Saving Jake

by Sharon Sala

  Truman growled beneath his breath, and when she started to dart toward the exit, he grabbed her.

  “Don’t you scream!” he said. “I’ll kill that pet chicken of yours, and I might kill your mama.”

  Bonnie’s mind went blank. The threat he’d made was too horrifying to consider.

  “Do you hear me?” Truman growled.

  She nodded.

  “I mean it. You tell and they’re dead.”

  He turned her loose and shoved her toward the doorway, then grabbed the gas can and made a run for the creek, unwilling to trust the kid to keep her mouth shut. He ran all the way back to his truck, cursing his luck all the way home, and told himself there would be another day.

  * * *

  Bonnie ran into the house with Brave Bear clutched beneath her chin, then ran into the living room and crawled up into Jake’s big chair and closed her eyes.

  Laurel didn’t see her come in, and by the time she was finished and deemed the house fit for a holiday party, she thought nothing of the fact that Bonnie was quiet as they started home.

  They drove all the way without talking, and again, Laurel was so wrapped up in plans for Thanksgiving that she didn’t key in on Bonnie’s silence. It wasn’t until they were going into the house that she realized Bonnie was trembling.

  “Honey, is something wrong?”

  Bonnie shook her head and ran into her room.

  Laurel frowned, dumped her stuff on the sofa, and followed her, but then couldn’t find her after she got to Bonnie’s bedroom. “Bonnie? Where are you, honey?”

  She heard sounds over in the corner and found her hiding between her bed and the wall. “What on earth, Bonnie Carol?”

  But Bonnie wasn’t talking, not even when Laurel got her off the floor and then cuddled her in the rocker. “Did you hurt yourself?” she asked.

  Bonnie shook her head.

  Laurel kept rocking and patting, trying to find a way to ask a question without making her clam up even more. “Did somebody hurt you?” she asked, and, the moment she did, felt Bonnie tense. “Who hurt you?”

  Bonnie hid her face against her mother’s breasts and wouldn’t talk.

  Laurel’s heart began to pound. The only person who’d been around her all day was Jake. There was a second when she let herself doubt him, and because it was her daughter, she had to ask. “Did Jake hurt you?”

  She shook her head no, but she wouldn’t look up and wouldn’t turn loose of the bear.

  “Honey, Mommy can’t help you if you don’t tell me what is wrong.”

  Bonnie started to cry. Now Laurel was scared.

  She grabbed her phone and called Jake.

  Jake was already on his way home with the nails when he got Laurel’s call. “Hey, baby, did you remember you needed something after all?”

  “No, but there’s something wrong with Bonnie. The moment we got home she ran into her room and was hiding behind her bed. I’ve got her in my lap, but she won’t talk. Did she hurt herself when she was in the barn with you?”

  Jake heard the doubt in Laurel’s voice, and it nearly broke him. “No. I’m nearly home. I’ll be at your house in five minutes.”

  Laurel groaned. She’d hurt his feelings, but she couldn’t help it. Her first line of defense began with her child.

  She was still in the room with Bonnie when Jake came inside, and she could tell by the length of his stride he was upset. He burst in, saw Bonnie rolled up in a ball in her mother’s arms, took a deep breath, then sat down on Bonnie’s bed.

  He glanced at Laurel, but his focus was on Bonnie. “Hey, Bonnie Bee, will you come sit in my lap?”

  Bonnie bailed out of her mother’s lap so fast it startled the both of them. “What in the world?” Laurel muttered.

  Jake shook his head as he pulled her close, then held her without talking until he felt her breathing level out. “What did you and Mommy do after I went to town?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” Bonnie said.

  Laurel frowned. “No, that’s not exactly true. You went back to the barn, remember?”

  Bonnie hid her face in Brave Bear’s chest.

  “Oh my God,” Laurel whispered. “Was someone at the barn? Bonnie, did someone scare you? Did someone touch you?”

  Bonnie wouldn’t answer and wouldn’t look at her mother.

