Chapter 40 – Rock Creek
It took over a week, but Jack and Elizabeth were able to get into a routine. Bill had healed and was doing great. Jesse Flynn had decided to stick around Hope Valley. Lee had even taken a chance and gave him a job at the sawmill. Jack knew that he hadn't had to head out of town for work in a long time and he was worried. He knew that part of that reason was because he had been injured, but he worried that since Bill was back to full time work that he could be called out of town. Jack didn't want to share his concerns with Elizabeth because he didn't want to worry her. Little did Jack know, but Elizabeth had been thinking that same thing. She knew that the last time that Jack had been called out of town for work was before they were married. She knew that at some point that he would have to go.
It was Wednesday, March 1st and Jack had just returned from rounds. He stopped by the mercantile to check any messages like he did every morning. Normally there wasn't anything and if there was, it was important. Jack walked in and didn't see Ned, but his daughter Katie. She checked and Jack didn't have any messages. He let her know that he would be at the jail if anything came in. Jack had a bad feeling that morning that something was going on. He couldn't shake that feeling, but found nothing amiss on rounds. Jack had barely gotten down the steps outside when he heard Ned calling his name. Jack turned and went up a couple steps to meet Ned.
"This just came in." Ned said. "It is marked urgent."
"Thank you." Jack said.
He took the message and stepped away from the people that were coming into the mercantile before opening the message. Just as he feared, something had happened. The details were sketchy, but he was needed at the settlement outside of Rock Creek. Jack had never been up there, but he didn't have a good feeling about things. There was no full time law enforcement in Rock Creek and Jack sometimes checked in there, but hadn't in awhile. Lately, the guys from Benson Hills had been looking in on Rock Creek. Jack headed to the jail and let Bill know what was going on. He then headed home and packed a few things that he would need. The message said to plan for up to a week, but he planned for extra. He packed his clothes and added his sketchbooks to his messenger bag along with his extra notepad, portfolio and pencils. He packed some additional food and headed back to town. He loaded his lunch into his saddle bag. He added his tent and bedroll to the back of his saddle. He then added a second box of ammo for both his pistol and rifle. Once he had everything ready, he headed to the school to let Elizabeth know that he was heading out. He dreaded telling her, but also knew that he needed to tell her in person. Jack rode up to the schoolhouse and secured Sergeant to the railing and headed up the stairs. He knocked on the door and waited. Elizabeth wasn't sure what was going on, so she hurried to the back of the schoolhouse and saw Jack standing there in uniform and with Sergeant.
"What is going on?" Elizabeth asked.
"I have been called out of town." Jack said. "I will be gone at least a few days, maybe a week. I don't want to go, but please understand I have to go."
"I don't want you to go." Elizabeth said. "But I understand that you have to go. I knew that this day would be coming and we would have to deal with it."
Elizabeth excused herself for a second and asked the children to read quietly for a few minutes. Elizabeth then slipped her coat on and stepped back outside. She shut the door and pulled Jack close. He wrapped his arms around her, then leaned down and kissed her. He didn't want to leave without a kiss. Elizabeth had wanted that as well and the reason that she had stepped outside and shut the door. Jack finally pulled away and said that he would be back as soon as he could. Elizabeth stood there at the top of the stairs and watched Jack ride off. She said a quick prayer and took a deep breath before she headed back into the schoolhouse.
The rest of the day, Elizabeth did her best to focus and not think about Jack. She dismissed the children and didn't want to go home to an empty house. She lingered at the schoolhouse as long as she felt that she could. She then headed to the cafe to talk to Abigail. Abigail had seen Jack ride off late that morning and worried about Elizabeth. Abigail invited Elizabeth to sit back in the kitchen as she got things ready for supper. She poured Elizabeth a cup of tea and they talked for a bit. Elizabeth felt better after she left Abigail. She knew that Jack was good at his job and that he had healed from his injury weeks ago. She was just worried because this was the first time that Jack had gone out of town on business alone since they were married. She worried about his safety and would until she was able to see him again. Elizabeth walked the short distance back to the house before it got too dark. She stoked the fire and made sure that the door was bolted. She fixed a sandwich and some soup for supper. She really didn't want to cook for herself. She knew that she would have to cook at some point. Elizabeth curled up with a book that night. Not only did she not want to cook, but she really didn't want to sleep in her bed alone.
