Bad Juju: A Novel of Raw Terror by Randy Chandler Read Free Book Online Page B

Luke
said. “And thanks again for the cobbler.”
    “There’s plenty more good
home-cooking where that came from. I’m liable to fatten you up some.” She rose
up on her toes and hugged him, then whispered in his ear. “Do me one favor.
Don’t wear that insect repellent tomorrow night.”
    He chuckled. “I won’t.”
    “’Night, Luke.”
    “G’night. Watch out for deer on the
drive home.”
    He watched her drive off, wondering
if he’d made a mistake in accepting her invitation. When her taillights winked
out of sight, he pushed the matter from his mind so he could focus on his
primary objective.
     He climbed into his pickup and
took the back roads to the bottomland where the Porch farmhouse stood at the
edge of fields gone fallow. He parked in a stand of pine trees at the edge of a
pasture, slung the gym bag from his shoulder and began the two-mile trek to his
target.
     
    ***  
     
    “I knew we shouldn’t’ve left her,”
Joe Rob said. He was sitting on the hearth of the cold fireplace, his hands
clasped tightly as he absently did an isometric biceps exercise. Skeeter was on
the top bunk, his legs dangling over the side, feet jittering nervously in the
air.
    “Don’t,” Skeeter said. “I don’t
wanna have to listen to you beat yourself up over what we shoulda done. Besides,
this is a good thing. Bad for her, but good for you. The only eyewitness is
dead.”
    “You sure it’s the same girl?”
    “Who else could it be? How many
nuthouse runaways you think there coulda been on Nebula Road yesterday?”
    “I need to see her,” Joe Rob said.
    “ Why? ”
    He shrugged. “I just do. I have to
see for myself.”
    “Shit, man, we—”
    “You’ve got a key. We wait till
your old man comes home, then we go to the funeral home and check her out.”
    “Fuck that, Joe Rob. I ain’t
worried about her. I’m worried about the sonofabitch in the Firebird. And so
should you be. Fuckin’ corpse can’t hurt us.”
    “I told you, we’ll deal with that
when the time comes.”
    “Yeah? How? What’re we gonna do? 
We can’t do anything without making ourselves look guilty.” He shrugged. “Maybe
the best thing to do is ignore it. Act normal. Innocent. If anybody asks
if we saw Odell, we say no. Nobody can prove different. Odell’s people know
he’s missing, but unless they find his body, that’s all they’ll know for
sure. There ain’t no way they’ll find the body. And we sure as hell ain’t gonna
tell ’em where to dig.”
    Joe Rob narrowed his dark eyes and
gave Skeeter a warning look. “Unless they grab your ass and beat it out of
you.”
    “Jeez, you think they would?”
    “If they thought you knew
something? Hell yeah.” Joe Rob lifted the tail of his black T-shirt and drew a
pistol from the waist of his jeans. “That’s why I brought you this.”
    “Your step-dad’s forty-five?”
    “ My forty-five. It’s the
only thing the bastard left me that’s worth having. That and the trust fund,
but I can’t touch that till I’m twenty-one. And by then there won’t be much
left, ’cause my grandmother gets a monthly allowance of three hundred bucks for
my care and feeding.”
    He flipped the pearl-handled
automatic around and offered it butt-first to Skeeter.
    “I can’t take that, man.”
    “Hell, I ain’t giving it to you.
I’m just letting you use it till this whole thing blows over. Go on, take it.
It’s got a full clip. Keep it in your truck. If somebody tries to fuck with
you, that oughta be enough to discourage ’em.”
    Skeeter reluctantly accepted it.
“Thanks.”
    “Now let’s see if your old man’s
home yet.”
     
    ***
     
    They went up the back stairs and
entered through the rear door of the funeral home. They knew Skeeter’s dad was
home eating supper. As soon as they were inside, the acrid smell of embalming
fluid hit them full-force.  The prep room was in the rear of the building, and
the odor of the formaldehyde always seemed to collect there in the