2 A Deadly Beef

by Jessica Beck

  "We might as well head out," Moose said. "There’s nothing much left to see here, is there?"

  "No, sir, and that’s a fact."

  Before we could even get into Moose’s truck, though, the fire chief approached us. "Folks, if you could keep what I just told you between the three of us, I’d greatly appreciate it. I shouldn’t have let my frustration get the better of me. Sometimes the hardest thing in the world for me to do is to keep my mouth shut."

  "We won’t say a word about it," I answered.

  "Unless there’s no other way around it," Moose added.

  Chief Hester’s eyebrow shot up. "Why would you have to tell another soul about what I just told you, Moose?"

  "A man died out here," Moose said. "I can’t make any promises about what I may or may not say if push comes to shove, but unless there’s no other way, I promise you that we’ll keep your secret. I’m sorry, but it’s the best we can do, Simon."

  The insurance man/fire chief thought about it, and then put out his hand. "That’s good enough for me, then."

  After he shook Moose’s hand, he took mine in his as well.

  "Drive safe now," Chief Hester said.

  As we pulled out onto the highway, I saw the extra fire trucks coming down the road toward us. I was sure they were all viewing this as a training exercise, even though the fire had been real enough.

  I figured we were heading back to the diner, but Moose surprised me by turning down the road to Abel’s place instead.

  "Where are we going?" I asked.

  "I just don’t feel good about Sheriff Croft grabbing Abel and locking him up just on our account," Moose admitted.

  "We didn’t force the issue, Moose. We had to tell the sheriff the truth. After all, we’re the ones who saw Abel there, remember?"

  "I know how it looked, but I can’t for the life of me see Abel lighting a fire to burn a house down. If nothing else, there were too many things in that place that he could have salvaged, and there’s not a man alive who hates waste more than Abel Link."

  "You’ve got a point, but what if he had his own reasons to get rid of Wally’s house?"

  Moose looked at me curiously. "Why could he possibly want to do that?"

  "What if there was evidence hidden somewhere in there that he was the one who killed Wally?" I asked.

  "Victoria, you just met the man. You’ll have to take my word for it, but Abel couldn’t do that on his worst day."

  "Not even if his way of life was being threatened?" I countered. "Moose, we have no idea how he interacted with Wally Bain, and you know it. You’re always telling me that anyone can do just about anything if they’re pushed hard enough."

  "I guess you’re right," Moose admitted, but it was clear that doing so took something out of him.

  We were a hundred yards from the turnoff to Abel’s homestead when the sheriff’s cruiser approached us on the narrow dirt road. Moose pulled off to the side and into the spent weeds to let the sheriff pass us, but instead, the cruiser stopped when it got to Moose’s window.

  "What are you two up to now?" Sheriff Croft asked.

  I looked to see if Abel was in the back of the squad car in handcuffs, but there was no one there but the sheriff. Why did I feel so much relief when I saw that? I’d meant what I’d said to Moose, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t hate the idea of that crazy old man being locked up, especially not because of something I’d said.

  "We thought we’d lend you a hand," Moose said. I could tell that he was fighting a grin, but remarkably, my grandfather managed to suppress it almost completely.

  "Thanks, but it’s no use. If Abel wants to hide, it’s going to take more than me to catch him out here on his home turf."

  "Does that mean you’re giving up?" I asked him as I leaned past my grandfather to look the sheriff in the eye as I spoke.

  "No, it just means that I’m going for more reinforcements. I fully realize that Abel knows the land around here better than just about anybody else, but based on what you two told me, I don’t have much choice."

  I wanted to tell the sheriff that we’d been mistaken, that we couldn’t be sure that we’d seen Abel running away from the fire, but I couldn’t bring myself to say any of it. I’d told him the truth, and there was no way that I could recant now, not and mean it, anyway.

  After the sheriff drove off, Moose continued on.

  "Are we really looking for him ourselves?" I asked.

  "No, but we need some place to turn this truck around."

