The Perfect Outsider

by Loreth Anne White

  June’s pulse quickened. She could hear water plopping onto leaves and trickling through cracks in rock. A wind soughed through the treetops, and the trunks of two trees creaked and groaned as bark rubbed together. A squirrel chirped a high-pitched warning at something.

  It could have been wildlife breaking the twig, thought June. Or it could be henchmen come to look for their missing comrade. Anxiety torqued through her. She had to work faster.

  She held the bag open and let Eager sniff the articles inside.

  “This, Eager, find this,” she said softly.

  He nuzzled the articles then started snuffling the ground, living up to his name, eager to find, eager to please. He alerted on something almost instantly, his body wiggling as he pawed at moss.

  June crouched down, saw spent shell casings. Her chest tightened. These were 9 mm, not from the .40 Beretta—which meant they hadn’t been fired from Jesse’s gun, if it was truly his. She was beginning to doubt everything now.

  She photographed and bagged the casings, this time in paper bags she’d brought from the safe house. If there were fingerprints or DNA on these casings, plastic would compromise the evidence. She put the bags in her pack and began to work Eager up the mountain, through the trees, toward the base of the cliff from where the wind was coming. Eager indicated again, this time on a log about the thickness of an arm.

  Around the log June found broken leaves, scuffed loam, crushed ferns. Using a stick, she rolled the log over. On its underside was something dark, sticky, looked like blood. Beside it, another shell casing glinted in the loam—a .40 caliber. This one could have come from the Beretta. And there was more blood on the underside of the leaves.

  Had Jesse shot and injured Lacy here? She didn’t even want to contemplate the little twins being hurt. She inhaled deeply, trying to temper her adrenaline.

  “Good boy, Eager,” she whispered, ruffling the fur on his chest. She took hold of his collar and she said, “Do you want to find more? Are you ready? Are you ready, boy? Search!”

  She let him go and he was off like a rocket again. June ran after him, feeling the weight of her backpack, her hiking boots like lead on her feet—she was more tired than she’d realized. Her pager went off again. She stopped, catching her breath as she quickly checked it.

  Bo Fargo, yet again.

  Had he been to the ranch yet? Seen her truck? Questioned Hannah? But before she could think further, June saw something change in Eager’s posture—a slight pop of his head in a new direction, fresh tension in his body, his tail wagging loosely. He was onto human scent, and he was making a beeline for a tangle of thick vegetation along the base of the cliff wall.

  He started barking excitedly.

  June caught up to him and grabbed his collar. “Lacy?” she whispered into the bushes.

  A harsh whisper sounded from inside the brush. “June? Is that you!”

  Eager started to bark louder.

  “Good boy, Eager! Where’s Lacy? Show me!”

  Panting with excitement, he wiggled his muscular body through the tight brush. June followed. Twigs pulled at her hair, dislodging her peaked hood as she pushed through.

  And there they were, Lacy and the twins, huddled together in a small cave hidden by the scrub.

  “June! Oh, thank God, it is you!” Lacy threw her arms around June and began to sob with relief as Eager wiggled about them, tail thumping in pride. The twins—Abby and Bekka—sat dead-silent, watching wide-eyed.

  “Thank you for coming,” Lacy whispered, finally pulling herself away, wiping her eyes with shaking hands. Her face was as pale as a ghost’s, her eyes dark holes, her hair and clothes bedraggled. Her little bundle of gear rested next to her children.

  June moved quickly toward the kids.

  “Are you guys okay?” she said, noting that at least their shelter was dry, and they’d had some food, judging by the granola wrappers and a juice bottle on the dirt next to them. June took the Dorothy slipper out of her pack.

  “Look what I brought, girls. One of your Dorothy shoes. And I know where the other one is, too.” June smiled shakily, her own eyes pricking with moisture as she offered the shoe to Abby. “I can get the other one for you, then we can click the heels together and you’ll all be in a safe and warm place, okay?”

