Dorothy Garlock - [Route 66] (32 page)

“Will ya get the doctor if I get sick, Ma?”

“I will, Luke. I promise.” Hazel hugged the small boy to her.

Yates untied the rope he'd used to tie Ernie's legs together. He and Deke hauled him to his feet.

“Are you going to walk to the car or do I have to knock you out and drag you?”

“Let me do it, Yates,” Deke said. “Let me hit him one more time.”

“Yeah, ya ugly little bastard.” Ernie snarled. “The only way you can get to me is with my hands tied behind my back.”

“From the looks of your mouth, Deke got in a few good licks.” Yates opened the back door of his car and pushed Ernie in. He landed on his back. Yates grabbed his feet and twisted the rope around them again. “You look pretty good trussed up like a hog. Smell like one, too!”

“What about my cycle,
Okie?
It better be here when I get back or your ass will be mud.”

“Don't worry. I'll take care of the cycle. If you don't have the money you stole from Miss Kinnard, the judge will give her the cycle.”

“She's my wife, you stupid shit! The money she had belonged to both of us.”

“She says not and I believe her. That woman has too much sense to tie up to a small-caliber dumb-ass like you. Here's a sack from the store, Deke. Take it to Leona and tell her that I'll be back as soon as I can.” Yates got into the car. “It'll just be my luck that Virgil will show up while I'm gone and I'll miss out on the fun again.”

“If he comes, I won't hurt him until you get here.”

Yates drove leisurely into town admiring Deke's courage and entertained by the constant flow of threats and curses coming from the man in the backseat of his car. He stopped on the side of the courthouse that housed the Sheriff's Department and noticed only one police car there. He hoped it was the one Sheriff McChesney used. He didn't have the patience right now to deal with Deputy Ham.

“Don't go away. I'll be right back,” Yates said to Ernie when he left the car, obviously enjoying the man's discomfort.

McChesney was standing in the doorway talking to one of the men Yates had seen in the barbershop.

“Thanks for coming in, Gerald. I'll take care of it.” The man walked away. McChesney gave Yates an irritated look. “What do you want?”

“That's a fine way to treat a law-abiding citizen who's been doing your work. I've got a customer for you.”

“Yeah? Who?”

“Let's sit down and talk about it.”

“When are you leaving town, Yates?” The sheriff moved behind his desk and sat down.

“Why does that concern you?” Yates took the roundbacked chair and stretched his long legs out in front of him.

“I have the feeling that trouble follows you wherever you go. Are you here to tell me why Andy's girl ran away and where she was hiding out?”

“She wasn't hiding. She was taken and kept against her will.”

Sheriff McChesney straightened in his chair. “Who?” he demanded crisply.

“I'm not at liberty to tell you just yet. Someone found her and brought her home. She's all right.”

“Then someone collected the reward for bringing her home.”

“Not yet, but I'll see that he gets it.”

“Are you planning on taking the law in your own hands?”

“Nooo.” Yates drew the word out, then added, “Not until I get a few more facts.”

“Are you saying that she was kidnapped?”

“I'm not saying anything …yet.”

“Since the Lindbergh baby, kidnapping is a federal offense.”

“Yeah, I heard that.”

“Well, dammit, Yates, if you know something, spill it.”

“When I know more, you'll be the first to know after I beat the holy shit out of the one who took her.”

The sheriff sprang to his feet. “Dammit, Yates! You're a aggravating cuss.”

Yates laughed and stood. “Is that all you can say, 'dammit Yates'?”

“If you know who took that girl, I want to know who it was …now!”

“I don't know who took her. I've a faint idea where she was and who brought her home, but I'm not saying until I can prove it.”

“Have it your way.” McChesney sat back down. “If I find out that you're withholding evidence about a kidnapping, I'll do everything in my power to send you to jail.”

“Fair enough. I'd expect no less. Now about the
customer
I brought to occupy one of your jail cells. This man is a real horse's patoot. His name's Ernie Harding.”

Ten minutes later the sheriff and Yates walked out to his car. Ernie was lying half-on and half-off the seat. He was wet with sweat and mad as a stepped-on snake.

“He thinks he's hot now,” Yates taunted and winked at the sheriff. “He'll sweat a bucket full when he's busting rocks at McCalester with the other cons.” He untied Ernie's feet and pulled him out of the car.

