Jake

by C. J. Petit

  Sara didn’t reply as she waited for the two ranch hands to reach them.

  When John Hatcher and Pack Oliver pulled up, Jake didn’t even give them a chance to dismount or ask any questions.

  He quickly said, “Pack, I want you to ride into town and get Sheriff Zendt. Tell him that I don’t want him to send one of his deputies. Then after you see him, visit the mortician and have Mister Redmond bring his hearse and a casket to this spot as soon as possible. John, I want you to find a couple of the others and have them send all of the men here before you head back to the barn and find me a shovel. Tell Charlie that we’ll be delaying lunch for a while, but have him, Big Tom and Bill Jackson come back with you when you bring me the shovel.”

  The combination of Jake’s orders gave John and Pack a good idea of the reason Jake had fanned his revolver, so neither man asked a question before nodding and wheeling their horses about and riding off in different directions.

  Jake then walked with Sara to a low, flat rock and waited until she sat down before he sat beside her.

  “I’m still trying to accept the reality of what I found, Sara. It only took me a few seconds to understand why someone would have cut the branches and made that long pile to cover the disturbed ground, but I may never understand why Dave Forrest killed my parents.”

  Sara quietly asked, “Will you try to find him?”

  Jake shook his head as he replied, “No. That’s why I wanted the sheriff to come here. When my father’s body is exhumed, I want the sheriff to witness everything. I expect that my father was shot, probably in the back. Sheriff Zendt’s report should be enough to issue an arrest warrant for Dave Forrest. He should be charged with two counts of murder.

  “Then it will be up to the law to find him and return him to Fort Benton for trial. I hope that he isn’t killed before I have a chance to ask him why he did it. But even if I do get to talk to him, I doubt if he’d tell me the truth. He did nothing but lie to me since I returned, and I never suspected that he had anything but sympathy for my mother’s death.”

  “Jake, he was your good friend for a long time before you left, so it’s only natural that you would believe him.”

  “I know, but I still feel like a fool. Even after Mrs. Benton asked why I so easily believed that my father was a murderer and trusted the only man who had witnessed the crime to be innocent, I still couldn’t believe that Dave was lying. Did you suspect the truth?”

  “I thought about it. But the fact that the foreman was still here when you returned from the army, and we all believed that your father had just run off that day combined to keep me from seeing Dave Forrest as the murderer.”

  After a few seconds of silence, Sara asked, “Why do you think he took the long-range rifle?”

  Jake hadn’t even thought about the missing Martini-Henry until Sara asked, so he just continued to stare across the open ground as he thought about it.

  When he hadn’t replied for almost a minute, Sara asked, “Do you think that he followed you to kill you before you returned?”

  Jake had already dismissed that idea primarily because of the letter. If he was going to put a bullet in his back, then he wouldn’t have bothered writing it.

  He shook his head as he replied, “No. I don’t believe he would even consider killing me. Despite everything that he’s done, I think that he actually liked me. Even if he was going to try to ambush me, he wouldn’t have left that letter. If he succeeded, he would have just wanted to return and wait for my body to be found. Then he could take over the ranch without any questions.”

  “Then why did he take it?”

  “I’m still trying to understand why he waited for me to leave for Helena before he ran. Something must have made him nervous enough to leave that letter and then disappear.”

  “Maybe it was when you told him that you’d be taking me into your sanctuary. You said he became very agitated and told you that you couldn’t take me there because he’d found grizzly tracks. You may have told him you wouldn’t, but he couldn’t be sure. He was probably already worried about it before you said you’d show it to me. That’s why he was able to invent the story of the grizzly tracks so quickly.”

  Jake looked at Sara as he said, “You’re probably right. He couldn’t run away so soon after the murders because it would look bad. Then he probably began to believe I wouldn’t return at all. That would have been his best chance that no one would ever discover my father’s grave. But when I did show up, I’m surprised that he was so adamant about keeping me on the ranch.”

