Back To The World - James Shaffer Read online

  I turned to point at the table in the back and noticed three cowboys blocking my view. The band had just started up. I wasn’t surprised. I had to yell at the bartender over the music. “Table in the back behind the three cowboys?”

  “Got it.” He gave me the OK sign over the noise.

  I skirted the dance floor and landed successfully at the empty table. The three girls were on the floor with their cowboy partners doing a languid two–step to a Willie Nelson tune, Did I Ever Love You. I had to admit the three Dallas gals were good. So was the band. It was the first time since I had left Amarillo that I felt relaxed, sequestered in the back corner of a cowboy bar in a non–descript town.

  While I listened to Willie ask and answer his own questions about love and life, I saw a waitress cut through the circle of dancers heading to our table. With a crooked smile that could have been genuine, she placed a bottle of tequila on the table along with four glasses, sliced lemon and lime and a shaker of salt. When she sidled over next to me, I slipped a ten–dollar bill into her apron pocket. She pretended she didn’t notice. As she stretched across the table to place the napkins, I noticed her apron was longer than her skirt. I had no doubt her tips were good.

  “Thanks, cowboy. Anything else?” She kept her professional distance. In a place like this, she’d have to.

  “I think we’re good. Thanks.”

  The song ended and the dancers returned to the table. Kelly Jo and Jamie Sue politely excused their partners, but Darlene held tight to hers and dragged him over to the table. “Guys, this here’s Brad. Be nice.”

  He looked harmless. Jamie Sue and Kelly Jo sat down on either side of me. The band started up again and, before we had a chance to “be nice,” Darlene pulled Brad back out on the dance floor. She was determined.

  “That Darlene will be married before the night’s over.” Jamie Sue offered her words of wisdom while tossing back two shots, one after the other. Kelly Jo was still sipping her first. I hadn’t touched mine.

  A cowboy came over to the table and offered Jamie Sue his hand. She took it, and they strolled across the dance floor to the bar. I could see they started tossing back shots together.

  “You don’t dance, Jake?” Kelly Jo asked.

  “No, I don’t dance, but I sure can run, Kelly Jo,” I answered turning toward her. She looked back at me. I smiled.

  “Well, that can come in handy,” she said, taking another sip of Tequila.

  Darlene never left the dance floor after that except to drop off her car keys at our table.

  “Brad’s taking me to see his ranch.” Her eyes twinkled. Kelly Jo motioned her closer.

  “I never heard it called that before,” Kelly Jo yelled in Darlene’s ear.

  “Me neither. Hope it’s a big ranch.” She held her two hands about a foot apart. “See ya’ll tomorrow.” She started to walk away; then she turned back. “By the way, I made him give me his phone number.” She handed the number to Kelly Jo then leaned in and whispered, “In case he’s an ax murderer, you know.” She laughed and walked away. With her back already to us, she waved goodbye with her free hand as she sauntered out of the bar. Her other hand crept around Brad’s waist.

  A half–hour later, a cowboy carried a stumbling Jamie Sue over to our table and dumped her on the seat beside me. She slumped against my shoulder.

  “She’s bombed,” he said. “Can’t hold her liquor. Can’t stand up neither.” He touched the brim of his hat and disappeared.

  “Well, that’s a nice thank–you,” said Kelly Jo.

  “I know. Whatever happened to good manners? He definitely ain’t from Texas.” The band was between songs. I turned to Kelly Jo. “You ready to get out of here?”

  “Ready when you are, cowboy.”

  Kelly Jo grabbed Darlene’s car keys off the table while I hauled Jamie Sue to her feet. My arm circled her waist, and I walked her out of the bar. Kelly Jo brought up the rear. We made a clean getaway.

  Back at the motel, I laid Jamie Sue gently on the bed. Kelly Jo had found her room key in her purse on the drive back. I pulled a blanket up over her so she’d sleep more soundly in the chill of the room.

  “She’ll sleep it off, cowboy,” said Kelly Jo.

  “I’m sure she will,” I said.

  Kelly Jo put the room key on the nightstand. I pushed in the button lock on the doorknob and eased the door closed behind me. Kelly Jo put her arm through mine and escorted me to her room. As we passed by my room, I once again scouted the parking lot but saw nothing unusual. It was close to midnight when we reached her door. She unlocked it and let us in.

