Moving as if his body were detached from his mind and he was merely an outside observer, Shane complied. Life as he’d known it was hanging by a frayed thread and all the events he’d once thought catastrophic paled in comparison. When he’d seen Jamie Lynn drive away, he hadn’t been able to decide whether to shout or tear his hair out by the roots. Now he was so numb he hardly felt a thing.
He gripped the seat as the sheriff’s car slued around another corner and bounced in and out of potholes on the dirt road.
“I should have known the minute that girl showed up that she’d be trouble,” Harlan said. “Never did cotton to that family. Nothin’ but a nuisance. All of ’em. Alice drove me crazy with her tall tales of Ray bein’ buried.”
Shane stared over at him. “Buried? I thought everybody said he’d run off.”
“Everybody but Alice. She swore he’d ended up at the end of Creek Hollow, where the road peters out.”
“Did you ever look?”
“I drove out there a time or two. There was no sign of a grave or any diggin’. Pretty soon, Alice was gone, too. Everything settled down after that.”
“You never looked at any of my dad’s papers? His private files?”
“Why should I? Anything that pertained to the office was right where it belonged. I had a couple of deputies gather up your daddy’s stuff and take it out to Marsha’s.”
Where it sat in my barn gathering dust, Shane thought, until a special woman set aside her fears and came after the truth.
“What are we going to do when we get to the Henderson place?” Shane asked.
“Beats the you-know-what out of me,” Harlan replied. “I notified the state and asked for hostage negotiators but we’re three hours from Little Rock—unless they take a chopper and fly. I suppose they could do that, although I doubt it.”
Shane wasn’t going to hold out hope that anyone would arrive in time to save his family. If he let himself get angry again he’d want to storm the house, which was pretty much guaranteed to get him killed.
If Jamie Lynn had only waited, had let him come with her, maybe she’d have had some idea of how to sneak up on the judge. After all, it had been her home once and she’d managed to outwit the arsonists.
Stubborn. Pigheaded. Foolish. He ran out of derogatory terms and switched to complimentary ones. Loving, caring, beautiful, intelligent, courageous and right back to stubborn.
She was a contradiction in more ways than one. Her difficult life had matured her yet had also left her feeling alone and unloved. He wondered if time would have eventually healed her if she hadn’t come back to Serenity. Perhaps. Perhaps not, given her brother’s unfair conviction and the absence of the mother whose motivations she was only beginning to comprehend.
Something in Shane became more intense, then settled, as if imparting greater understanding along with surprising peace. He didn’t know if any of them would survive for much longer, but as for him, he accepted whatever was to come.
He wasn’t fatalistic. Nor was he afraid. Not anymore. He was simply ready.
* * *
The first police unit entered the yard of the abandoned farm with its sirens and light bar off. Nevertheless, Jamie noted its arrival. This was precisely what she’d been waiting for.
“All right. Do you both understand what you’re going to do?”
Marsha nodded soberly but Kyle was eager. “I’m gonna ninja him like this. Hey-yah!” The little arms imitated martial arts moves.
“Not this time,” Jamie warned gently. “You have to help Memaw run down the stairs. Remember?”
“Uh-huh.” Looking at her, he asked, “Then I come get you?”
“No, honey. I’m going to be doing something else. You can’t come back inside. You have to go to the policeman and wait for your daddy. It’s very important.”
Although he made a face, he did agree. “Oh, okay.”
“Good. Now, go stand where the door will open to hide you and be ready.”
Jamie waited until the others were in place, then wrapped the child’s jacket around her arm and gave the cracked window a hard whack. It made noise but didn’t break.
Disregarding her own well-being, she hit the window again. This time it not only shattered, pieces fell out onto the porch roof.
Footsteps were thudding in the hallway. Jamie swept her wrapped forearm along the frame and broke away the last jagged remnants, then leaned out the window and yelled, “Go, go, go!”
The bedroom door flew open. Judge Randall burst in, cursing and shouting. He made straight for her as she’d planned, grabbed a fistful of her clothing and tried to jerk her backward.