Heartfield Ranch (Communities of Discipline Book 2) (10 page)

There was a knock on the door the next morning and from her bedroom Karen could hear the voice of Ann Marie greeting Lynette.

When she emerged, Ann Marie greeted her with a smile.

“Hi!” she said. “You wanna go play hooky?”

“Hooky?” Karen wondered if she looked as confused as she felt.

“It’s supposed to be ninety-four degrees today and I bet if we pick blackberries really fast we’ll have time to swim afterwards.”

“And I’ve heard
nothing
of your plans,” Lynette said, walking by with two plates of food for her children.

“I don’t have a swimsuit,” Karen said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Ann Marie said. “I’ve got two. We can change here.”

“What about the animals?” asked Karen.

“I traded chores with Leslie.”

Karen remembered Leslie as the short, almost delicate-looking woman with waist-length hair she’d met in the compound’s spinning room. She tended the flock of wool sheep and was an expert weaver who gave lessons at the Senior Center on Saturdays. She tried to imagine tiny Leslie hauling the more stubborn goats in for milking, but had already decided that Heartfield women were a lot less delicate than they often looked.

“All right then!” she said, and the two women slipped their suits on under their clothes and set off together for the blackberry patch at the edge of the field.

The bushes were loaded, and Karen tried to avoid the thorns as she picked. Occasionally she’d cast unbelieving glances at Ann Marie, whose fingers seemed to flit in between the branches. Within minutes her bucket was filled, while Karen had more finger pricks to show for her efforts than berries.

“Damn!” she said, when a thorn snagged the back of her hand.

“They’re pesky little buggers,” Ann Marie offered. “But trust me, it’ll be a lot less painful once you’ve had some experience at picking. It’s an art.”

Karen laughed. “I never looked at berry-picking as an art.”

“No?” Ann Marie smiled. “Everything is an art. That’s one of the coolest things I’ve learned at Heartfield. See, in my old life I was taught that something had to have an aesthetic and a monetary value to be an art. But here I learned that milking a goat is an art and making a salad is an art and making a cabinet is an art and cuddling a baby is an art –anything that brings happiness is an art.”

For some reason, her words made Karen feel like she wanted to cry. She remembered feeing like that as a child – finding excitement in every new experience. When had she lost that feeling? She couldn’t remember. Somewhere along the way her enthusiasm had been replaced by duty and blind loyalty to people she didn’t even like.

“I like that,” she said. “I like that you all have values out here.”

“Yep,” Ann Marie said, picking up both buckets – she’d finished filling Karen’s while they’d talked – and headed towards small lake that sat on the border of the Heartfield property. “Respect, obedience, honesty and art. They’re all gifts to one another and to ourselves.”

“Honesty…” Karen said the word aloud and it felt like a conviction.

“That’s one of Clay’s personal favorites, just in case you’re interested,” Ann Marie said. “Clay’s a good man, but he can’t abide falsehood. I think it would be pretty easy for a woman to make him happy provided she was straight with him.”

Karen looked over at her companion. “Why are you telling me this?”

Ann Marie threw back her head and laughed merrily. “It’s pretty obvious that he’s crazy about you. Or are you the last to know?”

Karen blushed. “He’s kind of given me that indication.”

“And is the feeling mutual?”

Karen demurred with a nod.

“It’s complicated given why I came here,” she confided. “Why I’m still here. I don’t really know what to do, Ann Marie. I don’t want to do anything to hurt Heartfield but your parents are really pressing this whole thing pretty hard.”

“It’s nothing new.” Ann Marie sighed.  “They’ve done everything short of hiring someone to come in and physically abduct me, and Jake’s not entirely convinced that they won’t try that.” Her voice grew sad. “He had this crazy notion after we got married that if they just met him, if they could just hear from him how much he loved me that they’d accept him. It was hard to get him to understand that my parents don’t care about love –they only care about control and appearances and money.”

They’d come to the lake now. Both women had put on bathing suits under their clothes and waded into the crystal clear water. Karen looked down to see a school of sunfish swimming nearby.

“I used to be a championship swimmer in college,” said Ann Marie, gliding into a graceful backstroke.

“It shows,” said Karen. “You’re in awesome shape.”

“Yeah,” said Ann Marie, “and most people are pretty complimentary. Well, except for Sarah Blye.”

Karen remembered the day she’d arrived. It was Sarah she’d heard being spanked, and Sarah that Clay had mentioned the night before.

“She’s terribly jealous,” Ann Marie went on. “She did everything she could to get me kicked out in the early days and still is a thorn in my side every chance she gets. She’s taken more whippings over her attitude than I hope to ever get in my whole life, but it doesn’t do any good.” She stopped and turned upright, bobbing up and down as she treaded water. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m really not supposed to gossip.”

