by Vicky Jones
"Keeping people quiet costs money, but you have no idea about business. Neither does Jeffrey."
"Everybody likes him. He's honest." Chloe replied.
"Honesty doesn't get you anywhere," Bruce said, pouring the last of his bottle of whiskey into his glass.
Chloe paused, his final statement ringing in her ears.
"You know what, Larry? I'm glad you finally admitted all that to me," she said, backing up to the doorway where she'd dropped her bag.
"Why's that?"
Chloe took a thick brown leather journal out of her bag. She walked forward and placed it on the edge of Bruce's desk, just out of his reach.
"Because it matches everything I read in Elbie's diary.”
Wednesday evening.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so ashamed of myself. When they told me I had to shoot her–" Billy Bullen shook with guilt as he spoke.
Chloe swayed, wanting to rush over to Shona and lie next to her, but feared the ice-cold touch of her lifeless body. As thoughts of the future life they'd planned with each other circled her decimated mind, Billy Bullen continued.
Saturday evening.
"How did you get that diary?" Bruce's voice croaked.
Chloe stepped aside as another figure entered the room.
"The Bullens were arrested, Larry. It's all over."
"Who the hell are you?" Bruce growled.
"Sheriff Walters. Sheriff Landon's been reassigned with immediate effect. I've been drafted in to oversee this matter. I heard everything you said, sir, and I'm sorry, but it's enough for me to take you in."
"What the hell?" Bruce reached for his empty bottle.
"I wouldn't, Larry," the sheriff warned.
"This why you came back, Chloe? To set your own father up?" Bruce spat the words through his clenched teeth.
"No. I came here to tell you that the business is now solely in Ellis's name. I've sold my soon-to-be-inherited share to him. I don't want it. I never have. Couldn’t you see that? I just wanted to be free! To draw, to ride, to live!" Chloe cried, her emotions spilling out now.
"What d'you mean soon-to-be-inherited? You get it when I die, not before! But I might just leave it to Kyle instead, how'd you like that idea?" he said cruelly.
"Not your decision anymore, Larry! You forfeited that right the second you were arrested. Didn't you read the small print on our contract? Or did you think I'd be stupid enough to leave out such an important detail?"
Bruce's heart sank when he recognized the voice of Jeffrey Ellis, who, seconds later, walked into his office. Behind him was his lawyer, holding a thick pile of papers tied up with red string.
"You can't do that!" Bruce roared, squirming as Sheriff Walters slapped his handcuffs on him.
"Oh, I think you'll find I can, Larry. As soon as Chloe came to see me, I had Dennis here go over our contract, and sure enough there it was. But how important is don't get arrested for embezzlement, assault, fraud, bribery and what else was it–" Ellis turned to Walters as he snapped his fingers theatrically, pretending to rack his brain. He was enjoying the moment.
"We have a pretty strong case for murder in the second degree, sir. Especially with the sheer amount of evidence we have now, thanks to this diary here," the sheriff replied, picking up Elbie's leather journal. "Full of wrongdoings all under your watch, Larry!" he added.
"This is fucking crazy. You can't do this." Bruce shook his head, but the reality of his predicament began to sink in.
"I'm promoting Ron Black to run this place. Life’s too short! I'm gon' spend my time at home now with Marjory," Ellis grinned.
Chloe stood in front of Bruce, coolly looking into his eyes.
"Oh, by the way, I have one more thing to tell you–"
Wednesday evening.
“You saved me, Miss Chloe. I never forgot that. You coulda told my brothers you saw me that night at The Shelter, but you didn't. So, I couldn't do it, ma’am. I just couldn't take her away from you. I put my gun in the air and jus' fired at the sky!"
Chloe's head snapped to face Billy, in complete shock.
"She's ALIVE?" she breathed.
Saturday evening.
"She's ALIVE?" Bruce was thunderstruck.
Chloe realized as Bruce was being led away that she still had one more question to ask him, before washing her hands of him for good. She looked him directly in the eye.
