Charlie's Promise Part 1, A Most Uncertain Present: West's Ghost Ranch, #4

By Aidan Red

Charlie's life abruptly changed again when Ratchet discovered the two South African Agents following the Ghost Ranch group at the Reno Air Races. Then Mary Collingsworth unexpectedly escaped from her house arrest and her husband, the vile Howard Collingsworth disappeared from the Police Ward of the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

Everything Charlie had accomplished in separating herself from Howard's tenacious pursuit and abhorrent designs on her had evaporated, and she was plunged back into a world of fear and darkness, no longer certain the seclusion of the ranch could protect her and the others.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Red's Ink and Quill
• Release date: Jul 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781946039453

Book preview

Z:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.pngZ:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.pngZ:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.pngZ:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.png

A Most Uncertain Present WT

Charlie’s Promise Part 1

Z:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.pngZ:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.png

Book 4 of West’s Ghost Ranch Series

Z:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.pngZ:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.pngZ:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.png

A Novel by Aidan Red

Copyright

A Most Uncertain Present, Charlie’s Promise: Part 1

Book 4 of West’s Ghost Ranch Series

Copyright © 2020 by Aidan Red

All Rights Reserved

Revision Date 2/15/2020

Z:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.png

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without permission from the publisher.

This novel is a work of fiction. The characters, names, incidents, dialogue, locations, events and plots are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, alive or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Z:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.png

Published by Red’s Ink and Quill, Wichita, KS

For other works by Aidan Red, Science Fiction and Fiction, published or forthcoming, visit RedsInkandQuill.com

Z:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.png

eBook ISBNs

978-1-946039-45-3

Z:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.png

Softcover ISBNs

978-1-946039-48-4

To a great IP whose passion gave me the love of aviation and whose knowledge and patience taught me the skills necessary to fly and survive in an airplane. Thanks, Dad.

Z:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\eBook POV Break P-51 Image - Isolated.png

My many thanks to my editors.

Z:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.png

Content Editing by Trenda London,

http://ItsYourStoryContentEditing.com

Z:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.png

Copy Editing by Amy Jackson,

Copy Editing and Proof Reading, http://AmyJacksonEditing.com

Z:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.png

Cover by

Aidan Red

A MOST UNCERTAIN PRESENT:

Charlie’s life abruptly changed again when Ratchet discovered the two South African Agents following the Ghost Ranch group at the Reno Air Races. Then Mary Collingsworth silently escaped from her house arrest and Mary’s husband, the vile Howard Collingsworth quietly disappeared from the Police Ward of the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

Everything Charlie had accomplished in separating herself from Howard’s tenacious pursuit and abhorrent designs on her had evaporated, and she was plunged back into a world of fear and darkness, no longer certain the seclusion of the ranch was enough to protect her and the others.

Chapters

Prologue

Thirty-Seven

Thirty-Eight

Thirty-Nine

Forty

Forty-One

Forty-Two

Forty-Three

Forty-Four

Forty-Five

Forty-Six

Forty-Seven

Forty-Eight

Forty-Nine

Phonetic Alphabet

Glossary

Preview

Books by Aidan Red:

About the Author

Prologue

Thursday, September 14

Canton, Michigan

Z:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.png

O H, SHIT!

That was Mary Collingsworth’s reaction when she opened her front door on the bright, first of August morning to see three uniformed police officers standing on her porch. Now, six weeks later, late in the evening, she sat quietly in the living room of her home, watching the policewoman seated at her kitchen eating counter. The woman had her back to Mary, playing her usual game of solitaire as they waited for the other policewoman to get up and take over for the overnight duty.

Mary had been reading a copy of the novel The Longest Time, wishing she too had a way of fixing things that had gone wrong over the years, but as the time grew late, her anxiety also grew. She had been wondering how long her home would remain hers as she glanced around the room. Thanks to her husband’s wickedness and her own weaknesses, she did not expect it would be much longer.

Mary was detained and placed under house arrest, with the usual ankle bracelet, the morning after her husband was wounded in a serious gunfight and arrested. The fact that she had not done anything was not important, she had been charged as a co-conspirator, accused of being equally responsible for every vile thing her husband had done. And the two officers presently in her house, the second pair that was assigned to her during the weeks of her confinement began, were there to watch her every hour of each day and night. One took the day shift and the other the nights.

