Putting the letters in his pocket Cage followed George out of the store. Just as they were about to exit the store, George jumped to the side of the door and hid beside the end of a candy display. The door opened and a blonde girl walked in past Cage. As soon as she was in, George scooted out the door in front of Cage and ran around the corner of the store. Cage walked to the end of the store and looked at George standing there.
“You want to tell me what that was all about?” Cage asked.
“I just don’t want to see that girl for a few more years, maybe say the next thirty!” George exclaimed.
“George, I guess you are a lawyer after all,” Cage said with a grin.
Driving over to the doctor’s clinic the two were quiet, both considering what they had read. “Oh! I forgot to mention to you about the sheriff. I ran into him at the domino tables on the courthouse grounds. He surely wanted the letter badly!” George stated.
“That’s interesting,” Cage said looking in the rear-view mirror.
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Putting the binoculars back in his pack, Judd Smith rubbed his chin. The name on the headstone said Shane Thomas Taylor. This was quite a bit of news. The Shine Ghost was dead. He had really liked Thomas. The boy was good and had made him a lot of money. Thomas hadn’t been around lately…now he knew why. Bart and Ed had not shared this little bit of information and this drove the price for Baker way up. What else waswere these two hiding from him? He hated weak people that couldn’t finish what they started.
Judd was enjoying this little spying adventure, especially with the rangers involved. He wished the war was still going on. During the war Judd had been in his element. As a sniper for the paratroopers he had brought fear in the hearts of the enemy. Ranching had never interested him. After working with Harlan Williams, he had begun to really enjoy life and ranching became a cover for his life of crime. If Harlan was still alive, things would be different. Harlan’s death had ended a money-making business for Judd. Now he was reestablishing some criminal contacts they had known. He could pick up where he had left off. Crime did pay and he was wealthy to prove it. Knowing the right people, he could make himself real useful solving problems starting with this Baker character. Judd eased back into the deep woods where his truck was concealed and headed back to Huntsville.
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It was noon when the grave diggers arrived at the cemetery to unearth the grave. Captain Eastman drove up with the pastor of the small church. Steve Barkley greeted Doctor Mueller grimly as Cage filled the Captain in on all the details. “Cage, stay here with the doctor. Pastor Barkley and I will visit the grandmother. I suspect we will bring her back here to the church,” Captain Eastman stated.
Doctor Mueller turned from watching the opening of the grave and said, “Captain, young Taylors’s death will generate a lot of publicity and a public funeral will draw a lot of curiosity seekers. I have been standing here thinking…after I examine the body and determine the cause of death, and if my wife wants, we could hold a small funeral here this afternoon and bury Thomas back in the same grave. It would surely cut down on the publicity Betty will have to endure. I don’t think she would want his funeral to be a side show for the news media.”
“I will give Mrs. Taylor that option while we are driving back out here,” the Captain said.
A voice from behind them said, “Captain, you better hurry to fetch the grandmother! The grave diggers know Thomas and are asking a lot of questions. Two of them have left already for town. When this gets out, everyone in Huntsville will be driving out here.”
The captain directed the next orders to Ranger Mike Walker,“Mike, make sure to keep the grave open just in case we need to use it this evening. Send a ranger to block off the road in both directions and don’t let anyone in or out, arrest anyone who tries to leave or enter,” Captain Eastman stated.
Daniel drove the car along the highway headed for Huntsville and for a long time neither man said anything.
“Steve, what can you possibly tell Taylor’s grandmother that will comfort her? Thomas Taylor was killed committing a crime and was a moonshine driver,” Captain Daniel Eastman asked.
“It’s hard, Captain, but I knew the lad and he was truly troubled. I had to visit a lot of folks during the war to tell them their son was killed, and it was never easy,” the pastor replied. “I just rely on God to give me the words to say toand comfort Mrs. Taylor. One thing that will surely help is having been able to read that letter detailing his last moments in this life.”
C14 - Twenty Year Memory
Leaning against an ancient Cedar in the back of the cemetery, Doc watched the men raise the casket from the wet earth. Large chunks of mud slid from the casket and plopped to the ground.“Doc, it’s ready for you to open if you’ve a mind to,” one of the grave diggers said.“Take it over in back of the church and wash it off with a water hose,” Doc said.
The casket was taken over by the church and a water hose was used to remove the soil. As the mud slid from the shiny surface, it was obviously a fine casket. After it had been cleaned, Doc stood with his hand on the lid and thought back twenty years before. It was a cold winter night and the fog had settled early. The night was easy to remember, because old man Jenkins had run off the road and center punched a pine tree. Doc had set his broken legs all the time listening to a drunk explaining away the accident as being caused by the snow-covered road. The music from the band on the town square echoed through the empty, dark streets. This cold winter night was one that stuck in the good doctor’s mind throughout his life. ‘Everything we do has a price tag attached,' Doc thought.
That cold winter night Doc had just finished caring for Jenkins when he got the call that Doris Taylor was in labor. Standing by her daughter’s bed, Betty said, “Doris, the baby will be here any time now. What do you want...a boy or a girl?” The reply caused Betty to gasp and Doc to recoil at the words coming from the new mother’s mouth.
