Page 83 of Trailer Trash

“He was drunk as a skunk.”

“If only Beasley and Branson know the guy’s name,” he said, reasoning through it out loud, “and no one but you knows how to find the body, then Beasley couldn’t have been arrested for anything to do with the murder.” He shook his head. “Beasley went to prison for driving under the influence,” he muttered to himself, then sucked in a deep breath. “Neely Kate, I need to know what’s going on.”

He was right. It was time to confess. “Beasley knew about the other guys, but he could tell something was off about this one. He couldn’t handle the guilt because he was sure the guy was going to hurt me bad or kill me. An hour after the appointment was supposed to start, he showed up in Branson’s car. I had just . . . the man was already dead. I wanted to call the police, but Beasley convinced me to help him load the body in the back of Branson’s car. He was pretty wasted, so I got behind the wheel, and he climbed into the passenger seat and passed out. I didn’t know what to do. I thought about calling the police anyway, but not only had I killed the man, but I’d moved the body too. I was scared, so I found a couple of shovels in the garage of the house and took off driving.”

“Where was the guy’s car?”

“I don’t know. The only car there was Branson’s.”

“What about when Branson took you there? Was there another car?”

“No, and the guy was already there.”

Jed turned to me. “How’d he get there?”

“I don’t know,” I said, getting agitated.

“It’s okay, we’ll figure that out later.” His voice was calm and soothing. “Where’d you go after you got the shovels?”

“The house was in the country, and I headed away from town. I pulled off onto a deserted-looking country road and woke up Beasley. We went several feet into the trees, behind a clump of wild azaleas, and dug a hole.”

“Canyoufind where you buried him?”

I swallowed, nauseated from the memories. “Yeah.”

He was silent for a moment. “How far away from the house did you bury him?”

“I don’t know. Maybe a couple of miles.”

“And how obvious are the azalea bushes? They’re not blooming now. It would be harder to find them.”

“I know where they are.”

“But could Beasley find them? He was in prison before, but what if Branson’s making him look now? Could they stumble upon it? Was there any other landmark Beasley would recognize?”

“There was a light pole about ten feet away. Somebody had nailed in a bunch of silver nails to make it look like a cross.”

“Can you see it from the main road?”

“No.”

“But if they started driving around, they could find it?”

“Yeah. If that cross is still there. And if Beasley remembers it. He mentioned it while we were digging, telling me that God was watching and judging him for letting his brother get away with everything he did.”

Jed was silent for a moment. “Let’s assume he remembers the cross, which means, given time, he’ll find it and dig up the body. What’s he going to find?”

“The body and a video camera.”

“Clothes? Was the man dressed?”

I cringed. “No.”

“Did you bury everything he had with him?”

“I think so. We got all of his clothes and the camera, his shoes, and his bag and buried it all together.”

“Were his clothes in the bag?”

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