It was supposed to be an hour, he thought. Maybe less. Time enough for a beer and whatever business Walt Sorenson had to conduct, and then we were moving on down the road.
This wasn’t a world you planned your way through, though. He’d known that much for many a year.
* * *
It was nearing noon when Thomas Barrett’s panel van pulled into the yard. Rebecca talked to him briefly and then waved a hand, calling for them.
“So you boys going to be visiting a little longer, huh?” Barrett said when they walked over, the mellow grin on his face the same as always.
“We got no money,” Arlen said. “Might as well make some.”
“Good sense. Becky here tells me y’all’ll be needing some lumber.”
“That’s right,” Paul said. “We’ve got it all written down.”
“Well, I told her I’d be happy to pick it up for a small charge, but I’ll need a hand loading.”
“Paul can go along,” Arlen said.
Paul frowned. “I was going to wire that generator back in.”
“It’ll hold,” Arlen said. “My back ain’t up to heavy lifting today, not after sleeping down in the boathouse. Go on and show off your muscles.”
Rebecca passed Barrett a tightly folded roll of bills, all of which looked to be singles, and he slipped them into his pocket and winked at Paul.
“Ready to go blow this on booze and loose women?”
The two of them were off. Arlen watched the van pull away, and by the time he turned back to Rebecca, she was already gone. He gave a grim smile, thinking, Not going to be that easy, gorgeous. You and I are going to talk.
She was back in the barroom, cleaning the stools with a rag that reeked of some powerful disinfectant. She didn’t hear him enter, and Arlen watched her work, scrubbing furiously at the nicked legs of the old bar stools.
“Blood get on those, too?” he said.
She gave a start, then saw who it was, and her eyes hardened and her hand tightened around the rag. A drop of the cleaning fluid dripped onto the floor.
“I thought I was paying you to fix things,” she said. “Not stand around in the dark watching me.”
“There are lots of things around here need fixing,” he said with a nod, stepping closer. “I’m just trying to get a sense of all of them.”
She hesitated a moment, down on her hands and knees, and then got to her feet with a small sigh and stood with her back against the bar.
“There was a fight. It’s not uncommon when those men get together. People get hurt.”
“People got hurt,” Arlen said, “but that was no fight.”
“I have no idea what happened,” she said. “I was upstairs, trying not to hear it. That’s what I always do.”
“I believe that, but you know damn well that whatever happened in here last night wasn’t a fight.”
“You think I should call the sheriff?” she said, scorn clear in her voice. “Or maybe call Judge Solomon Wade himself?”
“There are other people to call.”
She didn’t answer.
“If we’re staying here,” he said, “I’m going to need to be told the truth about some things.”
“Why?”
The abruptness of the question startled him. He leaned his head back, staring at her, and said, “Because I don’t want you to be mopping up me or Paul Brickhill next time around.”
“I don’t know why you’re staying,” she said. “You should go. Don’t you understand that? Even I understand it.”
“You want us gone?”
Her jaw trembled for an instant before she said, “You know that I don’t, you said it last night. If you’re gone, I’m alone again. With them.”
“If you don’t talk to me, you’re damn near that alone anyhow.”
“No,” she said. “I’m nowhere near as alone as that.”
You can’t leave them here, the woman from Cassadaga had told him. They need you.
“I can’t help you,” he said, “if you won’t speak the truth.”
“I’ve told no lies.”
“You’ve told nothing, period.”
“My problems are my own. I don’t need to share them.”
Her face floated there just before his, those smooth lines and endless eyes.
“But you’re right about this place,” she said. “It’s filled with trouble. I’m filled with trouble. You don’t need any of it, and Paul certainly doesn’t. The best thing for both of you would be to—”
He leaned down and kissed her. Lifted his hand to the back of her neck and kissed her on the lips just as smoothly and sweetly as he could.