Avenging Home (18 page)

His mother was pleading. “Please don’t hurt him! He didn’t mean anything. He’s just a boy!”

“A boy will kill you as fast as any man!” I shouted back. Looking back at the kid, I said, “And I do not plan on looking over my shoulder!”

Holding his shaking hands in front of his face, the kid pleaded. “Please mister! I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m just upset!”

I stared into his eyes as my finger lay on the side of the pistol’s trigger. Pointing with the muzzle, I said, “I’m going to believe you, for now. You’re young and dumber than a sack of dog shit. But you better believe if I ever catch you looking sideways at me, I’ll kill your ass. Understand me?”

The kid nodded, and I released my hold on his shirt. He dropped back to the pavement as I stepped off him. His mother rushed to his side and knelt down, lifting his head into her lap. Holstering my pistol, I looked at the two others there with them. They wouldn’t make eye contact, so I headed back for the PD.

Shane looked at me. Raising his eyebrows, he said, “Feel better?”

“I don’t deal well with threats,” I replied as I passed him.

He looked back at the boy and said, “Could’a fooled me.” And he followed me inside.

I found Sarge talking to Sean. He looked up. “Well? What’s it going to be?”

“He’s killed someone. There’s only one solution for him. But we’ll use him for a bit first. I’m going to have him put to work for a while.” Looking at Sean, I added, “We need to come up with some sort of jury system or something. We need a judge.”

Sarge smiled. “I was wondering when you’d get around to that.”

“It would be best. But I don’t know who we’d use,” Sean replied.

“If we ever want to get this community put back together, we have to. You’ve got to know someone around here,” I said.

Sean let out a long breath and looked at the floor. Looking up, he said. “I’ll have to think about it for a bit.”

“Let me know when you come up with some names, and we’ll talk to them. In the meantime, we need some chain. From now on, people caught for petty shit will be put to work on the farm. Have the two prisoners chained and at the armory by seven for transport to the farm.”

Sarge’s bushy eyebrows went up. “Chain gang?” I nodded. “That’s a good idea.”

“We’re going to use Sheffield’s people out at the farm. Just like any other form of detention, escape attempts will be dealt with in one manner.”

“Gun line,” Sarge grunted.

“That’s a good idea. Make it clear where the line is and what the consequences are,” Sean added.

“Just like at Angola in Louisiana. That old prison didn’t have a fence. Just a line painted on the ground. No warning shots.”

“I’ll find some chain and locks and get it ready,” Sean said.

“I’m going over to the clinic to check on Jamie. We’ll see you guys in the morning,” I said.

“I’m glad to see you’re starting to think about things like a judge and jury,” Sarge said as he glanced over at me.

“It needs to be done,” I replied and looked at him. “Bad as it sounds though, the real reason is I don’t want to be responsible for everything. I don’t want to be the one making those decisions all the time.”

Sarge shook his head. “Don’t blame you a bit, Morgan. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be making those calls either.”

Sarge and I went to the clinic to see what Jamie’s status was. She didn’t look so good the last time I saw her, and I was worried. But when Sarge and I got to the clinic, we were surprised to see her dressed and ready to go. Ian was with her, along with Doc.

“You look fit as a fiddle,” Sarge said with a smile.

“I don’t feel like a fiddle,” She replied with half a smile.

I looked at Doc. “Well, Doc. What’s the word?”

He didn’t look too happy. “I think she should stay here another day or two, but she wants to go home, and there is no real reason for her to stay here. She can heal just as well at home.”

“Damn right I can,” Jamie added.

“Alright then. Let’s get loaded up and on the road.

Chapter 7

D
anny and Dalton worked on the bear for a couple of hours. Danny was being meticulous with the hide. He’d always wanted a bear hide, and this was probably the only chance he’d have with one. The two men worked carefully but quickly to remove the hide. Dalton worked on the head, completely skinning it out.

Holding up one of the paws, Danny asked, “What about these?”

Dalton held the foot up and looked at it. “If you want, I’ll do ‘em. I’ve never done it before, but I watched a guy out at the Rabbitstick gathering in Idaho once.”

