Authors: Ruth Ann Hixson
"Here comes the cavalry," Frank said.
The car pulled in the driveway and stopped behind Frank's truck. The trooper shone his flashlight on the pair on the porch. "Hello, Frank. Who's with you?"
"Chad. I'm glad it's you. You remember Sherry Winnette?"
"Of course." Chad crossed the lawn and held out his hand to Sherry. "I'm Chad Wertman. Do you remember me?"
"No."
Frank interrupted. "Mark ran after the guy and he's been gone a good long while. Something must have happened to him."
Chad shone his light over the tall grass in the yard. "I can see his trail. I'll go try to find him."
Chad went off around the house following the trail in the dew-wet grass between the gardens and on between the soybean field on the left and the recently cut hay field on the right. He flashed his light from side to side to look over the fields as well as the path ahead. As he got to the trees along the creek, he shone his light around until he saw Mark lying there with blood on his face. He approached and squatted down to feel for Mark's carotid pulse. It was strong and steady. Chad let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He rolled Mark onto his back.
"Mark." He patted his face. "Mark."
Mark opened his eyes. "Chad?"
Chad reached out a hand to help him sit up. "Do you think you can stand up and walk? I'd hate to have to carry you."
"I'll manage." Chad assisted him to his feet.
Chad shone his light over the ground. "There's a piece of a dead limb." He walked over for a closer look. "It's got blood on it. Let's go back to the house."
Chad reached to the radio on his shoulder and pushed a button. "This is Wertman. Send an ambulance to the address of that break in. I got a man here with a head injury."
"I don't need an ambulance," Mark insisted.
"You were knocked out. That means you have a concussion. You could have a subdural hematoma. You are going to the hospital if I have to cuff you to the gurney."
"You've been wanting to put cuffs on me ever since you got the damn things," Mark complained.
"Did you get a good look at the perp?" Chad asked.
"Not enough light. He ran like he was training for the Olympics. Man, I've got a headache."
"That's why you are going in that ambulance when it gets here," reasoned Chad. They walked around the house to stop at the front porch where Sherry and Frank waited. "I found him down by the creek, knocked cold."
"How bad is he hurt?" Frank asked as they stopped beside the porch railing.
"Took a blow to the head. I called for an ambulance."
"I told you I don't need an ambulance," Mark protested.
"When that ambulance gets here you better be in it or I'll put you in it," his father warned.
"You and who else?" Mark asked.
"Me," Chad answered.
"And me," Sherry spoke up.
"Well, since you got the Karate Kid from Newark on your side I guess I better listen or she'll kick me in that particularly vulnerable part of the male anatomy." Mark walked over and sat down on the porch steps.
"Karate Kid?" Chad asked.
"Never mind," Sherry said. She didn't want to explain what had passed between her and Mark in the barn. She didn't know if Jan had told Frank.
"Here comes my backup." Chad said. When Trooper Turner approached the little group, Chad told him, "Check around back to see how he got in. Ask Sherry ."
Sherry didn't wait to be asked. "The back door to the breezeway. He broke the glass in the storm door but he must have had a key to the door. I didn't hear him break in."
"Where were you?" Turner asked.
"Hiding in a locked bathroom."
"Why don't you have any lights on?" Turner wondered.
"Because I don't have electricity yet," Sherry answered. "I got here late Friday afternoon. I am just glad I got phone service."
Turner came back a short time later. "It's like the girl said. He must have had a key or else he picked the lock."
"He got in too quick to have picked the lock," Sherry guessed. "A matter of seconds after he broke the glass. I didn't wait around. I ran in the bathroom and locked the door."
Frank had a thought on the matter. "It is possible he didn't know Sherry was here."
"He left in a hurry when the phone rang," she recalled.
"I told Mom to call; that it might scare him away." Mark said.
Just then Jan drove up and parked behind Chad's cruiser and headed for the porch. "I want to know what's going on."
"I'm not hurt that bad, Mom," Mark assured her.
"Here comes the ambulance now," Chad said.
