I cut my lights and drifted to the curb. The front of the house was dark, didn’t look like anyone was home, and there was no way to see around back. I was gonna have to get around behind there somehow. “Wait here,” I told Ciara.
The second house behind us was still under construction, no one livin’ there. I jogged back and then headed for the back of the lot, thinkin’ I could get around behind the others somehow, since there wasn’t no development back there. Just had to be careful not to break my ankle on a rock or a hole or somethin’ in the dark. It was a relief when my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could see a faint trail leadin’ around the back of the next lot. The one after should be Clark’s.
It seemed like a long way around, and there was thick bushes in the landscapin’ all the way. I couldn’t see through to the house, but I remembered seein’ trees behind Jason’s house when we drove up. When I come to a lot that was clear of landscape and I could see straight through the back to the light-colored house, I knew I’d gone too far. I turned around, walked thirty foot or so, and ducked in through the bushes.
When I come out, I was right up near the back of the house, and there was one corner room that had a dim light showin’ through the cracks in the blinds. That had to be where they was, but I needed to be sure. Hopin’ nobody would see me lookin’ in the window like a Peepin’ Tom, I crept up closer and looked around for a way to climb up where I could see. I hadn’t found it yet when there come a scream from inside the house, choked off sudden-like.
It sounded like a woman, but no matter who or what it was, someone was in trouble in there, and I was the only one who knew it. I ran to the back door, a slidin’ glass thing that opened on the patio. It was locked, and wouldn’t budge. I couldn’t find nothin’ to break it with, neither, so I went runnin’ through the yard to the pickup and yanked open the door. “Ciara, get help, someone just screamed in there. Go bang on the neighbors’ doors and get someone to call the police. Then you get back in here and lock the doors.”
She jumped out and started to run to the nearest neighbor’s, then turned and said, “What are you going do?”
“I’m gonna get the tire iron and break down the back door. Hurry, Ciara.”
She was gone in a flash, and I got the jack kit out from behind the driver’s side door of the F250. I dumped the contents out of the pouch, and grabbed the tire iron, then ran to the back of the house again. I couldn’t hear nothin’ in the house now, but I had to get in there, no matter what happened after that. With all my might, I swung that tire iron like a bat, right in the middle of the slidin’ glass door. The crash was loud in my ears when the tire iron hit, and the glass shattered into a million pebbles rainin’ down and bein’ flung inwards from the iron. Without waitin’ for it to stop, I lowered my head and led with my shoulder to crash through the weakened glass, stumblin’ into a family room and fallin’ over the arm of a sofa on my way down.
It took me a minute to get my bearin’s after I stood up, my heart racin’ and hands fisted for a fight. Soon as I’d spotted the hallway that led off in the direction where I’d seen the light, I crouched to confuse anybody that might be comin’ down that hall with a gun. I knew as well as anybody that breakin’ into a house in Wyomin’ was as like to get you shot as anything else. After a minute when nobody come, I figured either everyone was unconscious, or this was a rare weaponless household. I hugged the wall as I crept around the furniture and down the hall, openin’ doors and checkin’ inside each room as I went. I didn’t want to get caught with no ambush behind me, but I just knew the scream had come from that corner room. Finally, I was at the door. Twistin’ the knob real slow, I hoped it wouldn’t make no sound.
When the door opened, I found the room pitch dark, though it’d been lit before. I needed some kinda light, but I didn’t want to flip a switch in case someone was waitin’ to jump me. Instead, I made my way around the wall toward what I thought was the back of the house. My plan was to open them blinds and get some moonlight inside, what little there was, so I could see some. Before I got there, I bumped into a tall chest and had to feel my way around that. Then a gap in the wall that musta led to a bathroom or closet. I was real nervous after I crossed that gap. What if someone was behind me now? Someone who knew what-all was in that room real good.
By the time I found the corner and turned it, feelin’ along the wall for the window and the sash for the blinds, I was shakin’ and sweatin’ like a kid that seen a ghost. The complete silence spooked me like nothin’ else. I found the sash and yanked it, flippin’ the slats of the blinds open and lettin’ the moonlight in. Then I looked around the room as best I could.
