A Shelter of Hope

by Tracie Peterson

  “You can count on me for a visit as long as needed.”

  “Thank you.”

  She left him standing there, knowing that he was watching her as she made her way down the steps. She slipped around the side of the church and made her way toward the path that led to a beautiful woods along the river. Before she turned herself in to the local police, she wanted to spend a few more minutes in prayer.

  Barely ten feet from the church, however, Simone found her plans abruptly halted. Someone grabbed her from behind, clamping one hand over her mouth and another around her waist. Her heart raced wildly as the pressure increased and her assailant pulled her tight.

  “Don’t try anything, or I’ll snap your neck like kindlin’.”

  She froze in place, unable to speak, much less move. The voice belonged to her father.

  “I’ve been watchin’ you for nearly a week,” Louis Dumas admitted, “and now I have you.”

  He pushed her forward. “Quick, we’re going to go for the cover of those trees,” he commanded and half dragged her with him to the shelter.

  Once there, Louis quickly tied her hands in front of her and pulled her along with a rope. “We’ve gotta get downriver a spell before we can have a proper reunion,” he told the stunned Simone.

  She looked at the man as though he were a stranger. He certainly didn’t look like the Louis Dumas she’d known in Wyoming. His clothes were dusty and stained, but they were much nicer than anything she’d ever known her father to dress in. And his face! He was clean-shaven, something Simone had never seen in all her life.

  “You don’t look happy to see me,” Dumas chided, pulling the rope painfully tight. “Don’t I even get a greeting of welcome?” But without waiting for an answer, Louis pushed her forward.

  Simone couldn’t even think rationally. She wanted to cry out, scream for help, but her voice was oddly silent. She felt like she was watching the ordeal happen to someone else. Each jarring step across the uneven ground, each slap of brush against her body … Simone’s mind refused to accept that her haunted past had returned.

  They walked at an increasing pace, pushing ever westward, until Louis finally stopped, glanced around him, then shoved Simone up against a tree. He took the rope that bound her hands and threw it up over a high branch. Pulling this tight, he forced her arms into the air, then tied the thing off at the trunk when he was satisfied Simone was rendered helpless.

  Next, he took a handkerchief from his pocket, and without giving Simone a chance to protest, he gagged her with the smelly thing.

  This seemed to break the spell of shock momentarily. Simone kicked at him and grunted her protests from the gag.

  “So you finally got your wind, did you?” Louis said, sizing her up. “Well, it’s no matter. Now, you stay here and protest all you want. We’re far enough away that no one’s going to hear you. I’m going back to brush out our tracks.”

  And with that he was gone, leaving Simone to face the situation on her own. Immediately she tried to rid herself of the gag, and even while she worked at rubbing it against her shoulder, Simone tried to make as much noise as possible. She had to get away, and since she was unable to do so on her own, someone would have to come to her rescue.

  She began to pray, pleading with God for help. This, she thought, is why I can’t forgive him. He’s an animal and he doesn’t care about me or anyone else. He only cares about himself. She pulled at the rope, hoping to bring her hands just close enough to her face to release the gag, but it was hopeless.

  In the distance she heard the train whistle. At first she thought she’d imagined it. But then it sounded again and she knew without a doubt that it was real. Jeffery would be on that train! She struggled all the harder. Jeffery would go looking for her, and when he didn’t find her, he would presume the worst. He would come looking for her, of this Simone was certain. But then a thought came to mind that took all hope from Simone. What if he thinks I don’t want to see him? What if he thinks I’ve run away in order to avoid him? It was possible he would see this as the final word in Simone’s rejection and leave without giving her another thought. Moaning in despair, Simone tried all the harder to pull the rope loose.

  It seemed an eternity before her father returned. He looked at her for a moment and laughed. “I never knew what a real looker you were before hearing the men talk about you in Uniontown. In my mind you were still that stupid, gangly kid who didn’t know what a woman’s curse was all about. Now I see, however, that you’ve filled out right nicely. You still a virgin or did Davis get the better of you?”

