It was real quiet out at the Improper; dark and quiet was pretty much the story. Every few minutes a car or truck would buzz down 737, but that was 3/4 a mile away. Mark sat there, waiting for Dennis. He listened; he heard someone walking up the winding road, purposely making noise as if they were trying to scare away any predatory animals that might be lurking around.

"Your brother was here," Mark said to Dennis as he approached, "you were right my cousin was full of shit last night. "

"Big deal, no kidding he was here but I can top your story."

"Yeah, what?"

"I saw your friend Lloyd, that guy Binder and that old man pulling that fat priest you were talking about out of the back of an Astrovan. Burlap sack over his head and he was handcuffed; they took him into the Historical Building. I heard somebody-- probably him-- start screaming as soon as they got him inside. They had fire going up there in the tower, looked like they were burning torches."

"If you don't mind my asking, what were you doing at the Historical Society?"

"I was drinking over at Toad Creek-- you were a frequent topic of conversation by the way-- for a while and then decided I'd take a nice walk through the woods, you know with the full moon illumination and all. It's been a long time since I took a nighttime walk through the woods. I can tell you this, Mark, some of our answers as to what's going on in Kurtzville are up there in that tower. I'm pretty sure they killed that slob up there so you might want to exercise a little caution around your relatives. They might want you up there in that tower. I'm sure they'd like to see me up there. (pause) Boss, they are killing people up there.

"Yeah, well, that's why I carry my baby; I knew my uncle and most of that congregation he preached to weekly were a little nuts but I didn't think they were killing people. (Sure you didn't, Mark!).

They passed the next hour drinking beers, both of them silently overlooking the now quiet 737 and the nature that surrounded them.

"You sure you want to stay out here instead of the motel?"

"Yeah," Dennis replied, "the more I see of this town, the more I prefer being outside of it."

"Point taken. See you in the morning, we'll get some real work done."

Mark got into his car, gunned it to life and tore off back toward the motel.

*****************

Davidson had one more Bourbon Presbyterian, staring at himself in the mirror the whole time.

He drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

******************

Mark awoke at 6:30, showered and headed over to Topton and picked up a couple breakfasts to go. He drove with the top down, the chilling early November air whipping by. His spirits were high.

Upon arrival at the inn, Mark and Dennis ate breakfast and went to work-- continuing to remove the dead pieces of the Improper until roughly three in the afternoon. They stopped for the day and had beers. They weren't going to stop drinking for the rest of their stays in Kurtzville.

Mark surveyed the work completed and forked over three hundred fifty bucks in tens. "I'll buy the drinks later."

"Hey dude," Dennis asked sipping a beer, "you think we can drive out to the trailer park, maybe talk to that chick Ray went out with?"

The park was named the Beeber Trailer Park. It's just another rural trailer park ghetto, mostly populated by the unfortunates lucky enough to work at the local foundry. Jennifer came out of her house when she heard the GTO pull up; she had that "what now?" look on her face. He walked to the fence, keeping an eye on the gaggle of mixed race children running around the little yard.

He looked again at all those kids running around.

"You look like your brother, " she said to Dennis as they walked into the small property's front gate. "I don't know where he is. I talked to Maureen this morning; now I'm hoping he did leave town after the way Maureen was talking. I sure miss Ray. There's a guy, an Indian or Native American or whatever the proper term is these days, he owns a junkyard out on Schlegel Road. Look for the sign to the place, he had a better idea as to what Ray was up to than I do. Things are funny that way sometimes."

It started pouring as they pulled away, Jennifer called the children inside.