Jude Devine Mystery Series (18 page)

“You folks lost?” The speaker looked about twenty, his beard a carefully combed straggle only an adolescent male would prize. Jude checked out his teeth. Nothing unusual there. But his eyes were a source of fascination, beady and deep set with no space between eyebrows and lids.

Tulley said, “Just passing through, sir.”

The stony little eyes fastened on Jude, and contempt seeped into the youth’s tone. “Keep your wife inside the car in her harlot’s attire. We will not have this town corrupted by immorality.”

Jude reminded herself that decking this little prick would be a good way to have the situation blow up in their faces before they got a single thing they wanted, but it was tempting all the same. She kept her hands in her lap and contented herself with a fantasy of dragging Epperson away from his harem in handcuffs. Maybe kicking him in the balls just once.

“Like I said, we’re just passing through.” Tulley wound the window up.

The youths backed off a few feet, but their shotguns, held casually at the hip, were still trained on the car. One of them spat, and a wad of saliva ran down the windscreen.

“Now, that makes me mad,” Tulley said.

Jude patted his shoulder. “Drive.”

He jammed the car into gear and they left the clothing police standing around the woman at the intersection like dogs guarding a carcass.

*

Summer stared at the grimy wall to one side of Nathaniel, her eyes fixed on a plaque that said:
Keep Sweet, No Matter What.
These were plastered up all through the house. As if anyone could forget. Summer thought she must have heard that saying every day of her life.

“Perfect obedience produces perfect faith.” Her husband waved the
Book of Mormon
. “The greatest freedom you will ever enjoy comes from giving yourself to God in complete submission.”

Summer wished she could lie down. Her heart was beating too fast and her skin felt clammy. The family meeting room was hot and smelled of baby shit, throw-up, and the sickly perfume Fawn Dew had on. Summer was shocked by this shamelessness. Even if she herself had been given perfume by the master, she would not boast her good fortune in front of all her sister-wives. Fawn Dew was also parading around in a brand-new, seamstress-made, green plaid dress with a white lace collar and big sash. She was the only wife Nathaniel had returned home with a gift for, and she wanted everyone to know.

Naoma said she wouldn’t be the favorite much longer, but the other sister-wives said it had gone on like this for a year now. Fawn Dew was one of the new prophet’s daughters. She and her Downs toddler had been assigned to the master after Mr. Jeffs took them away from one of the Barlows. He ran most of that family out of town not long after, the mayor included. Fawn Dew thought she was better than all the rest of them, and skipped her tasks. Anyone else would have been beaten till she couldn’t walk.

“Give thanks that you will be lifted up,” Nathaniel declared. “That you alone among the daughters of Eve will attain the celestial kingdom through living the sacred principle. Each of you must make a choice every day to keep yourself white and delightsome, otherwise you open a door to Satan.”

This time Summer could feel his pale blue eyes burning into her. She dared a quick glance at his face and he shoved his index finger into her chest.

“Wife, I am asking you now, in the presence of our Heavenly Father, did you open that door to the devil? Did you release your sister?”

Summer swallowed bile. Fear had her by the throat. Her teeth chattered. She dug the nails of one hand hard into the wrist of the other to prevent herself sobbing. The master didn’t like tears. Wives and children who wept were punished and if there was one thing she couldn’t face at this stage of her pregnancy, that was having to hold her breath while Sister Naoma pushed her head underwater.

“No, I swear. I would never do that,” she said.

“Then why were you in the barn on Saturday evening?” the head wife accused. Her face was aglow with anticipation and she ran a chunky hand up and down the thick leather belt she held.

Spies. Sister Naoma had them everywhere. Summer knew she’d been stupid to risk sneaking off to see Adeline.

Frantically, she said, “I went there to beg Adeline to submit herself. I told her that the only way she could find salvation was by living the principle as I do. I told her how honored she was to be chosen as the master’s next celestial wife. I was trying to make her see sense.”

Sister Naoma snorted, but the master placed his hand on Summer’s head and intoned. “After a lifetime of self purification and sanctification, and of repentance and living the principle, I am now a Christlike man. My faith fills me and I am blessed by revelation, visions, and angelic ministrations. Lord, I your servant ask now for the ability to discern the truth of my wife Summer’s reply.” He paused and several of the wives dropped to their knees, adding their own exhortations to his.

The minutes ticked by with excruciating slowness. Summer felt sweat slithering down her back and her thighs. She wondered if she should mention the hiding place the boy talked about, but she held back. If they found Adeline, Summer could hardly bear to think about what they might do to her. And if Adeline still failed to keep herself sweet after being purified, Summer too would pay a price.

Just as she thought she might faint, Nathaniel flung his arms heavenward and announced as he always did when he received God’s word, “If I dared to deny the Holy Ghost as it works in me, I would be committing an act of infamous perdition. If I trust in the arm of flesh more than in a revelation from the Holy Spirit, if I ignore the spring of living waters rising within me and the burning in my bosom, I will stumble from the paths of truth and righteousness, and I might as well become an apostate!”

Get on with it,
Summer thought and shivered instantly, recognizing the tiny, derisive voice as the devil’s, a cunning attempt to lead her away from the promise of salvation. Terror weakened her limbs. What if Nathaniel couldn’t hear God today and decided she was lying? She would be cast out, and without the stewardship of her husband, she would be doomed for all eternity.

She clamped her teeth down on her bottom lip, filled with bleak despair at the thought of losing her home and place in the world. She might not be the master’s favorite, but he had never used her harshly; only Sister Naoma had beaten her. Several of her sister-wives were great friends to her, especially Thankful, the sixth wife. Everything had been fine until Adeline came along with her apostate ideas and immodest ways. Wiping her hands on her dress, she allowed her husband’s words to wash over her and prayed for God to help her hold fast to the rod.

