The Shack series

Chapter 11

She grinned up at me. "That'd be so cool."

"It's more work than you think, but I think you can do it. As much of a pain in the a*s as you are, I know you work hard."

She sat silently for almost a half-hour before I handed her my cell phone. "Call Sheree and apologize."

*****

Sheree was definitely not delighted that Delaney had stowed away, and her disappointment was far more devastating to Delaney than anything I could have done. Delaney was downcast for the rest of the drive despite the idea of Texas.

As we pulled up, Sheree walked out of the shadows to the side of the house, with her shotgun in her hand.

"Had to make sure it was you." She frowned a little. "Delaney, you're gonna have to fix that screen to your bedroom. And if you're anything like Shelley, we may have to put bars up there."

I pointed wordlessly to the back seat where the three women seemed reluctant to get out. "They need help."

Sheree shoved the shotgun into my hand and began helping Delaney with them. "Sweet Jesus. What in God's name happened?"

"Delaney found them."

I let Delaney tell her story, peppered with profuse apologies to Sheree for her stunt. By the time she was done, it was pretty clear that Sheree was giving her a one-time pass on her antics.

The women were still leery, but Sheree and Delaney managed to convince them of our good intentions, or at least theirs. They were still, obviously, terrified of me.

Sheree gave them some of her sleeping shirts while Delaney dealt with it in a remarkably thirteen-year-old, but remarkably effective way. She made mugs of hot chocolate and got out boxes of cookies.

Nothing I could do was going to be as effective in convincing them of good intentions as hot chocolate and cookies.

Sheree watched the three of them for a second. "They're in bad shape, they need a doctor to look them over."

I shook my head. "I don't think they'd do well if I tried to examine them right now."

Delaney stopped and picked up Sheree's cell phone. "Tiffany could help."

"You have her number?"

She nodded and dialed. "Tiffany? You said you wanted to make things right?"

After a couple minutes of discussion she offered the phone to Sheree. "Can you give her directions here?"

Sheree gave Delaney a smile then took the phone. She laid out the directions carefully. After she hung up she looked at us. "Tiffany will be here in about a half hour if she doesn't get lost on the way."

It was closer to 45 minutes before a small SUV picked its way down the lane and two not-quite identical figures got out.

I opened the door to Tiffany and Tara standing next to each other. Tiffany shifted her medical bag and took a deep breath. "Delaney said it was important, and since Tara is her sister, too, I thought, maybe I should bring her."

The awkwardness that seemed to be around whenever we talked was obviously still there. Even though they knew I hadn't done the s**t Charlotte had accused me of, a decade and more of constant belief is damn hard to get past. I sure as Damn didn't like it, but they were trying hard and that was all anyone could ask. I waved them in. "We found three kidnap victims and they've been abused pretty badly. Nothing life threatening from what I can see, but they need checked."

Tiffany arrowed on them instantly; all at once she was the emergency room doctor my little toy-stethoscope-wearing moppet had turned into. The women shrank back towards Sheree.

Tiffany jolted to a stop in shock. I reached over and touched her shoulder. "Wait, Tiffany. Put your stethoscope on, that way they know what's going on. They'll know you're a doctor."

She paused and pulled her stethoscope out of her bag. The tension drained from them and they followed her into the bedroom. Tara looked over at me and I shrugged. "Do a few hundred MEDCAPS, you pick up a few tricks."

"MEDCAPS?" Delaney shook her head in confusion.

"Medical Civilian Action Programs. Kind of a free clinic in unstable areas to gain the trust of locals; standard Special Forces program."

Tara stared at the door to the bedroom where Tiffany was examining the women. "Where did they come from?"

"I'd guess South or maybe Central America. None of them speak English and we didn't exactly have a chance to have a discussion with the assholes that did this."

Tiffany stalked out of the bedroom, fury etched starkly on her face. "If we get a chance to talk them, I want in. I spent a lot of time and effort learning about the human nervous system and I'd like to see how much of it I can find on one of those... animals."

I shook my head. "That's not an option."

"They got away?"

"They're not going anywhere."

Tiffany looked at me with dawning suspicion. "What did you do?"

I shrugged. "I wasn't going to leave them to do this again."

Delaney stood up and locked eyes with her half-sister. "They were going to do that to me. When I ran away and Mom wouldn't call the police, those Damners had me." Her eyes glassed over. "That would have been me. Except for him. They deserved everything they Damning got."

Tiffany looked at her in disbelief, but I could see Tara nod slowly and she turned toward me. "How?"

"There was a very large, uncontrolled house-fire sparked by poor equipment storage."

Tiffany still had a hard time getting it. "Did you kill someone?"

I didn't answer. Delaney stepped over and grabbed my arm, looking silently at the two of them.

Tara spoke quietly. "How many?"

"Fourteen. This time."

"This time?"

Delaney stepped towards her, chin thrust out. "Did you think they just let him quietly pick me up when he got me away from them? Damn them."

I sighed. "Another eight, that time." Sheree came up on my other side and slid her hand into mine, almost daring them to say something.

Tiffany stared at her toes. "Jesus."

