by C. J. Box
“I waited until they were gone,” Farkus said, “and I managed to get untied. They’ve completely left the mountains for somewhere else. They ain’t around no more. They had me tied up in a cave, I mean a cabin.”
Nate drew his arm back as if he were going to backhand Farkus, and the man flinched and grimaced, raising his arms to cover his face, ready for a blow.
“Nate,” Joe said.
When Farkus lowered his arms, Nate slapped him hard across his face.
“Why’d you do that?” Farkus protested. “I haven’t done nothing.”
Nate said, “You scared us, that’s what. And now you’re speaking gibberish. I hate gibberish. Nobody confuses a cabin with a cave. So you’d better start telling us the truth about what’s really going on up here, or you won’t see morning come.”
Joe nodded. “Your story doesn’t jibe, Dave. Like maybe you’re making it up as you go along.” He kept his flashlight on Farkus’s face and noted how the man averted his eyes and blinked rapidly as he spoke-two signs of a lying witness. “Somebody set a trap that could have killed either one of us and later rolled a boulder down the mountain that could have taken us out. The brothers were seen clearly this afternoon by a sheriff at the trailhead where they were in the process of burning your truck. No one else would match that description.
“Plus,” Joe said, lowering the beam of the flashlight to Farkus’s hands in his lap, “I don’t see any marks on your wrists from rope or wire. Which says to me you weren’t tied up at all. Now, I’m going to ask you some questions and you’re going to answer them. If I think you’re lying again, I’m going to get up and walk away and leave you with Mr. Romanowski.”
He nodded toward Nate. “And whatever happens, happens. Got that?”
Farkus said, “Yes.”
“Good. Let’s start with the men from Michigan. We found three of them back on the trail. Who were they?”
“I told you. They were here to find the brothers and kill them.”
“Why?”
“They wouldn’t explain it all to me outright,” Farkus said. “Every time I asked what they were doing up here, they basically told me to shut up. But from what I could get from what they said to each other, it had to do with something that happened back in Michigan, where all of them were from. They were taking orders from this guy named McCue. He was at my elk camp with them, but he didn’t come along with us-”
“McCue?” Joe broke in. “Did I hear you right? Bobby McCue? Skinny guy? Older, kind of weary-looking?”
“That’s him,” Farkus said.
Joe took a deep breath.
Farkus continued, “The guys I was with knew the brothers, or knew enough about them, anyway. I got the feeling they might have clashed at one time or other.”
“It was personal, then?” Nate said.
“Not really. I think they knew of the brothers, like I said. But I’m sure it wasn’t personal. They were hired and outfitted by someone with plenty of money.”
“Did you hear any names besides McCue?”
“None that meant anything.”
“Try to remember,” Joe said, his head spinning.
Farkus scrunched up his eyes and mouth. He said, “McGinty. I think that was it. And Sugar.”
Joe felt a jolt. He said, “Senator McKinty and Brent Shober?”
“Could be right,” Farkus said.
Nate’s upper lip curled into a snarl.
Joe said to Nate: “What’s going on?”
Nate said, “It’s worse than we thought.”
Then Joe said to Farkus, “And all of you rode into a trap of some kind?”
“At the last cirque,” Farkus said, nodding. “We rode down the trail to the water and the lead guy, Parnell, rode through some rocks. He tripped a wire and a spike mounted on a green tree took him out.”
“We’re familiar with the trap,” Joe said. “Go on.”
“The brothers were on us like ugly on an ape,” Farkus said. “The horses blew up and started rearing and everybody got bucked off. The brothers finished off the wounded except for me.”
“Why’d they spare you?”
Farkus shook his head. “I don’t know, Joe. I just don’t know.”
“So they took you to their cabin. Or was it a cave?”
“It was a cabin.”
“Why did you say cave earlier?”
“You might have noticed there’s a big guy with a big gun right next to me. I was nervous and probably misspoke.”
“Ah,” Joe said, as if he was happy with the explanation. “And then the brothers just left?”
