Johnny and Dally ran to the barn as fast as they could. Neither one of them considering the danger, they ran inside and started opening the stalls. The horses bolted out into the pasture, more than one of them nearly trampling Johnny and Dally in their fear and desperation to get out.
"Dal!" Johnny shouted from the back corner of the barn that was starting to fill with smoke.
Dally ran to where Johnny was trying to pry a loose board off of the wall.
"What are you doing?" Dally yelled. "C'mon, we gotta get out of here! The horses are out!"
Johnny kept working at the board untill it came loose and then Dally saw what he was after. Five tiny kittens stared up at them emitting tiny cries of fear that they could barely hear over the crackling of the fire.
The boys scooped up the kittens and ran for the door. Choking on smoke, they headed away from the burning barn and back towards the smaller shed near the back of the propery where Tom and Will stored some gardening tools.
They hadn't gotten far when an adult cat came running past them heading right towards the burning horse barn.
Johnny swore.
"What's that cat doing?" Dally yelled.
"It's the mother." Johnny started to hand his kittens over to Dally.
Dally stopped him. "No, here, take these." he dumped his kittens into Johnny's arms ignoring his protests. "Put them over by the shed door and go get the hose." Dally said remembering there was a spicket and a fairly long hose behind the shed where Tom and Will would bathe the horses.
Johnny struggled with the five kittens and eventually was able to place them all safely in front of the shed. Then he ran around to the back to find the hose.
Dally chased the mother cat all the way to the barn and right back to where the kittens had been. He could barely see anymore, the barn was so full of smoke, but he knew where she'd gone. He reached into the hole in the wall and grabbed the cat who promptly bit him. Realizing her kittens were no longer in the wall, she escaped Dally's grasp and went running back outside.
Dally followed, nearly bumping into Tom on his way out.
"Dally! What are you doing out here? Are you all right? Where's Johnny?"
"By the shed, he's getting the hose," Dally said glancing towards the shed. He didn't see Johnny at the moment, but he saw Will around the other side of the barn throwing buckets of water from the horse trough onto the flames. He ran over to help and Tom followed.
Dally heard sirens. Tom and Will must have seen the flames from the house and called the fire department.
"What happened?" Will asked, franticly.
"I don't know," Dally shouted to be heard over the roaring fire and the approaching sirens "We were talking, and we heard the horses and-"
He glanced back over his shoulder towards the shed. What the hell was taking Johnny so long? Dally threw down the bucket he'd been using to help douse the flames and ran off towards the smaller building.
"Johnny?" he called. He saw the kittens cowering by the doorway. The mother cat who must have heard them crying was there too. She hissed at Dally as he ran by.
Dally hurried to the back of the shed where the water spicket was.
What he saw behind the old structure turned his insides to ice.
Maria Cade was lying sprawled out on the ground. Her lifeless eyes stared up at the sky and a trickle of blood oozed from the single gunshot wound in the middle of her head.
Dally looked up in time to see a beat up old car speeding off down the road.
For what seemed like an eternity, Dally couldn't move. He just stood there frozen. Tom had been right behind him though and grabbed his arm.
"Go back to the house!" He ordered. "WILL!" He yelled, running back towards the barn, Dally in tow. "WILL! Let the firemen get it, get in the truck, NOW!"
Dally followed them.
Tom turned to him, still running. "Dally, NO! Go to the house!"
Dally just looked at him, he was too afraid to be angry, but not too afraid to be defiant.
Tom realized quickly that he was fighting a losing battle he didn't have time for. Dally was going with them come hell or high water. He cringed as Dally climbed into the truck beside them.
Tom was telling Will what he and Dally had seen as he sped down the road in the truck. The two of them were talking franticly as Dally consciously reminded himself to suck in air.
Robert Cade was a murderer. There was no denying it now. The body behind the shed was no accident. And now he had Johnny. And apparently, a loaded gun.