“Nevermind. Here comes our ride now,” Jack replied as he saw a vehicle streaming a trail of dust behind it, heading toward the airport from town. “That’s why I announced our arrival a few minutes ago when I did our fly over. I kind of figured there wouldn’t be much cell coverage out here.”
“I don’t think there’s much of anything in these parts,” Ashley shot back as the approaching vehicle came into view.
It was an SUV with Liberty County Sheriff’s Department written on its side. The vehicle pulled up to where they were standing; bathing them in the dust it had pulled along behind it.
“Oh, this is going to be just great for my asthma,” she said with a tone of disdain as she spit the dust from her mouth and patted the rescue inhaler she kept in her front pocket. “Heat. Dust. This is going to be a blast.”
A young deputy stepped out from behind the wheel. The short-haired youth looked to be in his early twenties, if that. He placed a flat billed patrolman’s hat on his head, adjusting it neatly before walking over and introducing himself.
“Hello, I’m Deputy Kyle Ward,” he said, squinting at the pair as he offered his hand to Jack. “I assume you’re Agent Looper?”
“One and the same, son,” Jack responded, giving the young deputy a firm handshake. “Federal Agent-in-Charge Jack Looper and this is my personal secretary and publicist, Agent Ashley Reynolds.”
Ashley gave Jack a snarl at his snide comment. Sometimes Jack joked around too much. She still wondered how he had ascended the chain of command so quickly given his immaturity and his chauvinistic attitude when it came to persons of the opposite sex.
“I’m glad to make your acquaintance, sir,” the young officer beamed as he kept shaking Jack’s hand, obviously a bit star struck. Ashley figured the youth was likely meeting his first FBI agent. But, that wasn’t a surprise given the remote location of New Hope.
“Mutual, I’m sure,” Jack said as he retrieved his hand from the eager deputy.
“Oh, and welcome to New Hope!” the deputy noted. “We don’t get a lot of visitors out in these parts.”
“You don’t say,” Jack retorted, feigning surprise.
“We’re a little off the beaten path,” the young man said, stating the obvious.
“Yeah. We noticed,” Ashley mumbled under her breath, recalling her harrowing flight, realizing she would also have to make a return flight at some point.
The deputy put their bags in the back hatch and motioned them into the SUV.
“Y’all may want to sit up front,” the deputy directed as he opened the door for them. “I arrested the town drunk last night and he had a little accident in the backseat. I’m not sure we got it completely cleaned up.”
“Great,” Ashley mouthed as she gave the backseat the stink eye.
The trio crammed into the front seat, with Ashley sharing the passenger bucket with Jack.
“Have you gained weight?” Jack quipped as he pulled the door shut, knowing Ashley harbored issues about her waistline. “I suppose they fed you pretty good up there, didn’t they?”
“Jerk,” Ashley responded, shooting him a look that could kill as she fired back.
“I see that hair line receded a little bit more while I was at the academy. They have stuff you can get for that, you know. Oh, and I lost ten pounds at the academy.”
Jack grinned as he rubbed his hand through his clean cut dark hair. He had missed these exchanges with Ash-ley while she was at the academy. She had grown on him in the short time they had worked together when she was a Ranger. He enjoyed nothing more than get-ting a rise out of his normally introspective and shy partner. He was determined, not only to make her a top-notch federal agent, but also to bring her out of her shell.
The deputy gave them a quizzical look as he over-heard their banter. It likely wasn’t what he was expecting from a pair of federal officers. But then Jack and Ashley weren’t your stereotypical flat foots.
“I’m supposed to take you over to the jail to meet with Sheriff Tubbs,” the officer said as he pulled out from the airfield.
“What do you say we go see the body first,” Jack interjected, his suggestion getting a look from Ashley.
“The body?” Ashley asked.
“Yeah,” Jack responded matter-of-factly. “You didn’t think I brought you out here looking for a runaway dog did you?”
“Well, I’m really supposed to …” the deputy began.
