Creepers (13 page)

“Back in the sixties,” Donald replied.  “We done the things that the rest of the Klan was too afraid to do.”

“I heard the stories,” Toby admitted.  “Every one of them civil rights types that went missing, or spook that got strung up, that was blamed on the Silver Dollar Group.”

“It was true,” Donald said.  “All of it.  We did what needed to be done.  While all those so called Knights of the Klan were spreading the word, we did all the dirty work.  Those were the days.  The law either looked the other way or sometimes; they even helped.”

Toby looked at him amazed.  He never knew.  Now that he did, Toby had a much bigger respect for the old man.  “The Silver Dollar Group,” he mumbled under his breath.

“So believe me when I tell you,” Donald continued, “you don’t want to leave any witnesses.  Especially if there’s a chance they know who you are.  You go back and finish it tonight.”

Toby nodded, “you bet we will.”

“I can’t,” Tom uttered.  He looked up from his pork rinds and said, “I just can’t do it.”

Donald glared at him but Toby spoke up, “I’ll take care of it.”

Donald turned his glare to Toby, “You’d better.”

“Don’t worry,” Toby replied, “I’ll do it tonight.  I wanted to pay that little whore another visit anyway.”

Donald smiled, and Toby smiled back.  He raised his beer can in a toast and Toby knocked his can against it with a dull clunk.  Both of them finished off their beers but Tom just sat his half empty can back on the coffee table.  He pushed the pork rinds aside too.  Tom felt a little sick.  He worried for a moment that he might throw up, but somehow managed to keep it down.

“I need to go home,” Tom finally said.  “I think I’m going to be sick.”  Embarrassed, he added, “it must be from all of the exhaust fumes from those mowers or something.”

Toby looked at Tom, concerned.  “Come on,” he said, “let’s get you home.”  The two stood and moved toward the door.  Toby knew what was wrong with Tom.  He figured the sooner he got him out of Donald Dixon’s house the better.  Toby knew that he could do what needed to be done tonight.  His brother didn’t need to be a part of it.  So he quickly ushered Tom toward the front door.

Donald stood as well, staring at Tom the whole time.  He let Toby direct him out the door then grabbed Toby around the arm.  Donald looked deep into Toby’s eyes, staring into his very soul.  “You go on out to the truck,” Donald called after Tom, “I just have one more thing to tell your brother.”  Donald talked in a very low voice so that only Toby could hear him.  “You better deal with your brother too.”

“What?” Toby asked, surprised.

“You heard me.  He’s weak.  He’s weak, and he’ll drag you down.  He’s a liability.”

“He won’t say anything.  I can trust him.” Toby reassured.

“I’m just warning you.  You need to deal with him now.  He don’t have the stomach for this, and it will bite you in the ass.  I know.  I’m telling you Tom’s not right with this, and it’s only going to get worse.”

“He’ll be okay; I swear,”  Toby promised.

“He’d better, or this will get ugly real fast.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Toby promised again.

“Just be sure you do.  What then?”

“What do you mean?” Toby asked, confused.

“What are you going to do after you get done with the Whites?  This war just doesn’t stop with one; it’s a continual thing.  What do you have planned next?”

Toby didn’t know.  He hadn’t planned on anything else.  “I don’t know.” He admitted.

“Well,” Donald said, “you have to keep the pressure up.  You’ve got to keep going until something breaks in this town.  It’s the only way we’re going to make any progress.  You gotta’ tear something down before you can build it back up.”

“I don’t know,” Toby repeated.  “What do you suggest?”

“I think more of the same is a good start.”

Toby smiled; he liked more of the same.  “Do you have someone in mind?” he asked.

“No one in particular,” Donald admitted.  He thought for a moment then said, “But my daughter is not off the table, not anymore.”

Toby looked at the old man, confused.  “Terri?” he asked, “really?”

“She ain’t no kin of mine,” Donald said with disdain, “not anymore.  She’s fair game the same as any other nigger lover.  But if you do her, you do it alone.  Don’t take your brother.”

Toby stared at the old man, a little nervous.  “Yes Sir,” he mumbled.

Donald smiled and winked at Toby.  “Now go on and get him home.  I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”  Almost as an afterthought he said, “Oh, and thanks for the beer.”

