Faithful Heart (9 page)

“Yes, I’m Dottie Harper.”

“I’m Max Donner, San Mateo County sheriff, ma’am. This is my deputy, Myron Hall.”

Hall touched his hat brim, nodded, and smiled tightly. “My pleasure, Mrs. Harper,” he said.

Donner looked down at Molly Kate and said, “And what’s your name, honey?”

“Molly Kate,” came the timid reply.

“Molly Kate, huh? My, that’s a pretty name. Of course it’d have to be, wouldn’t it? For such a pretty girl, I mean.”

Molly Kate leaned against her mother and did not answer.

“Dr. Glenn Olson contacted me by wire, ma’am,” Donner said, looking back at Dottie. “Told me about you bein’ there at
the hospital yesterday with your son.”

“I see,” Dottie said.

“From what the doc said, ma’am, your boy was beaten quite severely by your husband.”

Dottie pulled her mouth tight and gave a short nod.

“Dr. Olson’s wire said he strongly advised you to contact me about the beating … but he had a feeling you weren’t going to.”

Dottie said nothing.

“Dr. Olson feels somethin’ should be done so’s Mr. Harper doesn’t hurt the boy anymore.”

“Jerrod and I had a long talk last night, Sheriff,” Dottie said. “We’re working together on it. Things will be different now.”

“Where is Mr. Harper, ma’am?” Hall asked, adjusting his position in the saddle and making the leather squeak.

“He’s working in the fields He’ll … be out there till milking time.”

“You can direct us to where he’s working, can’t you, ma’am?” Donner asked.

“Yes. Of course. But really, Sheriff, everything’s fine. Believe me, it won’t happen again.”

“I intend to make dead sure it doesn’t, ma’am,” Donner said as he swung from his saddle. “We’d like to see the boy, then you can direct us to where Mr. Harper’s workin’.”

“All right,” Dottie said, casting a furtive glance toward the strawberry field. “I’ll take you to my son.”

Molly Kate ran ahead, and Dottie led the lawmen through the parlor and up the stairs to the second floor. The sight of the boy appalled both men.

Sheriff Donner set steady eyes on Dottie and said, “Mrs. Harper, this kind of thing has to stop. Dr. Olson said your
husband had beat you, too, and I can see the evidence on your face.”

Dottie touched the purple mark on her temple, but said nothing.

“We’ve seen all we need to, ma’am,” the sheriff said. “Now, you can tell us how to find your husband.”

“Are you going to arrest him?”

“Right now, I just want to talk to him.”

“Come outside. I’ll show you how to find him,” she said reluctantly.

Molly Kate preceded her mother down the stairs. Donner and Hall were behind Dottie. When the little girl moved out onto the front porch, she hollered, “Look, Mommy—Daddy’s here!”

Dottie and the lawmen saw Jerrod coming from the barn toward the house. He looked grim as he set his eyes on Donner and Hall.

O, dear Lord, please don’t let the bad Jerrod surface now!
Dottie prayed.

S
HERIFF
M
AX
D
ONNER
stepped off the porch with Deputy Myron Hall on his heels and fixed Jerrod Harper with a level stare as he drew up. “Mr. Harper, I’m San Mateo County sheriff Max Donner, and this is my deputy, Myron Hall. We’d like to talk to you.”

Jerrod looked questioningly at Dottie.

“Sheriff Donner received a wire from Dr. Glenn Olson, Jerrod—the doctor who took care of James yesterday,” Dottie said. “Dr. Olson felt the sheriff should investigate what happened.”

Jerrod nodded, then looked Donner in the eye and said, “Sheriff, it was an unfortunate incident. I … lost my temper and—”

“You must have done more than lose your temper, Mr. Harper,” Donner said. “We were just up in James’s room. Little fella took a real battering.”

“Yes, Sheriff, I realize that, but—”

“As sheriff of this county, sir, I cannot and I
will
not allow that kind of thing to go on if it’s in my power to stop it.”

Jerrod felt his other self trying to surface. He struggled against
it, and suddenly the overpowering force was gone.