I was standin’ next to a nightstand, with a big bed on the other side that had high bedposts, but no one was in it. I looked straight ahead to the other corner of the room and let my eyes circle slow to the left, strainin’ to see in the feeble light. When I got to the middle of the room, I couldn’t understand what I saw.
Looked like some kinda pulley, and someone or somethin’ was hangin’ from it. The room was so dark, that the light comin’ from behind me barely reached what I was seein’, so it was just a blob of darkness that didn’t look right in a bedroom. I looked quick around the rest of the room and decided to risk turnin’ on a light, the lamp on the nightstand next to me.
I fumbled ‘til I found the switch, and turned on the light, which seemed really bright after all the darkness. Then I turned quick to see what that thing was hanging’ from the pulley.
I cain’t lie, I almost puked when I saw it was a person. On second look, that long blonde hair hangin’ around give me a sick feelin’ it was Annalee. With a strangled sound, I lurched over to her and swept her hair aside. Why I was shocked to see Annalee I don’t know. I was lookin’ for her after all, and I knew somethin’ bad was happenin’. I couldn’t have imagined this, though.
She was unconscious, though I could see her breathin’. I couldn’t tell at first what to do for her, but it looked painful the way her arms was pulled up behind her, so I traced the lines to that pulley to find out how to let her down easy. If she’d been awake, I woulda just cut it with my pocketknife, but I didn’t want to drop her on the floor.
One of her arms looked wrong, too. I found the crank and let her down as easy as I could. Then I went and tried to see what other damage there might be. Her face was bloody, and there was bruises all over her arms and legs. Her poor naked body was so skinny that I could see her ribs. I pulled the cover off the bed and pushed it all around her to cover her up.
When I saw her ankles was tied to a bar that spread her legs out, a red wave of pure hate washed through me. If I’d known where Jason Clark was at that minute, he wouldn’t have been long for this world. I wanted to tear him limb from limb with my bare hands. But, I couldn’t leave Annalee. Then I thought, even if Ciara had got hold of the police and told ‘em to come, they wouldn’t know Annalee was this hurt. I got up and went lookin’ for a phone and was glad to find one on the nightstand where the lamp was. Didn’t take long to call nine-one-one to ask for an ambulance. Then I went back to start workin’ on the knots that held Annalee’s ankles to that bar.
I think my idea was to take it off of her and then find Jason Clark to beat him to death with it. But before I got the first knot undone, sirens outside let me know the police was here. I got up and went to the front of the house to let them in. There was a little confusion at first, as the first cop in the door pointed his weapon at me and barked, “Hands up!”
I wanted to argue, but I wasn’t stupid enough to argue with a Glock. My hands shot up, but I said, “There’s a woman hurt in the back bedroom. Someone should be with her.”
“Cody Wayne?” the officer asked, soundin’ surprised.
“Yes, sir.” It was too dark to see who he was, but I was acquainted with most of Rawlins’ cops from the time my bastard dad was a drug dealer here.
“What are you doing here?”
“I come lookin’ for Annalee Nielsen, one
of Russ White’s wards, ‘cause he told me to keep an eye on her. I heard a scream in here and broke in to help. She’s in the back bedroom, hurt bad and unconscious. I haven’t seen Jason Clark.”
“There’s gotta be more to that story, son. You sit down and stay out of our way. I’ll be back to talk to you in a minute.”
Just then, more sirens come down the street, and the EMTs was there in a heartbeat. The cop told ‘em where to find her and I breathed a sigh of relief. No matter what that sonofabitch had done to her, I hoped she was gonna be all right now.
~~~
After that, all hell broke loose. I barely had time to check on Ciara, who was still sittin’ terrified in the pickup, before I had to go down to the cop shop to answer a million questions. The officer I’d talked to first, who turned out to be Jack Weston, the one who’d come when I found my mom dead, told me I wasn’t under arrest, but he read my my rights anyway. When he asked if I wanted to talk to ‘em, I told him I’d like to ask Russ what I should do. Officer Weston said, “You can call him.”
