Journeys West Chapter 2 The Saga is Set in Motion
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Journeys West - Chapter 11 - Help Arrives free porn video
Chapter 11 - Help Arrives
by Monica Rose and Marina Kelly
Editor: Qmodo
The smile on her face seemed to be at odds with the ominous nature of her
question. She used little makeup and she really did not need it. Her
dark brown hair was pulled back from her face into a bun or pony tail.
Probably because of some dress code regulation. Her nose was a bit wide,
but it seemed to fit her face properly. She looked to be in her late
twenties or early thirties. All-in-all, she looked like a girl you would
be happy to take home to mother, not someone who could draw the revolver
under her hand and use it.
She looked to be just short of six feet tall with wiry muscles on a lean
frame. It occurred to Pat that this lady looked quite capable of running
down an escaping suspect and then hog tying him once she had him.
Both Mary and Pat had the looks of a deer caught in an oncoming car's
headlights.
"Yes?" Mary ventured in a tentative voice. It was obvious that the
officer already knew who she was looking for and was asking purely out of
politeness.
Mary's confirmation was enough to break the ice. When she realized where
their eyes were focused, she moved her hand to join her left on the brim
of the hat she held before her.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," she said as she stepped into
the room. "I'm Lieutenant Leslie Caldwell with the State Police. I'd
like to ask you some questions if I could."
Once they realized that they were not looking at some sort of
confrontation, Mary and Pat both let out sighs of relief and relaxed.
"Yes, ma'am," Pat said. "How can we help you?"
Leslie put her Smokey the Bear hat down on the tray table and took out a
notepad that she set beside it. She looked up at them and said, "We were
sent over to investigate your fire and I'm told that the two of you were
present when the fires started."
"Yes, I guess that we were," Pat said, "at least technically present.
You see, Mary and I were working in the basement storage area and we
smelled smoke. I'm not sure where the fire was started and how."
Leslie nodded. "That is what was in both the fire chief's report and the
report filed by the sheriff. However, the fire chief indicated that
there might be more to your story than you stated."
Her brows went up as Pat described how they had gone out a window because
of the chain on the door.
"The sheriff neglected to include that in his report, but there was
mention of a lock and chain on the door in the fire chief's report," she
said. "That is one of the reasons I want to speak with the two of you."
Mary raised her hand to get Leslie's attention and said, "Could I ask why
the state police are investigating this?"
Leslie smiled slightly and nodded.
"One of our responsibilities as the State Patrol is to safeguard and
investigate problems with state and federal landmarks. The library is in
one of the oldest buildings in town and it was designated a landmark.
That makes it our business." She paused and then continued, "Sheriff
Jackson is not happy to have us here."
"He thinks of this county as his own little empire," Pat said.
"He does seem to have a problem with you Mr. Summerfield."
Pat nodded. "I'm afraid that he... and I go way back. He has never
gotten over high school." At Leslie's questioning look, Pat added, "Ron
Kaylock, Sheriff Jackson, and I were in school together. Even though we
were all on the football team, the girls preferred to be around me. We
had a few fights about the fact that they couldn't get dates when I
could.
"They got thrown off the team in their senior year for bullying. The
only reason they weren't in jail is because Royce's father was the
sheriff and the money in the Kaylock family."
Leslie shook her head sadly. It was apparent that her opinion of the
sheriff was not necessarily favorable.
"It sounds like there are a fair number of problems going around here."
Mary spoke up again. "I believe that we might be able to shed some light
on that." She proceeded to tell about why she had come to town, the
behavior of the sheriff and the Kaylocks whenever she tried to get
information about a wagon train over 100 years in the past, and ending
with their theory that the Kaylock family did not want Yolanda's past to
be made public.
Leslie's expression was a quizzical smile that made it obvious that she
thought that trying to suppress a century-old incident to save a
reputation as silly.
"Thank you," she said. "I'll keep what you've told me in mind, but I
have to say that it's difficult to believe that the Kaylock's would be
doing this just to save their reputation. The risk is just too great."
It was obvious that she just did not believe that the Kaylock's could be
responsible for the crime she was investigating. "I have some other
leads that I will be looking into though. Along with everything else, I
heard that you had problems with your car."
At Mary Sue's acknowledging nod, she continued, "I was at the garage Ms.
McHenry's call came in about the accident. When I heard that a witness
in the case I was investigating was involved, I waited until Hiram had
brought the car in."
