Rogue's Hollow (8 page)

He nodded and put his hand on her shoulder. “It
’
s okay. That was a long time ago.” Even though it had been more than thirty years, the pain felt like it was only yesterday. But, Malachi kept it private and well-hidden.

Continuously clicking his ink pen, the officer appeared sympathetic to Malachi and everything that the neighbors had to deal with. “Did you ever turn the kid in for shoplifting?”

Malachi shook his head. “Nah, I knew that if I did he’d have it in for me. I felt that my sanity was worth a few candy bars.”

Fischer gently stroked his black mustache as he nodded in agreement. It was obvious from the striking black color of the mustache that Fischer had some help touching it up. There was not a speck of gray to be seen.

He clicked his pen as Malachi told him how he’d heard the crash from the mill and rushed down. He found the kid off in the woods and moved him around a bit, trying to see if he was still alive. When there was no response or pulse, he went straight back to his store and called for help. He then returned to the crash scene and waited with the boy for the ambulance to arrive. Malachi shook his head. “Poor kid, never did wake up. He’s quite a mess.”

Officer Fischer nodded. “Yeah, slamming through a windshield at a high rate of speed, with a six-pack in your system, does a real number to a teenager’s face.” He sympathetically tried to comfort Malachi, “I’m sorry that you had to see that. We appreciate you trying to help him.”

Malachi brushed straggling, gray hairs from his face, and nodded. “Just doing my civic duty, officer. I would hope that someone would do the same for me.”

Fischer placed his notebook in his pocket and tucked in his loose shirt tail. “Unfortunately, in today’s world, I’m not too sure about that. It’s a pretty sad place out there.” Shaking Malachi’s hand, he said, “This is a pretty open and shut case here. From the look of all the beer cans in the backseat, I’d say he was pretty wasted. We’ll see what the toxicology report says. I appreciate your time folks. Sorry for the trouble.”

“No trouble at all, Officer. I do feel bad for the kid.” Malachi stuck his hands into his jeans pockets and continued trying to sweet-talk to the man. “I bet it’s quite difficult to do your job. I give you a lot of credit and admire your dedication, sir.”

Fischer smiled. “Why, thank you. It’s nice to be appreciated every now and then. It is a pretty thankless job, if I do say so myself. Been at it twenty-five years now. Retirement’s on the horizon and I can hardly wait. I’ve paid my dues.”

Malachi grinned and nodded in agreement. Just then, the officer was called on to help a rookie cop. “Officer Fischer, can I see you for a moment.”

He nodded. “Take care folks, and thanks for your time.”

Malachi shook his hand again. “No problem, officer. Be careful out there.”

Fischer nodded, and made his way to the vehicle to assist the young policeman. Malachi politely said good-bye to Roberta and the other locals that had gathered at the scene, and headed for home.

Parking Rosie, he leaned his head against the steering wheel, trying to gather his thoughts for a moment. He bounded through the back door, yelling, “Travis, where are you?”

The kid was still locked in the bathroom, afraid to come out. He’d done just as Malachi had asked. He was scrubbed clean and his clothes were neatly placed inside a tied up garbage bag. With only a towel wrapped around his body, he stood in the doorway shivering, partly from the cold, but mostly from nerves.

Malachi rushed to his bedroom and grabbed some clean clothes for Travis to wear. “Sorry kid, it’s all I’ve got. The jeans might be big on you. Here’s a belt, you can tie them up. T-shirts and flannels are all I have.”

Travis shook his head nervously. “That’s fine. I don’t really care.”

Malachi made his way to the kitchen to put the kettle on, as Travis got changed. When he was fully clothed, he made his way to the kitchen, just as Malachi was pouring two mugs of steaming hot chocolate for them.

Travis sat at the table and held the mug with both hands, impatiently trying to get warm. He was shaking so badly that some of the cocoa spilled out of the cup and onto the table. “Are the cops coming here to get me?”

