Part 22 (1/2)

It was the most welcome voice I'd ever heard, and it belonged to Leon Bates.

Chapter Forty.

I wanted to leave, to get straight back to Caroline and the kids, but I stuck around while Leon and his people did what they had to do. Before long, the place was crawling with sheriff's department investigators, deputies and emergency medical people. I gave a written statement to Rudy Lane while deputies and investigators tagged and bagged evidence and the medical folks carted away the bodies. Bates gave Rudy a written statement, too, which rea.s.sured me. He also showed Rudy a digital camera that El Maligno had been carrying.

”There's a photo of brother Dillard on this camera,” Bates said. ”I'm not gonna show it to you because I don't think he'd want anybody to see it. If anybody questions how we handle this investigation, it'll be my hole card.”

It was good to know that Leon was back on my side. If anyone could keep the politicians at bay, it was him.

After I talked to Rudy, I went into the bathroom and took the longest shower of my life. I dressed and walked around the inside of the house surveying the damage. The front entrance was destroyed and so was the entrance in back where they'd blown the door. The Claymore had torn up a couple of walls and shattered three windows. I'd put a dozen holes in the sheetrock by the stairwell leading to the bas.e.m.e.nt. The bodies were gone, but there was still blood all over the place. It was pretty bad, but it was fixable. I figured it would take in the neighborhood of ten thousand dollars to get it back to where it was. I was so punchy that I actually wondered for a second whether my homeowner's policy might cover the damage. I looked out the front window and saw news vans parked about a hundred yards up the road. Somebody had already leaked the story. By daybreak, dozens of gawkers were standing in the road like a herd of cattle.

Mack and Leah McCoy showed up about the same time the reporters began arriving. I was sitting in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee when Mack strode into the room and stopped five feet away from me. I'd taken half a dozen aspirin by that time and my head was still pounding. He folded his arms across his ma.s.sive chest and glowered at me.

”You lied to me,” he said.

”Not exactly. It happened fast, Mack.”

”That's not what I'm talking about. It's obvious you didn't need my help, but from the looks of this place and from what I've already heard, you had more than a shotgun and a pistol.”

It was the second time he'd made me smile.

”You're right. I lied.”

”You know something? I always thought the Rangers were overrated. I guess maybe I was wrong.”

”Wow, Mack, I'll bet you don't say that often.”

”So what about your wife and kids? You said they're in Michigan. When are they coming back?”

I'd called Caroline and told her, without giving her many details, that I was okay and that I thought it might be over. She wanted to get Bo to take everyone straight to Detroit so they could fly home, but I told her to sit tight. There was one more thing I needed to confirm.

”Not yet,” I said to Mack. ”I have to talk to someone first.”

I texted Erlene Barlowe a couple of hours later. I was surprised she responded immediately since she her club didn't close until three in the morning. She was up, though, and agreed to meet me at the edge of a Wal Mart parking lot in Colonial Heights. She pulled up in her red Mercedes and motioned for me to get into her car, so I climbed in the pa.s.senger side. She was wearing a black and white cheetah print blouse with a plunging neckline and her usual black, spandex pants. She smelled like incense and cinnamon. She drove out of the parking lot and pulled onto Highway 36.

”They're talking about you on the radio, sugar,” she said.

”What are they saying?”

”Must have been some gunfight. They're making it sound like the OK Corral.”

”Yeah, it was pretty intense.”

”They're saying the sheriff was involved.”

”He showed up out of nowhere,” I said. ”I don't know when and I don't know why, but if he hadn't, I'd be dead.”

She looked over and gave me a coy smile.

”Leon's a good boy,” she said, ”but like any man, he needs a little guidance now and then.”

”What do you mean, a little guidance?”

”He just needed a little talking to is all. Leon forgets sometimes what's really important in life. He gets too involved in all that political mess, worries too much about what people think. I just reminded him what a good friend you've been. I reminded him how you stood up for him in front of that judge a few years back and how you let him take the credit when that awful Satan wors.h.i.+pper got killed and-”

”Wait just a second,” I said. ”How could you possibly know about that?”

She winked at me, the smile still on her lips.

”You and Leon?” I said. ”How long? How serious is it?”

”A southern girl doesn't kiss and tell, sweetie.”

I shook my head in disbelief. Leon Bates and Erlene Barlowe. d.a.m.n. Truth really was stranger than fiction.

”So you're the reason he showed up?”

”I wouldn't put it exactly like that,” she said, ”but then again, maybe I would. I suppose my influence had something to do with him keeping a close eye on you last night. You know what he told me? He said you're the bravest man he's ever known. One of the smartest, too. He said those boys that came gunning for you didn't have a chance. He also said he didn't feel the slightest bit of remorse over shooting that last man, what did he call him? El Malarkey or something like that. He said he didn't feel a bit bad about shooting that man in the head. Said he'd do it again in a skinny minute.”

I chuckled at the thought of Bates using the phrase ”skinny minute.”

”You've already talked to him then,” I said. ”You guys must be pretty close.”

”Stop it, sugar. I'm not going to reveal any intimate details. All I'll say is that the sheriff and I have formed a mutual respect for each other.”

Mutual respect. She was priceless.

”What about John Lips...o...b..” I said.

Her eyes tightened just a tick and her voice took on a more serious tone.

”I'm not going to say much about him either, but I'll tell you just a couple of things. First, you don't have to worry about him anymore. And second, I'm told he peed his pants and cried like a baby.”

”So it's over?”

She nodded.

”My girls can rest in peace now, and you can go ahead and tell your family it's safe to come back home. John Lips...o...b..is in h.e.l.l where he belongs.”