"I jumped up and run but he was faster. He grabbed me, jerked me around, bent my arm behind me, near broke it. Hit me and hit me, until I don't remember. I just... I don't remember much after that but darkness and hurting. Then the medics were there over me, I woke lying on the ground, on the steep hill beside the lake, looking down at the dark water. Lying beside the old car with the medic kneeling over me."
The medics had got Martha and Idola out of the car, had carried them around the shore and up the McPhersons' stairs. Sheriff's deputies had brought the car up later, using Albern's backhoe, and chains and pulleys.
"But up there on the road, when Albern grabbed me, the doll must have fell back into the leaves," Martha said.
Florie Mae nodded. "The ground was all scuffed, the leaves scuffed up. It was when he carried you around the hill and shoved you in that old Dodge that Idola saw you from her bedroom window."
Idola would make her statement to the sheriff when she felt stronger, but there in the hospital she'd had to talk about those terrible moments, had to tell Florie Mae. Idola had seen Martha's pickup pull into her drive, had watched Martha hurry right on past the house and up the road. She'd figured that Martha saw the cat up there and was going to try to catch her. And then she saw the cat, too, there on the gravel.
"Idola was still looking out the window," Florie Mae said, "was just ready to go down and help try to catch the cat, when she saw you pick up something, there in the gravel—and she saw movement up in the woods. Saw Albern coming for you."
Florie Mae touched Martha's hand. "Idola saw him grab you and hit you. She snatched up Rick's loaded shotgun and ran, up along the road following Albern, trying to make no noise, scared he'd hear her. Said she didn't dare shoot while he was carrying you. But when he shoved you in the car— he'd already moved it up to the cliff edge—she ran up, so scared she was shaking. When he turned on her, a-lunging to grab her looking all wild, she shot him twice in the shoulder. Said she didn't want to kill him, just wanted to stop him, run him off.
"That's all she had, the two shots," Florie Mae said. "Rick's old over-and-under. When the gun was empty Albern, just a-bleedin' and swearin', grabbed her, jerked the gun away, and hit her. Pinned her against the car and beat her. She said she remembers him jamming her into the old car, on top of you. Remembers she was trying to scream but nothing came out, she couldn't find any voice to cry out."
Florie Mae was still holding Martha's hand. "When I got there—you were tangled in there like firewood, the two of you. You underneath, Idola thrown in on top. That's how I found you—and none of us knew that Susan Slattery's body was in the trunk."
James said, "Albern'll be making his formal statement to the sheriff about now, I'd guess. He was near bawling when the sheriff arrested him." James had ridden up from Cody Creek with the sheriff, after Florie Mae called for help—and James himself near frantic. James had helped the sheriff handcuff Albern and lock him in the backseat behind the security panel.
"He was some talky," James said. "Real scared. Said he saw Rebecca go in the bakery that night, said he'd only wanted to talk with her a few minutes— trying to get the sheriff to believe it was purely accident. Said he asked Rebecca to sit in his car, said he guessed she'd felt sorry for him, maybe guilty that she'd dumped him, he guessed that was why she got in his car. Albern said he'd been drinking pretty heavy. Well, they argued, he said something rude to her, and she slapped him. He hit her back, hard, knocked her against the door. Said her head hit the door and she passed out. That she never come to.
James frowned. "He said his feelings was all mixed up inside him. He was sorry, with her a-laying there in his car. But deep down inside him, said his heart was a-pounding real hard. He kept talking, like he was in a church confessional. I just stood there by the sheriff's car, listening. It was the last thing he said that sickened me most." He looked down at the children, making sure they were indeed asleep. In his lap, both Bobbie Lee and Lacie June were deep under, their supper plates untouched, both children all tuckered out after their day at Cody Creek.
"Well, I don't see this makes Albern insane," James said. "Don't see that it makes him not responsible. But Albern told the sheriff that when he saw Rebecca lying there dead, that nothing he'd done in his life, not nothing he'd ever done with a woman, had filled him brim-up full with that kind of thrill as seeing Rebecca lying there dead.
"To my way of thinking," James said, "he got full up with the lust to kill. Seems to me that's what made him rise up and kill Susan, when she found Rebecca's scarf in his car."
Albern had told the sheriff that he'd had a date with Susan, the night she died. Said she seldom told her folks her plans. Albern told the sheriff that when Susan dropped her compact and went fishing under the seat for it, that was when she found Rebecca's scarf. Said she'd hauled the scarf out, and just sat looking at him—then she'd snatched for the door handle, wanting to get away. And he'd grabbed her and killed her.
"Albern told the sheriff," James said, "that after he stuffed you and Idola in the car, Martha, he felt so weak from the gunshots, hurt so bad, that he stumbled up in the woods to hide before he passed out. Meant to go back in a few minutes, when he felt stronger, and push the car into the lake with you three in it. Get shut of the evidence, he said. Before he could do that, he passed out. That's how you found him, Grady."
Florie Mae looked at Grady. "What were you doing up there? I thought it was you that hurt Martha and Idola, the way you come after me."
"I saw you with that shotgun, Florie Mae, I thought you'd shot Albern. Him layin' up there in the woods half dead. I thought he'd maybe got smart with you, and you up and shot him."
Grady reached for another piece of fried chicken. The wounds the tomcat had bestowed hadn't hurt his appetite. "This morning early, Albern and me went on over to Cody Creek soon as we got back from looking for Susan's car. We helped with the fish and setting up the tables. I was helping the little kids fish, about eight, I guess, when I saw you, Martha, go by, headed up to the lake. Few minutes later I saw Albern leave, saw him heading up toward the lake, too. That made me mighty curious.
"I told myself that was foolish, that he was likely goin' get in a few hours work on the road. But then maybe an hour later when I saw you leave, Florie Mae, heading up that way, I got to thinking. Something about the way Albern acted the night before, looking for Susan Slattery, got me to wonderin'. Like he mightn't have really been looking for Susan, like maybe he'd been playacting? The kind of uneasy feeling like when a ole bear's prowling 'round your chickens out in the dark—you don't see or hear nothing, but something's not right out there.
"When I saw you heading up for the lake alone, Florie Mae, I got that feeling. You two girls up there alone. And Albern up there. And the way he might could have only acted like he was a-lookin' for Susan. Acted like he was lookin' real hard—too hard."
James nodded. "A person'd expect Albern to just go plodding along lookin', doing his duty. Last night he was just a-beatin' the bushes, like a hound ready to tree a coon."
Grady said, "Well, I headed up that way. Figured you was going to Idola's, Florie Mae. When I passed her road I saw your truck and Martha's. Didn't see Albern's pickup down the road by his rig, didn't see him working.
"I went on up the road to turn around, and there was Albern's truck, way at the top of the hill. Funny place to park. He had no work up there. I pulled up behind him, looked in his cab, then went on down the hill through the woods, listening for him. It was quiet, not a sound. Then I heard him moan.
"Found him lying in the woods, shot, nearly unconscious. I had a look at him, went back to the truck and called the sheriff. When I got back to Albern again, I tried to get him to talk to me. He was havin' trouble breathing. Asked him what happened. He opened his eyes, but he was groggy as a chicken in the sour mash. Said, 'She shot me!' That's all he said. I asked him who shot him, but he kind of went off again, grabbing for me, muttering at me to call the medics, staring like he didn't rightly see me.