“I wanted to talk to Frank if he’s available.”
“Sorry, he’s tied up in a meeting right now. Want me to have him call you back when he’s done?”
“Sure, if you don’t mind. Tell him I got my first murder case, and I want to pick his brain a little bit. I heard tell he was a high-fallutin’ homicide detective in San Antonio for many years and thought he might tell me how to get started on it.”
“Sure. I’ll have him give you a shout when he’s done. How’s Glenna and those kids?”
“Oh, they’re adjusting well, I think. They’re happy to be out of their old house and into the new one. Too many bad memories in the old house, I guess. The oldest one found a new friend about the same age. I wish we had more kids that survived.”
“When are you guys gonna come see us for dinner?”
“Soon. Very soon. Let me talk to Frank about the murder case, and if he wants to see crime scene photos or anything we’ll bring them by and stay for supper.”
“Okay. Good enough. I’ll have him call you.”
“Thank you. Talk to you later…”
Mark, like most of the other adults in the compound, had heard the rumors about the mysterious trip the Bryans and Brad had taken the morning after Sarah came home. But it failed to register when Marty mentioned he was working on a murder case. He went back to watching the monitors and never gave Marty’s request another thought.
“So,” Rusty said. “If we decide to restock the mine, and we invite Marty and Lenny to join us, how many others do you think they’ll bring in with them?”
“I don’t know. Probably a few. Maybe quite a few. But it shouldn’t be a problem. If he and Lenny help gather provisions, we should have plenty of everything. Why do you ask?”
“Oh, I’m not worried about the provisions. I was just hoping he’d bring a couple of women in with him. I’m thirty now, and not getting any younger. This whole living in a mine thing put a damper on my social life. I’d like to have a woman of my own so I can stop trying to think of ways to steal yours.”
“I’m not worried about you stealing Hannah. She has better taste than that. And I thought you had your sights set on Rachel.”
“I did until she fell for Joel. Now I’m back to square one.”
“Well just hang in there buddy. We’ll get you a woman of your very own. There’s bound to be someone out there who’s desperate enough to settle for a broken down thirty year old man. It’s just a matter of finding her.”
-28-
Back in the dining room, Joel Hance was getting a crash course on how the group’s system of government worked.
Rachel leaned over and whispered to him.
“They patterned it after the way a lot of Indian tribes did it. Any adult can call a meeting for any reason he feels is important. The person who calls the meeting stands up and explains what the meeting is all about. Then each person with something to say takes their turn to say whatever they want.
“There is no shouting or arguing, and children are welcome to observe the process but aren’t allowed to say anything. After the last person has his say, if there’s a decision to be made it’s put to a vote.
“If the vote ends in a tie, the three elders will vote to make the final decision.”
“The elders?”
“Yes. The three oldest people in the group. Men or women, it doesn’t matter. There are always three elders, and they are not allowed to abstain from voting. That way there’s always an odd number of voters and there cannot be a second tie. Everything gets resolved one way or another before everyone leaves the room.”
“Interesting.”
“Yeah. I thought so too. Too bad big governments can’t resolve things the way the Indians once did.”
They turned their attention back to the front of the room, where Karen was explaining the process for making beef jerky.
“If we have to go back into the mine, we won’t have enough feed or hay to sustain all the livestock. We’ll pare them down to just enough animals to breed. The rest we’ll butcher. Some of the meat we’ll freeze for the long term, like we did the first time we were there. The rest we’ll season and bake on very low heat until it dries. It can be reconstituted later for use in stews and soups and such, or just eaten as jerky. Either way it’ll continue to provide the protein our bodies need for many years.”
Karen was the last one to speak. It was time to vote.
Bryan took center stage again.
“Karen, would you count hands for us?”
“Sure.”
Karen was well liked and trusted by everyone. And in the unlikely event she made a mistake, someone would call her on it. Everyone would be looking around the room and taking their own counts.
“Those in favor of restocking the mine and then maintaining it in ready condition raise your hands now.”
Karen’s head bobbed slightly as she scanned the room.
She turned to Bryan and said, “Twenty six.”
Several other heads nodded in agreement.
“Those opposed?”
Another group of hands went up. Karen duly counted them although she knew there was no real need in it. More than two thirds of those present had already voted for the measure.
“Six,” she reported.
“Any votes by proxy?”
No one offered them. There was no reason to.
Bryan sighed in relief. He was ready to vote by proxy on Sarah’s behalf if he needed to. If the vote was close. But had he done so, it surely would have provoked an objection. Those not agreeing with Bryan’s view would claim that Sarah was not of sound mind at the moment, and was therefore unable to give her husband proxy to vote on her behalf.
But it didn’t come to that. In the end it wasn’t even close. The motion carried, and everyone in the group would be expected to help in the effort.
Debbie stood up and asked, “So, where do we go from here?”
Bryan was at a loss. He hadn’t thought past the possibility of the motion passing.
