Part 16 (1/2)

”Get him out of there,” Jules said to Robert.

Robert didn't look at Jules, he was still looking at Clamp. But he didn't say a word. Looking like he was trying to get things together for himself. Then he whirled-Miss Amma Dean no more than a step behind him. Even in the hall, before she even got to the parlor, she was calling Tee Bob: ”Robert? Robert? Robert?”

I went to get my coat, but Jules stopped me again.

”Nothing you can do down there,” he said. ”Somebody see you leaving and figure what happen, this whole thing can blow up.”

”Anybody down there with her?” I asked Clamp.

”Ida,” he said.

”Anybody else know?”

”Joe and them children,” he said.

”n.o.body else?”

”No, ma'am.”

We could hear Robert beating on the library door and calling Tee Bob. Then we could hear him beating louder and cussing. Then it would get quiet a second while he listened. In the time he was listening, we could hear Miss Amma Dean calling quietly.

”Go find that axe,” Jules said to Clamp. ”And you stay here,” he said to Ethel. ”Run out of here screaming and this whole thing blow up. And you, too,” he said to me. ”Go find that axe,” he said to Clamp. ”Go get in a corner somewhere,” he said to Ethel. ”Just don't run out of here.”

He went out of the kitchen breathing hard. He hadn't got half way up the hall before Ethel and Clamp shot out of there, headed for home. I started to follow them, because I thought that girl might need me. But Clamp said Ida was there, and I figured she could do anything I could do and could probably do it better.

I went outside to get the axe. It was still raining, and when I came back in the house my dress and scarf was good and wet. Coming up the hall I could hear Robert slamming his shoulder against that door. When Jules saw me with the axe he figured out what had happened, and he took the axe from me and handed it to Robert. All the people moved back when Robert started swinging the axe at the door. He was swinging it blade first. He wasn't aiming to break the door in, he wanted to chop it down now. Every time he hit the door the water from the axe sprayed the people in front and they had to move further back. The sound of the axe against the door went like thunder through that old house. Pictures of the old people shook on every wall. A looking-gla.s.s fell and scattered all over the floor. Women screamed. That gal, Judy Major, almost knocked her daddy over getting in his arms. But Robert went on. Miss Amma Dean over to the side, tapping the wall and calling Tee Bob's name so quiet I doubt if even she could hear it. But Robert went on. His face wasn't sad, scared, worried-just plain hard. I kept thinking, ”Lord, Lord, Lord, what will it take to change this man? Don't he know that's his boy in there? Do he know at all what he go'n find when he open that door?”

After he had chopped a hole big enough for his hand to go through, he unlatched the door from inside; then he had to throw his shoulder against it to clear away the things Tee Bob had stack there. Tee Bob was sitting in the high back chair facing the window. He was sitting there like he was just looking out of the window. Then somebody screamed. I looked down and saw the dirk on the floor. No, not a dirk, a letter opener. The one Paul Samson had used at the capital there in Baton Rouge.

Robert hollered for the women to get out, but the people didn't go out, they went in, and I went in with them. And that's how I saw when Jules Raynard s.n.a.t.c.hed the letter up off the table and put it in his pocket. Everywhere he turned from then on I had my eyes on him. I figured if it was something bad he was go'n tear it up. But he didn't tear it up, he waited till most of the people had gone, then he called Miss Amma Dean to another room. After she read the letter she sent for Robert. Everybody else was gone now. They left quietly, not saying a word. When they asked for their coat and umbrellas, they asked for them in a whisper. The cars even left the yard quietly. Half hour after Robert got that door opened, n.o.body was left but him and Miss Amma Dean, me and Jules Raynard. They was in another room, I was in the library with Tee Bob. We had covered him over with a sheet. The sheet had a red spot in the middle the size of a saucer. Everything else was just like we found them. Even the dirk-the letter opener-was still on the floor.

Jules Raynard came out the other room, and I heard him telephoning the sheriff's office. Then he came in the library where I was.

”What was in that letter, Mr. Raynard?” I asked him.

”What letter?” he said.

”The one you s.n.a.t.c.hed off that table over there.”

”You saw then?” he said.

”I saw.”

”To his mother,” Jules Raynard said, looking down at the sheet. ”He had to find peace. He couldn't find it here.”

”And the girl?” I said.

”Innocent,” Jules Raynard said, looking down at the sheet-not at me.

”Who go'n believe this?” I asked him.

”I believe it,” he said, looking at the sheet all the time.

Robert and Miss Amma Dean came in the library. Miss Amma Dean pulled the sheet from Tee Bob's face and looked down at him. She stood there so long Jules Raynard had to pull her away and lead her to a chair against the wall. I covered Tee Bob's face again. Robert hadn't moved. He didn't know what to do, or what to say. He wasn't looking at Miss Amma Dean or Tee Bob; just standing there like he was still trying to figure out something.

Me and Jules Raynard was standing in the parlor when we heard the car come in the yard. It came in too fast and stopped too quick, so we knowed it wasn't the sheriff. The person ran up on the gallery and knocked on the door loud and quick. By the time Jules got to the door he had knocked two or three more times.

”What do you want?” Jules asked, when he opened the door.

Jimmy Caya didn't answer Jules. He pushed right by him and came inside. He saw me standing there, but he went right by me. When he got to the library door he saw Robert and Miss Amma Dean, then he stopped. Now he went in quietly.

Jules Raynard came back toward the library. I could tell from the way he looked he didn't like Jimmy Caya there. He never did like the Cayas. They was just rednecks who had come up. He had even warned Tee Bob against Jimmy Caya. I could see in his face now how he didn't want him there.

”Is that my friend?” Jimmy said in the library. ”Is that Robert?”

Miss Amma Dean was sitting in the chair and Robert was standing by the chair, but neither of them answered Jimmy Caya. Maybe they didn't even hear him at first. Miss Amma Dean just gazed at that sheet like she couldn't look nowhere else. Robert was standing side her like he was still waiting for something to happen.

”I warned him,” Jimmy Caya said. ”I warned him 'bout her.”

Jules Raynard stood in the library door looking straight at Jimmy Caya. I could see in his face how much he hated him.

”He told me she wouldn't let him alone,” Jimmy Caya said. ”He told me that no later than today. Poor Robert. Now look at him.”

Jules Raynard turned red just standing there. But he didn't say a thing till Robert looked at the boy. Then he knowed he had to move. But even before he got in the room, Robert had turned. Jules moved back in the door. His frame almost took up the whole door.

”Get out the way,” Robert said.

”No, you don't,” Jules said.

”Do I have to walk over you?” Robert said.

”Yes,” Jules said. ”And soon as Guidry get here I'll accuse you of murder. Trash will be trash anywhere, anytime, but me and you, we know better.”

”Only thing I know, I should 'a' done it before now,” Robert said.

”I ain't lying to you,” Jules said. ”I'll tell sure as I'm standing here.”

”Do you know who's in that chair?” Robert said.

”I know who's in that chair,” Jules Raynard said. ”And I know he did it himself. And I know why he did it.”

”She did it,” Jimmy Caya said. ”That n.i.g.g.e.r wench did it.”

”Shut up,” Jules told him.

”What?” he said.

”You killed him,” Jules said.

”What?” Jimmy Caya said. ”Robert was my best friend.”