Jerome nods. “Five men. Their leader is tall, over six foot, well muscled, scars on one cheek and a very arrogant bearing.”
John’s eyebrows raise in surprise. “You have quite the eye for detail.”
“Before I got hurt several years ago, I was with the Texas Rangers.” He lifts his pant-leg and shows that half of it is missing. He has a large prosthetic going between his knee and into his boot. “I learned how to work around it, but it still itches like crazy once in awhile.”
“So, you witnessed the robbery and sent off for the law?”
Jerome shakes his head. “One of my girls got hurt. I was patching her up and they blew up the bank. But I digress. Ah, here’s Mandy.”
As he finishes saying that, an older teenage girl steps forward. She has a bandage on her face, one on her arm and, what Jake thinks, appears to be the edges of a bandage poking out from the edges of the neckline of her blouse. Jake also notes she appears to be covered in bruises.
Jerome motions to the young woman for her to have a seat. He looks at the lawman and points toward the young woman. “If it wasn’t for me patching her up, young Mandy would be dead now. As it is, I’ve told her she needs to be checked out by a doctor, she just refuses to go.”
John looks at David questioningly and the young doctor nods, rises, then heads upstairs.
Jerome watches with interest as the young man leaves, but doesn’t say anything.
Joey readjusts in her chair and clears her throat meaningfully. “So, if you’re able to, would you mind telling us about what happened? Like I said earlier, we’re Marshals and need to know for our report.”
Jerome nods in understanding and says, “Almost a week ago, a group of riders came into town, like someone was right on their heels. They came in here, demanding whiskey and paying with gold. Now, mind you, I’m no stranger to the seamier parts of society, so, I decided not to ask questions. After a couple of hours and several bottles of my best whiskey, the leader asked me about the road to Fort Supply, then on to Dodge.” He shakes his head and his eyes go distant. “I shoulda known something was up when they paid for it all in gold, in advance.” He motions around. “This might not seem like much, but it’s all I got, so I’m not one to normally ask too many questions.”
David comes downstairs, carrying his medical bag and sits back down next to Rebekah. Jerome sees it and scoffs. “There’s no way that he’s a doctor. What’s the chances?”
Joey shakes her head. “We knew we’d need a doctor on this trip, so we asked him to come along. Please, continue, if you would.”
Jerome looks at the expectant faces around the table and nods. “So, they all rented rooms. Mandy here, took a liking to the one they called Richard, so she decided to give him some company that night. I don’t normally let my girls go upstairs like that. This ain’t a brothel after all, but that night, my thinking weren’t too clear. I don’t know why.”
Mandy starts crying. “I ain’t a whore. He just talked real sweet. Been awhile since anyone talked to me like that.”
Jerome puts a hand on her shoulder in comfort. “You’ll be alright. We have a doctor here to help you.”
She wipes her tears and nods. “He tied me up and gagged me, then he beat me and cut me while he was taking what he wanted. I couldn’t scream, all I could do was lay there and cry. When he got done with what he was doing, he cut the rope holding my arm and said something. I never figured out what it was he said, but he got up and got dressed.” She wipes at her face again. “Finally I was able to pull out my gag and scream.” She breaks down, her body wracked with her sobs.
That’s what could have happened to Brigit. Jake can’t keep his horrified expression in any longer.
Mandy looks around the table and demands, “Well, what could I do? Nothing!” She gets up from her seat and storms off back into the back of the saloon.
David whispers something to his wife, rises and quickly follows after her.
Sean stirs from having laid his head down and asks drunkenly, “Who’s doing all t’hat screamin’?” Then he lays his head back down and starts snoring loudly.
