Because She Loves You
Rev Wilbur Witt
Behold KARLY! Sweet little love story about a little Mormon Missionary who hunts sex traffickers with a Bowie Knife. We have been putting this project together for a full minute. Relax, lean back and get a taste of a pretty good (copyright) story we have. Lots of Easter Eggs there. And our little friend asks you one question:,What did you come into the desert to see? Think about that statement in the light of recent events. Take all the time you need. Karly and I will wait.
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John and Bill were having breakfast the next morning at the B&G cafe when Detective Plano came. Picking up their check he asked, “You boys got a minute?”
“Are we being detained?” John asked.
“You can be if you wanna go that way.” Then, looking at John he asked, “Been over to City Park lately John?”
Looking at each other the gulped their coffee and got up. Plano said, “I got this,” as he made his way to the register to pay their check.
“You want us to follow?” John asked.
“No. Just ride with me. Car’ll be ok here. We don’t have car theft in Caldern Hale.”
Plano was a contradiction of the stylized image of Joseph Smith hanging on the wall down at the police station, but a clear sign of where Utah was now heading as the twenty-first century barged into The Book of Mormon! His training in homicide was wasted in a town that, until now had no homicide. As he turned toward Willard Bay he asked, “What are you boys really doing here in our lovely community!”
“Research on Mormon history,” Bill said.
“Yeah. Sure, you are. And I’m gonna be the next president of the Mormon Church. Now what are you up here for?”
“We’re looking for the guys that raped a girl in your park?”
“Karly Anne Avard?” He turned down a dirt road and headed for the water. “Ain’t seen no complaint on that.”
“So, you know of it?” Bill asked.
“No complaint.”
“Then where are you taking us, Detective?”
“Out for a little fresh air. Clears the head.”
“But you don’t have any report?”
Plano took a side road following the shore, eventually coming to a spot suitable for parking. Turning his car off he turned to the two and said, “I told you. There ain’t one. What am I looking at? Girl parties a little too much and gets screwed. Did you know about the fire that killed those two out near city park?”
“Heard about it.”
“Well, hear about this. Just how did you think that fire started?”
“Wire short. Electrical?”
“Electrical fire my ass. Meth cook. Meth still went up. Seen it dozens of times in LA. Damn mule was taking a nap on the couch waiting to make a delivery. Lucky for the others in the house that morning. He got the other two and the baby out. The teen age girl that died? Tesla Woodward! She’s the girl who took our precious little girl to that party in the park that night. So, the Virgin Mary’s at a meth party and gets raped. Never seen that before.”
John and Bill looked at each other and John said, “So, a little girl gets gang raped in your city park, and you don’t investigate?”
Plano pulled his car onto a sandy beach, opened his door, and motioned them. “Get out,” he said.
Walking over by the muddy shore he said, “I didn’t investigate because there was no report. She never filed one. She’s an adult. Gotta have a complaint, or a body. “Maybe someone forgot to process it. He looked at John. “Just like someone forgot to report what they saw in the park. No paper on that either.”
John and Bill were taken aback. “You knew all that?”
“Hell yeah, I knew about all that. We try to keep the park clear of bodies. Disturbs the kids. This town has one attraction. Look out there.” He pointed toward a distant island. “Bird sanctuary. When the gulls return to Caldern Hale. That and Peach Day is just about all the excitement these religious nuts can tolerate.”
“What do you boys think you know about the car on the mountain?”
“Caught the radio traffic. Asked two missionaries who came by, but they seemed to be in the dark.”
“So, you’re asking missionaries about police business! Amazing.”
“We thought maybe they had heard something around.”
Plano grinned. “You might be closer than you think there. I’ll give you that. Word of mouth is bigger than the New York Times in Caldern Hale.”
“What do you know about that detective?”
“What do I know? I know the missionaries.”
“What?”
“They were sent to feel you out. See who you were, what YOU knew. I think something was found on a rock up there. Child’s hand Right on the rock. No trail, no shoe print, just one fatherless swath of blood. Maybe where someone braced themselves leaving the scene.”
“What happened to the print, officer?”
“Don’t know. Guess forensics must’ve not thought it was important. Car wreck. No one hurt. Nobody there when it was discovered. You hear any different? Just like that broken window at Jon Benet’s house. Plano stared at the two with a sheepish grin. “What’s really on your minds? What do you think you know that I don’t know?”
