Go With Me (3 page)

“Don’t know her name,” said Coop. “Used to work at Edie’s.”

“What’s Edie’s?” asked Conrad.

There were four of them in the office. They waited for the newcomer to park her car. They heard her slam the door, then they heard her steps echo on the mill floor. Then she was with them.

“Morning,” said Whizzer. The young woman stood in the door of the office. She looked from one of the men to the others.

“Which one is Whizzer?” she said.

Whizzer raised his hand.

“You know Scott?” the young woman asked him. “Scott Cavanaugh?”

“Scotty?” Whizzer said. “Sure. Sure, we do.”

“I’m looking for him,” the young woman said. “Is he around?”

“You’re looking for Scotty?” Whizzer asked.

“I was told I’d find him here,” the young woman said.

“Who told you that?” Coop asked her.

The young woman didn’t reply to him. She spoke to Whizzer.

“The sheriff told me,” she said.

“Wingate?” Coop said.

“He said I could get help here, from Scott Cavanaugh.”

“Well, Scotty ain’t here,” said Coop.

“He’s upstate,” said D.B. “He went to White River.”

“Visits his brother up there,” said Coop.

“It ain’t his brother, it’s his uncle,” said D.B. “The one whose kid’s been in the hospital. That’s Scotty’s uncle.”

“What’s the matter with the kid?” asked Conrad.

“Look . . . ,” began the young woman.

“I thought it was his brother,” said Coop.

“Well, it ain’t,” said D.B.

“Leukemia,” said Whizzer.

“Oh, boy,” said Conrad.

“He’ll be back this afternoon late,” said Whizzer to the young woman. “Scotty. He’ll probably stop by then.”

“This afternoon?” the young woman said.

“What do you want with Scotty?” Whizzer asked her.

“I need his help,” the young woman said.

“You’re Russell’s boy’s girl, ain’t you?” D.B. asked her. “You’re Kevin’s girl.”

“I was,” said the young woman.

“You’re the girl turned Blackway in,” Coop said.

“That’s why she’s looking for help,” said D.B. “Ain’t it?” he asked the young woman.

“That’s why,” said the young woman.

The three men shut up and looked at Whizzer. Whizzer was sitting in his cart. He hitched himself up in the seat. He spoke to the young woman.

“What kind of help did you want from Scotty?” he asked.

“What’s Blackway doing to you?” Coop asked.

“He’s following me. I told the sheriff.”

“Blackway’s following you?” Whizzer asked her.

“He’s watching me,” the young woman said. “He trashed my car. He killed my cat.”

“Blackway killed your cat?” D.B. asked her.

“He wants to hurt me,” the young woman said. “The sheriff knows. He killed Annabelle because she was mine. To show me. What he would do. What he could do anytime he wanted to. I went to the sheriff. I told the sheriff: He won’t stop there. He knows Blackway. He told me there’s nothing he can do. He told me to find Cavanaugh. He told me to come to you. I came. What am I going to do?”

“Get another cat?” said D.B.

“There you go,” said Coop.

“Leave town?” said D.B.

“Leave town?” the young woman asked. “You mean run away?”

“There you go,” said Coop.

The young woman shook her head. She spoke to Whizzer. “No,” she said. “I won’t do that. I’m here. I’m staying. I told the sheriff. I didn’t do anything wrong. I will not run. Let Blackway run.”

“Pistol, ain’t you?” D.B. said.

“Come to that,” said Coop, “she’s right. Why should she run? Blackway’d just go looking for her.”

“Find her, too,” said D.B.

“What do you want Scotty to do for you?” Whizzer asked the young woman.

“The sheriff said he could help me,” she said. “He could do something. Go with me, because of Blackway. He could go with me.”

Whizzer looked across the little room to D.B. and Coop. He looked back at the young woman.

“He could, I guess,” Whizzer said. “But he ain’t here.”

The young woman nodded. She looked around at the three men sitting before her on chairs or on the desk, and at Whizzer in his cart.

“That’s it, then?” she asked.

“I guess it is, about,” said Whizzer.

“You guess it is?” the young woman said. “What’s the matter with you people?”

“You people?” Whizzer said.

“All of you,” the young woman said. “The sheriff. You. What’s wrong with you? I come to you for help. I’ve got no place else to go. The sheriff gives me a speech about the law. Your friend isn’t around. And you guess that’s it?”

“Take it easy, now,” said Whizzer.

“Don’t tell me to take it easy.”

