The letters continued 

     Evie sat in the middle of the living room floor. Dillon had saved these? Wow! She couldn’t get over that. At one point in her life, she had a trunk full of stuff. But now, she had no idea where that trunk went. She guessed her mom torched it. It seemed odd to her that a man would keep such mementos. Doug sure wouldn’t have. He would ooh and awe but once the event was over, such things were trash. 

     With great care she opened the envelope, thinking it would crumble into pieces. Each letter was dated, starting with May 31st, the day he was to leave. Her dad had taken them to Matt’s general store. Together they picked out a note book and 2 pens. The last letter was dated July 31st. A few of the letters were torn in odd places. One was mangled so badly that it had been taped back together. The letter behind it explained that a boy named Stan, didn’t believe Dillon had any friends back home. Let alone a beautiful girl to write to. So he took it upon himself to shred the letter. After this, Stan was removed from Dillon’s cabin. Dillon wasn’t the only boy Stan picked on. 

     She paused for a moment ‘beautiful girl’. Those were Dillon’s words. ‘Beautiful girl’. Beautiful was never an adjective she would have used to describe herself. Her mother told her she was plain, homely looking and would never attract the right kind of man. She hated the lace Lily tried to dress her in for church. It itched and left uncomfortable red splotches on her skin. They barely had time to stop being an irritant before her mother stuffed her back into another uncomfortable dress. Evie would have been happy in her ‘boy clothes’ playing in the mud. Especially with Dillon. 

     ‘If you don’t stop playing with that Pace boy, no other boy will ever look at you. Do you want to marry that thing?’ She would scowl. ‘His dad is an alcoholic and his mother is useless.’ 

     One day Evie got brave and asked, ‘I thought she was your best friend.’ Her mother had said it to Rose’s face more times than Evie could count. She even bore Rose’s name. Lily smacked her hard across the face, telling Jack that Evie fell playing with sweet little Dillon. 

     Her mother taught her that women were lying, 2 faced back stabbing bitches. Smile to someone’s face, then talk about them in private. So was Dillon a piece of trash or a sweet little boy? If her dad ever had such feelings about the Pace’s they were never voiced to her. 

     She knew her dad felt sorry for Dillon’s dad. They grew up together. Jack’s family was never rich but he wanted more for his family. He was able to get a job at the local saw mill and never looked back. Carl (but pronounced Coral because hey, they were country) married Rose. Moved away to seek his fortune but like so many, came back broke both financially and spiritually. Jack tried to get Coral a job at the mill but he was always too drunk to run the saws. Jack would share food and such with the Pace’s but never money. 

     There was one heated conversation between Jack and Lily about adopting Dillon. Jack wanted to. Lily didn’t want any part of it. ‘She’s too attached as it is. I want her to grow up to be a proper lady. With that boy in the house, she’ll be riding horses or something equally stupid’. 

     That conversation was how she found out Coral was abusing Dillon. ‘Maybe if he was a better boy and helped around the house instead of trying to live here’. Her mother always had an ugly retort. 

     Dillon thought she was beautiful. 

The letters

     After what Dillon thought was a perfect evening, he opened the door for her. Extended his hand to help her out of his truck, walking her to her door. 

     “How good is your memory?”

     He smiled, “depends?”

     “Remember these numbers.” She entered 4 numbers into a keypad on her front door. That’s your code to get into the house. 

     He took out his phone, quickly making a note of his code. “This is new.” 

     “I told you Doug is a dangerous man. It is my plan to make it as difficult for him as I can. The same code will work for the back door. Are you free any time this weekend? To look at furniture?”

     “Saturday.”

     “Call me.” 

     “Evie.” He presented her with a very old, very large envelope. Little boxes had been drawn in the top right hand corner with different shapes inside them. There in the middle was her name and address. In the left corner, was the name of that summer camp and Dillon’s name. He sighed, “everything was paid for. Everything I needed. Except snacks, stamps, stuff like that cost extra and dad didn’t give me any money. The day I got home I put all those letters in a brown paper sack and ran as fast as I could to the lumber yard.” He stopped remembering that day. “I handed Jack the bag full of letters and begged him not to tell you that I was home. He sat me down beside that big desk, pulled out that envelope.” 

     Evie smiled remembering that big desk and how it filled his office. 

     “One by one he pulled the wadded wrinkled letters out of the bag, smoothen’ them out with his hand. He told me what to write on the envelope as he pulled endless letters from that bag. He showed me a stamp, told me how many to put on the envelope, and I tried so hard to draw them as close to the real stamp as I could. When I had finished, he slid the letters inside and I sealed it.” Dillon looked at her. “I wrote you every day Evelyn.” 

Details

     Sheriff Milo looked at the number on the piece of paper. Looking at his deputy, he growled, “who?” The deputy shrugged. “Like I have time to talk to some first term sheriff.”

     Margaret answered the phone, “Sunshine Valley Sheriff’s Office.”

     His anger dissolved in an instant. “Sheriff Pace.”

     “May I ask who’s callin’?”

     He stifled a laugh. Her country accent was cute. “Sheriff Milo. I’m returning his call.”

     “Please hold.” There was no music. Just dead air as he waited for the transfer. 

     A very tired voice answered, “thank you for takin’ time out of your busy schedule to call me back sheriff. I’ll get right to the point. I need any information you can share with me about Douglas Greenroll.”

     Sheriff Milo’s blood ran cold at the mention of the man’s name. His heart skipped a beat. After clearing his throat, he asked, “sheriff, why do you ask?”

     He almost blurted out Evie’s name. Thought better of it before saying, “I’m protecting.”

     “Sheriff, he has no respect for your badge. He’s loaded with smooth talking, high dollar lawyers. I guess being a millionaire has its perks.” Dillon spewed coffee cross the room when Milo said millionaire. “You didn’t know?”

     “There’s a lot I don’t know.”

     “He doesn’t respect your badge. He doesn’t respect the fact that you’re a human being and he sure as hell doesn’t respect Mrs.” Milo stopped. “Ms. Rice. He shot one of my deputies. We are working the best we can to keep this bastard in jail. Sheriff, I will call you when they release him.”

     “Thank you sheriff.”

     “I’ll need a secure way to send you this information.”

     “Yes. Thank you. One moment.”

     There was a pause as Dillon flipped through a notebook to find the information for Milo. He heard the sheriff clear his throat. “How is she?”

     Dillon wasn’t sure he knew how to answer that. Not knowing the full degree of what she’d been through. “Good days and bad days.” Was all he could blurt out. 

Learning

     Sheriff Pace shut his office door, locking it. When he had his door shut, Margaret would body slam anyone that tried to bully their way in. But Dillon wasn’t taking any chances. 

     He pulled out the file he had so far about Evie. The paperwork she needed to file with his office. A few hospital reports. He and the administrator of the hospital had a good working relationship. She had been able to get 5 past reports for him. But he knew; from when Pandora’s Box burst open, there was more. He needed a timeline. 

     With unsteady nerves, he called Sheriff Milo. The name on the papers she had given him. A no nonsense voice told him the sheriff wasn’t in. 

     He did choose to leave his contact details.