Caching Out

by Cheatham, Tammy

  Confused, Martin asked, “So what’s the link?”

  “Well, seeing how many people found the same caches as both our victims got me thinking. How does he decide who to kill? Clearly he hasn’t killed everyone who found these caches, so why Parker, why Babcock? I don’t think he sits in the woods and waits for a victim that fits a certain profile to come along either. He hasn’t been consistent enough with his victim selection for that to be a consideration at this point.”

  “Maybe it was just random,” Martin reasoned.

  Emma smiled, but discarded the idea. “Could be Sheriff, but I don’t think so. This guy is too meticulous in his planning and I can’t believe that he would plan so well for the actual kill and then wait for a random victim. What did catch my eye is that each time one of our victims found a cache, they took something from it, leaving something of theirs in return. That’s one of the rules of the game. They log what they took and what they left in its place. What if our killer is selecting his victims not by the site but by what they take from the cache?”

  Tate sat on the corner of his desk. “That’s a little bit of a reach, Em. How would he know who took what? He’s killing the same day that they find the cache and neither Parker nor Babcock logged their find from that day, so he can’t be going into the site after they find it and then tracking them down somehow.”

  Nodding, Emma agreed. “I know it’s a long shot, but I think it’s worth looking into. Did you ask the Babcocks or Parker’s friend what they took? If not, then I really think we should, to rule this theory out if nothing else.”

  Martin spoke up, “Sounds a little far-fetched to me too, but I can’t see what it’d hurt to ask them about it, Tate. Why don’t you and Emma run by the diner on your way out to search for Walt and talk to Reva, and I’ll call the Babcocks. I’ll call you if I get anything from them before I go out on my search.”

  CHAPTER 29

  Fingering the coin in his hand, Gavin traced the etched design. He tossed his backpack into the rented car he’d left hidden in the park, and then slid behind the wheel. “I had it made for you Mama, it’s our coin. I’ll be home soon. Maybe we’ll go buy a big house with a yellow kitchen, just the way you like it.”

  Pulling the car into gear, he drove through the park without stopping at the gate. Gavin knew that his mother wasn’t going to leave the center and that there would be no big house with a yellow kitchen, but talking to her and planning a future for them both was something that he needed to do. Driving through Pine Ridge, Gavin smiled when he saw all the cars and people in front of the courthouse.

  “The search is on,” he snorted. Not slowing, Gavin followed the road out of town to where it intersected with I-30. He pulled into the parking lot of a lonely motel and walked inside.

  Tate and Emma entered the diner and took a seat at the bar. The place was packed and Reva hurriedly took orders. Seeing them at the counter, she smiled and nodded to let them know it would be a minute. Tate returned the nod.

  “Coffee to go Em?”

  Before Emma could answer, Reva stepped up to the counter with her pad in hand and asked, “What’ll it be Chief? I see you’ve got company today. Waffles for two?”

  Shaking his head no, Tate replied, “Reva, I’d like you to meet Emma Gage-Echo. Emma’s here unofficially as a member of the FBI to help with the murder cases.”

  “Nice to meet you, Reva,” Emma said. “I’m sorry about your friend, It’s hard to lose someone you care about. I know you’re busy, but I have a couple questions that I’m hoping you can help with.”

  “Thank you ma’am,” Reva replied, “Me and Saralyn were good friends and it does hurt.” Noticing Burt glare through the open window above the counter, Reva hesitated. “The diner’s real busy today and I got customers waiting, so if you could wait about ten minutes until the other waitress comes in I’ll be able to take a break and talk to you. That okay?”

  “Sure it is. We’ll take two black coffees while we wait, please.”

  Tate and Emma took their coffees and went to the only open table at the back of the diner to wait for Reva. Fifteen minutes later, Reva slid into a chair across from Tate. “Burt says I’ve got ten minutes, so what questions did you have for me?”

  “Reva,” Emma asked, “on the day that Saralyn was murdered, you and she were caching out at the lake right?”

