Once Upon a River Page 0,39

her nerve to cash her money order. She grabbed the siderail of the boat as Paul idled alongside the dock. The boat was riding heavy in the water.

“You got Brian’s boat,” Margo shouted. Paul cut the engine just as she asked, “Where is he?”

Margo was shocked to hear her own voice over the river sounds. She had not spoken aloud in a while, and she didn’t usually talk to Paul at all. There was something in the center of the boat, covered by a blue tarp. By its shape, she figured it was a fifty-five-gallon plastic drum. That explained why the boat was sunk up over its pontoons. Water sloshed over the Astroturf carpeting.

“Brian’s in jail.”

“For what?”

“For beating on Cal Murray.”

“What? He didn’t hurt him?”

“The hell he didn’t. He hurt him bad. Did it for you.”

“I never asked him to do anything to Cal.” Margo felt spooked by the intensity of Paul’s voice.

Paul got out of the boat and tied it off. “Brian should have known better, but he couldn’t stand it when Cal Murray walked in the bar like he owned it. Cal thinks he owns Murrayville.”

Cal did own Murrayville, thought Margo, didn’t he? “What happened?”

“It ain’t good,” Paul said. He turned his head to favor his bad eye. “Stop staring at me, damn it.”

Margo had not meant to stare. She looked back at the cabin. The green building, tippy on its stilts, blurred as her eyes filled with tears. Margo wiped her face and pointed at the fish pail that Paul was lifting off the boat. “Give me that,” she said.

“Maggie, honey, crying about it ain’t going to do him any good. There’s nothing that’s going to do him any good except a better lawyer than he can afford.” Paul’s voice turned softer. He rested the bucket on the dock and put his arms around her. Paul was a little fatter than his brother. She thought he smelled odd, of ammonia. She thought of pushing him away and running, but it would be crazy to run into the woods, which were full of stinging nettles and poison ivy.

She pulled away from the embrace and grabbed the bucket, sloshing water on herself and Paul. Two of the three bullhead catfish inside were the length of her forearms, with long barbels. Those seaweedy whiskers brushed the sides of the bucket as the fish slid over one another. “These are big catfish,” she said.

“They come from around Willow Island upstream,” Paul said.

“Who you got with you?” she asked. The other man had made no motions to disembark, as though waiting for the signal from Paul.

“That’s just Charlie. He works at the plant with me.” Paul had long held a job at a pharmaceutical plant that made generic drugs. Paul was a factory rat, Brian said, though Paul didn’t like the phrase. Charlie was skinny, and one cheek was sunken where he was missing some teeth.

Paul took the fish from the bucket one by one, used his knife to slit the skin all the way around their necks, and nailed each head to the nearest oak; the three tails strained and curled against the bark. The men stood by while Margo stunned one with a hammer and began tearing off its skin with pliers.

“Tell me what happened.” Though she knew better, Margo brushed against the catfish dorsal fin, and her middle finger burned.

“Well, we left The Pub and was at The Tap Room in Murrayville having a few beers, and Brian and this guy he’s playing pool with get to arguing, and then Cal Murray comes in. It’s like my brother has been waiting for Cal Murray but Cal’s been keeping a low profile. So Brian says to him, ‘I heard a guy shot your dick off. Heard all you got now is a nasty little stub,’ which is funny, but everybody’s scared to laugh. Cal Murray asks Brian does he want to suck it, and Brian tells him there ain’t no forgiving what you done to that girl. Brian hits him a couple times, and Cal don’t hardly even defend himself, which seems odd. I don’t know if he was drunk or what. Brian pushes him down some stairs, don’t seem to notice Cal isn’t fighting back, so he stomps the shit out of him on the steps. He broke both Cal’s legs.”

“What?” The fish skin split.

“Broke bones in his legs. You heard me.”

Margo took a deep breath and regripped the skin with her pliers. “Why’d you guys go to Murrayville?”

“It’s