Gold Raven (6 page)

Boston, Massachusetts

“
What the hell do you mean someone’s already hired you to find her?” Manny shouted angrily, having just returned from abroad, trying to regain control of his business and lost contracts. There was a lot of fixing to do to bring him back up to where he was before all in his life seemed to turn on him. Financially, he was still well ahead, not at all lacking in that department. What had taken a bruising was his reputation, tarnished because of his absence where he now juggled many jobs, including shipping and trading to regain his clients’ trust and business. In the midst of that, he also checked in on the progress made in the hunt for his family by Clarence Winston, the man he’d hired many years ago to locate Mike. Because Manny had neglected his inquiries, Mr. Winston no longer considered him a reliable client. Whatever inquiries he did for Manny was between cases, when business was slack, ignoring it for the most part, even though Manny had paid him amply in advance to find his son. After finally making contact with Winston, the most that he got for all this time and money was that Mike was not dead. Although he appreciated the confirmation, he pretty much knew that without Winston telling him so. Things started getting ugly when Winston went on to tell Manny the possible nature of his son’s present involvements. Informing Manny of his plans to bring his son not to him, but to the authorities seeking him; there was a price now on his head. He was convinced the outlaw leader of a clan of bandits was none other than Michael Ramsey Webster.

The description given of him by person’s who had seen him, fit
ted Manny’s height, size, coloring and looks, but, in a younger version. Being that the likeness was drawn poorly it could not be taken as fact. However, Winston was convinced they were the same and said so to Manny, “You see, I run a reputable business. I cannot, nor will I even consider jeopardizing it to help you harbor a known criminal.”

“
There is no way of knowing for certain that this bandit is my son!” Manny had charged.

“
Perhaps not,” Winston agreed coolly, “Not until he is captured, will we know if he is one and the same.”

“
I hired and paid you to get a job done, and this is what I get?”

Winston shrugged nonchalantly saying nothing more.

“
You owe me something more. It is reasonable to ask, should you hear any word of this so called bandit being taken, I’m to be immediately notified! In addition…” Manny cleared his throat. “There are two more persons I wish you to find.”

Winston’s brow lifted. “I see…and who might they be?”

“
A slave, she was stolen from my property, and a child.”

“
A child? To whom does this child belong?”

“
The child is mine. A small babe at the time she was taken, and well – she would be a young woman now. As for the slave, her name is Lena, Ceś alena.”

“
I see.” Clarence Winston returned arrogantly. Manny expected to see shock from the investigator, but not a hint of surprise changed his smug features. Instead, the man took a deep breath as if he were bored with Manny and said, “It seems I cannot help you with them either, you see… I’ve already been hired to find her.”

His answer had been the reason for Manny’s explosive question.

“
Just as I said Mr. Webster, I’ve been hired to find her by someone else.”

“
No doubt, by the bastard who stole her from me!” Manny bit out. “Who is he? What is his name?”

Again Winston shrugged, gesturing with the parting of his fingers he held together tapping them in a steeple, leaning with his elbows on his desk. “That is privileged information. There are matters of confidentiality between my client and I, matters in which I cannot share… surely you can understand that.”

Manny stared down at Clarence Winston and wondered what was going on?
‘Was Winston’s new client the one who’d taken her? That didn’t make sense; wouldn’t he have her now? And if he didn’t have her…then who? Who had taken her?

Or, had she escaped somehow? There had been two men at the mansion looking to collect her. Did they find her, only to lose her again?’

“
I’ll top what he’s paying you. After all, this began with me. I more than compensated you for your services. You still have that yet to fulfil. I’m willing to up the ante-…”

“
Mr. Webster, Mr. Webster…that is no way to do business. Such dealings could be detrimental to my reputation.” He answered calmly, reaching for his pipe to light it in a show of patience. The act was to minimize Manny’s importance, to make his needs and offer trivial. His manner also served to get right beneath Manny’s skin, stomping on nerves that were stretched to the limit when it came to Lena and his children.

“
Detrimental? Reliable? Ha! Only sure thing about you sir and that is, that you’re a did-reputable ass. That is all is all that can be relied upon!”

