Thrilled to Death

by James Byron Huggins

  “I don’t know if I told you how sorry I am about Aaron,” Jodi said – the first time she’d spoken in her squad car. “I know that nothing is fair in this world but this truly wasn’t fair in an ungodly, horrible way that should be damned to Hell.”

  Someone once said the greatest sound is silence, but Joe Mac couldn’t remember who it was. He only knew he had nothing to say until Jodi finally turned the squad car slowly to the left and announced, “Here we are, Joe.”

  She parked and Joe Mac could feel her stare.

  “You ready for this?” she asked.

  Joe Mac nodded and opened the door.

  “Let’s do it,” he said.

  He extended his cane though he hardly needed it; he could remember every inch of this daycare since he’d seen if often enough when he could still see; it was a compact one-story building with three wings like a T. There was a playground with brightly colored plastic equipment out back. It was surrounded by mesh fence about four feet high that had a gate leading into the building. There was one exterior gate on the left. The entire facility was a half-acre surrounded by pines.

  Joe Mac had already moved to the front of Jodi’s car as she walked up and said, “Do you remember the layout?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Wanna go up to the fence?”

  “All right.”

  Joe Mac had no problem negotiating the sparsely occupied parking lot. He felt the curb with his cane and stepped up knowing the feel of grass beneath his feet; it was a half-inch deep with dry ground beneath. He estimated three steps to the fence, and he was right. He placed a hand on the top of the steel mesh and lifted his chin.

  He became aware that he was waiting for … something ….

  “Those pine trees back there,” said Jodi. “Do you think he could have come in through those? They would have hidden him from view until he came right up to the fence.”

  “He could have.” Joe Mac turned his face toward the back acreage as if he could still see. His voice was faint. “Still green up top. Thick enough. Dead pine needles don’t make a sound when you walk on ‘em … Yeah. Let’s go back there. I know the crime scene boys went over it but it won’t hurt to do it again.”

  “I’m game,” Jodi said, and they turned to walk along the fence line.

  The front easement had been mowed up to the steel mesh, so Joe Mac didn’t have to worry about weeds. Then he felt Jodi’s hand at his left elbow, guiding him gently, and he wasn’t offended. Guiding a blind man by a light touch at an elbow was something people just seemed to do by instinct.

  Joe Mac was accustomed to the drag of his cane on grass; it was much different than the steady, balanced, light touch he used on concrete. He had to lift it higher and touch more quickly; it was more like stabbing fish than the smooth side-to-side he normally used.

  Joe Mac estimated twenty steps to the end of this fence line, and he was right. They turned to the left and resumed walking when Jodi said, “I think he used this side. The other side faces the road, and I don’t think he’d use that. He’d have to stop his car on the road, jump out, run up to the fence and try to grab one of them. And the kids would have probably run away from him, screamed for their teacher, and they would have called for a unit. He would have never been able to get out of the area before one of us caught up to him. I think he knew that.”

  “You’re right,” said Joe Mac. “He wouldn’t do that.”

  “This guy doesn’t leave anything to chance.” Jodi’s voice took a tinge of impatience. “Sometimes it amazes me how crazy people can be so smart when it comes to killing other people. It’s almost … cosmic.”

  They reached the section furthest from the building, and Joe Mac said, “Stop here. What do you see?”

  Jodi said, “Well, this is the farthest point of the fence, and they don’t mow the grass back here. It’s about waist high right up to the playground. But it’s been stomped down a little by the search party.”

  “How big was the search party?”

  “It wasn’t all that big. There wasn’t enough time to organize a big search party or even get the word out. Aaron was reported missing at three in the afternoon, and they found his body at seven-thirty.” A pause. “If he’d been missing for a whole day I’m sure we’d have had thousands of people walking the woods out here. But all they had that day was a few cops and some neighbors. Then they found Aaron’s body beside that warehouse, and there was no more reason to look.”