"I lost control of the car and almost went off the road and into a ditch
on the way here. I don't know what happened. The steering must have
gone out," Mary Sue said.
Leslie looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. "I asked Hiram to look
the car over before I came out here and he says that it looked like your
steering system had been tampered with because he had worked on your car
just a couple of days ago. Is that correct?"
"Yes. I had some problems with overheating on my way out from New York
and Hiram took care of it."
Leslie nodded again. "Hiram told me that he would have your car ready in
about an hour. It didn't appear to be a big problem for him to fix."
Pat laughed briefly. "Hiram may come across as a bit strange, but he is
a good mechanic. If he says that the car was tampered with, he is
probably right." He looked at Mary and said, "You need to be careful. I
don't like the fact that someone tried to hurt you."
Mary swallowed at the thought that someone might have been trying to hurt
her or even kill her. Was her car sabotaged in conjunction with the
attack on Pat? The fact that the doors to library had been chained meant
that they were both targets and it had to be because of her research.
That fire had to have been intended to kill them and not just destroy
documents.
Leslie picked up her hat and moved to the door. Before she left, she
looked at Mary Sue and said, "I'm going to be here in town for the next
few days while we look into things. Please do not plan on leaving town
until you hear from me."
Mary Sue was disappointed that the officer wasn't more concerned about
what appeared to be going on in this town. It seemed obvious that the
town's most prominent family was in control and that they were trying to
stop her. But the law had to look into all of the facts before making
any kind of judgment. Leslie asked a few more questions to round out the
backgrounds of them both before she thanked them for the left to do some
more interviews. She had a thoughtful expression as she took her leave.
Pat shook his head slowly. "You can tell that she really doesn't believe
that Ron or his father is involved."
"We'll just have to wait until she catches up with where we are," Mary
answered. "We can't expect her to take our word for things or to just
accept our theories. She strikes me as being sharp, so she'll have as
many questions as we do by the end."
"What makes you think that?"
Mary smiled. "I've discovered over the years that my first impressions
aren't too far off and that I just have to wait for everyone else to
arrive at the same conclusion I have."
"Woman's intuition?" Pat teased.
"Maybe." She shrugged. "I guess I just make snap judgments and
decisions. Sometimes I'm wrong though, I've hurt some feelings in the
past. In this case, all we were doing is telling her the facts and then
our suspicions. She isn't going to take any action until she has some
kind of proof though."
Pat agreed with a nod. They were interrupted by Pat's doctor knocking on
the door and coming into the room.
"I have good news," he said as he came up to the bed. "Your x-rays and
scans show that you don't have a fracture or even a concussion. You're
going to have some headaches for the next couple of days, but you can
manage those with Tylenol or aspirin. I think that I can let you go
home."
Mary sighed with relief and Pat just smiled. Her worry about Pat and its
removal left her feeling limp as she sat in the chair. She hadn't
realized how worried she had been, but her relief was replaced by the
sadness she had pushed to the back at the fact that she planned to leave
town. She kept the smile on her face for the moment.
Pat looked over to her, missing the shadow that crossed her face. "Could
I ask you to retrieve some clothes for me? I don't think that I can wear
the clothes that they brought me in with."
She just nodded jerkily. "I still have your keys. I'll run back to your
house and get you a change of clothes. Then we can get you home."
"We can release you as soon as you're ready to go."
"I'll be back as soon as I can. I'll stop and get my car," Mary said.
She hurried out of the hospital room and out to the parking lot. On one
hand, she wanted to see Pat get out of the hospital and back home and on
the other, that meant that she would be leaving. She couldn't stay
though. The state police wouldn't be in town forever and things could go
bad again once they were gone. She paused at the door of the pickup
truck to put her head on her arm for a moment. Why did the Kaylocks have
to be so defensive and why couldn't they believe her when she said that
she had no interest in exposing their family history?
She pulled herself together and drove back into town. The trip itself
only took 20 minutes and she parked the truck inside Pat's garage. She
reasoned that it would be easier to leave the truck here at the house,
walk down to Hiram's, and drive her own car. She could drop Pat off at
home and then just leave town, regardless of what the officer had told
her. It would be less painful that way.
