Return to Blanco (Red Book 4)

by Darrell Maloney

  “The other room is mine. And if you walk in there, even accidentally, we won’t be partners anymore.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you’ll be dead.”

  “Oh. Okay. Thanks for the warning.”

  “Don’t mention it.”

  Jacob slept like a baby. It was the first time in two months he’d actually slept on a bed. He forgot how comfortable it was.

  Red, on the other hand, tossed and turned.

  What she told Jacob was true. No matter how tough a woman is, she is, at heart, still a woman. Women by nature tend to enjoy the finer things in life.

  Pretty and frilly things.

  And a soft and comfortable bed.

  But it wasn’t the bed which bothered her.

  It was her surroundings, and the memories they held.

  This was the room where Butch once comforted her when she was sick.

  Held her when she cried after her mother’s death.

  This was the room where she once talked on the phone for hours to Russell.

  Where she told him she loved him for the first time.

  Where she and Lilly planned her wedding, before Russell even proposed.

  Where she confided to Lilly that she wanted four children.

  Two boys and two girls, so neither side held an advantage over the other.

  This was where Mrs. Weatherly sat with her and explained how and why her body was changing. Later on she explained the birds and the bees to her, and the whole concept of sex. Because her dad was too much of a chicken to do it himself.

  This room was where the same Mrs. Weatherly fitted Red for her prom dress.

  Then her wedding dress.

  This room was where she finished her recovery after returning home from the hospital. After she was critically injured from the explosion which killed Russell and little Rusty.

  This was where Butch waited on her, hand and foot, as she regained her strength.

  It all came back to her now, every bit of it. She smiled, she cried, she ached in her heart.

  And she resolved, once again, to make things right.

  Red finally crawled out of bed about five p.m.

  The upstairs drapes were open, the sunlight filtered by sheer curtains.

  She was able to see easily until she got downstairs, where it was a bit darker.

  Heavy drapes drawn tightly closed made sure of that.

  She lit two candles on the dining room table and sat for a moment, wondering where Jacob went.

  She knew he was up. The lingering scent of the Marlboro gave him away.

  She finally called out to him.

  “Jacob? Where are you?”

  He joined her in the dining room, standing behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

  She didn’t move it, or even object to it.

  She seemed to sense it was an innocent gesture.

  He, for his part, sensed she needed the reassurance that there was someone else who cared for her.

  She’d lost everybody else in her life.

  But she wouldn’t lose Jacob.

  -24-

  She thought about making her way over to Lilly’s, to let her know she was back.

  And to introduce her to Jacob, so he’d quit asking so many questions about her. He still pestered her occasionally. What did Lilly look like? What kind of men did she like? Would she like a guy like Jacob? Was she patient and kind? And on and on and on…

  It was nice he expressed an interest in her friend.

  Red had thought for quite some time that Lilly was lonely and needed a companion. The problem was there weren’t a lot of men in Blanco to begin with. Even fewer good ones.

  And the blackout and the chaos it brought made that number dwindle even more.

  Jacob was, by everything she’d seen thus far, a very good man. He had some issues. He could be moody and grouchy at times. But then, Red could be too.

  Jacob seemed to be getting over his obsession with Red. That was a good thing, for Red simply had no interest in him. Not in that way.

  Whether he’d be a good match for Lilly, only time would tell. Red hoped they’d hit it off, for she personally thought they’d be good for one another.

  In the end, she decided to wait to call on Lilly until she returned with Beth. At least then she wouldn’t give Lilly a chance to beg her not to leave again.

  They headed out just after dark, following the same path they’d come in on, adjacent to Highway 281 and almost a hundred yards away from it.

  This time the going would be easier, for they’d left the cut fences lying on the ground their first time through.

  At least in the last stretch of their trip, between Morgan and Blanco.

  It didn’t seem to make much sense, patching the wires only to cut them again two days later.

  It also didn’t make much sense, at least to Jacob, to bypass Morgan and the old woman, only to check out the situation at Blanco and then to go back after her.

  The decision was borne in Red’s mind, and was the result of a lesson learned.

  Red had walked into a house once before without realizing it had been rigged with explosives. It wasn’t her fault, for at that time she didn’t realize there was any threat against her or her family. They’d certainly given no one reason to harm them.

  But she and Russell and Rusty had gone into that home, their home, nonetheless.

  And two of them were now dead.

  One thing Red was extremely good at was learning a lesson.

  She seldom repeated the same mistake twice.

  Before she brought Beth to her new home, in Butch’s old house on the southern outskirts of Blanco, she’d make damn sure it wasn’t booby-trapped.

  She promised the old woman a safe and comfortable place to live out her final years.

  She wouldn’t let her down.

  As they rode steadily north, a flash of lightning a few miles ahead of them briefly lit their faces.

  One of the horses huffed, voicing his concern.

  But neither of them displayed any hesitation to go forward or any fear.

  Horses tend to adapt the attitudes of their riders, once they get to know them.

