The Shining Badge (27 page)

“Doesn’t make any difference, does it, as long as they’re fat enough.”

“I guess it does to them, but they don’t know that.”

“You want me to pick one?”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

“Then I pick that big white one right over there.”

“All right. That’s what I’ll do. You want to stay and have supper with us?”

“No, I’ll have to go home, but I want to talk to you.”

Clay studied the young girl. She was, he knew, fourteen years old and was caught in that time of life when young girls go through the process of turning from gangly creatures into shapely young women. He had learned to like Kat, but he had told Jenny once,
“She’s going to have to quit being a boy pretty soon. Put on a dress and start acting silly like a girl.”
And now he stepped outside the chicken yard, fastened the door securely, and said, “Come on up on the porch. We’ll talk.”

“Where’s Jamie?”

“She’s taking a nap.”

The two of them sat down on the porch, and Clay said, “You sit there, and I’ll go get you something to drink. It won’t be cold, but it’ll be wet.”

Five minutes later the two were sipping warm lemonade, and Kat asked suddenly, “Is it hard to raise a baby alone, you bein’ a man and all?”

Clay was surprised by the question, but then he nodded. “Hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Kat gulped down the lemonade, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Well, why don’t you get married, then?”

Clay shook his head and smiled. “That’s not a very good reason to get married, to find a nursemaid.”

“People do it, though. They get married for all kinds of reasons. You know old man Tatum down by the river in that old white house?”

“I know him. What about him?”

“Well, he’s an old man. I mean really old. He must be . . . oh, I guess forty or fifty. That’s pretty old. And he married Sarah Simington. She ain’t no more than fifteen.”

“That’s just a year older than you are—and Jenny will skin you if you don’t stop saying
ain’t.
”

“Well, he didn’t care nothin’ about her. He just wanted someone to keep house, cook, and wash his clothes.”

“I’m surprised she married him.”

“I told her she was crazy,” Kat said, then paused to finish off the lemonade. She set the glass down on the floor beside her and nodded. “She’s not pretty, and I guess she figured if she was gonna have any kind of a home, that’d be her only chance. She won’t like it, though.”

“Not very romantic.”

“Romantic! I reckon not.”

Clay Varek sat listening as Kat rattled on. Finally she took a deep breath and said, “I came to talk to you about Jenny. You gotta help her, Clay.”

“Help her. What’s wrong with her?”

“Her job’s getting her down. She’s gonna quit if you don’t do something.”

Clay’s eyes narrowed, and he studied the young woman. “I don’t know what I can do.”

“You can go to work for her. That’s what. Get you a gun and catch those moonshiners. You’ve been a policeman, and you know how to do stuff like that.”

“Did Jenny tell you to come here?”

“No, I listened while she was talking to Daddy. She told him she was going to quit, and she said that you could help, but you won’t.”

“Well, I’d like to help, but I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’ve got Jamie to take care of.”

“We can take care of Jamie. I can watch her after school in the afternoons, and Hannah and Missouri Ann can watch her in the mornings. She’s easy to take care of. She’s such a good girl.”

Clay sat silently rocking back and forth slightly, then shook his head. “That wouldn’t be right, Kat. You see, when Jamie’s daddy got killed, I promised myself that I’d take care of her.”

Kat said sharply, “Nobody’s arguing about that, but you
could help Jenny and take care of Jamie too. All you need is a little help, and I’m telling you that you can leave her with us.”

“Did you talk to your dad about this, or your ma?”

“No, but I will if you’ll do it.”

Clay Varek, in all truth, was tempted. His life had become very narrow, and he had had great difficulty in adjusting at first. But now he was getting bored. He admired Kat for coming. She was a forward young lady full of a thousand schemes, but there was a basic honesty in her that you could not find in many adults. “I’d like to help Jenny. Let me think about it, will you, Kat?”

“Sure.” Kat rose and said, “Thanks for the lemonade. I’ve gotta get on home now.”

“All right, Kat. I wouldn’t say anything to Jenny about this if I were you.”

“I won’t, but I’m gonna ask God to let you come to work for her.” She nodded confidently and said, “You’ll do it. God will
make
you!” She turned and left the porch in a single leap and then trotted down the road, stirring up small clouds of dust as she ran.

