On the Lam

by SUE FINEMAN

  Dwayne’s voice faded toward the bedroom. “Probably what we’re looking for. Can you open it?”

  “Hell, no, not without the combination. Let’s just pull it out of the wall and take it home. Go get the tire iron and we’ll pry it out.”

  “What if someone catches us?”

  “You turning into a chicken shit, or you gonna help me with this thing?” Leroy sounded angry.

  Colorful language poured from Dwayne as he walked through the house and outside. The door slammed and seconds later Bo heard footsteps on the front porch, and then the sound of prying and hammering came from the bedroom.

  Bo tripped over a bucket and it made a godawful noise. The activity in the bedroom stopped.

  “What the hell was that?” Leroy said.

  “I’ll get the gun from the truck.”

  “Oh, dear God.” Callie’s words came out on a whispered breath.

  Footsteps sounded on the floor above them and the front door slammed. Seconds later, the door slammed again and Dwayne called, “It ain’t in the truck. You used it to kill them birds, remember? I don’t hear nothing now anyways. Probably just a cat or coon or something.”

  “Yeah, probably. Help me with this. Damn thing weighs a ton.”

  Callie crept up the basement steps, and Bo followed right behind her.

  “If it wasn’t for that damn sheriff, Callie and me’d be married by now,” said Leroy. “She always did favor me.”

  Dwayne burst out laughing. “Then why did she let me feel her up in high school?”

  Callie gasped and Bo put his hand over her mouth. His body shook with silent laughter, and she jabbed her elbow in his ribs. She obviously didn’t see anything funny about it, but he did. It was meaningless guy talk.

  “Did she let you get inside her panties?” Leroy asked.

  “No, and she didn’t let you neither.”

  “Wanta bet?”

  Callie had heard enough of this nonsense. She broke away from Bo and ran into the kitchen sputtering, “You lying fools.”

  Dwayne dropped the safe and Leroy yowled. “Where in the hell did you come from?”

  “I flew in on my broomstick, you idiot. What are you doing in my house?”

  “Ain’t yours,” said Leroy. “Tommy Ray says it belongs to him.”

  Callie crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. “Does the safe belong to him, too?”

  Leroy stammered, “Uh... well... you see... we uh—”

  “Y’all broke into the sheriff’s house and stole his safe, and I’m gonna tell him I caught you. You’re in deep trouble, boys. If he don’t shoot you, he’ll lock you up forever.”

  Dwayne hung his head. “Mama’s gonna kill us for sure this time.”

  “Tell me what you’re looking for and I won’t tell.”

  Leroy, the older and more intelligent brother, which wasn’t saying much, said, “Well, now, we can’t—”

  “Fine.” She walked to the kitchen phone and punched three buttons. They had no way of knowing the phones didn’t work.

  Leroy grabbed the phone from her hand and hung up. “Daddy told us there was something buried out by the river and your daddy had a map, so we thought we’d—”

  Leroy and Dwayne didn’t have the brains to think anything through clearly.

  “Y’all thought you’d find it and get rich?”

  “We woulda shared it with you, Callie,” said Dwayne.

  One lie deserved another, so she pointed to the safe. “Well, go ahead and take it. I can’t get it open anyway.” If Tommy Ray couldn’t open it, the Richardson boys couldn’t either, but having it gone might keep Tommy Ray off her back.

  The two men struggled under the weight of the safe and somehow got it through the door and into the back of their pickup truck.

  Bo stepped into the kitchen with Callie. “Why did you let them take the safe?”

  “So Tommy Ray won’t know I emptied it.”

  “Won’t they tell him?”

  “And admit they were here?”

  ”Good point.” Bo glanced around. “Anything else you want to take while we’re here?”

  Callie took a few things from her son’s room and stuffed them in his pillowcase. “I think that’s it. I wouldn’t mind taking my pistol, but I can’t get on a plane with it.”

  “Then leave it here.”

  Leaving the ranch again tore at her spirits. It was supposed to belong to her some day, so why did Daddy have to go and give it to Tommy Ray? She would’ve been better off without a husband. The ladies in the church would’ve shunned her, but that wouldn’t have been half as bad as the things Tommy Ray did to her.

