Chapter 4

Donny was sitting on a lawn chair, next to Dan’s truck in the far corner of the Wally Mart. The truck was fitted with a large camper top that easily slept three, but was rated for four. He had ended up spending the night on the floor of the camper. He hadn’t gotten much sleep until after Dan and Joe had headed out to look for a spot to watch the gang. That had been about eleven in the morning rather than the planned six o’clock.

The delay that morning had been a result of having to deal with the Sonny’s truck. The car problem had been solved by buying a used car from a private individual with cash, and never making it over to the DMV to register as the car’s new owners. Sonny’s truck had been parked in a rest area on a highway, leaving town. They figured that it would lead the police to look in the wrong direction.

It was now mid-afternoon, and he was waiting for Hank to arrive while Sonny was napping in the back of the camper. Donny had a small portable radio on, listening to news reports about the shooting at the hospital. Even after eighteen hours had passed, there was a lot of confusion about what had happened. All they knew for sure, was that there were three gang members dead in a hospital room, and that one person was missing. There was an APB out for Sonny.

Donny was about to open his second beer of the day when he saw a pickup truck pulling a trailer coming into the parking lot.

He said, “Well, there goes the neighborhood.”

He reached into the cooler and dug out three more beers knowing Hank and his two sons, Calvin and Vincent, would want some. He set the beers out by the chairs and waited for them to pull in beside the truck. It didn’t take them long to park and get out of the truck. After the ritual of stretching and complaining about sore butts, Calvin and Vincent came over to Donny and grabbed him. He would have fought them, but they were big boys and more than a little happy to mix it up when the occasion arose.

Donny shouted, “Hey, what the hell are you doing?”

“Just holding you here,” Vincent said. Calvin just laughed.

Further complaints were cut off when the door of the trailer opened and Rose stepped out. She was wearing tight blue jeans and a shirt that was tied off under her breasts. She didn’t normally wear her shirt that way. She smiled and said, “That’s it. Hold him just like that for a minute.”

“What are you doing here, Rose?” Donny asked starting to struggle a little.

He glanced over at Hank and saw the man was grinning from ear to ear.

Without answering, Rose strolled over and kissed him. After a good long minute had passed and his struggles had stopped, she broke off the kiss.

Then she asked, “Did you miss me?”

“Yes,” Donny said.

He had to admit that she was a good kisser.

Rose said, “You can let him go. I don’t think he’s going to run off now.”

“What are you doing here?” Donny asked once he was released.

“When I heard that you and your uncles might be getting into a bit of a mess, I figured you could use a little help in case someone got hurt,” Rose said. She was the de facto nurse in the area, although she hadn’t had any formal training. She helped out old Doc Taylor in the office.

Donny said, “Well, Sonny is asleep in the camper. He could probably use having you check on him in a bit.”

“We heard about what happened in the hospital. It made the national news,” Rose said.

For some reason, it had turned into a real big story. They had seen the story when they had stopped for lunch at a truck stop on the way there. The television news shows were showing pictures of Sonny and the three dead gang members every fifteen minutes.

Hank came over and clapped Donny on the back. Grinning, he asked, “So how is my future son-in-law doing?”

“I don’t know. Who is he?” Donny asked feigning confusion.

“Boys, I’d say that kiss was grounds for a shotgun wedding. What do you think?” Hank asked while winking at Rose.

“I know we packed that shotgun somewhere,” Vincent said.

Rose gave a mock glare at Donny before she said, “I am getting a little impatient.”

Knowing the perfect way to deflect the conversation, Donny pointed to the beers and said, “Have a seat and cool off with a beer.”

“That’s real hospitality,” Hank said heading straight for a lawn chair.

Donny got out another chair for Rose and fixed her up with a beer. Once everyone was settled, the conversation got around to the reason they were there.

Donny said, “According to Rose, you heard about the three gang members who went to the hospital to visit Sonny.”

