by Brian Gore
More than five minutes later the door was opened by one of the officers standing outside to admit Lt. Sheinaker. He entered carrying a thick manila folder in one hand and two cups of coffee in the other. He told the two officers guarding Ben to leave as he walked over and sat down. He tossed the file onto the table and set down the cups. He picked up one and nodded to Ben to take the other.
He sat, looking at Ben silently, for many long seconds.
"Is this where I break down and start crying out my confession about how I raped the Pope, cleaned the gold out of Fort Knox, and stole the peanuts out of the M&M's? All 'cause you sat over there, starin' at me with those purty blue eyes of yours?" Ben asked, that lopsided grin still creasing his face.
"Smart ass all the way, eh?" Sheinaker spit at him.
"Eh? Damn, didn't take you for a kanuck L.T.!" Ben told him, still grinning.
"Ok, can the bull shit. Let's get down to it." Sheinaker sat up straight and opened the file folder in front of him. Several, 8x10 glossy, color photos topped the stack. One by one the Lieutenant picked them up and laid them out across the table in front of him.
"The first three all killed at a cabin near Ennis." Sheinaker laid out the chronology as he lined up the photographs.
"These" he dropped two more, a photo of a man with a bloody slash on his neck and the other with two round holes in his forehead, and what looked to Ben like much of the back of his head missing; "At a house just a few miles outside Helena."
"And these," Sheinaker laid down seven photographs of also, obviously deceased men; "At an ambush site fifty miles or so, southwest of here. All twelve from a known drug smuggling ring operating out of Chicago."
Ben looked over the photographs and then up at the police lieutenant. The blank, emotionless mask, had descended over his face, once again.
"So? You mind explaining how this has any thing to do with me L.T.? Hell, I don't see my picture anywhere here!" Ben reached out with one hand and shuffled the pictures around. "Is that all you got? Some photographs of guys that, let's be honest here, don't look much like choir boys? So, apparently they went and got somebody, really pissed with 'em, and then you boys go to doin' some pretty creative story tellin' and try to hang this on me? How'd you even come up with my name? Hell what'd you guys do? Just open the phone book and pick out a name? Jesus!" Ben sat back and just stared at the lieutenant.
"Look smart ass. We've got a waitress in Red Lodge that claims these men" he picked up the photos of those killed near Ennis, "told her they'd had an altercation of some sort with you."
"We've got statements from several people that they subsequently were asking around about the whereabouts of your ranch."
"We've got statements from the doctors at the hospital in Columbus that these men" he shook the three photographs at Ben, his voice rising a notch; "came into the emergency room with rope burns, contusions, and horse tracks all over them! What have you got to say to that?"
"Well damn L.T.! You girls have been busy. Yeah, I had words with 'em some time back. I was pushin' horses up above the lodge pole, more'n a week ago. Came on them fellers givin' a lady a real hard time in the camp ground up there. When I asked 'em nice to behave themselves, why, they got right nasty about it and told me to mind my own business. Fact is one of 'em even started to pull a pistol on me!" Ben said with mock shock.
"I'm listening Jensen." Sheinaker said.
"Well sir, we had us a little go 'round for a minute or two. But then the lady told me she was ok and I rode away. And just to say it, so it's on the video I'm sure you're makin' of our lil' conversation, from what you tell me the Doctors have told you, those boys were alive and well, if scuffed up a mite, some hours after the last time I ever saw 'em!"
"So, where's the witness that saw me runnin' around with the machine gun ya'll think I used to cut those boys down with? I got a right to be confronted with my accuser don't I?" Ben demanded. "Bring him in here. I'd like to meet that fool."
"It wasn't a machine gun" Sheinaker said smiling, he had the idea that this would shake this cowboys cocky attitude.
"No? What then?" Ben asked innocently
"A thirty thirty! You've got one of those don't you Jensen?" The officer thought everyone in Montana owned at least one, thirty thirty lever gun.
Ben had raised the cup to his mouth when Sheinaker made the revelation about the rifle. He choked on his coffee in his attempt to not spew all over the table. He coughed and choked and sputtered for several seconds, coffee running down his chin and dripping onto his shirt.
