Spearfish Lake Outfitters had been started over a decade before by John’s brother and sister-in-law. At the time there had been several sporting goods stores in the area, but all of them were oriented just toward hunting and fishing, neither of which interested Josh and Tiffany very much. What they needed was a place they could buy winter apparel and gear for dogsledding, and they found themselves having to mail order a lot of it. On discussion and reflection, they realized that there were a lot of non-hunting and fishing oriented needs for sporting goods, like bikes, canoes, kayaks, and skiing equipment along with the need for dogsledding gear.

This realization came during a very busy time in their lives, but they realized that they had to strike while the iron was hot. With the help of a friend, Phil Wine, they were able to get the business going in an empty storefront downtown on the lake side of Lakeshore Drive. Things were touch and go the first couple years, especially since they still had a lot on their plates, but once John and Candice moved to town and Candice went to work for them, things got a lot easier.

It was an especially nice job for both John and Candice in that they worked next door to each other. Candice was for all practical purposes the manager of Spearfish Lake Outfitters. If she needed to go to the post office, for example, it was no great trick to leave a sign in the door saying, “If you need something, go next door to McGuinness-Archer Bookkeeping”, and John could open the place up and help the customer out. Conversely, when the bookkeeping business got busy in the spring, Candice was right next door and having a good amount of bookkeeping experience of her own meant that she could pitch in during busy times and still watch the store. Moreover, it usually gave John and Candice the opportunity to have lunch together most days, normally takeout or sack lunches eaten in one business or the other.

The way the morning had come together Candice hadn’t made any plans for lunch, although she thought if she got hungry enough she might just put up the sign and head home to throw together a sandwich. She was more than a little surprised to see John walk into the store a little before noon with the words, “You want to do something for lunch?”

“What are you doing here?” she replied. “I thought you were with Cody.”

“I poured some coffee and some cereal into him,” John replied. “He decided that he wanted to go down and see Janice by himself. He says he feels responsible for her. I told him to clear it with Charlie before he left, and he dropped me off here.”

“Why does that not surprise me?” she smiled. “Cody is a kid who takes things very seriously. Maybe a little too seriously.”

“He’s taking this seriously, no doubt about it,” John nodded. “I hope it doesn’t affect him badly, but I can’t believe that he won’t be changed somehow. So what do you think about lunch?”

“I think I could eat something,” she said. “It’s dead slow in here today. What do you say I just put the ‘Out to Lunch’ sign up and we head back out to the café or something?”

“It’d work for me. I haven’t had time to get settled in over on the other side of the wall yet.”

“Fine, let’s do it,” she said.

A couple minutes later they were walking to the minivan to head back out to the Spearfish Lake Café. They only ate lunch there rarely, but it wasn’t unheard of. “I’ll tell you what,” John said as Candice settled into the driver’s seat, “the way Cody talked about that girl, I really felt sorry for her.”

“You think there’s something serious going on?” she frowned.

“No, in fact I’m sure there isn’t,” John smiled. “But, now that I’ve whetted your feminine instincts, I’ll have to say that I wouldn’t want to bet about what happens in the next few hours.”

“You think that’s wise?”

“No,” he sighed, “I don’t. But under the circumstances, I can understand it. I don’t know anything about this girl other than the fact that she’s had a damn tough row to hoe. They’ve been through a damn rough and emotional experience together, and I just don’t see them turning their backs on each other.”

“You’re probably right,” Candice replied thoughtfully. “I’ve been a little, well, I don’t want to say worried about Cody. Concerned, maybe. He doesn’t seem to have a lot of friends his own age, at least not close ones. If he’s done any dating, I don’t know about it. In spite of their differences, he and Shay were always close, and I think he’s finding himself at loose ends a little.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed that, too,” John said as she pulled out onto Central Avenue. “Even hanging out with Shay, he still strikes me as pretty much a loner. Not self-centered, just not involved with other people much. He gets along with someone like Gil fine, respects him, probably considers him a friend. But it’s friendship at a distance, and not just because of the age difference. I don’t know that it would hurt him to be friendly with someone on a closer level.”

“What’s going to happen to her, John?” Candice asked with a touch of concern in her voice.

