Marcus almost agreed, but a moment's thought had him shaking his head. "I don't think so. If they were, the hills would be alive with Treasury agents." He took a really good look at the female. She'd been a good looking down-timer, but her hands were soft and ink stained. He felt around for the notebook he was sure she would be carrying. He found it easily, and whereas the notebooks of the two policemen had shed no light on why they were here, hers was full of details.
The details were distressingly accurate, but the side comments threaded through the notebook reassured Marcus. "I think we might be in the clear. The dame's obviously a frustrated wannabe field agent who was conducting her own investigation with a little help from the boyfriend."
"But if she was on to us. " Herman said.
"Don't worry, Herman. She'll have kept everything to herself. I'm sure she would have wanted to present the case against us to her boss all tied up in ribbons."
"So what do we do now? We can't leave them here. It's too close to our camp."
That was an understatement. The camp was all of a hundred yards from where they were standing. If he bothered to look, Marcus would have easily seen the shed where their still was quietly bubbling away. "First thing, we need to dump the bodies where they are unlikely to be found, and if they are found, they'd better be nigh on impossible to identify. Start stripping them."
His two companions had no hesitation stripping the dead, but Marcus hesitated over the distasteful task of stripping Ned. It wasn't that he had any real qualms about what he was doing, but the.308 hunting round that had killed Ned had made a real mess of the young police officer. Eventually the task was done. He bundled up the clothes and slid Ned's wallet and identification into a pocket before buckling Ned's issue belt with all its accouterments around his waist. Then he picked the naked body up in a fireman's lift. "Herman, Wilhelm, you ready?"
"Ja!" Herman said as he struggled to lift his man.
Wilhelm, with the woman, had a much easier time lifting her. "Where to?"
"Over the hill. We want the bodies as far away from our camp as possible," Marcus said.
Once they were over the hill and into the next valley Marcus started looking for somewhere to hide the bodies. A mine shaft would have been ideal, but they were few and far between in this particular patch of West Virginia County. So what he was looking for was somewhere where they were unlikely to be discovered for a few years, or at least several months.
"This'll do. Dump them here," he said as he dropped Ned Harris and started pulling leaves and other ground litter over the body. Wilhelm and Herman followed suit. A few minutes later Marcus stood and examined their handiwork. "Okay, that's good enough. Let's go back and see if we can back-track them to where they left their vehicle. That'll be a signpost pointing right to us if we can't move it before it's discovered."
The sound of voices and crashing in the woods interrupted the peace and the cardinals took to the air. Bruno moaned, and Dina had to grab his hand him to stop him running out and confronting the people who'd disturbed his bird watching. Then she distinctly heard someone say "dump them here." There were the thuds of three objects landing on the ground, followed by a period of rustling in the undergrowth, then the voices went away.
Dina was curious. What were they dumping? "Follow me," she told Bruno as she set off towards where she'd heard the objects being dumped.
Bruno spotted the disturbed undergrowth first. He prodded it with his hiking stave, and swept aside some of the undergrowth. His muted squeal of horror had Dina running to see what he'd found.
She immediately wished she hadn't, because Bruno had found a naked body. Dina stared at the body in horror. Those men had dumped a body. Her first instinct was to grab Bruno by the hand and run, but what if the person wasn't dead? She'd never forgive herself if she'd left a man to die. She fell to her knees and brushed aside the ground litter that covered the man, and quickly realized that there was more than one body. She removed more ground litter to reveal three naked bodies.
She was almost sick at the sight of the two men and a woman. The girl and one of the men had enormous exit wounds in their backs. Dina felt for a pulse, but didn't feel anything. Because her hands were shaking so much she checked again by putting her ear to their chests. They were both dead.
