Sooner Dead

by David L Thornburg

  “Devose, fake OSBI agent,” Daniel said through clenched teeth. “He had the journal and tried to sell it to Hale. Didn’t go so well.”

  There was commotion from the back of the room as three police officers brought Rudy Hale in. His cashmere coat was ripped and his leather shoes were caked in mud. He struggled against the handcuffs, and blood trickled from a cut above his left eye.

  “Where do you want him, Officer Ortega?” the officer from Franklin asked.

  Lianne said, “Good work, guys. Goodness, you weren’t unnecessarily rough with him, were you?”

  “Oh, no, ma’am.”

  Lianne approached Hale and patted him down. She reached into the inside pocket of his overcoat and pulled out the journal.

  Sherry Threefeathers entered the room. “There it is!”

  Lianne turned. “What are you doing in here?”

  “I heard you say on the radio it was secure.” She looked at Devose and gasped. “That’s the man who attacked me on the reservation.”

  “He’s the one who stole the journal from you, too,” Lianne added.

  Sherry held out her hands. “Can I see it?” Lianne handed it to her.

  One of the medics said to Daniel, “We’re going to get you on a stretcher and take you to the hospital.”

  “Not on your life. It’s just getting good. Help that guy,” Daniel said, pointing his thumb at Devose.

  “Not much we can do for him…”

  Lianne suggested, “Let’s move to the living room, where no one’s dead.”

  Chapter 35

  Daniel, Lianne, Sherry, and Rudy Hale with his police escort entered the living room. Lianne looked out the broken picture window and saw most of the crowd was well away from Stone Mansion. She looked at her watch. 12:15. It had only been 15 minutes since she heard the gunfire.

  The front doors opened and Frank and Bronson Blake came through. “Is everyone all right?” Frank asked.

  Lianne scowled at Bronson, who shrugged. “Dad wanted to come in.”

  The doors opened again and Murray Stone and Sonia came in. “What’s going on in here? What is the delay?” Her eyes fell on her husband. “Oh, Rudy, what have you done now?”

  Lianne noticed Sherry carefully turning the pages of the journal. “Everyone, quiet!” she said, and the noise died immediately. “Dr. Threefeathers, do you care to share with the group?”

  Lianne saw Sonia notice the journal. Her face drained to the color of the whitewash on the walls.

  With her historian’s eye, Sherry picked out the important parts of the narrative in the journal to read aloud. Even when she passed the parts she had read earlier, Christine’s neat handwriting and careful dating made the events easy to follow.

  Lianne noticed that as the story progressed, Sonia and Frank Blake seemed to grow more uncomfortable.

  Sherry turned a page.

  June 19, 1927. Sunday. The tension in the house has been unbearable since Johnny Crumpo left yesterday. Father has been out of sorts, constantly looking out the front window and never too far from the phone in his office. All of our Indian household help stayed away from the house, and the other staff has been ill-at-ease.

  My brother Lewis has swung from being arrogant - saying the Indians couldn’t touch him - to inconsolable, taking the blame for causing so much trouble. I believe his biggest regret was actually having to face the consequences of his careless behavior.

  It was unseasonably hot for June, and the heat was almost unbearable by 3 o’clock. Looking from the house into the City, there was very little movement.

  Around sundown the heat broke but the humidity remained. Lewis looked out the window and said, “They’re here.”

  Father, Mother, and I joined him. It looked like the entire population of Stone City was on our front lawn – not only the men, but women and children as well.

  Father muttered, “What do they hope to accomplish?”

  Johnny Crumpo and the elder Samuel Greengrass separated from the crowd and came up the front steps. My father opened the door.

  “You can’t go out there,” Mother said, more a plea than a command.

  “Don’t worry, my dear, everything is under control,” he said, but I noticed he looked at each of us in turn. I wonder if he thought it might be the last time he saw us. He went out to the porch to meet them as we watched from the open window.

  I caught Johnny’s eye. His look was a mixture of so many things. Nobility. Anger. Fear. Love? Regret?

