Seeing her there on the couch very nearly brought Camel to tears. “Annie,” he said. “Annie.”
Having lingered behind, McCleany now quickly pulled the .38 revolver, which he’d had with him all along, and used it to disarm Camel, telling him, “Sucker,” before pushing him into the room, closing the door, snapping the padlock into place.
Camel remained focused on Annie as he hurried to the couch and took her head in his hands. Speaking her name over and over he carefully removed the duct tape from her mouth.
“Thank God,” she said. “Thank God you’re here.”
He helped her sit up, Annie’s dark red hair matted with even darker red blood that had pooled in Growler’s lap. Camel unwrapped the tape from her hands and ankles, examining Annie for wounds, finding none … all the blood must be Growler’s, Camel wondering if he was dead.
He asked her what’d happened and in a gush of words she told him about hiding in the closet, knocking into the piano and disturbing all those fat flies … that man, the golfer she’d seen in Teddy’s office, he was one of the men in those photographs. “You don’t have any idea what I’m talking about do you?”
He assured her he did so Annie continued, explaining how the golfer taped her wrists and ankles before leaving to carry Growler up here, beating him with a cable, demanding to know where the photographs were. “He put that wire around my neck and was going to kill me but then we heard you holler my name.”
When I was coming up the steps, Camel remembered.
“God it was the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard in my life Teddy, you calling my name. He took the wire off my neck, taped my mouth and left the room … who is he?”
“Gerald McCleany, Parker Gray’s ex-partner … McCleany’s the one who killed that girl here seven years ago and he wants those pictures because they’re proof—”
Growler muttered something.
“Still alive,” Camel said with a sense of wonder.
Annie put her arms around Camel. “That man, McCleany, he beat him so bad.”
“McCleany didn’t do all the damage, I shot Growler and so did Jake Kempis.”
“And I drove a nail through his foot, broke his arm …”
Growler managed a strangled laugh.
Camel stood. “Is that Jake Kempis’s?”
“Yes.” Annie ran a hand along the jacket’s sleeve. “McCleany said he killed a black man …”
“It was Jake, he’s downstairs. Annie, was Parker Gray in any of those pictures?”
“Not that I remember.”
“Gray told me he was in love with her, I bet she never took any photographs of him … the poor bastard was blackmailed into helping McCleany for no good reason.” Camel grasped Annie gently by the shoulders. “Do you know where the pictures are?”
She looked at him with wild eyes. “Teddy not you too, if I knew—”
“Okay, all right … I had to ask because we could’ve used them to trade with McCleany, he’s going to burn this place to the ground, finish what Parker Gray intended to do and we need—”
Growler grunted, managed to raise a hand and motion for Camel. Growler’s right eye was out of its socket, unseeing, but his left eye fixed on Camel who bent close and listened, couldn’t understand him at first, listened again, then a third time, finally got it.
Annie asked, “What’s he saying?”
“Where the photographs are.”
“Where?”
Camel moved Growler aside and lifted one of the couch’s big leather cushions … revealing the eleven snapshots.
“They were there all the time,” she said in amazement. “Why didn’t he just say so?”
“Growler, where’s the elephant?”
He shook his head.
“If we had the elephant and the pictures,” Camel said, “we might be able to bargain our way out of here.”
After a moment’s hesitation Annie hurried to the tool shelves, moved the circular saw, brought the elephant to Teddy. “This is why Paul killed himself.”
It was bigger than Camel had imagined.
She asked him, “Can you make it work, McCleany gets the elephant and pictures, he lets us walk out of here?”
“If he’s greedy enough he might go for the bait.”
“Bait?” Annie asked.
“Yeah I got an idea.” Camel went to the shelves and grabbed two extension cords while Annie hesitantly approached the couch, leaning down cautiously to ask Growler, “Why didn’t you just tell him where the pictures were, he would’ve stopped hitting you.” Growler didn’t answer. Flies had found his face and although Annie waved them away they were eager to return, Growler somehow managing to look pleased with himself … Lord of the Flies.
Camel was over at the big brick chimney, moving the fire screen which was in three sections and could be laid flat, when Annie asked him what he was doing.
“McCleany went to get the gasoline, he’s going to be pouring five gallons of gas under that door there and then setting us all on fire … I saw a woman get burned to death tonight, believe me you don’t want to die like that.”
“How can I help?”
“Run these cords along the wall then take the fire screen over to the door.” Camel made Growler sit up. “Listen to me.” Growler’s good left eye had closed. Camel didn’t dare shake him, he was too fragile. “Donald, can you hear me?” The left eye came open, his head tilted forward.
Camel noticed the huge blue tattoo on his lower belly but couldn’t make out what that tattoo was supposed to be, too much blood.
“Donald … I know why you ended up like this, people lied about you, lied about what you did to your cousin, lied about where you were that day, lied all through your trial.”
He was nodding as Camel spoke, thank God someone finally believes me.
“Nobody hates a lie worse than I do, but even I can’t imagine how you must’ve felt, a whole big goddamn world of lies and you were forced to carry it seven bad years.”
For Growler hearing this was like receiving grace, he kept leaning forward until his bloody face pressed Camel’s shoulder.
“Most of the people who lied about you were forced or tricked into it by McCleany, he’s the one who killed Hope.”
Growler nodded.
“And now he’s going to get away with it, you killed all the wrong people and McCleany’s home free.”
Growler brought his head away from Camel. “No.”
“Unless you help me.”
“Pictures …”
“Yeah the pictures will link McCleany to the victim but those pictures are about to get burned up along with everything else in this room including us. I might be able to bargain with him, but he’s going to want me and Annie where he can keep an eye on us … that leaves you to do it.”
Growler fell back on the couch.
“Come on, sit up, I need you over there by that wall.” Waiting for Growler to respond, Camel watched Annie position the fire screen on the floor near the door to the hallway. “Put the elephant and pictures on it,” he told her before turning back to Growler. “Goddamn it sit up.”
He tried but couldn’t.
“Help him,” Annie said.
“He’s got to do it on his own.” But Growler couldn’t move. Camel came close, talking right into his grotesque face. “You son-of-a-bitch, strong enough to kill old people, angry enough to kill your best friend and set a woman on fire … but you’re not strong enough or angry enough to nail the man who’s responsible for everything that’s happened to you, you’re going to let him get off scot-free because you can’t even sit up you candyass—”
“Teddy—”
“Shut up Annie.” He turned back to Growler. “She doesn’t understand about lies, not the way you and I do, now sit up and get mad all over again you fucking pansy.”
Growler began making low sounds deep in his chest, animal sounds, warning growls, the rumbling of anger and determination like a weight lifter talking himself into lifting more than he ever has in his life … Growler coming off the couch, stumbling but staying upright, a clumsy Frankenstein raging at the world for having created him, mad all over again just like Camel said.
Camel led him to the far wall, sitting him there, explaining twice what had to be done. “It’s simple enough but you have to do it at exactly the right time so don’t fucking fade on me.”
He indicated he wouldn’t.
Camel took out his pocketknife and began stripping insulation from an extension cord, telling Annie how everything was going to work … if it worked.
She heard something out in the hallway. “He’s coming.”
Camel kept cutting. “Go over there to the door and tell him you found the elephant, Growler you stay there on the floor and act like you’re dead.” Growler managed another strangled laugh and Camel squinted a smile too … yeah, he thought, won’t be much of an acting job. But if Growler couldn’t stay alive for another few minutes then they were all dead.