"Why, Larry? Why so much hatred for black people?"
"Why d’you keep callin’ me that? You will address me as your father, Chloe!" Bruce demanded.
"No, Larry. That’s not what you are to me now. Answer my question. Why the hatred all these years? What have they EVER done to you?"
Bruce could see in Chloe’s eyes that there was no point fighting it anymore.
"Because that damn colored should've died in that machine, not your brother! I've always hated those damn stinking bastards. Then, after your brother died I couldn't stand to have 'em anywhere near me, reminding me of what I lost."
For the first time, Chloe saw genuine tears in her father's cold eyes.
"We both lost David, Larry. But that damn stinkin’ bastard as you call him, ripped the shirt off his own back, made a tourniquet and stemmed the bleeding just long enough for me to get there and have those precious last minutes to say goodbye. You know why you didn’t see him when you arrived? Because he ran off to get help!"
Larry Bruce stared blankly at her revelation. All these years he’d got it wrong. He had no words left for her as Sheriff Walters walked him swiftly out of the office.
Wednesday evening.
After a minute or two of staring at her, Chloe finally mustered up the strength to go over and sit on the end of Shona's bed, spotting the rocket postcard she’d bought her on the wall just above her head. Seeing the many puncture marks around its edges made Chloe ache, knowing that Shona must have looked lovingly at it practically every night before she went to sleep, then pinned it back up safely.
"Well, Billy, I guess you'd better stay here for now, till you get fixed up. Let me have your keys, and I'll put your truck in the hay barn in the field up top with Miss Chloe's car and throw a tarp over them both. That way your brothers won't see your truck in the driveway and find you till we figure out what we're gon' do," Tom said.
Billy nodded gratefully, knowing it made perfect sense.
"Let's leave things for tonight. Ruby here will get you something to eat."
Tom, Ruby and Billy gave Chloe her privacy as they bid her goodnight and left her alone in the barn with Shona.
Chloe couldn't take her eyes off Shona and what the vicious thugs had done to her. Her eyes were bruised and swollen, her lips cut and an angry, red graze covered most of the right side of her forehead. Ruby had tended to her wounds as best she could and placed thick blankets over her to keep her warm.
Crawling into the small space between Shona and the wall of the barn, Chloe tucked her shivering, bare legs under the blankets and snuggled down into Shona, her eyes red and raw, then draped her right arm gently over her motionless torso. Chloe's face lay next to hers, a fresh tear landing on Shona's grazed forehead. She made the smallest of movements as the salty tear stung her cut skin. Gasping, Chloe resisted the urge to shake Shona awake. But the injuries on her body were just too severe.
"I'm here, baby, shhh, I'm here. I'm here. Shhh, I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here when you wake up. Shhh…I love you, baby," she whispered in Shona's ear.
Chloe lay back down carefully, as if Shona were made of fragile glass. Breathing in her familiar scent, she nuzzled into her neck and fell into a deep sleep, hoping her presence and body heat would somehow help Shona to make it through the long, cold night ahead.
Saturday evening.
Jeffrey Ellis stood on the balcony outside Bruce's former office and smiled fondly at an exhausted Chloe as they were about to go their separate ways. The echo of Bruce's protesting yells still reverberated down the hallways of the canteen below.
"So, Miss Chloe, wha
t will you do now?" he asked with genuine interest.
"Oh, I don't know. I hear California is mighty fine this time of year!"
Chapter 83
The following day, Chloe had made arrangements to pay someone a visit. The sheriff had called her that Sunday morning to tell her that they'd finally picked Kyle up, after catching him crossing the state border. She drove down to the station, determined to close one more door to her past. Taking a deep breath to prepare herself, she walked through the cell block.
"What the hell do you want? Finally realized you can't live without me? Get me out of here now! You're good for the bail money. That hotel you fucked your bitch in couldn't have been cheap!"
Even now, behind bars, Kyle's vitriol towards her was astounding. But she remained calm.
