Billy (18 page)

B I L L
y
I 71

The sheriff looks back at Gumpy and asks,
"
Boy, you eat today?"

Gumpy is silent, but squirms in his chair.

The sheriff looks back up at Cecil
,
and yells, "Get two, and better get yourself one too
,
we got a long night comin up here. Anybody got a lot of questions over there, ya just tell em we got the one and be gittin the other one right shmtl
y.
That's all ya tell em
,
ya hear?"

"You got it, Sheriff," Cecil yells back and goes out, leaving the gate swinging behind him.

Gumpy begins to raise his head but does not look at the sheriff.

"They call you Gumpy, huh?" "Yah sir."

"What that other boy's name, what's he called?"

"Ah ain't did nothin. They chase me and Ah Gumpy's voice raises.

"Who chased ya? What they chasin ya for?"

runs.
"

"We be in the pond, lookin for redbacks, Billy Lee say red backs be in there, we be in there
,
then they comes after us, Ah runs, she chase me, but Ah, Ah gits away and runs. Ah ain'ts did nothin. Billy Lee, he say they gits him down, but he gits up. Theys were goin ta beats me up too, but Ah
nm,"
Gumpy blurts out.

"Billy Lee, that's your friend's name?"

"He ain't my friend all the times, just sometimes." "How old's Billy Lee, he twelve too?"

"He ain't twelve, he ain't twelve like me." "How old he be?"

"He ten, he say he eleven, but he ten."

Sheriff Tom sighs, rubs th
e
back of hi
s
neck, g
e
ts up from his chair, and goes to the window ane

72
I
Albert Fre11ch

street,
then
turns back and looks al Gumpy
and
asks, "What they call Billy Lee,
what's
his
last
name be?"

"Billy
Lee, Billy Lee Turner, he
say
it's
that."

The sheriff was goin to sit back down, he'd walked away from the window and was about to set, when the outer door opened. He looked over quickly, knowing it was too soon for Cecil to he back with the sandwiches. Harvey Jakes walks in.
"Sheriff,
Sheriff Tom,
hear
we got a murder," Harvey Jakes shouts across the room and hurries up to the wooden rail
with

his pencil and notepad in hand.

The sheriff squints his eyes and just stares for a moment. Gumpy goes to turn around in his chair, bu t slides back down in it when he hears, "Turn around, ain't nobody tells
ya
to move." Then he
crosses
the floor with rumbling steps u ntil

he gets up to Harvey Jakes.

"What ya doin hustin i n here like
that
?
Don't
ya see
Ah got a prisoner in here interrogatin?" Sheriff
shouts
in Harvey Jakes' face.

"I want to know what this is about, Sheriff. Did that boy
there
kill the Pasko girl? Folks are saying there's another
one
too. Is this the one that did the killing?"
Harvey
Jakes glances over the
sheriff's shoulder
and then quickly asks, "How old's that boy?"

"I
ain't got time
for
this newspaper
shit,
I
got
to
get
done
talkin
to this hoy," Sheriff
shouts.

"Well,
what
can you
tel l me now? Is that the
one did
it?"
Harv
ey
Jakes glances over the
sheriff's shoulder again,
then blurts out, "Sheriff, how many times
was she stabbed?
What's that boy's name there?"

"Loo
k,
I told
ya
I don't have time for this here right now."
"Folks
are talki n up a
storm.
I
go
t to
know what's
goin on

now,
who is that boy?
I
s
he a Patch boy?"

B I L L Y
/
73

"Get your ass out of here now. When it's time, I'll let
ya
know."

When Deputy Hill
got
back with the
sandwiches,
he
was
surprised to see the sheriff sitting at his desk alone,
and
asked quickly,
"You stick
him down there already?" Sheriff Tom kept his head down and kept scribbling something with that two-inch pencil he keeps in his
shirt
pocket. Cecil moved quietly up to the sheriff 's desk and put the bag of sandwiches down, then asked again,
"Sheriff,
you take him down already?" The sheriff sighed and just shook his head yes, then mumbled without looking up, "Take that boy down a sandwich, just stick it through, don't say a word ta him."

When Cecil got back up from feeding the prisoner, the sheriff was still sitting and scribbling with that pencil of his. "What
ya
thinkin, Sheriff?" Deputy Hill ask, taking a bite out of his sandwich.

"Gotta
get that other one. He did the killin."

"You
thinkin he got far. We can get Evan's dogs."
"Won't
need that ta flush him out. He ain't far."

"That's that Bad Land out there, nigger could be any where."

"He ain't, he ain't that far at all. His mama hidin him, he ain't far."

Deputy
Hill
was quiet for a while, didn't know what to
say,
didn't
even
look at the
sheriff,
just noticed he hadn't touched his sandwich, but he looked up quickly
when
he heard the sheriff clear his throat, then mumbled,
"We got somethin
ugl
y
here, real ugly. Got us
a
little girl layin out there dead that shouldn't he. We'll
get
the nigger."

Deputy Hill is
silent.

