Kate Seeks Revenge

The snows came early in 1949 and stayed late so cattle were sold off at a loss as supplementary feed dwindled to sweepings and empty drums littering barn floors. The banks were all too ready to decline to extend overdrafts, knowing the feed shortage would continue into the next season.

Rejected by the bank, Roy Holmes told his young wife Kate – a real sweetie with golden curly hair and arresting pale blue eyes - he'd visit their wealthy neighbor Dirk Hamilton to plead for bridging finance. Scarcely to his surprise Kate turned on the tears, pleading, "No, anyone but Dirk Hamilton.

Weary with worry Roy yelled at her to hush her stupid behavior; he jumped into the 1947 Ford half-ton and was off.

Kate was born in the valley and in her teens when one of the Hamilton boys arrived carrying flowers and wearing tidy clothes, her mom pulled out the shotgun and ran him off the property. Her mom wept and pleaded Kate to never have anything to do with the Hamilton's.

Kate scoffed at that warning but was reduced to tears when her mother described how Dirk Hamilton had raped her when she was twenty, on three occasions. On the fourth time when he called, aware her parents were away on a buying trip, she put a Winchester bullet through his thigh, giving him a limp he'll carry to his grave.

A few days later Kate, then twenty, realized she was born early in the year after those rapes. She asked her mom if Dirk Hamilton was her father. Miriam Rogers screamed, denying it and went away in a great state. Half an hour later Kate heard a gunshot in the storeroom and went running, to find her mom dead, the rifle beside her.

Less than six months later Roy Holmes came calling. He'd inherited his parent's store and was looking for a wife. Kate's father was intrigued about this and asked Roy if he was interested in doing a deal – trading the store plus cash for the spread if Kate were to marry him.

Roy was not supposed to tell Kate about the 'arrangement' but his mouth fell open one evening when Kate was in his arms in the barn. Instead of being upset at being kept out of the picture she kissed Roy and her first words where, "When shall we marry?"

Kate had never told Roy about her suspicion of having Hamilton blood in her. The autopsy had shown her mom had cancer spreading through internal organs so the finding was given as 'mercy suicide'.

Ironically, a few years later Kate's father sold the store and ran away with Dirk Hamilton's wife Kitty who was rumored to have absconded with $30,000 of her husband's money. Dirk didn't press charges and another rumor was the couple now farmed in Canada.

But now, in a cruel twist of fate, the extremely harsh winter had forced Roy to ignore his wife's plea raised now and in the past to never to have anything to do with the their mean-spirited neighbors the Hamilton's.

When Roy didn't return after two hours, Kate saddled her horse and went looking for him. Fifteen minutes later she neared the boundary between their spread and the Hamilton's very much larger ranch and spotted activity up ahead. She squinted and saw the three Hamilton boys, her possible half-brothers. The eldest at 22 was Pete; Joey was 20 and Frank 19.

Then to her horror she saw Pete had a stock whip and was using it to slash Roy, who had been stripped of his clothing. She pulled out her varmint .22 and fired three shots. Roaring with laughter the brothers ran to their Chevy and took off, weaving to avoid snowdrifts.

Roy was unconscious, blue with cold, his back cut open. Kate felt sick at the sight of the lashes oozing blood. Within minutes she found their pick-up had been pushed down a bank into water, but amazing the motor started; she drove through the icy water and out the other side. When she got back to Roy, the warmth of her wool-lined jacket she'd placed over him had helped revive him. Groaning with pain he assisted Kate to lift him on to the back of the pickup. She went slowly, to ease the jolting on Roy and because her horse was tied to the vehicle.

By the time she drove into the barn she was no longer distressed, just sullen with deep hate in her belly.

Kate swore to get even.

She left Roy on the back of the vehicle, wrapping him in horse blankets after putting her shirt over his cuts. She called he uncle Doc Rankin, who said he was on his way and he'd inform Sherriff Johns. It was a minimum 20 minute drive, but somehow Cliff Rankin and Sherriff Deputy Barney Ryan reached her in fifteen minutes. In the meantime Kate sat with Roy's head in her lap, stroking his face and telling him to be quiet to go to sleep. But he was determined to talk.

