The Homecoming: Countdown to Armageddon: Book 5 (14 page)

     “It’s a fine line he’s walking with little Chris. Teacher, mentor, father. But he’s mastered it in no time at all. You’ll see when you get back, and you’ll be supremely proud of him. And you’ll agree with me, too. He’d be a fine nurse.”

     “Well, I have been gone for way too long, and I have missed seeing him grow into a man. So I’ll take you at your word. But if you don’t take this opportunity to go to nursing school, what will you do?”

     She hesitated, but only slightly, and a warm smile came over her face.

     “Well, I’ve already talked to Tom Haskins about it, but I swore him to secrecy until I could tell you myself. But I’ve already decided I want a career as a peace officer. To enforce the laws, sure. But to help people in other ways, too. And there would be times when I’d be called upon to deliver a baby, or to help apply first aid to an accident victim. So I’d need some first aid training also.

     But I think my biggest strength, and where I could most empathize and help people, would be those circumstances when I interviewed young girls about the monsters who were abusing them. Or maybe wives who were being beaten by abusive husbands. Women who were unable or unwilling to help their children because they themselves were victims.

     “I mean, if I couldn’t spot the victims and empathize with them and help them get out of those situations, then who else could?”

     “Do you think maybe that’s the situation your mom was in?”

     “I’ve gone back and forth for years. At times I’ve tried not to judge her too harshly, in case she was a trapped victim herself. But then again, I never saw any bruises or other proof. It was just a feeling I had. To this day I don’t know. And in all likelihood I’ll probably never find out. But I sure would like to know.”

     “I think Becky might be able to help you answer that question once and for all.”

     Sara gave him a puzzled look, but he didn’t elaborate.

     Instead, he asked a pointed question.

     “So, you’ve discussed this with Jordan, I assume? Please tell me you haven’t decided to move to San Antonio to become a cop. As much as I love this city and its police force, I’m not going back to the compound just to see the three of you move away.”

     Sara laughed.

     “Don’t worry. As I said, I’ve already talked extensively to Tom about it. As soon as you’re settled in enough to babysit Christopher during the days, he’s going to take me under his wing and make me his newest deputy sheriff.”

     Scott mulled the thought and seemed okay with it. But he had one last question.

     “A little while ago when I pulled you away from Scarlett, you said you were concerned about a couple of things. You were concerned that you hadn’t met Becky. You never mentioned the other thing. What was it?”

     “Well, actually Scarlett
was
the other thing.”

     “I don’t follow you.”

     “Scarlett had to stop and catch her breath a couple of times while she was showing me around. Also, she seemed to have some discomfort in her midsection, although she tried to play it off. Do you think you could ask Becky to take her aside and make sure she’s okay?”

     “You’re a very observant little thing, aren’t you?”

     “It’s a gift.”

     “A keen observation is a gift that could be put to great use in the medical profession.”

     Sara smiled.

     “Or as a law enforcement officer.”

     “Touche. It’s probably nothing. She probably just ate some of her own cooking and has indigestion. But I’ll ask Becky to check into it. Now then, my dear. Shall we rejoin the party?”

     “Why, certainly.”

              -27-

     At just after two p.m., Randy Rhodes pulled his own police cruiser onto Baker Street and sounded a short bleep from his siren to announce his arrival. All heads turned, and more than one head shook from side to side.

     “Showoff,” Scott murmured, but without a hint of animosity.

     “Hey, who’s that he has with him?” Sara asked.

     Scott responded, “Well, I’ll be damned.”

     Randy and Becky stepped out of the patrol car. Randy yelled to Scott, “Hey Scott, I picked this dame up from the hospital and gave her a ride. I think she belongs to you.”

     Then, in a great show of mock sincerity, he turned to Becky and said, “I beg your pardon, ma’am. I didn’t mean to call you a dame.”

     Then he turned back toward Scott and shouted, “I didn’t mean
dame.
I meant
broad.
”

     A hush fell over most of the crowd and some of the men winced. A couple of the women looked slightly peeved. But to Randy, there was no going back.

     “What? I could have said
floozy
, but that would have been tacky.”

     Becky, used to Randy’s antics, responded in a loud voice, “If you say anything else, you’ll say it in a high pitched squeaky voice.”

     The men winced again, the women smiled, and Randy wisely said nothing more.

     Becky rushed over to Scott and kissed him.

     “Hiya, Doll. I thought you weren’t getting off until four.”

     “Things were slow for a change. They decided they didn’t want my company after all and made me leave. I was very offended.”

     “Oh, I seriously doubt that. Come here with me. There’s a delightful young lady I’d like you to meet.”

     The two worked their way through the crowd, fielding hugs and well wishes from their friends. Many of them were secretly jealous that the pair was ready to make the break from the city and lead a more laid-back country existence, but no one begrudged them the opportunity. The sentiments expressed were genuine and heartfelt. Each of them had open invitations to visit anytime, provided they could find a way up to the compound and back. The number of working vehicles had increased substantially by this time, but could only keep pace with the factories in Ohio and Oklahoma City putting out new batteries and kits for rebuilding starters, alternators and electronic ignitions.

     For most people, a ride in a vehicle was an exceedingly rare treat.

     Still, Scott would accommodate his friends as much as possible, by coming to visit every few weeks and offering to drop off a friend or two and pick up another on each trip.

