by Jeff Carson
"Where is Deputy Cain?" Wolf asked. “What did you do to her?”
"You son of a bitch!" Koling’s voice echoed off the mountain walls. "You killed him. I knew it was you this whole time."
"Be quiet," Wolf said to Koling.
But Koling was shaking his head. "You’re a sick bastard. I always knew you were a sick bastard. I knew it. I knew—"
Sexton’s gun popped twice. Blood fountained from Koling’s chest and his body went limp instantly, falling onto McBeth.
“Shit,” McBeth crawled out from under his downed employee.
Wolf held his breath, waiting for two more shots to kill him next. But Sexton lowered his weapon, tilted his head, and stared at the scene in front of him.
Wolf lowered his hands to his side slowly. "James. Where is Deputy Cain?"
"Where is she, Jimmy?" McBeth asked. "Come on, man, what did you do with her?"
Sexton's eyes locked on McBeth's. "I had to shut her up. She's okay. I knocked her out first so she wouldn't be scared. Nobody will find her, I made it deep enough so the cadaver dogs can't even smell it."
McBeth exhaled in exasperation. “Jimmy, what did you do?”
Jimmy stared.
“You killed Chris?” McBeth asked. “You killed Mary? And look what you’re doing now, Jimmy.”
“He hit you,” Sexton said. “He called you names. He tried to burn you, Eagle. He made you feel weak again. Nobody gets to do that to you. Nobody should ever do that. I stopped him. He was just going to keep going if I didn’t. It was just like your dad.”
Wolf fingered the key chain in his jeans pocket, finding the bulge of the key fob through the fabric. He pinched the button and held it down. Two seconds later his vehicle fired to life next to Sexton. Sexton swiveled fast, aiming the gun at Wolf's vehicle.
Wolf wasted no time. He bent down, picked up his own gun off the ground, took aim, and fired.
Sexton spun and ducked out of sight behind the four-wheel vehicle. Wolf followed, sprinting around the ATV. His feet thumped loudly, telegraphing his approach to Sexton, but Wolf was ready.
When Sexton's leg came into view he fired, then shot the hand that held the gun, then his chest, his throat, and his head.
Spinning around, he marched back toward McBeth, gun pointed and teeth clenched. "Get in your truck right now.”
McBeth was on his hands and knees, staring at him with an open mouth.
Wolf shot past him. “Now!”
McBeth jumped up and got in his truck. Wolf got into the passenger seat, aiming his gun. “Get down there now.”
“Okay. Okay.” McBeth nodded, firing up the engine and spitting gravel as they sped down the mine road past the ATV and Sexton’s corpse.
Wolf thought about what was ahead. It had been years since he’d operated a tractor, and he’d never operated an excavator like the one Wolf knew was parked down here—the one that must have been used to bury Cain.
My God. He’d said he’d knocked her out first so she wouldn’t be scared. She was either dead or in the process of suffocating right now. He looked at McBeth, trying to assess the man in the faint light of the dashboard. His eyes were wide, shell-shocked, yet he kept the truck true and straight on the dirt road.
"You bought that steak,” Wolf said.
“What steak?” McBeth shook his head. “No, I didn’t. I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“You planted the gun at Hammes’s house. You fed the steak to the dog so you could do it. We saw your credit card transaction under your name.”
"No, I swear. All of us use the same credit cards. My credit cards. Jimmy had one. I told you, I pay for everything in the operation.”
Wolf looked out the windshield, watching as another pickup truck came into view, parked next to a giant excavator. The scoop was dug halfway into the ground next to a gaping hole.
He held his breath, hope welling up inside. He’d been picturing the hole covered with dirt. Here it was, wide open. Maybe Sexton hadn’t covered her yet.
"Stop here!”
While McBeth’s tires scraped to a halt, Wolf was already out the door and running.
He slid to the edge of the hole and looked down. It was too deep and dark to see the bottom so he pulled his flashlight off his belt, clicked it on, and pointed it down.
She wasn’t there.
