LOST AND FOUND - PART 6

ALLIES

Chapter 47

Evening had come and the sheriff's office was empty except for Adam in his cell. Lying on his back on his cot, he had his hands stacked behind his head and was thinking hard about Abe's murder and the story he had remembered - the story his father had verified earlier in the day.

His memory had been correct. Fifty years ago a man had been shot and killed while in bed asleep. His wife had been next to him, but remained unharmed. She had been left with two girls to take care of and the murder had never been solved.

One girl had married a man named Mueller and the other a man named Sharpe. And now Hannah Mueller's son had also been murdered in a strikingly similar manner. Of course this had to be much, much more than a coincidence.

Adam heard the front door open and he sat up to see Hannah and Sadie enter. He instantly became fully alert, not completely sure what this visit was about. He got to his feet and went to stand by the bars.

Smiling he said, "Ladies, what brings you out tonight?"

The two elderly women smiled back. "We came to see you Adam," Hannah said.

Sadie nodded, "After all, it's our fault you're in here.

Adam stared at them for a moment, then slowly smiled. He took the key he had stolen from Roy's key ring when he had locked himself in earlier in the day from a pocket, unlocked the door then held it open for them. The two women chuckled at his cleverness, came in, and settled themselves on his bunk.

Adam remained standing in front of them as he asked, "So how is it your fault that I'm in here?" He looked down at them with one brow raised and a half smile.

The one woman poked the other in the ribs with an elbow, "Would you look at that innocent expression, Sadie." Hannah chortled.

"My land, he looks as though butter wouldn't melt in his mouth."

They laughed together then Sadie continued, "Better sit yourself down sonny, we need to tell you a thing or two."

Adam laughed himself and left the cell to bring back a chair. He set it down backward, straddled it, and leaned on the back as he grinned at the two bright-eyed women.

"Before you start, please answer one question for me. Which one of you actually shot your father?"

"I told you he was a smart one," Sadie laughed, "and handsome as the devil, too."

Hannah smiled at her sister, "Usually a looker like him doesn't have enough smarts to get in out of the rain. That Thea is a lucky girl."

Adam's brows rose, "You've been to see my wife?"

"Just this afternoon," Sadie answered. "And what a terrible thing Abraham did to her," she shook her head.

"What are you three up to?" he asked anxiously, now that he knew Thea was involved.

"Saving your life and getting you out of jail." Hannah answered him.

"And as for my father," Hannah continued, "you'll just have to go on wondering. We've never told a single soul and we never will."

Sadie leaned toward him then, "You need to understand that Poppa was beating Momma something awful. There was no one who would help so we decided to take care of it ourselves."

"Oh, he was a terrible man," Hannah sighed, "and somehow I married a man almost exactly like him. I never have understood that." She shook her head bewildered.

"Tweren't your fault," Sadie consoled her sister, "You didn't know what he was hidin' from you."

Hannah shrugged, "Doesn't matter now."

Adam suddenly sat up straighter - something had occurred to him. "Wait a minute. If Abe and Gretchen are your children than that means they are first cousins." He couldn't help an expression of distaste from passing over his face.

"Oh no, dear. We really aren't sisters we were just raised that way. We're only cousins, but Sadie here had no family left after her Momma died, so my Momma took her in and we've been sisters in our hearts ever since."

Adam nodded, his sharp eyes looking at them expectantly. "Can you tell me why you did it? Why you killed Abraham?"

Sadie and Hannah glanced at each other and when they turned back to him their eyes were bright with anger.

"He was killing our grandchildren," Sadie said simply while Hannah remained silent. In a moment she hung her head and he could see tears falling. Sadie put her arms around her and tried to comfort her life-long friend.

When her tears finally stopped Hannah raised her head to look at Adam. "I brought that monster into this world and I sent him out again. I should have done it sooner, but I was too weak. Him attacking your wife was the last straw for us. He had to be stopped, just like Poppa."

