Chapter 10

As I waited for someone to show up, I thought about the church and started to get mad. I couldn't believe after all this time, the girl I had been looking for was in Maryland, of all places. I still had the reward in effect, but they had hidden her well. I had never even thought about her being in the U.S., let alone just a few hundred miles from me. I was in a deep funk when I heard someone knocking at the front door. Myrna beat me to it. The pistol she was carrying looked bigger than she was. From what I could see, it was an old Colt Dragoon from the Civil War Era. Damn, that thing would kick like a horse if she decided to shoot it.

By the time I got to the door, Myrna was opening it. I very distinctly heard her cock the pistol that she had behind her back. I think the Marshal standing outside did too because he immediately stiffened. I knew him, so I quickly told Myrna it was ok.

"Hey Jon, we brought your truck and Sarah's car back. I have to have you look at them before you sign the release papers, but I don't know why since they were never impounded. We found them in a small clearing with the keys still in them, down at the edge of town. I ain't supposed to tell you this, but the FBI is raiding Dwight's house as we speak. Man, the head Marshal is having a cow over all of this. He got called on the carpet twice today. First about your arrest, then about the CASA papers."

"Mike, are there any of your men watching the house?"

"What the hell would we do that for, Jon? We all thought the shooting was righteous and that you were lucky to be alive."

I went on to tell him about the suit out by the back road watching my house. He just looked at me for a minute, and then he asked for directions to the shortest way to get to where I had seen him. I laid it all out for him and then signed the papers he had. He jumped into the unmarked unit along with the driver and the extra man they had along. They talked for a few minutes and then tore out of the driveway, headed for the shortcut to the back road.

I walked over and gave Sarah's car a good look. It looked like it had never been searched nor did my truck. I quickly grabbed the little star wrench and took the back light on my pickup out of its mountings. I pulled the box out that was wedged in the fender well behind it. I opened it, and the little .380 was still wrapped up and the money I had hidden with it was all there too. I had just finished getting it all back together when Bill's car, with a rust bucket of a pickup following it, pulled into my driveway. Bill got out and motioned for me to come over. He was laughing at something the driver of the pickup said as I walked up to them.

"Jon, this is Jeb Marley. He and your grandpap did a lot of business together."

I shook his hand and he handed me a card with his address and phone number on it. Then to my surprise, he started the old truck and left. I turned and looked at Bill and he was laughing at the expression on my face.

"Jon, he just accepted you as a customer. You will find very explicit directions on the card to his workshop in town where he does all his business. He is a very private individual. He sold a lot of guns to your grandfather over the years. Half of his collection Jeb found for him. I will stay here until you get back so the girls won't be alone. I also have some pain pills in the car for you."

"Bill, I can't leave here for a couple of hours. I have the Geek coming to go over the house for bugs and then I want to call Pete and get him out here today."

"Ok, I can call Pete, he and I are old friends. I don't know who the Geek is, so that's on you, my friend."

He grabbed the sack from his front seat and handed it to me as we walked into the house. Myrna was standing inside the door still holding that big old pistol. Bill got a big grin on his face at seeing her with it and quickly gave her a hug, laughing the whole time.

"Myrna, the last time you shot that thing it knocked you on your ass."

"I was but a little girl den, Mistah Bill."

"Oh for shit sakes Myrna, don't you think it's about time you quit talking like a slave? Jon, she graduated from Princeton with honors and speaks better English than either of us. I have no idea why she keeps talking like that, but I hate to hear it, as did your grandfather."

This came as a big shock to me and from the looks Bill was getting from Myrna, he would be poisoned if he stayed in the house much longer. After I thought about it for a minute, I totally lost it. I still hadn't completely lost my French accent, and all this time she could have been helping me with my pronunciation. There were all the new American words I had to learn when I came over here from France. Sarah and Sally came in and both of them were grinning at the expressions on our faces. If a lady of color could blush, then Myrna was doing a good job of it because her face was red as a beet. Sally asked what was so funny and of course Bill told her too. I thought Myrna was going to explode. Sally went off on her in a flash.

"Myrna Robbins, if I was a little older, I would smack you so hard you wouldn't wake up until tomorrow! All these years I been trying to help you with your English and you graduated from Princeton with honors. If you ever pull a stunt like that on me again, I will hit you over the head with one of your own iron skillets. I can't believe you made a fool out of me for all these years, and Jon too!"

"I'm sorry I had to fool you, Sally, but Jon deserved it. He was a snooty little Frenchman who thought my cooking wasn't good enough for him. It took years for me to realize he wasn't insulting me, but thought I was just a dumb cook. Then when he called me his family in the hospital, I didn't know how to come out and tell you both the truth. I have always thought until that night, he just kept me here cause of his promise to his grandfather. I never realized he really cared about me. I love you both like you're my own children, and now I feel like a fool because of my actions. If it wasn't for this old fool, I would never have said anything at all. But he had to open his big mouth, just like always."

We all looked at Bill and he was grinning from ear to ear, watching us.

"Oh God, this is so funny. I can't believe she got away with it for all these years. Jon I can understand, but I figured Sally or Sarah would have caught on by now. Myrna, I have to give you credit, but now the cat's out of the bag so maybe you better rethink how you talk and act from now on."

"Thanks to you, you old fool. If you had just kept your big mouth shut, I could have kept on. Now I have to act like I'm educated."

She stomped out of the room, muttering under her breath about being made to feel like a fool. I lost it again and they all looked at me like I was nuts.

"Hell guys, I thought all people of color talked that way. I never had a cook until I came here and it took me a year to realize she didn't belong to my grandfather. I thought that maybe some richer Americans still kept slaves in secret. Since I wasn't American, I didn't figure it was any of my business. When she came to me begging to stay, I thought I had inherited her or something. Grandfather had told me that she had been in the family her whole life. I didn't even know that she had ever gone to school until just now."