Hideout Page 14

  “Where are you?” I said.

  “Over here,” Jesse said. “I found an animal trail. Hurry.”

  I kept going, my eyes adjusting to the darkness until I could make out the silhouette of him standing a few feet away to my left. As I approached he turned and pulled me ahead of him. “Hurry,” he said. “Stay in front of me.”

  I kept on, occasionally tripping over a tree root or sloshing through a small stream. The trail was definitely made by things shorter than us, as there were still spiderwebs and branches at chest level. But the ground was free of obstructions and there was a gap in the palmettos. I moved as fast as possible with the sound of Slade’s boat remaining clear, like we weren’t making much progress at all.

  I began to smell something dead. The swamp was always so full of wet, fetid smells that I didn’t think much of it. Then I tripped and fell over a large, soft obstacle in the path. I knew right away that it was a dead animal of some sort. I had kicked away from it and started to crawl when Jesse tumbled over me. Then both of us were untangling ourselves and scrambling forward.

  “What the hell was that?” he said.

  We heard Slade’s engine slow and the boat waves crash against the creek bank.

  “It’s something dead,” I whispered.

  I heard Jesse crawl off the trail into the palmettos.

  “Get away from it,” he said. “Come over here and be still.”

  I followed and backed into a tree next to him.

  “Be still,” he said again.

  I stopped moving until all I heard was the sound of Jesse breathing and the boat motor that seemed like it wasn’t more than a hundred feet from us.

  “Look,” I heard Fred say.

  “I see it,” Slade replied. “Check out the motor. The prop’s gone.”

  I heard his outboard engine shut off and Jesse’s breathing grow heavier.

  “You goin’ after them?” Fred said.

  “They’re not far,” Slade replied.

  I saw a spotlight beam pass through the trees overhead.

  “You messed up, Jesse!” Slade yelled. “You might as well come out of there and give me back the money!”

  I looked at Jesse. I saw the backpack hugged into his lap. Then I felt his hand go over my mouth and press me hard against the tree. I sat there, breathing through my nose, pulling in the heavy stench of the dead thing, listening to mosquitoes whine about my face.

  “Jesse!” Slade yelled.

  “They’ve got to come out,” Fred said. “We’re their only way out.”

  The light passed through the trees again.

  “Yeah,” Slade finally said. “They’re not goin’ anywhere. And we’ve still got some work to do.”

  The boat motor cranked again.

  “We’ll be back, Jesse!” Slade yelled. “If you want a ride out of here, you better be waitin’ on this creek bank. With the money.”

  We listened to them motor back up the creek for a moment before Jesse took his hand away from my mouth.

  “You took Davey’s money?” I said.

  “It’s not his money. We stole it, and now I’m takin’ it for my share. I’ll give them theirs later.”

  “We have to give it back. Davey’s gonna be in trouble.”

  “Davey’s already in trouble. And there’s nothin’ we can do about it. Come on, let’s get that motor fixed and haul ass.”

  Jesse stood, shouldered the backpack, and lifted me by my shirt collar.

  “God, that thing stinks,” he said. “I think I’ve got the smell on my pants.”

  I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t stop thinking about what Slade was going to do, or had done, to Davey for losing the money.

  Jesse let go of me and stepped onto the trail again. I stood there, not sure about anything. Then I saw a cigarette lighter flick a few times until it finally glowed. I watched Jesse lower it to the ground. And in the light I made out the ruined face of a man, his mouth open in death, a dried bloody gash on the side of his face, and a jagged scar across his forehead.

  34

  Jesse leaped backward, crashing into the palmettos as he fled from the body.

  I stood there, frozen with fear.

  “It’s a dead guy!” he said. “Holy crap, it’s a dead guy!”

  “He has a scar,” I said.

  “I rolled across that thing! I’ve got it all over me!”

  “On his forehead,” I said. “He has a scar.”

  Jesse turned to me. “We never saw this, understand?”

