Spin Out

by James Buchanan

  The guy pulling chain has to yank those planks into piles. A lot of it gets done by machines and sorting grids, but still it’s a job where you come home covered in grit and sneezing sawdust. And it’s the job where every green hire starts. I’d pulled chain for exactly one month after I got back from my mission before announcing I was gonna go on and try and get in at Dixie State College…’cause I sure couldn’t imagine doing that job for any length of time.

  Back when my daddy started at the mill, the place was overrun by an army of men doing dirty, dangerous jobs. Now days, they operated pretty much like any other factory. A warren of machines and robots controlled by computer. Didn’t mean the place still wasn’t dirty and dangerous. Sawdust seeped into the seams of your clothes. Huge loaders shuffled logs and lumber loads that outweighed my truck by three or four times around the yard. Saws ripped through wood, shooting along the line at breakneck speed. Wasn’t a place you wanted your attention to wander.

  We came around to the end of the line. Dennis reached over and tapped my shoulder before pointing out a boy so lanky his joints seemed laced together with leather straps. “That’s Cooper.” He shouted right up near my ear so’s I could hear him.

  I shouted back, “Thanks.”

  “No problem.” Dennis grinned and saluted me as he started to back off. “Make sure you say hi to your folks for me.”

  “Will do.” Wasn’t right sure he heard me since he’d moved about three feet away by then. I turned my attention back to Cooper. Like all the men in the mill, Cooper wore safety gear and steel toed boots. An orange and yellow safety vest covered his heavy flannel shirt. Both the shirt and his jeans were caked in a layer of dust and wood shavings. I waited for a lull in the product coming off the line before I stepped up and tapped him on the shoulder. “Cooper Thomas?”

  “Yeah?” He stepped back just a bit, enough so he could keep me in one side of his vision and the wood coming down the pike in the other.

  “I’m Deputy Peterson.” Hated having a conversation by yelling at the top of my lungs. “Need to talk to you.”

  “You here about Lane?” Cooper hollered back. “Heard the news. Sucks man.”

  I jerked my thumb over my shoulder sorta in the direction of the door. “Let’s step outside where we don’t have to yell.”

  “Why?”

  “‘Cause I don’t want to yell.” I repeated myself and added a glare to let him know I weren’t playing around.

  Cooper’s face went kinda sour, like something didn’t taste right to him. Then he barked out, “Whatever,” and held up his hand with his fingers spread wide. The supervisor on the other side of the line glared at Cooper, scowled at me and then gave a thumbs up. My guess he didn’t want Cooper off the chain, but the man weren’t about to mess with me and my business.

  We walked out of the mill proper and towards where trucks dumped the loads of raw logs. I could still hear the high pitch scream of the saws and planers back in the building. At least the chugging diesel of a two ton Cat with big ol’ claw arms didn’t jar as much. Weren’t exactly quiet, but it was as good as I was going to get ‘round there so I pulled off the earmuffs and settled them around my neck. Heck, my daddy claimed he could still hear that mill inside his ears when he tried to sleep.

  Cooper pulled off his own ear protection. “So what do you want to talk to me about?”

  “I need to talk to you about the day Lane disappeared.” I hooked my thumb back behind my piece. “Just informal like. Thanks for taking time outta your workday to help me out.”

  “Yeah, whatever.” He shrugged. “Look, I already told the other officer all about it.”

  “What do you remember about that day?” I prodded.

  His tone verging on annoyed, Cooper repeated, “I already told you guys everything.”

  Trying not to rise to his mood, I kept my voice even, “Tell me again.”

  He didn’t answer for a bit. “Why?”

  “‘Cause I’m going back over everything.” I shifted a bit, trying to remind him, just a little, how much bigger I was and that maybe he ought to think about cooperating. “You know, since Lane’s dead.”

  “So, I told you guys everything I know.”

  The boy rode my nerves enough already that I wanted to pick up a piece of wood off the lot and smack him upside the head with it. I didn’t. Instead, I stepped up into his personal space. “You got a problem with me asking?”

