Countdown (14 page)

‘If it hadn’t been for the damn dog we wouldn’t be here,’ Matt said.

The dog said, ‘Woof!’

‘It’s not his fault. It’s the fault of the guy who was dragging him in here,’ Johnny Mac, who had become somewhat enamored of the dog, said.

‘Whatever,’ Matt said. He turned his head, straining his ears. ‘Listen!’ he said, grabbing Johnny Mac’s arm.

‘Hey, you guys!’ said a voice.

‘Who’s that?’ Matt shouted.

‘Help me!’

‘Keep talking, we’ll find you!’ Johnny Mac shouted, just as the dog said, ‘Woof!’ and ran off into the trees, woofing away. ‘Let’s follow the dog!’

‘And leave Cody here?’ Matt asked.

Johnny Mac stopped in mid-flight. ‘Oh. Yeah. You wanna stay and I’ll go find out who that is?’

Matt looked at Cody, resting somewhat peacefully on the litter. ‘He should be OK, don’t you think?’

‘Yeah, come on!’ Johnny Mac said and went off after the dog, which was doing some serious barking.

They found the dog halfway up a really big oak tree, and doing that by only standing up on his hind feet, his front feet reaching high into the tree. But he was no longer barking – he was growling. When the dog saw them, he got down from the tree and grabbed Johnny Mac’s hand with a soft mouth. The dog pulled Johnny Mac to the tree, stood up and began growling again.

‘Up here,’ said a disembodied voice.

Both boys looked up. A teenaged boy was splayed over a large limb of the oak, his head a bloody mess. ‘Can y’all get me down?’ he asked.

A fire truck from Tulsa showed up on High Grove Lane and hooked up their much bigger hoses to the fire hydrant. The puny hose being used by the volunteer firefighters from Longbranch hadn’t done a lot of good.

One of the two police officers from Longbranch walked up to the female volunteer firefighter, whom he had, by watching her, determined was definitely in charge. ‘Wanna leave this to the Tulsa boys and keep going?’ he asked.

‘Sounds like a plan,’ she said and let loose with a two-finger whistle and a wave of her hand. The rest of the volunteer firefighters showed up and they all piled into the rescue van.

‘Where to?’ she asked the cop.

‘Up the hill?’ he suggested.

She shrugged. ‘Works for me.’

Drew Gleeson and Jasper Thorne were headed up the hill in the same subdivision, gawking at all the damage. ‘You’d think somebody up here would be hurt,’ Drew said.

‘Yeah. Ya’d think,’ Jasper agreed.

‘Where should we go?’

‘I dunno,’ Jasper said. Then got all excited. ‘Hey! Look at it! That’s the Longbranch rescue van!’

Seeing it, Drew hit his horn then turned on the siren for a quick ‘woop-woop.’ The rescue van stopped and the cops and the female firefighter got out of the van.

‘Hey, guys!’ Drew said, getting out of the van and vigorously pumping hands. ‘Y’all find any injured?’

The cops shook their heads and the woman firefighter said, ‘No. Found a fire, though. Hate to think someone could have been alive in there when it started.’ She shook her head. ‘It was a real bad explosion and most of the houses – or what was left of them – went up.’

‘Ah, shit, man,’ Jasper said. ‘That’s not good.’

Everyone nodded in agreement with his statement.

‘Where y’all headed?’ Drew asked.

‘Up the hill,’ one of the cops said. ‘No particular reason, but we thought we’d start there and work our way down.’

Drew looked at Jasper, who nodded. ‘We’ll follow you up there,’ Drew said. ‘In case you find survivors.’

Again, they all nodded and got back into their respective vehicles.

‘You that guy who was dragging this dog into the woods?’ Johnny Mac demanded of the kid in the tree.

‘No,’ he said.

The dog growled, still standing tall into the tree.

‘Dog says you’re lying,’ Johnny Mac said.

‘That dog didn’t say shit!’ the boy in the tree shouted. ‘He’s just a stupid, dumb dog!’

Johnny Mac looked at Matt. ‘Should we just leave him up there?’ he asked his friend.

Matt appeared to think it over. ‘Would serve him right,’ he finally said. ‘I don’t like dog killers.’

‘Me neither,’ Johnny Mac said.

‘Hey! I didn’t kill that dog! Look! He’s right there!’ the kid in the tree said, pointing down at the still-growling dog.

‘Maybe you just admitted what you were gonna do!’ Matt said.

‘I’m not saying shit!’ the boy said. ‘Y’all just be on your way. I’m fine up here. Just fine and dandy.’

‘How bad you hurt?’ Johnny Mac asked him.

‘Not so much,’ the boy’s voice got softer. ‘Just a head injury. You know they bleed a lot.’

