The Thing In The Mine

by J. R. Ayers

  Lori Mackay sat on an exam trouble listening intently to a man in a denim jacket. The first thing Joe noticed about her was how pale she looked. She had large blue eyes and hair the exact color of summer wheat. She saw Joe at the door and tuned in his direction. “Oh, good, the States are here,” she said waving him in. He walked in the room and nodded curtly in the doctor’s direction.

  “Joe Nash,” he said by way of introduction. “I’m sorry we have to meet under such unpleasant circumstances.”

  “Deputy Lori Mackay.” That’s Doc Collier. And that gentleman over there is Pastor Glen Harper.” She was referring to a tall, middle-aged man leaning against the wall near the exam table.

  Joe exchanged hello’s all around and took out his pad and pen. “It’s probably not the best time, but I was hoping you could tell me something about the man who shot up the place,” he said. Lori finished buttoning her uniform shirt and said,

  “There’s nothing I can think of that would make Charlie go off like that. He was always so quiet. Stuck to himself most of the time. I’d see his wife Rachel from time to time, mostly running errands or doing a little shopping.” She shook head and chewed on her lip. “No, I just can’t figure it out.” Her eyes misted up and she added, “It’s an awful thing, I know that for sure.”

  “So this Waddell, he lived around here?” Joe asked.

  “Yeah, over on Bosco Street.”

  “Might be a good idea to head over there and take a look around,” Joe suggested. “Maybe we’ll find something that could give us a hint as to what set him off.”

  Lori looked at Doctor Collier. “Am I good to go?” The doctor shrugged and said,

  “As far as I can tell, you’ll be alright. I’m more concerned about that bump on your head than the bruise on your chest.”

  “I’m concerned about both of them,” Glen Harper said.” Everyone looked at him and he said, “In addition to being Lori’s spiritual advisor, I’m also her step dad.”

  “He worries about me,” Lori said sheepishly.

  “You bet I worry about you,” Glen quipped. “My gracious, Lori you just got shot. We could be. . . it could be you lying under one of those sheets.”

  “Glen please—”

  “No, you’re not talking your way out of it this time. When all this is over, you’re quitting the police force. I promised your mother before she died that I’d do everything I could to keep you safe. I made a promise, and I’ll tell you this, young lady, I plan to keep my promise.”

  Lori hopped off the exam table and buckled up her service belt. “I don’t think this is the time or place,” she said quietly. Then she looked at Dr. Collier. “Thanks for patchin’ me up, Doc.” Collier nodded and stripped off his exam gloves.

  “Well, guess I’ll go over and see if I can help the others,” he said.

  “Ditto for me,” Glen said. “But I mean it, Lori, we’re not through talking about this police business, not by a long shot. No pun intended.”

  Joe and Lori climbed in Joe’s cruiser and, following Lori’s directions, drove over to the Waddell house on Bosco Street. “Look at that,” she said, pointing to the Dodge Caravan parked haphazardly in the front yard.

  “Looks like someone was in a hurry,” Joe said. “Either that, or drunk.”

  “That’s not the Waddell’s van,” Lori said. “As far as I know, Charlie owned a Ford Ranger and Rachel drove an old Chevette when she was out and about.” They exchanged a quick glance and Joe reached down and patted his service weapon.

  At Joe’s suggestion, Lori went to the front door and he went around back. Finding the front door locked, Lori knocked on the glass and yelled, “Police, open up!” When she got no response, she headed around back to join Joe. She found him with his pistol in hand easing open the back door. After a moment’s hesitation, she drew her own weapon.

  They found Rachel Waddell in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. “Lord, he stabbed her,” Lori said, wrinkling her nose against the metallic odor of drying blood.

  Joe quickly scanned the rest of the house while Lori checked the garage for Rachel’s car. “Chevette’s still here,” she called over her shoulder.

  “The rest of the house is clear,” Joe called back.

  They met again in the kitchen and Joe said, “I’ll let the mayor know about this latest victim. I just hope there aren’t more bodies out there.”

