C J Box - [Joe Pickett 02]

by C. J. Box

  Trees thinned in number but the ones they hiked through became thicker and taller. Joe felt as if they had entered a land of giants, their bodies becoming specks on the forest floor as they trudged on. He thought about Marybeth, and Sheridan, Lucy, and April. At times, the thought of them almost overwhelmed him.

  The trees cleared enough that he could now see the mountain behind them. As Britney and Stewie rested, he glassed the forest with his binoculars, guessing where the elk trail switch backed down the mountain, and followed it all the way to the top with his binoculars. He saw no movement.

  Then, far to the right on the shoulder of the mountain, a flock of spruce grouse rose out of the trees. They glided over the treetops, veered, and settled back into the timber out of view Something, or someone, had spooked them.

  "The elk trail threw him off," Joe said, keeping his voice low. "He's way over there to the right coming down through the trees. Probably trying to pick up our track."

  "Shit," Stewie hissed, angrily throwing a pine cone away from him. "How far?"

  Joe tried to estimate the distance between the flock of pine grouse and where they now stood. Charlie Tibbs was closing in on them. "An hour. Maybe an hour and a half."

  "We can't keep running," Britney said, more to Stewie than Joe. "We're exhausted, and we keep getting deeper into the wilderness. Maybe we can just talk to him. That's something we haven't tried."

  "You can stay and talk with him if you want," Stewie grunted, as he pulled himself back to his feet. "This is the same guy that blew up my bride and shot his friend's face off a foot away from me."

  LIKE TRIBUTARIES FEEDING A GREAT RIVER, small individual tracks started to peel away from the elk trail. Joe noticed it first, how the once-prominent trail was diminishing as they walked. He felt a sensation ahead of him that at first he couldn't comprehend. It was a sense of vastness, of openness, that belied the dark woods.

  He pushed through a thick wall of Rocky Mountain juniper. The branches were so full and tough that it seemed they were trying to throw him back. Stewie and Britney complained behind him that they were having trouble figuring out which way he went. Britney cried out as a branch whipped back from Stewie and hit her flush in the face.

  The juniper was sharp smelling and acrid, and the dusty clustered berries that fell to the ground looked like rabbit pellets. Joe ducked his head forward so the brush wouldn't knock his hat off.

  With a hard push he cleared the brush wall and stumbled into the open and gasped.

  One more clumsy step and he would have plunged seven hundred feet to the floor of the canyon known as Savage Run.

  IT WAS SHEER, sharp, beautiful, and, to Joe, virtually uncrossable so they followed a game path that skirted the rim. Periodically Joe would near the edge and look down. The Middle Fork of the Twelve Sleep River was a thin gray ribbon of water on the shadowed canyon bottom. Occasionally he could see a twiggy falcon nest blooming out from the rock face below them.

  The canyon was as unique a geographic phenomenon as Joe had heard it was. Instead of tapering down from an elevation, it was a sharp slice that cleanly halved the mountain range. The other rim was no more than two hundred yards away and it, like the side they were on, was brushy with juniper and old-growth spruce. Joe could clearly see the layers of geological strata that made up the mountain on the face of the opposite canyon wall. It looked as if the mountain had been pulled apart recently, instead of millions of years before. The undergrowth and exposed roots that snaked out from below the two canyon rims seemed to be reaching for their counterparts on the other side.

  Beyond the other rim and two slump-shouldered mountains, the range descended into the Twelve Sleep Valley ranch land and, eventually, to the highway and on to the town of Saddlestring.

  Joe knew what kind of trouble they were in. Now that they had found the canyon, they could only go either east or west, and it wouldn't be difficult for Charlie Tibbs to figure out which way they'd gone. Joe knew that an offshoot canyon intersected Savage Run a mile to the east and would have cut off progress in that direction. If they went that way they would have, in effect, trapped themselves. So their only choice was a westerly route.

