“I forgot to get this out to the BBQ pit before I offered,” she said with a shy shrug.
“We can slide it right in the back,” she said with a smile.
“That’s what I was hoping. I don’t want to bug the boys. If things go good, it won’t be long until they go from dick measuring, to awkward silences, to making friends again.”
Steff snorted, then burst out into laughter. “You know what? I think you’ve got the male of our species pretty well pegged.”
“Thanks, I spend enough time around them, I hope I learned a thing or few.”
“You sure got Big Red figured out, and he ain’t even human,” Steff said, grunting as the two of them dragged the heavy cooler into the bed of the side-by-side.
“He’s just like a guy. Give him what he wants, not all of it, but most of it. Then you stroke his ego, tell him how good he looks and give him some loving…”
Steff laughed for a few seconds. “You are very scarily perceptive,” she snickered.
They drove the cooler back to the three picnic tables that had been lined up and covered with red and white checkered tablecloth. Harry was standing at the edge of the group, throwing a tennis ball for Ranger. Roscoe was laying on the ground next to him, his head following all the movements. It looked like Roscoe was the general, overseeing the battle of the ball.
“You need any more cider?” Andrea called to Curt.
“I’m good for a little while—”
A buzzer went off in the workshop, interrupting him.
“I got it,” Rob said, walking in there to the intercom.
“Hello?” Rob said, talking into the speaker.
“Sheriff Robertson here. I’ve got a few state police with me. Can we talk?”
“Let me ask the owners. Sort of having a small get together.”
“Rob?”
“Yes sir,” he said into the intercom. “I’ll be back in a moment or two.”
“Who is it?” Angelica asked.
“Sheriff Robertson himself, with some state police. I guess things are moving faster than last time.”
“Do they have a warrant?” Andrea asked.
“I didn’t ask, do you want me to?” Rob asked her.
“If they didn’t mention it, they probably don’t, which to me means we don’t have to worry about this trip out,” Andrea mused.
“Anybody having a problem with them coming in then?” Curt asked.
“No,” was pretty much chorused. Rob went back to the intercom and hit the gate open button for both sets of gates and waited until the sensor past the second gate showed that all vehicles had passed that point before closing first the outer gate, then the inner one. Everybody was quiet as they could hear the gravel crunching under the tires of a few vehicles
“Sounds like y'all were expecting them,” Lyle observed.
“Yeah, we found a set of bones in a cave yesterday afternoon,” Andrea told him.
Leah was watching Lyle’s reaction and saw him suddenly go pale. “Have they been identified?” he asked.
“No, they were old bones. No cloth or id was left with them.”
“There’s been stories over the years,” Lyle said softly, “about—”
“Daddy,” Steff said, “you don’t have to.”
Everybody looked at her in shock except for Jennifer, who was giving Angelica the stink eye whenever she thought she could get away with it.
“No Hun, it’s fine. There have been rumors of missing kids. Mostly girls. The rumors were old when I was a kid, and I am sure Dewie grew up hearing about them too. My sister, Dewayne’s wife, had been doing a lot of research on the area. Everything from the occult to serial killers to ghosts and goblins. Nobody knew how or why these younglings disappeared, but she thought the rumors of them going missing happened right through here.”
“Here? You mean where we live?”
“Between your farm and the Owens farm,” he said. “She was getting pretty paranoid about some things, and started keeping a journal. That was in the safe deposit box in Fort Smith,” Lyle said.
“So, what did she end up thinking it was about?” Anna asked, unable to contain her excitement.
It was that moment the sheriff saw the group all sitting around the big smoker and pulled over with three state police cruisers in tow, two of them with the K9 designation on them.
“Y'all having a cookout?” Sheriff Robertson asked from his open window.
“Yes sir,” Leah said, walking up to his truck. “Do y’all want to join us? I’m sure there’s going to be plenty.”
“I… maybe in a little bit. We’ve got two K9 handlers here with us and were wondering if we could mosey through the woodlot and out and about.”
“Feel free. We just processed this pig last night over at the edge of the corn field though, so the dogs might scent that.”
“I’ll keep it in mind. Do any of you want to follow along with us?”
“I’ll meet you down there,” Curt said.
“Hop in, you can show me where to park.”
“Ok,” he said, then went around and got in the passenger side.
They all watched in silence as the pig sizzled as some fat cooked down the cracked skin. Andrea took the cider jug he’d set down, and started spraying the pig with the small hole punched in the top of the cap.
“Think somebody should go with them?” Rob asked.
“Other than Curt? I don’t know. Their dogs might get weird. I don’t know what they’re trained for,” Andrea told him.
“Same thing Ranger boy is trained to do,” Rob admitted. “Though he’s more of a pet than a working dog now-a-days.”
“So, he was a working dog, back in the day?” Dante asked him.
“He came back with Rob from Afghanistan,” Lyle said. “Found the pup over there and trained him up in the year and a half he was gone.”
“I didn’t think you cared?” Angelica said smartly.
“Angel, you’re definitely not too old for me to spank,” Grandma Goldie said, carrying a covered dish to the picnic tables. “You all dig into the snacks and drink the beers. We’re breaking bread today, mending fences and making friendly.”