  “But—”

  “We don’t need this. We don’t have time for this.”

  Jesse veered off the trail and went around the dead man.

  “It’s Davey’s dad,” I said.

  He turned back to me. “Listen, kid. I don’t have time for any more of this. It might not be their dad, and even if it was, I don’t care. The guy’s food for the swamp animals now, and there’s nothin’ we can do about it.”

  “Davey told me he had a scar on his forehead.”

  Jesse stomped back to me and grabbed me by the arm and pulled me forward. “I don’t care, you hear me? If we don’t leave this place, we’re gonna end up just like him. Slade’s gonna kill us. So go fix the motor!”

  I let him pull me around the dead body.

  “He came looking for Davey,” I said.

  Jesse grabbed me by the shirt and shoved me ahead of him. “Hell with all of them,” he said. “I’m goin’ home.”

  I stopped, and he came against me and shoved me forward again. “Go, kid. I’m not gonna tell you again. It’s for your own good.”

  “Drop the money,” I said. I didn’t plan to say it; the words just came out.

  Jesse stopped. “What?”

  “Drop the backpack on the trail,” I said. “Right here.”

  He took a step toward me. “If I have to pick you up and carry you to that boat, I will.”

  “But you won’t get me to fix it,” I said. I knew that everything I’d done to that point had been nothing. Now it was going to get hard. Now was when I was actually going to do the right thing.

  Jesse hesitated. “What in hell is your problem? You realize what Slade’s gonna do to both of us?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “I’ve seen him beat a guy senseless with a tire iron,” he said.

  “Leave the money here and I’ll fix the boat. And you can go.”

  Jesse studied me for a second.

  “Why?” he said. “Why leave the money?”

  “Because taking it just makes things worse.”

  I felt him staring at me in the darkness.

  “We’re running out of time,” I said.

  Jesse threw the backpack to the ground and stomped past me. “Stupid kid,” he said. “Dumbass kid.”

  “I’ll be there in a second,” I said.

  I grabbed the backpack and tossed it toward the outline of a tree that I hoped I would recognize later.

  I met Jesse back at the boat and waded around to the motor. He came up close behind me and stood watching over my shoulder. I got the shear pin out of my pocket and slid it into its hole drilled through the prop shaft. Then I got the prop off the deck and stuck it on the shaft, seating the pin into the slot on the back of the prop.

  “How long’s this gonna take?” Jesse said.

  “Just give me the nut,” I said.

  When he handed it over I began screwing it on.

  “Now I need the cotter pin,” I said, after tightening the nut as hard as I could with the pliers.

  Jesse reached in his pocket and got the pin and gave it to me.

  “I hid the money,” I said. “So don’t think about going back for it.”

  “Slade knows where both of us live. You thought about that? He won’t just let us get away with this.”

  I didn’t answer him. I inserted the cotter pin and bent the ends of it so that it wouldn’t come loose. Then I backed away.

  “We know too much,” Jesse said.

&n
bsp; “Go ahead,” I said.

  Jesse chuckled in disbelief. “You’re not comin’?”

  “No,” I said.

  “So now you want the money?”

  “I don’t want the money. I’m going to leave it where Slade can find it. And I’m going to tell Davey that his dad’s here.”

  “Are you a complete idiot? Then what happens?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead. But I need to do it for Davey.”

  “So what about your boat?”

  “It’s not important.”

  “I can’t just leave you.”

  “You can’t make me go either.”

  Jesse stared at me for a moment.

  “Fine,” he said. “We’ll leave the money on the creek bank here, and Slade’ll find it. You can come with me.”

  I shook my head. “I have to see Davey.”

  Jesse took a deep breath and stared up the creek.

  “You better get going,” I said.

  He turned back to me. “Maybe it’s best that I don’t have the money,” he said. “Now Slade won’t have any reason to come after me. I’m out of all this before it gets too bad. Before the cops show up. Maybe I can start over.”

