This is the fifth installment of Devils Walk Through
Galveston,
my first novel. The prologue, Chapter 1 (which introduced the
crime and criminal), Chapter 2 (which introduced the police officers) and
Chapter 3 (the seduction of the initial victim) were
posted earlier. In this chapter, we follow the fleeing killer.
I hope you enjoy it. Please read it and share. Go to Amazon and get the book for the rest.
4. John and Judas on the rails, mid-morning
They
walked among the iron snakes in the mid-morning mist. Walked among the vipers resting between the
ties. Containers and coal and cotton
bales. Looking for an empty boxcar. Watching for Railroad Bulls. Not talking about this morning. Walking quick to put her house behind
them. Explosions of metal as the
couplings linked. Explosions of air as
the diesels roared. They find a boxcar half
filled with wooden crates of bolts slowly starting its roll south. Climbed in and settled with their backs to the
wall, out of the way of the door slat, lock-blade knife resting on the floor
between them.
John
first, “What happened last night?”
Judas
then, “You mean why you picked up that girl in a bar with other folks
watching?”
“No,
after.”
“You
were there. What’d you do? You woke up with her.”
“Don’t
fuck with me, Judas. You were there.”
“How
do you know? You see me last night?”
“Don’t
fuck with me.”
“I’m
not fucking with you. I’m about to tell
you you fucked up. Cause you fucked
up. You picked up a divorced girl at a
bar in her home town that has all of forty thousand people, if you count out
into the woods a ways. You notice she
didn’t have to pay for her drink? You
notice the bartender didn’t talk to her and she didn’t care? You notice the three other girls looking over
at her when you danced with her and they sat? You notice any of that, because
they did. Man no one knows walks into a
bar, picks up a local girl, who doesn’t show up to work the next morning. How long you think it’s going to take for
someone to find her? You think she has a
friend at work who’ll notice she’s gone?
Think her boss won’t call to see where she is? Think no one will come over and knock on the
door after calling her phone? Think no
one else has a key? Think it’ll take
past noon? I don’t. Man walks into a bar and leaves with a local
girl in her car. He has no car. Has to get out of town one of four ways:
afoot through 100 miles of totally flat cotton patch, in a stolen car, which
they will check for, on a bus, which they will check for, or on the rails. How many rail lines leave this town? Enough.
You’re lucky there. But, I
guarantee that there will be an APB to points in each direction by the end of
the day at each rail stop. So, let’s not
get off in Greenwood or any other small town or wait to get to the big yards
where there will be plenty of bulls looking for us.”
John
looking down at the wood slats between his feet. Quietly said, “Let me settle my mind. Let me think this through. “
The
click-clack of the wheels over the ties settled John. The knife at his side let
him rest.
§§
John
thought of the girl in the red negligee.
He’d forgotten her name. Always
forgot their names and faces. He walked
his way back through the night. He
remembered flirtation on the way to her car.
He didn’t remember what he said.
He remembered his hand resting gently on her ass as she unlocked the
passenger door and paused waiting for him to push gently into her and let his
chest rest on her back, his hips on her ass.
She reached up and back and rubbed his neck for a second, then turned
and scooted to her side of the car and he got in. He rested his left hand on her thigh as she
drove slowly through town. He was
inching it up as she turned into the driveway only a couple blocks from the
high school, less than a mile from the club.
She pulled deep into the driveway she shared with the front of the house
and the next door neighbor, parked under the little piece of eave. Got out to the crunch of gravel on dirt and a
key in the side door. Got out to bats
circling above the dead tree in the back yard.
Cats or rats or possum rustling in the bamboo stand next to the chain
link fence.
He
followed her in silently. She had to
look back to see he was coming. She
didn’t hear the click of the kitchen door shutting. He didn’t let her get the wine out of the
cabinet. Reached a hand up the back of
her thigh as she got on her toes. She
braced her hands on the counter. Let out
a soft moan. He inched his hand up her
jeans, began to rub between her legs and ran his other hand to the front to
undo the top button. Her: “Oh,
John. God, you make me wet.”
Judas,
now, “You told her your fucking name?”
“What
does it matter? Who could she tell?”
“You
tell me. When did you say it? While you were dancing? You sure she didn’t text someone on the way
to the car?”
“She
didn’t.”
“How
do you know she didn’t text someone or email a friend on the way to the
bathroom?”
“I
don’t think she went to the bathroom.”
“Think,
John. I can’t believe you told her your
name. Did you give her the whole thing
or just the first?”
“I’m
thinking. Let me relax a minute.”
John
remembered her saying, “Let’s lay down.”
She’d turned halfway, and reached back to grab his belt. Pulled him out of the little kitchen, around
through the edge of the living room and into the bedroom. Kept the light off. The flood light from next door lit the room.
Judas: “I forgot about the neighbor’s flood
light. Did you see anyone stir next door
as the car pulled in?”
John: “I didn’t see anything.”
“Because
you didn’t look? Or because there was no
one moving?”
“No
one moving. And I had my cap pulled
low.”
“She’d
stood at the edge of the bed, facing away, and pulled that red negligee over
her head. Exposing milky white skin and narrow
waist. Just a touch of a roll above her
waist band. All the better for it. Skin like silk as John reached a hand up and
traced the outline of her spine with his fingertips. Stopped at her bra and undid the clasp in one
motion with one hand. He moved the other
around her neck and put his index finger to her lips. She sucked lightly and bit down. John took off his shirt and felt the breeze
through the screen. Unbuttoned her jeans
standing behind and slipped them down.
She leaned over the bed and let her bra fall onto the cover. Let her breasts hang as John slid her panties
down around her ankles. She didn’t raise
her feet. John kneeled and lifted her
feet one at a time. Leaned in and she
began to moan again. Reached a hand
around and up to grasp her breast above her heart.
§§
John
startled awake with spiders on his skin, slapping his arms and face and
neck. Got up too quick and stumbled into
one of the crates. Flailing, ripping his
shirt off to swipe at the spiders on his back.
Judas grabbed him and pushed him into the box car wall. Brushed his skin. Shushed him gently. Cupped John’s neck in his hand, saying
softly, “I got the spiders off. They’re
gone. Here, take a pull on this
flask. Settle your nerves, man.
settle We’ve got a long ride to
Galveston.”
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