Toby slowly walked out to where his brother was waiting.  He was slightly scared and a little confused.  Had the old man just asked him to rape his own daughter?  Rape her, and then kill her?  Toby shook his head as he walked, trying to figure it out.  Eventually he decided that was just what old man Dixon had done.  Toby smiled; he’d wanted to fuck Terri for a while now.  Not only did he have the old man’s blessing, it was almost an order.  Toby licked his lips.

Donald smiled and waved to Tom as Toby approached the truck.  He let the door close behind him as he turned and walked back to his chair.  Donald took another can of beer from the cooler and popped it open.  He took a long swallow and then grabbed up the bag of pork rinds.  He sat down and gnawed at one of the crunchy snacks.  He washed it down with a tasty swallow of beer then gnawed some more.  He sat in his big chair and thought.

He thought about what Toby had told him and that made him smile.  It reminded Donald of what he had done back in 1965.  What he had done to that preacher’s wife.  Donald had always kind of liked her.  Then Jesse came along and ruined it for him.  Not that there was anything there to ruin, but in Donald’s mind there was.  He had lusted after her and figured she might be good for the occasional dicking.  To Donald she was good for a Friday night fuck, but not after she had been with that coon Jesse.  So Donald and the Silver Dollar Group had taught her a lesson.  They had taught them both a lesson.

“I’ll be damned,” Sheriff Donnelly said as he listened to Jack.  “All of these are around here, around Lusaoka?”

“Well some,” Jack replied, “mostly this covers the whole Homochitto area.”

“Are they all black, or mostly white?”

“What?  What does that have to do with it?” Jack asked, surprised.

“Well Jack, Mississippi has had its share of black folks go missing over the years.  Folks around here have long memories and a sense of taking the law into their own hands.  You better than most should know that.  I just want to get a handle on what we’re dealing with here.  I know that most of that nigger trouble happened back in the sixties, and I just want to make sure it is not more of the same.”

“This is something different,” Jack said, irritated.  “There’s no rhyme or reason to these disappearances.  There’s no connection that I can see except for the Homochitto National Forest.”

Sheriff Donnelly rubbed his grizzled old chin, considering what his young officer was telling him.  He hadn’t heard any buzz about nigger trouble that was for sure.  “Damn,” he said at last.  “This does look like something different alright.”

“So you haven’t heard anything about any of this?” Jack asked, “From the Staties or anything?”

“Do I look like I have?” Sheriff Donnelly snapped.  His stomach had turned sour, and he was getting a headache.

“Sorry Sir.”

“Nothing to be sorry about Jack, this is good work.  It’s just … Surprising that’s all.  So what do you expect me to do about this?  Most of this ain’t even in my jurisdiction.”

“You have to take it to someone,” Jack replied, shocked.  “The State Police or the Feds, someone needs to know about this.”

“Look Jack, I appreciate your enthusiasm.  I know this could go a long way to helping your career, but this would be a major pain in the ass for mine.  I’m just a small town sheriff with no funding and very little resources.  Besides, don’t you think that someone else already knows?  If this is such a mysterious problem, surely another agency is already on top of it.”

“I don’t give a shit about my career,” Jack snapped angrily, “I care that these people have gone missing.”

“Missing in someone else’s jurisdiction,” Sheriff Donnelly snapped back.  He gathered his composure and continued, “Listen up Jack; I don’t need the State boys or the Feds down here crawling up my asshole with a microscope, and neither do you.  I’ve been through it before, and I don’t want to go through it again.  I also know none of the other folks around here would like it either.”

“We still have our jobs to do,” Jack protested, “We have a responsibility, to this community and the law.”

“This community,” Sheriff Donnelly emphasized.  “I will look into all of the cases in my jurisdiction Jack, but that’s all.”  He saw the look on Jack’s face and knew the kid would not let this go.  To appease him he said, “I’ll tell you what Jack.  I’ll pull in a couple of favors and ask around to see if there’s something going on with any other agencies.  If it looks like no one has any idea of what you presented me, I’ll send your report on to the Staties.  But if I find that someone is already looking into this, can we just drop it?”

Jack nodded and said, “Thank you Sheriff.  That’s all I really wanted.  I just wanted to make sure someone was looking at the bigger picture.  Will you keep me posted?”

“Of course I will Jack,” Sheriff Donnelly said with a disarming grin.  “I’ll let you know what I find out, but it may take a few days.  And honestly, this is good work.  Now go on home, you’ve put in a good day.”  Sheriff Donnelly stood and slapped Jack on the back as he ushered him out his office door.  He let the door close and then plopped down into his chair.  He pulled a bottle of scotch out of the top drawer of his desk, along with a jelly jar glass.  Sheriff Donnelly filled the glass, took a sip of the whiskey, and then looked down at the report on his desk.

