The Last Jeskey - Chapter 44

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 44

 

(Day 10 – Saturday)

 

Sheriff Cobb

 

It seemed like I was never going to get a day off.  It was Saturday and I was home for once, and I had big plans to sit and vegetate in front of the TV all afternoon.  Then later I was heading next door to watch the game on TV with my neighbor.  A perfect Saturday!  Nat was off doing more freaky stuff for Freaky, and that was fine…as long as it didn’t involve me.  But when she called and said they had found another hiding spot on that farm, that threw my big afternoon plans right out the window.

A few phone calls later, I was rushing to get my uniform on and head out to the station.  Fifteen minutes after that, I led a squad of deputies out to the Jeskey farm.  When we got there, we found all the women inside eating lunch.

How was your visit with the relatives?” I asked after walking in the door to see them eating.

“Fine,” Nat told me.  “Just a bit shorter than I figured.  We didn’t get to go out for lunch like we planned.”

I didn’t really care about that.  I wanted to get down to business.  “Where’s this hiding place you told me about?”

“There’s an old pump out by one of the sheds,” Nat told me.  “Evidently it’s under that.”

I knew the place.  I had walked by it a number of times.  I just never knew there was any kind of hiding place there.  But then I guess that was the point to a hiding place.

While the ladies finished the last of their lunch, I led my deputies out to the old pump.  Yup, it sure looked broken.  There was a long-handled shovel lying on the platform.  I stepped up on that platform and played with what was left of the pump handle.  It moved, but with  difficulty.  Especially since there was only about three inches of handle left.  But Nat had said the hiding place was underneath.  I noticed all the ladies trooping out to muck up my crime scene.  I nodded toward one of my deputies.  “Don’t let them get too close.”

I turned to Russ.  “According to Nat, the hiding place is underneath.  I guess that’s why they left the shovel for us.”

Russ grabbed the shovel and the two of us started walking all around that old wooden platform.  “I don’t see any place where the ground’s been dug up for…about a century,” he noted.

“No.  Me neither,” I agreed.

“Okay then, here goes,” Rus said as he stuck the shovel in the dirt at the very bottom of the platform.  He stomped down on the shovel with his foot, trying to get under the thing and pry it up.

“No!” Freaky said.  “You’re doing it wrong.”

We all looked at her.  She pushed her way though.  “Use the shovel the other way.”

She had me confused.  “What other way?”

“Backwards.”

Russ turned the spade of the shovel backwards.  “Like this?” he asked, not believing she could mean it.

“No!” Freaky exclaimed.  She grabbed the shovel from him.  “Use this part.”

“The handle?” Russ asked.  “How?”

Freaky looked like she was completely exasperated with the questions.  “Right there!” she said as she walked around to another side of the square platform.  “See that hole?  Put the shovel in there.”

I watched as Russ walked around to the other side of the platform.  He knelt down and looked under the rim of the wood.  “Huh!  There’s a hole here.  He looked at the shovel handle.  “And it’s just about the right size.”  With that, he tried pushing the handle of the shovel into the hole.  It went in about two feet then stopped.  He pushed a bit harder and the handle went in another six inches, then it pushed back out again.  “It’s spring loaded,” Russ said.

I turned to Freaky.  “Now what?”

“Lift,” she told me.  “But I think it’s going to be heavy.  The only times I ever saw them open it, they had to work to get it up.”

Russ pushed the shovel in hard again, then put his back to the shovel and tried to lift.  The platform began to swing up.  Another of the deputies rushed in to give him a hand, and before long, the entire platform had swung up on some big hinges.  That pump on top wasn’t attached to anything but the top of the wooden platform!  With the top pried up, we saw a set of cement stairs leading down a good eight or ten feet.  One of the deputies pulled on a board attached to the platform and it swung down.  Another board on the other side swung down too.

“Let the thing down,” I told them.  A moment later, the entire heavy platform rested safely on those wooden legs.  At the bottom of the steps, I saw a door.  It looked like it was built to be waterproof, which only made sense.  The entire doorframe appeared to be cement like the steps.  The other thing I noticed about the door was the padlock.  “Somebody go find us some bolt cutters.”

A couple of deputies ran off, but that just gave the women a chance to move in, closer than I wanted.  Too close!

“Sheriff!” Lisa said.  “While you’re waiting, we’ve got some questions.”

“What?” I asked.

“The trucks,” she said.  “Can we use one so Natalie doesn’t always have to drive us everywhere?”

It sounded like a good idea to me.  But….  “You got a license?” I asked.

“Yes,” she told me.

“I got one too,” Shantel added.

I nodded.  “The trucks have all been searched and cleared,” I told them.  “Pick just one though and leave the rest for now.”

“How about the keys?” Lisa asked.

That was a bigger problem.  “Until I can get back to the station on Monday and check through the belongings for Bo and his boys, I guess you’re going to have to wait.”

“What if we find some in the house.  Like spare keys?” Shantel asked.

“That’s fine then,” I told her.  “Go for it.  But like I said, just one truck for now.”

That seemed to excite both women.  I could see my deputies hurrying back now.  One of them was carrying some bolt cutters.

“And how about all the clothes and stuff that belonged to Freaky’s uncle and his sons.”

“What about it?” I asked.

“When can we get rid of any of it?”

“It’s in our way,” Shantel added.

Considering that, I guessed it would be.  “Bag it up,” I told them.  “Then put it somewhere.  Maybe the barn if you want it out of the way.  Don’t throw it out yet.”

“Does that include Gary’s stuff too?” Shantel asked.  “He ain’t exactly dead yet.  So I hear.”

She had a good point.  Gary was still out there.  He was going to prison just as soon as I could find him though, but still.  “No,” I decided.  “For now, leave all of Gary’s things alone.”

Shantel didn’t exactly look happy.  “But I can still use that room?” she asked.  “There’s two beds in there and only one of them was Gary’s.”

“Yeah,” I told her.  “Go ahead and clear out anything that’s not Gary’s.  We’ll have to deal with his stuff later.”  She seemed a bit happier.

My deputy rushed in with the bolt cutter and carefully made is way down the steps.  A bit of labor later and the padlock was history.  Russ moved in and opened the heavy door.  All I saw from up above was darkness.

“Here!” one of the deputies said.  He tossed a flashlight down to Russ.

I watched as Russ shined that flashlight into the open space.  “Sheriff!  You better get down here,” he said.

Fearing dead bodies, I descended the steps and went in through the door.  A minute later I poked my head out again.  “We’re going to need more flashlights.  I left mine in my car if you need one.  I didn’t think I’d be needing it.”

Two minutes later, we had two more deputies in that underground room, and all four of us had flashlights.  I looked all around first, then shined my light over all the rifles, handguns, and ammunition that was stored in there.  As I did, I knew I was the only one looking at those things.

“Wow!” one of the deputies said.

I turned to look again at what they were all looking at.  Shelves.  A whole wall of shelves.  A whole wall of shelves stacked with money from floor to ceiling.

“How much do you think is here?” one of the deputies asked.

“A lot more than I make,” Russ replied.

“What do we do Sheriff?” one of the deputies asked.

