John Lutz - Tropical Heat

“No,” Carver said. In the corner of his vision he saw Edwina straighten and stand tensely. “This is a woman he was living with, another woman he took advantage of to get what he wanted. He served prison time for cheating a widow out of her property in Missouri. You’re the latest in a succession of women in Willis’s life, Verna. He uses women then throws them away. He’s using you.”

“He was gonna sell the place and get outa here,” Verna said, “away from Solarville. Sam Cahill was going to handle the deal for us.”

“I told you Cahill is Willis’s partner. He did try to buy this place from you, didn’t he?”

Verna nodded. “Tried every way he could. I wouldn’t sell at any price, though. I couldn’t. I’d have had no place to go then. All alone.”

“And when Cahill couldn’t convince you to sell to him, Willis came here to charm you into marriage and get the property that way. Isn’t that the way it was, Verna?”

There was a faint noise from inside the cabin, like someone walking with a heavy tread.

Carver knew who it was; it would have been unwise to stir from cover so soon after the night before, with so many law enforcement officers still in the area.

The door opened and Willis stepped out onto the porch.

He let the screen door slam shut behind him; the sound was like a rifle shot that resonated briefly and then was absorbed by the calm swamp.

Carver stared at the man, the myth brought down to life-size. Willis was like his photograph, handsome in an ordinary, even-featured way that served him well in his illicit work. He was wearing faded Levi’s, a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and, incongruously, dusty black wingtip shoes. The dandy adapting to his new and temporary environment; evolution in the swamp. Willis didn’t look directly at Edwina. Carver was aware of tension flowing from her like an electric force.

“Any of this true?” Verna asked.

“Some of it,” Willis said. “Not the part that means I don’t love you.”

Carver watched Verna as her mind grappled with yet another disillusionment. Life was like that: illusion, delusion, deception, self-deception, worlds and castles constructed of our personal perceptions, masquerading as reality until something interfered. Verna’s magic kingdom had been built here before Disney’s, and now Carver was tugging at the cornerstone of her castle.

Willis reached out for the shotgun, then withdrew his hand as two more cars flashed into view through the palmetto trees and parked at the end of the gravel drive.

Chief Armont and a uniformed cop got out of one of the cars. Another uniformed cop, the going-to-fat young one who’d stopped Carver on the road the night before, climbed out of the other. He looked more puzzled than official today.

Verna raised the shotgun, aimed it directly at Carver. “You folks stay right there by your cars,” she said. “Somebody dies otherwise.”

Armont stood still. He floated a hand upward to signal his men to do the same.

Verna nodded toward Edwina. “This your former wife, Willis?”

“Of course not. She’s a woman who used to work where I worked. She thought she was in love with me.” He barked a sharp, incredulous laugh, as if he were amazed at the audacity of those two people who had turned up there where they didn’t belong. “I never loved her. I never lived with her.”

“He speaking the truth?” Verna asked Edwina.

Edwina said nothing. The front of her blouse was trembling, rising and falling rapidly.

“He’s murdered to try to get this land,” Carver said to Verna. “He’s even murdered on this land-a naturalist called Mackenzie who was cataloging wildlife for the Disney corporation.”

Willis shook his head, almost in amusement. “Another lie.”

Carver blinked perspiration from his eyes. Even the breeze was warm and fetid, the swamp breathing.

Willis began shifting his weight from leg to leg. He was getting nervous; his mind must have been darting around like a wasp in a jar, searching for openings, angles that might lead to escape. Carver wondered if Willis, there in the cabin, had heard or seen any of what had gone on in the swamp the night before. The lights might have been visible through the trees, and the wail of the siren must have carried for miles. But then it wouldn’t have mattered much to him; none of it actually involved him. They’d only thought it had. Just as he’d planned.

Chief Armont’s voice boomed out. “I think you oughta put the gun down, Verna, and we can talk.”

She ignored him.

“Verna!”

She moved the shotgun barrel almost imperceptibly to take in Armont and his men. The message got across. She was capable and willing. Armont knew her; he kept quiet, waiting for it all to play out. The sky darkened, and the insects in the swamp became silent. A few drops of rain fell.

“The law want you, Willis?” Verna asked, not looking away from Carver and Edwina.

“The law wants me,” Willis said. “But not for what Carver says. What he says is a lie.”

“This isn’t your former wife? You ain’t just using me?”

“No, no! For Christ’s sake, no, Verna!”

A good actor, Carver thought. A great actor.

“He’s the one who’s lying,” Carver said to Verna. “He doesn’t love you.” He knew he didn’t sound nearly as convincing as Willis.

“He’s a gimpy private eye who peeks through keyholes,” Willis said, pointing at Carver, managing disdain in the gesture.

“And her?” Verna asked, moving the shotgun’s twin barrels in the direction of Edwina.

“She’d say whatever he told her.”

The low thunder was rolling closer now. Carver watched the raindrops spot the bare ground in light patterns determined by breezes high above. They made a faint pattering sound on the leaves and hard earth.

Verna raised the shotgun a few inches and held it with fresh purpose. She’d made up her mind: Willis. His luck ran on.

“Go on back along the path behind the house,” she said to Willis, not looking at him. “You’ll come to a big live oak with lots of old hatchet marks in the trunk, cuts I made when I was a girl. Make a right turn there, just the other side of the tree, and go through the swamp. In about a hundred feet you’ll be on an overgrown dirt road that poachers used to travel. You wait right there and I’ll pick you up in the truck.” She moved her head toward the rusty vintage Ford pickup. “I want to talk some to Chief Armont.”

Willis looked at the truck. “I couldn’t get it started yesterday. Will it run?”

“It’ll run. And I’ll see they don’t follow us.”

Willis obviously didn’t fancy the idea. But he did like the notion of getting away from there as quickly as possible. He leaned close to Verna, whispered something in her ear, then jumped down off the porch and jogged around behind the cabin. He had a loose-jointed, athletic way of running. Boyish.

Verna said nothing, swept the long shotgun slowly from side to side to make it clear she might fire at anyone who moved. The rain, still light, picked up a bit. Lightning played among the clouds in the west, getting closer.

“Time to talk some sense now, Verna…” Armont began, urging her to speak to him.

But she didn’t have anything to say, and a quick, chopping motion with the shotgun’s twin barrels told Armont he didn’t have anything to say, either. Verna waggled the barrels from side to side. No one was to speak.

When several minutes had passed, Willis began to shout.

At first Carver couldn’t understand what he was screaming. Then, when he did understand, he lifted his cane from the ground, reset it, and took a step forward.

Verna tightened her grip on the shotgun. Carver stopped and stood still again. Armont and his men were poised tensely, but they hadn’t moved.