Sooner Dead

by David L Thornburg

  “Fair enough,” Gray said. The others nodded their heads.

  Still standing, Sherry opened the journal to the last few pages and began to read.

  Chapter 39

  September 23, 1947. As I write this, I am sitting in my bedroom at the old house. No one has been inside it since that horrible night more than 20 years ago. I sat up a table and chair in front of a broken window to take advantage of the breeze. Under the carpet downstairs is a concrete floor, two decades old now, and under that the blood of two hundred of my lost friends calls to me. Their bodies were drug to the basement, and a foundation of concrete poured over them by their murderers. A mausoleum to hide the horror.

  I often lie awake thinking of June 19, 1927. The Klansmen spirited my father, brother, and mother away, but I refused to go with them. Instead I went to the garage and got into the Model T we maintained for the help to use for errands. As I climbed into the seat, I saw a young Indian girl laying in the back seat. “You have to get out,” I said. “I’m leaving.”

  She sat up. “Please take me with you. I have nowhere else to go.”

  I looked closer. It was Maria.

  “Lay down and cover up.”

  I didn’t see any of my family for years. They thought I was angry about the massacre, but I was hiding Preston – Maria’s boy – from them. His sweet mother had passed away giving birth to him. I told him our last name was Blake and my husband had died before he was born. What is such a lie compared to the sins of my family?

  From the earliest age he showed an unusual sensitivity to our Creator. It was clear that our Lord’s hand is on him, an exhibition of grace that renders me awestruck.

  For my part, I left behind the Christian life, feeling a hole in my existence that could only be the lack of a soul. I did find my prayer voice again when Preston joined the army in the last two years of the war, and he was finally returned to me safely.

  In the fullness of time, my father died and Lewis took the reins of the company, and it prospered. He reached out to me many times to be rejoined with the family, but I have refused.

  Preston has begun his life’s work, traveling the region preaching the gospel. Most nights the Spirit seems to fall under the great tent and people are healed and turn from their sins. Preston has prayed many times for me to be healed from my cancer, but the Lord has not seen fit to do so. And I would turn from my sins if I was able, but they surround me.

  I have bequeathed my inheritance to Preston Blake Ministries, which baffled my brother, but he did not stand in my way. For as long as Stone Energy exists, Lewis’s son will lack for nothing in his mission.

  I am leaving this journal in the house. I can’t bring myself to destroy it, for it would be like erasing my life. I am confident it will not be found. No one will visit this God-forsaken place, and its secrets will decay to nothingness.

  I fervently pray that God will see fit to judge me and my family with mercy, but I fear it will not be so.

  Sherry placed the journal on the table in front of her and sat down.

  Frank Blake was the first to speak. “Preston was my grandfather.”

  Murray looked up from his phone. “Well, cousin, I have some bad news. With just the minor leaks of information that have happened so far, our investors are abandoning Stone Energy in droves. My acting Chief Financial Officer says to prepare for a free fall Monday morning. There won’t be any more money for your ministry. The company is ruined, not to mention my family.”

  Frank said, “I’m sorry for your family – our family. It’s just as well about the money. I don’t think the flock will understand how I could take such tainted financial support. Son, I’m afraid I’m not leaving you much.”

  “Dad, don’t quit. You do so much good. Maybe we have to have more faith, is all. This could be our redemption, and I want to help.”

  Murray looked at the mayor. “I apologize to you as well. There’s not going to be a big resort or new municipal center.”

  “We’ll make do.”

  They watched him leave. Mayor Gray got up and walked over to Daniel and Lianne. “I’m calling a city council meeting for tomorrow at 3, back here. I’d like for you to be there. Both of you.”

  Chapter 40

  Daniel was exhausted and in pain when he got home. He collapsed into his bed and did not stir for almost 12 hours.

  He awoke and checked his phone. Several missed calls and texts, but it was close to 2 so he got showered and dressed. He took his mother’s car to Zach’s Cafe.

  Autopilot had brought him this far, but at the first sip of Zach’s strong coffee he wondered for the first time what the meeting was for. He hardly dared hope he would get his job back.

  He hobbled to the back room. I’m spending a lot of time here, he thought. Everyone was in their place. He took the closest seat to the door, across the table from Lianne.

  She wasn’t in her uniform, that’s for sure. She wore a deep red blouse with a subdued floral design and a navy-blue skirt. Her black hair was curled and fell about her shoulders. She’d been to church, Daniel thought, then probably lunch with the Strattons. Why wouldn’t she make eye contact?

  John Gray said, “Let’s get started. First, Officer Ortega, I hear congratulations are in order. The Tulsa County Police Commissioner cc’ed me on the e-mail he sent you offering you your old position back. It’s well deserved, and I know it’s what you’ve been working for. Oak Valley will release you from your current duties immediately, of course.”

  “Wait, what?” Daniel said.

  Lianne was looking at him now. “I tried to tell you. You should answer your phone.”

  She was leaving. But then, what did Oak Valley have to offer her?

