Nobody Knows Your Secret

20

Onus was fed. Check. Baloney sandwiches and sodas and bottled water. Pecan pound cake. Check. Gloves. Check. Eustian's keys. Check.

Time to tackle more junk at Eustian's empire of trash and rubbish. Hadley drove to Beanie's modest house and tooted the horn. He came shuffling out of the door and got into the car.

"Good morning, Beanie. Ready to hit the trail?"

"We goin' hikin'?" asked Beanie.

"Naw," said Hadley.

"Figger 'a speech," said Beanie.

"You got it, Bean. "At least, it isn't too warm this morning. That fog and those low clouds are going to keep the temperature down today."

"Yeah, I hope that's baloney in that big grocery bag. I can haul that entire house and put in the dumpster if there's baloney waiting for me when I finished. I think you got the best baloney I ever ate in my whole life."

"Well, thanks. And my baloney thanks you, too," said Hadley.

They drove in comfortable silence.

"Road's better today," Beanie said.

"A couple of days without rain allows some of that mud to dry up," Hadley said.

Eustian's house loomed up ahead.

"Hadley."

"Yeah, Bean."

"That house don't look no nicer, does it?"

"We'll put on our nicest faces. Maybe the old place will warm up to us."

Parking her car under a huge old oak tree, Hadley got out. Beanie sat in the car.

"What is it, Bean?"

"Nuthin,' I guess. It's gonna be a sad day when we finish up here."

"What do you mean? You just said this house wasn't nice."

"Oh, I don't mean about that. Baloney."

"What's the matter? You hit your leg getting out of the car?"

"No," Beanie said. "I was just thinkin' how much I'm gonna miss your baloney."

"Oh, Bean. Don't you worry about that. You'll always have my baloney. Even if I have to hunt you down by a graveside to kingdom come to give it to you."

"Harvey don't like us eatin' while we work, Hadley," Beanie said.

"I'll leave it with Harvey, then. And he can give it to you later."

"Okay, Hadley," Beanie said. "You know, the clouds are sleepin' on the ground over yonder."

Hadley looked across the meadow to the decaying remains of the amusement park. Gray tendrils of wispy fog swirled around the clown's head, shrouding it like a veil. It twisted and moved, diving into the opened mouth of the clown and back out again.

"Looks like the clown is hungry," said Beanie. "I'm glad we are a far piece away. Ain't you?"

"It does look like it woke up on the wrong side of the bed," said Hadley. "I never figured out why Vance Odis wanted folks entering his park through a giant face. And it's not even a friendly or funny or inviting face. And who wants to be eaten by a clown? Never made sense to me."

"Me, neither. I think it would hurt. I'd run out before it could chew me up. Then they'd say Beanie was spat out by a clown. But I don't care none what they say."

Beanie studied the huge clown head.

"Anything that ugly's probably got bad breath too," Beanie said. "That clown scares me."

"Good thing we don't have to stand here all day and look at it. Come on. Let's get to work."

They turned to the house, climbing up the steps to the front door. Hadley unlocked the door and peered inside.

***

"Looks like the string is still intact, Beanie. Guess we'll start here and just clear out the junk as we come to it."

Hadley set aside several empty cardboard boxes. The entrance to the house was crammed from floor to ceiling. The first piles she encountered looked like remnants of court cases Eustian had filed against one HopeRockCounty citizen or another down through the years.

No one was safe from being sued by him. She separated the reams of legal documents she and Beanie found from the books, clothes, shoes, lamps, and other debris cluttering the room into the boxes.