Beneath the Tombstone (The Tombstone Series)

by Martin Cogburn

  “Yes,” Tyler seemed to taunt. “Go home to your dog.”

  Jason struggled to his feet, his decision shinning clear in his eyes. The pathway he had chosen became obvious as he turned back towards the trail. If Tyler was disappointed, he hid it well. Then again, he seemed pretty good at hiding his emotions.

  As Jason reached the bottom of the grade, where the small cliffs jutted up on each side, he paused for a moment. He was trying to remember the number of times he’d been around that same trek in the last however many hours. Too many – that’s how many times.

  “Jason!” Tyler yelled abruptly, sending a shock through Jason’s body. “Get back up here!”

  Knowing the precious amount of energy he was wasting by doing so, Jason obeyed. The trail back up to the shed wasn’t all that steep, but he barely made it. As he came struggling from the woods, Tyler broke his gaze away from the fire and looked right at Jason. Uh-oh. The big cowboy looked mad.

  “I don’t know ‘bout where you come from, but around here, we clean up our own messes,” Tyler spat venomously.

  Jason was dumbfounded. He just stared blankly at the enraged man. What on earth was he talking about?

  “Come ‘ere,” Tyler ordered as he rose to his feet.

  Bewildered, Jason followed him into the shack. The lantern was already lit and it brought to light Tyler’s source of frustration. Jason’s little room was a complete mess. His covers were on the floor along with his pillow… and the mattress! What had happened? When given enough time, Jason always made his bed, and this morning had been no exception. He specifically remembered.

  Jason’s clothes were scattered all over the floor. Really, the only thing that was still where Jason had left it was the picture of himself and Misty as newlyweds. It still sat in its place on the table.

  “What, what happened?” Jason managed to stammer as he sagged against the wall.

  “That’s what I’d like to know,” Tyler answered as he glared around the room. “Our deal was that you keep this place clean.” He made a broad sweeping motion of the room as he asked, “Do you call this clean?”

  “I didn’t do this,” Jason spoke numbly.

  Tyler laughed dryly and shook his head. “Who did then?” he asked gruffly.

  A theory popped into Jason’s mind. “It could have been the kidnappers.”

  “I’ve been here at the ranch all day,” Tyler stated as he glared at Jason. “It’s time you stopped passing the blame.” He waved his hand around the room. “This is your mess, so you pick it up… now!” he ordered. “I’m gettin’ sick and tired of your laziness!”

  Walking off, the horseman muttered something about spoilt rich kids. This wasn’t right or fair, not even close. The full weight of being done wrong had stacked its entire load on Jason’s shoulders. Maybe he should give in. Maybe Tyler was right. Maybe he should quit. He shook the notion from his head and looked around the room. It wasn’t going to clean itself. He stumbled over to his bed, put the mattress back on the box spring then the sheet; the pillow and the covers followed. None of this made sense. If Tyler was so sure that the kidnappers didn’t mess up his room then who did? Jason froze in mid-task. There was only one way that the tall cowboy could know, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that the kidnappers had not ransacked the shed.

  “Quit stalling,” Tyler stuck his head in the door and yelled at Jason, who seemed to be frozen in thought.

  “You did this, didn’t you?” Jason asked while pointing around the room at the mess. “You want me to quit so bad that you’d do this?”

  “How dare you blame your mess on me,” Tyler snapped, his voice filled with anger. “Clean this place,” he ordered as he turned back towards the door. Without looking back, he added, “You’ve only got about forty five minutes left to make the next lap.” He sighed. “You’ll never make it.”

  Jason didn’t answer a word but quietly began fumbling his stuff around, trying to get it back into its place. Several minutes later, he approached the cowboy who sat by the fire. “I got it clean,” Jason spoke quietly. “You want to come check?”

  “No,” Tyler responded without looking up. “I want to go to bed.” Once again, he seemed to be transfixed by the dancing flames. “If you got it clean then get going. I’m tired of waiting on you to finish.”

  “I don’t even know when I’ll finish,” a frustrated Jason exclaimed. “When, when will I finish?” he demanded.

