December 14, 2002 - Realization
A cold hand gripped John's heart as the import of his wife's words over the radio came to him. He took a deep breath to steady his voice then spoke into the microphone again. "Ann, calm down. What exactly has happened with Melissa and Brittany? Take it from the beginning and give me the details. Over."
For a moment there was dead air then his wife came back. "I'm okay. This is what happened - Melinda and Brittany had gone over to play with Judy Starling, Rick's niece this morning. I told them to be back by lunch since that front is moving in. A few minutes ago Brittany came running back to the house by herself in a hysterical state. She said three men had stopped them at the intersection of the county road and the lane leading up to Rick's. She said at first they asked for directions on how to get to the church until they got within ten feet or so when they jumped and grabbed the girls. They took the shotgun and Melinda's pistol then asked if she was Melinda Horne. When she said she was the older of the three men then looked at Brittany and asked, 'are you that orphan girl John Horne took in?' Britt said she was and said the man smiled at that. He told her to run home and tell you that he had your daughter and you'd be hearing from him directly. John, what are we going to do?!!"
The man paused to consider for a moment then spoke into the microphone again. "Ann, put Brittany on the radio. I want to talk to her. While I'm doing that you call the Sheriff's Office right now and apprise them of what has happened then start calling Ed, Rick, Jimmy, and Mike. Tell them I'll meet them at the house in a few minutes. Do you copy that? Over."
With a plan of action coming together Ann's voice became steadier. "I copy. Here's Brittany. We're phoning now. Over."
Another voice came from the speaker. "I'm here Uncle John. I'm so sorry! They took us by surprise! I'm so sorry!"
John spoke firmly into the mike, "Britt, steady yourself and calm down. I need you to tell me exactly what you saw and what you heard. What did these men look like? When you left them did they get into a vehicle of some kind? Did you see them go down the road in a particular direction? Over."
Over the air he could hear the frightened girl take a deep breath then she spoke. "They were three white men, Uncle John. Uhhmmm, the one who spoke to me was older than the other two, about your age I think. He was wearing an army cap but you could tell his hair was cut really short, kinda like the way you see Marines wear it, brown but with some gray on the sides. He had a lot of tattoos on his arms that I didn't recognize except for one that looked like one of those German symbols - I can't remember what they're called but you see them on the flags on Hogan's Heroes. He wasn't wearing a coat, but just a short sleeved blue workshirt like you wear sometime. He had on blue jeans, pretty faded. He wore brown boots. I couldn't take my eyes off him when he spoke so I remember him. I didn't look at the others too well but they were both younger, one maybe about Jakie's age, the other one was older but not a lot older. One had a camouflage Army jacket on, the other one had a brown coat of some sort. I don't think I remember anything else about them. Oh, the youngest one was wearing a black cowboy hat."
He nodded his head, trying to commit the details of her description to memory. "That's very good Brittany, very good. Just stay calm and work with me here. Now, did you see what direction they went in? Did they get into a vehicle of some sort? Over."
The girl replied, "No, Uncle John, I didn't see a car or truck or anything. They just turned and walked into the woods away from the direction of your house. I couldn't see them very good after they went more than a few feet, you know how thick the pine trees are there at that corner. I ran straight home as soon as they were outa sight."
He closed his eyes and tried to visualize a map of the area in his mind. "You say they walked into the planted pines there at the corner? Where they heading in the direction of Rick's place or where they going away from both roads?"
"Uhhh, they weren't heading towards Rick's and they didn't seem to be walking alongside the big road, they looked like they were heading straight out through the woods to me. Do you think maybe they've got a camp or something in there?"
A faint hope began to blossom in him and rage began to burn within his heart. "Brittany, I want you to listen carefully to me and do exactly as I tell you. As soon as you put down the microphone go out on the porch and call the dogs into the dooryard and shut the gate so they'll stay in. Tell Ann to get a lead out and put Jake on it. Then tell her to get the jeans that Mel was wearing yesterday and put them in a plastic bag but NOT to handle them with her bare hands. Then I want you, Ann, and Lisa to lock the doors and windows in the house and all of you are to be armed. Do you have all of that? Over."
"Yes sir," she replied, "call in the dogs and keep them in the yard, put Jake on a leash. Put the jeans that Mel wore yesterday in a plastic bag but not to touch them with our hands. Lock up the doors and windows and get out the guns. Is that it?"
"Yes Britt," he said, "Now tell Ann I'm leaving right now for the house. Over."
