Thomas’s house wasn’t far off now. I took my time getting there. Hard going, sure, but also I wanted to give Clifford plenty of time to do whatever he was going to do. I didn’t want to see him fucking her, that’s not my sort of thing. After, when it was all over, once he’d shown her where she belonged, that would be the best part. Her humiliated, put in her place, that little slut who doesn’t even deserve to be spat on. I always say you have to remind women who’s in charge.
So I took my sweet time, and when I got to the house, there wasn’t a peep to be heard. He was done, then. The thought went through my head that this was going to be a real headache. We’d have to come up with some explanation for Benedict as to her state, or we’d have to spell things out for her so she didn’t go telling him the facts.
I went in, the door was ajar. Clifford was on the ground, hadn’t even pulled up his pants, and that bastard was already asleep. No sign of that girl, she had to be blubbering somewhere. I called out to Clifford, “Well, well, well, everything fair and square now?” And he didn’t say a thing, wasn’t making a sound. The man snores like a chain saw every night, so maybe he was having the best snooze of his life.
I walked over and the soles of my boots stuck on the floor. I’d lived long enough to know exactly what I’d stepped in. I grabbed his shoulder to turn him over and I saw he was good and dead. His mouth was gaping and his eyes were wide-open. Thomas’s wood chisel was deep in his neck.
That really set me off. Only one man around these parts really got me and he’d just been offed.
I looked up and I saw the girl in the corner and Clifford’s blood all over her hands. She was like a deer in headlights.
I spat out, “You killed Clifford! You happy now?”
She didn’t say a thing.
I walked over and my face was up in hers so she had to look at me and I shouted, “You couldn’t just lose the kid, huh? Are you out to bump off each of us?”
She just said, “I know the truth, Cole.”
“What truth?”
But I didn’t have to think for long. So that was why she’d always given me the cold shoulder. And that really pissed me off. She was looking at me all superior like, the way they all did—my lawyer, the judges, the guards, even the guys in prison uniform who were no better than me but who still beat me up to teach me a lesson. Like I was a monster, but I was no worse than any of them. Fact is, nobody’s ever tried to understand me, Clifford excepted. And what right did that girl have to judge me? She couldn’t even be bothered to do right by Benedict and his kid.
I had no idea what to do, but I knew I couldn’t let her mess up my whole life. I hadn’t found this slice of heaven, made a home for myself over the years, just for some lady like her to wreck it. Absolutely not. And calling the police for them to lock her up for murdering Clifford was out of the question, so I figured the next best thing was to take care of her exactly the way he would have if she hadn’t beaten him to it. I had to think fast before Benedict got it in his head to come here.
I took a step back, aimed my rifle at her, and told her to get up and scram. One of us had to disappear, and it sure wasn’t going to be me. Maybe she’d want to off herself anyway after killing a man or losing the kid. I’d just be helping her along.
Benedict wouldn’t argue with that, and then the two of us could go on living our own lives, almost just like before.
She stood up, didn’t put up any fight, maybe she thought I was going to take her to her house. I pointed at the door with the rifle barrel. She pulled on her shoe with a scowl and walked past me just wearing her pitiful sweater and those pants she hadn’t zipped up. She looked even smaller than before, and she was limping.
I wondered if Clifford at least got it in before getting killed, but I wasn’t about to ask. I didn’t care enough. I was the one running the show now, I was the one who said what happened next, and I’d decided to shut her up for good.
She made her way to the doorstep and I kept my rifle on her because, if she’d managed to off Clifford, I had to watch my back. I shoved her with the barrel so she’d keep moving. She went down the steps, she shivered, and for half a second I couldn’t believe some little girl like her had managed to kill a man.