Mystery at Saddle Creek

by Shelley Peterson

  “Please come in, Mr.Bradley,” said Paul pleasantly. He hadn’t been addressed as Daniels since his school days. “Have a seat. Can I get you a coffee?”

  “The police out there don’t know what they’re doing! I’m a colonel in the Armed Forces. I’ve been trained to handle search-and-rescue missions! They should avail themselves of my expertise.” He sat in a chair and pointed to the coffee pot. Then he motioned for the coffee to appear on the table beside him.

  Paul smiled to himself. “Cream and sugar?”

  “Not on your life,” barked Kenneth.“I take it strong and black.”

  “It’s good of you to stop by, Mr. Bradley.”

  “Nonsense! I have a missing son somewhere out there. I won’t rest until he’s been found.”

  “And Bird, too.”

  “I expect she’ll show up. Bit of a wild one, that girl.”

  Paul noted his lack of interest. “I’m glad she hasn’t caused you any concern.” He placed the coffee on the spot that had been indicated.

  “Tanbark has been missing quite a bit longer. He’s got a problem, you know.”

  “I hear. Tell me, why do you think Tanbark came to Caledon?”

  “I can guess. I wanted to see him again. I’m a loving father, and I try to help. So, a few weeks ago I left a message for him. Through Alison, of course. He’s been on the street for years, but once in a while he calls his mother. I expect she gave him my message and he came looking for me.”

  “He’d come all this way for a visit?” Paul appeared skeptical.

  “Why not!” Kenneth barked. “I’m his father! But I also told him I’d help him financially. That might have been a motivation.”

  “Might have been.” Paul nodded. “He didn’t find you, though. You found him.”

  “Yes, yes. In the hospital. He got close, though.”

  “He’s been around here for a week or so. Spooked us, actually.”

  “Why the blazes didn’t you call me?” the older man sputtered, spitting out a spray of coffee.

  Paul never got used to Kenneth Bradley’s instant temper. “We didn’t know who he was, or what his problems were.”

  “He’s got more problems now. He killed that woman, Sandra Hall, whoever she is. I’d stake my life on it. But he’ll get off because of insanity.”

  Paul was stunned, baffled by Kenneth’s sudden switch. He’d said that he was a loving father trying to help, but in the next breath he’d accused his son of murder.

  Bird felt a little better. Her head had cleared. She opened her eyes. Things were jumbled so she shut them again. The image of Tanbark Wedger, sitting with his back to her, stayed behind her eyelids.

  Cody? You still there.

  Yes.

  Bird relaxed under his watchful presence. Now she smelled what Sunny had predicted earlier: a storm was coming. The woods had darkened and an eerie quiet descended.

  She opened her eyes again, and studied the makeshift tent. Tan had secured the horse blankets in a crevice created by two huge vertically sheered rocks. The tent was approximately six feet high and six feet deep. Bird admired how stable it was. It was protected by the Escarpment itself, and ingeniously undetectable.

  Hannah and Paul and Sundancer would be looking for her. They’d likely be coming soon, so she needed to do what she’d set out to do—hear Tanbark’s story. She must get his attention, but her arms and legs were tied up and she still couldn’t speak.

  Bird tried to sit up. Her head started to spin again. Just as she was about to give up and rest a bit longer, Tanbark turned to her with a questioning look. She waited for him to speak.

  “Your name is Bird. Mine is Tan. Pleased to meet you.” He smiled.

  He’s handsome, thought Bird. Dirty and wild-looking, but handsome. He’d draped another horse blanket, a wool cooler belonging to Charlie, over his back.

  “You know we’re related. My father is your grandfather, although I was surprised that he admitted it.” Tanbark sat cross-legged under the horse cooler as he leaned back on one of the rocks that supported his makeshift tent. His fingers drummed the dirt floor.

  Bird tried again to sit up.

  “If I untie you, will you make a run for it?” he asked.

  Bird shook her head.

  “Then let’s get you comfortable.” Tan hastily began to loosen the knots. “I have a story to tell.”

