Devil’s Claw

For several long seconds Lucy Ridder made no reply. She sat gazing intently into the concealing branches where Big Red had disappeared. Finally she turned away from the tree and focused her penetrating hazel-eyed gaze back on Joa

“Why should I?” she asked hopelessly. “What good will it do? My father’s dead. Nothing I can tell you will bring him back.”

“Or your mother, either,” Joa

“You’re right. What we learn now won’t bring either one of your parents back. They’re gone. But they say the truth will set you free, and I believe that’s the case. Finding out what really happened to Sandra and Tom Ridder is the only way you-Lucy-will be able to put these awful things behind you. It’s the only thing that will allow you to move forward. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck, and you’re too young and have far too much potential to let that happen.”

“What potential?” Lucy asked despairingly. “I’m nobody. I’m nothing.”

“Evelyn Quick didn’t think so,” Joa

“First the one car drove up. My mother got out, went over to the sign, and started moving the rocks. The person who was driving didn’t help her. Whoever it was stayed in the car and I never saw who it was. Then another car drove up. It belonged to a man from the campground-a nice man who stopped and asked my mother if she needed any help. She said no, she was fine. As soon as he left, she went back to moving rocks. That’s when the other man showed up.”

“Did you know who he was?” Joa

Lucy shook her head. “And I didn’t hear him drive up, either. He must have parked far enough down the road that I never heard or saw his car. Mother didn’t hear him either, until it was too late.”

Lucy’s lip trembled. “I could have warned her,” Lucy said. “I could have told her, but I didn’t. I kept quiet the whole time he was yelling at her and hurting her. He said she had something that belonged to him, something he wanted. But I knew that wasn’t true. He was looking for the disk, and I had that right there in my backpack. If I had come out from where I was hiding and given it to him, maybe he wouldn’t have shot her. Maybe she wouldn’t be dead.”

“You don’t know that,” Joa

“But I do. Anyway, the next thing I knew, there was the gun. They struggled over it; wrestled over it. Then the gun went off while they were rolling on the ground. Pretty soon the man stood up, but my mother didn’t move after that. The man picked her up-she was limp, like a rag doll. He dragged her over to the car and shoved her into the backseat.”

“Did you see where the gun came from?” Joa

“No,” Lucy said. “I’m sure it was my mother’s gun-the same one she used to kill my father. She hid it there beneath the sign the night she shot him. I saw her do it. It was tiny, and she hid it in a plastic bowl along with that stupid computer disk. When I took the disk, I left the gun where it was. It killed my father, and I didn’t want to touch it.

“Anyway, after the man threw Mother into the car, he got in, too-in the front seat on the rider’s side. I heard a woman’s voice then-the driver, I guess-say, ”Now you’ve done it, you stupid bastard!“ And he said, ”Just shut up and drive. Get us the hell out of here.“ And they left.”

“Lucy,” Joa

“Hiding. Big Red and I wrapped up in a bedroll. He helped me keep warm.”

“But why did you go there in the first place?”

“I had to know. Mother said she was coming home. At least, that’s what she told Grandma Yates and that’s what she told me, but I knew all along it was a lie. I don’t think she cared if she ever saw either one of us again. The only reason she came back at all was to get the diskette, just like I knew she would.”

“And how long were you there waiting?” Joa

“I had to wait until Grandma fell asleep before I could sneak out of the house. And it took time to walk and ride there in the dark, but I got there in plenty of time. I was already hidden in the bedroll when they drove up.”

“The man with your mother,” Joa

“He wasn’t with my mother. He came later. She was already there, moving the rocks.”

“Tell me about this man,” Joa

“No,” Lucy said. “Not that I remember. But I’ve seen him since then.”

“You have?” Joa

“The next day. He came to the rest area late Saturday afternoon. Big Red and I had been hiding in among the boulders just above the road. I was coming down to use the pay phone and get a candy bar. That’s when I saw him. He was parked by the phone and stayed there for a long time. As soon as I saw him, I knew he was looking for me-and for the diskette. And I knew he’d kill me if he found me, so I stayed out of sight.”

“Did you notice what kind of car he was driving?”

Lucy shook her head. “I don’t know much about cars. It was gray-silver, I mean. And foreign, but that’s all I saw.”

“Did you tell Sister Celeste about him?”

“I was afraid to. I was afraid if she knew someone like that was looking for me, she might not help me anymore.”

Joa

“Right,” Lucy said. “She hid them both that night-the night she shot my father.”

“I know how hard it is to talk about, Lucy,” Joa

Lucy took a deep breath. “Mother came to the YMCA looking for me. We were in the middle of class, but that didn’t matter. She just barged right in. She told me to get dressed, that we had to leave. Her face was all bloody. Her lip was cut. She looked awful. Mrs. Quick tried to tell her that she shouldn’t be driving, that she needed to see a doctor. But she kept yelling at me to come on. And so I did.”

“What happened then?”

“She turned around in the car and said to me, ”All right, where is it? It isn’t at the house, and it isn’t in his truck. Give me your backpack.“ So I gave her my backpack, and she dug through it until she found the diskette right where Dad put it.”

“Your father gave you the diskette?”

Lucy nodded. “At lunch. He came to school that day and told Sister Celeste he had to talk to me. He took me across the street to the bakery. I can’t remember the name exactly. Something about a cave, I think. He bought us both doughnuts, but he was too upset to eat his. When he tried to tell me what was going on, he started crying. He told me my mother had done something bad at work, and that he had just found out about it. He said he was afraid she was going to get into serious trouble, that she might even have to go to jail if anyone ever found out.”