It was like a trip to the principal’s office. I knew why I did the things I did. Getting other people to understand that was a whole other problem. Nobody appreciated Cassidy logic.
“Wait a minute,” Schroeder said trying to get the past few weeks to make sense. “Agnes stole a map from you that you stole from a homestead and now you’re following another map trying to catch Agnes on some wild goose chase because you think she is looking for the jewelry hidden at these locations? You’ve had the HAZMAT team out twice this week because of some wild goose chase that you don’t even know will pan out?”
“First: the HAZMAT calls were legitimate even if Agnes never showed. I’ve proven there is a legitimate reason to check out each of the locations on this map. Second, I did find Agnes’s tracks at one of the locations. We’re lucky she didn’t look as far as I did or we would have had a dead jewel thief.”
“Oh, yes, the shots fired report. Cassidy, this department feels like a three ring circus with you on the hunt! I want you to stop. What have you done successfully?”
“In the hunt for Agnes or the weird map controversy?”
“Let’s do the weird map controversy first since that’s the reason you’re here.”
“There are six locations around the valley that someone doesn’t want people to know about. Each of the locations I have visited has either had things hidden very well or protected by booby traps. I uncovered a field with cyanide guns, found an attic with a rifle set to go off if someone tried to go up there and a cellar full of booby trapped holes containing valuables. However, the first homestead I found by accident is the one that contained the information about all the others.”
“You found it by accident?”
“Yeah, I was tracking a little dog for some lady and her dog disappeared under the floor. When I fished him out I found boxes of stuff hidden there.”
“And why do all these finds matter?”
“Well, I thought we didn’t want people stumbling into places where they could get themselves killed.”
He put his head in his hands then rubbed his eyes wearily. “Okay, what about Agnes?”
It was a long talk. A very long talk. I thought I’d never get out of there. I thought he was going to deport me, make the Marines take me back and send me to Iraq, but he didn’t. Maybe he thought Iraq had enough problems.
“What are you going to do next?” he asked.
“Well, there’s one more location on the map that Agnes might hit. I guess I want to go back and make sure it’s not booby-trapped. Now that I know what to look for maybe I can find it this time.”
“You’re going there looking for traps? What about Rusty?”
“He’ll probably insist on going. Maybe I can slip out before dawn.”
“You don’t want him to go?”
“He’s a cop, he’s not a scout. He’s careful of people but he doesn’t have an eye for things like trip wires. He’s got the analytical mind he needs for his job but it involves people and evidence. He doesn’t profile a trail as he walks. He doesn’t see odd things as odd. I’d rather go without him.”
“Is there anyone you would go with?”
“Yeah, but I’m not going to call him for something this minor. All I want to do is go hike around near a homestead in the hills. I’ve been there once. It’s nothing. But I want to be sure. I want to look at it with the new information and see what pops up. At any rate, I think we’ve Agnes proofed all the places she is likely to turn up except that one, so I want to be sure. After that I’ll put the map away and forget about it. I could go back to the senior center tack. That as working.”
“Just out of curiosity, who would you go with on these little scouting expeditions?”
“Chase.”
“You’re kidding. Most people only call Chase if they want an exterminator.”
“He’s not an exterminator. He’s a nice guy, if you happen to be a little blonde tracker. And he thinks like me. He understands why I do what I do. He might think it’s funny, but he makes the connections. I’ve tracked with him before. I trust him to see odd things. He sees things, invisible things, just like most good trackers.”
“You think he’d find those booby traps?”
“Yeah, I think he would, once we filled him in on why we were looking for them.”
I was finishing up dinner preparations that night when Rusty answered the phone in his office.
“What! No! …You’ve got to be kidding. There’s too many things that can go wrong…. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any there. It only means she didn’t know what she was looking for the first time…. Damn it, Schroeder, do you know what you’re asking…”
He was not in a good mood when he came to dinner. I wasn’t sure whether to push him to talk or not. I figured it would come out eventually. It didn’t. He just got moodier. I didn’t know whether to bring it up and suffer the wrath or let him stew. I thought I knew what Schroeder had asked. It was the only thing that would affect Rusty this way. Schroeder had told Rusty he couldn’t go to the site tomorrow. I wondered what the plan was. My idea of the plan was what I’d been doing all along, just drive out to a site and see what I could see. But that didn’t seem to match up with Schroeder’s plan. He was supposed to be the one that went by the book. He would have to assign me a senior officer, if he sent me out, unless of course he wasn’t sending me. But if he wasn’t sending me I was on my own. That was fine with me, just unexpected. Now that he knew I was going and he couldn’t stop me, I expected to be assigned a senior officer.
