by Alan Black
Grace nodded in agreement. “That’s very true.”
Taradittles said, “She hit me with that there rock and then threatened to shoot me if I didn’t shut up.”
Grace nodded again. “That threat is also very true.”
Taradittles said, “She’s just a youngster. She don’t really know how to shoot someone.”
Grace said, “I’m sure that’s what the last fellow thought just before she shot him.” She pulled the bottle of moonshine from her pocket. “Now, before I give you this bottle, do you want to tell me where the Braunawalls live?”
The man reached for the bottle, she pulled it out of his reach.
“Remember, I know you already told me they live west of this junction and everyone, including our horses, we know that’s a lie.”
Taradittles licked his lips. “East. They live east of here about three miles. There’s a long open road leading up to their place. It’s wide open and they’ll see you coming from a long way away. Bunch of buildings clustered together high on a knob. It’s easy to see from the road. It’s also easy to be seen on the road. If they don’t recognize you or if you ain’t welcome they’re likely to start shooting first afore they ask why you come to visit.”
Grace handed the man the bottle. She watched him pull the cork and pour a long drink down his throat. He sighed and shoved the cork back in the neck.
He grinned, “That is nasty stuff, but it’ll do until another bottle comes along.”
“How many Braunawalls live there.”
Taradittles shrugged. “I don’t know. They is so many of them. They keep coming and going so much they is hard to count. They’s Braunawalls, McDonalds and Kilburnes all mixed up in one big bunch. God’s truth, I don’t know. I’ve only been up there a couple of times with Abe.”
He took another long slurp from the bottle.
“You go easy on that moonshine. I only bought the one bottle.”
“I need something to ward off the chills from this cold hard ground.”
Grace pulled his bedroll from the stack of his possessions. She tossed it to him, watched him unfold it and sink back to the ground. He could stand and sit, but otherwise he had very little mobility with his manacles wrapped around the pole.
“LillieBeth, I’m going for a little ride down the road to take a look at this Braunawall place. Can you keep an eye on this one?”
LillieBeth said, “I am going with you.”
Taradittles said, “I ain’t going back out in the rain and you can’t make me. You also can’t leave me alone with this girl. She’s crazy.” He took another long swig from the bottle. It was already about half empty and he was starting to slur his words.
Grace decided she might as well take LillieBeth with her. Their prisoner was chained up and not going anywhere.
She asked the man, “Do you have to relieve yourself?”
The man nodded.
She unchained one hand and half jerked, half dragged the man out behind the shed. She fastened the loose end of the manacles to a sapling and walked back to the shed. It was raining hard and the man would be drenched when he came back, but she did not care.
“If we’re going, let’s leave some of this extra gear behind, like those extra saddles and saddlebags we inherited from Braunawall and McDonald. We can pick them up on the way back.” She stripped the tack from Taradittles horse, setting the saddle near the small fire.
Everything was out of reach of Taradittles except his bottle and his bedroll. She went into the rain and retrieved him. He was quiet and compliant as she refastened him to a pole in the shed.
LillieBeth said, “After we arrest the Braunawalls we can come by this way and maybe spend the night out of the rain. This looks like as good a place to hold up as any place.”
Grace agreed. “I’m not sure how close we can get to the Braunawall’s place. We may have to wait until dark and sneak in to get chains on them. We may have to get them out one at a time.”
LillieBeth said, “Let’s put that campsite tarp up over this open wall. That would help keep this place dry and a little warmer.”
The young woman dashed into the rain, grabbing rocks that Grace used to hold down one end of the canvas on the flat roof. The tarp was large enough to cover half of the opening. It would keep anyone from the tavern or the road from seeing the light of their small fire after dark.
Grace said, “Ready to ride?”
LillieBeth led Fletch into the rain and vaulted into the saddle. The young woman sat high on the Missouri Fox Trotter stallion. Her rain slicker covered her from neck to boots. Her wide brimmed hat covered her head; the rain pushed the brim down, dripping water from the edges.
