Chattering Blue Jay

by Paty Jager

  He’d eaten half his fries and burger when he heard what sounded like hooves banging the side of the horse trailer and Dog barking.

  Hawke bolted out the door of the café in time to see a man push his way out from behind Horse, who hopped on his hind legs as if he were trying to kick the man.

  “Hey! Stop!” Hawke yelled and ran down the street behind the thief carrying Tonya’s computer.

  A car raced up the street. The back door flew open. The man with the computer dove in and the car engine roared as the bumper aimed for Hawke.

  He jammed his feet into the asphalt, stopping his forward momentum and lunged to the side. The car swerved, but he rolled behind a car parked along the street and the vehicle roared out of sight.

  Ralph arrived at his side. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, just too many athletics lately.” Hawke cursed. The only thing he saw about the license on the car was the state—Idaho.

  Horse was still carrying on, kicking the side of the trailer and braying. Hawke hauled his aching body off the ground and stumbled to the trailer.

  There was a reason the mule was throwing a fit. Someone, most likely the man who swiped the computer, had tied the mule’s back end to the side, curling his body in a small space.

  Hawke sliced the rope loose, allowing his friend to straighten out not only his body but his attitude. After the animal calmed down, Hawke walked under Horse’s neck to check on Jack. He wasn’t as territorial as Horse. The person would have only had to push his rump to the side and walk around him or go under his neck. Horse was a threat from both ends. He kicked and he bit.

  The pack box was open, the contents scattered as the man looked for the computer. Now he knew for certain someone had been watching him at the cabin, but they must not know he had a copy of the information on the computer.

  He threw the scattered items back in the box, patted both Jack and Horse, and closed the back door on the trailer.

  “Go finish your dinner. I’ll keep an eye on the trailer and report this so they can look for the car,” Ralph said.

  “They won’t be back. They got what they were looking for.” Hawke patted the young man on the back. “But I appreciate you letting everyone know about the car.” He walked slowly back to the café.

  «»«»«»

  The next morning, Hawke slept in, fed his animals, and headed to the State Police Office in Winslow. He wanted to get the flash drive in a safe place and read everything on it. He was moving stiffly when he walked through the door into the State Police half of the building.

  “Moving kind of slow,” Sergeant Spruel said, motioning for Hawke to follow him into his office. He closed the door and waited for Hawke to take a seat. “I’ve been told to stop digging into the White murder.”

  Hawke eased down onto the chair and nodded. “After reading what little I have from the files Ms. Cox gathered, I figured we’d get our hands slapped for looking into it.”

  “Which means, you are going to stay on it like a ravenous dog.” Spruel’s sandy colored eyebrows rose.

  “After the long week of hiking, hurdling logs, and just about getting run over last night when someone stole Ms. Cox’s computer from my horse trailer—”

  “I heard about the theft this morning. But I didn’t know you were almost run over.” Spruel stood up behind his desk, his hands splayed on the top. “Why didn’t you call it in?”

  Hawke shrugged. “I was tired. Ralph, the deputy at the county jail called in the car. Figured I’d fill you in this morning.”

  Hawke reached into his boot. “Raise a stink, but we don’t need the computer.” He pulled the flash drive out of his boot. “Everything we need to dig into these homicides is on here. If you don’t mind, I’d like to keep this bit of information between you and me.”

  Spruel nodded. “Did you see who stole the computer?”

  Hawke told him everything he remembered. “You might ask Ralph. He saw as much as I did since we both ran out of Tree Top at the same time.”

  “I’ll send someone to take down his statement.” Spruel scribbled on a pad. “I’m assuming you want that vacation again....”

  A smile quivered on Hawke’s lips. The word vacation had been used around him more than he’d ever heard it in his thirty years as a State Trooper. “Unofficially.”

  Spruel studied him. “Unofficially. Which means you will check in with me before you talk to anyone, and you will update the files every night. I want to know who you are talking to and what they are saying.”

