Colton 911--Caught in the Crossfire

by Linda O. Johnston

  Would she cry so much if he was injured...or worse? Casey didn’t want to find out, yet on one level he hoped she cared enough about him to do so.

  Ridiculous.

  He kept performing CPR a short while longer, then stopped and decided it was time to make a call.

  He stood up and Melody stood beside him, not looking down toward the body. Her eyes were red, her cheeks damp, but she was no longer crying.

  “What—what should we do now?” she asked him.

  “I need to phone this in. My department will undoubtedly send a team out here as fast as possible to deal with the situation.”

  She nodded. “I understand...though getting out here will be a challenge.” She pulled her own phone out of her pocket but just held it against her chest for a moment. Then, clearly tense and upset, she looked down and took a picture before turning away again and putting back her phone. “I’ll wait to hear what’s happening before I call Clarence and let him know.”

  “Good idea.”

  Still watching her, he pulled his own phone from his pocket. He hoped it still had reception this far out, though since Melody’s did, at least enough for her GPS to work, surely his would, too—right?

  Fortunately, the answer was yes. He immediately called Sheriff Krester directly. Also fortunately, he answered right away.

  Casey put the call on speaker, since he thought Melody might be able to contribute to it as far as how to find them.

  “Hi, Casey,” his boss said. “I didn’t expect to hear from you till tonight, since—”

  “We’ve just come across a dead body, sir,” Casey interrupted.

  “What? Who. And where?”

  Casey explained the circumstances as quickly and succinctly as he could, including that he was still with Melody, and they continued to search for the missing herd of cattle.

  “So you think the cow’s death and that ranch hand’s are related?” the sheriff asked.

  “They must be, since they died so close together and so similarly, but I have no idea why, at least regarding Pierce.”

  “Well, we obviously need to bring Pierce’s body back here to have it checked out first by medical personnel, then by the coroner. How do you propose we do that?”

  Good question, Casey thought. “We’re out here on horseback, as you know. And we’d already determined that anything in the air like a plane or helicopter would give away our location and let the thieves know we’re chasing them. But—”

  “Under these circumstances,” Melody interrupted, “I’d like to suggest that you use a helicopter. If you send it from around the ranch and in the same direction we’ve been going, and keep it relatively low, the rustlers aren’t likely to see it. I gather they’re still some distance ahead of us and the terrain between them and us rolls a lot. And maybe if you use a helicopter that isn’t marked as part of the sheriff’s department, they won’t worry as much if they see it, anyway—assuming they could see any markings on it.”

  “Good idea,” Casey said, admiring his partner in this search, though that was nothing new. He’d had a similar thought but didn’t know the terrain as well as she did. “Of course, if they see any indication of a chopper they’ll probably figure that the body they left here has been found.”

  “But they won’t know how or by who, or that the people who found it are following them,” Melody said. “Although...well, we really need to be careful. If they get too suspicious, they may kill the remaining cattle and disappear before we catch them.”

  That wasn’t a new concern, but voicing it again to Jeremy couldn’t hurt. Another reason for Casey to admire Melody.

  And he felt certain that she wanted no further harm to come to the missing herd—or any other person.

  “Okay,” Jeremy said. “We’ll send a chopper right away. It wouldn’t do to leave a body out there, plus you need to stay with it till it’s been picked up rather than continuing on your trail. I’ll get something going and call you back.”

  “Yes, sir,” Casey said, and then, after a few more brief comments and questions, they hung up.

  “Guess we’ll see a helicopter soon,” Melody said. He noticed that her beautiful and sad brown eyes had seemed glued to him during the whole conversation. Surely it was because she didn’t want to look down at her fallen comrade rather than for any other reason.

  “Guess so.” Because it was the right thing to do—and because it might help Melody cope a little better with their discovery of her friend’s body—Casey kneeled, pulled off Pierce’s black sweatshirt and put it over his face.

  She wasn’t watching, he noticed. Though she’d taken a picture of Pierce lying there, she now seemed disinclined to look down at all. In fact, she had taken her phone from her pocket again. She pressed a button and Casey figured she must feel it was time to notify her boss about what had happened out here.

  Bad stuff. He’d been assigned to find missing cattle, not deal with a murder. Oh, but he definitely would help to solve it. But this shouldn’t happen anywhere, let alone around Cactus Creek.

  * * *

  Melody felt her eyes tear up again as she pressed the button on her phone to call Clarence.

  A small portion of her distress was because of having to make this call. Her boss was more than the owner of the important, lucrative ranch that she worked for. He was also a big man in town, its selectman, and he expected everyone to recognize his importance and do what was necessary to comply with promises made to him—and she was about to deliver bad news.

  At the moment, though, she’d been handed a particularly important job. But all she’d done so far was help locate a cow who’d been injured and killed. And worse, much worse, she had also helped to find the body of another ranch hand, one more important than she was, who’d probably come out here on his own, intending to be a lot more successful than she’d been in bringing down the rustlers. Well, he’d apparently found them first.

