by Ed Robinson
I could see the disturbed weeds where the doe had gone down the bank. I moved the weapon to put the scope there and waited. The buck stepped out of the brush and seemed to puff up his neck, a warning to intruders that he was about to get busy. I slid my line of fire slightly to the right until I had his heart in the crosshairs. I had my moment of truth. I smoothly pulled the trigger. The buck went down but he didn’t give up. He struggled back to his feet and staggered down the hill. It took a minute to climb down from the stand and pursue him. There was plenty of blood where he’d been hit and more along the way. I peered down over the ridge and saw him standing there, panting hard. The easy thing to do would be to put him down with another shot, but it was poor etiquette. The day’s hunt would be over for everyone else.
I started walking down the hill towards him. He tried to run but stumbled. The loss of blood was weakening him. I found him lying in a shallow wash surrounded by tall grass. He was still breathing, but not thrashing about. One foot was pawing the grass slowly. He didn’t want to give up, but he was clearly dying. He looked at me with one eye as I stood over him. I had my knife ready but didn’t move in yet. One last burst of energy and he could rip me up with his antlers.
The pawing stopped. It was a long time between breaths after that. When I saw my chance, I grabbed one side of his rack and slit his throat with the knife. If he wasn’t dead yet, he would be in a few seconds. I stepped back away from my kill. Blood pooled around his neck and chest. There was no more movement. It was done.
I gazed down at what I had wrought with a touch of remorse. He was a majestic creature, only meeting his demise because he was chasing tail. He’d never once shown himself in all the times I’d scouted the mountain. I didn’t drink his blood or take a bite out of his heart or any of that silly horseshit you see in the movies. It wasn’t my first deer, but it was the first in over three decades. I silently wished him well in the afterlife.
I dragged him away from the pool of blood so I wouldn’t have to stand in it. He was damned heavy. I gutted him out then dragged him away from that pile. He was still too much to carry very far. I estimated he weighed close to two-hundred pounds even after being field dressed. I couldn’t make it down the mountain carrying Pop’s body, and he wasn’t much over a hundred pounds. I did, however, have Brody to help this time. I took a minute to regain situational awareness. I made sure no persons or bears were closing in on me before heading towards Brody’s tree stand.
When I got close enough I gave a quick whistle so she’d know I was approaching. She climbed down quietly and met me on the doe path.
“Got a big boy,” I told her. “I need some help with it.”
“Pretty lucky to nail a buck on the first day,” she said.
“Right place at the right time,” I said. “Thanks to preparation.”
“Let’s get busy,” she said.
Brody was impressed at the size of my kill, but we both knew we had a serious chore in front of us. We decided to build a travois, or drag sled like the Indians used. We didn’t have much for tools available other than hunting knives. We poked around in search of usable branches but came up short. I ended up disassembling the ladder to my tree stand. The two outer pieces were just about right, though a little heavy. We had reinforced the rungs with twine so I unwound some of that until we had enough to form a webbing of sorts between the two poles. I grabbed the buck’s front feet and Brody grabbed the rear feet. Together we were able to swing him onto the sled.
I wrapped the whole mess with more twine. I didn’t want it to fall off if we dropped the sled. It was hard enough getting him situated the first time. We gave it a test pull. Together we dragged the sled downhill for a hundred yards or so.
“Is this going to be doable?” I asked Brody.
“It’s hard going but we can make it,” she said. “It’s all downhill from here.”
It was indeed hard sledding. Rocks and downed logs impeded our progress. We couldn’t decide if going around an obstacle or over it was preferable. We hit a root and both of us dropped our poles. We had to rest often, making progress even slower. Eventually, we tuckered out. We still had a quarter-mile to go, but we were beat. We sat and rested. All our water was long gone. I dunked my water bottle in the creek to fill it, offering it to Brody first. She drank half of it before giving it up.
We were still breathing hard and both of us were red in the face. The last part was the easiest but we didn’t think we could make it. I wished we had an ATV down at the cabin. I thought of other possible ways to get our burden over the last part of the journey. Our neighbor, Richard, had a tractor. I thought it could make it to where we rested. I hoped he was home and willing to help, or at least lend us the machine.
I offered to stay with the deer while Brody went for help. A man is much more likely to be agreeable to a pretty woman than he is another man. It’s one of life’s basic truths. She was happy to continue on without me. She thought I might be bear bait sitting there alone with a dear carcass. I was still armed so I wasn’t worried about a bear. She went on down the hill in search of a tractor.
It was almost dusk. It looked like I’d miss the after-hunt gathering with Banner and the boys. It would be a shame if they didn’t see my kill. That was the whole point, but I couldn’t think of anything that could be done about it. I’d bitten off more than I could chew. It wasn’t the first time.
I heard the tractor fire up down below me and let out a sigh of relief. I simply didn’t have the gumption required to drag the thing any further. I hated to admit it but age was taking its toll on me. There’d been a time when I could have dragged him all the way by myself. I wanted a cold beer and a hot shower.
I listened as the tractor made slow progress up the hill. The sun set behind the trees and Richard turned on his headlights. It took him almost an hour to slowly crawl up the steep terrain, but he made it. Brody was riding in the cab with him, looking tired.