Johnny Mac could see that by the pool of blood on the ground that he almost stepped in. He and Matt conferred.

‘You think we should try to get him down?’ Johnny Mac asked.

‘I’m afraid if we do the dog’ll tear him to shreds,’ Matt whispered.

They both looked at the dog, still holding up the tree and growling.

‘Hey, dog,’ Johnny Mac said.

The dog jumped down and turned to Johnny Mac, the growl gone and his tail wagging. There was a big old smile on his face.

‘Promise you won’t hurt this guy if we let him down?’ Johnny Mac asked.

The dog cocked his head, as if trying to figure out his instructions. Then he grabbed Johnny Mac’s arm again with his soft mouth and pulled him to the tree. He sat down on his hindquarters, looked up into the tree and said, ‘Woof!’

Mike Reynolds woke up, his head throbbing. He reached to touch the sore spot and brought back a bloodied hand. ‘What the fuck?’ he said, staring at his hand, then looked up. He was in the suite again. Oh, right! He remembered. There’d been gun fire and he’d run in and … that’s all he could remember. All the women in the room were turned with their backs to him, staring at something behind the long sofa. Chandra’s mee-maw was just standing by the window, staring out. Where was Chandra, though? He couldn’t see her. She wasn’t in her chair at the back of the room. Then, just as his vision had slowly cleared, the ringing in his ears abated and he began to hear voices.

‘Push! Come on, you can do it, baby girl! Push!’

Mike pulled himself up and hobbled toward the sound. But Chandra’s mee-maw must have heard him and turned away from the window, her gun pointing at his heart.

‘Where in the hell do you think you’re going?’ she demanded.

Mike pointed to the back of the sofa, where he could now see his beloved’s feet sticking out. ‘She’s having my baby,’ he told the old woman.

Eunice Blanton shook her head and sighed. ‘Oh, for God’s sake! Go on.’ And she turned back to stare out the window again.

‘I can’t stand much more of this!’ Carolyn McIntosh, Cody’s mom, said. ‘Cody!’ she yelled at the top of her lungs.

Both men followed suit, screaming their own boys’ names as loud as they could.

‘Hey!’ came a faint sound from far away.

‘Hey!’ Harmon bellowed back. ‘Who is it?’

‘John McDonnell Kovak, sir!’ came the faint but shouted answer.

The three adults began to run as fast as they could through the wreckage and debris of the woods.

‘Y’all hear that?’ Drew Gleeson asked those assembled outside their vehicles on the cul-de-sac at the top of the hill.

There was a chorus of ‘yeahs!’ in response.

Jasper Thorne pointed toward the woods. ‘It came from there!’

‘Grab the stretcher and I’ll grab the bag,’ Drew said and they all – two EMTs, two police officers and five volunteer firefighters – headed down the path to the greenbelt and into the woods.

‘I’m here, baby, I’m here,’ Mike Reynolds said, holding his beloved’s hand and stroking the damp hair away from her forehead.

‘Just let her squeeze your hand,’ Marge said. ‘Come on, sweet girl, breathe, breathe!’

Chandra tried her new breathing techniques but it didn’t seem to help the pain even a tiny bit. ‘Oh my God!’ she screamed. ‘Get this damn thing out!’

Jean, who, with some help, had managed to get on the floor between Chandra’s raised legs, looked at Marge. ‘The cord’s around his neck,’ she whispered to Marge.

‘Ah, shit,’ Marge breathed.

‘What? What is it?’ Mike asked, panicked.

‘Oh, God, oh God, my baby!’ Chandra screamed, and began to cry as Mike tried without success to calm her.

‘We need to get her to the hospital,’ Jean said.

‘That ain’t happening,’ said Eunice Blanton from her stance at the window.

Johnny Mac, Matt and the dog ran back to where Cody was lying, still unconscious, on the litter.

‘Here we are!’ Johnny Mac screamed. ‘Can you hear us?’

‘Keep yelling!’ a grown-up voice said.

So both boys began to yell and both burst into tears – which they would later deny – when they saw Johnny Mac’s uncle, Matt’s dad and Cody’s mom come running to where they were.

The room phone rang. It took two rings before Eunice Blanton turned to acknowledge it. She moved away from the window and picked the phone up off the table.

‘What now?’ she said into it dejectedly.

‘Ma’am,’ said the voice of the sheriff, ‘I got some real bad news for you.’

‘That’s been about all you’ve been giving me, asshole,’ Eunice said, trying to get some spunk into her voice.

‘Ma’am, Darrell is dead. I’m real sorry, Miz Blanton—’

Eunice dropped the phone and fell on the sofa where Jean had been sitting. Marge saw this, stood up and walked to her mother. The gun in Eunice’s hand was pointed at the floor. Marge took it out of her mother’s hand with surprising ease, let out a deep breath and picked up the phone’s receiver. ‘Sheriff, that you?’ she asked.

