Redemption (37 page)

“
Nope. That was Aunt Autumn. She was a good escort, huh?”

Overton felt sick and let his head fall to his chest. “Yeah. She steered me around plenty.”

Daniel shrugged. “So you got played, Sheriff. There’s no shame in that. You’re a sucker for a pretty woman. No shame in that at all.”

Overton looked up. “It is if you’re the sheriff. What happened next? You went to Annie’s, right?”

“
Annie’s landfill, you mean. Shit, me and Grandma had to clean one room out completely cuz every last stack was about me. Great-Grandma Annie had a serious obsession with my ass. She was one spooky bitch and dumb as a brick, too. She actually thought she was gettin’ real phone calls from the Great Beyond when it was only Uncle Isaiah talkin’ to her from up a pole. He works for the phone company up in Jersey, knows all about that shit, knew how to keep her phones working.”

I knew there was somethin’ about those boots. They were for climbing telephone poles.
“Isaiah called Annie to come to Darcy’s.”

“
Yep.”

“
So y’all could run her down.”

Daniel smiled. “That’s one way of lookin’ at it.”

What other way is there?
“And Isaiah bought the Cadillac.”

Daniel laughed. “Now that was one fine hoopdy, except for the smell.” He rolled his eyes. “Smelled like pee. So that no one would ever buy that Cadillac, Autumn got one of her cousins’ kids to go to that junkyard at least once a week to pee in that car.”

They covered every base.
“You drove it to Lester’s.”

“
Yeah. Grandma showed me what lines to cut, I cut, we cut outta there to Calhoun, bought some flour for your biscuits, took the Jeep back here.” He paused. “Heard y’all from Daddy’s room that night. Either Grandma’s fakin’ it, or you got it goin’ on, Sheriff.”

“
You ... you heard everything?”

“
Yeah. Liked the way you two talked to each other afterwards. Y’all make a cute couple. Especially liked all that talk about marriage.” He smiled and smirked. “You, uh, know why she really wants to marry your ass, don’t you?”

Because she loves me?
“I’m afraid to ask.”

“
So you won’t be forced to testify against her in court,” Daniel said. “Cool, huh? Grandma thought of
everything
.”

Overton lurched out of the barn into the wind and rain, sobs rising and falling as he looked at the sky. He stumbled into a deep puddle and fell to his knees. “O
h God!”
He felt hands on his shoulders. “Go away,” he moaned, but he allowed Daniel to help him to his feet. “It’s not true.”

“
Let’s get out of the rain, man.” Daniel pulled Overton into the barn. “You’ll catch your death out there.”

Overton slid down the wall. “It’s not true. It can’t be.”

“
If you say so, Sheriff.” Daniel smiled. “Wanna hear about Mags?”

Overton couldn’t find his voice and only nodded.

“
Grandma and I flew up there, and I went to see her. She was gonna represent my book.
Succeed
. Great name for a book. Aunt Autumn wrote a good one, and who knows? Maybe she’ll get it published one day. She titled it after the sign in the Pine High locker room, you know, the one all the jocks jump up and touch before goin’ out to the field. I like it. Don’t just try—succeed.”

Overton shook his head. “
You
pushed her out.”

“
I never touched her. All I did was break a window with a chair and gave her no other means of escape.”

Try running that defense by a jury.
“You caused her death.”

“
Yeah, and she coulda cleared up my daddy’s murder investigation, so we’re even. Did you know that the bitch had the nerve to get my daddy’s poetry published as her own? She deserved everythin’ she got.”

“
Who filmed it? Isaiah?”

“
Nah. Grandma’s hands are steadier.” He stuck his head outside the barn. “Storm’s breakin’. Must be the eye, huh? Eye of the storm. Kinda like me, huh? Wanna know about Michael?”

It just keeps getting worse.
“
Y
ou
killed Michael?”

“
I was there.” He pointed at some deep scratch marks on the Jeep’s bumper. “Man stole the girl who should’ve been my mother, right? All we did was create a little fender-bender.”

“
But how’d you know he’d be out getting gas?”

“
Sharese called. Cold, huh? Sendin’ your old man out for some gas so he’d get his ass hit by a train. We had sent her a copy of Darcy’s diary a couple days before, and that convinced her. You check that Winnebago’s brakes? They sucked. This little Jeep pushed that Winnebago like it wasn’t even there.”

“
You didn’t tamper with the brakes?”

“
Nope.”

Ramsey must have done something instead of washing the car that day.
“And Callie just ... watched the whole thing.”

“
With tears in her eyes, though. Doubt she was cryin’ for Michael though. Then we went home so Grandma could make a casserole for Sharese. Grandma can cook, huh?”

“
Yeah. She can really cook up a storm.”
Of death and destruction.

Daniel smiled. “Wanna know where I’ve been today?”

Overton straightened up.
Everywhere this kid goes, someone dies.
“Where?”

“
Jimmy Lee’s.” Daniel smiled more broadly. “He’s dead.”

Overton shot to his feet and stood in front of Daniel. “
What?
”

“
The man who killed my daddy is dead. Shot himself in the head.”

This isn’t …
“Are you sure he’s dead?”

“
All I know is that he blew out the back of his head and that he isn’t talking anymore. Man just would not shut up.”

