“No.”
“It won’t take but a second, maybe. If I’m lucky, I’ll be right back.”
“I’m going with you,” she said.
“No. I want you to stay here. I’m worried that those guys are watching too, somewhere along the tree line. If they come after me, I want you to start yelling and run like crazy.”
“No. No way, sweetheart. If you’re looking at the body, then I’m looking at the body, and I’m not arguing about it. That’s final.”
He looked at her eyes, four or five inches away, and decided not to argue. Her head was shaking and her jaw was tight. She looked cute under the cap.
“Then follow me, Reggie. Stay low, and listen. Always listen, okay.”
“All right, all right. I’m not totally helpless. In fact, I’m getting pretty good at crawling.”
They attacked from the brush on all fours again, two figures sliding in the still darkness. The grass was wet and cool. The gate, still open from the hasty retreat of the grave robbers, squeaked slightly when Reggie hooked it with a foot. Mark glared at her. They stopped behind the first tree, then eased to the next. Not a sound from anywhere. It was 2 A.M., and the neighborhood was silent. Mark, however, was worried about the nut next door with the gun. He doubted the man would sleep well with a thin sheet of plastic over the window, and he could envision him sitting in the kitchen watching the patio and waiting for the snap of a twig before he began blasting away again. They stopped at the next tree, then crawled to the junk pile.
She nodded once, taking small, quick breaths. They crouched and darted to the rear door of the garage, which was slightly open. Mark stuck his head inside. He turned on the flashlight and aimed it at the floor. Reggie eased in behind him.
The odor was thick and pungent, like a dead animal rotting in the sun. Reggie instinctively covered her nose and mouth. Mark breathed deeply, then held his breath.
The only open space in the cluttered room was in the center, where the boat had been parked. They crouched over the concrete slab. “I’m getting sick,” Reggie said, barely opening her mouth.
Another ten minutes, and the body would have been out. They had started in the center, somewhere around the torso, and chipped away at each side. The black garbage bags, partially decomposed by the cement, had been ripped away. A ragged little trench had been cut away toward the feet and knees.
Mark had seen enough. He picked up a chisel, one that had been left behind, and jabbed it into black plastic.
“Don’t!” Reggie whispered loudly, backing away but still seeing it all.
He ripped through the garbage bag with the chisel, and followed it closely with the light. He made a slow turn, then pulled the plastic with his hand. He bolted upright in horror, then slowly placed the light squarely into the decaying face of the late Senator Boyd Boyette.
Reggie took another step backward, and fell onto a pile of bags filled with aluminum cans. The racket was deafening in the still air. She scrambled and fought to get up in the darkness, but the thrashing and kicking created more noise. Mark grabbed a hand, and pulled her toward the boat. “I’m sorry!” she whispered, standing two feet from the corpse without thinking about it.
“Shhhhh,” Mark said as he stepped onto a box and peeked through the window. A light came on next door. The shotgun could not be far behind.
“Let’s go,” he said. “Stay low.”
They eased through the rear door, and Mark closed it behind them. A door slammed at the neighbor’s. He hit his hands and knees and slid around the debris pile, past the trees, and through the gate. Reggie was on his heels. They stopped crawling when they reached the brush. They crouched low and scampered like squirrels until they found the trail. Mark turned on the flashlight, and they didn’t slow until they were at the creek. He ducked into some weeds, and turned off the light.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, breathing hard, terrified, and damned sure not willing to pause in this getaway.
“Did you see his face?” Mark asked, in awe of what they’d just done.
“Of course I saw his face. Now let’s go.”
“I want to see it again.”
She almost slapped him. Then she stood upright, hands on hips, and started walking toward the creek.
Mark ran beside her with the flashlight. “I was just kidding.” She stopped and glared at him, then he took her hand and led her down the bank to the creek bed.
They entered the expressway by the superdome and headed for Metairie. Traffic was light, though heavier than in most cities at two-thirty on a Sunday morning. Not a word had been spoken since they’d jumped in the car at West Park and left the area. And the silence bothered neither.
Reggie contemplated how close she’d been to death. Mafia hoods, snakes, crazy neighbors, police, guns, shock, heart attack — it would’ve made no difference. She was indeed fortunate to be here, racing along the expressway, soaked with perspiration, covered with insect bites, bloody from the wounds of nature, and dirty from a night in the jungle. It could’ve been so much worse. She’d take a hot shower at the motel, maybe sleep a little, then worry about the next move. She was exhausted from the fear and sudden shocks. She was in pain from the crawling and stooping. She was too old for this nonsense. The things lawyers do.
Mark gently scratched the bites on his left forearm, and watched the lights of New Orleans thin as they left downtown. “Did you see that brown stuff on his face?” he asked without looking at her.
Though the face was now forever seared into her memory, she could not, at the moment, recall any brown stuff on it. It was a small, shriveled, partially decayed face, and one that she wished she could forget.
“I saw only the worms,” she said.
“The brown stuff was blood,” he said with the authority of a medical examiner.
She did not wish to pursue this conversation. There were more important things to discuss now that the silence was broken.
“I think we need to talk about your plans, now that this little escapade is behind us,” she said, glancing at him.
“We need to move fast, Reggie. Those guys will be back to get the body, don’t you think?”
“Yes. For once I agree. They might be back now, for all we know.”
He scratched the other forearm, and placed an ankle on a knee. “I’ve been thinking.”
“I’m sure you have.”
“There are two things I don’t like about Memphis. The heat, and the flat land. There are no hills or mountains, you know what I mean? I’ve always thought it would be so nice to live in the mountains, where the air is cool and the snow is deep in the wintertime. Wouldn’t that be fun, Reggie?”
She smiled to herself and changed lanes. “Sounds wonderful. Any particular mountain?”
“Out west somewhere. I love to watch those old Bonanza reruns with Hoss and Little Joe. Adam was okay, but it really ticked me off when he left. I’ve watched them since I was a little kid, and I’ve always thought it would be neat to live out there.”
“What happened to the tall buildings and the crowded city?”
“That was yesterday. Today, I’m thinking about mountains.”
“Is that where you want to go, Mark?”
“I think so. Can I?”
“It can be arranged. Right now, they’ll agree to almost anything.”
He stopped scratching and locked his fingers around his knee. His voice was tired. “I can’t go back to Memphis, can I, Reggie?”
“No,” she said softly.
“I didn’t think so.” He thought about this for a few seconds. “It’s just as well, I guess. There’s not much left there.”
“Think of it as yet another adventure, Mark. A new home, new school, new job for your mother. You’ll have a much nicer place to live, new friends, mountains all around you if that’s what you want.”