by Ted Clifton
Ray parked in front of the café and made sure Happy was comfortable and had plenty of air. The Lone Post was also doing a brisk Saturday morning business, so there weren’t any tables or booths available, but there was a small counter and Ray took a stool. He’d barely sat down before Sue appeared.
“Good morning, Ray.”
“Good morning, Sue. Looks like you’re busy today.”
“Yeah. Somebody said there was an article in the El Paso paper yesterday, and now we have a few more visitors than normal.”
Ray placed his order with Sue, then went out front and got an El Paso paper from the box. He read the sports and glanced at the rest of the news. His breakfast was served and he enjoyed every bite.
“Well, we didn’t have much time to talk today.” Sue was looking disappointed.
“Sue, this may be an oddball question. I’m going to do some searching for a body that may be up around my cabin later on this afternoon and I was wondering if you’d like to help?”
Sue laughed. “Well yeah, that’s an oddball question.”
“Sorry, I guess that was more like stupid than oddball.” Ray couldn’t believe he had just tried to make a date to search for a dead body. Even for him that was bizarre.
“What time and how do I find your cabin?”
Ray was a little surprised. He told her Tyee would probably be there part of the time, but maybe after they searched some he could fix her dinner. She smiled. Ray wasn’t sure what he was doing, he was just doing it. He gave her a map and said that three o’clock would be great. He said they would wait until three to start the search, and if she arrived later to just wait on the porch. She continued to smile and said she would take off a little early and be there by three. He hadn’t realized he’d asked her to take off work early—now he was embarrassed all over again.
“Look Sue, I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. Why don’t you just come for dinner? I’m such an idiot about some things and just didn’t realize I was asking you to leave work early.”
“Ray, it’s okay. I’ll be there at three—if I’m not I’ll be there at five—how’s that?”
“That’s great Sue. See you later.” Ray got up and paid his check at the register. The lady there gave him an I-know-what-you’re-doing look while she counted out his change. Ray couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Back in the Jeep, he let his breath out while petting Happy. He felt like a teenager who’d just asked a girl for a first date. Well, hell, maybe that wasn’t such a bad feeling. He was grinning.
Ray stopped by the market in town and picked up some things: bread, wine, and one of those pre-made salads. He had steaks in the refrigerator. He also got more food for Happy. Then headed to the far side of the lake to drop by Tyee’s camp. This took a bit of time, but soon he was parked just above the campsite. He went down, accompanied by Happy, and yelled out to Tyee. There was no response. Ray found some paper in his truck and left a note explaining that at around three he was going to do some searching in the vicinity of his cabin to look for clues about the missing woman. He mentioned the shoe and asked if Tyee could join him.
After a brief stop to get gas, Ray decided to bypass Big Jack’s and head home. He was still deeply embarrassed that he’d invited Sue to search for a body—what in the world had he been thinking? He’d wanted to see her and that was what he’d been planning on doing so he’d invited her—it just didn’t occur to him how stupid it sounded until he’d said it.
It seemed like a really long time before he finally reached home. For the first time since he’d moved to the lake, he wished he had a phone so he could call Sue and cancel their meeting. That sounded very businesslike. It wasn’t a date, it was a meeting. Ray sat in the Jeep for a while, debating what to do. He could run down to Big Jack’s and call. How had this day gone so wrong? He headed back to Big Jack’s.
Pulling in, he found there were no cars—the busy day was apparently over. Ray and Happy entered. As usual, there was no one around. Ray looked out back and saw Big Jack asleep on his cot, enjoying the warm day. Rather than disturb him, Ray would use the phone and leave—no need to even mention it to Big Jack.
“Hey, what’s going on?” It was Tyee.
Ray jumped. “Gave me a little start there—I didn’t see you.”
“Yeah, Indians are sneaky.”
Ray tried to pull himself together. He needed to use the phone but didn’t want to discuss why with Tyee. Within a single day Ray had turned into a bumbling moron.
“I was going to do some searching around my cabin in a while to see if I could find anything that might link to the missing woman—care to help?”
