by Jake Hinkson
From where I lay balled up behind the large wheel of the truck, I couldn’t see very much. I couldn’t see the entrance to the grounds, and I couldn’t really make out the faces of any of the people walking into or leaving the tents.
If I had possessed the presence of mind to cry, I suppose I would have. My life was over. No matter what happened next, my life as I’d always known it would be altered beyond all comprehension.
But I didn’t cry. I waited. I watched for Lucy or Eustace or a local sheriff. All I saw were the people of Brittle Rock, though. The kids and their parents were all near the front, by the elephant and a juggling clown. The teenagers and the rowdies all drifted back toward the adult tents.
A scream went up inside the tent of the Rat Eater. After a moment, the flap burst open and a young woman ran out, followed soon after by a young man who rushed to catch up to her. The people waiting in line laughed nervously, but none of them got out of line.
Behind me, a wind blew across the desert and pelted my face with dirt. I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my mouth and nose. The winds kept blowing, so I curled up with my hands covering my face.
I thought of Amberly. I couldn’t help but think of her, buried just a few miles away, not far off the road, exposed to the onslaught of vermin and ants. It was as if she was sending these bitter winds against me to drive me from my hiding place.
The winds blew harder. I balled up as tightly as I could.
In a few moments – if it had not happened already – everyone in Brittle Rock would know I was missing. Then I would be found. There was nowhere for me to hide in this tiny town. I would be found, or I could flee into the desert.
As if in answer to that thought, the coarse wind tore at my hands and ears and neck and arms.
What are you running from? Your punishment? But why? Don’t you deserve it? Amberly was out there right now, her flesh already coming apart under the cruel teeth of nature. Wasn’t the same thing going to happen to me, no matter what? I could never run so far or so fast that I could outrun what was coming for me eventually.
The wind screamed across the empty wasteland hurling dirt and rocks at me. I could not lay there anymore and take the beating from the desert. I would have to climb into the truck.
I pushed myself out into the lantern light for just a moment, but as soon as I climbed to my feet Lucy was there.
“Eustace,” she said.
Eustace slugged me in the back of the head and everything went bright red and then navy blue and then black.
I was awake before I hit the ground, but now I was wobbly and had the beginnings of a pounding headache. Eustace held me up like I was drunk, and Lucy led us back to the hotel.
~ ~ ~
Lucy chained me to the radiator that night. She had Eustace push the bed over, had me stick out my foot, and she clapped a leg iron on my ankle. I could lay down, and I slept fine.
~ ~ ~
The next morning we were on the road again, all three of us in the front seat. Neither of them had really spoken to me since the bad business the day before. Lucy had issued orders and Eustace and I had followed her instructions without comment. Of course, Eustace never commented on anything, but now I followed his lead. If anyone had observed us, they would have thought that Eustace and I were Lucy’s mute servants.
After half a day of that, however, the silence got to be too much for me. I can’t go that long without talking.
“Sorry about yesterday,” I said.
Lucy grinned. “Oh yes?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I appreciate you saying it. I’d appreciate it more, though, if you don’t try that again.”
I nodded. “What about Eustace? Think he forgives me?”
Lucy looked across me at Eustace. “Do you forgive her?”
He stuck out his bottom lip.
“Hmm. I don’t think he forgives you, Billie.”
I looked up at him. I felt like the mouse sitting next to the lion. “Hell, Eustace, I said I was sorry.”
Lucy said, “I think he’s mad you tried to escape. I told you, he doesn’t like to hit women.”
“Aw, c’mon, Eustace,” I said. “Can you blame me? I’m on my way to the big house, for Christ’s sake.”
He didn’t look at me. His big wet lip just hung there.
“I panicked,” I said. “That’s all. Nothing personal. Hell, I don’t hold it against you for slugging me in the head.”
He turned and looked out the passenger side window.
I turned to Lucy.
She lifted her fingers off the wheel as if it say, It’s out of my hands.
I said, “You country folk sure do hold a grudge.”
She smiled. “Just give him a little time to sit with it.”
“Okay,” I said. I poked his arm. “But I’m not giving up on you, Eustace.”
We rode for a while. We passed into Oklahoma. I felt my breath get a little tighter. It wouldn’t be too many hours now and we would be back in Stock’s Settlement. I tried not to think about that.
Lucy was watching me from the corner of her eye, but she didn’t say anything.
I said, “Have you caught many – have you arrested many people for murder?”
“No,” she said. “Pretty quiet town. We mostly settle down drunks and resolve petty disputes before they turn into something big.”
“Do you like the job?”
Lucy thought about that for a moment. “In our town, it’s the best one available to me.”
“Ever think about moving away?”
Lucy held the wheel with both hands. She said, “I don’t know where we would go. If we were going to move away, we should have done it a long time ago after our parents passed away.”
We stopped talking and the only sound in the car was the hum of the wheels on the pavement.
Finally Lucy said, “In some respects…I think I admire you, Billie.”
“Why?”
“You tried. At least you tried.”
“I failed.”
“That’s true,” she said. “Still, it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
“Is that a quote from something?”