I shook my head.  My first instinct was to close and lock the underground room and come back on Monday to deal with it all.  Unfortunately, I knew I couldn’t do that.  “Russ,” I said.  “Start organizing some way to get it all out of here.  Like it or not, we’ve got it get it all back to the station…tonight!  And when we get it there, we’ll put it in one of the cells.”

I climbed the steps up into the daylight and heat above.  As I climbed, I wondered if all that money was from that missing safe.  It certainly could be.  I had no way of knowing though.  The Jeskey’s had been running both drugs and guns  A lot of drugs and guns.  And that kind of business could generate a lot of cash.  Cash like what was down in that cement bunker.

“What’s down there?” Natalie asked.

“Money,” I told her.  “A lot of money.”

While the deputies were pulling everything out of the underground bunker and loading it into our cars under the scrutiny of more deputies, I noticed all the women had disappeared.  Long before we were done I noticed them all running excitedly around all the pickup trucks.  It looked like they had found a set of keys…more than one set of keys.

Natalie finally came back to see how we were doing.  “They decided to pick the green truck,” she said.  According to Freaky, it’s Ben’s and the newest of the bunch.  It certainly looks nice.”

“Good choice then,” I said as I continued to watch over the job being done.

“They decided that if I wanted, they would try to find that church by themselves tomorrow, so I don’t have to go.  You either.”

“Me?”

“I told you about it.  I was going to have to take them.”

I didn’t remember any such thing!  “Sounds like giving them that truck is going to work out just fine then.”

“If you don’t need me, I’m going to take off and go home,” she told me.

Lucky her.  “Okay.  Wait!  I need you to hang around a bit.  I’m using your protection detail right now and I still don’t want you going anywhere without him.”

“Still?  Will, it’s been days!”

“Yeah, that’s right.  Days.  Not weeks or months.  I don’t trust Gary Jeskey.  I don’t even trust the ones who are dead.”

She looked at me like she was perturbed with something, then said, “Me either.  How much money do you think is there?”

“A lot!”

Once the money and guns were all loaded and I had phoned the D.A. to give him the heads up on our find, Natalie got back into her car and the deputy I had assigned to her for the day followed her out of there.  It was a good thing he had been there.  As it turned out, we had needed the manpower.  Now we just had to get it all out of the cars and into the station.  Despite what the D.A. wanted, I was determined that nobody was going to touch that money to count it until Monday.  That money had waited where it was for a long time.  It could now wait long enough for me to enjoy what was left of the weekend.

I checked in with the three women just before I left.  I was surprised to see Freaky and Lisa sitting down at the table.  From what they told me, it was Freaky’s very first writing lesson.  I figured that was a good thing.  I’m not sure how Freaky felt about it though.  “We’re going now,” I told them.  “As usual, there’ll be a deputy driving by once in a while and they’ll leave another car here tonight…as usual too.”

“Bye Sheriff!” Shantel called happily as she was carrying an armload of things out of one of the bedrooms.  “And thanks.”

I tipped my hat to her and walked out.  How long before the three of them would be in that truck and driving all around?  Not long at all, I was certain.  But then I remembered that they didn’t have any money.  None.

Unless Nat gave them some.  Not my business!

As I was following the line of money-filled vehicles off the farm, I noticed a bear crossing the field not far away.  It looked like it was coming from the dirt road we were about to follow.  Those women better watch their step anytime they went outdoors.

We had just started unloading the money from the cars into one of the jail cells when my cellphone rang.  Since I was only supervising, I took the time to look at the caller ID.  My next-door neighbor.  I remembered we had talked about watching the game together on TV tonight.  I looked at all that money that needed to be moved.  I was going to have to  tell him that I was going to be a bit late.  I answered the call.  “Hey.  I’m still coming.”

“Will!” his urgent voice came back.  “Natalie and one of your deputies have just been shot!  The deputy I think is dead.  Natalie’s alive but she’s unconscious and bleeding like crazy.  I called the ambulance just before I called you.”

Natalie had been shot?  Oh hell!

The Last Jeskey - Chapter 43

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 43

 

(Day 10 – Saturday)

 

Freaky

 

We all watched as Pamela’s car drove out of sight.  Lisa, Shantel, and Natalie though were more interested in watching that bear until it was out of sight too.

Since Natalie hadn’t left us yet, Shantel decided to bring up her biggest question.  “Miss Natalie, can I still go to church tomorrow?”

“Yes Shantel,” Natalie told her.

“How am I gonna get there?”

Natalie seemed to consider that for a moment.  “I guess I’m going to have to drive you.”

“You sure?” Shantel asked.

“Yes,” Natalie told her.  “Don’t worry, I’ll get you there.”

“Great, Miss Natalie,” Shantel replied happily.

But that was when Lisa decided to ask a few questions herself.  “Since we’ve been here,” Lisa said, I haven’t seen any cars around, just those big pickup trucks.  Are there any cars that maybe we can drive so we don’t have to rely on you all the time?  Not to mention, you said you wanted us to help Freaky here see the world.  This place is definitely not the world.  We need to get her out as much as possible I think to get her over some of those crazy ideas she has.”

“Yes,” Natalie agreed.  “That’s certainly true.  She looked to me.  “Did Bo or any of his boys have an actual car here somewhere?”

“They all just drove their trucks.  They liked their trucks,” I told her.

“That’s what I thought,” Natalie replied.  “Sorry Lisa.”

“Then what’s the chance of us driving one of those things instead.  They’re not being used, are they?”

“No, they’re not,” Natalie agreed.  “But before you drive any of them, let me check with my husband to make sure he’s got no issues with it.  I think he’s technically considering this entire farm to be one big crime scene after the murders.”

“That would be great!” Shantel said.  “Wheels!”

“Can you get us the keys for one of them then?” Lisa asked.

“I’ll ask him about it,” Natalie assured her.

“And I hate to ask this,” Lisa continued, “but if we can use the trucks, how about a little money so we can buy the things we need?”

Natalie seemed to sigh.  “I guess I’ll be checking on that too,” she said.

“Yeah,” Shantel said.  “One of the things we’ve got to get for Freaky here is a good pair of scissors so I can straighten out her hair.”

While the others were discussing things, including taking me to see that hairdresser lady, I had another problem going on, and where we were standing was right near where I needed to handle it.  While they were talking, I walked off to the old tool shed and my pee hole behind it.  As much as it smelled, it was like a breath of warm comfort to be able to get back to it again and use it like a good girl…which I did.  And yes, it would have been a whole lot easier without those stupid panties in my way.

When I walked back to the others, they were discussing getting rid of all of the guy’s clothes and things to get them out of the way.

“I’ll add that to my list for my husband,” Natalie told them.

Shantel turned to me as I walked up.  “Where the hell you been Baby Doll?”

“I needed to pee,” I told her.

“Pee?”  She looked around.  “Where?”

“My pee hole is right over there,” I told her.

Shantel seemed to get real angry, and Lisa looked pretty upset too.  “Oh no you don’t!  Not anymore,” Shantel exclaimed.  “I don’t care if you think good girls are supposed to use pee holes…”

“But they are!” I insisted.

“No they don’t!  Good girls use the bathrooms like everyone else in the entire damn world.  Now where is this place?”

I pointed toward the old shed.

“Let’s go Baby Doll.  Show me.”

I led the way toward my pee hole behind the shed and everybody followed me.  “See,” I said when we got back there.  “It’s perfect for girls.”

