sudden darkness crossed his face. “You know, Buck, I feel terrible about the way I treated you all. Kept you locked up like animals. And I’m ashamed to say I took your money. Used it to keep the farm from going into foreclosure, which was a big reason I’d been drinking so much. At the time, I figured I was just taking cash you’d stole yourselves from those folks in Lincoln, but that still didn’t make it right. I don’t know how I can repay you.”
I thought about the money I’d given to Mr. Schofield and the good I hoped it had done. And here was Jack before me, a changed man, and I understood that the money he’d taken had played a part in that change. And, honestly, I was so relieved to have the weight of the guilt over that dead man lifted off my shoulders that I felt almost giddy.
“Like you said, it wasn’t ours to begin with. I’m glad it did some good.”
Jack had been so focused on me that he hadn’t even seemed to notice my companion. Now he smiled at John Kelly. “Who’s this?”
“This here is . . .” I began, but because things had turned so quickly in his barn that once again offering the truth didn’t seem like the most judicious choice, I hesitated.
It was John Kelly who piped in with “Rico.”
“Rico, huh? Well, Rico,” Jack said, shoving out his hand, “pleased to meet you.”
John Kelly gave the man a good, firm handshake and winked at me.
One-eyed Jack stood. “I’ve got things to do, so I’ll be on my way. You ever find yourself down in Fremont County, you’re always welcome in my home.” He didn’t leave us immediately but stood a moment with his good eye closed and his face lifted, as if breathing in some sweet aroma. He touched his chest on the place where I’d put the bullet and he smiled. “Life’s stranger and more beautiful than I ever thought possible. Thank you, Buck, for that gift.”
He shook my hand and he walked away.
“Rico?” I said as we started back toward the bridge across the river to the Flats.
“You never seen Little Caesar? Edward G. Robinson? Rico? He’s one tough mug.”
My time with Jack made me late in getting back to Gertie’s, and Mose and Emmy were already hard at work. Gertie threw me immediately into helping prepare for the meal crowd that night, and I didn’t have a chance to say anything to the others about my encounter with the undead man. Dinner was a busy affair, but when we sat around a table together afterward, slopping up the stew that had been set aside for us, I braced myself to tell them about Jack. Before I could, however, Albert, Tru, and Calvin arrived, all in high spirits.
“Genius,” Tru declared, clapping my brother’s shoulder. “We’ve got us a bona fide mechanical genius here. Flo, give this man some food. And, Gertie, I think we need beer to celebrate.”
Flo rose from her chair immediately, but Gertie didn’t move. She cast a dour eye on Tru Waters. “What’s the deserving occasion?”
“I believe we got ’er licked,” Tru said. “The Hellor’s going to be ready to push tows down the river in a day or two, mark my words.”
Gertie looked to Calvin for confirmation. “The kid’s got the knack,” he said. “Even Wooster Morgan was impressed. Wants to hire Norman for the boatworks.”
“Over my dead body,” Tru said. “This kid’s joining my crew.”
Flo brought out beef stew, and Gertie brought out two glasses with foamy heads.
Tru said, “A glass for Norman, Gertie.”
She eyed my brother, who told her with a very un-Albert-like impish grin, “A beer would sure hit the spot.”
I knew Albert had been involved with Volz in bootlegging back at Lincoln School, but I’d never seen him consume any alcohol. He did that evening, and plenty of it, raising glass after glass.
* * *
I’D INTENDED TO tell them about Jack that night, but the beer had got to Albert, and he stumbled onto the bunk he shared with Mose and immediately began to snore up a storm. It had been a long day for Emmy, and she fell asleep almost the moment her head hit the pillow. Albert’s snoring made it impossible for Mose to sleep, and he finally stood and stepped out into the moonlight. I’d hoped that learning I hadn’t killed Jack would end my insomnia, but my brain was so full that, yet again, sleep seemed