The Devil Walks in Mattingly (25 page)

“But now I know.” Justus reached into his back pocket and lifted the newspaper high, shaking it. “It’s this, ain’t it? This sorry tripe what ain’t fit to use in my outhouse.”

The pages crinkled under his rage. He shook them at Trevor. Trevor shook more. I don’t mind saying I took some sense of satisfaction upon seeing that. Then I realized that if I’d have gotten Trevor to tremble such just before he’d left Saturday night, maybe we wouldn’t have been in this mess and maybe Justus would have still been in Crawford’s Gap where he belonged.

“You tell me how two men can come up in Mattingly an’ kill,” Justus said. “You tell me how one of ’em can light out in the wind and be gone. Tell me what sort of good folk there is that can look upon all that’s been done and say it’s
their own fault
. That
they deserved it
. I know an’ love Andy Sommerville. I know an’ love Timmy Griffith. An’ I dint know that boy, but I know he’s innocent just as I know innocent blood calls out for justice even as it soaks into the hard ground. Now I ask, who’s gonna give him that justice? You, Hollis?”

Hollis didn’t move.

“Bobby Barnes?”

A nod—small, but there.

Justus turned. “Jacob?”

I blinked. Words stuck in my throat. I was glad for that, because I didn’t know what words they were.

“I ain’t seen no po-leece round here,” Justus said. “That mean you gonna step up, Sheriff?”

“Taylor Hathcock’s gone,” I managed. I said this into the microphone to make it sound louder. “County police agree with me.”

Justus snickered. Even that was a boom. “Gone, he is? They been lookin’ elsewhere too, I imagine?”

I didn’t want to answer that. Justus only asked questions when he knew their answers. He knew the police had been looking for Taylor. Looking everywhere.

“You got all these po-leece lookin’ everywhere else for a man, an’ they ain’t found’m yet? Where’s that tell you he is, Jake?” He didn’t give me time to answer, but turned to the crowd instead and slapped the newspaper into an open palm. The sound was like fireworks. “He’s
here
. In this town or in them hills, it don’t matter. An’ I say it’s high time somebody does somethin’. Any man who feels a conscience to protect his fam’ly, you meet me tomorrow on the courthouse steps. Ain’t no law in this town gonna bring him in. We’ll make our own law.”

Justus turned to face me one last time and went back the way he’d come, straight down the center of the meeting hall. He’d almost reached the doors when I called his name.

“I don’t want no trouble,” I said.

He stopped and turned. “That’s the problem with you, boy. Don’t matter how much a body don’t want trouble, trouble still finds him. Finds us all.”

Justus left, slamming the double doors and scattering Joey and Frankie in the process. The crowd drowned in its silence, thinking their own thoughts. What those thoughts were, I cannot say. I can only tell you mine. They said that Trevor Morgan had not reported the present as much as he’d divined the future. Because the devil hadn’t walked in Mattingly on Saturday night. He’d waited to make his appearance on Monday evening.

Part IV

No Home for the Weary

1

T
aylor took in the whole story with as much interest as if he were listening to someone talk about the weather. He remained paitent, waiting for Lucy to get to the important part. She never did. Instead, she spoke of people Taylor neither cared for nor understood, jumping from what someone said to what another did, losing him in the process.

When the tale was blessedly over, she said, “I don’t know who he was. I don’t think anyone ever said his name. But he was scary. And he’s coming after you.”

Taylor propped his elbows on the table, rocking it toward him. He bent forward and folded his hands beneath his nose. “You find Kate?”

“Did you hear me?” Lucy asked. “They’re coming after you, Taylor. Jake convinced the police to leave, but I’d rather have them after me than that man.”

“That man ain’t important,” Taylor said. “What’s important’s
Kate
. You say Jake was there, and you said he’s her beau. She had to be there too, lady.”

Lucy said no. Then she said, “But I asked around about her. Kate’s a good person, Taylor. Everybody says so. She’s kind.”

She reached across the table and took Taylor’s hand. Her skin felt smooth, like a lamb’s ear, and her eyes sparkled in the light from the candles she’d brought back from town. Taylor hadn’t asked her to do that, and yet she had. That small act spoke more to him than Lucy Seekins could know.

“Kate’s no such thing as kind,” he said. He kept his hand still, not wanting to break her touch. “She’s weaved a spell ’round that town. ’Round Jake. But make no mistake on what I say. I know the truth.”

