With no warning at all she raised her fragile head the way some breeds of hunting dogs do and then began sniffing at the autumn winds. ‘She was back again last night.’
‘Who was?’ The chill I felt had nothing to do with the temperature; she was playing out a mad scene.
‘Who? That harlot he married. I can still smell her perfume on him sometimes.’ Then her blue eyes fixed on mine; she was terrifying. ‘She told him once she was afraid I’d kill her some night when she was asleep. She was right.’
He came around the west side of the house, a large, square, middle-aged man wearing a flannel shirt and jeans with a green John Deere cap stuck on his head. He limped so badly on his right leg that his entire body jerked when he moved. He didn’t speak, just assessed me as he came close. I got the feeling he wasn’t going to give me a very good review.
When he came even with the porch and glanced at the woman, he smiled. ‘Mom, you don’t need that gun.’
‘What’ll you do when the federal troops come to arrest us?’
He looked back at me. Embarrassment on his face.
After turning back to her, and in a gentle voice, he said, ‘I wish you wouldn’t listen to those radio shows, Mom. They put all that stuff in your head.’
Even as he put his arm around her, she said, ‘I never thought my own son would be afraid to hear the truth. Your father wasn’t afraid of it.’
‘He didn’t believe any of that stuff, Mom. And you didn’t either until—’ The gentle tone had become a sad one. He stood aside and held the door for her. ‘You need to go lie down, Mom. You know what Doctor Williams said about getting too excited.’
‘I told Doctor Williams about President Bush being behind 9/11 and he just smiled at me. He’s afraid of the truth, too.’
He was tall enough that he had to half bow to reach the top of her head. ‘Now you go lie down, Mom. I love you.’
She glanced all the way up at him. ‘Mark, if you’d sit down and listen to my shows with me you’d change your mind. I guarantee it.’
‘I’ll give it a try, Mom. Sometime.’
I was surprised by how mollified she sounded. ‘Good. We’ll have a nice lunch and I’ll turn on the radio. Just don’t try to take my gun from me.’
She shuffled her way inside and he closed the door quietly, then made his pained way across the porch to talk to me.
‘That probably scared the hell out of you and I apologize. It’s not loaded anyway. My dad died seven years ago and she had a stroke. She’s never been the same since. A form of dementia. I’ve got this uncle who got her to listen to all these crazy right-wing talk shows. He’s a big conspiracy nut. And he’s the one who gave her this gun.’ He started down the stairs, then winced. ‘I had enough guns in Iraq. That’s where I got shot and got the misery.’ He tapped his hip.
When he was on the ground he put out his hand. He could have crushed a ball bat with his grip. ‘Mark Coleman’s my name.’
‘Dev Conrad. I work with Senator Logan.’
‘You tell my mom that?’ He was grinning.
‘I did.’
‘And I bet she gave you a speech.’
‘Pretty much.’ I smiled. ‘I got the impression we couldn’t count on her vote.’
He shook his head and glanced back at the house. ‘The doc wants me to put her in a nursing home but every one I looked at... I wouldn’t do that to her. You walk in the door and they smell. I’m not even sure what it is. A mixture of things. But the stench is terrible. And half the people sit around tables all drugged up. I just couldn’t do that to her.’
‘I don’t blame you.’ He was an admirable guy. ‘I’m trying to help Senator Logan.’
‘Yeah, he needs some help. I voted for him, by the way. I’m pretty much an independent — but all these right-wingers... My dad was a union man. He could never figure out why all his friends voted for the other side and neither could I. Which makes it so weird to me with my mother and all. If it wasn’t so sad it’d be funny. Bush was behind 9/11. She really believes that.’
I wondered how often he went to the city. He had the lonely man’s need to talk to somebody.
‘You spend a lot of time on the yard lately?’ I asked because of the rake that leaned against a plastic bag full of what appeared to be leaves. There were three bulky bags, in fact.
‘Yeah. I keep busy. Since the wife left two years ago I’ve been remodeling the whole house inside. She used to like to work outside but after she left—’ Unfinished sentences were often more eloquent than finished ones. ‘Well, I do all the yard work myself now.’
‘I ask because from your yard you can see the turnoff that leads to the senator’s cabin.’
‘Oh, sure. In fact, every once in a while, especially during the summer, I’d see him and he’d honk and I’d wave.’
‘Have you seen the senator around here in the last couple days?’
‘No, I guess I haven’t.’
‘Or how about anybody making that turn?’
He pursed his lips. ‘Hmm. I guess I’d have to think about it.’
‘But you have been out in the yard.’
‘Oh, sure.’
‘You ever walk down by the river?’
‘Sometimes. When the weather’s nice.’
‘How about the last few days?’
‘Don’t think so. It rained a lot.’ Then, ‘Wait. I think I did see somebody.’ His forehead was rutted in thought. ‘Well, I heard them, I guess. Didn’t see them. When I walk down the slope in back I get pretty close to the Logan cabin if I follow the river. I heard two voices. They were pretty mad. Two women, from what I heard.’
‘Two women?’
‘Right.’
‘No men at all?’
‘None I could hear. I was looking for a stray kitten. Our black one on the back porch had a litter a while back and the little ones are just learning to get around for themselves. The one I called Tootsie disappeared couple of days ago. Something’s probably grabbed her and killed her by now but I keep looking for her anyway.’ I wondered if he’d said something like this right after his wife left him.
‘Could you tell anything about the two women?’
He had a wholesome big boy grin. ‘You sound like a cop.’
‘I was an army investigator. I had to ask a lot of questions.’
‘Well, I’ll be glad to help the senator any way I can.’
‘Did either of these women call the other by a name?’
‘No, I’m afraid not.’
‘Any guess as to their ages?’
‘No. Not really. Just two women.’
‘Think about it. Younger or older?’
‘There was this music playing. Some kind of rock — the new stuff. I hate it. Anyway, it was just loud enough so all I could tell was that they were mad at each other.’
To my right I heard the front door open and I looked in time to see his mother’s return to the stage. ‘That man has a gun, honey. You be careful of him.’
‘He’s fine, Mom. Nothing to worry about.’
‘One of my programs said that a federal man would come on my property with a gun and take me away.’
‘Not today, Mom.’
‘You’re young, honey. You don’t know how the world works. Your dad didn’t either. If you’d start listening to my programs I wouldn’t have to worry about you so much.’
‘You don’t have to worry about me at all, Mom. Now you go back inside and sit down, and I’ll come right in and fix you a cup of tea.’
His patience and tenderness made me wonder what had gone wrong with his marriage. But maybe he’d been shorn of both patience and tenderness in the days of his return from Iraq. At the rate troops were committing suicide, home was as frightening as the war had been. Maybe even more frightening.