  25

  TANBARK’S STORY

  Tan’s chance was finally here. Now he could tell her his story. But now that everything was exactly how he’d wanted it—exactly how he’d dreamt it would be—he found he couldn’t begin! He felt anxious, overly excited. He strained to get himself under control.

  BIRD WAITED PATIENTLY for Tanbark to begin his story. The rain had begun in earnest, and it pounded on the horse blankets overhead. She wondered if they would collapse. They were weatherproof, but even the best horse blankets get soaked through. And they were old. It was only a matter of time before the dripping began.

  After several minutes, Tanbark began to speak. “People don’t understand me. I am not like other people, and I don’t want to be, but I’m not crazy.” His words came out in a rush. “No, I am not crazy. I want to live like people used to live long ago. Off the land.”

  He scratched at a scab on his foot until it bled — was it from when he dragged himself away from the fire? “Your grandfather, who is my father, phoned my mother. He wants to give me money. A lot of money. I don’t trust him, but I want the money. I came here to get the money, but then all this ... stuff ... happened.”

  Bird wondered what he’d use the money for, living off the land.

  “Soon people will recognize me as a leader. Soon everyone will want what I have. I have found the truth about life, and that is what everyone is searching for. They will line up to hear my wisdom.”

  Bird nodded her encouragement, but a prickle of fear began to snake up her spine. He wasn’t making a lot of sense.

  “Communication is the way of the future! With my father’s money I will make a CD. In a month, maybe two, I’ll be an international superstar. That will be the path!” Tan rose from the ground with unexpected energy. “That will be how they’ll find me. People will flock to me and I’ll share with them the secret of life.” Tan rocked back and forth on his feet, his head almost touching the roof of the tent.

  Bird’s heart sank. Hannah had told her that he had a mental illness, but she hadn’t known what to expect. After all the trouble it had taken to find him, was it possible that he’d have nothing useful to say? Was it also possible that he might harm her?

  “I have a plan!” Tan bellowed to the skies. He stepped out into the rain and threw up his arms. “Rain all you want! Rain on my head! Rain! Rain! Rain! Nothing will stop me!”

  This wasn’t going well. Tan had untied her arms and legs, and her hands moved well, but she was having trouble getting the feeling back in her feet. That might be a problem if she had to run. She wiggled her toes in an effort to get some circulation.

  Tan ducked back under the tent and sat. The shouting was over. “Let me tell you what I saw,” he said in a conversational tone. His voice had become reasonable, and his expression had changed. His eyes had become focused and alert.

  He was suddenly sane-looking, Bird thought. She adjusted to the mood swing, and wondered at the complexity of the man.

  “I was minding my business,” Tan said. “I was down the hill in a ditch beside the road where there are rabbit holes. A car was coming. It blew a tire, POP!” His eyes opened wide and his fingers flew up.

  Bird jerked with fright.

  “The car stopped. I flattened myself in the ditch so they wouldn’t see me. Right close by, a man and a woman got out. The woman had been driving. I guess it was her car because she opened the trunk and knew where stuff was.” He faltered.

  Bird waited.

  “This is where it gets secret.”

  Bird nodded, indicating that he could trust her. She tried to look sure of herself,
but she was nervous. She had no idea of what she was about to hear, or whether she could believe it.

  “They argued. I heard most of it. She was mad because he wanted to stop seeing her. Something like that. She wanted him to marry her. She was broke and needed money. He said he’d give her money but didn’t want anybody to know about them, let alone marry her. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Boring. I wanted them to change the stupid tire and leave. Let me get up out of the ditch and find breakfast.”

  Tan’s eyes began to dart, and his fingers twitched. He scratched his head rapidly and jiggled his knees. Bird nodded quickly to catch his attention and keep him focused.

  “Why don’t you talk, Bird? Are you crazy?”

  Bird just stared, totally unsure of how to respond.

  Luckily, she didn’t have to. Tan immediately forgot his question and continued his story. “So,now comes the weird part. Can I trust you? Can I?”

  He peered into Bird’s eyes. He moved his face closer and closer, looking, Bird guessed, for the answer. He got so close that Bird was scared again. She was completely blocked in the tent with no place to go.

