Echoes of a Distant Summer (82 page)

“You say you don’t remember me, huh?” Pug scoffed. “You remember when my brothers Chess and Eddy was kilt by yo’ no-good husband? I was the one that got away. I sho’ remember you. How ’bout this, you remember when yo sons was kilt? I do, ’cause I’m the one that planned it! You shaking yo’ head, huh? You don’t believe it? Well, you know Billy DuMont Braxton? He’s my sister’s boy. I used him to set up both killings. Yo’ oldest boy was the easiest. All Billy had to do was lie and tell him where King had his money stashed. Yo’ fool of a son went and dressed up like King and when he went to the address we gave him, them Eye-talians shot him up good.”

“I’m sorry to bother you, sweetie pie,” Zenia’s voice interrupted. “You’re way past due to drain your bladder. Let’s step—”

“Goddamn it, Zenia! Can’t you see I’m busy with somethin’ important? I ain’t got time for that now!”

“Oh, honey, you know if we don’t keep to the schedule you’ll get sick. I just don’t want you to—” Zenia stopped talking as she saw Elroy enter the room with a gun in his hand.

Pug turned around and stared at the intruder. It took him only a second to recognize Elroy as one of King’s descendants. He exclaimed, “It’s a goddamn Tremain! Walkin’ in here like he got a right!” Pug raised his voice and shouted, “Xavier! Xavier!”

Elroy smiled and said, “Even if he comes, he won’t be able to help you!”

Zenia held up her hand placatingly. “Please don’t hurt him. He’s in ill health—”

Pug’s face turned purple with rage. “Goddamn it, Zenia! Don’t beg from a Tremain! We DuMonts got pride! If he got the balls to kill me in
my own house, let him try it!” Pug tried to get out of his chair and stand. “Shit! If I was ten years younger, I’d …” The exertion was too much and he fell back into his seat. The effort caused spasticity to set off in his legs and soon his whole body was jerking with spasms. He snarled, “Kill me! I ain’t gon’ beg for my life! Kill me!”

“Please, mister,” Zenia pleaded. “I need to drain his bladder. Can we leave the room for a minute?”

Elroy shook his head. “Whatever you have to do has to be done here!”

Zenia nodded and set about her task. She opened a small plastic kit, donned a pair of gloves, and took out a length of clear plastic tubing. She squeezed some lubricant on it and pulled up Pug’s shirt, exposing a plastic cap. She pulled off the cap and inserted the tube down the surgically implanted canal. When the tube was two thirds inserted, pale urine began to dribble into a urinal, which she held.

Elroy watched the whole operation and was sickened. It was obvious to him that Pug was a sick and dying man who was just holding on to life by a thread. There was no pleasure in the revenge that could be gained from killing him. In truth, Pug was already dead; hate was the only thing keeping him alive. Elroy felt tremendously disappointed. There was nothing that he could do to Pug that would ease the pain and sadness that he himself felt. There was no balm in Gilead. Elroy was destined to live with the darkness and waste of his life until he lived no more. He could not even remember what he hoped to achieve in killing Pug. The anger and indignation he had felt when he entered the room drained away, leaving only the stains of its existence and a vast emptiness. He shrugged and set the hypodermic down on the table beside Zenia.

“What’s that for?” she asked.

Elroy gestured at Pug. “It’s poison. It was for him. I came to kill him for what he did to my mother, but his life is already over. Nothing I could do would be worse than letting him continue to live like this.”

Pug looked at Elroy through bleary eyes and urged, “Kill me, you bastard! Go ahead, I ain’t afraid!”

Elroy pointed to the hypodermic and suggested, “Kill yourself. I don’t want to dirty my hands with you. You’re not worth killing. You’re just a piece of trash that will blow away with the next strong wind.” Elroy turned and looked at Serena. “You don’t deserve it, but do you want
to leave with me?” Serena looked at him with lifeless eyes and shook her head. Elroy shrugged and headed for the door leading to the main hall.

Pug shouted, “Kill me! Kill me!” He was a man raised in the ways of the feud. He had hated the Tremains ever since he could remember and in the strange dynamic of warfare had measured himself against them. Now these same enemies whom he had pitted himself against all his adult life didn’t even feel that he was worth killing. It was the greatest insult that he had ever experienced. He begged, “Kill me! Kill me!”

Elroy refused to even look his way as he walked toward the door.

Xavier and the remaining bodyguard opened the door and entered the room while Elroy was still ten feet from the exit. There was a momentary tableau as Xavier and his hireling stared at Elroy.

Pug shouted, “Kill him, Donnell! He’s a Tremain!”

