Free A Moment to Prey by Harry Whittington

folks around here to enforce it for him too."
        "They like him around here?"
        Sistrunk shrugged.
        "Do you like him?"
        Sistrunk shrugged again.
        "You're scared of him?"
        "Mister, I'm scairt of rattlesnakes unless I got my eye on them all the time."
        "Do you know Marve Pooser?"
        "Knowed him since he was a boy. Reckon he's about your age.
        "Do you know where he is?"
        "Not right now I don't."
        "He's out in this scrub somewhere."
        "What make you think so?"
        "I didn't know. I was taking a chance. But I'm sure now. Otherwise why would these people make a big thing out of not talking to me? If Marve Pooser was in Europe they'd be willing to tell me, wouldn't they?"
        "Sounds reasonable."
        "How about you? He's out here in this scrub. Somewhere. You could find him. How much would you charge?"
        "I looked in your wallet, mister. You ain't got that kind of money."
        "I could get it."
        "Not unless you could print it mighty fast. Look, maybe you didn't understand me. I don't want any trouble. Messing with Marve Pooser, that's the fastest way I know to git your hands into more trouble than you'd be able to handle all the rest of your life. No, sir. You take my advice. You get well enough to travel, why you do it."
        "Why are you afraid of him?"
        "Because my maw never trifled with raising no silly kids."
        "I'd never tell him you told me."
        He laughed, shortly and sharply. "Mister, you wouldn't have to tell him. He'd just know. You here in my place. You leave here, you find him. Next thing you know, I'd have holes in all my boats, my nets would be cut, my shacks burned."
        "How could he get away with anything like that?"
        "I don't know. Same way he has all his life, I reckon. When Marve was a boy, he collected snakes and skunks and poison ivy, anything he could use in the jokes he played on people, his neighbors, strangers, teachers at school in Eureka Crossing. Some of his jokes turned out pretty rough. Couple people died of rattlesnake bites. Marve laughed hard when he heard about it. Nobody could prove he had nothing to do with it. But folks just knowed. Them jokes got to be part of Marve Pooser. He never knowed when to stop. He got hisself a car. He wanted to run somebody off'n the highway, he'd crowd 'em off, just to keep it up until they stopped or he edged them into a ditch. Thing about Marve was, he was always bigger'n anybody else. That wouldn't have stopped folks from hitting back at him, but it was the way his mind worked. A man don't mind taking a beatin' for what he believes in-not if'n he believes hard enough-but he don't want his kids snake bit or his wife roughed up when she goes into town shopping. Seems Marve always figured a man out. Figured what would hurt a man the most, and that's just what he always done to him."
        
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        "Lily."
        She stopped in the doorway. "What you want?"
        "Lily, your old man says you're the only one in this scrub not afraid of Marve Pooser."
        She stepped into the room. "Why don't you get him off your mind?"
        "I almost have, Lily."
        Her mouth twisted. "Now you're getting smart."
        "Not the way you think. I haven't thought about anything but you since yesterday."
        Her face remained impassive. "You better keep thinking about Marve Pooser. It's safer."
        "Sometimes a man doesn't want to be safe, Lily."
        "You're not that kind."
        "You don't know anything about me."
        "I know enough."
        "You're still burned because I didn't stop old Charlie Bullock."
        She shrugged. "I don't care. Maybe I was sore at first. I thought you were different. But I know now."
        "What do you know?"
        "All I need to know."
        I stood up. She watched me coldly. I stepped toward her. I was aware of her fists