by J. L. Salter
“If I wasn’t already married, Miss Ellie…”
She seemed about to say something, but just grinned instead, and wiggled ever-so-slightly in her chair.
“Did you go and hit another home run on some creep’s skull? That’s what I heard.”
Ellie motioned dismissively with her hand. “Oh, hush. I expect it was more like a bases-loaded double.” She grinned again. “Still and all, that feller didn’t come to for at least a half hour.”
“I guess those punks just plain underestimated you, Miss Ellie.”
“Well, I was batting cleanup. It was Kelly and Diane that was in the thick of it. You should’ve seen the blond feller when them two girls had him buffaloed between them. They was either real brave or real crazy, pulling a stunt like that.”
“They’re lucky one or both weren’t shot.” Means stood and brushed his slacks at the knee. “I got to go, Miss Ellie. Just wanted to check on you.”
She reached out and touched his hand, which rested on his thick belt right above the grip of his pistol. “Tell yer momma to come see me.”
Means responded with an economical wave and turned to leave; on his way out he spoke briefly to another deputy and nodded again at Kelly.
Ellie returned her attention to the deputy who’d been sitting quietly during the entire exchange. “Now where was I? Oh, yeah, after I stuffed one feller into the trunk of the big old car with no plates…”
****
About the time she returned to her cabin, Kelly received a call from Diane, who’d made her own statement at the sheriff’s station that morning. Diane said she’d heard the prosecutor was planning to drop charges against Ginny in exchange for her full cooperation with the cases against the true perpetrators.
Kelly still thought she’d been right eight days ago not to turn Ginny away, but realized she should have insisted the fugitive level with her completely. Too many lives had been in jeopardy because of Ginny’s irresponsible behavior. Granted, the girl was scared, confused, and alone. But those were not adequate excuses for endangering the lives of others. Ginny had hazardously omitted too many details.
Ginny would still have chances to move forward in her life, but she’d have to learn an important lesson: “when you turn to the only person you think you can depend on, you don’t betray their trust.” The young woman would have to live with the varied consequences of her actions and decisions.
Kelly could probably forgive in time, but she would not likely forget the perilous lesson in blind trust of someone, in truth, she had barely known.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Wednesday, May 30
It was late morning when Kelly picked up Pop and both waited outside the basement of the courthouse, as Ginny was released from custody to enter the care arrangements made by her new support team.
Ginny’s bad sprain only four days old, she was still using Wade’s crutches when she approached Pop. “I’m sorry I left without paying my rent. It was just, uh, well, I…” She reached down deep into her pocket and handed him all the money she apparently possessed, a few crumpled dollar bills.
His ribs obviously still hurting from the cave incident, Pop hugged her rather stiffly, but she squeezed into him anyway. Pop was one of the kinds of people Ginny really needed in her life, but her family evidently didn’t provide a Chet Walter.
“Ya better keep it.” Pop cleared his throat loudly as their brief embrace ended. “Reckon ya need it more than I do.” He pressed the money back into her hand.
Ginny’s eyes widened when she spotted a twenty Pop had added to the wad. New tears formed as she stuffed the bills back into her jeans.
Kelly’s chest tightened as she watched. By her side, she had a kitchen trash bag holding a gift for Ginny.
Ginny hobbled over with the crutches moving in a staggered sequence.
This girl needs to practice the proper crutch stride.
“Miss Kelly, I’m so sorry…” Ginny never got the rest of it out, but her soft sobs conveyed the complete apology.
“I’d like to hear from you, to know how you’re doing.” Kelly wondered if she would ever cross paths with Ginny Cable again. “I brought you something. Mitch and I saved it from all the clutter you left at the farm house.” Kelly held up the thirteen gallon bag and pulled out a ten gallon cowgirl hat. Well, it was closer to two quarts.
Ginny’s moist eyes indicated a question.
“Mitch kept the first red shoe as a souvenir of staying in the farm house. Of course, we didn’t realize you’d buried the other shoe in the sinkhole. Someday I want to hear the rest of that story, by the way.”