“
If you had anything to do with this—”

Daniel shrugged. “Shit, I had everything to do with it, but you’ll never be able to prove it. Jimmy Lee committed suicide, just like Darcy, Annie, and Mags. Hell, even that Powell guy will say so. He doesn’t have your imagination, Sheriff. You go to Uncle Jimmy’s house right now, and you’ll find him with a gun in his hand, and I
didn’t
squeeze the trigger.”

Overton stepped back. “How could you have everything to do with it then?”

“
It was all part of the plan. We scared poor Jimmy Lee with phone calls, with his computer, with the intercom, then with me. I look like my daddy, right?”

Overton nodded. “You’re the spittin’ image.”

“
That’s what they tell me. So I was just one brother payin’ another brother a visit. Scared the shit outta me, too. Brother was packin’, even shot at me three times. I told him, ‘Bro, you can’t kill me twice,’ and I threatened him with a whole bunch of ghosts, even Ramsey, the fat-ass who shot Romelo.”

“
Ramsey?”

“
Yeah. Uncle Isaiah was at Jimmy Lee’s last night riggin’ up the intercom, and he saw Jimmy Lee draggin’ Ramsey through the house.” Daniel snapped his fingers. “Remind me to call Romelo. He’ll want to know that.” He laughed. “You know, Ramsey was the only one who didn’t die because of an ‘accident.’ That’s kinda funny when you think about it, huh? He got killed by his own cousin, and he wasn’t even part of the seven.”

“
The seven?”

“
Yeah. Grandma’s list. Darcy, Annie, Lester, Mags, Michael, Jimmy Lee.” Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “And one more.”

“
Who?”

Daniel shook his head. “Ain’t everybody been tellin’ you to think it through?”

“
Yeah, but ...” Overton frowned. “Creed?”

“
Grandpa? Hell no. He got himself right with God, even told you exactly what we wanted him to tell you.”

Figures.
“And Autumn was there to make sure.”

“
You got that right.”

“
I don’t know ... Curtis Daniels?”

“
You kiddin’? He’s been on our side from the get-go. He’s gonna make sure we get the Sellers Home Place now. We are the rightful heirs, you know. Daddy was the Senator’s firstborn and was supposed to inherit it all. Now me and Grandma get it. Sweet deal, huh? I’ll give you one more guess.”

“
Who’s left?”
Mrs. Williams? Sharese? Sharese’s boys?

“
Think hard, Sheriff,” Daniel said, and he put on the T-shirt and letter jacket.

“
I don’t know,” Overton said. “There isn’t anybody left.”

Daniel sighed and walked around to the back of the Jeep. He returned with a .45 and aimed it at Overton’s chest. “Sorry it has to be this way.”

Overton swallowed. “
I
’m
the seventh?”

Daniel motioned with the gun. “Drop your gun belt and get in the Jeep, Sheriff.”

“
What the—”

“
The gun belt first, nice and slow.”

That can’t be right! I was a hero earlier today!
“But I’ve been trying to help! I’ve been trying—”

Daniel took a step forward. “Take off the gun belt. I don’t want to have to shoot it off you.”

Overton unbuckled the belt and let it drop to the floor. “There ... there has to be some mistake!”

“
Nope.” Daniel tossed a set of keys to Overton. “You drive.”

“
But I—”

Daniel fired a shot over Overton’s head. “We ain’t got much time. The eye’s gonna pass, and then it’s all-hell again. Get in the Jeep. I’ll tell you which way to turn.”

Overton watched his legs moving toward the Jeep, barely conscious that he had gotten in and put the key into the ignition. “Can’t we just—”

“
Nope,” Daniel interrupted.

Overton choked back a sob.
This boy has no conscience. He has no soul!
“I want to speak to Callie.”

“
That ain’t a good idea right now. Let’s go.”

Overton
drove the Jeep out of the barn into the sunlight, swerving around the fallen trees to 115, a halo of bulging gray clouds overhead.

“
Take a left.”

Overton drove as slowly as he dared, leaving the Jeep in third gear. “I don’t understand!”

“
You will.”

“
You might be able to get away with the others, but you can’t expect to get away with this.”

“
Sure I do,” Daniel said. “And Hurricane Anthony will cover all the tracks. Shit, we can blame this one on the weather.”

“
Hurricane’s don’t shoot bullets.”

Daniel laughed. “Gun’s just to get you there, Sheriff.”

They approached 109.

“
Turn right.”

Overton ran the stop sign and turned right. “Where are we going?”

“
Fairlawn. Got a grave I want you to see.”

Many of the graves at Fairlawn Cemetery were under water, but the grave Daniel wanted Overton to see was high on a hill, Pine Lake visible in the distance. Daniel took a shovel from under the back seat and tossed it to Overton. “Start diggin’.”

“
Where?”

Daniel nodded at the largest headstone. “You see any other headstone?
That
one.”

“
Isn’t that ...” Overton’s heart thudded. “Senator Sellers’s grave?”

“
Yep.
Great
-grandpa. Start diggin’.”

“
What for?”

Daniel sighed and fired at the headstone, gouging a chunk out of the cross. “Just dig, man.”

“
But I—”

Daniel fired again, this time at Overton’s feet. “You ain’t good at diggin’, are you? You shoulda done more diggin’ fifteen years ago, right? You know, if you had done your job back then, I wouldn’t have had to spend a night in a graveyard.
So dig
. And if you think I can’t take you out before you get near me with that shovel, think again.”