Sentinels (25 page)

The gunshot triggered Jake's shrieks.

“Sam?!” It was Johnson.

Natalie knew she had seconds to scoop up her crying son and abscond through the back and into the woods.

She fled through the back door and heard Johnson jumping down the stairs.

Good Christ,
Johnson thought upon seeing Sam's slouched corpse. But he didn't dwell on it. He stood in the rear doorway and spotted Natalie, who wore a white dress, skimming through the first few trees of the bordering forest.

He coolly aimed his gun, waited to make sure he lined up his shot just so, and fired.

The bullet cut into her right hamstring, and her scream sent the nearby woodland creatures scrambling. Mindful of her precious cargo, she did not fall, but slumped against a tree, cradling Jake, whose crying escalated to hysteria.

“You sneaky bitch!”

She winced as Johnson stomped to come get her. She'd dropped Doreen's revolver and tried picking it up before Johnson grabbed it and stuffed it in his belt.

“Let's go!” He seized her forearm, almost yanking it away to allow Jake to fall.

“I can't walk!” She screamed over her baby's wails.

“Neither can my dead friend! The only thing keeping you alive is if your damn husband arrives and gets ideas of being a hero. Now move! Back inside!”

He pushed her toward the house and her bad leg gave. She crumpled to her knees and deliberately forced herself to collapse on her back so as not to crush Jake.

“Leave us alone!” She rocked to her side, shielding her baby as best she could from her tormenter.

He kicked her in the ribs—hard enough to hurt—to compel her arduous crawl home. And then fear struck him.

“Dammit, I'm out in the open!” He spastically snapped his head in all directions, looking for a woman aiming a gun at him, for he knew she must be near.

Natalie lurched and propelled herself closer to the home. Dirt stained her dress, and brown dust shrouded her face as she coughed. No matter, she kept Jake close to her but could not quell his screaming.

Now paranoid, Johnson bounded in front of her and stood in the back door's archway.

“Move!” His voice echoed and dissolved to the point where all he heard were her labored grunts and the sizzling blackened skin of a roasting turkey that was way past due for a turn on its spit.

Sweat needled his eyeballs and he slammed the butt of his gun into the doorframe.

“Faster!”

“I moving as fast as I can!”

He purposefully aimed his gun off to Natalie's side and fired, the bullet kicking up dirt, some of which smacked her crying face.

“Move your ass, bitch!” Johnson abruptly turned inward and scoured the downstairs to make sure the woman had not returned and was waiting to shoot him in the back. He heard something in there. He
knew
he did. Or did he? Johnson's breathing heightened. He popped his head back outside and continued berating Natalie.

“Faster, or I take another shot closer to the baby!”

“Don't!” She held out her open hand to fruitlessly shield them.

“Then hurry!” Johnson had no clue whether anyone could hear the commotion. Chandler and Toby's wife were on foot, making it easier to sneak up on him. And there was the goddamn woman.

Where could she be?

And the answer flashed through his mind once he caught sight of a small dirt footpath, made over time by back and forth trips to the outhouse.

You sneaky whore.

His eyes followed the trail, which arched rightward, about one-hundred feet to a building like the one Noah had occupied when Diggs and his men attacked Toby's farm.

The sun, still high in the sky, flashed onto it, casting a shadow that pointed toward Johnson like an arrow. He swore that movement from within broke the sunrays that slipped through the slats. Or were his nerves causing him to see things that didn't exist?

“Stop!” He pointed the gun at Natalie. Jake had quieted down to mewling. “Stay there. Do
not
move.”

Still standing in the archway, he watched her until he was certain she understood his seriousness. Then he focused on the outhouse.

I know I saw something moving in there—I know it. Aw, fuck it.

He unloaded the rest of his bullets into outhouse, taking care to fire at various heights to make sure he hit whoever might be inside. Natalie, her body physically spent from crying, just watched. The gunshots again sent Jake shrieking.

Johnson ignored it. He reloaded his gun with bullets from his belt, and before approaching the outhouse fired three more shots into it.

He prayed she was in there just to make his brain less scattered. He had to be quick, knowing Chandler might still be out there. Johnson charged the outhouse, swung open the door, and fired three bullets through the back of the empty building.

“Dammit! Where are you, bitch?!” His voice echoed across the brush.

