by Jayne, Chris
Finally, she pulled back and looked up into Roger’s face, her cheeks streaked with tears. “They’re watching me, Roger. Willie and some of his friends - even their wives - they watch me all the time. Willie knows that I think Tom’s death wasn’t accidental, I’m sure of it.”
“So why haven’t you left?”
“I’m trying. But the life insurance money hasn’t come through yet, and if I don’t sell the house I won’t have enough to buy another one somewhere else. I’ve thought about just getting in the car and making a dash for it a couple of times, but I was afraid it I got caught, they would know I wasn’t buying the story about the robbery. I might be in even more danger. So, I’ve just been playing along.” She shook her head. “I have no idea what Tom confronted Willie about the night before he went to Chicago, but he told me he’d tell me when he came back.” She shook her head. “I got the impression he was doing some research, or having someone look into something in Chicago. Maybe he met with someone?”
“He told me the same thing,” Roger said. “That he’d be able to tell me more when he got back. But why are you dressed like this?” Roger eyed Sandy up and down, his face astonished. “You’ve joined Willie’s church?”
“Not exactly, but I’ve been going…” Sandy’s voice trailed off and she looked away evasively. “About five weeks ago, Leslie Stegner started hanging around.”
“Who the hell is that?”
Louise interjected. “Do you remember Ellen and Joe Stegner?”
“Yeah,” Roger responded. “I played softball with him.”
“Leslie is Joe’s dad. He was retired, and he and his wife moved here three or four years ago to be with Joe, Ellen, and the kids. Then maybe two years ago, his wife died.”
“He’s got to be sixty-five,” Louise stated, voice quivering with outrage.
“More like seventy, I think,” Sandy responded. “They’re really active in New Cornerstone. I think Joe’s just about the second in command over there, and Leslie’s one of the elders. It’s been suggested to me that a widow like me, with three young children, shouldn’t be alone. That a local widower would be a good choice. He’s shown up at my house three or four times in the last couple weeks at dinnertime. It started with him mowing the lawn, offering to put up the storm windows, things like that. I said yes, because frankly I needed the help, but now he just comes in, stays for dinner, sits there and watches TV until it’s time to put the kids to bed. Then he leaves.”
Louise was eyeing Sandy, aghast. “That's creepy.”
“I know,” Sandy responded emphatically. “But I thought for now it was a good idea if I seemed like I was playing along.” Sandy’s tongue came out and licked her lips nervously. “So, two Sundays ago, I got some of the clothes and went to New Cornerstone. Leslie wanted me to sit right up front with him, and I did, right behind Joe and Ellen. Third or fourth row. After the service, you wouldn’t believe the number of people that came up to me, smiling, shaking my hand. Congratulating me.”
Roger shook his head, mystified. “Congratulating you for what?”
“Like it was a done deal between me and Leslie and I was the only one not in on the secret.”
Louise’s eyes went wide with outrage. “That’s really creepy.”
“I know. I was hoping you guys would help me.” Sandy glanced at the corner of the living room, and Deacon saw for the first time that there were ten or fifteen taped boxes there, plus several large suitcases. He guessed at once that these were not Roger’s and Louise’s things. “I’m leaving. My mom bought us four plane tickets last week, but the flight’s not until next Tuesday.”
“Your mom?” Louise’s voice trailed off.
“I didn’t want to put it on my own credit card, just in case Willie has access somehow.”
Deacon shook his head. This was getting way too far out. Caution was one thing, but everyone was starting to sound just a little too paranoid. “How would Willie have access to your credit card?” he asked.
Sandy looked at Deacon, confused, and Deacon realized she had no clue who he was. He stepped forward, extending his hand. “I’m sorry, we haven’t been introduced. I’m Deacon Hale, Roger’s brother.” Tentatively, she shook his hand and Deacon went on, “I repeat my question. How would Willie have access to your credit cards?”
Roger answered, “All the TV, cable and all the internet runs through an internet service provider that Willie owns.”
“Oh shit,” Deacon breathed.
