Chasing Ally

Thomas stepped over to the counter, dwarfing Bertha and asked, "Ma'am, why don't you give us the information we what and be done with it?"

"Sonny you better step back and mind your manners. You're not too big to take a switch to."

I laughed and shook my head. Thomas was shocked that anyone wouldn't react to his size; especially a little old woman like Bertha. When she threatened him, it blew his mind and he did what she said; Thomas stepped back. For almost a minute I stared at Bertha and she looked back at me. Finally I made up my mind. "Miss Smith, my wife is gone and I think Bill took her."

"Took her as in they ran off together or took her as in kidnapped her?"

"I think he took Ally, that's my wife and made her go with him," I answered. A little of the anger and concern showed in my voice.

"That's what I figured," Bertha replied. I raise an eyebrow in question and she continued. "John, you're a nice looking boy and you got good manners; no woman in her right mind would leave you for Bill. He always was a problem boy; about two degrees off plumb, if you know what I mean. Bill was put in the nut ward at the hospital over to Conway, but he busted out and ran off to St. Louis. Bill ain't worth the powder to blow him to hell, but I'd donate it ifin I could get someone to do the job."

"The hospital didn't go after or search for him?" I found it hard to believe that they wouldn't have tried to bring an inmate back.

"It's a small place and since they didn't think Bill was dangerous so they just sorta forgot about him." Bertha shook her head. "Guess you don't agree he ain't dangerous do you?"

"So will you help me, Miss Smith?"

"Call me Bertha; everyone does." She seemed to hesitate for several seconds while I held my breath. Pointing at my waist where my jacket had pulled to the side and showed my Glock. "Y'all plan on killin him? Y'all gonna have your revenge on Dixon?"

"My only plan is to get Ally back; peaceful if I can but I will get her back," I answered as I looked Bertha in the eyes. "But make no mistake, if Bill gets between me and her, I'll put him down if need be."

Slowly Bertha nodded her head. "I'll take your word on that John. Bill's good for nothin and Emily knows it, but he's her son and she still loves him. He given her nothin but grief since he was a teenager; but she don't deserve the hurt of seeing him killed." She took a large note pad, wrote something on it, and handed it to me.

"That's the address; Rural Route 2, Box 12." Bertha gave me detailed directions, what roads to use and how far on each road. "When y'all pass the drag strip, the house is the fourth one on your left; there's a mail box with Swanson and the number painted on it. The house is about a quarter mile off the main road in the middle of some heavy woods. "

I read the directions and nodded. "Thank you Bertha Smith."

"Tell me John, why didn't you go to our police?" Bertha asked. "We've got a small force but our Police Chief, Todd Williams, is a good man."

I explained how the St. Louis Police had been tied up in their procedures and hadn't been very helpful. "I wasn't sure how your police would handle it; Dixon being from around here and all. I know how Thomas and I will. Thanks again Bertha."

"Be careful, Bill don't look like much but he can be a handful." She looked over at Thomas. "Reckon you can be more than a handful. Good luck John. "

********************

I'm going nuts being stuck in this room, Ally thought. Looking through the gap between the shutters, she could see that it was later in the day. It's only been one night and part of a day and I'm ready to beat my head against the wall. Pacing back and forth isn't going to help. She sat down at the table against one wall; the table, chair and the bed were the only furniture in the room.

Just then the door opened and Bill walked in. He was carrying a tray with a plate and a cup on it. "Brought you an early supper; it's my Ma's beef stew. It's really good," he said as he sat the tray on the table. "I made the coffee."

"Why did you kidnap me?" Ally asked. "John and I aren't rich so you can't get much money out of us."

"I told you; I know you want to be with me instead of that pretty boy you're married too. You won't admit it so I made the choice for you."

"You're crazy. I love my hus...." Ally began.

Bill rushed her and put his hands around her neck. "I'm not crazy. Don't you say that." Ally's face started to turn red and Bill dropped his hands. "You love me and I know it. I'll have to teach you to tell the truth."

Ally gulped oxygen back into her lungs and coughed several times. "That's going to be an expensive lesson," she threatened." She stared at Bill with hatred and vowed to herself that she'd never let him touch her in a romantic, physical way.

"Eat your lunch," Bill ordered. "I'll come back in an hour or so and take you around the farm; it's gonna be your new home." He left the room and Ally could hear the door lock behind him.

