I’m Fixin’ To Play Dead (Part 43)

I felt like something wasn’t right, after Sissy disappeared into the night dressed like she was on her way to some kind of awards ceremony, while claiming she was headed for her job, and after Louise informed me that she worked at a bowling alley out on South Boulevard. If that was true she had to be the best-looking and best-dressed employee of any bowling alley on the planet.

It just didn’t add up and I was about to press Louise for some kind of explanation, which she must have sensed, because as soon as I opened my mouth she diverted the matter at hand by blurting out, “Sonny Boy, it appears you got your own troubles to worry about, and I would like to know what kind of trouble you’re in.”

I was startled, but managed to respond, “I-I-I don’t think I’m in any kind of trouble except for maybe I fired a pistol in a public place when I shot out Red’s tires on his taxi.”

“That ain’t nothing,” Louise said as she waived her hand like she was erasing the incident from existence. “What I’m talking about, Sonny Boy, is where all that money you got come from. I mean I saw it all when I stacked it up on mine and Leon’s bed in our hotel room at the Beau Rivage. I ain’t never seen nothing like that and likely won’t ever again. So come on, who did you steal it from?”

It took a good 15 minutes of explaining about how I had earned, invested and come by the money honestly. I still wasn’t sure she believed me when I noticed it was 11 p.m. and said, “Louise, we need to hear some news. I’m wondering what they’re saying about Leon’s death and what Red had to say when they locked him up.”

She stood up and said, “Then let’s move into the den and turn on the TV. The eleven o’clock news ought to be coming on soon. I’ll turn on the TV if you’ll get us a couple of cool ones.”

We settled onto the sofa in the den and Louise tuned in to a local news channel. After reporting on a few national incidents, a talking head moved on to what was happening in the state.

He got our full attention when he said, “A bizarre incident took place yesterday afternoon just off Interstate 65 between Montgomery and Mobile when gunshots were fired and a man and a woman drove off in a pickup truck, which was later found abandoned on Hwy. 44 just outside of Thomasville. Two of the shots fired were into the tires of a taxi with a Georgia license plate. It was also abandoned at the site of the shooting. Police are still investigating and no arrests have been made.”

I looked at Louise only to find she was already looking at me with a look of horror on her face. We both knew what the news report meant. It meant that Red was still on the loose!

“Oh my Lord,” Louise gasped. “How do you think that red-headed devil got away?”

“I wonder about that myself,” I replied. “I suppose he just walked away before the cops got there, but there’s a more important question, where is he now?”

Louise got up an began pacing back and forth before she looked at me with her eyes wide and scared looking and speculated in almost a whisper, “There’s no way he could have followed us, and he don’t know nothing about me having a sister her in Montgomery.”

A sense of dread began to creep over me and I expressed what I thought the reason for it was to Louise. “But he does know where Leon lived, Louise, and you were with Leon. He could go back to the trailer park in Birmingham and trace you from there.”

She sat back down on the sofa, visibly shaken and asked, “How the heck could he possibly know where me and Leon lived?”

“Because he was there,” I informed her. “Much to my regret I took him there when I was chasing Leon. By the time we got on down to Biloxi, he had figured out I was chasing someone who lived in that trailer park, which turned out to be Leon, and you know the rest of the story from there. We may still have ourselves a problem with Red!”

Louise gasped and asked, “You don’t think he’ll come looking for us, do you?”

“I sure do, for two reasons—the money, and the fact that your testimony that he’s a murderer could land him in that hot seat they got over at Parchman State Prison in Mississippi!”

“You got me scared, Sonny Boy!” Louise moaned. “You still got that pistol? I want you to make sure it’s loaded and be ready to be fixin’ to use it!”