At least, not topside. The hole’s sheer walls led down to a mound of what looked like freshly laid dirt.
McBeth ran up behind him and stopped at the edge of the hole, looking over. Wolf shone his light in the man's face. McBeth still looked in shock, trying to comprehend what was going on.
Wolf made the only choice he had. “Get in the excavator. You can pull out the side of this hole, right?” He put a hand up in karate chop position, signifying the overall linear hole shape. He put his other hand up against it, perpendicular, making a T. “If you dig out the side and then past the bottom of it, we have a place to push the dirt that’s already in the bottom.”
McBeth stared, frozen stiff.
"Did you hear me? Get in the excavator and pull out the side of this hole!"
McBeth nodded, jolting into action. “Yes. Okay!” He ran into the dark toward the machine, climbed up and inside, and fired it up. It rumbled to life and the boom arm lifted off the ground.
The beast’s tracks churned as it lumbered forward, then sideways, then forward again. McBeth was shifting the machine into position, but Sexton’s truck was in the way. He finally pushed it aside with the boom, the truck bouncing and screeching as it was cast aside. The excavator drove forward, this time much faster.
Wolf looked down again. He couldn’t take it anymore. She could have been under mere inches of the dirt, waiting for air to fill her lungs. Every second counted.
He slid over the edge, landing hard on the corner of the hole, hoping she hadn’t been underneath his bodyweight as he slammed hard into the soft ground.
He dug frantically with both hands, probing as deep as he could, moving in a line side to side. He moved up a couple feet and tried again, getting his arm in all the way to the elbow. His fingers jabbed into something hard. He opened his hand and clasped around a rock. He moved forward and started another line.
His right hand felt something. There! His fingers pinched around fabric, and underneath it he felt soft muscle.
The sound of the excavator grew louder while one wall of the hole lit up.
It was her. Her ankle and calf muscle. The outline of her body materialized in his mind. She was face-down and he was kneeling at her feet. He squatted and started digging like a dog, ejecting dirt back through his legs. He had to get to her face as quick as possible, but he didn’t want to stand on her, making any trauma that might have happened already worse.
There was her hip.
He moved up and to the side, estimating where her head was, and continued digging. His arms burned, his hands numb from the scraping wet cold earth. He felt a loop of her hair, then the shape of her skull.
“I’m coming, Piper! I’m coming!”
Wolf doubled, then tripled his efforts, ignoring the cramps seizing his arms and shoulders.
When the overhead light dimmed he looked up to see the excavator was in position. The underside of the massive, gouged metal scoop loomed directly above.
Wolf kept digging, but kept a curious glance at the scoop as it remained motionless for another beat. And then with a sickening twist of his stomach Wolf realized his mistake.
The scoop slowly swiveled downwards, dumping a full load of earth onto his head.
Chapter 36
Wolf covered his head with his arms and felt the brunt of a hundred bowling balls slam onto his back. Rocks, dirt, and mud covered him in an apocalyptic whomp.
Then there was silence. The dirt was packed in his ears, up against his face, every curve and crevice of his body pushed by the heavy earth lying on top of him. Pushing down on Piper Cain.
He opened his eyes and immediately regretted it as dirt
pressed in, packing underneath his eyelids. He tried to take a breath and dirt shot into his lungs. He nearly went berserk, trying with all his might to free himself from death’s stranglehold.
His body felt like it was packed in concrete. With each moment he was frozen in place, the more panic built inside of him.
Ryan’s smiling face flashed in his mind. His grandson running to kick a ball and falling onto his butt. He started crying. He needed help getting up. He needed comfort.
Wolf flexed every muscle in his body. A muffled grunt sounding a thousand miles away bellowed from his chest. He arched and pushed up with his legs, and he felt the earth slide off of his back.
He had to breathe!
He freed one of his legs, propping it up to the side like a kickstand, and rolled sideways.