  Simone felt her face flush and knew by that simple action she’d betrayed the truth. Her father laughed. “That’s good. You’ll play into my plans in good order.”

  Simone wanted to scream “What plans?” but knew it was impos- sible. Her father was no fool. He’d not ungag her and risk her crying out for help. Not when they were still so close to Florence.

  Louis sat down for a moment, as if contemplating what to do next, and while he did this, Simone took the opportunity to better study him. He looked so completely different from the last time Simone had seen him. She could have easily doubted it was him had his blatant hatred not been the same. Gone was the unruly hair and full beard. In its place was a closely trimmed style that looked very similar to Jeffery’s, and a thin moustache. But the cruelty in her father’s dark eyes still remained as he let his gaze travel the full length of her.

  “Yes, sir, you’ll do just fine for what I have in mind.” Then, as if he’d heard her voice the question, he grinned. “You don’t know what I have in mind, do you? Well, for now that’s just as well. See, I know what you did to Garvey Davis.”

  Simone felt her knees grow weak but knew she couldn’t faint now. She forced herself to stand still, to concentrate on breathing deeply while her father continued.

  “Yup, you sure did him in. Poor man. All he wanted was a wife and a place of his own.” Louis jumped to his feet and dusted off his filthy trousers. “Well, that’s the way it goes.”

  He went to the tree and untied her, reining the rope in tightly as Simone’s hands went immediately to her mouth. “I’m not of a mind to let you get rid of that just yet. We’ve got to position ourselves a ways from town first.” Then, as if to prove his point, the train whistle blew in short but very loud bursts to signal its entrance into town.

  He pulled her along with him once again, and the pace he kept nearly made Simone ill. They kept out of sight as best they could, following the banks of the Cottonwood River. Simone slipped and nearly lost her footing on more than one occasion, catching her skirt against twigs and exposed roots, but Louis just pulled her up tight and they continued on their way.

  Simone’s wrists hurt so badly that she struggled to match her father’s pace in order to keep from feeling the chafing of the rope against her skin. Surely he would stop soon. They were running out of forest cover, and it would be necessary to take out across open prairie before much longer.

  Finally Louis stopped. He glanced behind them and then up ahead.

  “We’ll wait here until dark,” he said, dragging Simone back to a tree.

  Without waiting for her father to repeat his earlier actions, Simone plopped herself down on the ground in complete exhaustion. Louis stared at her for a moment, then shrugged and tied his end of the rope to the trunk of the nearest tree.

  Simone lifted her hands to her mouth, and Louis didn’t try to stop her as she pulled at the gag he’d tied around her face. Spitting the hateful thing out, Simone rubbed her tingling face for several moments.

  “How did you find me?” she finally questioned.

  Louis laughed and sat down on the ground as though it were the finest of furniture. “It was simple. You are dealing with a man who has tracked animals all of his life. Do you suppose tracking one addlebrained female was much more difficult? It wasn’t hard with you, nor was it with your mother.”

  Simone bristled at the reminder but said nothing. “What ar
e you planning? Where are you taking me?”

  “Well, you see, I figure what with the law close on your heels for the death of poor Garvey Davis, you’ll come willingly with me. We’ll head to Colorado where there are plenty of mining towns to lose ourselves in.”

  “Mining? You? That’s hard work,” Simone said, realizing she was baiting him.

  Louis shrugged. “I don’t intend to be the one working, my dear.”

  Simone shook her head. “Then why the mines?”

  “Because the mines need men aplenty to keep them running, and men need female companionship to ease their loneliness and help them forget their lot in life.”

  Simone felt herself go cold. “You plan to sell me … again?”

  “Again and again and again,” Louis said, eyeing her with contempt.

  “You’ll make me plenty of money before we’re through, and if you even think of not cooperating, I’ll beat you soundly and hire you out anyway.”