"No, I haven't. I've just come to tell you that the wedding's officially off. I ain't worth a dime to you now I've sold my share of the business back to Jeffrey Ellis. So, if you want it still, I guess you'll just have to marry him!"
Chloe was enjoying seeing the fury glaze over Kyle's stubbly face with him safely behind bars, never able to lay a finger on her again. He got up off the concrete seat in his cell and walked over to Chloe, quietly fuming as he leaned on the bars. Unafraid, she looked him dead in the eye, her voice barely above a whisper.
"You make me sick, Kyle. I hope you rot in jail." She turned to walk away from him.
"Hey! You get back here right now! You can't do this to me! You can't leave me in here!"
"Oh, by the way,” said Chloe, “your little friend, Billy Bullen?" She smiled. "He has really bad aim."
"What the hell you talkin' about?" His face blanched.
"Shona. She's alive." Her face was motionless.
Kyle rattled the bars of his cell, seething with rage.
"Bye, Kyle."
Chloe didn't look back as she walked away.
Two weeks later.
Unable to face speaking to her mother before she left, Chloe wrote a brief note to Antonia outlining where in California they would be staying and left an address. She was under strict instructions not to tell a soul. The risk of Bruce's associates seeking revenge on her and Shona was still too great. They spent their last night in Daynes at the Birds’ farmhouse, safe in the knowledge that the next day, a search was being conducted of a patch of wasteland that Billy Bullen, in return for leniency, had told police was where the bodies were buried.
Chloe had spent the last few days rallying the people of the town to help with the search. Pretty much everyone she'd asked was willing to help, each remembering someone who had gone missing over the years. Every single one of the workers at Ellis and Bruce had promised to turn out that morning, out of respect for Shona, whose influence had touched them all as they were still reaping the rewards of the changes they were told she'd suggested for them. It made Chloe smile to know that they regarded her as a hero and in those few short months of working there she’d completely won them over, like she'd won Chloe over, by just being herself.
On the morning of the search, all the townsfolk walked together, blacks and whites putting their differences aside. Billy Bullen had marked out an area of interest on the map he had been given by Sheriff Walters. A promise of a lesser sentence had loosened his tongue, but Shona knew that deep down he wanted to help pay back in some way for what his brothers had taken from the town.
Arriving at the site, Chloe was completely astounded. Black faces were interspersed with white ones, the whole community coming together with one thing in common–they were sick of constantly being at war with each other. So many people had died because of it, and the town was tired. They were no longer at the mercy of the Bullen brothers, and the rest of the suspected Klan members had all mysteriously left town. Chloe's call to Joe at the local paper regarding a list of names she'd collated and asked him to publish in a week's time probably had a lot to do with their sudden disappearance, once Joe had put the word around that he had a copy of this list.
Chloe picked delicately through the dirt with her spade, looking up every now and again with a lump in her throat at the people around her who, at one time or another, had spoken hatred about the black community. These people were now working with them to search for the bodies.
She stood up and scanned the area. Across the site, she saw Shona attacking the dry mud with a pick-ax, holding her damaged ribs and grimacing as the pain of her exertion rumbled through her. Next to her was Billy Bullen, looking down at what Shona was determined to uncover.
Suddenly, the air shattered as Shona cried out.
"Quick! Over here!" she yelled. Chloe dropped her spade with a clatter and darted over, worried that she'd hurt herself.
Shona sank painfully to her knees and ripped clumps of earth out of the ground with her bare hands. Still weak from her injuries, her strength depleting rapidly, Billy Bullen crouched down next to her and carefully picked up what she had found.
"That's my boy, that's him! Oh, my Woody!"
Maria's voice echoed through the somber air as she ran to scoop up her boy in her arms, confirming his identity when she saw his damaged foot peel away from the earth surrounding him. Turning to Chloe, Maria's eyes glistened with tears.
"She found him for me, Miss Chloe. I got my boy back!" Maria gently carried her boy towards a second gurney that had been wheeled over to her. She kissed her boy's head and nodded as the white men acting as stretcher-bearers respectfully covered Woody's body.
