When the Women Come out to Dance (2002) (11 page)

"Not if you say it ain't so. Ava's the one told you I wa
s here?"

"I talked her into it. Told her I wouldn't tell anybody."

"How do you know she didn't send you to me?" Boy
d winked. "So I could decide what to do with you."

"I'll take care of him," Devil said, wanting in on what wa
s going on.

Raylan didn't bother with him. He said to Boyd, "I doub
t she even knows this is the house was foreclosed on. Prett y slick, move back in figuring nobody would look for you here."

Raylan saying it as he began to look around at the front roo
m of this farmhouse that was spare of furnishing--a table and a few straight chairs on the linoleum floor--but looked like a gallery with all the white supremacy symbols framed on th e wall. There were emblems representing the KKK, Aryan Nations, the Hammerskins, SS thunderbolts, RAHOWA with a death's head that stood for Racial Holy War, swastikas on a n Iron Cross, over an eagle, Nazi Party flag with swastika . . .

Raylan said, "You all sure like swastikas," and looked over a
t Boyd. "What's the spiderweb?"

"You get it tattooed on your elbow if you done time o
r killed some minority, Jew or a jigaboo."

"Boyd, you know any Jews?"

"A few. I also know they run the economy, control the Federal Reserve and the IRS. I recruit skins don't know any more'n you, have to show 'em why we have a moral obligatio n to get rid of minorities. Read your Bible."

"It's in there?" "Part of Creation. Back at the beginning of time you go t your mud people, referred to as beasts 'cause they don't hav e souls. Okay, Adam jumped Eve and she begat Abel, the beginning of the white race as God intended. But then Satan in the form of a snake jumped Eve. She begat Cain and thing s got out of hand. Cain began fucking mud people, the women , and out of these fornications came the Edomites. And yo u know who the Edomites are?"

"Tell me."

"The Jews."

"You're serious."

"Read your Bible as interpreted by experts."

"Are you born again?"

"Again and again."

"I think you're putting me on," Raylan said, noticing silver chains now hanging from deer antlers, on the wall with photos taken of Boyd in Vietnam. Raylan walked over an d Boyd followed him.

"They look like dog turds now, but they's ears I took off
a dead gooks I killed. After I got back I use to offer a pair to different women I was seeing."

"No takers, huh?"

"It was like a test. A woman that won't accept a pair an
d wear 'em proudly ain't the one I'm looking for. We invit e these little Nazigirls up to the church? Chelsea girls they'r e called--shitkickers, hair under their armpits--any one of 'e m would wear a pair of the ears, fight over 'em, but they're no t my type. I like a woman ain't afraid of nothing but more feminine in her ways, more womanly."

"Like Ava," Raylan said.

"Listen, I called her up--" Boyd stopped and looked ove
r at Devil. "Go on get us a jar and a couple glasses." He raise d his voice, "Clean ones," as Devil went out to the kitchen.

Boyd turned to Raylan. "He just got his release, so he's looking for action."

"I can tell," Raylan said.

"Was down three years on a marijuana conviction--yo
u know it's grown all around here. Devil couldn't convince th e court what he had was for personal use. Four hundred pound s in two refrigerators."

Raylan sensed a connection between Devil and the marijuana church in Cincinnati and said, "We were thinking to sell this house to a black man, see if it might bring you out i n the open."

Boyd said, "Your nigger would never've known wha
t hit him."

Devil came with a jar of shine no meaner-looking than water, a few specks of charcoal in it, his fingers in the three glasses he placed on the table.

Boyd shoved one of the glasses back to him. "This is me an
d Raylan's party. You aren't invited." Devil seemed to want to argue, give a reason to stay. Boyd told him go on, get outta here.

Now he poured their drinks, a few inches of pure corn int
o each glass. "I don't like him hearing things he's liable to tak e the wrong way."

Raylan said, "How you feel about Ava?" He took a sip. I
t was smooth, but caused saliva to rise in his mouth and mad e him swallow a couple of times.

