You Believers (31 page)

“Just a fuck of a day.” The crowd turned, moved like a single body just a little away from him.

Zeke took his arm, pulled him a few steps. “Language, son.”

Jesse saw another security guard coming down the hall. He gripped the dog, looked toward the babies. “What’s with all the guards?”

“I told you. People boost babies like anything else.” Zeke was looking in the window, his face all lit up. “You see him?” He leaned over Jesse, his strength, his weight, moving like a mountain.

Jesse nodded. “He’s the big one down front on the left, right?”

Zeke just grinned, leaned in, staring at his boy. “Like you had to guess, says ‘Daniels’ right there on his crib.”

“I didn’t notice the name tags. I just looked for the big, good-looking one.”

Zeke turned, slapped his shoulder. “He’s big, but I know he’s funny-looking. That’s from being squeezed too long in the birth canal.”

Jesse stepped away. “I don’t want to hear that shit, man.”

Zeke turned back to the window. The crowd had cleared. “Little guy’s liver is catching up. The doc says that happens. He’ll be fine in a couple days.” He grinned at his baby. There’d be no rushing Zeke away from his kid. Jesse felt that queasy feeling in his gut, felt the gurgling.
Fuck
, he thought. He stepped toward Zeke. “Anywhere I can get a Coke around here?” Zeke looked at him, then down at the dog. Shook his head. “Sure, I can get you a Coke. Even get you some crushed ice to go with it.” Again that squeeze of his hand on the shoulder. “You wait right here. They’re getting Nicki Lynn ready for visitors. I’ll get you a Coke, and we can go in.”

Jesse watched Zeke head to the nurses’ station. Every one of the women looked up, kind of sparked at the sight of him. Jesse thought he could part the damned sea with that walk of his. The water would just pull back and let him pass. With over three hundred pounds of muscle, he moved like a cat. With that blond hair and blue eyes and teeth like something out of a commercial, he could get any girl he wanted. But he didn’t screw around. He loved Nicki Lynn. Jesse watched as a woman stood nodding and laughing at whatever Zeke said, and then she turned away to get his Coke. The others smiled at him. He was probably talking about his baby and Nicki Lynn. Jesse looked back at the babies. Little Jesse was doing something with his fingers like he was counting or something thoughtful; he seemed to be staring at Jesse. Jesse leaned closer to the glass, sent his thoughts at the kid:
You know something, don’t you? You’re Zeke’s baby; you ain’t stupid
.
You know who I am
.

He jumped when Zeke gave a little slap to his back. “You downright skittish, son. Babies make you nervous?” He gave the Coke to Jesse, led the way down the hall.

Jesse hurried to catch up, walk beside him. “Things are just kind of hot right now. I need to sell some shit, get out of town.”

Zeke stopped. “So that’s what you’ve got in that backpack. Can’t you show any more respect for Nicki Lynn and my boy?”

Jesse looked up at Zeke. His mouth was grinning, but his eyes were ice. “I respect, man. I do. It’s just some shit going down, and I’ve got to get out of town.”

Zeke shook his head, grabbed the stuffed dog. He gave it a quick smell, kept walking, swinging the dog at his side. He stood at the closed door, gave a little knock.

Nicki Lynn called, “That you, Zeke?”

“Wait here,” Zeke said. “I’ll make sure she’s ready.”

Jesse sipped his Coke, told his gut to stay calm. He wondered why Zeke had snatched the dog. He wondered about the rich bitch, how in the hell she could have gotten loose. He shouldn’t have drunk the booze. Then he had to get the shits. He heard Nicki Lynn and Zeke talking inside, couldn’t make out what they were saying. Zeke might be pissed, but he wouldn’t pass on the Rolex and pearls. And Zeke always had plenty of cash on him for just this kind of thing. With the money to drive all night Jesse figured he’d be in Atlanta by morning. Hook up with Johnny from juvy. He’d know where to drop the car. They’d get him a fake ID, and he’d lay low a while.

Zeke opened the door, gave a nod, and let him in. It wasn’t like any other hospital room Jesse had seen. Soft lamps, and on the table was a bowl of fruit and cheese and crackers. Nicki Lynn was propped up with colored pillows and a quilt.

“Nice digs, Nicki Lynn.” Jesse stood at the end of her bed. He realized he was holding an empty cup. “You got a trash can around here?”

Zeke took the cup, dropped it in the trash. Jesse saw that he was still holding the dog. “The polite thing to do is ask how Nicki Lynn
is. To ask about the baby. Maybe say you saw the baby, and he’s the most handsome little guy you ever laid eyes on.”

