by Dale Mayer
Her phone rang, and she glanced at the number before answering it.
“This is Jace. We met at Levi’s compound today.”
She smiled. “Yes. Do you have any news?” She continued on, not giving him the chance to answer. “I wanted to call when I got home, but I figured it was too soon.”
“No, we don’t have anything new. But we need more information from you.”
“From me?”
“Yes. We need the names of the beneficiaries listed on the policies.”
She groaned. “I don’t have that information with me, but I can log on to the office server and get it.” She opened her laptop and turned it on. “Give me a few minutes. I’m booting it up now.”
“I can give you that much,” he said with laughter in his voice. “Did you just get home?”
She nodded and realized he couldn’t see her. “Yes. I stayed late at the office.”
“I guess your job is always busy.”
“Really busy. There doesn’t seem to be any shortage of deaths and disasters in the world.”
“You’re preaching to the choir. We deal with all that every day.”
“Will someone talk to the TxSAR members?”
“I’m leaving early tomorrow,” he said. “That’s the reason I want this information. I’ll visit each site where the men died. I’ll be in Austin for several days.”
“You’re not coming alone, right?” she asked sharply.
A few moments of silence passed by before he answered. “Are you worried about me?” There was more than passing curiosity in his tone.
She groaned. “I seem to be edgy right now. Maybe because four men in my past have died. And I realize you probably know how to take care of yourself, but I wouldn’t say any of these men were a slouch in that department either.”
“Tell me about them.”
“Ronnie and Howard were very active volunteers. Always out helping people during natural disasters. Exactly where they’d excel. They had a multitude of survival skills. What they probably didn’t have was a whole lot of martial arts skills. They lived for helping others. TxSAR was a perfect outlet for them.” She reached up and rubbed her temple. “I don’t know what their full TxSAR training might have entailed.”
“I will find that out,” Jace said. “Were they also fishermen? Would they have known this area by the river?”
She gave him the little bit of information she knew. “Ronnie was a local guy, knew those rivers. Definitely family-oriented. He wanted to get married right out of high school. That was his wish, not mine, but I was a lovestruck teenager, and this was my forever love,” she said in a whimsical note. “As it lasted all of a year, we know that didn’t work out so well.”
“Was he ever abusive? Did he make enemies easily? Anyone he hated?”
“Back then he was the most popular kid on the block. He was good at sports and the teacher’s pet. If ever somebody was most likely to succeed, it was him. At the same time, because of that, he might’ve made enemies. But I don’t know of any. Even now, as I realize he’s dead, my heart is filled with sorrow. He was a good man and will be missed.”
“Did he marry again?”
“Yes. He was married, I believe. But I don’t know anything about it. I don’t know if he has any children or what his relationship might’ve been with his cousins. I suppose that’s important too.”
“Yes, it is. When you knew him, was there any fighting within the family?”
“Not that I know of, but can you honestly say you’ve met any family with no disputes, pitting one against the other?” she asked.
*
At the crack of dawn the next morning, Jace sat at the kitchen table, hugging his cup of coffee, a notepad in front of him. He’d been working in the office, but it was noisy up there, so he’d come downstairs to make some calls.
Logan walked in and sat beside him. “Did I hear you talking to that sexy voice again?”
Jace turned to look at him. “If you mean Emily, then, yes.”
“That one could make a killing on a sex phone line,” he joked.
Jace smiled. “I have to admit that I had the same thought when she was here yesterday.”
The two men exchanged looks of humor.
“We never did hear how she knew Gunner.”
“I just got off the phone with him,” Logan said. “He’s dealt with her for the last four years, since she began at America Plus Life Insurance. With my father’s many business interests, he deals with a lot of insurance issues.”
“That makes sense.”
Logan chuckled. “While it makes sense, he also did some digging. She’s single, even after the multitude of cousins she’s apparently been involved with, and he’s never heard anything even slightly bad against her. She is respected in the industry, and she’s always been pleasant to him.”
“That’s good to know.” Jace turned his coffee cup around in his hand several times, remembering Emily’s voice.
“So she’s single and available.”
That’s when Jace realized where Logan was going with this. Jace snorted. “What’s this? Matchmaking?”
“Hell, yes. In case you haven’t noticed, you’re the only single guy left here.”
At that he rolled his eyes. “But I wasn’t when I came. Tyson wasn’t hooked up then.”
“But Tyson is now, very firmly attached at the hip to his ladylove. And that leaves you off in the wind by yourself. Even Michael has Mercy.”
Jace shrugged. “Emily is a client. That’s hardly conducive to a relationship. Maybe after Austin, when this is all over, I could look her up.”
“Sure, that might work. You ready to go?” He pointed at Jace’s coffee. “We can take travel cups if you need more.”
Jace stood. “I’m good. I heard somebody else was coming with me but hadn’t heard who.”
“Decision made. I’d rather be on the job anyway.” Logan grinned. “I prefer to be busy.”
