Chattering Blue Jay

by Paty Jager

  The aroma made his stomach squirm with joy. Finally, a food that wasn’t processed or tasted like cardboard.

  “That smells good,” Tonya said, eyeing the fillets.

  “I thought you weren’t interested in fish for dinner,” he said, pulling out his metal plate and fork. He checked the fish. The meat flaked off onto his plate. He did this with three of the fillets and handed the fourth one to the woman. He could have eaten all of it, but knew she could use the extra protein from the fresh food.

  “Thank you,” she said, before eating the meat straight from the skin skewered on the willow sticks.

  Hawke wondered what made a woman who seemed to have good manners and had a decent upbringing as far as he knew, want to be friends with a known murderer. “Why did you help White escape?” he asked, before realizing he’d said it out loud.

  She studied him. “Why would a nice girl like me get involved with someone like him?”

  “Yeah. You seem normal, though driven.”

  “I told you. I’m a reporter. When I realized there wasn’t going to be a story by just interviewing him, I figured, why not help him break out. And after he was captured, say I was kidnapped and then write a story that would get me better jobs than human interest stories.”

  It was his turn to study her. “You made yourself an accomplice to get better stories?” He didn’t believe it for one minute. “Why are you chasing Sheridan? Will this trek across country also be a story?”

  “Sheridan promised me he’d tell me why he killed White. Then every time I tried to question him, he’d start off on some tracking thing, until I decided to forget him and that’s when you showed up. He said he was taking me with him as a hostage.” She didn’t look at him. Her gaze was on the fire between them.

  He could tell she wasn’t telling the truth. Whether it was her truth, what she believed, or she was lying to keep him from discovering why she was really going after Sheridan, he didn’t know.

  “If that’s all true, you’re done with him. Why are you leading me to him?” Hawke studied the way her hand clutched the eating utensil and her gaze slowly raised to his.

  “Because he killed Felix. I have an eyewitness account of the killing and the man being found by a tracker like himself.” Her eyes lit up. “Justice will have been served. And I’ll have the firsthand account of it all to report.” The second comment was almost as if she thought it should be said, not that she cared to report what happened.

  He finished off his fish. Dog sat beside him, starring at the skins still on the sticks. Hawke tossed the cooked fish skin to Dog before throwing the guts and sticks into the fire. While all of that burned, he washed up, made his bed, and used his pan to haul water over and douse the fire when all that was left were ashes.

  His eyelids grew heavy, but he remained awake until Tonya had bedded down and was breathing steady. Then he placed the thorny branches from the berry bushes around her sleeping bag. It was nature’s security system to let him know if she decided to head off without him during the night.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The sound of hooves pounding the ground, sat Hawke straight up. The sun had barely lit up the ridge.

  “What is that?” Tonya asked from her bedroll.

  “Sounds like we have a herd of elk headed this way.” Hawke jumped up and started rolling his bed up. Everything other than his boots were in his pack.

  “Ouch!” Tonya yelped, hopping on one foot and then crying out as she stepped on another stickered limb.

  Hawke shoved his feet into his boots and kicked the thorny limbs out of her way.

  “Thanks,” she said, shoving her sleeping bag into her pack.

  The sound of the stampeding elk grew closer.

  “What do we do?” Tonya asked, fear evident in her wide eyes and high-pitched voice.

  “They’re coming from that direction,” he pointed east. “Get behind the west side of the largest tree or boulder you can find and don’t stick anything out to the sides until the herd goes by.”

  “Dog, come!” he ordered his friend. They ran for a boulder large enough to cover them both. Hawke glanced the direction Tonya had darted. She was standing still behind a mahogany tree. She would have been safer up the gulley a bit, behind a boulder, but she’d made her choice.

  He peered to the east. A large bull elk with a spread of antlers more branched than the tree Tonya hid behind, came crashing through the gulley. He was followed by a herd of about seventy-five cows, calves, and younger bulls.

  Whatever had spooked them had them running as if their lives depended on it. They crashed through the bushes and antlers clanked on branches adding more chaos to the roar of their hooves.

