Interlude - Mary I
Chapter 12 ~ nosex
Chief of Police Larry Hawkins was new to the position, but he was competent and already well-liked by his people. He had a calm, steady leadership style and wasn't afraid to hear hard truths from subordinates. One of those hard truths was that the man he replaced had been a monster, running a child sex ring, and none of those who worked under him had suspected. The entire department was determined to help the girls he hurt... the girls they had failed.... in any way they could. One of those ways had been to interview Erin when she emerged from her coma about her former neighbor, and policeman, who was a person of interest in the ring.... they had never been able to determine who had turned over the evidence to the department. He met with her before she left the hospital, but Erin wasn't talking, claiming no knowledge of what was called "The Circle." Because of her connection to Crazy Ed her case was left open, but he didn't think John would ever turn up again. His disappearance had been complete.
The other way he had helped one of the girls was in setting up "protective overwatch," as he called it, over the former chief's granddaughter Lucy, while her mother was still recovering in the clinic. They helped Lucy set up a new home and life without her mother having to be present, and made sure she was safe and wanted for nothing.
And the third way he helped was when he personally volunteered to act as legal guardian for Mary, Crazy Ed's niece, who had nearly lost her sanity under the years of Crazy Ed's sexual abuse. Frankly, he didn't know how she hadn't lost her mind, being so young. She is a lot less fragile than she looked. From what the lady doctor at the hospital told him it had been a close thing, and early on it was feared Mary would never be able to leave and get back into the world. It turned out Lucy had helped her, and in Chief Hawkin's understanding of karma and universal balance, that felt perfect.
He'd found some of Mary's long last family out in Texas, a half brother of Ed Donners. They hadn't gotten along with Crazy Ed, and for Hawkins that was an automatic point in their favor. He managed to get them on the phone, no easy task considering they didn't have phone service, but he got a hold of the sheriff in their county who was able to contact them by radio. The next day the brother came in to town and called him back. He listened as he explained about Mary, and seemed appropriately shocked by it, and in spite of their offering an open invitation to her if she needed a home, that part actually gave him pause... in his experience, people were rarely completely selfless, they always had ulterior motives. But he said they seemed like good people in his report, and it was done.... but she would probably never be released, so it wouldn't amount to anything, anyway.
But then Mary had her break through, and it turned out she might need to find a home. He answered Dr. Linda Marcus's summons to her office, and heard her request... she wanted to be absolutely certain these were good people. It would destroy Mary to go into another situation like the one she'd come from. Hawkins understood completely, and said he'd go out and meet them himself.
He took three days of leave, booked an early morning flight to Waco, TX, and traveled in uniform with one bag and a change of clothes. He rented a 4x4 and drove out to Amarosa County, amazed at driving through what was basically a brown, grassy desert.... he was used to much more green. Four hours of driving found him at the Sheriff's office at three in the afternoon, who shook his hand and said if he was in a hurry they could drive out now, but they wouldn't get to the ranch until nearly sundown. They radioed ahead to the family and made plans to meet the next day out at the ranch for lunch, and Hawkins was amused to find this small Texas town actually had a boarding house they called a "bed and breakfast," right across the street from the McDonald's. He showered the day off and went to bed early. Lots more driving in the morning.
He met the sheriff again at 9am and they hit the road, each driving separately. The sheriff wasn't planning on staying long and Hawkins insisted he'd be able to find his way back. They left pavement over an hour before they finally reached the ranch, and he was surprised when they got out of their vehicles and he mentioned, "this is pretty remote," when the the sheriff answered, "And we've been on the ranch for the last 15 miles." Everything really is bigger in Texas.
A dusty looking man in a cowboy hat, denim shirt, well-worn jeans and what looked like well-broken-in boots was walking from the barn to their vehicles, as a woman in a dress stepped out onto the long porch from inside the sprawling house, wearing an apron and holding a dish towel. Am I an a western? Hawkins mused to himself. As the man approached Hawkins studied him, late 50's, sun baked and cracked skin, very dirty, but with very kind eyes. He immediately liked him even before he pulled off a leather glove, stuck his hand, and said, "Howdy. You must be the lawman from back east. Welcome to the ranch. Call my Junior, errybody does."
Hawkins couldn't help but grin, he loved that Texas drawl when he heard it in movies, "Pleased to meet you, Larry Hawkins, I was wondering if we could talk a bit," taking Junior's hand, matching his strong grip, and looking him back in the eye. Junior seemed to approve, pumped his hand once, "Come on in, it's hot as blazes today and I know you just had a long drive. Is the creek on 23 over the road, Tom? I saw lightning up in the mountains last night."
