Green Eyes Cry, You Die, page 7
part #2 of Layton Shayne Mystery Series
“I did give him my last name already,” I said, sheepishly… which surprised me.
“Now that is something—a name can be an important thing,” she said before turning back to me.
It was her turn to face me down, and I suddenly felt like a small child about to be rightfully scolded.
“Did I pass your test?”
“With flying colors, I’m embarrassed to say, Ma’am,” I said, getting flustered. “I….”
“This world is full of ill will and judgmental people; why should I add to all of that? I see two men in love in front of me, and no matter what anyone might say—love is a good and godly thing in my book.”
She smiled at us again, then looked toward the counter at Angie, who’d just entered carrying two large bakery boxes.
“I do wish you’d take ‘em gratis,” Angie said.
“Nonsense, besides all the members put in for this little treat,” the woman said, walking to the counter and opening her purse. “If a good workman is worth his wages, than a good work woman is doubly worth it. Angie, you’re too good a baker to go out of business. But, how exactly are you going to stay open, if you keep trying to give stuff away.”
“Angie,” I said. “Would you please put her purchases on my bill?” I then turned to the woman. “Please consider it an act of penance for my rudeness earlier.”
“You don’t really need to do it, but I’ll accept it as a blessing onto the church women’s group, and I pray double the blessings on you and yours. I’ll save this week’s funds for our next meeting.”
I got the door for her; she smiled again at me, then spoke.
“Your man’s cute, you’d better get a ring on his finger soon, so folks’ll know he’s spoken for.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” I said. Once she was gone, I turned to Alex and Angie. “Now there went a true lady.”
“She must’ve caught you red-handed saying something not so nice,” Angie said. “I recognize the look on your face—had it myself once when she heard me cursing.”
“Her clothes looked expensive,” Alex said. “Like she comes from money.”
“You’re wrong there, honey,” Angie said. “She works with the ‘at risk’ youth around here, and she’s one of the most humble women you could ever meet. I wouldn’t say this, but I don’t want you two getting the wrong impression of her. I know for a fact, she bought that suit and the other two she has at a thrift store in Mt Ore on clearance. And she’s no clotheshorse either, just clever about how she alternates the few clothes she does have.”
“I’m sorry,” Alex said. “I didn’t mean anything by my comment.”
“I know,” Angie said. “It’s just that the woman and her family have suffered so much already at the hands of some evil people. Most women couldn’t handle what happened to her and come out so—oh, what’s the word… normal, I guess. And on top of that, she’s done so much to help the youth here… if it weren’t for her, they’d probably be in gangs, and maybe worse. At their age, people are easily swayed; and unfortunately, mostly by bad folks who’d use them for evil doings.”
“Are there lots of evil folks in these parts to be wary of?” I said, having found an opening, and trying to pry it open further to get more information.
“I wouldn’t exactly say evil, like the people that did her wrong, but there are some crazy folks around here. Mostly, those that are associated with, or looking for, that cursed statue; like the Cult of the Green Lady run by some of those crazy gays at the nudist campground, and there are plenty of rumors about the hippie folks in nearby Aurora. Actually, I don’t really believe the hippie folks are into looking for her—they’re too into finding inner peace; and they wouldn’t have that looking for her. We also have our Green Ladies Guild here. They’re harmless enough, just a bunch of rich old hens doing their version of the Red Hat thingy. They do a lot of good charitable work—heck, I shouldn’t say anything about them. Their green queen Prudence Bailey is a good one. She’s crazy, but nice enough, and sweet as can be. Smart too—she opened up her big old Victorian home as a bed and breakfast, and likes to play up the whole green-eyed lady thing to make a buck. Prudence is always bragging that she owns the actual green-eyed lady statue, but I think that’s probably just part of her playing it up the way we all do to help sell whatever we’re selling.”
“Makes sense to me,” I said. “Do the Green Ladies Guild members wear green hats and stuff like the Red Hat gals have their color hats?”
“Ya better believe it,” Angie said. “I could’ve joined, but anything related to the green-eyed lady scares me.”
“Why?” I said. “It’s all just a legend, isn’t it?”
“I wish, honey,” Angie said, leaning over the counter as if sharing a secret with us. “There’s always been some strange stuff going on in this town. Back in the day, my daddy saw some stuff; and lately, even I’ve seen things.”
Things got quiet for a moment, and I walked to the next display case to give Angie a chance to collect her thoughts. Looking down, something inside the case, caught my eye and I smiled.
“There’s a green eye right here. Now that’s clever, pack me up three of them.”
In the case were white frosted cookies in the shape of an eye with green frosting for the eyeball, and black icing gel eyeliner. Coming down from the corner of the eye, like a tear, was a drop of green glitter.
“That is cool,” Alex said, looking over my shoulder at the case. “But Angie, I thought you were scared of the green eye,” he said.
“Of the real thing, yeah; but I’m a businesswoman, and the green eye is a good seller here. People sell everything with a green eye on it, including: necklaces, bracelets, cheap statues, candy, T-shirts, and even underwear. Let me go grab a couple boxes for your goodies.”
We looked around the bakery some more, and Angie was back and packing our sweets in just seconds.