He pressed a slight smile on his lips and said, “Sheriff, I’ve had some problems because of combat fatigue I suffered in the Civil War. Dottie and I had a long talk after what happened yesterday. Things are gonna be better. I’m ashamed of what I did to my son, but it isn’t gonna happen again, I assure you.”

“I know about your problem,” Donner said. “Dr. Olson explained it to me, and said he had told Mrs. Harper you need to get professional help. Suggested you see someone at City Mental Asylum.”

“City Mental Asylum!
I’m not goin’ to any insane asylum!”

Dottie bounded off the porch and took hold of her husband’s arm, praying in her heart for God’s help. “Honey, Dr. Olson was very concerned when he saw what James had suffered. He simply doesn’t want anything worse to happen.”

“Mr. Harper, you need professional help,” Sheriff Donner said. “I know a little about combat fatigue. My brother was in the War, and he had symptoms much like yours. He brutalized his wife and was always sorry afterward, but it didn’t stop. He did it repeatedly for two years.”

“Did he ever get over it, Sheriff?” Dottie asked.

“Yes, ma’am—when he killed himself. He went wild one day and almost beat his boss to death. He lost his job, and his wife left him. It was all he could take. He took a shotgun and—well, he’s been gone now for six years. I can’t make you get professional help, Mr. Harper, but there’s tragedy coming if you don’t. You need to see Dr. Carroll.”

“Dottie and I will work through this thing, Sheriff,” Jerrod said.

“Not without the right kind of help, you won’t.”

Dottie was holding Jerrod’s arm and could feel him trembling. The lawmen saw a change come over him, and both took a step back.

Dottie shook him and said, “Jerrod! Jerrod get hold of yourself.”

Jerrod took a deep breath and patted the hand that held his arm. “We’re going to whip this thing, Sheriff,” he said calmly. “Believe me. I don’t need this Dr. Carroll. I have the Lord, and I have my wife and children who love me. We’ll make it.”

Max Donner sighed and fumbled with one end of his thick, droopy mustache. “Well, Mr. Harper, I can’t force you to get the help you need. I could jail you for what you did to your son, but I couldn’t legally hold you for very long. So … let me make it very plain. If there are any more child beatings, I will come after you, and I’ll have you declared unfit to run free in society. You’ll see the inside of a cell, be it a prison or the asylum. What’s more, if I learn of you beating your wife like you did yesterday, I’ll be all over you like fur on a grizzly. You understand?”

“I understand, Sheriff. I don’t want to ever hurt my family again. And I’m not going to. Dottie and I are going to work together, and I’m going to be like I was before the War.”

Donner took a deep breath, glanced at his deputy, and let the air out slowly through his nose. “You won’t ever be like you were before the War, Mr. Harper. That’s about as possible as a man losin’ an arm and growin’ a new one. You need to put yourself under Dr. Carroll’s care, and I urge you to do it.”

With that, the sheriff turned and said, “Let’s go, Myron.”

When the two lawmen had ridden out of earshot, Jerrod turned to Dottie with fire in his eyes. “Why did you tell that Dr. Olson so much? He didn’t have to know everything that goes on in our lives!”

Dottie heard Molly Kate eject a tiny whine. She turned to see her begin to back across the porch toward the front door, her eyes wide with terror.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Dottie!” Jerrod bawled. “What goes on in our family is none of his business!”

“Molly Kate, go on inside the house,” Dottie said. “See what James is doing. I didn’t just up and tell Dr. Olson everything, Jerrod. He figured most of it out by himself, and simply asked me if it was so. Would you want me to lie?”

“You didn’t have to answer his questions! You could’ve told him to mind his own business!”

Dottie could hear Molly Kate whimpering behind her. She glanced at her daughter, who was at the door but frozen to the spot and staring at her wild-eyed father.

“Go on, honey,” Dottie said. “See what James is doing.”

Molly Kate burst into tears. “No, Mommy, I can’t leave you! Daddy will hurt you!”

“Jerrod! Look at Molly Kate!” Dottie cried. “You’re terrifying her! Don’t do this to us!” Dottie wanted to run, but she knew Jerrod could easily catch her.

“You deserve to be punished, Dottie! Do you hear me? That doctor wants to put me in the asylum, that’s what he wants! And it’s your fault because you told him things you shouldn’t have. You must be punished!”

