Vengeance is Mine (25 page)

Chapter Fifty-five

It was one of those early fall storms, all noise and electricity. Clouds boiled in the night sky and lighting flickered almost continuously as we rode our bikes to the Ordway place. Cool wind carried the thunder around us, and it felt like we rode through the middle of an artillery battle. We knew there wouldn't be any rain, because the whole world smelled wet and Grandpa always said if you smell rain, it won't fall.

It was hard to ride fast through the flying leaves and keep up with Pepper because one hand held my .22 rifle. I wished I'd left it back there on the porch beside Mr. Thurman, but I thought I might need it if the bad folks were coming for Mr. Tony. I'd already killed out a pack of dogs, and been in the middle of a gunfight a while back. I didn't intend to go over there without something to shoot with.

That's what I figured Uncle Cody would do.

Uncle Henry's house was dark when we passed, so I knew the electricity went out like it does every time a storm comes through. With the pole lights out, the stores and domino hall looked different when we passed in the cold, harsh lightning. We pedaled hard up the drive and jumped off our bikes at the Ordway place. I knocked as loud as I could. Not even the dim light from a coal oil lamp lit the house.

It took forever for Mr. Tony to answer, and I about decided he wasn't there, until he looked out the tall, skinny little window beside the door. He opened it, reached out, and took the rifle from my hand all in the same motion, like he'd practiced it.

“Hey!”

He leaned it against the inside of the frame. “I'll give it back later. What are you two doing here in this weather?”

“We came to warn you,” Pepper said.

Mr. Tony stepped back into the entry hall and motioned us to follow. He closed the door and locked it. He was back in his suit, except this time without a tie. His coat hung open, and the white shirt underneath glowed each time the lightning flashed. “Warn me about what?”

“About a man and woman who came to Miss Rachel's house looking for you.” I didn't like standing in that entry hall, because it was right beside the wooden staircase leading to the second floor. That's where the ghosts lived. Lightning struck somewhere nearby and seemed to shoot right through my head. “Uh….” I struggled to focus.

Pepper shoved me. “He heard them people who beat Miss Rachel say something, didn't you?”

“The woman wanted to know where you were and when you were coming to Miss Rachel's house, like you was expected there. I didn't know you knew her.”

“I don't know what you're talking about.” Mr. Tony stepped closer to the little skinny window and pushed the white lace curtain back with his finger. “Tell me what happened, exactly.”

“Lemme see. She said ‘I wanted to be finished with this before Agrioli showed up so it wouldn't be two at the same time.'”

“Think, Top. There must have been something before that. What did she mean two at the same time?” His face was as calm as could be.

I struggled to remember the conversation. “He said ‘He told us Washington would be here by now. I wanted to be finished with this before Agrioli showed up so it wouldn't be two at the same time.' That's what he said.”

“Do you know who the
he
is that man was talking about?”

“Nossir. They didn't say any names but y'all's. Wait, the man was Ralph and the woman's name was Myrna.”

Mr. Tony thought for a long time, then gave us a half-smile. “All right. That's fine. Now, do you two think you'll be all right to ride back to Mr. Parker's house?”

Pepper cocked her head, but not enough to make her ponytail flop like she did that first day when she was flirting with Mr. Tony. “Why don't you go with us? You can drive us there and we can get our bikes in the morning.”

He patted her shoulder. “Because I think I need to stay here.”

“Miss Sam probably needs you.”

His smile slipped a little, and he looked sad. “She's safer with your grandfather. Now,” he opened the door. Cool wind blew in, scattering leaves into the hall. “You two ride back as quickly as you can and tell your grandfather not to come over here until tomorrow, no matter what.”

I didn't know why, but I felt a painful lump in my chest. Pepper looked like she wanted to cry, also. There was something terribly wrong, but we didn't know what it was. “Please go with us, Mr. Tony.”

“No. You two go now, and hurry home.”

He all but pushed us into the yard and the wind. Nobody in the country would turn someone out in such a storm, but we picked up our bikes and left anyway. Mr. Neal's store was dark, but there was a car parked between it and the domino hall. When the lighting flashed, I saw it was empty.

