Ripped To Shreds

by Jeanne Glidewell

  "Duh," Rip cut in. I elbowed him in the ribs before he could say anything else. I didn't want to be booted out of her office before we'd heard all the details of the couple's arrest.

  "Hush, Rip! Please go on, Sheriff Wright," I said, encouraging her to continue.

  She glared at Rip momentarily, and then turned her attention to me. "As you correctly surmised, the pair had gone out to check their three remaining traps, upset about the loss of several others that the forest service had confiscated. When they approached the one in the valley, they found Bea snared in the trap, already deceased. The steel jaws had severed two of the three arteries that pass through the ankle; the peroneal and posterior tibia arteries. According to the medical examiner, she most likely bled to death quickly, and didn't suffer for very long."

  I let out a relieved sigh. "Thank God. That's good to hear. I couldn't imagine the pain and suffering the poor woman endured."

  "It wasn't painless, but it could have been much worse, Doc Stevens told me. And, yes, he said the broken wrist was no doubt caused by her trying to brace her fall. Also, the crime lab determined the print they'd been able to obtain off Bea's bracelet matched that of John Harris, and a large knife discovered in a tool storage bin in the rear of their truck tested positive for bear blood. The blood belonged to the mama bear Bea shot in the campground, a bear the couple had been tracking. It was John's truck the bear's carcass was loaded into that day. He'd volunteered to dispose of it properly after he and Barb had conducted some tests on it that were pertinent to their current research project. Naturally, they harvested its gallbladder. They also skinned and butchered it, and then left its remains in a ditch alongside a seldom-used road in mountainous terrain. After John Harris confessed, he described the location where the carcass had been dumped and I sent the new recruit, Bill Holsaffer, out to retrieve it."

  That poor rookie can't catch a break, I thought with a snicker. I listened carefully to the sheriff's description of events after the couple had been driven away in handcuffs. I'll never forget the evil look Barb gave me out the back window as the squad car had passed by. It was clear she'd been told who had turned her into the authorities. I had smiled back and given her a thumbs-up gesture. It was my sign to her that I was happy she and her equally despicable husband had been apprehended.

  As it turned out, the deceitful couple had never spent a dime sending gift packages to soldiers, either. As I'd suspected, that falsehood had served only to obtain the address of a nearby shipping facility and, conceivably, account for the boxes I'd seen inside their trailer. They also had no way of knowing how detailed, or clear, the photo I'd snapped that day had turned out.

  As I'd suspected, what they'd learned during their research project in Asia had prompted them to begin poaching the animals they used to fight to protect. They were in cahoots with a dealer in Taiwan, where the practice of bear farming, trading, importing, exporting, or even possessing animal parts and derivatives had been banned. The ban did not eliminate the cruel activity, but it did drive up the price a seller could get for the illegal substance. And this reality had not gone unnoticed by John and Barb Harris. Money truly is the root of all evil, isn't it?

  Cora called earlier that morning to tell me she'd seen the lady referred to as Babs in the salon again the previous afternoon. She was getting her nails painted pink this time. Cora spoke to her and learned she had recently moved to Buffalo and her name was Barbara Steinback, or Babs, to her family and friends. Barb Harris, on the other hand, had removed the black polish and trimmed her own nails after Bea's death because of the dried blood underneath them that was hard to get to so it could be eliminated.

  As all of my suspicions were verified one by one, I could feel my chest swelling with pride. I was thrilled to know the Harrises would both be taking up residence at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins for many years to come.

  We also found out that after Bea killed the mama bear who had wandered into the campground, the animal activists, turned poachers, had not had any success in tracking down, or trapping, another bear. I was relieved to hear that, other than the mama bear Bea shot, they'd come up empty-handed. Despite the scare the sow bear and three cubs had given us that one day on the trail, I was happy they'd all been spared from the Harris's numerous traps.