“No it’s not!” Lisa said angrily.

“We’s gonna get rid of that thing once and for all.  Right now!” Shantel declared.  “You got a shovel or something around here?”

“But we can’t!”  I argued.  “Bo said…”

“Honey Pie, Bo said nothin’!  You ain’t gonna use a pee hole ever again, in your life!  Now find me a shovel!”

She was yelling at me, and I didn’t like it.  And worse, she was going to destroy one of Bo’s biggest rules.  What if he came home and caught me not using it?  I remembered he was dead.  But Gary wasn’t.  Gary could still come home at any time.  What was I going to do then?

“A shovel little missy,” Shantel said angrily.

Fearful, I went around to the other side of the shed and opened the door.  The shovel was the only thing in there that I, or anyone else ever touched, and that was mostly so I could dig myself a new pee hole whenever Bo said I should.  I grabbed the shovel and pulled it out and handed it to Shantel

“Uh-uh Baby Doll.  You is gonna fill that hole in yourself.  Now get busy missy!”

“No!” I wailed, frightened.  “Gary could come home and catch me not…”

“If Gary comes home,” Shantel interrupted me, “he’s not gonna kill you for that, he’s gonna kill you just for livin!  Now get busy!”

Ready to cry, Shantel and the others followed me back around to my pee hole and stood there while I shoveled dirt into the hole, filling it up completely and erasing any trace of it.  I noticed that Natalie was still there, but she wasn’t sticking up for me at all.  But then, the pee hole issue was one of her biggest problems with me too.

While I was working, Lisa disappeared for a minute, then she came back.  As soon as I was done filling in the hole, she asked.  “What are all those tools in there?”

“I don’t know,” I told her.  “They’ve always been there.”

“It doesn’t look like anyone uses them.  They’re all full of rust.”

“The guys never used anything in there that I know of,” I told her.  ”Just this shovel.”

“To dig your pee holes,” Lisa said, sounding disgusted.

“No.  They make me do that?”

“Oh,” Lisa said.  “From what you said, it sounded like they use your shovel too.”

“They do.”

She looked around.  “For what?”

“They’ve got one of their hiding places here, and they use the shovel to get into it.”

Natalie suddenly became very interested.  “Another hiding place?  Where?”

I pointed at the old pump that didn’t work.

“Show me,” Natalie said.

So I walked over to the pump and said, “This is it.”

“Where?” Natalie asked.  “Here,” I said as I stepped up onto the wooden platform that held the pump.

“Under there?”

“Yeah.  That’s why they need the shovel.”

“What’s in that hiding place?” she asked.

“I don’t know.  I’ve never seen in it.  That’s men’s business.”

“But you know it’s right here,” Natalie said.

“Sure.  My pee hole is right there.”

Natalie was already pulling her cellphone out of that leather bag she carried everywhere.  A moment later she said, “Will, Freaky just showed us another hiding place.  She doesn’t know what’s in it, but even standing on top of it, I’d never know it was here.”  She listened for a moment.  “No, we haven’t even tried to open it.  Evidently you need a shovel to do it.”  She listened again, then said.  “Okay.  See you soon.”

“Will’s on his way,” Natalie told us.

“Oh good!” Lisa said.  “We can ask him about the trucks and getting rid of all that men’s junk in the rooms.”

 

The Last Jeskey - Chapter 42

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 42

 

(Day 10 – Saturday)

 

Pamela

 

Stella and Jim Harper met me at my office.  The surprise however was that they weren’t alone.  They had their other daughter with them, Katherine.  Freaky’s mother’s sister.  We all managed to crowd ourselves into my car and I drove them out to the Jeskey place.

“It’s beautiful out here,” Stella remarked, long before we got there.

“That it is,” I agreed.  People often remarked that about our little slice of heaven.  Very few people moved in though because once people found out how poor the area was, they wanted no part of it.  That was fine with all the residents.  We didn’t want outsiders mucking up our land.

When we finally reached the farm, I noticed Natalie’s car was there, along with the inevitable deputy’s car as well.

“Why the police car?” Mr. Harper wondered.

“Security,” I told him.

“For what?” Mrs. Harper asked.

“Natalie,” I said.  “The sheriff’s wife.  She was shot a few days ago.  It wasn’t too bad.  The bullet just hit part of her arm.”  I was lucky I didn’t have to explain the security concerns any further.

By the time I stopped the car, I saw Natalie coming out through the front door.  I led the family up onto the front porch and introduced them all to her.

“Pamela here says you were shot,” Mr. Harper said.  “It looks like you’re just fine now.”

“Yes,” Natalie admitted.  “The bullet hit my arm and went right through.  I was stuck with my arm in a sling for a few days, but I gave up on it as soon as I could.  I’ve been wearing long-sleeves despite the weather ever since.”

I saw Mr. Harper nod his head at that.

“Come on in,” Natalie said to them.  “I know you want to meet Freaky.”

As we went inside, I noticed that Shantel was standing way back in the kitchen,  Lisa and Freaky though were standing not far from the door.  Lisa was holding Freaky’s hand.  I couldn’t help but notice the new dresses they both were wearing.  Freaky looked nicer than usual.  A lot nicer.  She also looked scared.  Lisa dropped Freaky’s hand and moved back a step, leaving Freaky to face them alone, but not too alone.

“Mr. and Mrs. Harper.  Katherine,” Natalie said.  “I’d like you to meet Freaky.”

Nat had made the introductions, but nobody was saying anything.

“You’re beautiful,” Mrs. Harper finally said.  “I hadn’t expected that.”

“Mom,” Katherine said, “She looks kind of like Hailey.”

“Yes,” Stella Harper replied.  “I can see that.  I didn’t expect that either.”

“Are you sure that’s Brian?” Jim Harper whispered to me.

“DNA tests confirmed it,” I whispered back.  He let out what sounded like a rather disappointed grunt.

“They say,” Freaky started, “that you’re my family.”

“Yes,” Mrs. Harper replied.  “And now, looking at you, I have no doubt about that at all.  You look…too much like your mother.”

“I don’t remember my mother.  Or my father,” Freaky told them.  “The only family I remember is Uncle Bo and the guys.  They’re all gone now though, except Uncle Gary.  I don’t know where he is.”

Stella turned to me.  “Uncle Gary?”

“Her cousin actually,” I explained.  “One of Bo’s four sons.”

“Where is he?”

“Most likely, out causing trouble somewhere,” I told her.

I watched as Stella turned back toward Freaky again.  “Can I hug you?” Stella asked.

I watched as Freaky smiled.  “I like hugs.  Until Bo died, I never had one before.  But they feel so…nice.”

“Never…” Kathy started to say as if she couldn’t believe it, then stopped as Stella took a step forward and wrapped her arms around Freaky.  Freaky just stood there as if she didn’t know what to do, then I saw her arms go around her grandmother and hug her back.  The two stayed like that for a few moments before Stella took a step back, but she kept her arms on Freaky’s arms.  “I know you don’t know us at all,” she said, looking into Freaky’s face.  “But my name is Stella Harper, and I’m your grandmother.”

I saw Freaky look quickly over at Lisa.  “Your mother’s mother,” Lisa said softly.

“I wish I could remember my mother,” Freaky said to Stella.

