Maudie snapped her head up and looked over at Tannin.
He slowly shook his head but didn’t say anything.
Maudie slowly looked back to Bethy.“Your daddy called her Lou, as in maybe Louise?”
Bethy nodded.“Yeah, maybe.I know I had never seen her before last night.So how could she be related to us?But I got this bad vibe from her right away.She was bold and brash, kept yellin’ ‘bout stuff like looking for someone important and did my daddy hear anything ‘bout somebody named Soleman?”
Tannin got to his feet and moved Micah to his hip.“I need to talk to Shay.”
“What is going on here, Ms.Maudie?”Bethy asked.
Maudie sighed hard then sat down in the chair Tannin just vacated.“Mais, it’s not good.”She rubbed her forehead as if she was feeling a headache coming on.“You see, a few days ago a man named Soleman Porter came here looking for trouble and Dale Bailey.Solomon had hired him and his boys to make some bombs.He found the trouble but not Dale.He was ready to run away with his sons but he kept going after me and my family.Dale’s hated me for my whole life.Den he messed around and finally got caught by King and the men.”
“Soleman’s last name is Porter?”Bethy whispered as she paled.
Maudie nodded.
“Is he any relation to a man named Salvador Porter?”Bethy dared to ask.
Maudie nodded again.“Weh, Salvador is his son.”
Bethy swallowed even harder and told her, “This Salvador is sitting at my daddy’s table right ‘bout now.”
“Cho co!”Maudie whispered back.She slumped back in her chair and just shook her head.“That’s not a good thing, cher.”
Tannin had been listening and now he rushed from the room.
Bethy called after him before looking back at Maudie.
In the kitchen...
Tannin strode in and shifted Micah on his hip again.He stared at Shay and King.“I might know where to find the man you’re looking for,” he announced.
Shay turned his head to look at him but it was King who asked, “You know where Salvador Porter is?”
Tannin nodded.“He and his girlfriend showed up at Leroy’s house late last night.She addressed him as her uncle.Bethy said they stayed up late drinking, so she finally had the chance to run this morning and she took it.Said she had a bad feeling about the couple and just wanted to get away from her dad.He’s literally been holding her prisoner for the last five years.He kept her in line by threatening to hurt her son.That’s just wrong and I want to punch a hole into him.”
Shay just stared at him.“I don’t know about you making holes in someone, son.But we do need to talk to her.”
Tannin nodded.“She’s getting cleaned up right now, but if I know her, she’ll be out here right after.”
Shay looked over at King and asked, “Do you know where this guy Leroy Matthais lives?”
King nodded.“Sure, he’s been there for years.It’s a ways north of here, almost at the far edge of the swamp.If you’re afoot it would take about three hours but by jeep it might take an hour or so, give or take a few minutes.”
Tannin growled.“We found her an hour ago, that means she was running with a kid in her arms for two hours.With her dad stomping behind her.He was so close we could hear him coming even up in the trees.”Shaking his head, he clenched his fists.Only when Micah began whimpering did Tannin notice the boy was scared.He took a calming breath and whispered something in the boy’s ear and he settled down.
He then walked across the kitchen and sat Micah in a chair.
The boy reached up for him, seeming to know he was safe with Tannin.
“Just a minute, ok?”Tannin said.“I’m going to get one of these sandwiches for you.”He turned and got a plate, chose a sandwich that Maudie had a platter of and then grabbed a juice.He turned and set that in front of him.
The boy grabbed the sandwich up quick and chomped it down.
Tannin paused and then shook his head.“Poor kid is starving.”He raised his head and everyone there could see his raging green eyes.
King watched him and let out a heavy sigh.Keeping Tannin from literally punching arealhole into Leroy Matthias was gonna be hard.Maybe they wouldn’t stop him though.Any man mistreating a kid deserves a hole.Fist hole, knife hole, bullet hole.He felt strongly about this sort of thing too.
