Marshall continues, “Governor Shepherd was never seen again, stories would persist that he was taken off by highway robbers who killed the men protecting him and intended to ransom the governor off to his family but the truth is in Hank’s journal, the pieces that were Governor Shepherd were given to the pigs on the Wilkins farm, Hank’s last words to Zeke, Jeremiah, his sons, and the five unnamed men were, ‘Never trust the government, boys.’ He tried to live a quiet life with Suzanne and Sterling, he never let his son see his face without the mask, he would ask his mom why his father would always wear the mask, the only thing she would tell him was that he felt more comfortable that way. He made a good go of it, he was a doting husband to Suzanne and a watchful father to Sterling, but once the boy was married and working, he had the desire to wander and eventually he did, down to Mexico, but the rest, well, the rest will be there for you to read,” Marshall tells Princeton. “Or publish it eventually should you choose, we can find someone to translate the whole thing, I could do it but it would take more time than we’ve got, it took me all day and night just to translate what I did, I had to make a trip to the reservation, I would not have been able to translate it without their assistance. The Wilkins boys hauled all of that gold down to Perryville; it’s in a vault down by the Mississippi River. So you were right to search the caves like you did, provided he kept it where it was originally stored but it was all moved long ago and I’ve marked the location on the map, the Wilkins boys were sworn to secrecy and they never passed it down, the story passed down was Hank and his gang hid the gold and then split up, Hank and Jeremiah were captured, their families were protected and Hank Wright was hung. But see, it’s like an iceberg, you only really saw what he wanted everyone to see, the truth, the rest of it, was hidden beneath all along.”
“No wonder that story about him turnin’ himself in never made any fuckin’ sense. He planned to get busted out all along and kill the governor but why move all the gold around?” Princeton asks.
“Because Billy Callahan took that letter and even though it only had a small fraction of the code, it was an impetus to make him paranoid enough, at least more than he already was, to have the Wilkins boys move it, boys that idolized him, that would kill for him, boys that would keep it a secret, take it to their graves.”
“But, then he put it in the journal so if anyone was going to find it, they’d have to have the journal and how the hell did Hank know Cherokee?” Princeton asks.
“There is Cherokee in our line, you’d have to go far back but it’s there,” Bernice says.
“You never tol’ me that ‘fore,” Princeton says, he tugs at a black piece of his hair so it curls on his forehead.
“You never sat still long enough to hear it,” Bernice says.
“So now you know where it is and we’re headed to Poplar Bluff next so you should continue with us,” Marshall says.
“As much as I disapprove of you joining a hunt for a murderer out in da woods, if you’re with this man, I feel like you’ll be safe,” Bernice says as she looks at Marshall.
“We’ll find someone to translate the rest of that journal too,” Marshall says.
“I’d prefer that we didn’t, not until I’ve laid claim to what is rightfully mine. I can’t have anyone else knowin’, they could beat me to it. Not to mention, how the hell am I going to haul all of it off?” Princeton asks.
“We’ll think of something. I don’t want to dash your dreams, but have you considered the possibility that someone may have stumbled across it on accident or whoever owns the land could have found it?” Marshall opines.
“If anyone would have found it, we would’ve heard ‘bout it.”
“I just don’t want you to open that vault and be surprised if nothing’s there.”
“It will be there, I can feel it in my gut and if a man don’t trust his gut, then there’s a lot in life he needs to sort out,” Princeton says.
“The rest of the artifacts will stay with you. Bernice, we’ll only take the map and the journal, that’s all he’ll need,” Marshall assures her.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Bernice says.
“No need to thank me. Princeton and I had a deal, he helps me track the man that I’m after, I promised to help him find the gold,” Marshall explains.
“What do you intend to do when you find this man?” Bernice asks.
“We arrest him, disperse his followers, let him answer for his crimes,” Marshall explains.
“Some men you can’t capture,” Bernice says.
“The man we seek is a genuine wizard, he’s a piece of work with a demon box, cave dwellers, a lizard-beast he controls,” Princeton explains.