“Yes. They packed up and left me to die. They are completely out of this county by now. Maybe even out of the state.”
“Interesting you’re sticking with that,” Joe said. “So the rock that was rolled at us a while back was just a natural occurrence?”
“I don’t know anything about a rock,” Farkus said, his eyes blinking as if he he’d got dust blown into them. “All I know is there’s no point in you guys going after them anymore. They’re gone.”
“Were the brothers alone?”
“What do you mean?” When he asked, Farkus looked away and blinked his eyes.
“Was there a woman with them?” Joe asked softly.
“A woman?” Farkus said. “Up here?”
“Terri Wade or Diane Shober. I’m sure you’ve heard of at least one of them.”
Farkus shook his head.
Joe said to Nate, “We’re done here,” and stood up. “Should we dig a hole for the body, or let the wolves scatter his bones?”
Nate said, “I say we put his head on a pike. That kind of thing spooks Wendigos, I believe. Sends ’em running back to Canada, where they belong.”
Farkus looked from Nate to Joe, his eyes huge and his mouth hanging open.
“I’ve got no use for liars,” Nate said.
Joe turned to say something to Nate, but his friend was gone. He was about to call after him, but didn’t. Nate’s stride as he walked away contained purpose. And when Joe listened, he realized how utterly silent it had become in the forest surrounding them. No sounds of night insects or squirrels or wildlife.
He quickly closed the gap with Farkus and shoved the muzzle of his shotgun into the man’s chest. He whispered, “They’re here, aren’t they?”
Farkus gave an unwitting tell by shooting a glance into the trees to his left.
Joe said, “They sent you down here to distract us and pin us to one place while they moved in,” Joe said, his voice as low as he could make it.
Farkus didn’t deny the accusation, but looked at the shotgun barrel just below his chin.
“Hold it,” Farkus stammered, his voice cracking. “Hold it. You’re law enforcement. You can’t do this.”
Joe eased the safety off with a solid click.
“Really, please, oh, Jesus,” Farkus whispered. Then he raised his voice, “Don’t do this to me, please. You can’t do this. ”
“Keep your voice down,” Joe hissed, shoving the muzzle hard into Farkus’s neck.
From the shadows of the forest, Camish said, “I’m real surprised you came back, game warden.”
And fifty feet to the right of Camish, Nate said, “Guess what? I’ve got your brother.”
30
The standoff that occurred at 4:35 A.M. on the western slope of the Sierra Madre transpired so quickly and with such epic and final weight, and such a simple but lethal potential conclusion, that Joe Pickett found himself surprisingly calm. So calm, he calculated his odds. They weren’t good. He knew the likelihood of his sudden death was high and he wished like hell he had called his wife on the satellite phone and said good-bye to her and his precious girls. He also knew he would have apologized for dying for such a cause, and at the hands of the dispossessed. As if a man could choose his killer.
In this moment of clarity, Joe thought, sharp points elbowed their way to the fore:
• His shotgun was on Farkus and it would take on
e or two seconds to wheel and aim it at Camish;
• Camish had Joe’s heart in the sights of his rifle; knew Joe and Nate could cut him in half, so he must have a trump card, likely.
• Caleb had a.454 muzzle pressed against his temple and was unable to speak anyway;
• Farkus was clueless-he’d obviously been coerced by the brothers but hadn’t firmed up his storyline and he’d therefore stumbled into lies that piqued Joe’s interest;
• If one man pulled a trigger, a cacophony of exploding shots would throw lead through the void like a buzz saw and cut down all of them for eternity, and;
• Nobody wanted that.
At least Joe didn’t.
Joe said, “We all know the situation we’ve got here. It can go one way or the other. Things can get western in a hurry. If they do, I’m betting on my man Nate here to tip the scales, Camish. But I think a better idea may be sitting down and starting a fire and hashing this out.”
After a beat, Camish said, “You’re one of these folks thinks everything can be solved by talking?”