“The identity of the man on the mountain.”
“What man on the mountain? You been on ‘Next Door’ too long. There was no man on the mountain. Car towed. Total loss. No injuries. Crushed and sent to salvage. Wanna see the report? Most likely a stolen car. Couldn’t do a make on it. Thief missed a turn, left. Stumbled against the rock. Car gone.”
Bill spoke, “But there was a man in the park! That guy. She appears to be on a vendetta. Against her attackers.”
Plano threw a rock across the lake, “You see her Bill? I understand John was who was there. Hearsay my friend.” He looked back at them.
“I knew what you were up here for. To kill the guys that raped poor little Karly Anne. And she beat you to it. Hell! I ain’t got no evidence on that either! That makes it closed. Wouldn’t you say? Whole town knows not to hang around City Park at night. Karly never filed a complaint. You two come running up here, all bent out of shape. You never came to the department, never called me, never asked for a police report or anything. Never never. Of course, it wouldn’t have done you any good. We don’t investigate things that never happened and there was never a body in the park! Never happened! Just a couple gentiles from Texas who keep trying to reinvent the wheel. Happens all the time up here. Sometimes you find bodies. Hikers out in the desert that ran out of water. But some guy in the park with his throat cut? If it ever did happen it would be a drug deal gone wrong. Now, some drunk who drowning in his bathtub we found the other day. Natural causes. Big old knot on his head, lungs full of water, tub full of shit. Case closed! You got nothing boys!”
“So, on one hand you say you know nothing while you admit that there is a possibility.”
“Didn’t say that. Said there ain’t no paper. All explainable. Little girl did it? Prove it gentlemen! Tell me if you have one shred of evidence.”
“Explain the fire?”
“Well, you finally mentioned something I can talk about. Fire Marshall called it an Electrical fire. Happens all the time. Set off by an electrical short. One extension cord too many. And you’re telling me that same little girl is responsible. That’s Netflix shit. Do you know how stupid that’ll sound over at the DA’s office? Plano lit a cigarette. “Electrical fire. I told you that. Why do you think Karly did that!”
“Because she told me, detective?”
“Karly never told you anything like that. You’re trying to bait me. Told you what? If she did what good is a statement coming out of the mouth of a kid with PTSD. Schizophrenia my man! Bat Shititus. She’s crazy. Got screwed hanging around a meth party. So, she fabricates, she fantasizes. Didn’t want mommy to know. And not one shred of any concrete evidence that would tie her to anything but Seminary school on a Sunday morn. Gotta give me more than that, boys. Her mother is Temple. She was being raised to be a mini mom. Good girl. Cooks, cleans, and . . .
“I know! Makes little Mormons. But she can’t make little Mormons now, can she detective?”
“That’s right! Tragic! So traumatized she didn’t report it. And no jury in this state will convict her of drinking a coke! They don’t drink those you know. And they don’t hang their laundry out for the world to see! And there’s no laundry on this line. I understand that she had a traumatic experience. I know her life has been altered. Maybe a change of plans would suit both of you. “Plano asked John, “You gon’ be alright?” Wouldn’t be the first time a little Mormon girl struck out for a new life.” John looked at Plano in total understanding. He remembered the voice in the dark.
“Now there we go. The detective looked at the lake. “I’m trying to give you a way out. Before you float up in the lake. Bodies don’t sink there, you know. Too salty.”
“You gotta understand these people.” Plano changed the subject. “Beautiful, isn’t it? Well, it used to be anyway. Don’t take it so hard boys. The mind plays tricks on you out here. Desert makes you imagine things that never happened. Used to happen to me all the time. When I first got up here my ruler was straight. You know, I’ll bet this was the last thing the Aiken brothers ever saw,” he said as he looked at the lake.
“Who were they?” John asked.
Plano squatted and picked up another small flat stone. “Couple Gentiles like you two. Come up here, set up a business that the prophet didn’t approve of. Brigham sent Porter over to convince them to mend their ways. Get right with the Lord. You know.”
“What did he do?”
Plano skimmed the rock across the water. “He brought ‘em out here and blew their brains out, boys. Porter was like that. Blood touching the ground and all that shit. Old Port went back, got drunk and just called it a day.”
