MISSING

Chapter 45

Adam quickly came through the front door of the Sage Brush and hurried up to his father and brothers. He started speaking even before he reached them.

"Have you seen Thea?" he asked urgently.

Ben felt his heart clench painfully in his chest with instinctual fear for his daughter-in-law. "No," he answered his son while Hoss and Joe shook their heads.

"Has ANYONE seen her?" he said loudly. Everyone else in the room turned to look at him, but no one had.

"Damn it!" he almost shouted and had just turned toward the door when his four deputies rushed in.

"Anything?"

John, Mike, and Dylan reluctantly shook their heads as Nate spoke, "No one in town has seen her since Matt did early this morning. He said she went to make some house calls, was driving the buggy, and headed south."

Adam's eyes darkened with fury, "I specifically told her NOT to do that," he ground out through clenched teeth then he abruptly turned and stalked out the door. His family and friends hurried to follow.

When they came out the door they saw him swing up into the saddle and take off at top speed heading south.

Nate looked at Ben. "Do you think we should start organizing a search party? I know Adam believes he will find her by himself, but you never know."

The older man nodded, "Let's get as many men together as we can. That's a lot of open country to cover." The younger men scattered, but Ben stayed where he was. He went cold when he thought of what could have happened to her traveling around the countryside by herself. "Dear God," he breathed and started down the board sidewalk toward Roy's office.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Adam knew, deep down that something was very wrong - this was not like Thea at all. She was never late and always kept him informed as to where she was going and when she would return. But lately he could tell something was bothering her deeply and he knew she would not discuss it until she was ready.

His fury had ebbed and now all he felt was sheer terror. He pulled Onyx up and sat there for a moment thinking about which direction he should take when he felt an urge to continue heading south on the main road. Propelled by his gut instinct, he urged the horse forward and continued down the road at a thunderous pace.

He almost missed seeing the buggy, he was moving so fast, but he caught a glimpse of something square and solid black in the dark shade of a stand of trees beside the road. His heart rose in his throat and he turned the horse in that direction, jumped from the saddle, and ran the last yards to the buggy. Thea was not in the front seat and when he looked in the back seat he gasped and closed his eyes choking out, "Oh my God!"

Quickly shrugging out of his coat, he carefully wrapped Thea's limp body with it and went back to lead his horse to the buggy and tie it to the rail in the back. He didn't want to move her to the front seat so he went to get the blanket he knew was in the boot. He spread it over his wife and pulled the one edge through the gap between the seat and the back. Then he tied the corners together tightly under the seat to keep her body as motionless as possible. Then he climbed in, picked up the reins, and urged the horse to go as fast as possible.

When they reached the south end of town he kept the buggy speeding down the street and when he approached the other end he saw a group of men gathered in front of the Sage Brush. He spotted Matt and yelled his name as he pulled up in front of the office the young doctor shared with Thea. Matt came running as Adam jumped down, untied the blanket, and gathered his wife into his arms. He entered the office with the doctor right behind him and the two men went into the treatment room with Thea and shut the door.

Their family and friends had come running and now stood in the front room and glanced at each other with bleak expressions. They heard the two men speaking in the other room, but couldn't understand what they were saying.

The men they had gathered to form a search party were standing on the board sidewalk in front of the office and as time went on more and more people came to join the group.

Thea's father-in-law was anxiously pacing, but he came to an abrupt stop and flinched when they all heard her scream in agony. He put his head down and a hand over his eyes as he tried to calm down. At least they now knew she was alive.

Some time later they heard Adam speaking, then Thea's voice answering him. But they still couldn't understand what was being said. They heard the two voices go on until they plainly heard Thea, as she shouted "NO!" Then Matt raised his own voice to order Adam from the room. The door opened and he came out.

Ben could see that his son was shaking so badly he almost staggered as he walked toward them. At first his father thought it was in reaction to Thea's scream, but then he realized the younger man was shaking with fury.

Adam stopped where he was for a moment and took several deep breaths, as he seemed to calm down somewhat.

