Rumors were rampant. No one in the crowd seemed to really know anything--most of them had simply been drawn by the lights the way they themselves had--and after waiting for the ambulance and watching it take away Meldrum's dead body, lights and siren off, Barry and Ray started back up the hill the way they'd come. They had company until they reached Barry's street, but then their silent companions headed in the opposite direction, and the two of them continued on alone.
Neither of them spoke for a moment.
"Did you see all the blood?" Ray said quietly.
Barry nodded. "Yeah."
"Looked like an awful lot for someone just tripping and falling on a rock."
"You think those guys were right? You think he was hit before he fell?"
Ray didn't respond.
"What?" Barry said.
Ray shook his head.
"Come on."
"You don't want to hear what I think. / don't even want to hear what I
think. I'm just a paranoid old buzzard who should be on the Internet all day spreading conspiracy theories."
"Tell me."
"Forget it."
"Come on."
"You really want to know?"
"Of course."
Ray stopped walking and turned toward him. "I think the homeowners'
association bailed him out. I think they did so because they knew he'd return here and they could get a little vigilante group going and run him out of the county, maybe out of the state. But I think something went wrong. I think they meant to just scare him but somehow things got out of hand and they ended up accidentally killing him."
Barry laughed. He couldn't help it. "That's wild," he said.
Ray shrugged and started walking again. "Told you."
The laughter faded, and despite the outrageousness of the claim, Barry found that he was unable to dismiss it entirely. While he didn't exactly believe it, he could believe it. Such a scenario was within the realm of possibility.
That in itself was frightening.
They walked in silence for a moment.
"Is there any way to check, to find out for sure who bailed him out?"
"I don't know," Ray said. "But I'm going to call the sheriff's office tomorrow."
"What if it's true? What if the association did bail him out and now his dead body's found up here in Bonita Vista? You think the sheriff'll look into that? You think he'll see a connection?"
Ray shook his head. "I told you before. He's in their pocket. I
don't know whether he's getting actual kickbacks or whether this is just the usual law enforcement kowtowing to moneyed interests, but he's beholden to them, and there's no way he's going to upset the applecart by investigating them."
"You think Meldrum has family in town?"
"I don't know."
They trudged up the hill.
"If that is what happened," Barry said, "if the association did bail him out because they knew he'd return here, and then they killed him, and no one investigates it and the case is closed... that means that they'll get away with murder."
Ray didn't answer.
They walked the rest of the route without speaking.
Maureen and Liz were no longer on the deck. The bugs had apparently grown immune to the scent of citronella, and the two women had come inside to avoid being eaten alive. They seemed to be in a good mood, but when Barry and Ray gave them a rundown of what they'd seen, it put an end to any hope of finishing the evening on a high note, and Barry and Maureen went home soon after.
In bed, getting ready to fall asleep, he told her Ray's theory, that Meldrum had been bailed out of jail by the homeowners' association specifically because they knew he would return here, and that they'd gathered together a vigilante group to scare him, but things had gotten out of hand and he'd ended up dead.
"That's ridiculous," she scoffed.
He had to admit that here in bed it didn't sound quite so logical, but when he thought back to the scene on the road, the black trees illuminated only by the flashing lights of the patrol car, the covered body on the ground, the blood on the dirt, the staring crowd, he could not help feeling a twinge of queasiness.
They were both silent for a while.
"I'm glad," Maureen said quietly.
He'd thought she'd fallen asleep--he was about to doze off himself--and though the words came out of nowhere, had no context, he knew exactly what she was talking about.
She rolled onto her side, facing him. "I'm glad he's dead," she said.
Barry said nothing, not knowing what to say.
"Does that make me a horrible person?"
"No," he told her, and leaned over to kiss her forehead. "No it doesn't."
They came over while Liz was taking a bath.
Ray didn't know if that was intentional, but the idea that the house was under surveillance, that his and his wife's movements were being monitored, made him both uneasy and angry. He was near the entryway, and he opened the door at the sound of the knock. Neil Campbell stood on the welcome mat, Chuck Shea and Terry Abbey just behind him. As always Neil carried a clipboard, and he nodded brusquely in his annoyingly officious manner. "We need to talk to you alone for a few minutes, Ray."
"Alone?"
"Yes."
"How do you know I'm alone?"
"What do you mean, Ray?" The innocence was a little too innocent.
"Where do you think Liz is?"
"I'm sure I don't know."
"She's in the bath. So I am alone. Pretty damn convenient."
"All I meant was that we would like to speak to you outside of the presence of your wife. I thought we might chat behind a closed door in some room of your house. But, yes, the fact that Elizabeth is bathing at this time is quite fortuitous."
The uneasiness increased. "What do you want?"
"May we come in?" Neil asked.
Ray favored him with a tight smile. "No you may not."
"Then we will conduct our business here on the porch."
"I have no business with you," Ray said. "As I've told you assholes before: get off my property."
They made no effort to move, and Chuck's mouth curved upward in an amused smile. "You know very well that we're not trespassing. We have the right to be here."
"Why?"
"The association has been informed that you spoke with SheriffHitman ,"
Neil said, "and attempted to discover the identity of the person who bailed the late Deke Meldrum out of jail."
"So? What business is that of yours?"
"When behavior of an individual reflects badly on Bonita Vista, the homeowners' association naturally takes an interest. As you know, it is our goal to avoid tarnishing the reputation of our community and to do everything within our power to make sure that property values are maintained. Needless to say, the death of a man, even a transient, even by accident, is cause for concern."
"What does that have to do with my trying to find out who bailed out Meldrum?"
"We are simply trying to stave off potential embarrassment. It is clear from the questions you asked and from your past behavior that you are somehow trying to place blame for this man's death on the association, and we're here today to ... dissuade you from that course of action."
"Got something to hide, Campbell?"
Chuck stepped forward. "Ray, Ray, Ray. You still haven't learned that sometimes you need to just leave things alone, let them be."
"Yeah? Why is that?"
They moved fast: Chuck grabbing him by the left arm and pulling him out onto the porch, Terry stepping quickly behind him and yanking on his right arm. The two of them held him, while Neil thwacked his genitals with the clipboard. There was a sudden sharp flare of pain, pain so intense that he wanted to cry out and clutch his balls, but he refused to give these bastards the satisfaction of a response, and he willed himself to remain stoic.