A Second Helping

  “Okay. I’ll talk to the woman.”

  So Rocky walked out to the floor and upon seeing Colleen and Gary Clark and their girls at table seven, she said to herself: Oh hell, no!

  Hiding her anger behind a fake smile, she went over to the table. “Colleen, I hear you insulted one of my servers.”

  Colleen looked up.

  Rocky saw fear flash in Colleen’s eyes before she hid it behind a show of disdain.

  “I was insulted by that hair of hers.”

  “Do you remember the fight we had in eighth grade?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Sure you do, and you’re reminded of it every night when you take that front partial out of your mouth before you go to sleep.”

  The daughters stared.

  Colleen asked huffily, “Are you the replacement server?”

  “No, Miss Witch, I’m the manager.”

  Rocky glanced over at Gary. “Hey, Gare.”

  “Hey Rock. Heard you were back. Good to see you.”

  “You too. Mind if I take care of this?”

  “Nope. Be my guest. She wouldn’t listen to me.”

  “Thanks.”

  And then, in front of God and everybody watching, Rocky reached down, grabbed Colleen by her fancy suit, and snatched her up out of the seat so that Colleen would be sure to hear every word. “Don’t you ever insult one of my employees again.”

  “Get your hands off me before I sue you!”

  Rocky tossed Colleen back into the seat and before she could threaten Rocky again, Rocky picked up a pitcher of ice water from the nearest table and slowly poured the freezing cold contents over Colleen’s head.

  She screamed.

  Tiffany Adele cried, “Dad, do something!”

  He shrugged. “Your mother’s on her own.”

  Leah tried very hard not to let anyone see how much this pleased her.

  Sputtering, Colleen jumped to her feet, but everyone noticed that she didn’t throw a punch. They guessed Miss Witch knew better, having already lost two teeth to Rocky the last time they came to blows.

  “I will sue you!”

  “Go for it.” Rocky said to her before turning her back on Colleen so she could speak to Gary. “You and your girls are welcome to come back anytime. Not her, so get her out of here if you would.”

  “Got it. Thanks, Rock.”

  “No problem.”

  And Rocky walked away.

  Thanks to the good folks of Henry Adams, Ray had been able to buy a car today with the money he’d been making. The Taurus wasn’t new by any means but it rolled and it was his—well, Otis Miller’s. Having wheels gave him options and a quick way out of town, so he was ready to make his move. He was tired of playing handyman and everything that went with it. Once he got his payoff he’d head for California, and Henry Adams could kiss his ass.

  All that was left to do was getting Crystal alone. He figured his best bet would be to offer to drive her home and then go from there. He knew her work schedule and that she often walked to and from home. Another plus was that she and the rest of the hicks trusted him.

  As he drove down the newly paved but deserted Main Street on his way back to the Dog, he spotted Crystal walking toward him. She was alone.

  Crystal was crying and stomping mad as she walked down Main Street toward home. She knew her hair needed to be done, and she was planning to tell Ms. Bernadine to help her get it fixed, but that woman back there didn’t know her! And then to talk to her like she was a piece of gum on the bottom of her shoe! She was so mad she could hardly see.

  “Hey, Crystal. You okay?”

  She wiped at the tears running down her face and looked over to see Mr. Otis in a car that had slowed beside her. “No.” He’d never been anything but polite to her, unlike that Clark heifer.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Just got into an argument with a woman at the Dog. I’ll be okay.”

  “You don’t look like it. Hop in and I’ll take you home.”

  Walking over, she pulled open the door and got in.

  Over at the Power Plant, Bernadine looked through the mail Trent had just brought in from his daily afternoon run to the Franklin post office. Most of the envelopes looked to be town-related, some of it addressed to the parade company, but there was one addressed to her that was handwritten. Seeing the return address was a J. Hurley in Cleveland, Ohio, she opened it and took out the folded lined paper inside and read:

  Dear Ms. Brown.