“Mother, I don’t care what it is. I just wish it was dead,” the young mother stated flatly.
‘Well twenty years later she finally got her wish.’ Doc thought. If he could find her, he would let her know her wish came true. Human failure is inevitable in all of us; but, not to stand and try and right the wrong is the ultimate failure, and someone always pays the price. Honor, character, decency…these things do matter to people, especially children. Shane Thomas Taylor had never known his mother or her wish for him. He had the best grandmother that a kid could have ever had. Doc had hoped that would make the difference in his life. But all the other children in town have a father or mother or both, and Thomas had never known his father or mother.’
Touching the casket Doc thought to himself, ‘One day a man will stand before God and will be advised of the son he had produced. He would be told of the way his son had been taunted at school because of the stigma that goes with a child born out of wedlock. The father would also be told of the heartache and hardship his grandmother had lived with bringing his son up alone. God himself would set before that man all the hurt and ridicule his son had known and the way he had died. Then God would show him what kind of man his son could have been with help from a Christian father. There will be a time for just punishment, and the one thing Thomas’s father will have, will be plenty of time for regret.
As soon as Doris had recovered from the child bearing, she had left home…a bitter and sullen teen. To Doc’s knowledge she had never come back to Huntsville again. Once a fine car and a well-dressed woman had stopped by to see Betty Taylor. A neighbor that saw her said it was Doris Taylor, but she didn’t stay long and never came again. Doc never asked Betty if the woman was Doris all grown up. All these years later to this very day, Doc did not bother to question what happened to Doris. Here before him laid the sum total of her actions.“One of you men get a screw driver and loosen the screws on the lid,” Doc said. The screws were loosened, and the men backed away as if the very ghost of Thomas would arise as the lid was lif
ted. Stepping up to the casket, Doc placed his hand on the lid and thought before raising the lid. He knew what he was looking for in the way of identification. Thomas had cut the tip of one of his fingers when he had stuck it in a pump as a boy of four. Doc had set his right leg when he was eight. Next, he verified that he had been killed as the letter had stated.
Doc Mueller addressed the ranger, “Cage, these are the remains of Thomas Taylor. He was shot in the lower back and the bullet ruptured his insides before it made an exit through the rib cage. The bullet did enough damage that he quickly bled to death. I don’t need to take the body into town. If Betty wants to have a funeral, then we can just bury him back here.”
“Doc, I will have the men seal the casket back and set it up in the church before his grandmother arrives,” Cage said.
“I’m going to walk over to my car and fill out the death certificate. Why don’t you have your ranger intercept the Captain’s car and tell them the casket has been brought into the church,” Doc said.
Cage watched the normally ramrod straight shouldered doctor as he walked downcast toward his car. After instructing the men, Cage walked down the road to get away from the scene before him. He walked almost to the end of the road and sat on an old log. This was a sad day and he grieved for the grandmother and Thomas Taylor.
It wasn’t long until the sound of a car brought Doc out of his depression. He had finished the death certificate and had walked over to sit on the church steps. He hated to face Betty, but his life had been full of these types of encounters. Why couldn’t he just pronounce them dead and go back to the sterile clinic? Not only did he bring them into the world, he had to lay them out as well. Doc thought, “Lord, Betty has been through so much raising Doris and Thomas…now this.”
Captain Eastman eased the car up to the front of the old frame church. Sitting in the back seat with reddened eyes was Betty beside the pastor. Stepping from the car, Betty straightened the front of her dress. She looked at her husband as if to ask, ‘Is it really Thomas or has there been a mistake?’
As if reading her mind, Doc cleared his throat and said, “Betty, it’s Thomas.”
They entered the church together and down front the casket sat under the big cross supported on a set of carpenter sawhorses.
“I have a million questions, Captain Eastman, but they can wait until after this is over. I want my grandson buried before the people in Huntsville hear about this,” Betty said.
“Steve, if you are ready, we will hold a funeral service right now,” the ranger said.
Nodding an acknowledgement, Steve Barkley stepped up on the platform holding his well-worn Bible and the letter Willy had written explaining the last few minutes in Thomas Taylor’s life. Looking down at the five people gathered on the first pew he began.
“Today the six of us gather in this small church to bid farewell to Shane Thomas Taylor. His life was short and full of trouble, just like the Bible says. But this morning reading this letter, I was overwhelmed at what I believe is an amazing example of God’s grace in action.”
“Thomas was killed in the act of committing a crime. Whether it was of his own free will or by blackmail…it happened. This is a sad fact that cannot be denied. He is dead, but the circumstances that brought Thomas into the very act of lawful disobedience were the circumstances that God used to bring Thomas back face to face with his Creator. Thomas was no stranger to the truth of God’s word. He had been taught Bible truths all his life by his grandmother Betty and Doc there, who taught him in Sunday School. Betty and Doc continued through his life praying for Thomas and beseeching God to save him. She refused to give up on him and often asked for prayer in church for Thomas, pleading for God to change his heart and save his soul.”
