Dorothy Garlock (10 page)

Jill turned off the lamp on the bedside table — the one Thad had fixed — and walked stiffly to the door, brushed past him and headed for the kitchen.

“Radna isn't here.” Jill turned on Thad and spoke as calmly as her pumping heart would allow. “I'm not leaving Aunt Justine alone.”

“She won't be alone. Elmer's wife will look in on her. Come on, you've worked all day and you need to get away from here for a while. Your nerves are strung tighter than piano wire.”

“And whose fault is that? ”Her words were spoken in a low, strained voice. She prayed that she'd not cry and disgrace herself.

“Not mine. I'm trying to make things easier for you and you're bucking me every step of the way.” Strong fingers reached out and looped a curl behind her ear.

“I was doing just fine until you showed up.”

“Ah, honey, don't be mad at me.” He smiled tenderly. His searching eyes caressed each feature of her face.

His softly spoken words broke her resistance; but, determined that he not know it, she continued to hold herself stiffly and to glare at him.

“I'm not mad.”
I'm hurt, dammit!

“I'll make it up to you and buy you an ice cream, ”he coaxed teasingly.

“Are you sure you can afford it? ”she asked as she turned to go to the lobby. “You're out of a job.”

“Oh, I've got a couple of nickels to rub together.” With his fingers riding lightly on the small of her back, he ushered her through the hall and out into the lobby. Elmer and Rose Evans were sitting behind the counter.

“Mrs. Evans, will you look in on Aunt Justine in a little while? I won't be gone long.” Jill's voice was not quite steady.

“Of course. Stay out as long as you like. I'll look in on her every little bit.”

“Thank you.”

Thad didn't touch her until they reached the walk. His large hand gripped her arm and moved down to draw her hand up into the crook of his arm. He pressed it tightly to his side as they walked to the corner and turned toward the residential part of town.

Without uttering a word, Jill walked beside him, telling herself that Thad Taylor was the most arrogant, infuriating creature she had ever met. He had used endearing words and smiles to soften her up and was probably snickering to himself about how easily she had surrendered. He thought that she was a frustrated old maid, hungry for a man's attention, and he was giving her a treat.

The more she thought about it, the madder she became and the faster she walked. They passed houses where families were seated on the porch and children played in the yard. Music from a Victrola came from a house on the corner.

“Slow down, sweetheart. We're not going to a fire.” They had passed the last house in town and were walking along a hard-packed dirt road. “Don't call me that.”

“You don't like Miss Wildcat or Jilly Justine.”

“You can call me Miss Jones; that's my name.”

“Miss Jones, you're more fun than a barrel of monkeys.” His laugh was a deep rumble that she could feel in the hand pressed to his side. They walked in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again. “I like to get away from the noise and the lights of town and look at the sky. I'm a country boy at heart. There are a million stars up there.”

“Probably more than that. We can't see them all.”

“Have you ever been out on the prairie at night? ”

“I've not been out of town since I came here.”

“Someday I'll take you out on the prairie where there isn't a tree or a light. The stars are bright and you can see from horizon to horizon. You feel like you're the only person in the world.”

“Sounds lonely.”

“I guess it would be after a while, unless you had someone with you who enjoyed it as much as you did. There are a lot of things for a man and his woman to do when they are alone like that.” His head was tilted down toward her. She knew that he had that teasing grin on his face, but she wouldn't look at him.

“You would think of
that.”

“How come some fellow back home hasn't snatched you up and run away with you? ”

“Being a grouchy old maid might have something to do with it.”

“Hell and tarnation! ”He swore softly. “I'm never going to live that down.” He flung his arm across her shoulders and pulled her close to his side. “I let my mouth run away with me that time.”

“You may have spoken before you thought, but the words were in your mind or you wouldn't have said them. They're partly true. I'm not married and at times I am grouchy, but I'm not envious of a dog because she's pregnant.”

“I'm sorry I said that. If you'd have been pregnant and unwed when I got here, I'd have had to kill someone.”

“This is not a subject I want to talk about, Thad.” Jill had stopped. She tried to shrug his arm from her shoulders and failed, then swung around to face him. The dog stopped and looked up at them.

