Chapter 18

Joe had already left with Songbird by the time Jennifer got to the airport the next morning. As expected, it had been near total darkness before she had been able to fuel up the plane and put it away. She had to race over to Norma’s house to pick up her luggage, but somewhere after that the tension and stress of the day caught up with her. She all but fell asleep in her car as she was driving toward her condo, and that convinced her that it was enough for one day.

She hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so she put a tray dinner in the microwave and sat down to wait while it heated. She woke up several hours later, forgot about the meal, used the bathroom, and then crashed on her bed without taking her clothes off. At least she felt better in the morning.

For lack of any better ideas she threw out the meal and heated another one while she called Will at work at Keesler. “I’m sorry, hon, but something has come up and I’m not going to be able to make it this weekend after all, and maybe not next weekend.”

“Something important?” he asked.

“It involves what I’ve been working on with Norma,” she explained. “We came across a situation we just had to deal with. We didn’t have any other place to take the girl, so she and Norma are up at the cabin right now. I’m going to be leaving in a few minutes to fly back up there.”

“I’ll bet that ain’t the last time that’s gonna happen,” she could hear him chuckle. “Ought to keep life interestin’, though. Call me when you can, Miz Hoffman.”

“I will,” she promised. “Sorry about this weekend.”

“Cain’t be helped. You take care, an’ let me know how it comes out. Love you, Miz Hoffman.”

“I love you too, Will. See you when I can.”

Once she’d packed some clothing of her own, she still had to pick up some groceries, and not frozen tray meals, since there was no way to keep them frozen at the cabin. Her purchases were rather random, but ran heavily to cans, although she threw in some cartons of soft drinks and juice to give them a little variety. That ought to last them for a few days, she hoped. She also had to stop at a big box store to pick up a few more items.

What with everything, it was later than she had hoped before she made it back to the airport. Fortunately, both Skyhook and Songbird were out on charters, so there was no problem rolling Magic Carpet out from its normal parking place in the back of the hangar. Unfortunately she’d left it with the auxiliary tanks full, so that meant she was going to be overloaded when she took off, but she figured she could get away with it. In a few more minutes she was in the air headed for the Bar H Bar.

It was a little less than three hours flying time to get to the cabin. It was easy flying, and it gave her some time to relax as the desert and Lake Mead flowed slowly beneath her. She had been aware that things like this were going to happen with Hearts of Gold, but she wasn’t expecting it so soon, and neither she nor Norma had been ready for it. But she knew there were a lot of girls out there like Robin, like Nanci had once been, so when the need arose neither of them could turn their backs on her.

Although the whole route was long since familiar to her by now, she felt a little relief when she started to recognize features that she knew were located on the ranch. In only a few more minutes she touched Magic Carpet down on the dry lake bed where the cabin was located, hoping that Robin had calmed down from yesterday.

She was just starting to unload things from the plane when Ellen walked up. “We were sort of wondering where you were,” she stated.

“Everything took longer than I expected,” Jennifer replied. “How’s Robin doing?”

“Better, I think. Norma was right, we shouldn’t have let her sleep yesterday afternoon although she needed it real bad. She was up and talking to us half the night, and Lord! I don’t know how that girl made it through half the horse manure she went through. I still don’t have a clear picture of what all happened, but what I heard was bad enough. Now she’s asleep again, but Norma thinks we ought to wake her up again soon.”

“That actually sounds like an improvement,” Jennifer sighed. “She couldn’t get out more than a sentence or two this time yesterday without going off the deep end.”

“That’s what Norma says,” Ellen agreed. “Whatever drugs she had in her system must be wearing off.”

“Good. Now let’s just hope she doesn’t have any withdrawal problems. Let’s get all this stuff up to the cabin and get some of these sodas into the coolers.”

“I think we’ll all appreciate them when they get cooled down,” Ellen agreed as she picked up an armload.

“Well, now that I’m back, you could hop on Suzy and head back home if you want.”

“I suppose I could, but if you don’t mind I think I’ll hang around for a day or two. There’s not that much keepin’ me at the ranch right now, and I might be of some use to you here.”

