“What did you say?” Mike asked.
“I said that we wasn’t doing anything wrong. We have a release form,” he told Mike.
“Excuse me, you have a what?” Mike asked him again.
“We ain’t stupid. We got us one of them there release forms. Just like she told us. She paid us one hundred dollars,” the man told him.
Without Michael knowing it, Katie was up and walking toward him. She walked right up to the man’s face.
“You have a what?” she demanded.
“A release form. She told us without it, it would be rape,” he told her.
Katie reached down and grabbed a handful of the guy’s manhood in her hand and squeezed as hard as she could. “Show me your release form, and I’ll show you mine,” she told him in a voice that confirmed that she meant what she said.
“It’s in my shirt pocket!” he cried out in pain. Katie released her grip and pulled the note from his pocket. Unfolding it, she read it by the light of the lanterns that was still burning.
When she read it, she was facing away from everyone. But now she turned to face them, and pure hatred filled her face. “That fucking bitch! Where is she? I’m going to kill her, I swear to God!” she screamed as she handed Michael the note and walked right up to Susie’s blood-covered face. The deputy had her standing up and in cuffs and was standing behind her. Katie walked right up to her face.
Michael quickly read the note. “Oh my god!” he said as he looked up to see Katie standing in front of Susie.
“You might hate me for loving Mike. You might hate me for being Rick’s friend, and you might even hate me for being Melissa’s friend, but I’ll bet ya that you’re going to hate me a whole lot more when I do this,” Katie said as her hand flew up, stopping just short of Susie’s face. Susie sunk down in an effort to protect her face.
“You coward! I should . . . I really should hit you. But I’m not going to. You ain’t worth it . . . none of this is worth it.” Katie started to walk away. She took about two steps when she suddenly spun around and threw a punch that shattered Susie’s jawbone into six pieces. The punch echoed throughout the cave as the bones cracked. She looked down at Susie on the floor. “Maybe none of this is worth it, but my mother is. And if you ever speak her name again, I’ll do more than break your goddamn jaw. Bitch!”
In the side of Susie’s face was a perfect impression of Mike’s grandmother’s ring. Out reaching from the ring’s impression were several broken blood vessels, and the black-and-blue bruise was growing at a very advanced rate. But Katie wasn’t concerned about Susie’s swelling and discolored face. “That’s for what you did to Rick. Aren’t paybacks hell?” she said as she turned and walked away.
Melissa and Mike were shocked well beyond belief. Here’s Katie, this ninety-pound sweet little thing, and there lay Susie—all one hundred and seventy pounds of her knocked out cold.
“Katie, are you okay?” her daddy asked.
“I am now,” she said as she turned and took one final look at Susie.
She walked up to Mike and threw herself into his waiting arms.
“Remind me never to get you mad at me, okay? Damn, that was sweet,” he told her.
“Yeah well, she deserved it. Anyways, is dinner still on?” she asked. “I’m hungry.”
“Relax, Katie, dinner will be there when we get there. But I’ll tell ya one thing. I don’t think Susie will be eating solid foods for a while,” Melissa told her.
“Well, as a person, she sucks anyways, might as well do it through a straw,” she said as she started laughing.
“Katie dear, I know that you’ve been through a lot, but it surprises me to hear you asking about food of all things. I mean really, you were assaulted, kidnapped, tied up, and almost raped, then you took out Susie with one single blow, and all you can think about is food? I reckon I must have missed something somewhere, but hell if I could tell ya where,” Grady told her.
“Daddy, if I stand around here and mope about what might have happened or what should have happened, then Susie won. But if I pick up my life right where I was, as soon as I can, then I win, you see. And regardless of nothing else, I flat ass refuse to let that fat-ass bitch win anything.”
“Yep, that’s your mother talking, sure as I’m standing here. Speakin’ of which, what did that note say that got you all pissy in the first place?” he asked.
