Pie Town (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-five

R
ob Chavez had finished the first football practice of the season and needed more action. He was fired up, excited about the team workout, and thrilled that the school year was about to start. This was his year, he had told himself. This year, his senior year, was going to be the best yet. He had all the plays down solid. He was more accurate with his passing and faster when he ran. He was confident, and he was revved up after the early practice.

After most of the other players were gone, the coach had called Rob into his office and told him that the University of New Mexico recruiter had called him over the summer and that he planned to drive up to meet Rob, watch him play a game. The coach seemed confident that this could mean a scholarship for his star quarterback, and if that didn’t work out, he was pretty sure that Rob could get a complete ride at New Mexico State if he wanted it. The young player’s statistics were impressive on the high school level, and he had broken a number of records during his last season. Healthy, stronger, heavier, Rob was certain that this football season would be the year he dominated and the year when he would be given a scholarship and a chance to get out of his hick hometown. It had been a great evening.

He was still dating Katie White, had been all summer, even when there had been a couple of times he messed around with the new girl in town. He and Katie broke up for a week or so after she found out he was seeing somebody else, but they were back together, and he was pretty sure she hadn’t figured out who the somebody else was. He was pretty sure no one knew about him and Trina.

Trina had gone pretty far with Rob in their few short get-togethers. There had been oral sex and a lot of heavy petting. He had stayed over at her apartment a couple of nights. She had declined intercourse, claiming she didn’t want the experience with a virgin, nor did she want the reputation that would surely follow. She had taught him a few things, but finally cut things off when she thought Katie had figured out who she was and told him not to come over to her apartment anymore. He needed to focus on one relationship at a time, she told him, and she didn’t want to be responsible for breaking another girl’s heart.

Rob really put the pressure on Katie after that, and she continued to be resistant, but he was sure, with a little more pressure, and especially with football season starting and the return of his all-star status at school, he would get what he wanted from her. He was certain of it, and he was starting to feel like maybe this was the night.

There had been no plans to get together that week, especially not on a Thursday night, because of his practice and her volunteer work at the nursing home, but he needed to see her. He wanted to tell her about what the coach had said about a scholarship to UNM, and he wanted to move things along. He was tired of waiting. He wanted to have sex.

He drove past her house, slowing down and almost turning in before he noticed the squad car in the driveway. He sped up and passed the house, preferring not to visit when her brother was at home. Danny had made it clear to Rob the last time he saw him that he had a vested interest in Katie’s well-being and that if Rob hurt his little sister in any way, there would be punishment served. Rob understood and did not want to press it with the lawman. Rob’s brother had been arrested by Danny for possession of marijuana a couple of years earlier, and his brother happened to mention that Danny had a mean streak. Rob didn’t want to see it. He hurried past the house and then turned back toward town.

Rob was about to go home, just forget about seeing Katie, when he saw Trina walking up the street. It surprised him to see her at such a late hour, and he wondered if she was going home from a date or heading out for one. He wondered if this could be his golden opportunity, if not with Katie, then at least with her. He slowed down as he neared her, rolling down the window on the passenger side so they could talk.

“Hey, beautiful,” he said, grinning. “I was just thinking about you,” he lied.

“Hi, Rob,” she said, without looking in his direction. She kept walking.

“So, why’s a hot girl like you walking by herself alone at night?” He put the car in reverse and drove very slowly, staying beside her.

“You need to keep moving, Rob,” she said. “In the right direction.”

“Come on, hop in.” He kept trying.

“I’m fine,” she countered.

“Don’t you want a lift?” He remembered the first time she had gotten in his truck, and he could feel himself getting excited.

Trina kept walking. This was one time she wasn’t interested in dealing with testosterone. She didn’t reply.

Rob stayed right beside her. “What? You won’t even speak to me?” he asked, trying to sound hurt. “I did what you asked. I’ve stayed away.”

Trina cast a glance in his direction. “Thank you,” she responded. “Now why don’t you run over to your girlfriend’s house and try to get into her pants?”