Jack made good time to Rock Creek. He stopped and talked to the mayor to see if he could get additional information about what happened. Jack learned that a number of the men that were at the settlement had been drinking and causing trouble. There were reports of fights and things being stolen from one person or another. Jack learned that it was mainly three families involved. Two of the wives were sisters and a cousin to the third. Jack wasn't happy about stepping into a family fight, but when it started endangering others it was no longer just a private family matter. Before heading out for the ride to the settlement, Jack talked to a few other people in town and tried to gather as much information as he could. He learned that the men at the settlement worked at the nearby mine. Not many people in Rock Creek knew the people at the settlement, they tended to keep to themselves, only coming in for supplies. Although some of the men spent time at the saloon. Jack stopped at the saloon and was able to confirm that a couple of the men had been spending more time there and they had been fighting among themselves, but not exactly causing trouble to others. Having gathered all the information that he could, Jack stopped at the local mercantile and sent a message back to Hope Valley so that Elizabeth knew that he had arrived safely. He also picked up a couple things and then headed to the settlement.
Jack was grateful that it was still daylight when he arrived at the settlement. He set up his campsite and gathered some wood. He wanted to be separate from the settlement to maintain that he wasn't taking sides. Once he got his camp set up, he headed into the settlement. He knew that they could see him while he had set up his tent and gathered some wood. He did it all in plain sight of them, he didn't have anything to hide and wanted them to see that he wasn't trying to sneak up on them. They also saw that he was a Mountie because he had his red serge. When he walked up to the settlement, the children hid behind their parents' legs. Jack started by asking for the three families in question. When they were identified, Jack took time to talk to each family separately to get their side of what happened and why he had been called out there. After speaking to each family, he called everyone to talk for a moment. He advised the three families to stay away from each other until he said otherwise. He also asked that other families not talk about what was going on and that he would need to talk to each of them, but that could wait since it had been a long day. Jack also let them know that he didn't want any more trouble that night.
With that, Jack excused himself, headed back to his campsite and got a fire going so he could heat something up to eat. He went over what he had learned, but wasn't sure what he could do. The stories didn't make sense. He knew that he needed to gather more information before he had a clear picture of what was going on. He made a few notes and wrote a few questions that he wanted to ask. As Jack sat by the fire, his thoughts drifted to Elizabeth. He hadn't even been gone a full day and he missed her something terrible. He wanted to hold her close and smell the lavender scent of her shampoo. He knew that he wasn't going to sleep well until he had her back in his arms. He opened his sketchbook and did the next best thing. If he couldn't be near Elizabeth, he would draw a picture of her.
Elizabeth woke up on Thursday morning on the couch where she had fallen asleep the night before. It was still early, so Elizabeth heated some water and washed up. She then changed for the day and made some breakfast. She got ready for school and headed out. Elizabeth was sore and tired from having slept on the couch. She missed Jack and hoped that he would be home soon. She knew that she had to keep busy, but keeping her focus on the children and schoolwork would be hard. She had had a hard time the previous afternoon when she had learned that Jack would be leaving.
Elizabeth decided to change up the lesson plan and have it more interactive so that she would have less down time to think. That meant that she had to redo her lesson plan and the children would get a little more homework than originally planned. Her plan was to assign it over the weekend and hopefully things would be okay and Jack would be back soon. Elizabeth made it until lunch before she started to really worry. She stopped and took a moment to say a prayer for Jack's safety. After she offered a prayer, she tried to refocus and get ready for the afternoon.
That afternoon, it was easier to focus since many of the children needed help with the project that Elizabeth had assigned. Once Elizabeth let school out, she headed to the cafe to spend some time with Abigail. The last thing that Elizabeth wanted to do was head home to a quiet and empty house. Abigail convinced Elizabeth to stay for supper. Elizabeth didn't mind, since she hadn't planned to make anything for supper. It was almost dark when Elizabeth headed home. Since she hadn't slept well the night before, she was tired and headed upstairs to go to bed. Elizabeth didn't want to sleep in their bed alone, but also knew that she couldn't handle another night on the couch. Elizabeth changed for bed, grabbed one of Jack's shirts and crawled under the covers. It didn't take long for sleep to come. Between how tired Elizabeth was and the scent still on Jack's shirt it was easy for her to fall asleep.
Jack woke up Thursday morning just before the sun started to show on the horizon. He saw that the settlement wasn't up yet, so he took his time eating and going over what he had learned the day before. He also spent some time gathering some more wood for his fire for later. When he saw the settlement start to stir, he banked his fire and started for the settlement. He wanted to talk to people and figured that they would be more willing to talk if he helped them with their daily tasks. He also didn't want people leaving before he had a chance to talk to him. He wasn't sure how he had been received the day before, he saw some of the looks on the faces of the people, but for the most part, they had tried to hide their reactions to him. Jack was okay with that. He knew that he was viewed as an outsider, but that didn't mean that he still wouldn't try and do his job and do it to the best of his ability. He also knew that the sooner that he did his job, he would get to head home to his wife.