“Just last week, I preached a funeral for a very wealthy man in this very church. The rich man never came to church, so I wanted to talk to him before I preached his funeral. His life had been very benevolent giving to charities around the county. He was not only generous, but he was a good man. Today if I had to be in that man’s place or Thomas’s, I would choose to be in Thomas’s shoes. I visited that man while he was on his death bed and before he died, I offered him a last chance to repent and come to know the Lord, but he said he had nothing to repent and felt he had lived a full and a very good life. I had no doubt he was all he said he was. I do know in his life he had not given his Creator so much as the time of day, and in the course of our conversation he was not interested in doing so then. His generosity was all that was left that I could preach on.”
“As Thomas grew from the day he was born, the seeds of faith had been planted firmly and he took without question that the Bible was the word of God. In the last days of his life he realized there was nothing he could do to save himself. Realizing he was beyond human help, he cried out for God to save him. Just like the thief on the cross…Thomas was disgraced and dying without hope. The grace and mercy that saved the thief on the cross next to Jesus was the very same grace and mercy that saved Thomas that fatal day. The Bible says, ‘for by Grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself; it is the gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast.’ How the angels of heaven must have sung praises to God for demonstrating the power of his grace extended to Thomas. For you see, angels cannot be saved once they have sinned, to them Salvation is a great mystery. God’s mercy and grace was extended to Thomas for he knew the Master’s voice through his faith and saw the need for repentance.”
“There was another thief on those crosses that, like the self-assured rich man’s pride in himself, kept him from humbly asking the Savior for forgiveness.”
“So, I submit to you today: it is much better to preach a funeral for a repentant sinner than a prideful lost man. Grace and saving is all God’s doing and we have hope for Thomas today, not for anything he did, but for what God did on his behalf,” Pastor Barkley concluded then stepped down from the pulpit.
The rear door of the church opened and one of the grave diggers eased inside carrying a spray of flowers for the casket. The men outside had gathered the wildflowers that grew abundantly along the road side; a thoughtful gesture which touched Betty’s heart. Each person there signed the card for Thomas’s grandmother and before dark the casket was lowered back into the ground and another entry into “The Lambs Book of Life” was completed.
C15 - Huntsville’s Revelation
"Captain Spillman, turn The Genesis around and make for the Houston Ship Channel,” Jesse Rash said. Folding the paper, he tried to figure out what had gone wrong. He had not received any communications from Willy Baker as he should have. Thomas Taylor should be safely aboard The Genesis. Instead, now he reads he is dead and cousin Willy may well be the same way. All had gone well. Willy had set the time and at the very last-minute Jesse and Amy had made their appearance to the Medicine Man. They had to go back to Huntsville and find out what had happened.
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“I’m only saying what I heard Alton Cooke say.! The doc was there and several rangers. JoeyAlton and Albert dug a casket up from the back of the cemetery,” said the small man named E. J. Jones.
“There is something mighty evil happening in that cemetery. The rangers know what’s going on, but they ain’t telling nobody,” another said from the back of the crowd.
Big Mike lifted his hands to quitequiet everyone in the bar. “Everyone be quiet and let ACE.J. finish what JoeyAlton said?”!”
“The casket was a real expensive one, and Doctor Mueller had JoeyAlton and his men take it to the church. JoeyAlton washed the mud off that casket like he was cleaning a new car. Then the doc opened it up and sure enough there was a body inside. He examined the body for a long time then closed the casket back up. The rangers and Doc all stood around and talked in low tones; they didn’t want anyone hearing what was being said. The rangers said they would arrest anyone who tried to leave the cemetery and Doc had the casket dried off and taken in the church. The grave has a headstone with Thomas’s nam
e already engraved on it. But get this…there was no birth date, only the date when he died. Thomas’s grandmother was brought from town and she was just a-crying and carrying on. After they had a funeral, they buried Taylor back in the same spot. Ain’t no way I ever want to be buried in that cemetery! There is just too much evil around that place,” E. J. said.
Around the table another beer drinker said, “You know what I heard? Someone was buried back in the Civil war days that weren’t fully dead and he clawed his way out of the grave and now lives in the cemetery…half dead and half alive. That might sound crazy…but I’m not going out there after dark! There is something lurking around that cemetery killing people that come by. Why do you think old man Waters wanted to sell that place so bad? I heard he almost gave it away.” Someone sat a beer in front of the talker, and he continued, “Those Bakers are still missing, and I bet they are both cinders floating around the ashes of that burned down barn. Their spirits are alive in the woods around that old cemetery and at night there is wolves howling all night long. Right now, the rangers are out there thicker than fleas on a dog’s back, but they aren’t sayin’ nothin’.”
Bart stood behind the crowd listening to the foolish talk. The conversation he was overhearing had everyone in the bar huddled around one table. Now he knew what Baker had done with Taylor’s body. His hands shook so bad he had to put them in his pockets. He had walked in the bar a few minutes earlier for a drink to settle his nerves, but now physically shaken from the news about Thomas, he turned and walked out of the bar. Maybe he and Ed should just leave town. Getting in the patrol car he headed for Ed’s garage.
Doing Time In Texas, Book 3 Page 8