“When I look at the lake, I see it as it was back then. When Brigham and the boys first came over the Rockies. They thought they’d hit the Pacific shore. Big, and clean. Not this mud puddle we have now. You know, I don’t believe in all this global warming stuff, but when I think about it, America came, brought prosperity, pissed in our lake, and filled up our air with mercury, nickel, and lead. Why the hell couldn’t it have been gold?” He laughed. Waving his hands in the air. “Golden tablets.”
“You know boys, sometimes I think a little blood atonement could straighten out the country. Start with the Democrats. What the hell. Just an old man looking at retirement. What do I know? Life is like a peaceful lake. All tranquil. And we all have a boat. Big boats, little boats, all kinds of boats, just floating along on the big lake of life. Then someone comes along like you two idiots and start asking stupid questions about something that is none of their business. Dredging up things better left alone. Know what happens then?”
“No, what?”
Motioning with his hand in a rolling motion Plano said, “You make waves. Big bad waves. And you, my Gentile friends, you, and me, we are in the smallest boats on the lake. Talking about things these people would rather not hear about. Digging up things better left to rot. They got this! Like the Beatles said. Just let it be! We all came here in different boats but we’re in the same boat now.”
“So, you are just gonna cover the evidence and let it go?”
“Plano grinned. “Cover up what? Like I said, I ain’t seen no complaint. Never happened. The saints take care of their own.”
“And what do you know about that?”
“Not a whole lot. I’m not Temple. Those people keep to themselves. I had to ask myself why the church was interested in a couple of gentiles. I wouldn’t think you boys were all that holy. Maybe you’re getting too close to them Golden Tablets! Maybe the problem has already been taken care of, and you were getting in the way.”
Bill said, “Ok, so let’s get to the bottom line. We believe you got a stack of bodies that’s getting higher every day. I don’t buy into all this religion, but she’s way off the deep end of this salty lake. What are you gonna do about Karly? Direct answer please!”
Plano picked up another flat rock and skimmed it across Willard Bay. Turning to Bill he said, “Nothing!”
“Nothing! Nothing? We tell you about two murders, and you just call it a day, punch out and go to church?”
Plano shook his head. “Told you. I’m not Temple. But I know what time it is. It’s time for you to go!”
“Before my blood touches the ground. Right, detective?”
Without looking at Bill Plano said, “The prophet, Brigham Young said that if a sinner commits a sin that is so terrible Jesus Himself cannot mop it up. You gotta find a way to do it yourself. If a person kills you, and your blood touches the ground, your sin is washed away. Blood atonement! You go to heaven and your executioner gets brownie points for helping you to get there. I heard a story about some blood on a rock, gentlemen. Might have been the autograph of an Avenging Angel. I don’t know. A Danite? You keep digging and you just might need to go to heaven, too.”
“So, you’re gonna just let it go?”
Plano skimmed another rock. “I’m trying to give you a way out, but yeah, that’s about it. I’m gonna just let her go with a pat on her sexy little ass. And we put this whole thing behind us, and part friends. Think about it, gentlemen. Did those guys rape a poor little waif or did they molest one of God’s Chosen. Do you know who her father was. She is Mormon royalty. Born to save the life of the Prophet of the Lamb and all that Temple crap. She is descended from Porter himself. You think she ain’t got friends? You gotta admit. If you two are half right our little girl is proficient. Or maybe, just maybe, she’s one you need to leave alone. Also, your missionaries. Why do you think they just happened by? They were there for Karly. You two pop up from Texas over Sharon worried about some fingernail polish? Also, why do you think the whole damn town just looked the other way? Because that’s the way it is! That’s the way it’s always been up here! Down in the flat you people worry about Muslim sleeper cells blowing up your buildings. Well, we don’t have that up here. We have a secret lodge hall. They’re called Danites. And what will you do when they decide to send you to God?”
“You know, that could be considered suppression of evidence.”
He looked at John. “You know, if you ever did discover bodies in the park, and didn’t report it to the police that could be accessory after the fact.”
“So, it ends here.”
“Yeah. Now you’re catching on.”
John was beginning to understand Plano. He’d lost all urge to just solve the case because there was no case to solve, and he was beginning to feel a connection between Karly, himself, and the little girl he had buried in Killeen. It was a feeling he could not shake. Nor did he want to. His love for Karly had affected his sense of justice. God’s law!