“I wish you could too,” Stella replied.  She turned to her husband who moved closer now.  “This is Jim, my husband.  Your grandfather.”

I noticed that Jim didn’t even try to touch Freaky, and all Freaky did was to nod at him.

After a moment, Stella turned toward Katherine.  “And this is your aunt, Katherine.”

I saw Freaky’s lack of understanding just before she looked over at Lisa again.  “An aunt is just like an uncle,” Lisa explained.  “But uncles are men, and aunts are women.  I’m guessing that she’s your mother’s sister?”

“That’s right,” Stella said.

“Mom,” Kathy said.  “Can I have a turn?”

“Oh!  Sorry,” Stella said as she let go of Freaky’s arms and moved away.

Katherine moved in and stood in front of Freaky.  “Call me Kathy, or Aunt Kathy, I don’t care which.  I’m just glad to meet you.  More so because you remind me so much of my little sister, who I still miss so much.”  With that, she hugged Freaky, and Freaky hugged her back.

“Coffee?” Lisa said softly as the two women let go of each other.  “Would you rather sit at the table, or in the living room?”

“The living room I think,” Stella decided.  No surprise, she seemed to be the one in charge here.

Stella held Freaky’s hand as she led her to the couch where the two of them sat next to each other.  As they were sitting, Lisa asked who wanted cream or sugar in their coffee, then disappeared back to the kitchen area.  Natalie and I stood, but out of the way and declined any coffee.

Stella sat half facing Freaky and held her hand.  “Pam has told me a lot about you,” she said.  “The more she told us, the less I believed.  Yet here you are, right in front of me.  I can’t even begin to imagine the life you’ve lived.”

“Uncle Bo and the guys took care of me,” Freaky replied.  “They gave me food to eat and a house to live in.”

“But everything else…” Stella said.  “It had to be horrible!”  She looked over at me.  “If it was true!”

“If what was true?” Freaky asked.

“The torture?”

I saw Freaky look around for Lisa, but she was at the kitchen counter.  “What’s torture?” she asked.

“So it’s not true!” Stella said pointedly.

“What?” Freaky asked.

“Being roasted over a fire.  Being…”

“Oh that,” Freaky said.  “They only did that to me once.  And they were all real drunk at the time.”

Stella looked shocked.  “You mean…they really did do that to you?  Burned you over a fire?”

“Just that once.  And like I said they were drunk.”

“And how about being buried up to your neck?”

Freaky shrugged.  “That’s what they usually did to me when I was bad.  But I try real hard to always be a good girl.  Especially after I got punished.  I don’t want to be a bad girl…ever!”

“They punish you like that whenever you’re a bad girl?”

I noticed that Freaky looked confused.  “Of course,” she said.  “How else would I learn?”

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Kathy mumbled.

“They didn’t do that to me the last time they punished me though,” Freaky said.  “They hung me upside down from a tree for a few days instead.  I think they were worried since there were so many bears around at the time.”

“Bears!” Jim exclaimed.

“Sure,” Freaky told him.  “We live next to the woods.  There’s bears and lions and tigers out there.  I could get eaten if I went into the woods.  The guys though always carried guns with them so they could protect themselves.”

“Tigers?  Here?” Jim asked.

“I’m guessing they were just trying to frighten her,” I told him.  “But we do have a lot of bears up here.”  I saw him shake his head.

Shantel came in and approached Jim.  She held out a glass wrapped in a paper towel.  “You said black,” Shantel said quietly to him.  “We don’t have no cups or anything like that, just these whisky glasses, so watch, it’s real hot.”

“No cups?” Stella asked.  “Not even any mugs?”

“Not yet, we’re working on it,” Shantel replied as she moved over and held out a paper towel wrapped glass to her.  “Cream and sugar both?” she asked.

“Yes,” Stella replied as she carefully took the offered coffee…glass.

I noticed Lisa bringing coffee to Katherine as well.

“You’ve got to be Shantel,” Stella said once she had her coffee in her hands.

“That’s me,” Shantel replied.  “Nice to meet you.”

“From what I’ve heard, you’re a pretty good singer.”

“I love to sing,” Shantel told her.

Stella looked over toward Lisa.  “And you’ve got to be Lisa then,” she said.  Lisa nodded.  “Our…perfect hostess.”

I was amused to see Lisa blush.  “I try,” she said.

“Thank you,” Stella told her.

“You’re welcome,” Lisa replied.

“And the three of you met at a…women’s shelter?”

“We all got our demons we’re runnin’ from,” Shantel told her.  “Freaky here too.  She just don’t realize yet how bad her demons are.  She’s learning though.  Slowly, but she’s learnin’.”

Stella nodded.  “I can only imagine.  Her…” she said, as if she was having trouble with the word, “mother and father were murdered.  We thought…she…was murdered too.  But it seems she wasn’t.  I’ll never know what possessed Clive to try and move that safe out of his father’s house.  They’d all be alive if he hadn’t.”

“Mom!” Kathy said, sounding surprised.  “You don’t know?”

“No.  Do you?”

“Sure.  Hailey told me.”

“What?”

“Clive was going to sell his father’s farm.  He was having too much trouble trying to manage both farms by himself since they were so far apart.  His farm was bigger, so he was selling his father’s.  He just wanted to get everything out of his father’s house before he put it all on the market.”

“Oh geez!” Jim exclaimed.  “That makes perfect sense.  Not to mention, how much money he would have gotten for that place.”

“Hailey always wanted to travel to Europe,” Kathy told him.  “They would have had the money to do it then.”

“They had the money already!” Stella said.  “Your sister married rich.  Clive was a millionaire like his father when she met him.  And heaven only knows how much he inherited when his father died.  I know it was more than just that farm.  He was rich to begin with, and his father’s death only made him richer.  He didn’t need the money.”

I couldn’t help myself.  I stepped forward.  “What happened to all that money?”

“I don’t know,” Stella confessed.  “But Clive had a small insurance policy that he had taken out on himself.  One on Hailey too.”  She looked over at her husband.  “How much was Clive’s?”

“A hundred thousand,” Jim told her.  “The one he had for Hailey was only for fifty.”

Stella shook her head.  “With all his money, you’d think he could have afforded more.”

“Maybe,” I said, “because of all his money, he didn’t feel like he needed more.”

She shrugged.  “Maybe.”

“What happened to it?” I asked.

“The money from Clive’s policy was earmarked for Hailey of course, but with her gone, it went to Brian.  Haily’s was just the opposite.  It went to Clive, and then to Brian.”

“And what happened to it all?”

“Brian is dead!” Jim said firmly.  “We wound up with both.”

I nodded, noting the way he had made that statement.  “How about all of Clive’s other money?” I asked.

Jim shrugged.  “Who knows.  I never heard.”  He looked over at his wife.

“Me either,” Stella admitted.  She looked to Kathy.  “Did you ever hear anything?”

“No,” Kathy said.  “I can tell you though that nobody ever offered any of it to us.”

“Us either,” Jim agreed.

Did I note a bit of contention there?  I wasn’t forgetting that they had wound up with a hundred and fifty thousand dollars that I would figure legally belonged to Freaky.  I was going to have to check on the legal issues there though.

“Freaky,” Stella said.  “Are you going to pick a new name for yourself?”  I got the impression that Stella was quicky trying to change the subject.