“Daddy, there’s certain things that a girl will never tell her daddy. Out of the love and the respect that I have for you. But showing you or telling you what it said would only hurt you. And that I will not do. All you have to know is that it was about Mom and leave it at that. Okay?” she explained to him.
“Something tells me that you’ll never tell me,” he told her.
“Not even if the coon dogs brought home coons that were already skinned and cooked,” she replied.
“Excuse me, but we have a slight problem,” the deputy told them.
“Really, and what would that be?” Mike asked.
“I have all of these people that need to go to jail. But my squad car is over at your house. Remember?” he told them.
“So put them in Susie’s car, or do you have to have a star on the door?” Melissa asked with a smile.
“Why don’t you just let them go?” Katie suggested.
Everyone turned and looked at her in total amazement.
“Excuse me, sweetheart, but did you say let them go?” Mike asked her.
“Sure why not? They really didn’t do anything, right? And the last time I checked, being stupid wasn’t against the law, right, Officer?” Katie asked.
“Well no, being stupid isn’t against the law, but, miss, they were going to . . . well . . . violate you,” he told her.
“Look, Officer, I’m not pressing charges on these guys, so let them go,” she told him.
“Katie, do you know what you’re doing?” Mike asked.
“If they went to jail, then what? Nothing. Because they didn’t do anything. Okay, that one ripped off my underwear, but Mike took out most of his teeth. And if they did go to jail, then they would become another victim of Susie. And that’s not right. So let them go. Please,” she insisted.
“Well okay, miss. I mean, if you’re sure about this, I guess I’ll have to let them go,” he told her.
“You’re really going to let us go? I mean even after what we was going to do to ya?” asked one of the men.
“Would you like me to change my mind?” she asked.
“Oh no, don’t do that. We’re really sorry, miss,” he told her.
“Officer, just how long do I have if I should say . . . decide to change my mind?” she asked.
“Well, let’s see. Yes, I do believe it’s a year. Why do you ask?” he asked.
Katie looked at the four guys before her. “Okay, gents, here’s the deal. I will not file charges against you for a period of one year if—” she said and stopped and waited.
“If what?” one of the guys asked.
“If for the next year, you take a bath each and every day, you wash your clothes at least once a week, and you promise me right here that you’ll never hurt another woman. Is it a deal?” she asked.
“We wash ourselfs, wash our clothes, and be nice to the girls, and you won’t throw us in jail? Right?” he asked.
“That’s it. So what’s it going to be? A bath or jail?” she asked.
“Well, miss, we’ll take the bath part. Delroy does smell pretty bad,” answered one guy.
“Fuck you, Billy Ray! You stink worse than I do!”
“Guys! Stop it. All of you smell like shit, okay? So is it a deal or what?” Katie asked one more time.
“Okay, it’s a deal,” he told her.
“And, Deputy, if you happen to see any of these fine gentlemen, and it appears that they have broken this agreement, please feel free to arrest them on the spot, and I’ll sign the paperwork,” she told him.
“That I can do, and I will too. So you heard the lady. Git
! Scram, run before she changes her mind,” he told them as the four guys ran out of the cave and disappeared into the night.
“Why, Ms. Katie Windslow, you are an angel, aren’t ya?” Melissa asked.
“That was a fine thing that you just did, miss,” the deputy told her.
Katie looked at Mike and her daddy. “Well, what about you two. Ain’t you going to say anything?” she asked.
“Not me. You did what you thought was right. That’s all that needs to be said,” Grady told her.
“And what about you, my knight in shining armor, what do you have to say?” she asked.
“I love you, Katie Windslow,” he replied.
“And that, my dear sir, is exactly what I wanted you to say. Now let’s go eat.”
“Fine, the deputy can take Susie’s car and take her ass to jail, and we’ll take our car back to our house. Grady, are you hungry?” Melissa asked. “You’re welcome to join us if you like.”
“Well, I wasn’t hungry a while back, but now I can eat a cow, I reckon,” he answered back.