Clay Varek watched and smiled, amused at the girl. But then he grew more sober. “Maybe I ought to do it.” Clay leaned against the pillar that supported the porch roof and put his mind on the problem. He sat so still that a chipmunk streaked across the ground in front of him with the usual calamitous air of the small creatures. Clay watched as it stopped and sat up. It tucked its front legs tightly against its chest so that only its paws were visible. To Clay, the chipmunk looked somewhat like a man coming to ask for a favor and holding his hat. The two regarded each other and then, like a flash, the chipmunk scurried away and disappeared around the corner of the house.

“Maybe I oughta do it,” Clay said again. “She needs help, and she’s not likely to get a lot of that around here.”

****

Lewis Winslow was somewhat surprised when Clay Varek turned up at his house. He had looked out the window and saw Clay get out of the truck and watched as he picked up Jamie and brought her up on the front porch. Lewis went out at once to meet him, but Hannah had beaten him to it. She was already reaching for Jamie, saying, “Come along. I’ve just got some gingerbread about ready to come out of the oven. I’ll give you a piece of it.”

“Be all right with me. Maybe I’ll eat some myself later.”

Lewis waited until Hannah had taken Jamie off, then he said, “Sit down, Clay.”

“Oh, I can’t stay long,” Clay protested. But he sat down in one of the cane-bottom rockers, and for a time he spoke of common things. Clay said once, “Us Yankees have kind of a hard time here in the South, don’t we?”

Lewis laughed. “Yes, we do. I didn’t even know what grits were when I came down here, and now I have to have them every day or I think I’ve been cheated.”

“One thing I can’t get over,” Clay said slowly, “is how friendly people are in this country. They always speak and nod even to strangers.”

“Yes, they do. And you know they do another thing that never happens up North? Have you noticed, Clay, how when you’re driving and you pass another car, whoever’s driving usually waves at you?”

“That’s right. They do.”

“That never happened in New York, I don’t think. Sometimes people around here just lift their fingers from the steering wheel, but they nearly always look at you and give you some kind of a sign. Even total strangers.”

Varek nodded. “I think that’s a good thing. I don’t know why southerners are different, but they are.”

“It may have something to do with the pace of life,” Lewis mused. “Things are somehow slower around here, at least slower than they were in the middle of New York City.”

The two men sat there talking idly, and finally Lewis said,
“How are you getting along, Clay? I know it’s been a hard adjustment for you to make leaving the big city and bringing Jamie here.”

“It’s been tough. I’m not sure I can do it for the next fifteen, sixteen years until Jamie’s grown.”

Lewis studied the face of Clay Varek. It was a strong face, not handsome but intensely masculine. His ears lay flat against his head, and his tawny hair needed cutting. There was a rough attractiveness to the man, but in his eyes, Lewis saw dissatisfaction. “I guess most of us are looking for something. As for me, when I lost all of my money and my home, I was just looking for anything. A place to get a roof over my head for me and my family.”

“Well, you’ve made it here, Lewis. Your family’s all settled in. You’ve got a nice place.”

“We don’t have any money and are not likely to. What are you looking for, Clay?”

A bleak look swept across Varek’s face. “I don’t know, Lewis.”

The blankness of the answer gave Lewis an inclination to pursue the subject. “You know a friend of mine lost his leg going up San Juan Hill. We kept in touch, and years later he went back there. Of course he didn’t find the thing he lost. I’m not sure we can do that.”

“What are you saying, Lewis?”

“I’m saying most of us have lost something. Maybe not a leg like Charlie but
something.
And there’s not much point in going back and trying to find it again. Usually we can’t. I think you need to look for the right thing.”

Clay straightened up and his eyes met those of Lewis Winslow. “And what is the right thing?”

“I guess you know what I’d say. I’d say that finding the Lord is the right thing.”

Clay nodded. “I know that’s what you feel. I wish I did sometimes.”

“You will. You’ve got some folks praying for you, Clay.” He smiled slightly. “We didn’t wait to ask your permission.”

Clay studied the man in front of him. He knew there was a rock-hard honesty in Lewis Winslow. The whole family had it, and Varek admired them all tremendously. “Maybe religion will come to me,” he said.

