Song of the Road (28 page)

After Eli took off on the run, the two women held on to each other. Both of them were weak. Mary Lee swallowed repeatedly to keep from throwing up.

“Mama!”

“She isn’t in there,” Trudy said quickly.

“I heard her come in last night. She’ll take this hard. She and Frank were going to get married.”

“No! She wouldn’t have married that . . . old thing.”

“I . . . wish Jake was here. He’d know what to do.” Mary Lee began to shake.

“Now, ya just better calm down.” Trudy grasped her friend’s hands. “It’s not good for the baby for ya to get so upset. There wasn’t nothin’ we could do but tell you ’bout it.”

“Who would have done such a horrible thing? I hated him, but that —”

“The sheriff will figure it out.”

It seemed an eternity before Eli came back, followed by Mr. Santez. Then another eternity before Sheriff Pleggenkuhle drove in and got out of his car. The sheriff peered into the window and then tried the door. It was unlocked. He shoved it open and went inside.

Mary Lee, Trudy and Eli went to the house and sat down on the edge of the porch. The sheriff and Mr. Santez came out and talked for several minutes. Mr. Santez got into his car, and the sheriff came toward the house.

“Is your mother here, Mrs. Clawson?”

“She isn’t up yet. Sometimes she doesn’t get up until noon.”

“Was she with Frank last night?”

“She was out there . . . for a while. I heard her come in sometime after midnight.”

“Was anyone else out there?”

“I don’t know. The man that was here the night you came here has been staying out there while Frank was in jail.”

“Yancy Hummer?”

“He walked in from the back,” Eli said. “I didn’t see him last night, but other nights.”

“Could you give me a list of the people who stayed in the cabins last night? You don’t have to do it right now. I want to talk to your mother first. Will you ask her to come out? Keep an eye out, son,” he said to Eli. “If anyone drives in, let me know.”

He followed Mary Lee into the house. After knocking on her mother’s door, she tried to open it. It was locked. She went through her bedroom and the bathroom to try the other door. It was also locked. Back in the living room, she knocked on the door again.

“Mama,” she called. “Open the door. The sheriff wants to talk to you.”

After thumping on the door several times, she said, “I’m sorry. She gets stubborn sometimes and won’t open the door.”

“Let me try.” The sheriff thumped on the door with his fist. “Mrs. Finley, Sheriff Pleggenkuhle. I want to talk to you.”

Silence followed. The sheriff looked down at the lock on the door. “Do you have another key?”

“No.”

“We should see if she’s all right. Do you mind if I put my foot against the door?”

“Go ahead.”

The sheriff’s number eleven cowboy boot struck the door, and it popped open. Dolly Finley lay on the bed, a sheet pulled up to her waist. She hadn’t bothered to take off her dress. Lipstick was smeared on her face and on the pillow-case.

“Mama, are you all right?”

Dolly looked up with fever-bright eyes. “Whiskey,” she whispered.

“Are you sick, Mama?”

“Whiskey.”

“The sheriff wants to talk to you.”

“Mrs. Finley, were you with Frank last night?”

She squinted up at him. “Frank?”

“Yes, Frank. Were you with him?”

She rolled her head from side to side, then focused her eyes on Mary Lee.

“What’re you doin’ in here?”

“You’re sick. I want to help you.” Mary Lee tried to put her palm against Dolly’s forehead, but she jerked her head out of the way.

“Mrs. Finley, Frank was killed last night. Were you there?” “Huh?”

“Frank is dead. Were you there when he was killed?” The sheriff spoke with brutal frankness.

Dolly looked at him for a minute; her mouth opened and a wail of intense pain came out of it. It was so loud and so poignant that Mary Lee stumbled back against the sheriff. Sobs racked Dolly’s thin body. She doubled up on the bed, covering her head with arms that looked like sticks.

Pity for this woman whose love for alcohol had ruined her life welled up in Mary Lee. She reached out to comfort her but withdrew her hand. Her mother had not touched her in years and would probably not welcome her touch now.

