“Hmm. That where you coming from, the dump?”
Lewis nodded. “Long way around, but yes.”
Manny frowned.
“About this tailgate,” Lewis said, “I didn’t know it was down.” He walked to the back with Manny. He looked at the lump under the tarp and tried to push up the gate. The wind played with the tarp and caused it to flap.
Manny stepped back and looked at the bottom of Lewis’ truck. “Where have you been? Look at all that mud. On your boots, too.”
“Like I said, the dump.” The gate wouldn’t latch. Lewis became frustrated, stepped back and kicked it hard. “Piece of shit,” he said.
“What’s wrong, Lewis?”
“Nothing.” He grabbed the tailgate and pulled on it for a check. “It’s up,” Lewis said. “Is that all.” He walked up and tucked the tarp under the load.
Manny followed Lewis to his door, looked at him like he wanted to say something.
Lewis got back into the cab and left. He viewed the sheriff in his mirror, just standing and staring at the lump under the tarp.
Lewis got gas in town and drove on out to Martin’s place. He wrapped the body in the tarp and managed to carry it to the shed behind the cabin without seeing it again. The morning was full. He walked around to the front of the cabin and looked up the canyon. He halfway suspected that Maggie was being held up there somewhere. He went into Martin’s cabin and sat in a chair. It was cold inside. Things were already getting dusty. He looked at the old man’s fishing gear in the corner. Lewis put together a forecast for the place. No one knew about it really, so no one cared. Taylor had gone, so there was no one to claim anything legally. More dust would collect and the place would become stiff with age, a thing or two disappearing along the way. Martin had been a gentle man, meaning no harm to anyone, and certainly no one found him threatening. But there he was, dead and decomposing in his shed, with so many people wanting him. He had lived a long life without causing trouble and now. What could he have seen to make so many bad things happen? Lewis used his finger to draw a line through the dust on the table.
Lewis walked out and drove down to the cafe at the river. He sat on the deck of the empty restaurant for a while, watching the rapid river below. He wished he were fishing. He had the body in a place he could get to. What now? They were going to kill Maggie and then him. He looked at the pay phone under the overhang. He had to try something. He couldn’t let Maggie die. He stood up and went to the phone. He got the number from the operator, but no one answered at Peabody’s office.
Lewis left the deck and made his way down to the water’s edge. He imagined pulling out a brown trout and taking it up to a campsite where Maggie and Laura waited. He looked downstream and saw where Plata Creek emptied into the flow. He looked up the mountain and again at the confluence. If there was something bad in the ground up there, it was in the river now. Lewis sat on the bank and considered it. People swimming at Cochiti. People eating trout, catfish, crappies out of the river and the lake. Elephant Butte was below that. He rocked with his confusion. Jesus Christ, everyone was being exposed.
He got up and went back up to the deck and the pay phone. He dialed the number.
Peabody answered.
“I’ve got the body,” Lewis said.
“Very good.”
“But you don’t get it until I have Maggie. I want to know she’s all right.”
“She’s not here with me,” Peabody said.
“Well, I don’t want to talk to her anyway. I want her released. Then, you can have the body. If I don’t get her, alive, I’m taking this dead Mexican to the State Capitol steps and we’ll see what kind of attention he gets.”
There was a silence at the other end which made Lewis feel lighter.
“Do you understand?” Lewis asked.
“I’m not going to deal with you, Mason.”
“Do you think I’m stupid? You’re going to kill both of us. I don’t have any fucking thing to lose. Fuck you, Peabody, or whatever your name is. Maybe I’ll just take the body to the Capitol now, or to a television station. Do you have any suggestions? And I’ll stand beside it and point out the burns on his legs, complete with maggots, and tell the cameras and everybody about how there aren’t any animals up in that canyon. And I’ll ask them if they know why there’s a chain-link fence in the middle of the forest. Think they’ll have an answer for me?”
“She’ll be on the plaza in twenty minutes,” Peabody said.
“Fifteen.” Lewis slammed the phone down and leaned against the wall. He took a deep breath and smiled to himself.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Apparently, Maggie was alive. Lewis drove to town, thinking along the way of what he would do if Peabody pointed a gun at him. It had felt good to speak to the man that way, but he had not given the matter a thorough hashing out. Peabody might well just kill them or have his apes kill them on the plaza in front of everyone. The sun was bright and the sky showed no new rain. There would be many people out early. He thought of his friend Martin. Had he seen that body as Martin Aguilera, he never would have been able to dig it up. He shivered and fought an urge to brush himself off with his hands. His hands. He needed to wash them. Mud was dried under his nails and he imagined maggots on his palms. He stopped at a gas station, took off his raincoat and threw it in the back of the truck, then ran to the restroom where he tried to cleanse his hands with blue powdered soap from a dispenser. He rubbed at a spot on the back of his left hand that would not come off. It started to sting so he left it alone. The room was filthy, disgusting and Lewis belonged there. Someone else’s waste floated in the toilet.
He returned to the sunlight and pulled his sweater off over his head. He considered calling Manny, have him be there on the plaza. The sheriff had him confused. He looked down at how muddy his boots were. He stomped his feet.
Lewis didn’t have a plan when he turned onto the lane which circled the plaza. He parked in a diagonal space in front of a jewelry store. He stood out of the vehicle and looked across the square, starting at the stage. A hand waved to him. It was Maggie. Peabody sat beside her on the bench.
Lewis glanced about, continued to do so as he approached them. Maggie looked okay and he felt faint from happiness, he guessed, but probably from exhaustion. He had to hang on now. He sat by Maggie and she fell against him, tears flowing.
“Are you all right?” Lewis asked. He held her tight.
“She’s fine,” Peabody said.
“I didn’t ask you anything,” Lewis said to him. “Maggie?” He raised her face with his hands and looked at her eyes. “It’s going to be all right.”
Peabody looked straight ahead at the shops across the lane. “I’ve held up my end of the deal.”
Lewis looked around, turning to see behind him. He saw Ernesto trot down an alley.
“Where’s the body, Lewis?”
But Lewis was occupied with Maggie. “Did they hurt you?”
She managed to shake her head no.
Lewis looked at Peabody and realized that he was not very bright. Someone had given him a long leash, but he was not a smart man. He’d handled the matter badly. Lewis didn’t know what to do, but he could see that Peabody wasn’t all that clear on it either.
“We’ll be going now,” Lewis said and started to stand with Maggie.
“Sit down,” Peabody said with some authority. “I don’t want it to come down to this.”
Lewis considered Maggie and sat again.
“Tell me where the body is, Lewis,” the man said calmly.
“Why do you want it? I mean, I’ve seen the burns. If that’s what you’re worried about, you’re going to have to kill me.”