“Plenty of religion about, but Jesus is more than that.”

“What do you mean by that? I don’t understand.”

“Well, Jesus made one claim that stands out. He said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.’ So that’s the difference between Jesus and everybody else. He said the only way to get to God was through Him.”

“Pretty narrow door.”

“Too narrow for most people. They want it to be broad. They think God should just take everybody, no matter what kind of religion they have. But there’s one more verse in the Bible I wish you’d think on, Clay. It’s in Hebrews. It says, ‘Without shedding of blood there is no remission.’ ”

“I don’t get it.”

“You would if you read the Old Testament for a while. It’s a bloody book. Once under Solomon’s reign they sacrificed over a thousand animals in one day. Blood must have been everywhere, but all of those lambs that were slain didn’t wash away any sins. That’s why Jesus came to shed His blood because He had the only blood that could wash away sin.”

For nearly twenty minutes Lewis spoke softly about his deepest beliefs. He spoke mostly of Jesus, how He came to save sinners. Finally he said, “That’s what you need to be looking for. It’s what
all
of us need to be looking for, Clay.”

Clay’s head was down. He had listened silently, and Lewis had no idea how he was taking all this. Perhaps he was angry, as some men get when they are confronted with Christ. Finally he looked up and nodded. “I’ll think on it, Lewis.”

“I wish you would.”

“Did you know Kat came to see me?”

“That girl gets around everywhere.”

“She overhead you and Jenny talking. She told me about it.”

“Talking about what?”

“She said Jenny wanted to quit and that I ought to help her.”

Instantly Lewis nodded. “If you would, it would be a comfort to me, Clay. She’s afraid, and she’s uncertain, and right now she’s got more confusion than she needs.”

“But I’ve got Jamie to take care of.”

“Leave her with us while you’re working.”

Startled, Clay said, “That’s what Kat told me. But I knew I had to talk to you.”

“That girl’s got a head full of sense along with some mighty wild ideas. Look, one more child won’t matter around here. If you would help Jenny, it would be a big load off my mind, Clay.”

“I’ll go talk to her.”

“Sure. You leave Jamie here, and I hope it works out.”

****

“Hello, Ruby, is the sheriff here?”

“No, she’s eating lunch down at the Elite Café.”

“Thanks, Ruby.”

Leaving the sheriff’s office, Varek walked down the street. He turned into the Elite Café and saw Luke Dixon and Jenny sitting at a table together. He hesitated and almost turned to leave, but Dixon saw him and called out, “Hey, Clay, come on over and join us!”

Clay walked over and said, “Hello, Luke . . . Jenny, how are you?”

“Sit down, Clay. We’re about through eating, but we’re going to have dessert.”

Clay hesitated, then sat down. When Jenny asked about Jamie, he smiled and said, “I left her at your house. Your dad said that with three babies around, one more child wouldn’t matter.”

“I think he’s right about that, and Kat loves to play with Jamie. Treats her like a big doll.”

The waitress came over and brought pie. Clay took a cup of coffee but no more. He listened as the two talked, saying little himself, and finally Dixon rose and said, “Well, I’ve got to get back to work. Good to see you, Clay.”

“You too, Luke.”

“That’s a good man, Jenny,” Varek said, watching the lawyer leave the café.

“Yes, he is.”

Something in her tone caught Varek’s attention. “You two going together—dating or anything like that?”

“We go out once in a while.”

Varek sipped his coffee, considered that, and then he said, “Jenny, I’ve been thinking you might need some help. I’d be glad to fill in on a part-time basis.”

Jenny’s eyes flew open wide, and she could not speak for a moment. “Oh, Clay, it’s what I’ve been hoping for!” She put her hand on his forearm and squeezed it. “You’ll be so much help, and, to tell the truth, I’ve been downright discouraged.”

“Well, I’m no magician, but I’ll do what I can.” Varek was highly aware of Jenny’s touch, and wanting to prolong the moment, he said, “Maybe I’d better have a sandwich and a cream soda.”

“It’s on me.” Jenny grew conscious of the hard muscle beneath her touch and, flustered, pulled her hand away. “Now, tell me how we can catch these moonshiners.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

A Matter of Kin