“Looks like a nice one,” Richard said. “Let’s put him in the bucket.”
I was glad to have his help rolling and tugging the dead deer off the sled and into the bucket. I could see Brody wasn’t up for anymore heavy lifting. There was no room for another person in the cab of the tractor, so I rode down the hill in the bucket with my buck. I smelled of blood and deer guts but I didn’t care.
Richard got us home and offered to hang the deer from the raised bucket until morning. I accepted. I’d had enough of Mr. Buck for that day. Just as we were tying him up, two sets of headlights came down McGuire Mountain Road and turned into our drive. It was Banner and company. They hopped out with beers in hand to inspect my trophy.
“Well I’ll be a son-of-a-bitch,” said Banner. “I figured you for a greenhorn. I thought you were blowing smoke about being a hunter.”
Jake handed me a beer out of a cooler in the back of his truck.
“Pretty impressive,” he said. “Congratulations.”
All four men shook my hand and congratulated me. It made me feel proud, instead of guilty for killing.
“You boys have your fun,” said Brody. “I’m going in to get cleaned up.”
“That’s a fine looking lady you got,” said Rob. “You weren’t fooling about that either.”
“She’s something else,” I said. “Helped me drag this deer most of the way down.”
“Might be two-hundred pounds,” said Zane. “Long way down.”
“He had some tractor help,” said Banner.
“You think you could carry this thing down the mountain?” asked Jake.
“Maybe,” Banner said. “I’d give her hell trying.”
“You’re younger and in better shape than me,” I said. “I’m just glad we made it back, tractor or not.”
I could see Banner studying me, trying to measure me. He was still suspicious. Maybe if I could kill that deer and get it back to the cabin, I was capable of removing Pop’s body and snooping on the weed patch. His buddies kept feeding me beers and slapping me on the back. B
anner didn’t say anything if that’s what he was thinking.
Fifteen
No one in Banner’s group had seen a buck. They were all headed back out in the morning to try again. I needed to rebuild the deer stand Brody and I had dismantled, but wouldn’t do it while the others were on the hunt. I told them I planned to take the day off and that I’d fix the stand on Sunday. Our little celebration broke up and the men drove back up the drive and out of sight.
“What did you think about Banner?” I asked Brody.
She had a knack for analyzing people, something she learned at the FBI. She could tell if someone was lying or acting out of the ordinary.
“His friends were all relaxed and having a good time,” she said. “He was on his game the whole time, trying to figure you out.”
“You think he knows that I know?”
“He suspects it, no doubt,” she said. “But he can’t confront you in front of his buddies. They seem to like you.”
“Everybody likes Breeze,” I said. “I’m a lovable guy.”
“Banner isn’t,” she said. “He’s aloof. Thinks he’s better than the rest of us.”
“His family has treated him that way,” I said. “But I don’t give a shit about his pedigree. A killer is a killer.”
“So what do you do now that you’ve insinuated yourself into his inner circle?”
“I don’t know yet,” I admitted. “Look for some kind of opportunity. I’ll think of something.”
“Winging it again,” she said. “Same old Breeze.”
I was still struggling with a final solution to my mission. It was apparent that law enforcement would be no help, no matter how much evidence I presented them. Somehow, Brody and I would be the ones to take down Banner. I just didn’t know how yet. The last thing I wanted to do was kill the man. I’d barely managed to recover from my last turn at dealing death. I was not a cold-blooded killer.
We spent the next day recuperating from our ordeal. I was resting with a good book when Brody turned on the SAT phone. There was a text from Bowdich. She called him immediately.
“Banner was suspected in a death investigation in Roan Mountain, Tennessee,” he said. “A hunter’s body was found, shot with a high caliber weapon.”
“Not a murder investigation?” she asked. “Suspected but not a suspect?”
“Final report says accidental shooting,” he said. “Shooter was never identified.”
“So how does Banner’s name come up?”
“Buried deep in a dusty file were some interview reports with other hunters and people close to the deceased,” he said. “Several of them mentioned Banner but he was never brought in for questioning. No one asked about his weapon. Nothing tells us what caliber the bullet was. The whole thing was just written off as an accident and forgotten.”
“How long ago was this?”
“Very soon after Banner’s release from the military,” he said. “We understand he may have some anger issues.”
“You think?” she said. “The man’s a killer David. Isn’t there anything you can do?”
“I’m giving you new information,” he said. “I ran your bullet. I’ve looked into this as far as I can. It’s not an official case and I’m sticking my neck out here.”
“Then I guess we’ll have to take care of it the best we can,” she said. “However we see fit.”
“I didn’t hear that,” he said. “This conversation is over.”
Whoever looked into the hunter’s death in Roan Mountain didn’t make much of an effort. Apparently, the senator’s influence ran deep, even crossing state lines. Banner was untouchable. We could be certain that we’d get no help from official channels. I’d have to get my head on straight and take care of business, but I had Brody to consider.
“How do you think this is going to end?” I asked her.
“I’m afraid of how it will end,” she said. “You’ve had tunnel vision since this whole thing started.”