"I copy, Uncle John. I'll tell her."
He hung up the mike and turned around to see Miguel and Carolita looking at him with grave concern. Miguel immediately said, "John, what do you want us to do?"
John replied, "Miguel, I'm leaving for the house right now. Try to contact Ed Harris by phone. Tell him I think they're making for U.S. 27, it's the nearest road in the direction Brittany said they were headed in. They'll either be on foot or on horseback. Either way, they're a good three or four miles from the road and it's thick as hell through there and the weather's crapping out so they're not going to make good time. If he can get men strung out down 27 they have a good chance of spotting them if they try to cross the road. County Central will likely send men out as well. Once you're off the phone with Ed, get your truck and whatever men you can find that you trust and come to the house. Between Ed's crew on 27 and ours coming behind them I think we'll be able to drive them like we did the dogs. That front is on top of us so tell everyone to get out their foul weather gear. I'll see you to the house."
"Vaya con Dios, my brother" the storeowner said, "I'll meet you at your house as soon as I'm off the phone with Ed." The screen door slammed before he had finished speaking.
-- -- -- --
John braked hard to a stop in front of his gate. He could see Ed's truck already in the drive and Jimmy came up behind him. He leapt out of the truck and ran up onto the porch. Ann came out the door to meet him followed by the rest. It was plain the women had been crying and he gave his wife a tight hug and a kiss. "I'll get her back darling, I swear to you that I WILL get her back."
Ann wiped away her tears and said, "I know you will John. Mike called and said he's on his way but he's coming from north of Newberry. County Central called and said the Sheriff is coming too but he's in Ocala. You're to take charge until he arrives."
John nodded and said, "OK." Just then Rick came up on a bicycle and Stevie Daniels ran up carrying a lever action Winchester. John said he wanted to wait a few minutes before making their plans to give Miguel and the others a chance to arrive. The rain began to fall harder and the temperature was dropping steadily so he went inside to round up his foul weather gear. When he came back out he dumped his lined military poncho on a porch chair and finished belting on his big S&W pistol, an SKS was slung over his back.
Ann gave him the bag with Melinda's jeans in it. "Are you going to try to use Jake to track Mel? Will he do that?"
Her husband said, "I don't know. I do know that she raised that dog from a pup five years ago when dad gave him to her and he'll follow her anywhere that she'll let him. It can't hurt to try."
Miguel pulled up in his truck with his two sons and several other men. The radio crackled and John answered, it was Ed Harris advising he had six men on the road and more coming so that he expected to be able to keep a long portion of U.S. 27 in sight. The assembled men discussed the best placements for Ed's men according to where they thought the kidnappers were likely to go and would extend the surveillance line as more people became available.
Over the next fifteen minutes twenty men had arrived so John decided they had enough to get started. They'd incorporate newcomers as they went along over the radio.
Before they left John turned to Ann, Lisa, Ellie and Brittany then said, "Until we eliminate these predators the rest of you could be in danger so this is what I want you to do. Listen carefully because I am dead serious about what I say. Until I tell you differently if ANYONE other than myself, Mike, or the sheriff tries to come through that gate without your permission you SHOOT them. Don't try to reason with them and for damn sure don't let them get within twenty feet of any of you. Just shoot them. The bastards already have my daughter. They're NOT getting anyone else. Do you understand?"
"Yes dear, I understand. Get her back John!"
"Darling, I WILL get her back! Believe it darling, I WILL get her back!"
The Posse donned their gear and weapons, loaded up onto Miguel's and John's trucks and headed for the intersection where the girl had been taken.
They arrived a minute later. John assembled the Posse to address them. "OK, here's the plan. This is going to be just like our dog hunts except this time the dogs can shoot back. If you make contact back off but stay in sight and call on the radio. The rest of us will come running. Brittany only saw three but there may be more. I don't think there'll be a lot more so we should have them outnumbered by at least three or four to one once we pin them down. So long as we have them boxed within a general area then time is on our side because we'll have more and more men steadily coming in. All we have to do is keep them from getting out of the box and we'll eventually run them to ground. Move quietly as you can, keep your radios on, try not to be seen, and don't get yourself into a firefight. Spot them and call it in, the rest of us will come running. It'll be all over not long after that."