  “When I say you’re finished.”

  “So you’re waiting on me for you to say I’m finished?” Jason demanded. “That makes no sense… Just tell me what I gotta do to finish; I’ll do it.”

  “Run,” Tyler responded without even glancing up. “Just run.”

  Jason tried. He made a hearty attempt to run but it really was nothing more than a staggering, stumbling fast walk. Just keep going. Just keep going. Jason encouraged himself as he made his way into the darkness, down to the bottom of the trail where the small cliffs surrounded him.

  Jason had tried hard to stay strong throughout the building stress of the day, but as he trudged through what felt like the valley of death, all strength seemed to leave him. Dropping down to his knees, in the middle of the pit, he bowed his head and stared at the ground like a fallen warrior awaiting the death blow.

  Thoughts began to swirl in his mind. The past crossed paths with the present and soon the two were intermingled with one another. “Jason,” he heard Misty’s pleas again. “I can’t leave you, Jason. I can’t leave you.” The small cliffs all around him. He could feel her body against his as she clung to him. It was just the two of them… then just Jason. The cold enveloped him. The pain embraced him. No comfort. No warmth. No love. No cheer. Just Jason… alone.

  “I love you Misty,” he whispered as he tried desperately to cling to the image of her in his mind. If he could just have one brief moment to tell her how sorry he was and how wrong he’d been, he’d take all of the pain and suffering that the world could through his way as a worthy trade. She didn’t even have to see him as a hero. He just wanted her. He didn’t need glory and honor, respect and self-esteem. He just needed her.

  And then a promise he had made to himself many years ago was broken. He had promised himself he’d never cry again, but a tear ran from one eye, trickled down his cheek and dropped to the ground. Many more were to follow. Soon sobs began to shake him. He had been pushed to his limit… and then beyond it. He just wanted to see Misty again.

  Having been robbed of all dignity, Jason felt his life being stripped away and only the things that really mattered remained; things like life, love, and family. Misty had been all of those things to him. She brought life into his heart. She brought love into that life, and she was the only person left he called family.

  “Jason!” Tyler’s yell sent Jason’s thoughts shattering. “Get yourself back up here.”

  A baby is born into a harsh and cold world. They thrash and cry at being robbed of their warm protection. Jason could now understand that anger. He had been nestled down snugly in the warmth of things past and self-pity. The brutality with which he was flung back into the cruel present brought furry into his heart like he’d never known.

  Fueled by a strength and determination he had not realized was within, Jason stormed the hill and tore like a mad man into camp. Before Tyler ever had a chance to inflict whatever kind of mental torture he had intended, Jason let him have it.

  “I ain’t gonna quit,” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “I may be slow! I may be stupid! I may be a lot of things, but I ain’t no quitter!” Jason was up in Tyler’s face now. “I have endured the torment you’ve put me through up to this point, and I will continue to do so! So if you ain’t gonna tell me what I have to do to finish then get out of my way and leave me alone until I do!” With that Jason spun around and stormed back down the trail.

  “Jason,” Tyler called out behind him.

  Jason stopped and stood motionless for a moment. Apparently, he hadn’t gotten through to t
he tall cowboy. “What is it?” he turned and asked with a worn out sigh.

  “You’re finished,” Tyler said as he stretched his hands out to the fire.

  Surely he didn’t mean… “What, what do you mean?” Jason stammered.

  Tyler looked up from the fire and smiled. “I’m mean you’re finished. Sit down. Rest. I’ll get you some soup.”

  “But I didn’t quit,” Jason argued defensively. After all of his hard work, Tyler was sending him home because he got up in his face?

  “I know,” Tyler responded glancing up from his task of putting soup into one of the cups. “That’s why you’re finished.”

  Finally, it dawned on Jason. “I, I made it?” he asked. “I passed?” Tyler nodded without looking up. “But my time?” Jason asked. “I kept failing.”

  “Remember what I told you this morning?” Tyler asked. “True love may fail, but it never quits. You failed again and again and again but you didn’t quit… therefore you didn’t fail.”