“Another name?” Freaky said.  “Why?”

“Well, Freaky is so…unusual.”

“It is?” Freaky said.  “I don’t know.  I guess, Freaky is just my name.  Although actually, I guess it’s just Freak.  But since Roxie started calling me Freaky instead, I kind of liked it.”

“But you don’t have any other name?”

“No.  Why would I?”

“You don’t remember having any other name?” she asked.

“No.  Just Freak.  That’s what they always called me.  That’s my name.  I just like Freaky better now.”

“Do you remember that your name was once Brian?” Jim asked rather pointedly.

“No,” Freaky replied.  “If I had another name, I would have remembered.  They always just called me Freak.”

I saw Stella patting Freaky’s hand reassuringly.  “Maybe we can discuss some nicer names for you another time.”

Freaky just shrugged.  “Freaky is good.  I like it.”

“We’ll see dear,” Stella replied.

Kathy suddenly stood up.  “Mom, would you mind if I take Freaky for a little walk around.  I’d like to see this place.  It’s old.  Maybe there’s more to it than just this room.”

Sella didn’t look happy, but her daughter had asked.  “Maybe it would be nice if Freaky showed all of us around.  I think I’d like to see it too.  And Pam said it was a farm.”  She stood up.  “Do you raise any crops here, or animals?”

Everyone got to their feet.  Freaky didn’t look like she knew how to answer the question.  “They didn’t raise anything,” I told her.  “They just bought this old farm and lived here.”

“We get chickens sometimes,” Freaky said as she started leading the way toward the back of the house.  “And pigs too.  I like the chickens, especially when they’re real little.  They’re so soft and nice to hold.  They’re fun when they get bigger too.  The pigs are nice when they’re real little too, but I don’t like them when they get big.”

She stopped by the table and pointed.  “That’s Dave and Gary’s room over there,” she said.  She pointed to another door.  “That one is Ben and Steve’s room.  Lisa and Shantel are sleeping in there now.  She pointed again.  “And that one is Bo’s room.”

“Is that where you sleep?” Stella asked.

“No.  I’m a good girl.  I sleep by the back door.”

“Not anymore!” I heard Shantel say softly.

“Is there a room there too?” Stella asked.

“Of course,” Freaky replied.  “Come on, I’ll show you.”

Freaky led the way toward the back door.  When they got there, she stopped.  “This is where I sleep.”

“Where?” Stella asked.

“Here,” Freaky replied.

“But there’s no bed.”

“No.  I’m a good girl.”

“What does….”

“Don’t ask!” Shantel said from behind the pack.  “She sleeps on the floor.  We’re having a running battle about that point right now.”

“Good girls sleep on the floor!” Freaky insisted.

“Sorry,” Shantel told everyone.  “She’s got a thousand crazy ideas about what good girls do and what they don’t do.”

I noticed that Stella didn’t look very happy.

Freaky led the way outside and we all walked around.  Stella had another fit when Freaky proudly showed them where she washed clothes and how she went about doing it.

“Will these barbaric ideas never cease?” Stella wondered.

We made it around the property without any more difficulty and wound up back at the cars.  I noticed the deputy that was waiting for Natalie was still there.  He glanced at us, then went back to looking out into the field again.  He raised his arm and pointed.  “Look what we have over there.”

We all looked and saw a bear crossing the open field.

“There really are bears up here,” Jim noted.

“Quite a few,” Natalie replied.  “And according to my husband, the sheriff, this area is known for having more than usual.”

“And they live here?  With so many bears around?”

“Mm-hm,” Natalie replied as if it was nothing.  But then bears were a fact of life in this neck of the woods.  The flatlanders wouldn’t be able to understand that.

“We may as well head home,” Jim decided.  “It’s a long drive.”

Stella didn’t look particularly happy about that, but she nodded.  “Yes.  Of course,” she replied.  She went over to Freaky and hugged her again.  “It was great to meet you,” she said.  “I look forward to coming for another visit.”

Kathy moved in and hugged her next.  “I wish we had more time to talk.  Your mother was the most special person in the world to me.  I’d love to tell you about her.”

“I’d love to hear about her,” Freaky told her.  “I don’t remember her at all.  My father either.”

Kathy nodded.  “Maybe we can talk, and it will jog your memory a bit.  And besides, I haven’t told you yet about my kids.  You’ve got cousins.”

“Cousins?” Freaky asked.

“Her children,” Lisa told her.  “I’ll try to explain it all later.”

We all stuffed ourselves back in my car again.  I realized as we did that Jim had never even tried to go near Freaky.  As I drove away from the house, I noticed that the bear had finally reached the other side of the field.  The dirt road we had to follow would come very close to where it was heading.  Maybe we’d see it again.  We didn’t though.

I heard Jim let out a rather nasty swear word.  Then he said, “Clive’s brother really did murder Brian.”

“It looks like he came close dear,” Stella agreed.

“No.  He murdered him!  Completely!” Jim insisted.  “And then he cut Brian up and used the parts to create…that!”

I no longer had any doubts about how Jim saw Freaky.  I just wasn’t too sure yet about the others.

It was a few minutes later when Stella made an observation.  “She washes her clothes in a tub.  Why isn’t there a washer in the house?”

“They don’t have any cups either,” Kathy added.

“What other things don’t they have?”

“Clothes,” I threw out.  Freaky has almost no clothes.  All the ones she had when we found her were confiscated by the sheriff.”

“Why in heaven would they do that?” Stella asked.

“Because every bit of it had bullet holes and blood stains.”

“What?”

“We’re pretty sure the only clothes Freaky has ever had in her life, are clothes that were taken from the women that Bo Jeskey and his boys murdered.”

Stella threw her hands in the air.  “The unbelievable stuff never stops!  Why can’t you get her some clothes?”

“We’re working on it,” I explained.  “That dress she was wearing today is one she just got.  It’s only been a few days since we discovered her.  We’re still trying to get things straight with the money situation.”

“Well work harder on it!” Stella said.  “If need be, I’ll buy her something myself!”

I didn’t hear Jim say anything to that, but glancing over at him sitting next to me showed me that his face didn’t look happy about his wife’s last statement.  All I could think though, was that if they got so much money from those insurance policies that should have legally gone to Freaky…or Brain, then spending a few dollars to help Freaky out seemed like the least they could do.

 

The Last Jeskey - Chapter 41

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 41

 

(Day 10 – Saturday)

 

Freaky

 

What’s wrong with sleeping on the floor?  It’s what good girls do!  And I’m a good girl!  We had another argument about that last night when everyone went to bed.  Shantel wanted me to sleep in a room with her, but I refused.  After a lot of arguing, I did agree though to sleep in Bo’s bedroom.  They thought I was going to sleep on his bed.  I didn’t tell them I wasn’t.  Yes, I slept on the floor of his room, and I was glad.  Not only was I a good girl for sleeping there, but all night long I kept expecting Bo to come in.  What if I had been in his bed?  He’d kill me!

Like the day before, I was awake and in the kitchen before Shantel and Lisa came out of the room where they had slept.

“We gotta find out if we can get rid of all that stuff!” Shantel said as she headed for the table.

“I hope someone comes today that we can ask about it,” Lisa agreed.

I had no idea what they were talking about.  We had eggs and bacon in the house, and pancake mix and maple syrup too.  “What can I make you for breakfast,” I asked.

