The Curse of Crow Hollow (24 page)

“Set up at the cabin with good food and safety,” Briar said. “She's a strong girl and she's fine, Belle Ramsay.”

“What happened?” was all Chessie could say, and in a voice so soft and womanlike that John David had to look to see who'd spoke. “We's up here only this afternoon, and all was well enough.”

Mayor said, “I got a call from Raleigh saying there's a run on the grocery. It was too late when I got here.”

Chessie looked at the school's principal.

“Heard it from Ruth,” Raleigh said. “Angela told her Landis was gonna shut the doors.”

“Angela said no such thing,” Landis snapped. “And shame on Ruth and you for thinking otherwise, Raleigh Jennings.”

Briar studied the wrecked building. He rubbed his beard and reached into his back pocket for his pipe and tobacco. “Take forever to get this place back in order.”

“What good is that?” Kayann asked. Her hands were gone from her ears, but her lips twitched like she could still hear that blaring horn. “They'll just come back and destroy it again. They're animals.”

“They're our neighbors,” the Reverend tried, though even he didn't sound much convinced that was the case anymore.

Wilson humphed. “In body, maybe. Not in deed.” He looked to the building as well, now shadowed in evening. “It's like they were . . .”

“Cursed?” the Reverend asked.

Maybe Wilson had that word in mind. If he didn't, he looked too run-down to argue about it.

“This how it is, then?” Briar asked. “Witch lays a mark on us, so we eat our own? That what Alvaretta had in mind all along?”

No one had an answer for that, at least one that wouldn't come out sounding like a yes. Yes, that's how things were now. Yes, that's what it'd all come to. Crow Holler was unraveling, and whether what happened inside Foster's had been a part
of Alvaretta's design or not, there was no denying things felt that way.

“Everybody's here,” the mayor said. “Both council members; me; David, you and Belle know how important you are to this town; Chessie and Briar, y'all too.”

Chessie offered a solemn nod. That'd been the closest Wilson had ever gotten to showing her a measure of respect.

“We ain't all gotten along in the past,” he said, “but we all come up together. We're all family whether we like it or not, and Lord knows we love this town despite its hardships. This will grow beyond our strength to manage.” Wilson pointed to the broken hulk of the grocery for anyone needing proof. “Our children are sick. People are scared. Scared for their own, scared of the witch. And since they can't go after Alvaretta, they'll come after us, as sure as the sun rises and the rain falls. They already went after our kids. Hays. They went after Cordelia. They attacked my Scarlett.”

Raleigh said nothing.

“They've come after our children no less than the witch did, and with just as much evil in their hearts. And now they're coming for our livelihoods. It was Landis first. Who's to say it won't be Medric's next? Or the church, David.”

“Never there,” the Reverend said. “Holy Fire's God's house.”

“But the man who speaks for God has a little girl who crossed Alvaretta Graves. How long you think it'll take for people to decide Naomi's as much to blame as Scarlett or Hays or Cordelia? How much time passes before all their praying comes to silence, and they figure maybe it's not Alvaretta who's got too much power but you who holds too little? How long before they come after you, Chessie? Briar? Everybody already knows John David was on the mountain too. He left Hays and three girls alone at the mines. How much a stretch is it to think those were your orders?”

Briar was already swelling up. “You'll watch yourself, Wilson.”

“I speak true,” the mayor said. “Chessie, you tell me I'm not.”

The softness that had been in Chessie's face hardened to its usual stone. “What's in your mind, Wilson?” she asked.

“People need authority now. They need to know there's still rules and expectations. They need somebody to answer to. We all got our own lives and children to look after. I know I ain't been with Scarlett near as much in the last days as I should. We're running around and trying to get a handle on things, and all the while Alvaretta sits up on Campbell's Mountain, cackling at us.”

“Ain't nothing to be done about that,” Raleigh said.

“Yes, there is. We can appoint a sheriff.”

“Town don't need a sheriff,” Briar said. “Never has. We take care our own.”

Kayann asked, “That what we're doing, Briar?” She waved into the lot. “Is this taking care of our own?”

