One Hundred Two
NEARLY TWO DAYS later, Helene and her people still haven’t located Roof and Lynyrd, and there are still no leads on the death of Abby Wells.
I’ve spent the day in the fields with Charlie Hall and Les. When we finally call it a day, I change into my workout clothes and head straight for the gym.
No weights today, no stretching, no crunches or push-ups. I lace up old boxing gloves nearly worn out by now and go right at the heavy bag.
I need to hit somebody today.
I want to throw lefts and even a few overhand rights, no matter how much throwing shots like that hurts my shoulder.
But even that’s part of it.
I even want to hurt today, too.
Hurt for what they did to Holly. Hurt for Burt and even for Abby, whatever reasons she’d had for getting into bed—literally—with a Crockett.
If it had been Roof who shot her, that just meant I had one more score to settle with him.
Helene had said that Leamon Ridenour, because of what had happened with Holly, wanted to kill Roof as much as I did.
No, I think.
No, he doesn’t.
Not if EJ’s right and Roof really had been the one to leave my father dead in the middle of the road.
I imagine Roof Crockett standing in front of me and punch harder.
I jab. I cross. I duck and weave and shuffle to the left and right. I throw cross punches from both sides, more from the left because that’s my dominant side now, that’s just reality. I even spend about fifteen minutes doing side kick–punch combos like I’m in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Usually, I can only go at the bag like this for twenty minutes.
I go three times that long this afternoon, seeing the sun begin to set outside the window, but enough of the sun still on my face.
Even near the end, I still need to keep swinging, and kicking, away.
I listen to Daughn Gibson as I finally begin to wind down:
If I lose you,
I might write a song about some rain on the highway…
Rain on the highway, or one more dead body.
I throw one last vicious hook, all the strength I’ve got left behind it, this time trying to knock the bag right off its chain.