“I don’t get it, Angie,” I said. “What scares you so much about the green-eyed lady? Is there anything we need to worry about while we’re here in the area?”
“Well, if you see green eyes crying, run like the wind. And beware of zombies.”
I did my best fake laugh. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“Oh no I’m not—honest. A bunch of us shop owners have seen ‘em, but they weren’t around as often as they are now. Some people said the zombies were responsible for killing some critters back when we first saw them, but now they’ve moved on to killing people. And always the crying eyes came first.”
“Where did you see the crying eyes?” I said.
“The last time there was a zombie sighting, we all saw the crying eyes. All our storefront signs were crying green tears.”
“Were they crying emeralds?” Alex said.
“Oh Lord, don’t I wish. But my daddy and a couple of others saw that happen once with the signs and some of the small porcelain statues they had of the green-eyed lady.”
“They saw real emeralds?” I said, watching her pack our goodies.
“They more than saw them. Daddy paid for this bakery with his emeralds, and so did Mr. Chen, the owner of the Chinese restaurant.”
“Any chance of that happening again?” I said.
“No, everything was lined up perfectly the night that happened. Some folks say that the moon and the stars were aligned just right when it happened.”
“Are there people around that can read the signs to know when it might happen again?” Alex said.
“Don’t go getting greedy for emeralds,” Angie said. “Besides, nobody I know can read the signs. Even back in the day, only one old gypsy could tell the signs… and even she figured it out after the fact. I’m a Christian woman, so I don’t mess with all that stuff.”
“You can’t beat this—a free history lesson with a treat,” I said. “We’ll have to come back and see you again, Angie.”
“You’re both welcome anytime.”
She gave us our total, we paid, thanked her, and headed toward the door.
“Thanks, Angie,” I said, turning around and waving. “Is there somewhere around here with Wi-Fi where I can go to check my e-mail?”
“At the end of the street, there’s a McDonald’s with free Wi-Fi.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“Bye,” Alex said.
* * * *
We passed the Chinese restaurant with a picture of a green-eyed lady in full Asian costume on its sign, then spotted the McDonald’s in front of a strip center at the end of the street. I parked, we walked inside, and I sat at a corner table. Alex got us a couple of Cokes while I booted up my laptop. After checking my incoming e-mail, I began writing an e-mail to Noelle, telling her what I’d learned at the bakery.
I slid the laptop over to Alex, so he could check his stuff, then studied the map to the campground. It wasn’t that far out of town.
* * * *
“It’s nice around here,” Alex said, looking out the window of the truck as I drove.
There were some mid-size homes on large lots of one or two acres. The more turns we took, the larger the lots became.
“Feed me an eclair, babe,” I said.
It was close to lunch time, I was getting munchy, and the cooler was in the back of the truck. Alex reached behind him and took one of the bakery boxes off the backseat. He opened the box, took an eclair out, and fed it to me in between eating his.
“Thanks, that’s good stuff,” I said. “I wonder how the cinnamon rolls will compare to the awesome ones Hans made in his bakery in Shelby.”
“The eclairs were really good, so who knows.”
The pavement ran out as we turned left, and we found ourselves on a road of thick sand. There were homes around, which meant the road was well traveled, so there probably wasn’t a problem with cars getting stuck. Still, I was glad to be in my truck; if it rained, this road would be pure hell to travel.
“You want to take a left here after that A-frame, then a right at the end of the street,” Alex said.
Once we took the first turn, the lots became more wooded. Taking the right turn at the end of the street, I saw woods and swamp to my left and my right. Ahead of me, I saw a large gate and a sign to the side of it announcing the Adonis nude campground—our destination. There was a speaker out front for visitors to use, and a keypad in order to get the gate open. I rolled down the window and hit the call button.
“Layton Shayne, I have a reservation.”
A voice responded and gave me a code to punch into the keypad. As soon as I finished punching in the four digit code, the metal and wood gate opened, and we drove into the campground. The first thing we saw was a parking area to the right, then small trailers and RVs. I parked, pulled off my shirt, and slid my shorts and underwear off, after taking out my wallet from the back pocket of my shorts. Alex followed my lead, and we got out of the truck and walked to the registration area hand in hand—bare-assed to the wind.
-10-
Meeting Buck
We passed a couple of older nude men, who said hello, and made our way down a muddy path to the small shop which also served as the registration area. It was nice holding hands in public with Alex. From the moment we walked into the store and came into view of the man behind the desk, I could see his eyes bearing down on our goods.
“Geez, could the guy be more obvious,” I whispered to Alex before I wrapped my hand around his cock and led him by it.
“Trying to let him know I’m yours, huh, babe?” Alex whispered.
“You got it,” I said.
“Welcome to Camp Adonis,” the man behind the desk said. “I’m Carl.”
“I’m Layton Shayne, and this is my partner Alex. The third member of our party Buck Taggerty was supposed to have arranged accommodations for us.”
“Let me see,” Carl said, looking through some paperwork. “Y’up, he got that handled with my partner Jacob. I just need to see your IDs.”