The bodyguard started to reach beneath his jacket, but Elroy raised his gun. “Don’t do anything foolish,” he warned. “I don’t want to hurt anybody. I just plan on walking out of here.”

Xavier threatened, “Donnell, if you want to keep your job, you better kill this asshole!”

Donnell looked back and forth between Xavier and Elroy, then made a sudden move to pull out his pistol. Elroy shot him twice in the chest. The bullets knocked Donnell backward against the door, which slammed shut. When Elroy didn’t see blood he figured that Donnell was wearing a bulletproof vest, so he shot him in the head. Donnell fell to the floor and lay still.

Elroy advanced on Xavier, who was cowering now by the door. He snarled, “You were a big man when you had two bodyguards. How tough are you now?”

Xavier was like any other bully. He folded when he saw that he didn’t have the upper hand. He sputtered, “Please, we have money. You can have it all, just don’t hurt me.”

“I don’t want your money,” Elroy replied as he walked up to Xavier. “But payback is a bitch!” Without warning he hauled off and slapped Xavier hard across the face. Xavier fell backward and bounced off the wall. As he came off the wall, Elroy slapped him again, this time knocking him to the floor. Xavier drew himself up into a fetal position and pleaded, “Please, no more! Please, I’m sorry!”

Elroy ordered, “Get up! Get up!” When Xavier refused to get to his feet, Elroy began kicking him.
“Get up!”

Xavier wailed as he was kicked. “Please! Please, don’t hurt me anymore!”

Pug watched his son and was filled with embarrassment. “Don’t beg, Xavier! Goddamn! This is a Tremain! Be a man, Xavier!”

Xavier did not heed his father. He begged, “Please, I’ll do anything. Please don’t kill me! I’ll do anything you want!”

Elroy looked down at Xavier’s quivering body without sympathy and demanded, “You’ll do anything, will you?”

“Yes, just don’t hurt me anymore.”

“All right, I’ve got a mess for you to clean up! I want you to lick my shoes clean of all that pastry crap you spilled on them!”

Pug was appalled. “Don’t do it, Xavier! Don’t do it! At least die like a man!”

Xavier crawled over to where Elroy stood and began licking his shoes. Elroy watched him for a moment then looked at Pug. He asked, “This is your son? This is your legacy? You really are dead!” Elroy knew he could strike no more telling blow to Pug than abasing his son in public. He lifted his shoe and ordered, “Lick the bottoms too!” Xavier didn’t argue. He began licking the sole of Elroy’s shoe.

Tears were running down Pug’s cheeks as he shouted at Elroy, “Kill him! Kill him! He ain’t no son of mine! He don’t deserve to live! Take him out of his misery! Kill him! Save me from killing him!”

Elroy stared down at the man who was licking his shoes and thought, Cowardice like yours causes the worst cruelty. Your father is right, you
do
deserve to die. He bent down and put the barrel of the gun against Xavier’s head. When the cold metal touched his skin, Xavier screamed, a high, wailing keen. Elroy stepped back, surprised that such a sound could come from a man’s body. Then he noticed the smell of feces. He looked with disgust down at the trembling figure at his feet, then he glanced at Pug. “You smell that?” he asked. “Your son just shit on himself!”

Pug shouted, “Kill him! He ain’t no son of mine! He ain’t a DuMont. He ain’t got no backbone! He just a worm!”

“You’re begging me to kill your own son?” Elroy looked at Pug and shook his head. “You raised him! You do it! I’m finished here!” Elroy turned and walked over to the door. He pulled Donnell’s body out of the way, swung the door open, and continued down the hall to where he left his cart. The music of the band was loud and filled the hall.

As soon as Elroy had left the room, Xavier pulled himself into a sitting position and wiped the tears from his face. He stared at Elroy’s retreating back then looked around and saw the butt of Donnell’s gun sticking out from under his jacket. Xavier quickly crawled over to Donnell’s body and pulled the gun from its holster. Using Donnell as a rest, he aimed the revolver at Elroy’s back and fired. His shot went true. The bullet hit Elroy high on his back and he fell to the floor as if he were dead.

“I did it! I did it!” Xavier shouted with surprise. “I killed him! I killed a Tremain!”

“Good,” his father retorted. “Now use the gun on yo’self and kill yo’self! You ain’t got nothin’ worth living for! You just scum! Cowardly scum!”

Anger flashed across Xavier’s face. “What do you mean? I killed him!”

Pug waved his hand dismissively. “Yeah, you shot him in the back after he made you lick his shoes and shit on yo’self. You ain’t nothin’ to be proud of. Why don’t you save Deleon the trouble and kill yo’self!”

