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Wes Boyd’s Spearfish Lake Tales Contemporary Mainstream Books and Serials Online |
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Wes Boyd’s Spearfish Lake Tales Contemporary Mainstream Books and Serials Online |
“Home?” Norma frowned. “I’ve been in your condo in Phoenix and I don’t think it would work too well. If she freaks out like she’s done several times today, your neighbors might get upset and call the cops. Steffy, Jeff, and Charlie would be at my home, but they’re not prepared to deal with someone like her. Besides, I’d be reluctant to take her across a state line, considering her age.”
“I don’t mean Phoenix,” Jennifer smiled. “I’m talking about what I consider to be my home, Will’s and my cabin up on the Bar H Bar. It’s on the primitive side, but it’s very isolated. There’s nobody to bother us there and nobody to bother.”
“It might be a little too primitive,” Shirley said thoughtfully. “But it would be quiet, and it wouldn’t be the first time someone’s wound down from drugs up at the ranch.”
“I can get away from work for a few days,” Jennifer said. “Nothing major is going on at the office so all I have to do is to call in and say I’m not going to be there. The only problem is that Songbird is scheduled for a charter tomorrow, but that’s not a big deal. I can drop the two of you off, fly it down to Phoenix, and come back in Magic Carpet. Norma, you can get away, can’t you?”
“I wasn’t trying to do much at home but unwind from working on my dissertation. Steffy, Jeff, and Charlie can get along without me for a few days. After all, they know how to do it from when I used to come up here to work.”
“It might work,” Betty said. “My only concern is that someone ought to check her over every now and then, maybe every two or three days. If she develops problems that can’t be handled at your cabin, she might have to be taken to the hospital. If that happens, well, it happens and we’d just have to put up with the hassles.”
“If I were to fly down here and pick you up then bring you back, could you do what you need to do?”
“I have to go back to Vegas tomorrow so I can go back to my real job,” Betty shrugged. “But I’ll be working nights and you could fly me there during the day.”
“It’d have to be during the day, since there’s no lights on the runway at the cabin to land at night,” Jennifer replied. “We can make it work. Can we put off the STD tests until I can get you out there?”
“I suppose, but it’s always best to hop on those things as early as you can.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” George put in. “Betty, you can take a blood sample right now, can’t you? We have sample kits here, and I can have it run through the lab we use. It’s not definitive for everything, but they’re pretty good.”
“Sure, I can do that, but don’t you need a name to go with it?”
“Not really. I’m sure that they run tests on girls that only give their work names, and if there’s any static it’s nothing that a steel engraving of Ben Franklin can’t cure.”
“That ought to work,” Betty agreed. “If you let me know what she tests positive for, I’m sure I can get my hands on what’ll be needed to treat it.”
“All right, we can make this work,” Jennifer said. “There’s not a lot of food at the cabin but there is some. I’ll bring back some groceries when I come back with Magic Carpet. I’ll see if I can get Robin some clothes that are a little better for being at the ranch than what she’s got on.”
“I’ll ask around,” Shirley said. “Someone here ought to have some street clothes that they’d donate for something like this.”
“Good enough,” Jennifer agreed. “Can anyone think of anything else?”
“Yeah,” George said. “What are we going to do about Lonnie?”
“He’s going to be in jail until we can fly Robin out of here, at least I’d hope so,” Jennifer said. “Beyond that, why worry?”
“Because he’s an asshole and a sack of shit, and something needs to be done about it,” George said flatly. “We have him dead to rights on malicious destruction of property and simple assault. We have the security tapes to prove it and that doesn’t involve Robin at all. I can talk to the prosecutor and have him out digging holes and breaking rocks when it’s a hundred and ten in the shade and no shade. After all, this place is the biggest single source of tax revenue in the county. That gives me a few strings to pull.”
“So pull them,” Jennifer shrugged. “After a few months in the can he might have a little better attitude.”
“And he might not,” George pointed out. “If he doesn’t go looking for Robin he’d probably go looking for some other girl like her. Look, if Robin gets involved, we’ve got him for several more serious felonies starting with statutory rape, and the prosecutor in this county isn’t a guy who’ll roll over and play dead for a plea bargain. We could give her young friend several years in the state pen.”
“I wouldn’t want to bring it up to her right now,” Norma said. “She’s too hysterical and too fragile, and even bringing him up could set her off again. Maybe after she’s had a chance to cool off and get her perspective it might be a different story. He ought to be on ice that long, shouldn’t he?”
“Probably. In theory he could make bail, but somehow something tells me he doesn’t have anything to make bail with. I’ll make a couple of phone calls and see if I can keep him in the county slammer for a while, and from what I’m told that’s no fun. It’s too bad it’s not high summer, since I’m told they don’t have air conditioning.”