Jan walked out to the road as the driver put down his window. "You can turn around in our lane." She pointed toward the farm. "Then park in front of my car."
"You follow the ambulance to the hospital so you can bring Mark home," Frank told his wife. "As soon as things settle down here, I'm going home to get a few Z's before milking time."
"Follow them to the hospital," Chad told Turner. "That's our main witness. He got a better look at the perp than anyone."
After Turner left, Chad said to Sherry, "Since you don't have electricity, we'll talk in the car where I can see to write." Chad put a small tape recorder on the dash in front of Sherry but he also took notes. He asked the usual questions about name, date of birth and address. Then he had Sherry tell her story until she said the intruder had a key. "Who has a key besides you, Sherry?"
"I do," Frank said from the back seat. "And Roy Winnette. He had power of attorney over his mother's affairs."
"He tried to get in the door in the den first," Sherry remembered. "But it was bolted. I don't know why that door has a bolt when the rest don't. And the bolt is up so high."
"That is because a certain little girl used to sneak off when Grandma was busy and come over to play with Lisa," Frank said.
A look of realization crossed Chad's face. "What's wrong?" Sherry asked.
"I just made a connection with something Mark said. I'll have to check it out. Is there anything more?"
"I don't think so. Frank told me not to touch anything so I didn't."
"Frank, can you add anything to what Sherry said?"
"Not much. Just that Mark and I got over here as quick as possible. The intruder was just running out through the breezeway. We could see his flashlight. Mark chased him and you know how that ended."
"Here's the CSI team." Just then a call came over Chad's radio for him to report to an accident on Route 322. "I'll be in touch," he told Frank as he opened the door for him. He got back in his car and left with the lights flashing.
"I'm going home," Frank told Sherry. "Can you help with the milking since Mark and Jan are both away?"
"Sure. I'll be over about five." Sherry greeted the CSI team. "You'll need flashlights because I don't have electricity." By the time they left it was nearly five o'clock. Sherry saw no reason to lie down just to get up in a few minutes to go help with the milking. She made sure the doors were locked and walked over to the farm. When she arrived there were no lights on at the barn. She went inside and found Frank asleep on the daybed in the den.
She shook his shoulder. "Time to milk cows."
He sat up sleepy eyed. "Is there coffee?"
They were halfway done with the milking when Jan walked in the barn. "Mark's okay. He has a concussion. No fracture; no hematoma. The doctor told me he has a hard head. I said it runs in the family. He's just like his father and grandfather. I must go get ready for work."
When they finished and went to the house, Jan met them at the door. "Mark isn't in his room. He must have gone to work. He's not supposed to be driving."
Frank walked over and looked in a window in the garage door. "His truck isn't here."
****
"Got any coffee?" Frank walked into Sherry's kitchen without knocking.
"No, but I have tea. If you leave the tea bag in the cup, it gets pretty strong. I have to try out my cooktop now that I have gas. The water's almost hot."
"Anything that has caffeine. I even brewed the used grounds over. I won't have any coffee until Jan gets home."
She smiled at him as she turned off the gas and poured the hot water into the only cup she had. "You don't have to wait that long. I'm stopping at the dollar store."
A grin spread across his face. "Yeah."
Sherry set the cup of tea in front of him and got a washed tin can to make some for herself. "Do you want sugar?" she asked as she got the tin can that served as her sugar bowl.
"Nah. I like your sugar bowl."
She grinned. "It matches my teacup." She pulled out a chair and sat down at the table.
"Why didn't you tell me you only have one cup?"
She used a paper napkin to hold the hot can. "I need to get to a thrift store. Not only do I need more dishes, I need a mattress. I'm tired of sleeping on the floor."
"There's a thrift store in Lewistown. We'll stop after we finish our other business."
"Sounds good to me."
He drank down the last of his tea. "Let's get going, kid. The sooner we get this done, the sooner I get to take a nap."
Sherry leaned back in the truck seat and dozed until Frank reached over and snapped her on the nose. "Wake up, kid. You have to talk to me so I don't fall asleep at the wheel."
