Eventide - Kent Haruf [49]
There’ll be a bail hearing scheduled within seventy-two hours, the deputy said. What did you whip them with?
What?
You whipped them with something. What was it?
Let me ask you something. You ever seen those kids? Walking around town? They need discipline, wouldn’t you say? And you think their folks are ever going to do it? I don’t think so. They don’t know how. Wouldn’t even know where to start. So I was doing them a favor. All of them. They’re going to thank me someday. You have to have discipline and order in this life, isn’t that right?
That’s what you think? You believe that?
Goddamn right I do.
And you think an eleven-year-old girl and a six-year-old boy need to be physically abused to learn discipline?
It didn’t hurt them. They’ll get over it.
They’re in pretty bad shape right now. They look real bad. We have pictures to prove it. How long have you been doing this?
What are you talking about? That was it. One time. It’s not like I enjoyed it. Is that what you think?
You’re sure about that.
Yeah. I’m sure. What have they been saying about me?
Who?
Those kids. You’ve been talking to them, haven’t you?
What did you hit them with?
You’re still on that.
That’s right. We’re still on it. Tell us what you used.
What difference does it make?
We’re going to know.
All right. I used my belt.
Your belt.
That’s right.
The one you’re wearing right now?
I never used the buckle end. Nobody can say I used the buckle. Is that what they’re saying?
Nobody’s saying anything. We’re asking you. We’re not talking to anybody else right now. We’re talking to you. You used something else too, didn’t you.
I might of used my hands a couple of times.
You hit them with your hands.
I might of.
You used your fists, you mean. Is that what you’re saying?
Hoyt looked at him, then at the other deputy. What if I smoke in here? he said.
You want to smoke?
Yeah.
Go ahead. Smoke.
I don’t have my cigarettes. They’re out there in the front. Let me borrow one off of you.
I don’t think so.
Then let me buy one off you.
You got any money?
You mean on me? What the hell are you talking about? You emptied my pockets when you brought me in here. You know that.
Then I guess you can’t buy any cigarette, can you.
Hoyt shook his head. Jesus Christ. What a asshole.
How’s that? the deputy said, moving toward the table. Did you say something?
Hoyt looked away. I was talking to myself.
That’s a bad habit to get into. You can get into a world of trouble doing that.
WHEN THE SHERIFF’S DEPUTIES AT THE HOLT COUNTY JAIL finished questioning him that day, they led him back through the little corridor to the double row of cells. There were six in all, three on each side, and they were rank with the smell of urine and vomit. Hoyt stepped into the cell they’d indicated and sat down on the cot, and after a while he lay back and went to sleep.
The next day, upstairs in the courtroom, the judge set his bail at five hundred dollars. Hoyt had a little less than five dollars, no more than that. So they walked him back down to his cell in the basement and handed him orange coveralls that had HOLT COUNTY JAIL stenciled on the back in black letters.
It turned out the next docket day in this outlying district was a month away, since there had been one three days before, so Hoyt had to stay in jail waiting until then for his court date. When he heard about this state of affairs he cursed them all and demanded to see the judge.
One of the sheriff’s deputies who was nearby said: Raines, you better shut your goddamn mouth. Or somebody is going to come in there and shut it for you.
Let him try, Hoyt said. We’ll see how far he gets.
Keep it up, you smart son of a bitch, the deputy said. Somebody’s going to do more than just try.
Part Three
20
SO HE WAS ALONE NOW, MORE ALONE THAN HE HAD EVER been in his life.
Living with his brother seventeen