The Brat (14 page)

S
HE TURNED
and looked at me and laughed again. It was the happiest laughter I’d heard in a long time. Then she quit laughing. She must have seen how I looked.

I started walking toward her. I felt dreamy, as if nobody could see me or know anything about the way I felt right then. I wanted to kill her—get my hands on her for just one minute and that was all. I kept walking toward her steadily, on past DeGreef sitting on his God-damned stump, and I could see only Evis. Nothing else. Nothing else mattered in the world but my getting my hands on her. She had lied and schemed and lied and schemed again, and I’d almost fallen for it—ready to go along with her straight to hell. Because I’d thought, She’s human, too. She’s a human being. You’ve got to remember she’s a human being.

Only now it was done.

“Evis?” I said softly, trying to make it sound kind.

But she knew. She turned and ran for Kaylor.

“Just stop it right there,” Kaylor said.

I kept walking. I walked right over to them. Kaylor shoved her back out of the way. He was wet up to above his chest, black hair hanging down across one eye. He lifted the rifle toward me and I kept coming.

“Berk! Don’t let him touch me!”

“Yell all you want,” I said. “Scream your fool head off. But just don’t try to get away this time.”

“Hold it,” Kaylor said.

He worked the lever once, fast, on the rifle and pointed the muzzle at my chest.

“One more step, Sullivan.”

“No, Berk!” she said.

I stopped and stared at her. “What?” I said. “You mean you don’t want him to kill me?”

She didn’t speak, standing there behind Kaylor.

She laughed nervously.

“Know what she just did?” I said to Kaylor, looking at her and hating her like I’d never hate anything in this world. “She just told me she had the money here, Kaylor. Hidden some place. She said we could get away if I’d jump DeGreef. I want you to know this, Kaylor—I want you to know what you’re up against with her. You have no idea—none whatsoever.”

She laughed that same nervous laugh, standing behind Kaylor. He looked quickly around at her, then toward me again.

“Did you do that, for sure, honey?”

“Yes.”

“Well, hell—you little witch, you.”

She laughed again and put her arms around Kaylor’s middle.

“Can’t trust you at all, can I?” he said.

“I began to wonder if you were coming, Berk,” she said. “I got nervous. I figured if I could get Lee to do something about that pig over there, then I’d feel better.”

“Sure,” Kaylor said. “I reckon I understand, honey.”

I stared at the two of them. It was insane. And yet there they were; understanding each other as nice as you please.

DeGreef swore softly from the stump of cabbage palm.

“Yes,” Evis said. “Pig! I saw how you looked at me. Don’t think I didn’t see that!”

Kaylor turned his head slowly and looked at DeGreef.

“I don’t reckon I understand,” Kaylor said. “What do you mean, honey? How did he look at you?”

I watched them, still unable to believe it. The instant Kaylor had come, Evis had changed. It seemed almost as if she regressed, her personality changed, and there was the sound of the backwoods, the swamp, the deep south in her voice. Everything she said, every move she made, even her eyes, showed strict sympathy with Kaylor and what he was. They were absolutely alike.

“Tell me,” Kaylor repeated. “How did he look at you?”

She came around from his side and glanced sharply at DeGreef. DeGreef returned her gaze steadily. She stamped her foot lightly on the ground and leaned forward, gripping Kaylor’s arm, her dark lips twisting.

“It was like he wanted to tear my clothes off, Berk, honey. Like he couldn’t see enough of me. Like seeing wouldn’t ever be enough.”

“He touch you?”

She shook her head, straightening. “No. That pig! But I could tell what he wanted to do. He’s been nibbling at me for hours with those eyes.”

“Well,” Kaylor said. “I’ll have to check into that.”

“He’d of tried something,” Evis said.

Kaylor frowned. Turning, he smacked Evis hard on the behind. “You run along and get the money, honey. We got to get out of here. Fast. The Law’s coming—I got all the news. We don’t want them to catch us down here.”

“But where’ve you been, Berk?”

“I been poling an’ dragging that damned air boat for miles. Ever since I heard some signal shots. Must of been Mister Pig, over yonder. Right?”

She nodded, still clinging to him.

DeGreef came up off the stump and stumbled toward Evis and Kaylor.

“Steady, now,” Kaylor said, “Or I’ll plug you.”

DeGreef stopped. He looked a little crazy. I began to think that maybe a lot more than I knew depended on DeGreef thoroughly finishing his job.