We were past Mr. Oak Peterson's store when I realized I'd forgotten my rifle. A minute later, I forgot about it when I heard gunfire behind us, almost buried in the near continuous thunder.

Chapter Fifty-six

“That's the house,” Michael said as they drove slowly down the oil road past the Ordway place. He stopped. “Johnny, go in the back. We'll park and come in the front. Gimme five minutes. That should be enough time.”

The door opened and closed. In a series of staccato flashes, they watched Johnny Machine cross a sagging barbed wire fence, holding his shotgun with one hand. He stepped behind a cedar and was lost from view.

Michael made a rough three-point turn at a gate and went back to the country store they saw on the way in. He parked next to a smaller building. “Let's go.” He grabbed a cut-down Browning semi-automatic shotgun from the backseat and handed the humpback to Nicky, then took another one for himself.

Nicky followed past the store with its metal signs rattling in the wind, unconsciously ducking low as lightning split the clouds overhead. “I don't like this weather.”

“We don't have any choice.”

Leaves showered like paper snow as the towering burr oaks thrashed in the wind and egg-size acorns rattled down. One caught Nicky a glancing blow to the head. “Shit! What kind of country is this that trees throw giant walnuts at you?”

Michael glanced up. “Shhh. Come on!”

“Dammit Michael, he ain't gonna hear anything over all this thunder. Agrioli'll probably
see
us first.”

Michael stopped. A flicker of motion well away from the house caught his attention. Incredulous, he thought he saw someone waving from behind an overgrown barbed wire fence. He froze and brought up his shotgun, waiting for the next flash of lightning.

It didn't take long. A man waved again and then ducked down behind the brush. “Did you see that?”

Nicky pointed his shotgun in the man's direction. “There's somebody back there.”

The next flash revealed an individual standing completely upright, frantically waving them over. Michael glanced back toward the dark house. “Come on. This ain't right.”

They hurried across the yard, guns ready.

“You're Michael!” The man glanced nervously at the house. “C'mere. We're the ones Mr. Best sent to help you.”

The two gangsters ran to the fencerow and knelt. There was no need to whisper. The wind and crackling thunder covered their voices and no one could hear from more than a few feet away.

Michael knelt on one knee and spoke through the tangled vines. “Who're you?”

“Ray Marco, the one you talked to on the phone. We went by the motel, but you were gone. So we came on out here to meet you.”

Michael thought for a moment. “How did you know where Agrioli lived? We barely found out ourselves.”

“You don't remember mentioning Center Springs when we talked? I called the store over there and asked where he lived. Some guy with a loud voice damn near gave me the man's shoe size before he quit talking. So we drove out, but got caught in traffic. Can you believe it? A traffic jam out here in the boonies. We haven't been here but a few minutes, and waited for you.”

Michael scratched his cheek and watched the house. “Yeah, I remember. How many of you are here?”

“Seven.”

“You must have been crowded.”

“It was only an hour and a half. We got a break when we got caught in a traffic jam back there. We managed.”

Michael stared hard at the house and after a moment, shook his head. “Where are your guys?”

Marco scratched a chigger on his leg. “Scattered around. We've been expecting you.”

Nicky kept the shotgun ready. “You seen anybody else?”

“Yeah, a couple of kids on bikes. Agrioli let them in and then they took off. The kid had a BB gun or something with him, but he left it.”

“Where's your car?”

“Parked down that road beside some cows.”

Michael watched the house. “All right…hey, you said you had guys scattered around? Anyone around back?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, shit….”

The flat bangs of two gunshots echoed. The sound was cut off with the crack and sizzle of lightning overhead, followed immediately by a thunderclap they felt in their chests, then another shot.

“You probably have one less now.” Nicky grinned at the mistake. He didn't know them, so he couldn't care less. “The Machine's back there.”

Marco's eyes widened. Johnny Machino was legendary in the Business. “You brought the Machine?”

Michael cut his eyes toward the brush beside him. They couldn't see Marco through the tangle, but both could hear the awe in his voice. “That's him.”

“You sent him around back?”