"What happened?" Ben said quietly, not wanting to feed his son's rage by showing his own anger.

"She was attacked," Adam said as he moved to Thea's desk and leaned a hip on the side and folded his arms.

Ben flinched again, "Did he...?"

"He tried to, but she laughed at him. So he beat her until he thought she was dead," he said and put his hands over his face for a moment as the rest of the men in the room gasped in shock. Then their expressions hardened.

"Who did it?" Nate said in a voice that none of them had ever heard from him before.

Adam dropped his hands from his face and turned to his friend. "She won't tell me. She says I'll go find him and kill him if she does." He shook his head as he stared down at her desk.

Hoss cleared his throat, "How is she?"

"She has a broken nose, three cracked ribs, a concussion, and she had a dislocated shoulder. You have to put something like that right as quickly as possible so we did. That's why she screamed," he stopped and clenched his jaw. "And that's not even the worst of it. The bastard crushed her hands," he choked out and looked at his father, his face etched with pain.

"Her hands, Pa! They're such a mess she may not even be able to use them at all again," he said in anguish and bent over to cover his face again.

His friends and family looked away then, unable to stand watching his stark agony, so no one saw him straighten up and flip open a leather-bound book that was on the top of Thea's desk. He quickly ran his eyes down the rows until he found the last entry. "Gretchen Mueller," he read and his fury burst back into full life again.

Matt stepped out of the treatment room then and slowly came down the hall as the men turned toward him. "She's still in a lot of pain, but holding her own right now," he said in answer to their unspoken questions.

He glanced around the room and said, "Where's Adam?"

The other men instinctively looked toward the spot where Adam had just been, then glanced around until Matt spotted him through the office window. The other men turned their eyes in that direction to see Adam entering the saloon while the group that had been standing outside followed.

"Oh God," Matt said and stepped up to Thea's desk and saw the open appointment book. He turned to Hoss.

"You better go after him, I think he's figured out who did it."

Nate opened the door and started running after his best friend. The rest of the men, except Matt, hurried after him.

Adam burst through the front door of the saloon and made a beeline toward a tall, stout, middle-aged man with dark blonde hair. Without saying a word he came up behind Abraham Mueller, grabbed him by the shoulders and yanked backward. The man was still sitting in the chair as it crashed to the floor on its back.

He looked up, stunned, as Adam grabbed his arm and pulled it up so he could get a close look at his hand. The man's knuckles were badly split and black bruises had already formed all over.

The man on the floor shifted, trying to get up when something metal fell out of his pocket and landed at Adam's feet. He looked down to see the pink diamond ring he had given Thea for Christmas. Adam's eyes went wide with pure hatred and he reached down to haul the man to his feet then kneed him in the groin. Abraham crumpled to the floor only to be hauled upright again.

Grabbing the groaning man by his throat, Adam pulled him forward until they were almost nose-to-nose. "Do you realize how easy it would be for me to just squeeze a little harder and you would never take another breath?" he said in the coldest voice anyone there had ever heard. Then Nate and the other men rushed in, but had to fight their way through the crowd standing by the door.

"I asked you a question!" he roared in the other man's face. Abe nodded as best he could and stared back at Adam with terror in his eyes.

"But that would be too easy and quick." He let go of Abe's neck, shoved him up against the wall and began to beat him with every bit of strength and skill he possessed.

He had already inflicted some major damage on his wife's attacker before his friends and family finally managed to break through the crowd and rushed to drag him away.

"Let me go! I'm going to kill that son-of-a..." he shouted as the seven men struggled to keep a hold on him. He kept managing to knock them down so finally they had to drag him to the floor and sit on him to hold him in one place. But Adam's fury had not cooled at all and his body was still tensed, ready for any opportunity to go after the other man again.

Ben stepped back from the pile of men on the floor and turned to look at Abraham. He was curled up on the floor by the wall and lay there groaning, his face covered with blood. He stared at the man with cold black eyes then turned away. He looked at the six men still holding Adam down and nodded toward the table they usually gathered around, then he bent down to pick up the ring.

