“You don’t know nothing,” Clyde said.
“Hell, I know that much.”
Clyde arrived at Sunset’s tent and Ben came up and smelled him. Clyde gave Ben a pat, went inside. Karen was sitting in a chair with a book in her lap. She was looking into space in a dreamy way. She didn’t even notice Clyde until he spoke to her.
“Oh, hi, Clyde. Mama’s on the other side.”
Clyde went around the curtain, found Sunset at the table, writing furiously on a yellow pad.She looked at him when he came in, held up a wait-a-minute finger, and continued writing.
Clyde took a chair, watched her write. He liked watching her do most anything. Her hair was so red and long and smooth, flame-like, but much prettier in color than the fire that had licked his home to death. Her face was smooth and pink-cheeked and she had about the most beautiful nose and mouth he had ever seen. He really liked her mouth. Last night, in his dreams, her mouth had played a prominent part. He even liked the way her feet fit in her work boots; there was something so damn cute about those little feet in those work boots. And that thick gun belt. He shouldn’t think of that as cute, but he did. If she had suddenly bent over and farted out “Old Man River” to the beat of her tapping feet, he knew he would have found that cute as well.
Cute. He had never even let the word run around in his mind before.
“You been building a fire, burning brush?” Sunset asked.
“Something like that. Hillbilly said he’d be back in a few shakes.”
Clyde thought about what he had seen, realized he hadn’t really seen anything. He thought he ought to say something anyway, but wasn’t sure what to say. All he had seen was a kiss, and on the cheek.
“Oh, has Karen come back?” Sunset asked.
“Yeah. She’s on the other side, sitting with a book. Hillbilly told me to ask about the body you found.”
“I was just writing about it. Zendo found it.”
“Another one?”
“Not a baby this time.” And Sunset told him all about it.
When she finished, she said, “Hillbilly thinks Zendo might be involved.”
“He ain’t.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“I’ve known Zendo all my life. I’ve known Hillbilly a few weeks. He ain’t near the smart fella he thinks he is. I wanted to know something, I’d ask Zendo before I’d ask Hillbilly. Unless it was how to lay out under a tree.”
“Hillbilly seems bright enough.”
Clyde made a noise in his throat that sounded like someone who had just discovered he had been spoon-fed horse turds, but he decided not to carry on about Hillbilly any more. He thought he probably was making mountains out of molehills. When it came to Hillbilly, he wasn’t the one to be asked an opinion.
“Was it a murder?” Clyde said.
“I think it was. Preacher Willie is looking at the body. It sure didn’t bury itself in that field, but I can’t tell how she died. Body is too worn away. Suppose she could have just died and someone decided to plant her out there like a tater, but I doubt it.”
“Got any ideas for figuring out who done it?” Clyde asked.
“Not a one. I thought I’d write down what I know, look through Pete’s files, see if that would help me.”
“By finding something like it?”
“That’s what I thought too, Clyde. Maybe there’s been something like it before. Well, there has.”
“The baby.”
“Right. But maybe something else kind of like it. Where Pete knew who done it or had some idea.”
“Wouldn’t you have heard about it?”
“Pete didn’t tell me anything. But the bottom line is I looked to see if there were any similar things happened, and I didn’t find nothing.
“Thing I will say, Pete was pretty careful about writing down his constable business. There’s a note on damn near everything. Most of them are brief, and he made them for him to know what he was talking about, so he could look back and remember. Some of this stuff, I don’t really know what he’s saying.”
“You think a person can start over, Sunset?”
“Do what?”
“You know, change their lives. Maybe get something better for themselves.”
“Well, you got this job for as long as it lasts. That beats the sawmill, don’t it?”
“I mean really change? Change themselves.”
“I hope so. Yeah. I think so. I swear, Clyde, you been around a hell of a fire. You’re making my eyes water.”
“What’s that?”
“I said you smell like a campfire.”
“I smell like it cause I burned my house down.”
Sunset’s mouth fell open. When she cranked it back up, she said, “My God. How did it happen?”
“I used a match.”
“You did it?”
“Yep.”
“On purpose?”
“Purposeful as I could.”
“Where will Hillbilly stay?”
The question was like an arrow in his heart.
“I don’t know. Not with me. Hell, I don’t give a damn where he stays.”
Sunset’s face soured slightly. She said, “Are you having trouble with Hillbilly?”
“Just a little.”
Ben barked, then Hillbilly appeared, pushing a hanging blanket aside. Sunset looked up at him. Clyde watched her face light up like a kerosene lamp in a dark, windowless house.
“Clyde burned his house down,” Sunset said. “On purpose.”
“Yeah,” Hillbilly said. “I heard.”
Karen slipped in beside Hillbilly. She said, “He did what?”
Sunset said what she had said before.
“Clyde,” Karen said, “why would you do such a thing?”
“Starting over, honey,” he said, “and burning out rats.”
“That’s funny,” Karen said, and she smiled big. “You burned your whole house down to get rid of rats.”
Clyde watched Sunset study Karen’s smile, and thought, Yeah, that rat thing isn’t that funny, is it? And that smile she’s got, it’s the first big one she’s had since before her daddy died. I know it, honey, and you know it. And I think I know why, and though it’s great she’s happy, and I can tell you want to be happy for her, if I’m right, it’s wrong why she’s happy, cause she’s just a kid, and Hillbilly, he’s such a liar. You big beautiful redheaded gal, do you even suspect? Have you got any idea?