“That’s all well and good,” Jennifer said. “But it’s something we don’t have to make a decision about right now. We’re going to be pushing time for me to get Norma and Robin up to the ranch, then get to Phoenix in Songbird and back in Magic Carpet before dark.”
As it turned out they couldn’t leave in a hurry. It took time for Betty to go over Robin carefully, spreading topical antibiotic liberally and bandaging some of the worst spots.
They were able to come up with some better clothes for her fairly easily, but George pointed out that they ought to get some pictures of Robin’s injuries just in case they had to take them to court. Getting the pictures taken and getting her clothes changed took a lot longer than Jennifer had hoped, mostly because the girl was still pretty unstable, still pleading to not let Lonnie take her away. Both Betty and Norma had to reassure her time and time again that they were going to take her to some place where it would be impossible for him to find her even if he wasn’t in jail, but it was clear they weren’t getting through to her very well.
Jennifer reminded Norma that there was no way they were going to be able to call out from the cabin, so Norma called Charlie at work and told him she was going to be gone for a few days. She also asked him to put together a package of outdoor clothes that Jennifer could pick up when she made her stop in Phoenix later. Together they made a list of a few other things that Jennifer needed to bring back aboard Magic Carpet.
But time was passing, one delay followed another, and to top it off Robin was scared to go outside the building in fear that Lonnie would be waiting for her. As it was, George, Clay, and Betty had to accompany Jennifer, Norma, and Robin out to where Songbird was tied down behind the building. “We’re going in that airplane?” she asked shyly.
“Yes, we are,” Norma told her. “There’s no way Lonnie can follow us in that.”
“Well, all right,” she said tentatively. “I’m just scared he’ll find me.”
“Robin,” Jennifer said, “there’s no way he could find us where we’re going, even if he was out of jail.”
Jennifer had Norma and Robin get into the second row of seats, while she flew alone up front; that would mean that Norma could be next to the girl if she got nervous or hysterical. Finally – and it seemed to Jennifer as if it had taken forever – she was able to fire up the engines, taxi the Cessna 310 out to the old airstrip behind the Redlite, and shove the throttles forward. Since she was in a hurry, she turned Songbird to the southeast to take the shorter but busier route around the Nellis Range and through Las Vegas.
She was busy for the next half hour dealing with the controllers at the Las Vegas Terminal Control Area, but Songbird was fast enough that she didn’t have to put up with the impatience from them she sometime felt when she had to take Magic Carpet through the area. She wasn’t so busy that she couldn’t notice that Robin was still acting pretty nervous, although Norma seemed to be keeping her reasonably calm.
Even though Jennifer was a skilled instrument pilot, she was glad to have the Las Vegas area behind her and have the plane pointed out into the empty desert toward the ranch. Fifteen minutes or so away from the dry lake bed where the cabin was located she turned on the CB radio and called the Bar H Bar on the channel they normally used. There were no call signs used here, because none were needed.
“Yeah, Jennifer,” Ellen’s voice came over the speaker almost immediately. “What’s up?”
“I’m heading into the cabin with a couple of friends,” she replied. “I don’t want to get into why on the air, but we’ll be staying there for a few days, and I’ll probably be in and out with Magic Carpet several times.”
“All right, just so I know,” Ellen replied. “Are you going to need anything?”
“Not at this point, but if there is I’ll let you know.”
“Who was that?” Norma asked as soon as the exchange was done.
“My mother-in-law,” Jennifer explained. “She’d wonder what was going on if we didn’t let her know we’re going to be flying in and out.”
A few minutes later Jennifer made a low pass over the dry lake to make sure that there was nothing dangerous on the runway, then swung around and landed. She taxied the plane up to where the tie downs were located, then shut the engines down. “Well, we’re here,” she said as the props windmilled to a stop. “It may not be much, but Will and I consider this to be our home, even though we’re not here very much.”
“Boy, this is really out in the middle of nowhere, isn’t it?” Norma commented. “I mean, I was looking around as we flew in, and there’s nothing out there but desert.”
“Believe it or not, that’s how Will and I like it,” Jennifer replied. “Like I said back at the Redlite, it’s pretty primitive, but it’ll do for this.”
They didn’t have much to take up to the cabin, just a single bag of a few items including a spare set of clothes for Robin, but soon Jennifer had them inside. “You know, this is actually pretty nice,” Norma said as soon as they were inside. “But Jennifer, I’ve never been much of an outdoor girl.”
