"My daughter is in danger from this boy she's with. Can you help us find this rave, where she went?"
"Yeah. It's in the paper here. I'll read it to you. 'All friends of Billy Lee Sturm are invited to rejoice at his birthday tomorrow. You know who you are.'"
Despair filled David's voice. "That doesn't say anything of value."
"Well, yes it does. You just have to know how to read it. The rave is at Sturm's Hollow tonight. The paper comes out on Thursday, and 'rejoice' means they're doing Ex, probably Molly, and Roofies. This sounds like one of Oren Shuggert's deals."
"How do I get to Sturm's Hollow?"
"You got to know these roads. I'll take you there. You come on over."
David hung up and started dialing again. "Chief Hadley, please. This is David Martin."
"Yes, Mr. Martin?"
"My daughter is at a rave at Sturm's Hollow. A boy who means her harm used a ruse to get her there. You know where that is?"
"Officer Hamm called me about your daughter. Yeah, we've known about the rave, but not where it'd be. Sturm's Hollow isn't on the map. It's way up in the northeast section of the county. We'll have to get the coordinates. You have this on good authority?"
"My next door neighbor knows the place and found the ad in the paper. Jim Holder, the boy who tricked her, sells drugs there. My neighbor also says the rave is run by Oren Shuggert."
"Yeah, we know about Shuggert and we've been watching Holder, but he's good at hiding the stuff. Maybe we'll get him this time, and his supplier. If he has his stash on him, his dad won't be able to get him off this time.
"I've just been handed a map with the location marked," Chief Hadley continued. "It's a couple of hundred feet from the state line, but still in Arkansas, which Shuggert probably doesn't realize. I'll get a warrant to search for both drugs and your daughter. We need your cooperation to nail this guy."
"What can I do?"
"You can agree that Sarah, who is a minor, has been taken there by deception, has been placed in harm's way, and you've requested our help."
"Well, of course."
"Good, now you just sit tight and we'll do the rest." The Chief disconnected.
Lynn had been listening on the other phone, and called Violet.
She reported to David, "According to Norm, who just left, the County Sheriff will be there and have some Arkansas State Police with him. Chief Hadley is taking some of his men. He said we should wait here."
"Like hell," David exploded. "That's my daughter and that little gangster is going to jail, right after I beat him to a pulp. We're leaving now."
Logan and his dad were standing outside, in the glow of the porch light, when Lynn pulled up to their house and parked behind a pick-up. Both she and David got out of the car.
David walked up to Logan's dad, holding out his hand. "Mr. Biesterman, thanks for your help. I'm David, Sarah's father and this is my friend, Lynn Keith."
A tall, spare man in his forties, Biesterman wore denim overalls, a worn-to-gray t-shirt, and heavy work boots.
"Call me Deke. We got us some trouble here. This is mean business. My son told me some of the grief this boy been causing your daughter. I can't fault him for breaking the kid's nose."
"I'm sorry, sir. I tried to stop her," Logan told David.
"I'm sure you did, Logan." Turning to Logan's dad, David said, "We think the world of your boy."
Nodding acceptance before continuing, Deke said, "Sturm's Hollow is about twenty minutes from here, but it'll seem like an hour, because there's five miles of dirt road on the way." He turned to Logan. "Son, get the baseball bat and put it under the front seat of the truck. The shotgun on the rack is loaded."
"You think we'll need those?" David eyed Deke with obvious misgivings.
"I know this good ole boy running this rave. Name's Oren Shuggert," he replied, eyes narrowed. "Best we be prepared."
Lynn saw David's uncertainty. Compared to Chicago, this probably felt like a foreign country. She tried to ease his misgivings.
"Don't worry. Here we handle matters like this differently, often without involving the law."
"Does anyone ever get killed at these things?"
Deke replied, "Not so's you'd notice. They just don't show up in town no more. Let's get 'er done." He climbed into his truck with Logan beside him.
"I'll drive," Lynn said. "I'm better on dirt roads than you." They followed the pick-up out of town, compelled to muteness by their own anxieties. Nerves were shredded, patience was gone, and fear snapped and snarled like a caged dog.
The silence broke when David's anxiety shifted to anger. "Lynn, you've put me through hell the last twenty-four hours. Damn it. What were you thinking? I don't deserve this."
There wasn't much left of Lynn's self-control. Her own anger heated. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you; didn't want to disappoint you."
"Bull shit. What the hell have I ever said to make you think that?" His voice was loud, filled with accusation.
"I was frightened, David. I don't know that much about raising kids."
"So what? You think I do?"
"I was afraid I'd make a mistake with Sarah and you'd never forgive me."
"That's not fair, Lynn. Don't you think I've thought about what I need; what I want? You're exactly what I need
and
what I want."
"Oh, David." He was yelling at her, but he still loved her. She started to laugh.
"Are you going to marry me or what?" he asked angrily.
"David, you're the only man I'll ever love."
"Is that a yes?"
"Absolutely yes."
"Well, fine," he snapped, and lapsed into silence.
She had to tell him. "I think it should be soon. We might have a surprise on the way."
There was a moment of stupefied silence from David, and then he looked at her, with a delighted smile. "Damn. Am I good, or what? I love you, honey, and whatever comes with you."
"It could be a false alarm. It's too early to tell. I just feel different, somehow."
Then they turned onto the dirt road, the noise in the car made conversation impossible. There was no moon, and the pick-up created such a cloud of dust; Lynn could barely see where she was going, but she could feel David's anxiety escalating, and sighed with relief when Biesterman pulled over to park, after turning around, to face the direction they'd come. Lynn followed suit.
