We waited to see if the fallen one would get up. The other figure examined the fallen man and then ran away from the cabin into the woods. I kept my eyes on the cabin and its surrounding area. I figured that Starnes would track the runner. I saw a larger figure close to the cabin moving ever so furtively back inside the cabin.
“Were you watching the runner?” I said to Starnes.
“Yeah. He turned and ran away from the body of his friend, tripped, fell flat on his face, got up and skedaddled into the woods over there. If you be real quiet, you can hear him trying to catch his breath. His compatriot has not moved from the spot where he fell.”
“I saw someone enter the cabin,” I said.
“Laurel?”
“Too large, even by nighttime standards. Somebody else.”
“You think she’s inside the cabin?”
“I think those two idiots believed she was inside the cabin,” she said.
“What do you want to do?”
“Let’s wait to see what the heavy breathing one in the woods does first.”
“And the guy on the ground in the clearing?”
“He’s not going anywhere. I think he’s dead.”
Chapter 15
Funny how dawn comes around each morning. Before the sun even thinks about coming up, there is light that begins to slowly envelop the whole area. That’s true even in a dense forest, like the place where we found ourselves the next morning. The birds began singing as soon as the light revealed specific things instead of simply outlining shapes in silhouette.
We were both awake. Sleep had not come calling for any length of time to either of us during the night. Heaven knows I tried. I was sure that Starnes had as well. She would probably never admit it, but I knew she had to be tired from the pace she had set for us in our ascent to this present location. Sitting was good. Sleep would’ve been better.
“Unless my eyes are deceiving me, and in my weariness, I am entertaining serious delusions, that’s an arrow sticking up from the body in the clearing,” I said.
“Then we’re both delirious.”
“Hold that thought. The other man still in the woods?”
“He must be sleeping. I can see something. If it’s a person, he’s prone.”
“Shall I go awaken him and find out what his plans are for the day?”
“That would be good, but I doubt if he has a mind to share,” she said.
“Let me go shoot him then,” I said. “At least we could then go down the mountain and find a comfortable bed.”
“And some food.”
“So, I can shoot him?” I said.
“No. We need to find out who’s inside the cabin and who killed his partner.”
“You sound like me now.”
“The curse of togetherness,” she said. “We wait.”
“You’d think we would be getting good at waiting.”
“Takes years and years of practice, but you already know that.”
“Doesn’t mean I like it.”
“Why don’t you change professions?”
“It’s that leopard and spots thingy,” I said. “I am a detective.”
“And you gripe a lot,” she said.
“I like the comforts of home. You live in a wild world,” I said.
“It is what it is.”
“Well said.”
“Hold on,” Starnes said. “Our suspect from the woods is moving towards the cabin.”
I looked up. He was walking purposely without any caution straight toward the cabin. I could make out a small handgun in his right hand.
“Don’t think that maneuver is wise,” I said to her. “Should we try to stop him?”
“We can yell, but he’s too far away for us to do much good with halting his intent,” Starnes said.
We watched the figure continue his direct approach towards the cabin. Suddenly he stopped walking. He raised his gun hand and fired at the structure. As far as I could tell, he wasn’t aiming at anything. I judged his distance from the building to be about thirty yards.
He fired once more. The cabin seemed to be quiet and without any sign of movement.
“I can’t just sit here,” I said and began jogging towards the clearing and the cabin.
Sam followed immediately. When I reached the clearing, I looked back, and Starnes was approaching with Dog.
“What do you intend to do?” she said to me.
“Get his attention.”
“So, he’ll shoot at us.”
“He can’t hit us at this distance,” I said and drew my weapon.
I fired two shots into the air. The man in the clearing turned and looked in our direction. He was momentarily startled and then raised his weapon and fired in our direction. Our reflexes caused us to fall to the ground even though the physics told me mentally that there was no way his bullets could achieve a desired effect at this distance.
I could see that his handgun was a revolver. Three shots at the cabin and three shots at us. I did the math. It was a habit I had developed whenever I encountered a revolver.
The revolver was still pointed in our direction. I could hear the clicking sound across the clearing.
We stood up. The clicking continued. He finally dropped the gun onto the ground and turned towards the cabin. At this point I saw a huge figure come out of the cabin and approach the smaller man in the field who had dropped his gun. The larger figure grabbed the man in a bear hug and lifted him off the ground with great ease. He held him in the air for several seconds. He was squeezing the man.
“He’s killing him,” Starnes said and began to run toward the two men.
I followed along closely behind her.
“Stop!” Starnes yelled.
I fired my weapon in the air, but the noise did nothing to distract the large man who was crushing the smaller one.
Starnes arrived first. She pointed her gun directly at the large man’s head.
“Put him down!” she yelled.
The giant of a man turned slowly toward Starnes without releasing his captive. The captive was motionless and unconscious.
“Drop him,” she said.