  If a rider displays a confidence, and shows the horse he is capable, the horse learns to trust him and will exude the same confidence.

  On the way to Blanco, Jacob and Red led their ponies through fierce rainstorms. Yet they cared for them well. Kept them fed and safe. Soothed their fears when they had them.

  The riders had won their trust.

  If they didn’t encounter lightning and thunderstorms on this trip, it would be smoother going. This time the horses wouldn’t object, wouldn’t bolt, wouldn’t cry out in fear.

  This time they’d place themselves in their riders’ hands, sure that their riders would get them through it safely again.

  “Oh, crap!”

  That was all Jacob said. Just the two words, but Red knew exactly what he meant. She was getting pretty darned good at reading his thoughts.

  She smiled.

  He went on, “I was going to ask you if you had a spare poncho before we left.”

  But she was way ahead of him. Without a word she reached behind her into a saddlebag. She pulled out a military issue, wooden camouflage pattern plastic poncho.

  She told him to hold up, and then rode up beside him.

  “Take good care of this,” she told him. “This was my daddy’s, from his Air Force days. I’m rather attached to it.”

  The rest of the night passed without incident. Like all the other nights, they passed their time by conversing at a low tone about anything and everything.

  One of the things Jacob was curious about was the logistics of it all, getting an elderly woman from her home in Morgan to Blanco safely.

  “Are we going to have to switch to day riding?”

  “We may have to, but I’d really rather not,” she said.

  “But you said we’re bringing a wagon?”

  �
�No. I said we might. I figured we’d leave it up to her. I saw a horse-drawn wagon in her barn that looked to be in pretty good shape. That’s one option, if she has a lot of things to bring.

  “Another option is to bring a pack horse.”

  “How much stock does she have?”

  “Only two horses. Both are past their prime, but capable. I examined them pretty closely when I went through there the first time. Bonnie is capable of carrying Beth for two nights. The other horse can pack out whatever she wants to bring, if it’ll fit on her.”

  “I thought Bonnie was your horse.”

  “Her horse is named Bonnie too. How cool is that?”

  “Yeah, yeah… whatever. If we bring the wagon, will we be able to move overland?”

  “I believe so. The terrain was pretty flat between Morgan and Blanco. There weren’t any creeks or rivers to cross, only a couple of streams. And they had rocky bottoms. I’d say it pretty much depends on the rain. If it passes us by this time, the ground should support a loaded wagon. If not, and if we have too much for a pack horse, we may have to hang out at her place for a couple of days and let the ground dry out.

  “If we do bring the wagon, one of us can ride point with the night goggles. The other can drive the wagon. Have you ever driven a wagon?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Piece of cake. The horses will do the hard work. All you do is show them where to go. Of course we’ll have to ride a bit farther inland than we did before. Get away from the highway another quarter mile or so.”

  “How come?”

  “Old wooden wagons make a hell of a lot of noise. They creak and moan and groan like a hundred year old house. We’ll oil the wheels before we leave to keep them from squeaking real bad. But there’s not much we can do about the wagon.”

  “Red, what do you have against using the roads?”

  “There’s too many places to hide. Too many things bad guys can sit behind and wait for us to come by so they can ambush us.”

  “You think they’re waiting for us?”

  “I’d bet on it.”

  “Why? Maybe Savage gave up. Maybe he just moved on. Or maybe he figured you got killed in Lubbock and isn’t after you anymore.”

  “He’d never leave Blanco. Everything he has is tied up in Blanco. And he’s a cowardly toad. He’s safe in Blanco, and he knows it.

  “At least until I come back. Then he’s not so safe anymore, and he knows that too.

  “That’s why he’s got to take me out. He had two ways to do it. One was to booby trap the house, and he didn’t do it.

  “That leaves only one alternative. An ambush.”

  -25-

  They made good time, the two of them. Not having to cut or repair fences helped a bit. So did the fact that, although they enjoyed a faraway light show throughout most of the night, they never got a drop of rain.

  An hour before daylight Red called them to a halt.

  “Let me see the goggles again.”

  As he had every twenty minutes to half hour for the previous three hours, he complied.

  Using night vision, she scanned the horizon to the east of them.

  “Ah. It’s about time. There it is.”

  “There what is, Red?”

  “The cell tower I was looking for. We’re about half a mile from her home. We’ll continue that much farther on this course, and then head due east. We’ll be there before first light.”

  “I’m curious. She won’t panic when she hears us coming and blow us to bits with a shotgun, will she?”

  “What’s the matter, Jacob? You have to die sometime. Are you saying you’d rather it not be today?”

  “Um…. Not if I have a choice in the matter. I wouldn’t want to die before I finally had the chance to make love to you.”

  “Oh, so you’re on that whole thing again, huh?”

  “Never was off of it, really.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you what, Jacob. If you plan to make love to me before you die, you’re gonna live to be a very old man indeed.

  “And to answer your question, no. She won’t blow us away because we’re going to announce our arrival ahead of time.”

  “How so?”

