Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Hello, ma’am!”
The county employee climbed out of his work truck and waved to her.
Ellen didn’t recognize him, but considering that the county seat was in Gainesville and most of the time they wanted to forget how they neglected the agricultural region of the county, she wasn’t surprised.
The last time she saw work crews doing anything was nine months ago when they finally repaired Privett Road and the intersection at Orchard that had been in vast need of repair for years.
Ellen almost always took the long way to get to town because of the potholes on Privett.
They didn’t pave it, that would cost too much according to the local politicians. But they did fill in the holes and level the dirt and gravel.
It would have to be done again this year, and she wondered how long they would delay, if it would be another four or five years.
She nodded. “What can I help you with?” She pocketed the radio and desperately wanted to call Rick with the license plate information that Bobby had given her. “We’re kind of busy around here.”
“Couple things,” he said. He carried a clipboard. “Can I come up to the porch and get out of the rain?”
She nodded and he jogged up the stairs, pushing back his hood when he reached the top. “Damn, it’s raining cats and dogs out there,” he said with a smile.
“Power’s out, but it just happened, so I’m sure you’re not here for that.”
“No, ma’am. I didn’t even know. Is it out just here or at other properties?”
“I don’t know, it happened ten minutes ago. We got the generator on, so we’re fine.” Hurry, she wanted to say. Instead, she stared at him, mentally willing him to get this over with.
He nodded. “I’ll call it in, but I don’t think anyone will get out here until tomorrow. But if the problem is at the powerhouse, they might get it up faster.”
Tell her something she didn’t know, she thought, and waited, growing more impatient.
“I’m out checking the status of waterways throughout the valley. The creek that cuts through your property to the east”—he gestured—“has flooded Orchard Lane. I just came to tell you we’re blocking off the road at both ends until it subsides.”
“I know where it’s flooded, and even in the worst years it’s not going to flood more than fifty feet from the banks.”
“It’s for your safety, ma’am.”
Jake and Bobby were on their way back, going the long way, which means they had to get home through the intersection where Privett Road met Orchard.
That couldn’t be flooded—they had just repaired the area last year and put in huge draining culverts to avoid flooding even in storms like this one.
But she would warn him. They might have to park at the Coulters and walk through, or go farther north up Privett and go through Travis’s place along the back road, then cut through the old path that led to Orchard right across from their entrance.
It wouldn’t be any safer than just cutting through the intersection.
She just wanted all her kids home as soon as possible.
“Fine,” she said. The county would put up a set of traffic barricades with reflective stripes, maybe a flood warning sign. Then they would forget about them for weeks. Par for the course. She and Jake would end up moving them to the side.
He looked down at his phone. “Excuse me.” He answered it.
She didn’t have time for this.
“If that’s all,” she said, trying to get him to hurry up.
“I can’t hear you—Brian, you there? Damn.” He pocketed his phone. “That was my boss. The storm is messing with cell phones.”
No shit, she thought, but didn’t say.
“Would you mind if I make a call? I just got back from Rock Creek, where we had to put up a barricade—a car tried to make it through and had to be rescued.”
Not the first time, Ellen thought. She had barely made it across the road, and that was more than an hour ago. Definitely wasn’t a local, because they would know better.
“And,” he continued, “I’m supposed to check everything north of here, though I don’t know that I’ll be able to get through.”
She just wanted him to leave, so said, “Fine, but I have things to do, as I’m sure you’re aware.”
She led him into the kitchen. Penny was sitting in a padded rocking chair in the corner. It was her waiting chair, she called it. When she was waiting for a pie to be done or water to boil. Half the time she dozed off until the timer rang.
She looked tired, Ellen thought. The weather got to her more now in her eighties, sure, but Ellen suspected Penny was just as worried about the kids as she was.
“There,” she motioned to the phone on the wall. “You can see yourself out when you’re done.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
She leaned over to Penny, put her hand on her too skinny arm, and said softly, “Jake found Bobby, they’re on their way back.”
“Thank the Lord,” Penny said with a small smile. “But I have more prayers to be answered.”
“Me, too.” Ellen motioned to the man in overalls. “He’s with the county. They’re blocking off Orchard.”
“In the middle of the storm?” Penny pshawed. “The signs will be knocked over in the wind.” She said that loud enough for the government employee to hear; he just looked at them sheepishly and continued his conversation.
“I’m going to check on Margery. Don’t get up, he can let himself out.”
Ellen went upstairs and found Margery sleeping, an empty bowl next to her. Good.
She stepped out, closed the door, and texted Rick the license plate information Bobby had memorized. She was proud of her youngest son to have thought of that, but residual fear lingered that he could have been caught and in the same position as Avery.
Rick responded with a thumbs-up emoji, and then Ellen went into her room, where she’d had Lyla lie down after being shocked earlier by the generator.
