Levon had never gone into detail about their history. I knew it had been Pratt’s niece Levon was dating when he’d been beaten by a crowd and kicked to the curb. Did Pratt still hold that against him? The Instagram video had raised many questions in my mind. The person doing the actual sucking of course had been edited out, although it looked from the hands that it was a man. Even if it wasn’t Pratt, how did he get ahold of it? These Cornucopians worked in such strange ways, any answer could have been right.
Dingo cringed back from the laptop screen with an exaggerated look of screwed-up disgust on his face. He even held a hand in front of it, peeking through his fingers when necessary.
“Here’s the important part about the dinosaur theater,” I said, wanting to puke myself.
Pratt’s stupid canned voice said, “Mrs. Kohlmeyer presents Dinosaur Reader’s Theater.”
Dingo hit the pause button with a huge sigh of relief. “Oh, that’s just horrifying. Mrs. Kohlmeyer. Mrs. Kohlmeyer…” He wrote the name down and doodled around it. His revolted expression was replaced by a thoughtful one as he stared at a wall. “That does sound fucking familiar…”
Not wanting to disturb his thoughts, I wandered onto the deck. Whenever the sun went behind a dark raincloud bank like that, it was like Moses parting the Red Sea out there. Glorious flames licked the buttes as dramatic shadows raced across the desert. It gave the effect of pillars of vibrant, mystical light spouting from the earth. I loved that house and town, and I despised Pratt for ruining my serenity.
It was Levon he wanted. What was he going to do? Exposing Pratt to the town for who he was would be the best solution. But I had a feeling that when stalwart fundamentalist polygamists comprise half the town, this might not matter to them.
Pratt had wrought nothing but violence and abuse upon Levon. He was behind the poisoning of Lazarus and the attempt at destroying The Chop House. He’d smeared both Levon and Deloy’s name in print, and now had literally exposed Levon on social media.
I needed to know.
“What else does Pratt hold over you?” I asked softly. “Please tell me, Levon. I need to try and understand his motivation. Why does he hate you so much?”
Levon’s hand that held his phone fell to his side. He exhaled in defeat. “I don’t think it’s so much hate, Oaklyn.”
“Not hate? Then what—”
“It’s a strange, twisted, depraved form of lust. Right before I moved down here, he made an appointment with me. Only he used a different name, of course, and wanted to meet at a hotel. I went, not paying much attention. I mean, he’s the uncle of the girl I dated. Who would remember him fifteen years later? He wasn’t around Cornucopia much back then, having to be the mayor out here for a hundred thousand years.”
“So you met him in a hotel,” I prompted.
“Right. Thus the Instagram video.”
“Oh.” I shuddered. “Was he a frequent visitor to Liberty Temple?”
“I looked back in our records. The same fake name had visited Deloy several times. Apparently the younger, the better. That’s not uncommon in that business. Well, he claims to have a video—”
“That’s all right. You don’t need to tell me.”
“No. I want to. I want you to understand what’s going on. The video of Deloy is the last thing he’s holding over my head. That is, if my business license actually comes through—I haven’t seen it yet. The Deloy video is much worse. His dental school will be completely destroyed. Nobody wants a guy who has sucked a thousand dicks to put his fingers in their mouth.”
“Well, does the alleged video actually show—”
“It doesn’t matter, Oaklyn!”
Levon had never shouted at me before, and I literally backed away a couple of steps. I knew what a tough customer he could be. He had to be, to get where he was, starting from the gutter. I was justifiably afraid, and he probably sensed it.
He put his hands up in surrender and took on a much softer tone. “It doesn’t matter what the video is of. Cocksucking, butt-fucking, barebacking, strap-ons, ball gags, I don’t care. Whatever it is, and I don’t doubt its existence, it will be the downfall of Deloy.”
I nodded quickly. “I agree. But do you deal with terrorists?”
His soft tone evaporated. “What’s my option, Oaklyn? He’s literally got Deloy by the balls. From the looks of the video he either drugged him or beat him in some way. I can’t risk storming the Bastille and having him—”
I was glad when Dingo cut off Levon. “I got it!” He stood at the sliding glass door waving us inside. We came so eagerly we practically stomped on each other’s feet.
Dingo didn’t force us to look at the video he’d paused on Pratt’s bloated, shiny face. “Listen! Mrs. Kohlmeyer was a teacher at the Avalanche Elementary School where I lived for a couple of years. Your sister Mahalia used to bring me food out there.”
“So he’s out there?” Levon asked.