With agonizing slowness, a tremendous weight slid off his back, sloughing away. He felt cool air caressing his face. He took a deep breath, again coughing on dirt. On his hands and knees he tried to clear his lungs, only faintly aware of more dirt raining down, the deafening sound of metal on rock, close to his head. He suddenly realized he had to move fast to avoid the next load, or he wouldn’t have the energy to fight again.
But it was too late. He felt another slam against his back and he was flung into the hole wall in front of him.
With stars swimming in his vision, he watched as the metal scoop pulled away from him and then disappeared up and away. The light of the machine pierced his tearing eyes, then it snuffed out again as the scoop with its glinting metal teeth came back down.
He put both hands up, brought up his legs, clenched his jaw, tensing every muscle in his body as he prepared for a grisly death.
Then the dirt underneath him shifted and dropped forward.
He opened his eyes and saw the scoop pull up and away again. The light was on him one more time as the bucket swiveled to the side on its retracted boom.
Wolf brushed the dirt off his face and blinked, seeing the side wall had been completely removed.
McBeth’s silhouette came into view as he stumbled down into the new hole he’d created. “Shit! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to dump that first scoop on you! I didn’t realize it was still half-full!”
Wolf got off the dirt and kicked his feet into the new section of hole. Pushing McBeth back, he turned around and began digging again.
McBeth got next to him and helped.
Wolf went straight for Cain’s head. It was much easier now that they could pull at the dirt and get it out of the way in between their legs into the new hole.
There’s no chance. She’s dead. It’s been too long.
He dug harder.
A few seconds later they heaved, grunting with all their might, and Cain’s body spilled out sideways. Wolf sat back, catching her on his lap.
She lay face-up over his thighs, her eyes closed, her lips covered by a strip of duct tape. An extension cord wrapped around her wrists and behind her back, and another one around her ankles.
He put one hand behind her head, brushed the dirt away from her face, and peeled off the duct tape.
It’s been too long.
He put his lips to hers and breathed in twice. Her lips were cold and sticky from the tape’s glue. Her chest rose and fell with all the life of a CPR dummy. He started chest compressions.
“Get out! Move!” A male’s voice yelled.
McBeth was ripped away by someone who had climbed down. Wolf realized there were now red and blue lights slashing into the hole from above.
“Is she okay?” Rachette was next to him now, Yates crowding in beside him.
Wolf checked her carotid and felt nothing. His hands were numb. “I can’t feel anything.”
“I’ll check.” Rachette reached over and put his fingers under her jaw. “I feel it! It’s weak, but it’s there!”
“She’s not breathing.” Wolf put his lips over hers and pushed air into her lungs again. “Untie her hands.”
Rachette slipped his hands beneath her back and got to work. “Shit. It’s tight.”
Wolf breathed in again. The air escaping back out of her lungs made a sighing sound as if she was consciously making a noise, but her eyes remained closed.
“Piper,” he said. He gently slapped her cheek.
“There.” Rachette pulled out the extension cord, flinging it aside, and then checked her pulse again. “I’m not sure if I’m feeling a pulse anymore. Shit.”
“Get her flat,” Yates said.
They picked her up and laid her back into the hole Wolf had just pulled her out of. Now lying on her back and not Wolf’s lap, he began chest compressions again.
“I’m getting the AED!” Yates climbed up and out of the hole.
“One, two, three, four…” he whispered the numbers with tiny exhales, trying to ignore the grave-like appearance of where she lay. Rain began pelting inside the hole, running down Wolf’s neck and back.
After thirty compressions Wolf did two more breaths. “Come on, Piper!”
“Shit,” Rachette said again. “Where’s the ambulance, damn it?”
Yates dropped down into the hole holding the defibrillator machine. “Here!”
“…eleven, twelve, thirteen.” Wolf kept going as Rachette ripped open her shirt, exposing her bra. He pulled his knife and cut the center, exposing her breasts.
The AED machine was talking now, belting out instructions in a woman’s voice.
“…remove pads and place on bare skin exactly as shown on the diagrams on each pad.”
Wolf continued his compressions. “…twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five…” He blanked his mind, going through the motions.
Rachette pressed the pads into place.