Russ told me to wait until his lawyer got there, and then tell what happened, but listen to the lawyer. He said he and Charity would be there as soon as they could. It seemed stupid to me; I’d already told Jack what happened. But once the lawyer got there, Jack kept askin’ me stupid questions like did I beat Annalee, and did I truss her up like that and break her arm.
“Hell no!” I yelled. I was gonna punch Jack, but Russ’s lawyer told me to settle down. Then he said, “Jack, you know as well as I do that the timeline doesn’t work for Cody here to have done what was done to Ms. Nielsen. On top of that, you’ve got three witnesses telling you that she expressed fear of Jason Clark, and it was Clark’s house. What do you need, a neon sign? Why aren’t you hunting for Clark?”
“We are, Bill. But you know the drill. We interview everyone.” Jack didn’t take offense. In a town the size of Rawlins, you had to get along with your neighbor even if you was on opposite sides of a disagreement.
“Cody, when was the last time you saw Ms. Nielsen?” Jack asked.
“Musta been a week ago Sunday,” I said, tryin’ to remember if it had been two weeks or one. “Had to have been the eighth, ‘cause my last rodeo was the seventh, and I went to see her the next day. She told me to get lost,” I added.
“Why did you go looking for her tonight?”
“I told you, Jack. Russ White said I should keep an eye on her. She told Charity she was scared of Jason, and he was makin’ her do stuff she didn’t like. Like maybe tyin’ her up and beatin’ the shit out of her,” I said, bitterly.
“All right, Cody. You’re free to go, but don’t leave the area. You can go on back to the ranch,” Jack said.
“I want to see Annalee,” I said. “I ain’t goin’ back to the ranch until I do.”
“You can try, but you’re not a relative, so they may not let you. Just try to stay out of trouble,” he said, wearily.
“Say, Jack, where’s the pickup?” I asked.
“That little gal you had call us drove it over here. She’s waiting outside for you.”
When I walked out, Ciara flew at me and I had to put my arms around her to keep us both from goin’ over on the floor. “Cody, what’s going on?”
“They didn’t tell you nothin’?”
“Just that Annalee had been hurt. Russ and Charity were here. They talked to some people and then went to the hospital. They told me to wait for you.”
“Oh, jeez, Ciara, what time is it? Is Celeste late for work?”
“I called her and told her everything I knew, so she could call in late. She’s mad at you, Cody,” Ciara said timidly.
“Me? Well shit fire, I can’t do nothin’ right the way she reckons, so I guess I just don’t give a damn. Sorry Ciara.”
We decided I’d better get her home so Celeste could get to work, and then I’d go to the hospital, and I promised to call her as soon as I found out anything.
When I got to the hospital, sure enough, they wouldn’t let me see Annalee. In fact, they wouldn’t even let me know for sure she was there. Confidentiality, they called it. I was fit to be tied, but there wasn’t much I could do without gettin’ in more trouble, so I sat down in the waitin’ room to wait for Russ or Charity to come out.
It was Russ, come out first. He come out without Charity and spotted me right away. For a guy that was only in his early thirties, he walked like an old man as he come over and sat down next to me. “It’s bad, Cody. You were right to break in and find her. She’s been beaten badly, and her right shoulder is dislocated. But it’s her mind that’s worst. She’s awake, but she won’t talk. Just stares at us like she doesn’t know who we are.”
I couldn’t take it in. My sweet, happy Annalee, with her mind gone. I dropped my head in my hand and closed my eyes. I had to do somethin’, but I didn’t know what. Whatever was gnawin’ at my innards was gonna come bustin’ out, and then maybe I’d have an idea, or maybe I was just gonna throw up. Russ’s hand come down on my shoulder. “Cody, I’m going looking for Jason Clark. He can’t have gone far, his car’s in his garage. You want to come with me?”
“Russ, I swear if I find him I’m gonna kill him. But first I’m gonna hog-tie him and beat on him, see how he likes it.”