"I was getting a fair hearing, I thought, when the boys walked in. They asked why I was there and Dirk said he was considering advancing me a loan to buy feed. Pete became belligerent and told his father he should only accept land in exchange for feed and do a deal highly favorable to the family. Dirk thought that was a good idea, but I refused to accept such a proposition, although offering land as security. Dirk bought out a bottle of whiskey and told the boys to shut up while he and I yarned and worked into a deal. It dragged on and on. Finally Pete shouted, "Don't do a deal with that scum, dad; it was his wife's father who lured mom away, probably kidnapped her."

"Oh God, that has come up again," Kate groaned.

"And how. Dirk told Pete to shut his mouth, Peter told him to go to hell and was knocked down. He and his brothers cleared out. Little did I know they were waiting for me, jumping me when I was out of 'Fordie' opening the boundary gate."

"Oh God."

"Pete swung at me, and I dropped him, then found myself fighting both he and Joey but I couldn't cope with both. Then young Frank arrives with the stock whip and cracks me one but I pulled it from his hands. He went crazy and yelled, 'Tie him to the fence and I'll beat the shit out of him'. He was pretty useless so Peter took over and he opened me up."

"What about Joey?"

"He didn't use the whip. In fact he told them a couple of times that's enough, but Frank simply goaded his brother on."

"The little bastard."

When the brothers appeared in Court they were represented by a city lawyer who painted the picture of the three brothers being on a boundary patrol. It was snowing, visibility was very poor, and they stumbled on someone they thought was a cattle rustler. Pete jumped out of the vehicle, tackled the guy who knocked himself out in the fall. They ripped his shirt off and gave him a few lashes with the whip and left him; they claimed they didn't see his vehicle.

The three brothers separately swore that was the truth.

Roy's testimony differed in that he was ambushed after the father-son argument at the house. He was tied to the fence and whipped into unconsciousness.

The judge accepted the defense lawyer's contention that Kate could not possibly have seen what she claimed to have witnessed, being at least two hundred and fifty yards away in a snow-storm. She denied there was any snow falling at the time but the defense produced evidence of forecast that day of intermittent localized snow falls.

Eventually the judge accepted Kate's evidence that she found her husband tied to the fence although the defense claimed he was tied loosely for his own safety to keep him upright, ithe weather being miserable at that stage to bother identifying him. Kate had agreed under cross-examination she had no difficulty freeing her husband.

The judge found he was satisfied that the defendants genuinely believed they were dealing with a rustler looking to steal yearlings caught in drifts. He found the brothers guilty of minor assault but released them without penalty on good behavior bonds for a six month term.

Kate and Roy stood with their attorney outside the courtroom. The attorney shook his head sadly. "We may have scored convictions plus possible short prison terms had it not been for the father denying there had been any disagreement between himself and his sons that day and denying they'd even been at the meeting. The defense was full of holes but filled in with lies under oath. It's a disgrace but where's the evidence of a cover-up?"

"Well, it's all over," Roy said, undoubtedly thinking of the scars on his back. They'd come through the feed shortage with a farmer's relief organization coming to their aid.

As the couple went to 'Fordie', Kate gritted, "It's not over yet, not be a long way."

But Roy was adamant. "We're not appealing the decision, Kate. We've come to the end of the road; just accept it."

"Yes darling," Kate grinned. If Roy, getting in behind the wheel had glanced at her, he may have noted Kate's eyes weren't smiling.

- - -

Two days after the expiry of the good behavior bonds the three brothers went to town to celebrate. Already drunk they watched Roy and Kate cross to the other side of the street to avoid them. The brothers jeered at their neighbors.

Roy was grumpy when they arrived home. Kate opened a bottle of whisky and encouraged him to get his humor back. Late that night she helped him to bed. Shortly afterwards she drove off quietly in the pickup.

Dressed in black, wearing gloves and a black hood she'd made out of an old girdle of her mothers from the clothing junk bin, she did some ground preparation then slept in the vehicle just out of sight of the Hamilton's homestead. Her alarm clock went off at 4 a.m. and ten minutes later, with the house between her and the dog kennels, Kate entered the house and found the boys' rooms.