“Yeah,” Jesse said. “Sorry. I got things on my mind, Nicki Lynn. How you feeling?”

“Just fine,” she said. “Ain’t our boy something?”

“Smartest-looking one in the bunch,” Jesse said. “And I ain’t kidding. He’s got Zeke’s way of looking at things. Can babies that young see?”

“They see what they need to, I guess.” She smiled. She looked like a little girl with no makeup on. Couldn’t weigh much over a hundred pounds. Her eyes went back to Zeke.

“I’ve never seen a hospital room done up like this.”

Nicki Lynn sipped from her cup of ice water. “They do it up now for new moms. The idea is not to make you feel like you’re in the hospital.” She smiled at Zeke. “And Zeke here, he had to make sure I had my favorite pillows and my granny’s quilt.”

“I don’t know what you do to Zeke, but he sure loves fussing over you,” Jesse said.

“She loves me, Jesse boy,” Zeke said. Zeke went to her bedside, used a hand as big as her face to brush a strand of hair from her cheek. She had shiny black hair, and skin so white and smooth it didn’t look real, and big blue eyes.

“What’s on your mind, Jesse?” Zeke said.

He looked around the room, saw vases and vases of flowers. He adjusted the strap of his backpack. “I guess I’m glad I didn’t bring flowers. I thought of bringing flowers. When you get out, I’ll bring you flowers.”

“That’s all right, Jesse,” Nicki Lynn said.

Zeke gave a little cough. “Thought you said you needed to leave town.”

Jesse looked down at the floor. This wasn’t going right. But he’d have to try to sell something to Zeke.

Nicki Lynn shook her foot under the covers to get his attention. “You all right, Jesse? Zeke, he doesn’t look so good to me.”

Zeke came over and with that big hand of his lifted Jesse’s chin. Only man in the world could touch him like that was Zeke. He’d make a good daddy, but now Zeke was squinting, looking over Jesse’s face. “Something’s changed,” he said. “Something’s changed from the last time I saw you.”

“Maybe he’s hungry,” Nicki Lynn said. “There’s some cheese and crackers over there, Jesse.”

“No, thank you. I’m all right.” He slipped off the backpack, set it on a chair. “I got some stuff here, Zeke. Thought maybe you’d be interested.” He reached in, pulled out the Rolex.

“This ain’t a place for business, son. You put that shit away. We got family could walk in here any minute.”

He pulled out the pearls. “Wouldn’t Nicki Lynn like these pearls?”

Zeke grabbed his wrist. Jesse dropped the pearls. They made a little clattering sound on the floor. As he scooped them up, he heard Zeke breathing.

“All right, man, all right.” He zipped the bag, stood. “I just needed some cash to get on the road.”

Zeke shoved the stuffed dog in his face “You stole this, didn’t you?” He smelled it quickly, shoved it at Jesse’s face. “Smells like some girl, don’t it? A real clean kind of girl, not your usual type. You fucked with her, Jesse.” He looked at the dog. “See, it looks new but got a little dust in the fur. It’s been sitting on a shelf for a long time. You jacked this shit and tried to bring some girl’s old stuffed dog to my boy.”

Nicki backed up in her bed. “Just have him leave, Zeke.”

Zeke grabbed the bag, unzipped it, looked in. “Top-of-the-line shit here. Rolex, pearls, and that’s Lalique, man, you got this . . .” He straightened, looked dead-on at Jesse. “You did that girl in Land Fall, didn’t you? I should have guessed it when I saw it on the news. Your family lives in Land Fall.”

Jesse reached for his backpack. “I’m leaving, man. I can see this wasn’t a good idea.”

Nicki was crying now. “Just make him leave, Zeke.”

“Damn right he’ll leave.” Zeke scooped up the toy dog from the floor, opened the bag, tossed it in. “I heard what you did to that girl. And you steal her fucking dog and bring it to my boy. Get the hell out of here.”

Jesse turned to leave, glad he was in a public place. He knew Zeke wanted to kick the shit out of him, and there would be no fighting with Zeke, not if he wanted to live.

Jesse went out the door to the hallway. Before he could see what hit him, he was slammed to the floor by the smack of weight on his back, his arms yanked behind him, cuffed. Cops. He couldn’t count the cops standing around him yelling his name and saying, “You sorry motherfucker!” He lay still, just the way they wanted. He stared at their shoes. Someone yanked him up, shoved him against the wall, searched his shirt, his pockets, all the way down his legs to his shoes. He glanced down the hallway; no one was in sight. They must have cleared the floor. A cop slammed him against the wall. “Eyes down, you son of a bitch.” He saw Zeke’s boots come out the door. Zeke stood there. Jesse moved his eyes up to see Zeke’s arms tight across his chest, his face red. He just stood there breathing that hard sound a man makes once he’s quit a fight. The cops were shouting, “You Jesse Hollowfield? Jesse Hollowfield?”