The other man, a down-timer she was pretty sure she recognized from when her paternal grandmother called the police after her prized fluffy-white Persian cat had been terrorized by someone spreading nitrogen triiodide crystals around her food bowl, had a much smaller and less gory exit wound, and it was still bleeding. She stared at the trickle of blood for a moment. Surely dead people didn't bleed? She put her ear to his chest, and heard a faint heartbeat. Dina wasn't sure what to do. She had to get help, or the man would surely die. But she couldn't leave him here. Her eyes fell upon her companion. Bruno was strong. He might not have the physique of a bodybuilder, but a lifetime of hard physical labor had given him considerable strength and endurance. "Bruno, can you carry this man back to where we found that police car?"
Bruno nodded. While he lifted the man Dina turned back to the other bodies to make one final check that they were both dead. Confident that they were dead, Dina turned her attention back to Bruno. He could be so single minded once he started something that he would continue doing it until he dropped if someone wasn't there to tell him to stop. She was going to have to keep an eye on him for his own sake.
She'd taken a dozen steps before she realized she'd have to guide the adults back to the other bodies. She broke some twigs and set them in the ground as an arrow pointing to the tree before hurrying to catch up with Bruno.
Bruno started to follow the path along the ridgeline they'd used on the way up, but Dina felt that it was important to get back to the police car they'd passed earlier in the day as quickly as possible. So she led him straight down the steep slope, marking their route as she went.
When they made it back to the police car Dina checked the door. Just as she'd feared, it was locked. She stared through the window at the radio. She needed to get to that to call for help. Bruno could easily to smash a window, but that wouldn't help, as the radio wouldn't work without power, and you needed the key to turn on the power. She stared at the radio, so close, but so far away. Then she remembered her uncle producing a spare key that had been wired to the chassis of his police cruiser after the officer with him had managed to lock the car with the keys inside.
It wasn't the same vehicle, but surely the police wouldn't hide a spare key on just one of their cars. She dropped to the ground and started searching. She found it the hard way, spiking her hand on the wire. She tried to undo the wire, but it was too strong for her small hands. She slid out from under the cruiser. "Bruno, I need you. Put the man down and come here, please."
She directed Bruno to the key and he was able to quickly free it. Moments later she had the door open and the ignition on to power the radio. "Mayday! Mayday! Officers down!"
Mimi Rowland, a police dispatcher, responded almost immediately-asking her to identify herself.
"This is Dina Frost. Me and Bruno heard some shots, and then some men hiding some bodies. I think one of them is Officer Heilmann. He's still alive, but he needs to get to the hospital."
"Whoa, girl. Slow down. Take a deep breath and say that again, slowly."
Dina did as she was told. This time making it clear that she thought Officer Heilmann might be the casualty they'd brought back, and not one of the men dumping the bodies.
"Do you have a badge number for the officer?" Mimi asked.
"He's not wearing a badge, Mrs. Rowland. None of them had any clothes on. They were shot and their bodies hidden." Dina bit down on her knuckles as she remembered seeing the bodies and the bloody wounds.
"Where are you now, Dina?"
"I'm in cruiser four, just off Salt Lick Run, below the cemetery."
A new voice came over the radio. "We're sending a couple of squad cars, Dina. Until they arrive can you get Br
uno to carry Officer Heilmann clear of the cruiser, somewhere where you can all hide? Do you understand? I want you to get well clear of the vehicle and hide until we get there."
Dina easily recognized her uncle's voice. "Why do you want me to hide, Uncle Estes?"
"Just do as I say, Dina. I want you to get away from the car and hide until we arrive."
Dina hung up the microphone and stepped out of the car. She saw Officer Heilmann's body lying on the ground at Bruno's feet, and suddenly she knew why Uncle Estes wanted her to hide. She picked out a clump of bushes that might be a good hiding place and directed Bruno to pick up the man and follow her. She wanted to run, but she couldn't, because that would just cause Bruno to panic.
Marcus finally stumbled out onto a road, and there, hidden under a tree, was a police cruiser. He and his companions approached it. Wilhelm grabbed the door handle. Marcus was all ready to tell him not to waste his time when the door opened. That was unexpected. Surely the cops wouldn't have left it unlocked. Then he realized the radio was on, and he heard "Salt Lick Run" being mentioned. He listened a little more in growing horror as he heard various voices announcing they were converging on the place he was standing. "The cops are on to us. Run!"
