Dorothy Garlock (35 page)

But unlike the first time that Ellis Watts had pointed a gun at her head, this confrontation did not end with a sudden descent
into darkness, but was instead interrupted by the sound of Cole Ambrose’s voice, calling from somewhere behind where Ellis
stood.

“Get the hell away from her, you son of a bitch!”

Cole burst through the rows of cornstalks at the rear of the Hellers’ property to find Sophie and her family once again at
the mercy of Ellis Watts. Though he was exhausted from his trek through the field and his leg throbbed ceaselessly from his
cut, his anger was more than enough to quell the pain.

The sound of his voice clearly startled Ellis, who turned quickly while raising his pistol; though his face was bathed in
shadow, the moon hanging in the sky behind him, Cole had no doubt that surprise was written on his features. Ellis didn’t
say a word in answer, his head turning about as if he were looking for someone else.

“He’s not coming,” Cole said simply.

“What did you do to Riley?” Ellis asked, his eyes narrowing in question.

“What I had to do.”

Ellis stood silently, taking a long moment to digest what Cole had said to him before turning his attention back to Sophie
and her wounded father. When he finally spoke, his voice was empty of emotion. “Ain’t none of that shit matters no more,”
he said. “Even if I’m the last one of us that’s drawin’ breath, I’m gonna do what needs to be done.”

“Are you all right, Sophie?” Cole called. “Is your father badly hurt?”

“He needs help,” she answered, her voice full of worry. “We need to—”

“Shut your goddamn mouth, bitch,” Ellis snarled. “One more word and I’m gonna shut you up for good.”

The blood in Cole’s veins froze as solidly as the surface of Potter’s Creek in wintertime. Ellis Watts was clearly out of
his mind and dangerous, even if he hadn’t been armed with a pistol. Cole wondered if he shouldn’t have freed the knife from
between Riley’s ribs, not out of any sympathy for the fallen man but so that he might have been able to use it as a weapon.
As it was, Ellis would be able to shoot him down like a dog long before he ever reached Sophie.

The only option that presented itself to Cole was to stall, to somehow distract Ellis from the violent task he had set for
himself long enough for something far better to come along.

“You don’t have to do this, Ellis,” he said. “You have no reason to fear these people. They’re good Americans just like—”

“I ain’t gonna stand here and listen to no more of your shit,” Ellis growled in answer, his voice full of malice. “I done
already told you that these Nazis are goddamn dangerous! You’re too busy fallin’ head over worthless leg for a Nazi whore
to see what’s really goin’ on around here!”

Cole wanted to snap at Ellis, to let him know that he would not stand for Sophie to be spoken about in such a way, but he
knew that it would only serve to put his beloved in greater danger. Instead, he had to swallow his pride as well as his tongue
and try to find an opening, some way in which he could deliver the Hellers from the threat that hung over their heads.

“Let me guess,” Ellis continued. “The whore spread her legs and let you finally become a man, and now you gotta use the pair
of balls you found to stand up for her honor or some shit.”

Ellis could hardly have known that Cole had consummated his relationship with Sophie only hours earlier, but the hurt of his
words fell quite close to the mark. Balling his hands into tight fists, he said, “If you so much as lay a finger on her, I’ll
kill you where you stand.”

“Don’t think that you can threaten me, cripple,” Ellis answered, rage evident in his voice. “I tried to warn you, to set you
straight! I gave you the chance to understand the truth, but you chose to turn your back on what was right, to deny your country!
Far as I’m concerned, you ain’t no better than them Nazis! You’re gonna be treated the same!”

“Ellis, I don’t—”

Before Cole could say another word, Ellis raised the gun in his direction and fired, the sound as deafening as a thunderclap.
There was no time for him to so much as think, but simply to move, and he dove backward into the relative safety of the cornfield.
His hands flew to his body, sure that he had been shot, but they came back without blood. Scurrying out of harm’s way, determined
not to give Ellis another shot at him, Cole had to stifle the scream that rose in his throat from the agonizing pain of his
wounded leg.

“Don’t hurt him!” Sophie screamed.

“Shut up, bitch, or the next bullet’s for you!”

