Disappearance at Hangman's Bluff

by J. E. Thompson

Donna was sucking in huge, shuddering breaths, her eyes flooded with tears, snot running all over her lips and chin. She was an absolute wreck and looked so pathetic that for a few seconds I was swamped by a huge wave of guilt, but it lasted only until I saw that Donna’s scream had worked.

  Through the snarl of branches I could see that Lenny had come back out of the equipment shed again and was standing on the other side of the barbed-wire fence. His mouth was wide open, and he was waving his pistol around as if he feared that whatever horrible creature had just eaten Donna might suddenly burst out of the trees and try to eat him. After another second he started backing toward the shed, keeping his gun aimed at the trees until he disappeared through the door. I smiled.

  “You did great,” I told her.

  Donna shook her head. “You were going to let that snake bite me,” she squeaked in a barely audible voice.

  “The snake was dead. Besides, it’s not even a poisonous snake.”

  Donna took that in, and for a second her fear seemed to fade and I caught a glint of anger in her eyes. “You tricked me?”

  “Only to make you scream. We needed Lenny to hear you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s important for when you go back to the house.”

  “I’m not doing it.” She spoke with more force this time, and I actually felt a glimmer of hope that the old Donna was coming back.

  “Yes, you are. It’s the only way to make sure we get your parents and everyone else out safely.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “We’ll explain it to you,” Bee said.

  It was everything I could do not to throw my arms around Bee and give her a big hug. We hadn’t ever talked about this part of the plan, but she knew where I was going with it. In fact, knowing Bee, she was probably ahead of me.

  Donna looked back and forth between us, then settled on Bee. “It’s really the only way?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Come on,” Bee said as I stood and started back toward the equipment shed. “We don’t have much time. We’ll explain it to you on the way.”

  Twenty

  As we got back to the place where we would slide under the fence Donna stopped suddenly, stamped her foot, and spun around.

  “You want me to say I’m being chased by ghosts? That’s stupid!” she hissed. “They’ll never believe me.”

  “Yes, they will,” Bee insisted. “Possum thinks he’s already seen a ghost.”

  “Why would he think that?”

  “Because of the skull we used to scare him.”

  Donna looked even more skeptical. “Where did you guys get a skull?”

  Bee and I exchanged a glance. I felt like we had to tell her. “Donna,” I began, “do you know why we’re all in this mess?”

  Donna’s face twisted. She looked at Bee then back at me and shook her head.

  “We’re here and my father and Bee’s grandmother are prisoners because your father was trying to break the law again.”

  “He is not!”

  “I’m not sure what he’s doing at Hangman’s Bluff, but he ruined an old graveyard where slaves were buried a long time ago. That’s against the law, for sure.”

  She swung her arm, pointing in the direction of the big house. “My parents are prisoners of those same crazy men, and you’re talking about graves! Who cares about some old slave graves?”

  Bee moved so fast, I never even saw it. She grabbed Donna by the shoulders and spun her around. Bee was so angry, her face looked like it belonged to a person I didn’t know.

  “My relatives were buried in those graves before your father wrecked them. I care, and I care a lot!”

  There was fresh fear in Donna’s eyes. She knew she’d made a huge mistake. Up to now she’d thought I was crazy and mean but that Bee was the one she might be able to count on for pity. Now Bee was mad enough to pound her into the ground like a tent stake.

  “I . . . I didn’t know,” Donna said, all the fight seeping out of her.

  “Well, your father did know! He knew it was wrong, but he didn’t care. He just wanted to keep things quiet, so he hired some criminals to help him. And this is where it’s gotten us.”

  Donna stumbled back a step or two and rubbed her shoulders where Bee’s fingers had been digging in. She stared at the ground, the anger on her face replaced by a dull expression. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say.” She looked up. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Come on,” I said gently.

  I rolled through the water and out the other side, then I signaled for Bee and Donna to wait while I crept to the doorway of the equipment shed and peeked around the corner, making sure Lenny wasn’t inside waiting to surprise us. When I was sure the coast was clear, I waved for Bee and Donna.