“Who is filing charges?”

“A girl named Margie Kinnard. He's not only a thief, he's a bully. While he was beating the hockey out of Deke Bales, he took time out to knock a pregnant woman to the ground.”

“Was the woman hurt?”

“Don't know yet.”

“He's twice the size of Deke.”

“And twice the size of the woman he stole from. If I wasn't such a law-abiding citizen, I'd take him out in the country and go through him like a hot chili pepper going through a gringo.”

“The little shithead came at me with a tire iron,” Ernie snarled.

“Deke's smart enough to know a bull-headed blow-hard when he sees one. This is one big, bad hombre, Sheriff. He steals money from a little slip of a girl and goes on down the highway, leaving her to fend for herself.”

“I didn't steal anything, Sheriff. The money belonged to both me and my wife.”

“The girl says she isn't married to this buzzard. She agreed to pay gas and food for a ride to California. He stole her money and left her in Andy's campground.” Yates's tone was no longer teasing.

“Bring the girl in and I'll take her statement. Meanwhile, I'll put this bird in a cell for safekeeping.”

“It may be tomorrow morning before I can bring her in.”

“That's all right. Tomorrow, a week from tomorrow. The judge won't hear the case for a week anyhow. I'll give this boy a swatter and put him to work killing flies back in the cells. If he doesn't work, he doesn't eat.”

“Do you think he can handle that job?”

“If he can't handle it, I can put him to work cleaning out the septic tank.”

“Shit-work. He'd understand that,” Yates taunted. “He doesn't know a bee from a bullfoot, Sheriff. He's not got enough brains to hold his ears apart much less aim a fly swatter.”

The sheriff had just removed the rope from the prisoner's hands and was putting on the handcuffs when Ernie's temper exploded. He broke loose and dived for Yates, swinging his ham-like fists. He had made only two steps when a rockhard fist, aimed with precision, slammed into his jaw. He hit the ground like a pole-axed steer.

The sheriff looked down on his prisoner, then up at Yates with disgust. He poked Ernie with his booted foot. Ernie didn't move.

“Dad-burnit, Yates. Why'd you have to do that?”

“I was afraid I'd not get a chance to hit him, but he took the bait.” Yates's grin was one of pure pleasure. “Sorry I hit him so hard.”

“I don't care that you hit him, but now I've got to drag him to the cell.”

“I'll help you. I'll drag him all the way to the Texas line if you'll let me hit him again.”

Chapter 26

L
EONA AND DEKE WAITED FOR MR. HAYES
to get the Ford started. He ground on the starter until Deke feared he'd run down the battery. Then finally it caught

“Give it a little more gas,” Deke yelled. “Don't let it die and don't turn it off till ya get there.” They watched as the car crept out onto the highway. Mrs. Hayes waved. Leona waved back.

“Mr. Hayes must love her very much. He was so worried about her he was shaking. Do you think she'll be all right?”

“Didn't the doctor say so, darlin'?”

“After the doctor swabbed the girls' throats, I asked him to look at Mrs. Hayes. He said she could deliver at any time, but she wasn't showing signs of labor yet. He thought they had time to get on down to Erick where Mr. Hayes's brother lives. Mr. Hayes told the doctor right up front that he didn't have money to pay, but as soon as he did, he'd send it.”

“He said the same to me, darlin'. The man's poor as dirt, but he's got pride.”

“To save his pride, Doctor Langley said that if he'd come out here, especially to see Mrs. Hayes, he would expect pay, but that as long as he was already being paid to make the call, there was no charge.”

“That was decent of Doc. Yates said he was an all-right sort of feller.”

“You gave Mr. Hayes some money, didn't you?”

“Ya got a eagle eye, darlin'. I gave him a dollar.”

“Take it out of the garage money, Deke.”

“No. The dollar was for jumpin in when that feller had me down.”

“I saw him on the grinder sharpening tools while his wife was resting.”

“Yeah, that was 'cause I put a patch on his tire.”

“Deke Bales! You don't want anyone to know it, but you've got a heart of gold.”

“My mama likes me.” He laughed, obviously pleased by her praise, and went to put gas in a car that had stopped at the pump. “And you do, too, darlin',” he said over his shoulder.

When Yates returned, he talked to Deke for a few minutes, then went to the house.

