The Killing Moon: A Novel

Heavey was stewing and stammering now. "I never said it was a witch. I said she looked like a witch."

Kids are a sex-change operation. Turn a man right into a woman.

"Maybe," Heavey went on, "what I need to do is call the state police."

Bucky grinned again, harder this time, curling it a bit. Relishing Heavey's attempt at moxie. "See, it don't work like that, Walt. We don't answer to the staties, they're not our bosses. Completely different thing. I bet they couldn't even find Black Falls on a map." Bucky straightened, using the step-up height advantage of the front counter. "But you go ahead and call them if you want, with your complaints about gunshots and witches trying to steal your kids—"

"Complaints?" Heavey looked around like he was on a hidden camera. "Shoe prints in my yard? Gunfire in the woods? These aren't complaints. These are reports."

Eddie wandered out of the back hallway behind Bucky, chewing on an apple. "What's up?"

Eddie was two inches taller and two years older than his brother, but it was Bucky who was in charge, and had been ever since they were kids. Eddie's hair was straw blond to Bucky's dirty brown, but facially, especially in the tight eyes, there was no mistaking the Pail brand. Eddie ate green apples one after another like a horse, in big, choking bites—core, seeds, stem, and all.

Eddie would never have bothered showing his face out here just to help. He knew something about this. Bucky said, "Walt here thinks he heard something in the Borderlands last night."

"Not 'thinks,'" said Heavey. "It was a gunshot. The crack of a handgun. I heard it carry."

Chock-hunk. Eddie said to Bucky, his mouth full, "That was Maddox."

Just hearing the name changed the weather in Bucky's head from overcast to threatening. "What are you talking about?"

"Hit a deer last night." Eddie examined the apple like it was a kill. Chock-hunk. Bucky hated watching his brother eat. "Had to put it down in the middle of the road."

Bucky also hated these rare occasions when Eddie knew something Bucky did not. "What road?"

"Edge Road. Out by the falls."

Heavey was shaking his head. "I heard it in the woods behind my house."

"Sound carries," said Bucky. "You said so yourself. You live on Edge."

"At the other end from the falls. The shot I heard came from the woods."

Clown Man wasn't going to budge. Why was Bucky wasting his time with this anyway? "Okay then, Walt. We'll be sure and follow up on it."

"How so?"

Bucky stopped. He cocked his head at him. "What's that, Walt?"

Heavey backed down, just a little. Just enough. "I asked how so?"

Bucky said, referring to brother Eddie, "Patrolman Pail here will swing by Edge Road after the parade."

Eddie took another apple bite, chock-hunk. "No, I won't."

Bucky said, "Enjoy the parade, Walt."

Heavey turned, livid, and pushed out through the screen door to the front porch, starting away. Bucky imagined him doing so in big, floppy clown shoes.

"Heavey on the rag again?" said Eddie.

Bucky looked at him chewing. "Most people don't eat the stem, you know. They leave that last little bit."

"Gives me something to chew on," he said, as Bucky started past him down the back hall. "Hey. I don't actually have to go out there to Heavey's, do I?"

Bucky's focus was on Maddox now. "I don't give a fuck what you do."

He banged out the rear door, slowing at the top of the back steps, finding the others gathered around Maddox's patrol car in the center of the dirt lot.

Without looking, Bucky was aware of Maddox standing apart from them, and also aware that Maddox was aware of him. A reverse magnetism had developed between them.

"What's this, now?" said Bucky, coming down off the steps.

Mort Lees, who was third in seniority after Bucky and Eddie, straightened near the rear left passenger door. He and Eddie had run around together all through high school, Mort being the tougher of the two. "Buck, check this out. Deer rammed Maddox's unit."

Bucky went around the patrol car. The door was pushed in good, but he didn't reach out and feel it like the rest. He wouldn't give Maddox the satisfaction.

He looked over at the part-time rookie, and just by the way Maddox was standing thought he seemed more confident. Like Maddox was becoming one of the boys. Bucky felt camaraderie blooming here.

He would not ask to hear Maddox's thrilling deer story. He didn't fall in love so easy. Instead he focused on the trunk of the spare patrol car behind Maddox, which was open. "What do you think you're doing?"

Maddox had a box of road flares in his hands. "Moving my stuff into the extra car."

Bucky shook his head nice and slow. "For emergencies only."

Maddox stared like he didn't understand. "Mort took it when his windshield glass got that thread crack in the corner."

"See, that's a safety issue there. Windshield. Yours is just bodywork, cosmetic. Bang out that dent if you want, but do it on your own time."