Chapter 3

My naked ass exposed there on the river bank did begin to have a twinge of something else, though. I was only a seventeen year old girl, and while I had been through plenty, I hadn't ever experienced so much bloody violence as in the last couple of hours. So I guess it was a natural enough reaction for my belly to start to twitch and for me to feel as if I were going to throw up.

Since I pride myself about having natural class about certain matters, I won't go into the sordid physical description of what happened after my attack of nausea. Suffice it to say that in tossing my cookies, I also up-chucked the diamonds on the ground. I got some river water in an old slop-bucket and washed away like an old-time, placer gold miner. When I was through I had every single dia mond, clean and glittering in the palm of my hand. I felt real good holding a fortune of a half a million dollars in one hand. Who wouldn't? Now what?

For the first time since those three lice had started chasing me with knives in their hands, I sat down and started thinking about the future. Up until then it hadn't looked like I was going to have any future.

Now I began to think real hard. The first thing I thought of, or remembered, rather, was that Vern and his two creepy buddies had been afraid of using their rifles too much because it would bring the law down on them. What did that mean? That there was a police station real close by? Or a highway? Or somebody's house. No telling. Too bad I hadn't thought to question Vern while he was still alive.

I raised my head and listened. Nothing. At least, no police siren or the sound of anyobdy crashing through the bushes. On the other hand, that didn't mean that all those rifle shots hadn't been heard. And reported.

I decided I'd have to work fast. Even shook up as I was I didn't have to ask myself work faster doing what I could to figure that out all right.

What I had to do was cover my tracks as fast as I could, then make more tracks.

I set to work. The first thing I did was drag what was left of Vern to the river bank and shove him in. Telling it like this, it sounds real easy, but Vern must have weighed a ton, notwithstanding I'd shot quite a few pieces off him, and it was real work dragging his body to the river bank. Also he bled all over me, and I had to stop and wash his damn blood off me. I kept thinking when they found his corpse they'd be wondering what happened to his cock and balls.

Then I got hold of the guy I'd shot through the heart and dragged him down to the river and shoved him in.

After that it was the guy whose head I'd bashed in with a rock. Only before I dragged him to the river I took off all his clothes -on account of, dirty and old though his clothes were, they were a lot better than wearing nothing. And they had no bullet holes in them either.

Surprisingly enough, his shirts and pants fit me pretty good, after I rolled up the cuffs. His shoes were three times bigger than my feet, though, so I didn't even bother taking those off. I'd just have to go barefooted. Then I dragged his body, naked except for his shoes, to the river bank and pushed it out into the stream and waved good-bye to it.

I guess I could have just left the three creep's bodies lying where they'd been -but that didn't strike me as being too smart. The way I figured it, if I got their bodies into the river, they might float for twenty or even a hundred miles before they washed up. Which ought to sort of confuse and delay matters. Like, the cops wouldn't be able to figure out who got killed where.

Of course, if any detectives started prowling around the spot where the three guys had tried to kill me -and I'd ended up killing them -they'd be no doubt that something illegal had taken place. Seeing as how there was blood and no doubt tracks all over the place.

On the other hand, if there was nothing real obvious, like three bodies, lying around -why, it might be that the cops wouldn't check things out for a long time. By which time it might have rained and blood would have all soaked into the ground.

At any rate, smart or not, that's what I did and I can tell you I felt a lot more relaxed once I had all three bodies in the river. After that I gathered up their rifles and threw them into the river too.

I thought quite a bit about keeping one of the rifles, for a while at least, but in the end I decided against it. It was just too dangerous and conspicuous. So I settled for strapping on a hunting-knife sheath, plus hunting knife. And then I strapped it under my shirt so it wouldn't show.

Before I shoved the three moonshiner's bodies into the river I went through their pockets, of course, but they didn't have all that much on them; about eight dollars and twenty cents all totaled. Plus a cloth sack full of smoking tobacco and some cigarette papers.