“I think we’ll be all right now, but it would be appreciated.”

Norma and Robin were outside when Jennifer and Ellen hauled the first load into the cabin; it appeared that Norma had taken the girl to the outhouse out back. They came back a couple minutes later, and Jennifer could see right off that there had been some improvement: the girl was walking now, not staggering and needing assistance to walk. “How are you today?” Jennifer asked.

“Better, I think,” Robin replied, a lot more calmly than she had said anything the day before. “Are you real sure Lonnie can’t find me here?”

“As sure as I can be,” Jennifer told her. “Even if he’s not still in jail, he wouldn’t know where this place is. Not many people know, and there’s no way to get here but flying in or on horseback.”

“I . . . I can’t believe he’s not going to show up any minute now.”

“I’ll tell you what,” Jennifer smiled. “There’s no way we can make a phone call from here, but the next time I fly to someplace where there is a phone, I’ll call someone and make sure he’s still behind bars.”

“No phone? Not at all?”

“That’s part of why I like to come here with my husband. It makes it pretty hard for someone to bother us.”

“On the subject of flying,” Ellen broke in. “When I came over here I thought it was going to only be for one night. There really isn’t much for Suzy to graze on around here, so I was wondering if you could take me over to the ranch. I think we could get a half a bale of hay and a bucket or two of grain. That ought to hold her for a couple of days.”

“We could do that,” Jennifer agreed. “I’d just want to keep the hay wrapped up pretty well with a tarp or something so I don’t get it all over the baggage compartment.”

“Sure, we ought to be able to manage it,” Ellen said. “Let’s have some lunch before we go, but I don’t want to make Suzy wait too long.”

“Suzy?” Robin spoke up. “Who’s Suzy?”

“Suzy is the horse I rode over here last night,” Ellen explained. “Like Jennifer just said, the only way to get in or out of here right now is on horseback or flying. She’s in the corral out back.”

“Horse?” the girl replied incredulously. “You have a horse here?”

“Of course I have a horse here. This is a ranch, a real one, so we have several horses.”

“Can I see? I’ve never seen a horse for real.”

“Sure we can. Suzy is just a gentle old workin’ horse, nothin’ special.”

“Tell you what,” Jennifer grinned. “Ellen, why don’t you take her out back and show her what a horse looks like while I put away the food I brought with me and set out some stuff so we can make sandwiches for lunch. Take Norma with you. She’s probably never seen a horse up close either.”

“That was pretty neat,” Ellen said after lunch, as she and Jennifer went out to Magic Carpet. “I know I haven’t seen much of that kid, but Suzy was the first thing she took any interest in since she’s been here.”

“Girls and horses,” Jennifer smiled. “I had a thing about horses when I was, oh, younger than she is. A family in Dad’s church had some horses, and they had me out to ride two or three times. I would have liked to get out there more because I really liked their horses, but my folks wouldn’t let me do it very often.”

“Having met your folks, I can believe it,” Ellen conceded. “But heck, I had a thing about horses when I was even younger, and I never got over it. I’ll ride whenever I can, even though it takes a lot of work to take care of a horse.”

“I never got into that part of it much. Most of what I know about horses is what you and Will have taught me. I don’t mind the maintenance work, as it’s a part of the horse packing trips we’ve taken every now and then.”

“Jennifer, I’ve got an idea. Robin doesn’t have much to do here but to wait for the time to pass. It’s going to drive her nuts and she’ll drive the rest of us nuts in the process.”

“Yeah, I can see that’s going to be a problem.”

“What would you think if you didn’t bring me back, and I was to ride Mudfoot back, and maybe pack some of that hay and grain on Hugo? I could teach Robin how to curry and take care of the horses a little, and maybe she could learn to ride some. Mudfoot is absolutely the slowest and gentlest horse we own. She’d be perfect for a beginner like her to learn on.”

“I’m all for it, but I think maybe we’d better run it past Norma. Somehow I don’t think she’s quite the horse enthusiast that Robin could be.”

