Just Down the Road (34 page)

The mud made the road slippery. Noah followed tracks that had to have been made since the rain stopped. Whoever drove the van had driven onto the ranch after midnight. The tracks were fresh.

Halfway between the gate and the house, he saw three men running for the van. Noah gunned his engine. One big guy slipped in the mud and had to run to jump in before the van shot away from the house and toward Noah.

Noah swerved into the grass, taking out a few fence posts as the van drove past him, slinging mud in waves on both sides.

He grabbed his cell and speed-dialed his sister.

She answered on the first ring. “Noah?” Though it had to be near four o’clock in the morning, his sister didn’t sound asleep.

“Turner’s place, fast,” was all Noah had time to say before he pulled up in front of the farmhouse, dropped his phone, and took off in a dead run toward the body on the porch.

T
HE NIGHT AIR AROUND HIM COOLED AS IF WINTER
rushed in on snowy feet. Tinch could feel his heart slowing, taking a few last moments to remember what he’d never see, never feel, never smell again. Final snapshots to treasure but never share.

He relaxed, knowing he was leaving the only home he’d ever known. He’d learned to walk holding on to the railings of this porch, and now he’d die with his blood soaking into the tiny cracks between the wood.

It was time for him to see Lori Anne again.

Sweet Lori Anne, who’d made him smile every day they’d been together. He’d take her hand and they’d walk for a while with no direction in mind and no sense of time. He’d always loved the feel of her hand in his. Since they’d been kids she’d needed his strength. At one point in her dying days at the hospital, he’d thought if he held on tight enough she wouldn’t pass. Best friends, first loves were
supposed to live long lives together. Only, she’d left him. She’d died.

When she passed, he knew that all the reason, all the joy had dropped out of his life as well. She’d gone to heaven and he’d been left behind in hell.

But now, he was almost with her. He could almost feel her hand in his.

He’d tell her about Jamie. She’d like hearing everything the boy said. He’d tell her how the kid packed his pockets with Cheerios because the horses liked oats, and how the boy got all excited to hear that they’d swim with tadpoles in the spring.

The image of watching Jamie sleep passed through his thoughts. He could see Addison on the other side of the bed. A guardian angel in his flannel shirt. She thought she was so strong, so sure of herself, yet at almost thirty she still hadn’t stood up to her father.

She needed him too, and a part of him needed her more than he’d ever needed anyone. Like steel sharpens against stone, he needed her to challenge him, to argue with him, to never accept anything from him but his best.

The chill of raw pain shook through Tinch’s body along with a bottomless sadness. He couldn’t leave the boy. He couldn’t. Lori Anne was at peace, he felt it, but Jamie needed him and Tinch needed Addison because she’d take all the love he had left to give.

Tinch took another bolt of pain, reminding him he was still alive. Moving his hand a few inches, he grabbed the railing of the porch and gripped so hard he was surprised the wood didn’t splinter in his hand.

“Hold on,” he whispered. “I have to hold on. I’m not going anywhere. I can’t.”

T
URNER
R
ANCH

H
IS BRIGHT HEADLIGHTS FLASHED ACROSS THE FRONT
porch. For a moment all Noah saw was blood, and then he made out what looked like a body tied to one of the poles.

Noah was out of the truck and running.

He’d grown up on a ranch, knocked around at rodeos for enough years to see cowboys twisted and bloody, but nothing prepared him for what he saw on the porch. Tinch Turner had been beaten so badly, Noah almost didn’t recognize him. Blood was dripping from his mouth and head, but it seemed to be pouring in a steady stream from his side.

Noah pulled a knife from his pocket and cut the rope, then had to hold Tinch to keep him from falling. Slowly and as carefully as he could, he lowered the man to the boards of the porch.

“Tinch!” Noah turned the rancher’s face toward him. “Turner, answer me!”

He shoved some of the blood away, trying to see any sign of life, and pressed his fingers along the cut on the side of Tinch’s head.

Tinch jerked an inch away, and Noah almost laughed with relief.

Noah stood and ran into the house. If he didn’t slow the bleeding, Tinch wouldn’t be alive long.

The place looked like a tornado had hit. Broken dishes, slit leather furniture. Noah grabbed a blanket at the bottom of the stairs and another from the couch. He gathered all the kitchen towels he saw and headed back to the porch.

Sliding to his knees on the blood, Noah began to work. All he’d had in the way of emergency training was a course one summer when he’d volunteered with the fire department, but he put everything he’d learned to use.

Tinch was breathing and still bleeding. All Noah had to do was keep the first one going and try to stop the second.

It seemed like hours, but it must have been only a few minutes when first a police car, then a little sports car both came flying through the gate toward him. The deputy shouted for backup as he ran from his cruiser, but Dr. Spencer and a nurse rushed toward the porch, their arms loaded down with supplies.

Noah stood and stepped back as the two women moved in. For a moment, he just stared at his hands covered in blood.

“He’s still alive,” the doctor announced. “Let’s get him stable enough to transport.”

Noah stared as the two women worked. The doctor might be young, but she seemed to know exactly what to do.

“Since I don’t see an exit wound,” she added, “the bullet must still be in him.” She worked quickly, like a fighter determined to win the round.

The deputy circled the yard, answering questions on his cell phone, or rather trying to answer questions. Finally, he looked at Noah. “Did you see who did this?”