“Boy, you’ve gone mad,” Bernice tells him.
“I seen it all with my own eyes, the man can summon the dead, see the future, shit he can probably levitate and cast spells too,” Princeton says.
“There is a logical explanation for what this man appears to do. I need him alive though,” Marshall tells her.
“If I have my way, we’ll see if the brown wizard is bulletproof, I’d lay waste to the whole lot of ‘em,” Princeton admits.
“Don’t forget you were a part of his community before we found you,” Marshall tells Princeton.
“What in the hell were you thinkin’? You coulda been an accessory to those murders. And I didn’t raise no follower,” Bernice says.
“Calm down, Ma, I wasn’t followin’ him. I didn’t believe in what that man was sellin’, I was just curious. He does have powers, believe me, but I was just there for entertainment, I did not participate in his dark arts nor would I sully my name by joining his batshit crazy band.”
“The company you keep reveals your character,” Bernice says.
“But you approve of the company I keep now,” Princeton says as he nods at Chester and Marshall, he puts his thumbs in the waist of his trousers.
“Yes, and they found you. You should consider yourself fortunate, if you would’ve stayed with that man and been accessory to his atrocities, I couldn’t look you in the face anymore. You is a leader, not no follower, now you prove your worth to this detective and you learn to be a good man along the way, you’ve got it in you. Don’t you disappoint me now. I’ll send word to the Wilkins, the Gobbins, and the Dolons that you will go and claim that treasure. But you listen to what this man says and you make it back safe, y’hear?”
“I will make it back looking just as good as I do now with so much gold I’ll be like Donald Duck swimmin’ in that shit,” Princeton says.
“That’s Scrooge McDuck,” Marshall corrects him.
“I thought Scrooge was that crotchety ol’ codger with the ghost of Marley haunting him, bringing holiday joy to that tiny cripple boy,” Princeton declares.
“Scrooge McDuck was the rich…oh, never mind,” Marshall says.
“Tryin’ to talk sense to the boy is like tryin’ to teach a mule to play a banjo. You have my permission to hit him if you have to,” Bernice explains.
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Marshall says.
“I may find joy in it,” Chester says and smiles as he looks at Princeton.
“I do hit back now and Chester after a night of our drunken debaucherous deluge, I was startin’ to think we bonded,” Princeton explains.
“My allegiance is to him,” Chester says. “You just along for the ride until you prove your usefulness.”
“And I shall do so soon enough for when occasion requires it, I will display my fiery temper and employ my skills at gunplay,” Princeton assures him; he licks his teeth and presses his fingers together.
“Speaking of which, I have a plan for how to handle the ambush that awaits us at Poplar Bluff,” Marshall says.
“The animal king?” Princeton asks eagerly.
“Yes, now look at what he bought. Even without the receipt, I anticipated an ambush there,” Marshall explains.
“Why are you anticipating that?”
“It’s the end of our trail to him. Ever s
ince we found the first box, I assumed the last one, in Poplar Bluff, would be a trap but now I’m convinced he plans to use the boy to kill us. This will require coordinated effort on out part,” Marshall says as he pulls out a map of Poplar Bluff and the surrounding forests. “We will have to deviate from our previous methods of finding the cave, then finding the cabin, we must change the game and I must be able to trust both of you to play your roles.”
“And you don’t trust anyone,” Princeton says.
“But you can trust us,” Chester assures him.
“I have so far,” Marshall explains. “For this to work, we need him alive, incapacitating him will be necessary but we’re going to need him to talk. The man in brown aims to kill all three of us but we will turn his trap against him, and if you follow the plan, this will be the game-changer. If it fails, the trail dries up and I fear all will be lost.”
“How are we supposed to find the cabin without the cave first?” Chester asks.
“That’s the beautiful part about his trap, if it goes down the way I expect it to, finding the cabin will be a simple matter of looking for the smoke.”
“I’m not understandin’,” Princeton admits.
