Lena Jones 02 - Desert Wives

years.
    Shocked, I jerked back, and as I jerked, Meade moved with me. Encouraged, I summoned my strength for one last try.
    With a mighty heave, I slung him back onto the bank just as the cottonwood roared past.

Chapter 23
    As soon as Meade coughed up all the dirty water he had ingested, I got him onto his feet and half-pushed, half-dragged him out of the canyon, back to the graveyard where I’d left my gun.
    After I’d stuffed the tape recorder back into what was left of my bra, I gave the wobbly boy a shove. Then, at gunpoint, I marched him across the desert to the Paiute village and Tony Lomahguahu’s house.
    I didn’t even care that thanks to the raging water I was almost naked.
    After all, I did have nice legs.

Chapter 24
    “Are you sure you want to keep that ratty old chair?” Virginia asked Saul, as she and Leo helped him load the La-Z-Boy into the big U-Haul we had rented.
    The Circle of Elders watched us, furious, from Prophet’s Park. A few feet away from them, in lonely splendor, Davis stood alone. They were all still furious over Meade and his mother being arrested, because as it had turned out, even Sheriff Benson hadn’t approved of murder.
    “I’m not leaving a damn thing in this place that I don’t have to,” Saul said. “I’m even taking the toilet paper for the new house.”
    As I’d begun to suspect, before Saul moved to Purity he’d managed to squirrel away a tidy sum in Phoenix, away from Prophet Solomon’s prying eyes. The money had been deposited in his son’s name, accruing interest for years, and now there was enough for the down payment on a fixer-upper in Zion City. Like other Purity exiles and escapees, he planned to immerse himself in the growing anti-polygamy movement. And he wouldn’t be doing it alone. Jean Royal and her children were leaving with him. As soon as Saul’s divorce from Ruby was finalized, the two would marry.
    On the way back from the county attorney’s office the day before, Saul had told me, “Remember those two widows that I told you asked me to marry them? One of them was Jean. That’s one fine woman, Lena, and she wants more children. You know how I feel about that.”
    After I’d finished hugging him and almost running us off the road, I gave him a sly grin. “So who was the other widow, stud? You going to marry her, too?”
    His grin faded. “I wouldn’t marry Ermaline on a bet.”
    Ruby would remain in Purity. As she had explained to us when we tried to get her to leave, her children and grandchildren lived there. Besides, she said, when she saw our faces fall, in Purity her future was assured. The Circle of Elders had already found her a new husband: Vern Leonard, who after Martha’s arrest for murder wanted a new wife. And while Ruby wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of living in one of Vern’s beat-up old trailers, she’d decided the sacrifice was worth it to remain close to her family.
    I understood.
    But Cynthia, at least, had recovered from her last-minute apprehension. She’d ride with us as far as West Wind Guest Ranch, where her aunt would pick her up the next day. Ermaline, still apologetic over the role she’d played in Cynthia’s violent rape, had even helped the girl pack.
    As Cynthia heaved a box of clothing into the van, yet another book fell from her apron. This time, though, she picked it up leisurely.
    Saul grinned as he read the title. “
Your First Year in College.
Now, that’s what I call thinking ahead. You better write me and Jean when you get settled, you hear?”
    Cynthia gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, stuffed the book in her apron pocket again, and loaded another box.
    I snuck a look at Davis Royal. The sun was behind him so it was hard to read his face, but I still thought I saw some regret there. There was none on my side, though. Some day, I figured, I’d read about his death in the newspapers, probably in some “hunting accident.” There was a chance, I thought, that Davis might bone up on his own shooting skills and get Earl Graff first. Either way was fine with me. If they wound up killing each other in the same bloody shootout, great.
    For that was the only way Purity, and all the other polygamy compounds on the Arizona Strip, would ever be shut down. The previous day’s events at the county attorney’s office had made that all too plain.
    As soon as Tony Lomahguahu’s wife had bundled us into warm blankets, Meade, so certain that he’d acted for God, began to talk freely about