  Sara couldn’t understand the foreman’s reason for trying to prevent Jake from leaving either. He should have been anxious for Jake to leave, so he could make his escape.

  She finally said, “Maybe he knew you well enough to know that you’d leave anyway, so it didn’t matter what he said. Would you have been surprised if he’d encouraged you to leave?”

  “Yes, but he did offer to come along on the search.”

  “I guess we may never know why he acted as he did.”

  “I suppose he could just have been bouncing between his guilt for what he’d done and his friendship for me. Part of him wanted me to stay on the ranch despite his need for me to avoid going into my sanctuary.”

  “But none of that matters; does it?”

  “No, it doesn’t.”

  “I just realized that he took more than that rifle and the seven hundred dollars you left for him. He probably did have the combination to the safe and took all of the cash inside.”

  Jake sighed as he said, “I’m sure he did. He probably has more than fifteen hundred dollars of the Elk’s money. That would give him freedom to go anywhere.”

  “Do you think he really rode south as he wrote in that letter?”

  “I don’t know where he went, but there’s not much in that direction for a couple of hundred miles. Maybe someone saw him riding out of town Thursday night. I’ll ask Sheriff Zendt when he arrives.”

  Sara was relieved when Jake had carried out a normal conversation about such an abnormally shocking situation. She hoped that he’d keep his calm state of mind when they had to remove his father’s body from his temporary grave.

  _____

  Over the next hour and a half, the ranch hands began arriving but even after they dismounted, none asked Jake why he’d summoned them. Jake assumed that John had already told each of them of his request for the sheriff and mortician and there could only be one reason for having the lawman and undertaker to come to the Elk. When John arrived, he was carrying the shovel Jake had asked him to bring, and just leaned it against a rock nearby.

  Jake and Sara remained sitting on the rock as more men continued to show up, then silently dismount and tie off their horses. It was a strange gathering as they began taking seats on rocks or the ground without a word being spoken.

  When all eleven men had arrived, including Pack Oliver, who must have ridden at breakneck speed to and from Fort Benton, Jake and Sara finally stood and waited for the men to get to their feet.

  He scanned their faces before saying, “A couple of hours ago, I was showing Sara my refuge. When we entered the forest, we found a spot where the ground was soft and there were some cut pine branches spread over the ground. After I asked her to leave, I dug down with my hands until I found the toes of my father’s boots. I kicked some of the dirt back into the hole before coming back out and asking you all to meet me. I won’t ask you to do anything, but I felt that you should know that it wasn’t my father who murdered my mother. It was Dave Forrest who killed them both. When the sheriff arrives, we’ll exhume my father’s body. I expect to find that he’d been shot, and I’ll ask the sheriff to have a warrant issued for Dave’s arrest.

  “I don’t know what happened that day, but if any of you can give me an idea of why Dave would have done such a thing, please let me know when I return to the house. You can all head back to the chow house and have some lunch. Take the rest of the day off and I’ll talk to you later.”
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br />   The only question came from Charlie Shimshock who asked, “Do you want me to send some food out to you and Mrs. Elliott, Jake?”

  “I’d appreciate the offer, Charlie, but we should be back in a couple of hours.”

  Charlie nodded then turned away as the others began untying their horses. Just two minutes later, Jake and Sara were alone again.

  After returning to their stone seats, Sara asked, “Do you want me to come with you when you return to the forest?”

  Jake studied her eyes for a few seconds but knew he wouldn’t be able to determine whether she would rather remain outside or not. He decided that it was better that she didn’t have to witness the gruesome excavation.

  “It won’t be a pleasant sight, Sara. It might be better if you took Vulcan back to the ranch house and waited for me to return.”

  “I already understood how bad it would be before I asked, Jake. If I can’t stand beside you at the very worst of times, then I don’t deserve to be with you for the best of them. I want to stay with you, Jake.”

  Jake nodded then said, “Alright. It’s just that I didn’t react well when I realized what I’d found in that hole and I didn’t want you to go through it if you didn’t have to.”

