SADDLEBAGS, Trunks, and Tombs

Chapter 17: One Shot: (Red Flag: Part 2)

     The letter was sitting on Franklin’s desk when he had retired to his office after having breakfast.  He looked at the envelope, with his head c****d to the side and opened it with interest.  Franklin pulled two pieces of paper out of the envelope and unfolded them.  The first page simply stated, “Thought you should know.”  The second page was a license of marriage.

One Shot: Red Flag Part II      

     Never again would young Adrian suffer.  He was a good boy and had done everything he had known to do.  Vondell Robinson would make sure that her baby would be safe, no matter what the cost.  

    The cost would be greater than she would imagine.

     Vondell remembered the day, almost eight months ago, when she had gotten word that her baby boy was in critical condition in a Las Vegas hospital.  She and her youngest child, Valerie, had borrowed money from the family to get there.  Oh, how she had cried when she first laid eyed on him.  It was as if he was another person.  But she felt her baby, in the beaten pulp that now lay in the ICU bed.  After getting as much of the story that she could, she knew exactly what she had to do.

     As far as anyone would know, Adrian had died in the lonely town of Pahrump and only through his death would he be able to live.

     Mr. Anderson, Adrian’s counselor at the high school he had attended, had called her to see if he had been found.  She had told him of what had happened and of her plans for her son’s life, and as any mother would, she begged for his help.  

    Mrs. Robinson’s tears were not wasted on Ron Anderson.  Ron lived over the hill in the San Fernando Valley.  Once the final plans had been set in motion, when Adrian left the hospital in Las Vegas, it was Ron’s house he would now call home. 

     The second bedroom, once an office, had been cleaned out and made into a room for Adrian.  Here he could finish his last year of high school in peace and continue on with his plans to attend college.  No one would ever know he was still alive.  

    This was one of the most important things, for if the gang, his own gang, that had tried so hard to brutally murder him, ever suspected he was still alive, his mother and sister would be in danger.  His mother was working as hard and as much as she could to get Valerie and herself out of the city but in the meantime they had to keep on doing what they had to do. 

     Stone watched Valerie leave the gate on the south side of the school.  She was a creature of habit, just like her brother had been, always heading straight home from school, like a good little girl should.  It had been almost a year since he had killed her big brother, killed him to get to her.  He had waited as long as he intended to wait.  Today was the day.  

    Over the past months, since they had left Adrian’s body in the desert, Stone had haunted Valerie’s every step.  He had spent his own valuable time making her aware of his intentions.  He had killed for her!  She wasn’t making things easy and his patience had worn thin.  The time had come and whether she liked it or not he would have her and it would be sooner than she thought.

     Valerie was aware that her time was running out.  What Stone had planned for her was worse than the death he had planned for her brother.  She would just assume put a bullet between his eyes than have him touch her.  Even though she knew he hadn’t gotten away with the murder of her brother, he had tried, and that was more than enough for her!!  Her hatred sat just on the edge of her existence, no fear, just hatred.

      Vondell could see what was happening with her youngest child.  She also saw the way that thug looked at Valerie.  She knew what he had in mind, she could see the intent in his every movement.  All she had left was God.  She had saved one child and now was working day and night to save the other.  “Lord, protect my baby just a little longer”, she said as she locked her front door.  Just a little longer and they would all be together again, away from this madness. 

     In the meantime, unbeknownst to his mother, Adrian had gotten word of his sister’s situation.  More than once he was warned, by the few people who knew he was alive, to stay where he was at and to leave all the mess alone.  He knew the danger he would be putting his sister and mother in if he showed up in the city, but the thought of Stone touching his sister was just too much to handle.  

     He was the man of their family and it was his job to make sure they were protected not to sit in the valley, living safe and smooth while his mother and sister were trapped in that cesspool.  From the word he was getting, Stone was increasing his assaults on Valerie.  Something had to be done, now. 

     That night, knowing his mother would be at work, Adrian had his cousin pick him up at the Getty museum and drop him off in the alley behind his mother’s house.  Mr. Anderson thought he was out with friends and if everything worked out as planned, he would be back in the Valley in an hour or two and Valerie would be safe.  

     He placed the gun in the pocket of his jacket and motioned for his cousin to wait a couple of blocks away as they had planned.  Unaware that Stone was minutes away from making his move, Adrian began to look for the key his mother kept hidden to open the back door.  Just as he bent over to turn the rocks, he heard a door slam.

     Inside, Valerie had just run through the door and was quickly pulling the borrowed piece out of her backpack.  “Let the bastard come”, she spoke out loud, “It will be the last time.”  Valerie knew Stone was on his way down the street from the corner he hung on.  He had promised her he would ’get with her’ tonight as she had made her way across the street headed home.  

     She had looked at them, all of them, laughing and patting Stone on the back.  It had caused her to move a little faster than she had originally intended.  Now she felt fear, for the first time, as she held the gun in her hand.  At that exact moment she heard not only the front door but the back door also, began to jiggle.  She spun back and forth, from one to the other, the setting sun not affording her the light she now desperately desired.    The two doors seemed to burst open at the same time and in the next second a lone shot rang out.