“Korean. Hapkido. Hey, Dane, that wife of yours. She ain’t got a sister at home, does she?”
23
I went around and threatened the others with my shovel and told them to lie down with their hands out in front of them, which they did. The one Russel hit in the kneecap was yelling his leg was broke, and the one Jim Bob swept the feet out from under was complaining of his ankle. You would have figured they thought we were the Red Cross.
The one I hit with the shovel wasn’t saying anything. He was out cold. And so was the one Ann popped with the Caddy door. She was standing outside the car now, leaning on the open door, looking over the roof at us. She waved at me and I waved back. It was all very pleasant.
“Sorry we had to whip the shit out of you,” Jim Bob said to the moaners on the ground, “but we didn’t have much choice. We’re gonna leave now, but first, just to clear up a little mystery, just what are you fellas doing here?”
Neither answered.
Jim Bob went over and kicked the man with the kneecap injury in the hurt leg and the man howled like a wolf. “Now let me rephrase that in exactly the same goddamn way. What you doing here?”
“A man hired us to come out here and see if anyone was messing in the graveyard,” Kneecap Injury said. “He said if there was someone, we should beat them up good. He paid us.”
“What did he look like?” I asked.
“Tall, good-looking guy. Like a cigarette or clothes commercial or something,” Knee Injury said. “Had on a suit. Not the kind you get at J. C. Penney’s.”
“Where’d this fella find you boys?” Jim Bob asked.
“ A ‘t onk outside of town called the Wagon Wheel,” Knee Injury said. “Come on man, give me some peace. I’m hurting.”
Jim Bob walked around him and kicked him in the other leg, then walked over and kicked the other guy in his good ankle. “That’ll help balance the pain. Next time you come to fuck with me, sweeties, you better bring your daddies. You goddamn boys ain’t worth a fuck.”
They lay on the ground and moaned.
“Tell you now,” Jim Bob said, “we’re gonna be going, and I’d like y’all to lay right where you are, else I’m gonna feed those ball bats to you. Got me?”
A couple of nods.
“Y’all have a nice night,” Jim Bob said, “and since this rain is sort of clearing up, if you’ll watch right over there, when that cloud cover clears, you ought to be able to see the Big Dipper.”
When we got over to the car, I went around and looked at the man Ann whopped with the door. He was groaning and starting to get his hands under him so he could get up. I took hold of the door and jerked it forward again and popped him in the head. This just wasn’t his night. He went out like a light. I was beginning to feel a little savage, though I didn’t have any right. So far, all I had done was pop two guys in the head who were already down and threaten a couple who were injured. I was some tough guy.
“Is everything okay?” Ann asked. “They aren’t going to die or anything are they?”
“You done good,” Jim Bob said to Ann, “and they’re all okay. Fellas over there think their legs are broke, and they might be right, but it’s better than what I’d like to do to them.”
Ann looked down at the man she hit with the car. “Did you see him fly through the air?”
“With the greatest of ease,” Russel said.
Jim Bob took the keys from Ann and went around and opened the trunk and put the shovels and the tools in it. He slid back a part of the trunk bottom, reached inside and took out a double-barreled, sawed-off shotgun.
“You’re not gonna finish them, are you?” I asked.
He laughed at me, walked over to one of the pickups and shot the front tires out. He broke open the stock of the shotgun, rolled out two more shells, reloaded, went over to the other truck and did the same.
Turning toward the graveyard, he yelled out to the guys, “They were damn near bald anyway.”
He put the shotgun back in the trunk and we got in the Red Bitch and Jim Bob put the pedal to the metal and we were gone.
· · ·
When we got back to the Holiday Inn we went up to Jim Bob’s room. He took off his shirt, which had been torn somehow in the fight, and started to put on another. Ann said, “Is that a chicken tattooed on your chest?”
“Chicken?” Jim Bob said. “It’s an eagle.”
“It looks like a chicken,” Ann said.
We all leaned forward. It did look like a chicken.
Russel said, “I’ve always thought it looked like a chicken.”
“I was drunk when it was done, but I didn’t ask for no chicken. It’s just faded some is all.”
“It wasn’t faded when I first saw it,” Russel said, “and I thought it looked like a chicken then.”
“To hell with the chicken,” I said. “Price set us up tonight. The description that guy gave was Price. He went in and hired those men to beat us. I just don’t know how he knew we were at the cemetery.”
“He didn’t,” Jim Bob said, snapping the snaps on his shirt. “But he thought it was a good possibility. He’s trying to discourage us. It’s just.
“And how are we going to do that?” I asked.
“For the time being, leave that up to me.”
“So what do we do?” Ann asked.
“You and Dane go home and do what you always do. Normal business. Go to work. Go home. Go to work. Regular shit. And Dane, I’d like you to hire Russel to work at your place. Ben said you owned a, what is it?”
“Frame shop,” I said.
“Yeah, you put him to work so he isn’t a vagrant, and I’ll put him up here at the Inn. Just pay him a token salary and count it out of what you owe me. Keep it cheap, though.”
“I’m not sure I like this,” I said.
“I’m not wild for it either,” Russel said.
“We gonna get this done,” Jim Bob said, “we’re gonna do it my way, or you two can do it yourselves or just forget it. I’m curious and I want to do this for Ben, but I’m gonna call the shots or it ain’t gonna happen. It’s not like I’m making ally big fortune off this.”
“I’m paying you,” I said.
“It ain’t my regular fee. Lot of this is coming out of my pocket, and I can tell you now, if you want to stay in business, you don’t work that way. You don’t buy the frames for your clients, do you, Dane?”
“I'm not asking you to work cheap,” I said. “You settled on a fee-”
“I’m not complaining. I’m just saying money isn’t what’s keeping me in this. But I’m not going to stay at it unless I’m calling the shots. That’s how it is.”
“All right,” I said, “I’ll take him on, but let’s don’t drag this out.”
“It takes as long as it takes,” Jim Bob said. “Ben can start working for you in the morning. In the meantime, I’ll get on the next step here. You want to check in and see how things are going, great, give me a call. But this is gonna take some time and I want to be left alone as much as possible.”
“That’s it then?” Ann said.
“For now, Lady,” Jim Bob said. “So let’s say good night, or damn near good day, and go home and sleep. You skipping work today, Dane?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. You look like hell. Tomorrow Ben starts working for you.”
“Nine o’clock,” I said.
Ann and I stood up.
Jim Bob shook our hands. “Just go on about things regular like.”
Russel offered his hand to me, and after a moment, I shook it. Then he offered it to Ann.
She looked at it for a long, hard moment.
“I don’t think so,” she said.
He nodded and put his hand by his side. “I don’t blame you,” he said.
“It wouldn’t matter if you did,” Ann said.
We went out. On the way home it started to rain again. This time very hard. It continued that way throughout the day and most of the night and the morning after.
24
A day’s rest hadn’t helped me much. I was still tired on the morning I started back to work. Depressed too. The idea of having Russel around me all day was not appealing.
To make the situation even more confusing, he reminded me more and more of my father. It wasn’t just the massive hands. He moved like my father and I fancied their voices were much the same.