The Switch (6 page)

Chapter 9

The remainder of the day was
uneventful except for the long slow rides up the hills. Since they left Paducah
the hills seemed to be getting even longer. The rides coasting down the long
hills were fun, but the climbs were killers.

As they approached Nashville
John was riding far ahead of the others, well over a half mile. As he neared a
bridge over a river, he heard a woman screaming from the direction of the
river. He stopped his bike at the edge of the bridge and leaned it against the
guardrail to be sure the family saw it when they neared. He held his .22 rifle
ready as he slowly and silently crept down the embankment towards the river.

He heard the woman screaming
in terror, “Please stop, please don’t.”

He allowed gravity to slide
him slowly through the grass down the embankment about ten feet. From that
position he was at the edge of a concrete retaining wall. He raised his head
above the wall just enough to allow him to see across the river. About forty
yards away he saw a woman naked on her back. She was being raped! The man
raping her was white, with long hair well past his shoulders. There was a black
man lying on the ground beside them. That man was not moving and appeared he
might be dead. A young black girl was tied to the bridge above the naked woman.
The girl was hiding her face in her arms. 

The situation was very clear obvious.
John rested the rifle over the concrete retaining wall moved the cross hairs of
the scope on the back of the white man’s head. He took a deep breath and
squeezed the trigger.

With the crack of the rifle
discharge the man’s neck jerked stiff and he fell to the ground beside the
woman.

John quickly refocused the
rifle on the man as he lay twitching on the ground. The scope provided a clear
view of the blood on the back of the man’s head, exactly where he had aimed the
bullet.

He sat there a long minute
trying to regain his composure. His hands were sweating and shaking.

The woman sat up and crawled
over to the black man, who was still not moving. She seemed to be oblivious to
the gun shot. She was aware the white man had stopped rapping her but she had
not even looked across the river in John’s direction.

John crawled up the bank and
re-slung the rifle over his shoulder. He got onto his bike and rode across the
bridge to the other side of the stream. By this time his family was approaching
with David in the lead and riding fast; he had heard the gun shot.

John looked at David and held
a finger to his mouth indicating silence.

John waited for David to get
to him and whispered into David’s left ear, “Leave your bike here and follow
me, bring your gun and be quiet.”

He then waved his arms over
his head in the direction of the rest of the family and then held up his hands
in a dramatic way indicating they should stop and stay where they were.

He led David down the
embankment. As they rounded the concrete retaining wall the girl tied to the
bridge saw them. She looked at them with tears on her cheeks and said, “Thank
you, thank you, thank you!”

John untied her and told her
to go help her mother. She scrambled to gather her mother’s clothing and helped
her get dressed.

John pointed David to the
black man on the ground, “See if you can help him.”

John went to the man with the
bullet hole in his head and poked him with the muzzle of the rifle. The man did
not move, it was obvious he was dead. John rolled him over onto his back and
looked at his forehead for an exit hole. His right eye was bulging nearly out
of his head but the bullet did not exit his head.

John then rolled him onto his
side and searched the dead man’s pockets. He found a wallet in the hip pocket
and opened it. He found a Kentucky driver’s license with the name John Unger. Unger
was twenty-nine.

John looked up and saw Renee
and Lynn standing in the middle of the bridge looking down with alarm in their
faces.

He called up to them, “This
guy was attacking a woman. We have another man hurt down here. I think it is
the family who rode past us on the highway the other day. The father needs
help, bring the first aid kit.”  

Renee stayed on the bridge
and huddled the kids around her so they would not see what had happened.

Lynn opened the small
athletic bag tied to the rear of her bag and dug through it until she found the
small first aid kit. When she got to the black man’s side he was sitting up and
bleeding from his forehead.

The woman was calming down
and hugging her daughter. 

David and John stepped away
from the hearing of the others.

“You were right, the rifle is
dead on.”

David’s forehead was covered
in nervous sweat. “Damn John, what the hell do we do now?” He pointed to the
dead man.

“Nothing, we leave the son-of
a-bitch where he is.”

“No, I think we should at
least hide him in the bushes. There is no need to invite trouble if someone
comes looking for him. He may have some rogue friends hanging around.”             

John thought about that for
two or three seconds. “Yea, you’re right. Grab a leg and we will drag him to
that pile of brush over there.”

They each grabbed one of the
dead man’s ankles and dragged him behind a pile of brush.

David gathered a few dead
limbs and sticks and covered him as best he could. The body was not totally
hidden, but he felt comfortable that a person passing by on the bridge would
not be able to see him. He then broke a limb from a small tree and used the
limb and leaves to sweep away the marks on the ground where they dragged the
body to the pile.

John looked at David with a
slight smirk on his face. David could tell John was up to something, or at
least John was holding something back. He asked “What is going on?” 