  “That’s pretty deep,” Jason commented as he sat down close to the fire.

  “Some have said I’m a deep man,” Tyler chuckled before getting up from his place by the fire and going into the shack. He soon returned with Jason’s coat. “Here man, put this on,” he instructed. “You ought to know better than to be running around in the cold without a coat on.” They both gave a quiet laugh, each knowing full well why Jason had been running around without a coat on.

  “So did you ransack my shack?” Jason asked after Tyler had set back down.

  “Yes,” the horseman responded. “I did.”

  “Why?” Jason asked earnestly as he was handed the cup of soup.

  “Sip on that easy for a while,” Tyler instructed. “Don’t make yourself sick.”

  A silence filled the air for a few moments before Tyler began to answer Jason’s question. “I did everything I could to make you quit,” he explained, “both mentally and physically. The running was the physical part. The negative things I said and messing up you shack then blaming you were the mental.”

  “Why did you want me to quit so bad?” Jason questioned.

  “I didn’t want you to quit, Jason,” the tall cowboy explained. “I wanted you to not quit.”

  Jason was beginning to understand. “So how did I do?” he asked.

  “Not bad,” Tyler responded. “I do believe you would’ve kept marching around that circle until you dropped dead. Never have seen anybody make so many laps in such a short time.”

  Jason spewed out some of his soup. “Then why were you ridding me so hard?” he demanded. “I felt like I was losing the entire time.”

  “Winning or losing was not the point of today,” Tyler explained calmly. “Not quitting was. I wanted to see how far you’d be willing to go for love. You seem to be willing to take it to the grave. Let’s hope that’s not necessary,” he added with a smile. “Just to the Tombstone.” He paused for a moment, staring into the flames. “We must all reach a point in our lives where we become unwilling to give up – not on ourselves,” he turned to Jason, “not on the ones we love.”

  “When was that point for you?” Jason asked.

  A distant look came over Tyler’s features as he gazed off, it would seem, into the past itself. “That’s a whole different story,” he sighed. “Another life, another time… a lifetime ago.”

  The moon shone gently down, surrounded by the stars of heaven. Floating embers rose upwards as if wishing to join the moon and stars in the task of lighting the night sky. The cool air surrounded him, but Jason was warm on the inside. Partly from the effects of sipping on the hot soup as he sat by the fire, and partly from the contentment of knowing he had been found worthy, not by ordinary men who set and judge others in what they themselves could not accomplish but by a man who had himself been tested.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The sun shone brightly through the window by Jason’s bed, warming his face. Finally, he opened his eyes and stiffly set up, scooting back against the headboard. The old spring mattress creaked and popped, having been disturbed from a night of peaceful quiet. Jason felt a bolt of pain surge through his body as he raised a hand to his face, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Outside a bird sang a sunny song of early spring, and off in the distance, a horse nickered.

  Jason jerked at the sound. Feed the horses at five! The sun was up! He was so late! He glanced at his phone… five minutes after eight!

  “Oh no!” he cried out in panic. It was a chaotic few minutes as clothes were snatched up, pulled up, buttoned up, zipped up and put on. Jason was breathing hard, labored breathes, forcing his muscles to work in spite of their painful protest. Tyler was going to be furious. Jason flung the door open and charged wild-eyed from the shack down the hill.

  “Man, you didn’t get enough runnin’ in yesterday?” Rye called out as Jason zipped by.

  Jason skidded to a halt, and the horse Rye was on snorted and leapt back in fear. “I’m so late,” Jason exclaimed in a distraught voice. “My alarm didn’t go off. Tyler’s going to kill me.” He paused for a moment before asking, “Is he mad?”

  “Doesn’t seem to be,” Rye commented. “He’s down there cleaning stalls. Go ask him.”

  Jason began running that way again, slowing to a fast walk as he got close to the horses, not wanting to spook them and make his bad situation worse. He rounded a corner of the barn and spotted Tyler lining up on the manure spreader with a wheel-barrel full of horse manure.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Jason called out his apology for a distance, halting Tyler from charging towards his goal. The tall horseman turned and looked at him as he approached. He had already been warned about oversleeping and being late. Jason’s only hope was in the big cowboy understanding. “I didn’t hear my alarm go off,” he added when he got over to where Tyler was standing.