  You don’t know me, but my name is Jean Hurley and I’m Nikki Taylor’s sister and Crystal’s aunt. The prison gave me your name and address because of my being worried about you being contacted by Crystal’s daddy, Ray. I hear he’s been sniffing around trying to find you because he heard you had a lot of money. He’s a no good lowlife. If he shows up call the police. I’m sending you his picture so that you’ll know what he looks like.

  Best Wishes, Jean.

  P.S. Thanks for what you’re doing for my niece and for burying Nikki. I didn’t have the money.

  Bernadine looked in the bottom of the envelope and found the picture. It showed a smiling, young, and healthy Nikki. She was wearing a slinky dress and had a party hat on her head that made Bernadine think the pic had been taken at a New Year’s Eve party. Crystal’s resemblance to her mother was well shown. Bernadine then turned her attention to the man with his arm around Nikki’s waist and her heart stopped. “Oh my lord,” she whispered. Now she knew why she thought Otis Miller looked so familiar. As with all children, Crystal favored her mother and her father, and it was her face that Bernadine had seen in his. Terrified, she grabbed her phone, hit Crystal on her speed dial, and while she waited for the call to go through, she yelled for Trent and Lily.

  “Hey, Mr. Otis, you missed the turnoff,” Crystal said, a bit confused. “My house is back there.”

  “I know.”

  “Are you going to turn around?”

  “Nope.”

  Crystal started to get anxious but tried to stay cool. “Then let me out. I’ll walk.”

  “Nope.”

  “Let me out! Now!”

  He didn’t respond.

  She opened her purse to get her ringing phone, but he snatched it away and tossed it in the backseat.

  Then she was scared. “Where are you taking me?”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Let me out!” She fumbled with the handle on the door, attempting to get it to open, but the lock controls were on his door.

  He looked her way and smiled. “You might as well as just chill. You ain’t going nowhere.”

  Crystal grabbed the steering wheel. The car swerved. He cursed and backhanded her so hard she fell back against the seat and saw stars.

  He yelled, “Do that again and I’ll kick your ass! You hear me?”

  He righted the car and after giving her a frigid look, kept driving.

  A terrified Crystal put her hand over her mouth and sobbed silently.

  Bernadine was also terrified. Crystal wasn’t answering her phone. According to Rocky, Crystal had left the Dog around four o’clock, but it was now seven and no one had seen her. Otis Miller aka Ray Chambers had taken the day off to see about a car he wanted to buy down in Hays but was supposed to be back in time to start his evening shift at five. No one had seen him either. She’d notified Sheriff Dalton and he in turn notified law enforcement in the surrounding areas, but officially they couldn’t classify Crystal as a missing person until forty-eight hours had passed.

  It was maddening.

  But the residents of Henry Adams were too worried to wait for the police to officially get involved. They were all fairly certain Crystal hadn’t taken off on her own, so everyone who was able was out searching the roads, the fields, abandoned farms and silos, and any other place they could think of where Ray Chambers might have gone to ground.

  Bernadine drove around too. It was getting dark and her fears were rising. Where h
ad he taken her and for what purpose? Sheriff Dalton kept reminding them that there was no concrete evidence that Ray had taken Crystal—after all, Crys had tried to run away before—but Bernadine knew in her gut that he had her, and she was going to move heaven and earth if need be to get her daughter back home.

  It was past midnight when her BlackBerry sounded. The caller ID identified the caller as Crystal and Bernadine quickly answered with equal parts worry and relief.

  “Hey honey. Where are you?” Bernadine could see concern on the faces of the crowd of people in her office.

  “I can’t tell you,” Crystal responded in a voice that sounded like she was crying.

  Bernadine’s heart cried in response. “Are you hurt?”

  “No. He says if you bring him a hundred grand, he’ll let me go.”

  “Can I talk to him please.”

  “He just wants me to talk.”

  “Okay. Getting the money is not a problem, but I need to know where to take it.”