‘Yeah, who’s this?’

Ignoring his question she said, ‘Y’all can come on up now, Mama’s disarmed. And we need an ambulance. My baby girl’s having a baby and the cord’s around its neck.’

‘We’re on our way,’ the sheriff said.

‘But be careful. My brother’s outside the door and he’s armed. He’s already shot one lady up here.’

Downstairs, Milt nodded his head, hung up the phone and readied his men to go.

‘T
here’s a boy in a tree back there,’ Johnny Mac told his uncle after all the hugging had abated. ‘We think he tried to kill this dog here.’

‘That’s a dog?’ Uncle Harmon asked. ‘I thought it was a bear.’

The dog, sitting back on his haunches, smiled and wagged his tail without saying a word.

It was at about this juncture in the discussion when all the Longbranch rescue people showed up.

Carolyn McIntosh was down on her hands and knees next to her son. When she saw the EMTs with their medical bag and stretcher she said, ‘Over here, y’all! My boy! He’s hurt bad.’

Turning to the EMTs, Johnny Mac said, ‘I tried to help him.’ Tears formed behind his eyes, threatening to spill over. ‘I tied my shirt around his leg so that bone wouldn’t—’

At that point Cody’s mom unwrapped Johnny Mac’s shirt, saw the bone sticking out of her son’s leg and passed out.

Anthony got a call from Milt. ‘We’re going in,’ Milt said. ‘Except the son, Earl Blanton, is outside in the hall and he’s armed. Can you check that out and get back to me? See how we should approach this dude.’

‘Got it, Milt,’ Anthony said and hung up his cell phone. He went to the door, opened it just a crack and peered out toward the door of suite 214.

Earl Blanton was standing in the hallway, all right, his ear to the door of suite 214, his shotgun propped against the opposite wall and his face pointed in the other direction.

Anthony took off his shoes, readied his weapon and walked silently up to Eunice Blanton’s only surviving son.

‘Hands up. You’re under arrest. You have the right to—’

Back inside suite 214, Marge Blanton handed her weapon to Jasmine Hopkins. ‘Here ya go,’ Marge said. ‘I was coerced into this. Wasn’t none of my doing.’

She looked at her mother, who was bent over, sobbing fit to beat the band. ‘Mama just has this thing for Darrell, is all.’ Marge shook her head. ‘It’s always been like that. Darrell just hung the moon as far as Mama’s concerned.’

Eunice stood up and slapped Marge’s face. ‘Don’t you talk about my boy like that! He’s dead!’ And she fell back down, sobbing.

‘Sorry about that, Mama,’ Marge said. ‘But you got two other children and you done ruined our lives because of him. I hope you’re happy!’ Marge swung around and went to her own daughter who was lying on the floor, panting and alternately screaming.

The door burst open and Anthony came in, pushing a frazzled Earl in front of him. ‘Mama!’ Earl cried. ‘This black guy is arresting me!’

Eunice paid no attention, but Maryanne Dobbins jumped up from the sofa where she’d been sitting next to the old bat and ran toward her husband. Seeing that, Jasmine turned, pocketed the gun Marge had given her and advanced on Earl. ‘I’ll take him,’ she said to Anthony. She grinned. ‘You take your wife.’

And he did – hugging her so tight that Maryanne felt she might break, but she didn’t really care.

We weren’t far behind Anthony, me and everybody else from downstairs, with Dalton pushing through to the front. Holly was on him in a New York minute, arms and legs entwined around him. Emmett helped his wife with her prisoner and Will and Nita Skitteridge found each other.

I didn’t see Jean. I screamed her name at the top of my lungs, my eyes not leaving the corpse covered by a sheet over by the wet bar.

Marge stood up from behind the sofa. ‘Sheriff, she’s back here with my daughter. We need an ambulance bad.’

I rushed around to where Mike Reynolds and Jean were bent over the pregnant girl. ‘There are no ambulances,’ I told Jean. ‘There was a real bad tornado in Bishop and everybody in the county’s up there. We’ll have to drive her in a squad car.’

Jean grabbed my arm. ‘John?’ she whispered.

I shook my head. ‘I don’t know. I haven’t been able to get hold of Jewel. You and me will drop Mike and the girl off at the hospital and head to Bishop.’

Jean nodded.

Marge said, ‘I’m going with my daughter!’

‘No, ma’am!’ I said, ready to cold-cock this woman if she said another word. ‘As I understand it, you assaulted a police officer—’

‘Ah, Sheriff,’ Mike Reynolds said, standing up. ‘This lady’s gonna be my mother-in-law so let’s just put all that down to a domestic squabble, OK?’