Man Without A Badge

by Dani Sinclair

  “He did fill in some of it,” Marly explained, “but it was a deep well, and frankly, we didn’t have the money to do it right. When one of the rocks jammed partway down, my husband just covered the opening with some bigger ones.” She heard the resignation in her voice, but she was tired of trying to explain her ex-husband’s actions to people. “Do you think Chris is in there?”

  “I don’t know, but the kids seem to think it was one of his favorite places to go, besides the hayloft, and we know he isn’t up there.”

  “But he might have been.”

  Sam made no response. Nor did she expect one. They both knew the barn was the logical place for the boy to hide.

  The kids reached the outcropping and began calling Chris. Sam circled the pile of boulders thoughtfully. It was Jerome who discovered the almost hidden opening.

  “It’s too small,” Marly said patiently.

  “No, it ain’t. See?”

  Before she could stop him, he rushed over and wiggled into the narrow aperture. Marly lunged forward, reaching inside to grab his feet just as Jerome gave a yelp of surprise.

  “Sam!”

  “Right here, Marly. Don’t let him go. I’ve got you.”

  She felt his strong hands on her legs.

  “Can you pull him back?” he asked.

  “I think so.”

  She began to pull, aware of Sam’s strength anchoring her. After a moment, Jerome wriggled to help. In seconds he was free, his chocolate eyes wide open in shock.

  “There’s a hole in there!” he exclaimed.

  “I know. That’s the well.” She hugged him close, thankful he was all right.

  “I almost fell down.”

  “But you didn’t,” she told him, sending up another prayer of thanks.

  “Do you think Chris did?” one of the other boys asked.

  “Only one way to find out,” Sam said grimly.

  “No!”

  He eyed her.

  “You won’t fit,” Marly told him. “I’ll do it.”

  “Marly—”

  “Hold my legs like you did before. I brought a flashlight.” His startled look almost made her smile. “Emma gave it to me.”

  “Remind me to kiss her later.”

  “Not a chance. She’s already smitten with you.”

  “I’ll remember that.”

  Marly turned on her stomach and inched toward the narrow opening. This was the last thing she wanted to be doing. There were probably snakes in there.

  Sam’s hands held firm on her ankles. Marly extended the flashlight and squirmed forward carefully. For a moment, she thought her hips were too wide to clear the aperture, but with a little painful contorting, she made it.

  About four feet from the mouth, the ground suddenly fell away. Even though she was expecting it, the instant appearance of the hole came as a surprise to her. She shone the light down inside, and her breath spilled out on a gasp. He looked like a small pile of rags caught in the beam of her light. He didn’t move.

  “Chris?” Her voice cracked, and she swallowed hard. “Chris? Can you hear me?”

  There was no sound, no sign of any movement.

  “Christopher, you answer me!”

  There was the slightest stirring, or was that only her wistful imagination?

  “Marly?” Sam’s rough voice was accompanied by a tugging on her legs. Reluctantly she allowed him to pull her back. She twisted around as soon as her head was free.

  “He’s in there, Sam. About eight to ten feet down. I think he’s alive.”

  Sam turned to the children. “Mickey, you and Donald run back to the house. Tell Emma to call 911.” The two boys sprinted away.

  “Jerome, you and the other boys go over to the bunkhouse,” he continued. “See if any of the men are still there. If they aren’t, come straight back here. Don’t go in the barn, understand? If you see any of the men, tell them to bring ropes. Got it?” The other three took off across the meadow.

  “Sam, I could climb down there. If I go feetfirst—”

  “No.”

  “It isn’t that far down.”

  “No.”

  “But—”

  “Marly, we don’t need two victims. This pile of rocks doesn’t look stable to me. What if the whole thing shifts? We aren’t going to take chances. What equipment did your husband use to pile them here in the first place?”

  “I’m not sure. I wasn’t here when he did it.”

  “We’ll wait for help.”

  “But Chris—”

  “Will be fine. Kids are resilient.”