"How?" Herman asked as he chased after Marcus and Wilhelm.
"I don't know, but the radio is alive with cops saying they're heading this way." Marcus stopped to look around, just in case he could see anyone, He couldn't, but in the distance he could hear the sound of sirens. Normally he wouldn't have worried, as police sirens weren't unknown even this far out of town, but this time he knew they were probably headed his way. "Back to the boat. It's our best bet to get away."
Dina was worried. From their hiding place under a bush more than fifty yards from the police cruiser they'd had a good view of the vehicle. She'd been scared enough when the three men appeared, but Bruno's reaction had terrified her. He'd curled up into a protective ball and was muttering and moaning in fear.
The wail of sirens signaled the approach of two pickups. They skidded to a halt within sight of the cruiser and a dozen armed policemen and a dog emerged. Dina identified her uncle and ran up to him. "Those men scared Bruno, Uncle Estes."
"What men?" Estes asked.
"Three men came out of the trees and looked around the car. One of them opened the door of the cruiser, and then suddenly the three of them ran off."
Estes' fingers dug into Dina's shoulder until she winced and shook his hand off. "Sorry." He turned to the gathering officers. "Erika, take half a dozen men and see if Pluto can track them." He gently pushed Dina to arms length and crouched down to her eye level. "How are you?"
"I'm okay, but I'm really worried about Bruno and the man we found."
"Show me," Estes said.
Dina led him to the bush where Bruno was still huddled into a tight ball beside the naked body of Gottlieb Heilmann.
"That's Gottlieb alright," Estes announced as he crouched over the body checking for signs of life. Moments later he looked up. "Haggerty, Steinfeldt, get over here."
While Blake Haggerty and Heinrich Steinfeldt carried Gottlieb to the load bay of one of the pickups, Estes quickly checked over Bruno before resting a hand on Dina's shoulder. "I need to get back to my men. Will you be all right here with Bruno?"
She nodded numbly and wrapped her arms around the tight ball that was Bruno and bit her lips to keep the tears at bay. She was vaguely aware of her uncle walking off and the sounds of vehicles coming and going. A few minutes later her uncle tapped her gently on the shoulder. She looked up to see an ambulance officer beside her uncle. "Yes?"
"Do you think you can guide us to where the bodies are hidden?" Estes asked.
Dina gently disengaged herself form Bruno and got to her feet. "Bruno needs me, but I left a trail. I can show you where we left the woods." She led her uncle to the point she and Bruno had left the woods. A few feet into the woods the path they'd taken could be easily seen.
"We should be okay from here," Estes said. "You go back and look after Bruno."
She did as she was told, pausing only for a moment to watch the two men from the white van climbing into clean overalls. They were police forensic technicians. "One of them opened the driver's door, and slammed it shut with his hand against the frame before they ran off," she called out helpfully.
"Thank you," the senior forensics technician called before turning his attention to the door in question.
She watched them puffing powder over the door for a few seconds, but Bruno was still a concern. She left them to it and hurried over to where Bruno was hiding.
Marcus was breathing heavily when he got back to their camp. "Herman, grab everything of value from your quarters and put it on the boat with the stuff we took from the cops. Wilhelm, you come with me."
While Herman headed for their living quarters Marcus and Wilhelm headed for the shed where their still was located. Marcus pointed to the full barrels. "Start loading those onto the boat."
While Wilhelm started rolling away the first of the barrels Marcus went through the shed looking for anything that could connect him with the facility and tossed it into the flames under the boiler. He then rolled the remaining full barrels of alcohol out of the shed before tipping a partly filled barrel over to fill a jug, which he used to splash alcohol around the shed. With a last jug of nearly one hundred and seventy proof spirits in his hand he turned the gas burners right up and lit a candle, which he touched to the alcohol splattered walls. Then he headed for the cabin Wilhelm and Herman been living in. He splashed the contents of the jug around before dropping the candle onto the bedding, where it ignited the alcohol. Sure everything was going to burn, he headed for the boat.