Grace realized no one, not even Clare Hazkit would recognize this as a young girl. Under these circumstances that might be a good thing. She did not know what to expect from the Braunawalls. She did know young women should not ride alone in strange country with evening coming on. She slid into Jezebel’s saddle.
They rode side-by-side east along the country road that hadn’t been dirt since last August when the fall rains turned it to mud. Soon after winter turned the road to ice and sludge and the spring rains brought back the mud. To avoid the deep mud, they rode along the edges of the road, in the fields and ditches at every opportunity.
Grace could tell Jezebel was not happy walking out in the rain. Belgians were beautiful and strong horses, but they did have a finicky disposition. All four of her horses acted as if they were royalty. Of course, that could be because she and Clayton often waited on them hand and foot. On the other hand, was it proper to say they waited on them hoofs and hock?
LillieBeth sat easily on the smooth walking Fletch. The horse did not seem to pay any attention to the rain. He stole a mouthful of grass at every opportunity. He pranced and relished the walk whenever he wasn’t eating.
Grace reined to a stop. There, just ahead was the Braunawall’s place. It could be no other. It was a high bald knob covered by a dozen buildings, homes, sheds, and barns. The road curved around the knob as if the road itself was not willing to thread through Braunawall property.
Taradittles had been right. There was no way to get close to the Braunawall’s buildings without being seen. Even in the gathering evening dusk, any rider on the road or the thin trace leaded from the road to the buildings would be spotted before they were within rifle range.
LillieBeth said, “We could wait until dark and then try and sneak in from the back.” She did not sound convinced.
Grace shook her head. “We could get close. I’m sure. I was good at hide and seek as a child even after I got to be a big child, but then what? Which building is Trance in? Where is Abe? Even if we knew where Zeke stays we don’t know if he sleeps alone.”
LillieBeth said, “I do not like getting this close to Trance and not being able to put chains on him.”
Grace said, “We’re not done yet. It’ll be fully dark when we get back to the shed. Let’s get out of the rain, dry off and see if we can think up a good plan. Don’t worry; I won’t give up until all of them face justice.”
WEDNESDAY – MORNING
Grace ground her teeth in frustration. She paced to the shed’s open wall on the horse’s half of the shed. She stared at the tavern across the street in the early morning mist. She paced back to the small fire at the other end where LillieBeth sat.
She hated getting this close to any of the Braunawalls and coming up empty handed. They murdered her husband. She wanted them all to pay. She wanted to arrest McDonald for Odie’s murder, but she doubted a judge would even bind the man over for trial. She wondered if it would be right to turn the man over to Mercy; regardless of the woman’s name, she would offer none to the man.
Whatever she did, she wanted Trance Braunawall sitting in a jail, hanging from a gallows and then buried in the ground. Shooting Clayton was wrong on so many levels. Clayton was a duly appointed law officer. Clayton was a lay minister speaking for God. Most importantly, Clayton was her lover, he
r friend, her confidant and her husband. Every day, every hour, every minute Trance Braunawall walked and breathed as a free man was an insult to Clayton’s memory.
She paced back and forth. Her heart grew harder and colder with each step. She understood, finally and fully understood, LillieBeth’s granite heart. She knew why the young woman still carried the rock in her saddlebags or deep in her dress pocket. It was just a common piece of granite; dark, jagged, solid and without warmth. The rock did not have any give, it did not have any forgiveness, and it did not have any mercy. She shook her head. It was a small rock, just as her heart felt small. It would take the heaviest rock to grant forgiveness and mercy and it would take the chief cornerstone to bring comfort to her wounded heart.
Grace sighed and dropped to sit next to the fire. She leaned back against Jezebel’s saddle and propped her feet up near the flames. She didn’t know how long she could sit. Worrying a problem was best done while pacing.
LillieBeth flipped open a small edge of the canvas tarp. She leaned against the side of the shed and stared at the crossroads and the tavern. She chewed a small sandwich she had made from pieces of thick bacon stuck in the middle of a pan fried biscuit.