  And she knew then that he was saying the words aloud in an effort to make them true. She reached out and encircled his neck, while a tear tracked its way down her face. After a momentary hesitation, Sam hugged her in return, rocking her silently against his broad chest.

  “I’m scared,” she whispered.

  “Me too.” Abruptly he pulled free, stood up and began to circle the pile of rocks again.

  Marly wiped at her eyes. “What are you doing?”

  Sam tipped his battered Stetson back on his forehead and continued to frown. “Trying to find a better way in.”

  “You mean a bigger hole, don’t you?”

  Sam didn’t argue. Carter and the rest of the men were pelting across the field toward them, followed by the children. Tersely Sam explained the situation to the men.

  “What do you propose?” Carter snapped.

  “Well, either we wait for the professionals, or one of us has to go in feetfirst and bnng the boy out.”

  “I told you I’d do that,” Marly stated.

  “I can do it,” Jake said.

  Sam regarded the small man thoughtfully. “What do you know about first aid?”

  “I can stick a bandage on “

  “While I’m fully trained and certified in first aid and CPR,” Marly said firmly. “We’ll need a backboard. There’s one in the barn Keefer, run and get it right away, please.”

  She looked at the anxious children and once again sent them running for blankets, water, and the walkietalkies. As the boys ran back toward the house, she looked at Sam. His brown eyes gleamed in troubled approval before he turned toward her foreman.

  “Carter, let’s rig up a system with the ropes. Have you got more?”

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “Jake?”

  “On my way.”

  It seemed an eternity before Sam had things set up enough to suit him. Marly noticed that everyone, including Carter, deferred to him in this. She was harnessed into a set of ropes and, when Sam gave the word, began to inch her way backward though the hole. They had decided not to send the backboard down until she was ready. Sam wasn’t sure it would fit through the opening.

  Marly was surprised to find the drop deeper than she had thought. It was easily ten feet down. The men lowered her slowly until she found herself standing on the large boulder wedged precariously over the rest of the well. Chris lay at her feet.

  A shifting noise gave her a bad moment, wondering if the rock would hold under their combined weight. It felt decidedly unstable. Then she bent over Chris, who was curled in a fetal position. His eyes fluttered open as she ran exploratory fingers over his body.

  “Marly?”

  “Don’t move, Chris. Where are you hurt?”

  “My head. I tried to climb out, but I fell. I can’t get out.”

  “Okay, don’t worry. We’ll get you out in a minute. Does your neck hurt?”

  “No. Just my head.”

  She felt along the back of his head and found an enormous raised area where he’d struck it. There was no sign of bleeding, but the pupil of one eye was slightly larger than the other one, so she was pretty sure he had a concussion.

  “How about your back?”

  “It doesn’t hurt. My knee hurts.”

  His knee was scraped. There was no sign of swelling. Marly breathed a sigh of relief.

  “It’s cold down here.”

  He was right about that.
She saw his body shiver and unwrapped the impossibly lightweight camping blanket from her kit and draped it over him. Then she picked up the walkie-talkie. Sam answered at once.

  “He’s conscious and alert. There’s a blow to the back of his head, but no obvious breaks I can determine. Is the rescue squad there yet?”

  “No. I sent Keefer to call again.”

  Without warning, the rock beneath her feet shifted. Marly’s heart leaped into her throat. “Sam?”

  “Marly? What’s wrong?”

  His voice crackled sharply over the tinny speaker. She tried to keep her own voice calm, in an effort to match his tone, not wanting to scare Chris any further. “We can’t wait for the rescue squad.”

  “What’s wrong, Marly?” Sam’s voice was a strong, quiet lifeline. She took a steadying breath.

  “The rock isn’t stable. I think it might be slipping. We have to bring him up now. See if the backboard fits.”

  There was a moment of silence in which she could picture him tipping back his hat and cursing. After a moment, his voice filled the eerie cave.

  “Marly? It’s a definite no for the backboard.”

  The sound of dirt shifting pumped up her heart.

  “We can’t wait, Sam.”

  “Okay,” he said calmly. “What do you want to do?”

  “I’m going to tie my lines around Chris so you can pull him out.”

