Chapter 21 - Secrets
Chapter 21
Secrets
Danny hesitated at the back door of the sheriff’s station. Every cell in his body wanted to run to Andi. He could tell himself it was to watch over her, but it was more than that. He wanted to be with her, in trouble or at peace. But he realized if there was a back way out of the valley, Bear might be the only one who knew where it was. It was Danny’s duty to get her away from danger. His feelings or his fears didn’t matter. She had to be safe first and this secret path on Holly Rim might be her only way.
Maybe they’d have another time when they’d be just a man and a woman who were attracted to each other. He’d promised he would hold her in a smoky bar and sway to country music. He almost laughed. It would probably be at her goodbye party. He’d hold her close and think of what could have been. They might be fighting trouble now but, in the back of his mind, he was already holding her and dreaming of making love with a woman with fire in her eyes.
Danny headed for the sheriff’s car. Not his cruiser, but Pecos’s own. Kid seats, candy stuck to the window and toys everywhere.
He planned to circle and head out east, not west. Then he’d take a dirt road behind the high school. Pass the abandoned train station and circle west. He’d end up on 45, which led to three farms.
County Road 45, the shortest road in the county. Six miles past the town square was the first farm, or you could call it a tiny ranch. Eliza Dosela’s place was called Holly Rim. She lived alone and was seldom seen. Half a mile from the road, surrounded by trees, were a few barns and one cabin. She raised horses, sold holly at Christmas to florists for a hundred miles around. Folks said her grandfather built a sturdy fence, not to keep the horses in but to keep people out.
Bear’s family settled within sight of Holly Rim but on the other side of the road where the land was pasture, perfect for farming. Bear’s place reminded Dan of a children’s story about a happy farm. If Eliza’s land was like a book too, it would be dark and scary.
Miles further down the county road was Danny’s family’s place. Acres of land his two older brothers farmed and twice the grazing land for the cattle. Bear’s and Eliza’s places seemed small compared to the Davis operation.
Because Eliza Dosela hid away on her land and Bear never visited Dan’s family farm, Danny barely knew the neighbors he passed every day. The farmers waved and knew they’d be there if the others ever needed help.
Dan’s brother said once that Eliza Dosela would be ten years dead before anyone noticed.
Maybe Digger was right. There might be a safe way out of the valley on her land, and if anyone might know about it, it would be her neighbor across the road, Bear Buchanan.
All Dan had to do was find Bear and ask him. After all, he’d seen Bear driving off her land years ago.
If a passage led out of the valley and Andi could follow it without anyone seeing her, it might keep her safe. Anyone hunting her would watch the three main roads.
Dan smiled. Bear wasn’t the only one who could keep secrets. Hell, he kept a little secret by accident.
Back in high school all he knew was a strange woman lived there alone. They said she had Apache blood and it was her grandfather who wrote legends of his people.
He’d heard rumors. Some said she was a witch; others said she was a writer like her grandfather only she kept her pen name secret.
When the grandfather’s books were burned years ago, the family stopped coming to town. They drove fifty miles to buy supplies. They only sold their horses in Fort Worth. Now and then, someone would see the Holly Rim one-ton truck heading through town. She rarely stopped.
After Eliza was born to a mother in her forties, the family became hermits.
No one ever saw them except near Christmas when the family delivered holly to the town square. Eliza continued the tradition even after her parents died. Only the holly was delivered at midnight. Some say she was crazy, but Dan figured she just liked to be alone.
The secret Dan kept was what he’d seen on his way to school. It was a foggy dawn years ago. Danny saw Bear turning out of her gate.
He slowed and watched Bear pass the gate then stop to lock it. Bear, who usually just nodded a greeting, had visited her. And, Dan guessed, he must visit her often if he had a key to get in.
He meant to ask his father about it, but there were a hundred more important things to wonder about when you’re sixteen.
Danny had forgotten about that day he’d seen Bear leaving Holly Rim. He told himself Bear might have been helping out. But, if he had a key to her gate, he might be her friend. As Danny grew, another idea drifted through his mind. She lived alone. He lived alone. Maybe they were lovers.
He never asked anyone. He might like to listen to gossip but he never said anything about others. As a kid in high school, Danny didn’t think about it, but a man in his twenties considered it. They might be morning coffee-drinking friends or longtime lovers.
As he drove down the county road toward the three farms, he tried to think of what to say to Bear. The morning was foggy as it had been ten years ago. He wouldn’t mention the memory. He might never know if Eliza and Bear were lovers, but he’d sensed they were friends.
And neighbors help their neighbors.
He turned in at Bear’s place and circled the front and back of the house. His truck with two-feet-tall letters printed on the sides—I CAN FIX IT—wasn’t parked on the farm. Bear had owned the same truck for over twenty years. It hadn’t been parked at the café or sitting in front of his shop. He wasn’t on his farm. Dan decided he’d look one other place before he went back to town.
Bear had to be at Holly Rim.
Danny wasn’t surprised to find the gate locked.
He could wait, but that meant Andi was in danger longer. He could go back to Bear’s shop and leave a note on the door, but if he wasn’t answering his cell, he wouldn’t find it.
Bear usually was at his shop around nine. But this morning he was late. If Bear was on his way to work, Dan would have passed him going to town.
As Danny waited at the gate at Holly Rim, he looked up near the trees and saw two people on horses racing toward the cabin. The man was big and the lady small with her long hair flying.
Their laughter floated on the wind.
The deputy knew the moment they saw him. The woman turned to the barn and the big man headed straight toward the gate and Dan.
Bear was five feet away when he slowed and said, not too friendly, “What do you want, Dan? This better be important!”
“Yes, sir.” Dan suddenly turned into a kid. Bear had never said a mean word to him, but he’d never been friendly either. “We’ve got trouble and we need your help.”
Bear stepped down off his horse. He slowly looped the reins over the gate as he seemed to be making up his mind to go or stay. One glance at the cabin, then he nodded, but he didn’t look happy.
The deputy smiled. Come to think of it, Bear never looked happy.
In three steps Bear climbed the fence with the ease of a twenty-year-old.
“You on sheriff business, Deputy?”
“Private business. What I need to say is between me and you and a woman I care for. She’s law enforcement, hiding here until she has to testify. She’s in real danger. We were shot at last night over at Digger’s lodge.”
“Why did you come looking for me here, boy?”
“I saw you at this gate once, years ago.” Dan almost added that he wasn’t a boy, but Bear would probably slug him.
“You tell anyone?”
“No, sir. Not my business.”
The two men stared at each other. Both were strong but Bear was almost thirty years older. Standing two feet apart Dan noticed he was taller than Bear. The man Dan had always thought was a giant was shorter than he was. In that moment the two men understood one another. Dan nodded once in respect and Bear did the same.
Bear headed toward the car. “If you need me, I’m in. A man who doesn’t ask but one favor in twenty years need not to ask but once. Fill me in on the way to town. When it’s over I’m guessing I’m to never mention what’s about to happen to anyone.”
“Yes. Tell no one. My lady’s life may depend on it.” Dan followed Bear and climbed in the sheriff’s car. “Are you going to tell Miss Eliza you’re leaving?”
“She’ll know when she sees the horse tied here. She’ll take care of the pinto. I’ll help all I can, but you’ll bring me back when we’re finished.”
“Yes, sir.”
As Danny turned toward town, he filled Bear in on the problem. He even told Bear that using a secret passage might be the only way out of the valley without someone getting killed.
Bear barked out a laugh. “You mean your girl.”
“Yes. She’s my girl but she doesn’t know it yet.”