The initial hearing for her husband of thirty-six years was tentatively scheduled for mid-October, and hers the week following. She knew she had not assisted him in anything, but she also knew she had not stopped him or turned him in, even when she had had the chance; not after the first time anyway. When she had tried that time, she had suffered the bruises, the pain, and the agony of his heavy-handed retaliation, his physical and mental abuse. Her situation now was the result of the many, compounded mistakes she had made concerning Howard Collingsworth!

She absently shook her head and quickly glanced back at Officer Johnson to be sure her movement had not been noticed. Over the last week, Mary had made a decision and needed to make an opportunity.

With a deep sigh, she closed the novel and laid it on the table beside her chair. Slowly she rose, holding the arm longer than usual to steady her trembling, her rising anxiousness. Once on her feet, she inhaled and tentatively walked around the eating counter and into the kitchen. She nodded to Officer Brigit Johnson, trying desperately to hide her barely-under-control trembling. Tea, Officer Johnson?

When the woman nodded and muttered thanks, Mary turned to the counter beside the sink and started their nightly ritual.

I’ll start a pot of coffee for Officer Brennan in a minute, Mary said, making conversation as she set the teapot on the stove and switched the electric burner on high. She was so nervous she could not remember how much chatty rhetoric she normally offered when she fixed their pots of an evening. I think she should be getting up soon.

There were two normal exceptions to their monotonous routine, Mary noted to herself. The first was Tuesdays and Thursdays, the mornings another officer brought groceries and any other items her guests requested. The second was twice a week, a different officer would come for a short stay on Saturday and again on Monday, allowing one of her two assigned officers the opportunity to go home, do their laundry, go out or whatever personal things they needed to do each week.

Yeah, any time now, Officer Johnson agreed as she glanced up at the clock over the mudroom door, then returned her attention to the card game.

Early in their marriage, Mary had realized Howard was up to secreted things, and as time went on she realized they could not be good. Then, when she asked about his activities, his physical and mental abuse began. First it was just against her, but it had slowly spread to include their daughters.

When their oldest daughter, Cathy, graduated from high school, Howard had married her off immediately in a prearranged union with Monte Williamson, the eligible son of the well-to-do Ralph Williamson, CEO and president of the multinational Openlands Financial firm. Many months later, Mary discovered that the marriage had sealed a financial agreement that favorably benefited Howard’s land development company, International Opportunities.

She had been told when she was arrested that he had kidnapped Cathy to pass her off as their younger, missing daughter, Emli, in some overdue business deal that the police did not fully understand. It was not until then that she had realized just how sinister his business dealings had become.

Mary had gotten her first real glimpse into Howard’s activities when he had whisked her away on a sudden vacation in early July. On that trip, while he was occupied with his business meetings, she began researching his emails and discovered how he intimidated and misused his business partners, contractually obligating them to his use of their sons and daughters in his business dealings. He was worse than she had ever expected.

It was in that searching that she had discovered his manhunt for Emli had changed and he had set his sights on a woman that looked like her—a Charlie Basset West living somewhere in Colorado. He intended to use her to pay off an old South African debt, and those partners were angry, to say the least. She had found the email that delivered their ultimatum, and discovered that Howard had precious little time left to produce their youngest daughter, missing for nearly ten years.

It only took a few minutes before the water was ready, though she felt like it could have been an hour. She quickly poured the hot water into the kettle, filling it halfway to let it steep.

There. I’ll let that rest a few minutes, Mary said as she set a cup on the counter in front of Officer Johnson, and I’ll get the coffee started for Officer Brennan. Would you care for any cookies or sweet biscuits?

Sure, Officer Johnson said, and flipped another card. Those cookies you baked are very good.

Thank you. Mary moved the cookie jar from its place on the stove to the counter and sat it in front of Officer Johnson. Now for the coffee. I think I hear her stirring.

Johnson glanced back at the stairs and nodded. Yeah, sounds like she’s getting around. Johnson chuckled. At least she’s found the bathroom.

Mary took the pot from the coffee maker, filled it with water, and poured it into the holding tank. Then Mary, almost absently, went through the routine of fixing the coffee—but this time with the same addition she had made when making the tea. Finished, she wiped the counter and rinsed the dishrag.

I’ll just set this closer for you, Mary said as she took the hot pads and moved the steeping tea kettle to the counter. She set it beside the cup and walked back into the living room. I’m going to read a while longer before I turn in.