As soon as the weight was off him Adam began to struggle wildly to pull free. They dragged him over and shoved him down into a chair behind the table and up against the wall. He immediately sprang back up, but was pushed back down again. He kept struggling for a while, but eventually seemed to get himself under control as he suddenly relaxed.

They cautiously took their hands off him, but still leaned over him, ready to pile on top of him again if necessary. Adam looked away and raised his hands in a "back off," gesture. Then they finally relaxed.

Roy came through the door then and Ben hurried up to him to explain as Adam slowly tensed again. He watched closely as Abe was hauled to his feet. Roy took him by the arm and started leading him out of the saloon.

Adam's eyes, seething with hatred, followed Abe as they passed the table, but then he looked away and put his head down. So no one was prepared when he suddenly jumped up on the table, ran across it, and leapt onto Abe's back.

Roy was knocked aside as the two men crashed to the floor and Adam only had the chance to turn the other man over and punch him in the face a few times before he was dragged away again.

"Get him OUT of here!" Ben shouted and Hoss put his arm around Adam's neck and began to haul him out the door and across the street to the doctor's office. The deputies and his family followed so they were there to prevent him from breaking free again.

Nate put a hand on either side of his friend's head and forced him to make eye contact. "Stop it Adam or I'll be forced to cuff you and I don't want to do that!"

That finally got through to him. He stopped struggling and just stood there quietly until Hoss let him go. Adam immediately turned, walked the rest of the way to the office, and went inside.

The seven men just stood in the street for a bit, staring at each other and feeling drained as well as deeply shaken. They had never seen Adam like that before and each man knew he would have killed Abe if they hadn't stopped him.

Nate took a deep breath then blew it out as he looked around the group. "Hoss, Mike, I want you to stay by the office front door and make sure he doesn't get away again." The two men nodded and went inside to stand on either side of the door.

"Dylan," Nate continued, "you and John guard the back door, we have to assume that in his furious state we won't be able to trust Adam to act rationally." They turned and quietly went in.

He turned to Adam's father and other brother next, "Mr. Cartwright? Joe? Would you two go in and see if Thea is conscious? We need to have her identify Mueller as her attacker as quickly as possible." Ben looked in the tall man's blue eyes for a moment, his expression plainly saying he didn't want that man anywhere near his daughter-in-law again. Then he nodded and went to do as Nate asked.

Joe started to follow him, but Nate stopped him with a hand on his arm. "If she is, I need you to go back to the saloon and tell Roy to bring that monster here." Joe steadily looked the other man in the eye and nodded before he turned away.

He was back in a moment, but didn't say anything as he went past and headed for the Sage Brush. Nate winced at Joe's expression understanding that the younger man had just seen what condition Thea was in and was sickened by it.

Matt and Ben were in a corner of the office, deeply involved in a hushed conversation as the Deputy Marshal went in, then paused to mentally brace himself before going into the treatment room. He had assumed that Adam would be with his wife and he was. Nate hesitated in the doorway, watching Adam gently bathing Thea's face with a soft cloth and cold water.

"Come on in, Nate," he said without looking up from his task. "I've regained most of my sanity now so it's safe." The corners of Adam's mouth actually turned up a little when he glanced at his deputy.

"I imagine you've already sent someone to Roy, asking him to bring that bastard here so Thea can identify him."

Nate nodded his head and looked down at Thea. He stifled a gasp when he saw how bruised and battered her face was and said, "I thought she was conscious?"

"I am," Thea said slowly in a muffled voice and opened her swollen eyes as far as she could. Nate couldn't even see them through the narrow slits, which was all she could manage.

"Nate?" she said and tried to turn her head, but winced.

He stepped closer to the table to lean over her, "Yes it's me, Thea."

"Oh there you are," she said then gasped when he brushed one of her hands with his hip.

"God, I'm sorry!"

She actually tried to give him a reassuring smile, but her lips were so badly split and bruised she couldn't. He looked down at the hand he had brushed and blanched. It was a raw, scraped, swollen mess. He took the time then to catalogue the injuries he could see and turned even paler when he saw finger marks around her throat and wrists.