“Of course I did, the same as you.” Michael pointed past Nicky. “Run around to the rear and tell the Machine not to kill the rest of these idiots. They're with us.”

The slender gangster crouched to run, and then stopped. “Wait, how are Marco's men gonna know I'm with them? We don't know each other.”

Michael rubbed his face in disgust. “Good question. Marco, whaddya think?”

“I don't know.”

Michael flicked his arm. “Run and wave your arms. They'll know you ain't Agrioli.”

“But that'll give us away.”

Another bang came from behind the house.

“It don't matter now.”

Chapter Fifty-seven

The sharp report of a gunshot was dramatically different than the blasts of lightning. Tony drew the .45 from his shoulder holster and hurried to the largest bedroom in back of the house, wondering what Griffin was up to. The downstairs floor plan was almost exactly divided in half from front to back. From the foyer, the living room was on the right and dining room on the left. Past the staircase and dividing wall, the master bedroom was in the center of the house with another bedroom on the right. The bathroom and kitchen anchored the back left corner.

Standing against the wall beside one of three huge windows in the master bedroom, Tony peeked into the backyard. The electrical storm worked to his advantage. Lightning bathed the landscape in bleak, blue-white light. A man dragged himself behind an abandoned hog pen beyond a barbed wire fence.

What the hell???

Glass broke in the living room. Instead of charging in that direction, Tony dodged the bed and hurried to the doorway underneath the second flight of stairs. He had no idea who was outside, but from that position in the near exact center of the house, he could quickly respond to Griffin's attack.

He glanced over at the two suitcases packed and ready on the bed. It was too late to get away. He'd missed the window by only a few minutes.

Sorry, Doll.

Chapter Fifty-eight

We left our bikes beside Oak Peterson's store and snuck back toward the domino hall. One line of clouds had moved on, but another was coming quick. Grandpa called it a train of storms, one passing right after another. Storms like that are common in Texas, but they usually drop a lot of rain. This time they were full of electricity instead of water, and we didn't need flashlights to make our way to the Ordway house.

Pepper stopped beside the car. “I don't recognize this one.”

“I didn't expect you to.” I liked that answer. It sounded like something Grandpa might say.

“Don't be a smartass. I was just saying that it don't belong to anybody we know.”

Two gunshots came from the Ordway place, immediately followed by the slap-crack of a thunderbolt.

Pepper's expression was one of pure terror. She slammed back against the plank wall of the domino hall, knocking off a metal Wrigley's chewing gum sign that banged down behind her. She screamed and jumped. The falling sign hit her legs, and still not sure what was happening, she screamed again and spun and charged into Uncle Cody, who wrapped her in his arms. He pulled her around to the front of the domino hall. “Whoa!”

“Uncle Cody, you scared me to death.”

“Good.” I stayed right behind them. He reached out and pulled me closer. “You two are going to be the death of me.”

“We just came to warn Mr. Tony,” Pepper said.

“About what?”

“What we heard at Miss Rachel's house.”

“Well, why didn't you tell us when we got there?”

I didn't want Pepper to take all the trouble. “Y'all were busy with Miss Rachel. I figured we'd help and warn Mr. Tony that two bad people went to Miss Rachel's house looking for Tony and Mr. John. We were coming right back to tell you next.”

Lightning split the rolling clouds and I saw Uncle Cody's grim face. “Top.” He paused. “Your cousin's finally rubbed off on you.”

“We're only trying to help.”

“You two about got yourselves in trouble.”

Pepper looked around. “Where's the El Camino?” She was a master at changing the direction of a conversation.

“I parked it right down there at Mr. Landers' house.” He pointed at the farmhouse not a hundred yards away on the other side of Oak Peterson's store. “Y'all come on.” Glancing back toward the Ordway place, he led the way, trotting down the highway with us following like a couple of baby ducks.

His car was parked between Mr. Landers' house and the barn. Both were painted white, and they glowed in the darkness. He was waiting on his screened side porch. “Looks like you found them, Cody.”

“Yep. You two stay right up there with Mr. Landers.” He slid behind the wheel and keyed the mike.