“Did you know who he was, Thad?” Jethro asked.
“Not till after Ranger stomped him. I didn’t tell Jill.”
“You sorry son-of-a-bitch. I should kill you.”
“Go…ahead. I’m goin’ to die anyway.” Blood came from the corner of Ron’s mouth.
“No. You need to suffer for what you did to my girl.”
Evan pulled Jethro aside. “We should try to keep him alive until Appleby gets here.”
“Why? The sooner he’s dead, the better I’ll like it.”
“For the record and for Thad’s sake, Appleby needs to see him and hear what Jill has to say. We don’t want someone like Weaver to try and pin a murder charge on the boy.”
“I see what you mean.”
“We can take a side board off the wagon and get him to the house. Meanwhile, send someone for Appleby and the doctor.”
“All right. I’m just so angry, I can’t think.”
“Roy,” Evan said, “lend Joe your horse so he can get into town and bring back Chief Appleby and the doc. Ernie”—he motioned to his hired man—“you and Thad go back to the wagon and bring a side board to put him on so we can carry him out of here.” Jethro told Jason to drive the team to the edge of the woods so the wagon wouldn’t be far away.
“Joe,” Evan said when Joe was mounted on Roy’s horse. “Don’t tell them who it is if there’s anyone around to hear. Have them hurry. We should be at the house by the time they get there.”
Jethro was grateful that Evan took charge. So many questions roamed around in his mind. Julie had told him what Evan had said about Walter Johnson being unable to have intercourse. Could this son-of-a-bitch be the man who had raped Julie?
Evan squatted down beside Ron. He wrapped a black cloth he’d found nearby around his head to stop the flow of blood. The horse’s hoof had scraped the side of Ron’s head and his ear hung by an inch of skin. A short, thinbladed boot knife lay in the grass not far from him.
Ron’s eyes roamed. A broken arm was extended out from his body; his other hand clutched his side.
“I … coulda liked you, Johnson.” Evan didn’t say anything. “You stood out from these hicks … like a sore thumb.”
“Better save your breath, Poole. You’ll need it when we move you.”
“Hand me that pig-sticker over there and I’ll save you the trouble.”
“No. It would be over too fast.”
“Well, then I’ll just make you mad enough to use it on me yourself.”
“Go ahead and try.”
“I hear that you’re going to marry Julie Jones. When you take her to bed, remember that I had her when she was just fifteen. I’m the one who broke her in. I still remember how tight and sweet she was.” He chuckled, and blood bubbled from his lips. “She was so scared, I came in her before I wanted to. Whataya think of that?”
“Not much. She told me that she’d been raped,” Evan replied calmly.
“Joy is my kid. She’ll never be yours.”
“She’ll be mine. Thank God she’ll never know you.”
“I wanted her to know. I was going to tell her someday.”
“You won’t get the chance now.”
“She’d a had a little cousin if that damn kid hadn’t come along. I been letting the pot boil for a couple of weeks and I was horny as hell.”
“Bet your wife appreciated that.”
“My wife!” His voice was filled with contempt. “That stupid woman fooled me; she knew she couldn’t have kids when I married her. Ever since I grew up alone in that orphanage, I’ve wanted kids of my own. Well, I’ve taken care of that. I must have at least eighteen. When Ron Poole goes, there’ll be part of him left. Good kids with sweet clean virgin mothers. I picked them young, broke them in myself. The more they struggled, the more I knew that they were fit to bear Ron Poole’s children, to keep my line going.”
“You’re a peach of a fellow, Poole.”
“Too bad about the one that got a look at me. She had to go, if I was to keep spreading my seed.”
“Which one was that?”
“Doesn’t matter. It happened down south. I been lookin’ forward to Jill. Almost shot my wad as soon as I touched her.” Blood slid from the corner of his mouth.”
“You’re sick, did you know that?”
“Maybe. But I figure I’ve got eighteen or more kids scattered around over the country. How many you got?”
“You’ll not have any more. I doubt you’ll last out the night.”
“I want Joy at my funeral.”
“You’ll be in hell. Why should you care who’s at your funeral?”
Jethro’s head was pounding with all he had heard. He had to leave before he kicked the man to death. He began pacing up and down the path and finally went back to where Jill waited with Jack.
“I thought I told you to take her home,” he said crossly.
“You didn’t, Pa. You said stay and take care of her.”