  I was also right on target about Barb's thought process on the bracelet. She'd hoped to throw the detectives off with the placement of the bracelet, but couldn't pass up seizing the large solitaire, which was found by the detectives in the bathroom soap dish in the Harris's trailer. Shoving a valuable diamond into a pile of bear poop must have seemed sacrilegious to the misguided woman, yet she thought keeping the costly gem in a soap dish just inches from an unforgiving drain pipe made sense. Really? I wouldn't even consider setting a pair of five-dollar studs on our bathroom sink. Five bucks is five bucks, after all.

  Barb confessed she'd been planning to have a necklace designed using the diamond from Bea's bracelet. I couldn't understand how anyone but a sociopath could wear something around her neck that she'd attained by killing a fellow human being, even if the woman's death was unintentional. It was as if she'd wanted to keep it as a souvenir of the ghastly incident. This particular gemstone could literally be classified as a "blood" diamond, I thought.

  Everything was falling into place to form an insurmountable case against the Harrises. I could finally relax, knowing the ordeal was behind us. At the time, I'd thought I'd never have to walk into the dangerous forest again. But you can't expect me to be right about everything, can you?

  So far, in our personal involvement with murder cases, we were batting three for three. I knew Willie would be thrilled with a batting average like ours. And so was I!

  Epilogue

  Ranger Rick stopped by one morning the following week. We'd been preparing to pack up and move on. He told us when he'd gone into the Rest 'n Peace campground store to speak with Boonie, he'd met a beautiful widowed woman working the counter named Jan Dorsey, or Laundry Room Jan, so as not to confuse you. They'd chatted for a while, and Jan had accepted his offer to take her out for supper the following night so they could get to know each other a little better.

  "She's been having a tough time going on with her life since her husband passed a few months ago. To keep her mind off her loneliness and sorrow, she'd agreed to help out in the store and office, as well as take care of Boonie's laundry in exchange for a free RV site. It's been working out well for both of them, she said. She also told me she'd gotten used to Boonie's flirtatiousness and finally figured out he was basically harmless."

  "Jan seems like a nice lady, Rick," I said. I was sincere and felt bad for having ever doubted her word, and now understood why I'd seen one of Boonie's shirts in her laundry basket one day. I'd wondered how she could accumulate so much laundry for a single woman. And if I'd looked closer that day, I'd probably have realized the entire basket was filled with his dirty clothes, not hers. "I'll pray it works out for both of you, Rick."

  "Thanks. I will too."

  I was happy to see Ranger Rick with a new gleam in his eye. I truly hoped he could find true love, if not with Jan Dorsey, then with some other woman worthy of a good man's devotion. "Have you heard how Desireé's mother is doing?"

  "Yeah. I talked to Desireé this morning, in fact. She called to tell me her mom had passed late last night. She said she was going to split Bea's half of the estate between Bea's two daughters, both in their twenties and living on the east coast. I've met them both and they're good kids, both well-deserving of their mother's share of their grandmother's estate. Desireé told me she knew that's what her sister would have wanted, and I agree."

  "That's very thoughtful of your ex." I'd judged the woman too harshly, I realized. It'd been hard for me to look past what Desireé did for a living to see the goodness in her heart. It appeared as if I had yet another apology to make before we left town.

  "Yeah, she's a good person," Rick replied. "She took on a lot of debt on behal
f of my son. I'm mailing out a check tomorrow to cover most of it, even though it was her idea to finance him for so long."

  "That's because you're such a good person yourself." I'd judged Rick unfairly at times, too, in my desire to find out the truth behind his former sister-in-law's death. I vowed that in the future I'd try to keep that bad habit of mine in check. And, as the law proclaims, I'll bear in mind that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

  "Thanks, Rapella." Rick smiled, knowing I was sincere. "The reason I dropped by was that I just remembered this morning I'd forgotten about your game camera. Sheriff Wright had Bill Holsaffer go out to retrieve that trap we used as a prop to trick the Harrises. It was the last one, thank God. Because of that, my intentions of retrieving your camera slipped my mind. If you'd like me to go get it for you today, I'd be happy to."

  I was about to jump all over the ranger's thoughtful offer, until my foolish husband said, "Thanks, Rick, but we'll go retrieve it. It'll give us an opportunity for one last trek through the forest before we have to pull out in a few days. For old time's sake, you know."

