“Get ready?” Seth sputtered. “We’ll need jackets and socks and gloves and…”
“Right!” Jake piped in. “Go to my room and grab anything that looks warm.” Seth took off down the hall. “Tommy! You can help me.”
“Okay, Jake!” He was excited as he followed Jake out the back door.
“You sure you still want to go with us?” Jake didn’t want Tommy to think he had to go, but after everything he had already experienced the past few days, he didn’t think this could be any worse.
“Yeah! I wanna go! I wanna help Janet too!”
“Okay, buddy, let’s grab some gear then.” Jake and Tommy hurried out to the shed next to the house. They grabbed rope, wire cutters, and heavy-duty gloves. He also grabbed another flashlight that had a stronger beam than what he carried in his truck. In the midst of all this, Carl Teller rolled into the filling station, driving over the black hose that activated the familiar ding-ding. “We gotta hurry, Tom.” The two of them ran from the shed to the house to meet up with Seth who had dragged everything imaginable out of Jake’s room and dumped it on the kitchen table.
Quickly, the boys began pulling on thicker socks and sweat pants over their jeans. Each found a flannel shirt to put on over their T-shirts, a stocking hat, mittens, and a warm jacket. Living in snow country meant having cold weather gear, and Jake had plenty of it. Grabbing up the supplies, they headed for the back door of the store and went in. Uncle Pete had just come in to settle the tab for the gas and chuckled at the sight of the threesome.
“Okay, so what’s the plan, Uncle Pete?” Jake asked breathlessly.
“He makes five stops altogether. The club is the fourth stop,” he said casually as he rang up the bill. “I’ll block his view while you fellas get in the back of his truck. Take it easy, though, so’s he don’t wonder what’s going on. Get in nice and easy like.” He grinned at his nephew and headed for the door to take Carl his change. The boys followed at a distance, grateful that Carl had pulled in for gas at the farthest of the two pumps heading away from the front of the store. He wouldn’t be able to see them except for a brief moment in his right-hand side mirror. They just hoped Uncle Pete could keep him distracted long enough so he wouldn’t see anything and give them enough time to climb into the back of the truck.
Waiting until they could hear Pete talking to the driver, the boys hurried to the back of the truck and unlatched roll-up door just a few feet so they could slide in. Carl had started his engine as Jake climbed in last. He and Seth carefully pulled the door down, then Seth looked at Jake and exclaimed in a tight whisper, “We won’t be able to latch the door shut! If Carl finds it unlatched, he might suspect something!”
“We’ll just have to take that chance,” Jake began then they heard Uncle Pete.
“Hey, Carl! Yer back door ain’t shut tight! You want me to latch it?”
“Sure thing, Pete!” Carl hollered back to him.
Pete opened the door slightly and looked at the three would-be rescuers. “You boys be careful, you hear me? Be mighty careful out there.”
“We will, Uncle Pete,” Jake assured him.
Pete pulled the door down and latched it securely shut. He banged the truck twice with his fist, and Carl put it in gear. The truck lurched forward and then rocked side to side as they pulled out onto the road. Jake hadn’t thought to ask what the other four stops would be, but then maybe his uncle didn’t know. All they knew for sure was that the club was the next to the last stop.
“It sure is dark in here...and cold. Tommy said, shivering already.
Jake turned on his flashlight and shined it toward his young companion. “You okay, Tommy?”
“Yeah. I guess so.”
“We might be able to sneak you out of the truck at the first stop if you want, you know. You could hitch a ride home with someone.”
“Nope.” He straightened up. “I’m going. I want to help Janet and Seth’s mom.”
“Good for you, Tommy!” Seth whispered to his friend. Then he looked at Jake. “So what happens when he makes his first stop and opens this door?”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Jake answered. “We need to find places to hide in here. Maybe we can move some of these boxes and make little cubby holes to sit in.” The three of them stood up and tried to steady themselves as it bounced along.
“We’d better hurry,” Seth remarked, “since we don’t know how close his first stop is.”