  Reva nodded, “Yeah, but I already told Tate that.”

  “I know you already told Tate, but I was wondering if you recall taking anything from the cache that you found that day?”

  “Well sure, we always took something and Saralyn kept a little plastic bag in her car of things that we could put in ourselves. Nothing much, just things like pencils, erasers or stickers. She was a teacher, you know.”

  Tate interrupted, “So do you recall what you took that day?

  Wiping her hands on a faded apron tied at her waist, Reva frowned, “Well, I think it was some kind of coin. Saralyn kept it because she was going to log it.” Her voice breaking, Reva continued, “I guess she never got the chance.”

  Patting the other woman’s arm, Emma asked, “Can you describe it, Reva? What color was it? How big it was, anything that you can think of might be helpful.”

  Reva grabbed a napkin from a spring loaded silver box in the middle of the table and wiped her nose then shoved the napkin into her apron pocket. “Well, I carried it to the car and Saralyn said I should keep it, but I made her take it so she could log the find better. It was a little bit bigger than a fifty cent piece because it fit in the palm of my hand good, but it was gold colored not silver like a fifty cent coin would be. Both sides had engraving, one side had a picture of something and the other side had words but I don’t recall what they were.” Glancing at her watch Reva looked behind her checking to see if Burt was watching the clock too.

  Following her gaze, Tate stood and reached into his pocket tossing a five on the table. “Think about it, and if you recall anything about that coin give me a call. You’ve got my card with my cell number, right?”

  Standing, Reva reached for the empty coffee cups and nodded, “I will, and it was real nice to meet you, ma’am.”

  Turning to leave, Tate and Emma weaved their way through the diner to the door and stepped out. “So what do you make of that? Is she afraid of her boss or what?”

  Tate laughed as they walked to the SUV, “She’s definitely not afraid of Burt. He’s scary looking, but that’s about as far as it goes. Inside he’s a softy. He wouldn’t have said anything if she’d sat there for an hour, but he doesn’t like any customer waiting for very long and Reva doesn’t like to upset him, or miss out on any tips, I’d imagine. Tight as money is around here, she needs every nickel she earns.”

  Tate had just turned out of the diner parking lot when his cell phone rang. Seeing that it was Martin, he pulled off to the side of the road to take the call. “Echo here.”

  “Tate, I just got a call from a deputy on patrol, they found Walt and it’s bad. Can you meet me out on County Road 2214? That’s the road that borders the Res on the northern end.”

  “On my way. Who found him?”

  “Gary Barnes found him while doing regular patrol. My team only runs that road a couple times a week because it’s so isolated. I already told him to hold off calling the coroner until we take a look and he’s working to secure the scene now.”

  Tate put the SUV into gear and eased back on the road, glancing at Emma as he continued to listen to Martin.

  “Barnes says that it appears to be a homicide, and from the description it’s the same bastard.”

  Tate hung up and quickly relayed the details to Emma. There was little traffic in town today with almost everyone out looking for Walt or in the diner. Slowing, Tate turned the SUV onto County Road 2214 and picked up speed on the bumpy dirt track bordering the Reservation. A tunnel of white dust billowed behind the SUV, announcing his arrival.

  Fifteen minutes later, Martin, Tate and Emma stood looking at down at Walt M
abry’s crumpled and mutilated body. Squatting in front of the dead man Tate blurted, “Why an old man? He’s changed victim types three times now. We’ve got to find this son of a bitch.”

  Moving to stand at the end of Walt’s truck, Emma turned to face Tate when a flash of light caught her eye. Moving slowly so as not to disturb anything at the scene, Emma quickly slid a latex glove on, stooped and picked up a piece of glass from the ground. Turning she held it up to the sunlight. “Take a look at this.”

  “What is it?” Tate made his way to where Emma stood at the end of the truck.

  “Not sure, but it looks like a camera lens. How would something like that get out here?” Tate also slid on a glove and took the broken glass from Emma, holding it between his thumb and forefinger to examine it.