  Where was a shovel when you needed one?

  * * *

  Our hike through the woods the following morning was not only uneventful, it was actually quite enjoyable. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and my body had quit aching. We collected the camera and made it back to the Chartreuse Caboose in time for lunch. Rip could not have been less thrilled when I set a bowl of split-pea soup in front of him. Yet, just that morning he'd been bragging about another five-pound weight loss. It seemed that trying to keep the bull-headed fool alive was turning out to be a thankless job. But, still, it was worth all the toil and trouble because I loved that stubborn ass more than life itself.

  When Rip went outside to put the critter cam in an under-carriage storage compartment, he realized he'd somehow activated the motion-sensing device when he'd inserted the memory card back into its slot the day we 'trapped' the Harrises. He'd been too busy concentrating on scanning the few images we'd uploaded on the iPad to realize what he was unconsciously doing with the game camera. The camera now indicated there were sixteen new images on the card.

  It was a lazy afternoon and all my chores were done, so I decided to upload the new images, just out of curiosity.

  I nearly fell off the kitchen chair when I discovered a sharp, clear image of a cow moose grazing in the background, while in the foreground, two calves were checking out the camera, partially visible through the sagebrush we'd concealed it with. The fifteen remaining photos were also of the same moose family, but not nearly as sharp and vivid.

  "Rip! You're not going to believe this! I have good news and even better news."

  "So, tell me already!" Rip said impatiently.

  "The good news is that we captured what could be a twenty-five thousand dollar photo!"

  "Congratulations, honey. That's fantastic news! So what news could be even better than that?"

  "The mama moose made it! There's still a visible wound on her leg, but otherwise she appears perfectly healthy. And guess what? She and her twins are together again!"

  We marveled at the photo and couldn't wait to show it to Cora and Willie, so we drove to their house to share it with them. That once-in-a-lifetime photo would end up taking third place in the wildlife photography contest Cora had entered me in. Personally, I thought it was the best of the entire lot of entries, but I certainly didn't stick my nose up at the five-thousand dollar prize! I offered to return Cora's thirty-dollar entry fee along with an additional two hundred dollars. She refused the offer, saying, "No way, José. That was an Easter present, Aunt Rappie."

  So instead, I ordered a gift basket full of candles, scented skin lotions, two bottles of Chardonnay, and a box of fresh chocolate-covered strawberries to be delivered to her home the following day. In the card accompanying the basket of goodies, I told her I thought they might come in handy with Dirk, who she hadn't seen in three months, returning from his stint in Texas the following day. And, if that collection of items wasn't enough to turn her man on, I knew where she could pick up a lace teddy, complete with a thong, for a mere eighty-nine dollars.

  Rip and I decided to give Willie five-hundred dollars to put in his savings account. He'd be getting his driver's license in less than six months and could use it as part of his down payment on a used car. It was a well-earned reward for his ingenious idea to catch the poachers.

  Cora told us she would not allow Willie to accept the money, but we convinced her we couldn't have done it without him, and she finally relented.

  "I don't call him Slick Willie for no reason, you know!" Rip had countered with a chuckle.

  Afterward, because Rip will use any excuse he can come up with to appease his sweet tooth, he suggested the four of us celebrate my third place finish by making a visit to the ice cream shop. And, I have to admit, it tasted pretty good to me too!

  * * *

  When we stopped by the office on our way back to the Chartreuse Caboose to see how Boonie was getting along, he appeared to be coping as best he could. Knowing the couple responsible for his wife's death were behind bars gave him a sense of closure, he told us. He was also happy to report the police had apprehended three seventeen-year-old boys after they'd been caught on camera letting the air out of all four tires on Leo Brown's truck. Discovering that the trio had skipped school on the exact days the numerous flat tire episodes were reported to the police helped tie the boys to the other tire-flattening incidents, as well. But they swore they never permanently ruined any tires by slashing them.