“Yes ma’am,” Angelica said, chastised.
“I had that coming,” Lyle told Goldie. “I deserved that.”
“Maybe so, but it’s bad manners to talk to guests like that when you invited them over.”
“You need a hand with anything?” Lyle asked Goldie.
“Need a hand? Why? With—”
“Daddy and Goldie sitting in a tree,” Jennifer sang.
“Bashing your head in with everything I see,” Goldie sang back, “if you keep singing that or anything like that ever again.”
Goldie and Lyle were red in the face. He did not follow when she stormed off. He turned back to the table, grateful that people were ignoring what had happened.
“So, what about the safe deposit box?” Anna asked, trying to save him and get back on the discussion they had been having.
“Oh yeah, um, she kept several of her earlier journals in there. I found a map within the pages of the last one. It was dated a week before she passed.”
“What kind of map?” Leah asked.
“An ‘X marks the spot’ type of map. But I don’t think my sis wrote the map, it seemed older. The paper was thicker, like old parchment or brittle cloth-style paper.”
“The map is from this area, isn’t it?” Anna asked him.
“Your woodlot, to be precise,” Lyle said softly.
Sheriff Robertson liked Curt Mallory well enough. He was the husband of the doctor lady who had been attacked and almost beaten to death. He knew about the lawsuit and the investigation into the department near West Memphis, along with the ADA and DA who were named in the civil suit. Despite that, Curt was very respectful and had been helpful.
The dogs already knew where they wanted to search, but getting their human handlers into that area without them dropping the leash meant finding trai
ls in. That was where Curt came in handy. He had walked through this area many times. Thirty acres of rocks and woods did not sound like a lot on paper, until you were actually walking it, trees towering over the top of your head.
A low but powerful woof startled the sheriff, but Curt turned to see Roscoe nosing the ground, then he walked up to Curt, rubbing his head against his side before flopping down on his feet.
“Doesn’t look like he wants you to go anywhere,” Sheriff Robertson said, glad for the break.
Despite summer being almost over, it was still hot outside, and climbing up and over, under and through rocks and brush was hard work when you were not used to it.
“I think he’s saving himself for some explosive use of energy. Someday,” Curt said with a chuckle. “Are the other K9 handlers going to be thrown off with him out here?”
“I wouldn’t think so,” Robertson told him. “Let’s catch up in a sec.”
“You need a break?” Curt asked the older man.
“Just got one,” he said, gasping.
“How about you slow down a second,” Curt said. “Leah, Dante, can you bring some ice packs and a couple bottles of water to the east trailhead?” he asked into his radio.
“Everything ok?” Dante asked.
“Think the sheriff is getting overheated, that’s why I asked the docs to run it out,” he said with a grin.
“I’m fine,” the sheriff said, blowing out a breath of air.
“You feeling nauseous?”
“Yes,” Sheriff Robertson admitted.
“Ok, then you sit down a minute. Roscoe, wait with him,” Curt said, pulling his shoes out from underneath the mountain of a dog.
Roscoe let out a little woof and rolled on his back, putting his big feet in the air, and proceeded to scratch his own back by wiggling and shaking his body. Curt heard the buzzing of the UTV approaching and stepped out onto the trail. They had not waited at the trailhead, they’d driven in until they saw Curt.
“How’s he doing?” Leah asked.
“Feeling sick, overheated, sort of gasping for air.”
Leah and Dante exchanged a look, then followed Curt to where they found Sheriff Robertson sitting on his butt, rubbing Roscoe’s belly. The big dog was still doing the big wiggle, but stopped and rolled to his feet when he saw three of his people walking up.
“I don’t have our bags with us, but I was able to grab some cold packs from the first aid kit in the workshop,” Leah told him.
“I just got too hot,” Sheriff Robertson said, “but I will admit, I never felt sick and dizzy from getting too hot before.”
Dante punched two cold packs, breaking the seal, and mixing the chemicals together. “Put these under your arms, I’m getting another one out for the back of your neck.”
“And I want you to drink this, slowly,” Leah said.
“I’m not dehydrated, I’m still sweating,” he said, gasping.
“Ok, that’s fine. I still want to cool you down so we can drive you up front. Do you need me to have somebody let the state police know?”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “Can you give me a hand up again?”
“Sure,” Curt told him. ‘Let's get you into the buggy.”
“Damn, I’m a little worse off than I realized,” the sheriff said, turning around and retching.
“What’s going on?” Curt asked.
“Need to get him to the medical center,” Dante said.
“Agreed,” Leah said. “I’ll call 911 and have them roll an ambulance just in case we're right. We can stabilize him, but he needs to get to the hospital, I'm betting.”
Curt helped Sheriff Robertson up and they made their way to the Kawasaki as quickly as they could. Leah got on the back, holding an ice pack on the back of his neck. Curt stayed behind with the big dog, wondering if he had just witnessed what could have led up to a heart attack, or was it heat exhaustion?
“Let’s go find the others, Roscoe.” The big dog followed him. “Go find the other dogs,” he mumbled.