She took care of the truck first and then went into the house. She stood
inside the front door and just soaked up the atmosphere. An empty old
house never feels empty. All of the generations of families, the
children, parents, and grandparents radiated their love and well-being
and those emotions just seemed to go into the floors and walls to give
the home a warm feeling. A sterile apartment or a newly constructed
house never felt like this.
This felt like the farm house she grew up in and the few times that she
had been home alone. It seemed that she could feel the house talking to
her. At one time, she had thought that she was somehow sensitive to
paranormal things, but her parents and brothers had laughed at her.
After her experience in the library where she had seen the girl who had
not been there, she had come to believe in things like ghosts and
spirits.
She closed her eyes and tried to reach out. She felt safe here; it was
just too bad that she couldn't hide here from the world. Hot tears
rolled down her cheeks from her sense of upcoming loss. She had finally
found someone she wanted to know much better and she was going to run
away to keep him from being hurt more. He might have lost his job and
even killed. All because of her.
She shook herself out of her pity party and went down the hall to Pat's
room. The place was still a shambles from the chaos of his assault. For
some reason, she felt the need to strip the bed and remake it. A brief
search turned up clean sheets. The blankets and spread had been thrown
into a corner at some point and were still clean. She made short work of
turning the bed into a useable place again so that it would be ready for
Pat when he came home.
A quick search of the bureau against the wall revealed underclothes and
socks. She pulled a pair of jeans from a shelf in the closet, along with
a shirt. It all went into a gym bag that she found on the floor of the
closet. (In the gym bag she discovered a deodorant Stick that seemed out
of place.
She looked around the house a little before she left to walk down to
Hiram's. Even though she didn't go upstairs, she felt like she knew the
house intimately. It just seemed to radiate that a warm, welcoming
feeling. It was hard for her to pull the door shut behind her and lock
it up.
It was a bit cool, even for mid-day, but the walk in the sun would be
enough to keep her warm. She would be in the car and on road soon
enough, so she could warm up then.
At the gate, she turned to look back at the house. She frowned for a
minute when she saw the violets growing among the other flowers beside
the house. She didn't remember them when she had been here earlier, but
then things had become rather hectic pretty quickly.
Hiram's garage was about a quarter of a mile away, which she considered
to be a short walk. If you spent any time in New York City itself, you
learned to take a taxi or walk to your destination. Walking was cheaper.
The only part of the trip she was unhappy about was that she would pass
the sheriff's office. Considering that there was a large window that
faced the street, she knew that the jerk of a law man would take the
opportunity to harass her. She could only hope that he was out when she
went by.
The road had a bit of a curve to it and she was able to see one of the
state police patrol cars in front of the sheriff's office as she rounded
the bend. She also could see two troopers come out of the building and
get into the car. From the way the doors were slammed, she could tell
that they were not happy. She was able to hear the sound from a hundred
yards away.
They were long gone by the time she got there and she took a deep breath
as she reached the building. Her prayer that she could get by without
being bothered went unanswered as the door opened behind as she was
hurrying past.
"Hold it missy!" drawled the sheriff. "Where are you going?"
Mary Sue turned back to face the sheriff and saw Ron Kaylock standing
next to him. Why did this hick lawman think he could intimidate her?
She knew that giving him any kind of an attitude would be foolish though.
The basic rule of primates was to never show any weakness and the sheriff
would not want to do that in front the younger Kaylock. If nothing else,
Ron would just egg the sheriff on to do something she would be unhappy
about.
She pause to marshal her thoughts and to get a handle on her temper
before she said, "I'm walking down to the garage to get my car. Hiram
gave a message to the state trooper who talked to us at the hospital.
Then I am going to go back to the hospital to pick up Pat." She tried to
throw in a bit of dig when she continued, "I'm going to talk to that
state trooper some more."
For some reason, the sheriff smiled while Ron gave out a short laugh.
"The troopers were called home again."
"Yes," Ron said. "It appears that someone in the capitol didn't think
that they needed to be here bothering the folks in town." The snide look
on his face let her know who was responsible for getting the state police
recalled. "It's good to have friends you can rely upon."
Before she could turn to leave, the sheriff pointed to the bag in her
hand. "What do you have there?"
"Some clothes for Pat Summerfield. They're releasing him and he needs
something clean."
"I'm not so sure. I'll need to make sure that you aren't stealing from
Mr. Summerfield. Please come into my office."
Ron turned to him and said, "Ralph??? I need to get going. I'll talk to
you later." He got into his sparkling new pickup and headed out of town.