In the first room, using a torch with a black sock over it, she made out the sleeping form of Joey. In the next room she found her target – Pete. Putting a pair of his gloves and his watch from his beside cabinet into her pockets, Kate placed under Pete's bed a pack of twelve sticks of dynamite, some blasting caps and safety fuse she found in the storeroom beside their barn. She was used to handling explosives through blasting stumps on their property.

Leaving the house Kate lit the fuses of dynamite she'd placed on the legs of the grain silo beside the duck pond, strapping most of it on the legs facing the pond. The other fuse lit went to four sticks she'd placed under the floor of the main bedroom, to give Dirk Hamilton an early wake-up call, the bastard she suspected of being her rapist father. She ran to her vehicle and was some distance along the farm track leading to the local road they shared when she heard the explosions, not quite simultaneously. She grinned, this time her eyes were smiling.

At 7:00 Kate was waken by bleary-eyed Roy handing her a coffee. She checked the stove where she'd burnt the clothing she'd worn earlier that morning. It was all ashes then made breakfast. Roy came off the phone with a big grin. "During the night there was sabotage on the Hamilton property. Dirk was blown out of his bed, taken to hospital with both legs broken and his bedroom wrecked. Even better news is their still half-filled grain silo has been blown up and toppled into the duck pond, the grain mixing into mud."

"Oh my goodness, how awful," Kate said, sounding shocked. "Shouldn't we be over there helping?"

"Doing what – splitting our sides over in laughter? Best we just send Dirk a Get Well Soon card signed 'Anonymous' tied to a pack of rat poison. He-he-he-he."

An hour later Fred Macy, a neighbor of the Hamilton's on the eastern boundary, called to inform Roy that Pete Hamilton had been arrested for sabotage and for attempted grievous bodily harm to his father.

Roy told Kate, "The Sherriff's men found Pete's watch and gloves where the fuses were lit and under his bed found a cache of explosives. The lying bastard denied any involvement."

Although Pete steadfastly claimed he was innocent, he went to prison for thirteen months with the message from his father never return to the ranch. Dirk faced a long spell in hospital, with both broken thighs in slings suspended from a bed frame and reportedly feeling very uncomfortable.

- - - Exactly six month's later Joey Hamilton was driving home alone and very drunk when his car windscreen was shattered by a rock as he turned into the unsealed access road to the Hamilton ranch. He lost control of the vehicle which overturned into a ditch. Joey was thrown out, knocked unconscious for a few minutes. When he came to and found his vehicle alight he walked to the nearest farm house and had emergency services called.

The night shift from the Sherriff's office arrived to question Joey what happened and found he was very intoxicated. He failed to walk a straight line so was arrested. He spent the night in jail and in Court next morning received a fine and stiff talking to by the judge. Joey was engaged to the McEwen's eldest daughter who was persuaded by her parents to call off the engagement.

By coincidence that evening Roy had been told Kater was going to visit Sue Manners. She'd waited four hours for the chance to throw the rock – she'd seen Joey enter a bar late that afternoon – but she hadn't thought of setting the vehicle alight. However, when spotting the flames from the small fire from an electrical fault, she fed them by ripping down the roof lining and using the box of farm accounts and signed checks Joey apparently had collected from his father in hospital.

Because of the drunk when driving conviction, the Hamilton's insurance company refused to pay out on the claim on the loss of the vehicle Joey had been driving.

- - -

Two months later, after eight unsuccessful attempts to trap cocky young Frank Hamilton in the right situation, Kate had her day. She really wanted to deal with this young bastard severely.

Frank was driving the farm's month-old Chevy pickup checking the boundary line when he saw a nude woman wearing a black hat and riding boots waving to him. She disappeared into a big patch of brush.

Frank couldn't believe it. He found some women's underclothes when he stopped where she'd disappeared. He kicked them aside and following the track cattle had made when heading to the watering hole.

Angry in frustration he turned back after finding no sign of the woman and was about to open the door of the Chevy when he heard someone say, "Oh Frankie." Before he could react he was felled by a blow to the head.

Although Frank was the runt of the family, Kate only just managed to lift him into the cab. She threw the underwear in after him and from a sack she was carrying tipped six empty beer bottles on to the floor of the vehicle and then drove quickly to the steep rise above the shallow watering hole.