“Take it easy,” said Coop.

“Fuck you,” the young woman said. She turned and started for the door.

“Take it easy,” said D.B.

“What about Nate the Great?” Coop asked.

“Nate?” Whizzer said. The young woman paused in the doorway.

“Sure,” Coop said. “She needs somebody to go with her. Nate would do it. He’d go with her, you asked him to.”

“He’s a kid,” said Whizzer.

“Wait a minute,” said the young woman.

“He’s a big kid,” said Coop.

“That’s so,” said Whizzer. To the young woman he said, “Hang on.” To D.B. he said, “Get him in here.”

“Wait a minute,” said the young woman.

Nate the Great was around back. He was working with Lester — old Lester Speed. They were unloading cement blocks from Whizzer’s flatbed. They had the truck backed up over the bank, above. Lester was up on the bed with the blocks, and Nate was down the bank, eight or ten feet below, where the blocks were to end up. Lester wanted to push the blocks off the truck and let them fall and land on the ground where Nate could pick them up and move them to a pile behind him. Nate wanted Lester to drop the blocks so he could catch them before they landed. Each block weighed thirty pounds.

“Come on,” said Nate.

“Get back,” Lester said. But Nate had been after him since they had started, so he shoved a block off the truck with Nate directly below. Nate caught the block two-handed, like a basketball, set it down, and called for another. That one he caught one-handed. Soon they had a rhythm going between them, but still Lester didn’t like it.

“That’s enough,” he said. “Get back, now.”

“Come on,” said Nate.

“We had a young fellow like you in the woods,” Lester said. “Showboat. He liked to catch butts off the loader. Hundred, hundred and fifty pounds, one of them would weigh. Oak butts. He caught them like they were made of — I don’t know — shaving foam. Like they were made of feathers. Do it all day long.”

“Come on,” said Nate.

“Until one day, I guess he wasn’t paying attention,” Lester went on. “Thinking about his girlfriend, probably. Came a butt. He didn’t see it. Knocked him down, broke his neck.”

“I ain’t got a girlfriend,” Nate said. “Come on.”

“Killed him,” said Lester. “Killed him right there.”

D.B. came around the truck and stood on the top of the bank.

“Nate?” he said.

“Yo,” said Nate.

“Boss wants you.”

“Yo,” said Nate. He climbed up the bank. D.B. had turned back to the mill. Nate followed him. A tall, long-boned, heavy-wristed kid: not a scholar, not a talker. Smarter than a horse, not smarter than a tractor.

Nate followed D.B. into the office and waited in the doorway beside the young woman. Tall as she was, the top of her head was two inches below Nate’s shoulder.

“You about done out there?” Whizzer asked Nate.

“About,” said Nate.

“This lady needs you to go with her to find Blackway,” Whizzer said.

“Wait a minute,” the young woman said. “Who’s he?”

“This is Nate the Great,” said Coop.

“Helps out around the yard,” said D.B.

“A hired man?” the young woman asked. “Hired boy? You’re giving me a hired boy to go with me? What about Blackway?”

“Blackway’s been interfering with her,” Whizzer told Nate.

“Been following her around,” said Coop.

“Been stalking her, like,” said D.B.

“Smashed her car,” said Coop.

“Wait a minute,” said the young woman.

“Killed her cat,” said Coop.

“Killed her cat?” said Nate.

“Look,” said the young woman. “Forget it, all right? I came here for What’s-his-name — Cavanaugh. He’s not here. Fine. That’s my problem, not yours. I don’t want the hired help. Let’s just forget the whole thing.”

Whizzer ignored her.“You willing to go with her?” he asked Nate.

“I don’t mind,” Nate said.

“You know Blackway?” Whizzer asked him.

“Seen him.”

“You think you can handle him?” Coop asked.

“I guess,” said Nate.

“What makes you think so?” Whizzer asked.

“He’s old, ain’t he?”

Whizzer looked around at the other men.

“He might be forty,” Whizzer said.

“Nate the Great here will help you out,” D.B. told the young woman.

“He will not,” said the young woman. “I told you: I don’t want him. This kid belongs at basketball practice.”

“You belong at basketball practice?” Whizzer asked Nate.

Nate shrugged.

Whizzer turned to the young woman.“Ma’am,” he said, “I don’t see you’ve got a lot of choice here. Do you? You went to the sheriff. You didn’t like what he told you. You came here for Scotty. Scotty ain’t to be had. You’re scared of Blackway. So’s everybody else. If you had any sense, you’d leave town. You won’t do that. You don’t think you should have to. Maybe you’re right. ’Course you are. But I don’t quite see your next move, is the thing. Do you? I guess you could go to Blackway on your own, treat him nice, ask him nice to let up on you.”