“Oh, come on, Trina, give a guy a break. Just get in. I’ll take you wherever you want to go. I won’t ask nothing from you. I just feel like giving a friend a lift.” He eyed his rearview mirror, making sure no other traffic was coming his way. “We are still friends, aren’t we?” He grinned.

“I thought I made it clear about us,” she said.

“Perfectly clear,” he noted. “I’m not ready to go home. I’m jacked up after football practice, and nobody is out, and it’s a beautiful night to ride around. Just let me drive you where you’re going.”

Trina stopped, knowing it was a bad idea, but decided she would rather ride than walk.

“Rob’s limousine at your service,” he said.

“Oh, all right,” she responded, opening the door and jumping in. “But I’m not messing around with you. I’m tired,” she said.

“No messing around,” Rob said with a wink and put the car in drive and cut a U-turn. He drove right past Danny as the deputy was stopped at the corner without seeing him. He was way too excited about having Trina sitting next to him.

“Where shall it be?” Rob asked. “You want to drive up to the ridge or over to the cemetery or just ride around?”

“I was on my way to the church,” she said.

“Even better,” Rob said. He made the turn to head up in the direction of the Holy Family Catholic Church.

“I’m not going there for that again,” Trina said, referring to the previous times they had been in the sanctuary together. “I’m going to talk to Father George,” she explained.

“Why on earth do you want to talk to him?” Rob asked, having forgotten that the new priest was living in the rectory and didn’t go to sleep as early as Father Joseph. He drove quickly.

“I don’t know. I just think he might be able to help,” she said.

“Why don’t you give me a shot?” Rob asked, reaching over and touching Trina on the leg. “I think I can help you a lot better than he can.” He slid his hand up her thigh while he headed up the road to the church.

Trina sighed, taking his hand and throwing it back in his lap. “Are you going to take me there or not?” she asked.

“Baby, we can skip church and I can take you to heaven if you’d just let me,” he replied, this time reaching up to grab her breast.

Trina yanked away his hand. “Rob, I am so not interested in this,” she said.

“Oh, come on, baby.” He reached over and pulled her hard, dragging her closer to him. They had gotten to the church, and he was heading into the parking lot. “Let’s just have a little fun for old times’ sake.”

Trina, now practically sitting in the driver’s seat, slammed her foot down on the brake, throwing them both forward and jamming Rob’s face into the steering wheel.

“What is wrong with you?” he yelled, reaching up to touch his face and feeling blood now dripping from his bottom lip.

She felt for the gear stick and threw the engine into park, slid over to the passenger’s side, and reached for the door handle. When she started to open the door, Rob pulled her back.

“What are you doing?” he asked. “Are you crazy or something?”

“Or something,” she answered him. “Just let me out and you go home.” She already had the door halfway opened, and she threw her elbow back hard, catching Rob in the chin.

Rob winced from the blow and then pushed her hard out of the truck. “Fine, bitch. Get out.” And before she could close the door, he sped away.

The night was not going at all like he had hoped.

Chapter Twenty-six

I
t was well after midnight when Bernie King was driving back from an estate sale down in Silver City. A ranch had foreclosed, and the bank was selling off all the equipment, the stock, and the land. He hadn’t planned to stay as long as he did, but he ran into an old buddy who had grown up in Pie Town and then moved to Carlsbad when he was a teenager. They found each other just before the auction started and decided to have dinner together afterward. They ended up talking well after the restaurant quit serving and stayed as long as the manager would let them, drinking coffee and reminiscing about old times. When the hour came to say good-night, Bernie thought about getting a hotel room at the place where his buddy was staying, but finally decided he would drive home.

He didn’t buy much at the sale, a few odds and ends, wires and tools, a good-looking table saw. He hadn’t really gone down there planning to buy anything. He just liked to see what other folks had, offer support in some small way to the family, and maybe find a bargain. Turned out, the family was long gone from their farm and from Silver City, and the only representative for the property owner was a man from the bank. Bernie could tell who he was because he was wearing a suit and because, after he walked over and whispered to the auctioneer a few times, he distanced himself during the rest of the sale from most of the ranchers standing around.