“City people,” Ellen shook her head. “They sure don’t know what they’ve missed by not growing up in the country. You think she’s going to go for it?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised, but don’t hold your breath waiting for her to get on a horse.”

Robin was acting even better the next day; possibly helping Ellen with the horses, and then getting a brief ride on Mudfoot with Ellen leading her had something to do with it. It proved that Ellen had been right; at a minimum it gave the girl something to do as opposed to nothing to do, and that meant she couldn’t dwell on what had happened to her.

By this time, the three older women had a pretty good idea of the generalities of what had happened with the girl although some of the details were a little on the fuzzy side. It wouldn’t be right to say that Robin had run wild when she had been younger, but it wasn’t far from it, either. She’d started having sex at an early age, and somewhere along the way she’d learned that guys would pay her to have sex with them, much like Norma had done when she was younger.

Then, perhaps six months earlier she’d met Lonnie, who was at least ten years older. She hadn’t thought much of him at first, but she’d paid some attention when he told her that she could make more money if she’d let him set her up with some guys. At the same time, he introduced her to some drugs – she wasn’t sure what, but it varied depending on what he could score cheaply, so she’d tried several things, “Just for the fun of it.”

Then her folks found out about what Lonnie had her doing, and in disgust more or less washed their hands of her. “If you want to do that shit with him, then go do it,” her father had said, “but don’t come to us when you get in trouble.” With that, Lonnie put her in his beat-up old car, left Burbank, and headed for one of the seamier parts of Los Angeles.

In a fairly short time – she wasn’t clear on how long it had been, but it probably was only about three months – things had gone downhill rapidly. As a street hooker she wasn’t bringing in a lot of money, despite her young age, and that got Lonnie mad since he had a drug habit of his own to feed. He beat her up for the first time, but the bruises that he left made her even less saleable on the street.

From there on it was a downhill slide – not making much money on the street, beatings when Lonnie needed to take out his frustration, and more drugs to keep her compliant. She was so drugged-up most of the time that she really didn’t care what happened to her, but occasionally she bucked up a little, only to get more drugs and more beatings. It was a story Jennifer had heard before, but it had been Nanci telling it.

In Norma’s opinion, it probably wouldn’t have been long before Robin’s body would have wound up in an alley or a dumpster someplace, but then one of Lonnie’s drug buddies told him that he ought to take her up to one of the whorehouses in Nevada. They were always looking for girls, he was told. In one sense of the word Lonnie’s drug buddy had been right: the houses were always looking for girls. However, they were looking for quality ones who were interested in what they were doing and in helping a client enjoy themselves, not beaten-up pieces of street trash who were too drugged up to care what they were doing. Since Lonnie wasn’t getting anything out of her any other way, he decided to give it a try.

Most pimps who knew what they were doing were aware that wasn’t going to fly, and Norma opined that Lonnie’s drug buddy may have suggested the move to him to get rid of a pain in the ass. Both Norma and Jennifer were aware that it wasn’t the first time some idiot pimp had tried that; they’d both seen George and Shirley tell such leeches to go away. That’s what had happened this time, except that Lonnie had been so belligerent that he’d left the girl in Shirley’s office in such bad shape that something had to be done with her. Then, Norma and Jennifer had been right there – Robin had gotten very lucky.

“I think we need to talk to George and Shirley about how to handle situations like that,” Norma had said late in the evening while she and Jennifer were outside watching the stars as an excuse to be by themselves. “But we need to be ready to do something when it happens.”

“Yeah, they need to handle those things a little differently,” Jennifer agreed. “But really, what other choice have they had? And we may not be able to do much until we’re operating in Nevada. I’ve got to go pick up Betty in Vegas for Robin’s medical check tomorrow and I need to find out what’s happening with Lonnie. Maybe I’ll take a little extra time and go by the Redlite.”

As Jennifer flew south out of the dry lake in Magic Carpet she gave some thought to what she wanted to say to George about the situation. It wouldn’t do to push him about it, but it seemed worthwhile to see if he had any better ideas. There ought to be some way that things could be handled better until Hearts of Gold was operating in Nevada.