Natalie felt relief, for in truth she knew not where Doreen Culliver went after she indeed snuck out of Jake's window, shotgun in tow, as the two men breached the house.

It was supposed to be easy!
Johnson thought.
Two weak women! Now Sam's brain is sticking to a wall! I feel like a sitting duck! I feel … sick.

Tough and burly Delbert Johnson couldn't keep his stomach from doing somersaults—that's how badly the prospect of being target practice for a woman he fantasized about raping not fifteen minutes earlier had bothered him. At least he was in the right place.

“Keep where you are, bitch,” he snapped at Natalie, who finally comforted Jake into quietness.

“I gotta puke,” he groused to himself.

He stumbled into the outhouse and leaned over the hole to heave and in less than second a double-barreled shotgun blast from within the pit removed his head.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Deputy Eric Harrison knew gunfire—he heard the rat-tat-tat shots of Johnson's six-shooter a half-mile away from the Chandler homestead. He spurred his horse to a full gallop by the time the shotgun boomed.

He tied his horse to the post where Doreen lashed her rig and ran around back, and put his hands in the air when he saw an injured woman cradling her baby, sitting next to a headless body, and pointing a revolver at him.

Neither said a word—Natalie because she didn't know what to say, and Harrison because he didn't know what to think, especially upon seeing in the outhouse two hands do a jack-in-the-box from the hole only to vanish back into it.

“Get me out of here!” came a woman's scream from within the outhouse.

“Stay there!” Natalie screamed at Harrison as he stepped forward.

“I'm Eric Harrison. Uh, I work with Noah—I was
invited
here. Are you Natalie Chandler?”

“Yeah.” She kept Johnson's gun trained on Harrison.

“You'll forgive me for saying, but this is not the way I envisioned us meeting.”

“You armed?”

Harrison looked at his hips. “No ma'am.”

“Turn around, all the way.”

Harrison did at a snail's pace so she could see he hadn't stashed a piece in his backside.

“I don't know what you think I'm here to do, but I can guarantee that hurting you or anyone else ain't part of it,” he said.

“All right. Slowly.”

“Natalie, get me the hell out of here,” Doreen Culliver's disembodied voice screeched. “The stench is killing me, and the last thing I want to do is faint.”

Harrison did as Natalie wished and kept his strides slow.

“I'm not sure what I'd like to know first,” he said. “Who's the guy missing a head? Or who's the woman that fell into your outhouse?” He saw Jake. “The baby?”

“He's fine,” Natalie said and lowered the gun to Johnson's body. “That man there came here to kill us. So did the man who came with him. He's dead inside. I don't know who they are.”

“I see.” Harrison continued into the outhouse and stared into the hole.

“Ma'am?”

“I'm gonna hand you up a shotgun, it's empty,” came the voice. The gun's butt appeared and Harrison handled it by the grip. He walked outside and placed it on the ground.

“Grab on to me,” he said as he returned and leaned into the hole. Harrison fought the repellent odor. Two slender hands gripped his thick fingers, and he helped lift Doreen Culliver out of the hole and left her standing in the outhouse as he backed away from her. He groaned and turned when he saw brown gunk dripping from her knees to toes. The overwhelming stench wafted in all directions.

“Natalie,” Doreen said. “You got a washcloth around here?”

“I gotta get inside.” Natalie covered her mouth with her arm.

“Yeah, why don't you do that,” Harrison said. “There are so many reasons that baby shouldn't be out here in the first place.”

“It ain't easy for me.” Natalie groaned as she pointed to her injured rear.

“
Oh
. All right, listen here,” he spoke to both women. “I'm gonna help Natalie back into the house, then I'll be back to help clean you off. I saw a well out front. I'll bring some buckets back to you.”

“Aw, would you look at that?” Doreen, disgusted, gazed across the yard. “The turkey's burnt.”

“What?” Harrison saw the scorched bird. “Ma'am, I'd think eating anything is the last thing in the world you'd be thinking about right now.”

“I deliberately didn't eat
anything
today, deputy whoever-you-are,” Doreen said. “You'd be surprise how quickly your appetite creeps up on you after the last few hours I've had. At least the pies should still be good.”

“Go in the woods and I'll bring the water,” Harrison said. “For God's sake, please do it now.”