Ginny nodded as they hugged closely and briefly. One of the crutches fell to the pavement and the other pressed against Kelly’s ribs. Ginny’s lips formed the word thanks but its sound did not come out.
Before leaving the courthouse, Kelly also learned the police had finally arrested J.D. He was not directly connected to the gang Ginny had once been with, but J.D. was being sought in connection with the brutal rape of some other local woman. He was somewhere in Pulaski that night and he had been called by the Dude, so it wasn’t just Blondie’s scare tactic. And J.D. probably would have visited Kelly’s cabin later.
Chapter Forty
Thursday, May 31
Still in bed at eight o’clock, Kelly got a call from Wade — on the way over in his souped-up golf cart. Hardly five minutes later, she heard Wade’s heavy footsteps on her front porch and called through the bedroom window, “You’ve got to give me a minute to wash my face and cover up.”
“Okay, but hurry. I heard about the fracas down here and I want the lowdown.”
“Five minutes.” Kelly went to the bathroom.
She pulled on yesterday’s jeans and a long-sleeved flannel shirt over her nightshirt. Still barefoot, Kelly padded down the hall with no worry about broken glass since she’d already swept and mopped twice. When she flipped the front door’s deadbolt, Wade was leaning so close he nearly fell into the room.
“I’m starting the coffee.” She yawned. “You know better than coming here before nine, you big galloot.”
He ignored the gentle reproach. “You got somebody to put some new glass in your door?” He almost seemed to be volunteering.
“Yeah, Pop’s taking care of it. Most likely later today, in fact.”
“Okay.” He acted slightly relieved. “Can’t keep out criminals with cardboard.”
“Maybe not, but my shotgun’s back where it’s handy.”
Wade grinned broadly and couldn’t remain still… he was practically twitching to hear what had happened. Gato entertained him until Kelly finished in the kitchen. He asked about little Perra’s condition and Kelly briefed him.
“How did you even find out we’d had a problem Monday night?”
Wade started to sit but got back up. “Your pal Diane called me and said y’all had a close scrape with three whacked-out druggies, but she wouldn’t say much more. I had to drive all the way down here to find out what happened. Let me see your cut.” He peered closely at her right cheek. “Hit you pretty hard.”
Kelly handed over his special mug and pointed to the sputtering coffee maker. “It’ll be ready in a minute.” Then she filled him in on everything. Finally she got to what Ginny had tossed into the sinkhole nearly two years ago. “Ginny hid what she considered insurance inside her ugly red shoe.”
“Why’d she come back fer it? If she was so scared and all.”
“Evidently she was terrified her former gang members were closing in on her and seemed to think her only protection was regaining possession of what she’d left inside the little metal box in the sink hole.”
The coffee was finally ready. Wade got up from the stuffed chair and ambled toward the kitchen. “So what was it?”
“Ginny’s little stash ought to give a much longer federal vacation for Blondie, Cheech, and Dude.” Kelly frowned. “That’s why they were willing to kill her to get it back. They were already implicated in theft of
money and jewelry to buy drugs, plus theft of drugs themselves, plus some amateurish monkey business with oxycodone manufacturing. Ginny’s little stash was something neither the feds nor local cops had on them yet. Ginny swore she wasn’t going to use it against them but kept it only as leverage if they ever came back at her. It wasn’t enough for Blondie — he didn’t trust her alive.”
“You gonna tell me what’s in the box?”
“Her cell phone.”
“Huh?”
“Under duress, Ginny was out with them one night when they robbed a small pharmacy somewhere, right after it’d closed. They got all the controlled drugs they wanted plus bottles of pseudoephedrine, which so many idiots are using to make their own freaky stuff. But even that wasn’t enough for Blondie. He turned on the druggist, who’d only let them into the store at gunpoint. Blondie and some of the other guys kicked and beat the guy so bad he died a few days later.”
