she wants to step down and live here quietly, thatâs perfectly fine with me. I might even keep her on as an advisor. Iâm just saying, Iâll be coming for what I want, and if anyone gets in my way, no matter how old or young they are, theyâll have to deal with the consequences.â
âYou are a vile woman, Bo-Kate Wisby,â Peggy said. âVile. Itâs the only word for it.â
âYeah, well, sticks and stones, Miss Peggy. You know âBonnie Annie,â right? Iâll steal my fatherâs gold and my motherâs money, just like the song says. But I donât need a sea captain; Iâll make myself a lady.â
âNot if somebody stops you.â
Now she laughed outright. âThereâs not a person in this town, in this valley, who can stop me. Not you, and for sure not that creepy-ass little girl. Iâll see you soon, Miss Peggy.â She turned and strode out of the lobby.
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
Peggy Goins stared down at the baggy with the severed fingers. The skin was cut clean, with the ends of the bones visible in the stump. Blood pooled in one corner of the bag. One finger lay nail-up, while the other displayed its pad. The distinctive fingerprint whorls were crisscrossed by tiny scars, and blocked in places by calluses from more years of banjo playing that anyone could imagine.
How many times had she, girl and woman, heard those fingers in action? The old man was a vicious, lying, perverted bastard, but he could make a banjo ring out like the bells of Christian heaven. Now, even if his other fingers remained, that sound was gone; no more would he create notes and chords only he could play.
Softly, she sang,
As I was a-walking down by St. Jamesâ Hospital,
I was a-walking down by there one day,
What should I spy but one of my comrades
All wrapped up in flannel though warm was the day.
She snatched a tissue from the nearby box and draped it over the bag of fingers like a burial shroud. Something essential had just died, permanently and irrevocably. It was like losing the rain. And it left a vacuum into which the awful Bo-Kate Wisby hoped to step.
She had to call someone. Mandalay was the obvious choice, but something stopped her. It wasnât like Mandalay wouldnât know what had happened on her own, anyway. That girl knew everything. Instead she pulled up Bliss Overbayâs number on the speed dial, but hesitated at the last moment. She couldnât go around spreading a panic.
So she went to the door to her apartment and hollered, âMarshall? Come on out here, and be quick about it, you hear me?â
Her husband emerged, yawning from his afternoon nap. âWhatâs wrong?â
She told him. And then she showed him the fingers.
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
As Bo-Kate climbed back into the SUV, Nigel looked up from the game on his phone and said, âSo, are we staying here at the Bobcat Arms?â
âNo, I told you. Weâre staying at my familyâs house.â
âIâve seen pictures of houses in Appalachia. Iâm not sure I know outhouse etiquette.â He paused, then added, âSo how did it go?â
âDelightfully. I left her speechless.â
âYou showed her the fingers, didnât you?â
âDidnât just show them. I left them with her. Now everyone in the county will know I ainât fooling.â
âWonât the police come looking for you, then? I mean, I know this is the hills and all, but isnât taking body parts, even excess ones, frowned upon?â
âYou just trust me, Nigel. What Iâve got in mind for this dump will blow your mind as much as it will theirs.â She pointed down the highway. âOnward, sir. Our castle awaits.â
*Â Â Â *Â Â Â *
Bliss Overbay awoke on her couch. She was confused for a moment, as the dream sheâd just been experiencing was so vivid.
Sheâd been in an airplane, the
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