Harrison, still dumbfounded, assisted Natalie to her feet and supported her as they walked inside the house. They entered through the back and Harrison couldn't avoid seeing dead Sam against the wall.

“You shouldn't have to look at that, Natalie,” he said.

“I don't mind it at all. The bastard probably would've killed me and my baby if he'd found Doreen in time.”

He sat her on the sofa as comfortably as he could. She put no weight on her wound and rested uneasily against the sofa's arm.

“Close the shutters, all of them, and lock the front door.” It wasn't a request.

“Yeah, I will,” Harrison said.

“I kinda wish you had brought a gun.”

“Look, I didn't even bring
food
,” Johnson said. “And I feel silly about not doing that. Noah said you'd have enough and—”

“Just go help Doreen,” she said. “I'll feed my baby.”

“We gotta get you to the doctor.”

“Go help Doreen first. Jake needs milk. He's about cried the life out of himself. I left the gun where you found me. Make sure it's loaded. Bullets are on the body. I guarantee you there are other men like him out there.”

“Right. I'll make sure to knock or call out before I or anyone else enters, okay?”

“Go, please,” she said. “But before you go, climb into the loft, open the closet door and grab any one of my dresses for her. It don't matter which. I want to make sure she has something clean to wear.”

Harrison scooted up the ladder and then back down with some tan fabric tucked under his arm. He locked the front door and exited through the back to begin the first of many trips from the water well to the woods to cleanse Doreen Culliver of the ungodly foulness that clung to her body.

“Just splash it onto my legs,” Doreen said. She stood with her back against an oak tree. “I don't care how cold it is.”

Harrison tossed the water onto her as if she was smoldering. She moved from tree to tree to avoid standing in pooling filth. She tore off her dress, exposing her bare legs from just below her hips. She felt no compunction about being wet and ill-clothed from the waist down before a complete stranger.

“I expect I'm gonna have to ruin one of Natalie's towels, too,” said Doreen, this time facing a tree so Harrison could concentrate on the backs of her legs.

“I'll go get one for you,” he said. “There's one of Natalie's dresses for you by the back door, when you're decent.”

Harrison came back with what he hoped was a final bucket of water along with a brown yarn blanket.

“Natalie said it's disposable.” He draped it around Doreen's neck, and was thankful this hadn't happened in the wintertime.

“Leave the pail,” she said. “I'll pour little by little and clean up where I need to. Thanks for the bath.” She smiled at him.

“Harrison, don't move!”

“Jesus, now what?” The deputy froze, as did Doreen, who looked over his shoulder to see Noah standing at the lip of the forest, pointing a gun at his back.

“Noah, put the gun down,” Doreen called. “He helped both me and Natalie.”

Harrison, his hands again raised, slowly turned his head.

“Noah, you're the second Chandler to point a gun at me today. This was not what I was expecting when you invited me to supper.”

“I'm telling you, Noah,” Doreen pleaded. “He's good.”

“Noah, listen to your wife.” Natalie, standing by the back door cradling Jake, waved to get his attention. “We're all right—for now.”

He lowered his gun after seeing blood caked on Nat's leg and ran to her. He hugged his wife and child at the same time.

“What happened?”

Natalie explained, and was soon joined by Doreen and Harrison, who all stood in a semi-circle around Noah and chipped in details where they could. Noah then recounted what transpired at Toby's home.

“Where's Sarah?” It was Natalie.

“Hiding in the woods,” Noah said. “I told her to stay until I made sure our place was safe.”

“Go get her. It is,” Natalie said.

They reconvened in the sitting room, Natalie and Sarah on the sofa with their babies, Noah and Harrison, both armed, standing by the fireplace, and Doreen sitting at the kitchen table, sloppily devouring an apple pie with her bare hands.

“You know how many other deputies are crooked?” Harrison said.

“I don't.”

“You trust me?”

Noah took measure of Harrison. Innocence and fear reflected genuineness in the young man's eyes. “I do. But now that you're with me, you're in danger too. So's Doreen.”

Doreen, now attired in Natalie's dress and spare pair of sandals, nodded in agreement.

“You're right,” Harrison said. “Noah, whatever you need me to do, I'll do it. In the meantime, I'll be outside keeping watch.”