“It’s all right,” said Karen. “I’ve dealt with my share of jealousy, only it’s all been professional.”

“So what’s it like being a cop?”

Karen shrugged. “Political.” It was the first word that sprung to her mind, and for a moment she was seized by the same feeling she’d had with Clay – to tell Ann Marie everything she knew. But again she resisted the temptation. It was just too complicated.

“I worked hard to get where I am,” she continued. “But it’s still a male-dominated profession so I have a hard time getting the guys to take me seriously. The younger ones are threatened and the older ones are overprotective. It was one of those situations where I thought I wanted the job until I got it.”

“So if you could do something else, what would it be?”

Karen smiled. “Well, I used to think I didn’t know, but after spending time here, I think I’d like to do something with farming. I mean, it’s very physical and there’s so much to learn. And there are always so many new challenges. I didn’t expect that.”

“Oh, it’s underrated for sure,” Ann Marie said. “But I always knew it would be cool. When I was little I’d read books by James Herriot and just want so bad to be a Yorkshire vet. My mom would find the books and throw them away and replace them with books about career development. But I’d toss them down the laundry chute and pawn my ballet stuff to buy what I wanted to read.”

The story put Karen in a fit of laughter. She could tell that she and Ann Marie were going to be close friends.

But Ann Marie suddenly stopped laughing and her eyes grew wide. “Shoot,” she said. “I just remembered that today is my day to make dessert for assembly tonight. We’d better get back.”

The two got out of the water and put their clothes on over the wet suits.

“I’m going to make a blackberry tart,” Ann Marie said. “But at least I’ll have someone to talk to. Jake went to town to deliver eggs, but he should be back by now. If you want to have lunch with us you can.”

“That sounds great,” Karen said, and the two continued to chat as they walked back. But as they approached the buildings they could see people milling about with concerned looks on their faces.

Then someone shouted, “There she is!” And all eyes turned towards the pair as they approached.

Karen’s heart fell, as she immediately assumed they were talking about her. What had happened, she wondered. Had Sheriff Smith made good on his threat to take her off the case? Had they sent someone else in with a bogus warrant to search the grounds?

Clay was running forward now, but as he got closer Karen saw that his eyes were not on her but on Ann Marie. Both women instantly knew something was wrong. Ann Marie stopped in her tracks, her face ashen.

“What’s wrong, Clay?” she asked quietly.

The leader of Heartfield stood before her, a pained look on his face. “It’s Jake,” he said. “He’s been arrested.”

Ann Marie gasped and dropped the buckets on the ground. And Karen, who could look at neither of them, watched as the berries they’d picked together rolled across the dusty ground.

She could feel all eyes on her as she followed Clay and Ann Marie to Ann Marie’s house. As she walked up the steps, Sarah Blye suddenly blocked her way.

“What do you think you’re doing going in with them?” she asked. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough already?”

“I didn’t have anything to do with this,” Karen said. “So get out of my way. And while you’re at it, stop acting like you care, because we both know you don’t.”

Sarah’s smirk turned into a look of shocked outrage, and Karen brushed her aside and went into the Markum’s home. Ann Marie was sitting on the couch, sobbing, and Jake was trying to comfort her.

She walked over and leaned down. “I’m so sorry,” she said.

“Why Jake?” Ann Marie as saying. “Why Jake?”

And suddenly it was if a lightbulb went off in Clay’s head. “Ann Marie, do you think you’ll be OK while I speak to Karen?”

“Sure,” she sniffed.

Clay’s hand was on her arm now and he wordlessly pulled Karen out the back door of the Markum’s home and behind two houses until they’d reached his. He said nothing as he pulled her up the back steps and then inside. Once they were alone, he locked the door behind them and turned to her.

“That was a salient question she asked back there, don’t you agree?”

“What question?”

“Why Jake?” he replied. “Ann Marie said, ‘Why Jake?” He looked at her sternly. “You have something to tell me, Karen.”

She shook her head. “No I don’t.”

“I think you do,” he replied. “Why would the police target Jake Markum?”

Karen didn’t want to say. She didn’t want to tell Clay that she’d been the one who had told Sheriff Smith the name of Ann Marie’s husband.

“I don’t know,” she lied.

He pulled a chair from his kitchen table and sat down.

“I think you do,” he said, reaching for Karen and pulling her to him. She cried out as she fell across his lap. “Now I think it’s time for you to come clean, Officer Patterson.”

“Clay, no. You don’t understand!” Karen put back a hand to protect herself, but he grabbed it and pinned it to the small of her back.

“I think I understand perfectly well,” he replied. “You told your superiors that Ann Marie and Jake Markum were married.”

