Chapter 7

“Ms. Maudie, do you want a cold beer? Julio and I are gonna get a beer and have a look at our cooker. I’m sure the meat is done and the fire’s out by now,” Steve said as they started around the house.

Maudie Hanner looked back at Hannah, Crystal and Janelle. She just had a feeling when she met Crystal and Janelle, that if those three ever got together, this forest and these hills would never be the same again.

Steve pulled two beers out of the cooler, handed Ms. Maudie one and Julio the other. He reached back into the cooler and got one for himself. Ms. Maudie drained hers, belched, crushed the can with her hands and threw the it in the tall barrel standing next to the back porch.

She reached into the cooler and grabbed another cold one, popping the top. When she walked past the cooker, Steve had the top up. She reached in and tore off a piece of a tender pork and sat down on the edge of the porch. Crossing her legs under her long gown, she smiled as she ate the Bar-B-Que and drank her beer.

“Steve, you and Julio may just have another girl to look out for. I think my little Hannah and both your women have already made up some trouble between them. They sure are talking and whispering and laughing back there,” Ms. Maudie said, swinging her leg back and forth.

Dog, Uno and Bravo walked around the house and jumped up on the porch. They walked over and smelled Ms. Maudie’s back, then lay down right next to her.

“Ms. Maudie, looks like those dogs have taken a liking to you,” Steve said, looking over at them.

“Yeah, I reckon they smell the other dogs on me.”

“Steve, did you hear any more from the deputies about the wild dog attack over on your back line?” Julio asked as they were taking the meat from the cooker and placing it in pans to take inside.

“No, and I forgot all about that in the scramble of the other things that were happening. You and I need to sit down and pull out the papers, ID’s and notes we took from the men over at Ms. Maudie’s place. Those goons sure weren’t what I’d call professional. They were more like a bunch small-town hoods caught up in something they didn’t know how to handle.”

“I agree. This is what I took off the one Dog downed next the wood stove. It shows he’s a lawyer from over at Batesville by the name of P.T. Collinger. He must have been the one who got the other two out on bail. Wonder if they were here too?”

“Lets get to the table and sort it all out. We’ll try to figure out who was who and why they were involved. Like I said, that bunch just didn’t strike me as knowing a lot about what they were doing.”

Steve and Julio cleared the kitchen table and laid all their findings out. Sorted from their pockets where they had put each man’s credentials. The man Steve shot first, was Joe Adamson, who’s residence was Strawberry, Arizona. His business cards showed he was a local, licensed private detective.

The man who had Ms. Maudie by her throat when Steve shot his eye out, had business cards showing he was Joe Adamson’s brother, also a private detective. The two brothers had papers in their coats that had showed they were arrested and released on bail from the jail at Batesville, Arkansas. The bail bond receipt was for twenty-five hundred each. Ten percent of their bond, paid by P.T. Collinger, Attorney at Law.

“What did you get from the one you shot out back Julio?”

“Here it is. I had it stuffed down in my back pockets. This one has a business card that shows he’s president and CEO of Amalgamated Distribution in Strawberry, Arizona. He’s also a member of some organization called TABA – some sort of cash-advance organization with locations all over the southwest, even into West Texas, Western Oklahoma and Nevada,” Julio told him.

“So he was the ring leader, and put together a small posse to get his men back. That just doesn’t make sense,” Steve said, not wanting to tell Julio about the money hidden not thirty yards from the cabin.

“There’s not a hell of a lot about this that does make sense. But I’m sure it will all come out as soon as the sheriff and the state police get through,” Julio said.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I never did see another vehicle up at Ms. Maudie’s house, did you?”

“No, but I’m sure Sheriff Cole’s men have found one by now, there was enough of them up there.”

“Lets stuff each of these down in some zip-lock bags and mark them. Then we’ll get some breakfast. Where did those girls get off to anyway?”

“Last I saw of them, they were out front laughing, and having a good time with Hannah. They were showing off their camo paint, they’re probably painting her up right now, knowing Crystal and Janelle.”

Just as Julio said that, Crystal and Janelle led Hannah into the kitchen. Her long red hair was braided down her back and she was painted from her hair to her toenails. All three were naked and smiling.

“What do you think of Hannah? Isn’t she a perfect fit for this bunch?” Crystal asked. She and Janelle laughed at Julio and Steve’s faces as they looked at the three of them.

“Hannah, you and Crystal look enough alike standing there to be identical twins,” Steve told her.

“I hope you don’t mind me being here Steve. When Crystal and Janelle told me I could paint up naked like they were, I couldn’t resist doing it just once. Now I’m hooked, and I love it.”

“You’re welcome here anytime, Hannah. Just as long as all of you take extra care, I see no reason why all of you can’t run from here to the river and back...