“I’m sure the sheriff won’t mind. We’ll meet him in a few minutes,” Jack interrupted. “I want to get on this quick. We’ll have time for introductions and niceties later. You know what they say about the first forty-eight hours. The clock is ticking, deputy. Tick tock, tick tock.”
The lawman drove them toward town, finally trading in the bumpy dirt path for a paved road. Five minutes later they were in front of Liberty County Hospital - a building only a little bigger than an average clinic.
“I’ll go get the doc,” the deputy volunteered as he directed them toward an exterior entrance to the basement. “That’s the entrance to the cooler, um, I mean morgue.”
Jack and Ashley stepped into the cold, dark room. Ashley shuttered as a chill raced down her back. Jack slapped on the lights, revealing a small room with a few tables and a small bank of metal drawers in the wall, obviously where the bodies were kept. Ashley was al-ready dreading what was to come. She had worked many murder cases in her career as a criminal investigator but she had never gotten used to viewing bodies. It wasn’t so much the viewing as it was … the smell. Something about the putrid aroma of death turned her stomach, especially when coupled with the heady hospital smell most bodies gave off when they are put in cold storage.
Ashley took some deep breaths in anticipation. She dug into the pocket of her jeans and popped a mint in her mouth, hoping it would mask the scent that she knew was coming. She didn’t want to throw up on her first case as a federal agent, especially not in front of Jack. He would never let her hear the end of it. She would be the talk of the entire Bureau before she even got her own office.
“Ah, Agent Looper,” the doctor, clad in scrubs said, extending his hand, greeting Jack and then Ashley. As expected, his hand was cold and clammy.
“I’m Doctor Jim Vance,” he said. “I’m the closest thing we’ve got to a coroner here in New Hope. You’re here to view the body, I assume?”
Jack nodded his head, not bothering to answer since they were standing in the bowels of the hospital basement where bodies were kept.
“It was so unfortunate,” the doctor said as he walked over to the wall of metal drawers. “It’s so tragic when anyone so young dies.”
The doctor gave the drawer a pull to reveal a black body bag. He grabbed the zipper and pulled it, opening the bag wide. The dreaded scent invaded Ashley’s nostrils even before she had time to be struck by the state of the young woman’s body. Ashley felt herself gag from the smell.
“You gonna be alright there, partner?” Jack asked, overhearing Ashley’s involuntary gag.
“Oh yeah, this isn’t my first rodeo,” she choked out, the smell of the mint in her mouth now blending with scent of decay to produce a horrific cocktail that made her stomach turn.
In front of them was the partially decayed body of a young woman. It was obvious, at first glance, that something had been nibbling on the woman’s carcass before it was found. While her features were still somewhat recognizable, it was apparent that parts were missing.
“Before you we have the remains of a 27-year-old white female identified as Carol Parker,” the doctor be-gan in a monotone voice. “Her remains were found about five miles north of town in an unpopulated area roughly about midway between New Hope and Paradise Ranch. She was on their side of the hill.”
“Their side?” Jack glanced at the doctor.
“There’s a ridge that runs between New Hope and Paradise Ranch,” the doctor explained. “For the most part, the people of New Hope stay on our side and they stay on theirs. She was on their sid
e of the hill.”
“But outside the compound?” Jack asked.
“Yes,” the doctor confirmed. “Several miles outside their fence, actually.”
Jack moved in closer and pulled back the body bag, looking at the marks on the woman’s body.
“I’m assuming these marks were left by …” Jack began.
“Animals, Agent Looper,” the doctor finished. “I figure she had been there a day or two before she was found. That gave wildlife a chance to do their damage. Coyotes and such are common in these parts.”
“Who found her?” Ashley spoke up, her throat still tight, her words nearly choking her.
“Some folks out four-wheeling came upon her re-mains,” the doctor answered. “It was quite fortunate since she could have easily laid out there and never been found since it’s a rarely traveled area. It wouldn’t have taken but a week or so for her bones to be picked clean.”