He picked up the report that Jack had given him and placed his well-worn boots up on his desk.  With his legs crossed at the ankles, Sheriff Donnelly leaned back in his big office chair.  It creaked in protest under his weight.  He took another sip of the whiskey.  It was warm in his belly and eased the sourness that had tried to work its way in there.  Sheriff Donnelly looked at the report again, and then tossed it into the trash can.  “Damn,” he muttered as he drank down the last of the whiskey.

***

Jack felt pretty good about himself.  He figured if someone else had connected the dots that Sheriff Donnelly would have known about it.  There was something big going on around these parts, and Jack was the one who had discovered it.  Not the State Police.  Not the Feds.  Not the lazy Sheriff.  It was Jack.  Jack smiled inwardly.  Donnelly was right; this was going to do good things for his career.  Jack didn’t care how much of a pain in the ass it was for the old man.

Jack liked Sheriff Donnelly well enough, but he was lazy.  He had given Jack a job when there weren’t many to have, and had usually treated him pretty well.  However, that didn’t make up for what Jack saw as dereliction of duty.  The military had taught Jack discipline, and duty and honor.  It taught him pride in his work, no matter what that work was.  These were all things that Jack found lacking in Donnelly.  Not to the point of being a bad man, just to the point of being lazy.

Jack didn’t like lazy; he never did.  Lazy men tended to do just for themselves and didn’t seem to care too much about other people.  Donnelly always seemed to do the bare minimum and farmed out a lot of his duties to his deputy.  Not that Jack minded it so much, it kept him busy and made the day go by faster.  It just said a lot about the man.  Jack still liked the man because he was personable relatively honest.  Jack just figured that he couldn’t depend on him.  That was okay too, as long as Jack knew that was the case.

Jack had learned a long time ago that the one person you knew you could count on was you.  Later, in the military, he learned that you could also rely on your team.  They were in the same shit hole as you and they often had your back because you had theirs.  He liked that about the military.  It was simple.  If a member of your team let you down, the rest of the team dealt with that person.  It truly was a brotherhood.  So even though Jack couldn’t rely on Donnelly, it didn’t mean that Donnelly couldn’t rely on him.

Jack had seen the look in Donnelly’s eyes and read the change in his tone.  Donnelly believed that Jack would go behind his back and talk to the State Police or the Feds himself.  However, Jack would never do that.  The other thing the military taught Jack was chain of command.  Jack believed in following the chain of command and he would wait to hear back from Donnelly.  That was just the right thing to do.

Jack gathered up his stuff, shut down his computer, and headed out the door.  It had been a long day, but there was a bounce in his step.  More than just what he had discovered today, he was anxious to see Terri.  Jack was eager to share with her the day he’d had and what he had found.  He wanted her insights and longed for her opinions.  There was a connection there he didn’t quite understand, especially given the short time he knew her.  Truly knew her.  It felt good and strange all at the same time.

***

Terri had finished up her grocery shopping and was heading back to her car.  She glanced down at her watch and was surprised at how late it was.  She needed to get home if she was going to get this sauce made.  Terri wondered momentarily where the afternoon had gone.  It seemed to her that she’d only left the house a short time ago.  She hadn’t realized that she had been meandering and daydreaming about Jack.

With a little more urgency in her step, Terri made it to her car and placed her groceries in the back seat.  She got in and cranked up the air conditioning, as much for the vegetables in the back seat as for herself.  Terri pulled out of the parking lot and headed down Main Street toward Jesse’s house.  As she passed by the hospital, she noticed Jesse’s old Buick in the parking lot.  It was hard to miss and one of only two vehicles in the lot.

Terri did a double take.  Yes, it was Jesse’s car.  For a moment she was worried, but then she remembered that he said he would be with some parishioners today.  Terri turned and focused on her driving, letting out a small sigh of relief.  For Terri, Jesse was the only family she had left.  She didn’t think she could bear it if something happened to him, not now.  Not with Ricky gone.

That thought, that single thought stunned her.  Terri didn’t know that Ricky was gone.  Ricky was just missing.  She couldn’t understand why she thought he was ‘gone’.  Then it dawned on her.  It was that part of her life that was gone.  Terri wanted no part of her old man or her brother for that matter.  She hated being a Dixon or even being associated with them.  Terri wanted no part of her old life except for the memories of her mother. 