Everyone nodded and Jimmy went first to try to pick up what sign he could. The group of men trailed the kidnappers through the planted pine, scuffed up needles leading them onwards through the dense stand. Four hundred yards in they came to the end of the trees and into a pasture where they lost the trail. Mike called them on the radio and said he was at the road with another dozen men and was expecting a dozen more to arrive shortly along with the sheriff. John told them where they were at and said they'd wait on them to arrive. Using Jimmy's radio he called Ed Harris who told him that he'd put another ten men on the road and more volunteers were coming.
When the new men arrived Jimmy told the searchers to spread out in a wide line and walk towards the other fence. The rain fell steadily and was turning to sleet. It would be dark early this day. They reached the far fence a quarter mile away with no sign. "Ground's firm and the grass is short enough in this pasture not to show much sign" Jimmy said, "We'd best spread out. It's pretty thick woods in front of us. Put about fifty yards between each man and we'll move forward in a line. Unless they've doubled back on us we ought to have a pretty good chance of someone seeing them before we hit the road."
Mike spoke into his radio and ordered a surveillance line of men along the county road and the lane running to Rick's place. More men were arriving as news that John Horne's daughter had been taken and the ongoing search for her spread through the community and the sector deputies in the west side of the county. The sheriff arrived and took up station with Ed Harris on the federal highway. He said they'd have the departmental helicopter in the air as soon as it could be arranged but it had been down for maintenance when the situation broke.
The men began to spread out into their line. John took out the plastic bag, opened it carefully and rubbed the blue jeans across Jake's nose. "Find Mel Jake! Find Mel!" With that he slipped the leash and let the dog go. Jake seemed excited and ran back and forth across the pasture for a time then ran under the fence into the brush. John climbed the wire and followed as best he could but passage through the thick brush and trees was difficult and the freezing sleet made visibility difficult. His right knee began to send sharp, shooting pains upward.
He'd completely lost the dog and wasn't sure what direction to head in when he heard a bark far ahead to his left so he began to move in that direction. "Hope that dog isn't chasing a squirrel" he grunted as he stepped tall over a fallen tree. His boot came down into a deep pothole and icy water flooded in over the top. He pushed on. Twenty minutes later he'd neither seen nor heard the dog. He pulled out his compass and took a reading and continued to head in a generally southwestern direction. He thought he might be ahead of the search line but he wasn't sure.
A dense thicket of blackberry briers was impeding his progress when the radio suddenly crackled. Rick's voice broke through, high pitched in excitement - "Contact! I've made…" A shot crackled through the trees soon followed by many more. They were to his left and close by. John lunged mightily through the tangled briers and began to run as fast as he could through the trees.
He soon broke through into a clearing of gallberry bushes about twenty yards across then caught sight of a brown canvas coat leading to the realization that three men were standing just inside the far edge of the waist high brush. The men quickly looked up from the ground in front of them and a fourth man hurriedly stood in front of them. One of the men in a camouflage BDU jacket was holding Melinda, a knife in his hand laying on her shoulder. John's SKS came up in his hands pointing at the men. "You men just hold right where you are." He said loudly. Melinda looked up, saw John and shouted "Daddy!"
The man who'd stood up was wearing a brownish civilian camouflage and a BDU cap. John knew instantly it was the man Brittany had described. "You'd be John Horne then?" the man asked. He glanced at the girl for confirmation. "I reckon you would be at that." With a smile he continued, "Well then, it seems our mission has not gone totally awry after all. Our guest-of-honor has arrived."
John's eyes narrowed as he looked at the man. "Just put those rifles on the ground right there in front of you and let go of the girl. You're all under arrest."
"Ah, the genuine article for sure. I'm proud to meet you deputy Horne, I've come a long way for the pleasure." The man seemed in no way distressed at the rifle pointing in his direction.
"Shut up and throw down those guns like I told you" John said harshly.
"No, I don't think so, deputy. You see, you've got a rifle on us and we have your daughter." He slid a pistol out of his holster. "I don't think you're going to take a chance of hitting her are you? Why don't you just put down your rifle there and we'll get to know each other better. Just drop it right there in that pot hole in front of you. Now."
The deputy said nothing for a moment as he eyed each of the men in front of him, finally he said, "No. No deal."
Again the lazy insolent smile crept across the man's face, "Surely daddy you wouldn't want to see your daughter's pretty face cut would you? You know we've got nothing left to lose, but you have. Put down that rifle and we'll let the girl go. Otherwise we'll just have to kill her in front of you and then kill you. Surely you wouldn't want it to come to that now."
"The first one of you makes a move against my daughter will die as sure as I'm standing here in front of you. Put your guns down NOW!"