“Kiss me, Berk,” Evis said, pressing against Kaylor. “Give me a great big kiss, will you?”

He shoved her brutally with his hip, not even looking at her. She stepped away.

“You get that moneybox, like I tol’ you, hear? Move out, woman. We ain’t got time for kissing. Not now. I said
move!”

“Yes—but, Berk—” She looked at him, caught something in his eyes, smiled and turned at a run over toward the tent. She didn’t even look at me as she ran past.

“Now,” Kaylor said. “You two are going to have to stay right here. Ain’t that sad?”

“You can’t do that,” DeGreef said.

“I’ll get to you,” Kaylor said. “Got a thing to say, here.” He lounged now, and let the rifle sag in the crook of his arm. He reached up and scrubbed his face with his hand, looked off toward the tent, then at me. “You’re in the sack, Sullivan. Ain’t that a shame? You’re gonna get blamed for killing two men, and stealing that money—all by yourself. What I mean is, you’re the only one they’ll catch.”

“We’ll see,” DeGreef said.

“Told you I’d get to you,” Kaylor said sharply. “Don’t go getting me any more riled than I am, hear? I left Evis here so I could go check on things, see what the score is, and pick up enough gas so we could trip across the country and get going out of Miami. Did a little snooping around. They got posses out. Got cops down here from all over hell’s half-acre. They got boats. Everybody’s in on the hunt. It’s fun, you know? They ain’t too damned far away, right now.”

Evis came running past me with a small pasteboard suitcase in her hand. It was the type you buy in dime stores. She went over to Kaylor, banged the side of the suitcase with her hand, grinning up at him. She was as changed as any woman could ever be. Every time I looked at her I went a little blind.

“All right,” Kaylor said. “Rona come back to Hagar’s Point with that there corpse of the redhead. I talked with somebody who seen her come in. One of his deputies held her,” he said, motioning his head toward DeGreef. “He’s got her now. She tried to tell him you didn’t have anything to do with it, Sullivan—but luck has it, that there deputy’s from, this part of the country and he don’t take to strangers. Wouldn’t listen to Rona, anyways. Too much against you, Sullivan. They think you killed Fowler—and they think you killed the sheriff, here—Greefus.”

“DeGreef,” DeGreef said. “You stupid fool.”

“That so?” Kaylor said. “Okay, Mr. Greefus.”

Evis laughed. She seemed to get a big kick out of that.

“You look right good to me,” Kaylor said, turning to Evis. “Right good, honey. We got to make time, now. You all ready?”

“I look a mess,” Evis said, smoothing her hand over the long tear in her dress. “Where we going now, Berk?”

“Tell you later.” He stepped away from her, moving in long strides, and walked over to Sheriff DeGreef.

“Turn around, Greefus,” Kaylor said. “An’ take that gun out of your belt and toss it back between your legs.”

DeGreef didn’t move. Kaylor hauled back and rammed the rifle into DeGreef’s stomach, very hard. DeGreef doubled over violently and nearly fell. The air burst from between his lips. He staggered, looked at Kaylor, turned around and threw the revolver between his legs. Kaylor picked it up, jammed it into his own belt.

I looked over at Evis and realized then that she had never changed. She’d always been the same. Only I had never seen what she really was—and I’d been wrong. All the little doubts of remembering returned now; all the little things that had pointed to what she was came back to remind me that I’d been wrong all the time I’d been married to her.

“Air boat’s out by the pier,” Kaylor said to her. “We’ll pull that other boat out a ways, then let her go. No sense leaving it here—right?”

“Yes, Berk.”

“Well, go on out there. I’ll take care of Greefus.”

“How do you mean, Berk?”

“Hell, woman—you know how I mean. What you keep asking damned fool questions for?”

“You mean, shoot him?”

Kaylor looked at DeGreef. “Yes, I reckon that’s what I mean. I don’t hold so much against old Sullivan, here. He did me a good turn, you might say. Carried you off where you could bring something good back to me. Used to be I’d get full of black hate over thinking about Sullivan sleeping with you, like he was. But, hell, a woman like you are—she’s got to be slept with. Ain’t that right?”

“You devil,” Evis said.

Kaylor looked at me. Then he looked at DeGreef. The sheriff moved back a few spaces and his face was pasty white. Kaylor grinned broadly and walked up to the man.

