Chapter 6

Ft. Stockton, Texas...

July was winding down, the first of August fast approaching, with it the preparations for the feast and wedding had taken on a frantic pace. The dressmakers finished the last dress on the day they promised. Don had lost his mittens as they had come to be known, but he would have to wear pressure garments on his hands and left forearm for many more months. There was also family to get settled. A moving van showed up with the clothes and personal belongings of the Downs girls. George, D, and Matt arrived in Ft. Stockton safe and sound and needed a place to set their trailers.

Jack, Jackie, Don, Jim, George, and Matt had been working on a place for George and Matt to park their trailers there on the ranch. Right now they were set up at Jack and Beth's house. The new place was at the mouth of a very large canyon in a grove of Soapberry trees. The guys had two, twenty five by forty foot concrete slabs poured. Next they had a local steel company build an open sided building on each slab. Connecting water and electricity to the site had been simple and easy where they had run into problems had been the sewer system. They built it according to code but the local inspector was being difficult. He finally came out and said that it would never pass unless and then stuck his hand out. Jack looked at Matt asking what to do, "If that's what it takes pay him."

Jack reached into his wallet and started putting hundred dollar bills in the man's hand until he ran out six bills later. The inspector signed the paperwork and Matt handcuffed the inspector. Matt had only been a Pecos County sheriff's deputy four days. Matt called his boss who had been waiting nearby and they came and took the inspector to jail.

Another family that needed a place to call home was the O'Daniel's. Jack and Jim looked over the ranch that sat just east of the Phillip's ranch. The asking price was a little high but in the end the location was just too good to pass up. Just after closing the man that owned the ranch to the south ask if Jack would be interested in his property as well. In what turned into chain reaction three more ranches sold out to Phillips O'Daniel trust as it became known. Now the ranch was bordered by highways 285 to the west, 90 to the south, 349 to the east, and Interstate 10 to the north. With Highway 90 as a border the Phillips O'Daniel was just across the road from the Bar None of Scott and Angie Miles making them neighbours in a West Texas sort of way. The ranch was now over two thousand square miles or roughly twice the size of Rhode Island.

All this land buying had caused Jack to be kidded a bit at the feed store. When he was asked if he wanted all the land he responded using C.C. Slaughter's famous quote, "No, I just want to own the land that touches mine." One of the local smart asses had nicknamed Jack the "Gates of goats"

Tammy had settled in quickly as the lone social worker for Pecos County. Covering almost five thousand square miles Pecos County is one of the larger counties physically but with a population of around seventeen thousand with only half of those living in Ft. Stockton. This meant that Tammy did a lot of driving. Today she was in Imperial going over one of her cases with the little girl's teacher when her cell phone rang. "This is Tammy ... Imperial why ... now" Tammy and the teacher heard a siren approaching. "Ok I'm on my way..." turning to the teacher, "I'm sorry something bad has happened in Ft. Stockton I've got to go." Tammy went outside in time to see the sheriff's car skid to a stop. Tammy couldn't imagine what could have happened to cause this level of excitement and was almost afraid to find out. Tammy got into her county vehicle and followed the deputy at speeds of ninety miles and hour and higher back to Ft. Stockton which on Highway 1053 is not all that fast, but it is generally considered unwise even in West Texas to pass a patrol car that's running lights and sirens.

The deputy drove straight into Ft. Stockton and west on Business 10. At the western edge of Ft. Stockton he pulled into a run down motel known to the locals as Motel Styx. It catered those that were just staying an hour or two, or just didn't give a shit about where they slept. Tammy's heart was still pounding from the high speed trip back to town when she turned into the courtyard of the run down motel.

She saw right fast that she needed to pull into the first available space. The courtyard was packed, three ambulances and what looked like every police and sheriff department vehicle including the animal control officer was jammed in with the only other open place directly in front of the ambulances. Parking under the covered area by the office Tammy got out taking her new digital camera and the leather portfolio that she used to take notes with her. Walking to the room at the far corner of the motel where the yellow crime tape crisscrossed the battered pipe posts that held the porch up Tammy could feel the gall coming up her throat. The closer she got to the room the stronger the smell of vomitus became then she saw where the smell was coming from, the parking lot was one pool after another. Tammy felt her heart sink knowing that most of those puddles were from men that had already seen the worst of what men did, she shuddered to think what she would find in the room.