  “What seems to be the problem?” we heard Father say.

  Samuel spoke. “Your son has disrespected one of our daughters. She is disgraced and broken from her people. Will your son take responsibility for her?”

  “Well, Greengrass, it takes two to dance, doesn’t it?” he said. I winced.

  “Maria is 15 years of age. I believe the white man has law against this.”

  “Are you saying my son broke the law?”

  Johnny interrupted. “Mr. Stone, Lewis must take responsibility and care for Maria or we will take him into town and turn him over to the sheriff there. I have some familiarity with the law from my college courses.”

  Lewis brushed past me and ran out to the porch. “Boy, get back in there and let me handle this!” Father hissed.

  “No, Dad. These savages aren’t going to take me anywhere. If I go with them they’ll kill me and leave me on the road! And I never touched that hussy, Maria. She’s been with everyone else, but I wouldn’t have her.”

  I don’t know who threw the rock, but it caught Lewis above the left eye, causing a cut that gushed blood quickly.

  “Who did that?” My father tried to get to the edge of the porch, in the process knocking Samuel Greengrass down.

  Seeing the elderly man fall incited the crowd. They began to yell, a roar devoid of words, and they waved the clubs and farm implements they brought.

  Johnny grabbed my father by the arm to pull him back – to protect him, I believe that – and he and I noticed the orange glow on Father’s face at the same time.

  Johnny turned and I followed his gaze. Stone City was aflame. The wooden buildings had ignited like kindling in a fireplace, and the dryness of early summer caused the flames to roll like waves.

  The crowd saw this and divided. Some ran toward the city but others advanced to the house, anger contorting their faces.

  My father yanked his arm from Johnny’s grasp and yelled, “Over here!”

  I looked toward the City and saw the white-clad horsemen charging the crowd. They wore hoods over their heads and carried rifles. There were 50 or so of them, far fewer than the Indians, but they attacked with ruthless efficiency. Many running to save the town fell with the first volley of shots.

  Those that were coming toward the house turned to face the marauders, but they were not in time to take advantage of their superior numbers. The gunfire was constant now.

  “Stop!” my father cried, “That’s enough!”

  But once started, the bloodlust could not be staunched.

  My father staggered back into the house, dragging Lewis. He locked the door, as if that could keep the horror outside.

  I saw Johnny Crumpo and Samuel Greengrass stand together as the horsemen of the apocalypse took aim and killed them. I suppose they had to; there was no way they could let them live.

  The Klan herded the stragglers, mostly the women and children, into a group on the front lawn and opened fire.

  Sherry stopped reading aloud but continued to read silently.

  Frank Blake said, “Well, is there more?”

  Sherry looked up. Lianne could see the tears.

  “Yes, there’s more,” she said, “but I know where the bodies are.”

  Chapter 36

  Daniel winced with every step down from the platform. He felt as if a badger was burying its claws in his muscles, but he made his way to the construction equipment. Caleb Morris exited an ODOT pickup to meet him.

  “Everything OK?”

  “Get yo
ur men ready to take down the house,” Daniel wheezed.

  “Our instructions were to wait until the crowd cleared.”

  “I’m telling you to get it out of the way.”

  “I don’t think I have to take orders from you. You’re not on the force anymore, are you?”

  Lianne finally caught up to Daniel. She flashed her badge. “I am. Do what he says.”

  Caleb looked to the house and saw a body carried out on a stretcher and Rudy Hale led away in handcuffs. He made a circle over his head, signaling his men to get moving.

  The excavator was the first to make contact. With its arm extended to the full 40 feet, the teeth of the bucket looked like a T-rex taking bites out of the mansion. The ancient timber splintered and collapsed; after the roofline was destabilized the entire structure quivered. Soon whole sections were falling under their own weight.

  It took a couple of hours, but soon the former glory of Stone Mansion was a pile of rubble.

  “Dozers,” Caleb said into the radio. He looked at Daniel, who was sweating despite the bracing wind. “Are you OK?”