"Bye Frankie," she called, hoping he wouldn't be killed. She accelerated the vehicle slowly and jumped out, leaving the slope to do the rest.

"Oh God," she called, watching the vehicle slew three-quarters the way down and roll over and over into the water. She ran down well wide of the path the vehicle had taken and leaped over the marshy edge on to the gravel to avoid leaving distinctive foot prints. Frank was groaning and she couldn't see blood, so left the scene carefully, attempting to leave no trace of being there.

Back at the top of the hill Kate collected her sack, returned to 'Fordie', and drove into town to post letters she'd written the two previous afternoons. She complimented on the Post Office clerk on her pretty dress.

"Why thank you Kate. My you have been busy – six letters."

"Yes and all written after lunch when Roy went off to do fencing, leaving me in peace."

An alibi had been established, though not strong in itself.

Three hours later when Kate was talking to Roy as she prepared to serve dinner, Deputy Sheriff Barney Ryan and a service officer arrived. Barney told Roy he wanted to talk Kate.

"There been a vehicle accident over at the Hamilton's ranch – young Frank is badly hurt, both arms broken, a knee-cap gone, side of his face severely fractured and will have to be rebuilt, plus concussion. We thought he was hallucinating as well as being drunk. He was talking about being lured into brush, then bashed and then taken up to the hill overlooking the boundary with your place and send down in his new vehicle into the water. The vehicle rolled on the way down and is a write off. Frank ingested water when crashing to a halt so we couldn't smell beer on him but found six empties in his cab. But we also found these. Give them to me Jack."

The assistant handed across the bra and large panties.

"This evidence begins to make sense of the kid's story about seeing a nude woman waving to him to follow him into a brush. Now what were you doing all afternoon, Kate? I'm sorry to have to ask this but I'm very suspicious because this apparent crime scene is right at the spot Roy was so badly beaten."

"Oh, was it? Sorry but I have no alibi, I just wrote a couple of letters after lunch. I had no visitors and Roy was out maintaining fences."

"A couple of letters you say?"

"Well, six actually."

"It takes a long time to write six letters."

"Indeed."

"Pity we don't have corroborating evidence."

Roy perked up. "We do – you posted six letters at 3:30 this afternoon – you told me."

"Oh yes, it's no use writing letters if you don't post them."

Barney frowned: "Did anyone see you post them?"

"Not really. Oh, I bought six stamps off Nancy Young but why would she remember that?"

"Did you say anything significant that she'd remember?"

"I'm afraid not."

"We'll check with her, just in case. Now, let's look at this underwear. Are these garments yours?"

Kate laughed. "Barney, you and I were at high school together and I know for a fact you took more bras off my fellow female students than the number of times I received in A-grades."

"You received A-grades galore."

"That's exactly what I mean, Barney. You were the school expert on bras – I hope not panties."

Barney blushed and his assistant Jack looked impressed.

"Look at the bra, Barney; it's two full sizes too big for me and I'd swim in those panties."

"Oh yeah. Note that comment Jack and my confirmation that the two garments are way too big for Mrs Holmes. Did you record the question and answers about the mail – that's crucial."

"Yes, deputy."

Roy finished his dinner before he learned forward, looked closely at his wife, and said, "The plight suffered by the Hamilton's is all you, isn't it Kate – bloody-minded retribution? I recognized that bra – it's been in our clothes bin for years. It was your mother's, I believe."

"Roy, if you want to make trouble for me, just continue yapping on about such nonsense; the Sheriff's Department is sure to hear about what you are saying and send out an investigation team. And what do I do – confess or blow them up?"

"Christ, Kate you can't..."

"Shut up Roy. If someone hurts you what would you want me to do – grow roses? I think we ought to go into the bank tomorrow. The grass is roaring away, our cattle are becoming glossy so it's time for the final act, and for this I need your cooperation. We need the bank to underwrite our purchase of some more acreage. I think the Hamilton's have become very tired of raising cattle. They're rather too accident prone from such work, don't you think darling?"

Roy's eyes looked glassy.

"Oh, just one more thing; I want a baby, Roy. Let's go to bed tonight and act like responsible prospective parents."