Savage Season Read Online Free PDF

Howard got close.  Softboy told Howard what he was in for—this time, anyway.  He had robbed a small East Texas bank (are there any other kind?), and the day they robbed it, it was chockful of money.  More money than a bank that size ought to have, even if it was a weekend and payrolls were in.
    Softboy thought it was laundered money, loot being processed through the bank by big shots.  He was more certain of that later when a lesser amount than he stole was reported.  Softboy claimed to have made a take just over a million.
    During the robbery, there was a shootout with a guard at the bank.  The police were somehow alerted, and they got there before Softboy and his two accomplices could escape, and there was more shooting.  The guard and a policeman were wounded, and all three of the robbers were injured.
    Still, they got to their getaway car and drove away.
    Day before, the driver of the car had gone to the bottoms and found a place to hide a motorboat, and they had made for that.
    Before they got to it, one of the robbers died, and when they got there, the driver went toes up.  All that was left was Softboy and the money.
    Softboy managed to push the car off into the water to hide it and he managed to load the money in the boat and get it going.  But he didn't get far.  He hit a stump or something and was thrown out.
    He made it to shore, into the woods, and crawled around through the underbrush for the next three days, feverish and hallucinating.  Didn't know if he was going in circles or what.
    Eventually he came across a trail and followed that.  Next thing he knew, he was on the highway leading to Marvel Creek.  He passed out, and when he awoke he was in the Marvel Creek hospital with a policeman sitting in a chair beside his bed.  Seemed some motorist had discovered him and pulled him out of the highway and called the law.
    When he got better, the police tried to get him to show them where the boat had wrecked, but he couldn't.
    He didn't know.  He didn't even know how he and his partners had got to the boat in the first place.  He hadn't been the one who stashed it, and hadn't been along when it was stashed.  After the robbery, he'd been too out of his mind with pain to notice.
    The police searched along the river for days, but didn't find evidence of the boat, the car, or the bodies.
    Never did.
    Softboy told Howard he had bad dreams about all that money underwater and the fish eating it.  Said he wanted it spent, and that if Howard found it, he'd split it with him.
    At this point in the story, Trudy paused and Leonard said, "Trusting sort of guy, wasn't he?"
    "Suppose he thought Howard was honest enough," Trudy said.  "Assumed Howard felt about him the way he felt about Howard."
    "Or wanted Howard to think he felt that way." I said.  "Make a guy feel wanted, he'll do things for you.  Get Howard to find and coordinate the dough, and old Softboy could use it to bribe guards and prison officials.  Make life a little easier in the joint.  Considering his situation, it'd be a worthwhile gamble."
    "Three days before they let Howard out," Trudy said, "Softboy was killed by an inmate with a knife made out of a spoon.  The fight was over something silly.  A dessert, I think."
    "So there goes Howard's obligation to Softboy," Leonard said.  "He decided to get the money, and he dealt you in, and Hap dealt me in.  Well, this is all good and everything, but I see some problems here.  First of all, I take it Howard's already tried to find the money.  Am I right?"
    Trudy nodded.
    "The police have looked and Howard's looked and they've come up with nothing, so what makes anyone think we can do better?" Leonard said.
    "That's where I come in," I said.  "I grew up in Marvel Creek, and I know those bottoms."
    "Bet a lot of folks who knew the bottoms helped the police search, and they still didn't find it," Leonard said.
    "There's something else," -Trudy said.  "Softboy didn't tell the police about the