Run for Cover

by Michael Ledwidge

  “I’m so sorry, Lynn,” Gannon said. “This just sucks so bad. Things just keeps getting worse for you guys.”

  “You’re telling me,” she said as she held the door open for him. “Just wanted you to know. John’s in his office.

  “And, Mike,” she said as he passed her.

  Gannon stopped in the hall.

  “Thanks for flying up to Wyoming with him,” she said. “I forgot to tell you. It really meant a lot to me and the kids. John needs a friend right now. Thanks for watching his back.”

  “No thanks necessary,” Gannon said as he went inside.

  30

  John’s wood-paneled study was on the ground floor. As Gannon stopped before the glass of its French door, he saw inside that all the wooden blinds were down and there was only a single lamp on at the desk where Barber sat hunched at his computer.

  “John?” Gannon said, tapping at the glass as he came in.

  “Hey, Mike. Thanks for coming,” Barber said, standing up from the swivel chair.

  “Sorry about your mom,” Gannon said, patting him on the shoulder. “Lynn filled me in.”

  “Thanks, buddy,” Barber said as they shook. “She’s been sick for a while, but I guess losing Owen is just overwhelming.”

  Barber brought them to the office’s left-hand corner where there were a couple of leather chairs. When Gannon was seated in one of them, Barber went over and closed the French door and came back and sat.

  Between the chairs was a leather ottoman and from the top of it, Barber lifted a slim black iPhone.

  “This is what I just got in the mail,” he said, holding up the phone. “My brother’s buddy, Don, just shipped it down from Wyoming along with some other effects Owen had at work. Because Owen was out of contact so much, he had a work knapsack he kept in his truck with first aid and survival stuff along with a pair of spare boots. This phone was stuffed down inside of one of the boots.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Let me show you something I came across after I recharged it,” Barber said, thumbing at it.

  “You know Owen’s password?” Gannon said.

  “No, but I guessed it pretty quick.”

  Gannon smiled.

  “Let me guess. His old girlfriend’s birthday?”

  Barber smiled back.

  “No. Close. Momma’s.”

  He thumbed some more buttons and handed the phone over to Gannon.

  “Now check this out,” Barber said.

  It was outdoor footage. Raw gray rocks and mountains in the distance.

  “Grand Teton?” Gannon said.

  “Yep, watch.”

  The camera was descending a steep trail and then the view showed a flat sort of clearing. The camera blurred as it zeroed in on something. Then there was a shot of a foot between some rocks. Pale and delicate. It looked like it belonged to a young woman.

  “This is from the crime scene?” Gannon said. “This the body Owen found? The serial killer’s victim?”

  Barber nodded.

  “Owen had a work phone that they took into evidence, but it looks like when he found the body by himself, he actually recorded his first walk-through with his private phone and must have stuffed it into his boot. Brace yourself for this next part.”

  The camera came in closer. The footage showed a naked woman. She was small, about thirty. Her head was turned to the side. There were blood splotches and splatter marks on the rocks all around her. As the camera focused in closer, it looked like there were bite marks in her neck and back.

  The camera zoomed in on the half-turned blood-splattered face. Gannon looked at her wide-open shocked eyes. She was an Asian woman.

  “Man, this is sick,” Gannon said. “Look at the wounds. This crazy NATPARK son of a bitch must have bitten her to death or something. Then just threw her away like a bag of garbage.”

  “I know,” Barber said. “That’s what I thought, too. It looks like she was attacked by zombies.”

  Gannon was still staring at the real-life horror movie footage when there was a knock on the glass of the French door.

  “Hey, hon. What’s up?” Barber said as his wife stuck her head in.

  “We’re not expecting that group from Phoenix until next week, right?” Lynn said.

  “Right. Why?”

  “The driveway perimeter alarm by the road just went off,” Lynn said.

  31

  John turned and went over to his computer and pressed some buttons, and a grid of security camera boxes appeared on the screen.