  “Tag and bag it. We’ll let the guys at County Lab tell us exactly what it is and then determine if it has any significance.” Turning to Martin he continued, “Any sign of the dog, Martin? I’m wondering how someone got close enough to hurt Walt with King around.”

  “Yeah, he was in the cab of the truck. Poor old guy was pretty dehydrated. I had Barnes pull him out the passenger side and give him some water then we loaded him into the patrol car with the air running. Wore out as he was, me and Barnes still had hell putting him to the car. He kept trying to get to Walt.”

  Emma peered into the passenger side window without touching the truck, and said, “Looks like he did a fair job of trying to get out, the windows are covered with what I can only assume is dried dog slobber and there are deep scratches on the top of both doors and below the rear window. Too bad he wasn’t able to get free.”

  Martin pointed down the road at a cloud of dust. “Looks like the CSU team is on the way in.” He turned to his deputy. “Barnes, take King over to Doc Wells and have him checked out. Go ahead and ask him to keep King until Jewel can be notified. Be sure you go in the back way so that the whole town doesn’t know.”

  Gesturing to the three member crime team climbing out of their van, he continued. “We’ll finish up here and then I’ll come back to the office before I call Jewel. Do not let this leak out to anyone before I get a chance to call Jewel in and tell her.”

  “You got it, Sheriff.”

  One of the men from the Crime Scene Unit called out, “Sheriff, I’m pretty sure I have the murder weapon here. Take a look at this rock. There’s dried blood, hair and some other matter stuck to it. Seems consistent with his head wound.”

  Martin nodded, “Bag it up and get it over to the county lab, Jeff. Try to keep it intact and dry.”

  Martin watched the second man of the team as he dusted the outside of the truck for prints. “Be sure you get the inside of the truck too, Matt.” Without looking away from his work, the man acknowledged Martin’s request with a nod.

  Opening the passenger side of the truck, Tate surveyed the cab for anything out of place then bent to take a look under the seat. That’s when he noticed the hand-held GPS device laying in the floor. Pulling a paper napkin from his pocket, Tate retrieved the GPS with one hand and hit the power button with the gloved hand to preserve any evidence. Dead. Turning he motioned the female member of the team over and said, “Once you three are through dusting this I’d like to see what data is entered on it. Battery’s dead now, but I think it may give us some insight as to what Walt was doing out here.”

  The tech nodded, pulled a large bag out and slid the device inside. With a black sharpie she noted the time, date and place on a square paper label attached to the bag then moved to place the item in her holding box.

  Drawing Martin outside the yellow crime scene tape and away from the primary evidence bearing area, Tate pointed to the cruiser’s tire prints in the dirt road. “Walt went missing three days ago and we had rain four days ago and while it may have washed away any foot or shoe prints, tire tracks usually leave a rut in dirt roads like this, especially after a rain.” He pointed to the deep ruts behind Walt’s truck. “I don’t see any ruts or tire prints leading up to this point or going forward other than those made by Walt’s truck. Doesn’t appear that anyone has traveled this road from the time that Walt stopped here until Barnes came through on rounds.”

  Martin looked closer, “Yeah, I would agree with that. So you’re saying that our killer walked up here? Hell, it’s at least four miles from the highway to this point. If he was walking, maybe Walt passed him or even stopped to give him a ride.”

  Tate scanned the other side of the road to the dense copse of trees. “Or just maybe, he was already here. The question would now be did he come down from the hills on Reservation property, or did he cross the road from the woods over there?”

  “Why either one?” Martin puzzled. This is just about the most isolated spot on the Reservation. I can’t imagine what someone would have had to maneuver around if they came across Res land, and they would have had to cross on foot because no car could make it through all the rocks and ravines.”

  Tate moved toward the road. “I agree. It’s more likely that our UnSub came from the woods. ”

  Motioning Emma over, they all crossed the dirt road and pushed their way into the thick pine and cedar trees on the opposite side of the road from where Walt’s body still lay. Their footsteps were silenced by the thick covering of pine needles carpeting the ground.