"But if you shoot old Wayne here," the man nodded towards the other man holding Mel without taking his eyes off of John, "I'll shoot you. If you try to shoot me, Wayne here will cut her throat. If somehow you take us both, then Denny or Sandy here will kill you both. Your options here are few deputy, put down your rifle and we'll let your daughter go. Surely you want her to live, don't you?"
John thought furiously, trying to play for time. He knew that the shots had to have been heard by the others and they'd come running but these woods were deep, tangled, and after the rains of the previous months, quite wet with a lot of standing water so their progress would be slowed if they had to come any distance.
"You know as well as I do that you'll kill her too…" he never got to finish the sentence as a dark gold blur shot from a thicket of young pine saplings and hit the man holding Melinda. He screamed as canine teeth met through the wrist and palm of the hand holding the knife. The older man snapped his head to his right at the scream and John slapped his rifle against his hip and fired off three rapid fire shots towards him causing him to suddenly spasm forward and fall to the ground. John pivoted to his left and fired another three quick shots at the man to the right of the one who had been holding Melinda. That man spun and John leapt behind an ancient live oak to his right and bark leapt from the tree as rifle bullets slapped it. He could hear Melinda screaming, Jakes growls, a man's gassy wheezing scream, shouting and rifle fire. He belly crawled around the tree on the other side looking for targets, trying to keep trees in between him and the men he'd seen on the other side.
In the distance he could hear men shouting and knew the rest of the Posse were fast approaching. He'd just come around a large pine when a bullet slapped the tree next to his head and he dropped. Dropping into as low a crouch as he could manage he sprinted to his right further into the trees and cut back to his left. The wet camouflage of his poncho breaking up his outline in the failing light. A small caliber pistol sounded, once, twice, three times, then a man leapt up and ran from behind a bristly palm tree. John sighted in and fired, dropping him. He low crouched across to his left again when a bullet slammed him to the ground, he rolled over, unable to feel anything on his left side. Melinda screamed in a register so high that he nearly could not understand her - "Daddy!!!" He'd dropped his rifle when he fell and could not see it. He was desperately clawing his poncho out of the way to get at his pistol when a man in a camo BDU jacket stood up from behind a stump, a lever action rifle in his hands pointing at him bringing it to his shoulder, squinting down the barrel. John was desperately rolling to his left when he heard a shot from very close.
For a second he felt nothing…
Then realized how badly his knee hurt...
Then he realized how badly the rest of him hurt but not the way he thought being shot by a rifle would hurt.
He rolled over again and saw a BDU clad body lying on the ground. Stepping out of the brush from ten yards away was Miguel with a Browning autoshotgun in his hand looking directly at the body on the ground. John laid his head down on the ground and let out a long, long sigh.
Miguel carefully crept up to him and said, "John, can you hear me?"
The man opened his eyes and spoke, "I'm here Miguel. For the moment at least. My left side hurts like hell." No shots could be heard and they could hear the sounds of running feet crashing through the brush. In the near distance they could hear a man whimpering in pain.
Miguel put out his hand and helped John up. They walked towards the sounds of the man and Melinda ran up to them "Daddy! Daddy!" She wrapped her arms around his waist so tightly he could not get her loose. Finally he pulled her arms free and picked her up.
"I'm all right honey. Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?"
The girl stopped sobbing long enough to say, "I'm OK daddy. They didn't hurt me. I was just scared to death! They were going to kill you!"
"Well, they didn't kill me honey. I'm still here. Let it out until you can pull yourself together. Miguel and I have to look around a bit. How many men were there?"
"Four daddy. There were only four. There's another man they were going back to meet, in Archer I think."
"That's very good Mel. Very good. You just keep holding my hand and you'll be alright. Let's go look around." The men and the girl began to walk towards the sound of the whimpering. Melinda's tears continued to roll down her face to be lost in the freezing rain interspersed with the occasional sob.
They found the man who'd been holding a knife on Melinda lying on the ground, clutching his bloody left arm between his legs, his left ear torn and bleeding profusely with Jake standing over him, blood on his muzzle and face. Looking around they found the rest - the older man laying where John had shot him. Just in front of him Rick lay on the ground, dead. The second man was at a distance from where he'd been when John had rapid fired at him, laying face down. This left only the fifth man still unaccounted for - the one who was still back at where ever they'd come from.
