“Well, you already have Roxie in your corner. And I’m their teacher, so while they’re at school, they are under my wing. I think you’re already covering all bases.”
Sam stood and then pulled her up into his arms and kissed her…hard and fast, then sighed when he let her go.
“Thank you, Katie.”
“You’re welcome…and just so you know…what you’ve said to me goes no farther than this room. Whatever secrets are told in this town won’t come from me.”
He nodded.
She knew he was overwhelmed, but she had faith in Sam Youngblood that he would always do the right thing.
***
Frieda Tiller picked up her paycheck and paid bills, bought groceries, then went home and cleaned and did laundry all day. The house was spotless by the time she went to pick up the boys at school. When she saw Donny running toward her with a big smile on his face, she laughed. There were so few times in their family when true joy abounded. And knowing now what a brilliant mind he had gave her purpose. She needed to make certain that all her boys had a safe and healthy environment in which to grow up, so that they could be all they were meant to be.
They were all three talking at the same time, their voices rising in their need to be heard, when Frieda stopped on Main for a red light.
“Hey, guys, I have something to tell you,” she said.
“What is it, Mama?” Donny asked.
“Your daddy is in jail. He was sentenced to thirty days for disturbing the peace and destruction of property.”
“Okay,” they echoed. “What’s for supper?”
And Frieda sighed. Okay, girl. There’s your sign. Get out while the getting’s good.
***
Cheryl Phillips couldn’t quit crying. She was as broken as her ribs.
After so many tries to have a baby, and so many miscarriages, she and Raymond finally got pregnant. Their joy had been boundless. He was a hands-on father from the start, and she’d been fooled by his utter devotion to their daughter, to the point that she’d never seen him through her daughter’s eyes.
Ree had been a happy baby. A playful baby, until somewhere around three years old when she began to change.
Cheryl hadn’t understood Ree’s withdrawal as anything but being shy. And when Ree clung to her to the point of desperation, she just hugged her and called her a mama’s girl. She had failed her child.
Cheryl didn’t even know where to start for them to begin to heal, but she knew small-town life. People there would never let this die. She didn’t know where they were going to go or what they would do, but when she got out of the hospital, she and Ree were moving.
She wouldn’t take her back to that house of horrors.
Ree needed counseling and new surroundings, and that didn’t just mean a move across town.
***
Pansy Fields was hysterical and trying not to show it. She couldn’t look at Ree without wanting to scream, and kept patting her and talking quietly as they drove home.
“Why is Mama in the hospital?” Ree asked.
Pansy took a deep breath. At that moment, she wouldn’t have lied to that child to save her soul.
“Your daddy hurt her. He’s in jail.”
Ree’s eyes grew so big and opened so wide Pansy was suddenly afraid that she’d told a baby things she didn’t need to hear, and then she remembered what this baby had already endured and decided the baby would be relieved to know the monster couldn’t get to her anymore.
Only Ree started shaking. “I didn’t tell! I didn’t tell!” she wailed.
Pansy frowned. “Tell what, baby?”
“Daddy said if I told, he would kill Mama and he would kill you. I didn’t tell about the games.”
“Jesus wept!” Pansy shrieked. “He said that to you?”
Ree nodded, still crying.
Pansy pulled over at a curb and grabbed Ree by the hand.
“Look at me, sugar! You’re safe now! He can’t ever hurt you again! Do you understand that? He’s going to prison for what he did to you. They will lock him up behind bars. He is going to live the rest of his life there, where he can’t hurt anyone else for as long as he lives. And your mama is going to get well and come get you at my house, and you’re going to be fine. Granny and Mama will see to that. Now, when we get to my house, we’re going to have a good supper, and you can sleep with me every night if you want to.”
“Am I going back to school?” Ree asked.
“Not yet. We have things to do,” Pansy said. “Is that okay?”
Ree nodded. “I don’t want Goldfish crackers.”
Pansy didn’t know what the hell that meant, but she was fine with the request.
“Me either,” Pansy said. “Now, Granny loves you, and we’re going to find a way to take away your sad, okay?”
The little girl nodded.
Pansy handed her a tissue. “Here, baby. Wipe your eyes. We’re going to get ice cream before we go home. What kind do you like best?”
Ree’s eyes lit up. “I like chocolate, Granny. Can I have chocolate in a cup?”
“You can have anything you want,” Pansy said, and drove away from the curb.
***
Raymond Phillips came out of surgery with titanium rods and screws in his knee. He had stitches on his face, and his chest and arms were bandaged from the gouges Cheryl had dug out of his flesh.
Even through the veil of drugs, and handcuffed to the hospital bed with a guard outside his door, he was in misery. He’d always known there were dangers in playing the games, but he’d never expected the situation to unwind as it had. If that damn cop had just shot him dead, then this would all be over.
But Sam had crippled him instead, and the doctors had put him back together. Now he would die in a federal prison, and it wouldn’t be pretty and it wouldn’t be swift, like a bullet. Of that he was certain.
***
Roxie was waiting for Sam when he walked in the door. She wasn’t a touchy-feely kind of woman, but at that moment, she’d never wanted to hug a man as much as she did him.
“Roxie, thank-you is never enough,” Sam said.
“Hey. We’ve been doing this too long to get all apologetic and squishy. You’re the chief of police, not an insurance salesman, and the closest thing I’ll ever have to a son. You’re welcome. Now. There is a meat loaf in the warming oven, buttered corn on the stove, and potatoes baking. They should be done in about fifteen minutes.”