Spencerville

didn’t respond, but kept staring through his glasses. Finally, he said, “I don’t like you.”
    “That’s good.”
    “Never did.”
    “I know that.” He looked over Baxter’s shoulder at Ward, who was now sitting on the hood of the car, smiling.
    Baxter said, “Never will.”
    Keith said to him, “It’s very rude to wear sunglasses when you’re speaking to someone.”
    “Fuck you.”
    “Hey, Chief, you’re what they call trespassing unless you have an official reason to be here.”
    Cliff Baxter glanced over his shoulder at Ward, then stepped closer to Keith and said, “You’re a fucking asshole.”
    “Get off my property.”
    “Why’re you here?”
    “This is my home.”
    “Like hell it is. You don’t belong here.”
    “Chief, I’ve got six generations of my people buried in this county. Don’t tell me I don’t belong here.”
    “
You’re
gonna get buried in this county, sooner than you think.”
    Keith took a step forward so that they were face-to-face. He said, “Are you threatening me?”
    “Back off or I’ll kill you.” He put his hand on his pistol, and Keith could see Ward slide off the hood of the car and reach for his gun.
    Keith took a deep breath, then took a step back.
    Baxter smiled. “You’re not as stupid as you look.”
    Keith got himself under control and said, “Say your piece, Cliff, and leave.”
    Baxter obviously didn’t like the use of his first name and all that it implied. He took his glasses off and stared at Keith a long time. Finally, he said, “You’re fucking with my boys.”
    Keith didn’t reply.
    “And you’re fucking with me.”
    Again, Keith said nothing.
    “Behind the school. Meet me behind the school. That what you said?”
    “Yup. I was there.”
    “You’re lucky I wasn’t. You’d be laid out right now at Gibbs, stiff as a board, with that pink shit they use in your veins. And I’d spit on your face if you had a face left after I got through with you.”
    Keith didn’t reply.
    “My boys told me you was hidin’ behind that preacher’s skirt at St. James.”
    “You can leave Pastor Wilkes out of this.”
    “Yeah? Why? Anybody who fucks with me or my boys is automatically in it—up to his ears—and that includes God Almighty himself.”
    Again, Keith didn’t reply but just shook his head.
    Baxter continued, “And what the fuck were you doing at Baxter Motors?”
    “Speaking to your brother about a car.”
    “Yeah? And about my wife. If you keep asking around about me and my family, you’re gonna die. Understand?”
    Keith noticed that Baxter’s eyes were set close together, the sign of a predator in the animal kingdom, and his head swiveled from side to side as he spoke, as though looking for prey or peril.
    Keith tried to picture Annie with this guy for twenty years but knew that there was another Cliff Baxter, the home model. Cliff Baxter probably loved her, though she’d never tell Keith that, and Cliff Baxter thought he was a protective and caring husband, though most people would say possessive and abusive.
    Baxter asked, “Cat got your tongue?”
    “Nope.”
    “I’ll bet you got to take a piss right now.”
    “Nope.”
    “Nope, yup, nope, yup. You got nothing else to say?”
    “Yeah, I do. How did you get out of the draft? Mental or physical?”
    “Hey, fuckhead, I was a cop. I did my duty here.”
    “Right. So did the women and schoolchildren who sent letters and packages.”
    “You motherfucker—”
    “Hey, Chief, don’t talk the talk if you haven’t walked the walk. You want to prove you have balls? I’ll go inside and get my piece, or you take off yours. You call it. Guns, knives, axes, fists. It doesn’t matter to me how I kill you.”
    Baxter took a breath, and Keith saw by his body language that he wanted to take a step back. All said and done, Baxter still had the only gun between them, and there wasn’t much keeping him from drawing it. Except, Keith thought, Baxter probably had other plans for Keith Landry, something he’d been thinking about for the last few weeks. Baxter hadn’t come out here to kill him, so there was no reason to give him a reason. Yet, Keith couldn’t resist the opportunity to mess with his mind and maybe draw him into a fair fight. Keith said, “Okay? You want to have it out? I was about to take a break anyway.”
    Baxter smiled. “Yeah, we’re gonna have it out. But you ain’t gonna see it coming.”
    “Still the class bully.”
    “Yeah, and you’re