  Enough. If Clarence wanted to fire her for being ineffective—and finding Pierce—so be it. She glanced toward Casey, who was watching her, probably reading, in the expression on her face, her sorrow at her failure—and, worse, in finding poor Pierce’s body. Pierce, who’d always been so kind to her, who’d helped her learn what she needed to about this ranch and its livestock.

  Surely he’d been out here attempting, like her, to find the missing cattle—and hadn’t been involved in their disappearance. She refused to believe that.

  She made herself take one deep breath, then another. Casey had allowed her to participate in his conversation with his boss, and she believed she’d actually been of some use.

  Following his example, she made herself give him a small smile as they continued to stand there, their backs toward the area where poor Pierce was lying, and pushed the buttons on her phone to call Clarence and put the conversation on the speaker.

  She half hoped this would be one of those times when Clarence didn’t answer first thing...but he did.

  “Okay, Melody,” he began, “I’m surprised to hear from you in the middle of the day. Does this mean you’ve actually made some progress?”

  She winced at the criticism in his voice and his tone, allowing herself to glance slightly sideways to see Casey’s reaction.

  “Hello, Selectman Edison,” Casey intoned in a chilly voice. “This is Deputy Sheriff Casey Colton. I’m here with Melody, and we have a couple of matters you should be informed about.”

  A slight pause, then Clarence said, “What matters?”

  Melody suspected that their finding the body of one of his precious cows would be of greater importance to him than the fact they’d also discovered Pierce’s body, even though he’d been one of Clarence’s employees. Nevertheless, she said, “Sir, we have unfortunately discovered the body of one of your senior ranch hands, Pierce Tostig. We’re not sure why he was here—probably trying to help by looking for th
e missing herd, too—but we found him near the dead body of one of the cows.”

  “What! Tell me more about this—the cow and Pierce.”

  Melody wasn’t surprised at the order in which he asked about them. She shot a glance toward Casey, whose expression appeared full of irony as he shook his head slightly. He’d caught that Clarence had put the animal before the man.

  Melody opened her mouth to begin relating what they’d been through but Casey beat her to it. He described how they had first come upon the corpse of the poor cow, how its leg had been broken and that it apparently had been shot as a result. They had started looking around the area for any ideas about who’d done it and when—and that was when they had discovered Pierce’s corpse.

  “Was he the one who shot the cow?” Clarence demanded, his tone suggesting he’d have gladly shot his employee, too, if he’d discovered the dead cow first.

  “I don’t know,” Melody said. “It’s possible that he found the poor, injured cow and decided to prevent her from suffering anymore.”

  “And someone decided to prevent him from suffering any more, too,” Clarence said almost pleasantly, as if he was nodding his head back in the town at the appropriateness of the act.

  Again Melody met Casey’s gaze, and she cringed at the anger she saw there. “Anyway,” she said hastily, “the sheriff’s department is going to come here to pick up poor Pierce’s body. We’ll need to leave the cow here for now because there’s no good way to take her back to the ranch, especially since we’re still hoping the rustlers won’t realize we’re out here and chasing them.”

  “Then hurry up and catch them already,” Clarence shouted, making Melody move the phone farther from her ear. “I don’t want you to wind up finding any more of my valuable stock out there dead, you hear me?”

  “Yes, sir.” Melody did her best to keep the annoyance she felt out of her tone. But she couldn’t joke, either. “And I’ll keep you informed as we continue, though not tonight. ’Bye.”

  And then she hung up—and felt those damn tears return to her eyes again.

  She was grieving—for Pierce, of course, and the cow...as well as the peacefulness of her own life.

  She again caught Casey’s gaze, even as he took several steps toward her. Neither of them was looking down.

  In a moment, she was in his arms as he gave her a hug. She hugged him back. She knew they were sharing sympathy and empathy and sorrow. She needed that.

  And wondered how she was going to survive this assignment with her sanity in place.

  * * *

  Casey didn’t know the helicopter pilot or the EMTs—a man and a woman—who appeared at the site not much more than half an hour later, landing on the nearby pasture. He did appreciate the quick arrival and how they immediately got to work checking out Pierce and confirming that he was deceased—no question in Casey’s mind about that, either, as unfortunate as it was. This was definitely a homicide, and a full investigation would need to be commenced. Casey could only hope it would be solved fast and the perpetrator prosecuted quickly. A couple members of the sheriff’s department were along, too, and Casey knew them. He was surprised that one of them was Deputy Bob Andrews, the young guy who mostly hung out at the department answering the phone and greeting people who came in, then sending the more experienced deputies out on calls. Maybe this was to be a learning experience for him, since he was unlikely to accomplish much.

  But Casey wasn’t surprised that he was accompanied by Captain Walter Forman, who had a lot more seniority than Casey, and was even nearing retirement. Most important, he was one of the most experienced investigators in the department.

  Well, Walter might have more experience, but Casey was already involved in this situation. He intended to remain a primary investigator out here, even while continuing to hunt for the missing cattle.

  He hoped to be the one to find the answers.

