Cry Baby Hollow (16 page)

Aubrey shrugged. She didn’t really suspect Wayne. The person on the dock had been wearing a bright yellow poncho with a hood, which struck her as very un-Wayne attire. It had also seemed too slight to be Wayne. Everyone seems big when you’re 5’4” and weigh in at 120 lb., but she thought Wayne had broader shoulders, and each time she had seen him he’d been slouched. The person on the dock had stood tall and slender.

Aubrey continued on with Joe trailing gamely along behind her until his hand shot out and grabbed her arm. He pulled her close and leaned in to kiss her.

“Look behind us,” he murmured just before their lips touched.

“Excellent diversion,” she grinned and released him.

“I learned from the master,” he winked. “Two feet or four?” He asked. “All I saw was the shrubbery jigglin’.”

“Four,” she told him softly.

“We headin’ back now?” He asked hopefully.

“Just a little further,” she promised.

She led him to the offshoot and up past the no trespassing sign.

“I don’t guess it’s occurred to you that the reason the sign is there is to protect the home of that endangered species we just saw?” Joe suggested, growing increasingly agitated with ever step.

“I thought it was just a coyote?”

He nodded noncommittally and glanced over his shoulder, but the creature was nowhere in sight.

Aubrey continued up the path, checking the increasingly rocky slope for any sign of a cave.

“You know, Vina said there used to be some crazy old guy who lived in a cave up here when she was a girl. He came down one day and killed a bunch a people. She said everyone knew it was a clear case of demon possession, but this bein’ East Tennessee and Catholic priests bein’ somewhat scarce, they just shot him.”

“Yeah,” Aubrey recognized the tale as one of the bedtime stories Vina told her when she was a little girl. “His name was Jacob Skinner.”

“No shit? It’s true?”

Aubrey nodded.

“I looked it up years ago.”

“That’s an unfortunate name for a psychopath,” Joe observed.

“He murdered his wife and two daughters and then a few of his neighbors. He’s buried in the cemetery in the hollow.”

The path turned right abruptly and started to go down steeply. Looking over into the trees, Aubrey could see why. They were walking along the top of a sinkhole or pit of some kind. The path leveled and turned left again and they came out into a sheltered little clearing. All around them there was a crescent of granite cliff face, three stories high in the center and dwindling to nothing at all at the ends. In the cliff face, there were three perfectly square openings, ten feet tall apiece. They were far too regular to be natural. In the center of the clearing there were the remnants of a bonfire. Aubrey looked around. High school kids partying, she guessed, but there were no cigarette butts or beer cans. She squinted and tried to see into the gloomy caves.

Joe looked behind them.

“It’s just an old quarry,” he told Aubrey and pointed out the remnants of a road going down the back side of the hill.

Aubrey was backing slowly away from the cave entrances.

She reached out and grabbed Joe’s arm, swinging him around as she pulled out her cell phone and dialed.

“What?” Joe looked around. Aubrey’s face was pale and her breathing shallow and quick. She held out the phone to point into one of the caves but didn’t release his arm so he could get closer and look.

The call was answered and Aubrey put the phone back to her ear.

“My name is Aubrey Guinn,” she told the dispatcher, trying to keep her voice even. “I’m in the woods near Red Bank Road and I’ve just found a dead body.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

They heard the
whine of the engine just before the ATV broke through the trees where the road had once been and skidded to a stop in front of them.

“Hey Bo,” Joe greeted the deputy who got off. He was much younger and in better shape than Larry, but he was profoundly ugly. He had a large, bulbous nose, an almost non-existent chin, and one of his eyes was slightly larger than the other. He had red hair so fair it was almost pink and skin that looked like it belonged on a cave dwellin
g fish or some other animal that had never seen the light of day.

“Hey Joe,” he looked around the clearing, completely ignoring Aubrey. “Where’s this corpse a yours?” He finally asked.

Joe shrugged apologetically.

“I didn’t see it and she won’t let go of my arm so I can go and look,” Joe told him ruefully.

“Aw, hell Joe, you know it’s probably just a possum,” the deputy said with a dismissive glance at Aubrey.