"We sure as hell can't bring the police into this." Tara was switching into lawyer mode. "Any witnesses?"

"Just the girls back there."

Tara glanced at the door to the other room. "We need to know more about them." She got up and walked into the bedroom.

Tiffany studied me as if she'd suddenly found a rattlesnake in front of her. "Twenty-two people. Jesus." She suddenly fixated. "Why didn't you call the police instead of...doing that?"

"Your... mother wouldn't let me get the police involved the first time. If I called this time, they'd connect it to the first time, and this time is different. We didn't just stumble across this on a picnic. They came looking for Delaney."

She sat heavily on the couch. "Still... I became a doctor because of what you taught me. All the people you helped"

"I'm not like you, Tiffany. You believe in it, you believe in 'primum non nocere.' It's what you are, I can tell. But that's not me."

She looked to the bedroom, fighting to get her head around it. "First Do No Harm. But... somebody had to do something, right?"

I tried to think of something to say. She was trying, she really was.

Sheree walked over to her and sat next to her, taking her hand gently. "Sometimes people have to do hard things 'cause doing nothing is worse. That's for people like Les. All you have to do is help these girls. Nobody's askin' you to do nothing else."

Tiffany looked all of nine years old for moment, confused and a little scared. "I know, I mean I understand, but..." Her voice trailed off and she let her head hang in misery.

"You're trying figure your way through this. You been taught you can talk to people, solve problems that way." Sheree shook her head slowly. "But some people, you can't do that with them. Some people, you see them, you just need to pick up a big rock. That's for Les to do. You let him do that, you do what you can do."

Tiffany looked at her hands. "A woman I went to school with runs a group to help victims of s*x trafficking. They won't ask any questions and they can help. Get them treatment, get them home or whatever."

Tara walked back out. "Two from El Salvador and one from Honduras. I don't think we have to worry about them telling the police anything. Emely, the oldest one, said as far as they're concerned they won't be able to remember anything about how they got away."

"You speak Spanish?"

"They kind of require a language in college, and I did a year with our office in Colombia."

It took Tiffany a half hour to get in touch with the right woman and make arrangements. Sadly, it was apparent that situations like this weren't uncommon. They pretty much had a "normal routine" for what they called "no questions asked" rescues. They also had safe houses all over the place and gave directions to Tiffany. Tara explained it to the women, promising that she and Tiffany were going to take them somewhere safe.

After they pulled away with their three charges, we sat back down. Sheree looked out the window. "You know this ain't finished."

"I know. There's more to this s**t. We'll have to wait a bit, though."

Delaney stared into her hot chocolate. "How long?"

"About three more weeks, then the asshole who came looking for you gets out of jail."

"I'm helping this time." Delaney looked at Sheree. "I'm really sorry about slipping out, but I couldn't stay. This is about me, I have to do something."

Sheree nodded towards me. "That's up to Les."

"I'll have to think about it. This isn't a game."

Delaney looked between me and Sheree. "I'll listen. I promise. You let me help and I'll do exactly what you say."

Later that night, after when Sheree and I got in bed, she laid her head on my shoulder. "Les. I know you have to do this, or I feel like they'll jest keep comin' and comin' til you make a mistake, but..." She went silent. "She's thirteen, ya know? She's the toughest little thirteen-year-old I've ever met, but...she's thirteen."

"We could put her somewhere. Lock her up 'til it's over. Maybe the Sheriff."

"She'd hate us forever. You know she would. She's like you, Les. More'n your own girls, I think. She wants to be like you, but she already is. I know she's yours, not mine, but you just have to promise me you'll bring her back. Promise me she'll be okay."

I ran my fingers through her hair. "She needs you as much as I do. We're both coming back to you in one piece. I promise."

***

I'd planned on following his car, but Sheree had a better idea. "Why follow him? Didn't you say Delaney's mother put some kind of GPS thing in her phone? Don't they sell things like that?"

"Okay. I probably shoulda thought of that. s**t. You're good at this."

Sheree grinned. "I saw Shelley's ankle bracelet this morning. They're monitoring her again. Made me think of that GPS thing."

It cost four hundred dollars, but it made things a lot easier. Delaney easily slipped into the impound lot and put it on his SUV.

It even came with a tracking app that could alert me when the SUV moved.

I also bought a surveillance system for the trailer at the yard. I really couldn't see us moving back there, and if Ronnie Pelton or his jackass friends got any ideas about stealing from me again, I wanted them on video.

Over the weeks, I felt more and more like we belonged in the cabin; it just fit us. I managed to get a couple of solar panels put up to keep our cells phones charged up until the co-op could run lines out the place, and Delaney just did her school work at the trailer. I had to run the slow cooker at the trailer and just bring it to the cabin with us, but that was fine. We didn't miss electricity that much; we could wait for the lines to get to us. Movie Night had never actually been about the movies anyway.

The day the SUV finally moved, I rounded up Delaney and gave Sheree a call. She was working late shift again, due to the usual Shelley-induced schedule changes. I watched Delaney dash back into the garage where she kept her project car for a backpack while I talked to Sheree.

"We'll be home before you are, Babe."