“I’d rather you didn’t go over to the northeast corner, Crystal. Or back out to the county road either, until we know this whole place is secure. Julio and I will look it all over as soon as we eat some breakfast,” Steve told them.

“We’ll fix breakfast, you and Julio have done enough. Where is Ms. Maudie, anyway?” Crystal asked.

“She was sitting on the porch drinking a beer when we came in,” Julio told her.

“I’ll get her, she’s probably thinking about all that’s happened. She’s happy to be selling her home place and moving in with Mom and me ... Would you just look at this. She’s curled up asleep next your dogs on the back porch,” Hannah said as she turned to look back in the kitchen.

They looked out to see her curled up on her side on the porch, the dogs lying as close to her as they could. All of them were sleeping soundly, after the long harrowing night they’d been through.

“Let her sleep, she can eat when she wakes up,” Crystal said as she went to start breakfast.

Across the river gorge on the east side of Stephen Randall’s property, there were two men looking across the river with binoculars. They had pulled the bodies of their three kinfolk from the rapids where the three had hung up in the shallows.

Jacob and Henry Haight had been called in by their aunt Harriet when her three boys didn’t come home for two nights. They felt it was the responsibility of the family to find out what had happened to their cousins. If they found there was foul play, they’d just take justice in their own hands and keep the law away from these hills.

They’d found the three naked bodies and looked their side of the river over for their clothes. Not finding them, they crossed the river. They looked along the high bluff on that side – the side where that old tall boy lives after buying the property from old man Harkness. They’d wanted that piece of property for themselves and were waiting the old man out. Then the outsider came in and bought it. The next week, he put up posted signs and no trespassing signs all over it. This cut out a lot of their hunting grounds and they had never liked to be told they couldn’t go where they damned well pleased in this forest.

They had been scouring the place the day after they’d found the bodies of their cousins. They spotted a sheriff’s patrol car driving slowly down the dirt road that follows the property line on the north side. They ran for cover, hiding while the three deputies got out and started putting small objects into little plastic bags. The brothers knew enough to tell they were gathering evidence of some sort and sat there watching until the deputies had combed the place thoroughly then turned around and left.

They went to the place themselves then and looked all around, finding nothing but animal tracks and some scattered drops of dried blood on the grass. Maybe one of them had hit a deer, they surmised.

“Henry, we’ll just set up camp back a ways from the river gorge, over on Aunt Harriet’s side. We’ll stay a few more days, just to see what happens over here. I remember Jr. telling us that they’d all seen a big tittied, red haired girl running up and down the roads over there naked and they were making plans to get some of her pussy,” Jacob told his brother.

“Well, I hope we don’t have to stay more than a day or two. I need to get back to that wife of mine. She don’t need to be left alone for too long at a time, or she’ll be out whoring around!”

“We’ll be done here in a day or so, don’t worry. I just feel beholden to Aunt Harriet. She’s the last of Pa’s family left now.”

The two went back across the river gorge and set up camp about a hundred and fifty feet back from the bluffs on their side. They found a place where they could sit on a tall rock and keep an eye out on the other side.

Al Barrow was waiting in his motel room for his hired help to arrive from Arizona. He’d already been holed up for a day and night. He was getting antsy about not knowing for sure what had happened to the others. He went to eat at 24-hour eatery near his motel and bought a local paper. There was a small write-up about a dog attack up in the northern part of the county, but that was all he found. No mention of a wreck that involved Hallerman and Brody. No mention of Uncle Albert, P.T. Collinger, or the Larson’s either.

He wished there was some way he could have gotten P.T.’s car back down here. At least he would have a vehicle to get around in and do some snooping. He was afraid to try and lease a vehicle. He didn’t want his name linked to any of the others if there had been a showdown with that Steven Randall, and some or all of them had either been killed or maybe arrested for killing that redneck, Randall.

He sure didn’t have a lot of confidence in Joe and Jack and had already made up his mind that he’d never let his secretary recommend someone else for a job as important as this one had been. She sure did have some good pussy though, and she could make him agree to anything when she turned that kitty-cat loose on him.

“Unit 110 to dispatch.”

“Go ahead 110.”

“I have an abandoned, white Cadillac here at the Minnow Creek Cemetery. It has a flat tire on the right front, the keys are in the ignition and the papers say it’s registered to a P.T. Collinger from Batesville, Arkansas. Can you run those plates? I’ll wait here for your call back,” the deputy said after giving the plate number.

“Unit 110, the sheriff wants you to remain with the vehicle until the recovery truck arrives. That vehicle may have been involved in some trouble in the northern part of the county on the night of the 3rd.”

“I’ll be here to escort it in.”

Word got out that there were two sheriff’s deputies in the hospital. There were local reporters all over the hospital grounds and at the courthouse, trying to get details. This was big news and they wanted answers.

