Redemption (28 page)

Autumn Harper is related to Callie, who might be her first cousin?

I have been completely set up.

He tucked the paper under his arm. “I gotta go.”

“
You found what you’re lookin’ for.”

“
Yeah.”

And I wish to heaven that I hadn’t.

40

Ramsey had been thinking about it ever since he had shot that kid, and today he felt confident enough to ask Jimmy Lee for more money, maybe even a percentage of the auction. It was only fair since he did most Jimmy Lee’s dirty work, and he was going to do more. He didn’t feel a thing about that punk or the fire in Calhoun—just uncompensated. And since there were now fewer folks on Jimmy Lee’s “payroll,” there’d have to be more money for him.

Family ties is one thing
, he thought.
Silk ties and a condo on the beach would suit me much better.

After citing and warning a few city folks on 620, Ramsey drove to Lester’s, dialed Jimmy Lee’s number, and heard a message: “I’m sorry, the number you have reached has been temporarily disconnected.”

“
He’s in his cave again,” he said to himself. “Probably drunk as a skunk.”
Which could be very good for my bank account.

He drove to 15 Poplar Street and found the gates chained shut. “Cuz is in a deep,
dark
cave today.”

He walked the perimeter of the fence to the backyard where the fence had crumbled, and he climbed over, moving through scraggly, brown bushes to the pool. “Jimmy Lee?” he called. “You out here?”

A window opened on the top floor, so he shielded his eyes and looked up.

“
That you, Jimmy Lee?”

A rifle muzzle slowly emerged from the opening in the window, sweeping back and forth.

“
Oh shit!” Ramsey yelled, and he dove for cover against a low wall beside some brittle rose bushes. “Jimmy Lee! It’s me! Ramsey! Don’t shoot me, Cuz!”

A bullet whizzed over his head and struck the diving board, dipping it slightly. Another pinged off a deck umbrella. Two more splashed harmlessly into the pool.

“
Whaddaya want?
” Jimmy Lee howled.

“
I just wanna talk!” Ramsey yelled. “I tried callin’ you, but your phone’s out!” He heard the window slam and peeked over the top of the wall. “Damn. Shot at by my own cousin. What’s this world comin’ to?”

Ramsey stood and dusted himself off just as Jimmy Lee burst through the double doors of the ballroom reloading the rifle, a dark robe flapping behind him.

“
Now, hold on there, Jimmy Lee,” Ramsey said, and he backed as far away from Jimmy Lee as he could to the edge of the pool. “You’ve just had a little too much to drink—”

Jimmy Lee stopped a few feet in front of him, raised the rifle, and took aim. “You been callin’ me?”

“
Yeah, I just wanted to talk to you.”

“
About what?”

Ramsey forced a smile. “Oh, you know, old times. But I can see you’re busy, so I’ll, uh, I’ll just be goin’—”

Jimmy Lee shook his head. “Old times?”

“
Yeah, you know, shoot the shit a bit. But if you’re busy—”

“
When’d you call me?”

“
Just a few minutes ago from Lester’s,” Ramsey said. “I been out all day catchin’ speeders, got bored, needed a break, and thought you’d like some company.”

“
Can you swim?” Jimmy Lee asked.

“
Huh?”

Jimmy Lee got down on one knee. “I said, can ... you ... swim?”

Ramsey looked down at Jimmy Lee’s target.
Not there, Jimmy Lee, anywhere but there!
He backed his heels over the ledge. “You know I can’t swim!”

Jimmy smiled, said, “Well, let’s see if you can do a back flip,” and pulled the trigger.

41

Another
phone call. He knows for sure now. He’s gonna—

Wait. He’ll see. At the auction.

See what?

He’ll see it all, see the whole picture.

Why you let them give it all away? Dude spilled everything, Romelo shot off his mouth, and Dena just let ‘em in!

I know.

Why didn’t you do somethin’?

I did. Ever think that I might
want
him to know?

That’s whack! Now there’s no tellin’ what he might do!

I know, I know, and that worries me some, but because there ain’t no tellin’, we ain’t doin’ nothin’ ‘cept gettin’ your ass outta here for a while. I want you to drive the Buick on over to Calhoun, and take the long way around Pine to get there, and hang with Romelo for a few days.

You want me to drive that rusty Skylark that don’t even have a radio or AC and stay with Romelo and his crew? Man, all those fellas do is smoke herb and play video games. I ain’t goin’.

Excuse me? Did I hear you correctly? Did you just say no to me? Well, who do you think you are?

I don’t … I ain’t sure who I am anymore.

Don’t you worry yourself none. You’re your daddy’s boy all right. That’s who you are.

42

“
What the hell you do that for, Jimmy Lee?”

Jimmy Lee slumped into a deck chair and watched his cousin flounder around in the pool. “I didn’t shoot you, did I? I missed your pecker by a couple three inches.”

Ramsey doggy-paddled to a ladder and pulled himself up. “How am I gonna explain this to the sheriff?”

“
You’ll think of somethin’.” Jimmy Lee rubbed his free hand over his stubbly beard. “Hell, just tell him it’s your sweat.”