"Near, but not quite," the sheriff answered. "If it's rising you may be having me in the bunkhouse tonight."
Junior laughed, "Wouldn't be the first time," as he the climbed the steps to the house. "This is my misses, Martha. This here is Larry Hawkins, and according to the patch on his shoulder, he's a lawman out of Florida."
Larry held out his hand to her, "Very pleased to meet you, maam. Thank you for seeing me."
She smiled and shook, and said, "You boys come out of the heat. Tom, I made some of that lemonade you like."
"That will surely hit the spot," the sheriff answered, smiling, as they went into the cool house.
Hawkins looked around as they entered, and again he was struck how he seemed to be in a movie where they decorated everything by how someone in Hollywood would think a Texas house would look like. The walls were earth tones, the furniture was based on the color of weathered wood, and there were even steer horns over the large window overlooking the mountains. Overall, Hawkins liked it.
They stepped into the kitchen and Junior offered them seats at the large wooden table, and he sat next to them at the head while Martha turned over and filled glasses on the counter, making two trips to give them all a glass of lemonade, then she joined them, sitting by her husband.
"So I figger you wanted to meet us before you decided if we'd make good parents to Mary," Junior started them out.
Hawkins liked how he got right to the point. He sat up and took a sip of his lemonade to get some moisture in his mouth... Mmmm, this is good, and he nodded and smiled to Martha, who smiled and nodded back. "Yes. Her doctor was concerned... well, not concerned, but said it was 'absolutely vital to Mary's well being that you vet these people, make sure they will be good for Mary.' So here I am."
"Well what would you like to know?" Junior asked, folding his hands in front of him.
Hawkins leaned back, just trying to get the sense of these people. "Well, tell me about yourselves. Do you have children?" He saw a steady look come briefly into Junior's face.
Martha took her husband's hand in hers, "We were not able to have children, though we tried. It's just us here, and the hands, and the horses and cows."
Hawkins felt like he should apologize, but wasn't sure what the etiquette was, there, so nodded, and let it pass. "And this is a horse farm, is that correct?"
Junior relaxed a little, "Yessir, we have about 1000 head at the moment, most of them are ranging. Mustangs mostly, but quite a few Quarter horses... big demand back east. But we also have a couple hundred head of cattle, that's what pays the bills. People like their beef."
Hawkins nodded. "Where is the nearest school? This is a big house, she'd have her own room? Is there anything dangerous for a child here on the ranch?"
Junior leaned back, bemused. "There's a brick school house out on the reservation, but I'm not sure how well she'd fit in with those kids unless she's Navajo and you forgot to mention that. But we'd talked about how if it came to it, our veterinarian has her teaching certificate, and that should do. And we currently have four empty bedrooms, she can have her pick. As far as dangerous..." he stopped to consider. "Anything on the hoof can be dangerous, but we keep them behind fences for the most part. But we don't have any threshers or anything like that how you'd find on a farm. Look.... I don't really like talkin about myself. I was in the middle of shoeing a horse. Walk around the spread, talk to my hired hands. I told them you'd be here, and they were to be completely open and honesty with any questions you have. Talk to Martha. Take a tour of the house, the ranch, nothing is off limits. If you need me, I'll be the one with the hammer in the big barn. Fair enough?"
Hawkins nodded, "Fair enough." With that the men stood.
The Sheriff said, "If you'll be ok Hawkins, I'll be heading out. Hopefully I won't need to come back because the road is washed out. You'll be good getting back?"
"I should be," Hawkins said, "I had the GPS trace the route. Should be easy enough to retrace my steps." The men shook hands, and he and Junior left the house, leaving him alone with Martha. They sat, and she folded her hands, looking at him expectantly.
"He seemed a little pained that you didn't have children."
Her eyes went a little sad. "When we married we knew we wanted a big family, and he took it hard when he found out he couldn't.... we both did, truth be told, but we loved each other first so we just went on. We thought about adopting but we are so remote out here that the adoption agents could never even find us, and they seemed to think it was a problem that we had no telephone," she said looking sadly bemused.
Hawkins took it all in, and nodded. "So really, taking in Mary could almost be a dream come true."
Martha looked at him long and steadily. "I think you'll find we have a habit around here of taking in strays. If she is family, so much the better. Junior and I have a lot of love to spare."
Hawkins nodded. "I hope you don't feel I'm being rude... I feel a debt to these girls... Mary... and I am only trying to make absolutely certain this is the best situation for her."
Martha reached out and squeezed his hand. "Bless you... and you ask any questions you need to ask. I need to start lunch.... I think you should take a walk, meet the hands. Talk to all of them. Make sure you take a walk through the stalls, say hi to the kids."
