Chapter 46
Sabre returned to the barn with Tuper, and then she and Ron packed the car. Sabre took one last look around and discovered Ron’s Dopp kit containing his toothbrush, toothpaste, razor, and a fairly large bottle of Pantene shampoo. She carried it to the car, but when she opened the hatch she realized she would have to unload all the bags to get to Ron’s backpack. Instead, she unzipped her own suitcase and tossed the kit into it.
Tuper hobbled to the car on the beautifully handcrafted crutches Peter had given him. He walked to the passenger side. “You’ll have to drive, Son,” he said and tossed the keys to Ron. Sabre climbed into the back behind the driver’s seat because that area had a little more stuffing in it. Ringo had completely demolished the other seat and part of this one. She laid Ron’s blanket across the area that Ringo had chewed up and attempted to make herself comfortable.
“Thanks for all you’ve done for us, Tuper,” Ron said.
“Ain’t done yet,” Tuper responded.
As Ron drove, Sabre sat back and enjoyed the snow-covered rolling hills and fields. It had been dark when they had arrived at the Hutterite colony last night and they hadn’t seen much. Now, in the daylight, she was able to enjoy the scenery until it became too hot in the car. Ron must have felt too warm as well because he reached over to turn the heat down, but nothing changed.
“Doesn’t this work?” Ron asked.
Tuper pushed a button. “It’s all or nothing most of the time. When it gets cold we’ll turn the heat back on.”
Sabre had a good view of the scar on the left side of Tuper’s face. Every time she looked up she wondered what had happened to him. Finally, she got up the nerve to ask. “How did you get that scar, Tuper?”
He slowly turned his head toward her. “Met up with a bear and didn’t have a gun,” he said and turned his head back toward Ron, fixing a gaze on him.
“I got your point, Tuper.”
Sabre didn’t know whether he was telling the truth or just heckling Ron. “Want to tell us the story?”
“Just did.”
“With a little more detail, perhaps?” she suggested.
“Nope.”
Sabre tried another tack, trying to get some insight into who Tuper really was. “What’s the earliest thing you remember in your childhood, Ron?”
“I remember when they brought you home from the hospital.”
“Really? You would have only been about three years old.”
“I remember because I wanted to trade you for a puppy. When our parents refused, I asked if we could at least name you Rover.”
Sabre shook her head. She didn’t know whether or not to believe him. “How about you, Tuper, what’s your earliest recollection?”
“My memory goes back a bit further than that. Before I was born.”
“You remember being in the womb?”
“I remembering going to the dance with my dad, and returning with my mom.”
Sabre gave up. She stuffed Ron’s pillow under her head and leaned it against the door. She closed her eyes and tried to drift away, but sleep wouldn’t come. She wondered what life would be like if she ever made it home, if she’d be able to practice law, if she…there were so many “ifs”…too many to make any sense of it all. Then she remembered her mother who was probably sick with worry. Her cell phone was tucked away in her pocket. When she pulled it out she discovered she not only had a little juice left on the battery, but four bars bounced on her screen. She dialed the number for the extra cell phone she had left with her mother.
“Hello, are you alright?” her mother said.
“Yes, Mother, Ron and I are both safe and sound. We just haven’t been where we could get a signal. Are you okay?”
“I’m just fine. Your aunt and uncle are taking very good care of me. They don’t let me out of their sight. When are you coming home?”
“Soon, Mom.” Ron slowed down and made a right hand turn onto the road that led to the colony. “I’m going to lose you real soon, Mom. I’m putting you on speaker so Ron can say hello.” She touched the button that read “Speaker.”
“Hi, Mom. I love you.”
“Love you too, Son.”
“The phone is going to die, Mom. I’ll call next chance I get. I love y….” Sabre’s words were interrupted with the silence of a dead line.
They continued up the road until they reached the first Hutterite colony where they had initially stayed. Sabre was anxious to see JP who had remained behind in case Gina showed up. JP was saddling Cody and he had just tightened the cinch when Tuper’s car stopped near the barn. Ringo ran up to the car, twirling around with excitement when he saw his master’s car. He ran first to the driver’s side and then around to Tuper.
Sabre stepped out of the car. There may have been snow on the ground, but the sun was shining, and the forty-five-degree temperature felt surprisingly warm. “Going somewhere, cowboy?”
“I was just heading out to find you,” he said as she walked over to him. “I’m surprised to see you back here.” He stroked her hair ever so lightly without thinking, then pulled his hand back.
She smiled up at him. “Plans have changed. We had a little trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Had a shootout with a snowmobile,” Tuper said as he hopped along on his crutches past JP. Ringo scampered alongside him.
JP looked at the way he was holding his foot up. “You got shot in the foot?”
“No. I outran a rabbit,” he said as he entered the barn.
JP turned to Sabre. “Does that make any sense to you?”
“He usually doesn’t, but this time I think he’s trying to say that he beat the rabbit to his trap. We had an intruder last night who shot at us. Tuper went after him and accidentally stepped in a rabbit trap.”
“Did I hear Tuper say the shooter was on a snowmobile?”
“Yes, just like the night Gillich was shot.”