"I called her up," Boyd said. "I told her the only reason I
d idn't take her out and shoot her, I saw she had no choice in what she done. I told her she showed spunk for a woman, no t knowing what I'd do about it. I told her another reason wa s the Bible saying a man should see to the needs of his brother'
s widow, and that I intended to take care of her."

"Bless your heart," Raylan said.

"Don't get smart with me. I meant it."

"Boyd, you use the Bible to get what you want, same a
s you use all this white supremacy bullshit to rob banks an d raise hell, blow up a church in Cincinnati for the fun of it. See , I'm giving you the benefit you aren't mental. I know yo u aren't stupid enough to believe that mud people story."

They stood facing each other across the table, the quar
t mason jar of moonshine between them, Boyd showing his siz e in a khaki shirt pulled taut across his chest. He appeare d calm, his eyes showing interest.

He said, "Raylan, the whole world's gonna become mulatt
a we don't separate the races quick. I believe that much and it'
s enough."

Raylan only shrugged. "Then you'll die for it or go t
o prison."

Boyd looked at him now like he was trying to decide something in his mind.

"You'd shoot me, you get the chance?"

"You make me pull," Raylan said, "I'll put you down."

Devil had the map spread open on the tabl
e again, the one with the circles and arrows. He said to Boy d coming back in the house, "You kiss him goodbye?"

Boyd said, "You want your jaw broke?"

"I'm kidding with you," Devil said, waited for Boyd to si
t down and hunched over next to him to point out on the map.

"Here, we take 421 down across the Virginia line. East on 606
a nd we come to Nina, not an hour from here."

"How many people?"

"Less'n four hundred. Nearest deputies are at Big Ston
e Gap. Hit the town, the bank, the stores, bang bang bang, an y place there's a cash register. Run up the flag . . . Which one?"

"Rebel battle flag."

"That'd be my choice. We show how a town can be take
n over and secured with fifteen militia. How, the time comes, i t can be done all over the Jewnited States."

Boyd put his finger on a line Devil had drawn. "I don't se
e a road here."

"It ain't on the map, Boyd, it's a four-wheeler trail throug
h marijuana country, one of many the growers use. It takes u s up to near 38 and we're back home."

Now, as Boyd studied the map, Devil said, "Why'd you le
t him go? I could've put him away, easy."

Boyd looked up. He said to Devil, "Stick to your recon."

Looked at the map again and said, "What I do with Raylan'
s my business."

Boyd had come outside with him to stand wit
h his hands in his pockets, nodding toward the crest of a slop e that had been strip-mined and stood bare against the nigh t sky. He told Raylan they were cutting the tops off of mountains and letting the slag run down to ruin the creeks.

Shaking houses to pieces with their blasting. He reminded Raylan how their dads had dug coal ten hours a day for eight y cents. How "me and you" would go into worked-out mine s and chop into the pillars of coal holding up the roof, and ru n like hell if she began to cave. Remember? It was called robbing the mine. And how they stood on the picket line the year they struck Eastover and watched the courts back the company scabs and gun thugs. "Whose side's the govermint always been on, Raylan, us or the people with money? And who controls the money and wants to mongrelize the world?" Tha t was his argument, why he felt he could rob banks and kil l anyone wasn't white. There was no talking to him.

Raylan said, "You're gonna stand in a lineup tomorrow
, Harlan County courthouse, nine o'clock."

"What'd I do now?"

"You can show up or we'll come get you."

He made his way down the mountain and through Evart
s past his high school, the Home of the Wildcats, going towar d Harlan till he swung off 38 to follow dirt roads dark as pitch , no sign other than JESUS SAVES, and would have missed th e house if a light wasn't on--Raylan thinking that if he'
d stayed he'd be living up a hollow in a house like that, a pickup truck in the yard. . . . But what would he be?