They quickly squeezed past a few of the front boxes and managed to rearrange some others toward the back. They didn’t want anything to look out of place and raise any concerns or suspicions. Each settled into a small space to wait, sitting on boxes of mostly refrigerated and some frozen food. They hoped Carl didn’t have to move much around to get what he needed at each stop.
Not much longer and they could hear Carl gearing down the truck and slowing down. He pulled up and then began backing up to the sound of a beep-beep-beep. They heard the driver door slam shut then the latch on the back door being released. Suddenly, the door was shoved up and the whole truck was filled with late-afternoon sunlight. Carl hopped in and shoved a few boxes toward the opening, then hopped down. They could hear him stacking them on a dolly, and then it was quiet. After several minutes, Carl returned and shoved the dolly back in the truck, closing the door and latching it tight. Then they were off again. He repeated this routine for the next two stops, and in each case, only needed a few things easily reached from the back. Each time the boys sighed with relief after he left to make his delivery then tensed up with each return.
“Three down,” Jake remarked with chattering teeth. “Next stop should be the club.”
The drive out to the Quail Club took longer, and they could tell when the truck left the main highway and turned onto the secondary road leading out to the club. The boys would be glad to get there and get out of the cold, but at the same time, were worried they might get locked in or be discovered.
“J-Jake,” Seth called out quietly.
“Yeah?”
“If C-Carl pulls out what he needs and then closes the door and latches it, what then?”
“He hasn’t been latching it anyplace else.”
“I know, but our luck may be running out.”
“Yeah, but there’s still a lot of stuff in here. He may have to make more than one trip, so he probably won’t latch it until he’s done and ready to roll to his last stop.”
“I hope you’re right.”
They could hear the engine noise changing again, and Carl gearing down. This was it! The truck rolled to a stop, and they could hear Carl talking to someone for a brief moment, then he drove in.
“That must have been the front gate and he was checking in,” Seth commented.
A few moments later, the truck pulled to a stop but didn’t back up. The engine was shut off this time then the driver’s door slammed shut. They could hear voices outside and some laughter then the latch was released and the large door rolled up. There wasn’t quite as much light outside anymore since the sun had dipped behind the mountain range to the west.
Carl was chatting with another guy. “Yeah, I got your order. Everything’s here.”
“That’s good," the other man said. "We’re expecting a bigger crowd than usual this evening.”
“A big crowd, eh?”
“Yeah, a group of guys from the big city. High rollers and big spenders I hear. Good thing we got that new girl.”
“A new girl?”
“Yeah, she’s a feisty one too. Wilcox says he’ll tame her hisself if need be.” There was a chuckle from both men. “You need some help with this stuff?” the other man asked.
“Naw. I can get it. I’ll just make a couple of trips.”
“Well, let me catch the kitchen door for ya.”
“Thanks!”
Jake and his friends could hear the door rolled down partway and the shuffle of feet on gravel as the two
men walked away. “It’s now or never!” he whispered tersely to the others. “Let’s get going!”
All three pushed cartons out of the way and scurried to the back of the truck. Seth bent over and took a look outside. “Wait here and I’ll check around.” He slid out under the partially closed door and was back in seconds. “Come on!”
Without hesitation, Jake and Tommy rolled out from under the door and crouched down next to Seth. Using hands signals, he indicated for the three of them to make a dash to some shrubbery under a window of the building close to the parked truck. Hearing voices, they didn’t waste any time making a beeline for the bushes and shoved their way behind them sitting on the ground. In the dim light it would be harder for anyone to see them in the shadows.
Carl returned with his hand truck and began loading up more boxes. The other man followed him out still talking about the big crowd coming in that evening. “Guess I’ll have to make at least one more trip out here. There’s a lot of stuff still in here, except for the few things I still have to drop off at Rosie’s place.”
“Too bad you can’t hang around here a while longer and have dinner. The cook’s fixing a real nice dinner for everyone, ’cept the girls o’course.”
“What’s he feed them?” Carl was asking, obviously surprised they would get something different.
