A Crying Shame (133 page)

 

Blackwell was found by some teen-agers who had just returned from smoking pot and fucking on the levee. They did not see Ralph crouched in the bushes across the road. The mortician had caught up with the editor several times, slashing him again and again, turning the man into a mass of bloody ribbons. He was about to finish Blackwell when the kids drove up and he was forced to flee and hide. Now he didn't know what to do. For damned sure he couldn't return to town. That left him only one option: back to the swamps. His mamma would know what to do.

The teen-agers, when they had finished barfing and regained some control of their senses, managed to put Les in the back seat of one of the cars (right in the middle of a puddle of sticky ick) and they took him to the hospital.

The young doctor at the emergency room tried to contact Sheriff Saucier, but the man could not be located. Blackwell regained consciousness just long enough to give Deputy Bradbury a statement; then he died.

The young doctor looked at his surgical nurse and said,
What in the name of God is going on in this parish?”

Under her mask, the nurse blinked her curiously yellow eyes and shrugged her shoulders.

 

The men of Laclede chosen by Joe to aid in his
Christian crusade” were gathered at the edge of the big swamp. Sixty-odd strong, filled with determination, bacon and eggs, coffee, and more than a few with Old Taylor, Jack Daniel's, and Jim Beam.

Sheriff Saucier crouched in the bushes a few hundred yards away, watching the men launch their boats. He shook his head in anger and cursed in Cajun French under his breath.

On the other side of the road, Booger Brady crouched, watching the men, including a few of his relatives. The lawman had lied; they were going to kill. What to do? Booger slipped away just as light began filtering down, spreading a faint redness from the east. He would have to tell his daddy about this. And his mamma. They were going to have to fight—like it or not.

Jon Badon slipped back to his car and returned to Despair, undressing and slipping under the covers, pulling the sleeping warmth of Linda close to him.

To hell with them all! he thought.

Sheriff Saucier had returned to his car and radioed in to the LHP.
They're heading into the swamp right now,” he told dispatch.
Have you heard from Colonel Jeansonne?”

Hold on, Sheriff. Here's a Captain Sundra now.”

Mike? We're preparing to move into position ... should be rolling in about ten minutes. Governor Parker gave the official orders last night to call out that Special Forces unit in Orleans Parish. Company of them. Full combat gear. Then the governor slipped back into a coma. The SF troops are getting into position now. We're beginning to block off the edges of the swamp from the north, west, and east.”

When?”

Right now; doing it easy-like.”

What about us in Fountain?”

The trooper seemed to pause.
Well,”—he hedged the question—
in a way, Mike, you're kind of on your own.”

I don't understand that.”