Fallout (Joshua Stokes Mysteries Book 2)

by Lila Beckham

  “I appreciate it, Deputy, but I cannot let you do that. I shot him; I’m responsible for my own actions.”

  “Sheriff!” Metcalf called from inside. “How long before that ambulance gets here? Emma’s still losing a lot of blood,” he said. Calvert started up the steps.

  “You watch the prisoner,” Joshua said, thumping his cigarette butt out into the yard. “I’ll go help John with Emma. That Mexican right there slit her throat.” In the distance, he could hear the sirens of what he hoped was the ambulance coming.

  “Sure thing, Sheriff, and if he tries to run, I’ll shoot him” Calvert calmly replied.

  Joshua stopped, looked down at the Mexican and said, “No worries, Paul, he ain’t going anywhere; at least on his on steam he ain’t. I think his tank is empty.”

  Joshua walked inside. Emma had lost consciousness. He could tell by the look on Metcalf’s face that he was deeply concerned that Emma might not make it. The towel was nearly soaked through. He squatted down and placed a hand on John’s shoulder.

  “She’ll be alright, John. I hear the ambulance coming. Now that she is unconscious, her heart will slow its beat; the blood flow should slow down, too,” he said calmly, trying to reassure Metcalf, although in his own mind he was not so sure…

  35

  Renewal

  Flesh heals. With the correct amount of oxygen and proteins in the blood, tissue regenerates and renews itself. And with a good amount of care to the injured site, it can be as good as new in no time. On the other hand, the human mind is not as quick to snap back into shape. Oftentimes, even though their psychical wounds are healing, humans are degenerating, especially mentally. Joshua hoped that was not the case with Emma - He was not a medical doctor, nor a psychiatrist, but she seemed depressed beyond what he thought she should be the last time he visited her in the hospital.

  He hoped that all the attention Metcalf was showering on her would get her out of her funk. He could tell that John Metcalf liked Emma a lot, but Emma was harder to read. She seemed interested in John, but the last time he visited and Metcalf was there, she looked at Joshua with sad eyes, or maybe it was pity. He hoped that she was not holding herself back from falling for John for fear of hurting his feelings. He wanted her to fall for John, and he tried to push her and John together every chance he got.

  Joshua knew Emma had a crush on him. That she may even think that she is in love with him. He knew for sure that she enjoyed the sex they shared; however, he still felt that she was somehow using the sex to try to repay him for rescuing her from the Dixon brothers. Now that he had done it again with the Mexican, she probably felt even safer with him. He understood that, but she needed to learn to cope without being under his watch twenty-four seven. He had wanted her out of his house, but not like that. He had not wanted anything bad to happen to her, but it did.

  He was glad Emma had not died from the attack; he could never have forgiven himself if she had… It had never dawned on him that the Mexican might make it to his house. He knew the railroad tracks crossed the river not even a mile above his cabin, but he was so used to the sound of the train that he never paid it any mind when it passed through. There was no stop there like there was near Jesse Vice’s place.

  Joshua propped his feet on the railing, swallowed a shot of whiskey, and then lit a cigarette. The radio played softly from inside the house. He needed to thank Emma for that. As much as he liked listening to music, it had never dawned on him to do that. Before Emma began staying there, he had always sat outside and listened for the field hollers and slave songs. He enjoyed hearing ghosts of the past singing as they made their way to and from the fields; and, he would listen to the sounds of nature that surrounded his house. In his isolated location, there was an abundance of nature…

  He gazed toward the river and felt his chest swell with pride and satisfaction. Several days working with an axe, a shovel, and a sling blade had made a huge difference. With the underbrush removed, he had a clear view of the river as it flowed southward toward the gulf. He picked up one of the twenty dollar gold pieces he had found and fingered it, turning it over and around in his hand.

  Joshua wondered if it belonged to the overseer of the plantation that had lived there over a hundred and fifty years ago, or if it was one of the stashes of gold, he had heard that different political groups and secret societies stashed back in the 1800’s. He heard they used the stashed money to pay off those that helped them and for emergency funds when they needed money.