  Being in the high-end, ever vigilant security biz, Barber had a string of state-of-the-art motion detector cameras set up all over his remote compound.

  He clicked on the keyboard. They watched as a car came up his mile-long driveway. It was a small new shiny blue Nissan.

  “Looks like a rental,” Gannon said from over Barber’s shoulder. “Is that a woman driving it?”

  Barber clicked another button and stilled the image and zoomed in.

  “Hey, look,” he said, shocked, as he tapped at the screen. “It’s the FBI agent from the hospital.”

  “The agent?” Lynn said.

  “The lady FBI agent who was shot along with Owen,” Gannon explained. “Agent Hagen. We saw her in Jackson at the hospital.”

  “What does she want?” Lynn said.

  “I don’t know, but I guess we’re about to find out,” Barber said as he clicked off the screen and stepped out his office door.

  The car had pulled to a stop in the circular drive by the time they all came out onto the porch.

  They watched Agent Hagen get out wearing jeans and a white T-shirt. She seemed solid enough on her feet though her color was a little pale.

  She certainly didn’t look like she was on official business, Gannon thought.

  “Hi, you’re John Barber, right?” she said as she walked over, extending her free hand. “Do you remember me? I’m Kit Hagen. You visited me at the hospital in Jackson.”

  “Of course,” Barber said, shaking her hand. “Nice to see you again, Agent Hagen. Especially up on your feet.”

  “Me, too,” she said, smiling. “Believe me. And there’s no agent. I’m just Kit. Please just call me Kit.”

  “Okay, Kit. This is my wife, Lynn, and this is my buddy, Mike.”

  Kit peered at Gannon as she shook his hand.

  “You were there at the hospital, too, right? I think I remember you.”

  Gannon smiled.

  “I’m surprised that you remember anything,” he said. “You were pretty groggy.”

  “Groggy,” Kit said rolling her eyes. “I’ll say. I was high as a kite. I actually just chucked the last of the stuff they gave me for the pain. It was making me cross-eyed. I think I’ll stick to Advil from here on out.”

  “Please come in, Kit,” Lynn Barber said. “Get out of this heat. I’ll put on some lunch.”

  “No, Lynn, please. I don’t want to bother you guys. I didn’t even call. I just came by for a second.”

  “Sorry, Kit. This is off-the-grid Eastern Utah,” Lynn said, waving her toward the front door. “No one is allowed to come by for just a minute. It’s a county ordinance.”

  “How did you get here? Salt Lake City Airport?” Barber said as they went in and sat in the family room.

  “Yes,” Kit said. “I just went to visit Owen’s grave, and before I left I wanted to come by and say hi. I’m truly sorry I missed your brother’s funeral but they were burying my partner, Dennis, the same day.”

  “No worries, please, Kit,” Barber said. “We’ve all been through so much with this. We’re all doing the best we can.”

  “I actually needed to come by,” Kit said as Lynn Barber came in with a tray of iced tea and glasses. “I wanted to tell you about what your brother did for me.”

/>   “Kit, honestly. You don’t have to get into all that if you don’t want to,” John Barber said. “I know it’s all still so raw for you.”

  “No, thank you for that, John. But I’d like to,” Kit said. “You guys should know how Owen saved me. When the shooting began, I saw my partner get killed, and I went into shock. I was completely useless. But Owen wasn’t. He immediately hid us both behind cover and then he came up with a plan. He figured out where the shots were coming from by using the sheriff’s cell phone. Then he fired at the suspect to give me a chance to run.

  “Your brother was a...a hero. Truly, a hero. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here right now. I just wanted to tell you. I wanted you—I needed you—to know how terrific he was. He died trying to save me five minutes after we met.”

  They sat in the room for a long silent beat. John Barber stared at the unlit fireplace.

