Chapter 6: Confrontation and consequences

As soon as Stephanie hung up the phone, she raced to tell her mother what she'd seen, but it was too late.

Jane saw Robert skulking up the driveway and she almost went into a panic — only the thought of Stephanie in the next room forced her to calm down.

"Go in your room and lock the door," she told her daughter quickly. "Don't make a sound and don't come out no matter what you hear. I don't know what he's doing here, but it can't be good."

Stephanie followed her mother's advice, but she was surprised when she heard the door to her mother's room close and lock as well. She hoped the person she'd called would get here soon.

Robert banged and banged on the front door but no one answered. Surely that difficult sister didn't take Jane and Stephanie with her to the fire he'd had set on the other side of the county. That would ruin all of his plans.

As Robert stood thinking, Steve went into action. He hoped Robert Wilmont was smart enough not to start any shit with the Sheriff of Buckley County and her family, but you never know.

He promised he'd head right over to check things out as soon as he hung up the cell phone. He abandoned his grocery cart in the middle of the aisle and raced outside to his truck. It would only take a couple of minutes to get to his house from here, but it was almost 15 minutes to Allison's because the small creek had only two bridges across it.

Allison turned her car around halfway to the suspected arson scene and headed back in the direction she came. A series of farm roads would cut the time back to her house almost in half, but could be at Steve's in less than 5 minutes.

Robert decided he'd just wait inside for the family to come home. That would be the perfect idea. He wasn't surprised when he turned the doorknob and the front door opened. These simpletons in the sticks are just too fucking stupid for words, the thought.

He figured he might as well fix himself a drink while he waited. He wasn't feeling particularly tense, but it never hurt. He started to get pissed when he found the only alcohol in the house was beer. What the fuck sort of people were they?

Steve's mind went into overdrive as he roared out of the grocery store parking lot. He couldn't come up with a good reason for Wilmont to be at Allison's — and hundreds of reasons why he shouldn't be. He didn't stop the car until he was midway into his yard. He wasn't even sure if he shut the engine off before he jumped out and raced through the woods and across the creek.

Allison whipped the car though a series of back roads and was thrilled to see Steve's truck was at his house, but it frightened her when she realized it was parked halfway in the driveway, halfway in the yard. The fact that the engine was still running scared her more. He hadn't seemed that frantic when he'd spoken to her a few minutes before.

Stephanie peeked out of the closet just as Steve slipped past the window of her room. For some reason she knew it was him, and not Robert, outside. She breathed an audible sigh of relief and decided to move out of the closet.

Jane was fuming across the hall. Who did that son of a bitch think he was? He had no right coming out here and she was tired of hiding from him. In fact, she was finished hiding period. She got up, unlocked the bedroom door, and steeled her nerves for a second to prepare for the confrontation.

Stephanie heard her mother's door unlock and decided it was safe to come out too. She hadn't heard Steve come in yet, but she figured he must have everything under control if her mother was coming out. Stephanie and her mother stood in front of the doors of their respective rooms staring at one another.

Allison unlatched the leather strap and pulled her service weapon for the first time in her life as he she crossed the creek and unlocked the fence in the back yard. She figured Steve had gone around front and she raced up to the back deck and opened the rear door.

The fact there was no lights on at the house surprised Steve. His senses were always on alert and something didn't seem right about this. He didn't see Robert's car in the driveway and he noticed the front door was open but the screen door was closed. He feared for the safety of Jane and Stephanie as he stepped up on the porch. He was sure Robert had grabbed one or both of them and headed off to who knows where.

He should have taken his own safety into account. The sound of the front door opening surprised Robert, who was sitting not 10 feet away on the chair. He hadn't heard a car drive up. He saw a man he'd never met enter the house and did the first thing that came to his mind — he raised the pistol in his hand and fired.

The bullet struck Steve in the chest and propelled him back against the doorframe from where he slumped to the floor. As he lost consciousness, a single through raced through his mind: "What a stupid fucking way to die."

Both women headed for the living room when they heard the gunshot.

The first woman in the doorway didn't hesitate for a moment. She saw the Robert, gun in hand, standing over the prone body of the first man — really the only man — she'd ever cared about. She saw the blood spreading across the floor by the door and any cognizant thought disappeared.

She grabbed the first thing she could find — in this case a heavy lamp with a solid brass bottom - and struck Robert in the face with all the force she could muster as he turned around with a surprised look on his face.

