Little Emily was hiding under her bed, daddy had come home in his condition again and Mommy told her to run and hide. Emily hated it when Daddy came home this way, there was always a lot of screaming, yelling and the hitting. Emily hugged Snuffy her ragged stuffed puppy that mommy got her from the Goodwill place after daddy hurt her last week. She had been hiding in the closet then from Daddy but got scared and started crying when daddy was hitting mommy. Daddy heard her crying and dragged her out of the closet. Mommy hugged Emily and tried to keep daddy from hitting her which made daddy angrier and he broke mommy’s arm. Emily went with mommy to the free clinic, but she didn’t understand why mommy didn’t tell the doctor about daddy but told them she had fallen down the stairs. Afterword mommy took her to Goodwill and got her Snuffy. Mommy said Snuffy would protect her when mommy couldn’t.

Emily was happy later when the policemen came and arrested daddy. When they came they banged real hard on the door like daddy sometimes does but daddy was already home. Daddy was not happy when the policemen came. He tried to hit them like he hits mommy but they stopped him with a yellow gun that made daddy shake. Emily wished she had a pretty gun like that to make daddy shake when he hits mommy. The police told mommy that daddy used his computer to take money from his company. But that’s silly, Emily looked but daddy’s computer doesn’t have any money, it doesn’t even have hands. Emily waved bye to daddy as the police took him away but he didn’t wave back.

* * * * *

The next day I was ready to take the basket back to Sammy and her grandma when I realized I should take something to them instead of just the empty basket. The problem was what as I looked around the cabin. Not seeing anything suitable I decided to think of what would work and I could go get it. Wanting to get on grandma’s good side I knew she liked to bake so I decided on apples. The apple season was just starting in Washington State and I heard that Granny Smith apples were the best for baking. Asking Hawk to find me a a fruit stand there with apples. It was still to early for them to be open which made it easier for me. I grabbed a bag of very good looking apples from the bin and left a twenty behind. Laying them in the basket and covering with the cloth I got in my Jimmy and headed down the trail.

I no sooner pulled in front of their cabin before Sammy ran out the door. She didn’t look fully dressed with bare feet, pajama pants on and her hair messy. I might have got here to early but she still looked beautiful.

She just had enough time to reach my car and say “Good Morning” before grandma came out the door.

Yelling at her, grandma said “Sammy Joe, you get back inside and finish dressing before I tan your hide”

“Ok grandma”, before running back inside.

I got out and handled grandma the basket saying “Just returning your basket and I thought you might like some apples”.

Looking at the Granny Smith apples she got a smile on her face and invited me inside. “Yes” I thought, I nailed it with the apples gift. Now all I needed to do was find an excuse to spend more time with Sammy.

Inviting me into the house I sat down in the kitchen while granny got me glass of ice tea. As she took out the apples out of the basket she asked me what I was doing today. I told her after spending all week; sixteen hours a day on the book I was developing eye strain. I decided to go into town and walk around for a bit. See what was there and shop a bit. Maybe get lunch in the café while I was there. Sammy yelled from the back room that I should try the pecan pie it was almost as good as what grandma makes.

Sammy came out of the back room still working at putting her hair in a pony tail. She started talking about things to see and do in town and before I knew it her words had changed to talking about the things she would show me in town. I looked over at grandma and saw her look at me as if to apologize for Sammy inviting herself along to go to town.

Grandma interrupted Sammy to ask her “Did you check with Daniel to see if he wanted you tagging along on his trip?”

“Daniel needs me to go” she replied, “without me how is he going to find anything?”

“You want me to go, right Daniel” looking at me with her very blue eyes.

Looking right back at her I said “I would be love to have you as my guide”

Rushing to grandma she kissed her on the check, yelling “let’s go” she headed out to my car.

Looking at grandma she just smiled at me and waved her hand like she was shooing me out the door.

Riding into town we talked about a lot of things. Mostly she talked about all the animals she knew or saw but she did mention few friends and people she knew around town. I told her about my uncle and the outdoor activities I liked to do like rock climbing. She was happy and chatty until we got to town and drove past the school.

Seeing her get quiet and stop smiling as we drove by I asked her “Why the face, I thought you liked school?”

“I like the classes and teachers” but then she quietly mumble “not the kids”.

“Why not, you’re bright and I remember you telling me you skipped a grade?” I asked

Looking at me with tears forming in her eyes she said “Because my daddy died in prison.” A paused moment then she continued “He was suppose to get out last summer but there was a riot and he died”.

Sammy started to cry again and I didn’t know what to say. I held her around the shoulders and left her cry on my shirt for a bit. When the tears finally slowed and the sniffles stopped I looked around for something to make her feel better I saw the café. Remembering what she said about the pie I asked her if she would like some. She nodded and got out of the car. This time of day the only people in the café was the cook and the waitress. The waitress wearing a nametag with the name “Clair” on it saw us come in with a smile on her face. Seeing Sammy and her red teary face Clair got a fierce angry look on her face and started stalking toward us. I hurriedly told her who I was, a renter of Sammy’s grandfather’s cabin and Sammy was feeling sad so I though a piece of pie might make her feel better. After giving me a careful look she told me to sit and went into the kitchen and came out with two plates in her hands. Putting the slice with the ice cream gently in front of Sammy she dropped my plate with a sliver of pie in front of me. She then went back to the counter and carefully watched me.