Ashley noticed Jack was now bending down within inches of the woman’s face, pushing back what remained of her dark hair, looking for wounds.
“You won’t find anything,” the doctor said knowingly as Jack shifted his focus, moving the woman’s head around, looking at her neck. “Except from what the animals and elements did, you won’t find a mark on her, aside from some bruises on her hands.”
“Defense wounds?” Jack asked.
“Actually, they are on the fatty part of her hands,” the doctor said. “They almost look like offensive wounds, like she was hitting something.”
Still conducting his own research, Jack pried open the woman’s eye lids. There was nothing inside. The hideous sight combined with the sickening scent caused Ashley to dry heave.
“You don’t have to stay here,” Jack offered without taking his eyes off the victim.
“No,” Ashley forced out. “I’m fine.”
She wasn’t fine but she refused to step away from the table. It was part of the job. She stubbornly remained, despite her body screaming for her to run.
“I’m telling you, everything you see was caused by her exposure after death,” the doctor said, obviously a bit irritated Jack wasn’t taking his expert opinion on face value.
“Okay, then how did she die?” Jack asked as he looked up at the doctor. “There’s no wounds to the neck, no bullet or stab wounds, no blunt trauma I can find.”
“How would you suspect someone would die out in the middle of what’s little more than a desert?” the doc-tor asked facetiously. “She drowned.”
Had the doctor not made his statement with a straight face, they would have thought he was kidding about the cause of death. His tone told them he was serious.
“Okay, humor me,” Jack shot back. “I’m assuming there wasn’t a swimming pool or something out where they found her.”
“How it happened, I haven’t a clue,” the doctor said. “What I do know is that she drowned. There was water in her lungs, enough that they were still full after at least a day of exposure to the sun.”
The surprise announcement prompted Ashley to momentarily forget about her discomfort. How did the woman drown in the middle of the wilderness with no water around for miles?
“Well, I’m pretty sure she didn’t drown and walk out there afterwards,” Jack said as he gave the body one last look. “So, I’m assuming suicide and natural causes aren’t going to go on the death certificate.”
“No,” the doctor agreed. “I’ll have to attribute her mode of death as …”
“Murder,” came a voice from behind them. “She was murdered.”
TWO TICKETS TO PARADISE
Liberty County Sheriff Franklin Tubbs stepped into the light, the stocky, red-faced lawman making himself known with a cough from the shadows. He had silently entered the room as the trio was poring over the body of the late Miss Parker and had been listening quietly as the doctor briefed the federal agents. He had been in-formed of the findings the day before when the victim was first brought for autopsy.
“There’s no doubt it’s a homicide,” Tubbs declared as he walked over and introduced himself, giving Jack a firm handshake. “A woman doesn’t just end up in the middle of the desert with her lungs full of water. She was drowned and dumped there.”
Jack nodded and was about to add his thoughts about the situation but was cut off by the sheriff.
“But, the biggest question in all of this is why the FBI would have interest in a homicide out in the middle of Arizona,” Tubbs wondered, giving the agents a long look. “I wouldn’t think New Hope would even be on an FBI map let alone warrant two agents being sent out here. I mean, I appreciate the gesture but I’ve been sheriff here a long time. I think I could solve this one myself, given time.”
“I think we both know why we’re here,” Jack said, returning the glare the sheriff was giving him.
The sheriff ended his stare down with Jack and nodded his head.
“That damn cult, I suppose,” Tubbs said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Nothing good comes out of that mess out there. Worst thing that ever happened to New Hope. We were doing fine until those nuts moved into our county.”
Ashley put two and two together as she listened to Jack talking with the sheriff. The “cult” as the sheriff called it, must be the place they’d flown over earlier – Paradise Ranch.
“I guess you know that it’s a sensitive situation,” Jack continued. “She was one of the residents out there and now she turns up dead, murdered actually. That means everything will be brewing up again, just like it did a few years ago. Only this time there’s something concrete. We have a dead woman on our hands. Folks are going to start asking questions.”