“Would you of done it to her, you had the chance?” he said. “Would you of, Greefus?”

DeGreef opened his mouth, but he couldn’t speak.

“Guess you would of,” he said. “No man could turn that down, could they?”

DeGreef stared at him.

Kaylor brought the gun up in the crook of his arm, the barrel flashing in a bright arc. It smashed against DeGreef’s jaw. The sheriff staggered backward and fell against the cabbage palm stump.

“Let’s go, then,” Kaylor said. He turned and started walking toward the edge of the clearing.

The fire had died some and the wind had died with it. Moonlight sifted brightly into the clearing along with the firelight now. The clouds were gone, the storm had passed somewhere else.

Evis paused, turned and looked at me.

“Good-by, Lee,” she said. “I honest am sorry about everything. I wasn’t lying to you about that. I am sorry —but you can’t understand, can you? About how a person can be sorry, but still want to do what he wants to do?”

There was nothing to say.

“I am, though—I’m sorry for hurting you. I know I hurt you. But you see, Berk’s my man, Lee. He always was. I married you so I could get what I wanted. It took a long time, and I liked it all right, Lee. You were always good to me.”

“For God’s sake, go away, then!”

“Evis, honey,” Kaylor called. “You get the lead out—right now!”

They vanished down the path out of the clearing. Suddenly DeGreef rose from where he’d fallen against the stump and stumbled over to me.

“We’ve got to stop them.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll stop them.”

I looked at him, at his eyes. I didn’t like what I saw. He was wild back there behind those eyes.

“You going to just stand there and let him do that?” He grabbed my arm. “Sullivan. Don’t you understand? You’ve got to help me do something, or you’ll be it—just like he said.”

“I’m going to do something. But don’t be a fool. He wants you to take out after him, don’t you see that? He’ll never leave you alive on this island. He wants me to take the rap, DeGreef….”

He cursed and ran past me, pounding down the path.

I took out after him. He wasn’t using his head worth a damn. He was running fast, and as I started along the path I heard the loud sputtering and the roar as the air boat started.

DeGreef yelled something out there on the beach.

I came off the path through the undergrowth to the beach. The air boat was out at the end of the pier, where our boat had been tied. Kaylor had the motorboat slung from the stern of the air boat.

“DeGreef!” I shouted. “Get down!”

Sheriff DeGreef was running out along the pier. Moonlight silvered the scene and I saw Kaylor walking back along the pier toward shore and even above the roar of the motor, I heard Evis’s scream.

Kaylor had known DeGreef would come after him.

“Get down,” I called again. It was hopeless.

Kaylor leveled the rifle and fired carefully. The spang of the gun echoed sharply and the sheriff spun around on the pier, nearly fell off. He crashed on the loose planks and lay still.

Kaylor took two fast steps toward the fallen man, then abruptly hesitated, turned and ran fast and light back along the pier, leaped into the air boat. I could see the fine blur of the propellor and then he gunned it, and you couldn’t see anything. Just Evis and Kaylor and the flat air boat skimming faster and faster out across the moonlit waters. A red glow of sparks showed in the engine, almost like a taillight, as they roared away. Then I saw a bright spotlight switch on at the front of the air boat. It swung in a sweeping bright glow, then steadied on the distant grass country.

DeGreef hadn’t moved, lying sacklike across the pier, probably bleeding the last of his life into the water, if he wasn’t already dead.

“DeGreef?” I called.

He didn’t answer.

I ran on out along the loose-boarded pier, feeling a wild futility and helplessness now. DeGreef was on one knee as I came up, crumpled on the pier. He moaned.

“Where’d he get you?”

“The arm—left arm. The son-of-a-bitch. He got the bone—it’s busted. Why didn’t he finish me?”

“Take it easy, maybe he thought you were dead.”

“Take it easy, you say?” He shoved himself to his knees and I saw his face, dragged down with pain. He gripped his arm just beneath a darkly spreading stain on his shirt.

“They’re coming back,” he said. “Look!”

The air boat swooped out of the swamp toward us. Then I looked off toward the east. I could still plainly see Kaylor and Evis in their air boat.

“It’s not them,” I said. “That’s why he didn’t check to make sure you were dead. It’s somebody else coming.”

DeGreef hunched forward, staring.

“Whoever it is scared him off.”

The engine of the air boat cut off, and the boat planed toward the pier across the shallows. It swept in close to the pier, bumped the side.