a plea deal? Or what happens in five years when you're not on parole?"

I turned to the governor. "You're not a stupid man, Mr. Colfax. You know a good deal when you see one. This is a good deal. All I care about is walking out of this deal with my skin attached. I'm not greedy and I'm not stupid. I just want to be free of this mess."

I stopped and let him think about it.

Governor Colfax stared at the floor. Kingston watched Colfax think. Hamill watched Kingston. Kluge kept smiling at me. Alexis gulped, hard, twice, and then left her mouth open to get more air.

Then Governor Colfax raised his head and smiled.

Smoothly, as if he was attempting to wind down a difficult television interview, he turned to Kingston and said, "Well, Jerry, partner, what do you say? I have things to get to tonight, and I'm sure you do as well. I think this little lady made a pretty compelling case that we should just shake hands, call this round a draw, and meet again next month for the first debate in … oh, where is that dang debate going to be held?"

Kingston glared at his opponent.