“I wouldn’t count on that,” Joe told him. “Best go take a look.” He glanced down at Aubrey, more than a little alarmed that she hadn’t said anything rude to the man. The only sign that anything was wrong was her unwillingness to let go of his arm.

The deputy walked forward a dozen feet and looked around.

“Hell, there ain’t even a possum.”

“Just inside the center cave and over to the left,” Aubrey told him helpfully.

He took another step forward.

“Jesus God!” He screamed and turned abruptly with his hand over his mouth.

“Hell of a big possum, huh Bo?” Aubrey asked smugly.

The deputy gagged and hurried over to them. “You touch anything?”

“No,” Aubrey assured him.

“Can I have my arm back now?” Joe asked.

“Promise not to go look?”

“Sure, why?”

“How many dead bodies have you seen, Joe? Not like funeral home, prettied up dead, but really, recently, messily dead?”

“None.”

“Well I’ve seen lots, way more than my fair share, and I’m telling you that that is not the one you want to be your first.”

“Okay,” Joe agreed.

Aubrey released his arm.

Bo stepped away from them and got on his radio to call for reinforcements.

It was evening
before anyone could be spared to drive them down off the mountain and take them home. By then, Aubrey and Joe were both too hungry and tired to talk. The deputy let her off at the cabin but instead of going in she walked over to the carriage house and pulled open the double doors.

Joe waved the driver to stop and cranked down the window. “Where you goin’?”

“If Vina hears we found a body before we tell her ourselves there’ll be hell to pay,” Aubrey called back. “Besides, I want to let everyone know to lock their doors tonight.”

Joe nodded.

“You need company?”

“I’ll call you when I get back,” she promised and hopped into the Mini.

She passed the sheriff’s car on its way back from dropping Joe and didn’t acknowledge the deputies half-hearted wave. Wayne Mosley, she noted, was watching TV with his garage door wide open. She thought about stopping to warn him but decided it wasn’t worth the effort since he was more likely to hit her than to listen to a word she said.

She pulled into Vina’s and walked up to the door feeling empty and cold in spite of the hot summer night.

Vina answered almost as soon as she knocked and looked at her with relief.

“Thank God,” she said.

Aubrey stared at her.

“I been callin’ the cabin all day. I wasn’t sure you were coming.”

“Coming?”

“You here for card night?” She tried again.

“It’s card night?”

“Come on in,” Vina ushered her into the house and closed the door behind her. “So if you’re not here to sub for Erma, what’s up?”

“What’s wrong with Erma?” Aubrey asked, alarmed.

“Nothin’. She doesn’t wanna leave Rose tonight on account of she’s going through the change and completely freaked out.”

“What?!?”

“You know, hot flashes, emotional shit. Apparently Rose has been on a crying jag for days.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“So can you play?”

“Joe and I… Can I have a drink?”

“Sure. You sleep with him yet?”

“That’s really none of your business, Vina.”

“
Yes!
” Vina looked around for someone to high five, but they were the only people present. “I need details.” She led Aubrey into the kitchen and poured her a bourbon.

“You look exhausted,” Vina said triumphantly.

Aubrey finished her drink in one long pull and held out her glass for another. After Vina filled it again, she held the icy glass to her forehead, went out onto the back porch and sat down.

Vina came out and took a seat beside her.

“Maybe he was nervous,” she told her helpfully.

“He was great! It was awesome! Now can I tell you what I came here for?”

Vina nodded.

“We found a dead body in the woods today.”

“You want a sandwich?” Vina asked her after a moment.

Aubrey nodded and Vina vanished into the kitchen. She returned a few minutes later with a plate containing a tuna salad sandwich and a little mountain of potato chips, and the bottle of bourbon. She placed them down in front of Aubrey and sat back down.

“You and Joe found it?”

She nodded.

“Where?”

“Three caves, it’s a…”

“I know what it is,” Vina cut her off. She was scowling. “Any idea who it was?”

“Fuck, what now?” Aubrey was looking out across the lake, the tuna sandwich half way to her mouth. The little inlet she shared with Joe was brightly lit and a loud clacking siren could be heard across the water.