  Hawke nodded. “Someone has to have my back. It appears whoever is trying to keep this quiet has no qualms in killing anyone—including a police officer.”

  “That’s why you will check in and keep me informed.” Spruel slid the flash drive across the desk to Hawke. “Get what you need off of this then bring it back to me. I don’t want it going missing from a state evidence locker.”

  Picking up the flash drive, Hawke peered into his sergeant’s eyes. “You know this could get us both in a lot of trouble.”

  “We’re just seeking the truth. I’ve never known you to back down from finding the truth behind anything.” Spruel stared back at him.

  “You have that right. I’ll get this back to you as soon as I get it all printed out.” Hawke headed to the door. “I’d rather work with paper than having to check something on the computer.”

  “Just don’t let those files out of your sight.” Spruel sat back in his chair.

  “I won’t.” Hawke left the office and sat down at his desk. He turned on his computer and slid the flash drive in the port.

  Fish and Wildlife Trooper Sullens walked by. “About time you got back into the schedule.”

  Hawke shook his head. “Every time I’ve tried to take a vacation it has been cut short. I’m taking it as soon as I get all the reports written.”

  Sullens slugged him in the shoulder. “We’ve been taking up your slack the last two weeks.”

  “I didn’t ask to be sent after an escaped convict or the person who killed him.” He shrugged. “I’m at that age where I need to rest up now and then.” He hated to admit it to a younger trooper but it was the truth and it was something the younger man would relish knowing and be less likely to bother him about a vacation.

  Sullens laughed. “You can out hike all of us younger troopers, and you know it. But if you want us to believe you need to rest, I’ll pass that around when someone asks where your lazy ass is.”

  Hawke waved him off and logged into his computer. He pulled up his file on White, adding the fact he’d been nearly run over and lost Ms. Cox’s computer. In between writing on the file, he opened files on the flash drive, copying them at the machine next to his computer. He stapled each file singly and by the time he finished his report he had about a hundred pages. This wasn’t going to work. He carried the pile of papers into the conference room and found an old three ring binder. He punched holes in the pages, took out the staples, and put them in the binder.

  Three hours after he arrived at the office, he placed the flash drive on Spruel’s desk and left the building with the binder under his arm.

  He called the Rusty Nail, ordered a ham sandwich and chips, and drove to the front of the café.

  Justine walked the bag out to his pickup. “Any reason you wanted front door service?”

  Hawke smiled. “Too tired to walk in and B.S. with all of you.” He handed her a twenty and took the bag.

  “Take care,” she said, leaning back from the vehicle.

  He nodded and pulled away from the curb. The twenty-minute drive to home with the windows rolled down was exactly what he needed to refresh his mind.

  In his apartment over the arena, he opened the bag Justine had handed him and pulled out the sandwich. Then he opened the binder and began reading what Tonya Cox had discovered and saved that pertained to Felix White being railroaded and eventually killed.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Hawke made a list of the people he wanted to talk to an
d the first on his list was Tonya Cox. After another night in his own bed, he drove to Boise to talk with the woman who had started the investigation into the wrongful incarceration of Felix White. The person the Idaho courts said killed her uncle.

  At the hospital, he ran into a small, feisty nurse who refused to let him talk with Tonya. “She’s only allowed family.”

  He showed her his badge.

  She stared at it and shook her head. “Idaho authorities are the only ones allowed in with the patient.”

  Hawke walked away. He’d learned the room number and had a plan. Mathews had seemed like a person who wanted to know the truth. Hawke had asked Sergeant Spruel to do a check on the Idaho County Deputy. He’d come back as clean as Mother Theresa. That meant, Hawke could count on the deputy to help him get in to see Ms. Cox.

  Spruel had also given him the number for Deputy Mathews. Hawke dialed the number.

  “Mathews.”

  “This is Oregon State Trooper Hawke. Got a minute to listen?”