     His only admonishment: “If you’re coming back with me to stay at the compound for a few weeks, it won’t be all fun and games. You’ll have to help out by pulling your share of the load whenever there’s work to do.”

     No one seemed to mind the prospect of helping out.

     Oddly enough, though, no one expressed an interest in visiting the compound during the planting or harvesting seasons.

     Scott and Becky found young Sara cornered by Tony, who was showing off his repertoire of card tricks, and who was just inebriated enough to screw them all up. Sara, instead of being put off, thought the show was hilarious.

     “Wait a minute, Tony. That’s not the card I selected. I selected the ace of diamonds.”

     “Uh… right. Hold on, let me try again.”

     Sara winked at Scott and Becky as they walked up.

     “Okay, Sara. Here it is. The ace of diamonds.”

     “No, Tony, not the ace. The eight. The eight of diamonds.”

     “Oh, crap. Let me try again.”

     Tony had met his match in Sara Harter, and somehow he sensed it.

     “Sara, we’ve come to rescue you from Tony,” Becky said.

     Tony groaned.

     “Sheesh. I was hoping you’d rescue me from her.”

     Sara, ever the kind soul, smiled a wicked grin and kissed Tony on the cheek.

     “Tony, I have a feeling we’ll be the best of friends. But not when you’ve been drinking, and certainly not until you learn some better card tricks.”

     “Yeah, well. Okay. I’ll settle for being your friend when I’m sober. And thanks for not trying to avoid me just because I’ve had a couple of drinks, like all the other hot chicks do.”

     Sara smiled.

     “You’re welcome, my newest and slightly tipsy friend. And thank you. I think there was a compliment wrapped up in there somewhere.”

     Sara wrapped her arms around Becky and they got to know one another as Scott led Tony back to the party. When Scott returned ten minutes later, the women still held each other, only this time tears were streaming down each of their faces.

     Sensing that whatever thoughts and emotions were passing between them probably didn’t need an interloper, he wisely opted to bypass them and mingle with other friends instead.

     But the sight of the two sharing such a tender moment did pique his interest. He caught Becky alone twenty minutes later after one of Sara’s new friends kidnapped her to try out her campfire cobbler.

     “I didn’t want to interrupt, but now I’m curious. What were all the tears about?”

     “Remember not long ago I tried to help you find out Sara’s old address, so you could check it for bodies?”

     “Yes. You said that her mom’s name, Stacy McAllister, sounded familiar to you, but you couldn’t say exactly why. Then you checked some old treatment logs and found out she’d been treated several times for what appeared to be physical abuse.”

     “Yes. According to our records, she always came in on school days, mid to late morning, once Sara was safely off to school and wouldn’t find out about her visits. Glen was careful to abuse her where it wouldn’t show or could be easily hidden. The arms and legs during cold weather months, the midsection any time of year. Kicks, bruises, scrapes and cuts, even cigarette burns. A couple of times we suspected cracked or broken ribs and tried to admit her, but she always refused.”

     “Why didn’t you notify the police?”

     “Legally, there was nothing we could do. We knew she was abused, but we can’t force a patient to accept treatment or be admitted to the hospital. All we could do was advise them about available shelters for battered women, make sure their injuries weren’t life threatening, sew them up and prescribe some pain medicine, and make sure they had a ride home. And in her case, Glen was always sitting outside in a car, waiting for her to come out. I remember once, standing outside the emergency room, watching the poor woman limp to the car. The first thing she did was hand over the small bottle of pain medicine we gave her to Glen. I wanted to scream.”

     “How did she explain away the injuries?”

     “To hear her tell it, she was the clumsiest woman alive. She’d claim to have slipped in the tub, or fallen down the stairs, or tripped over a curb. As for the cigarette burns, she’d say she fell asleep while watching television and the lit cigarette fell out of her hand and onto her breast. And I’d say, ‘four times in one day?’ And she’d just look away.

     “One of the easiest ways to tell a woman is lying is by trying to look her in the face. We tried to gain her trust so she’d know we were on her side. In her case, she’d always look away. She’d never look us directly in the eyes. I remember wanting to shake her, to make her wake up. I wanted to scream at her to help us save her life, before he went too far and accidentally killed her.

     “I don’t know why, but it just never occurred to me that there might be another victim in the same household, suffering a different kind of abuse.

     “I told Sara what I knew, all of it, and she was shocked. All those years, she was caught up in her own abuse, and hating her mother for not protecting her own daughter.

     “Now she has a more complete picture. I think she may need your support now more than ever.”

     “Oh? How so? Why?”

     “She made a comment to me that’s very telling of the kind of person she is. She said, ‘All that time, I was just worried about myself, being selfish and wanting her to come and rescue me. I never once thought that maybe she had her own abuse to deal with. Maybe I had it all wrong. Maybe if I hadn’t been thinking of myself the whole time, I’d have realized that it was
her
who needed to be rescued.’”

     “In any event, it sounds like her mom finally got the gumption to end the problem once and for all. I hope the slimeball rots in hell.”

     “Yes. She solved that problem, but created another one.”

     Scott just looked at Becky, not understanding.

     “Most of the tears Sara was shedding were tears of guilt. Now that she sees her mom for what she was, a victim just like herself, she sees her as fragile and vulnerable. And it terrifies her that her mother is out there, alone in a vicious world, looking for Sara. She wants to protect her.”