'We had state police, military police barricading everything. The water reached the damn ceiling of what had been my family home, and forget the trees. Not that we've ever depended on pecans to keep food on the table. But for a while my wife and I were living like the homeless in a center with about three hundred other people.'
'Your son did not cause that flood,' I gently said. 'Even he can't bring about a natural disaster.'
'Well, it's probably just as well we moved. People were coming around all the time trying to see where he grew up. It's had a bad effect on Rachael's nerves.'
'Rachael is your wife?'
He nodded.
'What about your daughter?'
'That's another sorry story. We had to send Jayne west when she was eleven.'
'That's her name?' I said, astonished.
'Actually, it's Rachael. But her middle name's Jayne with a y. I don't know if you knew this, but Temple and Jayne are twins.'
'I had no idea,' I said.
'And he was always jealous of her. It was a terrible sight to behold, because she was just crazy about him. They were the cutest little blond things you'd ever want to see, and it's like from day one Temple wanted to squash her like a bug. He was cruel.' He paused.
A herring gull flew by, screaming, and troops of fiddler crabs charged a clump of cattails.
Peyton Gault smoothed back his hair and propped one foot on a lower rail. He said, 'I guess I knew the worst when he was five and Jayne had a puppy. Just the nicest little dog, a mutt.' He paused again. 'Well' — his voice caught — 'the puppy disappeared and that night Jayne woke up to find it dead in her bed. Temple probably strangled it.'
'You said Jayne eventually lived on the West Coast?' I asked.
'Rachael and I didn't know what else to do. We knew it was a matter of time before he killed her -which he almost succeeded in doing later on, it's my belief. You see, I had a brother in Seattle. Luther.'
'The general,' I said.
He continued staring straight ahead. 'I guess you folks do know a lot about us. Temple's made damn sure of that. And next thing I'll be reading about it in books and seeing it on movies.' He pounded his fist softly on the rail.
'Jayne moved in with your brother and his wife?'
«And we kept Temple in Albany. Believe me, if I could have sent him off and held on to her, that's what I would have done. She was a sweet, sensitive child. Real dreamy and kind.' Tears rolled down his cheeks. 'She could play the piano and the saxophone, and Luther loved her like one of his. He had sons.
'All went as well as could be expected, in light of the trouble we had on our hands. Rachael and I went out to Seattle several times a year. I'm telling you, it was hard on me, but it nearly broke her heart. Then we made a big mistake.'
He paused until he could talk again, clearing his throat several times. 'Jayne insisted she wanted to come home one summer. And I guess this was when she was about to turn twenty-five, and she wanted to spend her birthday with everyone. So she, Luther and his wife, Sara, flew to Albany from Seattle. Temple acted like he wasn't fazed a bit, and I remember…'
He cleared his throat. 'I remember so clearly thinking that maybe everything would be okay. Maybe he'd finally outgrown whatever it was that possessed him. Jayne had a grand time at her party, and she decided to take our old hound dog, Snaggle-tooth, out for a walk. She wanted her picture taken, and we did that. Among the pecan trees. Then we all went back into the house except her and Temple.
'He came in around suppertime and I said to him, «Where's your sister?»
'He replied, «She said she was going horseback riding.»
'Well, we waited and we waited, and she didn't come back. So Luther and I went out to hunt for her. We found her horse still saddled up and wandering about the stable, and she was there on the ground with all this blood everywhere.'
He wiped his face with his hands, and I could not describe the pity I felt for this man or for his daughter, Jayne. I dreaded telling him his story had an ending.
'The doctor,' he struggled on, 'figured she just got kicked by the horse, but I was suspicious. I thought Luther would kill the boy. You know, he didn't win a Medal of Honor for handing out mess kits. So after Jayne recovered enough to leave the hospital, Luther took her back home. But she was never right.'
'Mr. Gault,' I said. 'Do you have any idea where your daughter is now?'
'Well, she eventually went out on her own four or five years ago when Luther passed on. We usually hear from her at birthdays, Christmas, whenever the mood strikes.'
'Did you hear from her this Christmas?' I asked.
'Not directly on Christmas Day, but a week or two before.' He thought hard, an odd expression on his face.
'Where was she?'
'She called from New York City.'
'Do you know what she was doing there, Mr. Gault?'
'I never know what she's doing. I think she just wanders around and calls when she needs money, to tell you the truth.' He stared out at a snowy egret standing on a stump.
'When she called from New York,' I persisted, 'did she ask for money?'
'Do you mind if I smoke?'
'Of course not.'
He fished a pack of Merits from his breast pocket and fought to light one in the wind. He turned this way and that, and finally I cupped a hand on top of his and held the match.
He turned this way and that, and finally I cupped a hand on top of his and held the match. He was shaking.
'It's very important you tell me about the money,' I said. 'How much and how did she get it?'
He paused. 'You see, Rachael does all that.'
'Did your wife wire the money? Did she send a check?'
'I guess you don't know my daughter. No way anybody is going to cash a check for her. Rachael wires money to her on a regular basis. You see, Jayne has to be on medicine to prevent seizures. Because of what happened to her head.' —
'Where is the money wired?' I asked.
'A Western Union office. Rachael could tell you which one.'
'What about your son? Do you communicate with him?'
His face got hard. 'Not a bit.'
'He's never tried to come home?'
'Nope.'
'What about here? Does he know you're here?'
'About the only communicating I intend to do with Temple is with a double-barrel shotgun.' His jaw muscles bunched. 'I don't give a damn if he is my son.'
'Are you aware that he is using your AT amp;T charge card?'
Mr. Gault stood up straight and tapped an ash that scattered in the wind. That can't be.'
'Your wife pays the bills?'
'Well, those kind she does.'
'I see,' I said.
He flicked the cigarette into the mud and a crab went after it.
