Free A Violent End at Blake Ranch by Terry Shames Page B

sister, Winona (they call her Nonie), fourteen years of age, looking up at a tree limb. There he saw his younger sister standing on a chair with a rope around her neck. The rope was slung over the tree branch. For a minute he thought they were fooling around, but then he heard Nonie tell Charlotte to jump off the chair—and Charlotte did it.
    â€œBilly said the only thing that saved Charlotte from breaking her neck is that when she jumped she held onto the rope. The girl didn’t weigh much, so I believe he’s correct. The boy said to me that he never moved so fast in his life. He said Charlotte wasn’t that far off the ground, so he was able to grab her legs and take the pressure off her neck. He told Nonie to bring over the chair so he could stand on it and get Charlotte out of the noose, but he said Nonie was screaming at him to let Charlotte go. She tried to push him away so he couldn’t hold onto Charlotte, but he kicked her and she ran off. He hollered until his daddy came out to see what the commotion was, and together they managed to get the girl down. Doctor Taggart confirmed that the girl would likely have died a very painful death by strangulation had the boy not saved her. Charlotte wouldn’t have been strong enough to hold onto the rope for long.
    â€œI tried to interview Nonie, but she was in a wild state and said she did what she did and it’s nobody’s business, and she wouldn’t talk to me. Taggart tried to calm her and eventually gave her a sedative. I spoke with Adelaide and John Blake, and they divulged to me that Nonie had become increasingly difficult to handle, and they agreed to have her evaluated by a psychiatrist. It’s a bad business.”
    Addendum:
    â€œPursuant to finding out more about Nonie Blake’s state of mind, I interviewed her teachers, who confirmed that Nonie had become intractable in the classroom. She misbehaved, making wild claims and generally being disruptive. No one could account for her disturbance, although Lottie Raines, her English teacher, said she had a sister who became unstable in her teenage years, and that her family was told that the teenage years are when mental illness makes itself manifest. The school had brought the Blakes in and discussed the matter with them, but they had not taken any steps to corral the girl.”
    Addendum 2:
    â€œI conferred with doctors at the hospital in Bobtail, and they recommended a psychiatrist in Houston. As a result of Nonie’s actions and the psychiatric evaluation, and at the expense of the family, Nonie has been sent to the Rollingwood Institution in north Texas for further evaluation. Due to this action on their part, I see no need to further involve the law in the matter.”
    I lean back in my chair. Despite its strangely archaic language, Whitehall’s report is thorough, for which I’m grateful. When I first heard that Nonie Blake was back, it seemed to me that twenty years was a long time for someone to be in an institution. Back when I was a youngster, you would sometimes hear about “crazy” people being put away and never seeing the light of day. Reading the details, I realize that she had major problems. Still, with the kinds of drugs they’ve developed since then, and more enlightened policies, I don’t believe people spend that much time in institutions anymore. So why was she there for so long?
    There’s nothing in the report to indicate that Nonie was involved with someone outside her family, but the fact that she was having behavior problems in school might have some significance. If she knew a secret about somebody, it could have troubled her or given her an idea about blackmail. I’m going to have to go back into the past to find out what it was she might have known.
    The last thing in the folder is a formal letter of evaluation from a psychiatrist in Houston, Dr. Richard Buckley, recommending that Winona Blake be sent to a