When he'd regained some composure, Ben exclaimed; "You've got to be fucking kidding me! That, is your story? THAT, is what you're gonna take to the press and the world? A beat up, drunken old fart of a cowboy, went at it with, what? a heavily armed drug gang, with a fucking thirty thirty? Took 'em on in three different locations did you say? And greased the whole damn lot of 'em? With nuthin' but a thirty thirty? With not one, single, solitary, witness?... and to top it off, this super cowboy hasn't got a scratch on his ass?... AND, you captured him when he walked into your office to find out why you were maligning his character all over the state of Montana?! Jeeeeesus Chur-ist! Are you sure ya'll are in the right line of business L.T.? Ya'll should think about writin' childrens books. Fairy... Fucking... Tales!" Ben sat back and looked at him with that adopted look of indignation and disbelief he was quickly perfecting.
"And, just to answer your question, No, I don't own a thirty thirty. Not in four, maybe five years. If you want to get your shorts in a knot and waste state money testing guns, there is a damn nice AR-10 behind the seat in my old truck out in the parking lot. Have fun trying to match that to your crumpled bullets!" Ben told him
Sheinaker looked toward the window in the door and gave a nod Ben was sure was sending someone to search through the old truck. He just shook his head and smiled.
"Not a scratch Jensen? I saw you limping pretty good as they brought you down the hallway. You take a bullet did you? Or maybe just a flesh wound?" The lieutenant smiled with a look of satisfaction.
"You bet. Bad flesh wound. Limped in here with a nasty battle wound, but I really thought you wouldn't notice. Yes sir! Took one rusty eight penny nail right through my camp moc three days ago, at an old mine site in the mountains north of Choteau where I was camped with a friend of mine... uh ... chasin' cows! Ben said as he reached to yank off his boot. His sock followed and he slammed his naked foot down on the table scattering a few of the papers and photographs. "Look for yourself Dee-tek-tive! That look like a bullet hole to you? Or, are your gangbangers usin' nail guns these days?"
The angry inflamed puncture where the nail had driven up into his foot was obviously not the bullet wound the officer was hoping for.
Sheinaker cursed under his breath. "Look Jensen, we have the statements of witnesses in Red Lodge and a couple locations between there and your ranch. Plus, we've got pings on your phone leaving the Columbus area and heading west and..."
Ben cut him off; "And, going where L.T.? Going Where? Tell me, where is the next "Ping" as you call it, on that God, Damn, Phone? I'm betting somewhere north, like going toward Choteau maybe? Maybe you even have pictures of me on a camera buying gas up that a way... considerin' that's where I went! I swear. You boys stretch this rubber any tighter, she's gonna pop, and ya'll are gonna have to take the blame for the genuine bastard you create!"
"Who's this "Friend" you were camped with Jensen?"
"Yeah, about that," Ben smiled "Well... the friend is gonna have to remain, confidential. Her... uh ... her husband might not like it if he was made aware of the fact she was up in the mountains 'chasin cows' with me, and not down to Missoula with her girl friends." Ben snickered. "Besides, unless you found some mascara or tampons at those shootings, it's not really relevant, is it?"
"Are you kidding me? You were... We... God Damn it!" Sheinaker threw the papers in his hand on the table and turned away cursing. His growing frustration told Ben he was winning.
He turned back and started in again; "Look, my forensics boys tell me the guy killed in the barn was cut by an expert, and the one shot behind the house took a double tap at close range. The shooting out on the forest was a classic military ambush. We found shell casings and tracks from the firing positions of whoever helped you pull it off. So we know you weren't alone, we want names Jensen. They also used some sort of improvised claymore. We have your military record Staff Sergeant Jensen! This is right up your alley."
"Five of the seven killed in the ambush were wounded and executed afterwards at close range with pistol shots. One of the three vehicles had been shot up already. We found a badly deformed thirty thirty round lodged in the back side of the left side windshield pillar. Bits of glass from it matched some found at the Ennis shooting location. We know you had a knock down brawl with these guys Jensen! You're our man all right!"