  From where he had seen the birds rise from the forest and signal what he thought was Charlie Tibbs's location, Joe tried to determine where Tibbs was headed. Tibbs would either follow their track to the rim and ride up on the trail behind them or ride ahead and try to intercept them. Joe wished he knew more about Tibbs--how Tibbs acted and thought, his past tendencies--so he might have a better inclination of what Tibbs would do next. Professionals like Charlie Tibbs didn't just make things up as they went along. They stuck to procedures and maneuvers that had worked for them in the past. And whatever happened next, it seemed to Joe, a confrontation was inevitable. He wished he could be more prepared for it when it came.

  It was essential to stay focused. He tried to trim all of his musings, memories, and daydreams into one central purpose: that of being ready to react. Joe tried to force his eyes to see better and his ears to hear more. He hoped that if Tibbs were near, he would be able to feel his presence and prepare. Staying in the heavy timber was no longer an option for them, Joe thought, which meant that Tibbs, with his deadly long-range rifle, could take out all three of them from a position with good sight lines.

  Tibbs had the edge of being better prepared and equipped, and of being on horseback, so he was likely well rested, well fed, and well armed. Hunting down human beings was something Tibbs clearly had experience with. In any kind of encounter, Tibbs had the overwhelming advantage. Joe, with his .357 Magnum revolver and his history of missing whatever he aimed at, felt practically impotent.

  If Charlie Tibbs suddenly bulled his way through the brush and cut them off on their trail, what would Joe do? He tried to think, tried to visualize his reaction so that it would be instinctual. He tried to envision himself drawing his pistol cleanly, raising it with both hands in a shooter's stance, and squeezing the trigger of the double-action until every bullet was fired. He would aim at the widest point of his target. The commotion, if nothing else, would divert Tibbs from aiming and give Stewie and Britney a fighting chance to bolt into the brush and back into the trees. Even if he were unable to hit Tibbs or his horse, there was the possibility that his booming shots might Spock the animal, causing it to rear and tumble into the canyon with its rider. Targeting Tibbs's horse felt wrong to Joe, but in this situation soft sensibilities were not an option. Besides, Joe thought bitterly, that son of a bitch Charlie shot Lizzie.

  "There is no way in hell that those Indians crossed this canyon," Britney declared. Joe had to agree, because he could see no possible way to the bottom of the canyon and up the other side. Even the

  falcon's nests in the rock walls seemed precarious.

  "Don't give up, Miss Stemburton," Stewie cajoled.

  "Is that your real name?" Joe asked. "Stemburton?"

  "Margaret Stemburton," Stewie offered. "Heir to the Stemburton Chemical Company of Palo Alto, California."

  "Shut up, Stewie," she said. "He asked me, not you."

  Stewie giggled, and Joe continued on in silence.

  Despite his almost constant monologues, his occasional whining, and his cocky attitude, Joe found himself warming to Stewie. He had gotten used to his freakish appearance and his face-splitting grimaces, and wasn't as alarmed at them as he had been at first. Stewie had a cheerful optimism about him that was reassuring, and helpful. Stewie seemed to be gaming in strength the more they traveled. While Britney (or Margaret, or whoever the hell she was) descended into a prickly dark funk, Stewie kept pointing out wildlife and points of interest (to him) as if he were on a nature walk and Joe was the stoic guide.

  "If you had to run for your life," Stewie had declared happily that morning, "you just couldn't have picked a nicer day!"

  No wonder Marybeth liked him, Joe thought.

  Joe realized he had once again put too much distance between Stewie and Britney so he stopped, turned, a
nd waited for them to catch up.

  Stewie was marveling at the canyon as he walked. He was not watching in front of him, and didn't see the snout of a large rock that had pushed up through the trail. The toe of his boot thumped into the rock and tripped him, and he lost his balance.

  Joe turned and lunged for Stewie but there was too much distance between them. Stewie's arms windmilled and one of his legs crashed into the other. Stewie tried to regain his balance by stepping into a thick tangle of juniper perilously close to the edge of the canyon only to have the branches give way under his weight.

  Stewie dropped so quickly that the only thing Joe could reach for was the fleeting afterimage of Stewie's outstretched hands.

  Joe approached the juniper as Britney wailed, holding her face in her hands and retreating from the place where Stewie had fallen.

  "Britney!" It was Stewie. "Stop screaming! I'm all right."