  “Okay,” I said to Donna. “You are going to run into the house, and you’re going to scream just as hard as you screamed when I held that snake in your face.”

  “How’s that going to help?”

  “We need to get Lenny and Possum out of the house. Can you do it?”

  “Maybe . . . I don’t know . . .”

  “You did a good job when you screamed,” Bee said with an encouraging smile. “You’re a great actress. You really got them scared, but we need you to do it again, okay?”

  Donna looked at Bee and gave an uncertain nod.

  We crept back toward the house, looking around to make sure Lenny had gone back inside. Then, while Donna acted as a lookout on the front door, Bee and I picked up the picnic table that sat under a live oak in the backyard and moved it under the bathroom window.

  My heart was in my mouth, because if Donna did her job well, I was going to have my part to play next, and that would mean keeping Possum and Lenny outside. Even though I tried not to let it show, I was scared halfway into next year. I crossed my fingers and toes and made a wish that it was all going to work. In the back of my mind, a voice was telling me that wishing wasn’t going to make a single bit of difference. I was betting all our lives over what was about to happen next.

  The wind still had teeth, but the rain had let up a tiny bit, falling in huge drops instead of sheets. I checked to make sure Bee was in position then ran back around to the front of the house, where Donna was waiting. She looked as scared as I felt.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  Donna swallowed hard and mouthed, Okay.

  “On my signal.”

  I almost felt sorry for her as she turned and started toward the front door. Almost. I ran to the far side of the porch and unspooled the hose from its reel; then, holding one end, I ran back to the other side of the porch and hid in a thick grouping of azalea bushes.

  Donna was shaking with fear as she tiptoed up the steps toward the front door, but then she seemed to steady herself. She took a deep breath, balled her hands into fists, shoved the door open, and began to scream like someone absolutely hysterical with fear.

  I knew how scared I would have felt if I’d been going back into a house where Lenny and Possum were holding a bunch of people prisoner, so I have to admit I was pretty impressed with Donna’s acting. She hollered the word, “Ghosts!” followed by a bunch of screams. Then she turned, ran off the porch and onto the gravel drive, and kept screaming.

  Right away everything broke loose inside the house. Lenny and Possum shouted, their feet clomping on floorboards. A second later Possum came barreling out with his shotgun in one hand. He bounded down the porch steps, aiming for the plantation drive and the way off Reward. He never saw the hose when I jerked it tight, and he went smacking down on his face in the mud and standing water, his shotgun skidding away from him.

  Lenny had followed him out onto the porch, and he was staring down at Possum in amazement. I knew that any second he was going to spot the hose and realize they were being tricked, but Donna must have understood it too, because right then she did something else that impressed me.

  She actually ran back up onto the porch, right toward Lenny, s
till screaming her head off. He grabbed for her, but she just dodged him and hollered even louder.

  By that time Possum had gotten onto his feet and started to run away from the house. Lenny stopped trying to catch Donna and shouted at Possum, “Come back here, you stupid fool. There ain’t no such things as ghosts.”

  Once Lenny had turned away from her, Donna raced into the house, still screaming. I smiled, because she was doing her part perfectly. Right then she was heading toward the bathroom to unfasten the shutter, raise the window, and let Bee inside.

  Possum’s brain was fried. Not paying any attention to Lenny, he kept on running, not exactly sprinting but not walking, either. As his silhouette grew faint in the mist and rain, I darted out from the bushes.

  Lenny might have missed seeing the hose, but he didn’t miss seeing me as I jumped out from my hiding place, reached down in the mud, and picked up Possum’s shotgun. My hands were trembling like oak leaves in the wind. I didn’t know if the shells were soaked or if there was mud in the barrel, but I couldn’t worry about that, because I couldn’t let Lenny go back inside.

  “You put down that gun, girl,” he growled as he came off the porch, moving slow and cautious like he suspected we were springing some kind of trap on him.