“Sure.”
“Happy found a woman’s shoe that doesn’t look that old, so I thought it might make some sense.”
“Something wrong, Ray? You seem nervous.”
“No nothing. I went by your camp earlier and left a note. So when you get back just ignore the note.”
“Come on, Ray, what the hell is going on—you’re sounding goofy.”
“Oh jeez. For some stupid reason I invited Sue at the café to go searching for dead bodies like it was a date. I don’t know, it was like my mind wasn’t working. It makes me feel like an idiot. So now I’m going to call her and tell her not to come.”
“A date to look for dead bodies—is this some kind of zombie thing?”
“No. It’s just some kind of stupid old man thing.”
“Indian sensing romance in air.”
Ray called information and got the number for the café. It was answered as always by the lady at the register. Ray asked for Sue but was told that she had gone home early with a headache. He asked for her number and was told that they couldn’t give out employee’s private numbers. He hung up. He called information again and asked for the number for Sue Lewis—they said they didn’t have a Sue Lewis. He hung up again.
“Come on, Ray, it’s not that bad. So you made kind of a silly date—she was the one who said yes. I think you just need to go with the flow here, see how this turns out. What time was she supposed to be there?”
“Either three, if she could get off work early, or five if not.”
“Well let’s head up to your cabin. You can clean up some and then, if she shows up, we can do some searching and you can go back to normal date mode. If she doesn’t show up you and I can search some and see if there’s anything obvious in your area, okay?”
“Thanks, Tyee. Don’t tell Big Jack about this date fiasco or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Tell Big Jack what?” It was Big Jack, standing at the door.
“This day just gets worse by the minute.” Ray realized he had no choice, so he told Big Jack the story. Big Jack laughed in his familiar way for several minutes—putting himself and several display cases in great danger. Ray knew that he would never hear the end of this story.
Tyee and Ray headed toward the cabin. Happy settled into the back of the Jeep and hung his head on Tyee’s shoulder. Once at the cabin, Ray began cleaning up. It wasn’t real messy, but it didn’t quite meet female guest standards. Tyee fixed food for Happy and helped Ray where he could. As Ray was finishing, Tyee and Happy went out onto the porch.
Punctual to a fault, Sue pulled up right at three o’clock. She got out and started toward the cabin. Seeing Tyee sitting on the porch gave her a brief pause, but then she continued with her hand extended.
“You must be Tyee, I’m Sue.”
“Hello Sue. Ray’s inside cleaning up a little. Have a seat.”
“Thanks.” Sue sat in one of the rocking chairs and gave Happy a much appreciated ear rub.
“Ready to go look for bodies?” For whatever reason, maybe the way he said it, both Tyee and Sue doubled over in laughter.
“Okay, I know this must be about my stupid invitation. Go ahead and have a good laugh.” He had emerged onto the porch with a backpack. He was smiling, but his feelings were hurt just a little.
“Ray, I’m sorry—it was just the way Tyee said we�
�d ‘go look for bodies’—it was just funny. I’m so happy you invited me, and if it had been a problem I would have said no. And by the way, you don’t know this but I was a physician’s assistant before I became a top-notch waitress at the Lone Post. I’m not squeamish about bodies. And if I don’t want to do something, I’m very capable of saying no. So please let me stay and go on the search.”
“A physician’s assistant waiting tables—how did that happen?” Ray was stunned, pleased and smiling. Sue could take care of herself.
“Long story, Ray. One I would be pleased to tell you later, but let’s get this search underway.”
Ray agreed. He told Tyee and Sue about the circumstances that made it possible that there would be a body somewhere in the area. He also explained that the area that would eventually need to be searched was large, covering many acres. What he wanted to do today was just let Happy guide them, if he would, and see if there was something obvious. He planned to request that the sheriff’s office make a more thorough search the following week to make sure they didn’t miss something. He showed them a rough map of the area and the small section he wanted to cover right around the cabin. Once everyone understood the plan, he called Happy over.