"Kids?" He asked.
"The horses. You know how childless people are.... we consider their pets as their children. Oh, if you do go through the stalls, watch out for Jimmy. He does go on." she smiled at him.
He smiled back. "Ok maam, I'll take a walk," and stepped out the front door in time to watch the sheriff's bronco making dust toward the horizon.
He heard hammering coming from what he assumed was "the big barn," but instead walked to the right of it to the low, long, sprawling building. The doors were open and it was dark inside compared to the bright sun of a cloudless west Texas morning, but he could make out a row of stalls inside. He went in that direction and found a man in the doorway with a hose. "Pardon me," he asked. "I wonder if you have a minute."
The man said, "Sure thing, mind if I keep watering? The kids are thirsty." The man spoke English with a moderate Mexican accent.
"Absolutely not, don't let me slow me down. I was just wondering, how do you like working here, and working for Junior?"
"Senior Junior is a good boss. I come to this ranch 7 years ago, he take me in and gave me a job. He always pay on time and isn't a cabron... errr, sorry about that," he seemed embarrassed. "He's a good boss."
"Fair enough," Hawkins said, smiling with him, showing he wasn't offended. "I won't take up any more of your time." He continued walking through the stalls, looking left and right at the horses as he went by. Down near the other end he found a younger man leaving a stall with a wheelbarrow full of manure.
The man said, "Howdy, mind your feet" as he went by and out the back door.
Hawkins followed him finding him heading to a monstrous pile of horse shit. The man emptied his barrow as Hawkins said, "My god, was all this moved by hand?"
The man chuckled, "Pert near," he said. "The walking floor can be cleaned by a machine, but the stalls are too small so there's me and my pitch fork."
Hawkins just shook his head in disbelief. "So... I was wondering if you wanted to take a break and have a chat."
"A chat?" the man looked at him funny. "Sure, I can chat. The boss said it's ok, so sure. I'm Jimmy," and he offered his hand, which Hawkins shook.
Hawkins nodded. "What kind of man is he? Junior. The boss."
"Well, my old man wasn't anything to be proud of, but if I could choose a father, it'd be someone like him."
That took Hawkins aback. "Really. What makes you say that?"
The man took a deep breath, as if gathering his thoughts. "I was a bit of a hellacious youngster, I guess you could say. I was a hellraiser, drinkin too young and breaking windows and stealing cars. One day I got hauled before the judge for the 3rd time, and he said that he didn't want to send me to the juvie work farm, but I wasn't giving him any choice. And I guess I was smart that day and didn't lip off, and he's just looks at me long and hard, and he says, 'Tell you what. I know a man with a horse farm, and he's a hardass, but he's fair, and if you can hack it there for 6 months until your 18th birthday, and keep your nose clean, I'll wipe your record. Deal?' And I was stupid but I wasn't fuckin stupid... errr, if you'll forgive the parlance."
Hawkins just grinned and shook his head, "Go on."
"Well I said yes sir thank you sir, and the next day they drove me out here. I figured it was going to be a big joke and I'd be history the first night. But Junior met me when I got out of the sheriff's car, looked me up and down, and said, 'I know you feel like you never got a fair shake, but I'll make you a deal. You sweat for me for 8 hours a day and I'll make sure you eat 3 squares a day, have a soft bed at night, and absolutely no one else will mess with you. If anyone wants to get at you, they have to get through me first.'
"Now, I mentioned my old man... he liked to drink and got free with his fists on me, and usually it was my fault, because if he was beatin on me then he wasn't beatin on my older sister. She had finally moved out with her boyfriend... that dick.... sorry.... who was pretty much just like our old man. But he used to punch on me and that's pretty much why I never wanted to be home so instead fell in with the ol' boys down in town. So when Junior offered me a square deal, for some reason I believed him, I guess I always was kind of a sucker. Anyway, he put me to WORK.... I couldn't even believe it. I remember he said once, 'a man can be so tired he can't even snore,' and after a week I believed it. But as bad as it got... at the end of every day he told me, 'you did a good day's work, son," and then Martha fed me... and MAN can she cook. And I aint never had anyone like that, a man clapping me on the back saying, 'you did good.'"
Hawkins was enthralled. This kid should be on a stage somewhere.
"Anyway, before I knew it six months had passed and it was my 18th birthday, and he came to me and told me my debt to the county was free and clear... but if I wanted to, he could use a good man and I could stay on. That was the first time anyone ever called me a 'man,' and let me tell you, it meant a lot coming from him."
Hawkins nodded, thinking that must be the end of the story, but it wasn't. Jimmy can go on.