Ally had thought about throwing the cup of coffee at Bill but when he told her he'd be taking her outside she decided to wait. I'll have a better chance at getting away then, she thought.

It was less than the hour he'd promised, when Bill unlocked the door and stepped into the room. He was holding a long nylon zip tie in his hand. "I'm gonna take you out side for a spell," he said. "Ifin you can behave I'll tie your hands in front of you; it'll make it easier to walk around. Ifin you won't, I'll have to put your hands behind you. What's it gonna be?"

Ally didn't hesitate; she stood and held out her hands. She had no intention of "behaving" but it'd be easier to mount an attack or run with her hands in front of her once she was outside the house.

Bill zip tied her hands and led her out of the room, through a kitchen, and out the back door into the yard. It was a bright sunny spring day but the wind was a little sharp so he put his mechanics jacket around her shoulders. He pointed and began to tell her about the farm.

"Me and Ma will learn you how to be a real farm wife," Bill said. "My friend Fred is a preacher of his own church and he'll marry us tomorrow."

"I'm already married," Ally stated.

"City marriage don't count down here," Bill replied. "We get married tomorrow."

Ally held her tongue. No use arguing with this demented fool, she thought. Ally looked around to see if there was anything that could help her get loose and escape. All the fields were to the west of the house and there was a thick ring of trees surrounding the north, south and east sides of the home place. The woods came within sixty feet of the building. A shed sat close to the west corner with a couple of pieces of farm machinery in front of it. Maybe I can get over to that tool shed, cut this zip tie, and get away, she thought.

********************

I slowed as I past the turn off to the Swanson place and read the mailbox.

"That's it," Thomas said. Then he chuckled and added, "Duh."

Driving on past the road about a hundred yards, I turned around and came back to the turnoff for the farm. Slowly I made the turn, drove into the tree line for a short distance and parked the truck.

"We'll do a recon on foot," I ordered.

"It's like being back in the sand box," Thomas offered.

I pointed around at the trees and countryside. "Not hardly," I replied. "And considering Ally, this is more important."

"Yeah, there is that." Thomas looked at me. My hands were shaking a little and my movements were quick and jerky. "You okay?" He asked.

"Have to be, don't I?" I'd been on an adrenaline high almost all day; everything was more intense and vivid. Back in the sand box, this was a normal everyday thing; I'd forgotten the stress that adrenaline puts on your body. I was going to crash pretty soon, coming down from the high. Just hope it waits until Ally is safe, I thought.

We got to where we could just barely see the Swanson house through the trees and went into recon mode. Thomas took the left side of the line we'd chosen and I took the right. One of us would advance several yards and stop behind some type of cover like a big tree or bush. Then the other would advance and leaf frog that position for a short distance. This action was repeated until there was only a thin line of trees left before the open space around the house.

Circling we went through the woods to face the back of the house. Once we'd gotten within what we thought was a hundred yards of the place we didn't speak; we used hand signals learned in the Army and on patrol in Afghanistan. I held up my hand to stop Thomas, I pointed to my eyes and then toward the house to let him know I was continuing forward to get a closer look.

I signaled for Thomas to halt his advance and stay put. He nodded and went to one knee behind a fallen tree that shielded him. I crept to one of the last of the trees bordering the clearing, knelt behind a big oak tree and peeked around its trunk. Just as I looked the back door opened and Bill Dixon came out sort of leading Ally. He had hold of her arm and pulled her along.

Afraid that Bill might harm her before I could get to him, I whistled like one of Ally's favorite birds to let her know I was close. She had been pretty much of a city girl when we met, but fell in love with the outdoors and camping when we started dating. One evening we were sitting around camp when a quail began its funny, measured call to the others of its covey. The call sounds as if the bird was saying, "Bob White, Bob Bob White".

In the Midwest and parts of the South the Northern Quail was known as a Bob White. Ally would giggle every time she heard one and was amazed that I could mimic their call almost perfectly.

Ally heard my call and looked toward the woods at the southwest corner behind the house. She said something to Dixon and they walked toward my hiding place. Ally pointed with her tied hands toward the fields. Thomas was still hidden by the brush and trees began to make his way to the east side of the house.

