Bent Creek (14 page)

“What should we do with the body?”  Jesse asked as they drove into the yard.

“I guess we could put it in the barn. At least for tonight.”

Once inside the house, Lily blurted out the story to Ben, telling him every detail. “And then we took him off the truck and we put him in the barn.”

“Sounds like somebody else know’d what Nevers was doing up on that ridge. I reckon when they come up on him they shot him. Jesse did you see anybody else up thar when you went up tah fetch Nevers?” Ben asked.

“Naw, it was jest him, layin’ by his truck. I didn’t see nobody,” Jesse replied. “I ain’t got no idée who was doin’ all the shootin’ but fer sure he had company up thar.”

“I want everybody tah sit down and be quiet. I have a plan.” Rachael unscrewed the lid on the jar of alcohol she had brought into the house. She gathered up four mismatched glasses and poured the liquid into each glass.  “Lets take a drink of this stuff. Maybe it will calm our nerves.”

Rachael coughed, Lily gagged and both Ben and Jesse asked for seconds. They said it was good stuff.

“Okay, here’s what I think we should do.  First off, me and Jesse have tah take this load into Lynch and deliver it like Nevers said tah. If we don’t, Clyde may come lookin’ for him. We can’t let that happen. While we’re gone, Lily, I want you and Ben tah tear this place apart and see if you kin find any money or recipes that Nevers may have stashed somewhere. When we get back, we have tah go up tah the mountain and follow that trail of blood and hope tah gosh we can find that still.  Then we need tah burn down the lean-to and come back here and bury Nevers.”

“Damn, Rachael, when did you figure all this out?” Ben asked.

“On the way here. Now let’s go, Jesse, we got tah get this stuff tah town.”

Lily began to cry. “When my kin finds out that Nevers is dead they’re gonna come over here tah live.  It’s gonna be jest awful.”

“Look, Lily, they aren’t gonna know he’s dead.  Least wise not for a while. He didn’t like yer kin.  Didn’t you tell me he always chased them off when they came here?”

“Yeah, but what if’n they show up agin?” Lily asked.

“We’ll jest have tah pretend that he is still alive.  You know, set up a decoy. Don’t worry about it right now.  Jesse and I have tah go. Just remember, don’t let anybody in this house while we’re gone. If anybody comes round you just tell them Nevers ain’t home.”

Jesse was nervous. “But what if Clyde asks where Nev
ers is and what if’n he asks us some questions? I’m real afeared, Rachael, and what if’n whoever wuz up thar with Nevers comes round lookin’ fer him?”

“You hush, we ain’t got no time for what ifs.  Come on, Jesse
, get in the truck. I’m gonna drive. I’ll figure that out on the way.” Rachael took off down the road, the old truck running wide open. Jesse hung onto the window frame for dear life.

Chapter Seventeen

Clyde Orby looked at his watch and let out a string of profanity.
Where in the hell was Nevers? He had to have the shipment ready to be picked up by six and it was already almost four. Damn that Nevers.  What would he tell his customer if Nevers didn’t show up? They wouldn’t be too happy.  He walked outside and looked down the street.  He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the old, black truck rounding the corner.  He quickly went in to the store and to the back door.

Rachael pulled around to the back of the building just like Nevers had always done when they came to Orby’s Store. “What the hell…where’s Nevers? Yer late,” Clyde growled.

“Nevers is sick. Reel sick.  He had me and Rachael bring in yer order,” Jesse said, trying to sound as if they knew all about the still. “Sorry we’re late, but I had tah tend tah him before we could leave.”

Clyde bent his head and looked into the driver’s side of the truck. Spying Rachael, who he had never seen before, made him feel ill at ease. “Ain’t like Nevers tah let no girl drive his truck. You best be tellin’ me the truth.  I ain’t got time tah worry about Nevers right now. Come on, halp me unload this stuff.”

When the last box was put into the back room of the store, Clyde disappeared. He returned a few minutes later and handed Jesse an envelope. “Okay, here’s what I want.  I need ten cases by next Thursday. We’re gonna get top price cause the revenuers are sniffin’ around couply miles over and all them stills are shuttin’ down. So I got tah make sure I kin supply what everyone needs. Reckon you know, this stuff ends up in Chicago.” Clyde seemed real proud of that fact. “What the hell is wrong with Nevers? I ain’t know’d him tah be sick.”