  “Daniel Ortega.” Gray was talking to him. “The council would like to offer you your position back with the Oak Valley PD. Your work at Stone City was exemplary, and the town is grateful.”

  They were clapping for him. Not Friday night football clapping, but clapping nonetheless.

  “Well,” Gray said, “what do you say?”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  “Lianne is the one you should hire, if she’ll agree to stay. She’s every bit as responsible for the outcome at Stone City as I am, maybe more. This town would be lucky to have her.”

  Gray said, “Miss Ortega, would you consider the job?”

  Lianne paused, then stood. “On one condition. Hire Mr. Minco as well. We’re a package deal.”

  Gray frowned and looked around the room at the council. Reverend Stratton said, “Your call, John.”

  “Well, the town’s expectations are reduced since there won’t be a resort to draw the tourists, but the highway is still on track, so we’ll get some revenue growth from that. And we wouldn’t be paying either of you what we paid Sheriff Harris, so I think we can make it work. What do you say, Daniel?”

  “I say yes.”

  The council stood and shook their hands and patted them on the back until the mayor said, “We have other business. Marjorie Reynolds has asked if she could lease an acre of the land behind the high school…”

  Daniel caught Lianne’s attention. “That’s our cue.” He nodded his head to the door.

  She followed him out into the restaurant area, slowing her pace to match his. When he got to the outside door, he realized she had stopped. He turned to her.

  “There’s one more thing,” she said.

  “What’s that?”

  “Which one of us is Chief?”

  Thank you for your interest in this work!

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  David L. Thornburg is a writer and educator.

>   He and his wife live in Oklahoma. He can be reached at http://davidlthornburg.wix.com/mysite or facebook.com/davidlthornburgauthor.

  Excerpt from Sooner Fled: Oak Valley Secrets 1

  Hours later, restless and unable to sleep, I decided to go for a walk. The first thing I noticed as I stepped off my porch was how dark it was. It was never completely dark in Detroit; streetlights, adjacent buildings, and car lights drenched the city in a stark, grainy light. In Oak Valley, the illumination was further apart, leaving space for glimpses of the onyx sky with more stars than I knew existed.

  I walked out of the neighborhood and into downtown. The parking spaces along the street were empty, and no buildings showed any sign of life, until I turned the corner and saw a glow inside the church. It moved from one window to another, like a carried flashlight.

  I couldn’t help myself. I moved closer, pulling my keys out of my pocket. Before I unlocked the front door, it occurred to me I could call the police, but I didn’t even know if Oak Valley had a police force. I felt sure they didn’t have 911. I knew I should lay low, but this was my church, after all.

  I slid the key in and turned it slowly. I opened the door quietly to reveal the large, shadowy sanctuary. I heard muffled voices from down the hall. I made my way toward them, my blood pressure rising with every squeak of the floor.

  They were in my office. “I don’t see it. It could be anywhere.”

  “Keep looking.”

  Perhaps they were after any cash that might be there, but surely they knew that any random convenience store would be more lucrative than a small church. There was some sound equipment, but it was on the platform in the sanctuary, and so ancient it couldn’t be of interest to anyone except possibly Three Dog Night circa 1972.

  It didn’t matter. They were up to no good. I almost stepped into the office, but the walls shimmered and faded into a Detroit alleyway.

  I had been on the force for less than a year, still very much a rookie. My partner and I had responded to a Domestic Disturbance call. When we knocked on the door, the woman said she was scared that her old man would hurt her and her year-old baby when he returned. As we interviewed her, we realized she was shacked up with a dealer we had been tracking for weeks.

  We told her we would stay close and arrest him when he showed up. She begged us to get her out of there, but we were sure we could protect her and the kid and get the bad guy. We staked out the alley behind the apartment building, but we were too far away when he came home. We heard the screams and the yells, but by the time we got to the apartment it was too late. The consolation prize was we could charge him with double homicide instead of just possession with intent to distribute.

  “What are you punks doing in here?” Our custodian’s voice snapped me back to the present. I had met Roger earlier that afternoon. He was too old for such a physical job, but he had been a fixture for decades. I didn’t know what he was doing there so late.

  I peeked around the corner. The intruders were older than I first thought, maybe late 20s. They were both wearing dark hoodies with plain ball caps pulled low over their faces.

  “You need to get out of here, old man,” said one of them, advancing toward Roger.

  “You’re the ones that need to leave,” he said, his voice shaking, “before I call the sheriff.”

  “That would be a bad mistake,” said the first one. I noticed the other had moved behind Roger. He had an aluminum softball bat in his hand, and he raised it to strike.

  “Stop! Police!” I yelled, from force of habit. I ran into the office. The intruders were so surprised the second guy lowered the bat.

  “You don’t look like the police,” said the first one. “You look like another loose end to me.” He slipped a knife out of his belt. The other one pulled the bat back over his shoulder, as if he were ready for a pitch.

  From the hallway, I heard a woman’s voice. “Roger? Is that you?”

  “It’s getting too crowded. Let’s get out of here.” The two ran out the door, almost knocking Stephanie down as she entered.