Roger nodded as he continued. “There’ve been rumors for a couple years now that Willie has some way of monitoring the internet. Getting people’s passwords. Emails. Everything.”
“Spying on everyone,” Deacon stated flatly.
“Pretty much.” Roger tightened his mouth. “If he has access to the internet provider, and a smart tech guy, they could find a way to put a key logger on every single computer.” He paused. “Or so I’m told.”
“Other people say he’s got some way of listening to phone calls. Even cell phones.”
In his head, Deacon ran through what he knew about high-level surveillance. “Hardline phones, definitely. That’s easy. Cell phones are harder.” He shrugged. “That’s above my pay grade, but who the hell knows?”
“That’s why I didn’t want to risk it.” Sandy swept her hands down her body, accenting the plain dark skirt, and plain sweatshirt. “That’s why I started dressing like this.” She inclined her head towards the stack of boxes. “After you told me you were coming to get your stuff last week, I’ve been packing at night and then driving it over here in the mornings, when I put the kids on the school bus. Just a box or two at a time. I don’t think anyone has seen me coming over here, but I’m not sure of anything anymore. I was hoping you could take that stuff home with you and then ship it to me after I get to my mom’s.”
“Of course,” Louise reassured her quickly. “How are you going to get out?”
“Next Tuesday, in the morning, when it’s time to take the kids to the bus stop, I’m just going to put them in the car and keep driving. Not say a word to anyone. An hour later, when they figure out at the school my kids didn’t show up, I’ll be halfway to Billings.”
Deacon nodded. Often, the simplest plan was the best. Nothing Sandy was saying, however, was giving him warm, fuzzy feelings. “I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but we said we were going to try to get in and out in an hour, and we’ve already been talking for ten minutes.”
“Where’s your car?” Louise asked suddenly.
“I walked over,” Sandy answered. “That way if someone is watching my house…” She let the words trail off.
The reality hit home hard, crystalized in that one sentence. This was a place where widows with young children lived in fear that their houses were being watched. “I’m liking this less and less,” Deacon snapped. “We need to get the hell out of here.” He checked his watch. “It’s 10:40. I want to be pulling out by 11:45.” He looked at Roger. “Bedrooms first?”
Roger nodded and the two men moved off towards the back of the house.
Sandy looked at Louise. “What can I do to help?”
Chapter 20
Louise
Wednesday
11:00 AM Mountain Time
Bowenville, Montana
* * *
Louise looked at the built-in toy shelf in front of her in Brandon’s room, remembering what Roger had said a few minutes earlier: their children had too many toys anyway. When they’d left in July, she’d grabbed a few of Brandon’s absolute favorites, his die-cast cars, a box of Legos, but there was still a lot here.
Sandy stood by her side in the now nearly empty bedroom. Roger and Deacon had made short work of the furniture in Brandon’s room; they’d gotten his racing car bed, his dresser and a small play table into the truck in a matter of minutes. “What should I do?” Sandy asked.
Louise thrust an empty box towards Sandy and motioned to Brandon’s closet. “Just grab all the clothes and stuff th
em in here. Don’t bother to fold anything. I’ll sort out the things that don’t fit him when I get home.” Louise reached for another flattened box and the tape, preparing to fold it into shape when, out of the corner of her eye she caught movement outside. Brandon’s room faced the back of the house, and she moved to the window and twitched the curtain aside. “Oh crap,” she breathed, her heart sinking.
“What?” Sandy asked, coming to stand next to Louise, then froze. “My God.”
“How the hell did they know?” Louise whispered.
The sight was one they had been dreading, the very thing they had hoped to avoid. Parked next to their moving van was a full-sized crew cab pickup truck, and as they watched, four men emerged. Then, a sturdy SUV pulled around the house, and two more men got out. All of the men in the first truck had visible sidearms, and one man in the second car carried a rifle. Louise’s breath caught and for one instant, she thought she would not be able to breathe. Her hands gripped the windowsill. Next to Louise, Sandy clutched at her arm.