Plano looked at his feet. “What choice do I have, gentlemen? Look at it from my perspective. This ain’t Austin. This is Utah. This place was chosen by Brigham Young as the place. Back then this was Mexico. And all your rights, your constitution . . . they didn’t apply to these people! THEocracy not DEmocracy. God’s law, not man! A man’s home is his castle? Unless you’re a Mormon! And you have one too many wives. The Wolfpack comes. Burns down your house. Kills you, all your wives, and your kids. They kill your leader. You leave. You leave the whole country. You go to the desert by a salty lake and must figure out how to grow beets with salt water. So, you bring fresh water down from melted snow to grow your crops. Suddenly there’s a war, and damn if you’re not back in America again. The border jumped you! Then the filibusters come to bring “civilization” and the rule of law. The law of man. Not God. But that law doesn’t apply to you. So, under American rule of law in California a man can marry a man, a woman can marry a woman, a tiger can marry a chair, but a civil servant in Salt Lake City can’t have an extra wife running around the house looking after the babies. Then you have other “good Americans” set up an operation in your park buying and selling little girls. And you’re all pissed off because some of them got wasted and salted down. And they have rights! You must call them by the right pronouns! If you don’t it is a hate crime. Well, there’s one little girl out there who plays by Porter Rockwell’s law. And she sends them all to hell to stand trial. And now you’re all pissed off because she doesn’t fit your rule of law! I have a clever idea of her reasons, and I have a real good idea of who her friends are, and I know she’s a Danite! So, what you boys need to do is leave this on Old Port’s grave on your way out of town.” He reached into his coat and handed John the .45 Long Colt bullet. “Somebody gave me this. It’s for you.”
“When you boys leave town put this on Porter’s grave. It’s a tribute. You forget to do that he gets mad, gets up, and he walks around. Don’t forget.”
Plano became serious again. “You go trying to build a case against Karly Avard and you’ll look like a couple damn fools for the rest of your very short life. And they have a solution for that.” Plano slid his thumb across his throat in a symbolic fashion. Pay Lay Ale! Do you understand that don’t you?”
“And you’re gonna cover it up, detective?”
“What do you think I’ve been trying to tell you two dumb asses? I investigated it, sure. Even ended up eating cheesecake with a very sweet little girl in an apple orchard. Same orchard you were trading spit with her in the other night. Yeah! I know about that. I hear you, John. Sweet little Mormon. Just got home from a decapitation. That’s psychopathy boys. Reactive Attachment Disorder. Don’t feel no pain and has no fear!”
The look from Plano’s eyes told them the meeting was concluded. They shook hands and walked back to the car. Bill eased into the back seat and before John could get in the front with Plano, the detective looked over the roof of his car and gave John a quick nod, and John returned it. Inwardly he wondered if he was now one of the saints, or had he sold his soul to Karly or the devil? Plano motioned John to step away from the car.
“Where did Porter kill those brothers?” John asked.
Pointing Plano said, “Right over there.” He was pointing to the very spot where they had been standing. He then motioned for John to follow him, leading him away from Bill, still sitting in the car.
Lighting a cigarette he said, “Ok, little girl had a bad Saturday night, ok? Got all SA’d. Mommy called the bishop. He comes over with a doctor. A Mormon doctor. They patch her up. She’s all fucked up. Yeah, yeah yeah. The brethren go to ground. She heals up and shows up. Guys start getting killed. You think she did it. I think she has some help.” He took a puff. “There’s nothing to solve. Look at it this way. Who got killed? The perps. The problem was eliminated. You keep digging and they might eliminate you. Let it go.”
“She confessed to me.”
“She didn’t tell you the whole story. We knew what was going on at City Park. Karly went and got all blessed. Before her mission for the church her bishop gives her another mission. If all goes well, they find the old meth cook with his throat cut, Karly’s on mission for eighteen months, no muss, no fuss. Now are you beginning to understand?”
“Why didn’t she tell me this?” John asked.
“Because it was none of your God Damn business! Stop second guessing. She let you go! You found her happy place. Count your blessings and go home.” He crushed out his smoke. “She is a Danite! Born to save the life of the prophet of the Lamb. At all costs. In her eyes she is a Prophet of the church. You don’t know how dedicated she can be. I know why those missionaries came to see you.”
“Why?”