  Simone felt ill. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Oh, but I am. I got the idea when the fellows in Uniontown told me they would have happily paid to sample your charms. Now, I see us living high on the hog and doin’ a banner business. I mean, you are a fetchin’ woman, and many a man will be happy to pay the price I’m gonna ask. Especially for your first time around. Why, I heard tell some folks will pay upward of a thousand dollars for someone like you. That would set us up in fine order for a start, and from there we could have a real good life. And if you’re extra good about this, I won’t beat you. I’ll even buy you some doodads to wear and fix yourself up in.”

  Simone shook her head. “This can’t be happening,” she moaned, then buried her face in her hands. Surely God wouldn’t let this happen again.

  TWENTY-NINE

  ZACK FOLLOWED O’DONNELL to Florence with relative ease. The man didn’t seem to realize that Zack would be so persistent, and Zack couldn’t understand himself why it was so impossible to just let this case go. Beyond his desire to impress his father, he simply had a feeling for this case. The signs might point to Simone Dumas as the murderess of Garvey Davis, but Zack’s gut instinct told him otherwise.

  Still, Topeka had proven infuriating for him. He’d gone on a daily basis to try to talk to the Harvey Girls and Miss Taylor but found that no one had anything much to say to him. Yes, they remembered Simone. No, they didn’t realize she was going to run away. No, they didn’t know where she’d gone.

  But Miss Taylor’s nervousness about the entire matter made Zack confident that the truth was otherwise. Whenever he tried to talk to her, Mr. O’Donnell would inevitably intercede and whisk him away. Finally Zack gave up and decided instead to just keep an eye on Jeffery. Just as his gut told him Simone wasn’t the killer of Davis, his gut also told him that he would find Simone through O’Donnell. It seemed wise to trust his instincts until they were otherwise proven wrong. And that was why he found himself deboarding the train in Florence, Kansas.

  Making certain that he neither expose himself to Jeffery O’Donnell nor appear too out of place with the rest of the passengers, Zack made his way to a place just beyond the Harvey House. It could be that Jeffery would simply share lunch at the restaurant, then reboard and head elsewhere, and for that reason Zack couldn’t allow himself the luxury of dinner.

  His stomach growled in protest, but Zack stood his ground. He glanced toward the town, finding it smaller than Laramie. It seemed like a nice, quiet town, and Zack certainly couldn’t protest against Kansas’s refusal to allow open saloons. Surely it kept the crime down and made men more manageable for the law. It was one of the things he hated about his own town. In fact, most towns in Wyoming were the same. Whether or not there was a church or a school, you could pretty much bet there would be a saloon.

  Time dragged by as Zack waited for O’Donnell to make some sort of move. The passengers gradually began to gravitate back toward the train, but there was no sign of Jeffery O’Donnell. Zack grew anxious waiting to see what would happen. Leaning up against a large cottonwood tree, Zack thought about his mission. It had become an obsession of sorts, he knew, but he prayed daily about it and still felt inclined to push on. Surely God was bringing him along as He saw fit.

  The train whistle sounded, and Zack knew from the routine that the final boarding was only minutes away. He tensed. What if Jeffery made a mad dash for the train at the last minute? But his patience was rewarded when the conductor called the final board and Jeffery O’Donnell remained inside the Harvey House. Zack felt confident that this meant Simone Dumas was near. He couldn’t exactly explain why, but he felt it with such assurance that rather than wait to follow O’Donnell around the town, Zack decided to search for the local lawman’s office.

  The afternoon sun bore down on him, but rather than making him uncomfortable, Zack rather relished the feel of it. Soon enough, winter would come to Wyoming, and by then Zack was sure to be home. The cold winters were enough to give a man thoughts of moving elsewhere, but Zack liked the simplicity of his life, as well as the spaciousness of his brand-new state. They suffered from corruption and conflict, like anyone else, but somehow having the miles between neighbors and even towns gave Zack a feeling of ease.

  The sign over the door had been handmade and crudely painted to indicate that this was the destination Zack sought. Opening the door, Zack found himself in a tiny office.

  “Can I help you?” a man questioned from where he sat cleaning a rifle.

  “I hope so. You the law in these parts?”