Like the other foreclosure sales Bernie had attended, this one was a fairly sad event, and the longtime rancher had almost decided this would be his last. It was just too hard to see a man’s property picked over and measured so nonchalantly. It was hard to know that a person, a rancher like himself, had lost everything he had worked so hard to have. It just made him feel bad to bid on the details of a man’s life, and he had been just about to leave before the thing started when he had run into his old pal. He stayed for the entire sale, ended up enjoying the auction, and even bought the saw, which he got for a very good price and knew he was certain to use.

Bernie rolled down the window to stay awake. He thought the fresh air would help. He was not used to being up so late, and he was sleepy. He glanced down at the clock on the dashboard and realized it was way past his bedtime. He thought about the next day and wondered if he could sleep an extra hour in the morning or if he would need to start early trying to make up for the day’s work he had lost already.

He turned off Highway 32 onto Highway 60 and headed into Pie Town. He was glad he was almost home. He slowed down as he drove through the center of town, checking out all the storefronts and buildings. His was the only vehicle on the road. As he headed across to the other side of town, he looked at all the houses, naming the occupants to himself, and then dropped his speed again when he drove past Francine’s house. He noticed a light on in the backroom and wondered if she stayed up that late every night. He wondered about the waitress, wondered if what he heard was true, that she was interested in seeing him.

Bernie had been in love only one time, and when he was rejected by Coleen Winters back when they were in high school, he had never made an attempt at love again. He threw himself into his work on the ranch, taking over when his parents died, and filled his days with managing the farm, repairing old fences, and tending to the cattle. He was lonesome only at suppertime, when he fancied the thought of a wife sitting near him, a few children around the table. But once he had put a television in the kitchen and started eating his dinner to the evening news, he found he actually preferred to live alone.

As he watched Francine’s house grow smaller and smaller in his rearview mirror, he figured it was best to leave things as they were. He was too old, he told himself, to think about finding love. He had made a good life for himself, built up a nice bank account, and taken good care of his family’s place. He had managed a solitary life this long, and he thought there was no reason to end what he had worked so hard to maintain. Besides, he enjoyed the friendship with Francine and thought sharing meals with her at the diner was probably as good a relationship as he could have.

He kept watching his mirror until he took the turn out of town that went past the Joyners’ old place, with its row of dilapidated barns, the road that would finally lead him out beyond the Catholic church and home. He was yawning, blinking hard, and was just about to make the curve near the church when he thought he got a glimpse of a young woman, the same young woman he had met in the parking lot of the diner when the priest arrived and the same one who had filled in for Francine while she was visiting friends in Phoenix. He could see it was her, heading in the opposite direction, walking off of the road, in the fields, and moving in the direction of Pie Town.

Bernie stopped the truck and stuck his head out the window. He was going to yell out to her, offer her a ride back home since he certainly didn’t think it was safe for her to be out there by herself, when something else caught his eye. He turned back to look out the windshield and suddenly noticed smoke, a plume hanging above the road a few hundred yards away. He put the car back in gear and inched around the curve to see where the smoke was coming from.

“Jesus Christ,” he said, stopping again in the middle of the road. “The church is on fire!”

Bernie pulled his cell phone out of his front pocket, punched in 911, and let them know where he was and what was happening, and then he called Roger to make sure the sheriff was aware of the fire. When he hung up from his calls, he suddenly remembered what had captured his attention before he had seen the burning church. He turned back around to search for the girl. He looked across the fields and down the road for Trina. He even put the truck in reverse and backed around the curve, looking everywhere, but could not find her. Suddenly, Bernie thought of Father George. He put the engine back in drive and headed toward the burning building. He stopped in front of the church, jumped out of his truck, and ran toward the rectory, hoping that the priest was in his bed and had not ventured into the sanctuary for some late night prayer.