“Damn good question,” he said. “She’s sixteen or maybe seventeen, so I suppose Protective Services will find a foster family for her. Say what you will about foster parents and all the stories you hear, even the worst she could wind up with would be better than what she had.”

“I suppose,” Candice sighed. “I sure hope they’re someone who can help her get through all the trauma and pull herself together.”

“Yeah,” John nodded. “It probably won’t be easy. You have to respect someone who will even try to take on a job like that.”

Under normal circumstances, it’s a good hour’s drive from Spearfish Lake to Camden General Hospital. Cody had been there before, but not since he’d had his driver’s license, so finding it and getting there took a little extra time.

Not that he minded taking the extra time. In the little more than a year that he’d had his driver’s license, he’d learned that sitting behind the wheel and driving was a good place to think about things, and there was no doubt he had things to think about.

One of the things that he found himself wondering about was why he didn’t feel worse about killing two people less than a day before. He knew that you were supposed to feel bad about it, and he did – but it was just an unpleasant fact to him, not an overwhelming storm cloud. Once he’d had a chance to get his mind around it – and with Gil’s assistance the night before he’d managed to do just that – it had been just something that had to be done. He wasn’t sure that he liked what that implied about himself, but it was something he was going to have to live with.

He couldn’t put a finger on why it seemed so important to see Janice, just that it did. Perhaps it was because he wanted to make sure that the trouble and trauma he’d put himself through was worth the effort. Perhaps he wanted to make sure he felt justified for what he’d done.

When you got right down to it, he barely knew Janice, although she’d been a classmate since late elementary school. In recent years, she’d mostly just been a very quiet, very plain, very poorly dressed girl who seemed barely noticed by the rest of the school, mostly for those reasons. Now that he had some idea of what those reasons were, it seemed even sadder.

In spite of – or perhaps because of – all the rumination he’d gone through on the way down from Spearfish Lake, Cody was nervous when he got out of the Escort in the parking lot of Camden General. He had plenty of questions on his mind, whether he was doing the right thing, how he’d be received, what was going to come next. He still felt the compulsion to be there, and it was, if anything, even stronger than the hunch he’d followed the night before that had led to all this. He got the room number and directions from the elderly volunteer at the desk and headed for the elevator. His route took him past the gift shop, and on a whim he stopped and bought a small potted bouquet of flowers. There were signs that directed him, and the nerves increased as he got closer to Janice’s room. A couple times he almost chickened out, but he felt like he’d come for a purpose, so felt that he had to get on with it.

How to do this? What to do? He felt he was in far over his head. He’d felt less fear the night before when he’d charged into the Lufkin living room with his P226 in his hand. Maybe it had been the adrenaline, maybe it had been the P226 and the confidence he knew how to use it – or maybe it was because he’d just had less time to think about it. He stopped outside Janice’s room, and took a deep breath. Just do it, Cody, he thought, and turned into her room.

In his first glimpse of her, he thought she looked like hell. Although she was only a little shorter than he was, she seemed tiny and pathetic in her hospital bed. Her head was wrapped in bandages, but in places her jet black hair poked out, hair as black as his mother’s. There were bandages in several other places and a cast on her arm. She was lying on her back, half-upright on the raised hospital bed, staring at the ceiling. So as to not startle her, he said softly, “Hi, Janice.”

“Cody!” she cried. “You came! My God, I’ve been hoping you would come!”

“I had to,” he smiled. “I told you I would.”

“Oh, my God,” she said, looking at him with a beaming expression. “You saved me! Cody . . . Cody . . . I couldn’t believe you were real!” Tears started to stream down her face. “I thought . . . I thought I’d died. I was sure of it, but . . . but . . . it was real. I still can’t believe they’re dead and I’m still alive! Cody . . . Cody . . . ”

“Hey,” he said softly, stepping closer and taking her hand. “Take it easy. It’s all over now! You’re going to be all right. You just relax.” In an attempt to divert her, he held out the flowers. “Here,” he said. “I brought these along. Maybe they’ll brighten things up a little.”

“Oh, Cody,” she sobbed, the tears rolling seriously now. “Flowers? For me? That’s . . . that’s the first time anyone’s ever done that for me. My God, Cody, I owe you . . . I owe you my life and you bring me flowers. I can’t believe you’d do anything like that for me. I mean . . . I mean . . . ”

“Hey,” he smiled, half leaning up against the bed and squeezing her hand. “I brought you flowers to cheer you up, not to make you cry.”