The larger-than-life giant gently released the lifeless figure, permitting his limp body to slide slowly down to the ground between the giant’s arms and upper body. The little man crumpled on the ground and was dead. There was no need to check his pulse.
“Back away,” Starnes said still holding her gun on the giant.
The large man took one step backwards. Starnes looked at me in desperation. I had my gun on the giant as well. Starnes was less than half the size of the man standing in front of her. Even with my height of five feet ten inches, I was significantly dwarfed by the figure. Combine our weights and we were still much less than this mountain man.
Starnes moved to the body even though she probably knew what she would find.
“Who are you?” I said to the man standing in front of me.
“Homer Gosnell.”
“Why did you kill him?”
“He was shooting at my home.”
“Why do you think he was shooting at your home?”
“He’s a bad man.”
“Maybe true enough,” I said, “but you crushed him to death.”
“He wanted to hurt Laurel Shelton.”
“You know Laurel Shelton?”
“She’s my friend.”
“Is she inside?”
“No.”
“Then, where is she?”
“I sent her into the woods to hide.”
“And you remained to run interference for her?” I said.
“Not sure what that means. I stayed here ‘cause this be my home and I protect my home. They wanted to hurt her. I could not allow such,” he said and smiled a little, obviously pleased with whatever deception he had created.
“So, you stayed and allowed Laurel to run away,” I said.
“Good plan.”
“Did you shoot the other man last night?” I said and pointed to the
body that had the arrow in the center of the man’s chest.
“Good shot, huh?” he said.
“For the dead of night, I’d say so,” I said.
“He won’t hurt Laurel.”
“True enough. I don’t think he’s gonna hurt anybody.”
“She was running from these men. She told me.”
I inhaled and exhaled a deep breath. I was speechless for a moment. It doesn’t happen to me often, but now and then I get to the place where events and people defy logic and natural causes. In such instances, I have nothing to say. There wasn’t much that needed to be said.
I looked at Starnes, and she shrugged.
“Ideas?” I said to her.
“Let’s call this in and go find Laurel,” she said.
Chapter 16
Homer invited us inside his cabin. Homer Gosnell must have been at least 6 feet 5 inches, weighing about to two hundred and fifty pounds. Give or take on the poundage. I was guessing, of course, but I had to be in the ballpark. I was tall and felt like a little girl standing next to him. Starnes was even shorter. Despite his size, I felt no threat from him. He seemed quiet and well mannered despite the events of the night before and the early morning.
Starnes had no cell phone service. I checked mine, as well. I had one bar, but if I moved an inch, the bar disappeared, and the phone told me that it was searching. I added the phrase in vain each time I checked the phone. I changed positions at least twenty times without success.
We both went outside and tried to make a call, but neither of us had success.
“Those things don’t work too well up here,” Homer said from inside the cabin. He was standing at the door looking at us.
“You have a cell phone?” I said.
“Wouldn’t waste what little money I have on them. Don’t need ‘em.”
Starnes and I re-entered the cabin.
“You have family in the county?” Starnes said. “I know a lot of Gosnells.”
“No family.”
“You work somewhere?” she asked.
“When I need to buy something, I work.”
“Where do you work?” she said.
“Where there’s need,” he said.
“Around the community here?” she said.
“Yes, ma’am. Sometimes I walk into Madison to work.”
We looked at each other. It was a long walk to Madison from this spot.
“That’s a long walk,” I said, feeling the muscles in my legs tighten a bit.
“I got lots of time.”
“You ever been charged with a crime?” Starnes said.
I was looking around his sparse cabin while Homer and Starnes continued to talk.
“I don’t think so,” he said.
“You’d probably know if you had been.”
“I reckon.”
“When did you graduate from high school?”
“I stopped going to school.”
I spotted the white sheet hanging between the room we were in and another room in the back of the cabin.
“May I go in there?” I said to Homer.
“Yes, ma’am. That’s my bedroom. Laurel stayed in there last night.”
“Restless night, huh?” I said.
“The men came.”
I left Starnes and Homer chatting away while I went into the bedroom. I had no idea what it was that I was looking for, but it’s the sort of thing we investigative types do. We look for things. Sometimes we look for things when we don’t even know the things we’re looking for. Call it clues. Or you could call it clueless. Depends. If you find something interesting, you can call it a clue. That’s about the extent of it.
The room was small. There was a chair in one corner, and a twin bed across from the chair. The small bed was centered on the wall. There were no pictures or paintings hanging on the walls. A small, roughly built bedside table had an oil lamp on it. The bed had been slept in, or at least someone had lain in the bed recently. I found some small clods of dirt on the floor beside the bed. Some wet leaves were there beside the dirt. Forest stuff.
As I was heading back to the main room of the cabin, I noticed a beaded bracelet on the floor next to the wall by the sheet. The beads were multicolored about the size of green peas. I suspected it was the sort of thing a fourteen-year-old girl might own. Ah, it was a clue.