It was still early when she arrived at the Redlite; the place was close to dead, but George was up and around. Since the lounge was all but empty, they settled in there over coffee, and Jennifer explained what had been on her mind.

“It doesn’t happen very often,” George explained. “At least not anymore. I think the message is getting around that that stuff doesn’t fly around here, but then there’s always some idiot who doesn’t get the word. The problem is, like you said, there’s not much we can do if a girl wants to get away from some guy. When something like that happens, we try to separate the girl and the guy for a while, especially if the girl appears to be underage. That part of it went about like the normal procedure, except that Lonnie was flying so high on meth or whatever it was that he wouldn’t even take yes for an answer. I mean, if he hadn’t been so belligerent he could have had a free breakfast, and the sheriff would have had time to come and talk to the girl without him knowing. But even if she did want to get away, about the best we could do would be to call the children’s services office in Vegas, and maybe run her down there. Then, whether they could or would do anything would be a tossup. From what I understand they’re not very well equipped to deal with that kind of problem so they don’t do well with it.”

“What happens if the girl is at least eighteen?”

“Then we have even less of a mechanism to work with. Like I said, it doesn’t happen very often any more but it does happen, so I’m hoping you and Norma can come up with an answer to that question. It might mean you’d have to pick up a girl here and take her to Phoenix or wherever it is you’re going to set up.”

“So what’s the scoop on Lonnie? Is he still in jail?”

“He should be unless he busted out and I haven’t heard yet. The prosecutor and the judge went along with my request for a high bail, so he’s going to have to come up with thirty big ones to get on the street again. He doesn’t have thirty cents, although Gus’s brother is willing to give him thirty bucks for his wreck of a car.”

“That’s on the assault and malicious destruction of property charges, right?”

“Right. The prosecutor is aware of the fact that he might have enough to file charges for statutory rape and a few other things. What’s more, since he apparently brought her here from LA, he’d be open to federal charges under the Mann Act, but both of those are going to depend on Robin’s being willing to testify. Where are you at on that?”

“We haven’t brought it up yet. She’s still pretty shaky, although she’s getting better.”

“Well, according to the prosecutor there’s no real rush, since Lonnie isn’t going to be going anywhere for a while. Between you and me, I think you’d be wise to keep her out of sight until she turns eighteen, because that’s the kind of thing where the children’s service people are going to stick their noses in and screw up after someone else has already carried the ball for them.”

“That was pretty close to my thinking. It turns out that’s only a couple months off, although she has no birth certificate, driver’s license, or any other form of ID.”

“The prosecutor can solve that one when he’s ready,” George replied. “Keep me informed on what’s happening with her so I can keep him informed.”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen with her yet,” Jennifer shrugged. “We’re still working on that one. If this was Phoenix, Norma seems to think she knows someone who would be willing to take her in for the long term. That won’t work since she’s in Nevada and she’s still underage.”

“I have no doubt you’ll think of something.”

“So did you get the blood test results back?”

“Yeah, we did. No HIV, but a couple other nasties. I already faxed them to Liz, so she’s aware of it and is getting meds. She thinks they ought to be treatable if allergies aren’t a problem.”

“Liz?”

“Elizabeth Wardell. That’s Betty’s real name, although you know to keep it quiet around here.”

“Good. I didn’t want to have to call her at her job and ask for Betty Boop. I need to call her and let her know I’m on my way and work out where to meet her.”

Dr. Wardell didn’t look or act much like Betty Boop when Jennifer picked her up an hour and a half later. “Are you sure you’re really Learjet Jenn?” she asked when Jennifer took her out to Magic Carpet. “I figured I was going to get a ride in your Learjet.”

“We’ll do it someday,” Jennifer promised. “Besides, I don’t fly the Lear into where we’re going.”

“How’s the girl getting along?”

“From a strictly non-medical opinion, better than I expected. The drugs seem to be wearing off, and that’s helping a lot. She’s not anywhere near as paranoid, although she still looks like Lonnie gave her a really serious working over.”