Lisa looked around at the kitchen counter.  “There’s no toaster, so toast is out.”

“The guys always loved pancakes,” I told her.

“Not this morning thanks,” Lisa replied as she got out of her seat.  “I guess, I’ll make some eggs.  But first, I want coffee!”

“Leese,” Shantel said, “I’ll make the eggs, you make the coffee.”  She looked at me.  “Or maybe Freaky and me will do the egg bit together.  Sound good Honey Pie?”

“Uh…you’re going to cook…with me?”

“Darn right!” she said.  “Go get the eggs.”

It was weird cooking and fixing breakfast with all of us doing different things together.  It was the fastest I could ever remember getting a meal ready.  But it was also kind of fun.

It was fun and nice until after breakfast.  Shantel went into the bathroom and took a shower first while Lisa and me cleaned up the breakfast dishes.  Then Lisa went into the bathroom.  When she came out, Shantel and Lisa both forced me to go in there and take all my clothes off and stand in the tub while they turned the shower water on.

“I like the rain rooms better!” I told them as the water hit me.

“This is the same damn thing, Honey Pie,” Shantel said.  “Just a bit smaller.  Now grab that soap and start scrubbing every last inch of your body.”

It was weird.  My whole life had become weird.  The two of them stood just outside the bathtub and made me use that soap stuff all over every bit of me.  And then they handed me a bottle of something and had me pour some of it into my hand, and then start rubbing it into what was left of my hair.  My hair got a whole bunch of laundry suds in it that I had to rinse out under the water.  At least it was warm water.  That part was nice.  I thought I was done, but then things got even weirder.

“Here,” Lisa said as she handed me something.

I couldn’t believe it.  It was a razor like the guys used.  “I’m a girl!  I don’t have a beard.”

“It’s not for your face dummy,” Shantel said.  “It’s for your legs.”

“My legs?”

“Their full of hair.”

“So are all the guy’s legs.  So what?”

“So girls aren’t supposed to have hairy legs,” Lisa told me.

“I do.”

“So do I,” Lisa said.  “But girls aren’t supposed to.”

“But you just said…”

“Freaky!” Lisa said.  “You want to be a good girl, right?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Then understand this.  Good girls don’t have hair on their legs.  And if they do, they shave that hair off so they look nice and pretty.”

“They do?”

“Yes!” both Shantel and Lisa said at the same time.

“Now take that soap and lather up your legs again.  Both of them.”

It was weird, like everything else in my life now.  But Lisa and Shantel talked me through shaving my legs for the first time.  Only when I was done did they let me come out of the bathtub.”

“And we don’t call that a rain room,” Lisa said as I was drying off.  “We shorten it a bit.  We just say shower.  Like a rain shower.”

“Shower?”

“Yes!”

As I was drying myself off, I suddenly felt Shantel doing something with my hair.  She was pulling something through it.  “What are you doing?”

“Combing your hair,” she said.  “I found a comb over by the sink.  Your hair is short enough now that I think it works just fine.  I just think we need to do some work on your hair to shape it up a bit.  Make it look pretty again.”

“Shape it?”

“Darn right.  You got any scissors around here?”

“Um…I think there’s some in the barn.”

“The barn?  Oh hell no.  I need some good ones.  I’ll put that on my list of things that I need to ask Natalie about.  My growing list!”

“Am I done now?” I asked, frustrated with the both of them for making me clean myself like that.  “Can I get dressed now?”

“Not yet,” Lisa said.  “Not till you’ve brushed your teeth.”

While Shantel opened a package that contained a new toothbrush, Lisa and I argued about not only what brushing my teeth was, and why I needed to do it, but we argued over the fact that I was going to do it at all.  She won out with her newest weapon to use against me.

“Good girls brush their teeth at least once every day.  And it’s better if they do it more!  You want to be a good girl, right?”

I was beginning to hate her.  I had to admit though.  When I was done, my teeth did feel nice and smooth, and my mouth had this nice flavor in it too.  But I still didn’t see why it was necessary.

I had just finished getting dressed when I heard a knock at the door.  Lisa went to answer it.  She opened the door and let Natalie in.

“Oh, am I glad to see you!” Shantel told her.  “We’ve got a whole list of questions about things, not to mention things we really need…soon!”

“It may have to wait a bit,” Natalie told her.  “Pam called me last night.  She’s bringing visitors here today, and I want Freaky to have something better to wear than that same dress she’s been wearing for days now.”

“That’s one of the big things we wanted to talk to you about,” Lisa told her.  “That dress is literally all the clothes she has.  And she’s wearing the only undies she has too.  Not to mention, Shantel and I don’t have much ourselves.  But Freaky really needs something else…soon!  We just finished getting her cleaned up and dressed, including brushing her teeth for the first time in her life,” she said pointedly as she looked straight at me.

“I don’t see the reason,” I replied.

“Good girls brush their teeth every day!” Lisa argued back.

Sulking about it, I sat down in one of the chairs.

“Problems?” Natalie asked.

“No,” Lisa told her.  “It’s just that sometimes you’ve got to be a little firmer with her than we’d like.  She’s too concerned with being a good girl.  The wrong kind of good girl!  We’re trying to show her other ways to be a good girl.  Better ways!”

I continued to glare at her and sulk.  “Bo never told me any of that.”

“Bo was a man!  A moron of a man!”

“And he certainly didn’t know nothin’ about women and what they need or what they’re supposed to do,” Shantel added.

“He never told me that good girls are supposed to clean themselves every day, or brush their teeth every day, or shave their legs, or…try to look pretty all the time.  He never said that.  Ever!”

“I rest my case,” Shantel said as if she was very satisfied about something.

“I hate to break this discussion up,” Natalie said, “but we really need to get going and get back again.  I don’t know how early they’re going to get here, but since they’re coming from Knoxville, then it’s going to take them a while.  I’m guessing it’s going to be somewhere around lunchtime.”

“Hear that miss good girl?” Shantel said.  “Let’s go buy you a new dress.”

“A new one?” I asked.

“Brand new.  Not used.  Something never worn by someone else before.”

I got up from my chair immediately.  Why did Shantel and Lisa grab those leather bags they always seemed to carry?  I still had never seen them open them.  Dumb!  But then I remembered seeing Natalie open hers when we were at the restaurant and the store yesterday.  But Lisa and Shantel hadn’t opened theirs.  So why were they carrying them?

When we got outside, I noticed there was a cop car there again.  And when we got into Natalie’s car, he got into his car.  Was he going to follow us to buy clothes too?  Why?

As usual, Lisa and I sat in the back seat together.  As we were driving away from the house, Lisa said, “I know nobody is going to want to hear this, but would you mind if I started teaching Freaky something right now?”

“What’s that Leese?” Shantel asked.

“A little song I think she should learn.”

“A song?  You gonna teach her to sing?  Listen honey, when it comes to singin’, that’s my thing to teach her.  What song?”

“The ABC song,” Lisa told her.

“Oh!” Shantel said.  “Go ahead.  Work out.”

“Do you sing much?” Lisa asked me.

“I never sing,” I told her.  “Singing is making noise.  Too much noise.  Good girls are quiet.  Very quiet.  All the time.”