Harrison, armed with Noah's reloaded shotgun, paced the house's exterior perimeter while Noah hatched his plan.

“Nat, we need to get you to a doctor first. And I think Doreen can take you there in her wagon. We just got to cover you and the baby up in case someone happens upon you. Harrison can ride with you. Once you're in the Doc's care, I want Doreen to grab whichever Army officer is nearby and hound him to speak to the commander. Do
not
talk to any sheriff's deputies, not until we figure out who's who. Diggs may have been able to corrupt the locals but there's no way he bribed the Army.”

“I don't think the Army'll believe me,” Doreen said. “And you all should have some of this.” She waved her hands over the bounty of food on the table. “Long day and night ahead, and all that.”

Noah didn't argue and grabbed a peach pie and a fork.

“Ladies, you should, too,” Doreen said. “I'll bring one to the deputy.” She left with an apple pie and a fork, while Sarah, figuring she needed a boost, grabbed a blueberry pie and two forks so she could share it with Natalie. Not realizing how hungry they all had become, they spent the next few minutes gorging themselves before Noah, who wiped his face with his shirtsleeve, continued.

“Get the highest ranking Army man you can over to the doc's—Harrison'll watch over Natalie,” he said to Doreen, who'd retaken her seat. “Once the Army sees Natalie's injury, they'll know there's something to what you'll be saying.”

“What about you? And Sarah?” Natalie, like Sarah, openly nursed her baby.

“I'm not sure yet.”

“I want to go back to my house.” Sarah spoke for the first time. “I won't let Diggs get away with this. I can't. Not after everything we put into that farm.”

“You showing up's just what Diggs wants,” Noah said. “The farther we keep you away and hidden from him, the better chance we have at taking him down.”

“You think the powers that be are gonna believe a freedwoman?”

“I do. And when we march a platoon of soldiers over to your property, all the proof in the world will be there. Diggs can't abandon the place. Either him or some of his men will be there. We'll easily outgun him when he sees the reinforcements.”

“That's why we need to get going,” Doreen said. “Noah, you should come, too.”

“Can't.”

“Why not?”

“Diggs'll have thought of that. If some bad deputies see me in town, they'll shoot me on the spot, putting others in danger.”

“Well then, sneak in.” Doreen's tone grew incredulous.

“Hell, for all I know they've spun some bullshit story about me having killed Cole or Toby, and to take me down, no questions asked.”

“We can get you to a neutral spot—you could hide in the church. Nobody would open fire inside God's house.”

“Diggs would.” Sarah looked at Toby and nodded her head in affirmation. “He would.”

“Look, I want to go back to Toby's,” Noah said. “I got my Winchester. I can take up in a tree and pick them off, one by one.”

“
All
of them?” Natalie said.

“Probably not, but I could make a dent. Enough to keep them at bay until the Army arrives.”

“And once they figure out where the shots are coming from, they
aren't
going to unload everything at your position?” Natalie continued making sense to the point where Noah internally conceded she'd win the argument.

“Doreen, will you please go get Deputy Harrison?” he said.

She obliged, and the women buttoned up before Harrison returned to hear the rough plan.

“You want me to question any deputies if I see them?” Harrison said.

“They'll fight you like dogs if they know you're on to them. Don't try doing it by yourself. Bring backup. The Army, I mean.”

“They know I'm off today. If they see me walking around with a gun, they'll figure something's up.”

“Sarah, I understand you wanting to go back home,” Noah said. “And I suppose I can't stop you from doing it. But think of your baby. Your job now is to protect him. Going home doesn't do that.”

She glanced only briefly at Isaac, focusing on Noah, pursing her lips as she thought.

“You trust this doctor?” she finally said.

“With my wife and child's life, I do.”

“You're a fool, too, for going back there by yourself. You know that,” Sarah said.

“She's right, I don't want you going either,” Natalie said.

“Diggs wouldn't expect it.” It was his last desperate attempt to convince her.

“I believe he would,” Sarah said. “But he's expecting someone else. That what's he's worried about right now more than anything.”

The room grew quiet. Noah instantly knew what she meant.

“Then I can help your men,” Noah said.

“You'd only get in their way.”

“So you
did
hire men to kill the Klan. Look, I knew it all along but Toby would never admit it.”

Sarah raised her hand.