“You say someone called a few days ago for Gary?”
She nodded, took another sip. “Did you want anything?”
I thought she meant a beer, and shook my head no, I was good.
“No, I mean, why’d you come here?”
“Oh,” I said. “Well, I’d heard, one of the guys was saying, that there was this girl from the Kickstart, that Gary was always wondering what happened to her, and if we ever heard anything, we should give him a shout, or get in touch with you, and you could pass it on.”
“This about that cunt?” Mrs. Merker said. “Candy?”
I tried to keep the surprise off my face. “Actually, yeah, I think so,” I said.
“That’s what that other boy called about,” she said. “He called about that cunt too.”
“What did he say?” I asked.
“Said to tell Gary he thought he knew where she was.”
“No kidding?” I said. “Where was that?”
“Shit,” said Mrs. Merker. “I wrote it down somewhere.” She looked about the room. “I think I wrote it on a piece of newspaper.”
Terrific.
Of course, I had a pretty good hunch what this caller had said. But if the answer was, indeed, Oakwood, it would mean that things were starting to fall together.
Mrs. Merker put beer and crackers on top of a newspaper pile and began wandering the living room, peering at the white edges of various newspaper stacks. “I scribbled it down someplace, so I could tell Gary when he called. He calls me every couple of days. He don’t get home much, but he cares about his mother. I hope you call your mother regular.”
I smiled sadly to myself. “I would if I could,” I said. “But I’m in touch with my dad more these days.”
Mrs. Merker scoffed at that. “Gary’s fucking father, I hope the son of a bitch is dead someplace and has been for a long time. He was a no-good cocksucking bast—Hang on, here it is, I think.” She pushed her glasses higher up on her nose. “Yeah, this friend phoned and said to tell Gary that cunt was in Oakwood.”
“Oh yeah,” I said.
“I guess he lives down that way, saw her picture in the paper, remembered Gary was looking for her.”
“Well, that’s great,” I said. “Guess I made this trip here for nothing. I was going to pass on the same information.”
“No harm done,” she said, taking a seat on the small clear spot on the couch. She pointed to the television. “That crickets they’re eating?”
I looked. “Maybe.” She cackled. I asked, “So what’s Gary been looking for Candace for, anyway? He kind of got a thing for her?”
She let out a laugh. “Ha! I don’t think he’ll be dipping his dick in that *!”
“Then why does he want to find her?”
“Well, if some bitch stole something from you, wouldn’t you want it back?” She looked at me like I was some sort of an idiot.
“So that’s why he wants to find her?” I said. “Because she stole something? Not because, I don’t know, for revenge?”
“Revenge?” The old woman cocked her head at an odd angle. “I suppose. If you stole something from me, I guess I’d want revenge. That what you gettin’ at?”
“I was just thinking back to that time. When Gary’s three friends got shot.”
“Oh, that,” she said, and waved dismissively. “He got over that. Only real friend Gary’s ever had is that retard Leo.” She turned her attention to the TV, where contestants were working up the nerve to swallow tiny wiggling things. “For fifty thousand dollars, I’d put anything in my mouth,” she said, and laughed.
She barely noticed as I slipped out the front door and walked down the sidewalk to Cherry’s truck. I felt, in some small measure, slightly relieved about what I’d learned.
“Well?” Cherry said as I pulled the door shut.
“Someone, some old friend of Merker’s, called his mom, told her to tell her son that this woman he’d been looking for, that her picture had turned up in the newspaper in Oakwood. So he knew where she was, where to look for her. And, I’m just guessing here, he ran into Martin Benson by mistake, and ended up killing him, maybe trying to get some info out of him about Trixie, or Candace, or whoever the hell she really is.”
Cherry waved his hand impatiently. “I don’t mean that shit,” he said. “Is the hole still in the wall?”
I paused. “Yes,” I said.
Cherry banged his fist on the steering wheel and let out a whoop. “Fucking awesome,” he said.
23