I've never seen a man the size of Thomas move so quietly when he wanted to. Growing up, running the woods around where we lived, or over in the sandbox, I used to kid him that Ole Dan'l Boone must be one of his ancestors. The man was a ghost.

Thomas cleared the trees and made it to the corner of the house. When he got there, he made a small noise and Bill turned toward the sound. I tried to make a silent charge from my hiding place to get to Ally. Apparently I wasn't as silent as I'd hoped. Bill turned, still holding onto Ally, to face me. He pulled a bowie knife from its sheath at his belt and held it out in front of him at waist level.

"Think I didn't hear those quail calls?" He asked with a grin on his face. "I knowed you was there all the time."

I took a couple of quick steps closer to them but stopped when he pushed the knife edge to Ally's stomach area.

"Y'all come any close and I'll gut her like a hog," he warned. "What? You thought you could just waltz in and take my woman?"

"She's not yours Dixon, she's my wife," I replied as I pulled my Glock. "Y'all kidnapped her and I mean to take her back home where she belongs." My speech had morphed back into the country drawl I'd had growing up in a small southeastern Missouri town. "Did y'all think I'd just let you run off with her."

"I've got a name you know," Ally said somewhat heatedly.

"Hush woman," Bill ordered as he looked at her and pulled on her arm. Ally looked at him with those laser eyes and if intent was reality, Bill would have fallen over dead. I moved another step or two closer before he returned his attention to me.

Bill pointed with his knife at my gun. "Y'all don't have the guts to take a shot; you might hit the woman. Sides she wants me, she always has. That's why she was always nice to me." He continued the rant for a couple of minutes.

As he talked I took another step closer; now we were only separated by about twenty feet. I watched for an opening, one where Bill gestured with the knife, taking it away from Ally's body. As he put the knife at her throat I went into the cold hard place in my mind that had helped me get through the firefights in that far away desert. I had no doubt that I would take him down.

Bill began to back away toward the farm house, still holding on to and pulling Ally with him. I followed along, never relaxing with my Glock still at the ready. There was no way I was going to let him pull Ally into that house.

He got about ten steps away from the door and gestured at me again with the knife. I didn't really hear what he said because I was concentrating on my target; I'd decide to take the shot. I could put the thirteen rounds my Glock carried into the ten ring of a target at 20 yards every time, but that was shooting at a target. A miss at a paper target didn't put my wife in jeopardy.

Before I could shoot, Thomas stepped around the corner of the building. He grabbed Bill's arm with one hand, pulled it and the knife away from Ally and then stretched his arm straight up over Bill's head; because of Thomas' height Bill was sort of hanging in air. It was a study in contrast of the height difference. I thought of David and Goliath but with the giant being the good guy this time.

I could see Thomas' forearm bulge as he applied pressure to Bill's wrist and the weapon popped loose. Catching the knife, Thomas threw it at the house, sticking it into the wooden siding. Then he dropped the wrist, which allowed Bill to fall back on his feet. Thomas then put his hands around Bill's neck. Ally staggered away a few feet, caught her balance, and stared back at the two men.

Thomas basically picked Bill up off the ground again, by the neck like he was nothing; applying pressure and shaking him like a dog with a chew toy. The look on Thomas' face said that this man who'd threatened his friend's wife was going to die, and die painfully.

"Don't kill him Thomas," I said. "He ain't worth you going to jail. Let the law take care of him."

"Where the hell was the law when you needed them?" He asked. The question was rhetorical, I think because he never released the pressure on Bill's neck nor did he stop shaking him.

"Don't know, but they're here now," I answered as I pointed over his shoulder toward the front of the house.

Thomas turned his head to look as a patrol car slid to a stop in front of the farm house. He didn't stop shaking Bill though.

Clinton was painted across the car door top and Police across the bottom; in between in large letters was the word Chief. Damn, he's almost as big as Thomas, I thought when the driver got out of the car. That's got to be Chief Williams that Bertha told us about.

I guessed Williams to be about 6' 6, with very broad shoulders that tapered down to his waist. He wore a long sleeve uniform shirt so I couldn't see his arms but his hands were large and powerful looking. They were certainly big enough to handle the .44 Magnum he carried on his hip. Williams walked toward us with his hand on the butt of the Magnum.