Ava hugged him and gave him a kiss on th
e cheek and held on bringing him inside, Ava wearing a loos e sweater now with her shorts, wearing her hair in a soft wav e that came close to one of her brown eyes and a nice scent tha t he liked--Raylan sitting with her on the sofa now, thei r drinks on the coffee table Bowman must've put his steel-toe d workshoes on to get it scarred like it was, Bowman a presence , his wife until a few days ago sitting at the end of the sofa b y the lamp shining on her hair.

"Did you see Boyd?"

"I told him he has to come in tomorrow. Boyd blew up
a church in Cincinnati and we have a witness who'll take a loo k at him."

"Well, that was quick. Boy, you work fast," Ava said, raising her eyebrows at him. "And I oughta know."

Right there, Raylan knew he should tell her wait, h
e wasn't making a move on her. But what he said was, "Boy d might not show up. Even if he does, I'm pretty sure he won'
t be made, identified."

"So you'll be staying around? Cool."

Ava got up and went to her CD player. She put on Shani
a Twain and came back singing along, " 'Men's shirts, shor t skirts, oh, oh, oh, really go wild, doin' it in style . . .' ' Th e phone rang. Ava turned down the volume on her way to th e kitchen. Raylan heard her say, "Who? . . . Oh, yeah, I remember. . . . Listen, hon? I can't talk to you right now, I've got company." Now she was laughing as she hung up the phone.

Ava turned the volume back up and joined Shania agai
n singing, " 'Oh, oh, oh, get in the action, feel the attraction . . .'

Fella name Russ. Can you believe he's the second one'
s called me? I kinda knew 'em from a Fourth of July party w e went to. Couple of showoffs. They made a bet, see who coul d throw down a blue blazer the fastest. You know, you light a shot glass of whiskey? That's a blue blazer. They both thre w theirs over their shoulder and banged their shot glasses dow n at the same time, on the picnic table." Ava shook her head, smiling at the memory. "Cute guys, I'd see them watching me. Now I'm single again they're calling me up. You believe it?"

Ava fell into the sofa to sit low, her head bent against th
e backrest, her legs apart in the shorts. She turned her hea d against the cushion to look at Raylan. "Jealous?"

For a moment there, listening to her on the phone, th
e flirty way she used her voice, he did get a feeling he didn'
t like. In his head and out again, but it was there.

She said, "Hey, I'm just teasing you. I know you have a life.

You must, a cool guy like you? No, I just thought, you'r
e here, why don't we party? I can still do those old Wildca t cheers I know you liked to watch. I still have all the cut e moves. Get your motor turned on. You want, Raylan, you ca n spend the night. How's that sound?"

VIII.

Six A
. M
. they brought Boyd Crowder down to th e courthouse under guard, Art Mullen not trusting the man t o walk in on his own. Raylan believed he would. Last nigh t when he called Art, he said the idea of walking in past a gathering of law enforcement people would appeal to Boyd, the man confident he'd walk out again, after.

Raylan made the call from Ava's house after telling her h
e wouldn't be able to stay the night. She said if he had to get u p real early she could set the alarm, it wouldn't bother her none.

She said she knew he wanted to. He said well sure he did-GCo
a nd it was true, he was tempted--but, see, an officer of th e law wasn't supposed to go to bed with the defendant in a murder investigation. Ava said oh, she didn't know that. Sh e said well, couldn't they like just fool around?

It was hard to get out of there but he did.

Now he stood in the main corridor of th
e courthouse. Art Mullen motioned to him and Raylan wen t over to where Art was standing by an office door, the top par t glass. He looked in to see Israel Fandi sitting alone in hi s dashiki, all different shades of brown with some orange.

"Izzy was telling us," Art said, "how his family fro
m Ethiopia goes back seven hundred years. I said I didn't thin k Mobile, Alabama, was that old. That's where he's from originally. We turn the lights out in there and line up Boyd out here in the hall. We thought at first with some miners. Bu t you know what Boyd looks like?"