“Oh, Cody,” she rolled her head. “I just don’t deserve how nice you are to me.”

“Sure you deserve it,” he smiled, looking around for a tissue or something to dry her tears. There was a box of them on a bedside stand, and he reached out for it as he said, “You’re my friend, after all, and my friends deserve to be cared for. Now, calm down and relax or there’s going to be a nurse in here to run me out.”

“I’ll try,” she said softly. “My God, I’ve been so . . . you’re sure I’m not dreaming?”

“You’re not asleep as far as I know,” he smiled. “I don’t see how you could be dreaming.”

“My God, I’ve been so afraid that I was going to wake up and I’d . . . I’d still . . . ”

“Not going to happen,” he squeezed her hand. “I made sure of it. Now here,” he said, raising the tissue. “Let me dry those eyes and clean up your face.”

“All right,” she told him softly. “I’ll try . . . I’ll try to not . . . oh, thank you Cody. Thank you for everything.”

“You’re welcome,” he said as he dabbed at her eyes. “Just trying to be of service, ma’am.”

“Oh, Cody,” she smiled. It was actually a little strange; he’d rarely seen her smile the past few years. When he thought of her in school, she usually had a face devoid of expression. Not sad, not unhappy, not frowning . . . just empty. Not now. In spite of the broken and missing teeth he could see, it was a nice smile and it was directed at him. “Cody,” she repeated. “I still just can’t believe it. Why?”

“Well,” he said, realizing what her question was and deciding it would be best to avoid it for the moment. “Because you deserve it.”

“But why me?”

“Why not you?” he shrugged, realizing that he wasn’t going to get away with it. “Janice, I believe in protecting the weak from the strong. I’ve given some thought to becoming a policeman, just for that reason. When I saw . . . ” he paused and took a deep breath, then started over. “When I saw what was happening, I couldn’t walk away.”

“So you shot them. Both of them.”

“I warned them to let go of you and fired a warning shot. When . . . when they went for that shotgun, they didn’t give me any choice. So, yeah, I shot both of them. Like I said, they’ll never bother you again.”

“I still can’t believe it,” she told him. “It’s like . . . it’s like God sent an angel to pluck me out of hell. I . . . I thought I saw wings.”

“None there the last time I looked,” he smirked, trying to relieve some of the heaviness. “Although I admit it would be cool to fly like a bird.”

“I don’t care,” she said. “You’re still my guardian angel. Thank you, Cody.”

“I’m not an angel,” he said. “I’m just the same old Cody you’ve known for years.”

“You’re an angel as far as I’m concerned,” she said, maybe with a hint of sparkle in her eyes. She had dark eyes, much like his mother, now that he noticed them. It was strange that he hadn’t before. Well, maybe not so strange at that, he thought – there’d never been much reason to pay attention to her before. “Only an angel would come to rescue me like that. Cody, how did you know I needed you to rescue me?”

“The honest answer to that is that I don’t know,” he told her. “I mean, I saw you at school yesterday and could tell something was wrong. I mean you looked bad, I could just tell, and I was worried about you.”

“I didn’t think anyone noticed,” she shook her head. “I mean, nobody said anything, even you. I was sort of hoping that someone would notice. I couldn’t tell anyone because it might make things worse. I didn’t, and things just got worse anyway. But how did you know to come to my house? I didn’t even think you knew where I lived.”

“That’s the part I don’t know about,” he told her. “I was driving nearby, and I was worried about you, and I just had a gut feeling that I ought to check on you. Call it a hunch, or a premonition, or something, I don’t know and I don’t think I’ll ever know. Anyway, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to take a look. I saw what was happening and tried to call 911, but my cell phone was dead. So I got my gun out of the trunk.”

“You had a gun in your trunk? I didn’t even know you had one.”

“I have several,” he said. “I shoot competition, both pistol and rifle. In fact, I’m the regional junior champion in centerfire pistol, and second overall in the region, any age group, plus some other classes. I was on my way home from the firing range at the Sportsman’s Club, so I had the P226 in the trunk, that’s a nine millimeter. An ugly gun, but it shoots well.”

