Джон Коннолли - The Dirty South

‘Yes.’

‘Is that all?’

‘Isn’t it enough?’

‘Not for the level of animosity he’s generated.’

‘He was a brutish man.’

‘And?’

‘There’s no smoke without fire. If he had those pictures, he possessed contemptible desires, and perhaps the willingness to act on them. Actually, there was no “perhaps” about it. After those pictures were found in his house, I heard a rumor that he’d been caught interfering with a white boy over in Fordyce – his perversions knew no impediment of sex or race – but someone called in a favor, and it was hushed up.’

‘That someone being Pappy Cade?’

‘I assume so.’

‘Did the discovery of the pornography come as a surprise to you, Reverend?’

Pettle grimaced.

‘I might already have had my suspicions.’

‘Why?’

‘Things Ward said, and the way he looked at children.’

‘Any child in particular?’

‘No.’

Parker detected the lie, but didn’t immediately pursue it. It was enough for him to know it was there.

‘Which brings us back to you, Hollis Ward, and Pappy Cade – because, as you yourself noted, what kind of man keeps company with a deviant?’

‘You haven’t been in this county for very long, Mr Parker, but even you must have concluded by now that nothing gets done without the approval of the Cades. I was trying to build a congregation and help my people. We were worshipping in living rooms and backyards. I wanted a proper house of prayer, which meant I had to deal with Pappy Cade, because he’d already begun buying up properties in the area, and those he didn’t own directly, he held the paper on. Hollis Ward was his eyes and ears – and sometimes his fist – in this town and this county. In answer to your question, only a desperate man keeps company with a deviant.’

‘And did you get what you wanted?’

‘I did.’

‘At what cost?’

‘A troubled conscience.’

‘Because the end didn’t entirely justify the means?’

‘If you want to put it that way.’

The light outside was almost gone. Parker could hear a bird fluttering and crying in Pettle’s yard, although the creature itself was not visible. Only its faint shadow danced across the lawn as it circled, like a dead leaf caught by the wind.

‘Which child did Ward look at, Reverend?’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Did he err in a particular respect? Did he make an approach to one of your own children?’

‘No! How dare you imply such a thing?’

‘I’m not blaming anyone for it except Ward himself. Who was it, then?’

Pettle grew very still, and the silence that followed went on for so long that Parker began to wonder if the preacher would ever speak again. It was possible that he had overstepped the mark, but even if he had, there were other questions that needed to be asked and answered before Reverend Nathan Pettle was left alone once more.

‘Donna Lee Kernigan,’ said Pettle at last.

‘How do you know?’

‘I saw him do it. I was over by the school and Hollis Ward was parked nearby, smoking a cigarette, his hand hanging from the open window. He was watching the boys and girls go by, and then Donna Lee came out. She was only eleven years old. I saw his eyes follow her, and I could tell what was in his heart.’

‘And why was Donna Lee more important to you than the other children?’

‘I didn’t say she was. It would have been as bad had he looked at any of them.’

‘And did he?’

‘He might have done.’

‘Yet it’s Donna Lee you recall.’

‘I knew the family.’

‘Donna Lee and her mother?’

‘That’s right.’

Parker waited. There was more here.

‘Sallie Kernigan was troubled,’ Pettle continued, after a pause.

‘In what way?’

‘She drank too much, ran with bad types. I tried to help her.’

‘How?’

‘I ministered to her.’

‘So she was a member of your congregation?’

‘Yes – or no, not as such.’

‘Which is it, Reverend?’

Parker spoke softly. He thought he understood now where this was going.

‘She wasn’t, but I hoped she might join us.’

‘And did she?’

‘No.’

‘Were you very close to Sallie?’

Pettle nodded dumbly.

‘You cared about her?’

A pause, and a closing of the eyes.

‘Yes.’

‘More than you should have?’

‘Yes.’

‘And her daughter? Did you feel protective of Donna Lee?’

‘Very much so.’

‘So when you saw Hollis Ward looking at her, you acted.’

‘Yes. I spoke to him. I told him his behavior was unacceptable.’

‘How did he react?’

‘He laughed in my face.’

‘What did you do then?’

‘I wanted to hit him. I might even have been tempted to kill him. I prayed later for God to forgive me and help me to restrain such impulses.’

‘And once you finished praying?’

‘I went to Pappy Cade. I told him I couldn’t guarantee my support in the future unless he did something about Ward.’

‘Specifically, that he should be warned away from Donna Lee Kernigan?’

‘Yes.’

‘And did that happen?’

‘I believe Pappy spoke to him, or it might have been Jurel. Whatever was said, and by whom, Ward didn’t hang around the school after that, and he stayed well away from Sallie and Donna Lee.’

‘Did Ward ever raise the subject with you again?’

‘No, but …’

‘Go on.’

‘Pappy Cade knew about Ward and his predilections, but still he kept him close, and not only because of his usefulness. Whatever Pappy had on Hollis Ward, I believe Ward had more on Pappy.’

‘Do you think they shared similar tastes when it came to children?’

‘Pappy Cade isn’t interested in anything except money and power, and he was always prepared to do whatever it took to accumulate both. If that necessitated fraud, threats, beatings, even burning properties to the ground in order to force out the owners, then Hollis Ward took care of it on his behalf. Pappy had to keep Ward sweet. He didn’t want Ward making trouble, or turning on him in a court of law. But eventually …’

‘Ward would have become a liability.’

‘Yes.’

That, thought Parker, tied in with the possibility of blackmail raised by Pappy’s willingness to provide Hollis Ward with an alibi for the Estella Jackson killing.

‘Is that why you believed Ward was dead, because you thought Pappy Cade had killed him?’ said Parker. ‘He was no longer of use to Pappy, and what he knew of the Cades’ activities was potentially damaging enough to justify his murder?’

‘I had no proof, but that was my intuition.’

‘Mistaken, according to the latest developments.’

‘I still find it hard to accept that Ward might be alive. Where could he have been hiding for all this time?’

‘I don’t know this territory well enough to speculate,’ said Parker.

He felt his phone buzzing in his pocket. He’d silenced it before he rang the doorbell. He checked the display and saw Griffin’s name. He’d also missed an earlier call from the station house.

‘Time for me to go,’ he said.

‘I hope I’ve helped.’

‘You’ve clarified some issues,’ said Parker. ‘I do have one more question for you, though.’

Parker returned the phone to his jacket pocket.

‘Yes?’ said Pettle.

‘I’m wondering where the blood on your watch face came from.’

But Pettle did not answer, or not in so many words.

His right hand emerged from under the kitchen table, and it was holding a gun.

81

Horrace Sneed was a small man: small in stature, small in mind, but grand in ambition. Like a great many unintelligent people, he lacked the wherewithal to perceive his own frailties, and had somehow convinced himself that only a combination of misfortune and the machinations of others had deprived him of his rightful position further up the food chain. Faced with this existential injustice, Sneed had decided that his only recourse was to be duplicitous in all matters. Rarely in the conduct of his affairs did he encounter a back he did not wish to stab or a wagon he did not want to de-wheel. He was, by nature and inclination, profoundly deceitful.