Chloe's eyes stung with tears of pride at the sheer honor of knowing a woman so wonderful, so truly unique as Shona Jackson. Even though she had only been in Daynes a short time, her presence in the town, her reputation would live on for a very long time.
"Shona, over here!"
Another shout echoed across the field.
"What is it?" Shona ran over to where a small group of men were standing. They had removed their caps out of respect. Her eyes were drawn downwards to the large black hand they’d uncovered, the calloused fingers she recognised from the first time she’d met him…and the crucifix around his neck. Devastated, she sank to her knees.
"Oh, Cuban."
Chapter 84
It was finally time for Chloe and Shona to say goodbye to Tom and Ruby. After they had discovered Cuban's body along with the others, they'd laid him to rest by the Weaver, in Shona's favorite spot. They were all emotionally drained after the tumultuous events of the last few weeks.
"I wanted to give you something to say thank you." As they stood by her car, their bags all loaded up, Chloe took out a fat envelope and handed it to Ruby, who nearly burst into tears when she opened it.
"Oh, my dear, no. We can't accept this. You were already kind enough to give us the cow you bought at the auction. Now this is too much, Miss Chloe!" Ruby tried to hand back the money that was stuffed in the envelope, but Chloe gently pushed her hand away.
"No, I want you to have it. Use it for a couple of tickets to come pay us a visit when we get set up properly, maybe? Our forwarding address is in there too, but remember to keep it secret for now!" Chloe smiled as Ruby hugged her tightly.
"You take care of each other, you hear?" Tom said, waiting patiently to give them both a hug goodbye.
"We promise! There's a lot of lost time we got to make up for!" Chloe laughed as she embraced him tightly. Then, with one final goodbye, both Chloe and Shona got into the car and drove off, watching in the rearview mirror as the Birds waved them away.
Later that afternoon, a light tap on her door jolted the old lady from her nap. Struggling out of her high-backed armchair, she grabbed her walking stick and hobbled over to the door.
"Hello? Who is it?" her weak voice enquired, the door still firmly bolted.
"Dorothy, hi. It's me, Chloe–"
"Oh, hang on a second, dear." Dorothy struggled to wrap her arthritic fingers around the bolt on her door, but with one last heave, it crunched backward into its jacket. She opened the door.
"Thought I'd just stop by on my way throu
gh to tell you that I've found someone to fix your truck up, Dorothy."
Dorothy's eyes shone with sheer joy as she saw Shona emerge from behind Chloe, smiling that beautiful smile she had missed so much.
"Oh my goodness! Oh, my dear–"
"I missed you." Shona hugged Dorothy, wincing as the old lady squeezed her still-healing ribs just a little too firmly in her embrace, then slapped her on the back heartily.
"Oh, it's so good to see you, girls. You'll both stay, won't you? You ain't gotta rush off anywhere?" Dorothy's watery eyes were impossible to say no to.
Chloe looked at Shona, raising her eyebrow to tell her that whatever she decided was alright with her. Looking at Dorothy, Shona's bright blue eyes twinkled.
"Well, I guess we're gon' have to stay, Dorothy. I saw the state of that truck out there in your yard. I'm gon' need at least a coupla days straight to get all that rust off! Heck, I may be a genius, but I ain't no miracle worker!"
All three of them broke out into the happiest laughter any of them had heard in a long, long time.
At the end of their few days with Dorothy, Chloe picked up her car keys and headed towards the front door. It was nearly 6 o'clock, and she and Shona had a long drive ahead of them to get to their hotel for the night in Arkansas.
"I'm real sorry we can't stay longer, but you remember from last time what it's like in this town. They can't know I'm here," Shona said sadly.
"And I've arranged for somebody to come visit you every day and bring your groceries over. You won't ever have to worry about bills again," Chloe said. "As soon as we get settled, you bet that we'll arrange for you to come visit us."
"Oh, I'd really like that. You take care of my girl, Miss Chloe–"