  When the last brown and tan body passed and the thunder was little more than his stomach grumbling, Hawke glanced across the gulley, through the settling dust, to where Tonya had hidden.

  She pressed against the tree, her fists clenched, eyes shut tight.

  Hawke stood, shouldered his pack, and walked over to her. “They’re gone,” he said, putting a hand on her arm.

  Her eyes shot open. “I’ve never. They were so close I smelled their stench and felt their breath. The ground moved under my feet.” Her head turned. She peered into his eyes. “Why were they running?”

  He shrugged. “A pack of wolves, a cougar, men. It’s hard to say.” Hawke wandered back over to the scattered ashes and rocks from the fire.

  The sun warmed the gulley. “Get something to eat, and we can get going.” It felt good to be the one giving the orders for a change. If she’d just tell him where they were headed, he could get her there on an easier route than up and over all the ridges.

  He pulled out his water bottle and two granola bars. He tossed a biscuit to Dog and sat eating while the woman gathered herself together, joined him, and nibbled on a protein bar.

  “Do you know your way around this side of the Snake River as you did the other side?” He sipped water and watched her from under his eyelashes.

  “No. I hiked the High Wallowas once, but I’ve never been in this area.” She looked up from her protein bar. “What about you?”

  “I know my way around. Where are we going? I might know a better way to get there.” Hawke shoved the last of his granola bar in his mouth.

  Tonya picked at the bar in her hand as if contemplating giving him any information.

  He could wait. Patience was something he had in spades when waiting on someone to tell him what he wanted to know. He’d learned from years of getting information out of fishermen and hunters that just waiting, not pushing, got the answers quicker, and with less hassle, than badgering.

  “Do you know anything about an area called Lord Flat?” she asked.

  He’d been right. “Yeah. We go over the next ridge, drop into Deep Creek Canyon and follow the right fork up and over to the flat. Should be there by late afternoon if we get going.” If he could get a chance to get on the radio, he could call and have backup meet him there.

  “Why are you so ready to get going? You seemed to balk when I was giving orders.” Her eyes narrowed.

  “Because now I know where we are going. I didn’t like the way you didn’t seem to know which way to travel.” It sounded like a good response.

  “Typical man! Didn’t like taking orders from a woman.”

  He’d let her think that. “Sure. You ready?” He shouldered his pack and headed up the ridge. He’d have to find a way to contact the Oregon State Police soon, if he wanted help when they reached Lord Flat.

  «»«»«»

  “I need a break,” Tonya said from behind Hawke.

  He stopped and twisted to glance at her. “We can take a break.” He’d been keeping the pace as fast as he could to hopefully get her to rest. Now that she had, he needed to get on the radio. A few more hours and they’d be at Lord Flat.

  The woman dropped her pack and sat down, taking her hiking boots off. She’d ran to the tree with them tied to her pack this morning. He wondered if she sti
ll had a thorn from his security system in her foot. Guilt crept over him for a split second until he remembered she had helped a killer escape and was after another killer.

  “I’ll be back.” He kept his pack on and headed away from the woman. Dog started to follow. “Stay,” he commanded. The animal sat on his haunches, watching.

  Hawke walked a good quarter of a mile through the trees and stopped. He pulled out the radio and dialed in the Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office.

  “Hawke contacting Wallowa County dispatch.” He waited. Someone at the Sheriff’s Department should hear his call.

  “This is Hawke. Do you read me?” He repeated several times, then switched to the frequency the OSP officers used among themselves when trying to catch a poacher. “This is Hawke. Anyone on this channel?”

  A crackle and his fellow officer’s voice rang clear. “Hawke, this is Tad. Where are you?”

  “We’re coming from the east, headed to Lord Flat. Should be there in three to four hours. Could use backup if Sheridan is there like the woman with me says.” Hawke’s body relaxed knowing there would be help.

  “I should be there in two hours. We’ve been combing the area after getting word from the Idaho Fish and Wildlife where they’d dropped you off.”