Jerrod took a step back and raised both fists over his head as if to strike her.

“Daddy-y, don’t! Don’t hurt Mommy! You promised you wouldn’t ever hurt her again!” Molly Kate screamed.

Jerrod froze and looked past Dottie to the quaking, weeping little girl. His chest was heaving and his breath was rasping in
and out. Molly Kate saw it and moved toward the edge of the porch, crying, “Please, Daddy! Don’t you love Mommy? If you love her, you won’t hurt her!”

“That’s right, Daddy,” came a fear-filled voice from above. “You love Mommy, don’t you? Don’t hurt her! You promised you wouldn’t!”

“James!” Dottie gasped, turning to see him standing at the window in Molly Kate’s room.

Jerrod stared at James in the upstairs window, then looked again at Molly Kate. He studied her for a moment, still breathing hard, then looked at Dottie. He strained to gain control. An ache began as the pressure built behind his right eye, clouding his vision.

Dottie shuddered and stared at him. “Jerrod,” she said softly, “I love you.”

Jerrod ejected a wild cry, shook himself, then turned and ran toward the barn.

Dottie looked up and said, “Come down, James. Quickly. I’m taking you and Molly Kate to Grandpa and Grandma Reeves’s house.”

Maudie Reeves left the kitchen, carrying a cup of hot coffee, walked into the parlor, and stood over her husband, who lay on the couch.

Will painstakingly worked his way to a sitting position. “Thank you, sweetie,” he said.

Maudie handed him the steaming cup. “I really think we ought to go to town and let one of the doctors at City Hospital take a look at you.”

“No need, honey. I’m okay … just bruised and sore. I’m sure nothin’s broken.”

“Not even some ribs?”

“Man’s lived in his body as long as I’ve been in this one, he knows it pretty good. I’ll be fine in a couple of days.”

“Well, praise the Lord Jerrod was home or there’s no telling what might’ve become of you.”

“Amen to that.”

Maudie smiled. “Jerrod and Dottie are such precious kids. I don’t think there’s anything they wouldn’t do for us.”

“Man couldn’t ask for better neighbors,” Will said. He blew on his coffee; it still wasn’t cool enough to drink.

Maudie saw movement in the yard through the large parlor window that faced onto the front porch. She moved across the room to the window to get a better look. “Well, I declare! It’s Dottie and the children, Will.”

Will wanted to get up and follow his wife as she headed out the door, but the pain and stiffness in his body made him decide to stay where he was.

Maudie knew something was wrong when she stepped out on the porch and saw the looks on their faces and James in his pajamas. She hurried down the steps to meet them. “Dottie, what happened? What’s wrong?”

Dottie Harper was on the verge of tears. “Could we go inside, Maudie? I’ll tell you in there.”

“Sure, honey,” nodded Maudie, taking the hand of a child in each of hers. “C’mon. Let’s go in the house.”

Maudie and the children moved through the parlor door ahead of Dottie. Will set his coffee cup down and began to work his way off the couch.

Dottie saw that he was hurting and said, “Will, what happened to you?”

“Jerrod didn’t tell you?” Maudie asked.

“No. Tell me what?”

Will was unsteady on his legs. He held his hand to his chest and said to Maudie, “You tell her, honey. I’ve got to sit down.”

Maudie told Dottie about the wagon falling on Will less than two hours before. She explained how she had run to the Harper place for help, found Jerrod in the strawberry field, and sent him to lift the wagon off her husband.

“Shouldn’t we take you to the hospital so they can check you over?” Dottie said.

“I’m okay,” he said with a tight smile. “Coupla days’ rest and I’ll be good as new. What I want to know is, where did you get those bruises … and where did James get his?”

Dottie sighed, backed to a chair that faced the couch, and before easing onto it, looked at Maudie and said, “You’d better sit down. What I’m about to tell you is going to jolt you.”

James and Molly Kate sat on either side of Will, edging up close. He was the only grandfather they knew, and they loved him dearly.

Dottie had never told the Reeveses about Jerrod’s problem. It had been difficult to keep it from them, especially in the past five months when it had gotten progressively worse. She could no longer remain silent, nor, she found, did she care to. She broke down several times as she told them.