by Jeff Carson
“I can look it up,” she said. “I can call and speak to a manager. Maybe figure out what she was—”
“Good. Yes. Call. Call me back.”
“On it.”
He dropped the phone in the console and concentrated on the road, blurred by the shifting stalagmite raindrops hitting the ground.
He poked Cain’s phone number again, willing her to answer and prove his paranoia as unfounded, but again it rang six times and then went to her voicemail.
Wolf pecked his Toughbook, entering a search on the digital map for Lonnie’s Market. By the time directions came up he was inside the town limits, driving past the Casino’s glowing lights. He hit the brakes hard, the rear of the SUV fishtailing as mud and rock rained upward from the spinning wheels, pinging off the underside and spraying the side windows with maroon streaks.
Lonnie’s Market came into view on his left. He flew into the lot, seeing Piper’s vehicle parked alongside the building. He jammed the brakes, shut off the engine and got out in one fluid motion.
Just then his phone rang in the center console. He reached in and pulled it out, taking the call as he went to Piper’s vehicle and looked inside the windows. It was empty.
“It’s me,” Patterson said. “I can’t get ahold of the manager. They put me on hold and it keeps going to voicemail. I called back, and they put me on hold again.”
“I’m here, forget it.”
“Keep me posted.”
Wolf looked at the ground. It told him nothing. If there had been any indication of a struggle it had been erased by the rain now pelting the back of his neck.
He sprinted through the front door of the supermarket, heading straight to the first cashier.
"There was a cop in here, a woman, her name was Deputy Cain.”
The man behind the register stood straight, wide eyes. “I…I don’t know anything about that.”
"Where’s the manager’s office?”
“I’m the manager.” A woman said, walking quickly toward him. “What’s going on? I was just told you guys have been calling.”
“Did you speak to Deputy Cain this afternoon?”
“The woman with black hair?”
“Yes.”
“I did.”
He pulled his phone and flashed the picture. “I need to know the name behind this blur here. I need to see this screen in person.”
She put her hands on her hips. “I told her I probably needed to see a warrant to show her that. And she reassured me that if there was a next time, you guys would—”
Wolf cut her off. “I need to see this screen, and I need to see it now. Deputy Cain’s vehicle is still out in the parking lot, but she’s gone missing. I believe it’s a matter of life and death that you show me this.”
The manager’s eyes bulged wide. She swallowed and nodded. “Back here. Aisle seven.” She started walking, then began running when Wolf passed her at a full jog.
One of his feet slipped out from under him and he landed hard on his knee.
“Oh my gosh, are you okay?”
“Keep going.” He got up, limping hard on one foot, feeling like his kneecap had split in half, following her up the stairs and into a small room.
"Shoot. I just turned it off. I was going home."
Wolf was unsure what that meant until she turned on and watched the snail's pace at which the thing booted up. With each progress bar that appeared the tension ratcheted in his chest.
“She was checking the financial records,” the manager said.
“Look at T-Bone steaks,” Wolf said. “Monday.”
She typed in a date and the familiar spreadsheet appeared on screen. “That’s what she said, too. Here. We were here when she took the picture. I extended the name cells like this.”
There it was. Eagle McBeth.
Wolf bolted out of there, burying the pain of his knee.
Chapter 34
At some point Piper became aware of the noise.
Then her consciousness returned to her body, and with it a dull pain filling her skull.
When she opened her eyes she saw the familiar blue tarp again, but this time it was darker, almost black. A light flitted through the plastic, then disappeared. Then it came back. Vanished again.
With each shift of the light came the roar of a giant beast, some sort of prehistoric animal that howled with repetitive sound as it moved.
She clenched her eyes and opened them again, coming back to the moment. It was a diesel engine. She could smell it. And then there was the sound of metal scraping and clashing with the hard ground.
Again she felt the pull of tape around her mouth. She pulled her mouth open as wide as she could, which was not very much. She thought she might have felt a bit of give on the right side of her cheek. She pushed her tongue through her lips, tasting the adhesive as she pressed outward as hard as she could, but it was no use. The tape held.
The light swung in and out of view again, and the panic rose in her fast and hard as she realized exactly what she was listening to.
She began hyperventilating through her nose, sucking in shallow doses of the sickening diesel fumes. An earthmover was digging a hole, and the opening would be for her. Her next exhale became a whimper.
Another clank of metal on rock, this time even harder. She heard a pile of earth hit near the truck and felt it in her bones.
She pulled at her hands to no avail and tried to kick her feet, which were now bound as well.
Wriggling like a dying fish, she screamed beneath the tape, but her voice was a fly’s wings over a rock concert.
And then she stopped. She closed her eyes and inhaled, practicing the yoga breathing. She thought of David Wolf. Of his hard eyes and harder jaw line. Of his soft words.
Her eyes popped open as she remembered she’d been leaving a message for him when she was attacked. Hope surged through her, quickening her breath. Maybe he was coming to help her. Yes, he had to have heard her attack and he was coming.
Then again, maybe he had heard nothing out of the ordinary on the call. Maybe he thought it was just a bad connection. That something was wrong with her phone. The thought slapped down her optimism.
