Between Louisiana and the Deep Blue Sea

Between Louisiana and the Deep Blue Sea

  By Darrel Bird

  Copy©right 2014 by Darrel Bird

  Chapter five

  He made his way back the way Dupuy had come by following the tracks the horse had made. He figured Dupuy had come from the barn. It was two PM by the time he glimpsed the old dairy barn through the edge of the trees. The barn was about fifty feet from the edge of the tree’s, so he would have to cross an open space to get to the barn.

  He came to the edge of the trees and settled down to watch, and wait. He held the dog close to him as he didn’t want the dog taking off after a rabbit or other small animal. The dog sat still as if he read his mind. He heard a car come to the front of the barn and then leave thirty minutes later. The barn, being a dairy barn had quite a few windows around it. He thought they might hold her in a back room of the barn where grain used to be stored. The window was open for air where he thought the store room would be.

  The sun settled and the area around the barn taken on a gloomy appearance as if hope fled with the last light of day.

  “Stay here boy…stay.” He whispered to the dog, and ran across the open space to the window. He looked in and saw the girl tied in the corner of the room. He went through the window and dropped to the ground. The girl saw him and her eyes went wide. She started to scream, and he put his hand over her mouth, “Don’t cry out, I’m here to help you.”

  No more than he said that when he heard feet pounding toward the room, and Dupuy burst into the room with a pistol. Jim shot him in the chest, and the bullet slammed him against a wall. Another man who was much larger than Dupuy hit him across the shoulder with a club, and Jim went down. The man started to raise the club for a blow to the head, and Jim kicked out with his feet, and knocked the mans feet from under him. Jim was on the man like a flash, fighting for the club before he could be hit again when the dog came flying through the window, and began to tear at the man with his teeth. The man screamed as the dog went for a throat hold. Jim rolled away, and got to his feet. He called the dog, “Bella ruche!” Down boy!” But the command didn’t register in the crazed dogs head before he ripped the mans throat out.

  The dog backed away, and whimpered his confusion. “Its okay boy I know you couldn’t help it.” He ruffled the dog’s fur to calm the animal. The mans blood poured out on the old concrete floor, and the girl was in the corner crying softly.

  He heard sirens coming toward the barn and then feet pounding down the hallway. Two Sheriffs deputy’s burst into the room with guns drawn, “Get on the floor, hands out!” One of them ordered. He lay down on the floor and let them cuff him.

  “Are you Jim Grady?” The officer looked sharply at him.

  “I am, who sent you?”

  “Alice Barbet called us, what happened here? Is this the girl who was kidnapped?”

  Jim explained what happened. An ambulance came into the yard with sirens blasting, and one of the attendants took charge of the girl while the other one pronounced the two men on the floor dead. The deputy left him in hand cuffs for thirty minutes, and then returned to the room.

  “Your story checks out Mr. Grady. Sorry about the cuffs, we just had to make sure who was who in this mess.”

  “Its ok, I understand and would have done the same thing. Would you let me take charge of the girl? Her father hired me to come for her.”

  “Well, I don’t know Mr. Grady, you see, in cases of this type they usually need to see a doctor first.”

  “I’ll call Mr. Pederson, and ask him, and I’ll also ask her, and if it’s ok, I’ll take her to Alice Barbets house before we leave for St. Petersburg.”

  “Well, I suppose the girl is better off with friends than some stranger. I know Alice, and she can see to her. It’s going to take her a while to heal up from this if she ever does.”

  “We’ll do our best to see that she has every chance to put this sordid mess behind her. Could you do me a favor and have a couple of your men go up the road a piece and bring Alice’s truck back down here?”

  “Sure thing, hey Jake, take Daryl, and get this mans truck from up the swamp a ways will ya?”

  The two deputies’ he had spoken to crawled into a squad car and left. In twenty minutes they were back with the truck.

  He walked over to the ambulance, “Jeanette, do you want to ride back to St.Pete with me?”

  “Yes sir, if my dad says it ok.”

  “Well, we’ll just give him a call.”

  Pederson picked up the phone on the first ring, “Mr. Pederson, this is Jim Grady, and I thought it might be best to bring Jeanette back with me rather that put her in the system in New Orleans.”

  “Thank you Mr. Grady, I was going to fly up, but it might be better that she comes with you. I owe you so much Mr. Grady.”

  “I’m stopping by a veterinary friend’s house near here, she’s a doctor of veterinary medicine, but I’ll have her check her over before we head out to St. Pete.”

  Forty five minutes later they pulled up to Alice’s house, and Alice came to the door to greet them, “I see you accomplished your mission Jim, come in and sit down sweet heart and let me look you over. Jim can have a cup of coffee in the kitchen while we do that ok?”

  Jeanette looked at Jim, and he nodded his approval, “Mind if I help myself to a cup?”

  “Just go ahead Jim, there is fresh made coffee in the pot.”

  Jim was sitting at the small kitchen table, his head nodding back and fourth as he tried to stay awake, he had only taken one sip of the coffee in front of him. Alice came into the room, “She is fine, I put some anti-biotic salve on the rope burns. It doesn’t look like they hurt her much. How about you? Could I look at those nasty scratches you are sporting since yesterday?”

  “Could I beg off until later Alice? I’m beat.”

  “Go lay on my bed, Jeanette and the dog are both out like a light on the couch, I’ll wake you if I need too.”

  He stumbled to the bed room, and laid his tired body down with a sigh. He slept eight hours. He awoke with every muscle screaming at him for getting off the bed. He walked into the living room where the girl was still asleep on the couch. Alice came through the front door leading the dog on a leash, “So, you’re awake I see. You will be leaving soon then?”

  “As soon as she wakes up, and we can get a bite to eat if you don’t mind feeding us.”

  “You know I don’t mind Jim, I do wish you could stay a bit longer though.” She reached up and kissed him softly.

  Jeanette was sitting on the couch watching the couple, “Don’t mind me.” She said.

  “Ok, lets eat, its time to get you home.”

  “Is that your dog?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh goody, he’ll get to ride home with us then.”

  “You bet.”

  After they had eaten they climbed into Jim’s truck, “I’m going to miss you Jim Grady.” Alice said, laying her hand on his arm.

  “Maybe I’ll be back up this way.”

  “I don’t think so, but if you do, please stop by.”

  After they were on the road Jeanette asked, “You like her don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why don’t you come back and get her?”

  “I’m a sailor and our lives would just clash honey, it wouldn’t be fair to her.”

  “I like you too Mr. Grady, you’ll always be my best friend.”

  “Jim, it’s just Jim, I would like that.”

  Two days later Jim pulled up to his brother’s house in Clearwater, and his brother met him in the front yard, “I see you bought yourself a new pickup.”

  “Yeah, but I’ll miss that old junk heap.”
/>
  “Where did you find the dog?”

  “He found me really. I think he set a road trap, and I fell for it.”

  His brother laughed, “God has a way of giving us what we need.”

  His brother’s wife, Linda, came to the door, “Come on inside you two, suppers on the table.”

  Jim sighed; it was good to be home.

  The end