“Don’t rightly know, but he’s feelin’ real poorly. We’ll have yer stuff here next week,” Rachael replied.  “I reckon we better git goin’.” Opening the door of the truck, she froze when Clyde yelled at her.

“Wait! Ain’t you gonna take yer supplies. How you gonna cook me a batch without yer supplies?”

Rachael smiled. “Oh, sure, I was jest gettin’ tah that.” She followed Clyde into the store as he began handing her heavy, white bags and three gallons of some kind of liquid. She smiled to cover up her quivering lips. With everything loaded into the truck, Rachael opened the door to get in. Clyde put his hand on the door. “Now, next Thursday I spect you tah be on time. My customers don’t like tah be kept waitin’.  I’ll spect you here no later than noon. Do I make myself clear? I been dealin’ with Nevers for over ten yars and we ain’t had a problem. I don’t spect the two of ya tah cause me none either. If’n you do, Nevers will hear about it.”  He opened his jacket and laid his hand on a forty-five tucked in his belt.

Rachael gulped. “Yes, uh, sure.  We’ll be here on time.” She ducked under his arm and climbed into the seat nodding to Jesse to get the heck out of there as fast as he could.

Still shaking from the experience, Rachael forgot all about the envelope until they were almost home.

“Geez, look at this, Jesse.  We got almost a hundred dollars from Clyde. Can you believe that?  Damn that Nevers. Here we were workin’ fer him fer five bucks a week and he was pullin’ in all this money. Have you ever in yer life seen so much money, Jesse?”

“I’m scart, Rachael,” Jesse said.  “I ain’t never done nothin’ like this and you done made Clyde a promise we can’t keep. You know what’s gonna happen if we don’t show up next week. Why’d you go and do that?”

She patted his knee. “We’re gonna be jest fine, Jesse. You wait and see. Everythang is gonna be okay. We got a whole week tah ponder on it.”

It was almost dusk by the time they got back to the house. It was too late to go up to the mountain to look around again, but not too late to bury Nevers in the backfield.  Placing his body, still wrapped in the blankets, into the newly dug grave, Lily made a feeble attempt at saying a prayer and they quickly covered him with black soil. “Should we put a cross or somethin’ on his grave?” Lily asked.

“No, we don’t want anyone tah know he’s here. Jest draw a cross in the dirt. If God wants his soul he’ll find him, but I doubt if he’ll come lookin’ fer him. He’ll have tah spend a lot of time repentin’ afore he can go tah heaven,” Rachael said.  Put
ting her arm around Lily they walked back toward the house. “Are you sad that he’s dead, Lily?”

“I don’t think I am, but I ain’t sure.  There were very few times when he was nice tah me, and mostly I felt like a pris
oner. Now I don’t have tah do the deed anymore and I won’t git hit every time I move and I kin talk alls I want.  Nope, I ain’t sad he’s dead. I’m a widow now, Rachael.  I ain’t even twenty and I’m a widow. And all these yars I was so dumb I didn’t even know what he was a doin’ up on that mountain.”

Rachael washed her hands and splashed water on her face. She was hungry and tired.  She sat down at the kitchen table and took a drink of strong, black coffee.  “So, old Nevers was bootleggin’ for a long time and when Clyde handed me that hundred dollars I was both mad and happy at the same time. What about you and Lily? Did you find anythin’ while we was gone?”

“We sure did,” Ben replied. We found this box under the floorboards in the bedroom. We can’t git it open. Jesse needs tah take it outside and put an ax tah the lock.”

After hacking away at the box for a few minutes, Jesse put it on the kitchen table and four heads peered into it.  There were soiled notebooks filled with writing and almost three hundred in twenty dollar bills.

Rachael took the money and fanned it out in her hand. “I ain’t never seen this much money in my life and I probably never will agin.” She reached for one of the notebooks and flipped through the pages. “This is mostly scribble I jest can’t read.  I’m just too tired.  My eyes are going crossed.  We’ll pon
der on all of this tomorrow. Alls I know is that right now we got four hundred dollars.”

