Don Winslow - Way Down on the High Lonely

Cal sat down on one of the sawhorses and told them all about it. He enjoyed telling the story, seeing the terror in their eyes, feeling them flinch and sicken, watching them as they came to the realization that the same things were going to happen to them.

So he told them how they’d left Harley chained in the bunker and gone out and got a billy goat and come back in and the reverend told Harley to have sex with Satan’s animal. And how Harley refused, so they brought the boy in, held a gun to his head, and asked Harley again, and this time Harley just couldn’t do it fast enough and Carter said that it proved he was in league with the devil. So they took the boy out, and then they wrapped a rope around the chain on Harley’s cuffs, and ran that through the pulley on the ceiling, and hoisted Harley up and took turns on him with a knotted rope till Harley passed out, so they left him hanging there and the cuffs rubbed his wrists raw and his hands got all swollen because there was no circulation.

Cal told them how they came back later that night and the first thing Harley croaked out of his throat was to ask about his boy, and Carter said that Yahweh would take care of the child and Harley started crying then, just blubbering-like to make you sick-and Carter told Harley to confess that ZOG had sent him and Harley did. They let him down then, cuffed him behind his back, and forced him on his knees, and Carter stuck a broom handle up him and then they left him there like that. And when they came back Harley was bleeding like you wouldn’t believe, and moaning, and Carter said he was talking to Satan but they needed to hear Satan howl. So they broke Harley’s fingers, then his arms. And that was when they did the trick with the sawhorses and the hammer and they thought he was going to die right there, and Randy here was such a pussy he said maybe they should just shoot him then. But Carter said that Satan would take him in his time and Carter went back to California. And Harley was a tough bird and just wouldn’t give up the ghost and he was groaning all the time and letting off such a stench, and that’s when they got to talking about how there really was more than one way to skin a cat. So Cal started taking a knife to him and peeling off big strips-you should have heard Satan howl then-but they didn’t get too far and Harley just finally died.

“But it took what, Randy?” Cal asked. “Couple of weeks?”

“More like three, I think, start to finish.”

“Whatever,” Cal said. He got off the sawhorse, squatted in front of Neal, smiled, and said, “And guess what, Neal buddy? The reverend just finished praying about you. Guess what old Yahweh told him?”

Neal didn’t answer. He wanted to ask about Cody. He tried to. But he was afraid to move as much as a muscle, he was so close to crying, or throwing up, or worse.

Cal saw it, and the psychotic gleam in his eyes flared more brighdy, and he answered his own question. “He said you and the one-armed bandit here was both sent by ZOG. That you’re both in league with Satan. That we need to make you howl.”

Neal felt himself shaking. He tried to control it but he couldn’t. His right leg just started jumping all on its own and he felt as if his head were drowning, and tears were just about to overflow from his eyes when he heard Joe Graham’s blessed, blessed voice.

“When you pick out my goat,” Graham said, “make sure you get a pretty one.”

The door opened again and the Reverend C. Wesley Carter walked in.

Neal closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Now it starts, he thought.

Cal turned to Graham and grinned. “You’re first, smart-ass.”

Graham knew that. It’s why he’d mouthed off.

Randy and Cal took the cuffs off Graham and stripped him. Then they laid him on his stomach across the sawhorses. They wrapped a heavy rope under his arms and tied it down. They did the same to his ankles so that Graham was stretched out across the sawhorses, his feet hanging off one side and his head off the other. They arranged it so that his face was a foot from Neal’s.

While they were doing this, Carter was tying knots into another rope, saying, “We have to find out who you are and why you’re here, and we have to find out quickly. I’m very puzzled that you helped us rob the armored car, and I’m concerned that the shipment of arms-in fact, our entire haven here-is in jeopardy.”

He finished with the rope, raised it over his head, and asked Graham, “Who sent you?”

Graham struggled for breath. His back already felt as if it might snap from the strain of holding his weight.

“Satan sent me,” he answered.

Neal made himself look at Graham as the rope came down on his back.

Graham sucked in some air. “Satan or Tom Landry, one of the two.”

The rope lashed down on his shoulders.

Two, three, four, five more times before Carter spoke again.

“Who sent you?”

“Harley McCall’s ex-wife. Alimony.”

The rope came down again.

Graham’s face was red with strain. Sweat dripped off his jaw. His back was already raw.

Neal tried to reach out and hold Graham’s head, but the chains were too short.

“You’re killing him!” Neal yelled.

“Shut up,” Graham snapped at him. Then he asked Carter, “Hey, what about my goat?”

Five, six, seven times Carter’s arm swung. Flecks of blood flew across the cell with each stroke.

Cal stepped around to the front of the sawhorses and lifted Graham’s chin.

“You got anything funny to say now, smart-ass?” he asked Graham.

Graham swung his head back and forth. Sweat poured from his face.

Neal kicked Cal in the back of the leg to get his attention. “I’ll kill you, you dirty bastard,” Neal said.

“You’re a hoot, Neal,” Cal answered.

You’re doing this for me, Dad, Neal thought. You’re buying time for me. You mouthed off to Cal to make him mad, to make him start with you instead of me.

Carter raised his arm to start again.

Neal shouted to Carter, “Hey, Rev! Is it true what I heard about Yahweh and little boys?”

Graham craned his neck and shook his head at Neal.

Neal ignored him. “For that matter, is it true what I heard about you and little boys?”

Carter dropped his arm and stared at Neal.

“Shut up, Neal,” Graham murmured.

“Yeah, Rev,” Neal said, forcing himself to smile, “I’m not sure I heard it right, because your wife’s mouth was full at the time, if you catch my drift, but I thought she said that you liked to-”

Carter stepped over Neal and raised the rope. “You piece of filth,” he said.

Come on, come on, do it. Start on me for a while.

“But your time will come,” Carter said. He turned back to Graham.

Sorry, Dad. I tried, I tried.

Graham lifted his real hand, smiled weakly, and slowly raised his middle finger at Neal.

“Did ZOG send you?” Carter asked.

“Zog who?” asked Graham.

Carter raised his arm and was about to bring the rope down again when the door opened and Bob Hansen walked in.

He looked worried and excited at the same time.

“The truck is here,” he said. “The arms have arrived.”

Carter dropped his arm. “We have to move quickly. These two can wait and tremble in the fear of Yahweh’s wrath.”

He dropped the rope and paced to the door. Carlisle and Strekker followed him.

“Untie him!” Neal yelled. “For God’s sake, at least cover him up!”

Strekker turned around. “I’ll be back,” he said and shut the door behind him.

Graham craned his neck up. His face was pale with pain. His hair was matted with sweat, and blood was dripping off his back.

“We’re winning,” he rasped.

Cal stepped out into the compound and saw a rented moving van parked outside. The truck was bright yellow with black stenciled letters that read TROJAN TRUCKING on the side.