Sheriff Cole was forced to hold a news conference to let the media know the reason his men were hospitalized with gunshot wounds. He told them that this was an ongoing investigation of a drug bust that had gone wrong and couldn’t release any more information at this time. His only reference to the incident, was that a vehicle had overturned while being pursued and gunfire had been exchanged after the chase had ended, injuring his deputies, who would both recover.

The 4th of July celebration at Steve and Crystal’s place had gone from a happy weekend of fun, food, and beer with a few friends, to a day of somber thoughts from all concerned.

After they’d eaten breakfast, Steve and Julio took Steve’s pickup and rode around the property, then down to Ms. Maudie’s place to check it out in the light of day. They saw tire tracks where a recovery vehicle had backed in behind her house. From the tracks and the weeds that were trampled, they loaded another vehicle that had been parked in the tall weeds behind her house. They rode slowly down the west side of Steve’s place, to the northeast corner, where the three men had tried to jump Janelle and Crystal.

When they came to the scene of the dog attack, they stepped out and scouted the place once more. They saw where the sheriff’s patrol car had been there and turned around. They saw foot prints where they had walked all around. Gathering evidence, Steve and Julio guessed.

They also saw two more sets of foot prints in the dirt, back away from the scene, and followed them to the bluff where the rocks form a natural set of steps down to the bottom of the gorge. Steve decided to just eliminate those steps. He didn’t want it to be this easy for people to cross over on his land again.

“We’re being watched Julio! You drive. I’m going to take the glasses and slip from the truck when you round that next bend. Go about another hundred yards and stop. I’ll be there shortly. Whoever it is over there, will show themselves soon enough.”

Steve slipped from the slow moving truck, into the underbrush nearby. He made a wide circle back to the place where they had stopped. He hunkered down with his binoculars, scanning the tree line across the gorge.

He saw them! There were two of them and they were standing in the open, talking and pointing toward his side of the river. He’d never seen these two before. He knew they had to be kin to the three who had crossed over and were killed by his dogs.

He watched for a few more minutes before slipping back around to where Julio was waiting.

“Did you see anything?” Julio asked as Steve got in the truck.

“Yeah. There’s two of them on the other side. I figure they’re kin to the three who came across the other day. They’ll probably camp there for a day or two, just to see what’s going on over here. Then they’ll try to find out for sure, what happened to the three who were killed.”

“I’d say that by now, there wasn’t a lot left to see on this side, after the varmints and the deputies have scoured the place for two days and nights,” Julio told him.

“Yeah. But now that I know they’re over there, I’ll keep a watch out for them and make sure that Crystal and Janelle never come back here alone. Even with the dogs.”

Crystal and Janelle did get Hannah to run with naked them, from the cabin to the back line, then back top the cabin. They had Dog, Uno and Bravo leading the way. The three of them had fun, and vowed they’d get together again soon.

Ms. Maudie awoke from her nap and was ready to move on down to Clarkesville. She wanted to put all this behind her and start a new life. Crystal and Janelle helped Hannah wash the camo paint off her body and that made the three women even more determined to get together again – soon... “Hannah, you need to keep your pussy shaved. When you come back we’ll paint up again. You have yet to experience having a man in your pussy while you’re painted up in camo!”

“Crystal! I’ve never had a man!”

“Then just come back next week. We’ll shave your pussy and take care of that too while you’re here.”

“Would you really? I mean ... you mean ... Steve?”

“He told you that we looked enough alike to be twins. We’ll see if he can tell the difference with us painted and in the dark.”

“OH MY! I’ll be up Friday afternoon. I don’t go back to work until Monday!”

“Good, you’ll need a day of rest.”

Before they left, Janelle asked Hannah to keep a check on Becky Larson at the hospital and let her know if she needed anything. On Tuesday, when Julio and Janelle went down to Clarkesville to make the necessary money transfers, and hire an attorney to draw up the legal papers, Janelle hired the lawyer to start hers and Jim’s divorce settlement.

The attorney promised to have the papers drawn up on the property and ready in two days. He’d call them when they could meet at his office with Ms. Maudie Hanner and sign them.

They left there and went by to see Becky. She was recovering as well as could be expected, but still sedated.

Julio stopped by the motel office and gave his two weeks notice, then he and and Janelle loaded her car and his pickup to bring back with them. They spent two days, with the help of Crystal and Steve, cleaning out the belongings of Ms. Maudie’s and storing them in an old shed.

When they went out to the shed, they saw the old bitch cur had already had her pups. The pups were feeding and looking healthy. They put plenty of food and water there for her and closed the pen.

They cleaned and scoured the whole cabin with bleach and scrubbed the floors and walls where the blood had stained the wood.

