The Collected Horrors of Tim Wellman (15 page)

Jake unlocked the door and pushed his way
through it and the two EMT's carried the little girls out onto the
grass where they quickly grabbed onto each other again. They had
stopped screaming and were simply crying softly to themselves,
their tears washing small rivulets through the black soot and grime
that covered their faces. Their bright green eyes were frantically
searching, looking for a face they recognized, but they seemed
completely lost, unable to latch on to anything they saw.

"You got live bodies?" came over the radio.

"Two girls," Steve said. "Two little girls.
Better let the folks down there know, old man!"

"Can ya stand?" John said.

"I'm okay," Jerry said.

"Not you, fucktard, I'm talkin' ta the
girls!"

The girls didn't seem to hear him, but suddenly
they both stopped crying and stood up quickly, so quickly they
caused John and Jerry to jump back.

"Woah!" Jake said. "Well, they're up." He looked
at the other guys. "Now what?"

Steve bent down and grabbed them into his arms,
one on each hip and stood up. "Come on, let's get off this hill and
get them cleaned up and fed."

Jake scratched the back of his neck and seemed
to be mulling over something. "I reckon no body gets nothin' in
town, right?"

"What d'ya mean, Jake?" Tom said.

"He means the girls get ownership of all the
Perry property," Steve said.

"That shit just ain't right," Tom said.

"Sure as hell ain't," Jake said. "A lot a people
down there sweat their asses off ta keep them stores and stuff
goin'."

"Hey Steve, hold up a second," Tom said. "Let's
think this over."

Steve kept walking down the hill and made it to
the driveway before the others caught up with him and stood in
front of him.

"You guys aren't thinking right," he said. "I've
known you guys all my life; you're not murderers." They all
shrugged and looked down at the ground, then slowly parted and let
Steve walk past. "You just let all this death get to you," he said.
"No way any of you were serious." He slowed down. "Come on, let's
get home."

"Sorry 'bout that, bro," John said.

"We're thinking too far ahead, anyway," Steve
said. "We all need to hear from Mister Williams at the bank, see if
old man Perry left a will or any instructions about these
girls."

"Yeah, that's right," Jerry said. "Mister
Williams is the one who told dad he'd get the deed to the bakery if
the Perrys died out."

They could hear sirens down in the town and the
girls seemed to wake up and become more aware of their
surroundings. "All dead," one said.

"Oh, hey," Steve said. "We're going down to
town. There's all kinds of good people down there."

"Do you girls know your names?" Jake said.

They both nodded. "Kimberly." And the other
said, "Tamara."

"Are you two twin sisters?" Steve said.

They looked at each other across his chest, then
shook their heads. "Cousins."

"But y'all look just alike," Tom said.

"Cousins," the other girl said.

They were close enough to see several town's
people gathered at the foot of the driveway now and none of them
seemed happy. There was an ambulance waiting, and Steve's dad was
walking around nervously, wringing his hands and briefly chatting
with people as he walked.

"Need to get these kids cleaned up and checked
out," Steve yelled. They were close enough to hear some of the
people talking as two female paramedics met them on the road and
took the girls from his arms.

"Come on sweeties, let's get y'all checked out,
okay?" one said.

The other looked up at Steve. "They're talkin' a
lot a shit over there, you know. Don't come down here thinkin'
you're a hero or nothin'."

"I figured," Steve said. "You take care of those
girls."

"We got Mister Williams to go down to the bank
and check Perry's papers," one said. "Ain't none of us a gettin'
shit, now!"

"Yes, well, there was a safety deposit box I was
only supposed to open if Mister Perry should die," Mister Williams
said. "It's all pretty clear. As long as there are living Perry
family members, they get everything he had."

"And we ain't even gettin' ta keep what we
had!"

"Now, calm down Larry," he said. "That isn't
exactly what I said."

"Just what did ya say," Jake said. "We all got
some stake in this, now."

"As long as the shops make a reasonable profit,
everything stays just like it is," the banker said.

"And that there part's the bullshit," Larry
said. "Y'all know half a what gets bought at the hardware store is
on credit. Hell, most a y'all right here owes more than ya can pay
in a year."