  “That’s right,” the man replied. “Who might you be?”

  “I’m Deputy Zack Matthews. My father’s sheriff up in Albany County, Wyoming.”

  “You’re a long ways from home,” the officer said, putting down his rifle. “What can I do for you?”

  Zack pulled out the Wanted poster from his pocket. “I’m looking for two people, but in particular, this girl. Have you seen her?”

  The man took the poster and instant recognition crossed his face. “Why, sure I have. She’s one of the new girls over at the Harvey House. Wanted for questioning, eh? She don’t hardly seem the type to be involved in any murder. She’s quiet and good-natured. Seems to be a good worker.”

  Zack nodded. “She’s only wanted for questioning.”

  “I see. Well, she lives over yonder at the Harvey House. I can’t tell you much more than that. You could sure talk to the house manager over there. I’m sure they’d arrange for you to talk to her in the parlor. They’re pretty protective of their girls, you know.”

  “I’ve gathered that,” Zack replied, thinking about how his efforts were thwarted in Topeka.

  “You want me to go with you? I could sure introduce you to the management.”

  “I’d like to hold off just a bit. I have my reasons, but I want to see what someone else plans to do before I make my move.”

  “Who might that be?” the man asked, his curiosity obviously stirred.

  “A man who just came in from Topeka. He works for the Harvey line, and I believe he’s been protecting Miss Dumas from questioning.”

  “That this man on the poster—her father?”

  “No, he’s a much younger man. Probably my age, maybe less. I don’t know exactly how he fits into this, but I want to see if he has something else planned. I only intend to watch him for a few hours—that should be more than enough time to see what course he plans to take. Still, if you happen to see Miss Dumas before I do, I’d appreciate it if you would hang on to her. I’ve chased after her from Laramie to Chicago to Topeka and now here. I’m not of a mind to let her get away from me again.”

  “Understood. I’ll do what I can to help you out.”

  Zack thanked the man and walked back out into the heat of the day. It wasn’t until he was back on the street that he realized he’d never even gotten the man’s name. He glanced at the Harvey House and wondered what his best course of action would be.

  “God, I just want to do this right,” he prayed, feeling tor
n about bringing Simone Dumas in for questioning. “If she didn’t do it, let me find a way to prove it, and if she is guilty … well, help me to prove that, too.”

  THIRTY

  JEFFERY WAITED IMPATIENTLY for Simone to return to the Harvey House. He wanted very much to explain Zack Matthews’ presence in Topeka and discuss how they might hide her away from him on a permanent basis. But as day faded quickly into evening, Jeffery gradually grew worried that Simone had taken matters into her own hands.

  An evening meal was served and still no sign of Simone. Jeffery sat contemplating what he should do when Una appeared, a worried expression on her face.

  “I don’t know where Simone has gone,” she confided. “I asked the other girls and no one else talked to Simone this morning.”

  “She didn’t say anything to you?”

  “Not exactly. She asked about the local church. I’ve only met the preacher a couple of times but he seemed real nice. He preaches straight from the Bible, and I told Simone he appeared to be a good man.”

  “Why did she want to talk to the preacher?”

  “I don’t know,” Una replied, her Swedish accent a little more evident. “I know she was upset and troubled ever since she’d come to Florence. But she wouldn’t talk to me about it. Maybe you will tell me now?”

  “I can’t,” Jeffery said with reluctance. “I would be betraying her confidence. It’s not an easy situation, I can tell you that much.”

  “Do you want some more pie?” she asked softly as another of her co-workers passed close to the table.

  “No,” Jeffery said, shaking his head. “I’ve eaten enough to last me a week.” Then he lowered his voice and added, “Look, Una, someone has to know where she’s gone. This isn’t that big of a place. Has she made any friends outside the Harvey House?”

  Una shrugged. “I don’t think so. She’s never mentioned anyone. I’ve asked the girls, but they had no idea of where she’d gone. That’s all I know to do. She should have been here by now. She was supposed to check in nearly half an hour ago. It isn’t like her to just up and disappear.”