  Almost instinctively, Cooper gave ground. “I got a problem with you.” He rolled his shoulders and tried to play it all off like he might be just sizing me up or something.

  “The badge,” I stepped in again, “or the guy wearing it.”

  “I don’t like you, Deputy.” This time Cooper managed not to back away.

  I grinned. It weren’t one of my nice ones. “Well at least you know my title.” Figured it might be time to remind him just what my badge and title meant. “Now, we can do this nice and easy where you talk to me for a bit here. Or, if you want, I can blow your whole day’s pay by making you come down to the station and give me a statement. Sure your supervisor would love that…but probably expects it since you seem to have a bit of reputation already.” I shrugged like it didn’t matter none to me. “Completely your choice. I’m good either way.”

  Cooper crossed his arms over his chest and stared at me, hard. I’d played the standoff game more times with a heck of a lot more at stake than whether this little pissant would answer my questions. See, now I knew that Cooper could walk away at any time. He weren’t under arrest and so the law said he didn’t have to talk to me. Heck, even if I placed him in custody, the law said he didn’t have to talk to me. But most folks, even if they know that, also know that if they walk away, refuse to talk, it makes them look bad. But I’d bet my left nut, that boy didn’t have a clue he could tell me to pound sand. With all Cooper’s bravado, he still stood there, staring, and not walking away. So I just stood there, stared back, grinning ‘cause I knew I had him.

  Finally, Cooper looked away and mumbled. “Get it over with, I don’t want to be out here with you no more than I have to.”

  “Good thing we cleared that up.” Given everything, including my run in with Trey the other day, I figured I’d shoot from the hip on where some of Cooper’s attitude came from. “I guess the feeling’s mutual, since I don’t much like you neither right about now. And that’s something since we’ve known each other all of about three minutes. So, let me ask it again, real simple, tell me what happened the day you last saw Lane.”

  Jaw set hard and body all tense, Cooper studied the steel gray sky instead of looking at me. “We went up to the mountains to collect some wood. Then we grabbed the dirt bikes, figured we wouldn’t get much chance to use ‘em again before spring. Muddy as all hell, but you know. Came home and Lane and Chris took off together.”

  Well, that equaled the same bare bones story as I’d read in the file and that I’d heard from Trey. I decided to throw what Trey’d told me, but Lane’s sister didn’t seem to think much of…you know, to see where Cooper’d come down on that theory. “Heard Lane was pretty torn up over his folks break up.”

  “Yeah, sort of.” He shrugged like it weren’t much of nothing. “Wanted to get the hell out and was pissed that his dad was moving to Salt Lake without him. But I was, like, ‘dude, in less than a week you’ll be in Provo and then, France.’” Cooper shoved his hands in his back pockets and kicked at the ground. “Who needs Salt Lake, you know.”

  For all his nasty attitude about me, that statement rang true…mostly because it meshed with some of the things I’d heard outta Trey and Trish. I poked a little more, “So he was excited about that?”

  “Big time.” Cooper didn’t hesitate with his answer. “‘Cause it’s not like he didn’t have time to get used to his parents’ marriage hitting the skids. That train wreck started first semester of our junior year.” He shrugged again. “His mission gave Lane a way out, you know?”

  “Did he seem down otherw
ise?”

  A quick shake of his head reinforced the, “No,” Cooper offered me.

  “Notice anything out of character for him?” I knew I was going ‘round with the same questions for most everybody, but not everybody sees the same things. So, it was always worth it to ask.

  Cooper seemed to think a moment before asking, “Like what?”

  “Was he, I don’t know,” I searched a bit for the words, “giving things away or anything?”

  Again Cooper mulled my question over. “He gave me his knock off MP4 player. Said he wouldn’t need it for the next two years.” That answer was why I asked the same things over and over. “Floored me some, ‘cause he saved up all the money he got bagging groceries after school and last summer to buy ‘em…one for him and one for his sis, Trish, on their birthday. But, you know, like he said, they’d probably be up to MP6s by the time he got back.”

  “Okay.” Time to see what else Cooper might have for me. “What about Chris?”

