Beauty and the beard

by Crowne, K. C.

  “I’m glad that you are all here. Saves me phone calls,” I smiled.

  “So, what happened?” Brad asked impatiently.

  “The girl has a name,” I announced and everyone looked expectantly at Lindsay.

  “Yes, I discovered that my name is Lindsay,” she announced.

  “One step in the right direction,” remarked Harley.

  “Yep,” she agreed, smiling at me.

  We filled my brothers in on what had happened and showed them the picture of the two men. I told them that the crash was just east of the resort and that the men were probably burrying “whatever” close, as well. No one liked to hear this.

  “Those two look utterly crazy,” remarked Dax, looking at the pictures of them with the shovel and carpet. “Wait a minute.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “I recognize them!” Dax exclaimed. “I saw them in town last night. I had to pick up some stuff at the office supply store and I stopped in at Blue Haven Pub afterward for a beer. They were in there sitting at a booth in the corner!”

  We all looked at each other, shocked at what Dax had just told us.

  “Are you sure it was them?” Brad asked.

  “Yes, I am one hundred percent sure. That scar, I’d recongnize it anywhere. Who wouldn’t?” he asked.

  Brad took a closer look. “You’re right,” he said. “That’s difinitely a distinguishing feature.”

  “Shit,” Harley said. “We need to tell the Sherifff.”

  “Yes, we do. These guys need to be caught before they commit another crime. The Sheriff will probably want a copy of your pictures,” Brad said.

  “Go ahead,I don’t mind. Cole and I had talked about calling already.”

  “Okay, good.” Brad left the room to make the call and returned a moment later. “Sheriff Andrews said that he’d stop up within the hour,” he informed us. “I have some things to do at home. I told him to come up here and I’ll come back over when I see him,if that’s okay with you guys?” Brad asked.

  “Yeah, Brad, no problem. See you in a little bit,” I told him.

  Dax and Harley left, as well, leaving Lindsay and I to take a closer look at her incredible pictues. I couldn’t believe that she had taken them. Traveled all over the world, too. It was impressive.

  In fact, I was in ever-growing awe of this lady.

  13

  Cole (continued…)

  Sheriff Andrews pulled up to my cabin at half past six. I saw his headlights and went outside to greet him. Brad came over and we all went inside to talk.

  “Sorry, I’m late,” the Sheriff apologized to us.

  “It’s not a problem. Thanks for coming up here, Sheriff,” I answered.

  “Of course. Hello, young lady,” the Sheriff greeted Lindsay. “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m feeling good, thank you. In fact, I had a flashback and we were able to find my camera that I had lost during the accident. I remembered why I had the accident, I think,” she reported.

  “And we learned her name,” I added. “Sheriff Andrews meet Lindsay.”

  “Lindsay? Pretty name for a pretty girl.”

  Lindsay blushed.

  The Sheriff pulled out his pad and pen. “Brad, when I spoke with you earlier you said that there were pictures of a possible crime? Are these pictures on this camera here that you are speaking of?”

  “Yes, sir,” Brad answered. “Lindsay and Cole uploaded the pictures on a disk for you if that is helpful,” he added.

  “Yes, thank you. I’ll take the disk. Can I see the originals, though?” he asked.

  “Sure,” I told him. Lindsay grabbed the camera and powered it on.

  Once on, she let the Sheriff view the pictures of the two men with their shovel and carpet.

  “Hmmm,” said the Sheriff as he flipped through the photos. “This does look like suspicious activity, that is for sure,” he said. “Good job taking these photos, Lindsay. Are all of them on the disk for me?”

  “Yes, sir,” she answered.

  “Great. And I have a couple of questions for you if you don’t mind?”

  “No, I don’t mind.”

  “Okay. Let’s see,” he scribbled some things on his pad. “When did you observe and photograph these two men? And, where did you photograph them?”

  Lindsay told him when approximately but could not tell him where. She explained to him that when the men chased her, she ran with the camera and made it to her SUV, which she had wrecked sometime later.