  Jake’s heart was pounding now. He felt it coming, even before Bonnie confirmed what he feared. “Was there a man at the barn?” Jake asked, thinking of that intruder from so many weeks ago.

  She dropped her bear and covered her face with both hands.

  “Shit,” Jake said softly, and then tricked her into an answer. “Do you know him?”

  She shook her head, confirming for both that an intruder had been inside that barn.

  Laurel put her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming. She couldn’t panic. Not yet.

  “So, what was he doing when you saw him?” Jake asked.

  “Standing by the wall.”

  Jake swallowed past the lump in his throat and hugged her a little tighter. “Tell me what he was doing?”

  “He had rags and a red can like Gramps’s.”

  Laurel frowned. “A red can like Gramps’s?”

  Again, Jake came at the question from another angle. “What does your Gramps keep in his red can?”

  “Gasoline for the lawn mower.”

  Jake reeled. Someone had been going to set the barn afire. For all Jake knew, it could be smoldering right now. “Did he set a fire?”

  “No.”

  “Did he touch you?” Jake asked.

  Bonnie burst into tears.

  Jake felt like he was smothering. He was so scared to ask the next question that he could hardly speak. “Where did he touch you?”

  “He pinched my shoulders hard,” Bonnie said, sobbing with every breath.

  “Son of a bitch,” Jake whispered, and started rocking her where they sat. “Talk to me, baby. Tell me what he said so I can find him.”

  “He said he would kill Lavonne. He said he might kill Mommy if I told, then pushed me away. I ran to the house, and I heard him running, too, but he didn’t catch me.”

  “He was running away too,” Jake said. “And you promise he didn’t touch you anywhere but your shoulders?”

  Bonnie nodded. “They hurt right here,” she said, patting them.

  Laurel slipped the long-sleeved T-shirt up enough to look, and they saw the bruises already forming on her baby-white skin.

  “Thank you for being so brave,” Jake said, and then glanced at Laurel. “Do you have a gun here?”

  “No, and you can imagine why not.”

  He thought of what Adam had done to himself and nodded.

  “Right. So, put your coats on and come with me. I’m going to stop by the barn and make sure it’s okay; then I’m calling the police. We are all going to stay together until the bad man is gone, okay?”

  Laurel couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

  Bonnie clung to Brave Bear as Jake carried her to his truck; then he sat her in Laurel’s lap. The moments Laurel had of distrust seemed fair to Jake. Her first allegiance had to be for her child. He leaned in and kissed Laurel.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “You were well within your rights to ask whatever you needed to ask.”

  Chapter 20

  Jake drove up to his barn and parked. When he got out, he paused to look at the loose dirt at the entrance to the barn and saw the tracks of a man’s tennis shoes superimposed over his own boot tracks. He saw where Bonnie had gone in and where she’d come running out, and then he sidestepped the prints and walked into the barn.

  It didn’t take but a few moments to find the pile of oily rags, and it was easy to see where the gas can had been sitting. Whoever it was had intended to burn him out, and Bon
nie caught him in the act. He shuddered, thinking but for the grace of God what could have happened to her.

  He left the rags where they were for the law to see and then went back outside and trailed the prints of the tennis shoes until they disappeared down the creek bank. He didn’t go any farther. Since the man had let Bonnie go, it stood to reason he decided to run and take the risk of her not being able to identify him.

  He kept trying to think of who would want to do this to him. Surely not any of the Payne family resenting his relationship with Laurel, because they had been on the outs with her for too long to care about anything she did.

  He called Lon Pittman at the Blessings PD. This crime was out of his territory, but he knew Lon could get the county law in here faster than any phone call that he might make.

  Avery, the dispatcher, was on duty when Jake’s call came in. “Blessings PD.”

  “Avery, this is Jake Lorde. Is Lon around?”

  “He’s out on patrol. Give me a minute and I’ll patch your phone call through to him.”

