Dark Places by Reavis Z Wortham Page B

Earl says he needs me, and that’s pretty regular the way some of these gals are, not coming in and all.”
    â€œDid those guys ever stop here at night?”
    The carhop thought for a minute. Another car pulled in out of the rain on the other side of Anna’s patrol car. “Only once, last Friday. They came through about an hour or so before dark. Gotta go. Bye.”
    While she held the sweating Dr Pepper bottle and took a pull on the paper straw, Anna filed that little bit of information away. She made a note to come back and talk to the others later.
    She finished her burger and the carhop picked up the tray. Anna backed into the rain and continued down the street to the Owl Drugstore. Neither the pharmacist or his employees recalled the brothers. That one was definitely a dead end.

Chapter Twenty-one
    I was in the living room, scared and out of place. Pepper was gone and Miss Becky was cryin’ to beat the band. Norma Faye, Uncle Cody’s redheaded firecracker of a wife, at least that’s what Grandpa called her when none of the family was around, was sitting beside Miss Becky on the couch and rubbing her back.
    Pepper didn’t need to be with me all the time, but by being close by, she made me feel better if I was down in the dumps, like now. Right then I was feeling so out of sorts I didn’t know what to do. I was wishing Uncle Cody was there.
    Miss Becky dabbed at one eye with a cup towel. “Pepper’s gone, Top, and we need to go to church.”
    Of all the places Pepper might run off and hide, I knew it wouldn’t be the Assembly of God church across the pasture. “She ain’t there, Miss Becky.”
    It was like I said I’d hated her all my life. Her eyes widened and welled even more. She buried her face and bawled long and loud.
    â€œWhat’d I say?”
    Norma Faye blinked tears from her own eyes, shook her head, and laid her cheek on Miss Becky’s shoulder.
    Miss Becky’s voice was muffled from inside the now damp towel. “I’ve failed with both of them. The Devil’s done run off with one and the other’n don’t know that our salvation and hope is in the church. Pepper ain’t there, Top. Jesus is!”
    I still hadn’t learned when to talk, and when not to. “But you always said Jesus was right here with us, in our hearts, and all around us. What do we need to go to the church house for?”
    â€œHush, hon.” Norma Faye rose and gently tugged me by the shoulder toward the kitchen.
    I hadn’t been there but for a minute before Grandpa and Uncle James pulled up in the drive. The wet gravel sounded completely different under the car tires than it does when it’s dry outside. The back door opened and Aunt Ida Belle climbed out of the car. Her face was screwed up and she was crying too. They all came through the kitchen door, letting the screen bang shut.
    Slap, clop, clop.
    That’s when I knew when things were really bad, adults lettin’ screen doors slam.
    They weren’t no more’n through the kitchen and in the living room than the women commenced to wailin’ like somebody had died. It made me feel even worse, listening to them like that.
    Two marked cars came up the drive. Uncle Cody and Mr. John Washington finished filling up the living room with serious-faced adults.
    Uncle Cody pitched his wet hat on top of the TV. “Does anyone know where she might have gone?”
    Everyone shook their heads.
    Aunt Ida Belle got hold of herself. “Don’t nobody know where my baby girl is?” Her voice hitched like a kid’s. She always gets her hair permed at Geneva’s little shop by her house in Arthur City, but it was all wet and blowed up as if she’d been pulling at it.
    â€œTop!” It was Grandpa and he sounded aggravated.
    I knew that was coming. Here I was, all by myself and not knowing anything, but Pepper was still getting me in trouble.