“Tennyson.”
“I never saw it.”
She smiled. Then she laughed. “You’re a character, Billie.” She kept chuckling. “You’re a real character.”
“Be sure to mention that to the court.”
Her mouth tightened. She stared straight ahead, her strong hands clutching the wheel. After that, she didn’t seem to want to talk anymore.
~ ~ ~
Winter had arrived early. Frost covered eastern Oklahoma and western Missouri, and by the time we turned off Route 66 and crossed into Arkansas the world had turned crystal. As we wound our way down into the Ozarks, the crooked mountain paths that had so vexed me on my first trip through the region now seemed tame in comparison to the icy sliver of road we had to drive. No rail protected us from slipping off the road, no embankment existed to keep us from plunging through those shimmering treetops far below us to the frozen creek bed glistening at the bottom of the gorge.
Lucy said nothing as she navigated this dicey corridor between cold rock and bottomless eternity. She handled the Ford as well as anyone could, but I didn’t know what we would do if a car suddenly appeared coming up that narrow path. Like Lucy, I kept my eyes forward, locked on those few feet of road we could see before it disappeared around the bend.
~ ~ ~
The setting sun was at our backs as we finally rounded the curve and saw Stock’s Settlement below us. Beside me, Eustace smiled at the sight of his hometown. I could feel him relax for the first time since they’d abducted me in California.
Lucy, however, did not seem relaxed – though she certainly had every reason to want to rest. She had been on the road for days and had driven every mile of the way, including the brutal last leg of the journey, yet I hadn’t seen her flag or get drowsy. I hadn’t felt her lose focus. Th
e further we drove into town, however, the more she seemed to tense up.
She took a deep breath.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She raised her eyebrows. “I suppose I should ask you that. You’re the one in trouble, now.”
It was true, of course. I was the one staring down the possibility of spending the rest of my life in jail, but at that moment I wasn’t scared. Since Eustace had bopped me on the head, I hadn’t thought about escaping. I hadn’t dwelled on the future at all, in fact.
We rounded Appleton Avenue and people on the side of the road turned and watched us. We got downtown and Lucy pulled up next to the jail. She got out and stretched. Eustace got out the other side, reached back in and gently pulled me into the biting winter wind.
I’d barely taken my first step through the snow when I realized that it had already begun. People appeared at the doors of businesses, faces pressed against windows. At Dub’s, I saw Helen holding a broom. From across the street I could see what she said, the same thing that everyone was saying: “They got her. They got Billie Dixon.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Two men were waiting on us inside the sheriff’s office. For Stock’s Settlement, they were both fairly well dressed. The one leaning against the wall was Brother Nathan Pickett, the preacher who’d baptized me. He knew me, of course, but he didn’t regard me at all. Instead, he looked at the other man who was sitting at Lucy’s desk – a dark-haired, lean man with unblinking close-set eyes. With one look, I knew that they must be brothers.
The man at the desk said, “Well lookee what the sheriff dragged in.”
Lucy stepped in front of me. “Howdy, Lionel. Making yourself at home in our office?”
Lionel Pickett said, “Well now, Lucy, no one seems to be using it. You and the, uh, sheriff being out of town so long, me and Nathan just figured that we should come by and keep the place nailed down.”
Behind him, Brother Pickett said, “We figured it could use a man’s touch.” He looked at Lionel to see if Lionel thought his joke was funny. Lionel laughed, and Nathan beamed.
Lucy nodded and looked down at her hands. “Well, we sure do appreciate it.” She nodded at the large cast-iron stove in the corner of the room and said, “And you warmed the place up for us. I appreciate that as well.”
Eustace held me by the arm and looked at his sister. I couldn’t tell if he was worried, but he held my arm tight – not like he was afraid I would run but like he was afraid these men might try to steal me.
Lionel ignored the comment about the stove. “Looks awful bad, Lucy,” he said. “Awful bad. Preacher gets runned over and the killer escapes into the night with the man’s wife. And you and your brother let it all happen under your noses. Don’t hardly look right.”
We had actually escaped first thing in the morning, but I kept that to myself.
Lucy said, “Y’all drop by to point that out to me?”
Lionel stood up and walked around the desk. “Naw. Like I said, we just come by because the place looked untended.”
“I made it very well known we were going after her,” Lucy said.
He nodded vigorously. “Oh that’s true. That’s true. You surely did. And here you are, with the fugitive by the arm. Well done. I salute you for it, and I hope the good people of this town will appreciate the fine work you done. Course now, they’ll have to forgive you for letting it all happen in the first place, but I reckon you can talk your way out of that.”
“Well,” Lucy said, “thanks so much for showing your concern.”
Lionel nodded and placed a hand to his breast. “We are just trying to give you the support you need.”
Brother Pickett said, “We’re just trying to be proper Christians.”
“That’s right, that’s right,” Lionel said, as if his brother had just reminded him of a chore that needed tending to. “We’re just trying to be proper Christians.”
Without responding to that, Lucy turned to her brother and said, “Eustace, why don’t you take her back to the cell. We’ll let these boys go on home.”