  Martin was the first to speak as they entered the woods. “We know that this is the same guy that killed the other two victims, and you think he sat here waiting for someone to show up so that he could kill them? That doesn’t make a bit of sense. Hell, this is an isolated area; it could have been weeks before anyone other than Barnes came down this road.”

  “I don’t think he was going to sit around and wait for someone to come down the road. I think he knew that someone would come. Whether he knew it would be Walt or not is another matter. Keep an eye out for signs of a camp site.”

  Stopping, Martin looked incredulously at Tate. “You’re not making sense to me. How could the killer know that someone would come?”

  Tate replied, “Martin, I’m betting that Walt was out here looking for a geocache. Jewel gave him a GPS just a couple days ago and he had it with him.”

  Breaking in, Emma confirmed, “This is a cache site. I found it under a group of rocks not twenty feet from where Walt is now. It’s also on my list. There have been four recent finds here, maybe that’s how the killer knew that someone would show up. He monitors activity on the geocaching website and then picks an active site.”

  Tate nodded, “Let’s see if we can find any sign of our UnSub.”

  Walking further into the dense woods, Tate scanned a clearing near the creek. He noticed a dark spot on the ground twenty yards up and on the other side of the small stream. Crossing the water, he made his way toward what he suspected was the remains of a campfire.

  Tate called out to Martin and Emma then pointed at the charred ground. “I’m pretty sure our UnSub camped here.” As Martin joined him, Tate studied the surrounding ground and trees. “Doesn’t appear that he set up any kind of shelter, no tent and probably not a tree tarp.”

  Martin looked at Tate, perplexed, “How do figure that Tate?”

  Tate pointed, “No holes in the ground that would have been needed to stake a tent, no holes in the trees that would indicate a tarp. Nothing but a fire ring. He must be familiar with roughing it because not too many people are going to camp in these woods without some sort of shelter for protection from not only the weather but the wildlife.”

  “This area of woods backs up to the State Park,” Martin reminded. Maybe we should go over and take a look at who registered for the last week or so. Maybe our perp came in that way and then got off the park property. Why don’t you take a ride over there and check out the registrations while I go back to town? I’ve got to talk to Jewel before anyone else lets this leak.”

  “I know it’s going to be a hard conversation with Jewel,” Tate said, “but if you can get any questions in, try to find out if she loaded an
y cache sites in his GPS. I don’t know if Walt has a computer, but he never struck me as the technological type. We’ve already got the registration logs from the Lodge and I’ll do a cross match to see if any of the campers on their log match up with anyone who came through the State Park in the last month or so.”

  “I’ll give you a call after I’ve talked to Jewel, but I can tell you that Walt did have a computer. Jewel gave it to him a couple years ago at Christmas. Don’t know that he ever got the hang of using it, but he did have access if he wanted it.”

  Leaving the woods, Tate and Emma slid into the SUV as Martin stopped to brief the CSU team on their plans, letting them know that he expected a full report before the end of the day. At the highway crossroads, Tate and Emma turned left toward the State Park and Martin turned right, going back to town to speak with Jewel.

  When Martin reached the station, the first person he saw was Curtis Weston from the Pine Ridge Daily.

  Weston stepped forward, “Martin, is it true that your team just brought Walt Mabry in? What happened to him, heart attack?”

  “Weston, go back to your office and let me do my job,” Martin said as he attempted to brush by the reporter. I am not going to talk to you or anyone else until I talk with Jewel. You were friends with Walt and I’m asking you to put that friendship first and leave this alone for now. As soon as details can be released, I will make sure that you are the one I call.”

  Indignant, Curtis, blurted, “You’re right Martin, I was friends with Walt, best friends and that’s why I asked. I’d like to be there when you tell Jewel, if it’s bad news. Since her Mama died, Jewel didn’t have anyone but Walt and she’s going to need someone with her now.”