"If you're tough as she is," Soldier said.
"I don't think I am," I said. "But I might be tough enough to last for a while. Longer than twenty or thirty minutes."
The sweat on Soldier's face looked like a thick coating of Vaseline. He wrinkled his brows and nodded.
"You got a point on the time thing, Happy Man. Not a good one, but a point. But hey, I'm sick of dicking around. I want to ... What is it when you want to speed things up, Angel?"
"Expedite."
"Expedite. That'll do. So, deal."
Soldier squatted behind the overturned table, took the hammer, and hit the point of the nail hard. Trudy let out a yelp and bent at the waist and almost sat up before falling back down. The head of the big nail poked out of the back of her hand, but it was still partially in the table.
Angel got hold of Trudy's wrist, jerked hard and the nail came out of the table and the head of it caught on the back of Trudy's hand. Angel grabbed the nail from the bottom and shoved it through most of the way, then caught the head of it between two fingers, yanked it free and tossed it on the floor. She let go of Trudy's wrist and put the overturned chair upright and sat Trudy in it. Trudy was as white as plaster.
"Get the monkey blood, tie a rag around her hand, whatever you want," Soldier said. "Let's get this over with."
Chapter 26
Angel brought some alcohol from Leonard's medicine cabinet, tore up a pillowcase, and let me dress Trudy's hand at the kitchen sink. Trudy was still white and a little wobbly and she flinched when I poured the alcohol on her hand, but not much. After being nailed to a table, alcohol was a treat.
"I'm sorry," I said.
"I made my own choices," she said. "You don't know where the money is, do you, Hap?"
I didn't answer.
"If you do, don't tell them. They're going to kill us anyway. Let's don't give them the satisfaction of the money. Scum like this, they'll buy drugs, sell them to kids if they can make a dime."
"Hey," Soldier said. "Quit the debate. Happy Man's giving me the money. And I tell you, it's not so bad a kid or two's got some dope, way things are. Little dope's better than some things. Let's roll."
I wrapped the strips of pillowcase tight around her hand.
Blood spotted through it in a matter of seconds, but it was the best I could do.
"Everybody out into the great outdoors," Soldier said. He went over to the couch to prod Howard with the barrel of his automatic, but Howard didn't move. Soldier bent and put his head to Howard's chest.
"This one's checked out. Shit, I hit guys harder than that before and they didn't die."
'' You sonofabitch,'' Trudy said. " You sorry sonofabitch.''
"You hadn't dug up the money and moved it on old Howard, he'd be with us today," Soldier said. "But no, you got to be the smart bitch. Then you got to get a nail through your hand for nothing, cause old Happy Man here is going to lead me to the dough anyway."
"He doesn't know where it is," Trudy said.
"Yes I do," I said. "I figured it out."
"You better have," Soldier said, "or it's going to sound like the Fourth of July around here for about a minute. Let's go."
Soldier got his umbrella and put his hat on. I put an arm around Trudy, and Soldier waved Leonard in close to us and the three of us led out, Paco, Angel, and Soldier close behind.
Outside, the blowing rain and sleet had stopped, but it was cold and wet and there was the sound of thunder. I bent over and kissed Trudy next to her ear, whispered, "Just follow my lead."
"No talking," Soldier said. "You get to talking, I get nervous. I like to do the talking."
I walked straight to the barn. When we were inside, I let go of Trudy and she wobbled, but Leonard stepped in and held her up. I went over and got the shovel where Soldier had tossed it.
I started outside again.
"It's not in here?" Soldier said. "We got to go back out in that shit?"
I didn't say anything. I went out and Leonard followed, helping Trudy. The armed trio followed us. I went straight to Switch's pen, and when Leonard saw where I was going, he picked up his speed slightly. I stopped in front of the pen, and Switch came out of his house and walked cautiously toward me.
"You all right now," Leonard said to Trudy.
"I'm all right," she said. "I can stand just fine."
Leonard let go of her and came over to the dog pen and said, "Switch, ol' buddy."
Switch came over and Leonard looked at me out of the corner of his eye. I knew then he understood what I was up to.
"What's with stopping to pet the mutt?" Soldier said. "You on vacation here?"
"The money's here," I said. "One of these pens. I don't know which one, but one. When she came back that night, the second time, she had dog shit on her shoes. This is the most likely place for her to get it. I think she buried it in one of these pens."
"Think?" Soldier said.
"You can just about count on it," I said.
"You got to count on it," Soldier said. "Paco, what you think?"
"Could be," Paco said. "Probably is."
"Angel?" Soldier said.
Angel shrugged.
"What am I asking you for?" Soldier said. "You got your three squares, one of those protein milkshakes, some barbells, you're happy, aren't you?"
Angel's expression didn't change.
"You could be one of those things," Soldier said. "What is it I'm trying to say here, Angel? Like a robot kind of."
"Android," she said.
"Yeah, one of them. You know, sometimes you give me the willies."
I opened the dog pen and reached in and got hold of Switch's collar and said, "Good dog." I pulled him out. I could feel his muscles bunching at the smell of all these strangers.
"Whatda you doing?" Soldier said.
"Getting him out of the way so I can dig," I said. "Leonard, hold him."
Leonard reached over and held him and took a step backwards and pulled the dog after him, stuck out his free hand and touched Soldier's shoulder and said, "Ow!"
It was all Switch needed, thinking Leonard was hurt. He twisted in Leonard's grip and Leonard let go and Switch leapt straight into Soldier and Soldier dropped his umbrella and threw up his arm. The dog hit him hard as a mallet, teeth flashing.
I had already started toward the group with the shovel cocked, and when Switch hit Soldier and Soldier yelled, Angel and Paco turned their heads, and I brought the shovel around with all my might and caught Angel on the side of the neck with the edge of it and it was like hitting a concrete piling. She went down on one knee and her gun arm dropped to her side and her neck split open and lashed a band of blood into the cold air and rain.
Leonard stepped behind Soldier and the dog, pivoted on his left foot and spun around, fast, and his right leg went up, and at the same instant Paco raised his gun and leveled it, Leonard’s foot caught him in the back of the head, low, and Paco snapped forward and the gun went off but didn't hit anyone.
Next instant Paco was face down on the ground with his butt humping like a worm trying to crawl.
Leonard's heel kick had broken Paco's neck.
Switch had Soldier down and his teeth buried in Soldier's arm. He was dragging him backwards on the muddy ground, gnawing as he went, tearing jacket and shirt and meat beneath.
I brought the shovel around again and hit Angel solidly on top of the head and she dropped her gun and went down on her hands as if to do a push-up. I started to go for her gun but Soldier managed to put his automatic to Switch's head and pull the trigger. Switch jerked, then was on the ground thrashing. Soldier was getting up on one knee now, his hat was gone and his glasses dangled from one ear.
He gritted his teeth, lifted the .45, and pointed it at Trudy.
Trudy hadn't moved through all of this, but I was moving. I grabbed her around the waist, jerked her to the side and the bullet went by us. As I turned, I saw Leonard sprint behind the dog pens toward the creek and saw Angel scramble for her gun. I got hold of Trudy like she was a sack of potatoes and ran zigzag toward the creek.