  Joe kneeled and cautiously parted the stout, sticky branches. Stewie's large hand, like an inert pink crab, was in the bush, gripping onto its base so hard that his knuckles were blueish white. Joe braced himself, grabbed Stewie's wrist with both hands, and began pulling.

  "Whoa, Joe!" Stewie said from over the rim. "Whoa, buddy! I'm okay I'm standing on a ledge."

  Joe sighed and sat back, and watched Stewie's hand unclench in the brush and slide down out of it.

  "Stewie! Britney cried in relief, leaning back against a tree trunk. "Don't ever do that to me again."

  "Don't you want me to help you up?" Joe asked.

  There was a beat of silence, and something small and brown was tossed up from below the juniper. Joe caught it, releasing a puff of dust,

  It was an ancient child's doll. The head was a dried ball of rocklike leather and the arms and legs were stuffed with feathers and sewn from rough, aged fabric. The face, if there had ever been one, had washed clean over the years. The doll's matted black hair, sewn on the leather head, looked human. The doll, no doubt, had belonged to an Indian child.

  Joe scrambled forward on his belly and pushed the juniper branches aside. Stewie looked up at him with a massive, radiator-grille grin.

  Stewie stood on a narrow shelf of rock no wider than a stair step. The shelf ran parallel to the ledge, then switched back, still descending. Far below Stewie, trapped against the rock ledge by an outgrowth, were gray tipi poles that had come unbundled and fallen over the edge a hundred and fifty years before.

  Joe studied the opposite rock wall as he hadn't before and now he saw it. A narrow shelf, a natural geological anomaly, barely discernible against the same yellow and gray color of the canyon wall and hidden in places by overgrowth, switch backed up the other wall as well.

  "This is the crossing," Joe whispered. "This is where the Cheyenne crossed the canyon."

  33

  "DID I WAKE YOU UP?"

  "Are you kidding? I haven't slept," Marybeth said, as she swung out of bed, the phone tight against her ear. The floor was cold beneath her bare feet. "Did you find Joe?"

  Trey Crump hesitated.

  "I located his pickup in the valley. It was parked just off the road."

  The phone reception was crackling and waves of static roared through the receiver. Marybeth looked at the clock on her bed stand it was five forty-five A.M.

  "You haven't seen Joe?"

  "Negative," Crump yelled over the static. "I had to drive back up to the top of the mountain to get any radio or telephone signal, Marybeth. I might cut out at any minute."

  "I understand," she shouted, surprised at the loudness of her voice in the empty room. "Tell me what you found."

  "The pickup and the horse trailer are empty. The pickup's been shot up .. ." Marybeth gasped and covered her mouth with her other hand, "and somebody disabled the engine and deflated the tires. I found two other vehicles as well; one is a Mercedes SUV with Colorado plates and the other one I just located about a half-hour ago up on the other mountain. It appears to be a black pickup with a horse trailer. There's no one at the scene of .. ."

  A whoosh of static drowned out the end of his sentence. Marybeth closed her eyes tightly trying to hear through the roar and willing it to subside.

  ".. . The cabin was burned to the ground just last night. It's still smoking. There was a body inside that was not Joe. I repeat, it was not Joe!"

  Marybeth realized that she was gripping the telephone receiver so tightly that she had lost feeling in her hand.

  "Marybeth, can you hear me?"

  "Yes, Trey!"

  "I found your buckskin horse, and I'm sorry to say the horse has been killed. I searched the vicinity around the horse but couldn't find any sign of Joe."

  She let out the breath she had been holding. It racketed out unevenly.

  "Marybeth, I've contacted the sheriff and he is on his way now He told me he will call for a helicopter out of Cody. It should be in the air above us by midmorning."

  "The sheriff?" Marybeth recalled her conversation with Rowdy McBride from the night before. She recalled that McBride never actually confirmed .. . "When will the helicopter get there?"

  "A couple of hours. But the sheriff should be here any minute. I just talked to him."

  "My God, Trey what do you think happened?"

  She missed the first part of his sentence. ".. . happened. I can't tell who is who with these vehicles up here or if they're even connected with Joe's disappearance. I ran the plates with dispatch and the SUV belongs to a Denver lawyer but they can't find anything on the plate on the black pickup."