"Everybody else dead up there, Steve?" his dad
said.

"Yeah, I guess we saw everyone. Five people all
together. Two women, two men, and one that looked like an old
man."

"I reckon that's the whole clan then, 'cept the
girls," he said. He turned to face the small group that had
gathered and cleared his throat. "That's the way it goes, folks.
Ain't one damned good reason just a standin' 'round bitchin' like a
bunch a old church women."

"That's 'cause this ain't affectin' you, Chief,"
one said. "Ya get ta keep what ya got."

"You wanna go in that ambulance and kill them
girls, Tim?" He looked around. "That what any of y'all wanna
do?"

They were all quiet.

"It just ain't right," Tim said. "That's all the
fuck I'm a sayin'."

"Well now there is something else to think
about," Williams said. "It's just what happens with the girls."

"What do you mean, Mister Williams," Steve
Junior said.

"Well, if those girls get taken or fostered out
someplace else, all their possessions go with them. Whoever raises
them gets to control their property as long as it's in the girls'
best interest," he said. "That's the law." He looked around at
everyone, and then patted one older man on the shoulder.
"Everything they own here would be sold or just torn down for
scrap. This whole town has operated at a loss for the last forty
years or more."

"Don't matter none, now." One of the paramedics
stepped out of the ambulance and peeled off her rubber gloves.

"What do you mean?" Steve Junior said.

"They didn't make it," she said calmly. "Musta
been the smoke 'er somethin'."

"What?!" He ran to the back of the vehicle and
looked inside. The other paramedic was leaning over one of the
girls. "You killed them?!"

She turned around. "No," she said. "They died.
Smoke inhalation. Autopsies will show that. Just stopped
breathin'."

He shook his head and walked away. They had
seemed fine, even spoke. It just didn't make sense. "I guess you
all got what you wanted," he said. He didn't look at any of them.
No one really spoke much. Everyone simply walked away without
looking at anyone else as the ambulance doors slammed shut and it
pulled way. "Hey Jerry, Jake," he said. "Did they seem bad off to
you?"

"Them girls was near dead when we found 'em,"
Jake said. "We all saw that."

"You can tell yourself that, but I held them,
talked to them, they were fine," he said. "And now they're dead.
Doesn't take a genius to figure it out, does it?"

Everyone shrugged and kept walking toward town,
their conversation lightened by the news.

The chief walked to his police car and grabbed
the microphone. "Chief Wilson here," he said. He listened closely
through the door, and then got in the car. "Say that again?"

"What is it, dad?" Steve Junior said.

He climbed out of the car and adjusted his hat.
"Hey!" Everyone who had walked away stopped and turned to see what
he wanted. "Y'all need ta get back here fer this."

"What is it, dad?" Steve said again. "What's
going on?"

"There was just an accident about a mile out
Route Sixty. The ambulance went off the road and hit a phone pole,"
he said. "Killed the two medics."

Everyone picked up the pace and gathered around
the chief. "That... that's terrible news!"

"I knowed them girls pretty good," Jake said.
"Went ta school with Becky."

"Been a lot of death today," Steve Junior said.
"A lot of needless death."

"Steve, ya listen to me, boy," the chief said.
"You all listen to me!" He leaned against his car, took off his
hat, and then wiped the sweat off his forehead. "They didn't find
no little girls."

"What?" Jerry said. "They was thrown from the
ambulance?"

"Doors were open, but them girls had been
strapped down in the stretchers," he said. "Ain't no way they was
thrown out."

"What are you saying, dad?" Steve said.

"I don't
know
what I'm sayin'," he said.
"But there weren't no little girls in that ambulance when the
deputy found the wreck just now. The driver is fine and he said
there was no way they were thrown from the vehicle. The straps were
still fastened."

"Well, that makes no sense," Mister Williams
said. "But as far as the town and all your deeds go, it doesn't
matter. As far as I'm concerned, they're dead. The paramedics said
so. Doesn't matter if they're missing now."

"Thank ya, Williams," one man said.