Janelle drove back and forth to work ... going by and packing a load of her stuff each day before driving home. Julio worked for the next two weeks, doing the same when he got off work.

Things had settled down for Steve and Crystal. They went over to help Julio and Janelle when they were there. They continued to run twice each day ... Taking plenty of time for Crystal to practice her skills with the guns, knives and bow.

Just when they thought things were back to normal, Steve spotted a black car parked off county road 7680 at an old house place. It was parked a quarter mile from where Strawberry Loop Road and county road 3701 intersect. He saw the same vehicle there two days in a row. Then, early on the third day, he and Crystal painted up.

With the three dogs, they made a trip out through the rough underbrush to where the car was again parked.

“Arizona plates,” he said as he pulled his binoculars down.

They watched the vehicle for over an hour, looking around for any movement. Seeing none, he told her to stay there with Uno and Bravo while he and Dog went in to have a closer look. He saw where three people had left the car and returned numerous times. The driver, a passenger in the front seat and a passenger in the back seat. They had all met near the driver’s door and walked toward Steve and Crystal’s property many times.

Steve walked into the brush and broke off four limbs from a tall Honey Locust tree. The thorns on the limbs were over six inches long and as sharp as needles on the tips.

Steve took the long thorns off the branches, running the sharp points length ways into the sap of flowering poison oak vine. He handled the sharp thorns as if they were surgical instruments as he coated each spur with the sap.

He placed some more long thorns behind each of the four tires on the vehicle. He took the long thorns he’d coated with poison oak sap with him to the trail the men had been using. He carefully wove the long thorns into the leaves and small limbs at thigh-height from the ground along the trail on both sides.

As a boy, experiencing his first explorations into the forest near Jasper, he’d learned his lesson ... stay away from the Thorned Honey Locust. The thorns would penetrate deep, causing severe pain and swelling in less than an hour. If the thorn tip happened to break off in the flesh, the pain and swelling was so severe, medical attention was usually required to remove the thorn. He had heard old folks tell of getting rid of revenuers by using the thorns coated in poison oak sap.

Steve was gone an hour before Crystal saw the black form of Dog, silently moving closer to her and his pups.

“What took you so long? Did you see where they were, or where they went?” Crystal asked as they made their way back onto their property, across the county road.

“They’ve been coming here for three days I know. The plates on the vehicle are from Arizona. They have to be on our land, there’s no other explanation. They must be set up, watching the cabin. You take Uno and Bravo back with you. Dog and I are going to pay them a little visit while they think they’re hiding and stalking us.”

“Steve, are you sure about this?” She was worried once again about the ones who keep coming back to cause trouble.

“You’ll be alright, they’re not going to try anything in daylight, especially since the dogs are with you. Just go in the cabin and leave the dogs on the porch. Pretend to be petting the dogs when you reach down to release the bolts on the doors. Dog and I won’t be long.”

He kissed her, then he was gone.

“Dog, all I want you to do is to scare them, Okay? Don’t harm them, just scare the living hell out of them. They’ll be afraid to shoot ... you got it partner?” Steve said, pulling Dog close to talk to him.

Dog broke loose and ran through the underbrush, gone from sight in an instant. Steve slowly made his way in a wide circle, coming closer and closer as he scanned the brush and trees. He knew they would be close enough to see his cabin...

He spotted two of them. They were hunkered down behind two trees in sight of the cabin. He sat quietly looking all around until he saw the third one, a younger man. He was squatting behind a tree, looking through his binoculars.

The younger man never heard the big dog that walked right up behind him – close enough for him to hear something breathing next to his ear. He turned to see the snarling, slobbering face of the huge black dog. The ferocious animal was merely inches from his face, his teeth bared in a snarl. His hair standing up on his neck and shoulders.

“FUCK! Get back! OH FUCK, NO!” he cried, falling backwards. Sitting on his butt, he kicked at the dog as it lunged at him. The wild dog snapped his jaws time and again, just missing his ankles.

As Al Barrow sat on his butt, kicking his shiny, lace up Alligator shoes at him, the dog lunged at him again. Al rolled over into a fetal position to protect his hands and face. The dog was standing over him. Al felt his breath on the back of his neck. He drew his head down closer to his shoulders, crying as he pissed in his pants.

Al didn’t hear the dog breathing. Peeping around, he saw the dog was gone. He started crawling away hurriedly when he didn’t see the dog. Then, there he was again, right in front of him. His mouth was snarled and his huge white teeth bared. Slobber drooled from his bottom jaw. The man cowered back and covered his face once more. When he peeped out from behind his coat ... the dog was gone. Al Barrow jumped up, throwing his expensive binoculars to the ground. He dropped his 9mm pistol in his frantic attempt to get away. He ran from the black dog as fast as he could.