  Each coin in the jar was dated 1856. Each had the liberty head surrounded by stars on one side, the eagle emblem on the other, the United States of America, and Twenty D with an O above. The Mason jar he unearthed from beneath the cottonwood tree contained ten of the gold double eagles. The cottonwood was located about halfway between his back porch and the river. It was an unlikely amount for an overseer to have in his possession, he would think.

  He knew that the Copeland gang had lived in and pillaged the area of South Alabama and Mississippi during the mid-1800’s. Tales of their misdeeds had been passed down through the generations and the stories were still told around campfires. However, he also knew that other outlaws had frequented the area back in the mid to late 1800’s such as Jesse and Frank James and their bunch. Many of the unsolved murders back in those days were laid at the feet of those outlaws whether they had done them or not…

  He had also heard a story about a secret society that members of the Confederacy formed during the Civil War that stashed large amounts of gold to fund a second Civil War, a ‘Rise of the South,’ to regain its power and to try to take back what the Yankees had taken away from them. He and Boone had talked about that one time. Boone told him that both of his grandfathers, James Nathaniel and Phillip Perry were Confederate Soldiers, and that both of them had told similar stories - therefore he would think that there had to be some truth to the story. One was from Tennessee, the other from Georgia - they had no connection during the war so it had to be common knowledge within the Confederacy for them to both know about the stashes of gold.

  Joshua had found the Mason jar when he struck it with the shovel as he dug around the base of the old, nearly dead cottonwood tree. He was trying to rid the tree of the suckers that sprouted up from its roots and grew around the bottom of it. He hoped that it would perk up and get more nutrients from the soil with the suckers removed.

  The cottonwood was the only one of its kind on his property that he knew of, which would make it an easy place to locate or to hide something under. Of course, there could be other cottonwoods growing further away than where he had taken the time to explore. He really did not know for sure, but where one grew, there were usually others.

  When Joshua heard a vehicle coming down his driveway he reached for his shirt, slipped it on, and snapped it closed. He knew it was Hook, he could tell by the rattle of tools and equipment as the vehicle rolled over the potholes. Joshua poured himself another shot of whiskey and lit another smoke.

  “Damn, looks like I might’ve come at the wrong time,” James exclaimed as he walked up to the back porch.

  “Nah, I’m through for the day, maybe for the year,” Joshua said seriously.

  “Looks as if you’ve been busy, Hoss.” James said as he sat down in the other rocker and pulled out a cloth pouch that contained some pot and rolling papers.

  “Yeah, I have been, but like I said, I’m done for now.”

  “What you got there,” James asked, noticing the coin in his hand.

  “A double eagle, I think.”

  “A double eagle,” James echoed, “Let me see it,” he said. Joshua handed him the coin. “Damn, Hoss, I think you’re right. Do you how much this thing is worth?” James asked excitedly.

  “Nope, I don’t have a clue.”

  “It’s worth upward of ten thousand or more.”

  “Dollars?”

  “Yes.”

  “A piece?” Joshua asked doubtfully.

  “Yeah, Daddy collects coins.
He has one of those coin books that has pictures and tells values and such. These double eagles are extremely rare. Hardly any show up at auctions. You might even get twenty grand for it.”

  “Doggone, I have ten of them. That would be two hundred thousand dollars. That would buy an awful lot of whiskey and cigarettes, wouldn’t it?”

  “And some of this,” James said as he began rolling a joint. “You sure you’re done for the day, I wouldn’t mind helping you clear out some more of that underbrush,” James said with a grin.

  “I bet you wouldn’t. We might do that another time, but I’m done for now.”

  “Where did you find it?” James asked as he lit the joint and sucked on it.

  “I found it right out there at the base of that cottonwood tree,” Joshua pointed. “It was about eight inches below the surface, nestled betwixt a couple of roots.”