“What’s in the hell is that?” Vina asked.

“My alarm,” Aubrey sighed and put down the sandwich.

The phone rang and Vina went inside to answer it. Aubrey followed with her keys in her hand, heading for her car to go see who had broken into the cabin.

“It’s Joe,” Vina handed Aubrey the receiver. “He wants to know how to turn it off.”

Aubrey took the phone. The noise on the other end was everything the salesman had promised and more. She told Joe where the keypad was in the closet and the code to turn it off. A moment later he came back on the line.

“Sorry,” he told her bashfully.

“What are you doing in my house Joe?”

“I forgot all my beer was here. You didn’t tell me you’d gotten an alarm. You want me to lock up on my way out? Or reset it?”

Aubrey closed her eyes and counted to ten.

“No. You can just wait there for me if that’s okay. I’m on my way back anyway.” She hung up without waiting for a reply.

“Was he really great?” Vina asked.

Aubrey nodded and headed for the door.

“Tell everyone to keep their doors locked,” she cautioned Vina.

“Wait. You didn’t tell me who it was.”

“It was Noah Mosley,” Aubrey told her.

“I don’t think I know that one,” Vina said with a shrug.

“The kid who worked at Burnett’s,” Aubrey said, her voice dull and flat.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Aubrey sleepwalked through
the next four days. She worked. She ate. She made love. She ran around Red Bank Road so many times people stopped coming ou
t to talk to her. She drank and drank and drank. But nothing banished the image of Noah smiling at her in Burnett’s parking lot and nothing could blot out the sight of his body lying broken in the mouth of the cave. Aubrey had always been good at remaining calm when it mattered, but getting to sleep at night afterward was something else entirely. Aubrey did all the things people might have expected under the circumstances, but she didn’t sleep and she didn’t cry and she couldn’t forget.

On the fifth day she read about herself and how she had found the body in the local paper and thirty eight minutes later she and Joe were being led into the sheriff’s office.

Mitchell Dunn looked like a big man who had eaten a couple of bigger men for lunch and had a medium-sized one for desert. He was over six and a half feet tall and couldn’t have weighed less than three hundred pounds. When he rose to shake their hands Aubrey found herself looking him straight in the gut.

“What can I do for you folks?” He asked, as if he had no idea who they were or why they might be there, and waved them into chairs across from his desk.

“I’d like to know why you assume Noah was the man I saw on the dock, what you think he was doing out at the caves afterward, and how it is your office is ruling it an accidental death,” Aubrey told him calmly.

“We’re talking about Noah Mosley I assume. I didn’t realize you and the young man were on a first name basis,” the sheriff said with a smile.

“Yes,” she said, her voice still calm and even. “Noah Mosley. Unless you have some other cousin I found dead recently and I’ve forgotten.”

He smiled and Aubrey wanted very much to hurt him.

“He was my second cousin, along with most of the people in this county, and I’m not sure why you’re taking such an antagonistic tone with me, young lady. I don’t know how things work where you’re from, but down here, the sheriff’s office doesn’t have to answer questions from the witness, it works the other way around.”

“My name is Aubrey Guinn and, as a property owner in this county, I think I’m entitled to a certain amount of respect from elected officials. In the future, I’d appreciate it if you’d address me as ma’am or Ms. Guinn, not
young lady
. Understood? ”

“No disrespect intended,
Ms. Guinn
,” the sheriff answered smoothly, but his eyes narrowed and his expression went from dismissive to alert.

Aubrey plowed ahead before he could think of a reason to get them out of his office. “The paper said he slipped and fell on his way home from peeking in my windows,” she said, paraphrasing the article. “I saw the body. I also saw the person who was looking in my window and it wasn’t Noah Mosley.”

“The body or the peeping tom? What exactly are you implying,
ma’am
?”

“The person I saw was wearing a bright yellow slicker, but there wasn’t one on the body. I also think it’s highly unlikely that he slipped on the wet ground and hit his head on a rock. I’ve seen a lot of people fall, but rarely do their heads pop off and roll ten feet away and even more rarely do their intestines fall out and wrap around the bloody nub that was their neck.”