“She helps people,” Lucy said. “Poor people. They say she has this notebook she carries with her all the time, and she keeps the names in there. How can someone like that kill a boy?”

“A notebook fulla names, you say?” Taylor smiled. “I envy you, Lucy Seekins.” He squeezed Lucy’s hand. “You’ve the world ahead. And though it may be a false world, it can shine fair. You bear no weight but for what’s on your bones. There’s other heaviness, and it’s more burdensome. You get some years on, you’ll see life’s a hard going, and the load placed upon you may be of our own doing and it may not. Such is my story. Jake bears that weight as well. But Kate? By the evil in her heart, she bears the weight most of all.”

Lucy nibbled at her bottom lip. “Kate wouldn’t kill anyone.”

“How’s it you know that?” Taylor asked. “You’ve yet to chance upon her.”

He kept Lucy’s hand in his own and felt the sweat pouring from her fingers. He spotted the quick heartbeat beneath her blouse and noticed the way she suddenly couldn’t look at him. There was little wisdom in Taylor Hathcock, but he was wily; no one could survive in the Hollow that long without
wits. A part of him cried out that Lucy was lying and that she would be his end. Yet that voice was met by another, smaller one that pled for Taylor to no longer look for deceit in Lucy Seekins for fear of what would be found. That small voice won out. It was simply good enough that Lucy was there and had thought to bring candles. Love covers a multitude of sins. Loneliness does too.

“I carry no hate for Kate Griffith,” Taylor said. “I did once. Now I know the harm she did me turned to blessing. You say she carries a book to record her goodness. I know why. Just as I know those names add more red than black to the account she owes. And I do not carry hate for Jake. Him, I mourn.”

“Why?”

“’Cause Jake’s a killer too.”

“Taylor—”

“He is,” Taylor said. “I bore witness to it myself. You say Jake looked scared up on that stage? That’s why. Because he knows I still run free, and I know the truth of what he done. He’s a man on the outside but a boy inward. He ails, lady. Kate too. Such is why this Holler means to have an end and why there’s prints from the Hole. I’ve been called to Wake them both when the time comes. My love will set them free.”

Lucy’s eyes began to water. Taylor took a measure of pride that the beauty of his words had drawn such a reaction from her.

She said, “You told me you wouldn’t hurt them.”

“’Tis my destiny, lady.”

“What did Kate do to you, Taylor?”

Taylor lowered his gaze, telling himself no, don’t you dare. But the words were already over his lips, and in a whisper Lucy barely heard.

“She told me she loved me.”

There was no more talk of Jake or Kate that night. Lucy took the bed of boughs by the fire, Taylor the cot. He decided he would let the candles burn that night. Sometimes Taylor saw things in the dark, horrible things that frightened him because he thought they came not from the Hollow but from his own heart.

He’d nearly settled into sleep when Lucy asked, “Why can’t we just stay here together, Taylor? You and me and the grove. If this is all a dream, then nothing else matters.”

“Because I’m Awake, Lucy Seekins,” he said. “I’m Awake and in the dream both, and I am the only one. Knowing the truth yet bearing up under a lie is a burden you won’t want to bear. This Holler wants me to right a wrong. If I do, maybe he’ll free me to find what lies on the other side. My fight’s fading, lady. I grow weary of this world.”

The fire crackled. In the distance a coyote called.

“I’m not going back there,” Lucy said. “There’s nothing for me in that town.”

“And what will people say has become of you?”

“I don’t know. I don’t care. No one will notice anyway.”

Taylor didn’t think that right. Someone would know the lady had come up missing. Someone might even have the presence of mind to think he had something to do with that. That notion struck Taylor as useful if the time came.

“As you wish it, Lucy Seekins,” he said.

“What if you’re wrong?” Lucy asked. “What if you’re wrong about Kate and Jake? About everything?”

Taylor had thought of that often in his long years in the Hollow. He now thought of it again. Even the most devout had their doubts. The conclusion he reached this time was the same he’d reached in all the others.

“This here life can’t be real. It hurts too much.”

“But what if it is?”

The answer Taylor gave was the only one he could.

“Then I’m hellbound, lady.”