“He wants us to think it’s inhabited, he wants us to believe he’s there,” Marshall explains.
“So we’ll charge in and be killed,” Chester says.
“Yes, but that’s only part of it. Now, there are variables outside of our control but I will start with what is certain,” Marshall says and he explains the plan while plotting out their positions on the map. “Wherever we find it, this is where I’ll need both of you to be,” Marshall says as he draws on the map. “I will be the only one in harm’s way, whoever finds him first, you shoot to wound, do not engage him in close quarters.”
“In close quarters, I’d rip the boy apart,” Chester says.
“He has been trained and he is a dangerous adversary, do not underestimate a feral boy subsisting on what he kills with these supplies at his disposal, a cabin that he’s eager for us to discover, and absolutely nothing to lose. He wouldn’t have been picked if he was easy prey; the boy has skills and a singular purpose.”
“Do not underestimate the wrath of Princeton Wright,” Princeton says.
“Or the rage of Chester Swanson,” Chester adds.
“Then we do it my way and, by and by, I don’t underestimate either one of you. Logic trumps madness every time and that is why we shall prevail; logic, patience, and teamwork will allow us to capture the animal king.”
On the drive to Poplar Bluff with Marshall behind the wheel, Chester in the passenger seat, and Princeton in the back, Chester asks Marshall what he’s thinking about.
“Just daydreamin’, personal things,” Marshall explains, he keeps his right hand on the wheel and scratches his beard with his left hand.
“We all have similar dreams, detective, it’s just a change in the means,” Princeton says. “What’s your dream, detective?”
“One can never come true, the others are what I hope will come to pass,” Marshall says.
“Elaborate then,” Princeton urges him.
“The practical dream is we catch the man in brown, we disband his followers, then I apprehend Jackson Addler, Barnabus Shield is convicted at trial, I find proof that Catherine Shield is behind my attempted assassination, and I bring her and my potential killer to justice, bringing Daniel Shield down in the process.”
“A tall order but not impossible,” Chester reasons.
“What about the one you said could never come true?” Princeton asks.
“I dream that Gina will come back,” Marshall says.
“Maybe one day, in some capacity, you’ll see her again,” Princeton reasons. “What about you Chester?”
“I want to make my late mother proud, stay on the side of right, do good work like we’re doing here, help Marshall solve this case. I’d like to own a house at some point, have a wife, have a few kids,” Chester says. “What about you?”
“Talk fast, live large, die young,” Princeton responds.
“That’s not a dream, that’s a motto,” Marshall says.
“True, that is my personal motto and I do intend to live up to it. But my dream, well, I find Hank’s gold, I divide it up among the rightful heirs, I continue adventurin’ and explorin’, I’ve always fancied goin’ to Mexico, take all the drugs I can, sleep with all the women who’ll let me, at some point I’ll have to leave behind an heir to my name but in the meantime, I intend to cram three lifetimes worth of livin’ into my one. I know when I was born, and I know that we all die, but what occurs between then, that is where I shall leave my mark.” When they arrive at a safe distance from their destination, Marshall parks the car, Marshall prepares for their approach.
“There it is,” Marshall says as he looks through his binoculars, he hands them to Chester, who looks and then hands them to Princeton.
“He started the fire, just like you said he would,” Chester says.
“Look, around the cabin, see the displaced dirt, enough of the tanks are out of the ground to allow him to take a shot,” Marshall says in a quiet voice. “There are only two vantage points that will allow him to take a shot on all four, these two cliffs,” Marshall says as he points to them, “you two take your places but do so slowly and quietly, I will monitor your locations, when you are close, I will make my approach, if you find him before he fires, I would prefer that but, if not, once his shots ring out, you pounce on him quickly, understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Princeton says.
“Now, Chester, stealth is not your forte but you must keep quiet. Just go slowly and don’t break anything,” Marshall suggests.
“Not until I get to him,” Chester responds.