Not in the least bit shocked, Adam looked at the two elderly women with respect and compassion. They had refused to be victims, even though the act of killing the two men was against the law he couldn't find it in his heart to condemn them for it. They had done what they felt they had to do to stop the killing of the innocent.

All three of them looked up when they heard Roy come in the door. He took one look at the occupants of the cell and hurried over.

"What's going on here?"

"A confession of sorts," Adam replied, not looking at Roy, just continuing to smile at the elderly women.

"Oh yes, we confess everything freely and completely" Hannah said to Roy while Sadie nodded vigorously.

"But we don't really have time to go over that again," Sadie said. "Aaron and six of his cousins will be here soon to take Adam away and hang him."

"What!" Roy almost exploded while Adam remained calm and just waited for the ladies to continue.

Hannah shocked the sheriff by chuckling. "But you don't have to worry about that, I'm sure Thea has taken care of everything by now."

"Oh God," Adam said as he stood and looked around frantic with the idea of Thea being in danger again.

Sadie was just about to reassure him when the front door opened and Barbara came in with Thea leaning heavily on her arm.

Adam breathed a sigh of relief at seeing her then was out of the cell and picking her up in his arms in only a few seconds. He carried her back, turned the chair he had been sitting in around, then put her down. He went down on one knee in front of her and looked up into her face anxiously.

"Are you alright?" he said noting how her complexion had started to take on a grayish cast and her eyes were dark with pain.

She nodded and automatically put out a hand to touch him, but then let her misshapen hands fall limply back into her lap again. "I'll be fine once you are out of here and safe," she said then looked toward the front door when it opened and three women came in. No sooner had they closed the door and moved into the center of the room than it opened again as two more came in.

Adam stood and looked at the women with narrowed eyes, then back to his wife's face. She just smiled at him and shrugged as six more women came in. Then he started to get the idea and couldn't help but laugh at the cleverness of their plan.

A steady stream of women was filling the room and the overflow began to move into the cell. Barbara had pulled down the shades on all the windows and the room remained reasonably quiet as the women only spoke in hushed voices.

When the stream finally stopped Barbara stepped up on a chair and they all turned to her. "Ladies, they should be here very soon, so please no more talking, stay alert, and stick with the plan. We can pull this off if we just remember the aim here is that no one else gets hurt." The crowd of women nodded almost as one then turned to face the back door, which had been unlocked and left only partially closed.

Adam moved to stand in front of Thea to shield her if anything should go wrong, but she would have none of that and rose to step forward and stand beside him. He put his arm around her shoulders and encouraged her to lean into him. She did, and they all waited in silence.

When Mueller and his men reached the back door to the jail they immediately saw that it wasn't completely closed. Without stopping to think as usual, Aaron shoved it open and the seven men rushed inside. The women were waiting and ready.

Each man was grabbed and pulled into the crowd, his weapon taken, and then he was pushed and shoved to keep him off balance until each one stumbled into an open area by the front door.

When the crowd spit the last man out, all movement ceased and the women just watched the men with impassive faces for a few moments waiting to see what their reactions would be. The men stared back in disbelief.

At some unseen signal, the crowd of women parted and Aaron saw his mother standing in the cell doorway. Adam was right behind her with his hands on her shoulders.

"Ma?" he said, not understanding what was going on.

His mother slowly walked up to him, then reached up with a strong, work- hardened hand and slapped him in the face.

"Is this how I raised you? Stirring your cousins up into helping you kill an innocent man?"

"He's not innocent! He murdered Abe."

"No he didn't! I did, and I'd do it again if I had to."

Aaron just stared down at her with stricken eyes. "Ma, how..." he started to say, but his voice died. His mother just looked back at him distastefully then swept her hard gaze across the rest of the men.

"Get out!" she spat at them then turned to walk back through the crowd. The narrow aisle closed behind her as her remaining son looked on in dismay. When she reached the cell doorway Adam was still there waiting for her, his face tight with anger at her son and etched with lines of pain, in deep sympathy for her own. She stood in front of him with her head down while silent tears of shame for what her sons had done fell. He put his arms around her and gave her someone other than Sadie to lean on for the first time in her life.

