I believe that God loved your son. And I know that God loves you. Do you believe that?”
“No.”
“I don’t have any such thing as a cleansing service. Not like what you’re asking for. But I will come out to your land and pray with you. I will break bread with you.”
“It’s for his mother. His mother would want it.”
“It’s for you that I’m coming.”
GRIZZ DIDN’T EVEN MAKE it out of town before he saw cherries in his rear view mirror. Jesus, just what he needed. He pulled off along the edge of a slough. Sheriff Steve let him stew for a good minute before he got out and approached his truck. He paused, studying the cargo Grizz had left in the pickup’s bed and then plucked out a crowbar. He used this to tap against the window, which Grizz rolled down reluctantly.
“Mind shutting off the engine?”
“I do. I don’t know if she’ll restart.”
With his other hand, the sheriff reached past Grizz and twisted the keys. The engine coughed and stuttered to a halt. When it was quiet he went on calmly. “I got a call from the funeral home this morning. A break-in. Someone pried open the back door with a tool of some sort or another. They must have done it last night.”
Grizz said nothing while Steve tapped his door with the crowbar.
“How do you like that? Only thing missing was a corpse. The body of your son. Can you imagine it? Who would do such a thing?”
Grizz looked off down the road. He didn’t owe him a single word.
“It’s a strange thing, isn’t it? I know from Nolan your discussion with county authorities didn’t go so well.”
“It’s true. I had to get part of my land declared a cemetery. It might take months.”
“So, you know why I pulled you over?”
“Not really.”
“You don’t seem too concerned that the body of your only child has gone missing.”
Grizz shrugged.
“I’m going to ask you politely just once. Did you bury him up on the mountain, Seth? It’s what I would have done. Why don’t you take me and show me the spot where you put him?”
“Why don’t you go fuck yourself?”
Again, he moved quickly, or maybe Grizz was so beyond exhaustion he hardly saw straight. He felt the fist rather than saw it, smashing into the side of his face. His mouth filled with blood. When he bent over, streams of it gushed into his lap, a lone tooth in the hot rush of fluid.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Steve massaging his knuckles. “I could arrest you right now, goddamnit. I found this crowbar in your truck, the tarp you probably used to drag his body through the woods. You tampered with state evidence when you took his body. You committed a felony when you broke into the home. I should, but I won’t. You want to know why? Then all this mess stays on people’s minds. Then I have to deal with another set of reporters coming in from outside asking questions, hounding our schoolkids and parents. We take care of our own messes here, Grizz, and your family is the biggest mess of all. Has been from the very beginning.”
A car passed them on the road, and the sheriff turned away to lift his hat, likely smiling to let them know that there was nothing happening over here. Grizz rubbed his chin, checking to see if the jawbone was broken. His tongue found the empty place where the tooth had been knocked out. He sopped the strings of blood from his chin with his sleeve, thinking, When the time comes I am going to hit you back, again and again and again, until I smash every bone in your face.
When the car was gone, the sheriff leaned in, resting his elbows on the window. He went on in his subdued voice, “They’re all dead now, all except you. Kind of makes you wonder, don’t it?”
“What are you talking about?” His words slurred; he needed to hold on to his rage to make it home.
“Your dad. Will. Seth. Jo.” Jo had been Steve’s second cousin, his godchild. “And the whole time you were over in Sauk County, she waited for you. She was so damned stubborn. Why anyone would come here to live with you, even knowing what you are, is a mystery to me. Why she wanted you.”
“Jo was happy.”
“Then you had to go and get her pregnant. You knew what would happen. You could have