  Suddenly Jesse didn’t seem like he was so much older than I was.

  “Maybe,” I said.

  “And you’ll tell your dad that I tried to help.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’ll tell him. I know you didn’t want any of this to happen. You were the only one who was nice to Davey.”

  Jesse glanced at the ground. “I’m really no better than them,” he said.

  “Well, like you said, maybe you can start over.”

  He looked at me and hesitated like he was gradually realizing something. “No,” he finally said. “Once you start, you can’t really stop. It’s best to steer clear of people like me. We’ll always let you down in the end.”

  There was nothing left to say.

  Jesse pushed the Bream Chaser out into the creek and climbed in. “You sure about this?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’m sure.”

  “All right,” he said.

  He started the motor and looked at me once more before he sped out into the river and into the darkness.

  35

  I stood by myself on the creek bank. The insects and night animals thought they were alone again, and their humming and cheeping and chattering closed around me. After a moment I turned and stepped toward the trees, and the night creatures ducked away again. I made my way to where I’d tossed the backpack and felt in the grass until I touched it. I thought of the dead body not far from me and quickly shut the thought away. I got the pack and took it out to the creek bank and hung it on a limb where it could be easily seen. Then I turned and stepped into the trees once more.

  My biggest concern was getting to the camp through the swamp in the darkness. I gambled on the animal trail taking me there, figuring that Davey’s dad had known where he was headed. The trail seemed to run parallel to the creek, just inside the wall of underbrush. Like a secret, hidden path pigs and deer had used since the beginning of time. If all else failed, I could wade along the outside edges of the creek, but I knew I needed to stay back from the water if I was to avoid moccasins and alligators.

  I thought about Jesse’s words: Then what?

  Then I’d tell Davey about his father. So he wouldn’t think his dad never cared. So he’d know his dad came looking for him. He couldn’t live without knowing that. I didn’t think I could live without telling him.

  Then what?

  Then I just didn’t know. And I didn’t want to think about it so much that I’d change my mind. The only thing I was sure of was that Davey had to know about his dad.

  I found the trail again and this time turned to my right, back toward the camp. The dead body was somewhere behind me, and I was glad I didn’t have to pass it again. But as I got farther away I allowed thoughts of the dead man to creep back into my head. And I wondered how he’d died. I remembered that Officer Stockton had found the boat floating in the river and I thought about the deadhead, and then it all made sense.

  Davey’s dad had hit the deadhead just like me. And it threw him out of the boat. Just like Jesse.

  But how did he die?

  I thought for a second he might have drowned, but that didn’t make sense since he’d somehow made it into the woods.

  Maybe he’d been snakebit. Maybe he’d died of thirst or starvation. There was the blood. Maybe he’d hit his head.

  Then I realized it didn’t matter. I’d find out eventually. The important thing was that he’d come. He’d tried to find Davey.

  I stopped and listened. I couldn’t see the creek, but I heard the steady cheeping of frogs, which told me I was still close to the water. And I was surprised that I knew these things, that I had some natural sense of how to go about things out here. I started ahead again, moving slowly, keeping my hands out before me, feeling my way through the darkness. I wasn’t scared of spiders or snakes or alligators. I wasn’t scared of Slade. I wasn’t scared of anything, because I knew I was doing the right thing.

  Then what?

  Then it didn’t matter.

  It was impossible to tell how much farther I had to go. I kept on, hearing the frogs to my right, and I was confident that I’d get there eventually. The trail remained underfoot like it had been put there just for me. Like the deadhead. The swamp guiding me to an inevitable end.

  Then I heard them. Distant conversation and the dull thud of things being thrown into their boat. I quickened my pace, suddenly worried that they’d leave before I got there. I knew that if I didn’t see Davey now, I’d never see him again. It was like he came from nowhere and would go straight back to nowhere.

  “Put it up front,” I heard Slade say.