The road had narrowed to a wagon track with fenced pasture on one side, leading up and over a rise, a short distance away. Beyond, a bright glow made an aurora-like halo in the sky. The earth vibrated with the pounding bass of a sound system blaring heavy metal rock.
Deke said, "This is the only road because the far side of the pasture backs up to a ravine. When the sheriff gets here, this road will be blocked. We'll use this field to get out. Let's go. It'll cost to get in."
"I'll get it," David said, and started up the road.
Lynn noted his angry, resolute expression and followed anxiously, with Logan and Deke close behind. Her angry resolve to find Sarah and bring Holder to justice grew with every step. She'd acquired a sense of empowerment she'd never felt before. She craved confrontation. David and Sarah were her life and she'd do whatever it took to protect them.
As they topped the rise she stared in wonder at the pick-ups and SUVs, covering at least two acres of pasture.
"There must be more than a hundred people here."
Dozens of vehicles formed a wide circle, their headlights illuminating a crowd of men and women yelling and dancing wildly, knocking into each other in what looked like a drunken revel, but obviously alcohol wasn't the drug of choice. The dancers were all ages, but most appeared to be twenty-something, with a few obvious teenagers.
The presence of the teenagers enraged Lynn. Another reason to have this Oren Shuggert guy arrested.
Some pickups had their tailgates down and held coolers from which large paper cups of drinks were being dispensed. One truck was parked in the middle of the road, right in front of them. A man sitting on the bed held up his hand as they approached. He was a big man, in his sixties, dressed in denim coveralls. A grey, full, unkempt beard nearly hid his florid face. The sharp look he gave them when he eyed them suspiciously, vanished with a hard glance from Deke. He shrugged.
"Twenty apiece to get in."
David handed him four bills and walked past, searching the crowd for Sarah.
"David, we'll never find her in all this," Lynn shouted over the noise, surveying the crush of bodies.
"I don't see her up front, here," David yelled. "We'll have to go beyond the circle and look for her among the trucks parked behind. It isn't going to be easy in the dark."
"I'll go to the right with Logan," Lynn said. "You and Deke go through the dancers and meet us in the back."
Logan took off, calling for Sarah, and Lynn followed, pushing her way past a crowd gathered around one of the trucks. She should have been frightened, but all she felt was sadness
struck his fancynever gone shoppingsit three stores. om.arah lives there, and I didn'ling at his arm, trying to get his attentio
at the sight of so many young bodies with appallingly old faces. Their skin was stretched over bare bones. Vacant smiles showed front teeth missing, the result of either crack or crystal meth.
Damn these people for the careless waste of life, and damn the ones who made it possible.
Bile rose in her throat at the sight.
Logan shouted Sarah's name. Someone screamed.
Sarah?
Shoving her way through the crowd, she stopped when she rounded the front of a truck, shocked at the sight before her.
Madonna sat sprawled on the ground. Her eyes glazed, clothing disheveled, and missing her shoes.
"Leave me alone. Go away," she repeated tonelessly, like it was a spaced-out mantra, while she tried to fend off Sarah, who had her hands on Madonna's shoulders, trying to lift the girl to get on her feet.
Holder gripped Sarah's arm, yanking on it to pull her away. "You bitch. Leave her alone."
"Let go of me, Jim," Sarah yelled, "She's sick. I have to take her home."
At that moment, Lynn heard sirens in the distance, their sound barely audible over the pounding of the music. Help was almost at hand, but it meant they had to get Sarah out of here.
She gasped, horrified when Holder, wild eyed, backhanded Sarah, screaming, "I'll teach you to butt in where you don't belong."
Sarah cried out and fell, landing on the dried grass, holding her hand to her jaw.
Screaming with rage, Lynn leaped for Holder, and landed on him, by luck throwing him off balance enough to knock him to the ground, on his back.
"Leave her alone, damn you," Lynn shouted, flailing away at his face with her fists.
With a mighty heave, he threw her off and struggled to his feet, so wired he had the strength of ten men.
"Fucking cunt. Get the hell away from me." He grabbed Lynn by the hair, yanked her to her feet, and cocked his fist to hit her.
A cold chill ran up her spine. He would kill her if she didn't get help. She clawed at his eyes with her nails, and, sensing an opening, kneed him in the crotch.
Holder cried out in pain, but still held on, grabbing her by the neck.
Sarah's screams for help barely registered in her mind while Lynn struggled to breathe. She had to have air.
At once, Holder let go. She stumbled to the ground, at last able to pull air in to her lungs.
Her vision cleared.
God, what a fucking nightmare!
The scene had become murderously violent. She scrambled back against the truck, seeking shelter, mindful that Arkansas was an open carry state, and there could be loaded guns everywhere.
Crazed with rage when he came on the scene, David had grabbed Holder to pull him away. She watched in horror as he gripped the boy's arm with both hands, twisted it, yanked it up and over his head with explosive force, and then tossed him to the ground, dislocating his shoulder.
"Don't move, you son of a bitch," David snarled.
Jim screamed in pain, no longer a threat to anyone.
Deke arrived, his baseball bat in hand. He helped Lynn to her feet, trying to support her enough so she could walk.
Regaining her balance, Lynn ran to Sarah, where Logan was trying to clean the blood off her chin with the sleeve of his jacket.
The sirens were much closer. They had to leave, now.
"Lynn," Sarah looked at her, panic stricken, "what are you doing here?"
"Trying to get you out of here, you silly fool," Lynn raged. "How could you do this? Coming here, putting yourself in danger? Honestly, girl. You are too dumb to live."
Sarah, wide-eyed at Lynn's anger, struggled to her feet and flinched as Logan brushed the bruise on her cheek. "I only wanted to help. Jim said Madonna was sick."
"She's not sick, she's drugged, you idiot, no doubt courtesy of your friend Jim."