C J Box - [Joe Pickett 02]

by C. J. Box

  They knew, however, that the presence of rustlers, outlaws, and settlers threatened not only their income but also their political power base and the concept of open range. The ranchers were all members of the nascent Wyoming Cattle Growers' Association. So it was decided among a cabal of association members that the rustlers had to go, and it would be best if it were accomplished ruthlessly to send a powerful message. Based on the landowners' experience in the territory thus far, local law enforcement couldn't handle the job. The rustlers were local and their connections within the community were pervasive. For example, the rustlers knew well in advance when a sheriffs posse was forming or where deputies were going to be sent to try to break them up.

  So Tom Horn was hired, supposedly to break horses for the Swan Land and Cattle Company He lived alone in a rough cabin in the rocky Iron Mountain range, which was country better suited for mountain lions than for people. But there was no mistaking the real reason he was in the area, and it had little to do with horses.

  One by one, men suspected of rustling turned up dead. They were found in the high sagebrush flats and amid the granite crags of the Medicine Bow Mountains. There was a pattern to their deaths. All were found shot in the head, probably from a great distance, with a large caliber rifle bullet. And under their lifeless heads, someone had placed a rock.

  "You be good," parents of the time would say to their children, "or

  Tom Horn'll get you!"

  ***

  AT FIVE, MARY BETH CALLED the dispatcher to find out if there had been any word from Joe. The dispatcher said that according to the log, Joe had not called in the entire day At Marybeth's request, the dispatcher tried to reach him, but after several attempts, she reported that either Joe's radio was turned off or he was simply out of range. Both Marybeth and the dispatcher knew how difficult it could be at times to make contact with officers in the mountains.

  At five-thirty Marybeth called the Sheriffs Office. Joe had promised to call the sheriff and advise him of his whereabouts, as well as his agenda. Sheriff Barnum was out of town at the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy in Douglas for firearms recertification, and Marybeth didn't trust Deputy McLanahan enough to tell him her suspicions. Barnum was not expected back until late Sunday afternoon. The Sheriffs Office told Marybeth that Joe had called early in the morning and had left his cell phone number for the sheriff to use when and if he called in.

  Marybeth felt a flash of anger at Joe. Knowing Joe, he had probably been grateful that Barnum wasn't in. This way, he could investigate the cabin on his own. This was the kind of stubborn behavior that worried and enraged her. She tried to relax, telling herself that he was probably just fine, simply out of radio or cell phone range. He was probably rumbling up out of the trees with the horse trailer after having met Stewie Woods--or not. He would certainly call her when he could. But dammit, he had no right to put her through this.

  She stepped out of Sheridan's line of sight while she composed her thoughts. She breathed deeply and calmed herself. The one thing she didn't want to do was to worry Sheridan, because the two of them would feed off of each other and their dual concern would escalate--which wouldn't accomplish anything of value. Marybeth was grateful that Lucy and April were both at church camp so there were two less children to hide her feelings from. But then, at times like these, she wanted all of her children around her. She wanted to be able to shelter and protect them.

  She thought of Trey Crump, Joe's district supervisor in Cody He was a good guy, and wouldn't begrudge her calling him for advice. It was still much too early to panic, but if Trey was aware of the situation he might have some ideas on how to proceed, and he was the closest to the moountains--although from the other side--if it were necessary to start a search.

  Joe had taken a copy of the directions she had written down when Stewie called, but Marybeth assumed the original was still in the small desktop copier in his office. She noted that Sheridan's eyes were on her as she crossed the family room and entered Joe's office.

  "Anything wrong, Mom?" Sheridan asked.

  "No, nothing," Marybeth answered a little too quickly

  "Oh, I forgot to tell you," Sheridan said from her cushions. "A man came here today and left a letter for Dad."

  Marybeth stepped from the office doorway holding the envelope that was printed with the return address of Whelchel, Bushko, and Marchand, Attorneys at Law

  "You need to tell me these things," Marybeth snapped.

