Tussy started to speak, then clamped her lips together.
“Tante Verity was an old woman,” Dett said. “Real old, like a hundred, maybe. She was just sitting on her porch, watching me come out of the swamp. I came up to her real slow, so I wouldn’t frighten her. But when I got close, I could see that nothing would ever frighten her. She acted like she was expecting me.
“I told her what happened. From the very beginning, like I just told you. She didn’t say a word, just sat there, rocking in her chair. But I knew she heard me.
“I remember telling her about dropping Lewis at the crossroads, and then I must have passed out. When I came to, I was inside her house, lying in some kind of hammock, with netting over me. The old woman gave me something to drink. It was in a mug, but thick, like stew. I remember it was very hot, burned going down, and then I passed out again.”
Dett got to his feet, rotated his neck, giving off an audible crack. Seeing the expression on Tussy’s face, he returned to the couch.
“I don’t know how long I stayed with Tante Verity-that’s what she told me to call her, too-but every day, I got stronger. And every day, she taught me things.”
“What kind of things?”
“Like roots you can grind up, to keep the inside of your body clean. About the things in the swamp, how you can live among them if you know how to make peace. But, mostly, she taught me what I had to do.
“ ‘Two trains coming, son,’ she said to me. ‘Headed for the junction. You can’t stop either one. But you can slow the dark one down. You can put a log across the tracks, make Satan late enough so that the righteous train gets by clean.’ ”
“What does that mean?” Tussy demanded, her voice caught between anger and dread.
“It means I kill people,” Dett said, dead-voiced. “You can say they’re bad people, but that’s not why I have to do it. Those three men out in that field that night, they were bad men. And whoever sent them there, to do what they meant to do, they’re worse. But the worst of all are the people who sent me there.”
“The FBI?”
“Not even them, Tussy. Not even them. I don’t think I’ll ever know who makes things the way they are. And it doesn’t matter. My job is to roll that log across the tracks in time. It doesn’t matter who hires me, because they’re all guilty or they’re all being used by those who are. It’s like being surrounded. Wherever you shoot, you hit the enemy.”
“You came here, to Locke City, to-?”
“Beaumont hired me,” Dett said. “He wanted something done about Dioguardi. And I did that.”
“You were the one?”
“Yes. And I left things set up so that there may be more. A lot more. What I do is like throwing a rock into a pool. The splash doesn’t matter, only the circles it makes.”
“But Mr. Beaumont isn’t a-”
“Yes he is, Tussy,” Dett said. “He’s just smarter than other men like him. He knows you do better being nice to people than stomping all over them. He owns this town, top to bottom. And what he owns, he can deliver. He brought me in here to make sure he could keep his power. But I never really work for any of them, even though I take their money.”
“Walker-”
“That’s not my name,” Dett said. “I don’t have a name, anymore. Just one I use. Even this face, it’s different from the one I started with. There’s people who can do that. There’s people who can do just about anything, if you pay them.”
“You only… kill white people? Because of what-”
“No,” Dett said, making a harsh sound in his throat. “I kill the people I get paid to kill. You think it’s only whites that run gangs?”
“But if they’re all criminals…” Tussy said, desperately searching.
“I’m not a vigilante,” Dett said. “I’m not out doing justice. I’m just trying to slow that train down. I was given seven years.”
“I don’t understand.”
“When I left, Tante Verity told me my time started in that field, when I killed those three men. And it would run for seven years. By then, the first train would be through the crossroads, no matter what. If I’m not already dead, I can start walking my own road, that’s what she said. I’ll be clean then.”
“That’s not for another-”
“About four years,” Dett said.
“It’s too… horrible,” Tussy said, sobbing.
Dett sat with his fists clenched, unable to look away.
1959 October 11 Sunday 02:21
“Why did you tell me all this, Walker?” Tussy asked, an hour later.
“I had to. Tante Verity told me I could never have a friend, not for seven years. I could never be close to anyone. But she promised I would find a pure woman. And when I did, I could tell her.”
“But how could you possibly-?”
“She said I’d know. And she was right. The second I saw you, I knew.”
“I can’t… It’s like it’s too big to even think about, what you said. That’s really you, Walker? A man who goes around killing people?”
“I have to do it,” Dett said. “I just have to. I did my best to explain, but I know how it sounds. Like I’m insane. Chasing ghosts. Trying to slow down some train. I know. But every word I told you is the truth, Tussy.”
“I…”
“You know it’s true,” Dett said, relentlessly. “You know I’m true, true for you, or you never would have told me what you did. About your… about your life.”
“But… what’s going to happen, Walker?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re just going to disappear? And then do another…?”
“Yes. Until the time has passed. Or until I get killed.”
“You sound like it doesn’t matter to you at all.”
“It can’t matter, not until the seven years has passed.”
“What are you saying?” she said, struggling with tears.
“I’ll come back then, Tussy. If I’m alive, I’ll come back.”
“For me?”
“If you would have me.”
“How can you even-? I…”
“I’ll just call. On the phone. If you hear my voice, and hang up, I’ll have your answer.”
“Walker…”
“I’m gone, Tussy. If you ever see me again, I won’t be Walker Dett. I’ll be… I’ll be clean. I thought of just… telling you a story. About some secret mission or something. Hoping that you’d wait for me. But if you’re going to have the truth of me when I come back, you had to have the truth of what I am now. What I was before that, too.”
“I can’t…”
“I know,” Dett said. He got to his feet and walked out into the night.
1959 October 11 Sunday 09:30
“Yes. I’ll get him,” Cynthia said.
She handed the phone to Beaumont, mouthing, “It’s him,” as she did so.
Beaumont picked up the receiver, a determined look on his face.
“This is Royal Beaumont,” he said.
1959 October 11 Sunday 13:21
“I thought you said he was going along with everything.”
“That’s what he said,” Lymon answered Shalare. “And I still think he is.”
“You didn’t know he was going to hit Dioguardi?”
“I don’t know who knew that. Sammy didn’t, that’s for sure. And him and me and Faron, we’re the senior men.”
“But it’s that young one, Harley, that you said Beaumont had picked out to be next in line, not any of you, isn’t that right? Isn’t that why you came to us in the first place, Lymon?”
“Yeah. That’s right. Harley’s just a kid, maybe twenty-five. I don’t see why Roy would-”
“Never mind that now. Give me something I can use, Lymon. If Beaumont did it-and I can’t see anyone else-why would he make such a move?”
“For Hacker.”
“Hacker?”
“One of our guys. A collector. He disappeared a while back, and Roy always said it was Dioguardi’s work.”
“Yeah,” Shalare mused. “He’s that kind of man, is he?”