Husband and Wives (12 page)

‘Oh, yes! I’d like that.’

I smiled at her. ‘Good. Sarie, I ran some preliminary tests, and talked to both girls, and I can see no signs of mental retardation. Who told you they were retarded?’

‘Thomas,’ she said.

‘Your husband?’ I asked for clarification.

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘Did he take them to a doctor?’

‘Oh, no, ma’am. Thomas never takes them nowhere, and we don’t believe in doctors.’

‘But you’re here,’ I said.

That stopped her for a moment. ‘Well, yes’m. I just don’t think they’re retarded. They’re good girls.’

This wasn’t the first time I’d heard her say that – that her daughters weren’t retarded because they were good girls. So I said, ‘Sarie, being retarded doesn’t mean a child is bad. It just means they’re slower at learning, or may not be able to learn, and other things. It doesn’t mean the child is bad.’

She was shaking her head before I’d finished. ‘Oh yes’m, it does. Thomas told me. Being retarded is a sign of the Devil!’

‘Why does Thomas think your girls are retarded?’ I finally asked.

‘Thomas said Margaret was after she started talking. She couldn’t say her ‘s’s or her ‘t’s too well, and he said that was a sign of the Devil and that she was mentally retarded.’

‘I didn’t notice any speech difficulty,’ I said.

‘Oh, she stopped doing that when she was about four, and when I showed Thomas, he just said it was the Devil’s work making us think she was normal.’ Tears formed in her eyes. ‘My girls are good girls, Doctor.’

‘Yes, Sarie. They are good girls. Has anyone been working with them on learning how to read or write?’ I asked.

‘Yes’m, I have. But not all the time. It’s hard work running a farm and Thomas needs me to help him a lot. The girls spend a lot of their days with Jane Marie.’

My first thought was how awful for them. My second was: I wonder what Jane Marie is doing to sabotage her sisters? Because there was no doubt in my mind that she was doing something.

‘Listen to me, Sarie. There is nothing wrong with Margaret or Melinda. Margaret should be in school – she’s behind in everything she should have been learning for the last two years—’

‘Two years?’ Sarie said, her voice high.

‘Yes. Here in Prophesy County they take children as young as four for pre-K, then kindergarten at five. At six, she should be in first grade.’

Sarie shook her head. ‘I don’t know a lot about schooling. I was taught at home by my mama, then I married Thomas when I turned eighteen. So I guess I haven’t been doing what I should be doing.’ Her eyes welled up again. ‘But I don’t think Thomas will let me send ’em to school. He says boys need schooling, but girls only need to do what their mamas do. They just need to watch me.’

My insides were boiling. I couldn’t believe this nineteenth-century bullshit! These two precious little girls were being deprived of an education and called retarded just because they weren’t boys. I was trying to think of something concrete I could get Milt to charge Thomas Whitman with so he could be arrested and rot in jail. Then I realized I needed to calm down. I would do Sarie and her daughters no good thinking like this.

‘Sarie, there are laws about children getting proper schooling. It’s OK to home-school children if you follow the state guidelines and if they’re tested by the state every few years to see that they’re on task. Otherwise, they need to go to an accredited school. Your best bet would be the local public school for both girls. I think we could get Melinda in the pre-k. She’s a little behind in language. And I’d suggest Margaret go into kindergarten. I would be happy to go with you to speak to Mr Whitman about this and let him know that the girls
must
be in school.’

Again, Sarie was shaking her head before I stopped talking. ‘Thomas’ll just say that me or Jane Marie should home-school ’em.’

‘I’m afraid neither of you would be eligible for that. You’d have to pass a test on knowledge and other things.’ (I wasn’t sure about this, but at this point I didn’t care. Neither she nor Jane Marie were competent to teach these girls.) ‘I’ll tell Thomas that I don’t want to have to go to children’s services, but if he doesn’t enroll these children by the end of the week, I will. Do you think he wants the girls taken into custody?’

Sarie began to cry outright. ‘Oh, no! Of course he don’t! Oh, please, Doctor, don’t do that!’

I touched her hand. ‘I don’t want to, Sarie. And I’ll do everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen. Why don’t I follow you home and the two of us talk to Thomas?’

‘You know what time it is?’ Sarie asked, wiping her eyes with a tissue from the box on the table next to her.

‘A little after four,’ I said.

‘We gotta wait for Thomas. He’s gonna pick us back up around six o’clock,’ she said.

I smiled. ‘Were you planning on having dinner here or in town?’

Sarie shook her head. ‘Oh no, ma’am. I don’t have any money. Thomas had to go back to the farm and do some work. He said if I was set on coming here, I could just wait until he finished what he was doing and he’d come pick us up.’

