Bill Pronzini - Savages

Nothing changed in Mayerhof ’s expression and he didn’t break eye contact, but inside of thirty seconds the shotgun barrel moved slowly off dead aim until it was pointing at the Ford’s sideview mirror. He said, “You got two minutes to ask your questions and haul ass out of here.”

“Jerry Belsize. You know him or don’t you?”

“I got no memory for names.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Only answer you’re gonna get.”

“How often does he come here?”

“Who says he was ever here? Not me.”

“When was the last time you saw him?”

Shrug. “Real scarce cars, ’fifty-seven Chevys.”

“You better not be jerking me around, Mayerhof.”

“And you better not make trouble for me, man. I ain’t no backwoods hick. I got friends do me any favor I ask.”

“Sure you have.”

Mayerhof relaxed his grip on the chain slightly. The dog tensed and began to growl. “Two minutes about up.”

Runyon let him have another ten seconds of stare before he put the Ford in gear and backed up. In his rearview mirror as he turned around, he saw Mayerhof and the dog still occupying the same piece of ground, neither of them moving, like sculpted juts of granite among the corpses and skeletons. His shoulder muscles didn’t loosen until he was over the rise and through the woods.

Had Mayerhof been lying? Didn’t figure that way. Nothing in it for him if he wanted to avoid trouble. Nothing for Brody or the fat woman in the general store or the saloon bunch in lying, either. So Belsize not only hadn’t come up to the mountains to hide out; he also hadn’t been here last Friday buying pot or having car trouble. Then where was he all that day? Why had he lied to his girlfriend? Why had he left the migrant camp so suddenly and where was he now?

Maybe Rinniak and Sandra Parnell were wrong about the kid. Maybe Jerry Belsize wasn’t so innocent after all.

FIREBUG

Burn!

Come on come on come on- burn!

“What’s taking so long? You sure you set the timer right?”

“I know how to do it, don’t I?”

“It’s been fifteen minutes already.”

“I set it for twenty. I just wanted to be sure we had enough time.”

“Shit. Fifteen was all we needed. What’s the matter with you?”

“You know what the matter is. I just don’t think we should be doing this again so soon.”

“Why not? You like it as much as I do.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling, that’s all. So soon after… Manuel.”

Burn, damn you, burn!

“We had to kill him. We didn’t have any choice.”

“I know, but God, I can still see his face. It makes me sick.”

“Everything makes you sick. Here, smoke a joint, get calmed down.”

“I don’t want one right now.”

“It’s better when you’re high, you know that.”

“I’ll just take a hit off yours…”

“No. Fire up your own.”

Small flame, hot, bright, but gone too quick.

“Doesn’t it bother you? A little?”

“What?”

“What we did to Manuel.”

“No. I’m just glad he came to us first. If he hadn’t…”

“I keep having nightmares about it. The sound when you hit him with the board, the blood, the way his head looked. And his face after we dragged him up on the rope… we didn’t have to do that.”

“I had to. I never saw anybody hanging before. Besides, it wasn’t as messy as beating his head in.”

“He was already dead, wasn’t he?”

“No, he wasn’t. He was still breathing.”

“Oh Jesus!”

“Why do you think he danced like he did when we pulled him up, why his tongue turned all black? He strangled on that rope.”

“Don’t!”

“You’re a baby, baby.”

“I can’t help it. It took so long, we almost didn’t get away after you hit that detective. You didn’t have to hit him; he didn’t know we were there.”

“I wanted to hit him. So I did.”

“He’d be gone by now if you hadn’t. He scares me. He’s not stupid. What if he-?”

“Not stupid, but not as smart as I am. None of them are.”

“But if we keep on the way we have been-”

“We’re not going to.”

“We’re not? No lie?”

“We’re going to get even more creative. More fun, more payback.”

“Oh God, fun. Do we have to… you know?”

“We’ve already done it. The fire’s just the finishing touch.”

“I don’t think I want to be there…”

“Well, you’re going to. You know you always do what I want you to.”

“I know, but-”

“Say it.”

“… I always do what you want me to.”

“Tell me why.”

“You know why.”

“I want to hear you say it.”

“I love you.”

“Again.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too. Most of the time. Hey, you know what would’ve been really cool? If we could’ve hung Runyon, too. Right next to Manuel, side by side, like in those old cowboy flicks.”

“That’s gross! Sometimes…”

“Sometimes what?”

“ You scare me. You’re so…”

“So what? Crazy? Maybe I am; I don’t care. Taking risks, having fun, getting even, that’s what it’s all about.”

“Sooner or later we’re gonna get caught.”

“No, we’re not.”

“We almost did already. I almost did. If you get any more out of control-”

“I’m not out of control! Don’t say that to me!”

“Ow! No, don’t hit me again-”

“I will if you give me any more shit like that.”

“I won’t, baby, I’m sorry.”

“Why doesn’t that fucking timer go off? Did you pour kerosene inside the trailer like I told you to?”

“Yeah.”

“Leave trails to the other cabins?”

“Yes, yes, I told you I did.”

“It’s going to be a real big fire. Big and hot, bigger and hotter than the school-remember the school? Last longer, too, hours maybe. All the dry grass out here, it’ll burn fast.”

“What if it spreads this way, climbs up this hill?”

“It won’t. There’s not much wind and it’s blowing away from us.”

“Somebody could see us up here-”

Whoosh!

There it goes! About time! Yes!

Flames jumping growing racing, eating up the grass, climbing the trailer, climbing the shacks, shooting out windows and roofs. That’s it, that’s it! Higher, faster, big red tongues licking up the crack of night.

Look at the trailer burn, like a fat bug on a bonfire. Smell the smoke, acid sweet like pot, like devil’s perfume. Listen to it crackle, like it’s talking to itself, saying burn hotter, faster, burn everything up. Watch it run run run run along the creek and up the cottonwoods and into the orchards, mount the trees one at a time, fuck each one, make it come in a crown of fire.

Somebody’s seen it by now, somebody’s called 911. Won’t be long before the sirens. And then the fire trucks and the firemen and the hoses and the fire laughing at the puny streams of water trying to put it out. And son of a bitch bastard Don Kelso roaring up in his cruiser, I can hardly wait. He won’t be swaggering tonight, giving orders, acting like he knows everything and owns the fucking world. You can’t give orders to fire. You can’t slap fire around and make it behave.

Oh, man, watch it feed, watch it fuck! So hot, so hungry. Swallowing up the camp now, the trees, the fields, the sky, the night, the whole world. Burning everything up. Burning me up inside.

“Hey, what’re you doing?”

“What do you think I’m doing?”

“No! Not here, not now-”

“Right here, right now.”

“We can’t, it’s crazy, what if somebody sees us-”

“Burn you up, too, burn both of us up together.”