“Appeal to his better nature,” said Coop.

“Get down on your knees,” said D.B.

“There you go,” said Coop.

“It might work,” said D.B.

“Fuck you,” said the young woman.

“You said that before,” Whizzer said.

“I know what I said,” said the young woman. “Do you want me to say it again? Okay. Fuck you.” But she didn’t move to leave the room.

“Well, then,” said Whizzer. To Nate he said, “You might’s well get started, if you’re ready.”

“You want us to finish with the blocks first?” Nate asked him.

“No, go ahead,” Whizzer said.

“Where to?” Nate asked.

Whizzer looked at D.B. D.B. shook his head.

“Blackway’s got a camp in the Towns,” Coop said. “Had it for years. I don’t know just where, though.”

“What Towns?” Conrad asked.

“The Empty Towns,” said Coop.

“Lost Towns, we used to call them,” said D.B.

“You been to the Towns?” Whizzer asked the young woman.

“No,” she said.

“You been there?” Whizzer asked Nate.“Know your way around up there, at all?”

“No,” said Nate. “Never been in there.”

“Les has,” Coop said. “Les used to work logging up there. He worked there for years. He knows the Towns as well as Blackway, better. Send Les with them.”

“Who’s Les?” the young woman asked.

Whizzer nodded toward the doorway. Lester was there, behind her. Where had he come from? He hadn’t come in with Nate. Lester had simply appeared in the doorway.

“You been hearing this?” Whizzer asked Lester.

“Sure,” said Lester.

“You know the country up there?”

“Oh, sure,” said Lester. “I’ve been all through there, working, hunting. ’Course, that was some time ago. But I can find my way, I expect.”

The young woman had been looking at Lester as he answered. “Some time ago?” she said. “How much time? A hundred years? You’re sending me after Blackway with the kid who does the chores and somebody out of the old folks’ home?”

Again Whizzer ignored her. “You want to go along with them?” he asked Lester. “Help them find Blackway?”

“You mean now?” Lester asked.

Whizzer nodded.

“Sure,” Lester said.

“Can we just forget the whole thing?” the young woman asked. “Let’s just forget it.”

“Blackway might take some finding, you know,” Coop said to Lester. “You’ll have to look here and there — you know where.”

“I know,” said Lester.

“You want to go by the High Line,” said Coop.

“What High Line?” asked Conrad.

“I know,” said Lester.

“Wait,” said the young woman. “Just wait a minute.”

“You want to try the Fort,” said D.B.

“What Fort?” asked Conrad.

“I know,” said Lester.

“Before you go out up into the puckerbrush,” said Coop, “into the Towns.”

“I know,” said Lester.

“Plus,” Whizzer said, “Blackway ain’t alone. There’s going to be others.”

“Friends of Blackway’s,” said Coop.

“I know,” said Lester.

“I told you, I don’t want —” the young woman began.

“Fitz has been working with Blackway,” Whizzer told Lester.

“I heard that,” said Coop.

“He might know where Blackway is,” said Whizzer. “I’d go see Fitz.”

“We’ll do that,” said Lester.

“You got everything you need in the way of — you know?” Whizzer asked him.

“We’ll get it,” said Lester.

“All right, then,” said Whizzer. To the young woman he said, “You take these fellows along with you, now. Go ahead. They’ll help you with Blackway. And if they don’t, you can always cuss him to death.”

D.B. laughed, but the young woman wasn’t happy.

“It’s not just me, you know,” she said. “It’s them. They have no chance. Blackway will eat them alive.”

“Maybe not,” said Whizzer.

The young woman shook her head. “You’ll see,” she said. She turned and pushed her way out of the office past Nate and Lester. Nate followed her. Lester turned to go.

“Les?” Whizzer said.

Lester turned back to the office.

“Keep your eye on him,” said Whizzer. “Look out for him. Nate the Great. He’s apt to get into stuff and not think. He don’t always think. He don’t know how.”

“Sure,” said Lester.

“You really got everything you need?” Whizzer asked him.

“Sure.”

“Because,” Whizzer went on, “you know, if you get in there, you get close, you can’t go back. You got to be ready to go all the way through.”

“Sure.”

“Okay, then,” said Whizzer.