The Killing Hills by Chris Offutt

Author:Chris Offutt [Offutt, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Grove Atlantic

Chapter Fifteen

They drove silently off the hill to the blacktop then used back roads to get to the Kissick house. The porch light came on and a man stepped out with a rifle. Mick grinned—it was the worst weapon for the situation, unsuitable for close quarters. He rolled his window down.

“It’s Mick Hardin,” he said. “You Mrs. Kissick’s boy?”

“Yeah,” the man said. “I’m Mason.”

“Need to talk to your mom a minute.”

“She done went to bed.”

“Get her,” Mick said. “Tell her it’s business. I’ve got two boys from Detroit with me.”

“She don’t like getting waked up.”

“Better you do it than I start honking the horn, then tell her it’s on account of you. Now get to it. Won’t take long.”

Mason stood motionless for twenty seconds, a child’s version of defiance, then entered the house. A few minutes later he came out, shoulders slumped with chagrin.

“She said you can come in. But not them.”

“Nope,” Mick said. “I can’t leave them on their own. They might take off.”

“Can you not handcuff them or something?”

“You got ary a set?”

Mason shook his head.

“Me, neither,” Mick said. “I’m getting out but I’m staying right here. Go on and get her.”

The man nodded and went in the house again.

“Give me the keys,” Mick said to Vernon. “Then roll your window down. A one of you leaves this vehicle, I’ll cut you down like straw.”

He left the car and stood far enough from the window that Vernon couldn’t reach him. A half-moon had risen, suspended in the sky like a broken plate, dousing light from nearby stars. A female barred owl began her high-pitched babble followed by the calls of two males vying for her favor.

Shifty Kissick stepped onto the porch in a long flannel robe over a nightgown and slippers. One side of the robe sagged from what he figured was the weight of a sidearm. He’d underestimated her once but wouldn’t again. Mason stood beside her with the rifle.

“Mrs. Kissick,” he said. “I’m sorry for getting you up.”

“What are you wanting?”

“These Detroit boys tried to get the drop on me.”

She peered into the dark car.

“I don’t know them,” she said.

“I don’t, either. I’m game to let them go and forget what they told me.”

“About what?”

“Your all’s family business. Heroin. Charley Flowers. All that.”

“You can’t trust a word they say.”

“Charley Flowers sent them down here to warn me off hunting for your son.”

“I can see how good that went.”

“Ma’am, I think you know where your son is. Let me talk to him and I’ll send these boys home. If I have to kill them, Mr. Flowers will have two options. One, he sends men meaner than them. Or, two, he’ll cut his losses and run smack to somebody else besides you.”

“You’d make an enemy of me. Of all the Kissicks.”

“I can see that, ma’am. But I’ll be back overseas. Worst that could happen is I can’t come home no more, which ain’t that bad considering how this visit’s been shaping up.”

“You got a wife hereabouts,” she said.

“Let me speak a little plainer, Mrs.

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