“She’s sick, Sheriff. It’s been coming on for days. She won’t listen to a thing I say.”

“Doc Morris will be here soon to see Frank. You can ask him to take a look at her.”

“Who could have done such a terrible thing?”

“Was Jake here last night?”

“Jake? He wouldn’t have — He and his friend went up-town.”

“What time did they come back?”

“I don’t know. I went to bed about nine o’clock.”

“How about the boy?”

“I don’t know when he went to bed. I fixed a place in the washhouse for him to sleep. You don’t think he — Oh, no. Eli would never have done anything like that.”

“I’m not accusing anyone. Just covering all the bases.”

“I won’t have to close the court, will I?”

“You might have to for a day or two.”

“I can’t, Sheriff. Oh, good heavens. I can’t close for even one night. I’ve a loan to pay the bank, and I’m just barely going to make it.”

“I’m sure Mr. Rosen would extend your loan under the circumstances.”

“No, he wouldn’t, Sheriff. He wants this place. If I don’t pay the first day of October, he’ll take over.”

“Let me see your register.”

Mary Lee got the book. “Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Thomas, Amarillo, stayed in number two. They were an older couple going to visit their son in the hospital in Gallup.

“A Mr. Samuel Cummings was in number three. He’s a salesman for Acme Stove Company out of Dallas, Texas.

“Number four was rented to a Mr. and Mrs. John Jones. He said he was a banker from Flagstaff, Arizona. But if his name was Jones and he was a banker, I’m a fan dancer. Eli said the couple left while
Amos ’n Andy
was on. That would have been before ten o’clock.

“A couple with a baby was in number five. Mr. and Mrs. Richard Johnson. He gave his address as Little Rock, Arkansas, lately of Victorville, California. He said they were going home because his wife was homesick.

“Jake and his friend, Deke Bales, are in number six.”

“Humm . . . Thank you, Mrs. Clawson.”

Mary Lee sank down in the chair beside the window. Her mind went blank for a time, then came alive with concern for young Eli, who had witnessed such a terrible scene, and for her mother, who was sick in mind as well as body. She went to stand in the bedroom doorway. Dolly lay on the bed, curled on her side with her arms wrapped around her head.

How much longer before Jake would come home?
With all her heart she wished he were here. She hadn’t realized how much she had depended on his quiet strength.
Oh, Lord, what if the sheriff thought he had killed Frank!

“Mary Lee, the doctor and the funeral wagon are here.” Trudy spoke in hushed tones. “The sheriff wants to know if you have a couple of brown paper sacks.”

“I never throw away a sack. They’re stuffed behind the icebox.”

Mary Lee followed Trudy out of the house and waited on the porch with Eli while she took the sacks to the sheriff. The long hearse was parked in front of the house. The doctor’s car was behind it. It seemed forever before the sheriff and the undertaker brought Frank’s sheet-wrapped body out on a litter and put it in the back of the hearse.

Doctor Morris came to the house. “Nasty business,” he said, shaking his head. “Can I trouble you for a place to wash my hands?”

Mary Lee led the doctor through her bedroom to the bathroom and thanked the good Lord for telling her to clean it that morning and put out clean towels. When the doctor came back to the kitchen where she waited, he was buttoning his shirtsleeves.

“I was told your mother is sick. Would you like for me to take a look at her?”

“Yes, please. But, Doctor, first let me warn you. She is very . . . unpredictable. She may not appreciate our concern and be . . . mouthy and vulgar.”

“We’ll not worry about that. How long has she been sick?”

“She didn’t look well when I came home. She’s really gone downhill lately. She . . . drinks a lot.”

“I know that.”

“Would you mind seeing her alone? I seem to bring out the bad side of her. She may be more cooperative if I’m not in there.”

“I was going to suggest that.” He went to the door and spoke to Eli. “Son, would you bring me the bag in the front seat of my car?”