  Something else thudded into the boat, and I reasoned Slade and Fred were loading their gear.

  “Where we gonna sit?” Fred said.

  “Sit on top of it,” Slade said. “Who cares?”

  I came to a dip in the path and stopped. I stepped to my left and felt the trail continuing deeper into the swamp. Then I stepped to my right and it continued toward the creek. I’d intersected their trail to the marijuana field.

  I turned and faced the faint opening in the underbrush. I saw the shimmering surface of the creek beyond. I started to think over what I was doing one last time, then decided it was better not to waste time thinking.

  * * *

  They were so busy loading the boat that they didn’t hear me approach. I stood in the grass at the edge of the camp, watching them. I didn’t see Davey, but I saw Slade and Fred tossing what must have been plastic garbage sacks of marijuana plants into the boat where there was already a big pile of them. Then I saw Davey step out of the camp with a flashlight and a sleeping bag under his arm.

  “Davey,” I called out.

  They all stopped what they were doing and turned to me. Davey didn’t act surprised at all. He just looked tired.

  Slade threw the bag he was holding onto the pile and came up onto the deck and stared down at me. “I guess you need a ride?”

  “Davey,” I said again.

  But Davey didn’t move or change his expression.

  “Where’s the money?” Slade said.

  “Jesse’s gone,” I said.

  “Gone where?”

  “He took my boat. He left the money where you could find it.”

  Slade turned and looked at Davey. “Lucky you,” he said. Then he turned back to me. “I guess he left you, too.”

  “No, I told him I was staying. I came back to talk to Davey.”

  Slade turned and looked at his stepbrother. Then he laughed. “Fred,” he said, “I really don’t know who gets the dumbass award this week.”

  “Seriously,” Fred said.

  “I-I found the dead body, Davey,” I said.

  “Dead body?” Fred said.

  “It’s the person they’ve been loo
king for, Davey,” I continued. “You know, they found his boat. And he’s been missing since a couple of weeks ago.”

  Davey nodded slowly like he thought it was something I was happy about and he couldn’t help being happy for me.

  “Your pal’s lost his mind,” Slade said.

  I kept watching Davey’s face. “He’s got a scar on his forehead,” I said.

  Davey dropped the sleeping bag he was holding.

  “It’s your dad, Davey. He’s the guy they’ve been looking for … But he was looking for you. He came out here looking for you.”

  “I think he’s serious, Slade,” Fred said.

  “Kid, if you don’t stop makin’ this stuff up, I’m gonna come down there and knock your head off.”

  Davey studied me. “Sam wouldn’t lie to me,” he said quietly.

  “Shut up, Davey!” Slade snapped.

  Davey looked at his stepbrother. “Why did you do this to me?”

  “I don’t have time for this. Put what’s left in there and get into the boat.”

  “You told me he didn’t love me.”

  “Get in the boat, Davey,” Slade demanded.

  “Why did you tell me that?”

  “Hey, he said he was comin’ out here to get you. That’s all I know.”

  “You don’t even care,” Davey said.

  “He wasn’t my dad, remember? He was just some man Mom married and they never got along from day one. So you’re right. I don’t care what happened to him. You satisfied now?”

  Davey stared at his stepbrother like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “He wouldn’t have died if you hadn’t made me come out here.”

  “Get in the boat, Davey.”

  Davey didn’t move.

  Slade stepped over to him and grabbed him by the arm. “Get in the boat!”

  Davey jerked away from him and backed toward the edge of the deck, just over me.

  “I’ll leave you out here,” Slade warned. “You got five seconds.”

  Davey’s expression suddenly changed, like he could finally see something that had been hazy and blurry. “You’re going to leave me anyway,” he said.

  Slade studied him and didn’t say anything. But the silence was just as good as a spoken answer. Davey turned and leaped past me into the marsh. He scrambled to his feet and fled into the swamp. It surprised all of us, and no one made a move to go after him.