“Yeah, that’s who I am,” he said. Somebody grabbed the back of
his head, mashed the side of his face against the wall. He stood still, tasted blood in his mouth. He heard them going through his backpack. He glanced at Zeke, who seemed to be enjoying this.

“You set me up. Why the fuck you set me up?” Jesse said.

Zeke shook his head. “Wasn’t me. But somebody popped your ass.” He looked at the cops. “Get this piece of shit out of here.”

Two cops shoved him down the hallway. There were others in front and behind. He tried to count how many they’d sent to get him. He picked up his pace so they wouldn’t be pushing. At the nurse’s station, he saw the man who’d brought the flowers. He didn’t look like some smug rich dude now. He looked scared. Jesse grinned at him. “That’s right,” he said. “You ought to be fucking scared of me.”

The cop at his side leaned close, speaking so hard that spit spattered Jesse’s ear. “Shut your mouth, you son of a bitch!”

Cops stood at the elevator, waiting. A detective was chewing on a toothpick, his eyes locked on Jesse. Jesse looked right back at him. “It’s all right. You just doing your job.” They shoved him in the elevator. He looked at the detective, said, “And I’m just doing mine. Ain’t you got no sympathy for the devil here?” The doors closed, and it came just like he knew it would, the smack at the back of his head that made his knees crumble.

Everybody Wants to Die Sometimes

Livy stopped on the sidewalk leading to the inn when she heard Shelby’s phone ring. Shelby backed up for privacy to answer it. Livy watched her. Every time that phone rang, she thought it had to be about Katy. But there were others who went missing every day, old people with Alzheimer’s wandering, sometimes driving somewhere and clarity suddenly kicking in to show them they were lost, kids swiped by a parent on the losing end of divorce, teenaged boys, and women, so many women gone. Shelby was nodding, must have felt Livy’s what-is-it stare. She shook her head, then called, “It’s nothing to do with Katy. You can go on inside if you want.” Livy went ahead, stepped up on the porch. She sat in a rocker on the porch to wait for Shelby. She didn’t want to go in alone. She could hear laughter inside. She leaned forward and looked out at the lake. A blue heron squawked and rose up from a thicket of trees down the shoreline. It flapped its giant wings and swooped across the water, then rose and settled on the post of a dock way out across the lake. And all was still.

It was no wonder Katy came here. After those late nights of tending bar, breathing smoke and liquor, and dodging all those guys who always wanted some little piece of her, it must have been heaven
to sit here by the lake. Livy looked down the shoreline, saw a red Jeep pull into the parking lot of a little beach. A woman got out, helped a little girl out of the backseat, who ran straight to the water, ignoring the mother’s call to take off her shoes. Then a man got out, went to the back of the Jeep to unload things. One of those family outings, Livy remembered those with Katy and her father, happy times at the start until he started changing, complaining about the mosquitoes, the sun, the sand, even yelling at the charcoal when it didn’t burn right.

Shelby came up on the porch, snapped her phone shut. “It’s off now,” she said. “Let’s get inside and talk to Roy.”

Shelby wasn’t looking at her, just kept her eyes on the ground as she moved forward. Livy touched her arm. “What was that call? There’s something you’re not telling me.”

Shelby gave her a steady look. There was tension in it. “There’s another news break about that girl in Land Fall. They got the guy who did it.”

“What’s Land Fall?”

Shelby moved toward the door. “A gated community. Nothing bad’s supposed to happen there.”

The room went still, and a man in a uniform turned, rose, and moved toward Shelby. “There she is!” He wrapped his arms around Shelby, gave a kiss to the side of her head. His soft, dark eyes looked straight at Livy. He gave a little nod. Shelby was right. He was the kind of man any woman would like. He smelled like Old Spice. He was handsome. But not too handsome, with his teeth just a little crooked. He moved like a man who would take care of things.

Shelby held him for a quick moment, then pushed back, said, “Roy, this is—”

“Mrs. Baines,” he said, holding her hand between both of his, giving a good warm shake. She liked Roy’s thick blond hair that
needed a cut. He looked to be in his forties but had the graceful way of a younger man. Shelby was right; there was mischief in those eyes, but also a tension, as if even when he was laughing, his mind was on getting things done. He stepped back, glanced at the floor, then looked back into her face. “I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, ma’am.” He gestured toward a table, “Have a seat.”