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With the look Clair was sending me I knew I was on thin ice with her. I decided I had better get Sammy feeling better soon or I might get lynched by an angry waitress. I decided to start talking to Sammy about my parents and how much I missed them. Then I started telling her about some of the fun things we did together. From climbing the Mayan pyramids at Ek Balam to feeding the monkeys peanut butter crackers on Monkey Island in Panama. It took a bit but I eventually got her smiling at the stories. Once she calmed down I got her a second slice of pie and suggested when she finished we could go shopping.

Walking down the sidewalk with Sammy we kept talking about our parents and after a while we started competing on embarrassing stories. I think I won with the incident of the crab I thought was a ladies purse at the beach. Telling her about running down the beach with the crab pinching my hand yelling for mom got her smiling and laughing again. As we turned the corner a small woman rushing bumped into us. She was looking over her shoulder at the time and seemed pretty upset. She apologized to us and reached down for her dropped bag when she saw looked back at a couple of redneck boys chewing tobacco and spitting down the street. Trembling she grabbed her bag and rushed away from them heading to a bus stop. Sammy was looking at the men too and lost her smile. She wouldn’t talk about who they were just said they were the Randals and were bad news. Taking Sammy back to her Grandma’s place I thought back to those men and the woman’s expression. The fear in her eyes as she passed me made me wonder what could have caused that fear in such a quiet small town.

It was easy enough to get Hawk to show me the incident again. I then traced the girl back to see where she might have interacted with the men before. All it showed was her working a night shift at a plant then hurrying to do some shopping. A hard working girl it seems, jumping back a few days further I saw her constantly checking around when she traveled outside and when she was in her apartment she triple checked the locks on the door and windows. She even wedged a chair against her bedroom door at night. Whatever was going on it had her in a constant state of fear. Jumping back several months further back her behavior seemed normal. Using the change in her behavior I gradually managed to track down the incident that caused her behavior to change.

The trouble seemed to start a few months ago when the girl whose name it turned out was Cathy first ran into trouble with the Randal family. It looks like it started when the one named Billy tried to convince her to go to a party. She turned him down with a polite excuse which should have been the end of it. He didn’t accept it and kept pressing her for weeks no matter how many times she tried to dissuade him. He started to show up at her work causing problems and eventually got her fired. After she filed a police report and got a restraining order it got him sent back to jail for bond violation. He was now in prison finishing the last three years of an assault and robbery conviction. The family blamed her and was taking their anger out by trashing her car and threatening her. She was able to get a new job for less money at a feed and grain plant working the graveyard shift. The late shift hours were making it hard for her to get back and forth on the bus which was also affecting her work hours.

Her money situation was getting desperate and it also turns out she was supporting a kid sister. In the last few weeks she was starting to fall behind on her bills. That morning she had made a partial rent payment to her landlord with the promise to pay the rest on the next payday. After trying the ATM outside the market and not having enough funds she went to the local pawn shop and hocked a ring she was wearing. I decided to listening in on a few family visits the Randals had with Billy in jail to hear their side of things. From the conversations it looked like they were all happy about what they were doing to Cathy. They also talked very graphically about their plans for Cathy and her kid sister when he got out. After hearing that I had to agree with Sammy, they were bad news and something should be done.

A permanent solution to Cathy’s problem would take some time but her immediate money issue needed to be handled quicker. Checking Billy and his family it looked like their income came from some casual drug dealing. They weren’t series dealers, to lazy I guess but they did deal enough to pay for their trucks, house and bar bills. A quick solution would be to give their money to Cathy as pay for all that they cost her. Doing it the right way might also keep them too busy to do Billy’s dirty work. A more permanent solution for the family could be done later.

I decided to start with Billy’s funds. He must have been the smart one in the family. He kept his money in a bank account. Getting his debit card from the jail’s personal affects room was easy. Another nice thing about a portal is how easy it is to see people’s pins and passwords. Using his card I hit the limit on withdrawals over the next couple of days to completely drain the account. Most of the rest of the family kept their money stashed around their houses and yards. One particular cousin actually kept all his money in the glove compartment of his truck. None of them had much but put together it was more than 15 thousand. The next day they immediately started blaming each other for the missing money. Sliding an envelope with it under Cathy’s door took care of her money issue. Now I had to find a more permanent way to keep all his brothers and cousins from messing with Cathy and her sister.

Checking out the local sheriff it was obvious he didn’t have any real interest in going after people like the Randals. He was in the middle of a child custody issue with his ex and didn’t want to deal with any distractions. I needed a reason for him to get him to go after them; some potential bad press affecting the custody might do it. Given the politics of a small town I thought a few emails might trigger a more active interest from the sheriff. First an anonymous email sent from the prison email server to the sheriff’s department tipping them that the Randals were trying to setup a deal to get Billy out of jail. Not something he normally would pay much attention to but he would think about it. Another email sent from the newsroom of a capitol newspaper requesting information on Billy Randal, the sheriff and their business dealings. The last email was supposedly from the DEA’s office informing the mayor of an ongoing investigation into local law enforcement drug operations. Three days later the Sherriff made a very public raid on the Randals. The raid found a large amount of Meth and Molly in the house much to the Randals surprise.