  Sheridan did her best "Hey, I'm innocent" shrug. "I just did," she explained. "Besides, people drop stuff off for Dad all the time."

  Marybeth sighed, knowing Sheridan was right. Still holding the envelope, she found the directions in the copier, exactly where she thought they would be. Then she stared at the writing on the

  envelope.

  Game Warden. Important.

  Important enough to open now, she wondered? Important enough for the game warden's wife to open it?

  "Tell me what the man looked like," she asked Sheridan.

  "Jeez, chill, mom," Sheridan said, turning the television volume down with the remote control. "He was an older guy probably sixty or so. He had on a cowboy hat and jeans. He had a potbelly and he seemed like a nice guy He said his name was Jim Coble or something like that."

  Marybeth thought about it. The description wasn't much help, except that the man wasn't someone they knew trey crump wasn't at home so Marybeth talked to his wife. They agreed that this kind of situation was maddeningly familiar and would probably reduce both their normal life expectancies. Mrs. Crump said she would have Trey call Marybeth as soon as she heard from him.

  "Tell him I'm not panicking," Marybeth asked. "That's important."

  Mrs. Crump said she understood.

  ***

  The gentlemen ranchers, the pampered sons of industrialists and shipping magnates and bankers from Europe and New York and Boston, had gotten together and conspired over brandy and cigars and had determined that the local authorities were too stupid, too ineffectual, and too familiar with the rustlers and the settlers to eliminate the problem. What they needed, to preserve the status quo and the dominant concept of open range, was a calculating hired assassin from the outside who would answer only to them.

  So Tom Horn was brought in, hired by an associate who could not directly implicate them, to do the job.

  The rustlers were criminals, but they were not treated with the condemnation by the public that they deserved, the ranchers thought. Rustlers were often portrayed as dashing cowboy rogues, the last of the frontiersmen. The settlers, who were building shanties (some actually burrowing into the earth like human rodents) and putting up fences on their open range, were thought of as rugged individualists. Public sentiment was growing against the gentlemen ranchers. Locals spoke of a distinction between the ranchers who lived on their land and took on the elements and the markets as opposed to the gentlemen ranchers who lived in Cheyenne and managed their affairs over fine dinners and liquor sent out daily on the Union Pacific.

  So the ranchers started a small war. And they were very successful, at least for a while.

  Marybeth lowered the book and her eyes burned a hole into the clock above the stove. It was six-thirty and shadows were beginning to grow across the road on Wolf Mountain. Joe hadn't called in. Neither had Trey Crump.

  Maybe this is what Ginger Finotta was trying to tell her. Maybe, she thought, the ranchers were going to war again.

  She drew the envelope from her pocket. It could be anything. It could be a letter asking about where the man could get permission to hunt. In the Rockies, men generally thought that anything to do with hunting should be labeled "Important." And ranchers thought anything that had to do with their land was important.

  She ripped open the envelope and pulled out a single folded sheet and read the wavering script.

  "Oh My God," she said aloud.

  "Mom, what is it?" Sheridan called from the other room.

  Part Three.

&nbs
p; I'm not much of a prophet. I suppose the conflict between conservation and development will grow more intense each year with the pressure of a growing population and economic demands. That's all I can see in the future--more conflict.

  Edward Abbey, author of The MonkeyWrench Gang

  NPR INTERVIEW, 1983

  WITH THE CABIN BEHIND THEM, Joe Pickett, Stewie Woods, and Britney Earthshare ascended the first mountain. Joe led, keeping to the trees, and eventually found a game trail that switchbacked its way to the top. Descending, they plunged steeply into twisted, gnarled, almost impenetrable black timber. They crawled more than walked through it, sometimes covering much more ground moving sideways to find an opening in the trees than actually distancing themselves from the cabin.

  The frequency of the rifle fire had slowed. Joe checked his watch. It was now three to five minutes between shots. Then the shots stopped altogether.