“Fair enough,” Marshall says, then he watches each of them leave, he holds up a blade of grass to see which way it blows, then he waits for Chester and Princeton to arrive at their respective positions. Once they do, he makes his descent towards the cabin, he lowers his hat on his head as he approaches it, he hears the click off to the left, he shields his face with his coat as the shots ring out, the propane tanks explode, the cabin that the animal king had prepped catches fire, Marshall is knocked back, a shot hits him in the chest, Marshall is on the ground when he hears two pistol shots off to the left, Marshall hears Princeton’s voice ring out through the woods, Marshall opens his coat and feels the bulletproof vest beneath it, he feels where the bullet is lodged in the vest, his chest burns, then he hears Chester lumbering towards him.
“Marshall, are you all right?” Chester asks.
“Yeah, he just knocked the wind out of me,” Marshall says as he looks at the cabin ablaze, he lays back on the ground and looks up at the sky. “Go check on Princeton, make sure he doesn’t kill the boy,” Marshall says.
“I will, I’ll be back,” Chester says, he lumbers up to the other cliff and sees Princeton with his guns drawn.
“I would’ve gotten to him sooner but the boy be camouflaged,” Princeton says, he has his boot on the boy’s gun and the boy’s bow and arrow have been thrown behind him. Marshall makes it up to the cliff and looks at the boy; he’s been shot in the leg and the shoulder. “I ain’t used to shootin’ to wound but my hands they don’t shiver, I haven’t introduced myself properly to the boy. I am the outlaw Princeton Wright and despite your sharpshooting skills and hunting acumen, the woods be my natural habitat too so don’t feel bad that I defeated you, no need to take it personal now, this is just business.”
“We’re gonna need to get him medical attention,” Marshall says.
“We’ll have to take him into town to do that,” Chester says.
“I reckon you should ask him what you need to know first,” Princeton reasons.
“I kill you!” the boy says though his words are shouted and hardly intelligible. The boy tries to lunge for Marshall but Chester pins him quickly and holds him down, he sees the boy’s sharp canines, and takes off the boy’s sunglasses. “My eyes,
I can’t see,” the boy says.
“Princeton, holster those guns,” Marshall says, Princeton does so. “Just listen to my voice,” Marshall says to the boy. “We need to get you to a doctor, but before we can do that I need you to answer some questions.”
“I kill you,” the boy says as he struggles to get free but it’s no use against Chester.
“You had your chance and you failed, sir,” Princeton tells the boy.
“I’ll handle it,” Marshall tells Princeton. “Now, who sent you to kill us?” Marshall asks, the boy doesn’t answer. “The longer this takes, the longer you suffer. So you have a choice, writhe there in pain or answer my questions and we can get you healed up quickly.”
“I can get him to answer,” Princeton says as he pulls his gun back out and holds it to the boy’s head as he kneels down.
“That’s not how we do things,” Marshall tells him, Princeton holsters his gun. “Who sent you to kill us?”
“The man in brown,” the boy says, his voice is deep and raspy.
“I need his real name,” Marshall says.
“None of us know his real name,” the boy says.
“I need to know where he’s headed.”
“I can’t tell you that. You might try to kill him and, if he dies, the leviathan will be unleashed.”
“Listen, I can save your family, you can have a normal life.”
“I ain’t ever gonna be normal. Not after what I’ve done.”
“What did he have you do?”
“All those headless bodies that came back, my parents and I, we ate them, that’s what he asked us to do, we spilled their blood on the ground in the caves, then we ate ‘em.”
“I can save your parents; I just need you to tell me where they’re headed.”
“I told you I can’t. If he dies or if you stop him, the beast will be unleashed.”
“You let me worry about the beast. Besides, if you don’t tell me, I will follow their tracks and we will find them regardless but that way will be messy. If you tell me where they’re headed, I can end it in a civilized way.”
“He’s more than just a man, he is a teacher and he has the answers. You shouldn’t be tryin’ to stop him, you should be joinin’ him.”
Detective Tumbler and the Man in Brown (Detective Tumbler Trilogy Book 2) Page 19