The
sheriff sighs, and
mu mbles quietl y, almost at a whi
s-

74
I
Albert
French

per.
"That
boy
ain't
far.
We're gain ta wait a bit, let him come out his hole. Wait till it
gets
good and dark, he'll
come
out or his mama will
go
for him, one or the other. We'll wait."

"You
think he'll
stay
pu t that
lon
g?"
Deputy Hill asks quickly.

"Boy ain't but
ten
years
old,
Cecil."

Down on Dillion Street, at Jake's place, Matt Woodson sat in the back booth with Judy Fremont. They had been seeing one another for two or three years, Judy been waitressing
ther
e since she
got out of school. She was a quiet girl and
still shy,
it took Matt Woodson
six
months just to
get
her
eye. When
Frank Ottum
came
in, Judy got up and
went
into the kitchen. Frank Ottum been drinkin all day and
came
in throwin his
words
all over the place. "Got a nigger runnin loose
out
there killin. Still
got
that knife on him,
ain't
no
tellin what a
nigger
gain
ta do
when
they
get wild
like that.
They get a
taste
of
blood,
get
that killin in them, they
come at ya. Come at ya
like
a wild dog.
He down
around
that Patch,
someplace,
but
a
nigger like that
will
move
on ya
anytime."

Matt Woodson thought
about
Judy and how
on edge she was about
Red Pasko's little
girl
being killed. He
got
up
and walked
up
to Frank Ottum, who was a good fishin
buddy
of
his father's.

"Frank,
I heard the
sheriff got
that nigger
,
"
Matt
sa
id.
"He got
one
of em
down there, but that
ain't
the
one
that

did the killin. He
even admits
it, that
other one's still out
there."

"Well,
what's he
gain
to do?"

"Ya
know how he is,
all closed-mouthed about
his busi ness, h
e
ain
'
t
sayin.
A h told him
we go
t
women
and children around
h
e
r
e
."

B I L L }'
I 75

Harvey Jakes was back at his newspaper office, Helen Marks had stayed late at his request. He had
considered
putting out an extra paper and might need her. Harvey's
sit
ting at his desk, Helen's leaning against the rail that
sepa
rates his office from the other desk
and
art tables. Harvey
sits
pondering the feasibility of
getting
the paper out, being
so
shmt-staffed.

Helen moves closer to his desk and leans up against it.
She
knows he likes to look at her legs, but
what
he didn't k now is that
she
did not mind i t. He was a
very
handsome man
and
had family money, plus
some
of his
own.
If
she
was nev
e
r
go
ing to get out of Banes
,
then she was going to
stay the way
she wanted. Harvey Jakes could keep her in Banes the wa
y
she wanted to stay, but he was thinking more about
getting
his newspaper out than about her legs. She decided
that,
since he needed her now,
she'd see
to it that he
would want
her
later.

"It's going to be the biggest story i n the
s
tate, now, Mi
ster
Jakes. I'll stay with
you.
I don't have an
y
plans except
list
e
n ing
to the
radio. I'd like to
stay and
help." Helen Mark
s
spoke softly
so
as not to disrupt Harvey
's
thought
s
but
just
to
add to them.

Marcus Warden was an expert, and look
e
d
at
his
craft as
a
n art. He'd been burying Banes folks
s
ince nineteen
fifteen.
Back then he'd g
e
t that big team
of
hor
ses
h
e
had, hook them up for them big funerals, bu t wasn't too
many of
tho
se.
The
little funerals, he just
got
one horse
on that wagon, put
t hat empty coffin
in
the ba
c
k, go out there,
and
do what h
e co
uld do with the body
so
it would last in the h
e
at through
s
i t ti n
time.
Most fol ks just brought the
coffin and
did
their
own bu ryin. Some folks didn't do that, just mad
e
a
box th
em
-

76 I A!IJert
Fre11cli

selves, and
the heat
wou ld
let them know when buryin time was.
Nevertheless,
Marcus Warden would
come
if he was sent
for, and
he'd
spend the
time that was needed to prepare the deceased for thei r last days aboveground and the first day of their
eternal
peace.

Mississippi
suns set slow
.
The last sun that Lori Pasko saw,
smi
l
ed
under, fussed under, dreamed and
giggled
under, was
setting
as she cooled on her mother's bed. The porch was quiet. David, Kevin, and the younger boys sat leaning against
the
porch rail. Jenny's mother had come and
set
with Jenny in her arms. Ginger and Red Pasko sat on the porch steps; neither one had said a
word
in hours. Doc Grey had left, say ing he'd send back Marcus Warden.

The Pasko dogs started barking, out of habit, then stopped but kept their
eyes
on the car
coming
up the dirt
road.
Ginger
sighed
and reached for her husband's hand as the
car
pulled up to the house and
stopped.
Elson Pittman
got
out.

Elson Pittman was a tall man, stood about
six
foot five
,
lean and slender and
carrying
his
sixty
ye
ars
well.
He
wore
black all the time
and
had
silver
hair
and
dark-blue
eyes.
He wou ld
always
have his Bible,
and
kept
its ways.
He
had
a look
about
hisself,
a
look
that others swayed
from but
could
not turn from. He
comes
lo the Paskos now
and stands
before them
as
they
sit with their grief.