Posse members were arriving, Jimmy, Mike, others. John ignored them when he walked up to the surviving kidnapper. He squatted down and took a pistol out of the man's holster and handed it to Miguel. Then he took the fellow by the chin and raised his face so they could look at each other.
"Where's the fifth man?" He asked.
The man let out a whimper of pain then said, "There ain't no fifth man! It was just us four! You done killed us all!"
"There's another man back from where ever it was you came from." John persisted. "Where is he?"
The man began to marshal himself better and repeated, "I told you, there AIN'T no fifth man!"
John said nothing but stood then stomped his booted foot down onto the man's mangled hand and ground it into the dirt under his heel. The man let out a gassy scream and John shouted over it. "I ASKED YOU WHERE HE WAS YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
The man lay panting trying to form words, "Ple… Please, mister! Don't do that again! There ain't no fifth man! I swear to you!"
The folding knife went 'snick' as it left John's pockets and before anyone realized what he was doing he reached down and sliced a strip off of the man's mangled left ear. The man screamed again and the rage filled father repeated, "WHERE IS HE!"
"Oh God! Please! Oh God! Please, you got to understand! You don't know what they'll do to me if I tell you! Oh God! Please, don't hurt me no more! Please!"
John quickly sliced off another piece of the man's ear invoking another scream. "I don't care what they'll do to you! You'd better worry about what I'M going to do to you! You goddamned piece of filth! I'll whittle pieces off of you all night if I have to! WHERE IS HE!!!"
The wounded man looked up at the men encircling him, staring at him with eyes of cold stone, none of whom spoke a word. The man in the deputy's uniform equally silent. John bent over with the knife again.
"NO!!! Please!!! Oh God!!! I'll tell you!!! His name is Lucius! I don't know his last name! He lives down on the county line road!!! A white trailer with brown trim! Please! Don't cut me no more!" The man began to sob. Mike began to question him more closely about the precise location of the trailer the man named Lucius lived in. When he finished he spoke into his radio, relaying the information to the sheriff out on 27 who said he'd have a couple of cruisers go there immediately.
Their immediate questions answered the men wrapped cloth around the dog chewed arm and hand of the man then cuffed him. After conferring with Jimmy they decided they were closer to the federal highway and would go out that way. Men began to cut poles and rig litters to transport the dead.
John helped lift the leader of the kidnappers onto a litter and winced. Miguel looked at him and asked, "didn't you say you were hit? I don't see any blood on you but you seem to be hurt. Turn around."
John did as he'd been told and Miguel whistled, "Madre Dios! There's a hole in and out of your jacket here John! Take it off!"
He unbuttoned his jacket, wincing as he pulled it off his shoulders, afraid to see what lay underneath. Miguel scrutinized him closely and frowned.
"What is it?" John asked, afraid that he was going to tell him.
"John, there is no hole in your shirt but there's two holes in your jacket. No sign of blood either? I don't understand this. Let me see your jacket."
As tension bled off John began to shiver in the rain and wind but he handed his jacket over to the other man. Miguel stuck his finger in one hole and poked it out another then said, "ahh!" Reaching into the inside pocket he took out a stainless steel flask, turning it over in his hands while he examined it, then handed it to John with the statement, "Here is the secret of our iron man!"
John took the flask and turned it over finding a long deep groove streaked with copper across its middle. "Son of a bitch!" he said with a sigh of relief. "Must have hit at a fairly shallow angle to have only ricocheted across the outside like that instead of penetrating. I'd have been in a bad way if it hadn't hit this flask. Glad it didn't hole it, was a birthday gift from my dad last year. Still not sure it didn't crack a rib though. That was quite a wallop."
He unscrewed the cap and took a deep swallow then passed it to the other man who grinned at him, took a deep swallow himself, then said "The Lord looks after drunks and fools, it is said. Today, my friend, you should be glad!" He laughed as John winced himself back into his jacket.
John didn't try to load anymore bodies onto litters but as they lifted one man on to a litter he stared at him, then asked the men moving him to roll him over. He poked around the dead man's jacket then said, "I thought I'd heard a small caliber in there, that's what killed this fellow. Three shots from behind." He looked around then spotted the pistol in Melinda's holster. "I thought Brittany told me they took your little pistol when they grabbed you?"
Melinda looked at him wide eyed, her chin quivering. "They did daddy. It was in that man's belt." She pointed at their prisoner. "It fell out when Jake attacked him. I picked it up while he was fighting with Jake and I shot that man."
"I did right, didn't I daddy? He was about to shoot you."