“Well, that’s a hundred percent more than I have, so go at it.”

“Let’s get this thing skinned and quartered and I’ll tend to those later. When we open this thing up, I want to get the gallbladder out intact.”

Unsure why, Danny asked, “What for? What are you going to do with that?”

Dalton looked at him curiously. “Medicine.”

“Medicine?” Danny asked.

In a stoic voice of a TV Indian, Dalton replied, “Hmm, big medicine.”

Danny laughed. “Whatever you say, Tonto.”

They continued working on the carcass. When it was nearly skinned out, Dalton turned his attention to the feet. He used his small Bark River neck knife and made a slit along the edge of the pad on the bottom of the foot. He then meticulously skinned each digit. It took some time to do all four feet, but when he was done, the feet were intact. It would only take a couple of stitches to reconnect the pad where he made the cut, and the bear-skin rug would have all four feet.

Danny held one of the feet up and looked at it. “That’s really cool. I didn’t think you’d be able to get it done that quick.”

“Seemed to me to take forever,” Dalton said as he wiped his brow.

Danny rolled the hide up and set it aside. Looking at Dalton, Danny said, “You ready to open this thing up?”

Dalton nodded. “Yeah, I’ll do the cutting so I can get that gallbladder out.”

Dalton made a slit in the belly of the animal and inserted his finger into the animal’s abdomen and laid the tip of the blade against it. Using his finger as a guide, he ran the tip of the blade down the animal’s middle, exposing the internal organs. Once it was open, he reached in and ran his hand along the liver and found the gallbladder. Using the small knife, he pinched the top of the gallbladder and cut it free.

Taking it out, he held it up to show Danny. “Here it is.”

Danny wrinkled his nose. “Doesn’t look like medicine to me.”

Dalton looked at it. “Maybe not. But in Asian medicine this is used a lot. Sadly, thousands of bears were kept in captivity in China where they were milked for this. Only reason I’m taking it out is to respect the animal by using everything we can from it. I would never buy this.”

Cocking his head to the side, Danny asked, “How do you milk a bear’s gallbladder?”

Dalton shook his head. “It’s sad. They surgically insert a tube so they can do it. The bears are kept in a cage that keeps them from moving, at all, for up to twenty years. It’s really pathetic.”

Danny spit in the dirt. “Damn Chinese.”

With Dalton’s prized gallbladder now out of the bear, they set to work quartering the rest of the animal up. The tenderloin was cut out and set aside as the prime cut it was. Then, all that remained was breaking the rest of the animal down. That work didn’t take long, and soon the meat was ready to be taken into the house. They took a few extra minutes to remove as much fat from the carcass as possible.

Holding a piece up, Dalton said, “This is like gold. It’s the hardest thing to come by in nature.”

“Yeah, it’s hard to produce this,” Danny replied.

Nodding, Dalton said, “Takes lots of calories, and this bear did the work for us.”

Dalton grabbed the two hind quarters to carry inside. Danny asked if he could use Dalton’s neck knife. He wanted to remove the meat from between the ribs. “I don’t want to waste any of it.”

“Right on, go ahead. I’ll take these in and I’ll be back.”

Going inside, Miss Kay and Bobbie were ready. They had Danny’s meat tubs and large cutting board sitting on the island.

Coming through the door, Dalton shouted, “Did someone order some meat!”

Clasping her hands in front of her face, Kay said, “Oh, look at all that!”

Bobbie was standing behind the island, knife in hand. She slapped the cutting board. “Bring that over here!”

Dalton dropped the two quarters onto the cutting board. “Here you go, ladies. More to come!”

“Keep it coming,” Kay said as she grabbed one of the legs, rolled it over and examined it. After giving it a once over, she went to work with her knife.

Dalton brought the other two quarters in and returned to help Danny with what was left. Danny picked through the gut pile and removed the kidneys. He cut them in half and carried them over to the chicken feeder bucket and dropped them in. It wouldn’t take long for the flies to find them and lay eggs. Then the chickens would enjoy the extra protein provided by the developing larvae.

All that remained now was the gut pile. They’d wait for Thad to get back with the tractor to haul it over to the pig pen.

