Fish Farm by Walt Sautter (top rated books of all time TXT) 📕

damn right he’s gonna come. No problem. He’s seen me in action and I know he’s scared shitless of me. He’s do what ever I tell him” answered Jack with an air arrogance.
“You wait here and make sure nobody comes snoopin’ by. I’ll go meet him and get the bags. We’ll slide him in and carry him out to the car” said Jack.
“Then what?” replied Clyde.
“Tomorrow we’ll go fishing” answered Jack as he turned and walked towards the park entrance to meet Petey.
Clyde stared, perplexed at Jack’s reply as Jack retreated into the shadows.
After several minutes of waiting, Petey’s old Toyota pulled up to the curb.
“Gimme the bags and wait here” yelled to Petey through the open passenger window.
Petey motioned to the pile of bags on the seat. Jack reached in, grabbed them and disappeared back into the darkness.
Soon Jack and Clyde emerged through the mist. Clyde had Wheeler’s bag wrapped body slung over one shoulder.
“Open the trunk” Jack instructed and the deck lid popped.
Jack raised the lid.
“What’s all this shit you got in here?” he snarled and slammed it shut.
“Open the back door” he again commanded.
“Put him in here” gestured to Clyde who obligingly slid the body into the back seat.
“Get in and let’s go” he continued.
Clyde paused for a moment to get his breath and then he walked to the other side of the car and got in the back seat next to Wheeler’s lumped form. Jack got in the front next to Petey and the car lurched forward.
“What the fuck’s going on? What’s in the bag?” asked Petey as they drove towards home.
“Have to take a ride to Larry’s tomorrow morning, early” replied Jack.
“Holy shit! You got to be kiddin’ Not again!” answered Petey in dismay.
Jack’s reply made Petey obviously nervous. He grasp the steering wheel with both hands and bowed his head forward. He chastised himself as the ride continued. How did he get himself into this shit in the first place he questioned over and over.
“Well it’s too late now” he thought to himself. He certainly wasn’t about to confront Jack.
When they got back to Petey’s place they cleaned out the trunk and stuffed Wheeler’s garbage bag clad body into it.
“See ya in the mornin’ light, about six. Call Larry and tell him we’re comin’” and the three left Petey’s make-shift hearse for the night.
Chapter 13
The morning the sun shone brightly as Jack made his way over to Petey’s. He immediately walked to the back of the building to check the car and make sure it was undisturbed. He then called Petey.
“I’m by the car. Let’s go” he said and hung up.
Several minutes later they were on their way to Larry’s.
They rode quietly, each uneasily contemplating the task lying ahead. After a prolonged silence, Petey spoke.
“I kinda thought the Firemen were a done deal after our last trip to Larry’s. I haven’t seen hide nor hair of them around the neighborhood since. I thought we scared ‘em all off” he began.
Jack said nothing.
“Which one is the guy in the trunk?” continued Petey.
Again Jack failed to reply.
“You okay Jack?”
“Yeah I’m okay” answered Jack abruptly.
“Let’s just get up to Larry’s and get this over with” he added.
“Yeah, I know what you mean” said Petey and they continued their sober journey.
Soon the sign, “Larry’s Fishin’ Hole” loomed ahead. Petey turned down the long, dusty road. There was Larry waiting on the porch, rocking slowly back and forth and puffing on short cigar stub.
“How ya doin’ boys?” announced Larry with a forced grin.
“I see ya brought me another one of your local pricks. How many more is it going take before they catch on and get the fuck outta town on ya?” he continued.
“I’m guessin’ their a bunch of dumb fucks, slow learners. Jack trying to teach ‘em, aren’t ya Jack?
But its just not sinkin’ in?” Petey added.
Jack nodded slightly but said nothing.
“Let’s have a couple beers before we finish this up. Kinda get our stomachs up for it if you know what I mean” said Larry as he disappeared into the house to retrieve three cold ones.
Several drinks later, the three got into Petey’s car and rode to the pond. The bright yellow chipper sat next to the pond, like a grizzly monster awaiting its subsistence.
Petey popped the trunk and they pulled the garbage bagged form from it. Larry slid the first bag from the corpse exposing Wheeler ashen face to the glaring sunlight.
Upon seeing it, he rose sharply from his bent stance stilling holding the bag.
“What the fuck is this?” he exclaimed.
“This aint no young punk!”
At the sight of Wheeler’s face, Petey looked up at Jack with equal surprise.
“What’s goin’ on here?” asked Petey.
“Look, I was all for helpin’ you guys get rid of those little pricks that are terrorizing your neighborhood but I’m not up for this kind of shit” said Larry sternly.
“Larry, I didn’t know. I thought it was one of the gang like you did” explained Petey.
They both looked squarely a Jack awaiting his explanation.
“Did you ever hear of Tyron and the Tyron collapse?” asked Jack.
“Can’t say as I did. I don’t ever watch the news anymore. I can’t deal with it. It just pisses me off too much. Aint watched it in years” answered Larry.
“I kinda remember somethin’ about it. Sounds familiar anyway” added Petey.