  She took his hand and said, “We share everything now.”

  “Thank you, Sara.”

  Jake was about to say more when he spotted a rider and a carriage that was probably a hearse coming from the south.

  He stood and as Sara rose to her feet, he said, “Sheriff Zendt and the mortician, Isiah Redmond are coming. I’m sure that they both know what to expect when they get here in a few more minutes.”

  _____

  Sheriff Zendt dismounted ten minutes later, and Mister Redmond climbed down from his hearse’s seat while his assistant remained sitting on the driver’s seat.

  After tying off his horse next to Vulcan, the sheriff and the mortician approached Jake and Sara.

  Jake then said, “Mister Redmond, we’re going to need your assistant and a blanket to wrap my father’s body. I have a shovel.”

  Isiah Redmond nodded and beckoned to his assistant as he shouted, “Fred, come along and bring one of the heavy blankets.”

  Fred loudly replied, “Yes, sir,” before he began climbing down from the driver’s seat.

  Jake then turned to the sheriff and said, “Arv, I’ll explain why I asked for you to come while we’re walking.”

  “I can understand why you’d rather have me show up than my deputies, Jake.”

  Jake nodded and was pleased that the sheriff hadn’t started questioning him about why he knew that he’d found his father’s body and not Dave Forrest’s. He must not have been as surprised as Jake had been.

  When Jake took Sara’s hand before they started walking through the gap in the rocks, the sheriff did seem surprised, but didn’t say anything.

  Once they were past the narrow natural entrance, Jake began telling the sheriff how he’d discovered his father’s gravesite and then after he finished explaining what he knew, he started talking about what had happened on the Elk after he returned from Helena and found Dave Forrest gone and the letter he left behind. He even mentioned the missing money and the Martini-Henry by the time they entered the forest.

  When they stopped before the half-filled hole, Jake said, “I’ll start moving the branches away. The hole is where my father’s feet are, so the branches were meant to cover the entire gravesite.”

  The sheriff said, “I’ll help, Jake,” so Jake handed the shovel to the mortician’s assistant before he and the sheriff began pulling the branches off the rest of the soft ground.

  Sara had moved out of the way but remained as close to Jake as possible. When the branches were all clear, she walked with him to the gravesite and took his hand.

  Jake didn’t ask the assistant to be careful but before he dug the shovel into the ground, he said, "I found the tips of my father’s boots about three feet down.”

  Fred nodded then began to carefully scoop the soft dirt away while everyone else watched the exposed ground.

  But after just a foot or so of soil had been removed, Jake spotted an unnatural color and said, “Hold it for a second!”

  Fred pulled the shovel away and Jake stepped close to the fresh hole then reached down and after his fingers touched the object, he brushed away some of the dirt and pulled out his father’s cream Stetson with the embroidered elk band. He stepped back and nodded to let Fred continue before he began brushing the accumulated filth from the hat. He knew it was just a diversion, so after those first few strokes, he just held it in his hand and turned his eyes back to his father’s burial site.

  Sara quickly took his free hand and after a short look into his eyes, turned back to watch the exhumation. She was determined to remain strong for Jake and was impressed with his concentration and decisiveness after those first few minutes since leaving his refuge.

  They continued to watch as Fred worked his way down to where Jake had first dug his small hole. He was being more precise after Jake had removed his father’s hat, but after he’d take out another foot of soil, it had been the only thing they’d found.

  It was just five minutes later that Fred stopped and tossed the shovel aside before he looked at his boss and said, “I think we can remove Mister Elliott now.”

  Jake couldn’t see his father’s face but was sure that Fred knew what he was doing. Mister Redmond spread the blanket on the ground next to the hole before he carefully stepped into the hole near his father’s feet.

  Sara squeezed Jake’s hand as she watched Fred reach down and bury his hands beneath the body’s shoulders while Mister Redmond took hold of his boots. They each lifted Chester Elliott’s body from the ground and quickly lowered it onto the blanket.