2

It was enough that most of the town believed me when I said Taylor was gone, or maybe it was because Justus was so convinced Taylor wasn’t. Whichever the case, that Tuesday Big Jim Wallis decreed life in Mattingly should return to normal. Kate knew Zach wouldn’t take this well (not only did normal mean a return to math and spelling, it meant facing up to Danny Blackwell), but she thought I’d be pleased. Normal, after all, was all I wanted. Yet I greeted the news that morning with a silent apathy. She guessed aloud that it was my nightmares, a wise enough conclusion given the way I’d tossed about in the dark. But I hadn’t dreamed the night before. Taylor and my father had kept me awake in a way that my fear of Phillip never could.

Just as quiet was the ride to school. My mind was torn in half the whole way there, seeing all those children and knowing Taylor could be waiting to pluck any one of them away. Especially Zach, who sat mute and glum in the backseat. But there was nothing I could do about that. I’d sent Alan’s men away and told the town Taylor Hathcock was long gone, and I could no more keep Zach home than I could tell everyone that Taylor was close, that he’d always been close, and now he had a smart one with him. Zach’s only words when we dropped him at school were the “Love you” he offered when I let him out and the “Okay, Mommy” to Kate when she asked that he call her later.

Thankfully Kate’s mind wasn’t on my furrowed brow as
we drove the few blocks from the school. She had fallen into her notebook instead and remained there until we turned onto Main Street. My hand tightened around hers. She looked up to see a mass of men gathered at the courthouse steps, spilling out all the way to the sheriff’s office. Fifty of them, maybe more. All riveted upon Justus, who stood at the top step pointing to a map taped to one of the wide stone columns. Several of them wore knapsacks. Many wore camouflage or military jackets. All of them wore guns.

Mayor Wallis saw us park and made his way over. Sweat had already turned his white dress shirt a dull gray beneath his suit jacket. The cigar in his mouth had been chewed to a mashed nub.

“You see that?” he asked. “I can’t even get to my office. You do something about this, Sheriff. You send those men along. They’re armed, Jake.
Armed
. This ain’t no Wild West show, this is a proper town.”

I looked out from beneath the brim of my hat and considered this, knew it was right. I also knew there was little I could do about it. Justus divided up the men and pointed to various spots on the map like a general giving orders. It was a bad sight made worse by the approach of Trevor Morgan’s car, which slowed and then stopped where we stood.

He rolled down the window and smiled. “Morning, Uncle—Mayor. Jake.” Then a smile and, “Hello there, Kate.”

“Where you going, boy?” Big Jim asked. “Figured you’d be on that crowd like a wolf on fresh meat. Your readers need to know that man’s impedin’ the usual machinations of their town.”

Trevor leaned out the window and looked back toward the courthouse. “Figure I have plenty of time for them.” He looked at me and added, “Not like they’ll be arrested or anything. Got an errand to run in Camden.”

My head turned at that word. “What’s in Camden?”

“Now, Sheriff, I’m the one who usually asks the questions. Chasing down a lead. All I’ll say.”

He offered his good-bye and drove off, waving his hand out the window. Kate watched Trevor go and turned back to the business at hand.

“Jake, the mayor’s right,” she said. “Can’t you do something? Tell them to gather somewhere else maybe?”

“He means to do it here,” I said. “Right here in front of everybody. Show the town he’s not afraid. They see that, maybe they won’t be afraid either.” I stood there watching Justus. “Pretty smart, really.”

“Smart?” Big Jim asked. “Now look here, Jake. I know that man’s your daddy, but he’s a wanted criminal charged with almost killing three men. I ain’t gotta stand here while my own sheriff calls him smart. Listen.” He pulled at my elbow to gain my attention, then drew back when I gave it. I might stand idle as Justus did my job for me, but I would not abide being manhandled. Every man has a line in him that won’t be crossed. “You know I didn’t approve of you being elected sheriff. How could I, given what Justus did? But you’re here, and I’ve accepted it. Now I need you to decide if you’re gonna do your job or not.”

As it turned out, Justus made my decision for me. He parted the men like Moses through the Red Sea and made for the nearest truck, which was Bobby Barnes’s old Dodge. Bobby followed as the others made for their own. The street erupted in a series of backfires and growling engines.

I turned to Kate and said, “Gonna patrol the north hills to Boone’s Pond. I’ll be back for lunch, if you have a mind to join me.”

“Okay.”