He wore a "Smokey the Bear" type hat and when he got closer, the hair I could see was dark with a few speckles of gray in it. The face beneath the hat had seen more than one day out in the sun and rain; it was tanned and weathered. I couldn't see his eyes because of the mirrored sunglasses he wore. Williams appeared to be about 50 years old.

"Y'all might want to put that boy down," Williams suggested to Thomas, still fingering his weapon.

"Thomas..." I said with a warning. I was afraid that Thomas was so mad that he wouldn't pay any attention to Chief Williams. When my friend got angry it wasn't a pretty sight and it was better to be in another part of the state.

"Son, please put that boy down, so's we can talk," Williams requested. "Be a shame if you broke his neck." The Chief stopped about twenty feet from where Thomas was still playing with Bill.

Thomas looked at the Chief, then at me, and back to Williams. He nodded and dropped Bill to the ground without letting go of his neck. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Now, y'all wanna tell me what's going on?" Williams asked.

"I'll tell you what's going on," Ally said as she stepped around Thomas and Bill to confront the Chief.

Better watch out folks, I thought. Ally's got her temper up and if she explodes y'all might get caught in the blast area.

"This piece of garbage here," she said pointing to Bill, "kidnapped me and drug me down here to this God forsaken farm house." For the next several minutes, Ally told Chief Williams what had happened, the possible marital status of Bill's parents and his specific short comings as human being.

Once he realized that she was all right, Chief Williams didn't do anything but listen to Ally rant on. A couple of times he ran one of his big hands over his face as if he was trying not to smile at this little girl going off on and about Bill.

Thomas knew Ally had a temper but he'd never seen her in all her glory. He took one hand off Bill's neck and just watched the show.

Ally ran down with a final, "You better see to him." She pointed again at Bill and started toward me. As she passed Thomas and Bill, she reached out and punched Bill in the nose. "You're lucky my husband and Thomas got here," she told him.

She stood on tiptoe and kissed Thomas' cheek. "Thanks," she offered. Turning back toward me, she ran and jumped into my arms. I saw her coming and was able to holster my Glock before she got to me. Ally put her head on my shoulder and let herself go. I held her until she recovered and then set her down.

Chief Williams took his hand off his Magnum, reached behind him and took out a set of handcuffs. He walked over to Thomas and Bill.

"Let me take this idiot off your hands," he said to Thomas. He cuffed Bill and started walking him to the patrol car.

Bill's mother stood on the front porch and watched Williams led her son to the patrol car. Looking back at his mother Bill said, "Ma?"

"You're on your own boy," she answered. "I said you were born to hang; guess you will now." She turned and went back into the house.

Bill looked at Ally and me before Chief Williams put him in the car. "I'll be comin back for you Ally. The judge will just send me back to the hospital and after a bit I'll leave."

"Y'all got it all wrong Bill," Williams said. "What you done is a federal offense."

"What'da ya mean a federal rap?"

"When you kidnapped Mrs. Delahome and took her across state lines, you violated The Mann Act," Williams answered.

The Mann Act? What's that?" The Chief had Bill's full attention.

"It says if you take someone across state lines against their will and/or for immoral purposes, you're in violation of the federal law." Williams grinned at Bill. "I think you wantin to force Mrs. Delahome to marry you counts as immoral purposes. Once the FBI comes to get you, I don't think you gonna be out of prison for a long time." The Chief turned toward us and added, "Y'all come and see me once you get calmed down John."

I was curious and asked, "How do you know our names and how'd you know to come out here?"

"Bertha at the Post Office told me about your wife and where you'd gone, so I thought I better mosey over and make sure you kept your word to Bertha."

"My word?" I was confused.

"You promised her you wouldn't kill the boy, lessen you had to," Williams replied. He smiled at my confusion. "I was out of town and out of radio range for most of the day. As soon as I was in range, Dispatch told me to call Bertha; she's my Aunt you know. Anyway Bertha told me about you and here I am." Williams looked at Thomas and smiled. "Reckon it was a good thing I got here when I did or all there'd be left of Bill is a pile of bones."

The entire time Williams and I were talking, I had Ally under one arm and Thomas on my other side. I kissed Ally, playfully punched Thomas on the arm and said, "Let's go see the Chief and then go home." Looking down at Ally I added, "Unless you want to spend a couple of days in Clinton."