Adam was watching him and smoothed Thea's hair back from her forehead as he said, "Nate's going to be the lead on this Thea and he has to see what was done to you."

"I know," she said and closed her eyes.

Adam came around to shut the door and then gently moved the blanket aside. Nate took one look and had to close his eyes and swallow hard to resist the urge to vomit. Then he clenched his jaw and opened his eyes again to note each abrasion, finger mark, cut, and bruise. He nodded to Adam and he covered her quickly.

"She must have fought him like a wildcat," Nate said.

Adam nodded, "That's my girl," he said and they both heard Thea clear her throat.

"I suppose the beating would have been less severe if I hadn't resisted," Thea said in her hoarse, muffled voice. "But I'd rather die first."

"What I don't understand is why? Why did he do this? Just because he's vicious and insane?" Nate asked.

"Yes and no," Thea answered him and tried to open her eyes again, "he is vicious, but he's not insane. He knew exactly what he was doing." She stopped and coughed a little so Adam brought some water to her. He carefully put a hand to the back of her head and helped her take a drink. "This seems familiar," she said then continued with her explanation. "When I arrived his wife was having a miscarriage and there is no doubt whatsoever that it was the result of a beating. I actually saw a boot imprint on her abdomen. Seemingly he likes to keep the fun going by stomping when he gets tired of punching. That's what he did to my hands."

Nate was turning a little green at this point and Adam actually gave him a small smile. "I know this is hard, but you have to hear it all."

His deputy nodded as Adam helped his wife take another drink. "He came back just as I finished with Gretchen and was making her as comfortable as I could," Thea went on. "One look at my face and he realized I knew what he had done. So he tried to kill me and make it look like a random attack by someone demented."

She sighed then and fell silent, letting her eyes close.

Adam came around the table to open the door and the two men stepped out. Hoss said his older brother's name and came over to hand him a package. "Marie, Dora, and Cassandra brought some clothes for Thea a little while ago. They wanted to see her, but I sent them home."

"Thank you," Adam said and put a hand on his older brother's shoulder to give it a hard squeeze. He started to turn away, but stopped and turned back. "I'm sorry I lost control like that. Did I hurt you?"

Hoss's face lit up, happy that Adam was himself again. "Only my reputation for bein' smart," he said with a grin. "You pulled a dirty trick on us jumpin' up on the table and runnin' across it like that."

Adam looked up at Hoss, "I lost my mind. All I could see was what he did to her and I just couldn't stop myself, so thank YOU for stopping me."

The big man just looked back at him for a moment with solemn blue eyes. "Everyone needs someone to stop them from doin' somethin' stupid now and again, even you."

His older brother grinned at him and softly said, "You understand, don't you?"

Hoss nodded, "I kept thinkin' about how I'd feel if it was Dora."

Their eyes met in perfect understanding and Hoss reached out to pull Adam into a brief, hard hug. Then he let go and turned quickly to take his position next to the door again. Adam went back into the treatment room to carefully help Thea into the long-sleeved, loose robe and slippers the women in his house had brought.

He had just finished when he heard the front door open, Roy's voice, and the sound of hurrying feet. Sighing, he looked at his wife. "Are you sure you want to do this?

"Yes," she said calmly. "But I don't want him in here, I'll go out there." She slowly sat up and swung her legs over the side of the table. "You can help me down, but that's it. I have to do this by myself."

She gasped when her feet met the floor and she leaned back against him for a minute. Then she walked slowly, and painfully through the door with her husband following closely behind. When they saw her coming almost every man in the room instinctually took a step forward to come help her, but Adam waved them back. "She wants to do this herself."

Thea didn't stop until she was standing right in front of her attacker and she looked up at him through the narrow slits the swelling would allow. She tipped her head slowly from side to side, taking a good look at him then shocked them all by spitting in his face and saying, "That's him."

She took a few steps back as the man glared down at her, "Lying bitch!"