  The child stared with huge brown eyes. Then suddenly she lunged forward, her little arms wrapping as tightly as a limpet around June’s neck.

  Tears flowed down June’s cheeks, emotion racking through her body. She hugged the child as tightly as she dared, closing her eyes, thanking the universe that this time, she hadn’t lost a child, but saved two.

  It made losing her own little Aiden just a bit more bearable. It gave his short life just a little more value—because of him, because of what had happened to Matt, June was here right now, in this cave, helping this mother and her children. And she knew what she was doing was right.

  June pulled back, wiping her face with the back of her hand. She needed to stay strong. She needed to get this little family all the way back through the dark tunnel and into the safe house. Before anyone else arrived.

  “What happened, Lacy? Why didn’t you show up at the meeting place? Are you sure you’re all okay?”

  “We’re just cold, tired, scared. We had some granola bars and juice.” She stared to cry again. “I always carry juice and stuff for the twins.”

  Placing her hand on Lacy’s shoulder, June said, “That’s what mothers do. It’s okay, Lacy. I’m going to get you all somewhere safe, but you need to tell me everything that happened so I know what we’re dealing with.”

  “I—I tried to go to the big black rock sentinel where Hannah said you’d come meet us. We were a bit early, and as we were coming up the trail, we heard voices. I ducked down, told the twins to stay put, and I crept forward. I saw two henchmen through the branches, patrolling the area. They had rifles and handguns.”

  “They were waiting at the rock sentinel?”

  Lacy nodded.

  Anxiety punched through June. “How did they know about the rock?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “It’s okay, Lacy. I’m not blaming you…I just need to know.”

  It could mean we have a mole, or that Hannah’s security has been compromised.

  “And you’re sure they were henchmen?” said June

  “Yes! I’ve seen them before, going into Samuel’s underground room at the community center. They both used to work for Charlie Rhodes, before he was shot. The one’s name is Jason Barnes—he’s good friends with a girl named Monica Pearl—and the other guy they call Lumpy because of how beaten up he’s gotten in the past.”

  June thought of Jesse and his scars.

  “And what happened when you saw them?”

  Lacy moistened her lips. “We started to sneak away, deeper into the forest. After a while I didn’t know where we were. Then it got dark. We hid in the forest for the night, and in the morning we started moving again, but I realized we’d gotten turned around somehow and were lost. That’s when the rain started. I wasn’t sure what to do. I thought maybe the whole safe house and everything had been compromised, and I knew we’d be in trouble if I tried to find our way back to the village.” Tears ran afresh down her cheeks. “I was so scared for my babies.”

  June comforted her. The twins were holding on to Eager. He was doing his job as a good Labrador: Loving people. Licking their faces. Lacy reached out to touch him, and June noticed that her usually perfectly manicured nails were chipped and broken. Her hair, always so impeccably styled, was in disarray. She looked so vulnerable, and in that moment June hated Samuel and his followers with such raw passion it frightened her.

  “Then last night,” Lacy was saying, “while we were looking for somewhere dry and warm to hide, they must’ve heard us, and they started running toward us in the dark. I picked up the twins—that’s when we dropped the other shoe—and I tried to run, carrying them. But I fell, and by the time I got up, one of them, an
other man, was coming from the opposite direction.” Her jaw tightened and her eyes glittered. “He…he tried to tell me to stop, asked me where I thought I was going in the dark.” She sucked in a huge breath.

  “I didn’t even give him a chance. I wasn’t going to let them take my babies. I picked up a huge log and, I swear, superhuman strength filled my body as I swung that sucker right at his face. I screamed at him that no henchman of Samuel’s was going to hurt me or my children. He went down like a rock, but then I heard the other two coming up behind him. The henchman on the ground went for his sidearm, but I just picked up my twins and ran for our lives. I could hear him shooting at us as we went.”

  “So there were three men?”

  She nodded.

  “And no one came after you once you’d hit one of them with a log?”

  “No. I—I guess maybe they stopped to help the hurt guy.”

  “What did he look like, the guy you hit?”