  “Yeah. I’m on leave. Someone thinks my getting tied up needs to be looked into.” The sarcasm in his voice, told Hawke all he needed to know.

  “About that. I could use some help in Boise. Any chance you could run down here?” He wasn’t going to say too much not knowing who could be listening to the conversation on Mathews end.

  “I can be there in two.”

  The connection went silent. Hawke smiled.

  «»«»«»

  Mathews was true to his word. Two hours later he called and asked Hawke his location.

  “St. Alphonsus Hospital. But let’s meet at the sandwich shop on Curtis.”

  “Copy.”

  Hawke had left the hospital after his first call to Mathews and drove around, trying to figure out the best place for them to meet. He’d noticed the sandwich shop while returning to the hospital parking lot to wait for Mathews’ call.

  He headed out of the parking lot. A car that he’d noticed twice while driving around the area, pulled out of a slot three cars over as Hawke drove past. He was being tailed. Word would get back to whoever was in charge of the coverup that he and Mathews saw the Cox woman at the hospital. He’d like to keep their visit under the radar. And he’d like to keep his and Mathews’ collaboration quiet for a while yet.

  Hawke dialed Mathews. “I have a tail. I’m heading to the Grocery Warehouse off Shum Road. Wait for me behind the building.”

  “Copy.”

  Staying the speed limit and driving as if he knew where he was going, Hawke drove the mile and a half to the large bulk grocery store. He had a card to this chain of stores but rarely shopped here for anything other than clothing. The food all came in larger increments than he could use.

  He parked in an area that let him leisurely walk to the store as if he planned to go shopping. The car tailing him had also pulled into the lot, but they were still circling. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the passenger get out.

  Once inside the doors, Hawke pulled his hat from his head and took his checkered, long-sleeved shirt off. He was down to his blue t-shirt. Wrapping the hat in his shirt, he walked briskly toward the back of the building using the tall shelving to hide him.

  He walked through the large double doors into the area marked employees only.

  “Hey, you can’t be back here,” a man in his forties and wearing a store badge said.

  Hawke pulled his badge out from under his shirt. “Just passing through. You didn’t see me.”

  The man stared at him as Hawke continued to the unloading zone and blinked at the bright sunshine.

  He glanced both ways down the loading area and lights flashed on a vehicle to his right. Hawke hopped off the loading platform and jogged to the older Mustang convertible with the top up.

  “Glad to see you. We need to get away from here before whoever is following me figures out I ducked out the back,” Hawke said, lowering his body into the small confines of the vehicle.

  Mathews backed the vehicle and turned around. “Where to?”

  “Far from this area.” Hawke wanted to scan the parking lot as they drove out to see if the car that followed him was still there, but he didn’t want to draw attention to them.

  “Who do you think is following you?” Mathews asked, working his way to the interstate and heading west.

  “I’m not sure. I don’t even know who or why White’s records were falsified.”

  Mathews whistled. “Falsified? What do you mean?”

  Hawke studied the deputy. Mathews had proven to be reliable so far. Hawke hoped his instincts were right about the man.

  He told Deputy Mathews everything he knew from being picked to find White to the information he’d discovered about White possibly being railroaded into jail and killed before he and Tonya could prove he hadn’t killed the Goodwin’s or her uncle.

  “That’s heavy stuff you’re trying to prove.” Mathews turned off the interstate and pulled into a fast food restaurant. “This place has outside seating.”

  Hawke liked the way the deputy thought. If they continued this conversation over lunch it was best others weren’t in earshot.

  They ordered and sat at a table the farthest from the entrance.

  After a couple of bites of his sandwich, Mathews asked, “Why did you want to talk to Ms. Cox?”

  “To let her know I have all her information, see if anyone threatened her, to find out exactly what happened to White and Sheridan, and to see if she trusts us to look into who really killed her uncle.”

  Mathews set his sandwich down and stared at him. “That’s a lot to talk about in a short amount of time. You know if someone started tailing you from the hospital, they are watching her.”