Thea actually managed a rusty laugh as he tried to lunge toward her, but he was being held firmly by Hoss and Joe. Then Ben came to step in between them. "I believe that's all you need to lock him up Roy," Adam said as his father turned around, put his hands on Thea's shoulders, and gently began to guide her back to the treatment room. But she resisted as much as she could saying, "Wait!"

"Adam, rip the cover off of one of those composition books behind you and bring it to me," she said and he quickly did as she asked. When he brought it to her she leaned forward and opened her mouth as far as she could. It took a second for him to understand what she was doing, but then he did, so he carefully placed a corner of the square in her mouth. She bit down on it as hard as she could then let go.

He looked down at her with admiration as he asked, "Where?"

"His left shoulder," she said and turned in Ben's arms to look at her attacker again.

"Let's have a look at his left shoulder Hoss," Adam said and the two men holding Mueller tightened their grip as Adam unbuttoned the man's shirt and shoved it aside. He held the cardboard up to the teeth marks on Abe's left shoulder and they matched perfectly. "Roy?" Adam said as he stepped back and handed him the cardboard. Roy compared them too, and then looked at Adam.

"Perfect match," the Sheriff said.

"I marked him on purpose so there'd be no doubt," Thea said in a surprisingly strong, but hoarse voice, even though her knees had started to shake.

"Help me up to him, Pa," she asked and Ben reluctantly did so. Looking up at Mueller again she said, "You thought I was dead, but I wasn't. You thought you destroyed my hands, but you haven't." She raised her devastated hands and slowly began to clench them into fists as she bit back a whimper from the pain. "See?" she choked out against the agony and let her fingers relax.

"You deserve to hang for what you've done and if I had my way I'd be the one on the scaffold to pull the lever," she spat out at him and suddenly went limp in Ben's arms. He swung her up and carried her into the treatment room where Matt was already waiting for them. He had known that Thea would be passing out from the pain eventually.

"You'll definitely be going to prison, Mueller." Adam said before turning away. "Nate, charge him with manslaughter, attempted murder, attempted rape, assault, and grand larceny," he finished and Nate nodded.

"I understand the attempted murder, attempted rape, and assault charges, but not the manslaughter and grand larceny." Roy said.

"Oh he killed someone today, it just wasn't Thea. He beat his wife so badly she miscarried. Thea saw a boot print on the woman's abdomen - that's why he tried to kill her. The grand larceny is for stealing her ring, it's worth more than three hundred dollars."

Hoss instinctively squeezed the man's arm harder and Mueller groaned in pain. "I know how you feel Hoss, but you better ease up or you'll break his arm," Adam said and Hoss did so, but his jaw was still clenched and his normally mild blue eyes sparked with rage. Joe was staring at the man with deep disgust, his face flushed red with fury.

"Roy, I want him locked up in one of your cells and you keep the keys with you at all times. I don't want any access to him because if I do, I can't guarantee you he won't be dead by morning."

The Sheriff nodded and motioned for Hoss and Joe to follow him out the door and they did, dragging the badly beaten man between them.

"Come on boys, let's go get started on the paperwork," Nate said and opened the office door. The other deputies went out and Nate was about to follow when he heard Adam say, "Make sure you do it right."

Nate looked back at him and gave him a wide smile. "Yes Boss," was all he said and left.

Adam stood and went behind Thea's desk to wearily drop into her chair. He leaned back, stretched his legs out in front of him, and stared at the ceiling with his hands lying limply in his lap. For a while he went over every event of the day, then his thoughts turned to what could happen if Mueller filed charges against him for assault. Not only could he lose his badge, he could possibly go to jail himself.

He searched his heart, looking for any feelings of regret and found none. "Damn it," he said softly to himself, "I'm not sorry, and I would do it again in a heartbeat." He smiled remembering the satisfying feeling of his fist crushing Mueller's nose. Shaking his head at himself, he stood up and started for the treatment room where Thea was arguing with Matt because she wanted to go home and he wanted her to stay at least one night for observation. Pa was staying out of the argument.

Taking a deep breath Adam opened the door and went in to settle the question.