AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Why bother telling him something he already knew, anyway? Annie thought as she looked at the girl’s facial bruises, which seemed a couple of days ahead of schedule on the color progression from black to green. This beating had most likely been Cody Parcelle’s parting gift to his wife Saturday night or Sunday morning, not something that had happened the day before.
“What could he do about it anyway?” Tulsie asked.
“He could call somebody to come help you while he’s out of town.”
“We can’t afford another hired hand,” she said. “Me and Izzy manage fine. It’s not that big of a deal.”
The horse stamped at a fly and tossed her head, then stretched her neck to sniff at Annie, her big liquid brown eyes full of curiosity.
“I need to keep going,” Tulsie said. “Did you come here for a reason?”
Annie touched the horse’s velvet nose gently as she weighed her options, deciding to go with the truth.
“Tulsie, I’m sure you realize I don’t believe your story about howyou got that black eye and busted lip,” she said calmly. “Those bruises are days old, not from yesterday.”
“That’s not true!” Tulsie said, shocked at the accusation. “It happened just like I said! Ask Izzy!”
“Then why aren’t you all scratched up from the hay?” Annie asked. “Me and my cousins, we used to help ournoncClaude with his horses in the summer. And the thing I remember most from handling hay was getting scratched up from it. If that big bale hit you in the face hard enough to give you a black eye, you’d have scratches to go with it.”
The girl looked on the verge of full-out panic now, scrambling mentally for an alternate story.
“Don’t bother trying to bullshit me,” Annie said, keeping her voice even and calm. “I came by to see how you’re doing and to let you know that you’re not living in a vacuum here. I know this isn’t the first time Cody’s hurt you, but maybe now is the time—while he’s away—that you need to think about your options. Do you want to stay in a relationship with someone who treats you bad? You don’t deserve that.”
Tears welled up in the girl’s eyes, and she looked all around but at Annie. Looking for escape routes, Annie thought. When she spoke, out came the same tired laundry list of excuses Annie had heard a thousand times over the years from a hundred different Tulsie Parcelles.
“It’s not how you think. I love Cody. He’s not a bad guy. I mean, sometimes he has a temper, but so do I, and—”
Annie held up a hand. “Just stop. You can tell that story to yourself, to your friends and family, but don’t bother telling it to me. I’ve heard it all a million times, but I know what I’m looking at. The bottom line here, Tulsie, is that it’s not ever okay for him to physically hurt you. Period. That’s a serious crime, and I can and will arrest him for it.”
“I don’t want that!” She was hyperventilating now, terrified at the prospect of her husband’s arrest and probably already projectingahead to what would follow in the aftermath of that, how badly Cody would react and what actions he might take in retribution against her.
“My marriage is none of your business!” she said. “Why can’t you just leave us alone?”
“Because I know that the next time I get called out here, you might be dead,” Annie said bluntly. “And I’m sure you don’t want to hear that or think it could happen, but if you don’t believe it could, you need to go have a long look in a mirror.”
“You don’t understand anything!” Tulsie snapped. “Cody is a good husband. We’ve built this business together. I don’t need you messing things up. Just go!”
“Hey, Tulsie?”
Annie turned her head as Izzy Guidry approached.
“I just came to see if you want Poco up next,” she asked, her expression perfectly neutral.
“Yes,” Tulsie said, wrangling her emotions. “Thank you, Izzy. I’ll be ready for him in about fifteen minutes.”
“Okay. Perfect.”
The hired hand turned and started back for the barn. Annie watched her go, remembering the first time she had been called to the Parcelles’. The original 911 call that day had been anonymous.
She turned back to Tulsie. “You think on what I said, Tulsie. I don’t want to see you hurt or worse. And there are more people than you know who will help you. All you have to do is call.”
“Yeah, well, I won’t, so just go on.”
The old saw about leading a horse to water came to mind as Annie walked back toward the barn. Or maybe more accurate was the story hernoncClaude had told the kids every summer about trying to rescue horses from a burning barn and how the terrified animals had fought to stay in their stalls rather than flee to safety.
She stepped into the barn aisle as Izzy Guidry led a bay out of a stall and brought him to the grooming area.
“Izzy, can you give me Cody’s phone number?”
