Huckleberry Summer (22 page)

She was worthless.

A sob started deep in her throat, and she wrapped her arms around her midsection to keep from losing control of her emotions. She couldn’t just stand here and wait for those men to drag Aden and Jamal’s dead bodies into the road.

Jamal’s phone sat on the driver’s seat inside the truck. Lily only noticed it because at that moment, it lit up in response to receiving a text. She opened the door and snatched the phone. She’d always wished for a cell phone in a crisis. Now whom should she call?

It took a minute to figure out how to actually make a call on Jamal’s phone, and then it took longer to dial because her hand trembled like a leaf in the wind.

“Dispatch. What is your emergency?”

“Please, help my friends. They’re killing them. You’ve got to come now.” Her voice rose in pitch with every word until she practically screamed into the phone.

“Did you say your friends are being attacked?”

“Yes, you’ve got to stop them.”

“What is your location, ma’am?”

Lily tried to quell the rising panic. “I’m not sure. I think we are about thirty miles west of Shawano on Highway Twenty-Nine. It’s a white house. Please hurry.”

“Do you see a house number?”

With the phone plastered to her ear, Lily ran toward the house until she could see the mailbox clearly. “I think it’s 435. There’s a puppy mill in the back. Do you know where the puppy mill is?”

“Ma’am, try to stay calm. I’m alerting the sheriff now.”

Try to stay calm.
The four most useless words in the English language. How did one stay calm when Aden and Jamal might be dead?

Almost at the point of hysteria, Lily paced back and forth in front of the truck, crying and groaning and praying for the sheriff to hurry up. She clapped her hands over her ears when she heard faint yelling from the house.

The sheriff announced himself like a soundless exploding firework, and the glare of his bright lights momentarily blinded Lily. She stepped to the edge of the road and waved her hands over her head to get his attention, in case he didn’t know exactly where he was going. He pulled up behind Jamal’s truck, and she could hear him communicating on his radio.

Two officers got out of the car.

“Are you the one who called in the emergency?” one of them asked.

“Yes,” Lily said breathlessly. “Please help them. They’re in the house, and one of them has a gun.”

Both men suddenly became more alert. They drew their firearms, and Lily had never been so close to passing out in her life. “How many are in there?”

“My two friends and four other men. That’s all I saw.”

One of the policemen or sheriffs or whatever he was pointed to Jamal’s truck. “You stay here until we come to get you. Is that clear?”

Lily nodded.

They disappeared down the road. Lily didn’t even see them make it to the front door. Jamal had parked his truck far from the house in the shelter of some tall bushes.

Again she found herself waiting for Aden, sick with worry that he might be injured or dead. She leaned her back against the grille of Jamal’s truck and wept until she ran out of tears.

 

 

For a brief moment, Aden must have blacked out. He awoke sprawled on the floor, nose stinging, frantic with worry for Lily. He hoped she’d had the good sense to run far into the thicket and hide.

Even though Aden’s brain was fuzzy, he remembered Earl nailing him in the face with that burly fist of his. His head throbbed painfully, and he could feel the blood pouring from his nose like a leaky faucet. He managed to sit up.

The yelling had stopped, and Jamal sat next to him on the kitchen floor cradling his head in his hands. Sammy, Bud, and Reggie stood over them, poised for an attack. They hovered but didn’t say a word. Aden tried to piece together what was happening. Were they going to shoot them in the kitchen and hide their bodies in the woods?

Nae, Aden didn’t fear that. These men weren’t that desperate or that evil. Aden hadn’t meant to, but he’d provoked a fight when he grabbed Reggie to keep him from catching Lily. Reggie and Sammy had socked him a couple of times, and Earl took a turn with them. Neither Jamal nor Aden had done anything but try to avoid the blows. Early on they had both learned that if they fought back, they could get charged with something big, like a felony.

Aden tried to stanch the bleeding by pinching the bridge of his nose, but even a feather-soft touch sent pain shooting through his teeth. Oy anyhow, his head hurt something wonderful.

Was Lily okay?