“What’s that got to do with Ginny’s cell phone?”
“She tried to get them to stop, but they wouldn’t. While they were so brutally occupied, Ginny snapped a picture with her rather primitive cell phone camera. Then she ran, and kept running for over two years. Diane was at the courthouse right after they’d cleaned up the phone and plugged in a new battery. They even let her see the picture… unofficially, of course. She said it shows Blondie — and I think Cheech — clear as day, kicking the crud out of the druggist. I mean you can see faces, blood, everything. Absolute positive proof which connects them to his death from the beating.”
“No wonder they wanted Ginny’s little secret. That oughta double their prison time. It might even get them the big needle at the other end of death row.” Wade was pacing again. “So why did Ginny hide her secret in a sinkhole, of all places?”
“Well, she couldn’t keep it on her. Had to be where she could get to it, but nobody else would think to look.”
“Sinkhole’s a good enough place to hide your secrets, I guess.”
Kelly closed her eyes briefly. “Aunt Belva evidently thought so.”
“Do you s’pose little Ginny knew Belva also hid stuff in one of them sinkholes?”
“Not likely.” Kelly shook her head. “Might’ve just been instinct. People have been burying their secrets for generations.”
Both were silent for a long moment before Wade spoke softly. “You did real good, Kel.”
“Aw, we did okay. Ellie and Diane made a good one-two punch.”
Chapter Forty-One
Friday, June 1
It was warm late morning when Kelly walked across the broad hill, past the partly filled in sinkhole, down around the ancient spring, and finally to the farm house.
Diane was out back watering potted flowers on the square cement top to the old well behind the house. She mopped sweat from her eyebrows with the back of her hand. “Oh, hi. Didn’t see you coming.”
“Just wanted to return your book. In all the excitement Monday, you forgot it.”
Diane nodded. “Let’s go sit on the porch for a second. I need to cool off.”
“I wanted to tell you again how much I appreciate your help that night.”
“You know, I couldn’t even talk about this for the first few days. Except what Joe heard me tell the courthouse deputies, he didn’t know anything but what he picked up from Ellie. Just couldn’t put words around it, I guess.”
“Is it still too soon?” Kelly peered into her neighbor’s face.
“No, I think it’s okay now. Somehow working with the flowers today maybe helped.”
“Diane, my biggest question is, what possessed you to come up there with Ellie? Surely you realized you were walking into a dangerous situation.”
“Actually I didn’t, at first. I mean, I thought Ellie and I were just checking on the car that drove up Cemetery Road with no lights or plates. It seemed kind of exciting, but I wasn’t thinking dangerous. Then we saw what was happening inside. Ellie immediately went to commando mode, whacking the guy’s head with her baseball bat. I’ve only seen that in movies. You should’ve heard the sound! It was like TV football when the volume’s up high and two helmets hit each other at sixty miles an hour or something. I thought he was dead for sure.”
“Yet you calmly walked up my porch steps and called through the busted cabin door.”
Diane giggled nervously. “Didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t want to guard the guy on the car. I was afraid he was either already dead, or he’d come to and I’d have to clobber him again. So I figured maybe I could do some good inside.”
“Where two punks with guns were abusing two unarmed women. I don’t see your logic, but I’m glad you did.”
“I’ve thought about it a lot since then. It wasn’t logic. No normal mental process would’ve sent me through that door. It was something I don’t remember ever feeling before. Something like… if I didn’t go in there, that maniac was gonna kill my friend. It made no sense at all. I’m a grandmother, for heaven’s sake.”
“I’ve seen interviews with combat soldiers who’ve said similar things. It’s what made them get up from cover and charge an enemy position. A lot of them said they didn’t want to let their buddies down. And they felt it was their duty to do what they could.”
Diane’s eyes closed briefly. “Duty isn’t the word I would’ve come up with. I think duty would’ve been me going back to the farm house, getting my phone, and calling the cops.”
“By the way, you asked me once so I’ve got to ask you, why didn’t you call 9-1-1?”