  Daniel’s leg throbbed, but he wasn’t going anywhere. “Fine.”

  Lianne said, “I guess the dutiful wife doesn’t feel she has to accompany her husband to the jail.” Daniel followed her gaze and saw Sonia and her brother were waiting in the car they arrived in.

  “The Blakes are still here, too.” Daniel pointed to Frank and Bronson sitting in the folding chairs, pulled back from the work area.

  “Everyone wants to know.”

  “Yep.”

  The remaining crowd and the men from the reservation gathered in closer as the bulldozers cleared the remains of the building. When they were done, Caleb walked to the foundation. “It’s a concrete slab. This would have been incredibly expensive a hundred years ago.”

  Sherry Threefeathers joined them on the concrete expanse. “I don’t think cost was the issue.”

  “Can you crack it?” Lianne asked Caleb.

  “I don’t have the equipment for it on site. I can get jackhammers and concrete saws here tomorrow.”

  “Blow it with your explosives,” Daniel said.

  Caleb raised his eyebrows. “That’s overkill. What makes you think I have explosives, anyway?”

  “I heard Rudy tell you to wire the house. A man doesn’t forget much about the day he was fired. But you didn’t wire it, did you.”

  Caleb shook his head. “It’s a huge risk with so many people around.”

  Daniel said, “That tells me you want to do the right thing. So trust me when I say you don’t want to be on the wrong side of this.” He indicated Lianne, who smiled and showed her badge again.

  Sherry said, “Wait a minute. We can’t just go around blowing up what may be a valuable archeological site. I’d be drummed out of the profession.”

  Caleb rubbed his chin. “I can be more surgical than that. You’ve got to keep the people back, though.”

  “Do it.” Daniel leaned his head against the cab of the pickup. “Does anyone have any aspirin?”

  Two hours later, no one had left. Caleb’s men scored the center of the slab, then drilled shallow holes every three feet along the indention. Caleb himself put minute amounts of C4 in the holes, then connected them with a detonating cord.

  He also had a hole dug into the incline of the hill at the southern base of the foundation. More C4, though the amount was not much larger than in the holes. Caleb passed the cord through it, then unspooled it slowly a great distance down the hill. He attached the joystick with the thumb button. “We only have about an hour of daylight.”

  Daniel looked again to make sure there was no one in the proximity of the house. He was about to give the all clear when the air was disturbed by the blades of a chopper. Everyone shielded their eyes and held their hats on their heads as the helicopter landed.

  Two men in suits hopped out and stooped as they approached Daniel, Lianne, Caleb, and Sherry. Daniel looked behind him and saw Sonia and her brother Murray coming their way as well.

  “I have a Cease and Desist order to prevent any further action,” one suit said.

  “Geoffrey, glad you could make it,” Murray said. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is the highest priced lawyer in four states, and he works for me.”

  Geoffrey said, “This is private property. Everyone is ordered to vacate the premises immediately.”

  The other suit said, “Officer Ortega, I am so disappointed to see you involved in this.”

  Daniel stood up straighter. “And who might you be?”

  Lianne answered. “This is the Tulsa County Attorney General.”

  “This isn’t going to end well anyway.” Daniel took the detonator from Caleb and pressed the button.

  Chapter 37

  Daniel thought it was anti-climactic at first. The C4 charges detonated with a pop, not any louder than the cheapest firecrackers. The slab split down the middle, then the charge at the base went off, and the sliding ground caused the two concrete chunks to rise in the middle, like a newborn mountain.

  A river of red Oklahoma dirt flowed from underneath the foundation, leaving a declining ridge of soil leading away from Stone Mansion.

  Geoffrey the lawyer said, “Son, it will be my pleasure to see you incarcerated until you’re older than me.”

  Sherry held up her hand for silence. “What is that?”

  She walked to the pile of earth and picked up a grey object. She turned to the others. “A skull!”

  She looked down. “And ribs. This looks like a femur.”

  The others joined her, seeing scores of bones amongst the dirt.