“What do you mean, ‘save Deleon the trouble’?”

Pug actually smiled. “Me and Deleon got us a deal. When he finish killin’ King Tremain’s grandsons and setting things to right, he gon’ come back here and kill yo’ cowardly ass! I told him if’en he did right in Frisco, I wouldn’t stand in his way when he came to do you.”

Xavier was irate. “You goddamn bastard! You set my own son against me?”

“You the one who did that by smacking him and his mama around!”

“I didn’t do anything to him that you didn’t do to me!”

“Guess he got way more backbone than you, huh? Which ain’t sayin’ much ’cause you ain’t got nothin’ to keep yo’ back straight!”

An old anger bubbled up in Xavier. He was being ridiculed by his father again, despite the fact he had just killed a Tremain. A family enemy. He should’ve been lauded and complimented. But no, once again he wasn’t good enough. With eyes filled with rage, Xavier stared at his father. “Nothing I do is good enough for you, is it?”

“Oh, go change yo’ pants!” Pug dismissed Xavier with a wave. “I can smell yo’ shit from here. Deleon be doin’ all of us a favor when he kill this one. Can you smell it, Zenia?”

Zenia nodded. “He’s stinking up the place as usual.”

Rage swept over Xavier. All his life his father had derided him. He
was tired of it. He wasn’t going to take any more ridicule. He got to his feet and pointed the revolver at his father. “I’m through taking your shit, you old bastard. You best shut the fuck up!”

Pug cackled. “I don’t need to give you shit. It look like you got plenty in yo’ pants! Ain’t that right, Zenia?” Zenia nodded in affirmation.

“I’m warning you!” Xavier threatened, waving the pistol for emphasis.

“Oh?” Pug said with feigned surprise. “You got enough guts now to shoot somebody that’s lookin’ at you?”

Involuntarily Xavier pulled the trigger and the gun discharged. The bullet hit Pug in the chest and knocked him out of his chair.

Zenia screamed and rushed to kneel down by Pug’s fallen body. She checked and there was only a trace of a pulse. She pulled him into her lap, but he was dying quickly. When Pug stopped breathing, Zenia turned to Xavier and cursed him. “You killed him, you sniveling little cowardly dog! Pug was right, you’re just scum! I hope Deleon takes his time with you! I hope he takes you apart piece by piece!” She laid Pug down carefully, stood up, and returned to her seat.

Xavier pointed the gun at Zenia. He had not considered killing her, but now it seemed a good idea. He would be getting rid of a hostile witness and he wouldn’t have to share his inheritance with her. He only needed one thing from her before she died. He walked toward her. “What’s the combo to the safe, Zenia?”

“Why should I tell you? You’re going to kill me anyway!”

“Because I’ll shoot you in your feet and your legs and then I’ll shoot you in your hands and arms. You’ll tell me one way or the other!”

“All right. Come closer and I’ll tell you.”

“Why? Tell me from here!”

Zenia sneered, “Oh, the little boy is afraid of me; even having a gun doesn’t make him feel secure.”

“I’m not afraid of you!” Xavier protested, walking over to stand in front of her.

“Well, lean down and I’ll tell you the combination.”

Making sure that he had a firm grip on the revolver, Xavier bent down to hear the list of numbers. Zenia made a sudden movement and Xavier felt a sharp pain in the side of his neck. He fired his gun as a reflex as he staggered backward. Zenia was slumping to the floor when he fired a second bullet into her body. He reached up and pulled a hypodermic from his neck. He examined it briefly then threw it on the floor beside her lifeless body.

Serena spoke for the first time. “Kill me too. I’m a witness. If you don’t kill me, I’ll testify against you.”

“I’ll get to you in a minute. I got to figure my angle first.” Xavier went and sat down for a moment. He needed to think. He had to get a plausible story together to explain all the bodies. After a few minutes he had developed a plan. He would blame all the deaths on the Tremain lying in the hall. All he had to do was shoot Serena, then claim that Tremain had killed everyone then dropped the gun as he left. Xavier nodded. He would explain that he merely picked up the gun afterward and shot Tremain before he escaped. It was so simple.

Xavier pushed himself erect and almost fell. His legs were unsteady and there was a severe pain in his neck. His vision seemed to be blurring. He had to blink several times to focus. His legs felt like they were made of lead. He had trouble lifting his feet. He fell as he tried to walk toward Serena. It was strange; he didn’t even feel it when he hit the floor. He tried to stand up, but was only able to get on his hands and knees. He started crawling toward Serena. He had to kill her. Once that was done, everything would be his. Absolutely everything. He would be living in clover. He—