She wordlessly looked at him for a long time. Several times she started to speak, but thought better of it, until finally she said softly. “I’d given up believing in God, if I ever did. Now, I can’t help but think that he sent the right person to snatch me out of hell.”

“If he’d sent the right person, it would have been Sergeant Wexler,” Cody said flatly. “He was the cop on duty last night.”

“I know you’re wrong,” she said. “Sergeant Wexler didn’t bring me flowers when he was here this morning.”

Cody eventually sat on the side of the bed, still holding her hand, and they talked. Cody tried to stay upbeat, but he soon sensed that she wanted to talk about the things she’d endured, as if to purge herself. So there wasn’t much he could do but just sit on the side of the bed and listen to her unburden herself about the last four years.

They had been bad. At least they hadn’t been too bad, at least tolerable, while her mother had been alive, but as soon as she’d died, things had gotten worse and continued to worsen. It seemed as if she was barely tolerated around the house, and sometimes not even that. She’d been slapped around some, occasionally punched, and the rape the night before hadn’t been the first time, not by a long shot, from either her father or her brother. Without asking, Cody understood that was why she had let herself go physically, trying to seem plain and ugly and uninteresting to them – it kept their demands down, though not out. It was hardly ever less than brutal.

Things had gotten worse in the recent months. Janice told Cody that she knew that her father and brother were up to something in the basement and that the house smelled even worse than it had before, but she said she didn’t know what it was and the basement door was usually locked to keep her out. She hadn’t known that the two were running a meth lab until Charlie Wexler told her just this morning, but it didn’t surprise her any. Her father and brother had been even crazier and more brutal than normal, and the beating the day before, while bad, wasn’t the worst she’d had up till that point.

“Why didn’t you tell someone?” Cody asked at one point.

“I was scared to,” she said. “I mean, it would have been my word against theirs, and they’d have really gotten mad at me.”

Somehow they’d sensed that something wasn’t right the previous evening. As far as Cody could figure out, it wasn’t a case of someone else besides him figuring that she was being abused, but the mere suspicion that someone had figured it out after she’d gone to school with a black eye and bruises. One thing had led to another and she’d been beaten, raped, beaten some more, raped some more and saying they were going to kill her for telling people – and then Cody had come in the door with the gun in his hand.

By the time it was over with, Cody was seething with anger. What a hell this girl had been through!

It had been difficult to keep his anger from showing, but fortunately there came a break. A doctor and a nurse came in and told him that they needed to do a couple procedures on her, and that he’d have to leave. She didn’t want him to go, but they insisted. “Go get a cup of coffee or something,” the nurse suggested. “The food in the cafeteria on the ground floor isn’t too bad for hospital food. You might like to get a burger or something.”

“Might not be a bad idea,” he conceded. “All I’ve had to eat today is a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee.”

“Then go eat,” the doctor told him. “This is going to take a half an hour or so, so you’ll have time.”

“Cody, you’re going to come back, aren’t you?” Janice asked plaintively. “I don’t want to be alone, not now.”

“Of course I’m coming back,” he told her. “But the doctor is right; I really ought to get something to eat. I may be a while, but it won’t be too long.”

“I’ll be waiting,” she said softly.

He gave her hand an extra squeeze and headed out with a “Be back soon”. He went out into the hall and down a few rooms until he found a metal and plastic couch along the wall near the elevator, and collapsed onto it without the energy to go any farther, and sat there allowing himself to shake with anger and bitterness and sadness. He’d tried to buck himself up and put a good face on during the story he’d just been told, but it had taken a lot out of him to fake it halfway successfully. Janice was basically a nice girl, so why did she have to put up with a shit of a family like that? Cody wasn’t particularly religious, but right at that moment he believed that any God that would let a girl like her go through a hell like that didn’t deserve to be worshiped. Anyone who tried to rationalize a loving God out of that situation was obviously sick in the head. Maybe she thought that God had sent him to rescue her, but what kind of loving God would let things get that bad in the first place? It did not make a damn bit of sense to him and he doubted that it ever would.

He wanted to hit something, break something, but this was not the time or place to do it, and he knew it. At least, he thought, if he had any doubts about the rightness of blowing Jack and Bobby Lufkin’s brains out, they were gone now. There was no doubt that it had been the right thing to do.

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