The Plot (19 page)

“So long. So tall, so strong, so beautiful, so wise? Don't scold Jamey now, Louis. Good-by, Louis dear.”

Joseph Reas was not talkative on the way to Charleston. Louis thought it was the body in the back of the car that kept him silent. When the car turned a sharp curve, it fell against the side and made a ghastly thump. After that, Louis didn't feel talkative either. He told himself that Ethel was dead, that Ethel dead couldn't hurt Jamey, or Alex, or himself. If he could get that manuscript, that is, Ethel couldn't hurt any of them.

Joseph Reas knew better.

When they reached the dirty alley where the Greens lived, Louis got out of the car. “If you need me at the police station, I'll be here. And when you're through, will you come on back for me?” Because he felt Joseph Reas might be superstitious about traveling with corpses, he put his hand on his shoulder and pressed it comfortingly.

Joseph Reas, stiff under Louis' hand, shook his head. “No, suh, I can't come back. After I take you here, I got to go to the station, then I got to go for to find our shrimp man.” He tried to avoid Louis' eye, talking fast out of his guilt against this man. “Maum Cloe going to give Mr. Jamey shrimp and hominy for breakfast. Go to find our shrimp man because the others scant de plate. Maum Cloe be mad if I don't get de broadus.”

“Forget about the broadus, whatever that is, and the shrimp, too. You either come here for me or go home. You're nervous as a cat, man!”

“We his customers, shrimp man give us extra shrimp. I got to go for find our shrimp man.”

“Well, you do what you must.” Louis held out his hand, but Joseph Reas pretended he didn't see it.

“Yes, suh.” Louis went into the house, and the car moved off.

“
Yes, suh, Mr. Daignot say he kill Miss Ethel
.”

“
Yes, suh, they had a fight there. Mad
.”

“
Yes, suh, I know just where Mr. Daignot's at
.”

“
Yes, suh, I show you where he's at
.” Joseph Reas heard the siren of the police car and sat in it, roaring, whizzing through Charleston and back to the dirty alley he had just left. He saw the police knock heavily on the thin door. “You are under arrest.” He had been unable to take the hand that Louis had stretched out toward him, in friendship, because he saw it manacled.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

It seemed to Louis, when he went into the shack, that Budder and Libbie Mae had been waiting for him, as, on the first occasion he had seen them, they had been waiting for him. At least neither of them seemed surprised to see him.

Budder said, “You come back for this, Louis boy?” He gave Louis the misspelled but legal and adequately witnessed document in which Louis had promised to marry Libbie Mae Green. Budder said, “No hard feelings, Louis boy? That was Ethel's doing.”

“I know it was all Ethel's doing.” He had to straighten out Ethel's last doing.

Libbie Mae put her hand out and touched Louis. Budder scratched his head, interpreting for his sister. “She hates for you to be mad, Louis. Sis Lib, she'd admire to be your friend.” Budder suddenly began to sputter. “Cain't you be friends, Louis? This time it won't cost you a cent. This time, it's on the house!” He took a bottle of gin from under the cushions of the old couch. “Go on, Louis boy, have a drink with Sis Lib to show her there's no hard feelings.”

“No, thanks.”

“No, thanks! Got no time for you, Libbie Mae.”

Ask for it. Find out how much he knows. “Budder, that paper you wrote the note on—where's the rest of it?”

“The papers Ethel gave me to hold? I got them safe for her, Louis boy, don't you worry about them papers. Look how worried Louis boy is, Sis Lib. We got them safe. So, Sis Lib?”

She nodded. She could not seem to take her eyes off Louis' mouth.

“Sit down, Louis boy.”

He forced himself to sit on the broken, red plush sofa. Libbie Mae sat next to him, her head turned so she could see his mouth. “Those papers happen to be mine, Budder.”

“Could be. You wrote them out, didn't you, Louis boy? Ethel said you wrote them out.” He pursed his lips wisely. “Ethel said they were very valuable papers she dassn't keep by her. Ethel's going to give Budder and Sis Lib a nice lot of money for keep them papers.” He guffawed. “Budder's them paper's guardeen, like he's Sis Lib's guardeen, Louis boy.”

“Budder, I want those papers.” Louis stood up, moving toward Budder.

“How much you want them, Louis boy?” There was a knife in his hand. As Louis watched, he raised his hand nonchalantly and picked his teeth with the point of the blade. “Twenty thousand dollars, say?”