Jerome watches for a moment, then continues, “Once I heard her scream, I went upstairs to check on her, busted in the door and found her in really bad shape. I sent Lisa to get some thread and a needle. Once I checked Mandy over, I saw most of her cuts were barely skin deep. There were just enough that stitching them together took what felt like forever.” He sighs. “It was only a few minutes after I started, I heard what sounded like dynamite blowing up a building.” He strokes his beard. “Turns out Richard did that as a distraction, so they could rob the bank. Killed the bank manager, his secretary and the town doctor. The following morning, I sent Brian to Oklahoma Station with a written report asking a US Marshal to come out and investigate.”
Jake is stunned. Of all the nerve. He’s shocked at Richard’s gall. He just sits there in silence, trying to digest the story he just heard. He’s not sure he wants to be here in the Indian Territory anymore if someone like that can roam freely.
Chapter 27
John is the first to speak after Jerome finishes. “Let me be the first to say, thank you for your honesty. Yes, it sounds like we’re after the same man. I don’t know what happened to this, Brian?” he asks of Jerome, who nods agreeing with the question. He opens then spreads his hands. “But I pray nothing bad has.” He looks around the table, seeing the approval on each of their faces, then turns back to Jerome. “You said he asked about the road to Ft. Supply and then on to Dodge?”
Jerome nods.
“Do you think he was lying? That could have been part of his ruse, after all.”
Jerome shakes his head. “My thinking didn’t get addled until later that night. I really think he was on his way to Dodge.”
John sighs and looks at Sean. The young man is snoring happily in his sleep, head laying between his upraised arms on the table. John looks at Josh and motions his head toward the young man. Josh nods and both deputies rise. John looks to Jerome and apologizes. “Meds were to help him sleep. We need to get him to bed. We’ll be right back.”
Jerome waves them on.
As John and Josh struggle to get Sean to his room, he smiles at the last thing John hears from downstairs is Joey asking, “So, how ARE the roads between here and Ft. Supply?”
While it takes John and Josh a couple of minutes to get Sean into his bed and under the covers, John removes the young man’s boots out of sympathy.
The pair of deputies make it back downstairs as Jerome finishes describing which trails they will need to go down to get through the Indian lands.
As John takes his seat, Jerome looks at him and asks, “Is he going to be alright?”
John shakes his head. “I don’t know. The reason we’re on Richard’s trail is because about a week or so ago, Richard robbed a bank, then killed Sean’s parents.” He leans back in his chair, crosses his arms and says, “He shot them right in front of Sean, while he couldn’t do anything about it.”
“Poor guy,” Jerome says empathetically. “So, he’s pretty messed up, then huh?”
John nods. “This Richard is the worst kind of person I’ve ever seen. Trust me, I’ve known all sorts of bad people. This guy, however, takes the cake.”
“If you know him that well, why haven’t you done anything about him yet?”
“Jurisdictional boundaries. Politics. The bane of civilized society, but a necessary evil. Even Sheriff Lyttle was bound by it all. That’s the only reason he turned around, well that and the Comanche were tracking him. Now we have more or less carte-blanche to do what we need to. It’s just sad that it took us this long, long enough for him to be this wretched an animal before we could do anything about it.”
Jerome scoffs and shakes his head. “That’s a part of the reason I left law. I can’t stand jurisdictions.” He stands up and motions around the filling saloon. “I have to get back to work. Working for yourself is sometimes less enticing than it could be. Wel
l, folks, enjoy your drinks on the house tonight. Good luck in putting that rabid animal down.” He lumbers his way over to the bar.
The rest of the evening is subdued. The lawmen decide to stay the night, to make sure they’re well-rested for the next leg of the trip.
After a couple of hours, David comes back out front, looking exhausted. Wordlessly, he drinks several cups of coffee. The group, minus Sean, enjoy themselves that evening, chatting, joking, even ribbing each other in an easy fellowship.
John and Josh enjoy a couple of beers each.