“How about I get with Mark and Hannah and we make some volunteer sign-up sheets? We’ll break them down by categories, such as truck drivers, canning and food preparation, mechanical repairs, and whatever else we can think of. Those who sign up for a particular detail can get together and select their own leaders and priorities. Fair enough?”
A few heads nodded, a few shoulders shrugged.
“Okay. I’ll make sure the sign-up sheets are on the tables before dinnertime. Any other business?”
There was none.
“Very well. I guess we’re adjourned.”
-29-
Bryan and Frank walked back to the control center together to brief Mark and Rusty about the meeting. Mark was glad the vote went the way it did.
Mark relished big projects. And this one promised to be huge. He and Hannah and Bryan and Sarah had done the initial renovation and stocking of the mine before Saris 7 hit the earth. Their planning and efforts helped forty one people stay alive for the long freeze.
They could do it again.
For half an hour they discussed plans on how best to bring the mine up to speed again. Things were going swimmingly, until they wrapped the meeting up and Mark told Frank, “Oh. Marty Hankins called in. He wants you to give him a call. He says they found a dead body and he thinks the man was murdered. He’s looking for help to solve the case.”
Bryan got the funniest look on his face. So did Frank. The two of them looked at one another, and at that moment Bryan knew that Frank knew. They all did.
Mark got a sick feeling at the pit of his stomach.
None of them, thankfully, spoke about the six hundred pound elephant in the room. It would remain one of those things that everybody thought about, but that nobody mentioned.
Frank hoped that the murdered man they found was in no way connected to the compound or to the people in it.
He wasn’t the only one entertaining those particular thoughts.
Frank relieve
d the others on the security console and waited until they all dispersed before reaching for the microphone.
He used an old CB term to hail his friend.
“Hey, Marty Hankins. You got your ears on?”
Marty was at his desk, having just downloaded eighty crime scene photos onto an old tablet.
He was flipping through them when he heard Frank’s voice.
“Go ahead, Frank. Thanks for getting back with me so quickly.”
“No problem at all, my friend. How can I help you, or hurt you, whichever the case may be?”
“I opened a homicide case yesterday. My very first one. And I know as much about solving a homicide case as you know about driving a truck. I was hoping you’d give me some pointers.”
“I don’t mind at all. Who was the victim?”
“White man. In his early forties, I’d guess. Gunshot victim. Somebody found him in the woods, a couple of miles east of your place.”
“Close to my place? Hell, that’s not even in your jurisdiction, Marty.”
“I know. My jurisdiction is within Eden’s city limits. But the county sheriff’s office don’t exist anymore. So I figure I better work the case or no one will.”
“It’s really a case for the Texas Rangers if there’s no longer a sheriff. They might not like you tramping around on their case.”
“Yeah, I thought about that too. But I don’t even know if there are any Texas Rangers anymore. And I wouldn’t know how to get ahold of them if there are.”
“You got a name on the victim?”
“Nope. He wasn’t carrying ID.”
That didn’t surprise Frank. Nobody carried ID anymore. Frank couldn’t even remember the last time he’d seen his own wallet.
Marty’s next comment made Frank’s skin crawl.
“He’s got a tattoo on his back. Black ink, kind of rough drawn. Looks like it was made in prison. Martel. M-A-R-T-E-L.”
Frank fell silent for a moment before continuing.
“Why don’t you come by here for supper tonight? Afterwards we’ll let Glenna and the kids socialize with the others and you and I will sit down together and look at what you got. Where’s the body?”
“At the clinic here in Eden. The local undertaker is picking it up later for burial.”
“Did you pick up the murder weapon without smudging the prints?”
“There was no murder weapon. At least not that I could find.”
“Any other evidence left behind by the killer?”
“None. Some footprints. But they weren’t good ones. I took some photos, but you can’t make out any tread marks or other features.”
“Did you photograph the whole crime scene?”
“Yep. I’m looking at the photos now.”
“Bring them with you tonight.”
Frank held his breath after asking the final question.
“Any eye witnesses?”
“Only birds and squirrels. And they’re not talking.”
-30-
Marty had been at the compound many times before. The first few times he’d come mainly to spend time with Glenna, the woman he’d helped rescue from a brutal animal named Castillo at the battle of Eden.
He and Glenna eventually fell in love. When he was offered the position of chief of police for the tiny town he asked if she wanted to go back home.
She did.
He’d have married her, but not a single minister in the town of Eden survived.
So instead he made her a promise. He said, “On the very day a minister moves to town, or even just passes through, you and I will stand together on the courthouse steps and become one.”
She replied, “As far as I’m concerned we already are. I don’t need a piece of paper or the government’s blessing to tell me that.”
Now when Marty came to the compound he didn’t come to see Glenna and her kids. He brought them with him, to socialize with good friends and bring them up to speed in a world they rarely ventured into.
But this time, this day, was different.
Oh, everyone was friendly enough. There were plenty of smiles and hugs to go around as Marty and his new family walked through the gate and into the big house. They brought gifts for Sami, who recently lost her father, and for Hannah and Sarah, both severely injured.