“Did any of you see him?”
“No, we weren’t close enough. We don’t even know if it was a man or a woman.”
“I think I may know who it was.” JP loosened the cinch and removed the saddle. “Let’s go inside and I’ll tell you all what happened here.”
“And then we can tell you our, or should I say Ron’s, new plan.”
JP told them about his encounter with Gina Basham, how she had tried to sneak up on him, and how she claimed to be an FBI agent.
“And you let her get away?” Ron asked.
“What was I supposed to do? Shoot her in the back? Tackle her and tie her up? I think our list of felonies is long enough. I wasn’t too keen on adding ‘Assaulting a Federal Officer’ to the list. If it’s any consolation to you, Ron, I think she’s the only person in law enforcement who believes you’re innocent.”
“If she is FBI, then why would she be riding up on her snowmobile and shooting through the window at Ron?”
JP shrugged. “Maybe I was wrong. Maybe she’s not FBI after all.”
Chapter 47
“Ron, are you sure you want to turn yourself in to WITSEC?” JP asked as they gathered in their “meeting room” in the barn. They had already hashed it out several times and it didn’t appear Ron was going to change his mind no matter how many times Sabre told him she didn’t like it.
“Yes, but not here in Montana. I’d feel a lot more comfortable with Marshal Mendoza. I think he’ll protect me if he can.”
“Then we need to drive back to Hayden, but if any of us attempt to rent a car they’ll pick us up faster than green grass through a goose.”
They all turned and looked at Tuper. “You up for one more adventure?” Ron asked.
“Ask Ringo. It’s his car.”
“What do you think, Ringo?” Ringo wagged his tail and rubbed up against Ron, who petted his cold, wet back. “I think that’s a ‘yes.’”
“Might want to ask him if he’s drivin’ cuz I ain’t.”
“I don’t mind driving,” JP said.
“I’d be glad to drive,” Sabre said. They all knew the driver’s seat was the only seat in the car that Ringo had not chewed up.
Tuper got up, mounted his crutches, and started toward the door. “It’s time for lunch. Go eat, say your goodbyes, and I’ll meet you at the car in about an hour.”
***
After lunch Sabre went to the apartment where she had previously been staying to say goodbye to the girls. Frieda and Mary were the only ones there. Sabre thanked them again for being so kind to her, and then her curiosity got the best of her. “Have you known Tuper for a long time?”
“All our lives,” Frieda said. “But we don’t see him that often.”
“His lifestyle is very different from the way you live, yet Jacob treats him like he’s special to him. Peter, at the other colony, did the same thing,” Sabre said. “By the way, Peter and Jacob look a lot alike. Are they related?”
“They’re brothers. I don’t know the whole story, but they’ve known Tuper since they were kids. I think he saved both of their lives. I’m not sure how, but it had something to do with a bear. That’s about all I know.”
“That explains a few things,” Sabre said. “It was a real pleasure meeting all of you.”
Sabre went to join Ron and JP, who were putting the last of their things in the car.
“I think that does it,” JP said, and looked around for Tuper.
Jacob was walking with Tuper to the car, gave him a hug, and said, “Be safe, Brüderlein.”
Sabre said the word over and over in her mind. That was the same thing that Peter had called Tuper. She wondered if it was his last name or some term of endearment. She would remember the word and look it up whenever she had Internet access again. She would soon leave this time warp and rejoin the Welt Leuts.
***
Their first stop after leaving the colony was a gas station to fill up the tank. After JP got out to pump the gas, he re-opened the door and stuck his head inside. “Sabre, do you have any cash? I’m nearly out.”
“Yes,” Sabre said and got out of the car. “I’ll go inside and pay for it.”
“Give me the money. I’ll go. It’s cold out here. You get back in the car.”
Sabre handed him three twenty-dollar bills and opened her door. Ringo had taken her seat. “Move over, Ringo,” she said, giving him a little push.
Ron wrapped his arms around him, picked him up, and set him on his lap while Sabre rearranged the blanket that Ringo had balled up in the few seconds she was out of the car. Then she stepped back into the car and sat down while Ron tried to make Ringo sit between them. The lanky dog preferred to stretch out on Ron’s lap and all the way across the seat with his nose on Sabre’s leg.
“How long does it take to get to Hayden from here?” Ron asked.
“About six hours if the passes are open,” Tuper said. “Looking pretty dark out there. A storm’s coming in from the west.”
“We just barely made it through when we came,” Sabre said. “It was nasty.”
“Is there another route we can take?” Ron asked.
“All the roads have to go through some pass to get there,” Tuper responded. “May as well take the shortest route.”
JP returned, carrying a cardboard tray with four cups, which he set on top of the car. After he started pumping the gas, he opened the door and handed each of them a hot cup of coffee. “I brought you decaf,” he said, as he handed Sabre her cup. “And lots of different kinds of cream.” He sat down behind the wheel while he waited for the gas tank to fill. “It’s getting colder by the minute, and they were talking inside about a storm on the way. Do you think we should turn back and wait until it passes?”
“We can stop in Missoula and check to see how the roads are,” Tuper said. “If we can make it to Kellogg, I know a guy.”