Then Jack continued.
“Let me tell you the whole thing” began Jack and with that he blurted out the entire story. He began with the loss of his job at Tyron and ended with Clyde accidentally killing of Wheeler. Larry and Petey listened intently with little emotion.
Jack concluded and Larry spoke.
“Well, whatever the case, I guess we gotta get rid of him.”
Larry proceeded to remove the bag from the lower part of the body. As he did, he continued to intensely peruse Wheeler’s lifeless countenance.
“This guy look awful familiar for some reason” he muttered to himself under his breath.
After a few minutes the body was disrobed and Larry pulled hard on the starter cord and the chipper roared to life. Jack and Larry raised the body onto the bed of the machine and it towards the whirling blades.
Again, as before, the machine did its gruesome task and a flurry of bright red, semi liquid pulp sprayed into the pond. It was met by churning water were in landed as the fish scrambled for their share of the ghoulish feast.
Within minutes, it was over, Wheeler had been consumed by the chipper, the spray ceased and the pond waters returned to their usual colorless calm.
Larry proceeded to wash down the machine while Jack picked up the pile of discarded clothing and carried it towards the rusty oil drum and threw them in for burning. The grim clean up completed they all piled back into Petey’s car for the ride back to the house.
“Wait a minute” announced Larry.
“We gotta burn up the guy’s duds. I sure don’t want thing layin’ around here” he said as reached for the car door handle.
“What did you find in his pockets?” asked Larry as fumbled to find a match.
“Holy shit! I put the clothes in the barrel and didn’t even look. You would think I’d know better this time” replied Jack.
Larry walked to the barrel and pulled the clothes from it. He rifled through the pants pockets and withdrew a wallet and stuffed into his own pocket. He then lit a match and ignited one of the sleeves of Wheelers shirt. When it was thoroughly aflame he dropped it and the rest of the clothing back into the barrel.
He got back into the car as smoke poured from the fiery container and they pulled away. Back at the house they sat silently on the porch each trying to clear his memory of the macabre task they had just completed. After several moments Jack broke the stillness.
“Larry – what did you find in the wallet?” he inquired.
Larry reached in his back pocket and pulled it out. He opened the money compartment and began to count.
“Twenty-three dollars!”
Then he slipped a small stack plastic cards from the other compartment and began to slowly shuffle through them.
“James Wheeler!” he announced in a startled voice.
“Yeah, that was his name” replied Jack.
Larry continued to stare at the card and then reached into another one of the wallet’s compartments. He slid out a piece of laminated plastic containing a dark shriveled fragment. He stared at it intensely for a few moments and then grasp it tightly in his fist. Then, without a word, he rose and walked into the house.
Jack and Petey continued to sit on the porch. A few seconds later they heard the screen door slam behind them signaling Larry’s return.
Suddenly, Petey heard the deafening blast of a shot gun blast. Jack lurched forward from his chair falling face down on the porch floor. Bits of hair, flesh and bone were scattered over the decking adjacent to his body and spurts of blood gushed from the huge hole in the back of his head.
Petey turned to see Larry standing in front of the doorway holding the still smoking gun by his side. He instinctively closed his eyes and raised his hands shielding his face from what he expected to be Larry’s next shot. Seconds passed and not a sound. He opened his eyes and slowly lowered his hands looking at Larry in astonishment as he did so.
“Don’t worry Petey I aint gonna shot you” announced Larry.
Petey swallowed hard and squeezed out a terrified reply.
“What’s going on?
You just killed Jack!
Right out of the blue like that!
Why?”
Larry sat down in Jack’s empty seat.
“I had too” he answered, “I just had too.”
“What the fuck do you mean ‘Had too’?”
Larry held the small, laminated object that he had retrieved from Wheeler’s pocket for Petey to see.
“Know what this is?” he asked.
Petey leaned forward for a closer look.
“Can’t really tell. Looks like beef jerky!”
“It’s a Cong’s ear. Been in this guy’s wallet since sixty-eight when I gave it to him” replied Larry soberly.
“You mean you knew the guy we just shot into the pond?” asked Petey incredulously.
“Knew him? Shit yeah I knew him. He was Knotsy, my bud from Nam. When we first pulled him outta the bag I thought he looked familiar but I aint seen him in twenty-five years or more so I didn’t really recognize him.
Jack never did tell me his name so I never put anything together until I pulled his wallet outta his pants pocket and saw his name was Wheeler. The was Knotsy’s last name, Wheeler.
And then when I found this I knew for sure it was him.”
There was a quiet and then Petey finally spoke.
“So why did you just kill Jack? He couldn’t have known that he Wheeler was your friend Knotsy” asked Petey.
“Don’t know. I guess it was just that old Nam thing.
It just came right over me. I just had too. It was like Jack, all of a sudden, looked just like that Cong that I shot outta the tree that day when everybody got killed ‘cept me and Knotsy. I looked up at Jack a couple of times after I found Knotsy’s ear and each time I was hopin’ to see Jack but I just kept seein’ that Cong sniper’s face on him.
After lookin’ at him four or five times and seein’ the