They were disheartened to hear that Sarah was in San Antonio, lying on a bed in a medically-induced coma. They’d really wanted to talk to her and lend their support. But that would have to wait.
Yes, there was plenty of love and good mojo in the air, as there always was.
But this time there was something else as well. Some kind of… tension.
Marty couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Beyond the smiles, beyond the hugs and the friendly chatter, there was a pall that permeated every corner of the room.
It was almost as though someone had died.
Glenna took him aside and put it differently.
“It feels almost like when you walk into a room with two friends who’d been arguing. They try to put on happy faces and pretend nothing is wrong. But you can sense there is.”
Marty made a point to ask Frank about it one on one when they met privately after dinner.
As for the dinner, there was no denying it was one of the best Marty had had in many years. Karen was an excellent cook, and had a superb staff of helpers. On this particular day they had steak. A rarity indeed for a group of people who usually took great care in rationing their meat.
Mark explained it away by saying, “Love is in the air out in the pastures. The cattle and pigs are breeding like crazy. We’re getting ready to butcher several of them and freeze the meat so we have fewer to feed.”
The comment went unchallenged by Marty, who read absolutely nothing into it.
Marty and Hannah had been asked by the group to tell Marty about Cupid 23. They knew him better than anyone, having been the first to get to know him when they learned that the Trucker’s Paradise truck stop had survived the big chill. Now they considered him one of their very best friends.
Although they fully planned to tell him of the threat, they wouldn’t spoil a good dinner by doing it over the table. Marty had made plans to consult with Frank after the meal, while Glenna and the kids were visiting with their friends. They’d simply take him and Glenna aside before then and explain the situation to them. They’d leave it up to Marty to tell Lenny.
The talk over the dinner table was light and friendly. Everyone could feel the stress but no one mentioned the reasons it existed. Everyone in the compound now knew, of course, about Cupid 23. Even the children who’d chosen not to attend the meeting.
Most of the adults also knew of the murder Marty was investigating, and knew that he’d planned to meet with Frank to talk about it. No one had the guts to ask Frank how much he planned to cooperate with Marty on the matter.
Frank himself was conflicted.
He’d spoken with Eva, his wife of many years, about it earlier in the afternoon.
“I’ve been a law enforcement officer for more years than I can remember,” he’d said. “I can’t count the number of times I was offered a bribe, or asked to look the other way so I wouldn’t see a crime being overlooked or someone getting special treatment. I put away dirty cops and politicians and even testified against the chief of police once during a board of inquiry. I don’t know what happened out there to the man who hurt Sarah and took her hostage. I shouldn’t care. But I’m a lawman. I’ve been a lawman for too many years just to stop doing it. I just don’t know what to do.”
She said, “You’ll do what you’ve always done, Frank. You’ll do what’s right and you’ll make me proud. Because lawman or not, you’re a good and decent man. If you weren’t I’d have walked away a long time ago.”
Now Frank and Eva sat at a table in the dining room, a few tables over from where Marty and Glenna sat with Mark and Hannah. Her children sat at another table with little Markie and Chuckie. Frank watched as, one or two at a time, his frien
ds and fellow residents went over to greet Marty and Glenna, hug them or shake their hands, and chat with them. Frank wasn’t the only one who considered Marty a friend.
He didn’t like hiding things from anybody. Especially friends. And he didn’t like turning down a request from a friend who needed help. But he was in a tough position this time.
As he told Eva, he didn’t know what happened on the morning Bryan, Bryan Too and Brad went out in that truck with the man they’d taken prisoner. Bryan wasn’t talking to anyone about it, and now that Sarah was in the hospital he was away from the compound most of the time anyway. He planned to come back every two or three days to take a short break and exchange his laundry. Other than that he was constantly at Sarah’s bedside holding her hand.
Bryan Too was gone for good. The Army decided he’d completed his mission to help Bryan find his wife, and dispatched him somewhere else, to help somebody else on a new mission. In all likelihood no one from the compound would ever see him again.
The only other person who could shed some light on what happened that morning was Brad. And he’d rebuffed every attempt to ask him.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” was his standard response when asked.
Frank liked Bryan and Brad. He had known them for only a couple of years, but they’d become almost like family to him.
That’s why he was so conflicted. As he’d told Eva, he’d never forgotten his duty as a cop to protect and serve. And to administer justice. That duty wasn’t always cut and dry, when the ones needing protection were the bad guys. Or when the men breaking the law were his friends or fellow cops.
“At some point,” he told Eva, “I’m going to have to stop being a cop and start being like everyone else. I have to stop seeing things from the prospective of someone who’s sworn to uphold the laws. I have to start understanding that sometimes there may be circumstances when the laws need to be overlooked, for the common good. And I need to recognize that maybe the world has changed a lot since the day I took my oath. That maybe the laws have become outdated. And that maybe a little bit of prairie justice is in order in this new world we live in.”
A Long Road Back: Final Dawn: Book 8 Page 11