  “Stay out of sight. I’m not sure where Sheridan will be. Aircraft could be coming in to pick him up.” Hawke wondered at why the man had picked this particular area. “Anyone know why he’d be here?”

  “He grew up in the Imnaha area.”

  Tonya’s voice carried to him. “Are you done?”

  “Copy. See you at Lord Flat.” Hawke spun the dial, turning the radio off, and shoved it deep in the pack. He shouldered the pack and headed back toward Dog and the woman.

  If Sheridan had grown up in Imnaha, why would he be headed to Lord Flat?

  He didn’t have time to think about it. Dog lunged at him, and Tonya glared at him when he walked into the area where he’d left them both.

  “What took you so long?” she accused.

  “Not enough water intake.” His comment did what he’d hoped, shut her down and reddened her cheeks. “Let’s go.”

  He led the way up Deep Creek until it veered right. Then he followed the west fork.

  “Are we going the right way? It doesn’t feel right,” Tonya said.

  “You said Lord Flat.” He hoped she hadn’t told him wrong and now would go a different direction.

  “Where are we now?” She made a slow circle.

  “We just left Deep Creek Canyon and are headed to Lord Flat. It’s on top of this ridge.” He pointed to the ridge to the right of the gulley he planned to take to avoid climbing straight up the side of the ridge. There was a road that came in on the south end of the flat. It would be the road that Tad Ullman would take to enter the flat. If Sheridan was on foot, there was no telling which direction he would come to the flat from. Or where on the flat he’d instructed any aircraft to pick him up.

  He continued up the gulley, listening to the woman behind him muttering and her heavy footfalls. She hadn’t been walking that heavy before. Was she trying to make sure anyone in the area heard them coming?

  He glanced over his shoulder. “You might want to watch slamming your feet down.”

  She narrowed her eyes at his comment.

  “You can curse me all you want, but do it in your head.” He smiled as she sneered at him.

  Hawke resumed walking and noticed Tonya walked with lighter steps and no longer mumbled. The underbrush became denser. He worked his way to the edge of the tree line continuing in a westerly direction to avoid scraping noises from the thick underbrush. It not only made walking easier but he could look up if any aircraft flew over.

  He stopped to get a drink and turned around to see how Tonya was doing. “Damn!” The woman no longer followed him. Had she hurried off to catch up with Sheridan, or had getting to Lord Flat been a ruse to get her closer to? What else was in the area other than the roads and the landing area on Lord Flat?

  There were a couple of cow camps.

  Wondering where she went or backtracking and looking for her tracks wouldn’t get him to the flat. He wanted to see if anyone showed up, and if they didn’t, he’d catch a ride home and sleep in his own bed before trying to find the woman and Sheridan.

  “Come on,” he said to Dog. He planned to get to the road and catch a ride with Ullman to the landing site.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Hawke sat on his pack beside the road leading into Lord Flat. He drank the rest of his water and turned on the radio. “Hawke to Ullman.”

  “Ullman.”

  “Location?” Hawke asked, hoping the man hadn’t already passed this point.

  “Ten away.”

  “Copy.” Hawke left the radio on and leaned it against his pack. Dog lay on the ground at his feet, chewing on a biscuit. “We’ll be home tonight. Never thought I’d be so glad to go home to our place over the arena.” He lived a simple life. Renting a one room and a bath studio apartment over the Trembley’s riding arena. It worked out well for him, Dog, his two horses, and mule. While his mother would like him to find a house and settle down with a wife and children, he’d tried the wife thing once before and it hadn’t worked. Children— he wouldn’t mind. Especially if they were all as quizzical and precocious as Kitree, the young girl he’d tracked through the Eagle Cap Wilderness after her parents had been murdered.

  The sound of a vehicle approaching drifted through the trees. He stood and a State Trooper truck appeared on the road. The vehicle stopped beside him.

  “Thought you were with a woman?” Ullman said, moving things in the back seat to make room for Dog.