Ray was sure that Happy wasn’t trained as a search dog, but dogs have an incredible sense of smell and he thought that Happy might be a natural at finding things. He also knew that dogs were disturbed by dead bodies, and for that reason he’d decided it was pretty unlikely that his owner was in the vicinity—Happy would have acted differently if he could still smell her in the area. He let Happy sniff the shoe.
“Okay, boy, find the smell. Go boy, find the scent.”
Happy ran off quickly. They spread out, Tyee in the lead, with Ray on one side and Sue on the other, each about an arm’s length from Tyee. They followed the dog’s path. Happy seemed to be heading in a fairly straight line toward something. It wasn’t long before they lost track of him. Tyee seemed to know which way to go, so they just kept walking alongside him. Soon Tyee stopped.
“Ray, call Happy.”
Ray called out for Happy and in a moment he appeared. He was obviously tired and seemed distressed.
“Keep him here. I’ll be right back.”
Tyee headed out. Ray and Sue stood by Happy giving him attention. Tyee was back within a few minutes.
“There’s a body over that little rise, an elderly woman. Looks like the body was rolled into a little gully and covered with leaves. There’s been some damage done by animals, so the body is in pretty bad shape. I think we should call the sheriff and report it.”
“Let me go look. It won’t disturb me at all. Part of my duties at one of my stops was forensic—I’ve seen it all.” Saying this, Sue pulled out plastic gloves and put them on. Ray nodded and Tyee and Sue headed back over the little hill. They were back in only a few minutes.
“I didn’t want to do much or the sheriff would say we’d contaminated the site, but I do have some things we can discuss.”
They agreed that Happy was upset and that they should get him back to the cabin. Ray reached into his backpack and took out police tape, which he gave to Tyee, asking him to tape off the area around the body. He also had a small tarp in the backpack which he gave Tyee to cover the remains, hopefully to prevent any further damage.
Ray petted Happy as they waited for Tyee to come back. Then he pointed him toward the cabin and said, “Home, boy.” The dog took off and they followed. They’d come further than they’d thought and it took them some time to get back to the cabin. Happy was on the porch and was very glad to see them. Ray opened the door and let everyone inside. He’d put several bottles of wine in the refrigerator. He opened a white and poured them each a glass. They silently toasted the dead person as they sipped their wine.
Sue described what she’d seen in professional detail. It looked like the woman had been shot, most likely with a large caliber pistol. The wound was in her chest and the damage probably killed her more or less instantly. Sue estimated her age to be in the eighties, probably late eighties. No way to make out facial features due to wildlife predation. Ray asked if it could be someone in their early sixties, but Sue didn’t think so. They sipped more wine, and Ray refilled everyone’s glass.
“Well, it’s someone, but it doesn’t seem to fit Ms. Jackson. That lines up with what I was saying before about Happy not going to the body, as I think he would have if it had been his owner. So now the question is, who is it?” Ray was subdued after finding the body, but in a way this might be good news, at least for Ms. Jackson’s family.
“Tyee, I’m fixing steaks with a lot more wine, how about you stay and have dinner?”
“Indian must be in teepee after dark.”
“Don’t give me that Indian bullshit. You’re more than welcome to stay for dinner and bunk here.”
“Sorry Ray, I already have a date with Big Jack. He promised me beer and a cot if I would join him in a game of chess. For money. Big Jack thinks no Indian knows how to play chess, so it’s easy money for me. I’ll head out now. It was nice meeting you, Sue—I hope Ray knows how to cook. This is the first time he’s ever mentioned that he cooks.”
“It was nice meeting you Tyee. I’ll keep you posted on Ray’s chef skills.”
Ray stood up and went to the door. As Tyee approached, Ray gave him the keys to the Jeep and asked if he could come and pick him up the next morning around eleven so they could get ready for the barbeque that day. Tyee accepted the keys and seemed pleased—he’d been prepared to walk to Big Jack’s, but driving would be a lot easier. Tyee waved to Sue and left.
