How did Randy find us? It wasn’t possible.
“Where is she?” Both of Randy’s fists were balled up and ready to rumble.
“Who?” I said. I hated how high my voice sounded. I tried and failed to pull it into a lower register. “It’s just me here.”
“Bullshit! The old man in the office said there was a tall boy and a skinny girl in here.” Randy strode to the bathroom and threw the door open.
A plausible explanation popped into my head.
“All right, I had Ashley Heussner in here,” I said. I sat up slowly so as not to attract another body throw. “But she took off with some meth dealer, I guess.” I tried to put on a companionably masculine Women, huh? face, but it probably looked more like constipation.
“Bullshit. Where’s Petty?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Don’t you lie to me, boy.”
“I put her on a bus to Detroit.”
Randy sneered at me then walked over to the dresser and began opening and closing drawers. I knew it was just a matter of time before he bent over and looked under the bed. He pulled a pair of panties out of Petty’s drawer. “These yours?”
“I told you. Ashley was here. She left all her stuff.”
I hoped Petty couldn’t get at her gun. I wasn’t sure what she’d do, cornered like this so close to her goal.
Randy paced, pushing his cowboy hat back on his head. Finally he sat on the couch, and I willed him not to look down.
“Tell me where she is, and everything will be all right,” Randy said, obviously switching gears to Good Cop. “Dooley can get the charges against you dismissed. He seriously can do it. Tell me where Petty is. I’m doing you a favor, because you don’t know what you’re dealing with here.”
He was right about that. I couldn’t speak, because I was afraid I was going to puke.
Randy’s eyes narrowed. “Listen,” he said. “It’s like I told you the other day. Petty is very disturbed.”
“Do you expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t give a shit if you do. I’m telling you as a courtesy.”
“Get out of my room,” I said.
Randy walked to the edge of the bed and bent down, his face within an inch of mine. He drew a very large pistol out of his jacket pocket. “Or you’ll what? Call the cops? Go ahead.” He smiled.
I tried not to blink. I held Randy’s stare until I couldn’t anymore.
“That’s what I thought,” Randy said. He sat back on the couch and put his gun back in his pocket.
I was sure he’d only pulled it out to make me aware of its presence.
“We can help each other out here,” Randy said. “And we can help Petty in the process. See, Dooley is working on drawing up commitment papers right now. She needs to be in a mental hospital, and I’m going to see that she gets there.”
“Is that a joke?” I said. “You can’t do that.”
“Watch me. I got the law on my side. You got shit.”
My voice shook. “I don’t know why Petty’s dad picked a douche like you to—-”
“Douche? I’m a respected man in Niobe County. I’m an Elk and a Lion. I’m a great guy. Everybody knows it. And you’re nothing, a thief and a liar. A grocery boy. You’re a fugitive, and so is she.”
I said nothing.
“Why do you think her dad kept her locked up all those years, huh? Did you ever stop to think about it?”
I couldn’t help myself. “Because her dad was crazy.”
“Because he was crazy?” Randy said, “Or is she?”
This was a twist. She was odd, no question. But crazy?
“She almost got put in the mental ward after she tried to kill Justin Pencey at the dump.”
“She didn’t try to kill him,” I said. “She was defending herself. Justin and those kids ambushed her.”
“Right,” Randy said. “That’s the official story, but nobody attacked her. Those kids went out there to dump something, and for no reason at all she attacked them. Put Justin in the hospital, if you’ll recall. Dooley and Charlie concocted that story, and Charlie had to pay those kids and their parents off to go along with it.”
That couldn’t be true . . . could it? I knew what kind of an asshole Justin Pencey was. He’d brag about having sex with girls after they passed out from drinking too much. He tormented smaller boys in the school locker room. I’d always figured he’d deserved the ass--kicking that he’d received from Petty, that he’d provoked her or even snuck up on her in her little dump guard shack. But she was a volatile person with some weird ideas. Who knew what was really true?
“You’re so full of shit,” I said, but my confidence was wavering. Maybe Randy knew Petty was in the room, and he was saying all these things to provoke her. I hoped she wouldn’t rise to the bait—-if that’s what it was.