It wasn’t much of a breakfast, but it was better than Taradittles had eaten. He had finished the bottle of moonshine and fallen back asleep, or passed out. Grace was not sure which, just that the man smelled like bad whiskey and snored worse than a Missouri mule with a bad case of colic.
It was barely past dawn. Grace did not expect Trance to come down the road, but she wanted to keep an eye out just in case. She and LillieBeth had agreed that one of them should be on watch as much as possible.
“LillieBeth, I would be here alone if I had to, but your company has meant more to me than I can say. I have never actually thanked you for helping me hunt down Trance for killing Clayton.”
LillieBeth looked startled. “Killing Mr. Grissom… but, I-”
Grace said, “You don’t have to say anything. I just want you to know I appreciate your help.”
LillieBeth started laughing. She kept laughing until tears ran down her eyes. She finally managed to control the laughter and said, “Mrs. Grissom… Grace, I am sorry. I am not laughing at you and Mr. Grissom’s murder is nothing to laugh at. It is me.”
“You’re laughing at you?”
“I thought it was the other way around. I thought you were helping me hunt down Trance.” The young woman kept speaking, as she kept an eye on the road.
“Well, I can see how… yes. You and Susanne went hunting him before… back when… well, when I was still in shock about Clayton’s death.”
LillieBeth shook her head. “We were hunting him, but not just because of Mr. Grissom. Susanne and I both had our reasons.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Please do not get me wrong. It is horrible about Mr. Grissom. Trance should and will pay for that. But, there are a lot of people who will hunt Trance for killing a law man. I will be pleased as a Christmas plum pudding to see Trance hung for murdering Mr. Grissom no matter who brought him to justice.”
Grace shook her head with a lack of understanding.
LillieBeth said, “Susanne Harbowe did not tell me so, but I believe she helped me hunt Trance and Dangle because they raped her. I know women my age should not talk about such things, but I know they did it. I know what they did and that they did it by force. I know they did this to other women, women of our church, women I know and the mother of one of my friends.”
Grace nodded. “Yes. They should have been stopped a long time ago.”
LillieBeth nodded. “I stopped them when they tried to attack Mama and Mr. Fletcher Marlowe Hoffman stopped them when they tried to attack me. I believe they killed him for it.”
“I understand. You are hunting them so they pay for killing a man you owed a debt to for saving you.”
“No. I mean, yes. That is part of it, but it is more than that. You are here to speak for Mr. Grissom. Who will stand up for Mr. Hoffman, if not me? Who is there to demand justice for him? Mr. Grissom tried, but the Braunawalls killed him for it. Can I do any less than try to help a man who was my friend?”
Grace said, “Yes, I guess I was vision blind to anything other than Clayton’s death. I forgot the other things these men have done and have been getting away with. Standing up for a friend is important.”
LillieBeth said, “There is even more to it than that. Mr. Hoffman was a sad and unhappy man. No matter how he acted, I think he was beginning to enjoy my company and my visits to him.”
“Enjoying each other’s company is as it should be with friends.”
“He had spent an evil life. I was beginning to speak to him about God and he was beginning to listen. He was beginning to hear. He heard me when I spoke to him about God’s forgiveness. He was a lost soul that might have been saved. I did not get to speak to him of salvation before the Braunawall’s murdered him in cold blood in broad daylight in the middle of Oasis.”
Grace nodded. She was not surprised the young girl brought the conversation back to God. Clayton had the same gift for weaving the Bible into the most casual of conversations. “What would you’ve said of salvation?”
“I would have quoted him one of my scriptures from Sunday school.” She closed her eyes and recited, “Romans 10:9 says ‘That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.’ That is what I would have said. But the Braunawalls killed him before I could say it to him.”
“And it worries you that Mr. Hoffman died without being saved?”
