Joe Lansdale - The Bottoms

“It didn’t hurt anything. After Harry showed me where she was, I came back, drove over to Billy Gold’s house. He and his brother went down there with me, helped me wrap her in a tarp, carry her out, and put her in the car. We wrapped her up good. No leakage. I drove her over to Pearl Creek and they packed her in ice in the icehouse.”

“I wouldn’t be wanting any of that ice.”

“Body was in pretty bad shape to begin with. Some pieces come off her. We had to throw the tarp away.”

“And she was in our car? Dear me.”

“I blew the odor out driving it home.”

“Oh, my goodness.”

“Doc Tinn, the colored doctor, he was out of town. Won’t be back till tomorrow. He was out country deliver’n a baby. I’m gonna drive over there in the morning, see if I can learn somethin’. I don’t know nothin’ about this kind of murder.”

“You’re sure it’s murder?”

“Well, honey, think about it. I don’t suppose she cut herself up like that and ended up tied to a tree with wire.”

“You’re awful impatient, Jacob… Wire? She was tied with wire?”

“She was bound with a couple strands of barbed wire and a bunch of vines. Someone sure had enjoyed that wire part. They’d taken a piece of wood and fastened it to the wire and used it as a kind of crank so they could wrap it around the tree, loop it, and tighten it by twistin’ that wood like a handle. Then I ’spect he messed with her.”

“Surely not.”

“I don’t know much about these things, but I know she didn’t fix herself to that tree. And as for people doin’ these kind of things, well, two things come to mind. I had a fella tell me once about this Jack the Ripper guy in London. He cut women’s bodies up. For fun. He cut pieces out of them. He messed with their womanly parts.”

“That’s got to be just some kind of story.”

“That’s history. They never caught him. He killed they don’t know how many, but they never caught him or had no idea who it was. Then Cecil, at the shop, and bear in mind he’d rather hear himself talk about most anything than to let a room go quiet, told me when he was in the war in France, there was a fella that at night would roam the battlefield looking for someone alive, you know, hangin’ on from wounds. Germans. And he’d do things with the bodies. Like a man would with a woman. Only in a different place.”

“A different place.”

“You know. There.”

“You can do that?”

“If you’re determined,” Daddy said. “This fella, they could see him from the trenches. Had on an American uniform, and he was doin’ these things to the bodies.”

“They didn’t stop him?”

“Wasn’t no one crazy as he was. They wouldn’t get out there on the battlefield, and they weren’t gonna shoot their own. It was war. And way they was thinking then was at least he was doin’ it to Germans. Cecil said you got so you thought different. War does that. He figured it was just punishment for the enemy. They could see this fella at night, one that was doin’ it, and he’d wander among the dead an dyin’ lookin’ for someone to mess with, and Cecil said they didn’t always have to be alive.”

“He’s lyin’, Jacob. Got to be.”

“Cecil said this fella would do this kind of thing, then disappear back into the trenches. They all had their suspicions who it was, but no one knowed for sure. They just saw his uniform, never got a good look at his face. Or if anyone did, they didn’t come forward. Cecil said he saw him once, but he was just roamin’ out there, like a ghost. Not doin’ anything strange. Just lookin’ over the bodies. He was surprised the Germans weren’t shooting at him. Cecil said he never met anyone had actually seen the man doin’ anything. Just seen him roamin’.”

“Cecil didn’t actually see him do nothin’ then?”

“No. He just heard the rumors.”

“So it could have been a made-up story? A lie told to Cecil and he told it to you.”

“Could be Cecil lyin’ right out. But say it ain’t a lie. Think about it. Fella like that gets by with doin’ them things in the war, and comes home…”

“But he was doin’ it to men.”

“Maybe ’cause they were available. Maybe he’d just as soon, or rather, do it to women. I ain’t no expert on these matters. Far as I know, there ain’t no expert on these matters. One thing I come to figure though. Way that woman’s body was punctured by that barbed wire, figure the body was already dead when he put the wire to her. She’d been alive, it would have bled out, and those wounds didn’t look to have drawn much blood. ’Course, river could have been up and washed it away, but I think she was dead awhile and he come back to play with her. Like an alligator will stuff its kill in a hole in the riverbank, come back when it’s ripened some.”

“No one would do that.”

“When Jack Newman shot his brother-in-law while drunk and there were fifteen witnesses seen him do it, that wasn’t so hard to figure. This… I don’t know. It don’t look like anything I’ve seen before. I got my ideas, but that’s all they are. I’m hoping this Doc Tinn can help me out.”

Mama and Daddy went quiet after that, then a little later on I heard Mama say, “… I ain’t exactly in the mood after that little bedtime story you told me. Sorry, hon.”

“All right,” Daddy said. Then came complete silence. I snuggled under the covers, overcome by something I couldn’t quite put a name to. Fear. Excitement. A sense of mystery. They had talked about things I never even suspected could exist or happen.

I decided right then I was gonna be up early in the morning, see if I could get Daddy to let me ride with him over to Pearl Creek. I thought he owed me that. After all, I had found the body.

I lay there, drifting off, then it began to rain, softly at first, then hard. The sound of it helped put me to sleep.

“No. You can’t go.”

“But Daddy-”

“No ifs, ands, buts, or maybes. You can’t go.”

It was just daylight. I had hardly slept a wink last night, fearing I’d miss being up in time to talk to Daddy about the trip. But I didn’t feel a bit tired. I was boiling with energy and excitement. I hadn’t let on I had heard them talking through the wall. I had innocently asked Daddy what his plans were that day, and when he said Pearl Creek, I asked why Pearl Creek, and he told me he had to check with the doctor over there about the woman’s body I had found. That’s when I asked if I could go.

“I wouldn’t be any trouble,” I said.

“That may be, son. But I don’t think you oughta go with me. This is grown-up business.”

We were sitting at the table. Daddy was eating a couple of eggs Mama had fried up. He was poking the yellows with a big biscuit. I was having the same with a glass of buttermilk Mama had poured for me. She kept it cool by lowering the capped bottle down in the well and pulling it out when we wanted a taste.

I drank and ate quickly, fearing Tom would wake up, ’cause back then we were all early risers. Once Tom woke up, found out I was trying to go with Daddy, then it would darn sure be spoiled because Tom would want to go, and if Daddy didn’t want me to go, he sure wouldn’t want her to go. It was easier for him to say no to both of us than yes to one of us when we were both wanting the same thing.

’Course, he had already told me no, but I had learned that no didn’t always mean no, right at first anyway. By the time Daddy got to the third no, then I knew it was best I shut up.

Mama was pouring Daddy coffee when she said, “Jacob, he done seen the body. Why not let him ride over with you. He don’t have to see the body again.”

That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but if I could get Daddy to let me go, that would at least be a leg up. Who knew what I could work from there.