Murder in Evergreen - Jim Riley

Murder in Evergreen by Jim Riley

Book excerpt

I want to hug my momma one more time!

A branch slammed into her forehead, and briars embedded into her soft skin. She smelled the fear rising from the pores in her body as she crashed through the swamp, her tear-filled eyes unable to focus in the dark of the moon. Splashing across the logs and the downed limbs, the dread of being caught and returned to the life of the last few weeks drove her forward through the unseen night. Her feet and legs, bleeding and aching from the unseen obstacles she tripped over in her dire attempt to escape, barely kept her teetering on the shaky path of escape. The pain, however, was nothing compared to the abasement and torture she had endured.

She looked over her shoulder, unable to control the terror of what she might find on her trail, but saw no better in that direction than in front of her. Her mind froze with fear, and she was unsure if the mental numbness was from sheer panic or from the drugs they had given her to keep her sedated.

Why me, Lord? If you let me get home, I will never lie to Momma again! I will never go to the park to smoke cigarettes with my friends. I'll even clean up my room! Just let me get home, Lord! I want to hug my momma one more time!

Tears flowed from her swollen eyes and clouded her limited vision even more. Her forehead hit squarely on the low-hanging limb of a giant live oak tree, opening a gash and dropping her to the ground in a mindless puddle. Her instincts propelled her forward slowly on hands and knees.

She heard them coming from behind. The young girl felt her way forward until she reached an unusual tree. Heavy roots lifted it out of the water like umbrella ribs. The girl's slim body barely squeezed between two of them. The pursuing men passed her unseen among the natural cover. She stood in knee-deep water under the God-given sanctuary for a long time after they passed.

When the girl could no longer hear them, she waded from beneath the hiding place. Direction meant nothing to her in the dark. Every way she turned looked the same; murky water filled with green algae. It wasn't the water that bothered her. The venomous cottonmouths lurking beneath its surface could kill her in a matter of seconds, but she had no choice.

The youngster used the last ounce of strength in her small body and mind to trudge through the swamp. She ached all over. It was no use continuing. Better to die in this hell-hole rather than get captured. The world around her opened up, and she found herself free of the foreboding darkness of the forest floor.

A road! I made it to a road! Thank you, Lord! I made it to a road!

A deep calm encompassed her entire body, and the first tiny smile she could remember in a long time surfaced on her bruised lips. Too late! She cringed and curled into a ball as the blinding light grew closer and closer until it seemed to engulf her. She had no energy or the will to move. As it passed over her, the young girl felt as if heaven had closed about her.

Mary Alice, you'd better come see this!

"I think they cook fish bellies for the buffet instead of filets. They're tougher than a left-over Tuesday two-dollar steak that you get around to eating on Thursday. They don't taste like the fish you get on the dinner platter. I don't even think it's catfish, and I betcha it's gar," said Roy after treating his bride of thirty-nine years, Mary Alice, to a night out at the local Katfish Hut. They headed over Burned Down Road, a winding gravel path through some of the thickest backwoods in southern Mississippi. Their little farm sat only eight miles out of Evergreen, but it usually took them over twenty-five minutes to make the trip.

"Well, you should know. You ate enough of them to fill a wheelbarrow. I figured they were going to have to go out and re-bait the lines," Mary Alice replied.

"Well, I'm fuller than a bloated tick on a bloodhound. You may have to rub my belly when we get to the house."

"You used to ask me to rub more than your belly." A playful smile crossed her face.

"I never said you had to stop at the belly, but that's a good place to start."

He returned her smile and gazed over at her. The 'THAWP' of the undercarriage on his old pickup truck quickly brought his attention back to the present.

"What in the world was that?" she blurted.

"I don't know," he replied with a dark frown covering his face. He firmly gripped the steering wheel as he brought the old pickup to a stop. "I was looking at you. Hope it wadn't somebody's hunting dog. Gotta get out and see what we ran over."

Roy grabbed his flashlight and reluctantly climbed down from the cab of the old pickup. His pace slowed as he tried to reconcile what had happened. He knew there were lots of folks who still ran deer dogs out in these woods, and he knew how much they prized them. He paused at the rear of the truck bed as he tried to decide if he should leave the dog or take it back to its owner and offer to pay for it. Mulling this dilemma, he shuffled forward behind the bright beam, his trembling hands unable to keep the flashlight steady. When the ray focused on the mound in the center of the gravel road, Roy's eyes widened, and his mouth dried up instantly.

"Mary Alice, you'd better come see this!" he hollered.

When she got to the back of the truck bed, her legs turned to jelly, and she almost fainted. Nausea swept the very depths of her soul, only to manifest itself in the pit of her stomach when she collapsed to her knees. Mary Alice grabbed the rear bumper and pulled herself back to her feet. She clutched her stomach, trying to quell the uneasiness.

There, in the middle of the road, lay a young girl without a stitch of clothes on.

While she stared at the small heap in the middle of the road, Roy kneeled beside the body, which couldn't have weighed more than seventy pounds. To his astonishment, he felt life in the diminutive figure when he checked for a pulse. He saw her little chest barely move. Sweat poured from his forehead as he took off his coat and covered the little girl.

"Is she dead?" Mary Alice barely uttered the words with nausea still gripping her.

"She's still alive!" he yelled.

"Are you sure?" Some hope returned to her voice.

"Yep, but she can't be over ten years old. She's in really awful shape."

Mary Alice regained her composure and kneeled beside Roy and the girl. She ran her hands up and down the girl's legs and arms.