The Ridge: The Whisper of the Leaves - Chap. 44

Gerald saw everything from his vantage point in the alleyway. He saw Lawrence speed by toward his place, then he saw the cops head east toward the Ridge and finally, he saw Marshall’s Dad turn toward the south, right beside where he stood.

He knew he was taking a chance, but as the Bentwood car approached, Gerald stepped out into the street and motioned for them to stop.

“Gerald, what’re’ya doin’?” Carl said after he rolled the car window down. “We’re in a hurry.”

“Is it Marsh, Mr. Bentwood?” Gerald asked. “If it is, can I go along. I want ta help?”

“Yea, yea, sure. Get in.” Carl said, figuring Gerald might be some kind of help.

Gerald jumped in and Carl sped off again.

“Where’s Thomas and Milly?” Marshall asked Miriam once he got into the house. Lee, Evin and Alice were standing near the wood stove that was roaring. When Evin saw Marshall, he rushed him and wrapped his arms around his legs.

“Marsh, where ya been?” Evin said.

“Been travelin’, Buddy,” Marshall said as he patted his brother on the back. Then he said gently, “Let me go now, I got things I gotta do. All ya’ll need to be in tha bed anyway. It’s near 2:00.”

“Milly’s grandmother died a couple of days ago,” Miriam answered Marshall’s question as she came into the living room with a bowl of hot water and strips of bed sheets for Conner’s leg. “They went to Illinois for the funeral.”

“Did they take the truck?”

“Yea, they’s afraid they’re ole’ car wouldn’t make it there and back.”

Miriam put the bowl down on the floor by the divan where she had laid Conners. Blood was still oozing slightly from the huge hole in his pants leg,

“How ya doin?” Marshall asked the Ranger.

“Been better.” Conners said, gritting his teeth as Miriam wrapped his leg in cloth strips. “What’re ya gonna do?”

“Go get my sister,” Marshall said.

“How? I didn’t see a car or truck out there.”

“Be quicker on a horse anyway. Go cross country. Only ‘bout two miles ‘at way. Lawrence has to drive twelve or fourteen miles in tha snow ta get there by road.”

Conners looked at him a moment then motioned to his good leg, “Got an extra pistol in my boot if ya want it.”

“Thanks, I got that old man’s 45, but another’n won’t hurt.” Marshall said and pulled a snub-nosed-38 from Conner’s boot. He put it in his coat pocket and walked into the back of the house. He came back a moment later with Carl’s 30-06 deer rifle.

“Miriam’ll take good care of ya, Mr. Conners,” Marshall said then left.

“Come’on, let’s hurry, Jenny,” Sally said as she tried to shoo the six-year-old out the door.

“But I’m sleepy,” Jenny said, yawning.

“If you’ll hurry, I gotta surprise for ya.”

“What is it,” Jenny said, rubbing her eyes.

“Look at this!” Sally said with a flourish and swung the back door open.

“Sno-o-o-ow!” Jenny squealed. “It’s snowing.”

The snow holding center place in Jenny’s mind kept her from seeing Barnes body just a few feet from the steps and only partially covered by snow.

After firing the shot that killed the officer, Sally had rushed inside expecting to have to calm the child, but she was sound asleep. She never awoke even though Sally’s ears were still ringing from the explosive report fired from inside the door.

“Well, let’s go,” Sally said as she gently pushed Jenny along. “You can play in the snow as we walk.”

“Where we goin’?” Jenny said, concentrating on forming the perfect snowball.

“On a little adventure,” Sally said and smiled at the little girl who could have been mistaken for her daughter. Jenny had the same olive complexion as Sally as well as the head of long Auburn hair. Plus, they had smiles that were almost identical and turned up a little more on the right than on the left.

Jenny had grown to like Sally during the past four days of captivity. Like all children, who have a special sense for some things, Jenny knew, almost immediately, that Sally liked kids and especially liked her. By the same token, it was obvious Katie, and her father did not.

Katie, in fact, had grabbed her up and shook her so hard her head and neck hurt. It made Jenny cry, which made Katie even madder. But instead of shaking her even more, she just threw her on the bed like a sack of feed and stormed out of the bedroom.

Sally heard about this from Jenny and decided that she would not leave the little girl’s side again and she had been true to her word. She even went so far as to begin sleeping in the same room with her.