  A few moments later, Jake heard Lon’s voice. “Jake? This is Lon. What’s up?”

  Jake quickly explained what had happened, and the moment he did, Lon remembered the call Peanut Butterman had made about Ruby Dye overhearing Truman Slade threatening to pay Jake back for putting him in jail.

  “So, the little girl saw him?” Lon said.

  “She has the bruises on her shoulders where he grabbed her to prove it.”

  “I have something you need to see,” Lon said. “I’ll be right there.”

  “We’re down at my barn. I’ll wait for you here.”

  Then he got in the truck, and as soon as he shut the door, Laurel grabbed his arm. “What did you see?”

  “A pile of oily rags and footsteps where he ran away,” Jake said, and then ruffled the top of Bonnie’s hair. “Deputy Pittman is coming out here right now. I’m going to show him the stuff and talk to him some more. Do you two want to go in my house, or are you okay to sit here?”

  “I wanna stay with Jake,” Bonnie said.

  “I wanna stay with Jake, too,” Laurel said, and laid a hand against his cheek.

  He turned it palm upward and kissed it, then eyed the way she was sitting against his seat. “Are you okay, baby?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Your back isn’t hurting sitting like this, is it?” he asked.

  “No. It’s nearly well. I mostly forget it was ever sore.”

  “About what happened to Bonnie—if this has anything to do with me, I am so sorry,” Jake said.

  Laurel frowned. “That doesn’t even make sense. We have no way of knowing what’s going on in other people’s minds and can’t be responsible if we become random victims, okay?”

  “Tell her that and make it alright,” Jake said, looking at the shadows still in Bonnie’s eyes.

  Jake felt sick. Someone had threatened the safety of people she loved. She would never be the same naive little girl she’d been before that happened.

  “We’ll figure it out,” Laurel said. “As long as we’re together, we can conquer anything.”

  “I would like to believe that,” Jake said.

  “You have to, Jake. I need you to be as positive our lives together are going to work as I am.”

  Jake leaned over and kissed the top of Bonnie’s head and then Laurel’s lips. “You two mean the world to me.”

  “Okay then,” Laurel said. “The end.”

  He grinned. “The end?”

  “Of your momentary lack of faith,” she said.

  He laughed. “God, I love you.”

  Bonnie looked up. “I love you, too, Mommy.”

  Jake grinned. “See, it’s unanimous. The end again.”

  By the time Lon Pittman arrived, the mood had lightened some, but once they began repeating what had happened, the horror of what Bonnie had narrowly escaped was back.

  Lon took pictures of the tracks, of the rags, and recorded Bonnie’s statement. He and Jake were standing outside Jake’s truck when Lon brought up what Ruby Dye had overheard.

  “I need to show you something,” Lon said. “I can’t say it has a thing to do with what happened here today, but I can’t say it doesn’t. Right after you came home, Ruby Dye overheard two men in the hardware store talking about wanting to get to you for some payback. It had to do with something that happened between the two of you years back.”

  Jake frowned. “Something between me and another man?”

  Lon nodded. “Ruby had the presence of mind to take their pictures when they weren’t looking. You’re going to know one of them.”

  Jake saw Truman’s face and took a deep breath. “Son of a bitch.”

  Lon tapped the phone to make Truman’s face larger and handed it to Jake. “Show this to Bonnie.”

  Jake opened the door to his truck and leaned inside. “Hey, Bonnie, do you know who this is?” he asked, and flipped the phone around.

  Bonnie screamed and covered her face.

  The skin crawled on Jake’s back. “Is this the man who scared you?”

  “Yes, make him go away!” she cried.

  “I am going to kill him,” Jake muttered.

  Laurel frowned. “You know who this is?”

  “Truman Slade. I’m the one who testified against him and put him in prison. I was seventeen years old when I witnessed him committing a robbery. Lon said Ruby Dye overheard him wanting to pay me back. She reported what she heard then.”

  “Then why didn’t they do something?” Laurel asked.