“Deacon,” Louise called, her voice pitched low and tight. “Deacon! Come here, quick.”
Roger and Louise’s bedroom faced the front of the house and Deacon, who had been breaking down the king-sized bed, rushed into Brandon’s room and loomed behind the women. “What’s up?” As all three peered through the glass, Roger, who had been in the back of the truck, emerged. “Crap,” Deacon cursed. He silently watched the action for a moment, then asked, “Which one’s Willie?”
“Brown jacket,” Louise answered.
“Stay here,” Deacon ordered. “Do not come out. If anyone starts shooting, go out the front of the house and run.” He grabbed Louise’s arm and roughly turned her to him, forcing her to look into his eyes. “Understand me?”
“Yes,” Louise agreed, and Sandy nodded. Deacon moved swiftly away from the window and out of Brandon’s room.
Hidden partially behind the curtains, Louise and Sandy moved closer to the glass, but, through the double paned windows, could not hear what was being said outside. Surreptitiously, Louise slipped the window lock open, then turned the crank slowly to crack the window a couple of inches; now the men’s voices came to them clearly.
“…moving day?” The first part of Willie’s question was missed, but it didn’t take much to figure out the gist.
“That’s right,” came Roger’s casual answer. “Wasn’t aware I needed your permission.”
“You do if you haven’t been paying your mortgage,” responded Willie. One of the men behind him smirked and nodded, clearly impressed by his leader’s superior knowledge.
“I’ve paid, and you know it, Bowen.”
Willie Bowen shrugged, exaggerating the motion. “That’s not what they’re saying down at the bank.” He looked around curiously. “Who’s helping you? Louise here?” He paused then called out conversationally. “Hey, Louise. Come on out and say hi.”
Roger snapped, “Get off my property, Bowen. I’ll finish loading and be out of here in an hour.”
“No can do, Hale.” Casually, Willie walked around to the back of the truck and glanced in. “Get going now and I’ll let you drive off with what you’ve got in there. Otherwise…” His voice trailed off threatening.
Louise muttered cynically, “Mighty generous of him.” Since the truck contained only the boxes that Sandy had brought over plus Brandon’s furniture, it wasn’t much of an offer.
Roger’s voice tightened dangerously. “You’ll let me?”
Willie ignored the question. “If you’re not heading down the road in three minutes, I’m calling Sheriff Vance, and you can sit in jail while the embezzlement charges are looked into.”
Louise gasped and clutched at Sandy’s arm as they watched, her eyes welling with hot tears of anger. “He never touched a penny in his life that didn’t belong to him,” she whispered.
“I know.” Sandy started to speak, but was interrupted as suddenly all the men stiffened. From their vantage point, at first the women could not see what caught the men’s attention, but then it was obvious. Deacon had come out the back door.
He sauntered to the edge of the deck and leaned on the rail. “Mornin’, boys.”
“Who are you?” Willie asked.
“I’m Deacon Hale, Roger’s brother. And my brother says you’re trespassing.”
“Well, Deacon Hale, Roger’s brother,” he sneered sarcastically. “I suggest you get the fuck off of this property, asshole, because this land is in arrears to the bank and you’re the one who’s trespassing.”
“Nasty language for a preacher,” Deacon opined calmly. “At least, that’s what I hear. You a preacher?”
“Look, we don’t want any trouble,” Roger interjected. “We just want to take our stuff and go.”
“If you didn’t want trouble, my friend, you shouldn’t come looking for it. Now I said, you can take what’s in the truck, but if you’re not out of here in three minutes…”
With a motion so fluid that Louise and Sandy barely saw it, Deacon drew his handgun and pointed it directly at Willie. “Call your dogs off, Bowen, before someone gets hurt.” The other men startled backwards. “Now.”
Willie’s smirking smile disappeared. “Pretty ballsy. You’re a dead man, Hale.”
“That may be,” Deacon responded. He held his gun steady. “But I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t be around to enjoy it. I’d say I’d be able to get three of you - at least - before a single one of you gets a gun drawn. Wonder which three it would be.” All of the man’s faces suddenly took on sickly expressions.