It made Malachi sick to his stomach, when he looked at Travis. The poor kid was so lost, and now this. Malachi felt partly to blame, since it was his idea to scare Junior and give him a taste of his own medicine. He figured it would scare the crap out of him. But, he had no idea that he’d crash his car, or that Travis would react the way he did. He looked at Travis intently, trying desperately to figure him out. “What happened, son?”

His leg began to twitch uncontrollably as he stared into his mug of hot chocolate, afraid to make eye contact. He tried to hold back the emotion, but it came through him anyway. The fresh scars on his face became flush and red. Wrinkles on his forehead appeared with deep creases and tears began to run down the bridge of his nose. His brown curly hair hung disheveled as he shook it in an attempt to hide his face. “I don’t know what happened, I just snapped. I don’t even remember doing it, like it wasn’t me or something.”

“Tell me what happened. Did he say something to you?”

Travis nodded. His leg was shaking so badly that the entire table began to vibrate. “He talked shit to me. Then, he started talking about my mom. Said he was gonna hurt her.” Travis looked into Malachi’s eyes. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened. I lost control. All the years of him beating on me and everyone else, all the shit he’s said to me, it just all boiled inside me and I lost it. I couldn’t stop.” Travis laid his forehead on the table and crossed his arms around the back of his head, openly sobbing. His shoulders heaved with every breath.

Malachi took a deep breath and sighed. He could see the hurt scared little boy inside Travis and it broke his heart to watch him. Patting Travis on the back, he tried to comfort him. “There, there now. It’ll be okay, son.”

Travis continued to cry. He banged his fist against the table and shook it hard. Then he began to hit himself in the head.

Malachi grabbed his hand to stop him. “Alright now, that’s enough. Come on. It’s okay to feel bad. You need to let it out, but I will not sit here and tolerate you hurting yourself, Travis.”

With his head still on the table, he cried, “What’s gonna happen to me, Malachi? I’m scared.”

“Travis, let’s talk, okay?” He waited for a moment, collecting his thoughts, and then continued, “Look at me, son.”

Lifting his head from the table, Travis grabbed a napkin and blew his nose. Malachi could barely see his face through all the hair. He brushed it aside and looked into Travis’s eyes. The pain shone through so vividly. He knew that he was partly to blame for this accident. That’s all it was, a horrible accident. As he looked into Travis’s brown eyes, he could see nothing but fear and knew that he had to help him.

“Travis, I feel like this is my fault just as much as it is yours. We were trying to pull a prank and it went horribly wrong. Junior Barnett was scum. I’m not trying to justify what happened, but maybe the world’s a better place without him in it. You understand that you went too far and what you did was wrong, right?”

Nodding his head, Travis’s lip began to quiver. He sheepishly replied, “Yeah, I do. I screwed up.”

“Okay, now. What we need to do is keep a level head and clean this mess up so no one gets in trouble. The cops see it as a horrible accident. His injuries were horrendous. They think he died in the crash.” Sternly, he looked at Travis and continued, “And we, my young friend, will let them believe just that. If you look at me and tell me that you know this was wrong and that you’re sorry for what happened, I promise that I will do everything in my power to help you.”

Travis looked deeply into his blue eyes with surprise. He’d never had anyone on his side before. He was always on his own, lost and confused. Shaking his head, he replied, “What? You’d do that for me? Why?”

Malachi nodded. “Travis, I will help you any way that I can. You are my friend, and it was an accident. That’s all it was, right?”

Nodding in disbelief, Travis said, “Yeah. I know that it was wrong.” Wiping the tears from his cheek on his sleeve, he continued, “Thank you so much for helping me. I’m really sorry.”

Malachi winked at him. “Okay, then. I have a bit of burning to do tonight. You stay here and get warmed up. I’ll be back in a jiffy. No phones, understood?” Rubbing his scruffy chin with his stumpy finger, he looked sternly into Travis’s eyes and continued, “When I get done, I’ll take you home. You must promise to never, ever whisper a word of this to another soul, is that understood?”

Travis nodded and grabbed his mug with both hands, still trying to warm up. “Yes, sir.”

