Deliverance - James Dickey [96]
I'll just goddamned well guarantee y'all met up with him somewhere. And I'm on prove it." "Fine, prove it." "What's wrong with you, Mr. Queen?" the sheriff asked. "Why jump on these fellows about something in your family? Just 'cause they're from the city? Maybe your brother-in-law fell down and got hurt." "No, he wudna." "Why are you so damned sure that anything happened to him?" I said. "I just got a feeling," Queen said. "And I ain't ever wrong about that." "Well, you're wrong this time," I said. "Now stop bothering me. Go and do whatever you've got a mind to do. But get off my back. I've had it with this river, with the woods, with the whole fucking business up here and most especially with you. Unless you've got something to accuse us of, and have got some evidence to support what you're saying -- whatever it is -- you can goddamned well let me alone." He backed off, muttering, and I went over to the patrolman I had been sitting beside. Queen didn't have a thing on us, and he wouldn't get anything. I wondered if one of the two men we had killed had really been his brother-in-law, and I tried to think of a way to find out his name, but decided I had better let it go. There was no real reason I needed to know his name, except for my own satisfaction, and I doubted that it would be much satisfaction, either way. The men in the river were working downstream. Every now and then one of the hooks would snag a rock, and everybody would converge on it. I could see the light in their eyes change, some dreading, some anticipating, some happy. My blood quickened and my side hurt within its hurt when this happened, but it was always for nothing. All day, almost, the wound leapt and subsided, and in all that time the searchers made only about two hundred yards. Sheriff Bullard came over. "Looks like that's goin' to haf to wind it up tonight," he said. "Getti' too dark." I nodded and got up. "You boys be staying in Aintry this evenin'?" "I guess so," I said. "We're still pretty tired and beat-up. And I want to see how Lewis is doing, in the hospital. He has a bad break in his leg." "Is bad," the sheriff said. "Doctor said he's never seen a worst un." "We're at Biddiford's," I said. "But you know that." "Yeah, I know it. We'll be coming back out here tomorrow morning. You can come if you want to, but you don't have to." "I don't see any reason for us to come," I said. "If the body's not right in here, I don't know where it is. Maybe farther downstream." "We're going to try upstream, a little." "No use," I said. "But do whatever you think's right. If you find any bodies up there, though, they won't be Drew's. This is where he went under, and if you find him it'll be downstream." "Maybe we'll split up, and some work up and some work down." "OK. Fine. But this is the place; I'd bet my life on it. I marked it with that big yellow tree, and I kept looking at it all the time we were trying to find him. He's downriver; there's not but one way he can go." "Right," said the sheriff. "Not but one way. We'll let you know if we find him, and I'll come by to see y'all sometime tomorrow afternoon. Much obliged to you, for your trouble." Bobby and I ate another big dinner, and went up to bed. There was no need to talk anymore; all the talking had been done. Now was the time for the finding or the not finding. The next day we went out to see Lewis, who was much better. His leg was raised in pulleys, and he was reading the county paper, which had a story about Drew's disappearance, and an account of dragging the river for him, with a picture in which I could recognize myself and Deputy Queen. He had his fist up at my face, and I knew that the picture had been taken during the last part of the time we had been talking. I looked like I was being tolerant, just barely listening out of courtesy. Everything helped; this too. There were no policemen with Lewis, but he was not alone in the ward anymore, for the night before they had brought in a farmer whose foot had been run over by a tractor. He was at the other end, and asleep. I told Lewis what had happened,