  “Negative.” The word whipped out at her. “Keep the lines around yourself in case the rock goes, Marly. I’ll send Jake to the lip to drop a second set of lines over. Use them to tie around Chris the way I did around you.”

  Her breath jammed in her throat as the slipping sensation came again.

  “Marly? Did you copy?”

  Her finger shook as she depressed the call button. “I heard you Sam, but hurry. I don’t think we have much time.”

  “Affirmative.” His tone was grim, but he smoothed it as he added, “Hang in there, boss.”

  The whole thing reminded her of a movie in which a plane was going down in flames and the pilot was calmly reporting the situation. Knowing Sam was listening to her was foolishly reassuring, somehow.

  “Chris?”

  At the sound of her voice, the boy opened his eyes but they were glazed. Was he getting worse?

  “Listen, sweetie, we’re going to get you out of here, but you have to help me, okay?”

  “’Kay.”

  There was a noise above them, and dirt rained down on her head.

  “Marly?”

  It was Jake’s voice. His face was hidden behind the flashlight he was shining down on her.

  “Right here, Jake.”

  “Okay. I’m gonna come down and—”

  “No! The rock won’t hold any more weight. Stay where you are, Jake!”

  “Okay, okay, take it easy. Can the boy climb?”

  She shone her own light down on him. “I don’t think SO.”

  “Then you’ll have to pass him up to me. I’m gonna lower the other ropes Sam gave me. Tie them around the kid the way Sam did to you, and try to pass him to me. I’ll grab him and pull him free.”

  “Okay.”

  The ropes descended in a shower of dirt. Marly thought the rock shifted again, but she wasn’t sure, with all the dirt falling from above. Her hands were numb with fear. When she grabbed for the end of the rope, a grating noise sounded from beneath her feet.

  “Gawd,” Jake whispered. “Be careful, boss.”

  Her mouth was too dry for her to respond. She nodded and bent to tie the line around Chris. He was limp, and only partly conscious. That scared her even more.

  “Chris!” His eyes fluttered open. “Listen to me. Hold on to this rope, okay? Can you do that?”

  He blinked and mumbled something that might have been assent. She took his icy hands and placed them on the rope. “Jake, he’s more unconscious than not. I don’t think he’s going to be much help.”

  “You sure you don’t want me to come down?”

  “Positive.” Even as she said the word, she could hear the dirt continuing to shift around her. “I’m going to tell Sam to start pulling. You’ll have to reach for Chris, but I’ll try to guide him upward as far as I can.”

  “Okay.”

  She flicked the switch on the walkie-talkie. “Sam?”

  “Right here, Marly. What’s going on?”

  “Chris is almost unconscious, and this rock is definitely going. I’ve tied the lines around him like you showed me. You’d better start pulling. Slowly. He’s not going to be much help.”

  “Understood.”

  Marly clipped the walkie-talkie to her waistband. “Okay, Jake. Here he comes.”

  She strained to lift the eighty pounds or more of essentially dead weight over her head, expecting that at any moment the bottom would fall out of her world, literally. The dirt continued to shift, but the rock held.

  Chris helped more than she’d thought he could as they inched him upward. Finally, Jake’s hands gripped him. In minutes both of them were out of sight and she was left shaking in reaction, with only a first-aid kit and a flashlight at her feet.

  “Marly? We’ve got him,” Sam’s voice said from the small box at her waist. “You ready?”

  “In a second.” She replaced the walkie-talkie at her waist and bent to collect the other items. The rock suddenly gave way. A scream tore from her lungs as she found herself plunging downward, only to suddenly slam against a dirt wall as the ropes brought her up short.

  The flashlight winked out. Empty blackness surrounded her as she dangled in midair.

  “Marly’ Marly, damn it, answer me!”

  She hung from the ropes, too terrified to let go. There was a scuffling sound overhead, and dirt sprinkled her again. But there was light. Blessed light. It seemed a long way up this time.

  “Marly? You all right?” Jake asked.