Said Joe, “No, I don’t believe that. No one has ever accused me of excess talking. But I think something really bad will happen any second if we don’t. I’m willing to sit down and discuss the possibility of more than two of us walking away from here.”
Camish said, “Caleb, you okay?”
The response was a muffled groan.
Nate said, “He’s about to lose the rest of his head.”
Camish’s voice was high and tight: “Don’t you hurt my brother.”
Joe realized his initial shocked calm had slipped away and he was sweating freely from fear. He struggled to keep his words even, hoping Camish would give in. It was easier to sound serious because he was.
“Tell you what,” he said. “Let’s meet at that downed log a few feet from me. Camish can keep aiming at me. Nate can keep his gun at Caleb’s head. I’ll keep my shotgun on Farkus here. But when we get to the log we’ll sit down. How does that sound?”
From the dark, Joe heard Farkus say, “I’m kind of wondering where I fit into this deal.”
And Nate growl, “You don’t, idiot.”
Camish said, “Deal.”
Camish looked even thinner than Joe remembered him. It had been a rough few days. The man’s eyes seemed to have sunk deeper into hollows above his cheekbones and resembled marbles on a mantel. He hadn’t shaved in weeks, and all the silver hairs in his beard made him look gaunt and wizened. Like a Wendigo, Joe thought.
Joe and Nate sat on one log, the Grim Brothers on another. They faced each other.
Caleb sat in utter, pained silence. If anything, he looked more skeletal than his brother. His dark eyes flicked like insects between his brother and Joe and Nate as if hoping for a place to land. A dirt-filthy bandage was taped to his lower jaw. Caleb had an AR-15 with a scope across his lap, with the muzzle loosely pointed a foot to the right of Joe. Joe was sure the weapon was locked and ready to fire, and that Caleb was capable of spraying full automatic fire at him and Nate in a heartbeat. The weapon must have come from the Michigan boys, Joe thought.
In between them, they’d started a small fire. Farkus sat on a stump near the fire, positioned carefully equidistant from both logs. Farkus fed the fire with pencil-sized twigs. The fire shot lizard tongues at the darkness and occasionally flared due to a particularly dry piece of wood or because of time-concentrated pitch within the stick. The effect made Camish and Caleb’s faces fade in and out of the darkness in various stages of orange.
Nate sat silently on the log to Joe’s left. His friend didn’t even attempt to hide his proclivities, and he kept his.454 lying across the top of his thighs with his hand on the grip and his finger on the trigger. Joe knew Nate was capable of raising the weapon and firing at both of them in less than a second.
Whether Nate could take out both brothers before Caleb could fire his weapon at Joe and Nate was the question.
Joe said to Caleb, “I see your tactical vest now. I guess you were wearing it when I shot you with my Glock. Now I know why you didn’t go down.”
Caleb glared back at him, his eyes dark and piercing but his expression inscrutable.
“You know he can’t talk,” Camish said. “That shot to his lower jaw splintered his chinbone and somehow drove slivers of it into his talk box. The point-blank shot to his chest later probably didn’t help much, either. Anyways, he hasn’t spoken a word since that night.”
He said it matter-of-factly, and Joe let it sink in. Joe said, “I fired blindly when I hit him in the face. Not that I wasn’t trying to do damage-I was.”
Caleb almost imperceptibly nodded his head.
Joe said to Caleb, “I would have been happy to have killed you given the circumstances.”
Camish nodded, and he and Nate shared a look, which Joe found disconcerting.
“The circumstances are different depending on where you stand, I guess,” Camish said. “You have one version, we have a different version.”
Joe nodded. “Maybe so. But what I know is you boys came after me and killed my horses.”
Camish made his eyes big, and there was a slight smile on his face. “My version, game warden, is me and my brother were minding our own damned business and not bothering a soul when you rode up and wanted to collect a tax on behalf of the government, the tax being a license to fish so we could eat. And when we didn’t produce the license, you threatened our liberty. We, as freeborn Americans, resisted you.”
Joe held his tongue, but he shared a look with Nate. This confirmed his friend’s earlier theory.