"So it was a couple months later, I get a letter. No phones out here," he said wistfully. "It was from my sister, she said she couldn't take it no more with her boyfriend, and he said he'd kill her if she tried to leave, and please help. I went to Junior... I was light from we just went into town for provisions, and I was still paying for damage I did when I was raising hell. I asked June for an advance. He looked me in the eye and said why did I need it... and I didn't even think of lying to him, I told him my sister was in a bad way with her man and I had to go get her. He asked where she was, I told him Waco. Then I showed him her letter, I had it in my back pocket. He read it, I think twice. He said, 'if we leave now, we can be there in about three hours. Grab your jacket, let's get going.' He yelled over to Pedro that we was going for the rest of the day and to close things up, he yelled at Martha that he had an errand to run, then we was in his truck. And yeah, it takes erry bit of three hours. When we got back in cell range he tosses me his phone, 'try to let her know we're coming, but be discrete. I'd rather not have a tussle if we can help it.' I called and she answered, but she started talking to me like I was our mom, so I figgered he was there with her. I just told her that I was coming, and try to pack whatever she needed, and we'd be there in about an hour. She said 'ok mom, I will,' and hung up. I had her on speaker so June heard it all. He just started whistling when she hung up, and let me tell ya, it sent a chill up my spine.
"So we pulled up to the address on the letter, it was a little piece of shit house... sorry.... lawn not cut, all falling apart. We wait out front, she doesn't come out. I take a deep breath and open the truck door to walk up, and stand outside the door tryin to see in the curtains, but I can't. I tap on the door, and suddenly it flies open and there's Vinnie, her piece of shit boyfriend. He's in his tank top and I can smell booze on him. I look past him and see my sister on the floor, crying, looked like she had a shiner. He says, 'yeah I knew that wasn't her fucking mother. It didn't take much for her to give you up, neither,' and he smiled. And that REALLY pissed me off. I got mad and pushed him, and I guess I got pretty strong working with Junior on the ranch, and he actually went backwards, even though he was always a lot bigger'n me. But he got caught by surprise and I pushed him back from the door, and I went in and started helping my sister up, I knows I shouldn't have turned my back on him but I was never much of a fighter. Well anyway I get launched across the room, he had rammed me like a bull and I was seeing stars. He pushed my sister down again and was coming at me, his arm was raised and I knew it was about to be lights out for me, when suddenly Junior was there behind him and grabbed his elbow, keeping him from swinging it. He just said, 'I don't think that's a good idea,' real soft like.
"He turns on Junior and yells, 'Who the FUCK are you?' pardon... and Junior says, still real soft, 'I'm the man taking that woman out of here.' And Vinnie screams 'LIKE FUCK YOU ARE' and cocked back his arm at June this time.... and I guess manhandlin eighteen hunnert pound horses gave him a little experience with this sort of thing, because June hauls back and lays a haymaker right on his nose. I could hear it break as Vinnie flew backwards. I swear, he went from rushing forward to flying backwards in one punch. And that was pretty much it for him, he was bawling on the floor, 'why'd you have to break my nose?' like it was poor him, we're so mean. I gathered up my sister and June just stood over him, making sure he didn't get any ideas. As me and her walked her out I heard him say, 'You might feel a little raw about this once you stop bleeding. I'd let it go. I have a lot of land and they'd never find you in a thousand years.' I swear, June never raised his voice that whole time. And then we was gone.
"He brought us right back here, and Martha took care of my sister, cleaned her up. We got her straight, that dickhead had been making her do drugs with him, and she got better right quick and she told me once in private that she wished our dad had been more like June, and I told her I knew exactly what she meant. So, that's the kind of man he is."
Hawkins had almost forgotten the original question, he was so involved in his story. He blinked. "How is your sister? Good?"
He looked up over the stalls and called out, "Hey Sam, Chief Hawkins wants to know how you are."
A pretty woman with brunette hair in twin braids looked down from the hay loft where she's been kicking bales down to the horses. "I'm pretty good," she called down. "How'r you?"
++++
He'd learned all he needed to know but Martha insisted he stay for lunch, and he obliged, and agreed with Jimmy, she was an amazing cook. He shook each of their hands and told them that if they were ready for it, he would recommend Mary come live with them as their legal dependant, and they assured him she would be more than welcome, and loved. He nodded and headed back, and had no trouble retracing his steps with the GPS.
Copyright 2016: "Marissa Banks." Rights reserved. Not for reuse without express written consent of the author. All content is purely fictional; any similarities to actual persons or events is pure coincidence. Reader must be of legal age in the judicial area he/she resides. Reproductions of the fiction contained herein or linked from here may not be used in whole or in part without express permission from the author.