Our wallets were all we had with us, besides the keys to the truck, since we knew we’d have to show our IDs. We took our licenses out and showed them to Carl, who took down the pertinent information and then gave us back our licenses.
“That done—let me give you a tour of the place,” Carl said.
“I’m just curious, why are you dressed, Carl?” Alex asked.
I looked at Carl, who was dressed in a short-sleeved, button-down shirt, shorts, and deck shoes, and waited for his response to Alex.
“All workers here have to be dressed while on duty, those are the rules,” Carl said. “You’ll want to carry a towel with you when you walk around to sit on and use.”
I put my arm around Alex while I took a second and longer look at Carl, who I was guessing to be in his late forties. He was thin with short brown hair and tanned skin. The main thing on my mind was whether or not he looked the type to be involved in a cult. I saw Carl pointing to an outbuilding directly across from the shop entrance as he started speaking.
“Those are the bathrooms, and to the right are the showers,” Carl said.
Next to the bathrooms were two RVs, and across from them were some trailers permanently anchored under some large trees.
“As you can see, we have some permanent residences here and on the other side of the pool area across from the pond,” Carl said. “Up ahead among the trees is the nature trail. There are scattered tables and benches there, as well as a grassy zone, which some people use as a sort of spiritual retreat area. It’s very peaceful.”
Carl walked us back toward the office, but took a left, and we were by the swimming pool, which had tables and chairs under two shaded sections. The sections consisted of wooden posts holding up tin roofs to the left and right of the pool. There were several men sunbathing nude in lounge chairs that were set up outside the covered areas by the pool’s edge.
“Hello,” said a cheery voice from the side.
Alex and I turned to see a naked man, who was taller than all of us, handsome, and young—probably in his mid-twenties. He had short, messy chestnut-brown hair and blue eyes. He annoyed me by the way he was swinging his cock and balls from side to side for us to notice, and I was about to walk away when he grabbed me. In a quick and unexpected move, he pulled me close and was half hugging, half grinding into me before letting go.
“I’ve missed you guys so much!” he said, before turning to Alex and hugging him in the same way.
“This must be your friend,” Carl said.
The man turned to Carl, puffed his chest up, held his hand out, and introduced himself.
“I haven’t met you yet, buddy! My name is Buck, I like to fuck! I haven’t seen my partners Layton and Alex for a few days. They’re probably a little miffed, because I came here ahead of them.”
He put one arm around me, the other around Alex, and spoke again. “I’ve been good, and stayed out of trouble, boys.”
A slightly sunburnt, middle-aged man with a dark beard walked by as Buck was speaking.
“It wasn’t for his lack of trying,” the man said. “Buck might like to fuck, but most folks just think he sucks—and not in a good way.”
Buck laughed, then turned to the man and glared. “Keep walking, friend,” Buck said.
The sunburnt man shot Buck his middle finger and left.
“I’ll leave you three alone now,” Carl said. “I’m sure Buck can finish showing you around.”
The minute Carl was gone; I turned to Buck, put my hand on his shoulder, and squeezed hard. This move caused Buck to fall to his knees.
“Owww, shoot! Why’d you do that?”
“Don’t you think you were overacting a bit in front of Carl?” I said.
“Dude, we’re in a gay nudist camp.” He stood up and rubbed his shoulder where I’d squeezed.
“He does have a point, Layton,” Alex said. “Why don’t you take us to where we’ll be sleeping, Buck?”
“Sure,” Buck said. “Just follow me, it’s across from the far end of the pool.”
We followed him to a narrow building… which, as he’d said, was directly across from the pool. Buck took the door key from the stretchy elastic band he had on his wrist and opened the door. I could see the entirety of the room from the doorway. It consisted of one bed, which filled most of the space, and a night stand, which consisted of a shelf attached to the back wall—this was not a good situation.
“Is this all they had available?” I said. “This is basically a woodshed with a bed in it. I’m surprised the bed even has sheets.”
“It didn’t. Miss Lucy picked the sheets up, and told me to bring them and some towels. She also told me that we were undercover as a threesome.” He picked up two large dark blue towels and threw them at us. After we caught them, he continued speaking. “You might want to just toss those over your shoulders like everyone else here does. They don’t want anyone sitting their naked booty down on a seat, or anything without putting a towel down first. And yes, this room is all they had available. The one next to us was already booked. They may call this place a campground, but most people have trailers here, or come in their RVs. Visitors mostly come for the day and leave at night… not that I can blame them.”
“It’s alright,” Alex said. “We’ll figure something out; besides, we won’t actually be sleeping much… will we?”
“I like the way you think, Alex,” Buck said, then he patted Alex’s ass but Alex quickly slapped his hand away.
“We’ll be too busy questioning the guests and looking for clues to sleep,” Alex said.
“Alex, let’s go unload the truck,” I said. “You just wait here, Buck. And try not to annoy too many people.”
“What—me annoy people? People think I’m funny; not annoying.”
“That sunburnt guy certainly seemed to think you were humorous alright,” I said sarcastically.
By the time we arrived back at the truck, Alex and I were laughing our heads off over Buck Taggerty.
“Oh my God, that line of his—my name is Buck, I like to—”
“I was over it the first time I heard him say it, babe,” I said.