  Finally they reached the bottom of the slope. By then Joe was thinking about the probability of being tracked. While the black timber would be as difficult for a horse as it was for them, it would be obvious that the only place they had to run was downhill. There was no reason to flank the cabin or try to work their way back to the road where they could possibly be seen. The best strategy Joe figured, was to get as far away as possible, as quickly as possible.

  Stewie was doing remarkably well, considering the circumstances and the tough climbing. As they crawled through the timber his chatter was nonstop. He filled Joe in on what John Coble had told them about how it had been he and Tibbs who had rigged the cow with explosives, and how boring it was to be a fugitive.

  "If this was a movie, we would have stayed at the cabin and plotted and then set a bunch of booby traps," Stewie huffed. "You know, we would have dug a pit and filled it with sharpened sticks or fixed up a trip-wire on a bent-over tree or something so when Charlie came tonight--whoops!-he would get jerked into the air by his feet. Then we'd surround him and beat him like a pinata.

  "But this ain't no movie, man. This is real life. And in real life when some dickhead is shooting at you there is only one thing you can do, and that is to run like a rabbit. Like a scared fucking bunny."

  Joe ignored him.

  Occasionally, when a branch snapped dryly or two trees rubbed together with a moan in the wind, Joe would spin and reach back for his pistol. At any time, he expected Charlie Tibbs to appear above them or for long-range rifle shots to start cutting them down.

  At the bottom of the slope was a small runoff stream that coursed through boulders. Joe stepped up on the rocks and led them downstream for half a mile before cutting back up the next slope.

  Britney objected and Joe explained that the foray was meant to make them more difficult to track since they would leave no marks on the stones.

  THEY STAYED IN THE SHADOWS of a steep granite wall and followed it up the second mountain until the wall finally broke and let them through. After five hundred yards of spindly Lodgepole pines, the trees cleared and and they started toward the top of the mountain, laboring across loose gray shale. The temperature had dropped ten degrees as they climbed due to the increase in altitude, although it was still hot and the late afternoon sun was piercing.

  Stewie's labored breathing and the cascading shale as it loosened under their feet were the only sounds as they hiked upward.

  "Try to get over the top without stopping," Joe called over his shoulder to Stewie. "If Charlie Tibbs is going to see us with that spotting scope of his, it's going to be here, while we're in the open."

  "Stewie can't get his breath!" Britney pleaded to Joe. She had dropped back and was climbing with Stewie, his good arm over her shoulder.

  "He's fine," Joe grumbled. "Let's keep going. We can rest on the other side."

  "What an asshole" Britney said to Stewie in a remarkably out-of-place Valley Girl intonation. "First he hits you and then he tries to kill you."

  Stewie tried, between attempts to catch his breath, to reassure Britney that he was all right.

  Joe sighed and waited for them to catch up, then pulled Stewie's other arm over his own shoulder. The three of them summitted the mountain and stumbled down the other side, again through loose shale.

  Joe kept urging them on until they approached larger trees that provided some cover and shade. He stepped out from Stewie's arm, letting it flop down, and found a downed log to sit on.

  Stewie crumpled into a pile of arms and legs and sat still while he slowly caught his breath. Britney positioned herself behind him in the crux of a weathered branch. Joe noticed that she had gouged her shin sometime while they were climbing and that blood from the wound had dried in two dirty streams running down her leg and into her sandaled foot.

  Sitting back, Joe felt cool as the sweat beneath his shirt began to dry. He removed his hat and ran his fingers through hair that was getting stiff with salt from sweating beneath his hatband. Patting his shirt and trouser pockets, he did a quick inventory of what he had brought with him. While he had started the day in the cocoon of his pickup surrounded by radios, firearms, equipment, as well as Lizzie, he now counted among his possessions his clothing, boots, and hat, his holster and belt, the long coil of rope, small binoculars hung by a thong over his neck, and his spiral notebook and pen.

  Looking at Stewie and Britney he saw that they had brought even less with them from the cabin.

  Stewie painfully untangled himself and sat up, his arms around his knees. He looked up at Joe.