“Is there any town in Montana where you don’t know someone?” Ron asked.
“Roy.”
“Who’s Roy?”
“Roy, Montana. Don’t know nobody in Roy. Anyhow, Kellogg’s in Idaho. Don’t know many folks in Idaho.”
JP chuckled as he got out of the car and finished pumping the gas.
***
Sabre and Ron chatted most of the way. Tuper and JP were quiet except for an occasional word or two about some “jackass” driver, the condition of the sky, or the speed of the wind.
Sabre couldn’t stop thinking about Tuper’s connection to Jacob and Peter. Finally, she asked, “Tuper, what does Brüderlein mean?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Because Jacob and Peter both called you that.”
“You sure ask a lot of questions.”
And that was it. He said no more about it and Sabre didn’t push him. It would’ve been rude for her to continue.
About an hour before they reached Missoula, JP dropped his speed to sixty miles per hour. After a mile or so, he sped back up to seventy-five. Tuper looked at him and JP nodded.
“What is it?” Sabre asked.
“I think we’re being followed.”
Tuper responded, “There’s a road coming up here in a mile or so. Don’t know if it’s marked 271 or Helmville Road, but that’s the one.”
“I see it,” JP said and turned off the highway.
“Take a quick right off of Helmville onto that dirt road.” JP did what he was told. “Now turn left and pull up by the side of those trees.” When the car was parked, Tuper said, “You can see the road from here.”
About three minutes later a dark blue, 2011 Dodge Challenger turned off the highway and onto Helmville. “I think that’s the car that we saw at Dimes Casino in Great Falls,” JP said. “How do they know where we are?”
“I don’t know, but that’s definitely not a police vehicle. I wonder if the cops are following us too,” Sabre said. “I think I might welcome them right now.”
JP gave the car time to pass the first curve in the road and then pulled out and back onto the highway. He drove toward Missoula. Tuper directed him where to go so they could make a pit stop at a gas station that wasn’t right off the highway. They stayed in the car for a few minutes while cars came and went, but no blue Dodge Challenger appeared.
JP and Sabre stepped out of the car to enter the gas station. JP stayed close to Sabre to help block the wind that nearly swept her off her feet. He held onto her with one hand and onto his Stetson with the other. Once inside, JP waited near the door to the restroom while Sabre went in. They paid for the gas and went back outside. Sabre got back into the car and JP filled the tank while Ron walked with Tuper, making sure he didn’t slip on the icy ground. When they returned, JP went back in, used the restroom, and asked about the storm.
With no sign of the blue Dodge or anything else suspicious, they continued down the highway. “Maybe we lost them,” JP offered, but he continued to watch his rearview mirror. “No matter, we can’t get through the pass tonight. It’s shut down.”
The wind howled and fat flakes fell on the windshield. “Don’t think we’ll make it to Kellogg either,” Tuper said. “There’s not much between here and there, so we might wanna stay in Missoula.”
The snow was falling hard and the wind was whipping it around, making it difficult for JP to see more than three feet ahead of the car. It helped that the sun had set because it took the glare off the bright, white powder that surrounded them, but the darkness created new issues.
“I know a place,” Tuper said.
“Of course you do,” Ron chided. “And we appreciate it.”
Tuper directed JP to a small motel a few miles from the interstate. The single story building consisted of a row of eight rooms with outside access. JP parked close to the lobby door so Tuper wouldn’t have to walk too far on his crutches in the wind. Tuper had volunteered to register for the rooms in case someone was looking for them; he was the least likely to be recognized.
Sabre gave Tuper the cash and he went inside. He returned with the keys
for the only two remaining vacant rooms. Each had two queen beds.
“That’s all they had,” Tuper said.
“That’s fine. It’s better this way. Tuper, you and Ron stay in one; Sabre and I will take the other.” He looked back at Sabre. “If that’s okay with you.”
“Sure,” Sabre said. Ron shook his finger at his sister. She smacked his hand but smiled because his teasing was like old times. Sabre was pleased at the thought of having some alone time with JP and yet a little concerned that it might be awkward. But she also knew JP’s biggest concern was keeping her safe. She was comforted knowing Tuper would also protect Ron if they happened to have an intruder. She always thought of JP as a cowboy, but he paled in that role compared to Tuper who appeared to have been born a hundred years too late.
JP drove to the far end of the motel where their rooms were located. Ringo bolted from the car the second the door was opened. He ran around to the back of the motel fighting the wind. “Ringo,” Ron called.
“He’ll be back,” Tuper said. “Gotta take care of business.”
“Sabre,” said JP, “you and Tuper go on in. Ron and I’ll get the bags.”
“And my rifle,” Tuper said.
Ron carried Sabre’s and JP’s bags to their room. He gave her a hug and said, “Goodnight, Sis. You behave yourself now.”
“Get out of here.” Sabre gave him a playful, little shove. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
JP carried Ron’s backpack and Tuper’s paper bag, along with his rifle. After setting the things down on one of the beds, he left just as Ron walked into the room.
When JP entered his and Sabre’s room, Sabre was near the closet by her bag.
“Alone at last,” JP said.
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