“You want to get married someday, don't you? ”he asked.

“Of course. But not now.”

“What kind of man are you looking for? ”

“I'm not looking.” She turned and started walking again.

The dog, satisfied that they were not going back, ran ahead to smell along the roadside.

Thad's arm remained protectively in place, fitting her shoulder nicely beneath his. Contrariness inside her forced her to keep her body ramrod stiff.

“I'm not looking, ”she said again. “But it wouldn't be any of your business if I were.”

“I'd make it my business if I thought you were taking up with some trashy hell-raiser who wasn't worthy of you, ”he growled, then swore under his breath. “There are a hundred men in this town, besides that rich dude you walked out with, who would give a year of their life to get a girl like you alone out in the dark. I'm here to see that it doesn't happen.”

“Are you one of them? Is that why you insisted we take a walk … in the dark? ”

He laughed. “If you weren't so damn sweet, I'd shake you until the freckles on your nose rattled, then I'd kiss you until you didn't know which end of you was up.”

“Try it, and you'll get a fist in your gut! ”

Thad whooped with laughter. “If I'd known you were this much fun, I'd have come looking for you sooner.”

It was a warm summer night with a slight breeze blowing from the south. Wrapped in the soft darkness, they continued to walk away from town. Jill's insides were in a turmoil. She kept pace with him, automatically putting one foot in front of the other. She wanted to put her arm around his back so that it wouldn't continue to bump into him, but she didn't dare. It would give him an even greater opinion of himself than he already had.

She was so absorbed with him, her brain became disconnected from her feet and she stumbled over a hard dirt clod in the road. Thad's arm tightened, pulling her to him. He took her arm and drew it behind him and wrapped it around his waist.

“Hook your fingers in my belt and hold on to me.” He grinned down at her. “This is better. I was wondering how I was going to manage to get you to put your arm around me.”

“Was it important? ”she asked and tried to put a dry note in her voice.

“To me it was. I'm trying to get up the nerve to kiss you. I haven't kissed you since you were about fourteen. I bet you don't even remember it.”

“No, I don't.” She was pleased that she could lie so convincingly.

“Joe and I had found a bottle of Walter Johnson's bootleg whiskey and were more than a little tipsy when you and Ruby Mae Farley came out to the barn. We saw you coming and decided that we were going to kiss you.”

“Why didn't you kiss Ruby Mae? ”

“It wouldn't have been any fun for Joe to kiss his own sister.”

“I guess not. We knew you were out there drinking, but we didn't tell Papa.”

“Was that the first time you'd ever been kissed? ”

“Of course not.” Another lie. Thad's kiss, even though it had been a brotherly peck on her lips, had been so wonderful that she had daydreamed about it for the rest of the summer. “And it wasn't the first time you and Joe had hid in the barn with a bottle of whiskey.”

“How do you know that? ”

“Jack told me that several times you and Joe waited until Walter Johnson was falling-down drunk, then stole his whiskey.”

“That low-life jackass! I'm going to break Jack's head when I see him.”

“It won't be easy. You've not seen him lately. Jack can take care of himself.”

Thad chuckled. “Those were the good old days. Life was easy and a good time was playing baseball on Sunday afternoon or going to a barn dance — ”

“Or drinking bootleg whiskey in the barn. I wonder why it's called
bootleg
whiskey.”

“I just happen to know that.”

“Why am I not surprised? ”

“Get lippy and I'll not tell you.” Thad's arm tightened on her shoulder.

“You'll tell me. You're dying to impress me with how smart you are.”

“All right, if you insist. Bootleggers got their name because they smuggled illegal whiskey in their tall loose-legged boots. Back during or before the Civil War, whiskey was heavily taxed. A lot of smuggling went on and one way was in the boots.”

“Aren't you the smart one.”

“I'm glad you finally realize that.” He laughed softly.

“Don't be getting a big head over it.”

Thad stopped and looked back. They were almost a mile out of town. Ahead they could see a faint light and hear the
chug-chug
of a pumping oil well.

“We'd better head back, unless you want to go on out to where that well is pumping.”

“I'd like to see it, but not tonight.”