Fear rose in Cole’s chest that he wouldn’t be able to rescue Sophie and her family. Time seemed to be moving too fast, the
horrific events spiraling out of control before he could ever hope to contain them.
How can I stop Ellis?!

But at that moment, deep in the wells of his despair, Cole heard the unmistakable sound of automobiles: the hard revving of
engines, the recognizable noise of tires racing over gravel, and even the knocks and ticks of a hotly run engine brought to
a skidding halt. Peering through the stalks, he could see the bright headlights of several cars. Finally, there was a shouted
voice that sounded like music to his ears.

“This is the sheriff! Put down the gun and step away from the girl!”

Oh, no! Oh, my Lord, no!

Though Sophie had clearly heard the sheriff’s instruction to Ellis, she did not feel the least bit relieved. While the beams
of the car’s headlights completely illuminated the ground around her, including the gruesome wound in her father’s shoulder,
her eyes remained riveted upon the spot in the cornfield where Cole had fled, hoping beyond hope that she would see some sign
of him, something that would allow her to believe that he hadn’t been hurt.

“Put down the gun!” the sheriff barked yet again.

“Go to hell, lawman!” Ellis answered defiantly, the veins on his neck pulsing with anger, the pistol still pointed at Sophie.
“You ain’t fit to do the sort of hard work that’s needed in these parts! What kind of sheriff lets a nest of Nazi spies just
go on livin’ in his midst?”

While Ellis ranted on, Sophie’s heart leaped as she saw Cole’s head poke out from the cornfield. His intentions were as clear
as the moon; with Ellis so distracted with the police, he meant to make his way across the yard and disarm the man. Startled
by the boldness of Cole’s plan, Sophie began to shake her head in an attempt to warn him off, but with the glare of the headlights,
she knew that he couldn’t see her.

But before she could begin to formulate a plan, Sophie heard a familiar voice that was as startling to Ellis as it was to
her. “Leave them alone, Ellis,” Graham Grier said as he stepped out in front of the parked vehicles.

Looking up at Ellis, Sophie could see the surprise written across his face; his stubble-covered jaw hung slack and his eyes
were as wide as saucers, even with the glare. When he finally found his voice, it was as deep as a growl. “You no-good, backstabbin’
son of a bitch!”

“It’s gone too far,” Graham answered simply. “It has to end.”

Sophie found that she was every bit as shocked by Graham’s appearance as Ellis; maybe even more so. She had last seen him
only a few hours earlier, still drunk as he was driven away from the barn in the back of a police car; he was wearing the
same clothes and sporting the same bruises from the beating Cole had given him. But there was something in his voice that
reminded her of the man she used to know.

“Stupid bastard!” Ellis continued to rant. “How in the hell could you do this to us? You’ve got as much to lose as anyone…
hell, you’ve got more! Did you convince yourself I wouldn’t follow through on my promise if you went to the police? Did you
think I was a fool?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Graham answered.

“What the hell are you talkin’ about?” Ellis asked incredulously.

“The only thing that matters is that I do right for all the trouble I’ve caused,” Graham explained. “What I’ve done with you
is a mistake… a mistake I hope to atone for.”

“So that’s the way you want it to be, huh? You just want to take back all the things you done and be the good son again?”
Ellis said in a voice heavy with sarcasm. “Well, I got news for you! Once I tell what it is you done, ain’t no one gonna look
at you the same again!”

“I’ve told the sheriff everything, Ellis,” Graham said, his voice as flat and cold as a grave marker. “Everything that I did
at your side. There’s nothing left for me to hide.”

Sophie listened to the conversation between the two men with no small amount of curiosity in her heart. After her confrontation
with Graham outside the rebuilt barn, she’d wondered what secret he was intent on keeping from her, what truth he refused
to allow to be told. Now, in the face of Ellis’s threats, it seemed as if the whole story was finally going to come out.

“You don’t mind if this tramp hears it?” Ellis challenged, waving his pistol in Sophie’s direction. “You were sweet on her
from the start, and I figured you’d do about anything to keep her from learnin’ that you ain’t what you appear to be.”

“She’ll find out eventually,” Graham said before lowering his gaze.

“Then you can be the one who tells her,” Ellis sneered. “ ’Less you want to see her head blowed off!”