“I took his wallet. It is
full of money.” He held up a big wad of bills.

“There must be a few thousand
dollars here. I’ll bet this guy has robbed a bunch of people the past week or
so. He has probably even killed some. He sure as hell would have killed these folks.”

David shook his head, “Let’s
get everyone back on the road. I don’t want to hang around here.”

John moved to Lynn’s side, “How
is he doing? Can he walk?”

Lynn leaned into the man’s
bloody face, Sir, can you stand up? Are you able to walk?”

He did not answer but he
pushed off the ground with his right hand and tried to stand. He wobbled and
nearly fell backwards but john grabbed his left arm and Lynn pulled on his
right. 

Lynn asked, “Can you make it
up the hill to the road?”

The man’s wife and daughter moved
to help. The wife put her hand on John’s shoulder. “Yes, he can make it up the
hill, thanks to you.” She had tears in her eyes.

They moved slowly and the man
nearly stumbled twice, but he made it up the slope to the highway.

David helped him get over the
guard rail.

“Where are your bikes?”

The girl said, “The guy threw
them over the rail on the other side of the road.”

Cameron followed David across
the road and found the bikes in the weeds. They carried them to the roadway and
inspected them for damage.

“They look ok, no visible
damage.

John walked up to the man who
was sitting on the guard rail rubbing the back of his neck.

John asked, “Are you ok? Is
there anything we can do for you?”

The man ignored the question.
“Lord, please forgive that evil man.”

John laughed, “That man is on
his way to hell.”

The man stood up, “GOD will
forgive all sins.”

“GOD might, but not me. That
man got what he deserved. He would have killed you, your wife and your
daughter.”

The man held out his palm
indicating he wanted John to be quiet. “I thank you for helping us, but GOD is
judging us all every minute of every day. You killed that man so I have to ask
you to please leave us now. I need to pray for you and the man you killed.”

Renee’s chin lowered in
disbelief. She looked at Lynn who took a step towards the man.

David reached out and
squeezed Lynn’s arm.

“Leave him alone. He took a
few hits to the head. Just let them get on their way.”

He moved the man’s bike to
his side, “Let’s see if you can ride.” Cameron pushed one of the bikes to the
girl and then got the other one for the wife.

John and David held onto his
handlebars and helped balance the man’s bike during his first few pumps of the
pedals.  He was shaky, but he did not fall as he rode slowly away. His wife and
daughter followed.

“Get everything back together
and let’s go,” said John.

As they were about to get
moving, John called for Lynn and Renee to step away from the kids. He quietly explained
exactly what had happened. When he finished, he asked them for their thoughts
about shooting the rapist.

Renee said she thought he had
made the right decision. Lynn said, “Nice shot.”

The group stayed closer
together after the shooting incident. John rode at the front of the group and
David brought up the rear.

When they stopped at the top
of one of the long hills just north of Nashville to catch their breath they
found the black family leaning on the guardrail resting. The blood on the man’s
head had tried leaving what looked like a faded rusty spider web on his face.

John asked, “Are you folks
ok?”

The wife answered, “Yes, just
tired.”

John sat on the road and
leaned back on his elbows, “Do you folks know Nashville very well?”

The mother wiped sweat from
her forehead. “We’ve never been there. We are on our way from Kansas City to
Atlanta. I guess we should introduce ourselves; I am Barbara Thomas, my
daughter is Sandra, fifteen, and my husband is Samuel.”

“I’m John, this is my family.
We are on our way to Alabama.”

Barbara said, “Thank you
again for what you did back there.”

Everyone except Samuel gave a
fast nod or wave to each other. He sat staring at the concrete.

Renee took a drink from a
water bottle, “I suggest we think about not riding through Nashville until the
morning. I think it will be safer if we pass through as early as possible. If
something happens this late, we might be stuck in the city all night. I am
afraid to do that.”

David agreed, “That is a good
idea. I think it would be best if we could ride through Nashville as close to
dawn as possible.” He pointed to a flat grassy area down the slope of the right
side of the highway. “We could camp right there.”

John walked back to Barbara,
“Listen, we are within sight of Nashville but it is getting late in the day. We
are going to make camp here and get up early so we can get through Nashville as
early as possible. Would you like to do the same and ride along with us for a
while tomorrow?”

Barbara looked at Samuel who
continued to stare at the concrete and then to Sandra, who nodded yes. “Yes, we
would. I don’t want to get stuck in Nashville after dark.”

The moved their bikes off the
highway and began setting up their tents at the bottom of the hill. Barbara
moved about twenty yards past their tents to set up hers. She smiled at David,
“Samuel snores really loud. Maybe you won’t be disturbed from over here.”