  She punched the lock on the kitchen door and pulled it closed. Mama would turn over in her grave if she could see what the house looked like now. Tommy Ray was such a slob. Tobacco juice stained the rugs and furniture, and the antique spindle headboard and footboard were ruined from the handcuffs he put on her at night.

  Thank God, her parents couldn’t see the things Tommy Ray did to her in the night.

  Bo drove away from the ranch while Callie sat quietly in the car holding the bag from the safe. She spoke only to give directions until he pulled out on the highway.

  The pillowcase bulged with the contents of the safe, and Bo knew it held more than papers and a few pieces of jewelry.

  He’d never met a woman who talked more, yet Callie remained strangely silent. Had she been embarrassed for him to see the bed she’d slept in with her husband, or was she remembering last night?

  Bo found a motel outside Austin. He parked in front and turned to face her. “What’s wrong, Callie?”

  “Nothing. Everything.” She sighed deeply. “It feels wrong to walk away from the ranch and leave it to Tommy Ray, but I can’t live there with him again. I’d rather die than go back to him.”

  “The ranch has been in your family for a long time?”

  “Frank Caledonia settled the land several generations ago. He built a one-room cabin up on the river.”

  “You mean the county was named after your family?”

  “Yes, sir, it surely was. My great-grandfather and his second wife built the house I grew up in. His first wife died in childbirth. The house has termites and the roof leaks, but Tommy Ray wouldn’t give me the money to fix anything, even though Daddy’s life insurance would have covered it.”

  “Do you have brothers, sisters? Anyone else who might claim the ranch?”

  “I’m an only child. Mama had one brother, but he went off to Mexico and got himself into trouble and never made it back. Mama was the last one to carry the Caledonia name, and that’s why she named me Callie, after Caledonia. Daddy has two brothers over in Lubbock, but they’re...” She looked at Bo and sighed. “Sorry. I’m talking your ears off again.”

  Callie reminded Bo of a wind-up doll, only instead of turning the key, asking questions wound her up.

  Their motel room faced a pretty courtyard with a pool in the middle. The pool looked inviting, but he didn’t have a bathing suit with him.

  Callie set about unpacking clothes to wear the next day and putting her things on the bathroom counter. Bo stretched out on the bed and stared at the two pillowcases she’d piled on the other bed. After dinner. They’d sort through those things after dinner.

  He could have gotten two rooms this time, but he didn’t, and she didn’t say a word about it. Would she come to his bed again tonight? She’d come alive in his arms last night, and with any luck, she would tonight, too. In some ways she seemed like an innocent young girl, but her innocence had been brutally snatched from her first by a drunken rapist and then by her brutal husband.

  He shoved one pillow under his head and another beneath his elbow and closed his eyes. As he dozed off, his cell phone rang.

  Greg said, “Hey, bro, I got a kid here who wants to speak with his mother.”

  “Any sign of the sheriff there?”

  “Nope.”

  “Okay, here’s Callie.” Bo handed the phone to Cal
lie and watched her whole face smile. His natural mother had given him the same look of unconditional love when he was a little boy, before his world fell apart. His mother died, and the only person he had left in the world was his little brother, Greggy. Bo wasn’t quite four then, and Greg fourteen months younger, barely potty trained. They went to a foster home and then to the home of the cop who found them, the man who became their adoptive father.

  Dad was the only person who paid more attention to Bo than to Greg. Greg was the cute one, the playful one, the ornery little boy with the curls and innocent look who could charm anyone out of anything.

  Callie handed him the phone. “Thank you, Bo. Brady is so excited. Greg and Neen bought him a Seattle Mariners baseball cap and T-shirt and a bunch of toys.” She sat on the edge of the bed. “After Mama and Daddy died, Tommy Ray wouldn’t let me buy Brady any toys. He’s in heaven.”

  “How old was Brady when your parents died?”

  “They died the day after his fourth birthday party, just over three years ago. The storm came up so fast. Daddy was in the barn and he saw it coming. He yelled for me and Brady to get in the basement and then he ran to the trailer house for Mama, but by that time...”

  Callie jumped to her feet and swiped at her face. Bo hated to see her upset, so he sat up and changed the subject. “Do you want to eat here or go find someplace?”