The crowd of women began to slowly move forward then, and the seven men retreated through the front door, dragging a still stunned Aaron Mueller with them.

When the door slammed shut behind them everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief and the women looked at each other, not quite believing it had worked. To their credit, there was no laughter or voices raised in celebration. They just began to slowly move into the cell to press a hand to Thea's shoulder or to kiss her cheek. Her eyes overflowed with tears of gratitude and relief, the first tears she had allowed herself to cry since she came back to consciousness the day before. Adam still held Hannah and he nodded his silent thanks to each woman who paused to meet his eyes.

The crowd slowly melted away in twos and threes until only the two elderly women, Adam, Thea, Barbara, and Roy were left.

Roy had wisely stayed uninvolved having retreated to a corner by the cell with Barbara from the beginning. Now, the two looked at each other with pleased smiles.

Adam had an arm around Hannah's shoulders as he guided her back to sit next to her sister and friend when Roy came to stand in the cell doorway. After Hannah was settled he said, "Adam, take your wife home."

For a brief moment Adam almost felt torn, as though he would be abandoning the two elderly women. But they both looked up at him with eyes that were bright again and expressions that told him to take care of his wife. He smiled back and leaned down to kiss each one on the cheek, then turned to pick Thea up and carried her out the front door with Barbara following closely behind.

Hannah and Sadie watched them go and when the door shut behind them Hannah said, "If only I was about 30 years younger."

Sadie shook her head laughing at her friend, "You could be 40 or 50 years younger and it wouldn't make any difference. Those two are permanently joined and God help anyone who ever tries to get in the way." Then she turned to give her friend a knowing look, "But I DID notice you hung on to him as long as you could!"

Her sister raised her eyes toward heaven and grinned. "Wouldn't you?" she asked in a reasonable tone of voice and the two laughed until they were out of breath.

Thea had laid her head on Adam's shoulder and ground her teeth against the pain as he carried her down the street. He was about to stop at the office she shared with Matt, but she whispered, "Please, I just want to go home," as tears of weakness and pain slid down her face. He turned to Barbara and she stepped up to kiss Thea on the cheek.

"Take her home," she said and stood there for a moment watching them continue down the street until they reached the house and he carried her in through the front door. Sighing with fatigue, but with a heart glad that everything had worked out well, she turned and hurried down a side street to her own home.

Adam didn't stop until he had carried her into their room and carefully laid her down on their bed. Tears of pain were still seeping from the corners of her eyes, but he knew that removing her restrictive garments would alleviate some of that pain. He was very careful and soon she sighed in some relief, as she now lay on the bed in just her chemise.

He reached to pull the covers over her, but stopped for a moment, feeling furious again for each bruise, cut, abrasion, and finger mark that stood out starkly against her white skin. He sincerely hoped that Abraham Mueller was at that moment experiencing eternal torment, while at the same time his heart still bled for Hannah. Shaking his head, he gently pulled the covers over his wife but carefully kept her arms and bandaged hands outside. He knelt next to the bed, gently touched his lips to her hand and began to pray that he would never have to see her cry such helpless tears from pain again.

But in the morning he had to watch as she cried tears from a different kind of pain when the news reached them that both Hannah and Sadie had passed on while they slept, sharing one cot in their jail cell and holding each other's hands.

A little more than a month later on a bright sunny afternoon, Thea was standing at the counter in the kitchen flipping through her recipe book. She couldn't help but smile looking down at her now almost completely healed hands.

Once again, Matt had shaken his head at her speedy recovery. He couldn't believe it, even though she had pointed out that her hands had always been very flexible - what some would call double-jointed. That flexibility had saved them from breaking.

She had started working with her hands as soon as possible, first in just trying to take care of herself. Needing help with even the most basic of activities was more humiliating to her fiercely independent spirit than anything else. So she had forced herself through the pain and was soon self-sufficient.

After that she concentrated on building up strength, then moved on to control by filleting, dicing, chopping, and de-boning everything she cooked. Now she could cut paper-thin slices of anything. She smiled remembering how her family had been watching her closely and carefully, actually worrying that she would cut off a finger! Shaking her head she focused on the book again.