Thad and Cecil worked on the field for several hours. With two tractors they were able to get the first section rowed out and ready to plant. The two men stopped their tractors under the oaks and inspected their work.

“I think we’re ready,” Cecil said.

Thad nodded. “Yeah. They get some folks out here and we’ll be able to get this planted in no time.”

“I’m going to head back to town. I’ve got a couple of things I want to do before we kick this off.”

Thad nodded. “Me too. I’ll head home today as well. Morgan killed a bear and I want to go see it.”

Cecil smiled. “Can’t believe there’s still a bear around.”

Thad laughed. “There’s on less now.”

Cecil laughed at the comment as he climbed up onto his tractor. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Thad waved as he mounted his machine. “In the morning, Cecil.”

The two men parted ways at highway nineteen, with Cecil headed south and Thad north. It wouldn’t take long to get back home. He got there just in time to find the gut pile of the bear, all that was left. Danny told him it needed taken care of and Thad said he’d take it to the pigs and scooped it up.

Thad drove the tractor over to his place. Getting the tractor through the gate, he drove out towards where the gator was dropped, and dumped the bucket. The gator was gone, hardly anything remained. Thad shut the tractor down and climbed off. He was looking for the pigs. He took a couple of steps towards the back of the field when a single gunshot rang out. It came from the direction where he was looking. Thad waited a minute to see if there would be more. Then he saw the pigs come running out of the woods headed for the barn. When there wasn’t another shot, he started to walk towards the sound to find its source. As he walked, he pulled the shotgun from the scabbard on his back.

Gripping the shotgun, he moved to the wood line and listened. He could hear voices, cussing. Thad moved off to his left so as not to approach the voices directly. He cautiously found his way through the woods, made easier by the fact that the pigs were doing a fine job of under-brushing the area. Drawing closer, the voices got louder.

Thad took a knee behind a large oak tree and listened. He could distinctly hear two voices. They were bitching at one another about getting a pig loaded quickly and getting the hell out of there. Rising to his feet, Thad moved to a Sabal Palm between him and the voices. Pulling a frond back revealed a truck sitting in the field bordering the pigs’ hot-wired enclosure. It was a familiar truck. Thad instantly recognized the old green pick-up.

Knowing who was out there caused a rage to begin building in Thad, and he moved quickly towards the back of the truck. Two men were standing at the rear of the truck, gutting a pig. She was just too heavy for the two of them to pick up.

“Holly shit! It’s full of babies!” One of the men said.

“Shh. Be quiet, dickhead!” His friend countered. “You wanna die?”

“There ain’t no one out here. We watched ‘em leave headed to town. You wanna go get another?”

“We ain’t got this one yet. Hurry up,” his friend countered.

Thad crept forward. Both men had their backs to him. He looked for the weapon and saw a shotgun leaning against the tire of the truck. Thad waited until the men went to pick up the pig. Once one was on either end and they lifted the sow from the ground Thad stepped out and leveled his Daddy’s old coach gun at them.

The two men were straining to get the hog up onto the tailgate when Thad said, “Now y’all just keep that pig off the ground and don’t even think about moving.”

Both men’s heads swiveled around in surprise. They were looking down the double barrels of his shotgun. They started to lower the hog when Thad motioned with the barrel of the gun, and told them to keep it up off the ground.

“Come on mister, this thing is heavy!” One of them complained.

“I bet it is. She’s a big sow. You killed the biggest one we got.” Then he motioned with the barrel at the ten piglets lying lifeless on the ground. “Plus her litter.”

“You’ve got a bunch of hogs. You ain’t going to miss one,” one of the men moaned.

“Maybe, but I’ll damn sure miss eleven pigs.” Motioning with the barrel of the gun, he said, “Now you two carry that hog up to the house.”

“What?” One of the men said.

“You heard me!” Thad shouted. “Now get moving. And if that pig touches the ground, I’ll unload all of this buckshot in your face! Now move!”

Though Thad kept threatening them with the shotgun, the weight of the sow was simply impossible for the two men to carry. They just couldn’t keep it off the ground. And it wasn’t long before they were dragging it on its back through the woods. Reaching the cleared pasture behind the barn, the men dropped the hog and doubled over breathing hard, spent from the effort. Dalton was there looking around and walked over to Thad.