“What about Flynn? Isn’t he due back today?”
Logan shook his head. “He’s been delayed another day. The flights are all completely grounded in Boston.”
“It happens.”
“The weather’s been pretty crappy all summer. Flynn and Tyson weren’t expecting to be in Boston. But the plane was redirected, so that’s where they sit right now.”
Jace walked over, grabbed his jacket off the hook on the wall, and turned to Logan. “Are you driving, or am I?”
“Do you know the area?” Logan asked.
Jace shook his head. “No.”
“Then you’re driving. The best way to learn the area is to drive it.”
That surprised Jace. But he appreciated it. Too often he ended up slotted as an observer because he was the newcomer. Although not the only one soon. Levi had another group of men coming in. But, for the moment, Jace was still at the bottom of the totem pole. Besides, he would rather drive than be a passenger any day. He grabbed the keys. “Do we need any tools or equipment on this job?”
Logan stopped, considered the matter for a moment, and said, “I wouldn’t expect so. We’re looking at the location of the four deaths. Outside of laptops and maybe decent hiking boots for walking rough terrain we should be fine.”
“How long ago did the first two die?”
“Two weeks.”
They headed to the truck and hopped in. Jace started the engine and pulled out of the compound. “Was it only four days later after the drownings that the third and fourth men died?”
Logan took out his notebook, flipped through to check something, and said, “Yes. Looks like it. June 27 and July 1. The first two are similar, the third and fourth are not. All possibilities must be considered.”
Jace took a turn onto the main highway, heading north. “If you know a better way to get there, let me know.”
“I’ll give you directions when we get closer. Stay on this road for the next half hour.” Logan slouched in his seat, stretching out his legs. “Did anybody get mo
re details about TxSAR?”
“Ice is on it. This group is all volunteers who go through intensive training. So they should’ve been prepared for anything. Of course Mother Nature takes every opportunity to remind us who is boss. Between the floodwaters racing along, the storm was pounding them with rain from above, so they were slammed with water coming from all directions.” Jace stretched out his hands one at a time. They were stiff this morning.
“Right. If the water rose very quickly, and they had no place to go, vehicles would shift in a flood. So the volunteers could’ve been pinned, or they could’ve been knocked unconscious.”
“We did get the autopsies,” Jace said. “Both men had water in their lungs, their bodies banged up in a way that was consistent with being caught in the raging river. Once swept away in their vehicle, they would have struggled to get out of the vehicle and would have gotten banged up in the process. If they had taken a hit to the head somewhere along the line, they’d have gone under quickly.”
“Do we have the autopsies on the other two?” Logan asked.
“No, not yet,” Jace said. “Different hospital, different detectives involved. Getting those autopsy reports might take a little longer. According to Ice, Detective Dickerson is coordinating the cases in Austin, so we should meet him to get a copy of the reports ourselves.” He glanced at Logan. “I’d like to know as much as we can about any wives of the deceased too.”
“Of the four, only two seem to be married, Ronnie and Lyle. I don’t have Ronnie’s marital info yet, but I do on Lyle. I have her name and info from my phone call earlier. Sicily Ranger married Lyle Cowichan six months ago. They were apparently very happy. Her ex-boyfriend was a problem before she got married. He continued to be a problem after she was married. But nobody saw this coming.”
“No, but it’s not hard to imagine. We see this kind of behavior escalation a lot.”
“What did you find out about what the wife said to the authorities?” Logan asked.
“According to her statement to the police, they were having a barbecue in their backyard with a few friends. Her ex-boyfriend showed up. Her husband and ex got into an altercation.” He checked his notes. “The guests sent Richard packing, and Lyle went inside to calm down. When he didn’t return, Sicily went looking for him. Found no sign of him. The guests all joined in the search, and he was found on the street where he’d been run over. The police went in search of Richard but couldn’t locate him. Several hours later a call came in to the station that Richard was found dead in his vehicle across from where Lyle’s body was found.”
“I don’t suppose Detective Mannford is on this case, is he?”
“No, wrong city. But, if we need any extra information, I’m sure he won’t mind getting it for us.”
“If he can. The last two men were TxSAR members as well, correct?” Jace asked.
“Correct.”
“The first two look like accidents, could have been accidents. The second two look like a fight gone from bad to worse, definitely murder.”
They arrived at the river less than three hours later. “Do we know where they went in the river?”
“Almost one mile upriver from here. The TxSAR teams, along with several passersby, were trying to rescue victims trapped inside four vehicles that fell off the bridge into the water. Nobody knows exactly what happened, but, when they did a head count, the two men were missing.”
“We need to talk to everybody, look into the backgrounds of every person on the scene.”
“Which would have been hard to do then, given the panic.”
“Did anyone they were trying to rescue die?”
“No,” Logan said.
He and Jace walked to the riverbank. A temporary military-looking bridge had been erected in place of the original damaged one. Traffic was moving along, and most of the bridge debris had disappeared. The vehicles had been removed from the river too.