“I don’t blame you, Cody, but we can’t be thinking that way. If you can’t keep it together, I’ll have to leave you here,” Russ said with a kind tone of voice but a stern expression.
“I don’t know what to do, Boss. I have a powerful need to see Annalee, but I wanta get that sonofabitch, too. Tell me what to do.”
“Come with me, Cody. They won’t let you see Annalee until she’s more herself. She’ll probably have to ask for you before they do. But I could use a good man to watch my back. And you’ve got the pickup. Let’s leave the SUV here for Charity and go looking for Jason. You’re going to have to tell me I can trust you not to hurt him if we find him, though.”
It took every ounce of self-control I had to tell him that and mean it. What I wanted to do was work him over with the tire iron I’d left on his patio after smashin’ the glass door with it. I told Russ we needed to pick that up, and he laughed and said it was evidence and I’d just have to buy a new one. Then we went lookin’.
I figured Clark had run while I went around to tell Ciara to get the police. It was the only way I wouldn’t have seen him on my way in, since he had to have been in the room with Annalee to make her scream like that. I knew there wasn’t nothin’ but badlands out behind the houses, so he must’ve snuck around the same way I did, and flagged someone down on the road while Ciara was gettin’ the neighbors and I was breakin’ into his house. Even though Jack Weston said he couldn’t get far, that wasn’t true. The highway wasn’t that far, and he coulda hitched a ride goin’ either direction.
What I didn’t know was Jack had put out an APB on him, and it had been broadcast on all the trucker’s radios by a guy in town with a police scanner and a grudge against Clark. A good ol’ boy drivin’ deadhead from Cheyenne reported seein’ a dude hitchin’ west about five miles outta Rawlins, which he thought was odd. Most people wouldn’t walk that far out at night, so either this dude wasn’t an experienced hitchhiker, or he’d done somethin’ to get hisself put out of the truck that picked him up in town.
Before we had got halfway to Clark’s house, Russ took a call on his cell from the sheriff that he’d been picked up. This time they had him dead to rights on assault and forcible rape based on the doctor’s examination of Annalee. I swallowed hard when I heard that. No wonder she didn’t want to talk about it. I decided if she didn’t ever want to say what happened, I could live with that. What I might not be able to live with was the guilt that my choices had drove her to move into town and meet the bastard in the first place. This was all my fault, and I needed to fix it, somehow.
Chapter 16
Annalee was in the hospital for another three days, but when she started screamin’ at ‘em that she couldn’t afford no
more bills, they let her go home under Charity’s care. Naturally, the kids come too, so that left Ciara and her young’un with Celeste. They was lookin’ for a job for her to do so they could share the babysittin’ like Annalee and Celeste had been doin’ before Al’s accident.
Al was doin’ a lot better, but he was right nervous around the corral, so when I took him out to the barn, I’d carry him up on my shoulder, and he’d hang on with an arm around my head and say, “Giddy up, Cody.” He was growin’ like a weed, and so was Tali. She looked so much like her mother it made me grin every time I saw her.
It took a lot longer for Annalee to come outta her shell than it did for her bruises and her arm to heal. It broke my heart to see her at meals where she’d never lift her eyes or join in the talkin’. I could tell Charity was worried, too. One day, I asked to talk to Charity alone.
“You know we’re closin’ on that little ranch Annalee found for us this Friday,” I said.
“Yes. Congratulations, Cody. Looks like your idea is going to make a nice little business for you. I’m proud of you,” she answered.
I had my Stetson in my hands, rollin’ the brim and turnin’ it around and around like a steerin’ wheel. “The thing is, I was gonna ask Annalee to marry me and live there with me. I kinda hate to move away from here while she’s still so low, Charity. But I don’t know if it’s too soon to start courtin’ her. Can you help me?”
“I think you’re right, it’s too soon. I’m sure you’re welcome to stay here and just drive over there to work. Or you can go on and move over there and you’re invited to dinner every night so you can see Annalee. I don’t know how you’re going to have time to cook for yourself anyway.”
“Thank you, Charity. I’ll do that. But, if she ever speaks of me, or says she’s ready to go on livin’, will you tell me?”
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