  “I—” She exhaled heavily. “I don’t really know. I was in a panic. It was dark. But he was big, tall. Denim jacket.”

  “Dark or fair, can you remember?”

  “Dark hair, definitely dark.”

  June bit her lip. “Would you recognize him, do you think, if you saw him again?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. But I hope I never see him again. I hope he’s dead.”

  “Lacy, we need to move quickly, before Samuel’s men come back.” June picked Bekka up as she spoke. The child was petite, light as a feather, and June’s heart ached as memories of her own child swelled inside her. She sucked air in deeply. She had to keep sharp focus if she was to get these two precious little bundles and their mother out of trouble and into the safe house.

  Lacy gathered up Abby.

  “Let’s click heels to go someplace safe, shall we?” said June to the twins.

  Abby smiled and nodded, and Bekka chuckled. It warmed June’s heart and it steeled her resolve.

  With Bekka on June’s hip and Lacy carrying Abby, they edged cautiously out the cave and through the undergrowth. Eager panted happily, taking up the rear. June checked her GPS bearings, and figured they could hug a route along the cliff base and cut back across the forest to where they could access the tunnel.

  * * *

  They reached the cave house by noon. An hour later, the twins had been fed, bathed and were sound asleep in the room that functioned as a nursery. There was a bed in the nursery that Lacy would use, too. But she was still wound up on adrenaline and was now sitting with June and Sonya and Tiffany at the big wooden table in the kitchen, a large mug of herbal tea cradled in her hands.

  Molly was back on her guard shift outside Jesse’s door, and Davis was doing another round of sentinel duty at the canyon entrance. Brad was sleeping so he could take up a night shift if necessary. A two-way radio rested on the table within June’s reach.

  Lacy knew Sonya—a soft and rounded woman in her forties who’d “disappeared” from the Cold Plains hardware store—fairly well. She also knew Tiffany, Brad’s mother. Tiffy was a secretary at the school. Molly and Davis she’d seen around town. Cold Plains was a small and intimate community, and every good Devotee attended Samuel’s seminars.

  “I can’t believe you got them all out, that they’re all here,” Lacy said in wonderment, her gaze scanning the room.

  Above the kitchen table hung a huge chandelier made of antlers. Other lamps had hide shades. June was a vegetarian. She’d have preferred the decor to be, as well, but it was the least of her concerns right now.

  “How do you get electricity in here?” said Lacy, looking up at the chandelier.

  “Solar panels, up on the cliff,” answered June

  “This place is so awesome—it’s kind of artsy, yet rugged. I really love it.”

  “Lacy, I need you to—”

  But suddenly Lacy began to cry. “I just don’t know what’s going to happen to my coffee shop now, the staff…it had all seemed so perfect, the town, the people. I so badly wanted to believe in it all. I feel so cheated, so deceived. So damn angry that I let myself get sucked up like that.”

  “Lacy.” June placed her hand on the young woman’s arm. “Your reaction is normal. I’m going to start you on some exit-counseling and then we’ll get you into a program where you can talk to people who understand exactly what you’re going through right now. They’ll help you work through everything you’re feeling, and you’re going to be fine. Abby and Bekka are going to be fine. The FBI is finally going to get something to nail Samuel. They know he’s bad, they know what he’s doing—it’s just a matter of finding evidence they can use in court to effectively prosecute him. He’s smart, but the noose is tightening. In the meantime, I need you to do something for me. I need you to be strong, okay?”

  Lacy glanced up, wiped her eyes. And June could see the resolve in her face. This young woman, a social butterfly who loved material things, had chucked it all to save her kids and herself. She’d made a bold move, braver than many in town were capable of. June’s heart went out to her, and it bolstered her own resolve.

  “What you’ve done, Lacy, gives me faith in what we’re trying to do. It makes me believe we’re going to see Samuel and his sick empire taken down.”

  Lacy bit her lip and nodded.