Sophie’s eyes rose until she found Graham’s, the expression on his face equal parts shame and worry. It seemed as if he wanted
to argue, but changed his mind when Ellis cocked the hammer on his pistol.

“You ain’t gonna get another warnin’!”

“The truth of the matter is that I didn’t take your rejection of my feelings all that well, Sophie,” Graham said, his voice
little more than a whisper. “Because of my own stupidity, I ended up committing an act that I can’t take back no matter how
much I wish that I could.”

“Get on with it!” Ellis barked.

Graham sighed, resigned to his fate. “The truth is I started sleeping with Carolyn Glass while her husband was at work. There’s
no reason to doubt that the child she’s carrying is mine.”

The force of Graham’s words struck Sophie with the strength of a slap, from which she recoiled. Suddenly, all of the things
that Graham had done, from cooperating with Ellis to burn her family’s barn, to his silence at the diner, to his late-night
visit to speak with her, made a strange kind of sense. Even Carolyn’s threatening advances toward her were more understandable
in the light of her relationship with Graham.

“Ain’t so perfect anymore, is he?” Ellis crowed.

“Carolyn?” Sophie asked, dumbfounded. “You slept with Carolyn?”

“I never meant to hurt you, Sophie,” Graham explained. “But somehow Ellis found out and threatened to reveal what I’d done
if I didn’t go along with him. I made a—”

“Shut your mouth!” Ellis ordered.

While her thoughts reeled at Graham’s revelation, Sophie saw movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see Cole
slowly making his way toward where Ellis stood. He moved awkwardly, inhibited both by his bad leg and the wound that ran across
it.

Sophie knew that Cole meant to protect her, to stay true to the vow he gave her during their first picnic lunch, but she knew
that it was a gesture that would end with him being killed; Ellis would hear him approach, turn to the sound, and fire the
pistol, taking Cole away from her for good.

And that is something I won’t allow!

Gently as she could, Sophie began to slide the rifle free from under her father’s unconscious body. Ellis’s attention was
still fixed on Graham, so she wasn’t worried that he would hear her. Inch by slow inch, the weapon came free, her finger resting
on the trigger.

It was as if there was a bizarre race taking place; Sophie’s freeing of the rifle against Cole’s steady approach toward Ellis.
Surely Graham and the sheriff can see what Cole is trying to do!
Finally, the gun was out from under her father, sliding in the damp grass.

“Just let them go, Ellis,” Graham said. “There’s nothing—”

Before Graham could say another word, Cole’s booted foot stepped on a twig hidden from sight in the deep shadows. At the sound,
Ellis spun, his weapon swinging to where he could fire. Just as fast, Sophie yanked up the rifle and, without a moment’s pause,
pulled the trigger, blasting away the night’s quiet with another thunderous clap.

The bullet slammed into the center of Ellis’s chest; at such a short distance, he flew from his feet as if he had been kicked
by a horse, crashing onto his back, his pistol flying out onto the grass unfired. His legs kicked once, and his chest rose
in an awkward gasp for his dying breath, before he fell still, staring up into a moon that looked back silently.

Even as the gunshot echoed in Sophie’s ears, Cole raced to her, pulling her into his arms and holding her tightly. He kissed
her cheeks and forehead gently, consoling her as he whispered softly into her ear.

“It’s over, Sophie,” he soothed. “It’s over.”

While tears streamed down her cheeks, Sophie knew that Cole was right.

October 1945

S
OPHIE WAITED IMPATIENTLY
on the crowded train platform, wringing her gloved hands in excited anticipation. Sweat beaded her forehead as she waved
a hand fan feverishly in front of her face; a gentle fall breeze licked at her skin but the heat of Victory’s long Indian
summer still clung to the air, refusing to let go. Still, her heart was as happy as she could imagine.

It’s the perfect day for a homecoming!

Bright
WELCOME HOME
banners were hung high above the tracks and all around the depot. At the far end of the platform, band
members tuned their instruments in anticipation of the train’s arrival. The atmosphere was festive, celebratory, a mood that
was as perfect a fit as the wedding band on her finger.

“When is it scheduled to arrive?” a man beside her asked.

“Any minute now,” Sophie answered.

“Seems like we been waitin’ forever!”