  “I think that I photographed these men somewhere along the same road that I wrecked on. But, unfortunately, right now, I can’t say that for sure,” she told Sheriff Andrews.

  “How do you know that the men chased you?” the Sheriff asked her.

  “I have a memory of running from them. And, as you can see in the close-up photo of the one man with the scar on his face, he looked right at me when I took the picture. That’s when they caught me taking the pictures and chased me out of the woods.”

  “And you have photos of them with a rolled-up carpet and of them digging a hole with a shovel and apparently tossing the carpet into the hole?”

  “Yes, sir. They are all on the disk,” she replied.

  “Now, this question is important. As a witness of a possible crime or coverup of a crime, did you actually see a body at any time?” he asked seriously.

  “No. I never saw an actual dead body. I heard the men talk about “a body,’ while they were,” Lindsay stopped mid-sentence.

  “What? While they were what?” Sheriff Andrews prompted her.

  “Lindsay are you remembering what the men were saying?” I asked her. She didn’t mention actually hearing the men before now.

  “Yes, I can see them in my mind now. I was hiding behind a thick pine tree trunk. I heard them before I saw them, so I tried to stay out of sight. It had shocked me to run into the men out there. Before I decided to snap photos of them, I heard them talk about the body. The bigger man told the skinny man that the hole was big enough. The skinny man replied that the hole had to be bigger to keep the body buried,” she exclaimed.

  “Go on,” prompted the Sheriff.

  “That’s when I got scared. Neither of the men had seen me yet. At first, I thought to run back the way I had come. But something told me to take pictures. I saw them dig that hole and toss the carpet inside. That’s when they saw me and started to chase me,” Lindsay told the Sheriff.

  “I see. But to be clear, you never saw a dead body?” he asked her for a second time.

  Lindsay crinkled up her forehead as she was playing back the scene in her mind, trying to remember and put together the scene.

  She gasped.

  “What?” we all asked in unison.

  “The bigger man had a gun! He shot it at me! The bullet whizzed over my head! He shot three times, actually. Once more as I made it up the switchbacks and another at the SUV,” she replied, visibly shaken.

  “They had a gun?” Brad asked, shocked. “Damn, Lindsay, you’re really lucky to have survived being shot at and being in a deadly accident.”

  “Yes, you are very lucky,” Sheriff Andrews agreed. “The large man had the gun? The gun is not in the pictures, is it?” he half stated, half asked.

  “No, the gun is not in the pictures because the bigger man didn’t pull out the gun until the skinny man saw me. The skinny man looked right me as I photographed a close-up of him. Then, I saw the skinny man grab the big man’s flannel jacket and he turned him in my direction and pointed at me. That’s when I saw the big man pull out the pistol. Out of his waistband. He pointed it at me and told me to ‘stop.’ I panicked and turned to run. That’s when he fired the first bullet. I made it up the switchbacks to the top of the precipice. I followed along the top of it until I reached the trail that would take me back up to the road. Before continuing up the trail, I turned to look back to see how far the men were behind me. I could hear their footsteps cr
unching in the snow, so I knew they were behind me somewhere. When I turned back, they were at the top of the switchbacks. I ran again. That’s when the man shot the pistol at me the second time. Birds were startled in the grasses and flew out. It scared me a lot. The sound of the gun going off was deafening in the quietness of the ridge. I made it to my SUV and got inside. As I was pulling away, the men emerged from the tree line. I heard the gun go off one more time and the bullet hit the side of the SUV. The driver’s side rear.” Lindsay took a deep breath after telling her story.

  I put my hand on her shoulder to let her know that I was here for her. She seemed really upset now, just having all of these memories suddenly come flooding back.

  “I didn’t notice a bullet hole in the SUV but I didn’t know to look for one,” I told Lindsay and the Sheriff. “Plus, the SUV is all smashed up, so the bullet hole probably isn’t very noticeable.” I turned to the Sheriff. “I bet you can get the bullet out of the SUV body for ballistic testing.”

