The Edge of Town (52 page)

“Jill, Jill, it’s me!”

No! No! Get away!
She struck out with her bound hands.

“It’s Thad, Jill. Thad.” She felt hands on her shoulders. “He’ll not hurt you.”

His hands untied the knot, pulled the gag from her mouth and unwrapped the cloth from her eyes. As soon as she could see, she threw her arms around his neck and sobbed, completely unaware of the naked flesh she pressed against him.

Thad held her to him for a long moment, trying to calm her.

“He’ll not hurt you. He …may be dead. Ranger stomped on him. Are you all right now? We’ve got to get help.” He untied her hands, pulled her to her feet and covered her breast with the sweater that hung from her arms.

Thad shielded her with his arms from having to see the man on the ground, and they hurried down the path. He stopped, put his fingers to his lips and sent out several sharp urgent whistles.

“Roy was coming along behind me. I guess he stopped to see if Jack wanted to come. We were on our way to town and took the shortcut.”

“Oh, Thad, he was goin’ to … goin’ to …”

“Don’t think about it. I hear Roy comin’,” he said when he heard the thud of horse’s hooves and his younger brother came charging down the path. Roy pulled the horse to an abrupt halt when he saw them.

“What—?”

“Go back and get Jethro and the men. Hurry. There’s a hurt man back there.”

“What—?”

“Don’t ask questions. Go!”

Jill and Thad stood in the path and waited for her father to come. She leaned against him. What had happened to her was all too real. A man had come out of the woods and attacked her. She wound her arms around Thad’s waist and looked fearfully over her shoulder.

“He couldn’t get up. He can’t hurt you,” he whispered. “Your pa and the boys will be here and take you home.”

Minutes later, Jethro, riding with Roy on his horse, arrived and Jill flew into his arms.

“Papa! Papa! A man pulled me off the path and threw me down. If Thad hadn’t come, he’d have—he was goin’ to—”

“You don’t have to say it, honey.” Jethro tried to choke down his rage. He hugged his daughter—his feisty, mouthy little girl who meant the world to him—and silently swore that he’d kill the bastard that hurt her.

“Roy said there was a hurt man, is it … the one who did this?”

“Yeah. He’s back there a ways. He—” Thad stopped when Joe, Jack and Evan arrived, all breathless from running.

“Take care of your sister, Jack.” Jethro gently moved Jill to her brother. “There’s a lantern on the wagon—”

“I brought it, Pa,” Joe said.

“Light it, and let’s go see the son-of-a-bitch.”

“He may be dead,” Thad hastened to say. “Ranger stomped him.”

“If he isn’t, he’ll wish he was.” Jethro was shaking with rage.

Jill and Jack stayed on the darkened path, while Joe, with the lantern, led the party to where a man lay not ten feet back into the woods. The light shone on his blood-splattered face and into thick blond hair. His eyes were open and he was breathing hard.

“Godamighty,” Jethro gasped when he recognized the man. There were similar exclamations from the others.

Ron Poole, the owner of the hardware store, a member of the City Council, the organizer of the baseball team, lay in his own blood, looking up defiantly at the men who stared down at him.

“Did you know who he was, Thad?” Jethro asked.

“Not till after Ranger stomped him. I didn’t tell Jill.”

“You sorry son-of-a-bitch. I should kill you.”

“Go…ahead. I’m goin’ to die anyway.” Blood came from the corner of Ron’s mouth.

“No. You need to suffer for what you did to my girl.”

Evan pulled Jethro aside. “We should try to keep him alive until Appleby gets here.”

“Why? The sooner he’s dead, the better I’ll like it.”

“For the record and for Thad’s sake, Appleby needs to see him and hear what Jill has to say. We don’t want someone like Weaver to try and pin a murder charge on the boy.”

“I see what you mean.”

“We can take a side board off the wagon and get him to the house. Meanwhile, send someone for Appleby and the doctor.”

“All right. I’m just so angry, I can’t think.”

“Roy,” Evan said, “lend Joe your horse so he can get into town and bring back Chief Appleby and the doc. Ernie”—he motioned to his hired man—“you and Thad go back to the wagon and bring a side board to put him on so we can carry him out of here.” Jethro told Jason to drive the team to the edge of the woods so the wagon wouldn’t be far away.

“Joe,” Evan said when Joe was mounted on Roy’s horse. “Don’t tell them who it is if there’s anyone around to hear. Have them hurry. We should be at the house by the time they get there.”

Jethro was grateful that Evan took charge. So many questions roamed around in his mind. Julie had told him what Evan had said about Walter Johnson being unable to have intercourse. Could this son-of-a-bitch be the man who had raped Julie?

Evan squatted down beside Ron. He wrapped a black cloth he’d found nearby around his head to stop the flow of blood. The horse’s hoof had scraped the side of Ron’s head and his ear hung by an inch of skin. A short, thinbladed boot knife lay in the grass not far from him.

Ron’s eyes roamed. A broken arm was extended out from his body; his other hand clutched his side.

“I … coulda liked you, Johnson.” Evan didn’t say anything. “You stood out from these hicks … like a sore thumb.”

“Better save your breath, Poole. You’ll need it when we move you.”

“Hand me that pig-sticker over there and I’ll save you the trouble.”