“Sorry, son.” Jethro’s voice softened. “I should have told you to take her home. It’ll be a while before we can get him out of here. Tell Julie to fix a place in the barn. I don’t want the bastard in my house.”
“Roy came back and said it was Ron Poole. I can’t believe he’d do such a thing, Pa.”
“Some people have bad stuff buried deep inside. Are you all right, honey?” He put his hand on Jill’s shoulder and peered into her face.
“Is he dead?”
“Not yet. You go on home with Jack. Julie will take care of you. The doctor is coming. Do you want to see him?”
“No! Papa, don’t make me.”
“You don’t have to see him if you don’t want to. Here comes Thad and Ernie with the board. Jack, take Jill to the wagon and help Jason get it home.”
* * *
Light shone from the lanterns in the yard and in the barn when Evan, Ernie, Jethro and Thad walked into the yard carrying Ron Poole on the board. He was alive and cursing them every step of the way. Ron was a big man and they were exhausted.
Jack held open the barn door. He had forked fresh hay into the stall nearest the door. After lowering the board, they moved out of the stall. Ernie left immediately to go back to Evan’s place to do chores.
Jack got his first look at the man who had tried to rape his sister.
He stood over him and spat. “I thought you were the nicest man in town, but you’re nothing but a pile of … shit.”
“Do me a favor, kid, and cut my throat. If you don’t have the guts, get me a knife and I’ll do it.”
“I wouldn’t give you a horse turd.”
Ron’s lips curled back away from his teeth. “Then get the hell away from me.”
Joe came into the barn to get a sack to wipe down Roy’s horse. “They’re coming. I cut across the field.”
A minute or two later, car lights came down the lane. Corbin Appleby and Dr. Forbes, with a bag in his hand, got out of the car. Jethro motioned them to the barn, where Evan waited beside Ron.
“No,” Evan was saying. “Absolutely not!” He got to his feet to make room for Corbin and the doctor.
“What’s he wanting?” Jethro asked.
Evan motioned him out of the stall. They moved down the aisle toward the door.
“He wants to see Joy.”
“Jesus Christ.” The words exploded from Jethro. “He’ll tell Appleby and Doc.”
“Better them than some others. They’re good men. They’ll not say anything if you ask them not to. Does Joe know what happened to Julie?”
“He knows.”
“We’ll keep everyone else out. I want to see Julie.”
Evan walked toward the house. Jethro lingered in the doorway of the barn. It was strange being here in his own barn, hearing the murmur of voices as the doctor and the police chief talked to Ron Poole.
Julie had made coffee. Evan could smell it as soon as he opened the door. The table was set for supper, and only Joy was eating. The others sat with coffee cups in their h
ands, even Jason.
“Evan, Jason’s got coffee,” Joy yelled. “Julie said I was too little.”
“And you are, sugarplum. But you’re not too little to give me a kiss.” Evan bent over and Joy planted a wet kiss on his cheek. He hugged her head to him while his eyes caught Julie’s across the table.
Are you all right, Jill?” he asked as he went around behind Jill and put his hand on her shoulder.
“I’m all right, or will be when he’s out of here.”
“What does Doc think?” Thad asked.
“I didn’t stay to find out.” Evan went around the table to Julie, put his arms around her and pulled her back against him.
“I was going to put supper on,” Julie whispered, “but no one seems very hungry.”
“It’s been a shock to all of us.”
Joe came to the door and beckoned to Evan. He spoke as soon as Evan reached the porch.
“Doc says it won’t be long. He spilled his guts about Joy. He said if he could see her, he’d tell them about the other girls he’d raped. The bastard. I could cut his throat.”
“What did Appleby say to that?” Evan asked anxiously.
“No deal. Poole wanted him to know about the other girls. Seemed to be proud of it.”
Jethro came out of the barn and they walked out into the yard to meet him.
“He’s gone. Something broke loose inside and blood gushed out all over.”
When the doctor and Corbin came out of the barn, Jethro went to meet them.
“Chief, no one knows about Joy except Joe and Evan and of course Julie.”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Jones. What I heard in there will go no further.”
“That goes for me, too.” Dr. Forbes nodded.
“He told me quite a bit while we were up in the woods,” Evan said to the chief. “I think he knew he was dying and wanted to inflict as much hurt as possible. He thinks he’s got as many as eighteen children from young girls he’s raped. The man had to be sick in the head.”