  “You know where the SUV is located, so I will send a forensics team out in the morning,” agreed the Sheriff. “Do you remember now how far you drove down the road? Before you wrecked the SUV?” Sheriff Andrews asked Lindsay.

  She thought for a minute. “No. Not for sure. I remember panicking and hitting the gas pedal full force. I was scared that the men would follow me for the camera. I thought that they were going to kill me. After this, my thoughts get fuzzy again. I don’t remember where I drove or how far I drove. I don’t actually remember going off the road and hitting the tree, either,” Lindsay paused trying to force her memory to return.

  “That’s okay, Lindsay. You’ve been very helpful. It makes sense that you wouldn’t remember the actual accident yet as that was the cause of your physical trauma. The memories will come back eventually,” he told her.

  “Yeah, Lindsay, take it easy. You’ve been through enough,” Brad told her worriedly. “You don’t want to regress because you’re pushing too hard.

  I nodded to Lindsay in agreement with Brad.

  “Okay, I’m going to take the disk of photos, and Cole, please show me on the map where the SUV is so that I can get a team up there to retract the bullet. If I have any other questions, I will be back in touch. I know that I have your number, but can you please write it down for me on my pad here?” Sheriff Andrews asked and handed me his pad.

  I wrote down my cell phone and house phone numbers. Then, I made an X on the map that the sheriff handed me, marking the location of the wreck.

  “Thank you, I’ll talk with you soon.” The sheriff shook all three of our hands and took off.

  Lindsay took a big sigh of relief. “I’m glad that that’s over with,” she admitted.

  “It’s great that your memory is starting to come back,” Brad told her. “Don’t forget, take it easy. Get some rest tonight. You had a long day.” Then he turned to me. “Talk to you later Cole. Call me if either of you needs anything,” he said and went out the door.

  “Wow,” I said to Lindsay. “What a day.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked her. “I can whip something up for dinner.”

  “That would be good,” she agreed.

  I made us spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread.

  “Not bad if I do say so myself,” I said, taking a huge bite of rolled spaghetti from my fork.

  “It’s good, Cole. Thank you.” She seemed distracted.

  “What’s wrong? Are you tired?” I asked Lindsay. “Do you want to go down to your room and lay down?”

  “No. I don’t want to be alone. Not yet,” she replied, apparently shaken up.

  “Those men won’t come here. They would be foolish to do so. My brothers will keep a look out for them.”

  “I know,” she said. “Just remembering the gun and how they had shot at me has gotten me all shook up,” she told me.

  Lindsay looked like she was going to start crying. I went to her and put my arms around her, trying to give her some measure of comfort.

  I was trying to think of something to do that would take her mind off of the situation. I thought of putting a movie into the DVD player, but I didn’t think that she would be able to enjoy a movie right then. Then, I thought of the rocking horse I was working on in my work shed. Christmas was right around the corner and I still had a lot of work to do on it.

  “How about grabbing a beer and coming with me out to my workshop?” I asked Lindsay. “I’m working on a project for Brad and Angela’s daughter, Abby,” I told her.

  “Okay, that sounds good,” she replied, smiling now.

  Happy to see her smile, I quickly washed our plates and put them in the strainer to dry. I grabbed a six-pack and put it in a small hand-held cooler.

  “Okay, let’s go. Come on, Bella,” I called my dog. She got up from her place in front of the fire to follow us to the work shed.

  We put on our boots and slid on coats before walking over. Once inside, I started a fire in the wood stove and I took Lindsay’s coat and hung it up beside mine on the hooks by the door. I opened us up each a bottle of beer and I handed her one. I led her over to my project.

  “Oh, it’s so cute!” she exclaimed, taking a sip of beer. “A wooden rocking horse. I bet she’s going to love it,” she said.

  “I think she will too,” I agreed. “I still have to finish sanding it down and making sure it’s smooth. Then I’m going to stain it a nice maple color, I think. And paint on the eyes, mouth, and ears. Maybe the hooves.”

