“Will this help?”
Hunter smiled at her, “I bet it will. Good eyes, Kelly.”
Kelly felt warm inside at being praised. When Ike took the bar from her, she asked, “How much does it weigh?”
“They’re about seventeen pounds for one this size. It’s a good bar, not even used that much. The ends are still sharp.” He hefted it and said, “Let’s see if we can use this and not make any noise.”
Ike placed the chisel end against the spot where the eave and the one-by-ten plank joined. He wiggled the bar, easing the tip of the blade into the crack, using more and more force. When it went in a half-inch, Ike pried with the bar.
The nail gave with a sound like a pistol shot. The girls jumped and Hunter looked behind them at the barn door, but no one entered.
Hunter asked, “Kelly, can you get through this and into the tree, see how many more nails are holding it? We don’t want to make too much noise.”
Kelly nodded and slipped through the opening and into the tree.
Carl rested against the outside of the barn and heard a sharp sound, startling him. He thought it came from the back of the barn, not inside, so he decided to check it out. He pulled his pistol and eased down the wall to the rear to the pecan tree.
Kelly froze when she spotted him coming. Ike noticed she stopped moving, and mouthed, “What?”
Kelly pointed and shrunk back against the slim trunk of the tree, trying not be noticed.
Carl felt sure something fishy was going on. He checked the ground, then the walls, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Kelly’s throat constricted when he glanced up and saw her.
“Well, what have we here.” He said. “I think I’ll get you down from there and taste some of your jelly roll, right outside under the bright blue sky.”
Ike looked through the opening in the loft wall, watching Carl approach. He held the bar like a heavy harpoon, measuring the distance to the man. When Carl put his pistol away and moved to climb the tree, Ike said, “Hey?”
Carl looked up and his eyes widened as Ike hurled the bar.
The point caught Carl in the hollow of his throat and shot through his body with the momentum of seventeen pounds of steel thrown by a strong man. The tip exited just behind his hip bone and continued down to stick in the ground. Carl writhed in agony for several seconds before hanging limp, suspended half-standing by the steel.
Hunter kicked the still attached board and sent it flying, then she ushered the children out of the opening as the front of the barn opened and Nadine stepped inside, looking for the source of the noise.
Nadine said, “Carl, you in here?”
Ike went next to last, holding Anita as he worked his way down the tree. Hunter was the last one out the opening and she climbed down like an acrobat, dropping the final six feet to the ground. She took Carl’s .45 Sig Sauer pistol and two extra magazines as the children stared open-mouthed at the body. Ike herded them away, but Consuela walked to the dead man and said, “I’m glad you’re dead.”
Ike was surprised. He said, “Why?”
“Because of what he did to Kelly.”
Ike felt a flush of heat in his face, “Did he molest her?”
Consuela said, “Kelly went with him because he said he would rape me if she didn’t. Then he raped her, we all heard it, and he planned to do it again but now he can’t, so I’m glad.”
Hunter turned to Kelly, “I’m sorry, honey.”
Kelly said, “Can we just leave?”
“Yes.”
They stayed in the brush paralleling the roads, and made it fifty yards before people stormed around the building from both sides, all of them armed.
Hunter motioned for the children to squat down, and she watched Suretta and the one named Nadine send people out in a search. Hunter used hand signals to point the way that had the most cover, and they slipped away from the barn.
Suretta stomped and fumed when they found Carl’s body and saw the opening in the loft wall. The people Suretta had, two men and four women, were sent in the search pattern. Only Paco and Nadine remained close, and the pilot remained with the plane.
He also started the plane’s engines. They’d barely made it out of the barn in time. Too close, Hunter thought.