  Finally, Tan sat back. “The man starts to walk away. Leaves the woman with the flat tire. She’s yelling at him to come back, that he can’t leave her like this, that she doesn’t know how to change a tire, she loves him, et cetera, but he keeps walking. He’s an old bugger, too.” Tan licked his lips. “He just walks away. She picks up the tire iron and keeps yelling. She yells out that he’ll regret leaving her, and she waves the thing around in the air, but he keeps walking. She screams again. Calls him names. Bad names. He keeps walking. Then ...” Tan stopped.

  “I hear dogs.” He jumped up and ran out of the tent.

  Great, thought Bird, just when he gets to the good part. She strained her ears to hear what Tan had heard, but the rain was too loud. If Tan had truly heard dogs, a search party was likely in the area. They were running out of time.

  A minute later, he was back. “I’m going to tell you this fast, Bird, and then I’m going to run away. They’re going to pin this on me. They always pin things on me. I know that, because I know.” He looked over his shoulder anxiously. “I know things. Spidey-sense.” He tapped his head.

  “Listen to me, Bird. That woman smashed herself with the tire iron. She didn’t mean to. She hauled it up over her head, it slipped out of her hand, and it smashed her. The blood poured out. It was everywhere—just came gushing out. She looked so surprised. Her eyes went big and she fell right down and her head hit a rock. Thunk. I can’t get that out of my mind.” He shook his head, as if he could shake it free of the image. “Still can’t.”

  Now Bird heard the dogs, too. They sounded close.

  Tan was up on his haunches, ready to run. “Look, the dogs are coming and they’ll blame me, so listen.” He talked so quickly that Bird had to lean forward to hear. “The man, well, he kept walking. He looked back at her. He saw the blood and he saw her on the road and he kept walking until he got in a black car and took off. Another car was coming and I was so freaked that I jumped up and ran away into the woods. I’m scared about being blamed. I know they’ll blame me. They always do.”

  Tan was on his feet, quivering. He stepped from one foot to the other. “I gotta go. But one more thing, Bird. This is important! The man? In the car? Who walked away? It was my father. I recognized him when he came to the hospital. And Bird? On the road that day? He saw me, too. He knows I know, he just doesn’t know how much.”

  And with that, Tanbark Wedger took off running. Bird lost sight of him as he ducked and wove through the trees and disappeared into the pounding rain.

  Sunny awoke to lightning and thunder. He tossed his head to shake out the drugs. Apart from the noise outside, the barn was quiet. He was alone. He pushed on his stall door. Solid. He tried the hardware and latch with his lips. Too tricky. He looked down at the hall floor. Slippery. He looked up at the height of the ceiling. It was his only choice.

  Sunny backed up as far as he could. Keeping his head low to avoid the rafters and bunching all his weight over his rump, he neatly leapt over his stall door without touching a hair. He landed lightly, but the sparks flew as his steel-shod hooves hit the cement. The smell of sulphur rose to his nostrils. Sundancer trotted out of the barn and bolted into a gallop the second he touched dirt. He raced full out, along the trail, through the rocky crags and all the way to the top of the Escarpment.

  The rain was hardening and turning to hail. It pelted his coat. A flash of lightning lit up the sky, followed by the mighty roar and crack of thunder. He was terrified, but Bird needed him.

  Stay alive, he messaged. I will find you.

  In the tent, Bird heard Sunny’s words and was comforted by them. I’m safe, she answered.

  The storm was worsening. Bird stayed under the horse blankets, thinking hard about what Tan had said. Sandra Hall had hit herself with a tire iron—hard. Hard enough to knock herself to the ground. Hard enough to kill herself. It was horrible. Bird couldn’t even imagine it! Was it even true?

  And her grandfather saw Sandra on the ground, bleeding, but didn’t call for help. Why?

  Bird struggled to put the pieces together. Tan was clearly ill, but he had no reason to make this up. A man who would save horses—and another human—from a barn fire wasn’t likely to kill a woman on the side of the road. Was he? And besides, it all kind of fit. Even Kenneth Bradley watching over Tanbark on his sickbed. Tanbark had been right to leave the hospital when he did, thought Bird. He was the only witness. And if Kenneth didn’t want the truth to come out—and he obviously didn’t—he would want to keep Tan quiet. Bird shivered.

