A Tree Born Crooked (12 page)

“What?”

James got into his truck and slammed the door closed. An old man getting out of the Chevy parked in front of him turned and shot him a dirty look.
 

“I don’t know what you’re thinking. I don’t know what kinda rat shit ideas you got lodged up there in that sinkhole you call a brain, but I have not been in this situation before.”

“But I know you done stuff like this.”

“Rabbit, you listen to me and you listen to me good if you don’t want me hanging up, throwing this phone out the window, and letting your sorry ass eat the dust my wheels churn up as I do what I shoulda done in the first place.”

Rabbit’s voice was very quiet.

“Okay.”

“I done a lot of things I shouldn’t have. You don’t know the half of it. But let me tell you something. I did not do stupid shit with stupid people that resulted in even more stupider shit that I needed help cleaning up after. You got that?”

“You don’t think you’re just a little far up on your high horse there?”

“I don’t care. It’s the truth. And I need you to understand that before we go any further with this.”

There was a long pause as Rabbit tried to decide if he should continue fighting with his brother or let himself be beaten.

“Okay. I understand.”

James jammed the keys in the ignition.
 

“Here’s what you’re gonna do. You’re gonna stay at Mama’s and keep your phone on you in case Delmore calls. Now, if he don’t by say, six or seven, you call him or go over there. Also, keep the TV on. See if there’s anything about Lucky’s. You need to know what the police are doing about this from their end.”

“Oh, right, I forgot that part. What are you gonna do?”

“I’m gonna try and find Waylon.”

“Why?”

“Because the guy who disappears is usually the one with the answers.”

And so here he was, sitting across from a woman he would much rather be talking to about something else. She sipped her coffee, looking past him at the clouds building up behind the tree line. At the other end of the porch, a set of seashell wind chimes tinkled continuously in the breeze. She turned her head slightly and looked off down the driveway.
 

“So, you want to know if I know where Waylon is?”

“I do.”

She turned back toward him and squinted in the slanting afternoon sunlight. She took another sip of coffee and set the cup down on the table, spilling some over the edge onto the peeling, white wicker.
 

“No. I don’t know where he is. And that’s a good thing.”

“Oh?”

“Because when I hear what I think I’m about to hear, I’m gonna feel obliged to kick his ass.”

James set his coffee cup down next to hers and leaned forward. The dog stood up, stretched, and sauntered down to the other end of the porch to sit despondently with its head resting between its paws.
 

“Marlena, I don’t know you that well. I don’t know how involved you are with Waylon’s affairs, and I don’t know how much you want to get tangled up in what has somehow become mine.”

He paused, but the expression on her face hadn’t changed. She kept her eyes level with his and waited for him to continue.
 

“But I think you should know. I think Waylon has gotten himself into some kinda trouble. Something bad.”

“You mean like robbing that strip joint up near the county line last night?”

James was taken aback for a second.

“You knew about it?”

“I know about a lot of things. Don’t mean I take any part in them.”

“But Waylon told you about it.”

Marlena picked her coffee back up.

“Daddy doesn’t tell me shit. But that don’t mean I’m not listening all the time. I didn’t know the particulars, but I knew your brother and that creep Delmore were planning on knocking over that place, and that Daddy was providing his usual services. I’m guessing supplying them with guns. Though what they would need them for, I don’t know. Guess that’s why I’m just a bartender and not involved in organized crime. But what does this have to do with you? Don’t tell me you went along with them.”

“Ah, no. The invitation was extended and declined.”

“So you are sitting on my front porch, because?”
 

“Do you know what happened last night?”

Now Marlena’s countenance changed. The barrier of bantering she had held up between them began to crumble. She stood up and leaned against the porch railing with her back to him.

“No. I don’t.”

“Rabbit called me this morning. Early. Very early. Things did not go as planned.”

“How so?”

“Apparently the money wasn’t the hundred thousand they thought it would be. It was about eighty thousand light of that. And one of the girls was still at the club and saw them.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“And Delmore shot her. And killed her.”

Marlena whipped around, her eyes flashing and her hands gripping the railing behind her.

“Are you kidding me? He killed someone?”

“I guess Waylon met up with them after it happened. He was supposed to help Delmore do something with the girl. Only he never came back with Delmore, and Rabbit doesn’t know where he is. So I was hoping you did. I got a real bad feeling this is all about to go south.”

Marlena didn’t say anything. She turned back around, leaned over slowly, and rested her forearms on the railing. She clasped her hands in front of her and stared out down the driveway for a moment. James let her think. He didn’t know if he had done the right thing by divulging everything to her. He couldn’t tell if the tightness of her mouth and the stiffness of her neck meant that she was afraid, angry, or something else altogether. James didn’t move. He toyed with a loose piece of wicker sticking up from the table and waited for her to turn back toward him. When she did, her eyes were steeled with resolve.
 

“Okay. That’s where we’re at, then?”

“That’s where we’re at. I’m waiting for Rabbit to call me once he knows more. Once he can talk to Delmore and fill in some of the blanks.”

“And does anyone know that it was them? I mean, are there people out looking for them yet?”

“I don’t know.”

James set his empty coffee cup down.
 

“But I do know that Rabbit said something about shell casings. About Delmore and Waylon being worried about not having as clean a getaway as they had thought.”

“So the owner, Lyndell, is going to be after them. The law too, but I’d be a lot more worried about Lyndell.”

“You know this guy?”

Marlena picked at a gray splinter creeping up out of the porch railing.
 

