Chapter 9

Julie had to rap on the door twice before she got an answer. Finally, Pete called, "Yeah?" He sounded wary.

"May I come in?" Julie called through the door. It sounded stupid in her own ears, but she couldn't think of anything else to say. Then she added, "Max wants me to get him something."

"All right, come on." He still sounded a bit wary. Julie opened the door and walked into the bedroom. Pete wasn't in the bed, as she had expected, though Connie was there. She had the covers pulled up to her chin, as though she were embarrassed at being caught in the bedroom with a man. Pete was standing in the corner farthest from the bed, and he had his shotgun in his hands, trained at the door.

"Did you think I was going to attack you with my bare hands?" Julie asked.

"Get whatever you came in for," Pete ordered. "And never mind the shit."

Julie walked to the closet and took out a pair of Jim's slacks and a sport shirt she had bought for him last Christmas. It was a particularly beautiful shirt, and he hadn't worn it more than three times. She took a pair of shoes, too, brown and white saddle oxfords, and then walked to the dresser and took out some socks and underwear. She held the socks against the shirt to make sure they were a good match.

"Hurry up," Pete said with annoyance. Julie shoved the dresser drawer closed and headed for the door. "Just a minute," Pete said. Julie turned back to him, "You and Max been fucking?"

"I--"

"Goddamn him," Pete said. "I thought we had it all settled who belongs to who."

"He didn't think you'd mind," Julie said softly. "Since you were in here with Connie."

"I'll talk to him later," Pete said. "Go on, Get out of here,"

Later they buried Butch. Max insisted that Sally and Connie do it. He made them drag the big hulk outside and down the stoop, and then pull it around to the back of the barn, where the grave wouldn't be visible to someone who happened to drive into the yard. It was dark, of course, and they stumbled several times getting there. Max didn't offer any help, and he wouldn't let Julie help either. When they were there, he took them around to the inside of the barn and had them get some shovels. Digging the grave was slow work for the two women, and they slowed down even more as they went along. They complained that their hands were sore. Max said that was too bad, and keep digging. Pete was in the house with Jim, seeing that he didn't get loose. Max had gotten a promise from Pete that he wouldn't kill Jim unless Jim got free. Still, Julie was anxious. She would have preferred being inside with them to being out here. But Max had insisted.

"You may not have had anything to do with this," he said. "But it'll do you good to see the end of it anyway. I don't want you getting smartass later on." Watching her sister and her sister's friend bury the man they had killed would be good for her, he believed. Julie had to admit that it was a grisly experience. But not as grisly as it had been seeing him lie there on the kitchen floor all the time.

It was after midnight when they finally got him into the grave, and then they had to cover him up. Max sat against the back of the barn with Julie next to him, stroking one of her thighs idly, while the other two women worked doggedly, shoveling heaps of dirt back into the deep grave. They seemed to be in a hurry until they had enough dirt inside to cover the body. Then they slowed.

When they patted the last shovelful on top of the grave, Max stood. Julie came up beside him. "All right, he said. "Let's put our tools away, girls. Then you can go inside and cook us something. As soon as you get cleaned up."

When the shovels were both hung back in place, the damp smell of the earth still clinging to them, Max herded the girls back to the house, the rifle held at a lazy ready position. A car went by on the road, and the women all looked at it longingly, thinking of the people who were inside, going from somewhere to somewhere else, with nothing more to worry about than getting there on time. Max laughed.

"Why don't you yell?" he asked. "Maybe they'll hear you." It was just a joke, of course. The occupants of the car wouldn't be able to hear anything from this distance other than a shot. And even that would probably be ignored. The headlights flashed by, and then the tail lights winked between the fence posts until they disappeared. Max prodded Sally with the rifle. They started toward the house again.

When they were right in front of the stoop Connie stopped suddenly and fell to her knees. She began to wretch, her little body shaking all over with the convulsions. The vomit spewed, hot and steaming, to the ground. Max laughed again. "Getting to you, cunt? Too bad. You should have thought of that before you shot him." Sally looked as though she were only holding on by the skin of her teeth. Julie felt a new surge of contempt for them both. The burial hadn't been a pleasant experience, but she couldn't see that it was worth all this fuss.

Connie stood, and in the light from the window Julie noticed that some of the vomit had splattered on the girl's breasts and belly and thighs. It was a warm night, and Max had made them all come out in the nude.

The inside of the house seemed almost cheerful after the ghoulish scene outside. Max shoved Connie and Sally toward the bathroom, then told Julie to go inside with them. "You could use a little cleaning up too," he said. "We like to keep our little whores smelling dainty, you know."

When they were inside the bathroom with the door shut, Connie went straight to the toilet and knelt down to try to vomit some more. She couldn't manage to do it, and finally she stood up. Her face was white and drained looking, and her features looked pinched.

Sally turned on the water in the tub and held her hand under the stream, waiting for it to warm up. There was a gooseneck shower fixture hooked up to the tap, and when the water was adjusted to her taste, she pulled up on the cutoff, sending the water up through the shower pipe.

"Come on," she said to Connie. "Come on, honey. You'll feel better after you get cleaned up a little." Connie allowed herself to be led to the tub, and stepped over the high side of it. She stood on the rubber mat, letting the steamy water wash over her. "Now you wash," Sally said, as though she were talking to a child. She handed a wash cloth and a bar of soap to the girl. Connie looked at the two articles blankly for a moment, as though she couldn't figure out what they were for, then she smiled meekly and held them under the spray to wet them. Sally pulled the shower curtain around the tub. Then she went to the toilet, closed it, and sat on the lid. She looked at the wall, pointedly ignoring Julie.

"You don't have to pretend I'm not here," Julie said. "I'm not really your enemy, you know."

"As far as I'm concerned you are."

"Because I saved you from doing something stupid?"

"Let's not go into that again."

"You're still alive, you know. That's because I didn't let you go through with that idiotic notion you had. I warned Max to keep you from getting killed."

"You warned Max to keep yourself from getting killed."

"You're damned right I did. My family and I come first in my book. And I'll do whatever I have to do in order to keep the three of us alive."

"You know, Sis, I really admired you when you did what you did with Pete to keep his mind off killing Jim. I thought, there goes someone who's willing and able to make any sacrifice for the good of those she loves. But now I don't think that's the case at all. I don't think it was all that much sacrifice for you. I think you just don't care much about what you do. You don't mind them putting their hands on you." She shuddered, as though the thought of it were bad enough in itself to make her ill.

"I wouldn't be so goddamn virtuous sounding if I were you, young lady. I heard the whooping good time you were having in there with Max, you know. You didn't sound to me like you were too horrified by what he was doing to you."

Sally flushed deeply. "Sure, it got to me. It would get to any normal woman, wouldn't it? That doesn't mean I didn't mind it. I don't go looking for it, you know. I'm not the one who grabbed Pete and practically raped him."

"I did what had to be done. Pete had just lost a big showdown against Max. His ego was smarting, and he needed something to salve it. Otherwise he might have gotten mean again. There's just one way to keep his mind off killing, and that's to keep it on the thing he likes better than killing."