Mary watched Ron leave, almost as if she wanted to make sure that he was
gone and the he wouldn't be behind her.
The sheriff coughed to get her attention and said, "In here missy."
She was getting tired of hearing that word and really wished that he
would use her name instead. But was he even capable of remembering her
name?
The sheriff held the door open for her so that she preceded him into the
building. His desk was in the back of the office area, but it still had
a clear view of everything as well as the large display window. It
appeared that this building could have been a retail store at some point.
Doors in the back probably lead to interview rooms and holding cells.
All-in-all, a rather cut-rate county sheriff's office. Like Pat's house,
Mary Sue got a vibe from the place. But this feeling was dark and sharp-
edged. There had been a lot of nasty emotions in this place.
He directed her to the same chair in front of his desk that she had
occupied the first time he had her in here. She knew that this had to be
more harassment intended to make her go away. But she refused to just
tell this guy that he had won and that she was leaving.
Instead of search the bag like he had stated, he just looked at her for a
minute or two. Mary refused to lose the stare-down contest and looked
right back at him, but made sure that she kept any kind of angry
expression off her face.
He gave up first and said, "Hiram says that your car is ready. It was
apparently loose linkage of some sort."
"Yes, that is what I was told by Leslie."
"You should be more careful about your vehicle maintenance missy. I
don't like it when people drive in my town with broken-down cars.
Somebody could get hurt and we wouldn't want that would we?" The look
the sheriff gave her said that he did not care if she got hurt. She had
the feeling that he would have been quite happy if she had been hurt when
her car malfunctioned.
She finally reached her boiling point and exploded at him. "My name is
Mary Sue McLaughlin. Sir. There was nothing wrong with the steering
linkage before yesterday. I'm familiar enough with cars to know that the
steering doesn't behave in the way. If anything, the hydraulic system
will fail first."
She had remained sitting during her outburst to avoid appearing to be
threatening. He leaned forward across his desk to sneer into her face.
"I will call you anything I please. Missy. You don't have any rights or
authority in my town that I don't give you."
As much as she wished she could take the man down a peg, Mary knew that
it was a battle she could not win. She took the wisest option, which was
to try to remain non-confrontational.
Her tone was calm and even. "Sheriff, I'm only working on my thesis and
the last wagon train. I'm not trying to cause problems. Since I've come
to town, someone has tried to burn down a historical landmark, attacked
Pat Summerfield, and apparently tried to kill me."
The sheriff sat back in his chair and studied her. "I don't know who has
done these things and I really don't want to find out. I can tell you
that your research has people concerned about what it might mean to them.
If you were smart, you would just leave."
The last thing she wanted to admit was that she was folding her tents and
running away. All she could say was, "I'm honestly not trying to cause
trouble. I only want to gather my material and move on."
"Look. I answer to people who will be here long after you are gone. I
don't like treating people this way."
Based upon his past behavior, his words didn't have the ring of truth to
her, but she kept her mouth shut.
The sheriff continued, "You need to finish whatever you are doing and get
out of town. I don't like all of the hassle this is causing me."
He allowed her to leave after that and it took her another 10 minutes to
reach the garage. Her car was parked out front and looked okay. It
didn't look like she had done any damage during her incident. Inside the
garage, she found Hiram up to his elbows of an engine block of an old
pickup truck.
"Hi Mary. Give me a few minutes to get this done and I'll be right with
you."
Mary Sue stayed along the side of the garage. It looked like Hiram
wasn't the best housekeeper in his garage; there were a fair number of
car parts lying around, covered with grease and oil. Everyone seemed to
think that he was a wiz mechanic, so there was no accounting for how he
managed things.
Hiram was working away and glancing up every minute or so. Mary was sure
that he was harmless, but his behavior was still kind of creepy. She
moved to where he couldn't see her, but there was no clean place to sit
or lean while she waited and it wasn't comfortable just standing around.
The day was warming up and it looked fairly cloudless. She walked out to
look over her car and hoped that nothing else would go wrong before she
got to the end of the trail.
She looked up at the sound of Hiram closing the hood of the truck he was
working on. She turned to go back to the garage. As she walked up to
the door, something hit her in the shoulder and spun her around. She
heard Hiram yelling at her as she fell against the wall of the building
and collapsed, the pain overpowering her ability to stay conscious.
Nanette
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