  As the EMTs got busy checking Pierce, Walter had Bob take a lot of pictures. He then began asking both Casey and Melody questions about how they’d gotten here, what they’d seen, how they’d found Pierce’s body and more. Casey knew how to respond efficiently and did so, and was glad to hear Melody do so as well. Bob asked a few questions, too, furthering Casey’s assumption that he was along partly to help but probably also to learn more of what an investigation was like.

  On Walter’s request, they took Bob and him up the rise to look at the dead cow while they left the EMTs and helicopter pilot near the site where they’d discovered Pierce’s body. Melody led the group, and Casey enjoyed watching her athletic body, in her hoodie and jeans, navigate along the rise. Casey assumed she wanted to spend as much time with what was left of the cow that she could—or at least point out what she could about the poor animal’s condition.

  Their horses, fortunately, were still tethered close by, which prompted Casey to ask Walter some questions of his own. “Do you have any knowledge about how Mr. Tostig got out here? Are you aware whether he also rode a horse here from the ranch? Ours are here, but we didn’t see any others.”

  “No, we’re not aware yet how he got here,” Walter said. “Or even why, although we gather he may have gone after the missing cattle on his own, without approval from anyone at the ranch. We already have a team at the ranch asking questions, and I’ll make sure they check to see if Mr. Tostig was out here on horseback, which seems logical. Maybe while you’re out on the range, you can keep an eye out for his missing horse as well as the cattle. And once Bob and I complete what investigation we can out here we’ll head back to the ranch, too, after Mr. Tostig’s body has been taken to the morgue.”

  They’d reached the cow’s corpse, and flies buzzed around it now. Melody swiped at them with her hand, then said, “I know Clarence will want to see this cow himself or at least send someone out here from the ranch to deal with her body. Is there some way we can cover her up for now, keep her as clean as possible?”

  “We’ve got some blankets in the helicopter and could use those,” Bob said.

  “Thank you.” Melody looked down again at the cow and shook her head slightly. Casey assumed she was crying again, or at least fighting not to, so he approached and put his arm around her. He doubted he’d be much comfort, but at least he could try.

  She looked at him. Sure enough, her eyes were shimmering, but she took a deep breath and smiled at him. “This is hard. I don’t know how you can hang out at crime scenes helping people or doing what else you do and keep your sanity.”

  “Who says I’m sane?” he quipped, and her smile grew even larger.

  After answering a few more of Walter’s—and Bob’s—questions, they returned to the area below. Pierce’s body had been removed, and Casey assumed he was inside the helicopter. Walter told Bob to go inside and get the blankets to cover the cow.

  Casey figured Melody and he had helped around here all they could, answering questions and showing the other members of his department around.

  They were through here, as far as he was concerned, although he didn’t know how long the others intended to stay.

  No matter. Melody and he had their own assignment to resume.

  He approached Walter, who was taking more pictures with his phone of the barren area where Pierce’s body had been. “Melody and I are going to get on our way now,” Casey told him. “There’s even more reason now to locate the missing cattle and the people who stole them.”

  “Very true,” Walter said. “Only...well, we’ll do the same thing with the chopper when we leave as when we arrived here. I’ll make sure our pilot heads the same direction we came from and keeps it low and hopefully not too noticeable. But who knows where the killers are? You’ll need to be careful. And once I’ve done my report, it’s entirely possible that Sheriff Krester will want to send a whole unit out in the direction you’re heading, maybe in another chopper, even if it’s seen by the thieves. We definitely need to
apprehend them now, since the only evidence we have points to them as the probable murderers.”

  “I understand,” Melody said. She’d been speaking with Bob, who now held some blankets off to the side of where Casey stood with Walter, but she must have been listening. “But, please, give us another day or two and keep in touch with us. I’m just afraid that when the rustlers realize Pierce has been found and people are definitely after them, they’ll kill the remaining cattle, too.”

  “Let’s hope not,” Walter said, sending Melody a sympathetic look. “But I’m sure you realize that catching a perpetrator after a murder investigation will have to take precedence.”

  “I understand,” she repeated, “and I appreciate your covering that cow up with those.” She looked first at Bob, who nodded as he moved the blankets around. She then turned to look Casey straight in the eye. “Please, please, let’s get going now.”

  Being here, finding first the cow, then poor Pierce, had been hard. Very hard. But also motivating.

  Melody had obviously wanted to find the rustlers before. Now, Casey believed she felt it was even more important.

  Well, so did he. Oh, yeah. It was time to get going.

  Chapter 12

  Bouncing a bit as her horse navigated the rougher grass-and-dirt terrain, Melody had an urge to press her heels harder against Cal’s sides and get him to gallop. And if Cal sped forward, Witchy would, too.

  But for now, she continued at their current pace, which was the fastest they had traveled so far on this fiasco of a search.

  Why? Why had nice, helpful Pierce been killed? And why had he even been out there?

  What did his death have to do with the poor cow being killed?

  And where was Pierce’s horse...assuming he’d had one? How else would he have gotten there, in the middle of nowhere? Perhaps the rustlers had another helicopter that Casey and she hadn’t seen?