  “Hey! What’s going on in here?” She watched the two run out the back door, and turned to us. “Roger? Are you all right?”

  Roger looked a little unsteady. Glaring at me, she helped him into a seat.

  “How could you let Roger face those thugs? Just look at him!”

  “It’s OK, Stephanie,” Roger began. “The pastor…”

  I caught his eye and shook my head. He got the hint and stopped talking.

  Stephanie didn’t stop talking, though. “And you just let those guys get away! Did they take anything?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “It’s a good thing I was driving by and saw the lights. There’s no telling what they would have done to poor Roger.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, “I just froze.”

  I watched her tend the custodian. The lying had begun.

  Buy Sooner Fled HERE.

  Excerpt from Sooner Red: Oak Valley Secrets 3

  “In any case, I look forward to seeing your operation,” Sandy said.

  “And I look forward to showing it to you,” Carol replied. “Are you sure you don’t need anything to eat or drink before we head out?”

  “No time like the present.” Besides, the sooner we get started the sooner I can be on a plane to New York, Sandy thought. She was angry at Alex for sending her on this fool’s errand. Normally he told her to call and let the independent grower down easy, but the quality of the Oklahoma wine was special. Still, there was no way these rubes could play in the big leagues. True, she needed an opportunity to prove herself, but she knew this wasn’t it. So did Alex Whitworth.

  They stepped outside onto the porch. In the distance they saw a plume of dust coming up the road. Sandy recognized the beat-up truck as the one driven by the guy working on the livestock pen. It roared up the driveway and screeched to a stop.

  Sandy recognized him from earlier. He yelled, “Paulo has been in an accident!”

  Carol and Sandy rushed to the pickup and looked in the back. They saw a teenage boy no more than 14 with a bloody face cradling his arm.

  Carol said, “Eddie, what happened?”

  “I was coming back to the house to see how you ladies were getting on,” he said, “and I saw his wrecked truck. Quick, call the emergency dispatchers and get an ambulance and the police here.”

  Carol disappeared in the house. Without thinking, Sandy dropped the tailgate of the truck and climbed in. “Are you okay?” she asked the boy. He opened his left eye but his right eye was already starting to swell shut. “I think I'm okay,” he said. “I'm not sure what happened.”

  Sandy said, “I need a cloth to clean him up.” Eddie immediately reached into the cab of his truck and pulled out a windbreaker jacket and handed it to her.

  Sandy said, “Go in the house and get some water and your first-aid kit and some towels.” He did as he was told.

  Sandy said, “Don't worry, Paolo. We’ll take care of you. The ambulance is on its way.”

  Paolo said, “I was just driving along. I heard a couple of bangs and I guess a tire blew. I lost control of the truck and wound up flipping it.”

  “How old are you?”

  “I'm 13,” he said.

  “You're not old enough to drive,” she said.

  He gave a credible attempt at a smile. “I've been driving on the ranch since I was 10. I've never had an accident until now.”

  Eddie showed up with clean bandages, a pail of water, and a well-stocked first-aid kit. Sandy took some bandages from him wrapped Paolo’s head to stop the bleeding. Eddie opened the first-aid kit and pushed it to her. She used the scissors to cut off the strip and went laterally around his forehead and used the scissors again to cut that one off. She took a towel and dipped it in the water and dabbed at the blood until it stopped flowing.

  “Now Paolo,” she said, “it's important that you stay awake. I know you probably feel drowsy, but try to fight it.”

/>   The boy did indeed seem to be wanting to close his eyes. But he responded to her voice and did his best to stay conscious. “How long until the ambulance gets here?” she asked Eddie.

  “They’re coming from Franklin, so it could be another 45 minutes or an hour depending on where they were.”

  She said, “He's fighting shock. Can we get on the road and meet them halfway?”

  Carol came from the house and said, “That sounds like a great idea.” She got in the passenger side of the single cab and Eddie got behind the wheel. When he realized Sandy hadn’t followed him, he said, “You can't ride back there. Get up here with us.”

  “No way. I’m staying back here with him. Now let's go.”

  The old pickup roared to life and they took off down the driveway to the dirt road. Carol opened the back window and said, “How are you doing back there?”

  “A little bumpy,” Sandy said, trying to keep the vibrato out of her voice. She cradled Paolo against her shoulder with her opposite hand supporting his head so it wouldn’t be jarred too much.

  Through the window Carol said, “The ambulance and the police should meet us somewhere around the gate.”

  They flew down the road and Sandy wondered if she would ever get all of the dust out of her hair. After 10 minutes, they passed Paolo’s truck, upside down with the wheels pointing skyward. Broken glass was all over the road.

  “Oh, Paolo,” Sandy breathed, “you could have been killed.”

  The Oak Valley Owls were up by three in the fourth quarter when Lianne got the call.

  “This is Officer Ortega.”

  “Eileen here,” Oak Valley’s police dispatcher said. “There's been an accident at the Taylor Ranch. Auto accident. Ambulance is in route, but it’ll take them while.”