  “Keep moving,” Joe Mac motioned. “Keep looking down. Tell me what you see. It doesn’t matter what it is.”

  They strolled and Jodi began “Looks like we got one rabbit hole … Rabbit tracks … There’s a fresh mole hill … A coke can … “

  “Bag it.”

  “Got it.”

  They continued.

  “We got another mole hill … A blue leaflet … Bagging it … A candy bar wrapper … Bagging it …. I don’t know why those guys didn’t bag all this stuff … Amateurs … I should have come back here myself, but I was at your daughter’s house …”

  “I appreciate it. Keep looking.”

  “I don’t think this is going anywhere, Joe … This coke can and candy bar wrapper look really old … I don’t think they have anything to do with what happened …”

  “Never assume anything, kid. Keep going.”

  “Okay … Well, there’s some kind of dead thing … Looks like it used to be a bird …There’s a piece of white string …”

  Joe Mac stopped. “What?”

  “What?” Jodi repeated.

  “A what?”

  “A string?”

  “Did you say ‘white string?’”

  “Yeah. It’s white.”

  “You wearing your gloves?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Pick it up.”

  Jodi led him to the wood line, bent, and straightened. After a pause, she said, “It’s just an ordinary piece of white string, Joe.”

  “Follow it.”

  After a moment, Joe Mac felt a tug on his arm. “This is kind of tricky, Joe. Stick close to me. It …” They took several steps, “… it leads into the woods.”

  “Just follow it.”

  Jodi suddenly stooped and stayed low for a long time. “That’s it,” she said. “That’s the end of it. It doesn’t go any further.”

  “What’s beyond this wood line?” he asked. “Can you see?”

  “Yeah. Way back there. There’s a field.”

  “Take me to it.”

  By Joe Mac’s count it was thirty-seven steps to the field – his entire life existed now in how many steps it was from anything here to anything there. They stood for a long time and Joe Mac knew they were in the open because the trees no longer shielded him from the wind and he could feel the sun on his face.

  “Anything?” he asked.

  “Joe,” she said with noticeable consternation, “what am I supposed to be looking for in an empty field?”

  “Just tell me what you see.”

  “Well,” he heard her hands slap her thighs, “I don’t see anything but grass, Joe. And … whoa. I can see your daughter’s house from here. It’s about a half-mile away. Maybe a little more. Hey, is that your little green barn back there?”

  “I reckon. Unless they got two barns.”

  “It’s cute.” Jodi took a moment. “Okay, the only other thing I see back here are some crows circling something on the other side of the field. Something must have died over there. Probably a coyote or a rabbit. Nothing else would –”

  “Crows?” asked Joe Mac.

  “Yeah. They look like crows.”

  “Take me over there.”

  They began across the high grass, and Joe Mac got the hang of it pretty quick; he’d do fine unless he stepped in a hole. Otherwise he could move as easily as Jodi seemed able,
and then Jodi grabbed his arm; “Hold it, Joe. Yeah. I can see what it is.”

  “Is it a dead animal?” asked Joe Mac.

  “Looks like it.”

  “A dead cat?”

  Silence.

  “Joe? How could you possibly know that it’s –”

  “Is it a dead kitten?”

  “God Almighty. Yeah, it looks like it used to be … a kitten.”

  “How long has it been dead?”

  “Uh … well, I’m not really an expert at decomposition, Joe, but it looks to me like it’s been dead about a week. I don’t know what those crows think they’re eating, but there’s not much left.”

  “So why are they circling?”

  Jodi paused. “It looks to me like this really big crow is getting the rest of them all worked up over the bones. He’s, like, herding them. Or something.”

  “Bait,” Joe Mac stated with a bitter frown. “The string. A kitten. Aaron didn’t go to the fence to see a man. He was taught to run from strangers. He walked over to see a kitty cat tied to the end of a string. The man was hiding in the grass. Then, once Aaron was distracted, this guy rushed up, snatched him over the fence, and ran off with him. Quick as that. He snatched the cat up, too, but threw it down after he was clear. He probably didn’t think it was important enough to take the cat. He didn’t think anybody would put it together. Or maybe Aaron was putting up a good fight, and he needed both hands.” His teeth gleamed. “Yeah. That was probably it. He would have taken the cat, too, but Aaron was putting up a good fight and so he killed the cat. Broke its neck. Tossed it.”