A commotion at the front door caught Aden’s attention. His heart sank to his toes. Had Lily come back?

“It’s the sheriff,” Reggie whispered. “Put your rifle on the table, Sammy.”

Earl entered the kitchen with two uniformed officers right behind him with their guns drawn.

“You see,” said Earl, speaking to the first officer, “they come in here to pick a fight. We was defending ourselves.”

The second officer went to the table and retrieved Sammy’s gun.

“I wasn’t never gonna shoot nobody,” Sammy said.

Aden looked at the first officer. “Did you see an Amish girl?”

“Yeah, she’s waiting outside.”

Aden had never felt such extraordinary relief. It overcame every worry he should have had, like whether he would be arrested yet again. If they took him to jail, he wouldn’t be able to tell Floyd that he had kept out of trouble.

Lily was safe. That was all that mattered.

“That girl trespassed on my property,” Earl snapped. “Arrest her too.”

Aden wouldn’t stand for that. It was one thing for him to go to jail, quite another for Lily to be dragged into that horrible place. “She didn’t do anything wrong. She just needed a drink.”

Earl shoved a thick finger in Aden’s direction. “She was in on your plan all along.”

The sheriff holstered his gun and shrugged his shoulders in resignation. “You want to press charges against the girl too?”

“Yes, all of them.”

Aden thought he might be sick. Even the experience of riding in a police car would bury Lily in shame. And her dat? Her dat would be completely justified in driving Aden clean out of Bonduel. Aden had exposed David’s daughter to things no one should have to see—especially not timid, innocent Lily. Remorse kicked him in the gut.

Jamal stood up.

Grunting, the sheriff bent over, grabbed Aden’s elbow, and helped him to his feet. “You got a dish towel or something? I don’t want him getting blood on my seats.”

Bud handed Aden a paper towel, and he mopped up his nose as best he could even as it continued to drip. He turned to Earl. “Please don’t take this out on Lily. She never meant any harm to anyone.”

Earl stood his ground. “She can tell the judge.”

Jamal knew the drill. He put his hands behind his back, and the second officer clicked a pair of handcuffs on him.

Aden got his own shiny pair of handcuffs, and the sheriff took his elbow and led him out of the house and down the road.

Two police vehicles were parked behind Jamal’s truck. Aden searched frantically for a glimpse of Lily. Through the blinding lights, he saw her leaning against the front of the truck. Hearing their footsteps, she turned and screamed his name.

She charged at him and threw her arms around his neck even as the officer did his best to nudge her away. “Aden, I was so scared.” She gasped and sobbed at the same time. “You’re bleeding. What happened?”

“I’m okay, but listen. Try not to be scared.”

“Miss, move away, please.”

In bewilderment, Lily stepped back as the officer opened the patrol car door and pushed Aden inside. Her eyes became huge circles as she caught sight of the handcuffs around his wrists. At that moment, every bit of light seeped out of his heart.

He loved Lily Eicher better than his own soul. It didn’t matter that she considered his dog a health hazard or that she couldn’t cook tofu to save her life. It didn’t even matter that her dat hated him. He loved her and he’d face a hundred pairs of handcuffs just to hold her in his arms. He ached with longing.

The officer slammed the door, and Lily pounded on the window with her fists, screaming at the officer to let him go.

Aden watched in horror as the sheriff took her by the wrists in a surprisingly gentle motion and slipped the handcuffs on. Her face twisted wildly with fear as she screamed Aden’s name over and over and tried to pull herself away.

He put his face against the window and yelled her name. “Lily, Lily, don’t be frightened. I’m right here.” She didn’t hear a word.

The sheriff dragged her, flailing and screaming, to the front car and shoved her into the backseat.

Aden groaned and clamped his eyes shut, but Lily’s terrified expression was seared into his memory forever. He leaned his head against the back of the seat and ignored Jamal beside him as tears poured down his face.

What he wouldn’t give to have this day over again.

This was what it felt like to be in the depths of despair.

 

 

Jamal lay on a bench, the only thing in the cell, with his knees bent and his feet touching the floor. It was a short bench.