  They locked the house and drove back to the courthouse. Two State Police cruisers were parked in the Handi-Cap slots in front of the building. Joe could see two campaign hats towering above the small crowd still gathered around Charlie Waddell’s body. “There’s our backup,” he said.

  “Just two?”

  “Yep. Two State boys are better than a whole shift of local guys. No offense intended to present company.” He couldn’t tell by her guarded expression if she was offended or not.

  One of the troopers turned out to be Joe’s old Academy room mate.

  “J.D. Covey, I thought you’d moved on to narcotics,” Joe said, shaking the trooper’s hand.

  “I did, but I kept scarin’ the sniffer dogs so they threw me back to patrol.” He jerked a thumb toward the other man. “This is Carl Goins, we patrol the same stretch up in McDowell County. Goins and Joe shook hands and Joe introduced Lori.

  “She’s the only law left in town,” he explained. “That fella’ under the sheet there killed over ten citizens including the Sheriff and two of his deputies. The lone survivor besides Lori here is in a hospital over in Beckley.”

  “Damn,” Goins said. Covey looked at the body for a few seconds then said,

  “Where do you want us?”

  “Right now, we need to monitor the scenes. I don’t think there’s any doubt as to whom the perpetrator was, but we should keep the crime areas as clean as possible in case there’s a corner’s inquest. Forensics will be here in a little while and some people from the ME’s office in Beckley are on their way. If one of you can set up here, maybe the other guy can head over to the barber shop. I understand we have two deceased inside, plus a woman on the side walk down the block. Lori and I will head over to the park.”

  “More casualties?” Covey asked. Joe nodded.

  “Yeah, the worst kind. Kids.”

  “Damn,” Goins said.

  There was a crowd at the park too. One of the stunned onlookers was the mother of the slain boys. She was sitting on the ground next to a pair of blood-splattered bicycles, wailing incoherently. A couple of people were trying to comfort her, but she was so deeply affected by shock and anguish that Joe doubted she even heard them.

  Lori went to the woman to see if she could do anything to help calm her and Joe approached the boys lying on the ground next to a Jungle-Gym, careful to avoid stepping in their blood. The shotgun pellets had pretty much ruined both their faces. One of the boys had been wearing a Cincinnati Reds baseball cap and it now lay upside down in a pool of blood almost the same shade as the cap.

  The younger boy had apparently tried to pedal away before he was shot. Most of the damage was to the side and back of his head. The other kid had taken the .00 round full in the face, thus blowing away most of his eyes, nose and lower jaw.

  Joe took a moment to steady himself before walking a few yards down the path to the deputy who Charlie had killed in the shootout. Someone had covered his body with a nylon jacket, but Joe could see congealed blood pooled around his head and neck. His service weapon and empty cartridges lay scattered on the ground next to him. Joe picked up the semi-automatic pistol, cleared it and tucked it into his belt.

  Returning to the crowd around the boys, Joe selected one of the more responsible looking people in the crowd and asked, “What were the boy’s names?”

  “Todd and Jared,” the man said in a robotic voice. “The devil did this. No human being would ever do a terrible thing like this.”

  “Their last name, sir?”

  “Uh, Braden. “Their daddy’s over in Afghanistan. And their mother. . . He paused and
glanced in the woman’s direction. “How do you ever explain this to her?”

  Joe took a call informing him that forensics and the Medical Examiner had arrived. He left Lori with the Braden woman and walked over to the courthouse to brief the lead forensics tech. She was an older woman with a stout frame and tired eyes.

  Joe introduced himself, rattled off a quick assessment of the situation and asked her where she wanted to start.

  “The courthouse, I guess.”

  “Okay, four bodies in the area,” Joe said. Two inside, two out here in the parking lot. Should be pretty routine. We have the shooter over there, and the rest are his victims.”

  “Four, huh?”

  “Yeah, and that’s just for starters. There’s seven more scattered around town.”