In the distance Dina could see a black cloud forming as her uncle and his party returned carrying two body-bags between them. The bags were loaded into an ambulance, and it headed off. Dina started to worry that she and Bruno had been forgotten as first her uncle, and then the other policemen drove off, leaving just the forensics team, who were also preparing to leave. She jumped to her feet and hurried over. "Are you going to take us home?" she asked.
"What the. "
From Georg Meisner's shocked reaction to her appearance Dina concluded everyone had completely forgotten about her and Bruno. "You aren't going to leave me and Bruno here, are you?"
"The Fraulein is correct, Herr Meisner," Martin Dorrenfelde said. "We can't leave them here."
"I know she's right, but we are not going back to town." He sighed heavily. "Get into the van. Herr Chief Richards can decide what to do with you."
The motor started first time, and soon Marcus was steering a course that would take them as far away as possible from the now merrily burning campsite. He was upset at losing such an ideal location, but the precious cargo of alcohol, the weight of which was threatening to sink the boat, mitigated the loss a little. "She was a nice little earner," he muttered.
"What do we do now?" Herman asked.
"You sell this last load and go to ground. There's nothing back there to connect any of us to the camp, or the dead cops."
"It's a good thing you were there today," Wilhelm said.
Marcus could only agree with the man. If he hadn't been around his two colleagues would probably be in police custody right now singing their tiny little heads off.
At the top of Salt Lick Run a number of police vehicles were parked on either side of the road and armed police were milling about as Sergeant Estes Frost tried to organize them. He broke away from them and approached as Martin drew the forensics van to a halt. Estes walked around to the passenger side and tapped on the window, which Georg wound down.
"We've found a camp, but they torched everything before they left. Do you still want to have a look?
"Yes, thank you."
Dina poked her head through the gap between the front seats. "Uncle Estes. You forgot all about me and Bruno!"
All color drained from her uncle's face and he muttered something she was sur
e was either a curse or a swear word. She consigned the word to memory, so she could look it up later.
"You and Bruno stick with me, but don't get in the way."
Dina dragged Bruno out of the truck and together they formed up, not quite at the "heel" position, but very close to it. When Estes moved, they moved. They followed Estes up over the hill and down the other side. They followed him to the water's edge, where Chief Press Richards was standing.
Press took one look at Dina and Bruno and swore. Dina pretended she hadn't heard him as she added it to the growing collection of words to be looked up. She waved. "Hi, Mr. Richards."
"Hi, Dina." Press pulled Estes Frost to one side to talk. Every so often either he or her uncle turned to look at her. Finally, it seemed as if Press had come to a decision. "Dina, we can't spare anybody to take you home right now. Can you keep out of trouble until I have someone to spare?"
Mindful that she didn't really have a lot of choice, Dina nodded. "Will it be all right if I look around for milkweed plants?"
"Sure. Is that what you were out looking for today?" Press asked.
"Yes." She looked around the campsite, paying special attention to the still burning shed that someone had built in the middle of a patch of milkweed that would have been worth over a hundred dollars.
The house on Gray's Run looked quiet and peaceful as her Uncle Estes drove the police car up the drive a couple of hours later. As the vehicle rounded the final corner she could see the reception committee that had assembled. There had been little chance that the story wouldn't have broken before she could get home, so Chief Richards had arranged for the office to call home for her, to pass on that she and Bruno were unharmed. Dina touched her uncle on the shoulder. "There's no need to tell mom and dad that me and Bruno saw the men, is there?"
"Well. "
Dina could see her uncle was about to launch into a speech about how her parents had a right to know, so she preempted him. "And there's no need for me to tell Mom that me and Bruno almost got left behind."
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