“It’s pretty straightforward. There’s a solar powered cooler in here, but it isn’t turned on. I’ll take care of that, even though you’ll only have water to get cold until I get back. You can cook something on that little bottle-gas camp stove in the kitchen. You have to light it with a match. There’s a little food on the shelves and I’ll bring back more. There’s an outdoor toilet out back. No running water, of course, but the pitcher pump outside will give you all you need. There are a couple flashlights inside that’ll be helpful after dark, but there are kerosene lanterns if you need more light.”
“If we need more light?” Norma frowned.
“We wasted so much time back there at the Redlite that there’s no hope of my getting back here before dark, now. So long as I get out of here before sunset, I’ll be all right flying at night, but it’ll probably be along in the morning before I can make it back with Magic Carpet.”
“Oh, I guess I didn’t think about that.”
“Wow, I’m really tired,” Robin said. “Do you mind if I lay down for a bit?”
“No, feel free,” Jennifer told her. “You’ll probably feel better if you get some rest.”
“Yeah, I think maybe,” she yawned.
“Then go lay down. I’ll take Norma outside to make sure the pump works, so we won’t bother you for a while.”
“OK, thanks,” the girl yawned again, and headed toward the bed in the one-room cabin. In only seconds, she was sprawled out on it, and it looked like she fell asleep almost instantly.
Jennifer took a bucket from the kitchen, and motioned for Norma to follow her out the door. “I’m glad she’s sleeping,” Norma said as they got outside. “It’s probably an adrenaline dump, and if anyone deserves it she does.”
“Yeah, no fooling,” Jennifer shook her head as they walked over to the pitcher pump.
“It’s probably not the last time we’re going to have to deal with something like that, but I didn’t exactly expect our first recovery attempt to be dumped in our laps so easily, and at the Redlite at that.”
“I’ve seen George and Shirley have to tell a pimp to take a hike with their girl before, but never like that. You know, I was thinking earlier that Nanci had to be pretty close to that bad when she managed to escape her pimp.”
“It probably won’t be the last time we see someone that bad off, but hopefully we’ll be better prepared for it than we are this time. This is what we’re getting set up for, you know.”
“I realize that,” Jennifer replied as they walked up to the pump. “It scares me more than a little, but I really don’t like to see girls treated like that. OK, the pump. It’s a little tricky to get going the first time after it’s set for a while, but once the leathers get soaked up a little it’ll be all right, although you may have to pump it a few times before you get water.” There was a little water in the bucket she was carrying with her, and she dumped some of it into the top of the pump. “That’ll help the leathers soak up,” she explained.
“Jennifer, I hate to sound like a scaredy-cat, but I’m not an outdoor girl and I never have been. I really don’t want to be alone here with her, at least tonight. Maybe after a couple days when I’m a little more sure how she’s going to react and I’m used to this place a little it won’t be so bad. Is there any way you can spend the night here and leave in the morning?”
“No, no way,” Jennifer shook her head. “Joe has to have the plane ready to go early in the morning since he’s going to have a long day. I’d have to leave before daylight, and I don’t want to risk the runway here in the dark.”
“If you left right now, is there any way you could pick up someone to stay with me and be back before dark? I’m thinking maybe Nanci. She’s been through this and she knows what it’s like. I know her classes are over for the semester, and she seems to know what to do in the outdoors.”
“No, won’t work. Even if everything went perfectly it’d take five hours and it’ll be dark by then. I couldn’t make it back even if someone was waiting right at the airport. And as far as Nanci goes, it wouldn’t work anyway. She’s somewhere in the Grand Canyon right now.”
“Well, nuts. I wish we’d thought ahead and brought someone from the Redlite. Betty, maybe. I mean, I think I’ll be all right, but if something goes wrong I’d sure like to have someone here to back me up.”
“I can understand that. I wouldn’t really want to be alone here with her, but at least you know what you’re doing.”
“Yes, but talking about it and doing it are two different things. Would you have time to pick up someone from the Redlite? Shirley, maybe?”
“I could probably manage that,” Jennifer submitted. “But that gives me an idea.”
Jennifer led Norma over to Songbird. She flipped on the master switch, and then the CB radio. “Ellen, if you read, this is Jennifer again.”
In a moment Ellen’s voice came back over the speaker. “Yeah, Jennifer,” she replied. “What’s up?”
“Look, for reasons I don’t want to get into on the air we need an extra person to stay over here tonight. I’ve got to rush back to Phoenix and don’t want to leave these people alone. I’ve got Songbird here but I can’t land it at the ranch. Can you hop in a pickup and drive over here so you can spend the night? It’s important, I’ll explain what’s happening when you get here.”
“I can be there,” Ellen replied. “But it’s going to take a while. The track over to the cabin got washed out a couple of places last winter, and Duane hasn’t gotten around to fixing it yet. That means I’m going to have to saddle up a horse, so it’ll be a good two hours.”
