Forbidden Falls (Virgin River #9)(34)

He nodded without speaking and took the box off her hands. By the time he was on his way back to his tent, another man came forward from behind the old trailer. Since Noah was holding the box, he went straight to Noah.

“How are you today, brother?” Noah asked pleasantly. And the man merely nodded, not making eye contact. “Can you think of anything you need, besides the food in the box?” Noah asked. No response. “Coats? Blankets?” At that, the man lifted his beady gaze and connected with Noah’s eyes. “Ah,” Noah said. “Coats and blankets. That makes sense. I’ll look around, see what I can find.”

The man broke his gaze and merely accepted the box, taking it back where he’d come from. The entire transaction lasted under five minutes. They got back in the Hummer and Mel backed around carefully, heading down the bumpy road. “Well, you don’t follow instructions very well, do you?” she asked.

“I don’t know what came over me,” he lied. He wasn’t about to be kept back. He felt right at home. “How many of them are there?”

“Only a few now. Six or seven, maybe. The faces change—people wander in and out, stay awhile, move on. Sometimes I’ll actually spot a woman. One of the men had an adult daughter with him for a while. There were more before, in a camp closer to town, but Jack and his boys ran them off.”

“Why?”

“Well, it was complicated. Some drug farmer set up in their camp and there was a caretaker watching the grow who was a dangerous felon. We had an altercation—he put a knife to my throat and wanted narcotics from the clinic. Jack killed him. I mean, it was totally self-defense, you understand. It was down to me or him and Jack wasn’t at all attracted to him.” She turned to Noah and smiled. Then her smile vanished. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t joke. The man was going to kill me. After it was over, Jack rounded up his friends and they ran off all the old boys. He said if they couldn’t keep the dangerous element out, they had to move farther away, so the town wouldn’t be at risk. Turns out they didn’t go that far. If they weren’t on restricted land, Jack might’ve run across them while hunting.”

“But you found them?”

“About a year back one of them came into the clinic. He had a nasty, infected laceration that needed debriding, antibiotics, and dressing. I told him if I knew where he’d settled, I could bring him some leftovers to eat sometimes.”

“What was in that jar you showed the man?”

She laughed. “Expired prenatal vitamins. Might keep him going one more week in his life, but what the heck. The thing is, Noah, I wanted to save them. Get them bottled water at least, if not placement in some facility with clean sheets. But the fact is, this is either what they want or serves what they think they need. There’s undoubtedly some addiction or mental illness at root there—alcoholism, bipolar, war disability, anything is possible, although I don’t know that any of them have been evaluated. And since nothing will change it, no harm comes from a little decent food. Those old boys exist on fish and squirrel. And in the winter they almost freeze. But they won’t go to town, won’t go to a shelter. They know they can get help in Eureka. But they are not interested.”

“And if Jack finds out?”

“He’s going to make a big stink. He might run them off again. Or see if he can get some law enforcement to do it. He has a point—if they’re too close to town and open to dangerous types settling in with them, that could be a big problem. But I have a point, too—it’s not against the law to be homeless. They’re not hurting anyone, as far as I know. If they break the law, they’ll have to go, I suppose.”

“Is that the only group like that you know about?” he asked.

“The only one around here I know about, but June Hudson, the doctor down in Grace Valley, she keeps an eye on an impoverished settlement near that town. She’s given medical treatment to some of them. There are several families in her shantytown—some of them actually keep animals—mules, goats, chickens, like that.”

“Lord,” he said. “I’ve seen some people real hard put, but for some reason I didn’t expect it here. I guess I thought homelessness was only in the inner city, and near the docks.”

“I can relate, I was likewise naive. There are lots of folks living in isolated cabins out in the hills. If we know about them, Cameron and I try to keep track of them. We’ll often go together, but he just became the father of twins and has been a little scarce around town lately.”

“Mel,” he said quietly, “you’re a missionary.”

“Nah. Just doing the people’s work.”

“That’s what a missionary is. It’s not all about bible beating,” he said with a grin. “You have to fill their bellies before you can expect to peek into their hearts. Are you and Cameron the only ones who know about them?”

“The exact location, maybe, but probably not. Jack knew about them when they had that old camp nearer town and he just ignored them. Until there was trouble.”

“Does he have a problem with you going out to isolated cabins to check on people?”

“Sometimes someone will tell me there’s no smoke coming from a neighbor’s chimney, or that someone is bedridden and could use medicine, and often Jack will take me and wait in the car. Jack’s been known to split logs for an old-timer who can’t hoist his ax. Sometimes Cameron and I go together. I have to be real cautious. Some people really don’t want to be disturbed. Some could be unstable. Even violent. Believe me, I don’t venture foolishly. And don’t you, either.”