Burrows

by Reavis Z. Wortham

  “All right. You have any ideas about what’s been going on here?”

  The big deputy scratched his temple. “Nawsir, but this old Cotton Exchange has been rotting down for years. Me and about everybody else has been wondering why so much trash is collecting around here.”

  He gave Griffin a brief history of the historic building. He didn’t mention that on numerous occasions he’d brought his concerns about the decaying Exchange to individual members of the city council, who usually wouldn’t listen to a colored man, but nodded solemnly out of respect for the legendary law officer. Unfortunately, the Council wasn’t interested in the old building, or for that matter anything else across the tracks. It had always been that way.

  Surrounded by deputies and patrolmen, police chief Tommy Mayhew joined them. He scowled at Sheriff Griffin when he ordered police sergeant Blair to update the crude map taking shape on a fold-out card table. The incident originated within the city limits, but originally involved men who worked for the county. Instead of challenging Griffin’s authority, Chief Mayhew reluctantly allowed the county sheriff to direct the activity, though it galled him. He tolerated the complexity of the circumstances and stood by to support the sheriff’s department…for the time being.

  Big John saw Cody standing nearby. He stepped close and placed a huge hand on his shoulder. “How you doing?”

  “I’m fine, except for being scared to death. I knew this was going to happen for months, John.” He glanced around to be sure no one overheard. “I been dreaming about it.”

  Big John knew about the Parker family’s strange gift. He recalled the connection between Top’s dreams that lasted for months and ended in the river bottoms back in the spring. He nodded sympathetically. “Nightmares, or dreams?”

  “Is there a word for what’s in between?”

  “That’d be life, son.”

  “If y’all are through, or unless you want to throw some voodoo bones, I’d like to get busy here,” Griffin interrupted. John turned an impassive face toward his boss and waited.

  Griffin pointed at a rough plan drawn by a sleepy old man who had last been in the Exchange twenty years before. “Cody, get yourself together and tell us what you know.”

  Taking a deep breath, Cody gave them a quick rundown of what happened after he and Andrews arrived at sunset. He stabbed a finger at the drawing. “The entrance here in the front was probably a dummy to sucker anybody poking around into a trap. It worked pretty damn well. We didn’t get any farther than there.”

  Sergeant Blair, who’d been talking with other officers that checked out the Exchange, had a little more information. Earlier, firemen under the protection of rifles tore down a brittle paper shade to discover a layer of boards nailed to the window from the inside. When they hacked through the boards they found a wall of furniture barring their way. It was packed so solidly, the amazed investigators could see only inches into the interior.

  He packed a big chew into his cheek. “There’s an entrance around back here that’s been used quite a bit.” Blair pointed with a strong forefinger. “This one at a back door seems to be the main way in and out. There’s a pretty clear path where someone’s walked it down.”

  Griffin nodded. “Good work. Can we get in?”

  “You can if you don’t mind another tunnel. A couple of our boys poked around and opened the door to find the same thing. From what I can tell, it’s filled as solid as everything else. We didn’t try to move anything out of the way, after what happened with Andrews.”

  “Damn. What is this all about?” Griffin asked.

  Doors slammed behind them. They saw a large German Shepherd jump to the ground from the back of a pick-up. Sheriff Griffin turned to his men. “We’ll send the dog in and figure this thing out.”

  The other car contained Ned, O.C., and the kids. Every officer in the county knew the old men and showed their respect by stepping aside as they passed through the crowded street.

  Relief washed over John Washington, realizing that he felt responsible for Cody. Now that Ned was present, the old man would make any decisions that involved his nephew.

  At the same time, Ned’s knees grew weak when he saw that Cody wasn’t injured.

  Griffin frowned. “What are you doing here? You’re retired, ain’t you Ned?”

  “Not so’s you’d notice.” He breathed a sigh of relief and spoke to Cody. “You all right?”

  “Yessir, shook up some.”