“Hey, how are you feeling?”
“My arm is almost back to normal, but my fingers still tingle.”
Ellen sat on the edge of the bed. “It could have been so much worse.”
“Who would do that to us? It wasn’t a prank.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“It was probably the same person who cut into the barn and the reason why the barn is collecting water.”
Ellen had thought the same thing.
Only she had also thought, Verdacorp.
She knew Mitchell Robinson was ruthless, but she never expected him to sabotage her property. Who else could it be? Maybe one of his goons? Like Tom Garza? She had never liked that man.
Tomorrow, she would pound on Mitchell’s door and demand answers.
“Jake has Bobby,” she told Lyla. “He’s fine, they’re on their way back, but have to go around the long way.”
“It’s awful out there, Mom. Do you think they’ll get back okay?”
“Jake is smart, he knows what to do.”
“And Avery?”
“Rick is looking for her.” Ellen felt so helpless, and she didn’t know how to make her daughter feel better when she herself was so torn up inside.
“I don’t know what else to do, I want to go out myself but that would be foolish.
The last thing we need is Rick and his people having to rescue me because I got caught up in mud or stranded in the middle of a field. ”
“Jake said that Ryan was on his way, he should be here by now.”
“He may have been turned back at Mule Run. Rick said everything north of there is blocked off.”
Which made it weird that the county employee was cutting off Orchard Lane, which was a tiny road off a minimally traveled road. Typical of government, she thought. They had so many ridiculous rules and regulations, most of the farmers ignored them.
She rose, said, “You can sleep in your own bed if you don’t mind sharing the room with Margery, or you can stay here and share with me, whatever you want.”
“I might not sleep at all,” she said.
Ellen kissed her forehead and went back downstairs.
Penny was still in her rocking chair. “Where’s the guy from the county?”
“Finished his call and left. Took the cookies I offered.”
“Then he’s not completely stupid,” Ellen said with a slight smile.
She looked out the kitchen window and watched the truck drive off. The license plate was a private Texas plate, not a county exempt plate. Not wholly unusual—she had a friend who worked for the county and she’d drive her own truck for some county business—but on a day like this, she found it odd.
Penny said, “Clive Robertson dropped off a contract for you earlier. They want to trade part of the Baldwin property for the two hundred acres between the Robinson and Coulter properties. Then Travis called, and said Clive came by and gave him a copy, asked that Travis talk to you about it, they need it Sunday night. I put it on the desk over there,” she said, gesturing to the small desk under the phone.
“They don’t listen!” Ellen exclaimed.
A timer went off and Penny pushed herself out of the rocking chair.
“I can get it,” Ellen said.
“Naw, I need to move,” Penny said, sounding tired. “Just more cookies. The stew is still warm on the stove for when Jake and Bobby get back, and Millie’s shepherd’s pie is edible, I have it on warm in the second oven. But I’m going to lie down for a spell, if you don’t mind.”
Penny got the cookies from the oven and turned it off. She shuffled around and Ellen was worried about her.
“Are you feeling okay?”
She didn’t immediately answer.
“Grandma,” Ellen said, and looked her in the eyes.
“I just want Avery back home. Is that too much to ask?” Tears welled in her eyes and Ellen hugged her, fighting her own tears.
“No, definitely not too much to ask,” Ellen said.
When Penny went down the hall to her room, Ellen called Rick. It took him more than a minute before he answered.
“Sheriff Perez.”
“It’s Ellen. Any word about Avery?”
“No. I’ve alerted every deputy, and I’ve brought in everyone I can.
I alerted state police, the rangers, and every county in a hundred-mile radius.
Photo and description of the Mendozas’ truck as well as the license plate you gave me.
No one has seen them, but there’s not a lot of people out there right now.
More cops and county work crews than people, to be honest. It’s bad out there. Have you seen Ryan yet?”
“No.”
“Dammit. LuAnne is panicking, he should be there by now, and he hasn’t answered his phone. I tell her the cell phones are hit-or-miss, and lightning took out one of the towers.”
“My power’s out.”
“Half the county is out. Your generators working?”
“Yes, but someone sabotaged our barn generator with copper wire, and the shock knocked Lyla back.”
“Did you say sabotage?”
“Yes. It’s not the first damage to our barn; I was going to file a report tomorrow.”
“I’ll get over to you when I can. Is Orchard Lane open?”
“West of Whisper Creek should be okay, but someone from the county just came by to tell me they were closing Orchard Lane at both ends.”
“Must be even worse than I think, and I think it’s pretty damn bad. Please call me or have Ryan call as soon as he gets there.”
“I will. Thanks.”
She hung up, ate one of the warm cookies, and picked up the folder labeled Verdacorp Offer for Whisper Creek Ranch.
She had to do something to get her mind off Avery.