With a serious face and a nod, Malachi slapped his knees and said, “Alright then, off to work.” He grabbed the bag from the bathroom and headed out back to his burn barrel. He lit some newspapers and tossed the garbage bag on top. The plastic began to sizzle as it melted and black smoke billowed out of the can.

He opened the shed door and grabbed the dummy doll in one arm. He readjusted the load and picked up the additional trash bag which contained the murder weapon; the log. As the first bag began to smolder down inside the barrel, he chucked in the second and then the dummy to top it off.

Malachi’s mind raced as he thought to himself, “What have I forgotten? Have I overlooked anything?” As he looked down, he realized that his own clothes had blood on them. That would be understandable because he had assisted the victim, but he didn’t want to take any chances. He emptied out his pockets and stripped down to his socks and skivvies. Chuckling at his own chicken legs, he tossed the clothes into the fire. He stood close and warmed his body by the fire. Lost in thought, he watched the flames dance as they assisted him in destroying the evidence. He stared at the barrel until the flames had simmered down to nothing but hot embers.

The evening chill caught hold of his flesh as soon as he stepped away from the fire. He hurried into the mill and stopped at his bedroom to put on some fresh clothes. Grabbing a thick flannel to warm his body, he made his way to the kitchen where he found Travis in the exact same position as he’d left him. Staring off into the distance, he appeared to be in a deep trance. Washing his hands thoroughly in the sink, he watched Travis and broke the silence. “You okay, son?”

Travis sat down his mug, looked over at him, and replied, “Grand and dandy.”

His chipper words with the gloom and doom face made Malachi snicker. “Travis, let’s talk for a moment.” Pulling up a chair next to him, he began to question him. “Did anyone else know that you were coming out here with Junior tonight?”

Travis shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. Jeremy’s the only other one that really hangs out with Junior. He’s gone this weekend, visiting his dad in prison.”

“What about your mom?”

“Nope, working all weekend.”

“Okay, now think… did anyone see you guys together? Did you stop anywhere before you came here?”

Travis thought for a moment, then shook his head. “No. I don’t remember seeing anyone, and we didn’t stop anywhere.”

Malachi nodded. “Good. That’s good. Now, this entire plan will fall into the crapper if you say anything to anyone, okay? You can’t even act like you know that it happened. Be surprised when someone tells you about poor Junior, got it?”

“Yeah, I understand. Do you think that this is really gonna work?”

“I don’t see why not. As long as we play dumb about it. All the evidence is gone.” He placed a firm hand on Travis’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. “Look, son. It was a bad thing that happened. Sometimes anger creeps up on you, especially with someone like Junior Barnett. But, there is no reason why you should be made to suffer for the rest of your days. I think Junior made you suffer for long enough. In an odd way, maybe he did get what was coming to him.”

Shaking the boy’s shoulder, he reaffirmed his words, “Do you understand me? Mum’s the word.”

Travis took a deep breath and nodded. He looked into Malachi’s eyes and said, “Thank you. This means a lot to me. No one’s ever looked out for me like this before.”

Malachi sat back in his chair and sighed. The memories of his own torment flooded back to him and he knew how the kid felt. “Travis, can I tell you something?”

“Sure.”

His eyes grew somber as he searched for the right words. “A long time ago, I had a son. He, and my beautiful wife Mera were killed back in 1980. They were hit head on, at almost the same spot where Junior died tonight.”

Travis looked at him with wide eyes. “I’m sorry.” He nervously began to play with his tongue piercing.

“Me too. A tourist was driving too fast for the curve in the road and smashed right into them.” Malachi’s face became an ashen gray color as he spoke. “I was working out front when I heard the crash.” He shook his head as the memories rushed over him. “Horrible sound. To this day, it wakes me up some nights in terror.”

Still shaking his head, he continued, “They both died almost instantly, as did the driver of the other car. Lukas, my son, was only six years old.” Breathing deeply, and wringing his hands, he stared at the floor with pain overflowing in his eyes. “He was my baby boy. It just about broke me, Travis. Thank goodness that my mama was still here then or honestly, I swear I’d be with them right now.”