  Moose started to pull out when the weeds parted, and suddenly he found a shotgun barrel pointed straight at his chest.

  "You both need to get out of that truck nice and slow, and nobody has to get hurt," Abel said with a gleam in his eye, and I wished that the sheriff hadn’t been so quick to leave after all.

  THE FAMOUS MOOSEBURGER

  As promised in the novel, the Mooseburger contains no actual moose, though it is quite delicious nonetheless. We call these "stuffed inside-out burgers" when we have them at home. They offer a nice change of pace to the regular burgers we cook on the grill or in one of our cast iron skillets on the stovetop. Over the years, we’ve experimented with several different fillings, but in the end, it’s hard to beat a tasty cheese blend tucked away on the inside! Other options you might want to try if you’re feeling adventurous are sliced mushrooms sautéed in butter, onions reduced to caramelized goodness, crumbles of cooked bacon, different types of cheese, or just about any other topping that strikes your fancy. Just make sure the stuffing is cool to the touch before you sandwich a modest amount between two of your hamburger patties.

  Ingredients

  Ground Round, approx. 1 lb. (80/20 mix is good for juicy burgers)

  Worchester sauce, about 4 dashes

  Salt and Pepper, just enough to season the beef

  Cheese blend (8 oz. package works great), grated (we like Cheddar and Mozzarella)

  1 Tablespoon Butter

  Extras include buns, condiments, complementary sides, such as baked beans, potato salad, etc.

  Directions

  Lightly mix the salt, pepper, and Worchester sauce into the ground beef, and then divide it into six to eight portions, depending on the desired size of your burgers.

  Flatten the ground beef by hand into rounds, and then, using waxed paper and two saucers, sandwich the beef between the saucers and flatten them until they are 1/4 inch to 1/8 inch apiece.

  Add two to three tablespoons of your grated cheese mix (or whatever your desired stuffing is) to every other patty and spread the mixture out evenly.

  Top each cheesy patty with a plain one, pinch the edges and work the beef together so that they don’t fall apart. This will give you a stuffed patty for every two flattened patties you began with.

  Refrigerate the stuffed patties for at least half an hour before you cook them.

  Melt the butter in the pan, and then cook the patties over medium heat for ten to sixteen minutes, turning once, until the patties are done to your satisfaction. This will depend on the size of your patties and the temperature of your grill or skillet, which can vary with each patty.

  Check for an internal temperature of 160-170 degrees F for medium to well-done burgers, and you’re ready to eat.

  Add the patties to toasted buns, use any condiments you like, and enjoy!

  Chapter 12

  "Take it easy, Abel," Moose said as he tried to keep his voice calm. I had heard that tone coming from him many times myself, and I hoped that Abel’s shaking hands didn’t spasm and blow a hole through my grandfather. "We’re not here to hurt you."

  "No offense, but I don’t see how you could. After all, I’m the one with the gun," Abel said with a slight smile. "Now I want your truck keys."

  Moose started to hand them over, but Abel shook his head instead of taking them. "No, just throw them into the weeds over there."

  My grandfather looked skeptically at the area our captor had pointed out. "Abel, if I toss them in there, Vic
toria and I will never find them again."

  "Sorry, but that’s the way it has to be. You’re going to have to take your chances, Moose. Do as I say, now, I’m not kidding here."

  Moose flipped his keys out of the truck window as he’d been instructed, and I noticed that he managed to hit a large clump of wildflowers, bitten by the frost and withering away into stark bare stems and a few clinging brown petals. I was certain that it was the best he could do to give us any hope of ever finding them again, and I silently applauded him for the accuracy of his toss.

  "Now, step out of the truck, both of you. Let me see those hands."

  "Victoria, stay right where you are," Moose commanded, and then he turned back to Abel. "You don’t want my granddaughter, Abel. All you need is one hostage, and I’m the one who’s volunteering for the job. Why don’t we walk a bit down the road and you and I can talk about this. What do you say?"

  Abel shook his head. "It just won’t work. I promise that I’ll try my best not to hurt her unless I have to, but I can’t afford to just leave her here. I’m sorry, but I need both of you."