“I heard a shot,” he said and looked at the pig. “What a shame.”

“Yeah it is. Lost the litter too,” Thad replied.

Thad pointed at one of the men, “This one’s name is Tommy Harrell. I don’t know that one.”

Tommy squinted at Thad, “You know me?”

“Yeah. I know you. You don’t remember running into me out in the woods one day with your girlfriend do you?”

Tommy thought for a minute and slowly started to nod his head. A smile started to spread across his face. “Yeah, I remember you now. You were burying my nigger.”

Dalton was standing close to Tommy. His right hand flew out lightning quick and connected with Tommy’s nose snapping his head back and staggering him. “Watch your mouth,” Dalton said as he looked at his hand. “Shit!” Tommy exclaimed.

“That’s right. Now you remember me. You killed the wrong hog today,” Thad said.

Dalton looked at Thad, “What’s this all about?”

“We found a young black kid hanging from a tree. This piece of shit showed up with two girls. They were showing him off it to them. At least they thought they were. We buried the boy but Morgan let this asshole go.”

The other man with Tommy was getting scared. He looked at Thad, “I didn’t have anything to do with that mister.”

Thad glared at him, “You still guilty of stealing my hog.”

“So we got a real piece of shit here then,” Dalton said.

“To say the least.”

Looking at the two men, Dalton drew his Glock. “Alright, you fuckers. On your faces.”

Still holding his nose, Tommy said, “What?”

Dalton stepped forward, placing his foot between Tommy’s feet. Cupping the man’s neck, Dalton shoved him, sending him to the ground with a thud. He looked at the other man who was starting to squat.

“What are you going to do to us? I’m really sorry. It was Tommy’s idea!” He said.

Lying on his back, Tommy said, “Shut up, Robert. You pussy!”

Dalton stepped up and kicked Tommy’s hip. “Roll over on your face.” Then he pointed the Glock at Robert. “You too. On your face.”

When the men rolled over, Dalton knelt on their heads and searched both men. He took a knife from each of them and tossed them over behind Thad. Now that he knew they weren’t armed, he stood up and looked at Thad and asked, “What do you want to do with them?”

Thad stepped up to Tommy. “You killed that boy, didn’t you?” At first Tommy wouldn’t reply, so Thad kicked him. “Didn’t you!”

Tommy looked up, “You can’t prove it.”

“Prove it! I don’t need to prove anything! I know you did it!”

Turning his face back to the ground, Tommy muttered, “Can’t prove it.”

Thad snapped. The shotgun spit thunder and fire as the load of buckshot smashed into Tommy’s head. He was so close, it crushed it like a bat hitting a melon.

Dalton jumped back. “Damn Thad!” And he looked down at his pants to see them covered with blood, bone and tissue.

Robert started to scream, “Oh Jesus, oh Jesus! Please don’t shoot me! I didn’t do it! Tommy and some other guys did!”

Thad looked at Dalton. “I told you he did it. I knew he did. I knew that day he did.” Thad looked at the body. “And now he’s gotten what he deserves.”

“If he did what you say, then he certainly got what he deserved,” Dalton replied.

Thad motioned with the barrel to Robert. “You heard him, he did it.”

Dalton looked at the second man. “What are we going to do with him?”

“We’ll give him to Morgan. I think he’s got a chain gang going. He can work his crime off.”

“Just don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me!” Robert begged.

“We just have to figure out what to do with him until Morgan gets back,” Thad said.

Dalton looked at Robert. “You know how to butcher a hog? I mean, you killed one, so I assume you do.”

Robert looked up and nodded. “Yeah, I know how. I’ll butcher it for you. I’ll do anything you want.”

“I’ll go get the tractor,” Thad said.

I stopped at the bunker as I came up to it. Jess, Fred and Aric were there. The girls ran up to her window.

“How are you?” Jess asked.

“So glad you’re back!” Fred said.

Jamie stuck her hand out the widow and both women reached for it. “I’m alright. Just glad to be home.”