Eventually Nathaniel made the pronouncement she was longing to hear. Patting her cheek, he said, “Summer is a good and obedient wife and a faithful servant of the Lord. Adeline has been led astray by her master, Lucifer. Let us ask in prayer that she may be returned and cleansed of her wickedness.”

As Summer sank gratefully to her knees, she stole a sideways glance at Sister Naoma, who did not look at all pleased by this turn of events. Hastily Summer turned to face the Salt Lake City Temple, as they all did during their thrice-daily prayers. Eyes closed, she began repeating sentence for sentence after her husband.

“Lord, we present ourselves unto thee, thine humble servants on earth. Please hasten the day in which the blood of the prophets is avenged…”

As she mouthed the familiar, comforting lines, she added a prayer of her own.
Please God, protect Adeline, wherever she is, however foolish she has been.

“Why did you do it?” Daniel asked.

Adeline ran a hand through her short hair, still amazed at how light her head felt with the waist-length braids cut off. “You said runaway wives always get caught. But I look like a boy now.”

Daniel studied her for a moment, then his two front teeth peeped over his top lip. “You’re real smart, Adeline.”

She rolled up the legs of her denim overalls and marveled again at how free and comfortable she felt in men’s clothing. She was never going to wear that sack of a dress and the long prickly underwear ever again. When she’d swapped clothing in the laundry, she’d wanted to burn everything, but she didn’t have time and besides, someone would have seen smoke. Instead, she’d stuck to her plan and stolen the scissors from Sister Naoma’s bedroom. She still couldn’t believe she’d made it in and out of that window without being caught, and that she and Daniel had reached the cave and survived the night.

She’d also stolen a saucer from the head wife’s room and they’d used it to bake a couple of eggs in the sun once they were safe in their hiding place.

“I wonder how long it will be before they come looking,” she said. “We need to get away from here.”

“No.” Daniel was adamant. “We should stay where we are. I don’t think anyone knows about this place. We’ll be safe, and when they stop looking, then we’ll leave.”

Adeline eyed their meager supplies. Daniel had a small stockpile of foods his mother had slipped him on the visits he’d made to the ranch before getting caught. Beans. Dried apple. Cans of soup. He also had a pocketknife with a can-opener tool. If they made everything last, they could probably survive for two weeks. Water was the problem.

“We’ve only got water for a few more days,” she said.

“Once they’ve searched ’round here, we can go find some. They won’t come back again.”

Adeline wished she could feel so certain about that, but she had a feeling Mr. Epperson was not going to take kindly to their vanishing act. She wondered if he would tell her parents. Maybe they would go to Aunt Chastity’s place and wait for her. What if she and Daniel somehow got as far as Salt Lake City only to be caught and brought back? She wished she was eighteen. When you turned eighteen no one could force you to live where you didn’t want to live.

“How’s your leg?” she asked.

“It’s real sore. I prayed but it doesn’t feel any better.”

“Let me see it.”

He looked embarrassed. “I’d have to take off my overalls.”

“I won’t look.” Adeline turned and climbed down toward the rear wall of the cave.

Their hiding place was not a large one. The cave had an entrance like a pair of slightly parted lips. To get in, they had to slide on their bellies. But it was cool and snaked back a ways into the wall of red rock. A fine film of moisture clung to the farthest part, which made Adeline wonder if there was water somewhere. She had felt around the rock and listened intently, without luck.

“You can look now,” Daniel said.

He was lying on his front and Adeline almost threw up at the sight of his right leg. The thigh was dark purple and a long gash was trying to heal, but it had not knitted properly, no doubt because the wound was so swollen.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Some of the elders beat on me with a two-by-four. It had a nail in it. That got dug in and made the rip.”

Cautiously, Adeline touched the messy area. It was hot and sticky with pus. “They punished you because you tried to see your mom?”

His head jerked in a nod and his shoulders started to shake. “She was going to give me money for a bus fare. She was set to steal it from the master. Maybe she got caught.”

“You reckon that could be why she’s—what’d you call it?”

“A poofer?—probably.”

“Seems like anyone who acts half-decent ’round here gets thrown out.”

“God makes the rules. He speaks through the prophet and we must obey or atone.”

Adeline rolled her eyes. “If you believe that, you’re dumber than you act. My Aunt Chastity says the prophet is not Christlike. She says his rightful place is in the state penitentiary.”

A small hiss of air fizzed from Daniel and he snuck a look toward the mouth of the cave like he thought someone could be listening in on them.

“Boy, you’re skinny,” Adeline said. “I’m going to fix you another baked egg after I’m done with this.”

She poured some of their precious water into the saucer and cut a strip from the funny-undie bag they’d carried the eggs in. Cleaning the wound as best she could, she asked, “Do you know if there’s a doctor back in Rapture?”

“Nearest one is in Hildale.”

“Then that’s where we’re going.”

“No!” He seized her wrist. “We can’t. They’ll catch us for sure if we go there.”

“What are we supposed to do? This is infected.”

“Maybe if you pray, too—”

Adeline snorted. “Fat lot of good that will do. I did biology at school because I’m going to be a vet, and there’s only one thing that’ll fix your leg. Antibiotics.”

Daniel propped himself on an elbow and squinted at her like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Are you talking about apostate drugs and the like?”

“I’m talking about regular type medicine that you get at the pharmacy.”

He gazed blankly at her.

“Hello? The pharmacy, where they give you the prescription after you go to the doctor.”