  Moose shrugged, and then he nodded to me to do as I’d been told.

  I got out on my side of the truck, and honestly, I probably could have run away at that point, but there was no way I was leaving my grandfather there to face an armed Abel alone. I obediently walked around the truck, and soon enough, Moose and I were both standing there with our hands up in the air as though we were being robbed.

  Actually, I would have greatly preferred that situation at that point.

  "Where are we going?" Moose asked as we started walking down the muddy lane in front of Abel and his shotgun.

  "Just keep moving. I’ll tell you when we’ve gone far enough," Abel said.

  "What should we do?" I whispered to Moose, hoping that Abel couldn’t hear us.

  "Be patient," Moose said a little too loudly.

  "Pipe down, you two. You’ve done enough talking already, don’t you think?" Abel’s words were punctuated by a nudge of his gun in Moose’s back, and I decided it might not be a bad idea to do as the man asked. When I’d first met him, I thought he was just a harmless eccentric, but he didn’t seem all that harmless at the moment. "I still can’t believe that you’d rat me out to the cops. I thought we were friends, Moose."

  "We are," my grandfather said. "Look at it from our point of view. We had no choice, Abel. The truth had to be told."

  "You wouldn’t know the truth about this situation if it walked up and bit your tailbone," Abel said.

  "Maybe not, but at least I’m willing to listen, if you’d care to enlighten me," my grandfather said.

  We walked about fifty yards around a bend, and Abel finally asked, "What’s the use? It’s too late for that to do me much good now, isn’t it? Okay. Stop right where you are. That’s far enough, both of you."

  I turned to face Abel, and then I glanced back the way we’d just come. The truck was out of sight now, and I had to wonder what Abel’s plan for us was now. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he probably didn’t even have one. He was playing this all by the seat of his pants, and I had a hunch that was bad news for my grandfather and me.

  My grandfather must have been thinking along the same lines as I was. I just wished that he weren’t so vocal in his criticism. "Okay, Abel, you’re in control here. So, what’s next?" Moose asked him. "Do you even have a plan?"

  "Don’t you worry yourself about that. I’m working on one," the man said.

  As the two of them were speaking, I looked at the shotgun in Abel’s hands. The barrel was rusty and pitted, and the stock had been repaired extensively with silver duct tape. Did the blasted thing even work? I wasn’t entirely sure that it was loaded, or that if Abel did manage to pull the trigger, that anything would happen, but I wasn’t going to risk it, and I hoped that Moose would bide his time, too. After all, if we just waited Abel out, the sheriff would be back soon with reinforcements. I didn’t want to see Abel go to jail, but it was better than the alternative we were facing at the moment.

  "Face it, my friend. You’re in over your head," Moose said. "Sheriff Croft is a good man. He’s not going to hurt you if you’re innocent."

  "Of course I’m innocent," Abel said, the barrel bobbing up and down as he spoke. "I never set that house on fire!"

  "We saw you there on the scene," Moose reminded him gently. "You’ve got to admit how bad things appear to be for you right now."

  "I don’t care how it looks," Abel said. "I was minding my own business enjoying the chill of the day when I smelled smoke. I tore off through the woods to see what was going on. Anybody would have done the same thing in my shoes. I’d been there no more than ten seconds when the two of you showed up, and that’s when I took off."

  "If that’s all true, then why did you run?" I asked.

  "Why do you think? I didn’t even realize it was the two of you two at first. I just heard a truck’s tires on the road, so I decided to make myself scarce. I knew it would be too easy to blame me if anybody spotted me there."

  "I still don’t understand why anyone would even think that you had any reason to set that fire, Abel," I said.

  "Moose, you know as well as I do that folks have been telling crazy stories about me ever since I left town and moved out into the woods. I’m sure that in their minds, there’s reason enough to believe that I’m capable of starting that fire, though I didn’t do it. I will tell you this, though. I hate what’s been going on around here lately, and I’ve done my best to keep out of every last bit of it, but if I thought that I could have stopped it all with a fire or two, I might have lit them myself, but the fact is, I didn’t."