“Analyzing heart rhythm,” the machine said. “Stop chest compressions.”
Wolf let go of her and sat up on his knees. Rachette kept clear next to him.
“Electric shock not advised,” it said.
“What?” Rachette breathed.
Piper lurched, and Wolf wondered if the machine had inadvertently delivered the ill-advised shock after all.
She coughed and her eyes flew open. She sucked in a desperate, long breath.
“Piper,” Wolf said, as he closed her shirt and put his hand on her ice-cold forehead. “It’s okay, it’s okay. Get a blanket!”
Her eyes latched onto his as she convulsed with more coughs.
“I got some,” Yates said. “Here.”
When the blankets landed on her she squirmed, flinging them off with a grunt. “No!” she cried. “No!”
“It’s okay,” Wolf said. “You’re okay, Piper. It’s us. It’s Wolf, and Yates, and Rachette.”
Her manic eyes stopped darting and rested on his. Her heaving chest relaxed and her breathing slowed.
“It’s okay.”
Wolf put a thermal blanket on her, this time gingerly. “Let’s get her out.”
Her lips moved.
“Wait!” Wolf bent close, putting his face inches from hers. “What?”
She reached up and put her hand on his face. Her fingers were icicles against his skin.
They stared at each other. Then she laid back onto the dirt, closing her eyes.
He checked her pulse one more time, and even with his numb hand he found it strong.
“All good?” Yates asked, bending down to get a grip on her.
“Yeah,” Wolf said. “All good.”
Chapter 37
FIVE DAYS LATER…
People walking down Main Street wore shorts and short-sleeved shirts. Sunglasses. Flip flops. Summer had officially arrived in Rocky Points.
The sun pierced a cloudless blue sky, showering rays full bore onto the town outside. But because of the triple-paned and tinted glass of his office, Wolf barely had to squint. Here he remained cool to the point of nearly shivering as more Jetstream-fresh air blasted out of the floor vents.
“Not bad outside. It’s hot as shit in Denver.” Undersheriff Wilson sat at a chair in front of Wolf�
�s desk, picking a thread off his pant cuff. “Seems like that place gets hotter every time I visit.”
Through the squad room windows Wolf saw Deputy Nelson march toward Wolf’s door. After two knocks he poked his head inside. “He’s here, sir.”
Wolf nodded. “Thanks. I’ll be right there.” His desk phone trilled and he felt a twinge of pain in his back when he raised the phone to his ear. Bruised ribs—a side effect of a couple hundred pounds of rock and dirt being dropped from an excavator onto him from ten feet up—were mending on his right side.
“He’s here, sir,” Patterson said through the receiver.
“I’ll be right there.” He hung up and walked to the door.
“Good luck.” Wilson scratched his blond walrus mustache.
“Margaret will be here in fifteen minutes,” Wolf said.
“I know. Go, I’ll keep her occupied until you’re back. We can talk about the exploding real estate market for the ninety-ninth year in a row up here in Rocky Points, or something.”
Wolf left the office and went down the hall to interrogation room two. Eagle McBeth and his lawyer sat in chairs in the hallway, talking softly to one another.
“Hello, Eagle,” Wolf said.
McBeth and his lawyer rose, the attorney whispering in McBeth’s ear as they both stood.
“John Lessiter, I’m Mr. McBeth’s attorney.”
Wolf nodded and shook his hand. “Let’s head in, shall we?” They walked in through the observation room where Patterson, Yates, and Rachette stood in front of the one-way mirror.
“After you,” Wolf said, letting them pass at the threshold of the interrogation room and inside. “You two can take a seat on the right there.”
Patterson handed Wolf a thick manila folder as Wolf followed McBeth and Lessiter inside and shut the door. They had decided beforehand Wolf would handle this alone.
He sat and placed the folder on the table. “This interview will be recorded with audio and video,” Wolf said, tapping the recording device in the center of the table and pointing to the cameras mounted on the ceiling. “I appreciate you volunteering to come in, Mr. McBeth.”