“Heck, I dunno. I jest know they eat different, and in their rooms.”
“How many girls you got here now, Earl?”
“Oh, ’bout sixteen or so, I reckon,” he thought for a minute, taking a mental count and drawing imaginary lines in the air. “Yep. Sixteen, countin’ that new girl.”
“Don’t the sheriff ever worry about gettin’ caught?” Carl wondered.
“Naw. Why should he? Anybody complains, they’ll go to him ’cos he’s the sheriff. He jest tells them he’ll look into it and that’s that.”
Carl made one more trip to the kitchen, then returned, latched the roll-up door shut and drove away. It was suddenly very quiet outside. All three boys waited in the shadows of the shrubbery. After another five minutes, Jake decided it was safe enough to emerge from the shadows and take a look around. By now, they had unzipped their jackets and removed the stocking caps. It wasn’t nearly as cold outside as it had been in the back of that refrigerated truck. Still, they were glad they had everything on to protect them from the prickly branches of the bushes.
Darkness was settling in fast now, but they could still see pretty well. There were several buildings close together and one other off a short distance to their left. Jake thought it looked like the one he had seen earlier when they were at the lookout point on the western foothills above Cold Creek. Now that they were so close, it looked almost like a dormitory. The thought suddenly occurred to him that maybe all those girls were living in it. A few of the windows were lit, but curtains were drawn. There was a long porch that ran along one side and a main door. It appeared the ground sloped away from the backside of the building.
Seth was getting fidgety. “What do you want to do first,” he asked. But before anyone could answer, they heard the honk of a car horn around the side of the kitchen building. Darting back to the shadows of the bushes, all three watched as two nice luxury sedans pulled into the compound. They drove past the kitchen building and parked in front of another one a short distance beyond. Seth snuck out of his hiding place just enough to take a look. Four men climbed out of each car. They were laughing and obviously ready for an exciting evening. Entering the building, their laughing and talking became subdued but still audible enough to know they were talking to several others who had greeted them.
Rejoining his friends, they turned their attention back to the compound in general. Jake and Seth quietly surveyed their limited options and began discussing what their plan of action would be.
“How about if we try to get over to that building and around the far end of it,” Jake whispered, pointing to the structure he thought was a dormitory.
“Okay, but we need to be sure we don’t get caught,” Seth replied. “Where’s that gatehouse?” Without another word, he stepped away from the bushes but stayed in the shadows to take a look. The gatehouse was quite a distance away, but he could see there was someone standing in it. He could also see other headlights in the distance approaching the club grounds. Hurrying back, he motioned for Jake and Tommy to join him. Still whispering, he suggested a plan.
“Let’s wait till just before those other cars reach the gatehouse, then make a dash for the end of the bunkhouse like Jake suggested. The guard will be watching the cars, but we don’t want to get caught in the headlights.”
Jake and Tommy nodded in agreement. Seth watched the gatehouse, and Jake kept his eyes open for any other signs of people moving about around the other buildings. Jake informed Seth that all was clear and a moment later Seth whispered a terse, “Now!”
All three boys bolted for the bunkhouse and around the far end, keeping as far away from everything else as possible. The only other buildings close by appeared to be either storage areas or abandoned. Catching their breath and trying to keep their adrenaline rush under control, they skirted around to the backside of the bunkhouse to take a look. There were windows on this side as well, and some were still lit, but there was no way any of the boys would be able to listen very well, unless one stood on the shoulders of another.
“Now what are we gonna do?” Tommy asked anxiously.
“I don’t know,” Jake said, beginning to feel discouraged as he glanced up at one dimly lit window. “I really don’t know.”
The evening breeze had picked up, and a glow to the east signaled that the moon was rising. It would be a little brighter tonight.
“We’d better do something pretty soon,” Seth remarked, “because the moon’s coming up and without a lot of trees around here, even a new moon can cast enough light to be seen. It’ll be like a giant flashlight shining out here!”
