Dark Places (24 page)
Authors: Reavis Z Wortham
“There's an old iron bridge up ahead. It'll take us across the river, and maybe we can get out that way.”
“Maybe?”
Jim Ed keyed the microphone. “Dispatch. This is Jim Ed. I have an officer shot and we're in need of emergency care.”
“Where are you, Jim Ed?”
“Not at the scene. We're about to cross the old iron bridge over the Sulphur. Everything's flooded out east of Cooper. If it's not underwater, we're gonna go hit 2675 and take it toward Roxton.”
“Ten-four. Who's shot?”
Jim Ed raised his eyebrows. “Annaâ¦Anna how much?”
“Sloan.”
“Deputy Anna Sloan.”
“I'll notify St. Joseph's emergency. They'll be waiting on you.”
“She's 'bout dead.”
“Better be quick, then.”
Filled with anxiety, John shifted his weight in the backseat and bent his knee, forcing her legs higher. “Jim Ed. Get back here and hold her head up. She's as limp as a rag doll and she cain't breathe good with her head back like that.”
John cradled Anna in his arms while Jim Ed crawled over the front seat, knocking his hat off in the process. What little cowlick he had left was standing straight up on his forehead, and the big empty patch on the back was white as a fish's belly.
“Lordy, we got to cover this gal's titties up. This ain't right.”
His chest tight, Cody didn't take his eyes off the road. “Don't worry about that. They can cover her up when we get to the hospital.” He braked hard when they came around a wide curve. “Well,
shit!
Jim Ed, you think this bridge'll hold us?”
The swollen river, full of branches, trash, and logs, washed from the damaged earth overcame everything it touched. Water boiled around the rusty structure that had been built over the deep riverbed not long after the Civil War. Logs and whole trees washed up against the railing and white waves lapped over the top, mixing with muddy water bubbling like a gurgling cauldron.
“It's been here over a hunnerd years.”
“That's what I'm afraid of. Can we go back around?”
“This is the best and quickest chance we have.”
From their position, the bridge seemed to bend in the middle. The railing vibrated like guitar strings as if the whole thing would go at any second, as soon as the water stacked a few more trees against the side.
Driving blind and hoping all the grid plates were still in place, Cody eased forward and paused, testing the weight and stability of the crossing with the front wheels, prepared to quickly back up if there was any question of continuing.
Anna grunted and gave a weak, wet cough. That was all he needed. “Y'all hang on.”
Swallowing his terror, Cody drove onto the old bridge in a slow roll, focusing his eyes on the far side, allowing the car to maintain a constant speed while the water gushed only inches under the floorboard. The sedan plowed a wake ten yards, twenty, and they were halfway across when he heard John's voice. “Oh, my God.”
Cody's head snapped to the right, stunned to see a huge oak tree rolling in the current, heading right for them. They all knew that when it hit, it would take the bridge down as if it were made of matchsticks.
The minute we got back home I told Miss Becky I needed to call Uncle Cody.
“He's working.”
“I know, but this is about law work.”
Norma Faye thought for a moment, fingers stuck in the front pockets of her jeans. “Can it wait?”
“No. I don't think so.”
Miss Becky tilted her head toward the telephone table. “Go ahead on, then.”
I dialed the sheriff's office, but it was so late no one answered. I tried dispatch. “This is Top Parker.”
Martha Wells' voice softened. “Top, hon, I can't talk right now.”
“I need to tell Uncle Cody something.”
She hesitated. “Hon, he can't talk right now. He's on the way to the hospital with someone who's hurt.”
“Who?”
“Somebody, but it's gonna be all right. I'll take a message and give it to him.”
“No. Thanks.”
I hung up and dialed again, a number I'd memorized a long time ago.
“What? It's late.”
“Judge O.C.?”
His voice changed. “Top?”
“Yessir.”
“You all right? Is Becky okay?”
“Yessir, we're fine, but I have to tell you something to tell Uncle Cody. It's the only way I know to get the message to him.”
“He's busy right now, son.”
“I know it, that's why I'm calling you.”
“I'm listening.”
I told him about my dreams, about the horse, and the grass. “Mr. O.C., it all means something, but I don't know what.”
