“Just a couple of questions really,” said the detective. “It would help keep your mind off the incident for a moment.”
Austin thought that was such a ridiculous assumption.
“You can talk all you want as long as I do not move an inch from here. I will tell you what I told everyone else in this hospital. I am not moving from this spot until I see my family again.”
Suit yourself,” said Rice. “I just want to know if you have any idea as to who did this to your family.”
“Yes I know,” Austin replied and stopped there. That was all he said.
Detective Rice did not like the look in Austin’s eyes.
“Listen to me, Mr. Hunter. I want to assure you that I know how you feel.”
“Yeah, right,” said Austin. “How do you think I feel right now, detective?”
“I think, or make that I know, you feel a lot of rage and probably contemplating revenge, but let me assure you Mr. Hunter, revenge never works. I would say that in all cases the wrong person landed himself or herself in jail, as I am sure the outcome would be the same here. And tell me, Mr. Hunter, who would take care of your family then? Please let the police handle this. Let me handle this and I promise you that when I find out who did this, he or they will be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”
Austin was starting to think that, under different circumstances, this would be amusing. He wanted to make sure to register the reaction on the detective’s face when he hears what he was about to tell him.
“You really want to know who did this, detective?”
“Of course I do. Otherwise what do you think I am doing here?”
Austin looked at Detective Rice for a few seconds concentrating on the face. “It was the Johnson boys, detective. All three of them.”
Rice stared back at Hunter. The names hit him like a tornado, practically paralyzing him for a second, and then a look of despair registered on his face.
“Yeah, I thought so,” said Austin. “Speechless detective, are we? I don’t hear you making any promises now. Did you run out of assurances?”
Rice knew what this man was talking about. He wasn’t sure he would be able to do anything about those boys. Matter of fact, he knew he couldn’t. He did know that both the sheriff and the judge would not allow anyone to touch them. He had intimate knowledge of that family and their tactics. He knew they would do whatever it took to protect the boys. Rice was no longer worried about what Hunter would do to the boys, but what that family would do to the Hunters to keep them from pressing charges. And file charges they would, if he was any kind of decent judge of character, and he was great at the art. He had to think - and think quickly - of a way to protect this family. These would be some serious charges, and the boys would be put away for a long time. He knew that the Johnsons were not going to let that happen. He would be damned and everything he ever prided himself on being would vanish if he were going to be just a bystander while the Johnsons destroy such a decent family. He knew he cannot get through to the Johnsons, but he would try his best to get through to this man standing before him.
Eudean Rice would have been embarrassed if he noticed Austin Hunter studying his emotions and the turmoil he was feeling. He was saved by the door to the emergency room opening. The doctor came out.
Rice was a familiar face to the doctor. He immediately looked at Austin, addressing him.
“Mr. Hunter, we are not finished with your family yet, but I wanted to let you know that we tended to most of their injuries and they are stable. I just wanted to assure you that they will be all right.”
On hearing the news, Austin collapsed on the floor, covering his face with both hands, and started sobbing. For once he did not care who saw his weaknesses, he was just relieved and thankful that his loved ones were staying with him.
Detective Rice did not know how to react to this burst of emotion. He was looking at a man who looked strong enough to take on anyone, but fragile and vulnerable enough to break down in tears. He knew he was looking at a very good man and instantly made up his mind to help him any way he could. This decision could mean a lot of trouble for him, and possibly his own death, but that was a chance he was willing to take. He had to make a stand and choose a side. It was no choice really; he knew what he had to do.
By the time the Johnson boys got home that night after trying everything they could to stay out of the way and try to treat some of their wounds, all three elders were waiting impatiently on them.
“Hi, Uncle Tommy. Hi Uncle Butch,” greeted Randy with a shaky voice. “What’s going on?”
Unexpectedly, the sheriff slapped Randy for the first time in his life. “What happened to your face, boy? You look like you have been in a fight and got the short end of the stick. As a matter of fact, you all look like it. You want to tell me what happened and who beat you up like this?”
“Nothing, Uncle Butch. We were not in a fight. We were just fooling around with each other and fell in some brier bushes and got all scratched up.”
It was Al who slapped his son this time. “You want to try again and tell us the truth this time or shall we beat it out of you? That woman and her daughter you raped and beat up are still alive, and from the gossip we picked up from town and what the two deputies that saw them afterwards said, you probably tried to kill them and failed.”
“We all know that they will probably file charges against the three of you, and with your history of all the fuck ups, we have no doubt that you will wind up serving time. Your uncle Tommy doesn’t think he can protect you this time. This will bring the state’s law enforcement agencies on us.”
The two younger boys were ashen with fright and worry. So was Randy, but he was the oldest of the three and it was up to him to do the talking. Besides, those were his instructions to his younger cousins.
“Impossible, they can’t be alive,” he said. They were dead when we left them. No one could have survived what we did to them. Ask Jeffrey and David,” he pleaded.
“How in hell could you let two little women do so much damage to your faces,” asked the sheriff? “They were girls, for Christ sake.”
“It was the younger one that put up most of the fight,” said David. “No matter how much we beat her, she kept coming at us, but we showed her,” he continued with some satisfaction in his tone.
“You showed her all right, you idiots. You have forced our hand and now we have to think of something to clean up your mess. Even though everyone in town thinks that you three did this, it’s only the women’s word against yours and from what we hear, they are not talking yet and won’t be for a while. Now get out of here and you’d better stay indoors until your faces heal, and I mean if you hear someone coming to visit, you’d better get back in your rooms and hide. Don’t even let the help see you this way. You will be eating in your rooms until all the scars are gone.”
“But that could be days,” said Randy.
“You will do what I said even if it takes months, you understand me, boy?” said the sheriff with a tone that brought immediate compliance from the three.
“What do you intend to do?” asked the judge when the boys cleared the room.
“I have an idea. I have someone that will take care of it for me. You don’t need to know, judge. Just don’t worry about them. It may take a few days, but I will take care of the problem.”
Over the next three days, Megan and Marina were regaining their strength. Austin spent every moment he could with them. He would only go home at night to sleep, and only after the hospital staff practically threw him out by telling him that his family needed their rest and as long as he was there, they were not getting enough. They also knew that this would be the only way Austin himself would get any well-deserved rest.
What Austin did not want