“Not right now. You gonna have to come along with me.”
“I told you I didn’t do nothing.”
“That ain’t what Ned said.”
“Who the hell is Ned?”
“Don’t matter to you,” he said and he grabbed her skinny arm and she pulled back but she mostly pleaded I didn’t do nothing. I got a kid in there I told you. He opened the back door of the cruiser and then he twisted her arm behind her and she couldn’t fight it and she went face-first into the backseat, flopping over on her shoulder. He slammed the door before she could get up straight. He looked around the parking lot to see if Ned might be watching or if he might get an appreciative wave from somebody. But there was no one. She pleaded I didn’t fucking do nothing and my baby is over there I done told you I didn’t do nothing go knock on that truck and ask. I didn’t do nothing. He got in and sat down behind the wheel and he turned around and told her to shut up and then he made a U-turn in the parking lot. Please officer I didn’t do nothing. Please.
And that was the part he liked the most. When they started to beg.
He stayed on Highway 48 between Magnolia and McComb. Nothing out there but a pool hall and a liquor store and then later on a bait shop. When she started to cry he told her to stop it. You ain’t going to jail. If you were going to jail you’d be handcuffed already. Then he asked her name.
“Karen,” she said.
“Karen,” he repeated. “I got a cousin named Karen. She ain’t a whore like you, though.”
“Where we going?”
“Now, Karen. I’m the one driving.”
She stopped crying. She stopped talking. She sat with her arm resting on the door, staring out the window as the deputy drove along the two-lane highway. Clean white lines along the sides and reflectors dotting the middle that shined like diamonds in the headlights.
It was an easy one for her to figure out.
He turned off onto another road that was flanked by flatlands and after another mile he turned onto a bumpy, thin road that had been patched so lazily and so often that the radar and the radio on the dashboard rattled as the cruiser thumped along. Barbed-wire fence stretched along each side of the road and he soon slowed down and then he came to a stop and he turned off the headlights. Maben looked around and there was not a visible light in any direction. He reached above the dash and turned down the volume on the radio. The parking lights remained and an orange glow surrounded the cruiser as if to signal the demons from the dark.
“Look here,” he said and he tapped on the rearview mirror.
“I guess you know I’m about to come back there,” he said. Their eyes meeting in the mirror. “Girl like you shouldn’t care. Figure it this way. You’re still getting paid but with a get-out-of-jail-free card instead.” He gave a small laugh and said something to himself she didn’t understand. And then still with this low and brooding laugh he unbuckled his gun belt, the leather cracking as he slid it around his waist.
He held it up and said see here. We’re gonna be friends. He set the gun belt on the front seat and then he opened the door and got out and he untucked his starched khaki shirt from his starched khaki pants. He opened the door slowly. Leaned his head down and told her to move over toward the other side. She scooted away from him and he sat down beside her on the seat. He told her to take off those dirty shoes and she did. He told her to take off her shirt and she did. And he kept on telling her things to do. And she kept on doing them. Keeping her eyes closed when he’d let her.
6
WHEN HE WAS DONE HE GOT OUT OF THE BACKSEAT AND HE dressed standing next to the car. He saw her doing the same and he said don’t worry about that. We ain’t done yet.
Maben pulled her shirt on over her head and ignored him.
He leaned down and with a smirk he said, “You think I’m playing?”
She put on her shorts. And then he reached into the backseat and snatched her by the back of her neck and pinned her down on the seat and she let out a groan at the strength of his grip.
“Take it back off. You hear me?” he said in a whisper with his mouth against her ear. “We ain’t done.” He let go of her and she sat up slowly. Wary of being slapped or worse. She pulled her shirt back off and she said I thought that was what you wanted.
“It was.”
“I did everything you told me. I got a kid back there. I swear to God.”
“If you got a kid back there then you’d damn sure better do what I tell you. What you think would happen if that kid’s momma gets picked up for whoring herself out? Kid left alone in a motel room. Guessing there ain’t no food or nothing in there either. What you think would happen? You’d better keep on listening.”