  “Add a satin red bow around the neck for Christmas,” Lindsay added. Then, she paused again.

  I knew what was wrong this time.

  “Are you wondering if you have any family?” I asked her.

  “Yes. I wonder if anyone is missing me. Christmas is coming, and I don’t even know if I have a family. If I do, do they know that I’m missing? Do they care?” she wondered.

  “I’m sure they do and are looking for you. Soon you will start to remember,” I tried to reassure her. “Until then, I’m here for you,” I told her.

  She looked at me and beamed. “Thanks, Cole. You’re sweet. I really appreciate you and everything you’ve done for me.”

  Her bright green eyes mesmerized me. Looking into them, I was transfixed. She came to me and I put my arms around her small waist. Our lips met, and I kissed her fervently.

  14

  Lindsay

  Cole kissed me tenderly. He put his hands around my waist and hugged me close. It was a different kind of kiss than the last. Less lust and more passion. It seemed, in a way, more personal, not just about sex.I put my beer down and kissed him back. I wanted to let go of all of my anxieties and fears and just enjoy this beautiful, sexy man’s company. I put my arms around Cole’s neck and leaned in against his burly, hard body.

  I moved my hands from his neck down his chest, over toned, rounded pecs. I paused, enjoying the feel of Cole’s rock-hard upper body. I slid my fingers down over his carved abs and let my fingers trail the outline of each toned muscle.

  His kiss made my abdomen flutter and my pussy responded, becoming hot and wet. I pushed in against Cole’s torso, feeling his hot-blooded body next to mine. I wanted to take his clothes off and feel his skin on my skin.

  I stepped back but he held on to my waist and pulled me back to his lips. His hands moved to my ass and he pushed my pussy to his crotch. He was rock-hard down there as well.

  I ground up against his hardness and moaned into his mouth. He bit my lip and held on, grinding me up against the hard rod in his pants. I moved my heat over his erection, and he moaned in return.

  I put my hands to his chest and pushed myself back from him. This time he let me and stopped to watch me. Pure lust was in his eyes now. He wanted me, and I wanted him. I watched his chest heave up and down as he breathed deeply. My heart was racing.

  He tried to grab me again but I didn’t let him. I sidestepped his grasp and he
grinned at me slyly but waited. I moved to him and pushed his shirt up over his hard abs and chest. He put up his arms so that I could pull it up over his head. I tossed it to the floor. I moved my hands down over his thick arms. I felt his biceps flex under my touch and I gave him a knowing, sexy grin.

  He came to me fast and I didn’t have time to step back this time. He held me by my back and moved his hands up through my hair. He pushed his lips to mine again, harder, sucking on each lip. His eyes were opened, watching me as he took my mouth feverishly.

  I squirmed, and he moved his hands over my slim body, feeling my curves, lingering over my breasts and lightly squeezed them.

  Cole moaned as he felt my body and he pulled me tightly against him. He let go of my breasts as his hands moved down over my waist to the hem of my shirt. He reached up under it and felt me up before pulling it up over my head. He didn’t waste a moment before unclasping my bra.

  My plump, round tits with pink erect nipples bounced from their enclosure when Cole took off my bra and threw it to the side. Kissing me again, his hands massaged my breasts, as he circled my nipples with his thumbs.

  The sensation of him playing with my nipples drove me wild. I groaned loudly against Cole’s mouth and he moved his lips from mine to suckle my breasts. I leaned back, pushing my tits into his mouth. He sucked on one then the other, nipping at each pink nipple.

  “Oh, Cole,” I moaned as he took a hard peak into his warm mouth. His tongue circled it and he pulled on it with his lips. My breath was quick, as I enjoyed the feeling of his mouth on me.

  I was so wet that I could feel it seeping through my jeans. I felt Cole’s hard cock throbbing up against my wetness, ready to be released from its prison. I moved my hands to his belt and undid it. I unbuttoned his jeans and pulled on the zipper. I moved my hand inside of his pants and pulled out his thick member.