  “Whatever you want, Bo.” She paced from one end of the room to the other and halfway back, to the window. “You were right about leaving Brady in Tacoma. What if Leroy and Dwayne had that gun with them? Dwayne is so stupid, he would’ve shot without looking.”

  “Did you go to school with those two?”

  “Yes, sir, I surely did. They’re both older than me, so they started out ahead, then Leroy flunked a grade and they were in the same class, and then they both flunked two years later and we were all in the same class in sixth grade. I don’t think either one of them made it through the tenth grade.” She took a deep breath and continued. “Leroy made a big deal about going into the military, but he had to have a high school diploma or pass a GED test to get in. Mama said Leroy couldn’t pass anything but gas, and Dwayne...” She slowly shook her head. “Dwayne still can’t read. I used to feel sorry for them.”

  “Why? Because they’re stupid?”

  “Because they’re dirt poor and their mama used to beat on them all the time.” She lowered her head. “I never knew what that was like until Tommy Ray started in on me.”

  Bo walked to the window to stand beside her. “He won’t do it again, Callie.” Not if he had anything to say about it.

  “If he finds me, he will. Oh, yes, sir. If Tommy Ray finds me, he’ll kill me for sure. Nobody defies the Sheriff of Caledonia County and gets by with it.”

  “Not even his wife?”

  “Especially his wife.” Her soft words hinted at the nightmare she’d lived through with her husband.

  Bo knew women whose husbands abused them, women who lived in fear of their lives and their children’s lives, but he’d never been personally involved with any of them. Until now. Whether he wanted to be involved or not, he was involved with this woman.

  One of these nights she’d come to him again, and they’d finish what they started last night. He hoped she wouldn’t make him wait too long, because now that he’d had a taste, he wanted the whole meal.

  Chapter Five

  After dinner in the motel restaurant, Callie walked back to the room with Bo. He’d gotten one room again. Did he expect her to make love with him, or was he saving on expenses? She didn’t know him well enough to have sex with him, and she didn’t want to end up with another baby. Not now. She’d always planned to have at least three or four kids, but she couldn’t support the one she had.

  The lights around the pool filled the room with a soft glow. Callie didn’t want to look through the contents of the safe with the drapes open, so she closed them and turned on a light.

  Untying the knot on one pillowcase, she pulled out Brady’s clothes and a well-worn teddy bear. “I know he’s too big for this, but I think he misses it sometimes.”

  She shook out the pillowcase, folded it, and tucked it in her suitcase. And then she unknotted the top of the other pillowcase. First, she pulled out a fistful of papers and handed them to Bo. Then she pulled out several boxes of silver and turquoise Indian jewelry. Some pieces were quite old and the silver badly tarnished. The other pieces—jeweled broaches, rings, and fancy necklaces and earrings—were given to Granny by her second husband.

  Bo pointed to the package she didn’t have time to open in the closet. “What’s that?”

  She pulled it out and shook out the pillowcase. “I don’t rightly know.” She finished folding the pillowcase and put it in her suitcase before opening the brown paper wrapping on the outside of the bundle. “Oh, my God.” She dropped it and hundred dollar bills scattered on the bed. Callie stared at the money in stunned disbelief. She’d never seen that much money in her whole entire life.

  Bo set the papers aside and scooped up the money. He separated it into stacks of ten bills each. Then he piled ten stacks together and counted the stacks. “You have one hundred and twenty thousand dollars here, Callie.”

  “Where did Daddy get that much money?”

  Bo wanted to know why her father put the money in the safe instead of in a bank or investment account. What kind of business did that ranch run? Was this what Tommy Ray wanted? Did he even know it was in the safe?

  He left the money on the bed and sat at the table by the window with the stack of papers. “Maybe there’s an explanation in here somewhere.” He shoved his reading glasses on his nose. The first document he picked up, the deed to the ranch, was in Edward Caledonia’s name. “Callie, who is Edward Caledonia?”

  “That would be my grandfather. He died when I was in high school.”

  “His name is on the deed to the ranch.” Bo dug through the documents to find the Last Will and Testament for Edward Caledonia. “I assume he left the ranch to your mother.”