  Jake had expected some decomposition, but it wasn’t as bad as he’d anticipated. The top of his body was still covered in dirt, but he didn’t even look at his father’s face. Instead, he concentrated on his torso searching for the bullet hole. When he didn’t see it, he began to think he was wrong about the cause of his father’s death.

  He glanced down at Sara before releasing her hand and stepping around the hole and joining the sheriff as he approached the body. Before they could ask, the mortician rolled the body onto its side exposing his father’s back. Even amid the dirt that coated the entire shirt the darker blood stain stood out. It only took five seconds before Jake and Sheriff Zendt found the bullet hole, but once they spotted it, the sheriff nodded to Isiah Redmond, then he and Jake stepped back.

  As the mortician and his assistant wrapped his father’s body, Jake asked, “Can you remove the bullet from my father before you prepare him for burial?”

  Mister Redmond replied, “I was going to do that already, Jake. Will you be burying him in your family cemetery beside your mother?”

  “Yes. I’ll stop by to make all the arrangements later today.”

  “That’s fine.”

  Jake waited for Sara to join him. Then when Isiah Redmond and Fred began carrying his father’s body out of the forest with the sheriff walking alongside, he took her hand and followed. As they snaked through the trees and rocks, it was nothing less than a funeral procession that was taking place in his natural cathedral.

  _____

  When they left the refuge, Mister Redmond and Fred continued carrying Chet Elliott’s body to the waiting hearse, but Jake, Sara and the sheriff stopped near their horses. Jake hung his father’s dirty Stetson over his saddle horn and watched as his father’s blanket-wrapped body was slid into the hearse.

  Sheriff Zendt then turned to Jake and said, “When you get a chance, stop by the office. I need you to write a statement, but I should have talked to Mister Jones before then and I’m sure he’ll issue a warrant this time.”

  Jake shook his hand as he said, “Thanks, Arv. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it to your office today, but if I can’t, I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “I know this sounds bad, but
I’m kinda glad that your father didn’t do it, Jake.”

  “It doesn’t sound bad, Arv. I feel the same way.”

  The sheriff mounted his horse then waved before he rode away.

  Jake and Sara mounted, then walked their horses to the hearse and after it began rolling, they rode about twenty feet behind the black carriage as it headed across the uneven ground.

  As they trotted behind the hearse, Jake took his father’s hat from his saddle horn and held it in his left hand rather than risk having it fall to the ground and get trampled.

  When the small procession reached the barn, Jake and Sara pulled up and sat in their saddles watching the hearse roll away until it turned east at the end of the access road.

  Jake then looked toward the chow house and said, “Let’s go talk to the men before I go into town to take care of the arrangements for the burial. I’ll plan on having it tomorrow afternoon around three o’clock.”

  “Do you want me to come with you?”

  “This is nothing more than paperwork, Sara. After we talk to the boys, why don’t you get something to eat, and I’ll join you when I get back. I should only be gone for a couple of hours.”

  While she knew it was far more than just paperwork for Jake, Sara felt that he wouldn’t need her help to handle his father’s arrangements, so she replied, “Alright,” before they turned their horses to the left and walked them to the chow house.

  After they dismounted, Jake hung his father’s hat over his saddle horn again before taking Sara’s hand and entering the wide door.

  After providing a concise and unemotional report of the discovery and removal of his father’s body, Jake told them of the time for tomorrow’s memorial service. None asked any questions or offered any meaningless condolences before Jake and Sara left the somber group.

  Once outside, Jake took his father’s hat from his saddle horn, handed it to Sara and asked, “Could you leave this on the desk, Sara?”

  She replied, “Of course,” as Big Tom stepped out of the chow house, took Vulcan’s reins and led the black gelding away without saying a word.

  Jake mounted Mars and turned him toward the access road while Sara walked to the ranch house. He didn’t look back as he finally had the time to deal with the ramifications of the startling discovery. The burial and his statement were just tasks that needed to be done. As he told Sara, he’d leave the search for Dave Forrest to the law.