He knew all about our family's Poisoned Gift, and how it figured into the Rock Hole kidnapping a few years earlier. I could hear his chair creaking through the phone line while he rocked back and forth, thinking.
“All right. I'll let him know as soon as he gets to where we can talk.”
Not having anything else to say, I simply hung up. The phone jangled with our ring. “Hello?”
“I have a collect call from Flagstaff, Arizona, from a Miss Beatrice Parker. Will you accept the charges?”
I laughed out loud. “Sure!”
Beatrice Parker.
It was Pepper.
Rain continued to fall.
Torn from its roots by the floodwaters a half a mile upstream, the great oak tree joined a mass of limbs, smaller trees, boards, and other debris rushing downstream over the deepest part of the old channel. Weighing well over forty tons, the old goliath headed directly toward the weakest portion of the bridge, a questionable point in the arch that long ago had rusted badly enough to lose over half of its original strength.
If the oak didn't take the bridge out upon impact, the sheer weight of the water against the tree's mass would quickly shove it completely off its already compromised foundations.
“Cody, go.” Not taking his eyes off the oncoming tree, John's deep voice seemed abnormally calm, given the situation.
Terrified, Cody mashed the accelerator and the car's rear end immediately slid sideways. He gripped the wheel tightly and forced himself to let off the gas to increase his speed with agonizing deliberation as the tires dug in. Staring out of the passenger side window, John and Jim Ed couldn't take their eyes off the approaching tree.
Growling deep in his chest, Cody gave it more gas, feeling the tires slip for a frightening moment, and then regain tenuous traction. He tore his eyes off the far end of the span when an unseen log leaped out of the muddy water like a porpoise and rode over the rail. The angle was such that it rose high overhead, then the submerged portion slammed against the bridge's substructure. The entire bridge shuddered as the log stood straight up like a telephone pole.
They passed close enough to touch it.
Only a third of the way across, more water shipped through the tangle of debris against the passenger side rail. The powerful current pushed the car, and Cody instinctively steered into the flow as if he were sliding on ice, for all the good it did.
More gas.
They were halfway across and the tree seemed impossibly close.
“Gogogogogogoâ¦.” John spoke softly.
Jim Ed groaned. “Faster, hoss.”
Their speed increased on an incline so slight that none of them felt it. In addition to pushing the bridge sideways, the heavy press of water against the old steel caused a sag in the middle of the supporting arch. Feeling the tires grip, Cody sped up. Taking a chance, he glanced over to see the tree was almost on top of them. The wide branches spanned over half the width of the bridge, reaching toward them in a great swath of leafless wood.
The tree slowed as the trunk slid underneath the bridge, two-thirds of the way across with a solid crunch. The oak clutched at the structure to keep from being dragged beneath the surface and shuddered to a stop as the bridge groaned and shifted.
“Gogogogogogo!” John's voice rose.
Someone in the car made a steady,
ahhhhhh
sound. Cody barely realized it was coming from him.
They were close, damned close to the other side, when the bridge surrendered to the pressure. Bending in the middle, it sagged out and down. The main supports pulled the concrete foundation completely out of the soft ground. They rose like long, cylindrical caskets dragged out of a grave, bringing tons of dirt with them.
“Hang on!”
The car's front wheels thumped across the widening gap as the bridge separated from the crumbling pavement. The entire structure pulled free and for a moment they were twenty degrees off square. Cody stomped the gas, snatching enough momentum to carry the car over the widening void and onto level ground.
As Cody mashed the pedal to the floorboard, Jim Ed looked down at Anna's head in his hands. “She's barely with us.”
John faced forward. “Sweet Jesus!”
“What are you doing answering the phone? I figured it'd be Miss Becky.”
I couldn't believe Pepper was on the other end of the line. I must have gaped like a fish for a second, because she didn't wait for me to say anything. “Hey, I need somebody to come get me or something. Who's there?”
“What?”
“Well, Jesus. You got wax in your ears? I need to talk to Grandpa or Daddy.”
“Who is it?” Miss Becky asked.
Wait a second
, I mouthed while Pepper kept talking.