“That’s part of why I moonlight at the Redlite. I used to know a girl who did outcalls until she turned up dead. I may not make as much money as she made when she was alive, but at least I get to spend mine.”

“My thinking exactly, at least when I was still working. Look, I really appreciate your being willing to help this kid.”

“I’m not doing it for you or for her. I’m doing it for my friend.”

That statement led to a discussion of the Hearts of Gold program that Jennifer and Norma were trying to put together, and why they were helping Robin. By the time they reached the cabin, Liz offered to help out in the future if needed and available.

Dr. Wardell took some time to examine Robin, changed a few dressings, and gave her some shots and some pills to take regularly. “As far as the bruising and so forth are going, she’s coming along well,” she summarized. “The STDs, well, we’ll have to see in another week or so. She can probably throw those off with the antibiotics, but there’s no telling how long it will take. Jennifer, can you pick me up, oh, two days from now so I can come up here to examine her and give her another blood test?”

“I sure can. We’ll just have to work out a time.”

Time went slowly at the cabin for the next week and a half. Norma spent a lot of time with Robin, helping her come to grips with what had happened to her, and she said that once the girl had gotten to trust her and the others who were helping her, it went pretty easily.

What may have had more effect on Robin was Ellen’s presence with the three horses. They spent hours together, currying and brushing them to where it looked like the ranch work horses were ready for a 4-H show. Within a day of her first ride on Mudfoot, Robin was riding her by herself, first around the corral, and then around the cabin area. After Dr. Wardell’s second visit, Ellen, Robin, and Jennifer took to saddling up the three horses and going for rides in the desert each day. As Robin’s skill increased – and it did so rapidly – they even took a long, roundabout way up to the overlook on the ridge, where they could look down on the cabin, the dry lake, and the distant mountains.

A couple of times Jennifer took Robin flying in Magic Carpet just so she could see how isolated the place was. That helped the girl out, and helped to pass the time, too. Jennifer also flew Norma into Las Vegas once, and over to the Redlite once, just so she could get a touch of civilization.

Dr. Wardell’s battle with Robin’s STDs continued, although not as well as they hoped. However, on her third visit she said that in most respects Robin had physically recovered, even though her bruises would still be a little while going away.

“We’re running into a problem,” Norma said after Jennifer got back from dropping Liz off in Las Vegas. “Robin is coming along fine, and I don’t think she needs constant monitoring any longer. But what are we going to do with her, especially until she turns eighteen and we don’t have to keep her out of sight?”

“I have an idea,” Ellen said. “Robin, would you like to go back to the main ranch so you can stay with me? You could still work with the horses, and I could get started teaching you to be a useful ranch hand.”

“Could I really do that?” she said wide-eyed.

“I’d love to have you, Robin. It gets a little lonely out there sometimes, even with Duane and a hired man to help out. We can usually find work for more help.”

“I’d love to do it,” the girl smiled. “I’d like to go back to school sometime, but I sure don’t want it to be in Burbank.”

“Doesn’t have to be, but we’ve got some time to work it out. I put two kids through school from out here, and there’s no reason I can’t make it three. The only problem I see is that Jennifer, you’re going to have to fly up from Phoenix to bring Dr. Wardell out to the ranch to check her, probably a couple more times. Norma, I suppose you’ll want to talk to her again, right?”

“Now and then, just to make sure she’s getting along all right.”

“We can make it work,” Jennifer said. “Even in Magic Carpet. It’ll just take some juggling. I’ll have to come up sometime to fly her to Piute Wells to talk to the prosecutor since she’s willing to testify against Lonnie, but I can handle that, too. Does that work for everyone?”

“Works for me,” Norma said. “Jennifer, I’m glad you have this place so we could use it as a retreat while Robin was healing, but I can’t wait to get back to civilization and my family. Let’s get packing up.”

It took a couple of hours to get everything picked up, packed up, and loaded. But, when they got into Magic Carpet and Jennifer started it up, they could see Ellen and Robin sitting on Suzy and Mudfoot, waving them goodbye before starting up the track to the Bar H Bar.

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