  “Dang - I’ve heard of people finding jars of gold coins that was buried back in the 1800’s, but this is the first time I ever actually seen it happen,” James said after blowing out the smoke he’d been holding in while Joshua talked. He then handed it to Joshua.

  “Makes you wonder what might be buried around the old plantation don’t it,” Joshua asked before he hit the joint.

  “Yeah, it does, Hoss. We need to get us one of those portable metal detectors they’re selling down at the mall and start searching around the plantation and out here.”

  “We might look into that, Hook. I was about to wash my crusty, old ass and go to the hospital to see Emma.”

  “I meant to ask how she is doing but got sidetracked by your gold. How is she?”

  “It’s hard to say. Physically, I think she is fine; I don’t know about mentally. She still wants to hang onto me when I go there. Metcalf has it bad for her, and I think she likes him too, but damn it, I think she thinks that if she goes with him that it will hurt me, or something. Hell, I want her to go with him. I wanted her out of my house, but I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her… The doc said that if the Mexican had cut just a fraction of an inch deeper, she’d be dead.”

  “Well, like I said the other morning, you might just have to hurt her feelings.”

  “I know, but she’s in a delicate state right now-”

  “When ain’t she in a delicate state, Hoss? You’re gonna keep making excuses for her until you’re stuck with her for the rest of your life. Is that what you want? Huh, I thought not.” James said, seeing the look on Joshua’s face. “You’re gonna have to have a sit down with her and talk about it. And her being there in the hospital is the best place for her to be when you do it.”

  “I’ll do it when I get down there, if I get a chance to-”

  “There you go again…”

  “Alright, I will do it. Do you want to ride down there with me?”

  “Nope, this is one you’re gonna have to do all by yourself-by the way, what happened to that crazy joker that did that to her, did he make it? Is he in jail?”

  “He bled out before they got him to the hospital… of course, he might have made it if I had a let them put him in the ambulance with Emma. There was no way in hell, that I was going to let that happen. I throwed him in the back of Calvert’s patrol car and told him to follow them to the hospital, get him looked at, and then lock him up. I started to tell him to book him first… that would’ve been a little too cruel.”

  “I don’t think so, but it might have made you look bad… when is that inquisition?”

  “Day after tomorrow - I’m dreading it. I don’t care for all that legal garbage.”

  “If you need a character witness, tell them to call me. Most of the folks in this county would witness for you if you needed them to.”

  “You think so?”

  “I know so, Josh. Why do you think you’re still wearing that badge-cause folks like you being the sheriff of this here county. They know that you are fair and honest. That is what folks like. They want an honest sheriff they can trust. After all this is over, maybe you’ll look as refreshed as you did the other morning. Speaking of which-”

  “Drop it, Hook. I’m still not going to tell you; at least, not yet,” Joshua replied, taking another hit and then handing James the blunt.

  36

  Letdown

  Joshua showered, dressed, and then drove to the hospital. He hoped Emma was alone when he got there so that he could talk to her while everything he wanted to say was still fresh in his mind. The 8-track player played one of his favorite tunes by the Rolling Stones - ‘Sympathy for the Devil,’ but mostly went unheard as he drove the eighteen miles from his cabin to the Infirmary on Springhill. He liked the song for its sambaed beat and intelligent lyrics.

  He stopped in the gift shop and bought Emma one of her favorite candy bars and a co-cola. He looked at the flower arrangements, but then decided that she might take it the wrong way and think that he was courting her.

  The elevator ride up to the fifth floor seemed to take forever. When the elevator door opened and he stepped out, John Metcalf was walking toward him. He was glad that Metcalf was on his way out. He felt better about talking to Emma if he would be doing it one on one. An audience would make it that much harder to carry out.

  “Evening, Sheriff.”

  “Evenin’, John, How is she doing today?”

