Gathering Fallen Rocks Ch. 08

"You don't miss much, do you, Mrs. Pleas?"

"I try not to, when you ask me the kind of questions you asked. I know I have certain rights and I will use those rights to their fullest extent. I did not threaten to kill Santos Aguirre, although I might have had reason to do so. He has made threats against me and I have chosen not to report them."

"Would you care to tell me more about that?"

"No, sir, not at this time."

"Very well, that is your right, also."

"Yes, sir."

Sheriff Ramsey held out his hand for the truck keys, opened the rear door of Gail's truck and pulled back the corner of the carpet covering the tool compartment against the inside wall of the truck. He looked at the gun to make sure the safety on the trigger was locked. He put his ball point pen through the trigger guard and removed the gun from the tool compartment and placed it on the floormat of Gail's truck.

"Ma'am is that your handgun."

"It looks like mine, yes."

"Just out of curiosity, why did you choose a nine millimeter? It is a rather powerful weapon, particularly for a woman."

"Sheriff, as you can see, I'm not a very large person. A large gun might frighten my attacker, who would flee rather than face such a weapon. If he does not flee, I want to have enough power to kill him. You do not point a gun at someone who is threatening to harm you unless you plan to use it and you shoot to kill, not wound, because you will not get a second chance to save your own life."

"Have you ever pointed that gun at anyone, or is that just what you've heard your father say."

"Yes, sir. I pulled that gun out of my handbag and pointed it at my husband, who is now my ex--husband."

"Do you think you could have pulled the trigger?"

Gail shrugged her shoulders, "I might have, if he had hit me again, or if he had used the knife he was holding."

"Did you report the incident?"

"Sheriff, I am going to assume you already have that information, you seem quite well informed. You have obviously made some telephone calls or otherwise investigated me. But for the benefit of these other two men, I will tell you. Yes, the incident was reported. I called the police and an ambulance. I had three broken ribs, a number of very colorful bruises and a badly blackened eye, which the doctor feared I might lose. I filed a report for the physical abuse, and the next day I filed for a divorce. There is a restraining order against him and if he comes anywhere near me, I might actually pull the trigger if he dares to touch me."

"Yep, that's about the same story I was told. I appreciate your honesty. Has anyone besides you held or used this weapon?"

"No, sir, I'm the only one who knows it was in that tool well. I guess I'll have to find another place to keep it now."

"You mean you don't trust the three of us?"

"Sheriff, I don't know who to trust. I am frightened enough to jump at shadows. Loud voices startle me, and anytime Howard is more than a room away from me, I can barely breathe without hyperventilating. So I suppose I trust him, but I'm not sure about you or Agent Curran, and I'm sorry for that but it is the truth. Santos Aguirre seems to me to be a very dangerous man. The fact that he knows where I am or what I am doing, makes me wish I had a full time bodyguard--which is so ridiculous it makes me want to cry that I am so weak I can't stand up to a bully who is an American citizen and can't even speak English properly."

The sheriff bent over, looked at the gun, and smelled to see if he could detect that it had been fired. Then he turned to Agent Curran, "Pete, you want to check this out, too?"

When the Border Patrol Agent shook his head, Sheriff Ramsey told Pete, "If you are satisfied, I think we'll just leave this lady with her personal protection and get on with more important business."

Throughout the questioning, Howard stood two steps away from Gail. She could see him out of the corner of her eye and she knew he wanted to move nearer to her, but refrained from doing so, only because she never looked at him. When she finally looked at him, she could see the strain on his face. He nodded at her and Gail returned her attention to Sheriff Ramsey and Agent Curran. They turned and individually said "Thank you" then together walked out of Frank and Melanie's front yard.

Howard caught her just as her knees gave way, wrapping his arms around her and feeling her clinging to him, as she whispered, "Oh God, oh God, oh God, what is he going to do to me next. This will make him furious. Howard, what have I done to that man to make him so angry with me?"

"Sweetheart, it isn't you. Santos thinks if he can frighten you, it will scare me, too. Come on, let's go eat some supper and go upstairs. This is over with for now. Let it rest."

* * *

Gail spent so much time at the county courthouse over the next two days she barely looked at the table where she sat the first day. She knew additional files were added to the original stack of files she worked on that day. However, the new ones were thin, which meant it was new business coming in the door.

She met the overworked people in the County Clerk's office and returned to her office with a huge file of information the clerks had collected for the abstract company, much of it for Atwood's commercial files, about portions of properties which haven't changed hands in generations. She left work both days tired, but felt like she was getting back into the habit of working.

The special order parts for Howard's truck finally arrived at the auto parts store. He called while Gail was going back to her office and asked if she could stand a night at the ranch so he could get his truck running.

"Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful" Gail chanted, "I'm lucky I left my suitcases in the truck, but I'm almost out of clean clothes. I'll do laundry while you're working late tomorrow. I'm missing my furniture more, every day, especially my washer and dryer."

"Damn, you should have said something. You can use the washer and dryer in the house."

"Howard, I can't keep imposing on Melanie all the time."

"Why not, it's half mine."

"What?" Gail had never heard him say anything other than that it was Frank and Melanie's home.