"Did ya tell the deputy anythang 'bout what was
a goin' on, Chief?" Tom said. "Was it Don's boy, Jeff?"

"He don't know nothin' he ain't s'posed ta
know."

"That's good," Larry said. "I thank we can all
move on and get back ta bein' a normal town full a good people
again."

Steve looked up at the smoldering house on the
hill and shook his head. "I don't think the town will ever get back
to normal, fellers." He turned around and looked at everyone. "Got
two people involved in killing those girls already dead. Now, maybe
it ends there because they were the ones who did the actual
killing, or maybe not. All of you might as well have put those
women up to it."

"Ya talkin' complete bullshit, Steve," Jake
said. "Like this is some fuckin' horror movie or somethin'."

"I carried those girls down the hill," he said.
"They were as healthy as I am. I can't pretend I don't know what I
know." He smiled. "I think you had all best be worrying about where
those little girls are."

"Here comes the deputy," John said.

"Y'all just keep quiet about this, now," Jake
said as he motioned the car into a spot near the driveway. He
pounded on the hood and smiled through the windshield. "Whatcha
doin' Jeffy!"

The deputy had his door open before the car
stopped, then killed the engine and hopped out. "Y'all had a hell
of a time, ain't cha?"

"I reckon it's gonna get better," the chief
said.

"I reckon," Jeff said. "I got ya a couple of
your citizens in the back."

"What? Who," he said. He looked through the
window, and then backed away.

"Ya act like ya's seen a ghost, Chief," Jeff
said. He opened the door and everyone stepped back. The two girls
were sitting in the back seat, very much alive. They turned their
heads at the same time and looked at everyone. "Found these two
little ladies walkin' b'side the road."

Jake pushed the door closed. "Ya can take 'em
back!"

Jeff chuckled. "What you talkin' about, Jake?"
He opened the door again and motioned the girls to get out. They
slid across the seat, and then one after the other, hopped down and
stood for a moment looking at everyone, then walked over to Steve
Junior and hugged him around his legs. "See there! Ain't all bad
news."

The chief shook his head as he looked at
everyone. "I think it mighta just got a whole lot worse than
bad."

"Y'all's plume crazy over here," Jeff said.
"Ya'r livin' too close ta Kentucky. Anyway, they're takin' them
women from the ambulance wreck over to the hospital in Huntington.
We got freezer problems out at our morgue. That's why they need ta
wait a while b'fore comin' out ta get the bodies up on the hill."
He tipped his hat. "Y'all have a nice day."

Everyone watched him leave. They watched until
the car was out of sight and continued to watch a while longer.
None of them wanted to look at the little girls. "Hey chief, it
ain't breakin' the law ta kill somethin' that's already dead, is
it?" Jake said. "I mean, it ain't
murder
."

"I guess ya'd be desecratin' a corpse," he said.
He finally looked over at Steve Junior and the girls. "But they
ain't dead, Jake. Sure as shit livin' an' breathin'."

"I don't know what happened," Steve Junior said.
"But I know I'll fight anyone who tries to hurt these girls again."
He shook his head and took a deep breath. "I don't know what the
hell is wrong with you people! Since when is money worth more than
a human life? None of you guys was raised like that. These girls
lost their entire family, their entire world!"

Everyone started to walk away. Some threw their
hands in the air, others looked back with hateful glances, but
every one of them seemed angry, confused, and at a loss for words.
"We..."

"Y'all go on home, I guess," the chief said.
"Mister Williams, you got anything ta pull outa your ass on this
one?"

"Not a clue, chief," he said. "We're back to
step one: these girls own the town and nearly everything in
it."

"So, whoever them girls is a livin' with purdy
much gets control, right?" Tom said. "Then I want 'em!"

Everyone stopped.

"Hey, I saw 'em first," Jerry said.

"And then puked on 'em," Jake said.

"You're all fucking nuts if you think I'm
letting them out of my sight," Steve Junior said.

Both girls loosened their grip, and then stepped
behind Steve and held on to the waist band of his pants. They had
chosen, it seemed.

"The instructions are plain as vanilla puddin',"
the banker said. "They own everything and if y'all cain't show a
profit, you lose your leases."