When Joey breaks out her trusty can of the chocolate powder, Jerome looks on in interest and asks her about what she has. She allows him to sample some and he immediately offers to buy the can off her. She refuses. She says it’s easy, yet hard enough to obtain, she can’t easily replace it. And to add the fact that she doesn’t know when she’s going to be able to replace it, she has to politely decline the offer. She does, however, tell him how to obtain his own can of the valued power, to which he thanks her profusely. Joey and Rebekah—though almost against her will—each enjoy a cup of hot chocolate.
Later in the night, John asks Jerome about the offer and is told he sees applications of the powder as a mixer for different kinds of alcohol, as well as with coffee, of all things. At that, John laughs.
David and Rebekah retire from the table early, a fact of which, John is glad. He still sees the animosity Bekah has for Joey and it disturbs him.
Just after the young couple leaves, John asks Joey directly, “Did she ever tell you why she doesn’t like you very much?”
Joey shakes her head. “As far as I know, it’s just hate at first sight. I’ve prayed about it, but no answers have come as of yet. Has Rebekah told you?”
John shakes his head, sighs and gives up on it for the moment. He doesn’t know what set his beautiful young friend off, but he has the feeling it’s got something to do with Joey being a woman. A beautiful one at that. He never got the feeling that Rebekah was all that jealous, though.
John enjoys the rest of the evening in quiet fellowship with his friends. Although the saloon is nearly full, the mood is somber. John expects, due to the recent deaths. While they are still on a mission, the evening of relaxation is a welcomed oasis in the desert of the west. Late that night, the heavens open up and more rain than John has ever seen falls all at once.
Chapter 28
Jake awakens in the middle of the night, to the sound of lightning striking close by and falls back asleep to the sound of rain hitting the roof of Jerome’s Haven.
Out of habit, Jake wakes just before dawn the next morning. On his way to take care of the call of nature, Jake thanks the Lord Jerome set up wooden planks to the outhouse, since the area around the Haven is flooded and rain is still falling.
He gets done with his business and heads back inside, just in time to almost be run over by Joey on her way out to where he just vacated.
He grins at the urgency she moves with, glad he wasn’t still occupying the required room. Considering it’s still raining, he can imagine the young woman dancing in the rain, needing to go. He considers a moment, then goes to talk to Jerome about having another outhouse or two put in to relieve the strain.
It finally stops raining around noon, but the streets are completely flooded. So much so, in fact, that the posse decides to stay one more day, just to let things dry out a little more.
When Sean hears the plans, he starts trying to throw a fit, but Joey grabs the back of his shirt and physically moves him toward the door. “You wanna keep going? Go ahead. I hope you can swim, because I’m not gonna force our horses to!” He quiets down immediately.
Jake feels a glow at the young man’s need to bow to the weather. He’s glad that even Sean has the sense “to get in out of the rain,” as it were.
Jerome offers the crew another meal for free, but tells them they need to pay for their drinks. Joey tells him to go ahead and add the charge for the food to the bill, that the marshals service will pay for it.
Reluctantly, almost as if they are throwing an offer of friendship back in his teeth, the large man agrees. However, he does insist on giving them the best food the hotel can provide at the same cost as the standard fare.
By the end of the day, however, everyone in the party starts showing signs of impatience. Sean seems to be interested in only destroying himself and avoiding everyone, especially Joey. David and Rebekah can be heard disagreeing loudly in their room, while the united front they provide to everyone else seems to be crumbling. John seems to be interested in only reading from his Bible in his own room.
Other than meals, Joey stays sequestered in her room, doing only God knows what.
Jake spends his time people-watching. Jerome comes over every once in awhile, but leaves Jake to his own devices most of the time. There are enough patrons in the saloon, Jake begins to wonder if the entire town comes in to the saloon throughout the day, or if this is just the only place in town to get a hot-cooked meal and a stiff drink.
Early in the evening, Jake tells Jerome about Sean owning and running a successful hotel and restaurant in Norman. Jerome asks Sean about the liquors they sell. With what appears to be the first signs of coming out of his slump, Sean animatedly tells the large man about his favorite drink: Guinness.