  “Why didn’t he just leave the cat at the daycare?”

  “It’s too obvious. And it’s probably a trick he’s used more than once. If it got in the papers he’d have one less trick.”

  Silence and sadness seemed to overlay them, and Joe Mac could faintly hear Jodi’s movements. He knew she was standing with arms crossed, staring. He didn’t feel like saying anything, either, as she whispered, “How horrible.”

  “Yes.”

  Her shriek cut the air, and Joe Mac heard her jump back. She gasped before she exclaimed, “That crow flew right over my head!”

  She reached down as if to pick up a rock.

  “Wait,” said Joe Mac.

  “What!”

  “Is it a big crow?”

  “Biggest crow I ever saw, that’s for sure! God bless! That thing scared me to death! It could have parted my hair.”

  Joe Mac took a slow half-turn toward the tree line. He simply stood until he heard the familiar caw and he nodded. “And you say the crows led you here?”

  “What?”

  “The crows? They led you to the bones?”

  “Actually, it was just that really big one. The one that scared me. He was circling around the bones real high, sort of herding the other crows down over the cat. I think he’s like … their leader. I mean, if crows have ‘leaders.’” Suddenly she jumped back. “Look out, Joe!”

  Joe Mac heard the familiar, powerful wings as Poe soared over him low enough to touch and listened until Poe was gone. Then he started forward.

  “Look for some foot prints.”

  * * *

  “Yeah!” shouted Captain Steve Brightbarton as he swung a fist through the air. “The psycho finally made a mistake!”

  Jodi turned at the edge of the roped-off crime scene to see Joe Mac standing like a black harbinger of death in the middle of the field; the gigantic crow rested on the ground beside him like a faithful servant. She turned and walked forward, and when she reached Joe Mac she was curious that the crow didn’t fly away.

  It simply stood where it stood.

  Staring at her.

  “They’ve made casts of two shoe prints,” she said. “They’re way outside the earlier search grid. That’s why the neighbors didn’t find them, although I don’t think they would have put it together anyway. They say the crow led them back to where he musta’ parked his car.” She hesitated. “Now that we’ve got a footprint, we might be able to trace the brand of shoe. If we’re lucky, it’s exotic. If not, we’ll just run down everybody wearing Nikes. We might be looking at a billion suspects, but we’ll know he’s one of them.”

  “What are the prints like?” asked Joe Mac.

  Jodi expelled a long breath. “They look to me like some kind of tennis shoe. Maybe a size ten or eleven. Like I say, the guys don’t know what brand, yet, but they’ll know by tonight.” She looked at the crow, which was placidly staring back at her with almost-human ambivalence. “Do you two know each other?”

  “You mean Poe?”

  “It has a name?”

  “Doesn’t the Bible say everything has a name?”

  “I don’t know,” said Jodi. “I don’t read it, anymore.”

  “Maybe you should.” Joe Mac paused. “Maybe we both should.”

  “He sure is the biggest crow I’ve ever seen.”

  “He’s a raven. They’re bigger than crows.”

  “He’s almost as big as an eagle.”

  “That’s what my daughter says.”

  Jodi knew she was scowling; it was fascinating how the thing held her gaze like a cat might do – never blinking, never looking away. It seemed to know she was curious about it and was returning the sentiment.

  “He looks like the devil,” she said.

  “My daughter says that, too.”

  “Is he a pet?”

  “Just a friend.”

  “He’s a strange friend.”

  “Old men have strange friends.”

  Jodi turned toward the crime scene, arms crossed. “Well, like I said; he must be their king or something because he was herding the others over the bones of the kitten. I would have never looked over there if it hadn’t been for him.”