  “I know. And the nurse wouldn’t let me in. Even with my credentials.”

  Mathews stared at him for several minutes. “Then maybe we shouldn’t go see her.”

  Hawke thought Mathews was on the side of justice, now he was beginning to wonder. “I have to talk to her.”

  The man nodded. “Talk to her. Not see her. I can get a phone and a note to her without us going near the hospital.”

  “That’s risky for the person and Tonya.” Hawke didn’t like bringing anyone else into whatever they were wrapped up in.

  “My sister works for a flower shop. She could deliver flowers, a phone, and a note without anyone thinking anything.”

  “I like that idea,” Hawke said.

  “Finish eating and we’ll go get a pay as you go phone and see my sister.” Mathews smiled at him and continued eating.

  Hawke grinned. This was the first time he’d worked with a partner. He liked having another person’s input on things. Even though Dog had had many good ideas over the years.

  «»«»«»

  With the phone in hand, his number added to the list of contacts without his name, and the note he’d written asking Tonya to trust him and give him a call, they walked into a small flower shop in one of the outlying areas of Boise.

  “Scotty! What brings you to the big city?” a woman clearly close in age to Mathews asked, giving the deputy a hug.

  “Business,” Mathews said. He motioned to Hawke. “This is a co-worker.”

  The woman released her brother and studied Hawke. “I see.”

  Hawke stepped up to the counter. “We’d like to purchase a flower arrangement for a friend in the hospital.”

  “Oh, no! Did an officer get hurt?” Mathews’ sister exclaimed.

  “No.” Mathews moved closer to his sister. “We need to get a phone and a message into a patient that we feel is being watched.” He handed the phone and Hawke’s note to the woman.

  “You want the flowers delivered personally by me?”

  Hawke had to give the woman credit, she caught on fast.

  “Please.” Mathews said.

  “Where and to who do you want the flowers delivered?”

  Hawke rattled off the hospital, room number, and name.

  The woman’s eyes widened. “That
’s—”

  “No one needs to know about this,” Mathews interrupted her.

  She nodded. “When do you want the flowers delivered?”

  “Today if you can,” Hawke said. He’d already reserved a room at a motel, but wanted to get information from Tonya so he knew what he was looking for.

  “I’ll take them out on my four o’clock delivery.”

  “How much do I owe you?” Hawke asked.

  “If I do a standard get well bouquet it will be Thirty-nine-ninety-nine.”

  “Does that include a delivery fee?” He picked up a card and wrote, We hope you get well soon, your hiking buddies.

  “That’s another ten dollars.”

  Hawke paid for the flowers and he and Mathews left the flower shop. “Have you had your sister do things like this before? She seemed to go along with it pretty easily.”

  Mathews shrugged. “She sent flowers and a message to a girl when I wanted to meet her, but nothing work related.”

  “You know, if they discover the phone and realize the person who delivered it is related to you, you both could be in trouble.”

  Mathews stopped at the driver’s side of his Mustang. “Our dad was a cop. He died on duty because his superior didn’t think a situation was as bad as my dad told him. If I, we, can prove corrupt police or legal system, then both my sister and I are willing to do all we can.”

  Hawke nodded. Now he knew where Mathews stood and why he was willing to help. “Take me back to my pickup at the warehouse store. But just drop me off on a side street. Then meet me here.” He handed Mathews one of the business cards he’d picked up at the motel where he was staying. “I’m room one-thirty on the end.”

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Hawke sat in the motel room, watching Mathews read through the file. He knew hauling around the binder with all the incriminating evidence in it wasn’t a good idea, but it was much easier to make notes and plan his next move with the paper rather than clicking through files on a computer.

  After reading the last page of what Hawke considered evidence, Mathews stared at him. “If everything Ms. Cox dug up is true, White was incarcerated under false pretenses and possibly killed because he and Ms. Cox were working to prove it.”