  “What about him?” Cooper grumbled.

  “How was he acting that day?”

  “Like a jerk.” Cooper’s sour face screwed up a notch more. “But I kinda let it slide.”

  “You did?” Hard for me to see Cooper letting anything slide.

  “Yeah, I guess, you know, ‘cause his dad was an asshole.” For the first time Cooper wore an expression other than a mean spirited scowl. “I… he and I were horsing around a bit and I like grabbed him.” Weren’t much more favorable to the boy’s features, but the set of his lips and tension in Cooper’s face carried a hint more of sympathy. “You’d have thought I shot him, he dropped so fast.” Like he was trying to sort out his thoughts, Cooper toed around in the slush with his boots for a bit. “Turns out like two days before his dad nailed him with a two-by-four right across his ribs. Cracked ‘em. Man has a mean streak a mile wide.”

  The Harris family supposedly had good standing in the Church. Wasn’t something I’d ever asked or been told…but you grow up LDS, seems you know from birth who’s got the little gold stars by their names. Just proved again that ‘cause someone said they followed the scripture, didn’t mean they actually took it to heart. When all was said and done and I’d served my time on this earth…well, let’s just say, I think I got a better chance of hitting the higher levels of Heaven than Chris’ dad.

  So far everyone I’d talked to, talked about how Chris got roughed up. Had to wonder if it was one of those secrets that weren’t no secret at all. “All Chris’ friends know about that?”

  “His dad?” Cooper nodded. “Pretty much. They may not have known how bad, but we all kinda avoided him.” Talking about what Chris went through loosened Cooper up a bit. Made me wonder, given how much the boy didn’t like me, just how awful Chris’ dad had been. “Mr. Harris, once, when I was like thirteen, fourteen maybe, backhanded me ‘cause he said I had a smart mouth.” I guess that told me; folks’ll beat their own kids in private and never lay a hand on someone else’s child. The man must’ve been a terror on his own family if he went after their friends as well. “My mom tore over there and told him if he ever laid another hand on me she’d blow his balls off with a shotgun.”

  Now that Cooper weren’t so guarded, I steered us back to where I’d started this little interview. “So how’d you all end that day?”

  Cooper blew out a hard breath before answering. “We were all pretty muddy and tired. Went back to my folks’ place and then Chris was going to give Lane a ride home, you know, ‘cause they live real close. Although, I don’t know, I mean, they went off together.”

  Wasn’t sure what he didn’t know, but I didn’t want to muck up what he might tell me with my throwing a guess in. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

  “Chris didn’t have a car.” Cooper almost shrugged again, but stopped like he thought better of it. “His older sister Julie, she let him use hers that day. I mean, you know, Chris spent more time at her and her husband’s place, crashing on the couch or whatever, instead of going home. And Julie lived outside of town.”

  “That sit well with the family?”

  “Yeah, they were all cool with it.” Cooper stopped and looked at his feet then at me. “Not his dad…Mr. Harris wasn’t cool with anything.” Shaking his head, like he really couldn’t believe it all, Cooper explained, “Julie, you know her dad didn’t hit the girls, but she saw it, from what I heard. And her husband was okay with Chris hanging there because he worked nights so there was somebody at the house with her and he knew Chris needed to get out.” More relaxed then when we’d first started our conversation, Cooper stuck his hands in his pockets and looked off across the lot again. “They were at her in-laws in Boulder for Thanksgiving, so she said he could use her car so long as he fed the dogs and cats and all.”

  Figured it was time to see whether Cooper would ‘fess up to the same things Trey told me. “Know what he and Lane were headed off to do?”

  He shook his head. “Far as I know they were going home.”

  “That it?” I prodded. “Think hard.”

  “That’s what Chris told me.” Cooper kinda narrowed his eyes and tensed up a bit. The way he did it read more as confusion than hiding things. “But then again, right when we got back to my place I started cutting the logs down and chopping the kindling…my daddy told me to have that done before they got back. And it was nowhere near done.”

  I didn’t see any tells indicating that he weren’t being truthful with me, but there weren’t no harm in staying suspicious. “So you didn’t talk with them about maybe, you know, scoring something.”