Every nerve in Aden’s body seemed to be on fire, and he paced in the jail cell until he should have worn a path in the cement. Two steps this way, two steps the other way. Two steps this way, two steps the other way.

He hadn’t seen Lily since they had hauled her away. How was she holding up? She might faint or fall apart before they even took a fingerprint. Aden shuddered. He had to train his thoughts on something else. Worrying about Lily would drive him insane.

When he and Jamal had been thrown in jail before, they usually sat next to each other on the floor of their cell and told jokes until one of their friends came to bail them out.

Jamal, oblivious to Aden’s turmoil, was his usual cool self. “Is your nose broken?” he asked as he drummed his fingers on his stomach and stared up at the ceiling. He probably asked to ease the boredom or the tension rather than because he really wanted to know. “You should see how swollen it is.”

Aden didn’t answer. If he spoke, he’d probably start yelling at the sheriff to let him out
now
.

He was crazy with the need to see Lily.

Jamal kept drumming. “The good news is, I got the memory card out of the camera before he took it. Three pictures is all I got, but it should be enough.”

Aden took hold of one of the bars high above him and leaned his forehead against a lower bar. Three pictures. Those three pictures had cost him everything.

Jamal sat up and frowned at Aden. “You okay?”

“No.”

“She’s gonna be all right, man. I bet they don’t even book her. That Earl guy might want to press charges, but she wasn’t even in the house when the police came.”

“I need to be with her. She’s terrified.”

“We’ll be out of here in another couple of hours, and you can go see her.”

“I hate knowing that she’s suffering and I’m not there.”

“Remind her about the puppies. No girl can resist a puppy.”

Aden couldn’t stomach his friend’s flippant attitude. He moved as far away from Jamal as he could, which in the cell was about five feet.

Emptiness yawned in his chest when he thought about the possibility of losing Lily over this mess.

He immediately lost the ability to breathe.

A pudgy officer appeared with a set of keys in his hand and unlocked their cell. “Sheriff says you’re free to go. The Hardys decided not to press charges after all.”

“Really?” Jamal said, his mouth turning up into a cautious smile. “Why not?”

The officer raised an eyebrow. “The sheriff told him he’d have to search the place if they wanted to bring up proper charges, and Mr. Hardy wasn’t too eager to show the sheriff around his property.”

Jamal grew serious. “But they need to see what’s in the building behind the house.”

“Oh, we’re aware of the building behind the house, Mr. Drake. It’s been a four-month investigation. We’ll have a search warrant served soon enough.”

“Did you hear that, Aden? All our work paid off.”

This news only served to make Aden feel more despondent. The police already knew. This entire disaster had been for nothing.

“Where is the girl who got arrested with us?”

“She came here to the station and then her father took her home. I’d hate to have to face that man if I were his kid. His glare could have peeled the paint off my Jeep.” The officer led them to the front desk. “If you want to save the world, kid, join the Peace Corps. Civilians like you only create problems for us.”

Jamal chuckled. “Without people like me, you folks would never have a minute of excitement.”

“We got plenty of excitement.”

The officer gave each of them a paper to sign and handed Jamal an envelope with his cell phone and keys.

“What about my truck?” Jamal said.

“One of the deputies drove it in. It’s parked outside.”

“Hey, thanks.”

“Don’t thank me. He felt charitable tonight. Just stay out of trouble. That’s a very nice sweater, by the way. My granny used to knit sweaters like that.” The officer took Aden’s paper. “Your grandpa’s here to pick you up. He drove his buggy all the way from Bonduel. You owe him a steak dinner or something.”

Dawdi? How had he found out? Aden had planned on hitchhiking home.

Jamal gave Aden a look of pity. “I guess I won’t be driving you, man. You gonna catch it from your grandpa?”

Aden shook his head. “If there was ever anyone who didn’t have a temper, it’s my grandpa. If my mamm were here, everybody in this place would need earplugs.”

“I know,” Jamal said. “I was with you last time, remember?” He studied Aden’s face and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. She’s probably home safe in bed with her covers tucked around her ears. By next week, you’ll be laughing about it.”