  Boonie felt sure it had been either John or Barb Harris who'd slashed the tires of our truck the day I'd parked it in front of the campground office, and we agreed. John had most likely used the same blood-stained knife he'd used to clean the bear Bea shot in the campground, we decided. And after all, I had just made it clear to Barb that Rip and I were on the hunt for Bea's killer.

  Boonie told Rip that Janelle Tyson-Simms had left the area and was now running around with a real-estate tycoon in Billings, Montana. At least this poor sucker was not married as her last boyfriend had been, according to Boonie. He was visibly relieved to have her out of his life, and we felt confident he'd be able to eventually come to grips with his loss and move forward.

  * * *

  Rip and I had enjoyed our stay in Buffalo and the time spent with Cora and Willie, but I was itching to start our next adventure. We'd be heading to Seattle soon. From there we would embark on a cruise up the Inside Passage to Alaska. May eighteenth would mark our fiftieth year of marriage, a partnership that was even stronger today than it was the day we exchanged vows. Through good times and bad, through sickness and in health, and despite a few nasty, name-calling incidents—the kind nearly every couple has on occasion—we'd stayed by each other's side and had no intention of ever living any other way.

  To celebrate such a milestone, a rare accomplishment in this day and age, Rip had decided to go all out, with the help of the remainder of my prize money. There'd be no enduring a long trip up the often challenging Alaskan Highway. Instead, we'd drive to Seattle and park the Chartreuse Caboose in a campground. Then we'd board a cruise ship in the harbor there and sail to Alaska. We'd be wallowing in the lap of luxury, having booked a penthouse suite, where the cruise line representative assured us we'd be treated like visiting royalty.

  I had a sneaking suspicion that having a personal porter to provide us with room service at any hour of the day, the all-you-can eat buffet on the Promenade deck, the midnight chocolate buffet on the third night at sea, and the round-the-clock access to food at various locations around the ship, might have been major factors in my husband's decision. No doubt we'd both be starting a new diet when we returned from our celebratory cruise. Also, no doubt, Dolly will be taking applications for new servants when she discovers the highly recommended cat-boarding facility we leave her at while we're gone doesn't feed her as if she were a Shetland pony instead of a housecat.

>   I was looking forward to the Alaskan voyage, and even though being personally involved in several murder cases had been rewarding in some ways, I prayed that kind of excitement was behind us for good.

  So why did I have this feeling in my gut that, as per usual, it'd be a good long while before my prayer was considered, much less answered? I suspected I'd be waiting in line until after every human being on earth had enough food to eat and safe water to drink and every inhabitant of this rock we all share learned to live in peace and harmony.

  And you know what? I was okay with that.

  The End

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for purchasing Ripped to Shreds by Jeanne Glidewell. We hope you enjoyed the story and will leave a review at the eRetailer where you purchased the book.

  If you enjoy getting free and discounted ebooks, we announce our book sales and freebies through eBook Discovery. You can get eBook Discovery's free Daily eZine and Special Offer alerts to limited-time free and discounted ebook deals by signing up here.

  Happy Reading,

  ePublishing Works!

  Want more from Jeanne Glidewell?

  Here's an excerpt from

  RIP YOUR HEART OUT

  The Series Name Series

  Book Four

  ~

  The view from White Pass Summit was breathtaking; a panorama of mountains, waterfalls, glaciers, gorges, tunnels and trestles. At the summit, nearly three thousand feet higher in elevation than the Skagway Harbor where our cruise ship was moored, we could see the headwaters of the Yukon River. My husband, Clyde "Rip" Ripple, and I were celebrating our fiftieth wedding anniversary in Skagway, Alaska, aboard the White Pass and Yukon Route Railway.

  Skagway was one of five Alaskan ports we planned to visit on our seven-day cruise of Alaska's Inside Passage. The previous day, we'd gone whale watching in Juneau and traveled to the Mendenhall Glacier. With the digital camera we'd purchased as an early anniversary present to each other, we'd taken incredible humpback and orca photos. We'd also photographed dozens of bald eagles soaring above us or perched on tree branches ashore, a sleeping grizzly bear sprawled out on a fallen tree trunk along the shore of Auke Bay, and several sea lions snoozing on the base of a buoy.