  “Me too.” Hawke opened the back door. Dog jumped in, and Hawke dumped his pack on the seat before closing that door and climbing in the passenger seat. “She ditched me an hour ago.”

  Ullman stared at him. “You didn’t have her in custody?”

  “She didn’t know I was a cop. I wouldn’t have gotten anything out of her if she’d have known that.” He pointed ahead. “Go to the airstrip and see if there’s any activity.” The more he thought about it, he was pretty sure they wouldn’t find anything at the strip. It had been a general landmark Tonya had used to get her in the vicinity of where she wanted to go.

  “You look like shit,” Ullman said, giving him a sideways glance.

  “Thanks. That’s what over a week in the same clothes will do to you.” He rubbed a hand across his face. Even after a week, he didn’t have the hard, scruffy beard his counterparts sported. His whiskers were soft and patchy. Like he’d eaten honey, wiped some across his face, and then rolled in rabbit fur. With the fur only sticking in patches.

  Ullman drove the half a mile to the airstrip. It was wide open, not a soul around. “What do you think?”

  “We sit and wait a bit. Are there any of our guys in the air?” Hawke peered up into the blue sky.

  “Should be a copter around somewhere. I called it in after talking to you.” Ullman turned the vehicle off and sat. “Whew, you are ripe.”

  “I told you I’ve been in these clothes and hiking miles every day for a week. What do you expect?”

  Ullman rolled down his window. “I should have brought some air freshener.”

  “Funny.” Hawke was more worried about where Tonya Cox had disappeared to. “Did you happen to notice any activity at the cow camp on your way in?”

  “They haven’t put any cows up here yet.”

  Snoring from the back seat made Hawke grin. “I think Dog is as tired as I am.”

  “You two covered a lot of ground. Tell me how you ended up becoming hiking companions to a woman who helped a man escape prison?”

  Hawke settled back in the seat and started from sipping his beer at the hotel to sitting alongside the road waiting for Ullman.

  “You have had a busy week.” Ullman scratched his head. “But if this woman helped White escape, how will a jury believe she saw Sheridan kill him?”

&nbs
p; Hawke shrugged. “I’m not the one who has to make a jury see her truth.” He groaned. “I just have to find her and bring her in.”

  “I know Spruel has her file on his desk. That might help.” Ullman reached for his radio. “I think I’ll see if he wants us to stay here longer or head back.”

  “Good idea.” Hawke pulled his hat over his eyes and leaned back in the seat. While following the woman and then getting here, he’d kept moving even when he’d been exhausted. Now, knowing he was headed home and in good hands, he fell asleep.

  «»«»«»

  “Wake up! There’s smoke coming from the cow camp!”

  The words banged around in Hawke’s head as he tried to break the veil of sleep.

  The vehicle sped up and bounced over the rough road, slamming Hawke’s shoulder against the door and causing Dog to yip.

  The bouncing and Dog’s whimpering brought Hawke out of the deep sleep he’d fallen into.

  “What the hell!” He stared in disbelief as smoke curled into the air and flames shot out the window.

  Ullman slammed on the brakes and bailed out of the vehicle. Hawke was behind him. They kicked in the door.

  Hawke spotted a body sprawled on the floor. He grasped it under the arms and pulled. Closer to the door, he glanced down and could see it was a man. He hauled the man out of the burning building.

  Ullman was back at the truck calling in the fire.

  Before he rolled the man over, Hawke knew what he was going to find.

  Sean Sheridan had what looked like a bullet hole in his chest. Someone had shot him and started the fire to make it look like an accident. Only one person knew where to find Sheridan.

  “Who’s that?” Ullman asked, walking up to where Hawke knelt beside the body.

  “Sheridan.”

  “No way! The man we were waiting to get on an airplane?” Ullman pulled on a pair of latex gloves and handed a set to Hawke.

  “The very same.” Hawke started searching the man’s pockets as Ullman pulled out his phone and took photos. “It’s too much of a coincidence that both men have Ms. Tonya Cox in common.”