“Oh hell no!” Shantel exclaimed.  “Here we go again.  Honey Pie, that’s just wrong.  We gotta sing, and we gotta let it all out, nice and loud!  Let the good lord hear us.”

As usual, I had no idea what Shantel was talking about.

“You don’t have to worry about being quiet anymore,” Lisa told me.  “Now this is an easy song.  And…I think you may like it.”

I wasn’t so sure, but I said nothing.

“Now try this,” she said.  And then she started singing.  “A B C D E F G.”  Can you try that much?”

It took me a few tries, but I managed it.  Singing instead of talking is hard!  I don’t know how Shantel did it.  I also had no idea about what I was singing, let alone what any of the words meant.  They were all just gibberish.

When Lisa thought I had learned just that much well enough, she started teaching me more.  And the gibberish words got even worse!  What the heck is an elemenopee?  Nothing I ever heard of.  But then I’d never heard of any of those gibberish words before either.  It’s just that elemenopee was a lot longer than any of the other words in that song.

The really interesting thing though, was that before we got to the store, all of us in the car were singing that song together.  It was kind of fun.  In fact, lots of fun.  We were all laughing and happy by the time we got out of the car.  Natalie led us into the store, and I stopped and stared.  If I thought the grocery store was amazing, so was this.  But instead of food, this store was jampacked with clothes.  Lots and lots of clothes.  All kinds of clothes.

“Shantel, Lisa,” Natalie said.  “Please help me find something decent for Freaky that will fit her.  But if you see anything for yourselves, we’ll buy it.”

It took a while, and they made me go into this little tiny room to “try on” some of the dresses they thought would look good on me.  They tried to get me to agree to some pants, but I absolutely refused.  But Natalie said it would be nice if I was wearing a dress for the visitors anyway, so that stopped that argument.

By the time we left, I had two new dresses, one that Natalie had called a midi-length and one that came down to my knees.  And I had three more bras and three more pairs of panties too.  Natalie said the sneakers I was wearing would have to do for now.  It was time to get home before the visitors came.

“Who’s comin’?” Shantel asked as we got back in the car.

“Freaky’s family,” Natalie told her.

“Gary?” I asked.  “Is he finally coming home?”

“Not Gary…I hope!” Natalie said.  “Other relatives.”

“What’s a relative?” I asked Lisa.

“Family,” she told me.

“So…Gary.”

“Let’s hope not,” she replied.

We all sang that funny song again…all the way home.

Now if someone could just explain to me what the words meant.

 

The Last Jeskey - Chapter 40

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 40

 

(Day 9 – Friday)

 

Pamela

 

If I didn’t get a break from having to do so much for Freaky, I was never going to be able to keep up with my other work.  Once again I was going to be spending most of the day dealing with a Freaky issue, but there was no help for it.  Life just works out that way sometimes.

Detective Benson from Knoxville had gotten back to me yesterday.  “We couldn’t find any more relatives on Clive’s side of the family,” Benson told me, “but his wife, Hailey, has plenty.  I’ll go out tomorrow to let Hailey’s mother and father know that we found Hailey’s killer.”

“Not without me,” I told him.  “When are you going?”

“Tomorrow.  Probably late morning sometime.”

“Won’t they be working?” I asked.

“Maybe.  If so, I’ll go back later.”

“Hold off till at least midafternoon,” I told him.  “Give me a chance to get there.”

“I’m just going to be delivering the news,” he told me.

“But I’ve got some other business with them.  I need to see them.”

“What business?”

“A trust fund for Freaky that has to be managed,” I explained.

“Money?”

“So far, fifty-thousand dollars,” I told him.

“That safe would have held a lot more than that.”

“The sheriff here thinks that money is just a drop in the bucket.  He called it a getaway batch since it was found with some guns.”

“Could be,” Benson agreed.  “Okay, I’ll hold off till you get here.  We’ll go out and see them together.”

“That was my plan,” I told him.

So now I was making that long drive all the way down to Knoxville.  The big city.  Tennessee had a few of them, and this was one.  Give me the hills any day!

Finding the police station wasn’t difficult.  Finding Benson was even easier.  Some nice cop escorted me right up to his desk.  Benson was busy talking to someone else, but he stopped as soon as he saw me.

“Have a good trip?” he asked.

“Good enough,” I told him.  “What’s happening?”

“I called the Harpers and let them know we’re coming,” he told me.

“Harpers?  Clive’s wife’s family?”

“Right.  The wife was Hailey.”

“Got it,” I replied.

A minute later we were walking out of there.  I got into his car with him and let him drive.  Knoxville is a big place.  Very big and very spread out.  It took us a little while to get there, and when we did, utter suburbia!  Nice looking houses.  Not overly rich looking, just…real nice.

Benson knocked on the door.  Since he was the cop, I let him take the lead.  The door opened and an elderly man stood there.  Elderly, but not too old.  I placed him in his early to mid sixties.

“Mister Harper?” Benson asked.

Harper nodded.  He looked nervous.  “That’s me,” he said.  “Are you the one who called?”

“Yes,” Benson replied.  “I’m Detective Benson.”  He turned to me.  “And this is Pamela McGregor, an attorney?”

Mr. Harper appeared surprised.  “An attorney?  What’s this about?”

“May we come in?” Benson asked.

Harper held the door open, and we went inside.  There was a woman hovering right behind the man.  His wife, obviously.  She led us into the living room where we all took seats.”

“An attorney?” Mr. Harper asked.  “What’s the problem?”

“Not actually a problem,” Benson told him.

“But an attorney?  That’s legal trouble.”

“No.  Not really,” I assured him.  “That’s not why I’m here.”

“Then why?” Mr. Harper asked.

I nodded toward Benson.  “I’ll let you get your business out of the way first.”

Benson leaned forward to speak.  “Your daughter, Hailey, was murdered fifteen years ago,” he said.  I heard Mrs. Harper gasp.  “We recently found her murderer.”

“No!” Mrs. Harper exclaimed in surprise as she stood up.

“Who?” Mr. Haper asked.

“Clive’s brother Bo.” Benson told them.  “From what I was told, it was him and some of his sons that did it, and it was them that took the safe they were transporting.”

“And Brian?” Mrs. Harper asked.

“Brian…” Benson started to say, but I stopped him quickly.

“Wait!” I told him.  “Mrs. Harper,” I said.  “I’m afraid that Brain is another issue.  And that’s why I’m here.”

“I don’t understand,” Mrs. Harper said.  “Is he alive?  They told us he was presumed dead.  And after all this time….  We’ve never had one single word.”

I wasn’t sure that letting them know he was alive would be a good thing, but then, that was why I was there in the first place.  They would have to know.  “Yes,” I told them.  “He’s alive, and he’s been found.”

I watched as both the Harpers quickly hugged each other joyously.  “We were told he was dead,” Mr. Harper said, “but we didn’t want to believe it.  Where is he?”

“When can we see him?” Mrs. Harper asked.

I shook my head.  “I’m afraid it’s a bit of a drive from here,” I told them.

“I don’t care!” Mrs. Harper insisted.

“We’ll go there,” Mr. Harper said.

“There are some things about…Brian,” I said, “that you’re going to need to understand.”

The two of them stopped hugging each other, but they still held hands as they sat next to each other, staring at me, waiting desperately.