Jake began walking along the base of the building, stopping under each window to listen and then moving on. Seth and Tommy decided to join him and quietly listened as well, hoping to hear someone…especially Janet, and maybe Seth’s mom. Only Seth, though, would be able to recognize his mother’s voice. They had almost reached the end of the building when muffled voices could be heard under the next window. A light suddenly flicked on, and an angry voice could be heard.
“You’ll do what I say, little missy!” they recognized the sheriff's voice.
“No one touches me!” was the defiant reply.
All three boys looked at one another and whispered in unison, “It’s Janet!”
“I’ll do whatever I like!” the man’s voice bellowed again. Scuffling could be heard, and something fell over, like perhaps a chair. “I’ll tie ya down if I have ta!”
“You’ll have to catch me first!”
“That won’t be a problem!” The sheriff was still bellowing. “I’ll git help if I need to!”
“Fine!” Janet yelled back, still defiant. “Bring ’em on!”
A moment later, a door slammed, and the room became quiet until they could hear Janet struggling with her window.
“Give me a boost!” Jake whispered to Seth. “Hurry up!”
Seth helped hoist Jake up well enough to reach the windowsill. Hanging on with one hand, he lightly waved with the other to get Janet’s attention. He was met with silence. Taking a chance, he tapped. This time, a curtain parted, and he could see Janet’s silhouette against the windowpane.
“Janet!” Jake whispered as loud as he dared. “It’s me, Jake!” No response, and then the light went out. Jake was getting ready to hop down from Seth’s shoulders when he heard a slight tap in return. Looking up, he could see Janet again. She was looking out the lower portion of her window and gave a quick wave and another tap. Jake returned the tap and tried to talk to her again, but she shook her head vigorously and waved him off.
“Get away
from here,” her voice was muffled, and he could hear concern in her voice.
“We’ve come to rescue you!” he whispered back.
“We?”
“Yes. Me and Jake and Tommy.”
“You’re in danger! You need to leave! Now!”
“See if you can open your window!”
“It’s stuck!” Janet tried again. Jake could barely make out in the dim light that the window had been painted shut at some point, but the paint was beginning to peel and flake off.
“Hold on!”
“We don’t have much time! The sheriff will be back," she replied anxiously, "and I think he’s bringing help!”
Jake managed to reach into a pants pocket withdrawing a pocketknife. Struggling to maintain his balance, he opened it. “You okay, Seth?” he asked.
“Yeah,” he groaned, “but hurry it up!”
Jake frantically started to dig away at the paint with the blade, blowing on the flakes as he went. Janet, in the meantime, kept trying to pull the window up. Finally, it began to give way, and Jake was able to force his blade into the space to try to wedge it up some more, without much luck. Carefully reaching up, he attempted to push up on the upper window frame of the pane to help Janet’s efforts. She suddenly froze and glanced toward her room door.
“I hear someone coming!” Jake could hear the panic in her voice
“Pull harder!” he commanded her. Together, they gave one more collective shove, and the window gave way rising up a couple of inches. A few more shoves and pulls and the window opened up about fifteen inches more, but that was all. It would have to do. “You’ll have to sit on the sill, and I’ll lower you down to the ground.”
Quickly, Janet thrust one leg through the opening, followed by the other and began to ease her way out. She kept a grip on the window frame to keep from falling out in the process. Seth braced himself but winced at the added weight as Janet slid through and into Jake’s grasp. Tommy stood by with his arms raised up not knowing what else to do. Footsteps could be heard, and an angry voice obviously talking to someone else.
The door burst open as the sheriff was giving orders, “You grab her arms and I’ll get her feet!” he said to someone, then said, “Little missy, you’re in real trouble now!” The light was flicked on along with a moment of silence until the sheriff realized his prize was missing. “What the...” then seeing the curtains of the window fluttering in the evening breeze, he was at the window in an instant with his head stuck out. “You cain’t get far,” he was yelling as he stood at her window gazing out at the field beyond. “I’ll find ya, and when I do, you’ll be mighty sorry! Yes you will! Mighty sorry!”
Chapter 19