  “No.” He spit it out like the word tasted bad.

  I prodded again, “Never?”

  Cooper went back to being real tense…like I was making him walk over ground he didn’t want to cover. I let him stew for a bit, to see which way he’d jump. Finally, Cooper looked down at his boots and mumbled, “Not then.”

  “Ever?”

  Cooper kinda tilted his face up to look at me sideways. “Why?” The question reeked of suspicion.

  Crossing my arms over my chest, puffing it out a bit, I hit him with, “‘Cause I’m looking at things on why Lane might have ended up on that mountain and I heard tell that you boys liked to smoke some.”

  Like he thought his bosses might have snuck up on us, Cooper took a long hard look around the lumber yard. Then, voice dropped kinda low he hissed, “Yeah, okay.” Again he looked to see who might be in earshot. “But if that’s where he was headed that afternoon, he didn’t tell me.”

  “What about Chris?”

  “No.” Cooper jerked almost like I’d slapped him. “Not Chris. Chris was so saintly he lost it if we started cussing.” His derisive snort drove that thought home. “Like he had to be the best of the best, you know.” Another small shake of his head told me he thought I might just be crazy for asking. “If Chris thought Lane was using his ride to score dope, he’d have kicked Lane out on the side of the road. I don’t know if it was because he thought his dad might catch him and, you know, kill him or if he had a stick that far up his butt, but…no, Chris wouldn’t.”

  “So what do you think happened?”

  “I think Lane screwed up somehow, but I don’t know how.” He huffed and scratched at the edge of his collar. “Chris, really with Chris, I don’t think one had to do with the other. I think Chris, after that last beating, he finally figured out he didn’t have to stay there and take it no more.” Scuffing his toe in the mud, Cooper took a moment like he needed to put his thoughts in order. When he started talking again, the words were a little rushed and his tone said he might actually be sorry for something. “You know, I told him as much. When I saw that last bruise, I’m like, ‘dude, you’re eighteen, they can’t make you stay with that asshole no more. Go, get a job somewhere, it can’t be worse than home.’ I think he finally figured that one out.” With a deep sigh that made me almost think he was sad to see Chris go, Cooper added, “I mean, he had a whole long weekend to think it over and decided it
was just time to walk away. For some reason, he didn’t see fit to tell us.”

  Although that rang pretty true, I asked what I needed to ask, “You don’t think Chris would have done something to Lane?”

  “Not hardly.” Cooper rolled his eyes. “Chris wasn’t that type. He’s the kinda guy who fades back from the action…his daddy beat that into him, you know.” That I could see…you kick a dog enough and it learns to lie down the moment it hears you coming. “Then again, you never know. My bet is that Lane hooked up with someone kinda bad. I mean, most of us smoked some, he had a habit. So, you know, I’d look there.”

  “Okay. Look, I may need to talk to you again, so you don’t be going nowhere.”

  Cooper’s gaze sidled over towards the mill and his whole body slumped. “I ain’t going nowhere.”

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  Chapter 12

  Even with my head all wrapped up in the investigation, I had bigger fish to fry the next couple of days. My hearing had been scheduled for first thing in the morning at the Peace Officer Standards and Training Council’s headquarters…the main police academy for Utah. That meant I had to go on into Sandy just outside of Salt Lake for it. Sheriff Simple said he’d come on down with me and be there through the process. POST rules said I could have my superior officer present at all stages.

  Instead of driving down in the morning, having to leave at four in the A of M to get to my hearing by half past eight, the three of us headed up I-15 after my shift ended. After three and a half hours of a real tense ride, where none of us seemed to be able to keep even a half-hearted conversation going, Kabe and I’d dropped Sheriff Simple at his cousin’s place in the suburb of West Jordan. Then we ate a not so elegant dinner at this dive where I could hardly eat nothing. Finally, Kabe and I ended up in a dingy little hotel room with barely enough room to walk around the bed. We were slightly north of Sandy in a place called Midvale…all of it part of the greater Salt Lake City.