Page 33 of Shelter for Martina

Bud shrugged. “Should I?”

Before she could answer, Marty whined, “Oh, god, please, sir! I need somebody I can trust!”

All he could do was let out a heavy sigh. It had to be some kind of ploy. But what the hell, what if he had some kind of information they could use? “Okay. Fine. Talk.”

“Sir, really, please? Please take me seriously? I’m in so much trouble, sir. I don’t know where else to turn.”

“Fine, fine. Talk.”

That was when Bud noticed Marty scanning their surroundings like he was expecting someone else to wander up. “Not here, sir. I’m, I’m, I can’t. It ain’t safe.”

Bud rolled his eyes. “Okay. Come on in. But I swear, if you try anything—”

“No, sir! I ain’t got no weapons on me! Nothin’, sir! I swear! I come in peace! Please!” the younger man cried out, hands in the air.

“Right. Come on in. Martina, go in the bedroom and shut the door.”

“But—”

“No. Do it. I mean it. Don’t come out until I tell you to. Please?” Bud feared for her safety. The guy was a wing nut, and anything could happen.

“Okay. Sure. I’ll go.” As she turned away, she mouthed,Be careful, and Bud nodded.

“Have a seat.” When Bud pointed at the sofa, Marty dropped onto it, elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. “Now what’s going on?”

“I didn’t know where else to go, sir. I needed to talk to somebody. Oh, shit, I’m in trouble. Big trouble.”

“What? What kind of trouble?”

“Okay, sir, um, ‘member when I told you I was at my daddy’s that night? An’ I left an’ Renita stayed?” Bud nodded. “Yeah, well, that was true. But I also told you that we wudn’t fightin’. An’ that weren’t true exactly.”

“So youwerefighting.”

“Yes an’ no. I mean, we wudn’t fightin’, but I was mad at her. She hid my stash.”

“And did you strike her or—”

“NO! God no! I ain’t never hit Renita! I love Renita! Not like that, you know, ‘cause I respec her an’ Darnell, a-course. So not a bad kind of love. But Renita, she’s the only one who understands me. She’s the only one I can call an’ she come runnin’ to help me, ya know? So no, I wouldn’t never hurt her. Never. But I was yellin’ at her an’ all, an’ my daddy say, ‘Girl, you give him his stash back.’ And she say, ‘You look here, PhilAdams, I know what y’all up to, you know, an’ don’ be givin’ him no mess now.’ At’s what she said. An’ I got all mad an’ said I was goin’ to her place in CentralCity an’ she should come, but she was blessin’ out my daddy. An’ I hear him say he goin’ muddin’ an’ she sayin’ she weren’t done with him yet. An’ I left.”

“And you went to her place in CentralCity?”

“I was goin’ to. But I didn’ know if Darnell was home, so I was afraid to go there, so I just slept in my truck. But I swear, she was fine when I left there!” He started to bawl again.

“Okay, so she was fine when you left.”

“Yeah, but then the next mornin’ I went back over there an’ ast my daddy whur she was at, an’ he said, ‘She ain’t here no more an’ she won’t be givin’ you no more grief, so you can go back to your dopin’ in peace an’ quiet.” I ast him what he meaned, but he wouldn’t tell me nothin’! Oh, god, sir, I don’ know what he done!” Bud started to ask him something else when Marty blurted out, “An’ I tried an’ tried to talk to her, but I couldn’t get her to answer her phone, an’ I got skeered, an’ I took them drugs an’ went out in them woods to die! ‘Cause I think he done somethin’ to her!”

Bud watched the young man. It wasn’t an act—Marty was beyond distraught, almost incoherent. He was scared, but Bud wasn’t sure exactly what it was that he was scared of. “So you think he did something to her?”

“Look, she knowed what they’z up to.”

“Who?”

Marty leaned in and whispered, “My daddy an’ SheriffYoung.”

Adams and Young?If Marty wanted Bud’s full attention, he’d found a way to get it. “What do you mean, Adams and Young?”

“Okay, okay, look here, sir. I’m-a tell you the truth, okay? You know that burglary down in Fordsville a couple-a weeks ago? Where them guns was took?”

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