“Give the phone to somebody else, will ya? At least
they'll
talk back. Where
is
Daddy anyway, or Mama? I called the house but it didn't do nothing but ring and ring. I want somebody to come get me. This idea wasn't all it was cracked up to be.”
The back door opened behind Miss Becky and Norma Faye, and Aunt Ida Belle came through the kitchen. Setting her purse on the table, she paused. “What's going on?”
“Are you gonna say something, or what, dumbass? This is a collect call! I've never made one of them before.”
I grinned wide. “Sure. Where are you?”
“I'm in Flagstaff, Arizona, and believe me, this ain't no place I want to live, that's for damn sure.”
Aunt Ida Belle came into the living room. “Did something happen?”
All three women were staring at me and I grinned wider. “Wait a minute.” I enjoyed the moment, because I knew that in about two seconds I was gonna make their day. I held the receiver out and put one finger in my ear. “Which one of y'all wants to talk to Pepper?”
It took longer than Cody had hoped to find a way back to the highway and on to Chisum. From there it was a short drive along the nearly deserted highway. Several Catholic sisters were waiting outside St. Joseph Hospital's emergency room entrance along with a doctor when Cody came in fast and skidded to a stop in front of the emergency room.
Despite being highly trained and experienced nurses, Sister Angelica yanked the door open and hesitated, stunned at the sight of the bloody, half-nude woman in the arms of the black deputy. Anna's clothes were tangled around her shoulders and when they reached in to take her from John's arms, they rode up even higher. It took the sisters a full second to snap out of their shock and swing into action.
One of the nurses attempted to throw a blanket over her as they laid her on the gurney, but the doctor took immediate control. He pointed toward Anna's chest. “What's this tape for?”
“Lung wound.” Jim Ed climbed out of the backseat. He was as bloody as John. “She took a shotgun blast.”
The doctor studied Cody, then John. “Good work, men.”
With practiced moves, they all disappeared into the elderly hospital, leaving the three lawmen standing alone in the empty entrance. Protected from the rain by a large overhang, Jim Ed shifted from one foot to the other. “Well, I guess we can go back to see if your cars are there, but I wouldn't bet a plug nickel on them be anywhere's close by.”
“Not in this rain.” Cody shook his head. Torrents of water splashed off the roof and onto the pavement, running in streams under their feet and out the other side. “Could you take us by the courthouse? I need to get a shirt and then we can come back up here to see how she's doing. She don't have any family or anything, so I'll need to hang around. Better get on the radio and tell dispatch where we are, and John, you can go on home if you want to. I bet Rachel's worried sick about you. The water could be coming up y'all's house, too.”
He nodded. He'd been thinking the same thing. “I can stay if you want.”
“We'll get you a car so you can go on.”
“Ain't you worried about your house, and Mister Ned's?”
“Naw. Their house has never flooded up on that hill, and with the new dam in place, I doubt the Sanders bottoms on the other side of the new dam will flood anyway, unless the Red backs up.”
Jim Ed radioed in, telling them that all three were safe and Anna was in the hands of the hospital staff. “I'm bringing Cody and John in with me. They don't have any cars.”
Instead of getting a response from Martha, Judge O.C.'s voice came on instead. “Sorry about Anna. Cody, you there?”
He and Jim Ed exchanged places. “Go ahead.”
“Good news! They found Pepper and she's fine.”
“Thank God.” Cody wiped his face with suddenly trembling fingers.
John's face broke into a wide grin.
“More news, too. If y'all are coming this way, I'll tell you when you get here.”
Cody bit his lip, knowing something else was coming his way.
“Be there in a minute.”
I thought there was going to be a fight to see who could get to the receiver first. Of course it was Aunt Ida Belle who wound up with it, 'cause she was her mama. She didn't hog the phone, though, but tilted it upwards so we could all hear. All three of 'em were cryin' and snifflin' to beat the band, so loud I could barely hear.
When Aunt Ida Belle started talking, it was hard to understand her through the tears. “Where are you baby? Are you all right?”
“I'm fine. I'm in Flagstaff in the Doo Bo Motel.”
Aunt Ida Belle drew a sharp breath. “Are you and Cale in the same room?”