Officer Johnson barely nodded, and did not answer as she poured herself a cup of tea.

Z:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\eBook POV Break P-51 Image - Isolated.png

BARELY CONTAINING HER trembles, Mary had resettled in the living room. She had reopened her novel and watched Officer Johnson and Officer Brennan as they chatted at the kitchen counter. She was hoping that staying to herself—away from them, like she usually did—would keep them from noticing that anything was different.

After a bit, Officer Johnson stood up and took her cup to the sink, rinsed it, and set it on the adjacent counter.

You calling it a night? Officer Brennan asked rhetorically, seeing Johnson’s huge yawn—Mary’s breath caught and she was suddenly worried it was too soon.

Yeah. Think so, Johnson answered, and headed for the stairs and Cathy’s old room. I’m feeling very bushed.

Okay. Sleep well and I’ll see you for breakfast.

Okay, Johnson replied as she started up the stairs.

Mary watched Officer Johnson closely, but she carefully kept her composure as the woman took her time and stopped with one foot on the last step. Johnson hesitated a long moment and Mary held her breath. Finally Johnson made herself continue, entering the bedroom and closing the door behind her. Mary sighed in relief that she had made it into her room.

You staying up a while? Officer Brennan asked Mary as she got up and poured herself another cup of coffee.

Not much longer, Mary answered. Just want to finish the last couple of pages in this chapter. She glanced up as Officer Brennan set her cup down on the counter and tried to stifle her own wide yawn. Are you sure you got enough sleep?

Should have, Brennan said as she sat down on her stool. The coffee will help, she added, and took another long sip from the cup.

She almost had the cup back on the counter when her legs abruptly folded—she slid off the stool and crumpled to the floor.

Mary was up and beside her in an instant, a timorous smile crossing her face. Her deviation from the normal routine had done the trick. It was the same deviation—a flavorless, fast-acting sedative—she had been using on Howard most nights since he had attacked and raped Emli. It had kept Howard in line, at least at night after his evening tea. When he was unconscious, she could relax a little...

Are...you all right? Mary asked softly, and cautiously patted Brennan’s cheeks.

The officer did not respond, and Mary nudged her again. When she still did not respond, Mary rolled the woman onto her back and quickly checked her pockets for her keyring, remembering Brennan had used them two weeks past, to release the ankle bracelet so they could change the battery. Now she just needed to find that key.

It took Mary a few minutes to find the correct one, and when she did, she quickly released the ankle bracelet and slipped it around Officer Brennan’s ankle. Mary locked it and then slipped the key off Officer Brennan’s keyring before she pushed the ring back into Officer Brennan’s pocket. The bracelet key she dropped into her own pocket as she stood up.

Pushed by a new sense of urgency, Mary surveyed the room quickly, looking for any details that might be out of place. Seeing none, she wiped the coffee spill off the eating counter and quickly washed and rinsed the two cups, the tea kettle, and the coffee pot twice with hot water. She sat them in the dish-drying rack beside the sink before she hand-dried them.

She made another full pot, sat Officer Brennan’s cup on the counter, and poured a little coffee into it. Then she poured half of the coffee out and set the pot back into the maker. Satisfied with her cleanup, she turned to the cabinet and put the jar, marked as sweetener, in her pocket.

Mary walked through the dining room and living room, and switched off all the lights except the one in the family room near the sofa. She left the television on and went up to her bedroom, but she stopped and tapped lightly on the door to Cathy’s old room.

Are you comfortable, Officer Johnson? she asked, and carefully gripped the doorknob. If Johnson was still awake, everything would be over in an instant. She inhaled and held it as she pushed the door open.

Officer Johnson lay spread-eagle on her back across the bed, dressed only in her underwear, her uniform blouse and pants piled haphazardly on the floor beside the chair by the bed, her belt and holstered gun hung from the back. Mary quickly confirmed she was unconscious, and closed the door as she hurried into the hallway. In her bedroom she packed a small suitcase of clothes, then from the laundry room she collected the unmarked plastic half-gallon container with the rest of Howard’s sedative and packed it and the jar in her case. Finished, she took her purse, car keys, and suitcase and hurried down the stairs.