  "What are you talking about?" Moose asked. "What’s going on around here?"

  Abel was about to answer him when we all heard sirens coming toward us.

  "This could be your last chance, Abel," Moose told him. "Give me the gun right now, and I’ll make sure that nobody hurts you. They’ll have to shoot me before they get to you. I promise you that."

  "Thanks for the offer, Moose, but we both know that I’m better off on my own. There’s no way I could live one night locked up in a jail cell. It would kill me, plain and simple. If you two know what’s good for you, you’ll both butt out before you get into this mess so deep you’ll never be able to dig yourselves out of it."

  For an old man, Abel was surprisingly spry as he suddenly tore off down the lane toward his house, and then veered off into the woods, his shotgun firmly in hand.

  In twenty seconds, I doubted the best tracker the sheriff could find would be able to locate him in the woods.

  As the police cruisers rounded the bend, Moose said, "Victoria, lower your hands and follow my lead."

  I hadn’t even realized that they’d still been up in the air. As I did as Moose told me, I asked, "Care to at least give me a hint?"

  "There’s no time," Moose said.

  Sheriff Croft slammed his squad car to a halt, and a second later, he got out. As he approached us, the sheriff asked, "Where is he?"

  "Who exactly are you talking about?" Moose asked, doing his best to act as innocent as he’d been the day he’d been born.

  "You know who I mean. What’s your truck doing parked in the middle of the road, anyway? We had to go through the weeds to get around you."

  "Victoria and I stopped so we could look at some wildflowers," Moose said.

  Sheriff Croft looked at him for a solid ten seconds, and then he turned to me. "Is that true, Victoria?"

  "We always collect some for Thanksgiving," I said, a blatant lie. "It’s a family tradition."

  All the sheriff could manage to do was to shake his head. It was clear he didn’t believe us, but there was nothing he could really do about it. "Go move your truck," he said as he motioned to his posse, who were now all out of their vehicles. "We’ll park at Abel’s place," he told them, and everyone got back into their cars and trucks as Moose and I walked back to our own truck. For
good measure, I reached down and picked a few spent wildflowers along the way, just for the benefit of anyone who might be watching us. As I stood back up, I waved to the advancing police cars, but if anyone saw what I’d just done, they didn’t acknowledge it.

  "Why did you tell the sheriff that?" I asked Moose.

  "Abel might be in enough trouble without us adding to it. If he’s telling the truth and he didn’t start the fire, I didn’t want anyone to put kidnapping on his shoulders. Thanks for going along with it. You were a real trooper."

  "I was happy to do it," I said. "If we get locked up for lying to the police, maybe they’ll give us cells close enough together so we can chat while we’re waiting for Rebecca to bail us out. It might help pass the time."

  "We could always play checkers if we get hoarse while we’re waiting," Moose added with a grin.

  When we got back to the truck, it took us less than four minutes to find the keys. "That was pretty crafty, throwing them where we could find them," I said as we got in and Moose started the truck.

  "I’m just glad it worked." He looked into the woods, and then asked me, "Do you think Abel will be able to elude all of them?"

  "I’m guessing that he’s already holed up somewhere in the woods. I’m pretty sure that he’s safe enough just where he is."

  "I hope you’re right. Despite the fact that the man was holding a gun on us, I don’t want to see him go to jail."

  "That wasn’t much of a gun, was it?" I asked. "I’m not certain that it would have fired, even if it had been loaded. Honestly, I wasn’t too worried about it."

  "That mistake could have killed you, because you should have been scared to death," Moose said. "Abel might look like a nut, but he relies on his gun. There was no doubt in my mind that we were both in real jeopardy."

  "Then I’m glad that ignorance is bliss," I said. "I wonder just what he meant about the things that were going on around here."

  "I don’t know," Moose said. "Abel’s always had an overactive imagination. It might be something, or it could be one of his conspiracy theories."