Nate tipped his head toward Joe, but never took his eyes off Caleb. He said, “Joe’s kind of like that. It’s his worst fault. He’s damned stubborn.”
“My horses,” Joe said, glaring at Camish. “They belonged to my wife. She loved them like only a woman can love horses. You two killed them and butchered them.”
“Better than letting them go to waste, eh, Caleb?” Camish said, as if it made all the sense in the world, Joe thought. “Anyway,” Camish said, “we didn’t target your horses. They were collateral damage. We came after you so hard because there was something in your eyes when we met you. We knew you’d follow this goddamned stupid fishing license deal to the gates of hell. Otherwise, we’d just have let you ride away. We practically begged you to just ride out of here. But you wouldn’t let it go. You said you’d march us into court. All for a stupid twenty-four-dollar license.”
Joe said, “You boys are out of state. It’s ninety-four dollars for Michigan residents.”
Camish leaned back on his log and tipped his head back and laughed. Caleb snorted, sounding like the angry pneumatic staccato spitting of a pressure cooker on a stovetop.
Nate moaned.
Joe felt his neck get hot. He said, “It’s my job. I do my job.”
Camish finished his run of laughter, then cut it off. He leaned forward on the log and thrust his face at Joe. “That may be. But the things you set in motion. ”
Joe stood up. He let the muzzle of the shotgun swing lazily past Camish, past Caleb, past Nate. He said, “Tomorrow by this time, these mountains are going to be overrun. There will be hundreds of law enforcement personnel. Some of them will even know what they’re doing. You boys assaulted a sheriff and humiliated him. You assaulted me and humiliated me. The people who’ll be coming after you don’t even know about those three men you killed yet, which makes you cold-blooded murderers.”
From the far end of the downed log, Farkus said, “They killed four, not three.”
Camish said, “I wish you’d shut up, Dave.”
Joe broke in. “Four, three, it doesn’t matter at this point. You boys are done. Even if you figure out a way to hole up and not get caught tomorrow, this is only the beginning. You can’t really think you can stay here, do you? That you can set traps and hang dead men from cross poles and the world will just stay away? What are you thinking?”
With the last sentence, Joe stood
and leaned into them and his voice rose. And he realized, by looking at Nate’s face, and the Grim Brothers, and Farkus in the light of the fire, how utterly alone he was.
“You people,” Camish said, his eyes sliding off Nate and settling on Joe, “you government people just keep coming. It’s like you won’t stop coming until you’ve got us all and you own everything we’ve got. Until we all submit to you. It ain’t right. It ain’t American. All we want to do is be left alone. That’s all.
“Hell, we know we make people nervous, me and Caleb. We know we look funny and we act funny to some people. We know they judge us. They made my mom out into some kind of stupid hillbilly when they went after her.”
Joe studied Camish’s face in the flickering firelight. Unlike Caleb’s terrifying, almost manic glare, Camish’s attitude had softened from its initial ferocity. Into what? Joe thought. Victory? Resignation?
“That’s all,” Camish echoed. “We thought you’d leave us alone back in Michigan if we just paid our taxes and kept our mouths shut. Didn’t we, Caleb?”
Caleb nodded and grunted.
Said Camish, “When they tried to take our property the first time, we fought ’em off pretty good. We thought it was over, that there was just no damned chance in the United States of America that the government could take a man’s land and give it to somebody just because they’d pay more taxes. They backed off at first, and we thought we won. But they was like you, like all governments, I guess. They just kept coming. Those three things that are supposed to be our rights-life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Hell, the government’s supposed to protect those things. Instead, they took the last two of them away from us, just like that. Finally, they took our place from us and we lost our dad, our mom, and our brother in the process. They took all three of those rights away from them, didn’t they?”
He spoke in a flat, unsentimental way. Joe nodded for him to go on.
“When a thief comes into your home in the night and tries to take your property, it’s okay to shoot him. But when the government comes and wants the same thing, you go to jail if you resist. At least the thief puts his own ass on the line.”