  "Thanks for helping me up the mountain."

  "Sure."

  Britney rolled her eyes.

  "What do you think our plan should be?" Stewie asked. "How long should we hide out before we head back?"

  Joe had been thinking about this on their long march up the mountainside.

  "I don't know"

  Britney huffed, blowing her bangs up off her forehead. The Valley Girl speech pattern was back. "What do you mean you don't know? Why did you lead us up that freaking mountain, then?"

  Joe grimaced. This was not where he wanted to be, he thought, and these were not people he wanted to be there with.

  "We don't know if Charlie Tibbs is tracking us," Joe explained patiently "If he is coming after us, he has a horse and he seems to know what he's doing. Even I could follow our sloppy tracks up this

  mountain."

  "I didn't know we were supposed to tiptoe," Britney whined.

  "John Coble said that Tibbs was the best tracker he had ever seen," Stewie said.

  Joe addressed Stewie. "If he turns away and goes back to where he came from, we'll know it tonight, I think. He might even follow our tracks down to the stream, where I hope he'll get confused about where we came out and turn back. I can't imagine him trying to run us down at night. If he leaves, we can sneak back to the cabin tomorrow You've got a cell phone and a radio in there, right?"

  Stewie nodded yes. How do you think I called your wife? was what Joe expected him to say But Stewie wisely kept his mouth shut.

  "The phone only works at certain times," Britney said. "Like when the weather is just perfect or the sunspots are lined up or something. Most of the time we can't reach anybody and nobody can call us."

  Joe nodded. "I've got a phone and a radio in my truck, if we can get to it. Provided Charlie Tibbs doesn't get there first." He thought of Tibbs's methodical work on the SUV and imagined him doing the same to his pickup. "Plus they'll be looking for us by tomorrow, is my guess."

  "At least when I was in the tree I had electricity and could use my cell phone to call my friends," Britney said, speaking as much to herself as to Stewie or Joe. "I had food, at least. But I guess that

  was California and this isn't"

  Stewie's misshapen mouth exaggerated his frown. "And if he comes after us?"

  "Then we die," Britney offered.

  ***

  In a thick pocket of aspen trees below where Stewie and Britney were resting, Joe found a spring that burbled out of a granite shelf into a small shallow pool t
hat had been eroded into the rock. From the shelf, trickles of water dribbled down the rock face and, with the help of other spring-fed trickles further down the mountain, worked their way in unison toward the valley floor to birth the next stream. Joe drank from the pool, pressing his cheek against the cool lip of it, sucking the water in through his teeth to catch the pine needles that floated on the surface. If there was bacteria in the water, he didn't care. Giardiasis was the last thing he was worried about right now

  He put his hat in the water, crown down, and filled it as much as he could. Holding it in his hands like a newborn puppy he walked back up the mountain to give Stewie and Britney a drink.

  Stewie accepted the hatful of water and Britney crinkled her nose at the very idea. She left to find the spring for herself.

  After drinking, Stewie wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

  "I'll bet you ten thousand dollars that he's already coming after us," Stewie said.

  "No bet."

  "A thousand?"

  "No bet."

  "Can you hit anything with that pistol?" Stewie asked, gesturing with his head toward Joe's holster.

  "Nope."

  "How well do you know this country?"

  "Not as well as I wish I did," Joe confessed, sitting back down on the log.

  Stewie cursed the fact that they didn't have a map.

  He looked beyond Joe to the jagged peaks of the mountains, which were brilliant blue and snow-capped. "Unless I'm completely wrong, it seems to me if we keep going west we will hit a big canyon that will stop us cold."

  Joe nodded. "Savage Run."

  "I always wanted to see that canyon." Stewie's face screwed up in a clownish, pathetic grimace. "But not like this."

  29

  THE SUN BALLOONED AND SETTLED into a notch between massive and distant peaks, as if it were being put away for the night. There was a spectacular farewell on the westward sides of the mountains and bellies of the cumulus clouds as they lit up in brilliant fuchsia.