While waiting for Eli, he asked, “How are you doing?”

“All right. I have some back pain once in a while and my ankles swell if I’m on my feet a lot.”

“That’s not unusual. Any other near accidents?”

“No.” She shook her head as she spoke.

“Is the boy a relative?”

“He just wandered in. But I want him to stay,” she added quickly. “He’s had no one to care about him until now. I want him to be part of my family.”

“He’s a big boy. Is he fourteen or fifteen?”

“Thirteen. I couldn’t run this place without him. I’d trust him with my life and my baby’s. He’s very dear to me.”

The doctor nodded gravely.

Eli came to the door with the doctor’s bag. “Mary Lee, the sheriff wants to talk to you when you’re through in here.”

“All right. If you want anything, Doctor Morris, Eli and Trudy will be here on the porch.” She hesitated, then said, “Please don’t be offended by anything Mama says. She’s not been in her right mind lately.”

The doctor placed his hand on her shoulder, patted it and went into Dolly’s room and closed the door.

Mary Lee felt as if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders when she stepped off the porch and went to where the sheriff waited for her beside the cabin where Frank had died.

“As bad as I hate to do this, Mrs. Clawson, I’m going to have to tell you to close the motor court until I can find out if Frank was killed by someone who knew him, or if he was killed by a person who wandered in from the highway and found the cabin door unlocked. I can’t take the chance that whoever did this might try it again and kill someone who was just passing through town.”

“I was afraid you’d say that. It’ll mean I’ll not have the money to pay back the loan. It’s just not fair. My father worked hard to build this place.”

“Maybe if you’d have come home sooner —”

“I couldn’t. I didn’t have the money. I didn’t even know that Daddy had left the motor court to me until I got here. Is there any way we can stay open?”

“You’re out here without a phone, Mrs. Clawson. I’ve got the whole county to patrol. I can’t leave a man here to watch all night.”

“Jake is here nights. He’ll watch. Have you checked out his friend, Deke Bales?”

“I wired Sheriff McChesney over in Beckman County, Oklahoma. He gave him a good reference. He said Bales had a short fuse at times, but was fair and honest as far as he knew. Mrs. Clawson, when word gets out what’s happened out here, it’ll be a three-ring circus. What we’d better do is block off the drive and put out a Closed sign.”

Mary Lee nodded numbly. “Do you think it was someone roaming the highway?”

“Or someone here who wanted to get Frank out of your hair. I don’t know what to think at this point. I want to talk to Jake and his friend. I’ve already talked to the boy. I’ve not ruled him out. As soon as the doc gives the word, I’ll try Mrs. Finley again.”

“How about Frank’s so-called friends? The drunken bums he hangs out with?” Mary Lee said heatedly.

“See what I mean,” the sheriff said when a car came down the highway and wheeled into the drive. It stopped suddenly, stirring up a cloud of dust. Two men got out.

“I heard someone murdered poor old Frank Pierce, Sheriff. She do it?” He jerked his head toward Mary Lee. “Godamighty. Feller don’t dare turn his back on a woman these days.”

“Now he’s ‘poor old Frank.’ When he was alive they probably wouldn’t have given him the time of day,” the sheriff said to Mary Lee. Then, “You’re out of line, Berkhardt. Move along.” When the man lingered, the sheriff said harshly, “Get out of here, or I’ll arrest you for interfering with my crime scene.”

“Well, shit, Sheriff . . .” The man got back in his car. “If she did it, she oughta fry the same as a man.”

“Goddammit, Berkhardt,” the sheriff roared, “get the hell out of here!”

The car stirred up another cloud of dust when it left.

“Where’s the boy?”

“His name is Eli,” Mary Lee said in a small voice.

Eli came when the sheriff called him. “Are there saw-horses around here or anything we can use to block the drive?”

“No, sir. But there’s a couple of barrels and some rope we can tie strings onto. Will that do?”

“That’ll do fine. Let’s get it up.”