Clarence calmly shrugged while trying to light his pipe. “Be that as it may, Mr. Webster; you are entitled to your opinions. It is obvious you do not approve of my methods of business…might I suggest you seek assistance elsewhere, to ah, locate your bastards.” Clarence could have sworn that he’d only blinked, before he was snatched from his chair to lie across his desk in the most awkward position. With the front of his suit bunched in Manny’s fist, he gulped staring into menacing blue/green eyes barely two inches from his own, that were now widened in fear.

“
Clarence Winston; I’m going to leave your office now; simply because, I haven’t the needed to reach in through your scrawny throat to grab your worthless heart, and rip it from your pathetic body! But mark my words…I will find Ceś alena…and God help you, if you should stand in my way, or, cross my path in the process! Your time is coming…but not today.” With a forceful thrust of his fist, Winston was sent flailing back to land heavily in his seat, the weight of his body, sent his chair scraping back across the floor.

Manny turned and stormed from his office building in a frustrated mix of emotions. Facing this dilemma, his heart grew heavy for the challenge before him. He had to fight the feeling that the odds were stacked against him.

It had been years now, and others were searching for Lena as well.
So
many unanswered questions plagued his mind. He hadn’t a clue as to what he needed to do. As he walked, his mind brought up the last image he had of her. She and Hope lay sleeping as he sheltered them in the safety of his arms. Had he known then it would be the last he would see of them, he would have never left them. The sun had been rising, and its light had brightened the cabin where they lay in bed. He’d stared at them long and hard. Lena had lain sleeping peacefully, her hair in one thick braid over her shoulder as she slept on her side facing him. With her back against her mother…Hope lay in the same position.

Their features were almost identical…one of a woman with smooth honey brown skin, the other of a child, with creamy olive skin.

The contrast between them held his attention for the longest time. Stroking and touching Lena’s tawny, thick mane…full of coarse and stubborn waves. Then the child’s, whose hair color was between them both, a rich golden, honey blonde, waves and curls galore. He’d drawn close to them with his arm over them both, savoring the closeness, knowing he’d have to soon leave them. Manny inhaled as he shook the image from his mind. Lena would be forty-four in a few months. He couldn’t help but wonder what the passing of years had done to her? How much had she changed? Was she still as beautiful as he remembered? He knew it didn’t matter. He wanted her back, by whatever means she came, as long as she was alive and well.

‘
No doubt she’s given up hope. I shouldn’t have quit. I’m sorry Lena…so sorry. You had every right to give up. But I shouldn’t have…and I swear to God…I won’t again…I won’t again.’
Manny walked towards the docks thinking about his son.
‘He’ll be twenty-seven years old! And Hope…soon to be seventeen! My God, has it been that long?! How much longer will I have to pay for the mistakes I’ve made…how much longer Lord?’
He felt a depression falling over him as he turned down the street to where all the wharf businesses catering to ships docking at the Boston harbor were situated. The day was crisp, though spring time. He hesitated a moment as he passed a saloon called the, Pirate’s Escape. The tavern was not far from the harbor. A rough logged structure with a bare breasted mermaid perched above, holding out two mugs to quench one’s thirst.
‘Alright Manny, don’t start. You’ve come too far to get where you are now. Don’t even entertain the thought…keep moving. Find Leon and get underway!’

Manny’s strides were sure and determined…there was no more going back to that, he had a mighty mission before him, enough time had been wasted.

* * *

Hope lay on her side upon a rope suspended cot; her face to the wall with her wrists and ankles bound, her mouth gagged. There was not a section of her body that did not ache from the discomfort of riding on horseback. The journey seemed endless, as they switched her back and forth from one horse to the other, giving the animal a rest from the combined weight of two riders.

At first, she had been afraid for her life and then, in fear of what they might do to her. Yet one day flowed into the next, and there had not been one attempt to assault or molest her. They spoke to each other in Spanish, mostly laughing and discussing things that drew their attention away from her when they stopped for the night. Other times, although in Spanish, she knew they discussed her.

With grinning eyes, and smiling gestures in her direction, they derived some type of satisfaction at taking her. As the days p
assed, so did her fear and with the dissolving of it, came feelings of anger.

