in a fucking rage. He went to the sheriff and reported my mother as kidnapped. He went to the bar where she used to work. He went to her old high school and her friends’ houses. My grandparents’ house, too.
“He screamed at them and threatened them. Even smashed a couple windows in their house. Beat my grandfather within an inch of his life, though he was probably too high to notice. Then Ellis grabbed one of the youngest siblings—my aunt Kelly. She was only four at the time. He grabbed her and acted like he was going to drag her out of the house. Maybe he thought he’d keep her hostage or something, to force my mother to come back.”
“Jesus,” Riona whispers.
“Well, Uncle Abott came running into the house with his junior league baseball bat and he said, ‘Let go of her or I’ll crack your fuckin’ skull.’ Ellis let go of Aunt Kelly and left.
“They followed him around for three days. At one point he came face-to-face with my auntie Lane as she was tailing him outside a gas station, but he just looked right through her and kept going. It was ironic, because Ellis had given her a skateboard as a gift when he was pursuing my mother. But he didn’t even recognize her face. Maybe he was just too enraged to notice.
“Anyway, on the fourth day, some people in town were spreading the rumor that my mother had been seen on Cherokee land. Ellis hadn’t heard it yet as far as my uncles knew, but they also knew it was only a matter of time until he did.
“So they put a slow leak in the tires of his car while he was eating at the bar where my mother used to work. He kept going back there to threaten the owners and harass the other customers. He bribed a few, too. It didn’t work—if anybody knew where my mother was, they didn’t tell him.
“Ellis got back in his car, more than a little tipsy. He started speeding down the road, back to his property. At first he didn’t notice that the tires were getting flat. Waya and my two uncles were following along behind him, in a borrowed car. Ellis kept speeding, even when the back right tire was wobbling and flopping.
“Finally the car started to fishtail, and he swerved and went off the road. He rammed the BMW into the space between two trees. It was jammed in there tight. So tight that he had to climb over the seat and go out the back door.
“He had a big cut on his forehead, but otherwise he was fine. Just swearing and complaining. Still dressed in one of his fancy suits.
“Waya pulled up and said, ‘You need a lift?’
“Ellis might have been suspicious if he hadn’t been drinking. But he just said, ‘Yeah,’ not even saying thanks. And he started walking over to the car. He got about five feet away and he stopped and squinted at the car windows. I think he saw that there was somebody in the back seat.
“Waya opened the driver’s side door, and Ellis reached into his jacket, like he was gonna grab a gun. He had one, but he’d lost it in the crash. By the time he realized, my two uncles and Waya had all jumped out of the car and surrounded him.”
I pause, glancing over at Riona to see if she knows what’s coming next. I can tell by her solemn expression that she does.
“They dragged him off into the woods. Uncle Abott wanted to kill him slowly. He wanted to cut and burn and beat Ellis, like Ellis had done to my mother. But Waya said no. It would be messy and noisy and leave too much evidence. And he said, ‘We’re not like him.’
“So they just marched Ellis a full ten miles out into the woods and shot him in the back of the head. Then they dug a hole and buried the body under enough dirt and rock that no animal would dig it up. Waya and Abott did it. Uncle Earl stayed behind to move their car, in case someone came along and saw the crash.
“Then Waya drove my uncles home, and he went back to his own house, where my mother was staying with his sisters. She went into labor a week later.
“After I was born, he told her what they had done. He didn’t want to upset her, but he didn’t want her