“To measure you for your coffin. If the Feds got involved and this shit hits the fan it could bring down the Church. And for what. A little house cleaning. And Karly was walking the line. She got drunk and messed up. Go home Gentile! Or sleep with the brine shrimp! You got a kiss, and you understand Ruth? She is on mission. You get between her and her bishop, and she’ll will cut your throat from ear to ear . . . because she loves you!”
As they rode back to town John asked, “How do you and your dreadlocks fit into Mormonville detective?”
Plano looked at John. “Are we being a bit racist, Texas boy?”
“No, but since you seem to be the only black man I’ve seen up here, a well-placed black man at that, and not Mormon.”
Never said I wasn’t Mormon. Said I wasn’t Temple. Many are called but few are chosen. As for my hair? Cut not thy hair and no bullet or blade shall pierce thy skin. Worked for the Crackers. Holy Joe ain’t been wrong . . . Yet! Don’t I have a right to Joseph Smith’s prophesy? Affirmative action. I mean these crackers finally let us have the priesthood in ’78.” He winked at John in the mirror.”
“I think I’m beginning to understand Karly’s support group.”
“And I think you’re getting too close to Temple business again, Tex. Just go home! You don’t understand these people. You two didn’t understand a damn thing I told you back there. Up here you’re either in or you’re out. I told you I wasn’t Temple. Look around. How many black folks you see around here? Oh sure, they let me in, but Temple is Temple and not is not. No matter what they say, look at what they do! There ain’t no niggas up here! So, they take gentiles like you and make them the niggas! Have a sucker motherfucker. Y’all have a safe trip home! If you don’t, she will surprise you.”
“Can I ask one more question, detective?”
“One more.”
“Ok. You know we have a police scanner. We heard the original call from the patrolman.”
“Yeah. Jimmy,”
“Good. At least he’s real. Now, just if he saw a car with a body, and if he made a report, where did that go. Did he throw it in the Salt Lake?”
Plano chose his words carefully. “Jimmy just had a baby. Wife, baby, motorcycle cop in Caldern Hale. Young man. I gave him a good recommendation out in LA. He got hired. Naturally I took care of closing out his cases so nothing would impede his progress in his new job. Kid’s doing good.”
“And none of it ever happened.”
“Hey, you’re catching on.”
Back in their room they discussed it.
“So, what do we do?” Bill asked.
“We go home. That crazy cop ain’t gonna screw with us. C’mon Bill. What can we do. Girl was gang raped and left for dead on her mother’s lawn. Her mom wanted us to catch the guys. Seems like they’re caught. With God’s blessing.”
“Not all of them.”
“It’s done Bill. Whole different world up here. I’m going back to the land of Southern Baptists! You wanna hang around up here until your blood touches the ground? All these people are connected. And they’re all on some mission from God. Even the little girls. We are the odd men out.” He took Bill’s hands. “Bill, is she wrong? These guys get caught. What do they get? Five years? Ten? Maybe one gets life. Then on appeal he walks. Maybe Karly’s court is best. And maybe the Lone Ranger is right! Maybe we’re just opening a can of worms and there ain’t no fish out in that salty lake!”
“If they’re so connected, why didn’t they know about City Park.”
“Maybe they did. That’s why they sent Karly. Maybe the old boy in Salt Lake City is thinning the herd. What if Karly’s the one chosen to do it. If she ever did get caught, she’s the perfect patsy. Raped and crazy. Couple years in a treatment center, write a book, maybe a Netflix special. Looks like them boys just picked the wrong peach. A peach that was sent. Maybe that peach was God’s will. Maybe the others are too. I’ve been told over and over up here that our constitution is flawed. A joke. Well, Karly’s not joking. And neither are those two ‘missionaries,’ the bishop, the doctor, therapist, or Dreadlocks! Born to save the life of the prophet of the lamb!”
Bill said, “John, you’ve been in a funk since Luby’s. And you should have been. But I’ve seen a light in your eyes. I’ve seen in her’s too. Why don’t you let things develop. See where it goes?”
“She’d nineteen and I’m, well, not!”
“And she’s shunned. No fault of her’s but odd girl out. You get her down to Austin and you two try to act like you’re not having a good time.”
Bill looked from a window and saw Karly sitting on the porch. She slowly turned, looking into his eyes. Just then he noticed there was a seagull sitting on a finger on her left hand, eating something from her hand!
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