“Who?” Chessie asked. She stared at Wilson. “You thought of that, Mayor? Tell me anybody dumb enough to put on a badge right now.”

“Could call Mattingly,” Belle said. “Get Sheriff Barnett up here.”

Wilson shrugged. “Won't nobody heed Jake. He ain't of the Holler. They may listen to Bucky, though.”

“Bucky?” Raleigh laughed. He looked at Wilson and saw the mayor's even stare, then laughed again anyway. “Now look here, Mayor. Bucky's fine for making sure nobody poaches deer outta season and no kids graffiti up the schools, but what good's he gonna do against the witch?”

“What good's anybody gonna do?” Chessie asked.

Wilson pointed at her and said, “Exactly. Bucky's wanted this a long while. He's been constable since most of us graduated, and he loves doing it. Don't know how many of y'all
heard, but Homer let him go this morning. Bucky'll jump at the chance, if only so it'll provide for Angela and Cordy.”

“Bucky ain't man enough,” Raleigh said.

“He was man enough to take care of things in there,” Wilson said, pointing at the store. “Seen him myself. Everything went to pot inside the grocery, Bucky pulled that fire alarm. He got everybody outta there before people could start killing each other.”

“There'll be an election,” David said. “That'll take weeks.”

“Not if I call this an emergency situation,” Wilson told him. “If this ain't one, I don't know what is. It'll be a council vote. Right here, right now.”

And there they stood, friend. Each one looking at the other, no doubt shocked all over again that things had come to this.

“I vote yes,” Wilson said.

Raleigh looked at Briar, who stuck his bottom lip out as if to say
Beats me
. Chessie looked over her shoulder to where her newest employee stood.

“You been awful quiet back there, John David. I'd hear your counsel.”

“He doesn't have a say in this,” the Reverend said. Belle's look shut him up quicker than Chessie's could.

“Don't think you want what wisdom I got, Chessie,” John David said.

“I'd have it anyways.”

“All right, then. I think you're all cowards.”

Chessie grinned. She always did like that boy. Not a streak of fear left in him. That's what made John David a dangerous man, and what makes him one still.

“That ain't true,” Wilson said. “This is what's best for all. Raleigh, I'll have your vote.”

“Raleigh's vote is no,” Chessie said. “You put Bucky in charge, somebody's gonna die. Bucky, most likely.”

“I need it from him, Chessie. Raleigh's his own man.”

But Raleigh wasn't his own man. Not anymore. His vote was Chessie's and had been ever since she'd gotten him back on the council, and though Raleigh hated her nearly as much as he hated Medric Johnston, he still said, “I vote no, Wilson.”

“It's no for us,” the Reverend said. “Me and Belle. Bucky's a good man, and I'll not let anyone accuse me of thinking different. But this is a fight that can't be won with badges and guns.”

“Vote ain't yours, Reverend,” Wilson told him. “It's on Landis now.”

Landis looked up at the mention of his name. They were all staring at him, all except Kayann, who couldn't seem to see any farther than the tip of her nose. Some in Crow Holler thought Hays had inherited his momma's mind right along with her looks, and sooner or later one a them was gonna take a leap off the edge of reality. Kayann looked near that edge now.

“Landis,” Wilson said. “I need your vote.”

Landis looked at his wife. At the rest. At the store. You'd have to wonder if that man even knew what was going on.

“I don't care,” he said.

For Wilson, that was good enough.

-8-

Angela looked at her family and asked the only question that had come to matter: “What do we do now?”

She'd posed the very same a million times before for a million different reasons (after the chores were done; once the shelves at the grocery had been stocked; in the minutes following her and Bucky's twice monthly attempts at lovemaking). But this time was different, as was the weight of feeling behind the words. This time Angela wasn't looking for their next item
to check off the day's to-do list. She was trying to figure out how to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.