“They are calling him a suspected participant in the shooting rather than a suspect in a triple homicide on the television. Some reporter did his job and dug up the fact that it was three of the members of that gang that put Sonny in the hospital,” Hank said.

“That’s good,” Donny interjected before Hank had a chance to start talking too much.

“There was some speculation that the original shooting was about drugs until they played the video tape of the original robbery. Now it’s just a lot of babble and wild assed guesses,” Hank said. He looked around and asked, “Where’re Joe and Dan?”

“They went out looking for a good spot to watch the gang. They are going to be out there until morning watching the gang,” Donny said.

“Good. It’s always best to know your quarry,” Hank said. “We heard a bit about them. They are a nasty bunch.”

“According to Sonny, they can’t shoot,” Donny said.

“We saw the video tape of the robbery. The two gang members were dancing around like chickens, holding their guns sideways, and shooting without looking at what they were shooting at. They were too busy ducking in case of return fire to hit the broad side of a barn,” Hank said.

Calvin said, “Sonny just stood there and drew on them as calm and cool as can be. Shame that gun misfired.”

“It didn’t misfire. The idiot who owns the store had the firing pin pulled on it,” Donny said.

“Why would a man do that to a gun?” Hank asked incredulous.

“Apparently he did that because it worked and he didn’t like the idea of having a useful weapon around,” Donny said in disgust.

Calvin said, “That has got to be the dumbest man on the planet.”

“Dan and Joe are going to go have a long talk with him in the near future about his future,” Donny said.

Although ruining a perfectly good gun was stupid, it wasn’t worth hurting someone over. Hank asked, “Why do they need to talk to him?”

“We think he told the gang where Sonny was, and that we were going after them to haul them off to jail,” Donny said.

“It sounds to me like Pepper doesn’t have much of a future ahead of him. If some fool were to help a gang that was trying to kill one of my kids, then that fool would be begging for entrance to heaven with Saint Peter. I don’t think Saint Peter is stupid enough that he’d let him in,” Hank said.

“Dan isn’t happy about the matter,” Donny said. He thought about the things he wanted to do to Pepper, and realized he wasn’t any more forgiving than Dan. He added, “To tell the truth, I’d like to see the jerk in serious pain.”

Hank took a long drink from his can of beer. He belched and shook the empty can. Looking over at his sons, he said, “The beer is gone. It’s time for you two to set up the trailer.”

“We’re still drinking our beers,” Calvin said looking down at his can. It was still half full.

“Finish them and get to work,” Hank said. He settled back in his chair and put a chaw of tobacco in his mouth. After working it around for a minute, he asked, “Did I ever tell you about when I got that twelve point buck, back three years ago?”

“Yes,” Donny said with a groan.

Rose stood up and headed over to the camper walking quickly. Calling over her shoulder, she said, “I’ll check on Sonny.”

“Let’s set up the trailer,” Calvin said getting a nod from his brother. Both brothers stood up taking their beers with them.

“Do you need some help with the trailer?” Donny asked sounding a little desperate.

“Nah, they can handle it,” Hank said dismissively. He spat into the empty beer can.

“I’ll be glad to help,” Donny said lamely.

Getting into storytelling mode, Hank said, “It was opening day three years ago when I got this twelve point buck. That year, opening day was on a Thursday. I had gone out to my stand early that morning, it being opening day and all. It was still dark when I got out there, but the day looked like it was going to...”

Donny tuned Hank out and gave the appropriate sounds periodically suggesting that he was actually listening to the story. Hank’s two sons were over by the trailer working real slow on setting it up. It looked like everything they had to do required ten minutes of discussion. Rose had disappeared into the camper.

An hour later, Hank was saying, “Now out in the middle of field was this scrawny little tree. Actually, it was more like a bush than a tree. Anyway, it forked about three inches off the ground. One fork had two leaves at the end and the other fork had three leaves. When the wind blew, those leaves would rattle around...”