“I ain't with him at all, and what do you think, that I have money for a motel?” I could hear the old anger in Pepper's voice. It made me so happy that my chest felt like busting wide open. “What? Oh, the manager says I said it wrong.” He spelled it for her, and she spelled “DuBeau” back to us. “I don't even have enough money to make this phone call. I'm standing here in the lobby. The manager's letting me call y'all.”
We heard him in the background for a second time. “Yeah, and that phone's for paying guests, so you better get off pretty quick.”
The next few words were muffled, so I figured Pepper moved the phone, giving the guy a piece of her mind, or a good cussin'. I hoped it was a small piece so he'd let her keep talking.
Norma Faye leaned in. “Hon, is Cale all right?”
“I don't have any idea. I'm worried sick about him. We got in a little trouble⦔
“Trouble? Oh my God!” Aunt Ida Belle liked drama, and she was so scared of the least little things that she made you want to slap your head. She was afraid of kittens, because one jumped on her leg when she was little and it scared her so bad that she couldn't even have one in a picture on a calendar. “You sure you're all right?”
“Mama, I'm fine, and I don't want to talk about it right now⦔
“Is Cale in jail?”
I could hear the frustration in Pepper's voice. “I don't
know
. I don't have any idea where he is. We got crossways with these guys on motorcycles and I busted one of 'em in the nose and some other kids in a van drug me away and took off like a bunch of stripe-ass baboons and they wouldn't let me go back to get Cale because they were as afraid as we were of them bikers and the next thing I knewâ¦well, there's a lot that's happened, but it wasn't all bad. The thing is, I haven't seen him since.”
“Don't you take no drugs at any of them dope houses, hon.”
I'm sure my expression would have gotten my jaws slapped at any other time, but none of the three noticed it. “I 'magine she's had every chance in the world to take⦔
They shushed me like I was a little ol' jabbering baby.
I heard Pepper draw a big sigh on the other end. “Did you miss the part about me being in this motel lobby? Can you have Daddy or Grandpa come get me, or send me some money to get home?”
Aunt Ida Belle shook her head like Pepper could see her. “They're out there somewhere right now, trying to find you.”
“Here in
Flagstaff?”
“They were, but the last we heard, they were in Barstow. Now, you stay right there, hon, until they come and get you.”
“This guy's not going to let me stay here that long, and besides, I'm starving to death.”
“Give me the phone.” Norma Faye held out her hand. Her voice was strong and flat, like my teacher sounded when she intended to quiet the room down. She put the receiver to her ear. “Young lady, you get that manager on the other end of this line and stay right where you are.”
There was a pause and she raised her eyebrows at us. For the first time ever, I saw a redhead's temper.
“Mister, I am Norma Faye Parker, wife to Sheriff Cody Parker here in Texas. That little girl there is his niece, so you give her a room and then you give her some money for food, and don't you let her go wandering off to get it neither. I'm good for every penny. Do you have a diner around there?”
She listened for a second, and I could tell she cut the guy off.
“I'm sure you have a wife, or a maid, or a housekeeper, or a grandmother around there somewhere. Send one of them out to get it and bring it back to her. Now, I'm going to the bank right now to wire you enough money for
two
nights and a dozen meals and⦔ She listened for a moment. “No, I don't care if she
is
fourteen, I don't want her waiting at no police station. You heard me say our people are coming for her and one of them is a lawman, Constable Ned Parker. Now, you'll have your money in an hour and after you take out for the room and food, you can keep whatever's left over. Give me the name of your motel again and the phone number and the address.” She wrote it all down. “Now, give the phone back to Pepper.”
She passed the receiver to Aunt Ida Belle and gathered up her purse. “I'm going to the bank.”
She stomped out and was gone, and I had to listen to Aunt Ida Belle fuss over Pepper. “Is that motel a clean place? You know we're clean people. Now, don't you do nothing ugly with nobody, and don't be drinking beer, neither. Drinkin's a sin⦔
I was thinking that when Pepper finally got home, everything wouldn't be sunshine and roses, not once they got hold of her. Then I heard something that about broke my heart. Pepper was sobbing into the phone, saying she was sorry, and I knew my cousin had turned a corner.