  “Because it’s not against the law to brag about what you might do. You only get in trouble after you do it,” Lon said.

  Jake patted Bonnie’s leg. “Don’t you worry, Bonnie Bee. This man is never going to hurt you again.”

  Laurel was beginning to get scared. “Please don’t do anything that will get you thrown in jail.”

  Lon grimaced. “I echo her sentiments. Don’t be crazy, Jake.”

  “I’m not crazy. I’m mad, and I’m going to make Truman Slade sorry he was ever born. Call your mama, honey. Ask her and your daddy to come get you. You two go stay with them until I can get back.”

  “Wait, Jake,” Laurel said. “Lon, can’t you just arrest him?”

  Lon shrugged. “Oh, we could, but there’s not enough evidence to hold him, and Bonnie would have to testify in court as to what happened. Ruby Dye would have to tell what she overheard, and then the consequences wouldn’t amount to anything except to make him madder. Do you want that?”

  “No,” Laurel said.

  Jake took her by the hand. “Then trust me.”

  “I’ll call Mama,” she said.

  Jake shut the door and gave Lon’s phone back to him. “If you arrested him just for the bruises on Bonnie’s shoulders, what could you charge him with that might stick?”

  “Trespassing on your property. The rest of it a good lawyer could explain away. They’d have to prove those were his rags, and he could easily claim they were already in the barn. He took the gas can with him.”

  “What about the bruises on Bonnie’s arms?”

  “He could claim she was falling, and he caught her to keep her from being hurt. It won’t matter what she says. She’s only six. They will take her apart.”

  “Then we’ve covered all the legal bases. I’ll be taking care of this on my own,” Jake said.

  Lon frowned. “I don’t want to have to arrest you.”

  “I’ll be fine, and Truman will be leaving this state of his own volition.”

  “Then don’t tell me anything more, and don’t tell me what you did.”

  “Deal,” Jake said.

  Lon drove away, and Jake took the girls back to her house.

  “Dad and Mama are on the way,” Laurel said. “They’re going t
o take us home with them. Do you know where they live?”

  “Yes. As long as you two are safe, I’ll be fine,” Jake said.

  He let them out, waited until they were inside, and then headed for town. He didn’t know where to find the sorry bastard, but he wasn’t going home until he did.

  * * *

  Truman was a little bit antsy about getting caught. He didn’t think there was any way that kid could identify him, but he felt like it wasn’t wise to take chances and staying in town with Nester seemed like pushing his luck.

  Nester’s truck was not in the driveway when Truman returned, and he took it as the opening he needed. He got in through a back window that wasn’t locked, packed up his things, and then rummaged through Nester’s house looking for the stash of money he knew he kept. He went through Nester’s bedroom with no luck and finally found it in the kitchen in an empty cereal box at the back of the pantry. It was a big roll of cash, but too many one- and five-dollar bills to suit Truman. It didn’t total up to as much as he’d hoped, but it was enough to get him out of town.

  He went right back out the same window he’d gone in, dumped his things in the back of his truck, and headed out of town, unaware that he was already under the gun. Jacob Lorde had finally found him.

  * * *

  Truman was thinking about leaving the area for the winter, and while bunking with Aunt Sugar was out of the question, there were other places he could go. He was trying to decide if he should just winter in a warmer climate on his own, so focused he didn’t see the red truck behind him until he reached his house and got out.

  * * *

  Jake had spied Truman just about the time he parked at Nester’s house. He watched as Truman crawled in a back window, watched him come out with a bag and a satisfied smirk, and wanted to take him down right there. But they were both in Blessings, and he didn’t need any witnesses. So he followed Truman’s exit out of Blessings all the way to a run-down property a couple of miles out of town. When he saw Truman get out, he accelerated, parked right behind him, and got out on the run.

  He had his hands around Truman’s neck and shoved him up against the truck before Truman knew what was happening. Jake threw the first punch, popping Truman square in the face.