My whole body clinched. I so wanted to send Thomas Whitman back to the century where he belonged. I was thinking a swift kick in the ass might do the trick.

‘I’ll drive you to the farm, Sarie. And we can have that chat with Thomas when we get there.’ Maybe, I thought, just maybe, I’ll cool down by then. But I kind of doubted it.

Milt Kovak – Thursday

I called Charlie Smith, police chief of Longbranch, when I got back to the office. Charlie was a good ol’ boy, late of Oklahoma City, now here for about a year. We’d worked a couple of cases together and I’d say we’ve become close to being friends.

When he answered his direct line with a ‘Hello,’ I said, ‘Hey, Charlie, it’s me, Milt.’

And he said, ‘Well, hey, Milt, how they hanging?’

And we jawed a little like that for a few minutes, then I asked him, ‘You ever heard of a guy named Michael McKinsey?’

‘Big ol’ boy, blond Marine cut, newish Dodge Ram?’

‘That’s the guy,’ I said.

‘Oh, yeah. Real handy with his fists. Works at the refinery on Highway Five, on the way to Tulsa?’

‘Yeah, I know the one.’

‘Been called on him a couple of times. Likes to beat up his underlings when they don’t do what he says.’ Charlie sighed. ‘Wish I could get away with that.’

‘He gets away with it?’

‘Nobody ever wants to press charges. I talked to the powers that be over there and they say they’ll keep an eye on him, but from what I understand he’s got the most productive team on any shift. They don’t wanna mess with a good thing, know what I mean?’

‘Yeah, I hear you. Reason I’m calling, I’m wondering if you ever got a domestic call on him?’

‘Domestic? Hum. Let me see. What’s the address?’ he asked.

I rattled it off to him.

‘Don’t see anything. But it makes sense. Feels he can rough up people who work under him, wouldn’t be a stretch to think he’d be a wife-beater. You get a call?’

‘Naw. I went over there . . .’ Now did I tell Charlie we had plural families in our midst? Or not? I finally said, ‘I saw his wife. She’d had her face slapped real recent and had bruises on her.’

‘Maybe I should have a patrol car cruise by there every once in a while.’

‘Couldn’t hurt. But he’s got a lot of land around him, and his wife doesn’t seem like the screaming type. Might be hard to know what’s going on inside from the street.’

‘Don’t worry, Milt,’ Charlie said. ‘I learned some interesting techniques while on the mean streets of OK City. I’ve passed ’em on to some of my boys.’

‘The mean streets of OK City?’ I repeated and laughed. ‘Whatever.’

‘Hey, it sounded good for a minute there,’ Charlie said and hung up.

I was still chuckling about the mean streets of OK City when Holly Humphries came in.

‘Sheriff?’ she said, leaning on the doorjamb.

‘Yeah, Holly?’ I said.

‘You have some visitors. Pastor Earl Mayhew and his son.’

Hum. Now this was interesting. ‘Send ’em on back, Holly, and thank you.’

‘You’re welcome, Sheriff.’

In a minute, Holly was back ushering the two Mayhews into my office. Now see? Gladys never would have done that. She’d just point in the general direction and hope for the best. Well, actually, no, she wouldn’t hope for the best. She’d point ’em in the general direction and forget about it.

I stood up as they came in and Holly said, ‘Can I get anybody anything to drink?’

Pastor Mayhew, or whatever they called him, and I shook our heads, but Jr said, ‘Could I have a Dr Pepper, please?’

Holly smiled. ‘Sure. Be right back.’

I shook hands with Pastor Mayhew, sr. He introduced his son, and I shook hands with him too. By the time that was finished, Holly was back with the Dr Pepper and I asked her to shut the door on her way out. Then we all sat down. Sometimes it seems to take a while to be civilized.

‘What can I do for you, Pastor Mayhew?’ I asked.

‘Please, it’s not Pastor. Just call me Brother Earl.’

‘OK, fine, Brother Earl. What can I do for you?’

He put a hand on his son’s shoulder. ‘My daughter, Naomi Ruth? She’s married to David Bollinger?’

‘Yes, sir. I met them and the rest of the family earlier.’

‘Naomi Ruth tells me she mentioned to you that Buddy here – he’s Christened Earl Vernon Mayhew Jr, but we just call him Buddy – that he had seemed overly interested in Sister Mary Hudson, and we just came here to straighten all that out.’

‘I see,’ I said. Then I looked right at Buddy and he spilled a little of the Dr Pepper he’d just put to his mouth. ‘Were you overly interested in Sister Mary Hudson?’ I asked.

