Once they had the body free of the car, they began moving quickly.
They carried Darcy into the woods, following a narrow dirt path that wound around several huge oaks, and then a stand of firs and scrub pines.
They only spoke once, and that was when the girl started to slip from Helen’s hands.
The Senator reached under the body and held it up so it wouldn’t hit the ground.
Helen got her grip once again, and they continued their trek.
The woods seemed deeper and darker than the Senator remembered, something out of the Brothers Grimm perhaps. A lonely owl hooted somewhere. The Senator felt the eyes of unseen creatures watching him, watching.
The forest smelled of pine and mint and earth and autumn-dead leaves.
Every once in a while, the Senator and his sister would run into a low-hanging bough or a tree stump. They’d curse under their breath but keep moving.
Had to keep moving.
Eight minutes after they started into the forest, they reached the clearing above Richie McGuire’s little cottage.
This was where they were going to leave her.
They surveyed the entire area.
No lights in the cottage, meaning Richie had already drunk himself into oblivion. His yellow Mustang sat in the front yard.
No cars on the road in front of Richie’s. No sight of anybody wandering around in the area.
But then who’d be wandering around on a night like this?
They carried the body out of the woods and set it atop the clearing and then began covering it frantically with sodden leaves until the girl looked like a natural mound instead of a girl at all.
“We need some more leaves,” Helen said.
“I’m soaked.”
“You may not mind going to the gas chamber but I do. Now let’s put some more leaves on her.”
They worked quickly, doubling the amount of leaves that disguised the girl.
Helen was just picking up another handful of leaves when she saw movement down on the side of the cottage.
Believe it or not, somebody was hiding in the shadows down there, watching Helen and the Senator covering up Darcy.
Helen told David to look down on the east side of the cabin.
At first, David couldn’t see what she was talking about. But finally, his eyes adjusting to the rain and the gloom, he said, “It’s that damned Jimmy.”
“That crazy guy?”
“Not crazy. Brain-damaged.”
“Whatever,” Helen said. Then, “I’m going down there.”
“You’re what?”
“He saw us, didn’t he?”
“He’ll tell Richie.”
“He won’t tell Richie anything once I get done talking to him.”
“God, are you sure?”
“Let’s get in the car and drive over to his place.”
“You know where it is?”
“Right down the road.”
“What if he tells Richie?” David said.
“Richie’s already out for the night. You know how he drinks.”
“There he goes!” David said.
And sure enough, there was the shadowy figure of Jimmy running across the small valley that upsloped to a windbreak, on the other side of which was his little shack.
“Let’s get in the car,” Helen said.
2
Sam was about halfway back to town when the two-way came to life.
“Sam, you know the Fuller girl? Over,” Maude, the dispatcher, said.
“Sure. Over.”
“Well, her folks are out of town for a while. Darcy’s supposed to call the neighbor lady every night at eleven and tell her everything’s all right. Over.”
“And she hasn’t called? Over.”
“Not so far. Over,” Maude said.
“Well, given what I know about Darcy, I wouldn’t worry too much. She likes to have her fun. If she hasn’t called in by midnight, I’ll start looking around for her. Over.”
“Thanks. How’d it go with the Senator and his sister, by the way? Over.”
“Fine. Over.”
“Well, stay dry. Over.”
They signed off.
Sam got himself comfortable behind the wheel and started thinking about Amy.
Maybe things were finally going to be all right between them. Maybe the worst was behind them.
He hoped so.
He’d never been brokenhearted before, and it was a bitch. He’d lost ten pounds in three months, and even started sucking on an occasional cigarette, after having given them up eight years ago. And no woman, not even the most beautiful, seemed to interest him at all. There was Amy and only Amy.
Yes, tonight had indeed been promising. He just hoped she’d go out with him on a night when he didn’t get called into work.
In fact, soon as he reached town, he’d take a run by her house. He did that most nights, anyway, in his private vehicle.
Just seeing her house made him feel better.
3
The place was a one-room shack that sat on the edge of a creek that was now overflowing with rainwater.
When the Lincoln turned from the road to the short road leading to the shack, David cut the lights and coasted all the way up to the door.
“You sure you can handle him?”
Helen, in the darkness, smiled. “You think you can do a better job, brother dear?”
He didn’t say anything, just put his hands on the wheel and his head on his hands.
“I can’t believe it,” he said. “We finally get her out of the car and then Jimmy’s watching us.”
“I said I can handle it. You wait here.”
She got out of the car. The ground beneath her hiking boots was wet but not muddy.
She clipped on her flashlight and followed its beam up to the door of the shack. Ten years ago, one of the local siding companies had trained a young crew by having it side Jimmy’s place. The siding was long faded now. Its dark brown color looked sodden in the rain.
The front yard was a mess of rakes, hoes, empty pop bottles, comic books, orange rinds, and dog shit.
She knocked once, loudly, on the screen door. The ancient door jiggled under the weight of her hand.
“I know you’re in there, Jimmy.”
“Go away, Miss Helen.”
“I want to talk to you.”
“You’re gonna put me in that place again, aren’t you?”
“Not if you’re a good boy.”
Rain fell. Thunder rumbled. Lightning revealed clearly the squalor of the front lawn.
“Jimmy.”
“I don’t want to go there again.”
“You won’t if you help me.”
“Help you? Help you do what, Miss Helen?”
“Help me help the president of the United States.”
“Ah, you’re just saying that.”
“Isn’t my brother a senator?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Well then, it stands to reason he’d know the president of the United States, doesn’t it?”
“Uh, I guess so, Miss Helen.”
“Open the fucking door, Jimmy. I’m getting soaked out here.”
He just had to say it one more time. “I don’t want to go back to that place again, Miss Helen. I really don’t.”
“Open up, Jimmy, or I’ll put you in that place right away tonight.”
Thunder again. Lightning.
In the gloom, she saw David roll down the window and stick his head out into the rain.
She shone her flashlight on his face.
He ducked back inside the car, like a startled lizard.
When she was a senator, she was going to show people the power the job really held. She wouldn’t be a nervous wimp like her brother.