Suddenly she straightened up and turned around, certain that someone was watching her. Someone was.

Adam and a large, fluffy white dog stood in the kitchen doorway. Startled, she had taken a quick, deep breath, then let it out slowly as she put a hand to her chest. Her husband spoke when she smiled at them both.

"Theadora, this is Minnie. You two will be spending a lot of time together from now on."

Thea moved toward them, but stopped while still a good distance from them both. She knew better than getting too close to a strange dog. "Oh, Adam! She's gorgeous!" Clasping her hands in front of her, she looked down into the dog's intelligent, friendly blue eyes, then into her husband's. As usual, Thea lost her concentration and found herself thinking about how beautiful HIS were.

"Thea!" he said sharply and she started guiltily. When she focused on his face he was shaking his head. He looked down at the dog.

"Minnie," he said and the dog looked up at him alertly, her ears standing up as she stared at him intently. He beckoned his wife to come closer saying, "Thea, put your hand out, palm up."

The dog took a step forward and began to sniff Thea's hand all over then turned her head to look back at Adam a moment later, questioningly.

"Thea," he said carefully, then said her name again. The dog turned her head back to look at Thea, then back to him again. "Good girl," he said and patted the side of his thigh. The dog grinned at them both and took a step back to stand next to him.

"Minnie is going to be your protection. Just like Balor guards the twins, she will be guarding you." He gave Thea an odd, calculating look. "And that's not all. Anytime you want to make house calls, you will come over to the office and collect Walt. He will drive you anywhere you need to go." His expression darkened and his eyes became angry. "You will NEVER go on house calls by yourself again whether they are in town, or out. You will NOT do something so foolish again. Do you understand? No house calls of any kind without Minnie and Walt being with you. No exceptions or excuses. NEVER AGAIN."

"Alright."

He stared, trying to figure out what she was up to - no argument was not the reaction he had expected. She smiled.

"Theadora, what are you smiling about? I mean what I say."

She nodded. "Oh, I know you do and you're absolutely right. No more house calls without Minnie and Walt. I promise," she said as her smile widened and his eyes narrowed.

"I'm sorry I did that and I agree with you, it was a foolish thing to do," she chuckled and his eyes narrowed even more. Her quick acceptance of his edict had him uneasy.

"If you think you'll talk your way around me on this it won't work."

"I have no intention to, and I appreciate it more than you know, especially because of what it means."

He gave her a skeptical look. "Just what DOES it mean?"

She laughed, "It means you looove me," she half sang.

His expression turned dubious. "I'm still angry."

"I know, but that's also because you looove me," she half sang again. Adam rolled his eyes as she moved forward and reached up to pull his head down to kiss him.

"Now you're being nauseating, I'm going back to the office," he said when she pulled away and took one of his hands in both of hers. She started tugging him toward the back stairs.

"Thea, it's not even noon yet."

"Mmm hmm, I know. The babies are taking a nap and everyone else is out of the house," she said while giving him a smoky look through her upper lashes.

"It's the middle of a work day," he argued as he found himself allowing her to pull him toward the steps.

"You're the boss, you can take a little time off if you want to." She had managed to drag him half way across the kitchen. He almost smiled.

"I'm still going to be mad," he warned.

"That's ok because..."

He interrupted, "I know, I know, because I looove you," he said sarcastically. She gave him a cheeky grin over her shoulder when they reached the bottom step.

"Just so we understand each other," he said firmly.

"Oh, we do, we definitely do," she said as she started up.

"Well in that case," he said and swatted her on the behind - she squeaked in surprise, then laughed.

"Get up there girl!" he teased, and then chased her up the stairs. As they ran into their room Minnie entered the hallway and when they shut the door she sighed and took up her guarding position, lying to the side.

A few moments later her ears pricked up when she heard Thea giggling. Minnie sighed again, touched her velvety nose to the door, and then laid her head down on her front paws as she smiled a very big canine smile.