"What do you want to talk about?"
He thought a moment. "The weather's usually a safe topic."
"It's cloudy," she said.
"The Weather Channel says we're supposed to get rain this afternoon. That pretty well exhausts that topic."
"Who do you think broke into my place last night?"
Frank frowned. "I don't know. Chad seemed to get an idea when I said your Uncle Roy has a key. But he said it's connected to something Mark said and since I don't know what that is I haven't a clue."
"Do you think it was Uncle Roy?"
"Nah. He's too stout to run very fast. Mark would have caught him before he got out of the yard. Don't you remember him?"
Sherry shook her head. "I know he and Mom talked a lot lately. But I don't recall what he looks like."
Another topic done
, she thought. "Do you know who my father is?" she asked.
Frank mulled over it a long minute. "No."
"You must have some idea."
"I know there were a lot of rumors. But I don't know for sure so I'm not going to tell you. I wouldn't want you confronting him and then find out I've been wrong. Only two people know for sure. Your mother and your father."
"All Mom told me was that he was married and she didn't know until she was already pregnant."
"I guess you'll have to be happy with that unless she changes her mind. It is not for me to say."
Sherry wasn't pleased with his answer but she accepted it because his reason was sound. She felt she could trust Frank Blakely completely. She wished he could be her father. Then she wiped that thought out of her mind. If Frank was her father, he would have had to be unfaithful to Jan and she couldn't see that happening, ever.
Frank parked the truck in the dollar store lot and took out his wallet to give Sherry a ten dollar bill. "A large can of coffee and a soda with caffeine."
She came back with the coffee and two Mountain Dews, glad that she now had her application for work in at one place. She set the bag on the seat between them and buckled up. "I hope you don't mind that I got one for myself. I need some caffeine, too."
Frank pulled out on the highway and headed south. They rode in silence for a while until Frank asked, "Why did Mark call you the Karate Kid from Newark?"
Sherry blushed but she told him what had happened in the barn the day before. "I wouldn't have slapped him but he caught me off guard. I've learned to react quickly. My life depended on it."
"He who hesitates is lost," Frank quoted. "You want to watch out for that son of mine. He likes the ladies. When he was younger, I used to worry that he would come home some night and tell me he had to get married. Now it's Lisa I must worry about. She seems to be going wild since she's away from home. Did you ever worry your mother like that?"
"I didn't have time. I started working when I was fifteen. With work and school I had little time for dating."
"Are you telling me you've never had a boyfriend?"
Sherry was silent a few minutes. "There was Eddie but when I wouldn't put out he broke up with me just before the prom."
Frank frowned thoughtfully and changed the subject. "Do you have car insurance?"
"Of course. It's mandatory."
"You will need it with a company that writes policies in Pennsylvania. I'll stop where we have our insurance."
Oh, great
, Sherry thought.
There goes some more of my money.
But she didn't say anything. She trusted Frank's judgment.
When they left the insurance agency, Sherry's had two hundred dollars less in her bank account. They had to promise the agent they would stop on the return trip to give her Sherry's new license number and the license tag number.
A sign just inside the door of the licensing center read "Take a number and wait." Frank took a number no more than he stepped through the door. "I'll show you where to transfer your car registration and license." He led Sherry to another room where there was a sign like the one in the first room. Sherry took a number and sat down. It was more than a half hour before she got her turn.
She paid the fees and was told, "Take this voucher to the next room and have your picture taken." He gave her the license plate for her car and a cardboard temporary plate to be taped in the back window. When she took her paperwork to the other room, Frank was sitting before the camera. Frank came to the counter to wait for his new license, when the woman brought it to he turned to Sherry. "I'll be in the truck sleeping."
It took another half hour for her to get through the line. When she went to the parking lot, she found Frank as he said he would be: in his truck sleeping. He roused when she opened the door, and with a yawn, started the engine. "Now we go to Lowe's."
"That man in there was talking to me about my mother. I told him to mind his own business because he treated me like I'm inferior because I was born out of wedlock."