“Watch your step,” Sally said as she held Jenny’s hand in her right and a small flashlight in her left. She had some clothes in an old flour sack now looped over and hanging off her shoulder.

Considering Jenny was with her, she figured it would take maybe a couple of hours to get to the train tracks. The Bentwood house would not be far from there and she was hoping to get the girl close enough so Jenny could go the rest of the way on her own. After that, Sally was just going to get out of the area in the quickest way possible.

“I love snow,” Jenny said as she looked up at Sally.

“I do, too, Jenny,” Sally smiled down at her. “When I get ya home, maybe ya can make a snow man.”

“Ooh, will you help me?”

“We’ll see.”

They had gone probably 150 yards into the woods when there was suddenly a resounding “crack” like a rifle shot. Sally looked around trying to try to see where the sound came from, but then realized it had come from overhead.

She looked up and barely had enough time to say, “No!”

Lawrence was having a rough time navigating the snow-covered gravel road going up the Ridge. It would have been difficult enough with two good arms, but with one snapped completely through, it was nearly impossible. What should have been a twenty-minute ride had taken twice as long. He finally got there and pulled into the drive up to his house.

Barnes police car was parked across from the entrance to his drive and covered with snow. He could see it was empty, though, so he cut his lights and continued up toward his house.

When he got within 200 feet of the house, Lawrence shut the engine down. He sat there for a few moments watching the house…..listening. He saw the flicker of lanterns inside, but no other movement and heard no voices.

Satisfied that his presence was unknown, he opened the door with his good right hand as quietly as he could and stepped out into the three-inch deep snow.

Lawrence stepped carefully so as not to slip on the incline up to the house. The snow crunched with every step, echoing back from the trees. He continued to look for any signs of movement, but there was nothing.

Once at the side of the house, he decided the back door would be the best place to enter. He saw his ax stuck in his chopping stump and worked it back and forth with his one good hand until it broke free.

As he came around the back corner of the house, he could see the door standing open. A lantern sitting inside on the kitchen table cast a dim glow out of the door. In the light, he could see a mound a few feet from the steps that had not been there before.

Lawrence moved closer and realized it was a body. He put the head of the ax on the ground and propped the handle against his knee, then he reached down and started brushing snow away. After a moment, Ralph Barnes’s lifeless eyes were staring at him.

“Well, I’ll be.” Lawrence mumbled. He was suddenly filled with pride for the daughter he had never had much hope for. “More guts’n I ever give’er credit for.”

Lawrence then turned and walked up the three steps into the house.

“Girl,” he shouted. “Where are ya girl? Sally where are ya?”

There was still no sound, so he opened the door to the room where they had been keeping Jenny. As he expected, it was empty.

Lawrence stood there a moment contemplating the situation. His daughter could not have gone in a vehicle. The only one there was an old pickup with no tires. They had no horses for her to ride nor even a bicycle. Wherever she was, she had to have gone on foot......and carried the kid with her.

Lawrence walked into his bedroom and reached up into his gun rack for his shotgun, but it was gone. Sally, he thought. He opened a drawer on the rack and saw that she had taken his box of shells as well.

He walked back outside, went to the woodshed, and came out with a carbide light he had used on coon hunts when he was younger. Lawrence slipped the strap holding the light over his head, ran the wire over his shoulder and down his back, then clipped the battery onto one of the tool loops on his overalls.

He flipped the light on and walked back over to where Barnes body was. He felt around in the snow with his feet for only a moment and found what he was looking for, Barnes firearm. The double-barrel shotgun was a few feet away from Barnes body.

Lawrence rifled through Barnes pockets and found two more shells. Both barrels of the gun were loaded which meant he had only four shots available to him. Not much, but better than nothing. That done, he began looking for signs, tracks, or anything to tell him where Sally and the kid had gone.

The snow, while it had slowed down some, was still falling at about an inch an hour. Even Lawrence’s own footprints were almost covered by the new powder. He circled the house but still found no footprints, except his own.

Suddenly, he heard voices and froze. Men were whispering, their voices carrying across the snow. As silently as possible, he clicked his light off and slipped into the woods behind the house.

He went in far enough so they couldn’t see him, then moved a hundred feet or so to the right parallel to the house. That brought him around enough so that he flanked the four crouched figures coming up the drive.

They were bunched up together so much that he could have gotten all four, with just two or three shots. But, he just waited and watched.