  Satisfied, Ned turned his attention back to the sheriff. “I came to see if I can help. I heard you had a booger-bear hemmed up in this old place, so I thought I’d drop by and watch a good job well done.”

  “Well, you can’t.” Griffin drew himself up. “We have way too many chiefs around here as it is. And what are them kids doing here?”

  Ned appeared surprised to see Top and Pepper behind him. Before he could answer, O.C. stepped forward. “They were all with me when we heard what was going on. I brought them.”

  Griffin caught the set of O.C.’s jaw and knew better than to argue with the old warrior in front of his men. He’d wait and hash it out with him later.

  “We’ll all stay out of the way and watch from over here until I can find somebody to take them off my hands.” Ned took one step back. He’d be damned if he gave that pompous ass Griffin two steps.

  Griffin wanted to tell him to leave, that any decisions he made would be second guessed by the men under his charge if Ned and O.C. Rains were present. He didn’t want either of the old men to have anything to do with the crisis at hand. But at the same time, he knew better than to order the old constable and his grandkids away. It would only make O.C. Rains mad, and he didn’t need that in his life right now.

  Rains was a tough old bastard and Griffin knew he’d lose in a pissing contest with the judge. Besides, he wasn’t sure Ned would listen to him, either. He’d dig in his heels about going. If Griffin backed down, he’d lose the respect of his men and no matter how the night turned out, he’d lose the election next year.

  “Sheriff Griffin.” Sergeant Blair interrupted the standoff, hung up his microphone, and stepped out of the car. “I have a little more information. The city has issued official clean-up orders at least six times in the last year. In fact, someone brought in two dump trucks and parked them in the driveway, but they were removed for nonpayment.”

  “So someone authorized the trucks at one point. Was it the occupant?”

  Blair recognized Ned and O.C. standing nearby and nodded hello while Griffin talked. “Apparently not. It was the city. Last fall, the Health Department initiated a complaint that stated the inside was filled with garbage throughout the first floor and declared the place was uninhabitable. But the signing individual took another job in Ft. Worth before action was taken. The city also began condemnation procedures through the assistant city attorney, but the paperwork got lost and everyone forgot all about it.”

  “I love bureaucracy.” Griffin’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

  “That’s how it is on this side of the tracks.”

  Griffin snapped toward the sound of humor in John’s voice, but with O.C. Rains standing behind the big deputy, he didn’t say a word. “Cody, now that I think of it. What’n hell are you doing here in the first place?”

  “I sent him.” O.C. scowled.

  Griffin felt a tightness in his chest. Heat rose in his face. “What for?”

  “I heard somebody might have seen Kendal Bowden snooping around here and told Cody to come check it out.”

  “Well, dammit, O.C., you should have told me, or at least let Chief Mayhew know what was going on.” He turned his attention back to Cody. “So Judge Rains told you to come into town, get one of my deputies, and come across the tracks here to ni…to the colored side and check out an abandoned building?”

  “Nossir,” Cody spoke up. “That was my idea to ask Andrews, since we’re in town, but the rest is right.”

  “You should have brought John. This is his part of town.�
�

  “I don’t believe John can fit in that little half-breed car of Cody’s,” O.C. said. “Besides, he told me he was bringing Jeff, I forgot to tell you. He thought about asking John, but it looks like he changed his mind.”

  “I intended to call John when we got here, but things happened too fast,” Cody explained.

  Griffin wanted to chew both Cody and the old judge out, but there was no point in it. What was done, was done. He turned back to his men. “Can someone please tell me who owns this spooky old place?”

  Blair referenced his notebook. “George Hart.”

  “That sounds familiar.”

  O.C. rubbed the back of his neck. “Yep, he and his brother Alvin ran a funeral home way back when, long before you moved to town. One day Cobb and Oakes moved in with lower prices and a newer building in the north side of town. Hart and Hart went out of business.”

  The men surrounding him shook their heads.