Jace watched the water flow. Although much calmer, some serious power remained in that river.
Logan said, “According to the police reports, the men went in around here, and their bodies were dragged out farther down.”
As they walked, they could see large boulders barely breaking through the top of the water. But, if they were covered by rushing water, nobody would know they were there. If the men hit one …
“When a rushing river rises and becomes a torrential flow, anybody in the flow of the current will bounce from rock to rock.” Jace shook his head. “It would be hard to save anyone, even themselves.”
While here, they took photos of the river’s geography.
“We need photos from the accident scene. Photos from or of the crew who went into the river. Or from bystanders. And the weather reports to get a better idea of how chaotic this area was at the time.”
“You can probably find all that on the internet,” Logan said drily. “Nobody ever seems to give a damn what they put up there.”
“It’s easy to see how this could’ve been murder and passed off as an accident.”
They walked back to their vehicle and got inside. As Jace pulled out, he saw an older woman sitting off to the side. He parked again and said, “I’ll be back in a minute.”
He walked over to where the woman sat on the opposite side of the road staring out. As he approached, she turned to him, and he could see the tears in her eyes. “Are you okay? Do you need assistance?” he asked gently.
“Nobody should ever see their child die,” she whispered.
He nodded, understanding who she must be. “Was one of the two men your son?”
She nodded. “One was my son. The other was my nephew.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
She pinched her lips together and nodded. “Are you with the police?”
He shook his head. “No, I work for a security company. We’re doing our own investigation into the accident.”
“Forget about the damn accident. They’ve needed to put money into that bridge forever. We’ve sent letters and had all kinds of protests, but nobody’s got funding for the broken bridges across the country. They’ve got it to spend on all kinds of war efforts and any number of other useless causes to further their own gains, but, when it comes to the infrastructure, the United States is falling apart.”
Having recently read an article on the subject, he didn’t add any comment, figuring it was better to stay neutral. When he was about to say something, she spoke again.
“I wish you’d investigate my son’s death.”
He squatted down beside her. “What do you think needs investigating?”
Her eyes shone brightly. “He was a fish. He was used to these rapids. He knew the high water. He knew the low water. I find it so hard to believe he drowned.” She shook her head. “It just doesn’t feel right.”
The pain of loss could affect anybody’s judgment. Everybody looked for answers and for someone to blame.
“His cousin was the same. Having been raised here, they were both water rats. Even if one of them accidentally drowned, no way both would’ve.”
“My understanding is one got into trouble, and the other went to help him.”
She sucked back a sob and then nodded, her gnarled fingers clenching together. “And that’s about the only scenario that would make sense. Because they would help each other, no matter the cost.”
“They were close?”
She wrapped her arms around herself. “They were close. They were wonderful people. The world is a much sadder place without them in it.”
Jace straightened. “Any idea how many men were here at the time?”
She shook her head. “No. I heard there were a lot. She stood slowly and started to walk up the hill.
“Take care of yourself,” he called up to her.
She shrugged her shoulders and said, “Why bother. He was my only child.”
She kept walking, leaving Jace to stand behind in silence. After all, what could he say?
Chapter 3
Having slept through her alarm, Emily woke late the next morning, shaking, tears rolling down her face. She’d had a rough night. In her dreams every person she knew or had ever known or could possibly ever meet was being systematically murdered. She knew a shrink would have a heyday with this nightmare. But it was hard to shake it loose. Even though she was late, she took a hot shower. She’d worked late last night, so she could take some extra time this morning if she needed it.
The shower warmed her up on the outside, but inside the chill was still there, and now she was really late. Damn. Plus she’d forgotten to put coffee on before her shower. She decided she’d hit a drive-through and pick up a cup on her way. They had a pot at work, but something about the office coffee never tasted right.
Dressed with her briefcase in hand, she opened the door and headed to her vehicle.
Not for the first time she wondered if it was time for a change of jobs. Her particular department investigated claims. And she was good at it and had a good success rate too. But she wasn’t sure if she would still have a job if the head office ever found out she had a history with three open files. Her supervisor was keeping it quiet for her. She hadn’t yet found a policy on the fourth man. Thank heavens.
She got into her secondhand Mercedes and drove out of the underground car park. On the road she took the first right, made a left, and then another right to the coffee shop. She pulled into the drive-through, ordered herself a cup of coffee and a muffin before pulling ahead to the second window to collect her purchases.
At the second window she recognized the vehicle directly in front of her. Or rather she recognized the men in the truck cab. It looked to be Jace and Logan. She gently raised a hand in greeting. Both men waved at her. They drove into the parking lot and waited for her. She hoped they had an update. Not that they’d had much time to get anywhere. She pulled up beside them, got out of her vehicle, and walked around.
They were both leaning against the front of their truck, holding their coffees. “Good morning,” Jace said in a deep gravelly voice.