  With the door closed and blinds shuttered, it was almost pitch–black in the room. Faint shadows still played on the back wall from tree branches swaying in front of the parking lot lights. The muffled sound of gunshots and firecrackers from the festivities down the street echoed off the walls surrounding the motel parking lot.

  My eyes adjusted, and I saw Kelly Jo remove her top, drop her red–fringed skirt on to the floor and walk toward me. I didn’t know if she was wearing pink, like Jamie Sue, but I really didn’t care. As I was shrugging out of my jacket, she reached up and pulled it off my arms. It was heavy because of the gun in my pocket.

  “What’s this?” She had pulled out the gun. In the semi–darkness, against the slats of the shuttered blinds, I could see her silhouette and the gun.

  “What’s it feel like?” I asked as I sat down on the corner of the bed.

  “Well, from my days as a Texas Girl Scout and my evenings on the shooting range, I’d say it’s a Colt .45. From the weight, it feels loaded.” Her delivery was matter–of–fact. Her voice held no surprise as if finding a loaded gun in a guy’s pocket in the middle of a dark hotel room was a normal occurrence. I didn’t think much surprised Kelly Jo.

  I watched as she put the gun down on top of my jacket on a chair by the window. Then she came over, knelt between my knees and put her arms on the tops of my thighs. Her face was in darkness, but I knew she was looking up at me.

  My hands slid along her warm arms and up on to her shoulders. The back of her neck was hot and the scent of her perfume lingered between us. I hooked my thumbs under her bra straps.

  “You got something to tell me, Jake?” Kelly Jo was inquisitive. She deserved to know, but I wasn’t ready to tell her yet. Instead, I slowly pulled down the straps I’d held with my thumbs. The rhythm of her breathing changed.

  “I’m sure I do, but not right now.” As I said it, she reached around behind and released her bra letting it slide down off her long arms and fall to the floor. Every move was magnified in the darkness.

  An hour later I lay on the bed, exhausted but not sleepy. Kelly Jo’s arm was across my chest. She was awake too and raised herself up on her elbow. “You sure you never did any rodeoing?” she asked. There was a smile in her voice.

  “Never did any rodeoing,” I answered.

  “Well cowboy, I think you missed your calling.” She laughed into the pillow.

  I sat up and swung my feet out on to the floor.

  “Where you going, Jake?”

  “Listen. I got to go next door and check on something. I’ll be right back. Don’t go away.” I wanted to check on the money.

  “I ain’t goin’ nowhere,” she said.

  I put on my clothes and slipped on my boots. The room was cool, but the recent exercise had warmed me up. I pulled open the door and in the ambient light that poured in from the parking lot, I saw Kelly Jo’s naked rump peeking out at me from under the covers. Some things should never be hidden, I thought as I stepped out of the room.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I fished in my jeans pocket for my room key, found it, inserted it in the lock, opened the door and stepped into another dark room. As I edged past the doorway, large, hard hands grabbed me from behind and threw me to the floor. A knee with some weight behind it landed in the middle of my back. It knocked the air out of me.

  A foot kicked me in the side of the face. It di
dn’t knock me out, but I saw stars. A light flashed on. I closed my eyes against the harsh burst of light and then squinted to observe the situation. The guy with the heavy knee was binding my hands with duct tape.

  “That duct tape sure is strong.”

  I looked up to see where the voice was coming from. It was Ed Wills sitting on a corner of the bed, staring down at me, smiling.

  “My boys thought they’d found you, just from your description they gave the desk clerk. I stopped by your house and got a picture of you from Vietnam and hurried over here. That did it. She was very forthcoming. Nice girl that desk clerk. Well, at least she was until Bryan got through with her.”

  The goon who’d been holding me down pulled me to my feet. I turned and recognized Bryan. Stretched out on the bed behind Ed was Jamie Sue. On the other side of the room, sitting on the other bed was Tom Piper, my daddy.

  Ed looked back over his shoulder. “Oh, yeah. Sorry about the girl. Sweet thing. I think she was looking for you, lover boy. Seemed that way. She tried to scream when we grabbed her.” He shook his head from side to side. “Pity. Her screaming days are done.”