  Cody crept into the tent and shook himself off.

  Cody! I’m glad to see you, but you’re getting me all wet!

  I need to be dry for a small time.

  Bird smiled. Okay. Cody’s presence made things much better.

  Sunny is coming. The dogs are leaving and so are the humans.

  That’s good. The wild man is gone, too.

  Yes. Maybe he will return. Maybe he will not.

  I’ll stay here until the lightning stops.

  And until the bad man leaves.

  The bad man?

  I saw him. He’s in your den. Waiting for the wild man to be captured.

  Bird knew who Cody meant. He called her grandfather the “bad man,” and her “den” was the farmhouse. Now that she’d heard Tan’s story, the last thing Bird wanted was to run into Kenneth.

  Bird girl, I will go now to show Sunny the way.

  How are you going to find him in this hail?

  He’ll get to the place where he lost you, then he’ll look around.

  Cody slid out of the tent and melted into the wild weather. Bird loved the mysterious ways of the coyote. She admired how he knew so many things and kept track of where everybody was, up at the house and down in the woods. He was a very smart and honourable animal, she thought.

  Three minutes later Cody reappeared, followed by a drenched and huffing horse. Bird got to her feet and went out to greet them.

  Sunny!

  I’m sorry I left you down here, Bird. I’m ashamed.

  You were frightened, Sunny! You did what horses do. I’m not mad.

  I’ve come to carry you back to safety.

  We’re safe here. Come out of the storm. Bird had been outside for less than a minute, and she was already drenched. She tried to steer the horse under the tent.

  Where’s the wild man? asked Sunny.

  He ran away a minute ago.

  The sky became electrified with a bolt of lightning. A deep rumble followed instantly behind.

  Sunny trembled. Let’s go!

  But Bird was firm. We’ll stay here until the storm passes. I’m not arguing with you about this. We don’t want to be struck by lightning. She reached up and patted his nose. Come under the tent with Cody and me. And here’s a blanket for you. We don’t need anything more.

  Once under cover and out of
the elements, Sunny relaxed. It’s nice in here, with you and Cody.

  Bird smiled as she adjusted the wool cooler on his back. They were cozy and dry under this makeshift tent, and she could think of no better company. They would wait out the storm together.

  26

  THE PLOT THICKENS

  Tan felt so good. He had told the girl — finally! — his story. The hail and the lightning didn’t bother him one bit; in fact, he enjoyed it. He stretched up to embrace the forces of nature as a crash of thunder rattled the trees. The rain cleansed his body and the electricity around him cleared his brain. Now he needed to find a place to stay for the night. At least the dogs were far away. There was no hurry now. Something would come along. It always did.

  PAUL AND KENNETH WATCHED the tracking dogs and policemen trudge back to their truck in the teeming downpour, empty-handed. Kenneth Bradley became more and more outraged as he watched them load up.

  “Mickey Mouse, Daniels! It’s Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck time! In my day we never gave up until we had our man. Give me an umbrella. I’ll give them a piece of my mind.”

  Paul rummaged around in the broom closet and found a big black umbrella. He handed it to Kenneth. Grabbing it, the older man slammed the kitchen door and stomped through the mud and rain to the police truck. Paul chuckled at the scene before him. Kenneth waved and gestured while the men went about their jobs. Casually and efficiently they got the dogs, equipment and men into the truck, while Kenneth grew angrier by the minute. Finally, he threw the umbrella on the ground and raised his fists in a challenge.

  The leader of the unit quietly got behind the wheel and drove off, leaving Kenneth alone in the driveway. He turned toward the house and prepared to storm in.

  Paul was trying to sort out how to handle the situation when Kenneth had a change of mind. He got in his new car soaking wet, and drove away with his wheels spinning in the wet gravel. The car lurched suddenly when it found traction, and with a mighty roar from the high-powered engine, Kenneth Bradley was gone.