  The Attorney General spoke first. “Look.” He pointed to the area under the tent of concrete.

  Daniel saw a tangle of bones, skeletons intermingled in an eternal frozen dance. They were every shape and size, and the eye sockets were all staring at him.

  “There are hundreds of them,” the commissioner said.

  Murray Stone looked at his sister, the color of his face draining. “Did you know?”

  “I suspected. But I didn’t know where.”

  The crowd closed in around them, the realization of what they were looking at gradually dawning on them. Their murmurs fell silent.

  The quiet was broken when the first Native American howled, a sound more mournful than any coyote’s call. He was joined by another, then another, until the falling twilight was filled with grief.

  Chapter 38

  The National Guard out of Muskogee sent a company to secure the area, and Jeff Caruthers and every available grad student from the OU Department of Archeology were due first thing in the morning.

  After the crowd dispersed, Lianne insisted on taking Daniel to the Emergency Room in Franklin. He didn’t even argue about who should drive. His wound was tended to and they gave him an IV to replenish his fluids. He was discharged with some pain meds and orders to take it easy.

  Daniel spent most of the way back to Oak Valley looking silently out the window. When he turned to Lianne, he said, “I’m sorry.”

  Her eyes didn’t leave the road. “About what?”

  “Ruining your career. Blowing the charges was selfish.”

  “I think my career was already ruined. And you solved the mystery. If you hadn’t detonated them we still wouldn’t know for sure.”

  “What will you do, if you can’t go back to Tulsa?”

  She paused. “I don’t really know. Being a cop is all I ever wanted to do.”

  They pulled into his parent’s front yard. Lianne saw Daniel’s mother pull a curtain back and peer into the yard.

  Daniel said, “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “Coming to my rescue in the house.”

  “Oh, that,” she grinned. “I would have done the same for any citizen.”

  She got out and circled the car to open his door. She took his hand and helped him stand. Then his arms were around her waist, and he pulled her to him. She lifted her face and h
e kissed her.

  She stepped closer in just as her cell phone chirped. She pulled back a little, but not out of his embrace. She said, “It’s Sherry.” Lianne glanced to the house to see the curtain sway, but Mrs. Minco had disappeared back inside.

  Lianne punched up the message. “Everyone is at Zach’s Café.”

  “Who’s everyone?”

  “She just says everyone. She wants to share the end of the journal.”

  Daniel sat back down in the car. “Let’s go.”

  “Oh, no,” Lianne said. “You need to get some rest. You heard what the doctor said.”

  Daniel didn’t move. “Look, you can either drive me or I’ll walk. My pickup is at Stone City, remember. You don’t want me walking on my hurt leg, do you?”

  She stared at him. “You’re infuriating. And stubborn. And pathetic!”

  “What can I say? I’m well-rounded.”

  It was well after 10 P. M. when they got to the café, long past its usual closing time, but someone – probably Mayor Gray – had persuaded them to stay open.

  Gathered around the table in the meeting room in the back were Gray, Sherry Threefeathers, Frank and Bronson Blake, and Murray Stone. Sonia was not there.

  Also present were Reverend Tony and Stephanie Stratton. Tony was sporting a vicious black eye.

  Daniel hobbled over to Tony. “I’m so sorry, Reverend. No hard feelings?”

  Tony said, “It’s in my job description to forgive, but the jury is still out.”

  Stephanie nudged him. “Take it easy on him. He was shot, after all.”

  “That makes it a little easier to take,” Tony allowed.

  Sherry stood, the journal in her hand. “Is anyone else coming?” She looked at Murray. “Your sister?”

  He shook his head. “She’s with the lawyers. She’s facing a long list of charges; conspiracy, obstruction of justice, murder-for-hire…it’s so hard to believe.”

  Mayor Gray said, “Dr. Threefeathers, why did you call us together?”

  “I knew we would all be going our separate directions soon, but I thought it was appropriate to share the final entry of Christine Stone’s journal with everyone. I didn’t want anyone to read it in the papers.”