  I jumped toward Ed, but Bryan held me back. I looked over at my daddy. He looked at me. “Sorry, Johnnie. I screwed up,” was all he said.

  Ed turned to him and yelled, “You are a screw-up, Tom! You’ve always been a screw-up!” He turned to me. “Now, Johnnie boy, I want my money.”

  I stared back at Ed defiantly. “I don’t have it.” He was a piece of trash for killing Jamie Sue. I wasn’t about to give him any satisfaction. Maybe he saw something hard in my look that made him decide.

  Ed stared back at me. “Bob,” was all he said. The silenced gun spat a bullet, and Bob shot my daddy in the head. Blood splattered the bedspread and the wall. He fell sideways across the bed then rolled slowly to the floor, dead and silent.

  My daddy was gone. All my ties with the past were finally and permanently cut. I stood in stunned silence. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen a man killed right in front of me, but none of them had been my daddy.

  “Now you know we’re serious.” Ed’s cold stare bounced between us. There was a knock on the door.

  “Ya’ll call for room service?” cried a muffled female voice on the other side of the door.

  Bryan pulled me off to one side. Ed spoke to the guy who'd kicked me in the head: “Tell her to go away.”

  The guy stepped to the door, opened it a crack, and peered out with one eye. A loud gunshot took out his eye and the back of his head.

  I slammed Bryan back against the wall as the door burst open.

  Bob was the only one holding a gun. He expected the shooter to be standing. He shot high. Kelly Jo was crouching against the door jamb. She took him out easily.

  Ed hadn’t moved from the corner of the bed. Answering a certain kind of justice, Kelly Jo drilled Ed through the heart with his own gun. When she stepped into the room and pointed the gun in Bryan’s direction, I twisted free and fell out of the way. Kelly Jo shot him between the eyes. He slid down the wall and sat, staring at nothing. It was all over in about fifteen seconds.

  “I heard voices,” said Kelly Jo.

  “You did good, Kelly Jo,” I answered.

  The room was a mess of blood and smoke. The smell of cordite filled the room. Kelly Jo tore the tape from my wrists, all the time staring at Jamie Sue’s lifeless body stretched out on the bed.

  “She was looking for me,” I said in explanation. I walked over to my daddy and turned him over. “Kelly Jo. Meet my daddy, a drunk and a gambler, but he loved my mama, and I loved him. He started all this. I guess we finished it.”

  She looked down at my daddy then turned to me. “Most girls meet the parents while they’re still breathing. You sure know how to show a girl a good time, Jake.”

  I turned from my daddy’s body. “You sure shoot straight, Kelly Jo.”

  “Guess all those weekends on the shooting range paid off.” She surveyed the room. “Just takes practice, Jake.” I found my knapsack on the floor beyond the beds. They’d rummaged through it but found nothing. Ed’s satchel lay next to him on the bed. I opened it. Bundles of cash stared back at me, lots of it. I tossed the satchel to Kelly Jo.

  “Hold onto that. It was my daddy’s nest egg. Now it’s ours.”

  Knapsack in hand, I went into the bathroom.

  Kelly Jo turned out the lights, closed and locked the door then followed me into the bathroom. I saw the radiator cover had already been removed. Ed had done a search, but he wouldn’t have asked about the money if he had found it. I reached up behind the wall. I laughed while I scooped out my treasure. She was watching me. I threw the money and accounting ledger into the knapsack and replaced the radiator cover. I looked at her. She still held the gun; she clearly felt safer with it now that she had done her part. In a very short time, I’d brought a whole lot of trouble into her life. I could tell she was weighing that fact.

  She pointed at the knapsack. “This is what it was all about? Money?”

  I stood and lifted up the knapsack in front of her inviting her to drop the gun inside. It was her decision.

  “It’s always about money. Or love. Some people just can’t get enough.”

  She looked back at me for a second and then dropped the gun in the bag.

  Chapter Fifteen

  It was 2:00 a.m. Tucumcari time. I told Kelly Jo we’d have to empty all four hotel rooms: bags, clothes, toiletries — everything. We couldn’t leave a clue behind. An easy getaway meant no connections. The six dead bodies were all that would remain. We could do nothing for them.

