Moon Underfoot (39 page)

“I agree. We’ve got potential.”

“Exactly…and, well…I need to know if you’ll still be my friend and feel that way if you find out I did something really, really stupid.”

“Stupid? Like dyed your hair orange or stupid like made a sex tape?”

Bailey sighed deeply. “You’re gonna hate me.”

“Bailey, try me.”

“I helped steal something.”

“Well, can you give it back?”

“It’s not that simple. Others are involved, and I’m sure they’re pissed at me.”

“Bailey, everybody makes mistakes.”

“Yeah, I keep tellin’ myself that, but it’s not helpin’.”

“Who are the others?”

“My grandmomma and her friends.”

Levi thought about the group at the table and how anxious the men were to find Bailey.

“What did y’all do? Rob a bank?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Kinda.”

Levi was stunned and suddenly had an inkling of what may have occurred and why she might be feeling so remorseful. “Bailey, where are you?”

“Are you mad? I’m not a bad person,” she said, starting to cry. “At least I didn’t use to be.”

“No, I’m not mad. I wanna help. I don’t want you gettin’ hurt. Where are you? I need to see you.”

“I’m at the Golden Moon Casino hotel in Philadelphia.”

“Don’t leave, and don’t let anyone into your room. I’m comin’ down there right now, and I promise we’ll work all this out. Okay?”

“Okay,” she said and felt some relief.

“I’ll be there in an hour. Promise me you’ll be there.”

“I will.”

“And Bailey, I still feel the same way. Nothing’s changed.”

Levi stomped on the gas pedal, and the old truck’s engine roared.

M
OON PIE’S GUNSHOT
wound was beginning to burn white-hot. While straining to load Jake into the backseat, he caused the wound to open up. He could now feel blood running down his side from both the entrance and exit wounds, only six inches apart above his hip. With his right hand, he could apply pressure with his middle finger and his thumb, but the pain intensified as he did so. To combat the intense throbbing, he swigged straight Jack Daniels as he drove toward the massive swamp.

In warm weather, the area was home to water moccasins, timber rattlers, wild hogs, alligators, and enough chiggers and mosquitoes to drive the unprepared crazy. In November it was just cold, muddy, and desolate. Migrating waterfowl sought refuge in the shallow sloughs, and white-tailed deer bedded in the river-cane thickets. Beavers flourished, coyotes howled, and mythical black panthers were thought to inhabit the vast oak flats surrounded by half-circle-shaped old river sloughs. This was the ancient hunting ground of the Chickasaw Indians. The Spanish conquistador and explorer Hernando de Soto traveled these same woods on his journey to the Mississippi River. As the crow flies, just a few miles south was an Indian village that had
been home to thousands. Now it was at the bottom of Columbus Lake, forever preserved, albeit under silt and river water.

The leafless trees were devoid of color in the truck’s headlights as Moon Pie pulled up to a locked gate on a seldom-traveled gravel road. Moon Pie knew this area well. He was familiar with every logging road, and he knew of a forty-acre pond that the Corps of Engineers managed strictly for ducks. On the river side of the pond was a corrugated steel pipe. The pipe was just wide enough to drop a man into it. It went straight down ten or twelve feet and then turned ninety degrees and continued another fifty feet under a manmade levee, discharging into another wetland. This pipe functioned to maintain a maximum water level so ducks could feed on the native plants in the shallow water. If the water level rose above the top of the pipe, it flowed down and out the other side.

This simple, effective water level control worked flawlessly, until beavers packed mud and limbs around the lip of the pipe, causing the lake level to rise several inches. Moon Pie knew the busy beavers had this lake holding at least six inches of water more than normal. He planned to stuff Jake into the pipe and leave him. Moon Pie would tear out some of the beaver construction, allowing the water to slowly drown Jake inside the pipe. Moon Pie relished the idea of Jake’s slow death. Even if he didn’t drown first, he would die from hypothermia. It didn’t matter to Moon Pie what the ultimate cause of death was just so long as it was slow and terrifying. Since the pipe was full of tree limbs and debris, Moon Pie thought Jake’s body—whole—would never flow out the other side. Moon Pie smiled at the thought of Jake stuck inside a dark pipe with ice-cold water washing over him, knowing that death was coming and there wasn’t a thing he could do to stop it, slow it down, or even speed it up.

Moon Pie realized that, since he was in Jake’s truck, he didn’t have his universal gate key—a stolen pair of Klein thirty-six-inch bolt cutters. He glanced back at Jake, who had started to come
to on the drive, but another jolt from the stun gun knocked him out again. Moon Pie grunted as he opened the door and stepped outside to search Jake’s gull-wing toolbox for something he could use to cut off the lock.

“Damn Goody Two-shoes,” he muttered, slamming closed the lid after not finding anything helpful.

Moon Pie grabbed his pistol from under the driver’s seat and shut the truck door. The third shot disabled the lock.

The gunshots woke Jake. He was extremely disoriented and tried to sit up but couldn’t. His body wouldn’t respond. Each pistol shot made him flinch.
What’s going on? Where the hell am I?
he thought.

When Moon Pie opened the truck door, the dome light illuminated a pink Mississippi State ball cap lying on the floorboard that Jake had bought for Katy but hadn’t given to her yet. Jake’s mind immediately raced to the thought that he would never see her again. He wouldn’t see her first date or her high school and college graduations. He’d miss walking her down the aisle. Grandkids. He would miss sharing all of these things and more with Morgan.
Oh God, Morgan and our baby!