Ray had been completely comfortable as long as Tyee’d been there, but now, with just Sue, he was nervous again. “Why don’t I get the steaks out and put a few things together?”
“Ray, just a minute.” Sue got up, walked up to him, and gave him a kiss. She felt good against him. She leaned back. “Now stop being so nervous, I think we can be great friends—I won’t kill you or marry you, so you’re safe, okay?” Ray laughed and kissed her back. She went with him into the kitchen and they prepared a wonderful dinner.
Sue stayed over. This was the first woman Ray had been with since his wife had died almost six years before. It was very comfortable and natural. He felt no guilt, only joy. He also woke with a reminder that he might have drunk just a little too much wine the night before.
Ray fixed coffee and toast. She asked if he had grape jelly, and Ray felt a tingle. He told her about the barbeque that afternoon for Deputy Clayton’s campaign and she said she’d be there. She didn’t linger after breakfast, gathering her belongings and kissing him goodbye.
“I had a great time, Ray. I’m a grown woman and I only do what I want to do—you owe me nothing. But I want you to know that I would enjoy being with you when it’s right for you.”
“You are something special, Sue. I had a great time too, and I want to see you again.”
“How about this afternoon.”
“Oh yeah, great, great, I mean yeah.”
“You do have a way with words, Ray.”
She left and Ray sat down on the porch and just smiled.
Sunday
Tyee picked Ray up at eleven and took him back to Big Jack’s. First thing Ray did was call the sheriff’s office and report that he’d found a body near his cabin. He told them where and that it was marked with police tape. He didn’t know the person he gave the information to, so he kept it to the basics, saying that he’d discovered the body after his dog had brought back a woman’s shoe, omitting any mention of Tyee and Sue. He said it looked to him as if the woman had been shot and that she was elderly. He gave the deputy his name and address and also told him he was going to be at Big Jack’s today.
The campaign strategy would involve multiple small gatherings, with somewhere around fifty people attending, happening over the next month. They hoped to be able to have twenty or so of these events. For the kickoff barbeque they had decided to try to attract closer to 200 people. Th
is would be their core group. The plan was to get this group excited about Clayton, then have them canvass their neighborhoods. They would also get some of the hosts for the smaller events from this group.
The day before, the flyer team had put out all 300 flyers and talked to a lot of people. Who knew how many would show up, though? Ray was pretty confident that the free food and free beer would be a significant inducement, and he expected to have a large crowd. Big Jack had erected several tents along the side of his store and had a huge smoker working overtime on briskets. For this many people the cost of food and drink would be substantial. It made Ray wonder about Big Jack, exactly who he was and how much money he really had.
The barbeque was to run from one to three, starting after church ended and with an early end time so they would have time to shoo people home—no beer drinking all day on Big Jack’s tab. The crew had worked hard all morning and had most everything ready. There were huge quantities of baked beans, potato salad, and Cole slaw prepared and waiting. The beer was iced. At about twelve forty-five the first people began to show. From that point on there was a steady stream. It kept everybody hopping just to keep the food refreshed and handle the large amounts of trash. Ray had taken on the key responsibility of keeping the large tubs of ice stocked with beer. He was impressed with the amount of beer that had already been consumed and hoped they had enough.
Around two, Ray stepped up to the small stage area and tapped on the microphone.
“Ladies and Gentleman, may I have your attention. We’re here today in support of Deputy Clayton, who is running for Sierra County sheriff.” There was some cheering, largely from the group that had been drinking most of the beer.
Ray told them who he was and why he was endorsing Clayton. He made it very clear that the previous sheriff didn’t have his respect and it was time for a change. He didn’t mention the current acting sheriff but everyone knew he was connected to the previous sheriff, who’d been selling drugs. Ray made several points, all tied to the key idea that Clayton’s goal was fair treatment of everyone by the sheriff’s department. He also pointed out that the management of the county jail was the responsibility of the sheriff, and Clayton had a degree in management. He made his points and got several rounds of applause, then introduced Deputy Clayton.