  The police would eventually connect Ed and his buddies to the Texas syndicate. Since it was an interstate operation, they should call in the FBI. The only wild cards were my daddy and Jamie Sue. I didn’t know what they’d find out about them in an investigation. I hoped by that time we’d be far enough away in time and space that it wouldn’t matter.

  I helped Kelly Jo wipe down the rooms and gather the baggage. While she loaded up Darlene’s T–Bird, I made a quick visit to the hotel office. There was a light on inside, but no one was behind the desk. I pushed open the door and stood a moment just inside listening. Ed said Bryan had taken care of the girl.

  I stepped forward and rounded the desk. The girl’s body was stretched out on the floor in a pool of blood. Bryan had left a mess. I could do nothing for the girl.

  I searched the desk for our registration slips. We couldn’t leave any record behind: neither our names nor the car registration. It would do no good to run if we could be traced.

  Kelly Jo had fired four shots. We’d expected to hear sirens and see police cars any minute, but none showed. The shoot–em–up party downtown had covered any curiosity about Kelly's gunshots. We were lucky. At 2:00 a.m., the businesses around the hotel were closed. The adjacent hotel rooms were dark, their occupants still out partying.

  I hoped our run of luck would stay with us and not run out, as it had for my daddy. I felt all the more strongly about the one–horse town: Tucumcari was definitely a place to be from, not a place to stay. I found the slips I was looking for and left the office the way I’d found it.

  ***

  We headed west. It was a two and a half hour drive to Albuquerque. On the way, I told Kelly Jo the whole story. I held one thing back: I didn’t tell her my real name. I figured it was better she didn’t know. Not yet. We weren’t far enough away from our troubles.

  In Albuquerque, we found an all–night diner that had a phone booth in the parking lot. Kelly Jo grabbed a pen from the glove compartment. We both agreed we had to let Darlene know the score and had settled on what to tell her.

  The eastern sky was brightening behind the Sandia Mountain range. To the west, the sunrise colored the edge of the Santa Ana Mesa a burnt orange. I squeezed into the booth next to Kelly Jo and listened in to the conversation.

  “Hello. Can I please speak with Darlene?” There was a silence.

  “Hello? Tell her it’s
Kelly Jo.” Again there was a silence, then a voice.

  “Darlene. Listen. Bad news all around. The worst of all is Jamie Sue is dead. Jake and I have taken your car. We gotta get as far away from New Mexico as possible. Do not go back to the motel. We have your stuff in the trunk of the car...

  “Yeah, she’s dead. I'll explain it all later. Keep Brad happy. Do not go back to the motel, you hear? Stay on the ranch for a few days, so I can reach you. Give me your address so I can mail you the keys and the car's location.” Kelly Jo wrote the address on her wrist with the ballpoint pen.

  “Hey Darlene, make something up to tell Brad, okay? And Darlene, you and Brad seem to have a good thing going. Jake and I wish you both the best of luck. Got to go.” She hung up before Darlene could say anything else.

  An hour later, Kelly Jo and I dumped the T–Bird in Santa Fe, across from a bar called The Rouge Cat. We put the top up, locked the car. Now we’d call Darlene and tell her we’d mailed her the keys. She would have to come fetch the car later.

  ***

  Heading north might throw off anyone following our trail. We caught a bus to Denver then, further north, to Cheyenne. The plan was to catch the Route 80 bus across the Rockies through Salt Lake City and on to San Francisco.

  At the bus stop at the top of the Rockies in Rock Springs, Wyoming, I entered a bathroom stall and locked the door behind me. I wiped down the .45 and dropped it in the toilet tank. Their janitorial service deserved a commendation. The tank water was dark blue. The gun was invisible.

  I had wanted to disappear for a long time. In every scenario, I saw myself alone, never with a woman as smart and beautiful and capable as Kelly Jo. I couldn’t know how long we might have together, but it didn’t really matter now. I still held the secrets of Ed’s account book. I figured as long as we kept the secrets, we were safe.

  We all come back to the world, in one way or the other, only to discover it’s not so different from the one we left behind. And then we see that maybe it’s not really the world that’s changed, it’s us. Watch and pray.