  While the forensics team went to work in the courthouse, the ME and his team spread out and began bagging and tagging the bodies in the barbershop and the gas station, as well as the Toney woman and the Braden brothers. Lori joined Joe in the City Clerk’s office a little while later and helped him work up a list of all the victims name’s and addresses for processing. Most of the next of kin lived in the area, but a few were out of State, and in the case of the Braden boy’s father, out of the country.

  “I really appreciate your help, Joe,” Lori said during a break.

  “Just doing my job,” Joe said. “I’ll tell you this much, I’ve never seen anything this bad. Not even in Chicago. It’s just hard to figure out something like this. You knew the guy, do you think he just snapped like some of the others are saying?” Lori shook her head.

  “I honestly don’t know. I never knew Charlie to take drugs, or even drink much for that matter. He always seemed friendly enough, a little quiet and reserved, but always friendly. I. . . I just don’t know why he would do such a thing.”

  Joe’s phone rang: Captain Ross. “They’re sending a team down from Charleston,” he said. “A Major named, Gaston. I know him, he’s a good man. He’ll be taking over as soon as you fill him in. Oh, and tell that Deputy that Raleigh and Fayette Counties are sending over extra deputies to help her police the place.”

  They hung up and Joe said, “The Calvary’s on the way.” Lori tried a smile, but the effort only made her look sad A tear started in the corner of her eye and she swatted at it with the back of her hand. “You alright?” Joe asked gently. “I know it’s been hard for you today. Hell, I wonder how you’ve held up this long.” She took a deep breath and said,

  “What were you saying earlier? Oh yeah, something like, it’s my job.” She tried the smile again and this time Joe smiled back.

  Chapter Ten

  It was nearly dark before Major Gaston and a team of investigators arrived from Charleston. Forensic technicians from Beckley, Mullins and Oak Hill kept showing up throughout the day and, by early afternoon, they had all the bodies ready for transport to the various hospitals and mortuaries in the surrounding counties.

  Three deputies from Raleigh County reported for duty around noon and Lori dispatched them to oversee the removal of the Sheriff and the two slain deputies. Roger Brinkus supervised the removal of Rachel Waddell saying with tears, “We’re gonna miss you the most,” as they hauled her out.

  Joe spent nearly an hour telling Gaston all he knew about the situation. Lori filled in background material where necessary and Brinkus took over from there, showing the Major and his men the various crime scenes.

  After the mayor left to intercept a press truck that had just arrived in town, Major Gaston said, “Sorry Deputy MacKay, but I’m going to have to have you surrender your service weapon pending an investigation. Policy, you know.” It was clear she wasn’t happy with the request, but she dutifully unbuckled her belt and handed it over.

  When things were pretty much quieted down, at least as quiet as they could be, given the circumstances, Joe asked Lori if she wanted to get some supper.

  “It’ll have to be a bologna sandwich at my place,” she said. “This thing happening like this, well you can understand, all the restaurants and stores are closed.

  “I love bologna,” Joe said. “Just so long as you have some mustard handy.”

  They walked over to the house Lori shared with her step father, Glen Harper. He was sitting in the living room watching a news report about the murders. “Figured you’d be out consoling the folks,” Lori said pointing Joe to a chair across from Harper.

  “They don’t want consolin’,” Glen snapped. “They want answers. We all want answers. You know, this kind of thing just doesn’t happen in a place like Stephenson. Oh, they might shoot up a school or a shopping mall somewhere else, but that stuff just doesn’t happen here in small town West Virginia.”

  Joe had heard enough denial for one day. The truth was, violent murder could and did happen anywhere and everywhere. It was the number of victims that made this particular crime so horrendous, that and the fact that it was so indiscriminate and bore no apparent motive. Still, it was completely plausible for mass murder to occur almost anywhere, even the sleepy little town of Stephenson West Virginia.

  “There had to be a reason why he did it,” Joe said, hoping to mitigate some of the tension in the room. “Something set him off, that’s obvious.”

  “I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts it had something to do with that mine,” Glen said adamantly.

