said to John in disgust as the two cocks went at each other.
Finally, one of the birds went down, and the owner of the defeated rooster yelled, “Done,” and grabbed his game cock before it was ripped to shreds by the winner. Then a scramble for money took place and finally, after several loud arguments, the gambling seemed to be over. While Tammy Wynette took possession of the radio and started warbling another country favorite, the room full of Bateses seemed to finally notice Beano and John standing in the doorway.
“I’m Beano!” he yelled loudly, just as another huge Arkansas inbred came in from the bathroom with a rooster under his arm and started to unleash him for another bout.
Beano stepped into the circle. “I’m Beano Bates,” he repeated, “and I’ve got money for you.” That seemed to get their attention.
“Hey, Echo, turn that fuckin’ radio down,” Bronco yelled.
Echo Bates was an identical albino twin to Bronco. Born ten minutes behind his brother, he escaped being named after his mother’s Studebaker, getting the marginally better name Echo. He got up, lumbered over, and turned the radio down.
“I’m looking for Cadillac Bates,” Beano said again.
They all sat there and looked around at each other like contestants on Jeopardy! until finally, a tall, skinny man in his forties stood and walked over to him.
“You ain’t paid us what you owed, cousin.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
“Blazer and Wrangler, you come on with me. Rest a’you hold ‘em birds. I want in on this next ‘un.”
He moved out of the room with Beano and John and across the parking lot. Finally he turned and stood by the row of shiny trucks, leaning his skinny ass on the bug protector grill of the closest one. He folded his arms and looked at Beano.
“Nice t’see you again,” Beano smiled. The last time he’d been around the Hog Creek Bateses he’d been about ten and had gone with his mother and father up into the Ozark Plateau mountains to hide from the law. They spent two weeks with the family in Hog Creek. Back then there were only two brothers and their wives and families. About fifteen people. They lived in a remote valley, miles from the nearest neighbors. It seemed they’d done a lot of serious inbreeding since then. “Lotta new family,” he grinned at Cadillac Bates, who seemed in no hurry to speak. Or maybe, Beano mused, he just hadn’t been able to form a complete thought yet.” ‘Bout half this many boys in the family back then.” Beano continued trying to fill the awkward silence. “Bronco and Echo and lots of these cousins probably weren’t even born yet; ‘course, it was over twenty years ago.”
Then Cadillac furrowed his brow. A thought pushed its way out of his constipated brain. “Most Bateses ain’t been born, they’s squeezed outta bar rags,” he said, without smiling.
“That’s pretty good, very funny,” Beano said.
“We come all the way out here ‘cause you called, but we got no deal yet. You owe us travel money.”
“I didn’t know you were gonna bring twenty people,” Beano hedged. “I only need five or six.”
“Know the trouble doin’ business with kin?”
“No.”
“Y’all think we got a family discount.”
“Don’t we?” Beano grinned, trying to lighten the mood.
“Come all the way from Hog Creek, Arkansas, ‘cause you said you wanted a posse.” He dug into his pocket and handed a sheet of paper over to Beano. Somebody had obviously taught Cadillac Bates how to read and write because he had all of their expenses itemized. “That there’s what it cost us t’git ta this place an’ back. I’m puttin’ three cents a mile fer wear an’ tear on them pickups. Rambler an’ Dodge lost a tranny on their Ram truck in Oklahoma an’ I stuck that on there.”
Beano took the sheet of paper. It came to almost two thousand dollars. “Lotta money,” he said, handing the sheet to John, who examined it.
“Is what it is.” Cadillac jerked a thumb toward Paper Collar John. “The other job he told us about gonna cost ya fifteen thousand plus ten percent of the takedown. Dental and medical is extra if we need it. That’s the deal, no bargaining. Pay it now, otherwise Church is out an’ you can deal with this mess yourself.” John handed the accounting back to Beano.
“Guess we need the back-up,” Beano said and John nodded, so Beano walked to the trunk of the Caprice, opened it and took seventeen thousand dollars of Sabre Bay money out of