  It took her two tries to get her voice to cooperate. “Yes.” It sounded scratchy, hoarse with the terror that was closing in on her mind. She forced herself to speak calmly. “Can you get me out?”

  The ropes dug into her skin.

  “Hang on, I’ll be right back.”

  “No! Don’t go!”

  But Jake had already disappeared from sight. Seconds later, Sam’s static-filled voice began to speak. “Take it easy, Marly. Don’t panic on us now. We’ve got you. The ropes are strong. We won’t let you fall.”

  She swallowed back the terror, wishing she could respond, but still too scared to let go of the ropes.

  “Listen to me, Marly,” Sam continued. “I’m going to talk you up the whole way, okay? Don’t try to respond, just listen to me and do as I say.”

  “Like I have a choice,” she muttered shakily.

  “We’re going to start pulling. I want you to use your feet and your hands to help us. Use the sides for leverage.”

  Marly gave an involuntary scream as the ropes began to pull against her weight.

  “Marly? You okay?”

  Jake’s voice, and the blessed light that seemed so far away.

  “Yes. It just scared me.”

  “Okay. Sam says we’ll get you out faster if I’m outside, outta the way.”

  She tried to slow her breathing. “Okay. But can you leave the light?”

  “Sure thing. Sam’ll have you out in a jiffy.”

  “Good. Tell him to hurry. I wasn’t cut out to dangle over a pit.”

  Jake chuckled. “I’ll tell ‘im.”

  Moments later, Sam’s slow voice filled her ears again.

  “Okay, boss, Jake says you’re in a hurry.”

  The ropes jerked. This time she managed not to scream.

  “But we aren’t going to do it fast, Marly. We’re going to go slow. It’s always better that way, don’t you think?” His voice was low, and pitched for seduction.

  “Skip the innuendos and get me out of here, Moore.” But, of course, he couldn’t hear her unless she depressed the send button, and he was already talking, in
a slow, easy drawl that still managed to sound like an invitation to bed, even over a crackling walkie-talkie.

  “Come on, baby, plant your feet. That’s it, darlin’ don’t make me do all the work. It’s better when both of us cooperate, don’t you think?”

  “I’ll show you cooperate,” she muttered, but she was using one of her hands and both of her feet in an effort to help.

  “We’ll slide you right on out of that hole and into my waitin’ arms, darlin’.”

  “In your dreams, cowboy.” Even if it did sound like heaven.

  “That’s it, nice an’ easy. Keep comin’, sweetheart. I’ve got you.”

  “You’d better, or you’re fired.” But she actually smiled. The light was growing brighter, nearer. She dug in with renewed effort.

  “Now you’re comin’. A little more, darlin’. You’re almost there.”

  Suddenly, the ropes jerked and she slipped downward almost a foot. She heard Sam’s curse, but she didn’t have time to scream. Her heart was lodged against the back of her throat.

  She could hear shouts and disjointed noises, but mostly she heard Sam expel a harsh breath. “I’ve got her,” he panted. “Get in front of me and pull, damn it.”

  Marly clawed for a handhold in the dirt before her. Something had gone wrong with the ropes. She didn’t need Sam to tell her that.

  “On three,” Sam said. “Pull!”

  She jerked upward. No longer was there a smooth, slow ride. They pulled on Sam’s command. She gripped the ropes and began to climb. In minutes, her fingers were scrabbling for the top. She gouged for a handhold on the lip of the well and got a faceful of dirt for her efforts. But the men yanked, and she was suddenly over the top and they were dragging her toward blessed daylight.

  Carter’s arms reached for her wrists. He tugged her forward. Her hips scraped against the rocks, and then she was outside and he was pulling her to her feet. He hugged her tightly to his body, saying something, but she only had eyes for the man sitting in the dirt against a rock, a bloody rope in his hand.

  She struggled free of Carter and came to stand above her cowboy. His hat was shoved way back. Streaks of dirt and sweat ran down his face, but she had never seen anyone more handsome in all her life. The look in his brown eyes lifted her heart.

  “Well, cowboy,” she said, breathing hard. “Was it good for you, too?”