“Come eat,” Leona called when she heard his step on the porch. His eyes drank in the sight of her as he followed her to the kitchen where Margie was putting a bowl of green beans and new potatoes on the table. “It's a good thing we cooked plenty or there wouldn't have been anything left for you. We invited Mr. and Mrs. Hayes to eat with us.” Leona took a pan of cornbread from the oven.

“Do you do that often?” he teased, wanting her to look at him.

“Do what often?”

“Take folks in off the road and invite them to dinner.”

“We do it every once in a while. Wash up. Margie and I are anxious to hear what happened when you took Ernie to the sheriff.”

While he ate, he gleefully told them that Ernie had given him the opportunity to hit him.

“The sheriff had untied him and was putting on the handcuffs when he came at me. My only regret is that I hit him so hard, he didn't wake up until after we'd gotten him in his cell. He's such a mouthy cuss, he'd have given me another chance to tie into him.

“Margie, you'll have to go in and file charges against Ernie in order to get your money back. He had twenty-eight dollars in his pocket when the sheriff searched him.”

“Only twenty-eight dollars?” Margie's worried eyes looked away from Yates. “The dirty rat! I wonder what he did with the rest of it.”

“My guess is that he got in a card game and lost it. He may have thought you had more money hidden somewhere and came back to find it.”

“He played a lot of cards back in Conway. I never told him how much money I had. Did he think I would be foolish enough to go with him again?”

“He thought you'd be glad to see a familiar face.” Leona got up to chip more ice for the tea.

“If I could get the twenty-eight dollars back, I'd buy a bus ticket and go back home.”

“You'd go back to Conway?” Leona asked.

“I know that I could get a job there. I could start saving up again. And …I've got friends.”

“But no relatives?”

Margie hesitated. “My …daddy is there, but he doesn't have much use for me.” She tossed her head, dismissing the subject. “Twenty-eight dollars isn't enough to get me to California and keep me until I find a job, but it's enough to get me back home.”

“California isn't a place for a girl alone without friends or] relatives,” Yates said. “A man works all day in a field for a dollar. You would probably pick half as much and earn two bits.”

“I have a half-brother in Bakersville. I don't know him. I wrote to him once, but he didn't answer.”

“You could write to him again,” Leona said.

“No. He knows that I exist and has never made an attempt to know me. I will not put myself in the embarrassing position of having him turn me away. You've been to California?” Margie asked Yates.

“Yeah, a couple of times.”

“Have you been to Hollywood?”

“Just drove through it.”

“You have? Did you see any movie stars?”

“I saw Charlie Chaplin and Charles Farrell.”

“You did? Did you see Janet Gaynor?”

“Only in
Seventh Heaven .”
He smiled at Margie's wideeyed interest in the movie stars.

“I saw that in Joplin. My favorites are Janet Gaynor, Gloria Swanson and Greta Garbo, who is so beautiful and quiet. She gives me the shivers.”

“I like the western movies with Tom Mix or Hoot Gibson.” Yates looked at Leona and winked.

“Tom Mix.” Margie sighed. “Why didn't you try to get in the movies, Mr. Yates? You're as good-looking as Tom Mix. Oh …” Margie's face turned a beet red.

Leona got up to refill his tea glass.

“Me?” Yates let out a whoop of laughter. “I liked California but not enough to stay there. The climate is great for growing things. There are large camps of people out there waiting to pick oranges, lemons or other produce as soon as they're ready.”

“Mr. Yates? When do you think I can get my money back from Ernie?”

“The sheriff thought the judge would be back in town tonight or tomorrow. I'll take you in to talk to him.”

“Then I'll go back home.” She looked quickly at Leona. “But before I go, I'll help you can the beans and put up the pickles.”

“It's been nice having you here,” Leona said. “Not only for the help, but for company.”

“I thank my lucky stars that Ernie didn't dump me some other place.”

“Aunt Lee!” Ruth Ann came to lean against Leona. “When will we know if we're going to be sick with diphtheria?”

“The doctor said only a few days. Mr. Fleming will take the swabs to the city tomorrow. Then tomorrow or the next day he'll bring your daddy home.”

“Will you be going then, Mr. Yates?”

“Not for a day or two.” His eyes went to Leona. “I'll wait until your daddy's on his feet.”

“I wish you would stay.”

“Thanks, sugarfoot. I never thought I'd hear you say that. I'd better go see if Deke wants to go home.”