  “Owen was...” he finally said as he shucked away a tear with his thumb. “He wouldn’t let down a friend no matter what. Wasn’t in him. He must have considered you a friend, Kit.”

  Kit suddenly stood, wiping at her own eyes.

  “Anyway, I’ve taken up enough of your time. It was nice to meet everyone. Thanks for seeing me.”

  “Not so fast,” Lynn said, standing up as she offered Kit an iced tea.

  “But,” Kit said.

  “But nothing,” Lynn said. “Tea.”

  Kit finally took it. She smiled and sat down.

  “Good,” Lynn said, smiling. “Much better.”

  “As you can see, my wife here likes everyone to be comfortable,” John Barber said, laughing. “She insists on it.”

  “I can attest to that,” Gannon said. “I recommend you just go along with it, Kit. Resistance is futile.”

  “Exactly,” Lynn said, smiling. “I already started lunch. We actually run a resort here, you know.”

  “Oh, yes,” Kit said. “I saw your website. Hotel Juliet Bravo. Survival training, right? You’ve got great ratings on Yelp.”

  “That’s right,” Lynn said. “Yelp doesn’t lie. At least about us. So it’s no trouble at all to put you up in one of the bungalows. Coming all this way, you’ll have to stay at least for the night.”

  “Well,” Kit said as she took out her phone and looked at it. “I do have a flight tomorrow. I was going to stay at the airport hotel.”

  “Plans just changed,” Lynn said, heading back for the kitchen. “I’ll go get my kids to help me fix up the presidential bungalow. We’re not the Plaza, but if we can’t beat an airport hotel, we need to put out the for-sale sign.”

  32

  When Lynn Barber left, they sat in silence for another long moment.

  “So the papers say you were there in Wyoming investigating a serial killer. This NATPARK killer?” Gannon said.

  “Yes,” Kit said, nodding. “Our unit was operating on the assumption that he was going to kill again, so we had arranged air transport to be on standby to see the fresh crime scene of any new female victim found in a national park. We got the call around midnight and took off a little before two from DC on a Lear business jet we borrowed from the DEA. Owen was there still guarding the victim’s body when we arrived early the next morning.”

  “What do you think happened?” Gannon said. “Is it like the papers say? Do you think you caught this NATPARK killer as he was dropping the victim’s body? Hemmed him in and he shot his way out?”

  Kit Hagen was lifting her iced tea as he said this. Then she stopped and put it back down.

  “No. I actually...can I talk confidentially?”

  “Of course,” Barber said.

  “I don’t think we caught him,” she said. “I think he was waiting for us.”

  “So it was an ambush?” Barber said.

  “Yes. I think it was.”

  “Why would he shoot you? He wanted what? More publicity?” Gannon said.

  Kit Hagen opened her mouth as if she were about to say something. Then she closed it.

  “Perhaps,” she said with a shrug. “It’s hard to say.”

  “So, are you still on the case?” Barber said. “What’s the story? Has there been any progress?”

  “Well, I can’t really say. I’m on leave at the moment because of my injury, but I’m going to get back on it soon as I can.”

  “Who is on the case, then?” Barber said.

  Kit looked at him.

  “To tell you the truth, I don’t know,” she said.

  “Don’t know?” Barber said, sitting up. “But I saw on the news that Dawn Warner woman said the Bureau is all over it. Top priority.”

  Kit shook her head.

  “Don’t believe everything you see on TV,” she said. “My boss assured me that he would tell me who he assigned it to. I keep emailing him, but he hasn’t gotten back. There seems to be some kind of stall.”

  “They’re not even looking into who killed your partner?” Gannon said. “The FBI isn’t trying to find someone who killed one of their own?”

  “I’ve been trying to figure it out, believe me,” Kit said, lifting her iced tea again and looking at it. “I’ve seen some ridiculous moves before by my bosses over the years, but sitting on this takes the cake.”

  She finally sipped her iced tea.

  “But like I said, I’m getting back on it as soon as I get back to work.”