Tears flowed across her face and over the bridge of her nose. She sobbed, lost in misery. She was going to die. She was going to be put in the ground, probably so deep she would never be found again. She shut her eyes and saw her mother’s face, wrinkled with concern. She smiled reassurance and Piper wept even harder, pleading for her mom to wake her from this nightmare.
And then the image of her mother faded. There was nothing she could do.
The thought made her eyes open. Her sobbing stopped.
Her mother couldn’t save her. Wolf wasn’t coming. It was her and this sicko, and that’s how it was going to be. She had only one thing left to do, and that was to die with dignity, or somehow kill this bastard first.
Buck up!
Pushing her legs straight she realized that sound of the diesel engine had become a steady growl. The swiveling light was now a constant glow.
The tarp ripped back again. She blinked, surprised to see the clouds above. It was still daylight but just barely. She must not have been out for too long since the blow to her head.
"I can't shoot you," he said. "I don't have a gun for that this time."
He looked out into the distance as he spoke, not at her.
“I don’t care,” he said under his breath. “No, forget it. Stop.” He hit the side of his head with his open palm, looking as if he was trying to eject inner voices speaking to him out of his opposite ear.
"I'll knock you out again so it's not so scary,” he said, eyes looking into another universe. “I’m sorry.”
The man ducked away and the tailgate lowered again. Again the truck sagged down as he stepped up.
Feeling him brush against her knee, she kicked up and out as hard as she could with both feet lashed together, a ramrod powered by all her might and fear. But she connected with nothing
. He feet slammed hard back down onto the truck bed.
Wrestling her like she was a captured rodeo animal, he turned her over and pulled her by the legs, scraping her face along the chipped, dented truck bed as she slid back. Her hip banged hard over the threshold, then the side of her face slammed against the tailgate as he yanked her off the truck bed’s edge.
The breath barked out of her lungs and she lay on the ground trying to inhale through her nose, but the air wouldn’t come. The familiar bug-like stars swirled at the edges of her vision.
Giving her no reprieve, not a second, he dragged her with frightening speed across the wet earth.
Her face and head slid over rocks, her chest scraped, sharp pain turning to cold numbness. She tried to turn, giving the side of her face and shoulder the full brunt of the attack.
Lightning flickered overhead, illuminating the entire area around her in one flash. She saw the giant earth mover standing like a monster looming high above. The bolt of electricity crawled across the sky and then back again, giving her plenty of light to see something else: a gaping black hole.
Her breath came back with a squealing noise as it filled her chest with agonizing slowness. There was the sound of a thousand tinkling bells in her ears. She was going to pass out. Good. She didn't want to be conscious for this.
Suddenly, the man stopped and dropped her legs.
“What is it?” he asked nobody. “Shit.” He walked away with quick, crunching steps, then came back and knelt down next to her.
Again, she was not here as a human, it seemed, just a thing he had to deal with. She pleaded through the duct tape.
“Shut up,” he said, this time putting his face close to hers.
She lurched forward and head-butted him in the face. It was hardly a knock-out blow but she felt ultimate satisfaction at finally getting a lick in.
“Ah!” he put his hand on his cheek. Another flash of lightning showed his grimacing mouth.
She expected retaliation to come hard and swift, but instead he turned and looked at something far away.
Blinking away her tears, she followed his gaze to a pair of headlights barreling down the road. She let out a squeal of excitement seeing the light bar affixed to the top and the SBCSD paint job.
With the injection of adrenaline spiking her bloodstream she rolled to her side, onto her back, and then her other side. Using her momentum she kept rolling, again and again, away from the open mouth in the earth waiting to eat her.
"Stop!"
He was already on top of her, slapping his hand on her shoulder, but she didn’t care. She thrashed as hard as she could, ignoring the pain shooting through her wrists as she pulled her legs up again to kick.
"Stop it!"
He swatted her feet away, knelt on top of her chest, and punched her twice in the face with the force of a dropping boulder.
She felt one of her teeth loosen behind the duct tape. Suddenly, she couldn't breathe. Blood clogged her nose, choked it. She snorted hard and swallowed, and then she sat motionless, feeling the darkness close in even harder now. She concentrated on her ragged breathing, slowing, slowing...
Her head slammed on a rock. She was gliding along the ground again. No, she was still conscious.
Don't do it!
She tried to scream but no sound came out this time.
Then it was too late. Her body went weightless for a moment, then she landed impossibly hard onto ground. The darkness completely engulfed her.
And the monster roared again.
Chapter 35
Wolf’s SUV finally dipped out of the clouds as he descended the ski slope-like grade road into the mine. His unsafe speed seemed to double as he saw the final turn leading into the flat zone of the mine yard coming fast.
He pressed the brakes and took his eyes off the road to assess the situation down in the mine yard. In the fading light and aided by a single flood bulb mounted on top of one of the trailers, he saw two blue pickups parked next to a couple of ATVs.
Two pickups were missing. What did that mean?
Down the valley, toward the cut, he saw the faint glow of another light, but it was hidden behind a slope.
