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

Martin guy and the medal. It was starting to stink. Mom’d see Chris and I whispering and Chris talking to Jay.

And I think that’s when Bud Maston decided to get rid of all of us.

“So Chris and I tried to talk Mom into going back to Dad. And she did…a little. She always did when she got scared. And that’s when Bud laid his trap. It was his idea. The million dollars.”

Seeing the expression on Harry’s face, she laughed bitterly through her tears. “God, why are you so surprised? What do you think people are? You and Chris. You want to believe in

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knights in shining armor.” She rolled her eyes. “They agreed on the divorce settlement before they got married.”

“You just watched it, didn’t you?” Harry said quietly.

She touched his cheek. “Hush,” she said in a voice that chilled him. “Let me tell it all.”

Harry glanced at Randall and Hollywood, who observed Becky with quiet fascination.

“God, you’re so dumb,” said Becky. “They were all guilty! They made a deal. Mom, Jay, and Bud. Right at the dining room table.

Bud told Mom a cleaner version of what Hector said. How Jay could ruin his reputation. And how she could help him satisfy Jay and get what she really wanted, which was enough money to get away from Stanley. Think! Why the hell would Bud Maston, one of the richest guys in the state, marry my mom? He needed a way to pay off Cox so they couldn’t trace the money, you know, later when he got back in politics.”

“You were there?” Randall asked.

“Sure,” said Becky. “That way Chris and I were involved. Bud was real sorry and said he wanted to make amends and settle it once and for all. But the main thing he said was a million dollars. Mom and him would get married, then split up in this big fight, which wouldn’t surprise anybody. Bud would agree to a big divorce settlement. The lodge, the lake, and his land. The money.”

Down the highway, the piano player banged insistently on one key.

“All she ever wanted was to be on her own. She couldn’t resist it.” Becky began to cry silently. “We were so pissed at her. Chris blew up and hit Bud and Mom called the cops and it was a real scene. Everybody left. I drove into town in Mom’s car and ran into these two guys at the Cruiser, they’re on the hockey team, friends of Mitch’s, and I was feeling kind of crazy and mad at Mom and I said, well, nobody’s home and Chris has this weed and there’s lots to drink and we…”

She buried her hands in her hair and gagged on her words. “Do I have to say this to three guys?”

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Randall shifted in his chair. Hollywood tugged on his ear-lobe.

“We went back home and I got really loaded and I just didn’t give a shit…I hear this awful laughter and I look up and there’s Bud on the balcony with a camera. Those guys deserted me, grabbed their clothes, and ran like hell. And Bud said if I didn’t keep my mouth shut he’d show the pictures to Mitch and my dad.”

Becky began to sob. “Except one of those guys made a crack to Mitch, and Mitch beat him up for it. And now when the whole truth comes out he probably won’t have anything to do with me.”

Randall exhaled, cleared his throat. “Keep going.”

Becky wiped away the tears and took a deep breath. “We wouldn’t go to the phony wedding. Chris said we couldn’t trust anybody except each other and we couldn’t tell Dad after what we’d done. He decided it was up to him to get Mom away from Bud before she took any money. So he broke into Dad’s place and stole that gun.

Then he got caught with it at school and Dad jumped in and got him off.”

“Did Emery know any of this?” asked Harry.

“He was suspicious. Mom had started to make up, then suddenly she marries Bud. How could anybody know. I wouldn’t even talk to Mitch.

“Dad tried like hell to get Chris to tell him what was going on out at the lodge, but Chris just wanted to learn to shoot. Then he dared Bud to take him hunting. Like a challenge.”

“So he did go out there planning to nail Bud Maston,” said Hollywood.

“I don’t know, he wanted to face him with a gun. He said he’d been down into the spider heart and he had to get clean.”

Randall and Hollywood exchanged quizzical glances, but Harry understood it perfectly. When he wrote his story he was romanticiz-ing Martin, but when he went into the woods, he was his father’s son.

Becky smoothed a hand down her braided hair and turned her profile to the setting sun. “The last part of the deal was 382 / CHUCK LOGAN

bringing Harry up so he would think Mom was taking advantage of Bud. Bud said Harry would ‘rescue’ him.” She turned to face Harry. “And you did, didn’t you?”

Long shadows twisted across the room and snatches of raucous laughter drifted from the cantina and mingled with the steam of sagebrush in the boiling air.

Becky held up her hands and let them drop. “Then…everybody became Bud’s puppets while he played poor, drunk Bud and just…amused himself. Jay and Chris freaked because you looked like Martin.” She exhaled and stared out over the desert. “But Mom liked you. She thought she could trust you…”

She cocked her head and a queer reverence crept into her voice.

“Bud’s an…artist and Jay said he can turn on a dime. He makes a picture in his head, then he fits the right people at the right time to make it come true.”

Hollywood stepped forward. “You have to go on the record with this, Becky. Back in Minnesota.”

Becky squinted at him. “You’re like a cop, aren’t you? Am I arrested or anything?”

“I’m like a cop,” said Hollywood. “And