"Now I'm manufacturing claymores? and cartin' 'em around Montana? Holy Jesus! What's next? I hit 'em with a scud fuckin' missle too? And where I been hidin' this army I'm supposed to be runnin' now? I'm pushin' troops again? When? Between benders? When is it I'm supposed to have done my training to prepare for the military precision you claim this thing was pulled off with? It's been near twenty years since that army shit. Damn it L.T., have you listened to this story your tryin' to sell? John Fucking Wayne couldn't a pulled this shit off by himself. What were they armed with? Uzi's? Ak's? HK's? And I whupped 'em all by myself, with nuthin' but my trusty old Winchester thutty thutty? Oh no, that's right. I got claymores and squads of assassins I'm hiding in the bunkhouse, just in case some bunch of toughs from, where did you say? Chicago? Might happen to piss me off? "
Ben laughed again. "You're killin' me with this fairy tale. Steven Spielberg might be able to make this work. You? Not so much. If this is all you drug me down here for Mr. Sheinaker, we're done!" Standing up Ben continued, "You got nuthin', and you KNOW, you got nuthin'. Have you got, oh I don't know, finger prints? Receipts? Hair? Blood? my God Damn BVD's? Anything? Anything at all? Other than my phone sayin' I was driving down the road in Montana? Anything, that puts me within a hundred miles of those poor unfortunate abused children? Anything that puts us together after the Docs treated 'em at that hospital you mentioned? No? We done?"
Sheinaker sat silent, looking at Ben, knowing the man was right. He hated to have to admit it, but, he was right. If he took what he had to a grand jury, they'd laugh him out of the courtroom.
"Look Jensen, I'm not gonna stand here and tell you those men," he gestured at the photographs on the table; "are any great loss to society. But, you made the national news with it. It's the headline on every paper in the country; A "Wild West Shootout in Montana" ... another "OK Corral". One was squalling about "Montana Gangs Run Wild!" It's got the Governor all fired up. Makes the state look bad. He wants this closed and he wants a head. He's squeezing me... and I'm squeezing you."
"You know you did this... and Jensen? I know you did this. Maybe I can't prove it... Yet. But Jensen, it was you and I'm watching. You'll screw up, sometime. When you do, I'll be waiting."
Ben silently pulled his sock and boot back on, stood up and said to Sheinaker; "You're gonna be waiting a long damn time L.T. Send me a card come Christmas, will you?" Then he limped to the door and stood for several seconds before looking back at the lieutenant and raising his eyebrows; "Well? I got cows that need catchin'."
"God Damn it! You know I'm not looking at an innocent man Jensen." He couldn't believe he was saying this, but he had no choice. If a worn out cowboy could take his case apart, any competent lawyer, given a few weeks to work on it would shred it. He couldn't take his gut feelings to a district attorney, he needed hard evidence and he had none. "You're free to go". Lt. Sheinaker gestured to the officer outside to open the door.
The door swung open and as Ben started to walk through he put his hand on the frame and turned back. Lt Sheinaker was sitting slumped at the interrogation table. "Don't take it so hard L.T. Even Columbo was wrong, once in a while!" He gave a little salute with his hand and limped away down the hallway.
He stopped in front of the elevators, and looked up to a room full of glaring State Police, silently watching him leave. The door slid open and as he stepped inside he told them, along with a snatching gesture of his hand; "So long girls. Don't let the Injuns sneak up and git your hair!"
As the otherwise empty elevator descended he spoke to himself with a smile; "Ya just gotta love Ol' Gus."
Chapter 38
Ben pulled out of Helena, heading for the Lodge. Thoughts about every one and every thing tumbled through his brain as he drove. Karen, Ellen, the mysterious men hunting the same bunch he had been, and sad times of long ago all ran through his head in an endless loop. Hell, even A.H. got a few minutes of his time.
The events of the past few days were so scrambled together he'd lost track of time... Had it only been a week? A few days more? It felt like a lifetime since he'd come tumbling off that mountain with his horses. If someone had told him his life was about to take such a wild and unexpected turn he'd have thought them crazy.
As it was, he wondered himself if maybe he was a little nuts. Most other folks would have had some pretty sizable feelings of guilt concerning what he'd done over the last very few days. Ben thought on it hard, and just couldn't bring himself to feel bad. Those vermin got what they'd earned. The only twinge of doubts he had was when he thought of Emily; but, she'd come after him! Then of course, there was Amanda...