  The phone on Crys’s end sounded as if it went to mute.

  Her voice came back on a few minutes later. “He says he’ll call you back, and that if you call the FBI or anybody like that, he’s going to kill me.”

  Bernadine shivered. “Okay, I won’t call the FBI. Tell him I’ll get the money together and he can let me know where he wants me to bring it.”

  “Okay, Ms. Bernadine.”

  “Stay strong, sweetheart. I’ll get you back home as soon—”

  The line went dead.

  Bernadine took in a deep breath and after fighting off her tears, she let her anger have its head and made another call.

  Lily asked, “Are you calling a bank?”

  “No. The FBI. Ray Chambers can kiss my behind. A hundred grand. Lowlife doesn’t have a clue how much she’s worth to me.”

  Mal nodded. “That’s my girl.”

  The next morning dawned gray and humid. The Weather Channel was predicting severe storms for later in the day, but Bernadine didn’t pay the announcer much mind. She clicked off the flat screen and focused her attention on the FBI agents setting up their equipment in her office.

  Harris, the female agent, said, “If your daughter calls again before the phone company calls back with the location of her last transmission, we need you to keep her talking for as long as you can.”

  Bernadine nodded. She felt like a member of the walking dead. She was so worried about Crystal that sleeping had been out of the question. She and the rest of her extended family had been up all night waiting for Crystal to call again.

  The agents had shown up about two hours ago. They reassured her that they’d find Crystal and she prayed they’d be able to keep their word. Rocky and Siz had sent over enough food to feed the army waiting for word, but no one but the agents seemed to have much of an appetite. Marie had had Jack cancel school. The kids were all at the rec center under the watchful eye of Tamar, Bing, and Clay, and the three were armed.

  Crystal didn’t call again until noon; by then the phone company had pinpointed the location of her first call, but when the team of agents had descended on the motel in a strip mall off Highway 183 south of Hays, the room was empty.

  “How are you, baby?” Bernadine asked, trying not to let the worry seep into her voice. “Tell him I have the money.”

  A note from Agent Harris was slipped to her, and it read, “She’s on different phone. Keep her talking.”

  Bernadine nodded at the agent. “Did you hear me? I have the money.”

  Ray was suddenly on the line. “I hear you. Bring the money to the Fort Larned Historical Site. Make sure you come by yourself and be here in two hours. I’d hate for you to take Crystal home in pieces just because you were late.”

  And the call ended.

  She looked over at the agents and they shook their heads. “The new phone threw us off. It’s one of those pay-as-you-go kind. Harder to trace. Her phone, the one she used the first time, is apparently turned off.”

  “So now what?”

  “We send you to the meet and hope he’s there.”

  So she made some calls. A courier with the money would be arriving via helicopter within the hour, but twenty minutes later, Bernadine’s pilot, Katie Skye, called.

  “Ms. Brown, we have a real problem. The courier can’t get here because of the storm, and we can’t fly out to pick him up for the same reason.”

  Mal, who had been monitoring the weather down near the drop area with his laptop, called out with alarm. “A tornado is moving through the Fort Larned area, right now!”

  Gasps were heard and Bernadine’s hand went to her mouth. She thought she might be sick. There was no way to get to Crystal now. She could only imagine how scared her daughter must be, and with storm on top of them, there was a possibility that Bernadine might never see her alive again. She ended the call to Katie without saying good-bye and prayed.

  CHAPTER 23

  Crystal was sitting in the car with the man she knew as Otis Miler and she hated him now. Her face was achy and swollen from the backhand he’d given her yesterday and she was hungry. “I need to eat.”

  “You need to shut the hell up. She’ll feed you after she gives me the money, and I’m gone.” Ray was nervous. He’d never done anything like this before. All kinds of things could go wrong before he got the money.

  “You’re gonna go to jail. The people in town gave you a job and everything and this is how you pay everybody back?”

  “I told you to shut up!” He didn’t need to hear no morality speeches.