“Sorry, no cows today, just some of our mom’s great meatloaf,” she replied.
“That will do nicely,” he said as he started walking toward the exit when he noticed something just under the surface of the dirt. He bent over and picked it up. As he looked at the object, years of wondering were answered.
“What ya find there, Grady?” Mike asked.
“Oh, just a rock,” he answered as he quietly slid it into his pocket.
“Well, come on, ya all. I’m famished!” Katie yelled.
Once outside, the deputy approached Katie. “Miss, I will need you to come down to the station house and make a statement. Anytime tomorrow will be fine,” he told her.
“Tomorrow will be fine, Deputy. I’ll see you then,” she said as she looked past the deputy to a very beaten and sore Susie Barnes in the backseat of her own car. Their eyes met, and without a single word spoken by either of them, the message was clear. The war between them was over or at least for now.
Trouble Believing
Following the incident in the cave, Katie and Melissa were closer than ever before, if that was possible. Katie had earned so much respect from Melissa for emerging from that cave with so much more than just her dignity intact. A lot lesser of a person would have folded and collapsed given everything that Katie had endured, but Katie never did, not even a little.
And the word had gotten around town about Katie breaking Susie’s jaw though they would never know why. Some things are best not told or repeated. But Susie had very few friends, and their numbers were declining at an alarming rate.
But over the following days, Michael’s ears were hurting. When he talked to Katie, it was Melissa this, Melissa that. And when he talked to Melissa, it was Katie this and Katie that.
Mike and Grady finally said the hell with it and would go outside and sit on the porch every time those two got together, which was most of the time.
As they sat out on the porch one night, the two of them started talking.
“You know, after having read all of that material, there’s still one thing that I don’t understand,” Mike told Grady.
“And what would that be?” Grady asked.
“Maybe it’s nothing, but consider you’re the one doing all of this back then. You have eight wagons, which means there’s at least eight people who knew about what was happening. Why hasn’t the treasure ever surfaced before now? And if they did have eight wagons leaving Savannah in the middle of the night, wouldn’t someone see them?” he asked.
“I’ve thought about that. But remember, people were fighting to get out of town, especially when they knew Sherman was coming. So even if they were seen, nobody knew or even suspected anything. But as far as the eight drivers are concerned, I don’t have the slightest clue. Just another part of the mystery, I reckon,” Grady answered.
“Well, suppose they did have eight wagons and eight drivers. The chances of riding in those wagons with the advancement of Sherman’s troops just doesn’t make sense. That would be suicide. Someone should have seen them. And you sure as hell couldn’t drive a wagon that far in just one night. Let alone eight wagons in a row. So it would have to be a very well-planned and executed plan. But I just can’t see all of this happening,” Mike told him.
“I agree, but when you consider everything that had to happen to make all of this happen, it’s totally unbelievable. But it appears that it did in fact happen just like they claim,” Grady answered.
“But I would feel better and even a little more convinced if we could find anything to prove it’s really here,” Mike told him.
“What do you mean?” Grady asked.
“Well, it’s not that I don’t believe everything, but all we really have is a couple pieces of paper that supposedly tells of this fantastic plan of robbing the Confederacy of all of their gold, transporting it a couple hundred miles, without being detected by the Union Army or the Confederacy, and then stashing it at some cotton plantation deep in the South. It just doesn’t play out in my head. It’s totally inconceivable that it actually happened the way that they claim it did in the letters. You see what I mean?” Mike asked.
“I see what you mean. Very clever observation, Michael. But we do have a few things in our favor,” Grady told him.
“Like what?” he asked.
“Well, someone took the gold or whatever it was, and it’s never been found,” he told him.
“Oh, that helps out a lot. What I was talking about was more like a piece of the treasure, hell even a gosh darn broken wagon wheel. Something that proves that we’re not on a stupid wild-goose chase,” said Mike.