  Joe Mac turned stiffly from the scene. “Take me home, if you would. Crime Scene can handle this without us. I want to check on Pamela before it gets too late.”

  “Sure.”

  As Joe Mac turned, the raven lifted off, and Jodi kept glancing up to see it circling them as they meandered across the field and through the woods and into the parking lot. And when they reached her vehicle, the raven came down with a formidable, utterly unafraid descent to land solidly on the roof of the squad car.

  For the first time since she’d met him, Jodi saw Joe Mac smile. He reached up with his free left hand, and the enormous raven took two fearless steps toward him and hopped onto his forearm with a steel-vice grip. It bent its fearsome head – its hooked beak seemed sharp as black iron and much more frightening up close – and Joe Mac affectionately smoothed the glossy blue-black feathers.

  “Go on,” said Joe Mac.

  At the words the gigantic raven erupted into the sky with a grace and fearlessness that struck Jodi with instinctive amazement. She had never seen such a powerful creature explode upward with such utter confidence and grace. She muttered, “You two really are friends, aren’t you?” She realized she was gaping. “Did you say he’s a wild raven?”

  “He comes when he wants. Goes when he wants. Seems pretty wild to me.”

  “And he’s not scared of people?”

  Joe Mac opened his door. “Why would he be scared of people? You can’t even get close to him unless he lets you.”

  With a grunt, Jodi opened the door.

  “Yeah. I wouldn’t be scared of anything, either.”

  * * *

  Jodi waited at the entrance of Joe Mac’s humble barn as he tapped a path back from his daughter’s house. She wasn’t surprised that the crow – wait, it was a raven – had circled over Joe Mac all the way over there and all the way back. What surprised her was that the raven seemed to have identified her individual car and could determine the difference between her squad car and all the other squad cars cruising to and from the crime sc
ene.

  Joe Mac stopped at the door and turned.

  Jodi asked, “How’s she doing?”

  “She’s been sleeping. It’s gonna take her a long time.” He felt for the lock using his forefinger as a key-guide. “They say you don’t ever get over it. One day you just get up and start moving. But when you bury a child a part of your heart crawls down in that grave with ‘em and stays there.”

  “Yeah,” Jodi responded. “I lost a brother. But I know it’s not the same. Not even close. Nothing compares to losing a child.”

  “Sorry about your brother.”

  “So am I. Drugs. We let him down, I guess. The whole family.”

  Joe Mac opened the barn door. “Come on. I’ll make you some coffee. I learned how to do all that stuff where they rehab blind people.”

  “Fancy.”

  “Nuthin’ but the good life.”

  Entering what was obviously a revamped barn Jodi saw – with a single glance – a recliner, a double bed, a plate of food on a small kitchen table, and Joe Mac’s entire wardrobe strung along the far wall; it was a typical barn layout with added shelves and a bathroom slapped onto the back.

  “You like to keep things simple, huh?” she asked.

  “I got a roof. I got food. I got a bed. What more do I need?”

  He began to clang around in his kitchenette as Jodi lifted and opened a lawn chair. She didn’t feel the need to inform him that he only had one recliner. He knew, anyway, so she could deal with it if he could. She asked, “How come you were never assigned to this case? Seems like you would have been chief investigator for a serial killer like this.”

  “He wasn’t killing people back then,” Joe Mac called. “I retired six years ago. Back then he wasn’t even a blip on the screen. It was only after I got hurt and put out to pasture that he started racking up a body count.” He pulled two cups off a plywood board. “You bring the file in from the car?”

  “It’s right here.”

  “I want you to read it to me.”

  “The whole thing?”

  “The whole thing.”

  “So you’re gonna lend me a hand, Joe?”

  He turned. Stared. “I guess that’s up to you. I want to find who killed my grandson. And I can’t do it by myself.” Jodi saw a deep pain solidify his face. “I don’t think nobody else would have me, no way.”