  “Beth told me she’s always up before dawn. I told her to look out her upstairs window each day when she got up. And to look at the old scarecrow in her corn field.

  “It’s always faced the house before.

  “I told her when I came for her, I’d come at night and turn the scarecrow. And then I’d wait in the barn until she went to feed the cattle and the horses.”

  “If you’re going to wait for her in the barn anyway, why bother turning the scarecrow? She’ll find out soon enough you’re in the barn anyway.”

  “Because she’s an old woman, dummy. If she just walks into the barn and we’re in there it might scare her to death. I’d rather not give the poor woman a heart attack if we can help it.”

  “Oh, yeah. Good point.”

  Red tore the scarecrow from the earth as Jacob picked an ear and shucked it.

  “Corn’s dry, Red. It withered away and died in the field.”

  “That was my idea. Nothing would have given her away quicker that a rich crop of green corn. The house is supposed to be abandoned, its residents dead. If anyone had seen green corn they’d have known someone must have been irrigating it. They might have wondered who it was, enough to investigate this supposedly empty house.

  “I just hate to see it go to waste, that’s all.”

  “Don’t worry, it won’t go to waste.”

  She planted the scarecrow back in the ground, his back toward the house, and the two stole away toward the barn.

  The day was starting to break now, and there was just enough light in the barn to see their way around.

  “There’s the wagon,” Red said. Look around and see if you can find some axle grease. We’ll use it to lube the wheels. Make them a bit quieter.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Red took the saddles and blankets off their horses, then their bridles. She fed them from a sack of feed, and gave them some water from a hand-cranked pump in the corner of the barn.

  She went over to Bonnie, Beth’s mare, and to the other mare in the barn. She inspected their shoes and immediately went to work on a couple that needed to be replaced.

  Jacob asked, “How soon do you figure she’ll be out here?”

  “Soon. Very soon. She comes out here first thing in the morning so no one can see her from the highway. The nomads seldom get out until mid-morning.

  “You stay in the shadows. She’ll know I’m here, but she won’t know about you. Once she sees me I’ll introduce you.”

  “You don’t reckon she has some eggs inside, do you? I’ve got a powerful hunger for some fresh eggs.”

  As he spoke the words, his eyes were fixed on a small chicken coop in the corner of the barn.

  It was empty, but he was obviously still hoping.

  “I told her to kill the chickens. That we didn’t need them. Lilly is minding mine while I’m gone, and we can divide my birds if she wants some when we get to Blanco. She had twelve of them when I left. I reckon she had fried chicken or chicken stew almost every night since then.

  “Hey, when you’re done greasing the axles, would you feed the beef?”

  She nodded to three steers in a pen on the far end of the barn.

  “Sure.”

  At that very moment, in an upper room of the farm house, an elderly woman looked out her bedroom window at the start of a brand new day.

  She saw the scarecrow, which until now always waved a good morning greeting to her.

  Today, he rudely stood with his back to her, as though punishing her for some unknown affront.

  She rubbed her sleepy eyes to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.

  Then she smiled broadly and rushed to put her housecoat on.

  This was, to be sure, going to be an interesting day.

  -26-

  “Debbie!
As I live and breathe! You made it back!”

  Beth fairly flew into Red’s arms, tears in her eyes. Jacob, watching from the shadows of one of the back stalls, thought he saw Red’s eyes moisten as well.

  But no way. That just couldn’t be.

  “Beth, I brought my partner along. Come out here, Jacob.”

  Jacob walked out of the shadows and asked, as he moved toward them, “How come she can call you Debbie and I can’t?”

  Debbie only had to think for a second before answering.

  “Because she’s earned the right. She’s survived the worst humanity has to throw at her, and she’s still kicking. When you’re as seasoned as she is you can call me whatever you want.”

  Jacob said hello to Beth and tipped his hat. It was a tradition. Cowboys in Texas had tipped their hats to ladies for well over two hundred years.

  “Beth, this is Jacob. He’s a little wet behind the ears yet, but don’t let his looks fool you. He’s a good man. He saved my life once, and I keep him around because I figure eventually I’ll get a chance to return the favor.”

  “Shoot, Red,” Jacob said. “More likely than not I’ll be saving your ass a second time.”

  His face flushed and he turned to Beth, then said, “I’m sorry, ma’am. Please pardon my language.”

  “I use language far worse than that on a daily basis, young man. God gave us language so we could vent our frustration as well as to communicate. Don’t ever apologize for saying what’s on your mind.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied. And it occurred to him that he liked the old woman already.

  Red asked, “Beth, how much stuff do you want to carry with you?”

  “I don’t know, dear. I suppose that depends on what you’ll need to take on another member of your family.”

  Red smiled. Her words warmed Red’s heart for a reason she couldn’t explain. Perhaps it was because Red thought any chance of her being part of a “family” once again were gone forever.

  “I have to take my clothes, of course. That’s more for your benefit, and for your friend Jacob. If we accidentally left my clothes behind and I was forced to run around naked, his eyeballs would burn like fire and he’d run for the hills.”