“I met him once when he came into the bar to talk to Daddy. Wasn’t a creep like Delmore, but didn’t exactly look like he cared for babies and kittens neither. And he’s connected.”

James stood up.

“Connected?”
 

“Yeah, this new group of idiots turned criminals. Call themselves the Alligator Mafia. Stupid name, if you ask me. Mostly they just organize the doctor shoppers and the oxy buses in North and Central Florida. They run some of the pipeline from this area up into Tennessee.”

James shook his head.

“Never heard of ‘em.”

“They’re kinda new to the area, I guess. Low level rejects from the old Trafficante crew out of Tampa and the pill runners up in Jacksonville. They really just muscle people around and transport the pills. Hillbilly heroin kinda bullshit. But I heard they can be ruthless if their money gets messed with.”

“How do you know this?”

Marlena shrugged her shoulders.

“I read the papers and listen to the nut jobs who come into my bar. People talk awful loud when they’re trying hard to be cool.”

“And this Lyndell guy? He’s part of all this?”

“Far as I know. But Delmore and Rabbit should have known all that before they hit that place up. Right? I’m sure Daddy did.”

“I don’t know anything anymore. If what you’re saying is true, then I think they’re all in a hell of a lot more trouble than they think. Or at least, than Rabbit thinks.”

James was starting down the porch steps when his phone rang. He stopped and looked up at Marlena, who was still leaning against the porch railing. She raised her eyebrows and shrugged her shoulders. Rabbit was talking before James could even say hello, and Marlena leaned over farther to hear James’ side of the conversation.
 

“Wait, wait, slow down. Okay. Yeah, actually I just learned that myself ‘bout five minutes ago. Thanks for clueing me in to the local reject mafia. What? Wait, what? Shit, get outta there, Rabbit. Get outta there right now and meet me, hold on—”

James paused, trying to think of a place where they could talk safely. Marlena interjected.

“How about The Diamond? No one’s there and it can lock up pretty tight. And there’s at least two shotguns that I know of behind the bar.”

James put the phone back to his ear.
 

“Meet me at the bar. At The Blue Diamond. It’s okay, I’m with Marlena, I’ll get the keys from her. Yeah. Well, she knew already. Knew more than I did, anyways. Okay. Yes, go now. I mean it, now.”

James snapped the phone shut and jammed it down in his pocket. He turned around and went back up on the porch to Marlena.
 

“Look, the last thing I want to do is drag you into this.”

“My daddy’s the one missing, remember?”

“I know, but still.”

“And don’t think I’m just gonna hand over the keys to my bar. I’m going with you.”

“You sure about this?”

Part of James wished that he had never seen Marlena sitting on her Jeep in the parking lot, never sat at the bar drinking with her, never drove out to her house to experience the stillness and serenity that seemed to come so naturally to her. But there was the selfish ache of loneliness inside James, too. Marlena smiled, but her eyes were hard, determined, and unyielding. James caught the glimmer of a force he dared not reckon with.
 

“One thing you need to go ahead and know about me, James. I don’t say things unless I aim to do them. Let’s go.”

~ ~ ~

Marlena sat on top of the bar fidgeting with a stack of coasters. Sitting at one of the scratched bar tables, James watched Rabbit and unconsciously rubbed the palm of his hand back and forth across his unshaven cheek. Rabbit refused to sit, no matter how many times James told him to calm down and be still. He slugged the shot of whiskey Marlena had poured for him and paced back and forth across the bare cement floor, wringing his hands and continuously checking the locked door behind him. He was much worse than when James had seen him in the trailer that morning. This was not confusion or anxiety. This was terror. Rabbit was truly living up to his namesake, frozen in the glare of oncoming headlights. James was trying to be sympathetic, but his patience was wearing thin. He glanced over at Marlena, but she only shook her head.

“Rabbit. I’m not gonna tell you again. You need to calm down, and you need to talk to me.”

Rabbit checked the door again.
 

“Are you sure that other door, the one in the back, is locked? Did she check it?”

He turned his frantic eyes toward Marlena, as if realizing for the first time that she was there.
 

“Did you check it?”

Considering how Marlena had last spoken to Rabbit, James was surprised at the gentleness of her voice.
 

“I did. I promise, no one is getting in here, Rabbit.”

“And you sure both them things is loaded?”

Rabbit pointed to the sawed-off 12-gauges Marlena had stacked on the bar. She slid her hand toward them, trying to let Rabbit know that they were not going to be caught unaware.
 

“I’m sure. And if I’m not mistaken, so is that .45.”

Marlena pointed to the gun on the table in front of James. When they had arrived at the bar, James had hesitated for a moment before pulling it out from under the seat of his truck. He had watched Marlena’s face, trying to discern if she was startled or even a little surprised. She had jumped down out of the pickup without ever taking notice.
 

James drummed his fingers on the table next to the gun.
 

“So, the doors are all locked and the guns are all loaded.”

Rabbit nodded his head and made as if to sit down in one of the bar chairs. Instead, he gripped the back of it and used it as a brace to keep himself steady. He took a deep breath.

“Okay. I didn’t wait for Delmore to call. I just couldn’t take waiting no more. Mama came home from the store and lit into me. She started asking me all these questions. Was I doped up? Had I just been in a fight? You know how Mama can be. She can’t shut her mouth to save her life. I finally gave up and drove back over to the trailer. I saw Delmore’s truck parked outside, so I knew he was still there.”