“We wouldn’t mind staying,” Lionel said, raising a hand to stop Eustace. “Y’all must be in desperate need of some shut eye.”
Eustace looked to his sister.
She told the men. “We’re fine. You can both go on home. Rest assured, we will send word if we need you.”
She said it with a smile, but she said it pointedly enough that both of the men nodded. “Alrighty then,” Lionel said. “I expect we’ll see y’all later.”
“I’m sure of it,” Lucy said.
They walked to the door. Brother Pickett went out first, but Lionel paused there a moment, looked back and said, “You can be sure of it.”
Then he left.
In the course of their conversation, none of them had spoken a word to me.
~ ~ ~
Eustace took me through a doorway at the back of the office and into a cold room with a gray metal cage in the center. Inside the cage was an old army cot with a folded blanket and a pillow.
Lucy drew out a key and unlocked the cage and I stepped inside. She locked the cage behind me.
I leaned on the bars.
“How many Pickett brothers are there?” I asked. “I remember the prosecuting attorney, and I recognize the preacher who dunked me in a horse trough. Lionel is a new one.”
“There’s three Pickett brothers,” she said. “Though why I should come back to find those two here is something of a mystery. I sent a telegraph to let folks know we were coming back, but I didn’t expect to find the Pickett boys waiting for us.”
“Lionel seems like the brains in the family.”
She leaned against the bars and rubbed her eyes. “He’s the oldest brother. He doesn’t exactly run the other two, but he’s definitely the oldest brother, if you follow my meaning. Right now he owns and operates Pickett’s Dry Goods. You been in there?”
“I can’t say that I have.”
She motioned in the general direction of Main Street. “Over by Tharp’s Barbershop.” She stopped and looked back over her shoulder. Then she said, almost to herself, “Lionel took over the store when he came home from the Pacific. I wonder if maybe he’s getting bored with it.”
“What do you mean?”
She rubbed her eyes again. “Doesn’t matter.”
Out in the office, the front door opened. Presently, three men entered the room. I recognized them all from the inquest. One was Josiah Pickett, the fat prosecuting attorney. The man behind him was the judge. The last man, stinking and silent, was my little defense attorney, Mr. Oglesby.
Josiah Pickett dabbed some sweat from his face even though the room was still cold and the weather outside was even worse. “Well, thank goodness you got her,” he said.
Lucy nodded. “I said we would.”
The judge lowered his chin and looked at me over his glasses. Staring at me like he was appraising a horse, he asked Lucy, “Where’d you get her?”
“Her apartment in California.”
“Oo-ee,” Josiah Pickett said. “That is an odyssey. All the way to California and back. Bet you want to hit the hay.”
Lucy rubbed the back of her neck. “I’ll allow I could use some rest.”
Josiah Pickett dabbed his damp jowls and said, “I know Lionel and Nathan would be happy to come help out. They’d take the first watch while you and Eustace get some shut eye.”
Lucy stood up straighter and pursed her lips. “Would they now? They told you that?”
“Well, yes, they volunteered to help.”
“I expect they’re still waiting out there,” Lucy said, “just in case they’re needed.”
“I’m proud to say that my brothers have been quite a help to this town while you been gone. Been watching this place.”
“I see.”
The judge looked over his glasses at her. “No need to take such an unladylike tone, Lucy. Weren’t nobody minding the jail while you were gone, so Lionel kept watch.
You might ought to have thought about that before you lit out after this gal. You ought to thank the Picketts instead of acting insulted.”
The way he talked to her surprised me. I’d become accustomed to her as an authority figure, but in an instant her authority seemed to have been brushed aside. Even though Lucy was, for all intents and purposes, the sheriff of the town, the judge talked to her now like she was a wayward girl who’d stayed out too late.
Lucy blinked, but she held her tongue. She nodded. “Yes sir. I can see that that’s right. Eustace and I were more focused on pursuit. I should have thought to ask someone to take over in our absence.”
The judge nodded. “Well, if you feel like you got things in hand we’ll leave.”
“Yes sir. Eustace will take first watch, and I’ll take over for him. If we need help, we’ll let Josiah and his brothers know.”
“Any time,” Josiah Pickett said.
“Good girl,” the judge said. “We’ll take this up in the morning. This moves to the front of business for everybody. Tomorrow. Nine o’clock.”
“Yes sir,” Lucy said.
Once again, no one had spoken to me. Mr. Oglesby – who hadn’t said a word – hadn’t even looked in my direction.
Lucy walked them out to the front door and bid them goodnight. After she closed and locked the door, she muttered something. It was too low for me to make it out, but it had the tone and tenor of a curse.
When she walked back in to my cell, she looked thoughtful.
“I’ll leave this door open,” she said. “We’ll put some more wood on the fire. This room should heat up fairly well. You need anything, just holler.”
“I will.”
“Try and get some sleep.”
“Lucy.”
“Yes.”
“What happens tomorrow?”
“We’ll see,” she said.
~ ~ ~
I passed a sleepless night in the cold, gray cell. The room never warmed up, but I considered that I had become too used to California winters. I’d gone soft.