  “Well, I ‘spose so. Grandpa didn’t much like Daddy, so he wouldn’t have left it to him.” Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “Daddy couldn’t give the ranch to Tommy Ray if he didn’t own it, could he?”

  “Did your mother sign the agreement?”

  “I think it was just Daddy. Tommy Ray told me Daddy gave him the ranch and when I asked Daddy about it, he didn’t deny it. Come to think of it, Mama didn’t say anything.”

  Bo went through the papers again, but he couldn’t find the agreement between Callie’s father and Tommy Ray Caldwell. He opened Edward Caledonia’s will and scanned it, stopping on the part about the ranch. “The ranch didn’t belong to either of your parents, Callie. Your grandfather left everything he owned to you, including the ranch.”

  Callie sat staring at the papers on the table, her eyes glazed in shock.

  “You’ll need an attorney to translate these papers, and we still need to see the agreement.” As Bo shuffled through the papers again, a small envelope fell out of Harry Winthrop’s will. It had Callie’s name on the front, so he handed it to her.

  She carefully broke the seal on the back of the envelope and pulled out the single page inside. Handing it to Bo, she said, “You read it, Bo. Please.”

  Bo unfolded the paper and began to read. “Callie, baby, I’m sorry about hooking you up with Tommy Ray. He knew something about me, something I didn’t want your mama to know about. She’s a good woman, but she ain’t always so forgiving.”

  Bo looked up and Callie nodded. “That’s true. Mama was a pious church-going woman and she didn’t hold with Daddy and me doing wrong in the eyes of the Lord.”

  “That’s why she went along with your marriage to Tommy Ray?”

  “She thought it was the best thing for me and the baby. She said an older, settled man like Tommy Ray would tame my wild streak.”

  Bo grinned. “You have a wild streak?”

  Pointing to the letter, s
he said, “Read the rest. We’ll talk about my wild streak another time.”

  “Did your father fool around with other women?”

  She nodded. “Mama knew, but she’d never in her life say a word about it. Mama was good at sweeping things under the rug, maintaining appearances, even though everyone in town knew. Daddy loved Mama, I know he did, but he wasn’t a faithful husband.”

  Bo squeezed her hand. “Have all the men in your life let you down?”

  She gazed into his eyes. “Not yet,” she whispered, and he knew what she meant. Callie counted on him. It was asking a lot from a man with a hard-on that wouldn’t quit, but she wasn’t talking about sex. Or was she? The more time he spent with this woman, the more she bewildered him.

  She glanced at the paper in Bo’s hand. “Is that all?”

  “No.” Bo scanned to the last paragraph. “Tommy Ray doesn’t own the ranch, Callie. Your grandfather left it to you. I imagine when Tommy Ray finds out, he’ll cause a whole passel of trouble. If he does, go to Stan Houser in town. He’s the lawyer who took care of the probate when your grandfather died.”

  Bo flipped the paper over and read the back. “No matter what anybody tells you, I’ll love you and your mama forever. Daddy. That’s it. He didn’t say anything about the money.”

  “Dear Lord, I own the ranch.”

  Bo pulled off his glasses. “You might want to verify that it’s in your name, Callie. If your parents didn’t change the deed—”

  “Oh, yes, you’re absolutely right.” She jumped out of her chair. “How do I do that?”

  “You can’t do anything tonight. We’ll call that attorney in the morning. The legal description is in the will, so it should be easy enough to check out.”

  Bo didn’t jump in and out of relationships, and he’d had enough one-night stands when he served in the Marines. There’d only been a few women in his life that he’d cared about enough to have a long-term relationship. His last girlfriend wanted a whole bunch of kids, but Bo didn’t love her, and he didn’t want a house packed to the rafters with kids like the one he grew up in.

  Callie was so different; she left him off-balance. In some ways she was like an innocent young girl, yet she’d endured more pain than most women did in a lifetime. She was an excellent mother, protective and loving, and he wanted her so much he could almost taste her. If she agreed, they could have a sexual relationship, but he couldn’t see it going beyond an affair. She would undoubtedly want more kids, and he didn’t know if he wanted one. He’d had his fill growing up.