  “Alvin’s been an invalid for years.” O.C. wagged a forefinger back and forth. “For a long time you’d see George pushing him around town in his wheelchair, but I doubt I’ve seen George in a coon’s age.”

  “I saw him last about a year ago, slipping down the street late one night here on our side of town.” John jerked his thumb toward the south. “He was carryin’ a car battery on his shoulder. I thought that was a little strange, because I don’t believe he owns a runnin’ car, but he was always peculiar anyway. Haven’t seen him since, though.”

  Sheriff Griffin chewed his bottom lip. “All right. I want to hear from the people in the neighborhood. Talk to everyone and find out when was the last time they saw George. Find out from the city about who pays the property taxes and go to the power company and see what name is written on the checks each month. Let’s get a handle on this place we’ve ignored for so long.”

  “You know who George’s boy is?” O.C. asked.

  Griffin sighed. “Who?”

  “That feller that helped break Kevin Jennings out of the nut house in Tulsa and then killed him up on the river. His name is Kendal Bowden.”

  “Oh, hell, I think I knew that.” Griffin turned his eyes toward the sky, as if seeking help from above.

  They turned toward the Cotton Exchange, giving Ned a moment with John. The old constable flicked a hand toward the kids. “Think Miss Sweet is feeling good enough to watch these two while we’re here?” He knew her house was only half a block from the Exchange.

  “She was feelin’ just fine when they emptied all these houses and put her in the car to stay with Miss Peaches.”

  Trapped, Ned took off his Stetson and ran a hand over his bald head. “Now I know what an old sow feels like when she has trouble weaning her pigs off the tit.” He turned to survey the tangled mass of parked cars blocking everything nearly as far as he could see. “I need to get these kids out of here.”

  “I’ll find somebody to carry them home for you, Mister Ned.”

  “Naw, that ain’t your job. I’ll find somebody here in a minute who can run ’em over to Neva Lou’s.” Ned stared down at them, wishing for a moment he was young enough to run off with them.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  When we first got to the Cotton Exchange, Pepper and I saw Mr. Andrew’s legs sticking half out of the door. It was strange, one leg was covered by his britches and the other one fish-belly white, like he never got out in the sun at all.

  There was a lot of excitement around us, and we stuck close to Grandpa and Mr. O.C. A couple of the deputies I didn’t know frowned at us. One of the men who knew us mouthed Grandpa’s name and jerked his head in our direction, so that made it ok for us to stay there for a while.

  For once Pepper didn’t have much to say, from fear I reckon, because at first the whole thing scared her to death. As the men talked, we kept ourselves between Grandpa and Mr. John, who rested his big hand on Pepper’s shoulder and gave us a grin.

  We were safe, though, because nearly every law in town was standing within spittin’ distance. More searchlights arrived and soon the Exchange was lit up like the castle in Disneyland. It was spooky. The gray exterior made me think of vampires. While I was staring at the second floor, something caught my attention. I poked Pepper and pointed it out. Grandpa noticed when I waved my hand toward the building and instead of frowning at us to be quiet, he raised an eyebrow toward the Exchange.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  The discarded possessions of a city were packed tightly in the enormous building.

  ***

  Less than a half hour into the situation, they ground to an impasse. The men around Sheriff Griffin usually dealt with issues in a straightforward manner. Most felt that an assault or entry into a barricaded building was authorized only when the officers came under fire.

  Police Chief Tommy Mayhew wanted to wait until morning, but after making his views known, he simply backed off to let Griffin hang himself. Mayhew was experienced enough to pick his fights, and this wasn’t one of them.

  His frustration rising, Griffin drummed his fingers. “We need to get that boy out, and I want to find out what’s going on.” He turned to study the faces of the officers around him. “Any suggestions or observations?”

  Sergeant Blair worked at his chew for a moment. “From what I can tell, every door and window in the place is either boarded up or packed solid with junk. I’m afraid George blocked all the windows and doors and booby-trapped the entire thing.”