There were some older children gathering wood. Jack went up to help them and try to talk to them at the same time. Jack knew that children were the most honest and that if he wanted some information, the children would give him what he was looking for without an agenda or a skewed view. He went up and introduced himself to a couple of the older children. He asked their names and said that they could call him Mountie Jack if they wanted. He also said that he wanted to talk to them, but he didn't want them to get in trouble so he would talk to them while he helped them gather wood. He asked them about themselves and where they had come from. He asked them if they understood the importance of telling the truth especially to people in authority. The children all understood that he was law enforcement and that it was important to tell the truth, especially to him. Jack was glad that he had gotten the children to talk to him and that they seemed to trust him. He knew that showing them that he didn't mean them harm was a huge step in getting the information that he needed.
While talking to the kids over the course of a couple hours, Jack learned that the problem seemed to be between the two sisters and their husbands. One of the boys, Alec, said that the men usually worked the same shifts at the mine, but lately one has been home a lot more than the other and that had been when the trouble started. Alec told Jack that the wives of the men are his mother's cousin and he didn't want to get anyone in trouble, but he was scared of one of the men. Jack asked him which one and Alec told him that he was scared of Dimitri because he started drinking more after he got hurt over a month ago at the mine. Alec explained that was why Dimitri had been working shorter hours. Alec also told Jack that Dimitri blamed his brother-in-law for his injury. Alec didn't know what had happened, but Dimitri started drinking more when he was in camp and was angry all the time. Alec also told Jack that Dimitri would hit others when he had been drinking and most people were scared of Dimitri.
After Jack talked to Alec, he talked to a couple of the other children and they all agreed with Alec about Dimitri. They added a few other details. Jack thanked the children for their information and they thanked Jack for his help. Armed with the new information, Jack went to find the sisters, Polina and Dasha. He found Dasha first. He asked her about her brother-in-law and what the real problem was. Dasha explained that Dimitri had accused her husband Petar of not protecting him when a couple of beams fell in the mine. Dimitri ended up getting hurt and was required to take some time off and then to work shorter shifts than before. Dasha also told Jack that Petar had told Dimitri that he needed to stop drinking so much and that he would be able to work the longer shifts. Jack didn't want to embarrass Polina or Dasha, but Jack needed to know.
"I don't want you to get upset." Jack said. "But I have to ask. Has Dimitri ever hit you or your children?"
"Once." Dasha said. "He had been drinking. He was out of money because Polina took and hid it. He wanted more money so that he could go into town and get more alcohol and when I wouldn't give it to him he hit me. Petar stepped in, but he didn't hit Dimitri."
"Thank you for being honest with me." Jack said.
Jack left Dasha and went to find Polina. He wanted to get her side of things. While trying to find Polina, he learned that after Petar and Dimitri had left that morning, no one had seen Polina. Everyone assumed that she had gone into town, but no one could be sure. Jack was worried. He headed back to his campsite, saddled Sergeant and headed back into Rock Creek. He wanted to check a few things and also send a message to Benson Hills. He learned that Polina hadn't been in town and after he got his messages off to Benson Hills, he headed toward the campsite. He needed a plan, but he had to go over the information he had. Before he settled in at his campsite, he spread word that he needed to talk to Polina and the sooner the better, for everyone. Jack was frustrated and didn't want to take it out on Polina, but he also needed to talk to her and couldn't leave until he had.
Jack could see the people of the settlement from his campsite, but he was worried something happened to Polina. He wondered if he should stay there or go look for Polina. He wondered if Dimitri had done something to her. There had been no sign of her on his ride to or from town. Jack took care of his fire and picked up his campsite. He then saddled Sergeant and rode on the trail toward the mine. He was looking for Polina, but figured that if he didn't find her, he could at least check out things at the mine. When he got to the mine, he talked to the superintendent to see what kind of employees Petar and Dimitri were. He learned that Dimitri had had problems and the superintendent was concerned about safety and was the reason that he changed Dimitri's job so that he moved coal instead of digging. Jack talked to both Petar and Dimitri, but it left him with more questions than answers. He left the mine after warning Dimitri that he better get his act together, because he didn't like to have to come out there to settle a family dispute. Jack then made his way back toward the settlement. Looking carefully at the trail once again. He saw no sign of anything wrong. He also didn't see any sign that Polina had been on the trail toward the mine. Jack still didn't have the answers that he needed. He wanted to go home to his wife, but at the same time, he knew that he had to settle things between the families before things got worse. He just wished that he had some more answers.
Jack hated it when he had more questions than answers. He knew that talking to Polina was the key, but if she wanted to remain hidden then it made his job harder. As far as Jack could tell, at that point no crime had been committed, but at the same time he was concerned that things could quickly escalate and get out of hand fast. As Jack made his way back to his campsite, he had formed a plan of what he was going to do and it all depended on if Polina showed or not. Jack was frustrated, so he went back to his campsite to think. He knew what he needed to do, but there wasn't anything he could do at the moment.