I put that to good use right off. First by rolling myself a cigarette -a pretty crumbly one, I got to admit -and smoking it. Then I dropped the diamonds into the little cloth sack full of tobacco and drew the drawstrings real tight and stuffed it into my hip pocket, first making sure there weren't any holes in the pocket.

It wasn't a real safe place to hide a half million dollars worth of diamonds, but it was better than just dropping them into my pocket loose.

After that I sat down and shook all over, and then wept a little the way girls have a right to do when they're all shook up, and then I got up and did a little ass-shaking war dance of triumph -on account of I was not only still alive but had a fortune in diamonds on my hip -and then I climbed into the boat the three moonshiners had come in and shoved off.

I got the motor started with less trouble than I'd anticipated, and chugged my way down-river at half-throttle.

I thought quite a bit about going back upriver and doing something about poor Luke. Like giving him a Christian burial or else dumping his body in the river. But in the end I decided against it.

In the first place, I wasn't all that sure I could find the island again. And in the second place, I couldn't see as how anything on the island -including Luke's dead body -would point at me. Like, the cops, if and when they found his body, would most likely figure he's been killed and robbed by strangers.

Also, I just didn't figure it was wise to push my luck hanging about in this particular neck of the woods too long. All I wanted to do was put as much distance between me and my recent misfortunes as possible.

So I kept on chugging down-river.

Fortunately there wasn't any traffic at all on the river and only twice during the night did I pass any towns -and both times they looked like real small dumps. Not the kind of towns that would have river cops operating out of them.

Just to be on the safe side, though, I passed both towns way on the opposite side of the river, with the motor throttled way down.

Just before dawn I pulled in close to a big bank of trees on the river bank and hauled the boat up out of sight, covering it over with branches and stuff so it wouldn't be visible from the river, or even from a helicopter for that matter.

Then I crawled into a clump of bushes and went to sleep.

And slept all day.

In fact, it was late in the afternoon before I woke and jumpy and hungry though I was, I made myself stay where I was until it got dark again. Then I shoved the boat out into the river again and started the motor and away I chugged.

In a way it felt real safe being out on the river. But in another way, I knew, it was real dangerous. I could make good time chugging down-river with the current, but I knew it would only be a matter of time before I passed a real big settlement or else a boat full of river cops. And I could do without either one.

Also, I was real sick of the river by that time. In fact, I told myself -over and over -that I wouldn't be a bit sorry if I didn't see any water at all, except in a highball glass, for the rest of my natural life.

So I decided that, the first chance I got, I was going to get the hell off the river for good.

The first chance I got was around nine at night -though I didn't know the exact time until later, and then only by figuring back.

What I figured, rightly was my best chance was this house all by itself with no lights on. It was a big white-painted house with a little jetty sticking out into the water.

I steered the boat toward it, the motor throttled down as low as it would get and then, when I was still about fifty yards upstream, I killed the motor altogether.

The boat drifted right up to the little dock as quiet as you could ask, and I grabbed hold of a post and hung on and believe me, I was sure glad to have a grip on dry land again.

There was a little rope in the front of the boat, and I could have tied it up to the dock and left it there so's I could take off and be on my way downriver in a hurry if I ran into trouble. I didn't tie up the boat though. I felt disgusted with the river. It had brought me nothing but hard luck, and a rough time, except for the diamonds. Yes, I'd really been all fucked-up by ol' man river.

So, to make sure that no one would find the boat I set it adrift. I had first punched a few holes in its bottom with a pointed iron mooring rod, and I could see it settling slowly in the water as the current carried it downstream.

Now, I turned my attention and hopes toward the house. There were no lights on, but everything was in too good shape for it to be deserted. If I were lucky I could begin to get my bearings there. I wanted to get into a nice, warm bed, anyplace, with clean sheets on it. I wanted to be able to stretch my ass in comfort without feeling that someone was ready and waiting to pry my thighs apart and shove his stiff prick in me whether I liked it or not. In short, I just hoped I could get a good night's sleep -alone.