“Did you know the men who were after Laurel?” Starnes said.
“Maybe one. The man who shot at my home.”
“You know a name?”
“No.”
“You recall from where you knew that man?”
“I don’t think I exactly knew him. I think when we were real small, we was in some class together. It was a class for kids like us.”
“Is this yours?” I held up the bracelet to Homer.
He chuckled. “No, ma’am. That’s a girl thing.”
“Yeah, well, I found it in your bedroom.”
“Laurel,” he said.
“That’s what I thought.”
“We need to talk,” Starnes said to me.
We walked outside. Homer stayed in the cabin.
“Whattaya think?” she said.
“About what?”
“About Homer.”
“Humor me. Tell me what you’re thinking,” I said. I was still at a loss for words and ideas.
“I don’t know what to do. Under ordinary circumstances, we would take him in and charge him.”
“With what?”
“Manslaughter.”
“It was self-defense.”
“You a lawyer now?” she said.
“No, I’m a human being who is trying to figure out where a little girl ran off to this time. He saved her life. And you know he does not need all the attention that arresting him would bring about. He helped Laurel, and that’s about as much as you could ask any human being to do.”
“So, you would walk away and thank him for his trouble?” she said.
“Something like that. I might give him some money if I had some to give, but, yes, I would walk away and leave him alone.”
“Not much of a law enforcement type, are you?”
“I’m a detective. If those men had come after me, I would have shot both of them. What’s the difference between that and what Homer did?”
“Lettme think about that.”
“Well, while you ponder the morality or the ethics of the situation, I want to find out which way Laurel went and go after her. We still have one culprit out there who is looking for her.”
“Yeah. I almost forgot about Mr. Curly.”
I looked around and noticed that the dogs were not with us. I whistled. Sam came running and Dog approached us seconds later.
“Where’ve they been?” Starnes said.
“I told Sam to wait in the woods.”
“All this time?”
“He wasn’t wearing a watch,” I said.
We went back inside the cabin. Sam and Dog waited outside.
“I like dogs,” Homer said.
“I’ll introduce you,” I said.
“You’re funny,” he said.
“She’s a riot,” Starnes added.
“I need you to tell us which way Laurel went when she left the cabin,” I said.
Homer walked over to the back door and opened it. All three of us stepped outside.
“That way,” he said and pointed in the direction towards more thick woods and more mountainous terrain. It was directly across from where we had entered the clearing. At least it was not terrain that was rising. A wide valley was spread below Homer’s cabin and the clearing on the west side.
“She’s heading west,” Starnes said.
“Is there a trail?” I said to Homer.
“Yes, ma’am. A good trail. I made it.”
“How far does it go?”
“As far as you want,” he said.
“Is there an end to the trail?”
“Don’t know. Never finished clearing it. I’d say it goes for
a few miles. Lots of space here in the mountains.”
“Yeah, I got that part. Since you know the trail, you want to go with us? Maybe you can help us find her.”
“Why do you want to find her?” Homer said.
“She’s still in danger. There’s another man trying to find her.”
“Why does he want to find her?”
“Not sure about that, Homer. But whatever he wants to do with her is not good. He’s not a nice man.”
“Then I will go with you. She’s my friend.”
Starnes pulled me aside to talk privately.
“You sure it’s a good idea to invite him along with us?” she said.
“He made the trail. I’m betting he knows it pretty well.”
“Still,” she said rolling her eyes at me.
“I’ll keep my guns handy,” I said.
“And fully loaded.”
“They’re always loaded, except when I have to shoot them”
Sam and Dog came tearing around the corner of the cabin. Sam stopped abruptly when he saw Homer standing next to me. He stared at him for a few seconds, then wagged his tail and came on over.
“This is Sam. My dog. That’s Dog. She belongs to Starnes.”
Homer stuck out his right hand to Sam and said, “Hello, Sam. My name is Homer Gosnell. Pleased to meet you.”
Sam gave him his right paw and Homer shook hands with him and laughed. Dog was not quite so eager to make friends with this giant of a man. There was no handshake exchanged.
“Hello, Dog. That’s a funny name you gave your dog,” he said.
“She’s a funny dog.”
“Pleased to meet you as well, Dog.”
She kept her distance and watched him closely as he smiled at her. There was no tail wagging that I could discern.
Chapter 17
Starnes wasn’t too thrilled that Homer the Giant was going with us, but I was delighted. With him along, I might not have to use my gun if we happened to run into Curly McClure.
I watched Homer pack a peanut butter sandwich and then fill an old round army canteen at his spring. We started down the path that Homer had blazed. He stopped.
“I forgot something. I need to go get it.”
“We’ll wait,” I said.
He trotted back to the cabin. He was inside for a few minutes before he emerged carrying a bow and a sheath full of hunting arrows. It was a crossbow.
The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon Page 9