Nine
The men and women folk of the Langtry farm continued cooking and getting to know Lyle’s group better. It was clear there were some pretty hard feelings between Steff and Angelica, but everybody was ignoring the pointed barbs that those two were throwing. Jennifer had given up an hour earlier when the ambulance had picked up Sheriff Robertson.
“So did the good sheriff have a heart attack?” Lyle asked Dante as he came back outside.
“If he did, it was a mild one. I don’t have the lab or MRI equipment here I would at a hospital. I gave him a little bit of nitro and had him lay on the table, cooling off and calm.”
“You know, it’s been a blessing having folks with your skill sets around here,” Don said suddenly. “I don’t remember if I properly thanked you, because I’m sort of hazy from sleeping funny, but thank you. All of you.”
“Any time,” Steven told him.
Luis was watching all of this, noting the bonds of friendship forming. There had been bad blood once, but the strained jokes and silences that were filled with random small talk were slowly working. Anna could make friends with a rock, so she made it her special mission to play hostess and flit around the party like a butterfly, dropping a beer off, collecting empties. Refilling a glass with lemonade. Getting Grandma Goldie’s snacks handed out.
“How long do you think it’ll take to finish that pig off?” Lyle asked Dante.
“I was going to go by the thermometer,” Steven answered instead. “We’re maybe half an hour, 45 minutes away I think.”
“Do you mind if I take a quick walk to stretch a little bit, and look around the woodlot?”
The group looked at each other and shrugged. The state police were still out there.
“We don’t mind,” Dante said. “You want somebody to go with you? It’s lousy with depressions and scars in the limestone.”
“Where the bones were found,” Anna said, taking an empty solo cup and putting it in the trash receptacle before Lyle could get it refilled.
“I wouldn’t mind company,” Lyle said. “I’m getting older, so I can’t sit down for long without wanting to find a tree to mark, and I’m downright curious.”
“Do you want me to show you the cave where we found the bones?” Harry asked.
“If it’s no—”
“Ranger and I will go too,” Angelica said, having enough of the petty staring contest.
“Alright!” Harry said, pumping his fist in the air. “For a party, this is really boring.”
Everyone laughed at that. Rob thought about going with them, but Angel turned her head to him and shook it. She wanted to talk to him. Maybe push him into a hole. Rob did not know, but if she asked him to get a backhoe out and bury a body, he’d do it. For her. Rob was not worried for his wife; he was worried of what his wife was capable of. Especially since finding out she had an informal record almost an inch thick.
“It’s right over here,” Harry said, running ahead of Ranger, who wanted to join the other dogs who were working the area.
Ranger figured out where his little human was going about the same time as he got there. The dog sauntered up to the opening and flopped down next to Harry’s feet.
“Ah, I see,” Lyle said looking down.
The opening had been disturbed by the crime scene technicians getting in and out. They had done a good job cleaning up after themselves once the investigation was done.
“The first set of bones we found was right there. They were all intact, so we don’t know if they went in alive or not.”
“They wouldn’t have lasted long without water if they fell in and couldn’t get out,” Lyle told her.
“I know, but I heard this cave wasn’t dry,” she lied, because she had seen it herself.
“Huh. How far away is the next one?” Lyle asked, stretching.
“It’s over this way,” Harry said, taking off. A reluctant Ranger hopped to his feet, giving Angel a look like, can’t you slow him down?
“Have you mapped the caves around the property here?” Lyle asked her.
“The ones we found. Until today, we really have not been trying to find more. Did you happen to bring your map?” Angelica asked.
Lyle chuckled, nodding. “Here,” he said, pulling the scrap out of his vest’s inner pocket.
She looked at it, then frowned.
“I sort of recognize they have a rocky spot with trees,” she said pointing, “but other than that, where’s the point of reference? There’s no landmarks picked out.”
“That’s why I figured it was a kid’s work,” he said, putting it back in his pocket. “I don’t think there’s buried treasure or anything, but there’s been those rumors too.”
“Buried treasure?” Angelica asked. “You mean like the Spanish treasure cave stuff?”
“That, and the lost confederate gold. There have been lots of rumors, myths, and urban legends. Honestly though, the gold doesn’t interest me as much as what my sister wrote in the journal. She never wrote about the caves but after hearing about things, I’m starting to wonder if she suspected or knew more than she put on paper.”
“You mind if I take a picture of that scrap sometime?” Angelica asked.
Lyle pulled the page back out and Anna snapped a picture with her phone, then gave it back to him.
“I’ll forward this to the police if you don’t mind,” she said.
“Not at all. What do you think?” Lyle asked Harry.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t scared when my Momma found the bones. It’s like finding an Indian arrowhead in the woods or in the dirt. It’s curious, but it’s just there.”
“I think I understand,” Lyle told him. “Do you think supper will be done soon?”
“I hope so,” Harry said. “I’m so hungry I could just about eat a whole cow!”
“Well, let's get back then, if you’re ready?” This was directed at Harry and Ranger. Both nodded. “If that’s ok with you, ma’am?”
Behind The Curve-The Farm | Book 2 | The Farm Page 5