  “Why would he do that?” Griffin watched the building, not expecting an answer.

  “To keep something out?” John mused.

  After a long period of silence, Griffin finally made a decision. “Since we aren’t getting any response from inside, I guess we need to send the dog in there.” He glanced at the faces of the men around him, hoping to find a supporting expression. “If that don’t work, we’ll need someone who is an expert in barricaded buildings.”

  Chief Mayhew laughed harsh and dry. “Expert? Where are you going to find a booby trap expert in Chisum?”

  Griffin raised an eyebrow and waited for an answer.

  A very much calmer Cody Parker had an answer. “I know a guy on the Mesquite police department who was a tunnel rat in Vietnam. We can probably call and have him here in two hours.”

  Mesquite was a growing town on the outskirts of Dallas, a hundred and twenty miles away.

  “He did what?” Griffin snapped, not understanding. The tension and bizarre answers frazzled his nerves.

  “He was one of those guys who went down into VC tunnels with a flashlight and a forty-five.”

  “I never heard of such a thing. You really think there are tunnels through all that mess?”

  “That’s what we saw before the booby trap went off. Andrews is stuck in a tunnel made of trash.”

  Sheriff Griffin stared at the row of arches and shuddered. Now that he thought about it, he remembered hearing about guys on Japanese-held islands who cleaned out their stronghold tunnels during the second war. Anyone willing to go in there all alone had to be nearly as nuts as the lunatic inside. He was frankly unsure what to do next. “All right, call Mesquite and see if they’ll work with us on this. While we’re waiting on them, Blair, send the dog in to nose around. It’s a lead pipe cinch that I’m not crawling into any tunnels inside a building, and neither is anyone else right now.”

  “You want me to use the back entrance to get the dog inside?”

  “That’s the only one I see here on this paper.”

  Ned cleared his throat. “Why don’t you use the one up there on the second floor corner? The one on the right, I mean?”

  Griffin was annoyed at the seemingly ridiculous suggestion. “I guess you know another way in?”

  “Donald, when was the last time you went squirrel huntin’?”

  “Dammit Ned. We’re talking about a situation here, and you want to discuss the last time I hunted squirrels? Have you lost your mind?”

  “Well, I probably don’t have much mind left to lose, bu
t if I was huntin’ squirrels, I’d find a slick spot on the trunk of a tree to see where he’s getting in and out of his hole.”

  Griffin could barely contain himself. “What…are…you…talking…about?”

  “Hell Donald. Even Top standing here knew what he was looking at, once he really paid attention.”

  Cody suddenly realized where Ned was going with the conversation. “When you’re squirrel huntin’ you either set still and let them come to you, or find a nest, or where they crawl in and out of a hollow tree. When they do that, they wear the bark away from the hole. Ned calls it the slick spot.”

  “You find a slick spot, Mister Ned?” John Washington knew good and well Ned didn’t ask such questions unless he already had the answer.

  “Yep, saw it right off, once Top pointed it out. You can get in by climbing that skinny little trellis made of two-by-fours and covered up with that ivy. I don’t reckon I’ve ever seen a vine trellis made out of wood that thick. What paint there on the sill has been worn off, too.”

  “A slick spot.” Griffin glared at the only trellis on the building. He wondered why he hadn’t noticed it before, because now that he was paying attention, it was more like a ladder than a trellis and it was the only one of its kind on the south wall.

  Ned grinned. “Right.”

  The sheriff sighed. Whatever happened to the old days when all we had to worry about were family disputes and bootleggers?

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Moldering shoes filled crevices and holes in the tunnel and canyon walls. A figure wriggled confidently through the darkness, and waited.

  ***

  Deputy Carlton White and his dog Shep crouched behind a car near the covered sidewalk. The pair had been partners for over two years after White transferred to the newly created K-9 unit from street patrol. It was the first pairing of its kind in northeast Texas, and all based on his experience in the Korean War.