“I didn’t meant to tell them!” she cried. “It just happened! OW! OW! OW”

He’d landed three hard swats to her bottom, with all three catching the lower half of Karen’s buttocks where they protruded from the hem of her high-riding jean shorts.

“That’s not why I’m spanking you, Karen!” Clay’s hand descended three more times, landing in exactly the same place.

“Then why –OW! OW! OOOOWWW!” Karen couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Because you didn’t trust me enough to tell me,” he said angrily. “Hiding something like that is the same as lying, Karen. And lying – SMACK! –is – SMACK! –not- SMACK! –tolerated!!”

Karen was wailing now and rocking back and forth in an attempt to escape Clay’s punishing hand. But she was helpless in his grip and somewhere a small part of her knew she deserved this. She should have told him. If she had, he could have warned Jake. Perhaps Jake would have stayed on the compound if he’d known, and Ann Marie wouldn’t be sitting in her house worried sick about her husband.

Finally, Clay stopped and lifted Karen to her feet. She was sobbing piteously, but it was only partially because of the pain from the spanking. She knew she’d put everyone at risk by her refusal to divulge what had happened – Jake, Ann Marie, and Clay, whose judgment would now surely be called into question. She put the back of her hand against her face and sobbed into it as she made an effort to choke out what she wanted to say.

“I need to be alone,” she said.

Clay regarded her for a moment. “Very well,” he said. “But you’re only getting fifteen minutes. There’s an assembly in twenty, and I want you there.”

***

Jarvis was eating when he answered his cell phone. “Hrro”

Karen rolled her eyes.

“Can you put whatever you’re eating down long enough to talk to me?” she asked. “Please?”

“Snappy. Geesh!” he replied. “But make it quick. Those jelly donuts get stale fast.”

Ordinarily that was just the kind of comment that would have made Karen laugh, but she was in no mood to today.

“Jake Markum was picked up today,” she said. “And I wasn’t in the loop. Why?”

“Why weren’t you in the loop or why was he picked up?”

“Both.”

On the other end of the phone she heard Jarvis sigh. “I had nothing to do with it, Karen. When I came in they were booking him. I didn’t even know who he was, only that he’d come from the compound.”

“Did they tell you who he was?” Karen asked.

“No, but I get the feeling you’re going to.”

“Can I trust you?” she asked.

There was a pause. “What the fuck kind of question is that, Karen? You know how fond I am of you.”

“I’m sorry,” Karen said, and meant it. “I’m just having some real trust issues right. Look, Jake Markum is Ann Marie’s husband. They got married and I told Sheriff Smith about it on the phone.”

“Are you sure about this?” he asked.

“Of course.”

More silence. “Damn.”

“Jarvis, what’s wrong?” she asked, suddenly scared.

“Karen, this is turning ugly. Really ugly.”

“Define ‘really ugly.’”

Jarvis lowered his voice. “Alright. Yesterday afternoon, Sheriff Smith told me to go to the evidence room, said he needed a small bag of cocaine in the evidence locker – the one we seized in the Martinez arrest last month – remember?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Karen replied. “That guy who turned out to be wanted for rape.”

“Yeah, that one. So he asks me to get this evidence, which makes no fucking sense, right? I mean, the Martinez case doesn’t go to trial for another six weeks. But I didn’t dare ask him about it because he’s been strung so tight with this close election and the Fales’ on the horn hounding him five times a day.”

Karen’s heart began to pound. “Where is this going, Jarvis?” She already knew the answer, but had to hear it from him, even though she didn’t want to.

“That Markum guy? He was busted for cocaine.”

“SHIT!” Karen said it so loudly that she was sure others outside the house had heard, but she didn’t care.

“Jarvis, this is wrong. You know this is wrong. You know that stuff was planted.”

The line on the other end was silent.

“Jarvis?”

He sighed. “Geesh, Karen. I know, but what the hell am I supposed to do? Maybe they can get him a good lawyer and …”

“Jarvis! He’s innocent! He’s innocent and is being framed for purely political reasons with drugs you got from that locker!”

“You don’t know that!”

“I do know that,” she countered. “And so do you. And you know something else?”

“What?”

“Sheriff Smith doesn’t give a rat’s ass about you. Or Clemmons. Or me. In fact, he told me the last time we talked that if I failed at this case that I wouldn’t be the only one who’d go down. You would, too. And so would Clemmons, because the two of you recommended me.”

Jarvis was quiet for another moment. “Well, fuck,” he said. “Well that’s a fine how-do-you-do given my years on the force.”

“You don’t believe me,” she said.

“No. I do. That self-serving son-of-a-bitch.”

“Self-serving indeed, Jarvis. So if you’re thinking that we’re screwed if his opponent wins, you’re just as screwed if Smith keeps that office. He’s never cared anything about the people who work for him, Jarvis. All he cares about is his own power.”