I tried to find a way to tell them.  I tried to find a place to start.  So I started at the beginning.  “Fifteen years ago, Clive’s brother and two of his sons murdered Clive and your daughter.”

“I think Clive mentioned once that he had a brother, but he never saw him,” Mrs. Harper told me.  “I got the impression from what he said that he and his brother didn’t exactly get along.  In fact, they hated each other.  And Clive’s father felt exactly the same way.  Clive mentioned once that things got so bad between his brother and their father that his father threw his brother out of the house and told him to never come back.  I think Clive said that he moved up to north Tennessee somewhere, but he didn’t know exactly where.”

“And now you say you’ve found Brian?” Mr. Harper said.  “That’s the best news we’ve ever had.”

“Well, it may not be,” I told them.

“But it is!  When can we see him?” Mrs. Harper asked again.

“That’s just it.  I’m not sure you should.  It may be far better if you just know that he’s been found, and leave it at that.  We just really wanted to let you know that your daughter’s killer has been found, and he’s now dead.”

“He’s dead!” Mr. Harper said.  “But you know for a fact that he murdered Hailey.”

“Yes, we do,” Benson told him.  “I can’t go into the whys and hows, but we know for certain.”

“Why wouldn’t I want to see him?” Mrs. Harper asked.  “He’s my grandson.  I can’t wait to see him.”

I looked over at Benson before I answered, and saw him shrug.  He was right, this woman, these people, would never settle for no explanation.  “First of all, Brian is no longer a little boy,” I told them.  “It’s been about fifteen years.  He’s nineteen years old now, practically a grownup.”

“All the more reason for us to see him as soon as possible.”

I continued.  “From what we understand, Bo Jeskey had an ax to grind against both his father and his brother.  Because of that, when he kidnapped Brian, he did it as a way to get back against both his brother and his father.  For the past fifteen years, Brian has been forced to live the most horrible life possible, including often being subjected to horrendous torture, whipping, and worse.  They basically turned him into a slave.  He knows nothing at all about the real world.  And I mean nothing!  Not only can he not read, he can’t even count.”

“My God!” Mrs. Harper breathed.  She sat up straight.  “I still want to see him!  Now!”

I shook my head.  “And then there’s the other thing,” I said.

“What?” Mr. Harper asked.

“Shortly after they kidnapped him, Bo started turning Brian into a girl, including hormones for the past fifteen years, and having him mutilated.  Between all the torturing and everything else, Brian doesn’t even remember ever being a boy.  He identifies completely as a woman now, and of course, not one who’s entirely in touch with reality.  Brian is now known by the name Freaky.  And that’s only because Bo and his sons usually simply called him the freak.”

Both Mr. and Mrs. Harper were staring at me.  Unmoving.  Not even blinking.  They were both in total disbelief.  Total incomprehension.

“We’re trying to deal with the problem now,” I told them softly.

They both continued to just stare in disbelief for a few moments more, then Mrs. Harper broke out of it and stood up.  “Coffee?” she asked.

“Sure,” I told her.

The coffee was made already since they knew we were coming, so we all moved to the kitchen table.

“A girl,” Mrs. Harper said as she clutched her coffee mug desperately.

“Believe it or not, yes.”

“I just don’t know what to make of that,” she replied.

“None of us do.  Trust me, it took us by surprise just as much as you when we found out that she wasn’t a girl…originally.”  I could see they both had questions, but they didn’t ask them.  I was glad.

And then Mr. Harper hesitantly opened his mouth and asked a question I hadn’t expected.  “H…how did you find out?”

I nodded.  “Bo Jeskey and his two oldest sons, the ones who were with him when he murdered your daughter, were all murdered themselves not long ago.  Shortly after that, the sheriff was chasing another of his sons when he had an accident.  While he was dying, he told the sheriff all about what Bo had done to Brian, including having him mutilated.  According to the sheriff, he seemed to think what they did to him was funny.  I can assure you though, that it’s not.”

“How many sons did Bo have?” Mr. Harper asked.

“Four,” I told him.  “There’s still one left.  Gary.  And the sheriff is trying hard right now to find him.  He’ll be spending the rest of his life in jail.”

“I should hope so!” Mrs. Harper exclaimed.

“You mentioned something about trying to help him?” Mr. Harper asked.

“Do you need money?” Mrs. Harper asked quickly.

 I shook my head.  But now that money had been mentioned, I had a decision to make.  The real reason I was there to begin with.  But these seemed to be good people.  Trustworthy.  It made my decision easier.  “Thank you,” I told Mrs. Harper, “but we don’t need money…right now.  Thanks to Freaky finding some of Bo’s money we have a budget for her care.  At least for a while.  We’re hopeful though that there will be more money available later.  Possibly much more.”  I took a breath.  “But that brings me to the real reason why I’m here with Detective Benson.”

I noticed both the Harpers look up at that one.  “After Freaky was found…”

“I wish you wouldn’t call him that!” Mrs. Harper said.

“I wish I had a better name for her.”

“For him!”

“No.  Trust me, not anymore.  Freaky identifies completely as a woman now.  She looks completely like a woman.  She’s been a girl since she was four.  She wouldn’t know the first thing about being male.”

Both the Harpers seemed to stare at me.  “I still don’t like that name,” Mrs. Harper said softly.

“Nobody does,” I told her.  “Although Freaky doesn’t seem to mind it at all.  In truth, I seriously doubt she has any idea what a freak actually is.”

“You could find her a better name,” Mrs. Harper said.

“There hasn’t been time.  All this just happened, and there’s been a lot happening.  More than we can tell you.”

“You said three murders if I counted correctly, plus another one who died,” Mr. Harper said.

“Yes,” I replied.

“That would be a lot happening.”

I was grateful to be able to leave it at that.  I didn’t want to get into the shelter and the behavioral center just then.  “As I was saying,” I said to them, “After Freaky was found, she was so far out of touch with reality that I decided to set myself up as her advocate to manage whatever needs she had.  In doing so, Judge Reinhart decided all of that was great, but since there was an outside chance that Freaky could come into a lot of money eventually, he wanted more than one person to manage that money for her.  He wanted all money put into a trust fund, with three people to manage it.  I’m one.  The sheriff’s wife, Natalie, is the second.  But the judge is insisting on there being three people.  I came here today to see if one of you might be willing to be that third person.”

“How much money?” Mr. Harper asked.

“Yesterday morning, we didn’t have a dime.  But by the end of the day we had fifty-thousand dollars.  But as I said, there’s a possibility that eventually there could be more.  Possibly much more!”

“From where?” Mr. Harper asked.

It was Benson who answered though.  “Clive had a big farm.  His father had another one.  Both of those farms were sold to a developer right after Clive was murdered.”

“I was a bit perturbed at the time that nobody mentioned any money coming to us from that farm after Hailey was murdered,” Mr. Harper said.

“I understand it’s being looked into,” I told him.  “But…you know how these things run.  It could take years…for nothing at all.”

“I see,” Mr. Harper replied.

“If you need a third person though,” Mrs. Harper said.  “Then one of us will be more than glad to do it.”

“You do it, Stell,” her husband said.  “You’ve got more time than me.”

I saw Mrs. Harper nod.  “I’ll be glad to do it.  But I have just one request…demand!”

“What’s that?”

“I want to see him.  Soon!  Tomorrow!”