Blinded by rage and fear, she straddled Robert's chest and she raised the lamp and hit him again. The she hit him again and again until her arms were too tired to lift the lamp one more time. She felt no remorse even after she'd quit. The two other women in the room did absolutely nothing to stop her. Secretly each wished she'd been the one to do it.

Only one ambulance was on call in Buckley that night as the rest had been dispatched to a burning farmhouse about 25 miles away. The dispatcher who took the frantic 911 call contacted the nearest State Police detachment and a trooper arrived at the same time as the paramedics.

What they found was chaos.

Two men lay unconscious, bleeding profusely from various wounds, and three women — one he recognized as the local sheriff — sat huddled on the couch, covered with blood and with stony looks upon their faces.

"This one's dead," the paramedic told the trooper, who had already called his sergeant to get a whole host of police officers out there. "I have to get a doc out here to give the time of death, but there no sense trying to move him.

"The other one probably won't make it either. It looks like he's lost a lot a blood."

The women didn't move when they heard the pronouncement. Allison had already told them what to expect.

The two paramedics worked feverishly to save the survivor's life, not that they were sure it was worth saving. Both had known Allison since she came back to town and they'd known Jane most of their lives. Neither could figure out what this man was doing in the house, but they had a pretty good idea — and it wasn't a positive thought.

But still, they'd taken an oath, so they would do what they could. The woman sat on the couch as the medics moved the man on to a gurney and loaded him into the ambulance. Unbidden, the youngest one got up and went to the front of the vehicle to ride to the hospital with the man.

"What in the fuck happened here," the trooper asked the blood-stained women. "Jesus Christ!"

The young man hoped to get a reasonable statement before his bosses arrived, but one look in the women's eyes told him that wasn't likely to happen.

"Sheriff, you know you'll have to give a statement," he told her softly. "It can wait, but there's going to be a lot of questions that need to be answered."

Allison nodded. She suddenly was very tired.

"There aren't any answers," she said as tears formed in her eyes. "I don't know why the first one was here and the other man came to help. He came over to protect us and look what he got for it. God damn it."

He saw the older woman wrap her arms protectively around the sheriff and whisper something in her ear. The sheriff nodded.

"We'll give a statement when I pick up my daughter from the hospital," the older woman said. "Right now I just want to get away from this place."

If Allison hadn't been involved, he might not have let them go. He knew he'd probably catch hell for it anyway, but he'd worked with Allison before and he trusted her. Besides, it was obvious to him what had happened. It looked as if the sheriff had walked in on a home invasion. There was a gun on the floor, so it was pretty clear she felt she was in danger and acted.

He would have done the same thing. So he let her and the other woman leave to pick up the smaller version of the older woman at the hospital.

"Stop in at my office first thing in the morning," she told the trooper. "All three of us will be there at 10AM if that works for you. Right now I've got to figure out a place for us to stay tonight. I'll give you my cell number if you need to reach me. I'll collect Stephanie's clothes when I get to the hospital and I'll have one of the nurses with me when I bag them. You can have our clothes before we leave. Will that work for you?

"Paul," she continued to the trooper, "I don't know if we'll ever know why things happened like they did tonight. Right now I'm pretty sure it's just fate's way of making sure my sister and I are never happy again."

The young girl in the ambulance didn't say a word on the way to the hospital. She didn't speak even when asked direct questions. She just sat, staring straight ahead.

She did the same thing in the waiting room at the hospital. Part of her was glad to get away from that horrible place. Part of her hoped she'd never have to go back there again.

She couldn't get the images out her head. She couldn't forget the fact that everything that had happened to Steve was her fault. As soon as she panicked and made the phone call, she'd set the events in motion.

She wished beyond wishing that she could take Steve's place right now. She had never considered that her father could kill a man.

The ride to the hospital was just as silent in Allison's cruiser. Neither woman wanted to say what needed to be said. Neither wanted to face what had to be faced. But a man was dead and another probably would be before morning.

But each was frightened about what had happened after both men were on the floor. One woman had rushed to Steve's side to try to render aid, another had rushed to the telephone to call 911, and the last beat a helpless man with a blunt object until he couldn't be recognized. She kept hitting him long after he stopped being a threat. She used a lamp to take out years of frustration and pain. But the truth wasn't so simple. What she screamed over and over while she was hitting Robert made that perfectly clear.