Millie, Hanna, and Nicky Boggs didn't know what to think. Charles Boggs had beaten their mother to death right in front of them last night. He had always beaten them and when someone would turn him in to social services they would move before anything could be done. Millie didn't know why she had screamed usually she took the blows of her father's belt without saying a word. What did it matter no one ever came to their aid. Their father had taken their clothes when he had caught Millie trying to run away with her two sisters no one did anything. They hadn't eaten in four days and that had been one Micky D's cheeseburger split three ways, no one cared.

Then last night Millie had a dream. The lady on the horse said it was time and she would send someone to save them. She even showed Millie what he would look like, a cowboy in a blue shirt, with blue eyes and sandy blonde hair. Then the lady had showed Millie the women that would be their new mothers. It had almost felt like a dream, daddy was beating her so she screamed and the door flew open. Millie saw the man he wasn't the one that was supposed to come for them and he looked madder than daddy. Daddy only stopped hitting Millie for a just a second to look at the man and then he started hitting her again. That's when the firecrackers went off and her Daddy fell on the floor. Then all the strange people came wanting to touch them, but no cowboy.

As Tammy neared the room her nose was assaulted by the smell of blood, urine, faeces, and still more vomit. Just outside the door two paramedics were working on a young deputy who was shaking uncontrollably. She steeled herself for what she was about to see and stepped inside. The sheriff gave her an apologetic look as she walked in. As he stepped aside she saw three emaciated children covered in filth huddled naked and trembling in the far corner of the room. On the floor by the bathroom door was a body covered with the bedspread that had been pulled from the bed. The blood stain on the filthy bed cover was huge she couldn't imagine a body having that much blood. She had missed the second body lying next to the air conditioning unit.

Tammy turned back to the children and took a step towards them they cringed. Tammy tried talking to the kids but found that only stressed them more. The oldest of the children was trying to cover the other two with her body. Tammy could barely make out the bruises all over the girl through the filth. As she reached for the young girl she put her hand and arm up as though she were blocking a blow. Tammy felt her heart breaking for these kids but she also realised that she was not getting to them. It was then that she felt a hand touch her shoulder. Tammy turned and saw Matty B. "We haven't been able to get them to respond we were afraid to drag them out physically you have any ideas?" Matt asked.

Tammy wasn't sure why but the answer was very clear to her, "Weren't Don and the girls coming to town today? Find them I don't know why but I just know Don can help these kids."

Matt went to the sheriff and whispered something to him. The sheriff walked out of the room and a few minutes later the sound of cars leaving the motel could be heard. Ten minutes later Matt came in, "We found them they are on their way here." A few minutes later Don walked into the room. Tammy watched as the oldest child seemed to recognise him, she even smiled. Don walked right past Tammy and to the huddled children where he dropped to his knees and opened up his arms. To everyone's surprise the children leapt into his arms. Matt watched as the children seemed to be losing their fear but he noticed Don was swaying as he held the children.

Outside the room two deputies were keeping the girls from going inside but Rose felt that Don was in trouble, it felt like he was dying. "Get out of the way," she screamed and ran into the room followed by the others just as Don collapsed onto the floor. Rose scooped him up in her arms and kissed him but broke the kiss almost instantly and stared at Don and then at her belly, "Quick kiss him I can't it would kill the baby."

Kiesha grabbed Don and kissed him seeing and feeling the hell the three children had endured. She took all she could stand and then fell back letting Missy take her place. Kiesha crawled over to a nearby trash can and threw up. Missy was soon behind her, followed by Kim and finally Ann, and Amber. They heard Don groan, "Get him to the hospital right now," Rose screamed. Two paramedics came in and started checking him out, "Don't waste time get him to the hospital," Rose was crying. The paramedics loaded Don up and headed to Pecos County as fast as they could.

Back at the scene that Sheriff looked at Matt, "What did I just see?"