Sheriff Tubbs sighed as he leaned against a table and took out a cigarette, lighting it despite the look of dis-approval from the doctor.
“That may be so but I don’t think having a bunch of suit-wearing, federal types coming in here is going to help the situation, do you Agent Looper?” Tubbs said as he took a puff on his cigarette. “All bringing in a bunch of outsiders will do is escalate things.”
“That’s why we’re here,” Jack responded. “To make sure things don’t get out of hand. It’s not like they’ve sent in the National Guard. It’s just me and Agent Reynolds.”
“It’s something we are more than capable of handling ourselves, Agent,” Tubbs retorted in an irritated voice. “We may be a small town but we’ve had our share of killings and serious crimes. It isn’t like this is our first homicide and I’m proud to report there aren’t any unsolved murders under my watch.”
“How many from Paradise Ranch?” Jack shot back, his question leaving the sheriff silently drawing off his cigarette. “That’s what I thought.”
“We don’t even know the people out there had any-thing to do with it,” Tubbs barked. “Who knows what the girl might have gotten herself into? We have drug runners, drifters and all kinds of nardowells passing through here.”
“As soon as the media gets wind of this they’re going to be all over it,” Jack said with a flourish of his hands. “I can see the headlines now ‘Young woman murdered while trying to escape cultist camp.’ Then the comparisons to David Koresh and the Branch Davidians all over again, just like a few years ago. It’s going to get messy unless it gets resolved soon.”
Jack’s reference finally clued Ashley in to what was going on. She vaguely remembered seeing the television coverage a few years ago about a controversial commune opening in southern Arizona. It was Paradise Ranch. Several families had convinced state authorities to investigate the commune, fearing their loved ones were being brainwashed into joining the cult, donating all their money and then perhaps being held against their will. The situation was brought to the forefront given the tragedy in Waco years before involving a charismatic religious leader.
“We don’t want another Waco,” the sheriff said gruffly, as if reading Ashley’s mind. “As I recall, that involved the federal government. No offense, but it seems that things take a turn for the worse when you federal folks get inv
olved.”
“No offense taken, Sheriff,” Jack said. “But, whether you want us or not, we’re involved and we intend to stay until this case is resolved.”
Tubbs stood silently for a few moments, mulling Jack’s announcement as he continued puffing his cigarette.
“Now, I think, sheriff, that this thing might go a lot smoother if we’d work together,” Jack drawled. “We want the same thing – to solve a murder and make sure this situation doesn’t turn into a headline on CNN.”
“Agreed,” Tubbs grunted.
“So, let’s start with the basics,” Jack said. “Do you have any suspects, any ideas who would want her dead?”
The sheriff shook his head. “We just don’t know much about what goes on out there. As I guess you know, it’s a closed society. They pretty much live independently of the rest of the world. They even send con-tractors to town to get supplies. Not a one of them has set foot off that compound and come over the hill as far as I’ve seen.”
“Have you gone to talk to them out there?” Jack asked. His question got a chuckle from the sheriff.
“If you mean have I went out to talk to Elijah Quinn, the answer is no,” Tubbs said. “He doesn’t cotton much to law enforcement, not even myself, and we’ve lived in the same county for several years. I thought I’d get something to go on before I went out there to pay him a call. Somehow, I don’t think he’ll just invite me in for dinner.”
“In that case, I suppose that’ll be our first stop,” Jack declared, his revelation getting a startled look from both the sheriff and doctor. “She obviously left from there, so that means the trail begins at Paradise Ranch.”
“Whoa there, Agent,” Tubbs said, wagging his finger at Jack. “Now, if they don’t welcome their own county sheriff out there, what makes you think they’re going to let a couple of federal agents in? I don’t think I need to remind you that they fully believe in their Second Amendment rights out there. They are well armed, probably waiting for the apocalypse or something crazy like that.”
Paradise Ranch (Jack and Ashley detective series Book 2) Page 2