  “That’s because I slipped in after you went to sleep last night and turned it off,” Tyler explained as he looked at Jason like that was a perfectly logical thing to do. Jason didn’t understand. “After yesterday, I’m giving you the day off,” the horseman explained simply.

  That was certainly not what Jason had expected. “The whole day?” he asked, surprised.

  “Yep, what’s left of it,” Tyler replied as he charged at the manure spreader with his wheel-barrel load of poop.

  Thirty minutes later, after Jason had gone to the ranch house, showered and put on clean clothes, he hopped into his truck, drove down to the stalls, promised Tyler he’d be back before dark and headed in a homeward direction. He had something on his mind – something to investigate. The night before last, when he’d seen Misty in his dream being led captive by the wolves, something was missing. Also, something had been missing last night down in the pit when she had clung to him and seemed to be so real. Jason hadn’t been able to put his finger on it at first – but it had finally come to him. She hadn’t been wearing her necklace. Misty always wore her necklace, and the night of her kidnapping had been no exception. Jason knew he was far from a superstitious man, but the fact that it had been missing in both dreams kept nagging at him. It wouldn’t hurt to check.

  Several hours later, he was sitting in his truck looking into the park where the kidnapping had occurred. Opening his truck-door, he began walking rapidly over towards the merry-go-round. Several pieces of crime scene tape still fluttered in the wind surrounding the area. School had not yet let out for the summer, thankfully, so no kids were running around asking Jason questions as he got down on all fours and began sifting through the sand.

  He searched through the sand for what seemed like forever. Finally, he sat up. It was useless – like looking for a needle in a hay stack… if the needle had even been dropped in the hay stack, that is. He had made wider and wider circles around the merry-go-round. No necklace. Nothing. Tears threatened to fight their way from his eyes as he turned back towards the truck. No tears. He wasn’t going to cry.

  Halfway back to his truck, something caught Jason’s eye. A dull
shine came from the base of a bush off to Jason’s right, causing his heart to leap as a slight hope returned. The shiny object was almost completely covered by soil. Jason walked over to it, ran his fingers into the sand and grasped a big handful. After he sifted some of the dirt away, what was revealed made him give a victorious shout. It was the necklace!

  “Thank you,” Jason voiced his gratitude in a heavenward direction. Maybe there really was a God who cares up there somewhere.

  With his free hand, Jason grasped both ends of the broken chain and drew the locket up to eye level. He wanted to grasp it, kiss it and hold it close to his heart but, instead, he pulled a napkin from his pocket, which he had brought along for this exact purpose, into which he placed the necklace before sticking it into his pocket.

  Unable to contain the excitement, Jason rushed to his truck. He had to get this to the police station! Maybe he could skirt around the sheriff and talk to Jenny. Hopefully, she could point him to whoever checked stuff for fingerprints. The chances of getting anything off of it were about as good as the chance of finding the necklace… but then again he had found the necklace.

  Jason’s phone began to ring. “Hello,” he answered.

  “Jason,” a familiar voice spoke. “This is Sheriff Victor. We need you to come down to the station at one o’clock to look over a lineup. I think we caught one of the kidnappers.”

  “Okay,” Jason said in surprise. “I’ll be there.”

  A little while later, he pulled into the parking lot across the street from the police station, got out and made his way across the road and on inside. The door to Jenny’s office was open when Jason came to it, so he just poked his head in. He saw the eccentric sketch artist standing bent over her desk, studying something.

  “Hey Jenny,” Jason spoke quietly to get her attention.

  “Oh… hi,” Jenny replied with reservation, likely due to Jason’s rude behavior the last time they’d met.

  “Look Jenny,” Jason said uneasily. “I feel like I owe you an apology. I just, um, I’m, uh…” This was going to be more difficult than he had imagined. “The things I said about the drunk man, Donald, when I was in your office last – I was just running my mouth. I’m sorry. I have a tendency to misjudge people.”