Some of the Dr Pepper dribbled down his chin as he drew the bottle back. ‘Oh, no, sir,’ he said. ‘Not at all.’

‘You were seen peeking in the windows of the kindergarten class she taught at the church,’ I said.

‘Ah . . .’ He looked at his father.

‘Go ahead, boy,’ Brother Earl said. ‘Tell him what you were doing and why!’

Buddy took a deep breath and blurted out the following: ‘I was suspicious that some of the teenagers were picking on the little kids and I looked in the window of the kindergarten class to make sure they weren’t, just like I checked all the little kid classes, and when I realized they weren’t there and I saw Sister Mary all by herself I was worried those boys might come in and bother her so I just watched to make sure they didn’t.’ And then he took another breath. And yes, it sounded rehearsed.

‘Um hum,’ I said. I leaned back in my chair, elbows on the arms of the chair, and steepled my fingers. That wasn’t rehearsed, but it looked damned impressive. ‘Well now, son, I thank you for coming in.’ I stood up and reached a hand out to Brother Earl. We shook, then I shook Jr’s hand. ‘Boy, you work or what?’

‘Buddy is my second-in-command at the church,’ Brother Earl said. ‘I’m training him to take my place in a few years.’

‘Well, ain’t that nice,’ I said. ‘I may have to come up y’all’s way a couple more times, but I’ll try my darnedest not to be intrusive,’ I said, ushering them out the door.

They were both smiling when they left. I didn’t intend for them to keep those smiles. Earl Jr was lying through his teeth and Daddy Earl knew it, had even probably told the boy what to say. This whole thing was turning out to be more fun than I ever thought it was gonna be.

Jean Mcdonnell – Thursday

I drove Sarie Whitman and her girls home in my car. She wasn’t the world’s greatest conversationalist. As a matter of fact, she was quite poor at that particular art. My initial conversational gambits, such as, ‘So, Sarie, what do you do for fun?’ and ‘How do you like living in this area?’ and ‘It’s fairly warm for October!’ were met with one- or two-word answers. Finally she started a conversation of her own.

‘Dr McDonnell, how come you wear them braces and walk with them crutches?’

‘I had polio as a child,’ I told her.

‘What’s that?’ she asked.

So I told her about the plague of polio that had long since been eradicated, and about all the children it had taken for so long. She shuddered thinking about it. ‘That’s just horrible,’ she said.

‘I was one of the lucky ones,’ I told her.

‘But you can’t hardly walk!’ she said.

I laughed. I knew she wasn’t being mean. She was just being earnestly ignorant. ‘Actually I walk quite well,’ I said. ‘The only time in my life I haven’t been able to get around on my own was in the last couple of months of my pregnancy with my son. I had to use a wheelchair because my balance was off.’

Sarie laughed. ‘I understand that! I coulda used a wheelchair with both my girls. I fell down a lot!’

I pulled into the driveway of the farm and Sarie quieted down. I could see Thomas Whitman on his tractor, turning over a field a few hundred yards to the left of us. I pulled the car into the yard and we all piled out. Jane Marie came out of the house and stood on the porch, looking at us. She wore the same dark dress she’d worn before, and her lusterless hair still hung in strings down her back. She didn’t say anything, and the two little girls certainly didn’t run to her with open arms.

Thomas appeared to see us, pulled up the equipment on the back of the tractor, and drove the tractor toward us.

I asked Sarie, ‘Can Jane Marie take the girls inside?’

Sarie was chewing her lips. Finally she said, ‘Girls, go with Jane Marie.’

The girls didn’t hesitate, but headed up to the porch. Jane Marie didn’t smile at them, but she did touch them both gently on their heads and ushered them inside.

Thomas Whitman stopped the tractor and climbed down. ‘Thought you was gonna wait for me in town?’ he said to Sarie.

‘The doctor wanted to talk to you anyway, Thomas, so she drove us home.’

Not looking at me, he said, ‘Do I owe her money?’

‘For driving us?’ she asked.

He laughed and came closer, taking her hand. ‘No, silly. For seeing you and the girls.’

‘No,’ I said. ‘This was on the county.’

The smile left his face. Again, to his wife, he said, ‘Tell her we don’t take charity, Sarie.’

She turned to look at me, her mouth open to speak. I interrupted. ‘This isn’t charity, Mr Whitman. It’s part of the school board’s new policy about enrolling children in school,’ I said, making it up as I went along. ‘When I realized neither girl was in school, I felt it was my responsibility to see to it that they were set up to enter. I know Melinda’s a little young, but she would surely benefit from pre-K, and Margaret is way overdue for schooling. She’s a bright young girl who needs to be in a proper setting to reach her potential.’