“Are you crazy?”

“Budder's crazy like a fox, Louis boy, Budder's crazy like a fox! Ethel ain't going to pay no twenty thousand dollars, I didn't say that, but if you want Budder should break his word to a lady, you got to pay plenty.” He examined the point of the blade; he started to work on his upper front teeth with it.

“Ethel isn't going to pay you a cent for those papers, Budder.”

“You're crazy, Louis. You are.”

“When I get some money, Budder, I'll pay you. I don't want the damn papers, Budder. You can tear them up, burn them up. Go on. I'll pay you off when I can.”

“Isn't he crazy, Sis Lib?”

“Go on, tear them up.” It wasn't going to be kept a secret. “Ethel won't pay you because she's dead, Budder.” Say it. “They found Ethel in the river this morning.”

“Ethel is daid? Ethel is daid, Louis boy?”

“She was found in the river.” What was left of her.

“What do you know! Ethel is daid.” He shook his head and pursed his loose lips.

“Ethel killed herself, Budder.” He remembered what Jamey had said, what in all probability he was going to tell the police. “Mr. Vaughn sent her away yesterday, fired her, and she killed herself.”

“Go on, Louis boy, why Ethel killed herself?” He seemed very good-natured, waiting, simply, to have it explained to him.

“I told you. Mr. Vaughn fired her. She had been his secretary for a long time, ten years. Hell, this is the only home she had. When he sent her away——It's perfectly natural.” The explanation was beginning to stick in his throat; he could feel himself coloring under Budder's calm stare. “Well, she didn't have anything else, did she?”

Budder sighed. “What you know, Sis Lib? Ethel jumped in the old river because her boss sends her away.” He gave his big body a shake, as if to prevent his great calm from putting him to sleep. “Now, Louis boy, you're forgetting me and Ethel was close friends. Me and Ethel had a lot of evenings together, and it didn't take more than a couple of drinks for Ethel to start nagging on her boss. She loved him, hear? She'd jump in the river, hear? How you take it she jumped in the river because he sent her away, Sis Lib?” She smiled faintly and Budder said, “Sis Lib is laughing.”

“Now, look here, Budder!”

“Now, look here, Louis boy! If you told me, she tossed him in the river, I'd believe you, Louis boy. That would sound more nacheral, wouldn't it, Sis Lib? That would sound like a good story, wouldn't it, Sis Lib?” He began to clean his nails with the knife, apparently much interested in the process. “But, ifsoever Ethel's daid, she's daid. I got a better story figured out. I think I'm going to tell that story to the police, Louis boy. I think maybe they be mighty interested in that story I got to tell.”

“What story?”

“What for did Ethel give you that money yesterday, that pretty little check you got? Don't try to tell me she give it to you to get you out of marrying Sis Lib here, because you know and I know and Sis Lib knows, it was Ethel got Sis Lib and you together, and Ethel it was wrote me out that paper for you to sign. Don't tell me she give it to you to take Miss Alex away from big old bad me because she brung her here. So don't try to tell me she turned around and just gave you that check to get you out of it.”

“I'm not telling you anything. You're telling me.”

“Now, Sis Lib and I figure Ethel give you that money for something. We figure that way, hear? Sis Lib figures Ethel had a paper wrote out for herself, too. She figures she had you roped and tied. Sis Lib figures you don't care what you sign when you drunk.”

“Once,” Louis said, “for the love of Mike, don't be a dope, once, not twice!”

“Sis Lib kind of a dope, but I no dope, Louis boy. How does this fit for size? Ethel got you roped and tied with them papers I got, that's what. So you kill Ethel and heave her into the river. How does that fit for size, Sis Lib?”

“Leave her out of this, Budder.”

Budder ignored this. “That's a good fit, Sis Lib say. You was fit to kill Ethel yesterday, remember, Sis Lib?”

“If you remember that, you should also remember that Ethel was alive when I left for Charleston. Mr. Vaughn will testify to that, if necessary, and the servants will—” Then he remembered Joseph Reas, the way he had acted, how uncomfortable he had been, how Joseph Reas had pretended not to see his outstretched hand. He remembered that Joseph Reas had been standing there when he had threatened to kill Ethel. He knew then that Joseph Reas wasn't going to bring Ethel's body to the police and say that only Jamey and he and his father and grandmother had been around. To save their own necks, they would——Hell, he couldn't be angry with them for throwing him to the lions to save their own necks, but he was angry with them, yes, he was angry as hell at them. Why shouldn't he be angry with them? Black or white or green, Joseph Reas was doing, or had already done, a stinking thing, a low rotten trick, by sicking the police on him.