Chapter Eighteen

Morning came too soon.  Rachael opened her eyes as the sun rose high enough to shine through her window and the crowing of the roosters started just seconds later.  The goats began to bleat and the cows gave out low bellows, signaling that they needed to be milked. As Rachael sat up, she groaned. Moving the heavy bags and Nevers’ body had given her a back
ache; a reminder of what had transpired in the last twenty-four hours. What would this day bring?

Rachael stumbled out into the dimly lit kitchen and lit the burner under the kettle and put three scoops of coffee in the pot.

“Good morning,” Ben said.

Rachael jumped, spilling coffee grounds on the floor. “Damn, Ben, you jest about scared the tar outta me.  What are you doin’ up so early and why you sittin’ in the dark?”

“I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been sittin’ here tryin’ tah make some sense out of our situation. I suppose Jesse should go into town and get the sheriff.”

“No!” Rachael blurted out. She knelt down in front of Ben’s chair. Putting her hand in front of her face she said, “You see this, Ben, I’ve been doin’ some thinkin’ too. Before today this was our future. It was just as far as the hand in front of my face. You been through enough hell.  Do you want tah go back tah our old house and sit there the rest of yer life? Ya’ll freeze in the winter and eat whatever scraps they give you.  Is that what you want? I jest want enough money tah get us all tah Florida. You know a lot about fixin’ engines in vehicles.  You kin open a shop, maybe teach Jesse enough tah halp you.  I want to see momma and daddy and Emma Jane on the beach. I want tah see them playin’ in the sand and getting’ some color on their faces. They’ll be happy there, I jest know it.”

“We got four-hundred dollars, Rachael.”

“And when that’s gone. What will happen then, Ben?”

“What if’n we get caught, Rachael? You ready tah face jail time?”

“Couldn’t be any worse than livin’ in the holler. Least wise we’ll get two meals a day and inside plumbing.  I promise I’ll take all the blame if we git caught. Heck, Nevers was doin’ it fer over ten yars and he never got caught.  We kin do this. I know we kin and then we kin git the hell outta here.”

A meek voice came from the back of the room. “What about me?” Lily stood leaning against the door. 
“Do I have tah stay here all alone?”

“Of course not. You and me are going tah Florida and open some kind of business, too.  Maybe we’ll sell oranges, or I don’t know, we’ll figure out somethin’.” A smile covered Lily’s face.

The next morning they all piled into the truck and headed up the mountain pass. Jesse found the spot where he last saw Nevers laying by his truck. “I figure he come from that direction over thar,” Jesse said, pointing to a spot overgrown with vines and bushes. Leaving Ben in the truck, the three began to carefully scan the bushes and tree branches looking for any clues that would help them find out what really happened to Nevers.

Lily was the first to see specks of blood on the leaves. Following further into the thicket the route became even clearer as a trail of blood led them down a small slope and below a ledge covered with large fir tree branches.  “What’s that smell?” Lily said putting her fingers on her nose.  Thar is somethin’ dead up here fer sure.” Pulling down one of the branches, Jesse ducked under the overhang.

“Jesus, Joseph and Mary, thar are two dead bodies up here.” The smell was so acrid that he began to gag as he backed away. The men lay face down in the dirt with thousands of insects attacking their bodies. The carnivores in the area had been working on s
tripping their bones of flesh.

Rachael stepped back not anxious to see the carnage. “That’s what them shots were. Nevers must have killed them after they shot him.” Tying his handkerchief over his face, Jesse slowly walked past the remains and began looking around. “Hey, I think this one over here is the man that Nevers and I saw in town. His name was Rooster.  I member that red, plaid shirt he was wearin’ and them boots with the chains on em”. Turning away from the body, Jesse went further up the hill. The grass was worn down and matted in an opening lead
ing to a rocky overhang. He crawled under the ledge covered by a tangle of vines. “Here it is.  I found the still and it’s a beauty. It’s all copper and thars lots of boxes of hooch, too.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Rachael said.  “Let’s go back tah the truck. Some of them wolves and bars may still be around here. They won’t be too happy if we interrupted their dinner.” Rachael filled Ben in on what they had found.  “Jesse said they twernt revenuers. He said Nevers knew one of the men. I think they’re jest moonies lookin’ tah take over Nevers
’ still and so he kilt them. What should we do now, Ben?”