“No. It would be over too fast.”

“Well, then I’ll just make you mad enough to use it on me yourself.”

“Go ahead and try.”

“I hear that you’re going to marry Julie Jones. When you take her to bed, remember that I had her when she was just fifteen. I’m the one who broke her in. I still remember how tight and sweet she was.” He chuckled, and blood bubbled from his lips. “She was so scared, I came in her before I wanted to. Whataya think of that?”

“Not much. She told me that she’d been raped,” Evan replied calmly.

“Joy is my kid. She’ll never be yours.”

“She’ll be mine. Thank God she’ll never know you.”

“I wanted her to know. I was going to tell her someday.”

“You won’t get the chance now.”

“She’d a had a little cousin if that damn kid hadn’t come along. I been letting the pot boil for a couple of weeks and I was horny as hell.”

“Bet your wife appreciated that.”

“My wife!” His voice was filled with contempt. “That stupid woman fooled me; she knew she couldn’t have kids when I married her. Ever since I grew up alone in that orphanage, I’ve wanted kids of my own. Well, I’ve taken care of that. I must have at least eighteen. When Ron Poole goes, there’ll be part of him left. Good kids with sweet clean virgin mothers. I picked them young, broke them in myself. The more they struggled, the more I knew that they were fit to bear Ron Poole’s children, to keep my line going.”

“You’re a peach of a fellow, Poole.”

“Too bad about the one that got a look at me. She had to go, if I was to keep spreading my seed.”

“Which one was that?”

“Doesn’t matter. It happened down south. I been lookin’ forward to Jill. Almost shot my wad as soon as I touched her.” Blood slid from the corner of his mouth.”

“You’re sick, did you know that?”

“Maybe. But I figure I’ve got eighteen or more kids scattered around over the country. How many you got?”

“You’ll not have any more. I doubt you’ll last out the night.”

“I want Joy at my funeral.”

“You’ll be in hell. Why should you care who’s at your funeral?”

Jethro’s head was pounding with all he had heard. He had to leave before he kicked the man to death. He began pacing up and down the path and finally went back to where Jill waited with Jack.

“I thought I told you to take her home,” he said crossly.

“You didn’t, Pa. You said stay and take care of her.”

“Sorry, son.” Jethro’s voice softened. “I should have told you to take her home. It’ll be a while before we can get him out of here. Tell Julie to fix a place in the barn. I don’t want the bastard in my house.”

“Roy came back and said it was Ron Poole. I can’t believe he’d do such a thing, Pa.”

“Some people have bad stuff buried deep inside. Are you all right, honey?” He put his hand on Jill’s shoulder and peered into her face.

“Is he dead?”

“Not yet. You go on home with Jack. Julie will take care of you. The doctor is coming. Do you want to see him?”

“No! Papa, don’t make me.”

“You don’t have to see him if you don’t want to. Here comes Thad and Ernie with the board. Jack, take Jill to the wagon and help Jason get it home.”

* * *

Light shone from the lanterns in the yard and in the barn when Evan, Ernie, Jethro and Thad walked into the yard carrying Ron Poole on the board. He was alive and cursing them every step of the way. Ron was a big man and they were exhausted.

Jack held open the barn door. He had forked fresh hay into the stall nearest the door. After lowering the board, they moved out of the stall. Ernie left immediately to go back to Evan’s place to do chores.

Jack got his first look at the man who had tried to rape his sister.

He stood over him and spat. “I thought you were the nicest man in town, but you’re nothing but a pile of … shit.”

“Do me a favor, kid, and cut my throat. If you don’t have the guts, get me a knife and I’ll do it.”

“I wouldn’t give you a horse turd.”

Ron’s lips curled back away from his teeth. “Then get the hell away from me.”

Joe came into the barn to get a sack to wipe down Roy’s horse. “They’re coming. I cut across the field.”

A minute or two later, car lights came down the lane. Corbin Appleby and Dr. Forbes, with a bag in his hand, got out of the car. Jethro motioned them to the barn, where Evan waited beside Ron.

“No,” Evan was saying. “Absolutely not!” He got to his feet to make room for Corbin and the doctor.

“What’s he wanting?” Jethro asked.

Evan motioned him out of the stall. They moved down the aisle toward the door.

“He wants to see Joy.”

“Jesus Christ.” The words exploded from Jethro. “He’ll tell Appleby and Doc.”

“Better them than some others. They’re good men. They’ll not say anything if you ask them not to. Does Joe know what happened to Julie?”

“He knows.”

“We’ll keep everyone else out. I want to see Julie.”

Evan walked toward the house. Jethro lingered in the doorway of the barn. It was strange being here in his own barn, hearing the murmur of voices as the doctor and the police chief talked to Ron Poole.

Julie had made coffee. Evan could smell it as soon as he opened the door. The table was set for supper, and only Joy was eating. The others sat with coffee cups in their hands, even Jason.

“Evan, Jason’s got coffee,” Joy yelled. “Julie said I was too little.”

“And you are, sugarplum. But you’re not too little to give me a kiss.” Evan bent over and Joy planted a wet kiss on his cheek. He hugged her head to him while his eyes caught Julie’s across the table.

Are you all right, Jill?” he asked as he went around behind Jill and put his hand on her shoulder.