The Redeemers Read Online Free Page A

narrowed his eyes. Mickey figured that six-month stretch must have been six months too long.
    “I thought Lee was in prison,” Debbi said, popping that gum.
    “He just got out.”
    “And you hired him back?”
    “Lee’s the best man I have.”
    “Didn’t he expose himself to a checkout girl at the Piggly Wiggly?”
    “He was relieving himself in the parking lot.”
    “Not the way I heard it.”
    “No?” Mickey said. “Well. Yeah, I guess the judge wasn’t buying it, either. Sit down. You still like that fancy hazelnut stuff in your coffee?”
    Debbi took off her sunglasses, spit out her gum, and sat down. Mickey filled a Styrofoam cup, mixed in a little Coffee-mate, and handed it over to her. She took it but didn’t thank him, holding the coffee in her hand, as Mickey took a seat behind a desk loaded down with more work orders than he could keep up with, stacked under a runner-up trophy from an over-forty softball league.
    “It’s been busy, Debbi,” Mickey said. “You know?”
    “Didn’t you tell Tonya that you’d ‘get her later,’ since she was living right next door to her momma and daddy and she didn’t need the money?”
    “No, ma’am,” Mickey said, slipping on a pair of half-glasses that hung from around his neck. He stretched out his legs under the desk, reading the delivery-and-installation list for the rest of the week. “I never said anything of the sort. We made an agreement during the separation. She’ll get the check. I am just a little late, is all. Business has been slow.”
    “Bullshit,” Debbi said. “You just got done sayin’ you’re busy. We got more building going on in this town that we can keep up with. It’s like Jericho got a damn do-over after the storm. Larry’s got the mill running day and night. Most of the timber is staying right here in Tibbehah.”
    “Good for ole Larry.”
    “Good for you,” Debbi said. “How much of your business comes from heart pine planks from our mill?”
    “A fair bit.”
    “More than that,” she said. “Larry wants you to think about your future.”
    “Is that what it come to?” Mickey said. “A silly-ass threat?”
    “I know you hate Larry,” Debbi said. “And he don’t like you much, either. You two always fought over who Tonya loved best. But let me tell you something right now. The real reason y’all hate each other is because y’all are just alike. You’re like a couple dogs pissing on the same tree branch.”
    “Pissing on Tonya?”
    “You know what I mean,” Debbi said. “Me and you always got along because we are just different enough that we can communicate. I know Larry and I know you. That’s why I came here this morning, all nice and pleasant, just wanting to know when you were going to get straight with my daughter.”
    “Correction,” Mickey said, standing, stretching out his aching back from loading all that cherrywood. “You marched onto the loading dock and said to me who the fuck do I think I am and then threatened about where my flooring supply is gonna be coming from.”
    “I can’t help but tell the truth,” Debbi said, taking a little sip of the free coffee. “I shoot straight. You and Larry’s the ones who shake hands, jackass around, and drink your goddamn Dickel, but, not five minutes after one of you is gone, y’all talking shit about one another.”
    “How’s that coffee?”
    “I had better coffee at the Quick Mart.”
    “Sorry about that.”
    “I appreciate the gesture,” Debbi said, standing up to her full five-foot-two, including the nails and hair and five pounds of makeup and jewelry. “Just get straight with Tonya. OK? Last thing I want is for you and Larry to get into a goddamn wrestling match like Thanksgiving. All that did was scare the kids and the dogs. You broke my favorite wineglass and the legs off a handmade coffee table.”
    “That was unfortunate.”
    “It was the Dickel,” Debbi said. “We’ll leave it at that.”
    “Larry called me a pussy