Hunter's Moon, Chuck Logan [i am reading a book TXT] 📗

boxes and bullets scattered among the books on the floor.

“Sit down, Reverend.” Bud balanced the shotgun stock on his hip.

Karson sat. Bud stood behind him. Harry slid a hip on the table so he was above Karson. Bud leaned forward and spread the newspaper page out in front of the minister. Harry put the pistol on it.

“So?” said Karson.

“Real simple, Don,” said Bud. “Why didn’t you go directly to Hakala? Why feed it roundabout to Harry?”

Karson squared his shoulders. “I went to Mike. He dismissed it as a cheap shot because of the animosity between Emery and me.

And people thought you sent Harry up here to investigate what really happened.”

“But you think Larry Emery and Jesse are implicated in what Chris…did?”

“Larry, yes. Jesse…I don’t know.”

“This computer disk and the photo of Chris that Harry says is missing—you know anything about that?”

Karson shook his head.

“Chris ever show you a story he wrote about…” Bud raised his eyes to Harry. “What was it about, anyway?”

“A homosexual fantasy.”

“No. Never,” said Karson.

Harry took over. “Jesse and Chris told you certain things in HUNTER’S MOON / 339

confidence as their minister. And Emery accused you of making sexual overtures to Chris and turning Jesse against him under the guise of counseling.”

“Any of that true, Don?” asked Bud.

“It’s not that crude and simple. Yes, I talked to Jesse and Chris when they moved out on Emery and in with you, Bud.” Karson took a deep breath and let it out. “Chris told me in the fiercest way that he’d do anything to get his family back together. He wanted Jesse to marry his dad.”

“God,” said Bud. “No wonder the boy flipped out the night we told him we were getting married.”

Karson sighed. “But Jesse said she’d do anything to escape Larry Emery’s control. That makes it hard to place all three of them in a conspiracy.”

“So?” Bud glowered.

“So, after the marriage, I think Emery planted the idea that Chris could redeem himself and force his mother and father back together by killing you.”

“What about you, Don?” said Harry. “What did you plant in your private little discussions with Chris about his sexual…preference?”

“Jesus, Harry,” Bud said, grimacing. He eased Harry aside and pulled a chair up next to Karson. “Look, Don, we know each other, right?”

Karson nodded.

“You never told me that Chris was obsessed with getting his parents back together.”

Karson pursed his lips. “When people talk to me in confidence, I’m supposed to keep it that way.” He sighed. “Now I’ve violated that trust.”

“Okay, okay. What about the other stuff—the sex thing. Could Emery have used it to manipulate Chris?”

Karson sat straighter in the chair and smoothed his thumb and index finger across his mustache. “Possibly. Chris escaped his home life in fantasies and later in drugs. And he had…anxieties about his sexual identity. Emery was a very violent man and his mother was—”

340 / CHUCK LOGAN

“A tramp,” said Bud.

“He was old enough to remember that.” Karson tapped the newspaper page. “Emery killed his stepfather. Then took his place.

And Jesse kept fooling around. I think both those kids lived in fear that Emery was going to do it again. He was trying to escape the man. But in the end, he tried to please him.”

“You really think so?” Pallid wrinkles creased Bud’s forehead. “I thought he was just…rebelling.”

“No. He was contemptuous.” Karson erupted with sincerity. “Remember when we had Clark up here and he talked about the import-ance of fathers? How fathers and sons have to row together, cross over together. I think Chris desperately wanted a father figure he could trust. He wanted to love Emery but he couldn’t tell him he was…gay. Maybe he thought Emery would respect him if…”

Bud gingerly touched his side, glanced at Harry, and winced. “So he shot me to get his father’s approval? Jesus.”

“They did it for the money. This is bullshit,” Harry grunted.

Karson smiled. “That’s the same thing Larry said when he found out that I was talking to Chris. It didn’t fit into his sick macho worldview.”

“Worldview,” said Harry, shaking his head. “Now he’s giving us the big picture.” Harry walked to windows, stared out.

“You’re another savage, Harry. You’re just like Emery,” Karson said.

Harry turned around. “This is a small-town sideshow, Bud. He despises everything Emery stands for, but his refined sensibilities won’t let him admit it. He even used Chris as a pawn in that game.”

“That’s unthinkable,” Karson protested.

“Not saying it was conscious, Don,” said Harry, turning to Karson.

“Emery has more clout in town than you do. And Emery got in your face in public and humiliated you. This is your way of getting even.

You want to see Emery take a fall. And that’s sick macho bullshit of a different order.”

HUNTER’S MOON / 341

Karson was on his feet, angry. “You never felt a drip of remorse about Chris. It was just another kill. You glory in your violence. All of you. Your never-ending crucifixion. Because you were in Vietnam, you bully people who weren’t.”

Bud and Harry exchanged fast glances. Harry shook his head. “So that’s why you hale him. And us. You’re carrying some weird baggage, Karson.”

Karson spun and glared at Bud. “You really shocked me after the shooting. All you worried about was this psychotic, how it might screw up his head, killing one more person. You should have seen him at the funeral. He was like some…Nazi.”

“How much of that story did you read?” Harry asked Bud.

“Just the first few sentences.”

“It was a war story.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” said Karson. “Chris was fascinated with the honors that Bud and Emery won in the war, that he could never hope for because he was crippled.” Karson exhaled and lowered himself back to his chair. “I tried to bring him out of that, tried to show him…” Karson balled his hand into a fist. “There’s other masculine feelings just as deep…”

Bud had put his head in his hands, elbows leaning on the table.

One eye peeked between his fingers and Harry saw a yelp of dark humor