  “When will that be?” Barber said.

  “In three and a half weeks,” she said.

  “You have to be kidding,” Barber said angrily, suddenly standing, his fists clenched.

  “John,” Kit said, watching him begin to pace. “I know you’re upset, but can I be straight with you? Again, this is completely confidential, but I’m not out West here just for a social visit.”

  “No?” Gannon said.

  Kit shook her head.

  “Even saying this could get me into a heap of trouble, but here’s the story. They told me to take a breather on the case, but I’m not. I’m the only person who’s been on this case from the beginning. I don’t care what kind of political shenanigans they want to pull, I’m not letting the trail go cold. Not now. No way am I sitting still for my partner getting murdered. Or your brother or Sheriff Kirkwood. That isn’t going to happen.

  “I’m on Owen’s case, John. Just not officially, okay? The Bureau doesn’t know. No one does. Except you now. So please don’t tell anyone.”

  Barber stopped his pacing and suddenly looked over at Gannon. Gannon looked back. Then Gannon nodded.

  “Kit,” Barber said, “now I think I know why my brother liked you. Can I show you something?”

  “Show me something?”

  “Yes,” Barber said, walking toward his office. “If you could come back here for a second, I want to show you something that belonged to my brother that I just got in the mail.”

  33

  “What is it?” Kit said as they stepped into Barber’s wood-paneled office.

  “You’ll see,” Barber said as he sat her down in one of the corner chairs.

  Barber queued the video on the phone again and handed it to her.

  “Wait,” she said as she sat looking. “This...this is the clearing on Grand Teton. This is where it happened. I don’t understand.”

  “This is my brother’s personal phone. I just received it with some other effects from his boss in the mail. It looks like he used his personal phone to film the crime scene when he first came into contact with the victim.”

  “It wasn’t turned in to evidence?”

  “No.”

  Gannon and Barber silently looked on as Kit watched the video. In the dim room, the screen lit her fine features with a bluish cast.

  “Prepare yourself,” Gannon said. “There’s something stomach-churning coming up.”

  “No, no, no!” she said after another
thirty seconds. “What the hell is this?”

  She thumbed at the Pause button. She sat wide-eyed, staring at a still of the victim’s face. After a moment, Gannon noticed her hand was trembling slightly.

  “What is it, Kit?” Gannon said. “What’s wrong?”

  Kit said nothing. She just sat there and stared.

  “What is it?” Barber said. “Are you okay?”

  Kit suddenly put down the phone on the leather ottoman.

  Then she stood and went straight for the door.

  “Where are you going?”

  “My car. I’ll be right back,” she called over her shoulder.

  “What in the hell was that about?” Barber said.

  It was a minute later when Kit came back with a laptop. She brought it over to the ottoman, laid it down, opened it beside Owen Barber’s phone and turned it on.

  Thirty seconds later, she clicked open a folder with a spreadsheet of photos and selected one that filled the screen.

  It was a crime scene photo of another naked woman laid out dead in a rocky wilderness. She was a tall, voluptuous white woman with her hands tied up with some sort of braided cord.

  Gannon blinked and then looked away as he glanced at her face. It was sliced to bloody ribbons.

  “Is that one of the other NATPARK victims?” Barber said.

  “No, don’t you see? It’s Grand Teton. This is the victim we went in to see,” Kit said.

  “But it can’t be,” Barber said. “That’s a white woman. The deceased on Owen’s video is obviously Asian.”

  “So there were two women killed?” Gannon said. “They found two bodies?”

  “No!” Kit said, wide-eyed as she pointed at the screen. “They found one body. This white woman here on my computer. She’s the only one they took down off the mountain. The only one in the official file. This Asian woman on Owen’s phone here is brand-new.”

  “So who is she?” Gannon said.

  Kit shook her head.

  “Got me. This is the first time I’ve laid eyes on her in my life.”