  “Drop your gun, mister,” I said, trying hard to keep my voice from shaking as I pushed off the safety and aimed the shotgun at Lenny’s midsection.

  He looked at me for a second then let out an ugly laugh and shook his head. Instead of dropping his pistol, he brought it up to his hip so it was aiming at me. “That was you in the basement, wasn’t it?”

  I nodded. “Drop the gun.” I sounded just as scared as I felt.

  “You don’t even know how to shoot that thing, girlie.”

  Lenny’s cockiness gave me a welcome surge of anger. “My daddy taught me to shoot well enough that I won’t miss someone as fat as you, not at this range.”

  Lenny’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe so, but you ain’t gonna pull that trigger.” He edged a step closer, and I took a step back.

  “You stay right there,” I said. “Or I really will shoot. I swear it.”

  My heart was slamming so hard in my chest that I could barely keep my eyes locked on Lenny. He was calling my bluff, and we both knew it. Even if he came right up to me and tried to take the gun away, I didn’t know if I could shoot him. But then I thought about Daddy and Grandma Em and decided maybe I could, after all.

  Lenny must not have been totally convinced, either, because he came another step toward me then stopped again. His face twitched as he thought about his odds. Time stretched. The gun was growing heavy in my hands. I thought about Bee and Donna. Please hurry, I said to them in my head.

  Finally, Lenny took another step.

  “Stay where you are!” I said.

  He took another step. That’s when I flicked the safety back on, because I already knew what was going to happen next.

  A cast-iron frying pan hit Lenny in the back of the head, swung by my very angry father. The pan made a wet sound as it connected, and Lenny dropped like a sack of dog food, landing on his face in a puddle.

  Daddy kicked the pistol away, then rolled Lenny over so he didn’t drown. Grandma Em came down the steps behind Daddy, followed by Bee. Grandma Em picked up Lenny’s pistol and aimed it at him for good measure as Daddy came over, took the shotgun out of my trembling hands, and put his arms around me.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  I was shaking hard, partly from the fear I’d been feeling just a few seconds earlier and partly from relief. I could barely speak. “Yes,” I managed, after a few seconds.

  “That’s my girl.”

  He straightened his arms and held me away from him as he looked at me for a long moment. I wasn’t sure whether there were tears in his eyes or raindrops. “I don’t know whether to spank you or kiss you,” he said. “I’m proud of your bravery, but it just about kills me when you pull stunts like this.”

  I didn’t get a chance to reply, because at that moment there were flashing lights behind me. It was the police, coming up the plantation drive. Two state police cars skidded to a stop, with Judge Gator’s old Mercedes right behind. The policemen got out with their guns drawn, and Judge Gator jumped out as well.

  “Thank heavens!” the judge exclaimed, when he saw me standing there with Daddy, and Bee standing beside Grandma Em. “You girls scared me half to death. I just got back to my house a little while ago and found your note.” He shook his head as he looked down at Lenny. “But it looks like y’all managed pretty well on your own.”

  It took only about a minute for the police to get Lenny in handcuffs and hoist him back on his feet. He had a cut on the back of his head, but one of the policemen wiped it with some disinfectant from his first-aid kit then took a kitchen towel from the big house and tied it around Lenny’s head.

  While he did that, another officer went inside and got Leaper. They led the dog out of the house using a long stick with a loop at the end that went over his neck, just in case he got mean. Unlike when I’d seen him earlier with Possum, Leaper didn’t look like he had a mean bone in his body. He sort of staggered as he walked, and when they opened up the back of one of the police cars, he got inside and went right to sleep.

  A minute later they loaded Lenny into the backseat of a second cruiser, and seconds after that a third police car came up the drive with Possum in the backseat. The policeman who seemed to be in charge went over to the police car, opened the back door, and waved for Bee and me to come over.

  “Is this the other man?” he asked.

  “Yessir,” we both said at the same time. I almost felt sorry for Possum, because, sitting there in handcuffs, he looked so bewildered and confused, like he couldn’t quite understand all the terrible things that had happened to him over the past hour or so.