Diane gazed northwest, though she couldn’t see the cabin from her front porch. “Until we got up there and figured out what was going on, we didn’t know for certain there was reason to call the cops. Plus, in the excitement, I didn’t think to bring my phone… and I doubt Ellie even has one. Once we got there, realized what they were saying and doing — poor Ginny — the wild-eyed blond creep waving his gun and stuff. By that time, we figured somebody had to do something right then.”
“Sounds familiar.”
“Then Ellie just took over, said she’d take out the guard. If she hadn’t done it, no way I could’ve gotten inside. I guess neither one of us even thought about coming back here and calling police.”
Kelly nodded.
“Oh, by the way, Joe wants to be sure you understand he wasn’t home that night He was washing clothes over at my Mom’s.”
“Yeah, I know. He told me.”
“I mean, Joe’s not the type to say ‘Forget the torpedoes, full speed ahead’. But he would’ve been there to, uh, help or something… if he’d known about it.”
“Diane, I understand. But anyhow, we’re not vigilantes — Joe included. We all need to reboot to the default setting of calling the cops first, if possible.” Kelly paused and remembered something. “Anyway, if you didn’t know you were going in before you got to my cabin, why’d you bring the book?”
“I needed to hold on to something so Ellie wouldn’t see how bad my hands were shaking.”
Kelly reached over and patted her neighbor’s shoulder. “I’m glad you came, Diane. Thank you.”
Each turned away briefly.
“It’s probably what Pop’s Aunt Belva would’ve done, if she’d been around. Maybe her mother also.”
Kelly nodded. “You know, I never thought of that, but I believe you’re right. Belva and Mary would’ve done just what we did, if they’d been left to their own devices. They would’ve fought back.”
Diane shivered slightly, then peered into Kelly’s face. “I recognize your expression. What are you thinking?”
“I was just figuring what my Aunt Mildred would’ve done. She would’ve beat Blondie within an inch of his life, but she wouldn’t have killed him.”
Diane seemed puzzled.
“To my Aunt Mildred, it would’ve been a matter of morality — you don’t kill another human. If he’s a physical threat, you beat him senseless if necessary, but you don’t end his life.”
“Would you have kil
led him?”
“I don’t know. It probably would depend on what it took to neutralize his threat. But I don’t think I would’ve had any moral compunction about it. He was ready to kill me, actually all three of us. After he and his buddies got through assaulting us, that is.”
Both shivered.
Kelly pointed vaguely to the southwest, where Wade’s property line started. “Wade came by yesterday and I filled him in about Monday night. He figures you having the book was all that kept Blondie from patting you down.”
“It’s been a good long while since a twenty-year-old boy patted me down. I guess I would’ve slapped him.”
“Then he probably would’ve shot you, or at least whacked you with his gun.” Kelly gingerly touched her own cheek.
“Well, then maybe I would’ve zapped him with my little air horn thingy.”
“That’s something else I wanted to ask. Why’d you keep the noise maker and give me the pepper spray?”
It took Diane a moment to reply. “I wasn’t sure if I could actually use the pepper spray on anybody. You probably think I’m a ninny.”
“I was only thinking what a good friend you were to even walk in my cabin.”
Diane’s eyes filled and she wordlessly lowered her gaze.
“Thanks.” Kelly’s word emerged almost without sound and hung in the air briefly.
Diane nodded her head slowly, then both stood and hugged for a moment.
“Oh, I nearly forgot. You’ll never believe what Joe found.” Diane dabbed her eyes as she opened her front door and reached inside. She returned holding something wrapped in paper towels.
“What’s this?”
“You remember how Joe kept lurking around the trailers and poking through all the clutter everybody was pulling out of the sinkhole?”
Kelly nodded. “Yeah, I wondered why he was so intent on that growing heap. It was just yucky junk.”
“Not all of it.” Diane sat on the swing next to Kelly and unfolded the paper towel slowly. “Take a gander at this.”