Jerome graciously listens for quite awhile, before begging off, stating the need to tend the bar. Jake looks at Sean and, noting the young Irishman’s obvious disappointment, tries to empathize with him. Almost immediately, Sean starts drinking and slides right back into the black slump he’s been fighting since the death of his parents.
Jake excuses himself for a few moments and seeks out the one person he expects should be able to help: David. At least he HOPES the young doctor will be able to help, as Jake has little or no clue as to what to do.
Thankfully, it takes Jake a blessedly short amount of time to find the young doctor. It was made simple considering the young couple had hardly left their room all day.
When Jake knocks on the door, he hears David snap, “What?”
“Um, David? It’s Jake. Can we talk for a minute?” he calls tentatively through the door.
He hears what sounds to be David growling in the room, then a moment later, the door snaps open to reveal a shirtless, sweating David exiting the room quickly.
At the quickest of glances inside, it appears Rebekah is sitting on the edge of the bed with a pillow in her lap and holding what appears to be a handkerchief up to her face, wiping tears from her face.
David firmly closes the door and looks at Jake expectantly.
Jake clears his throat and says, “I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything important.”
David waves the comment away and looks at Jake with a clearly waiting expression.
“I’m worried about Sean. He seems interested in only drinking himself into the hereafter. Is there anything we can do for him?”
David takes a deep breath, crosses his arms and leans up against the wall. “This kind of an obsession is only able to go away in one condition, when he’s willing to let it go. Even killing Richard won’t make it disappear. He has to be willing to let go the hatred, else it will still be there every time he closes his eyes.” He shakes his head. “We can help him sleep, but the healing for this is up to him. Well, it’s between him and God, that is. I don’t understand the Almighty’s timing, but I generally don’t, so that’s nothing new.”
Jake releases the breath he didn’t know he was holding explosively and looks up to the ceiling. After several moments of consideration, he looks back at the doctor. “I just hate seeing him like this. I like the kid and watching him go through this is murder on me too.”
“How do you think I feel? He’s a good friend of mine, too. So are Brigit and Joey. For that matter, so were Joseph and Laura. It kills me that the animal I have been warning people about for more than a year is able to do this to people I know and love. As for what to do with Sean, unfortunately there is nothing th
at CAN be done for him, except to pray for him and let him work through it himself.”
Jake sighs and shakes his head. “I had a feeling you were gonna say that.” He nods, confirming what he just heard, to himself. “Thanks for the help, Doc. Sorry again for the interruption.”
David sighs, shakes his head and says, “You didn’t interrupt anything. Thank you for the apology, though.” He cracks open the door and slips back into his room.
Jake heads back downstairs not looking forward to dealing with Sean the rest of the night. He hopes the young Irishman is already passed out drunk.
Chapter 29
John looks at the desolate plain ahead, feeling a sense of dismay. He’s been through this area before, but not with as many green-horns before as he has now. Considering how much alcohol Sean’s been consuming for the last week, John’s fairly sure he’s gonna be dehydrated enough to die if the group isn’t careful.
He’s not sure that Joey has been in this area, either. But, he hopes she has enough wherewithal to deal with the desert properly.
Having grown up in this area, David had BETTER know how to manage himself and his wife under these circumstances. I wonder if he knows about any wells, springs, or streams on the way . . .
John looks last at Josh. His blood-brother told him about being out at Fort Supply for a while, so he should know how to comport himself properly under these circumstances. He sighs. Time to stop dawdling and get this show on the road. With one last look around, he calls out, “Alright, guys. So, we’re heading into an area that has little to no water. We have enough water to last us and our horses for about three days.” He looks at David and, not for the first time since they left Ft. Cobb, is glad the younger man decided to come along with the posse.
David has proven himself in the art of reading trails in the last day or so. John now knows that the young man did indeed grow up on the reservation and is a much better tracker for it.
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