Whatever they were doing to Piper Cain, the first step was to get them to stop and come deal with him. He turned on the overhead lights and siren.
In a spectacle of light and sound the SUV shuddered and turned sideways as Wolf mashed the brake pedal and bounced into the flat, catching air before crashing hard into a deep puddle. The SUV lurched up with the sound of rending metal. He slammed hard into the seatbelt and then back into the seat.
And then he skidded to a halt. He shut off the howling siren and flashing lights and got out, waiting for a welcome party.
But none came. There was no movement. No flicking on of lights. No people. Nothing.
His knee screamed in pain from the fall inside the supermarket, but he ignored it and marched toward the trailers, his gun pulled and aimed forward.
His eyes snapped from point to point—the trailer doors, the tent where he’d talked to them the night before, the wash plant, the abandoned tractor near it, the parked ATV.
But no one was there.
He turned around and saw the glow behind the slope had disappeared. Somebody was down there. That’s where the two missing trucks were. That’s where they had her.
Another noise came out of the silence—first a crunching of car tires high up on the road, then a long squeal of brakes. The fog glowed for a second and twin headlights appeared.
McBeth’s black pickup truck coasted down at normal cruising speed. Wolf had seen headlights in his rearview mirror much earlier, but they had disappeared into the fog as he’d begun climbing the mountains toward the mine.
He had been ahead of them the whole time. Was this a play? Had he just barreled into a trap?
He reached the other two trucks parked in front of the trailers and ducked between them, waiting. There was no movement near the trailers, tent, or other machinery, but the light had appeared again down at the cut.
The truck inched its way down and stopped at the final turn into the mine, its headlights illuminating Wolf’s SUV, then it continued inside toward Wolf’s position. He saw two men inside—Koling in the passenger seat and McBeth behind the wheel. They were talking to one another, eyeing Wolf’s vehicle.
Another set of headlights swung into view, bobbing up the interior mine road, coming from the direction where Wolf had seen the glow. The twin points of light were closer together. It must have been one of their ATVs.
When the truck lined up to park next to the others, Wolf came out into the open, ran up to the passenger window and aimed his gun inside. “Stop right there!”
Koling’s eyes went wide behind the glass and he put up his hands. The truck lurched to a stop and McBeth put up his hands, too.
“Stop the truck and get out right now!”
McBeth shut off the engine and they got out, leaving the headlights on.
“Hey, hey, hey,” Koling said, stepping out. “What’s going on, Sheriff?”
“Get up against the hood, now!”
McBeth and Koling went to the front of the truck and put their hands on the hood, their long shadows stretching across the trailers.
“Lift up your coats!”
The ATV was now only fifty yards away. Wolf stepped close to McBeth and Koling, keeping them in between him and the approaching ATV.
Koling pulled up his coat and so did McBeth.
“Turn all the way around.”
“We’re not armed,” Koling said.
“Do it!”
They did as they were told, exposing their gun-free waistlines.
"What's going on?" McBeth asked.
The ATV came closer, the engine still revving hard.
“Where is she?”
Koling looked at him with a puzzled expression. “Who?”
Wolf aimed his gun at the mountainside and shot off a round. “Stop right there!” he screamed toward t
he approaching ATV.
Koling and McBeth jumped, putting their hands back on the hood.
“Whoa!” McBeth said. “What are you talking about?”
The ATV slowed to a stop and James Sexton climbed out. His eyes were wide, both hands up. “What’s happening?”
“Hands up where I can see them!”
Wolf went quickly to Koling and McBeth and frisked them with his free hand, keeping his eyes on Sexton.
“Whoa, watch it,” Koling said.
“Shut up and keep your hands there.” He went to McBeth and frisked him. “You too!” he yelled at Sexton. “Show me your waistband!”
“I’m not armed,” McBeth said.
Down the road, Sexton lifted his own jacket and turned full circle in his ATV headlights, showing he was unarmed as well.
"Where is she?” Wolf asked again, rounding the truck. He looked into the cab, seeing nothing but fast-food trash inside. He checked the truck bed and found nothing but a case of light beer and mud.
"Where were you just now?"
"At the liquor store,” Koling said. “Getting beer."
"Get on your knees, hands behind your back."
“Shit, brother.”
Wolf fired another shot. They did as they were told.
"We know about how you bought a steak at Lonnie's market Monday night,” Wolf said. “I said down on the ground!"
McBeth and Koling were frozen, staring toward the ATV.
Wolf saw why. Sexton had just finished ducking back into his ATV and came out with a pistol. Wolf’s talking had given him the split second he’d needed.
"Drop your gun!" Sexton’s voice was high-pitched and shrill. He stepped toward them, leading with his gun. The light from McBeth’s truck and the trailer flood illuminated his feral eyes.
Wolf put his hands out to his sides, but kept his gun in his grip.
"I said drop it."
Wolf hesitated, thinking of how quickly he could roll, aim, and fire.
Sexton’s gun flashed. A bullet zipped past Wolf’s head and ricocheted off the ground behind him.
“Okay! Okay!” He dropped his Glock.
"I knew it was you, asshole," Koling said. "I knew it."