LillieBeth shrugged. “His salvation is between him and God, but the Braunawalls killed him before the word of God was graven into the stone tables of his heart. I mean, how can I know for sure? Maybe his mother taught him when he was a child, but he would have heard more about God’s forgiveness and mercy as our friendship grew. It is not whether I knew if he was saved or not, I cannot control what is in another man’s heart. I wanted Mr. Fletcher Marlowe Hoffman to know God would give him salvation and peace in this life as well as the next.”
The young woman looked at Grace. The pain in her heart was evident on her face. LillieBeth continued, “He was a lonely, hurting old man. To know God’s plan for his everlasting life might have been a comfort to him. To hear, might have given him peace in his last few years. Trance and Dangle killed any chance he could hear that knowledge when they murdered him.”
Grace said, “Yes. Clayton would understand and appreciate that distinction.”
LillieBeth nodded, “Of course he would. Where do you think I learned it?”
Grace smiled, “Thank you for that.”
LillieBeth grinned in determination. “Besides, those fools shot my Daddy and left him for dead. Daddy will hunt them down if I do not get to them first. I am worried my Daddy’s temperament will get the better of him and he will not treat them with justice. His temper might be his own downfall.”
Grace said, “These Braunawalls have a lot to answer for.”
LillieBeth agreed. “God keeps track of it all. I am sure there are things they should hang for that we know nothing about.”
Grace nodded. “Whatever their crimes, we will visit justice upon these… men.
WEDNESDAY - EVENING
Taradittles moaned as he awoke. “Ow! My aching head.”
LillieBeth was on duty watching the road and the increasing tavern traffic. She glanced back at the man, at Grace sitting by the fire and then back into the darkening evening. They had decided to sit in the shed, watching and waiting for Trance or Abe to come by or come to the tavern. They had taken turns sleeping throughout the day, although neither could sleep long or soundly.
They wanted Zeke Braunawall as much as they wanted Trance or Abe, but neither of the women knew what the older man looked like. Grace would have been happy to get her hands on Bobby John McDonald also. It did not matter if Mayor Cummings thought a judge
or jury would not convict him over the death of Odie. What mattered was that she tried!
Neither woman held any real hope the men would just drop into their lap, but neither could think of a way to get the men away from their home compound. They had talked late into the night, speaking over Taradittles’ snores. They talked through most of the following morning, but solutions were as hard to see in the light of day as they were in the darkest of nights.
LillieBeth suggested she ride close, sneak up and shoot one of them from a distance. She was sure she could hit a man-sized target from two hundred yards away. She could then get back on Fletch and ride away before they could saddle up to chase her. She said she could return and do it again until they were all dead.
Grace did not think LillieBeth could actually shoot someone in cold blood. She listened to the plan, as it was not the silliest plan they discussed. She knew she could not shoot that straight, and she doubted the young girl had the heart for it, no matter how she patted her granite heart. LillieBeth was visibly relieved when Grace dismissed the idea.
Grace suggested they sneak in and burn the buildings to the ground, forcing the whole clan out into the open and into disarray. They could sneak in and grab Trance in the confusion. She rejected her own idea since there may be innocent women and children in the buildings. Arson wasn’t the most Christian method to use when arresting a man.
She was sure Clayton’s original criminal warrant on Fletcher Hoffman’s murder was still good for Trance, but riding straight up to their home and demanding his arrest did not seem prudent. They would be recognized, Trance knew LillieBeth on sight. They would not get close enough to present the warrant if Taradittles was right. Still, their prisoner was a known liar; they could not trust anything he said. The Braunawall’s home was more like a fort or a compound than a family farm. Taradittles was probably right whether he meant to be or not.
Grace chuckled at her prisoner’s hangover and said to Taradittles. “I told you to take it easy on that bottle of scorpion juice.” She set a plate next to him. It was a thick stew of whatever food they had. They had enough food for tomorrow, but after that they would have to go into Forsythe for more victuals. “Eat something. It’ll help. You haven’t eaten anything all day.”