  “Oh, please, Glen, don’t start that again,” Lori said rolling her eyes. “You can talk nonsense if you want, but I’m making a sandwich.”

  She went into the kitchen and put together bologna sandwiches and barbecue Pringles and carried them into the living room. “Joe, I’d offer you a beer, but Glen doesn’t allow any in the house.”

  “Water’s fine,” Joe said. “And thanks for remembering the mustard.”

  While the men ate, Lori excused herself, saying she wanted to get out of her police uniform. When she had left the room, Joe asked Glen what he meant about the mine.

  “It’s Logan number 12 I’m talkin’ about,” Glen said. “Ole’ Charlie was the night watchman there. He’d hang out up there by himself doin’ who knows what. A man could go a little crazy spendin’ that much time by himself. Course there’s always the chance that something happened up there. Something we don’t know anything about” Joe raised an eyebrow.

  “Like what?” he asked.

  “I’m just sayin’ you can’t keep diggin’ and drillin’ in the mountain like that without disturbin’. . . something.”

  “You mean, like environmental things?”

  “I mean like things we don’t know anything about. Things buried deep in the ground. Things that should stay buried.”

  Joe didn’t know what to say in response to Glen’s theory, so he busied himself with the sandwich and chips.

  Lori came back a few minutes later dressed in denim shorts and a sleeveless red top. She took the love seat across from Joe and said to Glen, “I couldn’t help overhearing you telling Joe about the mine. Don’t you know people are starting to talk about you? You’re supposed to be their pastor, their spiritual leader, not some superstitious hillbilly believing in ghosts and goblins and such.” Glen stopped in mid bite, his eyes locking on Lori’s face.

  “I don’t give a rip what people think,” he snapped. “There’s things they don’t about. The Bible talks about principalities and dark forces at work in this world. Fallen angles sinned and God locked them away in the heart of the earth. What’s to say that all that diggin’ and drillin’ didn’t loose one of those fallen angels? Maybe they did something to Charlie. How else do you explain him turning into a cold-bloodied murderer?”

  Lori put down her sandwich and took a deep breath. “The truth is, we don’t know why he did it,” she said quietly. “I just know I hated to shoot him.” A shiver ran the length of her body and tears started in her eyes. “I’ll never forget the sight of his head. . . the blood, the. . .oh lord, it was awful.”

  Glen moved quickly to put an arm around her shoulder. “You didn’t have a choice,”
he said. “You did what you had to do.” Joe nodded in agreement.

  “No telling how many other lives you saved, Lori.”

  “But, it was awful,” she said tearfully.

  It occurred to Joe that the full impact of what took place that day was finally beginning to overwhelm Lori. Watching her fighting tears, he felt as if he should go. She needed some down time to rest her body and deal with her conflicting emotions. He knew from experience that no one else could deal with them for her. To him, the taking of a life in the course of doing your job was by far the hardest thing a law enforcement officer had to do. Lori was hurting, and he understood her hurt. In a way, he was thankful for her pain. It meant she had the right stuff. It meant she was tough enough to do what was needed, yet compassionate enough to feel remorse for people, even those people who were intent on hurting others.

  “Well, thanks for the food,” he said, donning his campaign hat. “I’m gonna roll on out of here now.” Lori walked with him to the door.

  “You live far from here?” she asked.

  “Got a little place in Pineville,” he said. “Quaint, but comfy.”

  “Doesn’t your wife worry about you?” Joe had to laugh at that.

  “It’s my ex-wife and the only thing she’s worried about is how much my accidental death life insurance policy will pay if I’m killed on the job.”

  Glen joined them by the door and said, “Didn’t mean to get all melodramatic back there. It’s just that I have a feeling, and it ain’t a good one. We’d like to see you in church tomorrow morning if you can make it.”

  “Sorry, but I have to get back to the job I was working when they called me to this one,” Joe said.

  “Are those the homicides I heard about on the radio this morning?” Lori asked.

  “Yep, three people. Looks like a whole family.”