  The anger in his voice made Crys think twice about saying anything more. She focused instead on the sky. It was getting dark, real dark, and leaves were blowing around. She and Otis were sitting on the side of the road near the entrance to Fort Larned. Cars were passing by but they were all moving fast as if they were trying to get away from something. “There’s a big storm coming. That’s a wall cloud and wall clouds bring tornadoes.”

  “What are you, the Weather Channel?” he asked sarcastically.

  “No, but I’ve lived here long enough to know that when the sky looks like that,” and she pointed to the ominous green hue, “it’s time to go to the basement.”

  “Yeah right.”

  But she noticed he was starting to glance up at the sky now.

  “We need to get out and take shelter,” she told him excitedly. “Maybe they have one inside.”

  The wind was whipping now. Cloud to ground lightning flashed in and out of the black clouds and the responding thunder boomed angrily. The area around them was so dark the passing cars now had on their lights.

  Knowing all hell was about to break loose, she frantically pulled on her door handle. “Open the door, fool! You want us to die!”

  The car was beginning to rock from the rising force of the wind. Airborne debris was swirling around like a scene from The Wizard of Oz.

  She screamed at him, “Open the damn door!”

  An airborne trash can slammed into the hood and then flew on. They both flinched at the impact and the now alarmed Ray hit the switch on the lock. Crystal was out in a flash. The wind was so strong it stole her breath and tried to force her to her knees, but she knew she had to get to the ditch behind the car. It was her only hope. She bent low and fought with each step. Her ears began to pop from the change in pressure. Stuff was blowing around her, smacking her in the face and body with dirt and twigs and gravel from the road’s shoulder. Each step felt like it was taking her a million years but she kept going. The thunder and lightning strikes were so loud and so close, she could feel the ground shake. Rain was now coming down so hard it was horizontal, making it next to impossible to see. The wind was screaming and the force of it knocked her down. On her knees, she crawled and cried. She couldn’t see the ditch, Ray, or anything else. Her entire world was owned by the raging storm. Suddenly she felt herself roll into a depression in the ground. Lying flat, she placed her hands over her head, closed her eyes, and prayed not to die.


  The howl intensified until the wind blowing over sounded like a train. Suddenly she felt something hit her back, hard. It hurt so bad, she screamed, but the wind was louder. She wanted the pain to stop but instead it got worse, and then everything went black.

  When Crystal opened her eyes, she felt really sleepy, but then she saw Ms. Bernadine standing beside her and she had tears in her eyes. Crystal wondered if she was dead and seeing her foster mother from heaven. “Am I dead?”

  “No, baby, you’re in the Hays hospital.”

  “What happened?”

  “You were almost a tornado snack.”

  Crys grinned, or at least she thought she did. She was so tired she could barely keep her eyes open. “Am I okay?”

  “You have some broken bones and some bumps and bruises, but looks like you’re going to be okay.”

  She nodded.

  “Go on back to sleep. I’ll be here the next time you wake up.”

  “Okay,” Crys murmured. She felt Ms. Bernadine kiss her cheek and she drifted back into the void.

  Tears in her eyes, Bernadine stepped outside the room and told the assembled crowd of Henry Adams residents, “She’s awake.”

  People clapped, cried, and everyone said thanks to the Lord for this much-needed blessing.

  Bernadine hurried off to alert the nurses. What she hadn’t told Crystal was that she’d been in coma for the past three days and everyone had been worried sick. Her injuries had been caused by the car rolling over on her. She had a broken collarbone and a broken right arm. She’d also sustained a major concussion, and the nurses had to shave her head in order for the doctor to stitch up the gash that had caused it. So it was finally good-bye to the gold weave, but Bernadine took no joy in it because of how it had come about.

  Mal had been with her every moment of every day while she sat at Crystal’s bedside. She knew that had it been necessary she would have been able to handle the vigil alone, but having him with her made the long wait more bearable.