Stopping in Howard’s office, she retrieved his small briefcase from the secret niche behind his desk, knowing it contained his laptop, some cash, and credit cards to untraceable accounts he used in his affairs. It also contained a list of contacts, local and away, where she could go and solicit aid and shelter. And there was his pistol. She hoped she would not need it, but at least now, and with the help of one with similar motivation, she had a chance to correct some of her mistakes, and maybe...hand out a little payback along the way.

She stopped in the living room, beside the front window with the curtains pulled for their nighttime privacy. She pulled the edge of the curtain enough to check the street and waited, but no one was parked nearby and no one seemed to be driving around the area. Now or never. She made her move and hurried, taking her cases with her to the garage.

She was nearly a mile away when the routine police patrol car cruised the neighborhood. The patrolman noted the Collingsworth house was closed up and dark like it always was at that time of night, and drove on by.

Thirty-Seven

Earlier that same day

Reno Air Races

Z:\Y - Notes and Background Data\eBook Break Images\EW Books\Blank Space Character - Isolated.png

Petite, blond Charlie West, in her fitted Ghost Ranch jumpsuit, settled into a folding chair at the T-shirt table beside her mother-in-law, Helen and Eddie Ventura, the ranch’s newest and youngest pilot. The second day of racing had started early with breakfast at the hotel, and when the necessity of eating was finished, the whole crew had piled into the rental van for the drive out to Stead Field, arriving just after seven. They had immediately started preparing the four planes for another day of anticipated excitement and greeting fans and spectators at the Reno races.

Charlie was still not comfortable with the fan attention, and when possible, let the others do the explaining and answering the myriad questions. She absently glanced at their stable of magnificent planes, the four of them parked together along one side of the lane, reaching from where they sat to the pedestrian aisle and the concrete barriers between the pits and the ramp area. Smiling, she thought about how the team had allowed her the space she needed, how they had all accepted her and how, because of that, she and her circumstances had changed since that fateful flight when she had brought Carl Henry to the secluded Ghost Ranch in July of the previous year.

Do you have everything out? she asked as Eddie and Helen arranged the T-shirt stacks on the table. Is there anything you need from the trailer?

Helen shook her head absently as she checked the stacks. No, I think we have them all out.

And—Eddie held up the history fliers they had printed for each of the planes—we have the new fliers.

Charlie smiled at Eddie’s slight accent, a familiar trait of her and her sister’s, the pleasant effects of growing up on the ranch with their native Navajo and Spanish languages in an English-speaking world. She watched Eddie absently as she placed the fliers in sets across the front of the table, flanked by the T-shirts with the men pilots’ pictures on one side and those with the women’s on the other.

Charlie tried to ignore the morning’s premonitions, and absently glanced down the lane with warbirds arranged on both sides. Dani caught her attention as she stepped out into the lane, snapping her cleaning rag at Jimmy Bump Ashward, giggling over something privately shared between the two of them. Shaking her head slowly, she remembered the Alamosa fly-in, just four months past in early May, when it first became obvious that something was going on between the two of them.

Dani, Eddie’s sister, was the older and the first of the two Navajo sisters to decide she wanted to become a pilot and to continue living and working on the ranch. Growing up on the ranch, she had been known as Rosie and then Rosita. Her nickname, Dani, and her sister’s, Eddie, had been requested by each of them to begin an alphabetical sequence after Charlie for the female pilots, and West had bestowed the names once they had each soloed and officially become part of what he called Aircraft Support.

Charlie chuckled at the memories of their ground school and flight training. They were both eager yet serious students, consciously striving to be the best they could.

Bump and Dani, dressed in their clean Ghost Ranch coveralls, had gone straight from the van parked in their hangar to the airplanes. They quickly stripped the engine and canopy covers off the Spitfire Mark XIVe and together, they folded them. Dani put them on the shelves in the new support trailer while Bump, with a spray bottle in one hand and a rag in the other, started wiping off any drips or runs that had accumulated on the belly of the airplane. Dani returned and dropped the cowlings and began cleaning their inside surfaces.

June Gibbings, John Ratchet Powers’ new friend since the end of July, had helped Ratchet with the engine and canopy covers for the P-51 Hell Raiser, the next in line from the ramp’s barrier. She was the sister of recently married Celia Kent, wife of the ranch’s legal counsel, Norman Kent. June was looking especially pretty in her brightly colored blouse and fitted jeans as she wiped the plane’s right wing and the fuselage where she could reach.

Charlie’s