Black Night Falling Read Free

brought Robinson here. Figured, again, I’d loused up by coming.
    *
    For four days after Robinson’s call, I’d done my best to lay it aside. Told myself he was a drunk and what he was asking was crazy. It’d worked at first, or so I thought, but his words took root in my mind and gnawed at me; they came to me in my dreams at night, and were still with me when I woke in the morning. Dead girls. Unfinished business. The right thing.
    The more they stuck with me, the more I’d railed against doing what he asked. I came up with explanations for his true motivations: that he was playing me somehow, or worse, baiting me into a trap. Hot Springs was no distance from Texarkana; I’d made enemies there and, at a stretch, I could see Robinson having made a deal with them to lure me back.
    As much as I tried, I couldn’t make those notions stick. For all his faults, Robinson wore his heart on his sleeve, and I didn’t think him capable of masking his intentions that way. His plea had struck me as earnest, and in the end I came to believe he needed my help.
    When I’d stripped the rest of it away, all that was left was cowardice. Same as always. The thought of going to a place so close to Texarkana terrified me, and once I’d recognised what was holding me back, I had no choice but to go. I was done with letting fear dictate my course.
    I’d first talked to Lizzie three days ago. I’d said nothing before then because I saw no point in troubling her with it when I’d dismissed the whole stupid notion from the get-go. It hurt to tell her what I was intending, just as she was starting to see a future that wouldn’t always be tainted with darkness.
    Lizzie had kept her own counsel while I talked, letting me tell it at my pace. The telephone call. Going back on my decision. My reservations. My fear. When I was through, she’d said I was crazy.
    ‘If he’s in trouble, you don’t have to be the one to ride to the rescue.’
    ‘It’s more complicated than that. You remember what he was like, he’s not the kind to ask for help for himself. He talked about girls turning up dead, evidence to show me.’
    ‘And that’s enough for you to come running?’
    ‘Listen to what he’s saying.’ I stood up, rubbing the back of my neck. ‘What if it’s connected?’
    Her eyes were locked on mine. ‘Connected to what?’
    ‘To Texarkana. That was the implication. Why else would he come to me?’
    She turned away, and I caught her glance at the picture of Alice. ‘We’re here now. That’s behind us.’
    I recalled the way the newspapers had reported on the killings after the fact – Richard Davis as the lone crazy, responsible for all the murders. No mention of Winfield Callaway or Sheriff Bailey’s involvement, or their past crimes; the cover-up in place. Their deaths were written up as being the result of a robbery gone bad. No connection was made between the two happenings. I never knew if Robinson went to Callaway’s house that morning. Someone in Texarkana had to have orchestrated the lies that came after, and it was alarming to question now whether Robinson had ever tried to piece together the truth – or if he’d gone along willingly with the fabrications. ‘Doesn’t mean it’s over.’
    ‘Then that just speaks to the risk you’re taking. They have long memories over there—’
    ‘I’m not going to Texarkana. It’s not the same thing.’
    ‘You just said it’s connected.’ She watched me, waiting for me to say something.
    ‘I said it could be—’ She gave me a hard stare that stopped me trying to back away from my own words. ‘Look, I know there’s a risk,’ I said. ‘But it’s a small one—’
    ‘And still you’re willing to go? Everything we’ve built here . . .’
    ‘It doesn’t have to change any of that. I’ll be back in a few days.’
    ‘You can’t know that.’
    I walked into the dinette, Lizzie following after me. ‘Whatever’s going on there, I can’t just stand by if