Blood Games

    A sick look on his face, he nodded. ‘They made me. I was only just a kid, but they made me go along. I didn’t hurt nobody. But I was there. It was… just the awfulest thing. Seein’ what they done. ’N how Hank carried on with the gals. How he cut ’em up ’n how he… done stuff.’

    Cut ’ em up. Done stuff.

    Helen. Oh, Helen.

    Abilene, suddenly feeling trapped and suffocated by the hot water, shoved herself up. She sat on the granite ledge and scooted backward, lifting her legs from the heat.

    Vivian looked at her, then at Jim. ‘You weren’t with Hank last night, were you? When he killed our friend?’

    ‘No! Honest! He shut me up in the shed out back. After he beat on me. I begged him not to do nothin’, but he just laughed ’n tossed me in the shed ’n locked it up. I guess he knowed I’d try ’n interfere. But I couldn’t get outa there. Then he come back just before sun-up, and told me what he done. It just made me plain sick.’

    ‘What did he say?’ Cora asked.

    Vivian gave her a frantic look.

    I don’t want to hear this! Abilene thought. Jesus, no.

    ‘He told me all how he done her, but…’ Jim glanced at Vivian, at Abilene. He shook his head.

    ‘Tell us,’ Cora said.

    ‘I’m gonna go see about Finley,’ Abilene said.

    ‘Don’t you want to know?’

    Scowling at Cora, she shook her head. She started to stand up. ‘I’m not sure. And besides… if we’re gonna hear something like that, Finley should be with us.’

    ‘You’re right,’ Vivian said.

    ‘I want to make sure she’s okay,’ Abilene explained. She took a step away from the pool, then looked back, wondering whether her two friends would be safe, left alone with Jim. His hands were free. What if he went for the shotgun?

    ‘Go ahead,’ Cora told her. ‘We’ll be fine.’

    ‘I ain’t gonna do nothin’,’ Jim said.

    Abilene started away. Stopping beside the drainage channel where she’d washed the blood off her legs, she picked up her socks. She stepped into her moccasins, then walked alongside Finley’s trail of wet dribbles and shoeprints. As she stopped at the stairway leading down from the rear porch, she looked back and saw Cora boost herself out of the pool.

    Even from here, she could see Cora’s nipples through the thin wet fabric of her tank top.

    Jim’s sure getting an eyeful, she thought.

    Cora’s legs came out of the water, Abilene’s blouse knotted around her left ankle.

    Which is just where it had been when she’d chased down Jim and wrestled with him on the ground. God, she’d been all over him.

    She felt a blush heat her skin.

    No wonder the kid wants to stay.

    The first time he laid eyes on us, all of us were naked. Except Helen.

    Jim must figure he’s died and gone to heaven.

    Maybe he’s not interested in that kind of thing.

    Could be gay, she supposed.

    Could be he’s very interested, secretly thrilled by the whole thing, but smart enough to act oblivious to it all.

    She watched Vivian wade across the pool and stop at Cora’s feet. With her back to Jim. Cora, braced up on her elbows, had no view of him either.

    The kid stayed put.

    Vivian tossed Abilene’s blouse aside.

    She’s unwrapping the ankle.

    By the time the belts were off and Vivian was lifting away the makeshift splints, Abilene decided that Jim had no intention of jumping her friends.

    She stepped around the porch stairs, turned the corner of the lodge, and began to climb the steep pavement toward the rear end of the Wagoneer.

    No sign of Finley.

    Not until she’d trudged higher and she spotted her friend through the windows, sitting on the hood.

    When she came up beside the car, Finley said, ‘Can’t a gal have any privacy around here?’

    ‘Nope.’ Abilene dropped her socks to the driveway, then hopped up and sat on the hood.

    Finley’s legs dangled over the front, her feet on the bumper. Her hand was wrapped around the neck of a tequila bottle. She glanced at Abilene, then hoisted the bottle and took a drink.

    ‘I wanted to make sure you’re all right.’

    ‘What’s that, your goal in life?’

    ‘Hey.’

    ‘I’m fine. Just fine. Why don’t you go back to the pool before Jim kills our trusting pals?’

    ‘They can take care of themselves.’

    ‘And I can’t, huh?’ She gulped some more tequila.

    ‘Save some for the fishes, huh?’

    ‘If I wanta have a drink, it’s my business.’

    ‘It’s my business if you hog the whole damn bottle. Gimme.’ Finley looked at her, smirked, let out a quick laugh, and handed it over.

    Abilene took a few swallows. She shuddered. She took a deep breath and gave back the bottle. ‘It’s better with mixers.’

    ‘Yeah. I just didn’t feel like wasting time with ’em.’

    ‘You don’t really think Jim’s the killer, do you?’

    Finley shrugged. ‘Hell, I don’t know. I guess not. That shit about his brother’s pretty hard to buy, but… I guess I believe him. Sort of.’ She took a drink and passed the bottle to Abilene. ‘I guess if I really thought Jim was the bastard that murdered Helen, I would’ve gone ahead and killed him by now. But the kid pisses me off.’

    ‘So I gather.’

    ‘It’s mostly his fault, even if his brother is the guy who actually did it.’