River Runs Red (The Border Trilogy) by Mariotte Jeffrey J

Author:Mariotte, Jeffrey J. [Mariotte, Jeffrey J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781940544199
Publisher: DarkFuse
Published: 2013-11-22T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SEVEN

“It’s my dad.”

“Your dad?” Byrd echoed. “What is? What are you talkin’ about, dude?”

“Killing all those guys.”

They were at the cave. Screwing Angela there had changed it for Wade, somehow, had stolen away some of its youthful innocence. It had been like something out of Tom Sawyer, but now it was more Huckleberry Finn—an adult tale disguised as a kid’s adventure.

“Your dad?” Molly asked. She was only twelve. Wade had not wanted to say anything in front of her, but they’d started talking about the murders and it had slipped out. She’d been sitting on the dirt floor reading an Archie comic, but now she left it spread open on her lap, forgotten, and stared at Wade with eyes so wide it must have hurt. “Your dad’s the murderer?”

Wade blew out a heavy sigh. “I think so, yeah.”

“You’re nuts,” Byrd said. “You’re absolutely bugfuck.”

“Byrd!” Molly snapped, as she usually did these days when he employed language she considered obscene or inappropriate. Which, given that it was Byrd, was fairly often.

“Sorry,” he said to her. “But you are, Wade.”

“I don’t think so. I wish I was wrong. I just don’t see how I could be.”

“Why, you catch him washin’ blood off his hands or somethin’? You find the keys to the tractor he ran over Emilio with?”

“Someone got ran over with a tractor?” Molly asked. They’d done their best to keep her out of the rumor loop.

“Never mind, Moll. Maybe you should go play with dolls or somethin’.”

“Forget that,” she said. “I want to hear about Wade’s dad.”

“Fuck it, I don’t care,” Wade said. He balled his fists and punched the cave floor. “Look, he’s been going out a lot at night lately. Ever since…you know, Byrd. He hasn’t laid a hand on me or Mom since then, but he’s been going out. I thought he was drinking with his friends from work, maybe. He’d come home sometimes, pretty late, acting a little buzzed, but never as drunk as he used to get.”

“Sounds like our little talk had a positive impact,” Byrd said.

“Maybe,” Wade said. “But the first murder was Russ Kenner, right? That was the night of July nineteenth.”

“How do you know that?” Byrd asked.

“Never mind, I just do. Anyway, I remember my dad was out that night. He came home after I’d gone to bed, and I went to bed pretty late, and then couldn’t sleep. I heard him come in and shuffle around in his workroom for a while before he went to bed.”

“So what?”

“So then when Jason Barnett got it, he was out that night, too. I couldn’t remember for sure if he’d been out the nights of the other murders, but after that I started paying attention. Kenny Trimble, he was out. Emilio Villanova, he was out. That’s four of them out of, what…six? That’s a pretty bad record.”

“Maybe,” Byrd said. He pursed his lips. Wade had never looked at him quite the same, since he’d watched him kick the shit out of his father. He

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