“When Joe gets here with the car, I'll take you out to see a derrick going up and to where you can watch a crew drilling.”

“I never thought to ask how you got here.”

“I hitched a ride. Several of them. Everyone knows about Rainwater. It's a hot little town right now.” He looked around. “Where'd that dog go? ”

“Maybe back home.”

“She'd not leave me. Unlike some females I know, she knows a good man when she finds one.”

“Bull-foot! ”Jill snorted. Then: “Joe had better hurry up and get here.”

“They should be here by the end of the week.”

“They? ”

“Joe and a friend of ours. We got into a little trouble the first month we were out here. Blue helped us out a bit and has been with us ever since. He's part Kickapoo Indian. He told us one night, after drinking a bottle of hooch, that his name was Randolph Frazier Bluefeather, but when he sobered up he swore that he hadn't said any such thing. I've never heard him called anything but Blue.”

They started back toward town. Thad's arm was still across her shoulders, hers around him. They had only gone a few steps when he stopped, looked back and whistled for the dog. A minute passed and he whistled again.

“She'll be back to the one who feeds her.”

“Not if she's caught in a trap somewhere.”

“Maybe she's wandered off in search of romance.”

“Do women do that in her condition? ”

Jill was glad the darkness concealed her flushed face. Why had she said such a stupid thing?

“Here she comes, ”Thad said with relief and waited for the dog to approach. She trotted up to him with something hanging from her mouth. “What've you got there, girl? Drop it.” Thad bent down to get a better look at what dropped from the dog's mouth. “God Almighty, ”he swore and backed away, pulling Jill with him.

“Turn around, ”he commanded, and with his hands on her shoulders he turned her to face the lights of the town. He dug in his pocket for a match, lit it and knelt down for a closer look at what the dog had brought to them. The gruesome sight caused his stomach to roil.

“What is it? ”Jill demanded.

“Nothing for you to see, ”he managed to say in spite of the bile rising in his throat.

“What is it? ”She tried to move around him. He blocked her way by holding her shoulders

“Don't look! ”

“Dammit, Thad, what are you hiding from me? ”

“Jill, don't— ”He tried to move her away, but she pushed him aside and looked down. “It looks like a — Oh, oh, it's a …it's a …”

“It's part of a human arm and a hand … a woman's hand. Now are you satisfied? ”he barked angrily.

Chapter 7

O
H, GOD! OH, GOOD LORD
— ”Jill stumbled away. Her hands reached for Thad, clutching his shirt. With her eyes tightly closed, she could still see the long, white, slightly curled fingers at the end of the pale stump of a forearm. “Thad! I'm going to be sick.”

“I'm here, honey. Take deep breaths. That's my girl. Open your mouth and breathe in deep.”

Thad wrapped her in his arms, cupped her head with his hand and held her tightly and protectively against him. She clung to him, her arms around his waist, her face buried in his shoulder. She trembled and little mewling sounds of horror came from her.

“Is it…was it…? ”

“No doubt about it, sweetheart. It's what we think it is, ”he whispered close to her ear. “I'll take you back to the hotel, then bring the sheriff out here.”

“Maybe … it isn't real. Maybe it's one of those things from a store window, ”she said hopefully.

“It's real, honey. It's the arm of a woman or a child.”

“A child? Oh, my goodness! Could the dog have gotten it out of a graveyard? ”

“The graveyard is on the other side of town.”

“Is there more … of the body? ”

“That's up to the sheriff to find out.” With his arm wrapped tightly around her, they started toward town. Thad turned and spoke sharply to the dog. “No! Goddammit! Drop it.” Holding tightly to Jill's hand, he grabbed the dog by the hair on the back of her neck and shook her until she dropped the thing she carried. Then he dragged her along until she went on ahead of them.

“Oh, I hate that dog! She was going to …eat it.” Jill held tightly to Thad's arm.

“Don't blame the dog, honey. It was just food to her, and from the looks of her she's been hungry.”

“Arms don't come off like … that, do they? ”The words stumbled from her trembling lips.

“No. It appears to me that it's been cut off. Don't think about it.” He increased the pace until she was almost running to keep up with him.

“Slow down, ”Jill gasped. “I've got to get my breath.”