And a hell of a lot of good it would do him to be angry with Joseph Reas, particularly with the nice fat four-hundred-page motive this son of a bitch here was going to throw in for good measure! He tried not to let Budder see his anxiety. “The servants will testify also. I guess the police will be able to say when she died.” He winced, thinking of the river and the crocodiles. “I imagine they'll find out I was with you when it happened.”

Budder scratched his head delicately with the point of his knife. “Now I throw my mind back, I do recall how you asked the time. Sis Lib could easy recall how you'd ask the time very anxious-like. I can tell the police that when people are so mighty interested and particular about the time, could be they want an alibi.” Budder cocked his head at his sister, appraising.

“Sis Lib says could be, Budder. Could be Louis wants to use us for an alibi. By God, Budder, Sis Lib say.”

“I don't need any alibi. Ethel was alive when I left.”

“Maybe so, maybe so; there are ways, I hear. They got all kind of ways when they're smart, Louis boy. They got all kind of ways they need, when they need ways. Ethel had you roped and tied with them papers. I don't read good. Maybe I'll give the police them papers, maybe they read good.” He studied Louis' face. “Now I don't want them papers to read. You get me twenty thousand dollars, and I give you the papers, and the alibi. I forget how sore you was at Ethel.”

“I don't have twenty cents.”

“Get it from the old man; he got plenty. You figure maybe the old man likes to read good, Sis Lib?”

“He won't give you a cent.”

“The police, neither. You're the only one can give us anything but satisfaction, Louis boy!” Louis was at him before the last “boy” hit the air. Budder should have expected it, but he had been concentrating, and couldn't do more than one thing at a time. He rubbed his cheek, shook his head, got up from the floor. “O.K., Louis boy, I had enough, but you ain't going to get them papers that way.” He rubbed his thumb against his forefinger to indicate money, then gingerly touched his nose where Louis' fist had hit it. “Now you've had your inning, Louis boy! And which of us was you rooting for, Sis Lib? Seems to me, if you was rooting for me you could have conked Louis boy with a bottle! Well, anyhow, we fit and fight's over. Now we wait, Louis boy. We wait, anyhow, while you think.” Budder took a greasy pack of cards from under the mattress of the couch and began to lay out a game of double solitaire. “Get away from him, Sis Lib, hear? He got to think hard now.” He flapped the cards down with great enjoyment.

“Speak up, now!
D-a-g
——What say?
D-a-i-g-n-o-t
. Speak up.” The police sergeant wasn't being harsh to Joseph Reas. He talked that way to all the boys. “And you can swear to this argument between this Daignot and the deceased?”

Joseph Reas raised his eyes to the policeman. “Mr. Daignot said to Miss Ethel, ‘I'll break your neck.'” It wasn't pleasurable to repeat this any longer. His throat closed, and he had to keep swallowing hysterically while he nodded, his eyes rolling.

The policeman pushed back his chair so that the sound grated down Joseph Reas' spine. “Once more about the fishing, hear? How did you happen to be fishing just then?”

Nobody came to the gate, although Alex knew Maum Cloe heard every car that arrived; then William Reas came out, blinking from the dark of the house. This was evidence that something was wrong, to have only William Reas appear. Alex said, “Mr. Jamey, William Reas——William Reas?”

“Mr. Jamey all right, Miss Alex.” But he shook his head when Alex said that she and Mr. Klein wanted to see Jamey. “What is it, William Reas?” He was silent, so Alex walked past him, seeking authority. “I'm going to see Maum Cloe.” She invited Manny to come into the house. “Won't you sit down, Manny?”

Maum Cloe was in the big old kitchen, but she wasn't stirring anything in the iron kettle, or bending over the big coal stove, or peeling anything at the scrubbed wooden table; she was sitting perfectly still with her hands in her lap, which terrified Alex even before she saw the uncertain expression on Maum Cloe's face. She ran over to the old woman and put her hand on the gray-brown hand that lay in the black-skirted lap. “Oh, what is it, Maum Cloe, tell me, what is it?”