  "You mean it can't be traced to anyone?"

  "That's what they tell me. But they're checking again."

  "Trey" Marybeth said, increasing her volume again as a wall of static began to build, "It's the Stockman's Trust. That's who is behind all of this. The pickup belongs, I think, to the Stockman's Trust!"

  ".. . Say again?"

  She cursed. Someone was knocking on her bedroom door. Sheridan. "The Stockman's Trust!"

  "I see Barnum's vehicle now, Marybeth," Trey Crump said, distracted. "I'll call you back when I know more."

  "Trey!"

  "Got to go now, Marybeth. Stay calm and don't panic. It's a good sign that I didn't find Joe here because it probably means he's in the area. Joe's a smart one. He knows what to do. This is big country but we'll find him and I'll advise you of our progress." The connection terminated and Marybeth couldn't tell if it was because the signal was lost or Trey Crump had hung up.

  She lowered the receiver to her lap. Sheridan entered, and sat down beside her on the bed.

  "No, they haven't found him yet," Marybeth said, finding the strength to smile with reassurance. "But they've located his pickup."

  "Why were you yelling?" Sheridan asked.

  "It was a bad connection."

  34

  Once they had crawled down through the steep, narrow, and brushy chute to the trail, their commitment was made. The ledge Stewie had found was a seven-foot drop down a tongue of slick rock. It was clear to Joe that if the switchback ledge became impassable on the canyon wall, or had broken away somewhere below, it would be hard for them to turn back.

  Because the ledge was so narrow, Joe did not try to shoulder around Stewie into the lead. Hugging the wall, Stewie sidestepped along the jutting fissure, calling out hazards such as a break in the trail or loose rocks. Joe followed, and Britney with tears of fear streaming down her dirty cheeks, stayed close. They had tied the rope around their waists to each other.

  "There's something, like, cinematic about this," Stewie called over his shoulder.

  "Watch where the fuck you're going!" Britney hissed.

  "Stay calm," Joe sighed. "We've got a long way to go."

  Joe buttoned the doll into his shirt. If there was any luck or mystical charge emanating from the doll, Joe wanted as much of it as he could get. The doll rested against his sweating skin as a lucky talisman. He vowed that if he somehow made the descent and got back to his family he would clean up the doll and give it
to his girls.

  After the first switchback, the trail widened and they were able to square their shoulders and hike down it slowly Like Stewie, Joe kept one hand on the canyon wall at all times. If he slipped on loose earth, he wanted to fall into the wall and not plunge into the canyon.

  "I swear if I get home I'll go to church," Britney promised. "I don't know which church yet. It needs to be spiritual, and healing, and forgiving. And without a lot of that religious baggage so many churches seem to have nowadays." Joe's thighs began to burn as he descended. He perversely welcomed the sensation, because it took his mind off of other concerns. He was hungry and his mouth was cottony with thirst. His clothing had been ripped by branches. His eyes burned due to lack of sleep, and despite his efforts to concentrate, there was a thick fog born of exertion, fear, and unusual self-doubt that was clouding his thinking.

  They were far down the trail, which Stewie had taken to calling the Cheyenne Crossing, when Joe started to question if they had done the right thing. It would be amazingly easy to become rim rocked that is, to get to a point where they realized they could not get back. Joe had been involved on a search-and-rescue effort of a bighorn sheep hunter who had meandered up a boulder-strewn mountain and found out he couldn't figure out how to get back down. He fell, and the hunter's broken body was found wedged beneath two up thrusts of granite, where he had been for seventy-two hours. The hunter died of exposure on the way to the hospital.

  If suddenly the wedge of rock that served as a path ended, they would have to backtrack up the wall. Balance and gravity had helped carry them this far down, and going back up with aching muscles and minds dizzy with hunger and exhaustion would spell trouble. It would be extremely difficult to crawl up the slick rock chute they had used to slide down to the ledge.

  Only when Joe looked across the canyon at the opposite wall did he realize that they had already dropped two-thirds of the way into the canyon. He looked at his watch and confirmed that it had only taken twenty minutes.