Jack nodded and I stood, going over to the window. I imagined a scene much different from this one. The dead of winter. The entire state white from snow, black from night, a grey world.
“Next to the sink,” Jack continued, “we keep binoculars. Open the drawer to your right and you’ll find ’em. Pappy might’ve had the arthritis, but his eyes were fine. No cataracts or anything like that. Still. In the dead of night, it’s good to have help.”
I didn’t need the binoculars, but I could see how they could help an old man at night.
“As I say, he was up, couldn’t sleep. Went to fix him a pot of coffee. The Greenfamily, mostly the men, have always used that barn for nefarious reasons. Bringing boys in there that would come out with something broken, anywhere from head to toes. Sometimes a few things broken between head and toes. Girls would come out crying.
“We always talked to the sheriff about it, but nothing could be done. No one wanted to talk. One woman did, her name Ada, and Virgina Greenmade her life a living hell. Ada finally took her boy and left town. Ada had inherited the place from her uncle.The Green familybought the land after they ran her out of town. Tore down the place and put up another barn. Back to that night. Pappy. The window. Coffee.
“Pappy called me, you know, recollected the incident before details got fuzzy. It wasn’t a blizzard but damn near close. Said in front of the binoculars, he saw mostly snowflakes. Through it, he could see one of the Green boys standing guard outside of the barn. That was never a good sign. They never stopped using that rickety old barn for nefarious reasons. Probably went back to their old man. Used to take them to the barn to beat them senseless when they did something that made him mad—being nice being one of ’em. Pappy used to say their old man beat the compassion out of every one of ’em.”
“Out of the snow, a truck came creeping down the drive, and Pappy looked harder through the binoculars. The truck stopped, one of the Green boys approached, and then a young girl stepped out. He believed the young girl to be Sistine. We’d met her through the Watt family. Been coming around since she was young. Bianca’s niece from Italy, which made her stand out. Always been as beautiful as a picture, but it’s the accent. Just different from folks ’round here.”
Jack sighed and took another drink of his coffee. “Pappy was disturbed by Sistine being there. Didn’t know what to do, though. He called the sheriff, but the sheriff was out on another call. Linda, the dispatcher, said the sheriff would check it out once she could reach him.” He shrugged, but not in a careless way. In a way that said a man’s hands were tied. “Pappy could barely make it from the bedroom to the kitchen. He knew he wasn’t making it to the snake barn. All he could do was watch as Sistine was led into the barn.” He cleared his throat. “By her hair.”
“Her hair,” I repeated. It sounded like my voice was coming at me from far away. Like it had been trapped inside of a frozen cave.
“Can’t say for certain.” He sighed, this time longer and heavier. “Can’t say what went on in that snake barn, either, but after some time, Pappy thought he heard cattle driving toward it. One thingAsh Green couldn’t deal with, on his long list, was when his cattle got loose. It was a herd of ’em, charging. Chaos, Pappy described it as. Like someone was leading them to freedom.
“The Green boys flew out of the snake barn, and after them, Sistine and Atta. The girls jumped in the truck, which was still being hit by wild bison, not cattle as Pappy first thought, and when the ladies could, they took off. Even though Pappy couldn’t see through the wooden barn walls, he knew something bad had happened. Bad things were what that barn stood for.”
Jack grew quiet.
In his silence, my veins swelled with heat, but my muscles tightened with ice. Sistine was a virgin, but that didn’t mean anything when it came to assault. If she had been fuckingled by her hairthose dead men could have been fucking with my wife—the bison had stopped what was going to happen.
The cup in my hand cracked. The ceramic was cold and sharp and the contents warm.
Jack seemed to be lost to his thoughts. “The timing of the bison… As Mrs. Hannah is known to say…You take care of nature. Nature will take care of you.That’s what old Pappy said about that night…thetimingof the stampede, you know…” His voice trailed.
“The snake barn.” This from Angelo, reminding Jack we needed more on it.
“It’s full of ’em. Snakes, I mean. Brought in by Rattler. He has a sick infatuation with fangs. Things that go bump in thenight. He set a few loose in this place over the years as a threat. I suppose he’ll be back, since he’s in town. After the Green sons left the ranch, the cattle farm survived, but it wasn’t nearly as profitable as it is now. Now they have the money to expand. My land is between theirs and the Watt farm. He’s already approached me. Now that the Watts are struggling, or were, Rattler is sniffin’ around. He doesn’t like being told no.”
“No.” The world purposely left my mouth.
“Are you men up for a ride?” Jack asked. “I need to show you all something. Something that might help explain things. Some people need to see as well as hear.” He cleared his throat. “No one ever spoke of what happened that night in the snake barn. Pappy died a few days later, and when I asked Atta about it, she told me it wasn’t them in the barn.”
“She did not tell the truth,” Angelo said.
“Who would when Rattler probably threatened her?” Jack set his empty cup down. “This wasn’t long after Bear, his father and brothers, were killed in the accident. My bet would be Rattler threatened Ty. None of us ’round here could stand against them. Only the Sheriff, and he operates tightly when it comes to laws. The Green family never leaves enough evidence. You can smell their stink from a million miles away, but they never leave a solid crap mark.”
“People who lie are people who are afraid,” I said. “Very little frightens Sistine.”Mywife. I rolled my teeth over my lip and then rolled my shoulders. I could barely contain the rage inside of me.
“Ready for that ride?” Jack asked. “I must warn you men. What’s inside of this other place is as ugly as what exists inside the snake barn. Whatever the Green family touch, it turns venomous.”
Jack’s chair scrapped against the floor. Dolly howled before flapping her ears and jumping from the sofa. Jack said he’d meet us outside, nature called before the ride.
I turned toward the door, Angelo and Marciano rising from their seats. The envelope was still on the table. I ordered my brother and cousin to go ahead of me. By the time I got to the table and picked up the envelope, Jack was back, Dolly on his heels.
“That’s for you,” he said. “Was going to give it to you after the ride, before we parted. Have you seen the woman who was killed after that night? The one they found frozen in the snow with snake bites on her feet?”
I shook my head.
He nodded toward the envelope. “Might want to take a look to see what we’re dealing with here.”
The picture of the dead woman, while she was still alive, slid out, along with the article on her death. My hands trembled—not from fear but from pure rage. The woman was looking at the camera, and even though there were differences, she reminded me of my wife: her coloring, her hair, that show of defiance in her eyes, which turned into a light that was brighter than the sun when she smiled.
“Yeah.” Jack’s voice was quiet. “That’s what I thought too. Your lady, Sistine, her eyes say it all. She has fire in her veins. Ms. Atta too. But that woman doesn’t resemble Atta.”