“Three guys, I think,” Noah answered, without taking his eyes off Tinch. “Two were big men dressed in dark shirts and pants. The third was smaller.” All he’d seen was a flash of the men running for the van. “They’re driving a gray van.”

“Make and model?” the deputy shouted.

“I don’t know.”

“License plate?”

Noah shook his head. He’d walked into a crime and hadn’t noticed the basics.

The doctor glanced up from her work to Noah and seemed to sense his panic. “You saved his life. If you hadn’t gotten here first, he would have already been dead by the time we arrived.”

Noah couldn’t speak. He just nodded and moved out of the way. Two more cars pulled up, his sister’s jeep and a highway patrolman’s cruiser.

Thirty seconds later his sister stepped onto the porch, with the deputy filling her in with details as if he considered himself a newscaster. While she let the deputy finish, she put her arm around Noah’s waist. She might be the county sheriff, but she was his big sister first. “You all right?” she finally whispered when the report was over.

Noah nodded.

“I need to ask you a few questions. What did you see? Who did you see? Remember every detail you can.”

Noah pulled himself together, knowing exactly what he had to do. “I was just out driving. When I passed his place, I heard a shot. No, more like a blast. I turned around and decided to head in. When I was almost to the house, a gray van ran me off the road. Then I was here trying to help Tinch.” Noah had a feeling he’d be asked the same questions again and again, but he doubted he’d remember more.

She smiled at him, but her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Did you see the boy?”

Noah shook his head, remembering the kid Tinch had with him at the vet’s place in Bailee.

The doctor broke into their conversation. “The boy’s
safe. He called me from Tinch’s cell and told me there had been shots. I told him to stay where he was until he knew it was safe.” She pointed with her head toward the Rogers farm. “The phone went dead, but I’m thinking he’s probably at my place.”

“I’ll check on him,” Alex offered.

An ounce of worry faded from the doctor’s eyes. “Right now we’ve got to get Tinch to the hospital. We’ll have him ready to go in three minutes. He’ll need to lie flat and we don’t have time to wait for an ambulance. Noah, can you drive him in the back of your pickup? It’ll be open to the air, but probably less painful on him than trying to fold him into a car.”

Noah nodded, suddenly relieved to have something to do. “I’ll grab a mattress and more blankets.”

By the time they loaded Tinch, another highway patrol arrived and the place was starting to look like what it was, a crime scene. One of the men noticed glass and chips of paint in the yard where the van must have parked. Alex lowered her phone as she looked at a broken taillight in the dirt. Then she put the phone to her ear and announced, “The men left here in a gray van that was sprayed with a shotgun. Taillights and windows may be out.”

“And it’s leaking fuel,” the deputy said, touching a small pool of dark liquid in the dirt. “These guys aren’t going far tonight.”

Alex followed Noah to the driver’s side of his truck as one of the patrolmen helped Addison and Georgia in on either side of Tinch. “Get him there fast,” Alex shouted. “I’m going after the boy—make sure he’s safe.”

Noah nodded and opened his door. He was in, with the engine started, when he noticed Jamie hiding in the floorboard of the passenger seat. Before Noah could call back his sister, he felt a small hand tug on his pant leg.

“I’m going too,” the boy whispered. “Don’t tell or they’ll try to stop me. I got to go with Tinch, or the men will come back and kill me.”

Noah had no idea what was going on, but he threw the
truck in gear without a word. If someone was after the boy, he’d probably be safer right where he was than anywhere, and he could waste no time in making a decision. Tinch’s life depended on it. He’d call his sister as soon as he could. Right now he had to drive.

One of the deputies led the way toward town as Noah pulled a Colt from the glove compartment. With both Tinch and the kid traveling with him, if anyone stopped Noah, they’d be facing a gun.

They were out on the main road with Dr. Spencer and Nurse Veasey riding in the back with Tinch before Noah glanced down at the kid again.

Big eyes stared up at him. “Is my uncle still alive?”

“He’s alive and we’re doing all we can to keep it that way. Dr. Spencer will pull him through this. She’s a good doctor.”

The tiny boy didn’t look like he had shoulders big enough to take all the weight that seemed to be resting on them. “If he dies, it’s all my fault.”

“No …”

“Yes it is.” Jamie gulped down tears. “I know where my mother hid what those men are looking for. It’s a black bag just like the pirates hid money in on Treasure Island. I saw it deep down between the boards when I squeezed into the space to hide. I’m the reason they came to the ranch. My momma showed me how to pull a board off this place under the table at our trailer. She said I could hide there if anyone came asking questions. When I heard the men banging on the door, I wiggled down so low in that space they wouldn’t have seen me even if they’d pulled the board loose.”

“What’s in the bag?”

“I don’t know, but she said it might be our way out.”

“Out of what?” Noah asked.

Little shoulders shrugged. “I don’t know. For as long as I can remember, my momma said when she was real sick that she wanted out. She told me never, never to tell anyone about the bag so she’d have her way out when she needed it.”

Noah watched the road as he asked calmly, “Where’s the bag now, Jamie?”

“I left it when the sheriff took me. She told me my momma was dead, so I didn’t think she’d need the way out anymore.”

“You did right,” Noah said, hoping to make the boy feel better. “The men hurt your uncle because they are bad men, not because of anything you did. I want you to know that, and I think your uncle would want you to understand that too.”