‘
What do they think!? Taking me from my family! For reasons only God knows! Dragging me about this barren land!’

Unable to control it, she’d had a burst of rage, attacking them. Her punishment had been to ride tied and gagged for a day. She promised to never do it again.

As she rode, she observed periodically, sparse patches of greenery, a lone tree or shrubbery offering a spot of shade where weed and grass grew. Occasionally, they’d pass a water hole and take advantage of it by letting the horses drink their fill. They too would wet themselves down, splashing water on their heads and necks, making Hope do the same. At one such place, her stubborn refusal to do so, got her shoved into the pond, soaking her to the skin. They thought it funny.

“
Aah senorita…how appealing will you be to our Jefé if you are burnt to a crisp? Yet, there is something strange about you?” Juan observed as Hope sputtered and gasped trying to get up from the shallow pond. “What you think Eugene? This is no gringa no, she darkens from the sun. Gringa’s turn red…is this not so?”

“
Juan, she darkens as the gypsies! That is what they do.”

“
Nooo, this one…is not one of them. Who are you gypsy? Where you come from? We take you from your family, but - were you born of them?” He asked.

Hope sat stubborn and quiet unwilling to answer their inquiries. “Look at her. She does not look like them! They do not come that color. You
mulat
…hm gypsy?”

Legs and arms crossed, Hope maintained her staunch refusal to satisfy their curiosity. “No matter little one, our Jefé will be pleased with you. You are much like him you see…yes, I have done well this time.” Juan was convinced.

Once they had traveled far enough from the townships, they’d untied her with the warning of, “Do not try to run senorita, we will only capture you once again and you will pray that we do…for there are snakes that are deadly, waiting for one so foolish as to run where they rest.”

Having no clue of where she was, Hope was not about to take the chance. At night, she lay thinking of Alfredo & Anna and the pain they must be suffering from her being kidnapped. There was nothing to do about that now, depending on what was to come; she knew it was quite possible that she would never see them again. Then there was the worry of this “Jefé” her two captors kept mentioning. Who was this leader?

What fate awaited her once she was handed over to him? She would know when she got there. Pray was all she could do for now, her life was in
God’s hands and she would deal with what would be, when she faced this…Jefé.

Finally, after traveling over so much flat land, they came to high bluffs. Not quite the height of mountains but high enough to make her gulp in fear when they ascended them; going up the spiraling trail to the top. They journeyed high for a pace, careful as they meandered in search of a particular marking. Sitting behind Eugene on his horse, Hope held on for dear life. They now traveled downward, on a steep incline that Hope expected the horse to lose his footing on at any moment, sending them all crashing down, rolling to their deaths.

Squeezing him tightly with her head pressed into his back, her eyes shut; she prayed all the way down feeling the animal shift and brace himself, as he picked his way down unstable dry soil. At one point, it was so steep, the animal almost sat back on its haunches to maneuver them down. She expelled a sigh of relief once they made it back to the bottom. She looked up to see them riding single file in a narrow pass just wide enough for horses to traverse in single file.

Hope sat perplexed until Juan made a sudden careful turn into an opening. His horse backed away whinnying; not wanting to go in.

He clicked and slapped its flank with his reigns to get the reluctant animal moving until it entered, and then it was Eugene’s turn. Since Juan’s horse led the way, the second followed without resistance.

Hope looked up within the thin opening and could see why the first animal had been reluctant. There was barely enough room for their legs on each side of the horses to travel through without touching the sides of rocky bluff. During their passage through, small bits of rock crumbled down. An intense feeling of claustrophobia came over her after she looked up and realized they were at least thirty feet deep in the chasm. Should a downpour occur they would drown in the crevice. Hope fought with her fear.

“
Where are we going?” She shrieked in panic.

“
Shhh! Do you wish to bring the sides down upon us?” Eugene hissed a warning. Hope thought she would faint, the prospect of possibly being buried alive under falling dirt, sand and rocks made her put her head against his back again for comfort, where she closed her eyes refusing to look. She prayed they’d come out soon; the heat within the walls was getting to her. An hours ride later, to her surprise, they came out of what seemed to be the side of a mountain, where they went down a green, but rocky slope to an open valley.