“How did they explain why those guys had this stuff, and they didn’t?”
“They were unmarried.You only swore off that stuff when you accepted the blessed sanctity of a woman’s hand in marriage.Marriage was the threshold you walked over to start down your righteous path.”
It would never stop surprising Hutch the extent to which people would go just to belong.
Especially if they were conned into thinking they belonged to something important.
“We’re sorting things out,” Harry told him as he motioned Hutch to the door and they both made their way out.“The most recent drama is four of those men experiencing utter heartbreak when they learned the women Enstrom married them to weren’t legally their wives, considering Enstrom wasn’t ordained.Those unions are not valid under the eyes of the law, and as such, they have no claim on their women, who have now all taken their chance to get the fuck out of Dodge.They’re off to the four winds with family having picked them up, hopefully taking them direct to their first session with a therapist.”
Hutch stopped on the way to another house, and Harry stopped with him.
“They’re gone?”
Harry nodded.“They’ll come back to testify.All but the two true believers have left.The believers asked to return to their homes here to await their men who’ve been charged and have no hope of making bail.They’re concerned about the animals.They’re concerned about the garden.They just want to come home.”
Harry looked across the space to where the animals were kept, and Hutch followed his eyes.
He saw instantly the coop and the pigsty had no activity.
“You rehome them?”Hutch asked.
Harry nodded.“They were moved out on Monday.”
“Those women coming back here?”Hutch asked.
Harry shook his head, and Hutch saw then why he was so good at his job.
This whole thing was dicked up, but he felt compassion for those women who’d swallowed a lie.
More of the fallout of Enstrom’s bullshit, because Hutch couldn’t understand being a follower to that extent.
But he did know that those women learning they could never go “home,” and further, that home was never really their home, still had to be heartbreaking.
“As they don’t own these properties, and it’s now up for serious debate who does, I was obliged to say no.They’re currently over at the shelter in Colby.Their husbands are being charged with trespass, lumber poaching and unlawful imprisonment, because, even if their wives wanted to be here, they were actively involved in keeping all the women here.But again, unless they can get their families to step up for them, which so far they haven’t, they’re so horrified by what those men were involved in, those men are gonna stay in jail awhile.They have no money.They all have no money.”Harry looked to Hutch.“Before they were accepted into the community, they turned it over to Enstrom.”
“Jesus,” Hutch said through clenched teeth, hoping they found that guy and soon.He was a massive dick.
“Yeah,” Harry agreed.
Hutch started them walking again.“How’s that all playing out?”
“The drama before this latest one was it dawning on all those men they’d been conned.Enstrom and Burress deserting them.Us finding the drugs.They were so openly upset and disturbed by that, I decided to set up a suicide watch.”
A lot of vets went into law enforcement when they got out.
Becoming more acquainted with the work Harry had to do day to day, Hutch was glad that idea never crossed his mind.
“Unless they’re exceptional liars, seems none of them did know about the drugs,” Harry carried on.“So any drug-related charges are off the table.That said, the five women who weren’t the true believers want us to throw the book at them.Talked to the county attorney.She says she may be able to convince a jury of a kidnapping charge, even if, in essence, they came of their own free will.”
That would be a neat trick, though one Hutch suspected would be doomed to fail.
“However, unlawful imprisonment and attempted rape are happening,” Harry said.“Apparently, three of those five women didn’t want to be married.In all their time here, they didn’t allow the consummation, and fortunately, the men didn’t take their fucked-up ideas of the natural order of things too far.But they gave it a go.”
Well, thank Christ for that.
“The only women who had children, outside Martin and Schrier, were legally married,” Harry told him.“They aren’t taking it that far.But they are filing for divorce and full custody, and to assist them in that, they want us to hit their soon-to-be ex-husbands with whatever we can throw at them.”
They’d entered another small house, and it made Hutch’s cabin look like a palace.