Willie didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, and the men backing him up shifted uncomfortably, awareness dawning in the eyes of more than one man that this was something they had not seen before. “You see that cell phone propped up in the kitchen window?” Deacon continued. “The one with the camera running?”
Willie’s jaw dropped, and immediately, all the men swiveled their gazes to the window overlooking the deck, trying to see whatever it was that was in the window.
“Don’t see it?” Deacon asked rhetorically. “Doesn’t matter. It sees you. And right now, it’s uploading a video feed directly to my commanding officer’s computer in Virginia. That’s the great thing about the Cloud. It’s gone. Poof. Not a thing you can do to cancel it.” He paused meaningfully. “Anything happens to me or my brother, he’ll know who to blame. And the Federal Government doesn’t like it much when naval officers go missing.”
For a long moment, Willie looked around. From the foolish look on his face he knew that he was stuck. “Commanding officer, huh?”
“That’s right,” Deacon responded. “Captain Deacon Hale, United States Navy.”
“Captain, you say?” Willie’s face fell even further, if that were possible. “Well, uh. Yeah. Thank you for your service,” he offered lamely.
The silence extended. Finally, Willie acknowledged the inevitable. The threat of being filmed was the final straw. He raised his hands with a conciliatory expression and took a step backwards and looked at Roger. “Just checking for trespassers, my friend. Making sure your house stays safe.” He turned to his back-up. “Boys, boys. Nothing to see here.” He looked back at Roger and Deacon. “You men need any help moving furniture?”
“No,” Roger answered coldly. “Appreciate the offer, but we’re fine.”
“Good enough.” He smiled a big toothy smile. “Well, we’ll leave you to it then.”
All six men climbed back into the two vehicles, facial expressions varying from Willie’s foolish grin to complete fury. Within seconds, they’d roared back around the house, tearing up grass and spinning mud as they went.
Louise, still watching from the window in Brandon’s room, released a breath so fully it was painful. She realized she’d been barely breathing for the past five minutes.
Sandy, by her side, finally released her death grip on Louise’s arm. “Thank God he didn’t see me.”
Turning fully, Louise looked into her friend
’s eyes. “Don’t wait.”
“What do you mean, don’t wait?”
“I don’t think you should stay here any longer. As far as we know, Willie didn’t know you were here, but he’s going to be furious after today. Deacon and Roger just made him look like an idiot in front of his posse. He’s going to be looking for a target, and he knows we’re friends. We’re not here, and you are. Don’t wait until next Tuesday.” Louise considered quickly. “Tonight, when the kids come off the bus, be there waiting for them in your car. If any of the other parents say anything, say you’re going into Lewiston to go to the Warehouse Club. And then just drive to my house.” Louise hurried across the hall and peeked out of one of the house’s front windows, then came back into Brandon’s room. “You can’t go now. They’re parked at the end of the cul-de-sac, obviously waiting for us to leave. We can’t let them see you.”
“What am I going to do?” Sandy asked, her voice high and frantic as she came up behind Lori and looked over her shoulder.
“When we leave, I’d bet they’re going to follow us. To the edge of Bowenville for sure. When we’re driving away, they’re all going to be distracted. As soon as we go down the street, you go out the back door. Cut between the houses to the next cul-de-sac, and then walk home from there. And then,” she paused, “you’ll do it? You’ll leave today?”
Definitively, Sandy nodded yes. “Yeah, you’re right. After what I saw today, the guns, I don’t want to stay here another second. We’ve been saying Willie’s dangerous for months, but to see it with my own eyes…” Her voice trailed off and she shuddered. “I don’t want my children in this town another second.”
Louise pulled out her phone. “Here, I’ll text you the address.” She froze. “No, I’m not going to do that until after you’re out of here.” She swallowed hard. “Just in case someone would… um… see your phone.” The women looked at each other silently, both acknowledging what Louise had just confirmed: Sandy was in genuine danger.