She paused. “So, will you help me?”

On the other end of the line, Jarvis gave a mirthless laugh. “Yeah, I’ll help you, girlie,” he said. “I don’t have anything else to do right now. My donut’s gone stale.”

***

Karen had never run so fast, and with the adrenaline pumping through her she forgot all about the stinging in her bottom or the fear that gripped her or anything other than her single-minded determination to get to Clay.

She found him standing with some other men and ignored the cold stares of the other Heartfielders as she pushed through the crowd to get to him.

“Drugs,” she said, breathing heavily from her sprint. “That’s what they got him on. Cocaine.”

A murmur went up from the crowd.

“That’s preposterous,” Clay said. “Jake Markum doesn’t even drink.”

“I know,” Karen said. “It was planted on him. And I think we can prove it.”

Ann Marie rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Karen’s neck. “I knew you’d do something to help,” she said, and it was all Karen could do not to cry. But there was not time to be sentimental. She returned her friend’s hug for a brief second and after giving her a look of support she turned to the crowd.

“The sheriff is a corrupt man,” she said. “And Ann Marie’s parents are using a huge campaign donation as a bribe to get him to take down Heartfield. I was supposed to do it myself, but after meeting all of you…well.

“When I told him that nothing was going on out here, he became angry. I think that’s why he took matters into his own hands. And if I know this man like I think I do, he’ll try to use Jake’s arrest as a reason to come out here and search the compound. And God only knows what he’ll plant.”

“Why should we believe you?” Sarah Blye stepped forward, her pretty face contorted with spite. “How do we know you’re not behind all this?”

“If she were behind it, why would she be telling us?” Clay shot Sarah such a withering look that she moved back into the crowd to stand pouting beside her husband.

“Then it’s over,” Adam said. “I mean, as much as I hate to agree with Sarah it does seem that we’ve invited trouble here by letting Karen stay.”

A chorus of mixed voices rumbled through the crowd – some in agreement and some obviously opposed to Adam’s opinion.

“You probably did,” Karen said, “but not because I wanted it. But please don’t worry. I spoke to one of my co-workers who knows what happened. He’ll help us. I know he will.”

Already sirens could be heard in the distance, and a cloud of dust was building on the horizon as blue lights strobed toward the ranch. A nervous chatter mixed with the sound of sirens’ wails. Wives hugged husbands. Some women began to cry, others to pray. It was their worst nightmare come to life – a police raid, members arrested, wives and husbands separated, children taken away, a slow financial death from lawyers’ fees needed to even fight the charges.

Clay raised his hands. “Stay calm, everybody. Just stay calm, alright? If we panic we only give them cause to think we’ve done something wrong. Please, just calm down.”

The crowd responded, but only partially and it was decided that all but a few of the women – Ann Marie, Karen, Leslie, Lynette and Kaye – would go into the assembly hall and leave a small number of men and women to face the police.

Several of the older women wanted Ann Marie to go with them, but she insisted on standing with the others.

Adam and Clay exchanged nervous glances as the vehicles came closer. There were more than just police cars. There were also a couple of unmarked cars, likely from Children and Family Services, and a TV-13 News van.

“Jesus,” Clay said. “All this for us?”

Karen wanted to ask if they had a lawyer, but there had been no time to call one. The closest thing they had was Leslie, who had once worked as a paralegal. As the vehicles pulled into the gate, Sheriff Smith’s car pulled in between two of them. He waited until the news crew had departed its van and was standing there, cameras ready, before he got out of his cruiser.

He was even dressed for the occasion in a brand new cowboy hat and boots. He nodded to the news crew as he walked by, and Karen looked past him to see a smug Melissa Fales emerge from one of the unmarked cars, accompanied by a husband who looked as if he’d rather be any place in the world but where he was at the moment.

“Clay Preston Sanders?” The sheriff reached in his coat and pulled out a piece of paper. “I’ve got a warrant here to search the property, vehicles and grounds of the compound known as Heartfield.”

“On what grounds?” Leslie stepped forward to take the warrant, and Smith looked down at the diminutive woman with surprise. Clearly, a woman questioning the sheriff wouldn’t fit with the image he had already tried to sell of the place.

“Suspicion of illegal drug activities,” he finally said. “Based on an arrest today of one of your members, Jake Markum.”

Officers emerged from their cars and fanned out over the compound and the members of the Heartfield group looked at each other, not sure what to do next. Karen’s eyes scanned the scattering cops, looking for Jarvis. Where the hell was he?

“Good job, Officer Patterson.”

Karen turned around to see Sheriff Smith beaming down at her, a cameraman pointing his lens right at them.