The faith she'd meant to display over Bucky's sudden unemployment had barely lasted twelve hours, left somewhere on the littered floors of Foster's Grocery alongside toppled racks and smashed boxes of dishwasher detergent and powdered doughnuts. The Vests wouldn't've made it long without a steady paycheck from the dump, however puny that check had been. But now all indications were Angela wouldn't be getting paid anymore either. Foster's was gone, bills were due, and the cupboards all but bare, so
What do we do now?

She paced in front of the window, cracking one knuckle and the next. Cordelia sat on the floor with her back propped against her daddy's knee. Her blank expression hadn't changed since they'd picked her up from the Fosters' house—Bucky and Angela rushing in, silent against Hays's questions, only to spout to Cordy everything that had happened on the way home. Poor Hays hadn't had a clue what had gone on up to his daddy's place of business.

Now Bucky leaned back in the recliner and tried to find something on the TV. He dipped his chin toward Cordelia and said, “Maybe we should just talk about this later, Angie. It's been a rough day. Lot's happened.”

Family finances were never discussed in their daughter's presence, if for no other reason than Cordelia didn't need to know how far the money had to be stretched to cover things like a big-screen television. Besides, the odds of a calm discussion of the money becoming a loud argument about everything else seemed too great. But now Cordelia looked up and shook her head. She turned her hands up as if to wave, then opened and closed them, telling her parents to talk. They all had to talk. No use hiding the truth anymore.

Bucky was working on something inspiring to say when
the doorbell rang. Angela gave a yelp that Bucky shook off. He threw down the recliner's footrest and said, “Somebody gonna come up here and kill us, Angie, I doubt they'll ring the bell first.” Even so, he made it a point to peek through the curtains before heading to the door. “Well,” he said, “this is either something promising or something awful.”

He opened the door to Briar Hodge's giant face. Behind him, the others crammed onto the trailer's small front porch—Chessie and Wilson, Raleigh, the Fosters and the Ramsays—minus their kids.

“Briar?” Bucky asked. “What y'all doing?”

Wilson stuck his head under Briar's arm. “Need a word, Buck. I know it's late, but mind if we come in?”

They filed in close, saying their hellos to Angela and Cordelia. Kayann paused when she reached Angela, and don't you know that woman actually hugged her? Did so with both arms, right there in Angela's own living room, and Angela was so shocked that she hugged Kayann back.

Angela said, “Let me get y'all some chairs.”

“Won't be necessary,” Wilson said. “This'll only take a minute. Got Scarlett and Naomi up at Landis's house with Hays, and we don't want to let them alone for long. It's been a hard day all around, and we could all use some rest.” He looked at Bucky. “Seen what you did tonight at the store, Buck.”

“What I . . . ?” Bucky dipped his head. Doing it quick, I expect, because he couldn't look at any of them. Not at the mayor, who was the best friend he'd ever had, not at his pastor or the two men on the council. Not at his own family. “Wilson, I don't know what happened there. I just got so overcome, like I couldn't think straight, and—”

“What you talking about, Bucky?” Chessie asked.

They all stared at him.

“I don't know,” Bucky said. “What're y'all talking about?”

“The fire alarm,” Wilson said. “I saw you hit it when everything got bad.”

“Fire alarm?”

“You saved us tonight, Constable. Maybe saved us all. It's a dark time, I don't have to tell you that. You and Angie and Cordelia know it as well as any of us. We need the strong to stand and fight, good men with smarts and quick thinking. Folk need to feel safe again.”

Bucky nodded through all this. Angela too.

“That's why the council met just a little bit ago, along with Chessie and Briar, the Reverend and Belle. We all voted in accord to come up here and ask if you'll do Crow Holler the honor of becoming its sheriff, effective immediately.”

Angela gasped.
“Sheriff?”

“We know what Homer Pruitt did to you,” Wilson said. “Wasn't right what he did, so we want to help make up for it. Job will be a paid position, of course. We ain't settled on how much, but it'll be more than what you'd get working a dozer. Town funds will cover most, along with your insurance. Briar here said he'd contribute—”

Chessie threw in, “'Long as you leave us alone, Buck.”

“—the rest,” Wilson finished. “You'll be an important man, Bucky. Time like this, maybe the most important we got.”