“I’m going to lay it out for you,” I said. “Let’s be honest with each other. I can forget all about Pop’s murder. I can forget all about the dope. I can forget about Banner.”
“No, you can’t.”
“If you want me to,” I said. “If you don’t want to see this thing through, and we know what’s likely to happen, then I’ll drop it. If we commit to justice here though, I’ll need your help. I’ll need your support.”
“We can’t let him get away with it,” she said. “We know he’s a killer. He could do it again. He probably will do it again.”
“So do we do this?”
She put the phone down and paced the cabin floor. She didn’t look at me for a few minutes. I watched her stand in front of a window and chew on her nails. She ran her hands through her hair and let out a big sigh.
“They’re making us do this,” she said. “The Sheriff, the FBI, everyone who’s ever covered for Cody Banner. They are leaving us no choice.”
“That’s the way I see it,” I agreed. “But I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.”
“I want you to put that big brain of yours to good use,” she said. “I want you to put that Zen thing to work too. Let’s come up with a plan. Put that motherfucker down without anyone even knowing. Put this thing behind us. Fuck it. We’ll leave this place behind if we have to, but we’ve got to end this.”
That was it in a nutshell. Brody was of the same mind as me. We’d left all of our troubles behind, only to find new troubles here. A travesty of justice had been dropped in our lap. An innocent old man was gone for no reason. There was a foul air hanging over our little haven. Bad mojo was infecting the clean mountain air. No exorcist or voodoo doll was going to purify our atmosphere. It was up to us.
Banner was young and tough. He was good in the woods and no stranger to killing, but I had some qualities that he lacked. I could move like smoke. I could see, smell, and hear in another dimension. I’d made the mountain my friend. I was on the side of good. He was on the side of evil. I would prevail.
I spent days trying to plan out a way to force Banner’s hand and catch him off guard in the woods. His friends had all taken off from work for the first week of hunting season. I couldn’t have them on the mountain as witnesses. I didn’t want any of them to get hurt either. I had to be patient.
Jake stopped by Friday afternoon to invite me to another cookout, even offering me a ride. I told him I’d be by later. I decided to play a little game with Banner and the boys. I put on my hunting gear along with a knife and pistol. I reached into our fireplace and used some ashes to blacken my face.
“What the hell are you doing?” asked Brody.
“I’m going to put on a little demonstration for Banner,” I said. “Put the fear of Breeze in him.”
“What can I do?” she said.
“Tonight is not the night,” I said. “Not with his friends around. I’m just going to show him that I can get to him whenever I want to. Get in his head.”
“Jesus, be careful.”
I stood in the driveway and looked up at the night sky. I let the moonlight energize me. There wasn’t time to go up and over the ridge. Instead, I walked west on Pigeon Roost Road until a bridge crossed over the creek. I slipped into the woods and acclimated myself to the lack of light. At first I tried to make good time, but eventually, I slowed. I’d never been in this part of the woods. I figured I could feel my way along until I heard Banner and his pals partying around the fire. They weren’t expecting me. They didn’t know I was coming through the woods, but I assumed stealth mode anyway.
Small openings in the canopy overhead allowed occasional light into the forest. The moon was up good and the sky was clear. Fall was strengthening its hold, chilling the night air. Move like smoke, Breeze. I crept up close to the hunting shack without being detected. The alcohol fueled conversation was in full force.
“Here we sit,” said Jake. “Still hoping to get a deer. Breeze already got a monster.”
“Beginner’s luck,�
� said Banner. “Something ain’t quite right about that dude.”
“You’re just jealous,” said Rob. “He bagged a trophy and he’s probably home bagging his hot wife right now.”
“While we’re playing circle jerk around this fire,” said Rob. “Toss me another beer will you?”
“His woman is a pretty little thing,” said Zane. “He’s either hung or rich.”
“I wonder about that,” said Banner. “Neither one of them goes to work. Where’s the money come from? Nice cabin with some property. Something’s up with him I’m telling you.”
“Why don’t you just ask him?” Jake said. “He’s seems friendly enough.”
“Before you all start a fan club, listen up,” Banner said. “You see, I’ve got a little business up there on top of the ridge, in no man’s land. Somebody has been poking around in it. It has to be Breeze, unless it’s one of you three.”
“We have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jake said.
I had crept in a little closer so I could see the four men. The three amigos were all looking confused by what Banner had told them. They obviously weren’t part of it. He swept his gaze to each of them, scanning for any giveaways. Then he stood up.
“Fuck it, I gotta piss.”
I saw my chance. He was headed around the back of the shack to take a leak. I stayed low but moved quickly and quietly. I got within fifteen yards of him and stopped, crouched right at the wood line. I let him do his business first. When he zipped up I was on him. He never heard me coming. I had my knife to his throat and an arm around him before he realized I was there. He tried to break free but I kicked the back of his knee, taking him down. The knife was still at his throat.
“What the fuck?” he yelled.
The rest of them came running. Once they saw me I pulled back the knife and offered my hand to Banner to help him up. He refused. I stood there grinning like I was having a blast.