  “Now that she can eat and drink without much complication, she seems to be doing much better. She was talkative today, at least until her mama came to visit. She just left a few minutes ago. I could tell that something about her mama’s visit had Emma upset, so I stayed until after her mama left.”

  “I’ve been worried about her mental condition,” Joshua said frankly.

  “She’s one tough cookie,” Metcalf replied. “There are not many that could have gone through what she has and still keep their sanity.”

  “It must run in the family - her aunt Hannah survived something similar, and she seems to have recovered without losing her mind.”

  “Y’all have a nice visit. I promised my folks that I’d be there for supper tonight and if I stand them up again, I will never hear the end of it.”

  “Alright, John, give my best to your folks.” John got on the elevator and Joshua headed toward Emma’s room. He stopped at the door, took a deep breath, and then tapped on it. He heard Emma say, ‘come in.’ she was sitting in a chair by the bed looking out the window. The light in the sunlit room revealed how pale she was. Her eyes drilled his. Before he could speak, she said, “I’m ready to get out of here and go home.”

  “What has the doctor said about releasing you?”

  “He says that it’s too dangerous, that I could bleed to death if I busted a stitch open. The doctor said that I have to stay until a day or so after the stitches come out. It’s so boring here!”

  John was right, thought Joshua. She is very talkative today and moody. However, her spunk made him feel better about her wellbeing.

  “Mama even told the doctor that she would look after me and take care of me, but he still said no! It ought to be against the law to hold a person against their will even if it is a hospital!” Emma complained.

  “Well, it’s not against the law if it is a hospital and it’s in the person’s best interest.”

  “It’s not fair!” Emma exclaimed.

  “Many things aren’t fair, Emma, but we have to cope with them,” he said handing her the bag with the co-cola and candy bar. “Emma, I hate to do it now, but I need to talk to you. When you’re released from the hospital, you need to go back to your mama’s house. I can’t have you staying at mine all the time, its too dangerous,” he said firmly.

  Emma glared at him. He did not know what to expect, but like James had said, her being in the hospital was the best place for her to be when he talked to her about it.

  “Well, I can’t make you let me stay there, no matter how much I want to…” she said her voice trailing off. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked seriously.

  “No, not really; there are many reasons I
don’t want you there.”

  “I know that I practically raped you, but you seemed to enjoy it as much as I did. You did, didn’t you?”

  “Of course I did. I already told you that once-”

  “Obviously, you don’t think it’s safe, you said so,” Emma said turning her back to him. “First, I let the Dixons catch me there and take me back with them, and then I let that man walk right on in and he tried to kill me… that was my fault-”

  “No, Emma, it was not your fault-”

  “Yes, it was! I should have paid more attention to things instead of having my head stuck in the clouds, daydreaming that I was your wife or something…

  I did not even know he was in the house until he had ahold of me. He threw me down on the floor and sat on top of me. Then I saw that he had the butcher knife I had left laying on the sink… He, I remember feeling the cold blade just below my ear and then on my neck,” Emma said, her hand at her throat. She turned toward him and said “Sheriff, when I looked into his eyes, I knew he was going to kill me. His eyes were lifeless, the way Vernon’s eyes were, but there was something else in them, it scared the shit out of me! He might not have cut me if I hadn’t screamed.”

  “You don’t know that Emma-so far he has killed all but one of his victims. And the one that lived wasn’t from his lack of trying to kill her because he left her for dead, too.”

  “So you knew about this man killing women and you didn’t tell me to keep the doors locked or anything!” Emma asked incredulously.

  “It wasn’t like that, Emma. He rode the rails-I had just found out that morning that he was in Hattiesburg. I had no way of knowing that he was here,” Joshua responded.

  “He was the same one that killed the Vices… I thought he was in Texas.”

  “That’s what I was saying. We had just found out that he might be headed back our way. Emma, I did not know he was already here. Hattiesburg is only about sixty miles away…” Joshua felt that no matter what he said it was not going to be enough. However, he honestly felt as if he was at no fault in what happened to her.