Adrenaline flooded him, and he fought his restraints, the effects of the electrical disruption of his nervous system, and the confines of the small backseat. He then tried again to sit up, grunting loudly, but couldn’t.

“Oh, goody, you’re awake,” Moon Pie said excitedly. “Got any last requests, asshole?”

The words shocked him. “Let me go! You don’t have to do this!”

“I know I don’t. I ain’t gotta do shit. But you see, I
wanna
do this. Besides, I made a promise. And a promise is a promise, ya know.”

“I have a wife and a little girl—please.”

Moon Pie slammed the truck door. He pressed his hand against his wound and took a big swig of Jack with the other.

“Oh, I know. Believe me, I know. I’ve seen ’em, remember? Oh yeah, that little Katy’s gonna be a hottie too, and you ain’t gonna be here to do anything ’bout all them guys that are gonna come sniffing ’round,” he said with a lascivious snicker.

A
FTER LEVI HAD
driven through miles of the pine plantations and farmland of rural Mississippi, the giant glowing orb that sits high atop the Golden Moon Hotel and Casino in Philadelphia looked peculiar against the night sky. Since it was a Monday night before Thanksgiving, the resort’s parking lots seemed surprisingly full.
Must be a big Monday Night Football party
, he thought as he hurriedly parked.

Levi took the elevator to the top floor and walked quickly toward Bailey’s room. Before he stopped at her door, he looked both ways down the hallway to see if anyone was following. Bailey opened the door as soon as he knocked. As soon as the door shut, they hugged.

“Never open the door without knowing who it is,” he said, pulling back to look into her eyes.

“I could see you through the peephole. I’ve been standing there waiting since we got off the phone,” she said, wondering why he was so suspicious.

“Oh, okay. That’s good,” he said, locking the dead bolt and flipping closed the safety hasp.

When Levi turned around, Bailey pulled him close and said, “It’s so good to see you. I’ve missed you.” She kissed him.

Levi leaned into the kiss and pulled her tight. When they stopped, Levi said, “I know. It’s only been a coupla days, but I’ve really missed you too.”

“Us missin’ each other so early in a relationship…this is bad, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Yeah, but in a good way,” he replied with a broad smile. “They say the heart knows what it wants.”

Bailey led Levi by the hand into the suite. She was wearing black sweatpants and a loose-fitting T-shirt from Reed’s bookstore in Tupelo. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days. In the center of the main room of the suite was an oversize leather couch. Bailey fell back into it.

“Nice crib. I like the way you roll,” Levi said, looking around.

“I could live here. This is the nicest place I’ve ever been in my life,” she said. Then she added, “Which ain’t saying much, since except for goin’ to Memphis, I haven’t been out of the state.”

“Girl, we’ll have to change that for sure.”

Levi sat down on the opposite side of the couch and put his feet on the coffee table. Bailey turned to face him, sitting Indian-style.

Levi noticed that the exhausted look seemed to be fading and was slowly being replaced with relief and happiness. In response he said, “Babe, please tell me everything that’s been going on. Start at the beginning. Let me help ya.”

Bailey looked him dead in the eye, sighed deeply, and then, after several seconds of silence, started talking. She went into the specifics about her mother’s battle with leukemia and the resulting financial hardships, not going to college, her grandmother and her friends; she told about all the meaningful projects the old guys wanted to do and how they just wanted to be helpful to their families. She explained the Kroger situation, including Samantha, and how they now wanted to give the money back.

Levi was dumbfounded as Bailey gave the details of robbing the Gold Mine, counting the money, buying the travel bags to
store it in, and how, when she saw Woody approaching the hotel, she grabbed the money and ran. She also explained how she had obsessed about the money all through the night.

It took Bailey twenty minutes to bring Levi up to speed. She circled back at the end to reemphasize Walter’s story.

Levi never interrupted. He soaked it all in and marveled at the old folks’ ingenuity. He also understood their motives.

Bailey was relieved to have unburdened herself but was on the verge of collapse from carrying such a heavy load. She watched Levi for a response and could ascertain only that he was worried.

“I’m sorry to drop all this on you, and I really want you to know that we didn’t steal the money from you…we stole it from Moon Pie,” she said as she pushed her hair behind her right ear.

Levi finally asked, “Does your grandmother know that you’re okay?” He gently touched her face.

“No. I haven’t called. I didn’t want Woody to have any leverage.”

“They’re worried. I saw them earlier.”

“I’ll call.” As she hugged Levi, she asked, “So you’re not mad at me?”

He rubbed his face and then ran his fingers through his hair. He broke off the embrace, looked her in the eye, and said, “No, I’m not mad. Look, I ain’t gonna judge y’all. I can’t. I haven’t done right. Moon Pie’s as mean as a snake, and I’ve helped him steal and cheat. And worst of all, I’ve helped him distribute drugs. I know they’re ruining people’s lives, and I think about that all the time. I just ain’t figured a way out. It’s been really botherin’ me lately. The only reason I do it is ’cause it’s easy money, pure and simple. I’m smart enough not to use drugs…but I’m stupid enough to haul ’em. It’s crazy, and I’ve been tellin’ myself that it’s all about the money, and what’s bad about that is that I don’t have anything to really show for it. It’s crazy.

“What y’all wanna do has got some meaning and purpose. I’d love to see you have that dress shop. I know you’d be successful if
you just had the money to get started. Bailey, I’m very impressed with you and what you did for your momma. You coulda run from those debts and problems, but you didn’t. Nobody woulda blamed you. I understand what y’all did and why. But you know that it makes y’all criminals…just like me and Moon Pie.”