Amanda, now there was a problem to think about, no way around it. He'd known her only a few days, but a few days like what they'd had can teach you a lot about a person. They can tally up quickly, equaling months of regular living.
He didn't feel regret about what had happened, and it was damn sure her choice too, but still...
She was a woman by God! She was also a woman who was younger than his daughter! With a kid of her own! Did he really think it was a good idea, at his age, to be getting mixed up with a woman and a kid? Let alone one younger than his daughter for Christ sake! He never felt so old before.
Though he'd no desire to push her away, and a greater desire to not cause her any more grief, the conscious thought occurred to him that the odds of them having any great, romantic future existed somewhere between 'Not Much' and 'Fat Chance'.
It seemed to Ben, as he approached the Lodge, that the proper thing to do if he was smart would be to somehow give her an out. He should provide her the opportunity to walk away with her self respect intact, as tattered as it was. He hadn't a clue at the moment how to do that, but he'd give it a run. The Lady deserved that.
When he pulled up and parked in front of the porch, they were outside. Amanda was watching the boy bouncing his ball off the log wall. She walked up as he climbed out of the truck.
"Well?"
"Aw it was nuthin'" he replied. "They pretty much agreed. A fine upstanding, sober citizen of the community like myself, wouldn't have been involved in such heinous doin's!"
Amanda looked at him with her raised eyebrow expression of skepticism.
"What? You don't believe me? I'm hurt..." Ben said, falling back against the truck, miming a knife through the heart.
Amanda laughed; "No, Ben, I don't believe you. So, what's the truth?"
"Yeah, ok." Ben answered rather sheepishly, "That L.T. thought he had the right guy. Told me he knew it for a fact." Ben looked up at her grinning; "He has a problem though. He's not got one I-Ota of evidence. Nada. He can't prove anything. Not a damn thing."
"Outside of my admission that I'd had a difficulty with 'em earlier, he's got nuthin'. Even the witnesses he does have testify those boys were alive and breathing after that scrap. Last time I checked, winning a fight ain't much motive for a fella to go on a killin' spree over half of Montana. Beyond that, he can't put me in the same county as those maggots... Just like I told you. So, he's got nuthin'!"
"Is it over Ben?" She asked.
"They'll keep pokin' around Amanda. They
'll try. But there's nothing for 'em to find. So yeah, unless you know of somebody that might feel a need to avenge the downing of Tyrone, it's over. You gal, for the first time in your life are a Free Woman!"
The thought occurred to Ben that he'd just managed, without even thinking about it, to give Amanda the "Out" he'd thought she deserved.
"I can't think of anyone that will miss him Ben and I like the sound of that, A Free Woman. You've given me a second chance Ben."
"Really? Free? I kinda thought you were a lil' pricey myself!" Ben teased.
"You jerk!" Amanda scolded, punching him in the shoulder.
"Yes Ma'am" Ben returned. "Well known for it. And Amanda? Just so you understand? You've given us both, a second chance."
They spent the late afternoon playing with Timmy and sitting on the porch, just enjoying the sunshine and the sense of peace that had descended on that high valley.
On toward sunset, as the sun was hanging just above the peaks to the west, Amanda broke into a long comfortable silence. "Ben?"
"Yeah?"
"What... um... how... uh... I don't... Damn!"
"Just spit it out Amanda... you're gonna bruise your tongue, stumbling over it like that!"
"Ok. Us... what about... us?" she asked, very pensively.
"Us? Yeah... uh ..." now it was Ben's turn to stumble. "I don't know about, Us, Amanda... Do you? I mean... I've known you, you've known me, what? All of a week? A little more?"
"You... don't have any feelings? At all Ben?" she asked, "I thought, the way we've talked, the way we...." her voice trailed off making no effort to conceal the disappointment in her voice.
"Didn't say that" he replied. "Said I didn't know. I got lots of feelings for you Amanda, and that lil' boy... but it's... sudden. You know? Unexpected. Kind of has me off balance. I expect if I was some years younger, I'd be after you like a ruttin' bull... but Amanda, I'm old enough to be your Dad, and... You deserve better."