“I couldn’t believe it at first when Joe told me who he was. Is Jill all right?”
Evan answered, “It’ll take her some time to get over it, but she’s a strong girl.”
“What I’d like to do is get the parties involved together and talk a bit.”
“I’ll go speak to Julie and see if she can get Jason and Joy to bed.” Jethro turned toward the house, then back. “The Taylor boys are still here. You’ll want to talk to Thad. He’s the one who pulled him off Jill.”
“We’ve got to decide whether or not to let all this dirty laundry out of the bag.” Corbin looked searchingly at Dr. Forbes and at Evan. “And if we do, what will it do to a nice woman like Mrs. Poole?”
* * *
“I heard a yell. I didn’t know what it was until I heard it again.”
Thad was nervous speaking to the police chief and under the watchful eye of Dr. Forbes, who leaned against the doorframe with a cup of coffee in his hand.
“Then I heard her yell again. I hurried on down the path and heard a man’s laugh. I turned into the woods and saw them. I just jumped off the horse and pulled him off her.”
“Did you know who he was?”
“Not then. I didn’t know it was Jill. He had wrapped a black thing around her head. I didn’t have time to think about who he was or who she was. I was trying to keep him from cutting me with his knife.”
“You managed pretty good. He must’ve outweighed you by fifty pounds or more.”
“We rolled till we were almost under Ranger, and when he went to stab me with the knife, I bucked up and the blade went into Ranger’s leg. It scared him and a hoof came down alongside of Mr. Poole’s head. I rolled away. When I got to my feet to see what was going on, Ranger was still stomping on him. “
I really didn’t care. I hoped Ranger would kill him. When I saw that he wasn’t going to get up, I got the horse away from him and went to Jill.”
“Thank God you were there.” Jethro’s eyes were haunted, his face haggard. “I can’t thank you enough for what you did.”
“It ain’t no more’n what any man would’ve done, Mr. Jones.”
“I’m going to have to make a report,” Corbin said slowly and looked at each one. “There are times when the truth hurts more than a lie. If it gets out that for years Ron Poole has been raping girls in this area, a lot of people will be looking at kids and wondering about girls who have gone away and returned with babies and tales about their husbands being killed. And folks will be wondering about Jill and watching to see if she’s pregnant.
“The reason I came here was because the girl I was going to marry was raped and murdered by a man from Fertile. Tonight Evan told me that Ron bragged that he was the one who killed her. I despise the man. As far as I’m concerned, we could put a wire around his neck and drag him down Main Street. I’m thinking of the girls, the children and Mrs. Poole. It would be a living hell for that poor woman if it became known what Ron has done. She’d have to sell out and leave town.
“If you all agree, I’ll say that Ron Poole somehow fell from his horse and the frightened animal stomped on him, then ran off. Thad heard him call when he went through the woods on his way to town and went for help.
“It was Doc’s idea to do it this way,” Corbin continued, glancing at the doctor, who nodded in agreement. “As soon as we decide if this is what we want to do, he’ll go notify Mrs. Poole and send out the undertaker.”
“It will go against the grain to see the son-of-a-bitch buried with a big funeral,” Jethro said.
“We don’t have to go to his big funeral, Papa.” Julie covered her father’s hand where it lay on the table. “I’m glad no other girl will suffer what happened to Jill. I don’t care how big a funeral he has. He was an evil, mean man, and I can’t be sorry that he’s dead.”
“If we all agree, that’s the report I’ll give to the council.”
“It’s for the best,” Jethro said. Then: “What do you think, Thad? You’re the man who brought him down.”
“I’d hate to have folks talkin’ about Jill and …wonderin’… .” Thad then spoke to Corbin. “I’d like for me and Roy to tell our pa. We’ve always been square with him, and him with us. I don’t want to tell him a lie.”
Corbin nodded and stood. “I understand your thinking. Tell him what we’ve agreed to. Doc, I’ll stay while you fetch the undertaker.”
“I’ve got to go find my horse.” Thad reached for his hat.
“Take one of ours out of the lot,” Jethro said.
“Thanks, but I’ll ride double with Roy.”
“When I see your pa, I’m going to tell him that he’s got a right to be proud.” Jethro held out his hand and Thad shook it.
“That goes for all of us.” Joe extended his hand. “Our little sis is mouthy, but she’s ours.”
The Edge of Town Page 42