“Two hours ought to be all right,” Jennifer said. “If it takes much longer than that I’ll have to take off for Phoenix, though.”
“Do you need me to bring anything?”
“A bedroll, and maybe a few cans of food or something. All I have here are backpacker meals and dry stuff. I’m planning on being back tomorrow morning with some decent food, and I’ll be in Magic Carpet so I could land at the ranch if I needed to.”
“All right, I’ll go saddle up Suzy and be on my way shortly.”
“Good enough. I’ll be shutting down here, since I’m calling from the plane and I don’t want to run the battery down.”
“See you in a while,” Ellen replied.
“Who’s this Ellen?” Norma asked as Jennifer hung up the microphone and shut off Songbird’s master switch.
“My mother-in-law,” Jennifer explained. “She used to be a house girl a long time ago, although you’d never guess it to look at her now. She’s had some experience helping people through drug withdrawal, a cousin of Will’s several years ago.”
“Good. I’ll feel a lot better to have someone else here, especially someone who knows what they’re doing out here. But why couldn’t you just fly over to the ranch and pick her up?”
“There’s not enough runway at the ranch. I can get a small, slow, short-field airplane like Magic Carpet in and out of there with no problems. I’ve done it for years, but I can’t risk it with something this big and fast. It’s sort of like why I don’t fly Skyhook in here. There’s too much loose stuff out on the dry lake bed. If a tire kicked up a small rock and it got sucked into an engine it could be very, very bad.”
“Well, you’d know more about it than I would, I guess. I think we’d better go check in on Robin, and if she’s sleeping we should just let her sleep.”
“I think so too. We can find a place to sit in the shade so we don’t disturb her.”
Jennifer and Norma spent much of the wait sitting on some folding chairs in the shade of the cabin, close enough to hear their charge if she made any kind of fuss. Among other things, they talked about things that it would be nice for Jennifer to bring back the next day in Magic Carpet
.Robin was still sleeping when Ellen rode up on a splotchy-looking white and brown horse. “Evenin’, Jennifer,” Ellen said. “You said to hurry, so I hurried.”
“You got here in plenty of time,” Jennifer told her. “I’m afraid we don’t have anything but water to drink right now, but come sit down and we can fill you in on what’s happening.”
It took a while for the two to fill Ellen in on what had happened in a few frantic hours, and the decisions that led them here. “Sounds like you managed to find a bunch of trouble,” Ellen said as the story wound down. “But Norma, Jennifer told me a while back what the two of you are planning on doing, and I think you’re doing the right thing, so I’m pleased you asked me to help.”
“It shouldn’t be much more than tonight,” Jennifer said. “I ought to be back in the middle of the morning, and then I ought to be able to stay here for a while.”
“It’s not a problem,” Ellen smiled. “Like I said, you’re doing the right thing, and if you need me to help more, I’m willing.”
“I’m just glad you could help,” Norma said. “I don’t know much about this country life, and I’d be lost even trying to open a can of soup in what passes for a kitchen here.”
“It’s not that hard,” Ellen smiled. “I wouldn’t know what to do with some of the stuff you’d find in a modern kitchen, anyway. Have you had dinner?”
“Dinner? We were so busy we didn’t have lunch.”
“Then I guess maybe I’d better get us something, and this Robin girl, too.”
“I think I’d better take a pass on it,” Jennifer said. “The sun is getting down and I want to get Songbird out of here.”
“We probably ought to get some food into Robin, if we can wake her up,” Norma said. “I know she needed sleep, but I think she’s slept long enough. I don’t think we need for her to sleep herself out, and then keep us up all night. That’s part of the reason I wanted to have someone else here anyway, because I don’t think I’m a lot less tired than she is.”
“Something to eat will probably be good for her,” Jennifer added. “If I had to bet, I’d bet she hasn’t had much to eat for a while, so be careful about letting her overeat.”
“Hopefully she’ll be settled down a bit when we wake her up,” Norma agreed. “I still only have the barest outline of what happened to her, but I want to take my time digging it out of her. Ellen, she was very fearful that her pimp was going to find her and drag her off, and she got pretty frantic at times. I guess about all we can do is be gentle with her and try to make her understand that she’s safe, at least until some of the drugs wash out of her. Maybe then she can talk some sense.”
“I’m going to let the two of you do it,” Jennifer said. “I want to get in the air and get headed for Phoenix. I’ve got a lot to do down there before I can head back in the morning, and I may not be able to do it all tonight and get some sleep, too. I’ll try to get back as early as I can, but it could be the middle of the day before I make it.”
“Take what time you need,” Norma told her. “Now that I have Ellen here I don’t think it’s necessary that you be back first thing. It’s probably going to take us a few days before we’re out of the woods on this.”