  After another minute two of the police officers brought Donna and her parents out of the house. Mr. LaBelle was rubbing his wrists. The moment he spotted me, he came up and got right in my face.

  “I can’t believe you sent my daughter back into the house with those two men! What were you thinking? How dare you risk her life like that!”

  I took a breath, but before I could get a word out, Donna stepped in front of me.

  “It was the only way we could get the two of them out of the house. And by the way, Abbey was the one who stayed outside with Lenny and his gun while we cut you free!”

  I was speechless. Donna was facing off against her father with so much ferocity that she reminded me of a mother wolf protecting her cub.

  Daddy had overheard Mr. LaBelle’s angry words, and now he stepped over as well. “What’s the problem here?”

  Mr. LaBelle looked from Donna to Daddy, and some of his confidence seemed to leak out. “Your daughter forced my daughter to go back inside the house,” he said in a quieter tone. “It put her at serious risk.”

  “Nobody forced me!” Donna shouted.

  Daddy’s eyes got small. He didn’t get angry very often, and I hadn’t seen him like this since before his coma. When he spoke, his voice was soft and dangerous.

  “Bee and Abbey had the courage to sneak into that house and get your daughter out in the first place. Then Abbey had the guts to face down a killer with a loaded pistol in his hand while Donna and Bee cut us loose. What they did allowed us all to get out of there alive. If you say one more thing to her, you will be speaking through broken teeth.”

  Mr. LaBelle opened his mouth, then closed it. He took a step back, and his lip curled. “My lawyer will be in touch.”

  Daddy was about ready to take a swing at Mr. LaBelle, but then the sound of a deep voice broke in. “Mr. LaBelle, you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

  I turned and saw Deputy Cyrus Middleton standing a few feet away and realized that he must have driven up while we were all focused on Mr. LaBelle.

  Mr. LaBelle barely glanced toward Deputy Middleton. “I think the questions can wait,” he said in a snippy vo
ice. “We’ve all gone through quite a harrowing experience.”

  “Actually, sir, they can’t.”

  Twenty-one

  As we watched Deputy Middleton’s car disappear down the drive with the LaBelles inside Bee turned to look at the rest of us. “We have to go to Hangman’s Bluff.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  Bee had a gleam in her eye.

  “We have to get Yemassee,” I remembered.

  “She’s really there?” Judge Gator asked, his voice trembling. “And she’s okay? And the puppies?”

  Bee and I nodded.

  “Well, let’s go!”

  Twenty minutes later the sky overhead had turned to blue haze and the storm was a dark smudge in the northwest as Bee, Grandma Em, Judge Gator, Daddy, and I piled out of Judge Gator’s old Mercedes at Hangman’s Bluff. Mr. and Mrs. LaBelle and Donna and Deputy Middleton were there as well; I guess the deputy had insisted on getting some answers right then and there. Two other state police cars had come along with him.

  At that moment Mr. LaBelle had his hands on his hips like a teacher who was put out with a dumb student. “My family has been through enough,” he snapped at the deputy. “I can’t believe you are subjecting us to this harassment.”

  Deputy Middleton nodded, but he didn’t back down. “Sir, are you the owner of this parcel of land known as Hangman’s Bluff?” He spoke in that deep voice where the words came so slow that they reminded me of molasses being poured out of a bottle. If a person only listened to the words, they might think Deputy Middleton wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. But if a person watched the deputy’s eyes, they would never make that mistake. I noticed that Mr. LaBelle was barely looking at him.

  “You know I am,” Mr. LaBelle said.

  “And you had hired the two suspects we just apprehended?”

  “Yes, they worked for me, but I had no idea about any crimes they may have committed.”

  “And what were you paying them to do?”

  I realized that Bee had edged very close to my shoulder and gone so still that she reminded me of a dog holding point on a covey of quail. Right then I knew Bee was listening harder than all the rest of us put together, and that if Mr. LaBelle told a lie, she was going to sense it right away.