Black Oil, Red Blood

Chapter 35



Anna Delmont had been calling Joe Bob all morning, but as usual lately, he didn’t return her calls. She’d have absolutely no idea what was going on at all if it weren’t for that nice Chief Scott, who did actually call her without her even having to call him first.

He sounded like a real wreck, which of course, was understandable. The whole town was in turmoil looking for Detective Nash, Chloe Taylor, and her paralegal, and he wanted her to get out there and help.

This, of course, she was happy to do. The problem was, all the neighbor ladies were calling her up and asking for more information than Chief Scott had been willing to give, and since Joe Bob wouldn’t return her calls, she still didn’t really understand what was going on. It was downright inconsiderate of him not to have informed her there was a situation brewing. He knew she hated to appear out of the loop.

She kept calling him, but he refused to pick up the phone. There was nothing for it but to go down to his office and tell him what for. The current situation was intolerable. She just knew that catty Mrs. Dagney was wagging her tongue all over. She could just hear her now. “Judge Delmont don’t trust his wife. He never tells her anything.” The nerve of that woman!

As she drove to the office, she watched the neighborhood waking up. People were out grabbing their papers, watering their lawns, or going for a morning jog, just like that girl in a Stetson hat and jean shorts over there. She couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to go jogging in a Stetson hat. After all, those were mighty fine hats, and it seemed like sweat would ruin the brim. Well, there was no accounting for taste.

When Anna got to the courthouse, it was all but deserted. In fact, the whole square, police station and everything, seemed deserted. Everyone must be out on the hunt.

Anna walked into the courthouse and took the familiar route to Joe Bob’s chambers. She knocked on the door. There was no response, so she went right on in.

“Joe Bob?” she called.

He didn’t answer.

Maybe she could figure out what was going on if she rooted around on his desk. His desk was a fine mess, covered with stacks of paper that were three or four inches high in some spots.

She moved some papers around gingerly, wanting to find information, but also not wanting to destroy the natural order of things. She’d hate for him to find out she’d been all through his stuff.

She picked up a particularly large stack of paper and noticed something brightly colored underneath. A photograph.

No, a set of photographs.

She’d recognize Joe Bob’s naked behind just about anywhere. And who was that in bed with him? All that blonde hair and the size of those breasts were unnatural. Ain’t nobody in the world should have breasts that big, except for maybe Dolly Parton. They looked like way more than a handful for Joe Bob.

Anna began to shake. How could he? After all these years! After everything she’d done for him! What would Mrs. Dagney say when she found out?

Anna felt nauseated and faint. She swayed and gripped the edge of the desk for support. There was a letter opener lying on the edge of the desk. A fit of rage tore through her, and with renewed energy, she grabbed the letter opener and brandished it above her head. Then, in swoops of pure, unadulterated grief and anger, she brought it down over and over again, driving the point into the offending images beneath her.

The paper ripped and tore satisfactorily as her steel point drove through it four, five, ten times. She would gouge out the very image of this woman’s breasts and her husband’s naked behind. No longer would this unholy amalgamation of flesh on flesh remain joined in frozen union on coated glossy card stock, a moment captured on film and available for the whole world to see. She would obliterate the image. She would obliterate the event.

Judge Delmont appeared in the doorway.

“Anna! What in tarnation are you doing to my desk?”

Anna, blinded with rage and hardly aware of what she was doing, screamed in tortured fury and rushed toward Joe Bob, steel tip upraised.

Joe Bob seemed like a thin, cardboard excuse for a man. Not the passionate man of flesh and blood she had admired, loved, and married. The man who stood before her was merely a shell of the man she’d been living with all these years. She didn’t know who this man was.

She knew he had his faults, but she never in a million years dreamed that he would have betrayed her trust like this. The sanctity of their marriage, the highest holy sacrament of the church, was destroyed! She had taken a lot from Joe Bob lying down, but not this. This was too serious. This was not to be tolerated.

Her adrenaline surged. She plunged the letter opener into his heart. It pierced easily. She pulled it out and plunged again. She felt strong and furious. The steel seemed to simply melt into his body with no resistance—it was just like stabbing air. Just like going through paper. It meant nothing.

It was so easy, she stabbed again. And again. And again.

Joe Bob sank to the floor, his eyes wide with astonishment and pain.

Anna lifted her letter opener for one last plunge. She knew exactly where to aim. Her hands, armed with steel, swooped down and plunged into Joe Bob’s crotch. It was a clean stab, straight down, and the letter opener lodged in the floor and stuck, skewering him in death through the part he had enjoyed most in life.

And then, Anna’s fury subsided.

She looked at Joe Bob’s limp and bloody body on the ground and felt nothing. Perhaps the feelings would come later.

It struck her that she was going to need a good lawyer.

That nice Dick Richardson was a good lawyer.

And now she was single, just like he was. It occurred to her that it wouldn’t be in her best interests to arrange dinner for him with Widow Schumacher after all.