“
Very funny.”

“
What’d you really come out here for?”

Ramsey stood dripping in front of him. “Got a towel?”

“
In the pool house.”

While Ramsey went to dry off, Jimmy Lee heard a voice in his head say, “Got a match?” He closed his eyes, and he was back at Mt. Zion ...

“
This place’ll go up like kindlin,” Michael’s saying. “One hundred percent old, holy wood. Got a match? Gimme a match, Jimmy Lee!”

J is stirring. About time.

“
Please, Michael,” J’s crying. “Please don’t burn it!”

“
You like this old barn?” Jimmy Lee tosses his lighter to Michael. “My daddy built it for y’all nigguhs. My daddy!”

“
He was my daddy before he was yours!”

“
He gonna only be my daddy now …”

And that’s when I kicked him in the ribs,
Jimmy Lee thought.
That’s when I stomped that boy’s guts clean out. That’s when I branded him with the lighter after that bald-faced lie.

“
That actually felt good,” Ramsey said, drying his hair in front of him.

“
Yeah, it did,” Jimmy Lee said absently.
Kickin’ the shit out of my own friend and brother did feel good ... then.
“Now what you need this time? A hot tub? Another air-conditioner? A bigger fridge? You already got so much shit in that trailer you can barely move around in there.”

Ramsey wrapped the towel around his neck. “Well, now that you mention it, I
could
use—”

Jimmy Lee snapped the rifle to his shoulder. “What?”

“
I can see you’re in a bad mood, so I’ll, uh, I’ll tell you about it later. It can wait. Really.”

Jimmy Lee lowered the rifle. “You thinkin’ bad thoughts, Cuz?”

“
No, Jimmy Lee.”

Liar. You want a bigger piece of the pie.
“Cuz if you are, cuz ...”

“
I ain’t. Really. I mean, I could use a little more compensation, but—”

Jimmy Lee raised the rifle and aimed at Ramsey’s stomach. “Shit, even as drunk as I am, I couldn’t miss that fat gut. You never were a very good shot, Ramsey.”

Ramsey raised his fat hands. “I’ve told you a hundred times how sorry I am about that, Jimmy Lee. I popped him twice. Romelo shoulda died.”

Jimmy Lee let the rifle fall to his lap. “Nigguhs is hard to kill. They got skin tough as iron, bones stronger than steel, heads as hard as granite. But they bleed, cuz, oh how they bleed.” He looked up, and instead of his second cousin, he saw a major liability.
Bet you’d bleed a long, long time, cousin Ramsey. They might have to put out flood warnings if you started to bleed.
“You better get back to work. Where’s Overton?”

“
Hell if I know. I left him at Lester’s this mornin’, and when I went there to call you, the Bronco was gone.” He raised his eyebrows. “Bet he’s at Miss Callie’s gettin’ hisself some.”

What a waste of white flesh, but at least he’s out of the way.
“Where’s your trap today?”

“
Green dumpsters at the line. I just love ruinin’ city folks’ weekends.”

Perfect. The perfect place for me to ruin yours.
“See you around, cuz.”

Jimmy Lee watched Ramsey waddle away tracking water across the patio.

Hmm, another headline: “Disgruntled Calhoun Motorist Shoots Deputy.”

Better dust off Dad’s Jag.

43

After thanking and dropping off Jones with the promise to tell him how things turned out, Overton passed the mall and the jewelry store without a second thought.

No ring today,
he thought wearily.
Better save my money so I can get Callie and Daniel a good lawyer.

He sighed.
But I bet old Curtis Daniels is
already
their lawyer.

He slowed to fifty near the Pine County line where Ramsey usually set his trap behind some overflowing dumpsters, but he wasn’t there.
Either he listened to me for once, or he’s out making more mischief.

He considered the day’s revelations with dread.
My half-wit deputy is probably a murderer-for-hire and an arsonist. My other “deputy,” Autumn, is related to the Willis
and
Poindexter families somehow. She has to be heavily involved in all this, telling me Daniel’s dead when he isn’t, focusing my attention on Jimmy Lee.

And my partner, my love, my future wife is most likely the force behind it all.

“
And I didn’t see it coming!” he growled, and he slammed the steering wheel with both hands.

You can never truly know the folks closest to you.

He turned into the empty lot at Lester’s and entered the office. He didn’t know who to confront first. They had all hidden something from him, but Callie had hidden the most by far.

But what do I say? How do I confront the love of my life? Miss Callie, you’ve been bad? Why’d you have to do it this way? Why didn’t you confide in me?
He shuddered because he knew what he was supposed to say.

Callinda Poindexter, you’re under arrest for the murder of …
He closed his eyes.
For the
murders
of a whole bunch of people I once knew.

He fiddled with the phone cord then took out and unfolded the two clippings he had “borrowed” from the
Courier
. He read and re-read them, hoping he had been wrong.

We were born a month apart a world apart, and because of a birth announcement and a family picture, our life together may fall apart.

He pulled a clean sheet of paper from a drawer and wrote “chronology” at the top.
Maybe this insanity will make more sense to me in some sort of order.