“I see, but I’m total convinced that what we have here is real, and it is buried here somewhere. And as far as proof is concerned, I do have something to show you,” Grady told him as he dug the object from his pocket and handed it to Michael.
Grady saw Michael’s eyes light up as he studied the object.
“Is this what I think it is?” he asked.
“Sure is. That’s a Confederate double-eagle gold coin,” he told him.
“Where did you get this?” he asked in a very excited voice.
“I found it in that cave the other night. I know. I lied to you when I said that it was just a rock, but there were other people there,” he told him.
“So maybe there’s more of them? Maybe you stumbled on the treasure itself. We need to go back there for a better look. Did you show this to Katie?” he asked.
“No, I haven’t. I reckon with everything that was going on, it might be better not to, just for the time being anyways,” Grady answered.
“So, when do we go back and look around?” Mike asked.
“Well, I was thinking, how did Susie know that cave was there? I mean it was pretty well hidden from view, but yet she went right to it,” he told him.
“I don’t know. That’s certainly a question worth asking,” Mike replied.
“Well, here’s a little bit of information for ya. I went to the library yesterday to see what information I could dig up on those caves. What I found was very interesting indeed. The caves, it seems, have been around for years even before the Civil War. But there has never been any map or any official record of them until about ten years ago when someone decided to document and count these caves and map out their exact locations,” Grady explained.
“Ten years ago? So why after all of this time did someone suddenly decide to keep or create a record of them?” he asked.
“That’s exactly what I thought, right up until the time that I spotted the name of the person that filed the results,” Grady told him.
“Who was it?” Mike asked.
“My brother, Jack,” Grady explained.
“Your brother? But why?” he asked.
“Well, I’m not sure exactly, but I would have to assume that he somehow connected the dots, and they led him here to Savannah and to the caves,” he told Mike.
“Well, ma
ybe, but if that’s true, then we’re on the right track. That’s great news!” Mike proclaimed.
“Maybe, but Jack’s record had only been checked out once since they were filed. And that was about a week following the filing. And you’ll never guess who checked them out,” Grady told him.
“You’re kidding! You don’t mean Barnes, do ya?” Mike asked.
“Damn, good guess. Shortly after Jack filed his paperwork with the county clerk, Barnes checked them out. And I have to assume that Barnes found out what Jack was doing and what he was looking for and either tried to stop him or steal it altogether,” Grady explained.
“But didn’t you say that you haven’t heard from your brother for at least ten years or so?” he asked.
“That’s the last time anyone in our family had any contact from him. But we now know that he was in fact here ten years ago. And apparently, he was close or getting too close I reckon. But that also indicates that someone else knows about the treasure, most likely Barnes. It would be really stupid on our part to assume that back when this all went down, Barnes didn’t leave some type of map or even a letter for one of his family members to find that would lead them to the treasure too. Remember, his death was totally unexpected when the wall of the bank fell on him. I would have left behind some type of message for someone else in the family to find if I met an untimely death, so we have to assume that he did to?” Grady told him.
“Wait a second, if your brother hasn’t been heard from and the last know person to cross paths with Jack was Barnes . . . my god . . . do you think maybe . . . well—” Grady cut him off.
“Are ya askin’ do I think Jack is dead? And Barnes is connected to it? The answer would be yeah, I do. Everything would suggest just that. I hope that I’m wrong. But there’s this uneasy feeling deep down in my stomach that says otherwise,” Grady explained.
“God, I really hope that you’re wrong,” Mike told him.
“So do I, but I fear differently,” Grady said sadly.
“Well, if you’re right, we can always sic Katie on him,” Mike said with a half grin showing on his face.
“I know that you’re kidding, but if Barnes did kill Jack, I’d rather keep Katie clear of him especially since what she did to his daughter. Revenge on the part of Barnes just might, well, you know,” Grady said with an uneasy tone to his voice.
Hearts of Grey Page 16