Terri’s eyes became glassy, but she fought back the tears.  There was sadness in those tears, but there was also a relief.  The sadness was associated with her mother, and those memories would ease over time.  The relief was in what she had just let go.  Terri had finally let go of the last things that tied her to what she used to be, into what she had been born.  She felt freedom for the first time, true freedom.  It was exhilarating.  The Dixon part of her was gone, and she was thrilled, especially now that she had met Jack.  There had simply been no room for a Jack in the Dixon world.  Not that Jack was the end all be all for Terri, she decided.  It was just that she couldn’t be with him if her family were hanging over her head, and Terri did want to be with him.  She knew that now, if not forever then at least for the rest of the summer.  Terri smiled. 

She drove home on auto-pilot, thinking about the revelations she’d just had.  Terri passed the church before she even realized where she was.  She slammed on the brakes and sent the groceries flying into the floor of the rear seat.  Wide-eyed and breathing a little heavy from the adrenaline rush; Terri backed up and then eased the car onto the lawn and pulled up in front of the porch.  She let out a little sigh then laughed at herself.

Terri quickly gathered up the groceries and hurried into the house.  She had a pot of sauce and a salad to make, and precious little time in which to do it.  Not only did she want to straighten the house, but she needed another shower.  It had been uncomfortably hot, and she had been sweating all day.  Terri wanted to be fresh tonight, as fresh as she could be, given the sweltering heat.  She was getting excited.  Both her men would be home soon.

***

Yancy kept looking at the clock.  This day just couldn’t end fast enough for him.  He was excited to go over and see Terri.  He was excited to tell her everything he had wanted to say for so long.  Yancy was excited to begin his new life with her.  He was so excited his thoughts were rambling.  So many things had been going through his mind since yesterday he couldn’t keep them straight.  His plans and dreams, for both Terri and him, were bouncing around his skull like a pinball. 

Yancy had seriously considered not even showing up to work today.  He’d almost just driven right over to see Terri this morning, but thought better of it.  He still needed a paycheck.  In fact, he needed as much money as he could get if he were moving to Memphis.  Then Yancy thought about his apartment.  He only hoped they would give him his damage deposit back if he broke the lease.  Then his thoughts returned to Terri.

Yancy shook his head.  Damn his thoughts were all over the place.  He needed to concentrate on what he was doing, or someone could get hurt.  Work at the mill was dangerous, and they were a man down with Ricky missing.  Damn, now his thoughts turned to Ricky and Sheila.  He was now angry with himself.  As soon as he pushed one thing out of his head, something else took its place.  Whether he wanted it to or not random thoughts forced their way into his mind. 

Yancy had struggled this way pretty much all day.  One minute he was in despair, the next he was on cloud nine.  It was not until he was nearing the end of his shift that he was able to rein in his imagination and his emotions.  It was not until then that he could focus on one thing, getting ready to see Terri.  Yancy figured he could be home, shit, shower, and shave, and be out at the preacher’s house by seven or seven-thirty.  It even left him enough time to grab a burger on his way home, no onions. 

It never occurred to Yancy that things might not turn out as he had planned.  Too much was relying on everything turning out as he had planned.  Somewhere in the back of his mind, Yancy knew that.  He had just pushed that thought aside, not wanting to deal with it.  The thought that Terri didn’t feel the same about him, never entered Yancy’s mind.  Or rather, his mind wouldn’t let that thought enter.  In his mind, because he was in love with her, she would be in love with him.

Yancy had built up such a storyline revolving around him and Terri that no negative thought was allowed.  Any negative thought would destroy his fantasy.  It would bring reality crashing down around his shoulders.  Deep down Yancy knew all of this; he simply refused to acknowledge it.  He had finally climbed out of the chasm that he had been in his whole life.  Standing on its precipice, it would only take one small action to send him crashing back down into it.  That was something that Yancy just couldn’t allow to happen, not now.

So much had happened in such a short time, and he had burned bridges.  Even if Yancy had wanted to return to that place, he couldn’t.  Yancy knew that if he stayed in Lusaoka he would be a marked man.  He was marked by the Ungers and the Dixons and anyone else with whom they associated.  Yancy also knew that because of his alliance with them no one else in town would really accept him either.  He had quickly turned into a man without a home.