  June leaned forward. “But there is just one more thing I need you to do, Lacy. Eager and I found an injured man in the forest last night. He’d fallen down a ravine and had a bad gash across his forehead. He can’t recall what happened and he doesn’t know who he is.”

  Lacy’s face went sheet-white. “Henchman?”

  “I can’t be sure. He does have a tattoo—”

  “And you brought him in here! Where my twins are!”

  “Lacy, easy. There are some things about him that don’t add up. I need you to see if you recognize him.”

  Her eyes, unwavering, huge, glared at June.

  “Will you come take a look at him, Lacy?”

  “I can’t!” Her hands pressed flat on the table. “I just can’t.”

  “You can, Lacy. He’s hurt, he’s lost his memory and he’s unarmed. You’re safe here. I’ll have my weapon with me. Molly will be right outside the door with the shotgun. And I swear, Eager will take him down if he so much as even tries to lift a finger against us.”

  Doubt flickered through Lacy’s features. “June, please, don’t make me do—”

  “I’ll bring Brad and Tiffany and Sonya in with us. I want you all to take a real hard look at this guy and tell me if you might have seen him in Cold Plains before. There’ll be safety in our numbers.”

  June wanted to watch Jesse’s face, too, when she brought Lacy and the others in to see him. She’d be looking for a flicker of recognition in his eyes, anything that might indicate he was lying about his memory loss.

  * * *

  The group waited outside June’s locked bedroom. Lacy fidgeted nervously. June took a deep breath and rapped on the door.

  “Jesse—I’m going to come in,” she yelled. “Can you go sit on the bed, please, and stay there while we enter? I have some people I want you to meet.”

  Silence.

  “Jesse?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I hear you,” he yelled back, and June could hear the irritation in his voice. “I’m on the bed, sitting nice and still. You can come in now.”

  “I am armed,” she warned, nerves skittering through her stomach suddenly. “And so is the guard who will remain right outside your door. Try anything and you’re dead, understand? Because I will kill you rather than let you hurt these people here.”

  “I said I hear you,” he growled from inside.

  She drew her Glock and unlocked the door. Gun leading, Eager in a tight heel at her left side, June stepped inside.

  But she stalled at the sight of him sitting on her bed.

  He’d put on the white T-shirt Davis had left for him, and it was stretched taut across his honed pecs. His hair had dried into a roguish tumble and his indigo-blue eyes crac
kled with anger. His whole body seemed to vibrate with a quiet electricity.

  June swallowed and met his gaze as she motioned for Lacy to step inside.

  His eyes narrowed slightly at the sight of Lacy, but his features betrayed nothing else.

  “It’s him!” hissed Lacy, grabbing June’s arm. “He’s the one who tried to stop me. He shot at us.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Damn right, I’m sure. You bastard!”

  “You can leave now, Lacy. Tell the others to come in.”

  Brad and Tiffany entered the room, followed by Sonya. Both Molly and Davis had already told June they didn’t recognize Jesse.

  “Have you seen him before?” June asked, her attention fixed on Jesse’s face.

  There were murmurs of denial.

  “Thanks, guys, you can go. Tell Molly to stay outside with the gun.”

  “Are you sure, June?” Brad whispered, casting a leery glance at Jesse, who sat totally motionless, muscles taut.

  “I’m sure.”

  Once she was alone with him, she said, “That was Lacy. I found her and the twins—”

  “Congratulations.” His voice was bitter.

  “She told me that you tried to block her escape. She hit you across the face with a log, then you shot at her while she fled. I found a log with blood on it, and spent casings, .40 caliber, likely from your Beretta.”

  He glowered at her.

  She felt hot.

  “Why did you try to kill Lacy and her children, Jesse?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “How can you say that with such unequivocal assertion, yet you can’t recall anything about what happened preceding the blow to your head?”

  He lurched up, neck wire-tense. “Because I know, dammit! I just know…I don’t kill people!” He pointed at the door. “Especially not a woman and her children.” His hand went suddenly to his brow.

  “What, Jesse, what are you remembering?”