I always had my own personal backup although I hated to call on Rusty. I hated that tense, silent pause as he turned into a tight spring, both physically and emotionally. I knew he wouldn’t get tied up in investigations tomorrow morning. He would want to be free if I needed him, which I didn’t plan on doing. I knew he’d be doing piddly little detective chores that could be easily dropped. He’d study cases, not really thinking about them at all. He’d do anything to keep occupied. I figured I better call him when I got through so he’d know he could relax. I wondered why he expected me to go on with life as usual when he went on a raid. Yet he was on pins and needles as soon as things seemed out of his control with me.
The evening was tense and the tenseness grew as Rusty stewed about what could happen the next day. I felt like I was betraying him by going out alone. He could stop me. If he absolutely forbid me from going I would stay home. I didn’t really expect to find much out there. Of all the locations it was the most remote, the most peaceful, the least likely to be booby trapped, seemingly devoid of secrets. But something told me that was precisely why I should go. If there was something out there the owners had been very careful and very clever and I wanted to see just how careful and clever they could be.
I didn’t go at dawn. I didn’t want Rusty to think I was sneaking out on him. I made breakfast, packed a day pack with snacks and water.
“Show me again where you will be,” he said.
I handed him the map and then brought up his mapping program on his computer and zoomed in on the area so he could get a modern day view of it. I printed him a copy and traced the lines of the roads I knew I’d be taking and put a dot where the homestead was located.
“You’ll be on foot?”
“Yeah, if I had my Jeep I could go farther but I don’t.”
“Would it help if you had the Explorer?”
“A little but I don’t need to take your car. If you need to go in you need to be able to get there. The area between the car and the homestead is grassy. I can get down below grass level and disappear.”
“Please don’t disappear. I don’t think I could take it again.”
“I’ve got my cell phone. It’s charged. The homestead is on this side of the hills so I should be able to get a signal. I’ve got food and water for the day. I’m armed. I’m alert. I’ll be careful. Hopefully it’ll be just as peaceful out there as it was last time.”
As I drove away I felt the tension lift a little. It was just me now. I knew what I was doing, where I was going. I was just following my curiosity, like always. It just happened to be a little more complicated now. Booby traps, hidden jewels, abandoned buildings. I wondered again why the families had hidden their possessions and fled. Or had they fled? What did they think was going to happen that made them hide their things away and what kind of hatred did they have for their tormentors that they would set shot gun blasts to go off in their face and cyanide guns that caused a very painful and agonizing death? Even with the day bright before me something was off about it.
I made my way through the farmland and back into the neighboring foothills. I found the nearly invisible road and went to duck through the barbed wire fence but it had been cut and tire tracks led through the gap. The tread was from mud and snow tires. Wide tires. I wasn’t chancing taking the car up there though. The road was too close to becoming an empty field for me to trust the car on it. I felt more comfortable on foot anyway. I could disappear on foot. When I noticed how recent the tire tracks were I decided maybe I ought to disappear from the very start. The driver was probably still around. The tracks went in but they didn’t come out, at least not this way.
I walked down the tire track. That way the weeds I stepped on would look like the tires had crushed them. It wouldn’t fool Chase but it would fool almost anybody else. When I neared the hills I cut into the trees. Where was that truck? I kept to cover as I circled the area. I found the tracks leading around the back of the homestead and up a cut in the hills. Around one hill, then another and I came across a second structure. The truck was parked near it but I didn’t see any people. I took another scouting trip just out of sight of this new structure. It was a house but the front was made of rock and still remained intact. The whole front section of the house stood but fire had claimed the back rooms. I stood, watching the house as morning turned to afternoon. I was getting nowhere. Occasionally I saw a movement but nobody emerged. I wasn’t going to explore the area if I could be confronted. Rusty had said there were other issues involved besides Agnes and a bunch of jewelry and I didn’t want to get involved in it, whatever it was. So as long as the people were there I was unwilling to reveal my presence. This was the pits. If I went back to the original site they would see me when they left. If I stayed here I might have to stake out the house for a week. What were they doing down there? What could be so interesting in an abandoned house for this long? Then I had to laugh at myself. I’d probably spend this much time looking for the jewelry and booby traps, why not them?
Yeah, why not them?
I crept down to the house and made my way from window to window until I discovered where the people were. There was a man and a woman and they were baffled by something. The woman was fretful, worried about something. The man was more level headed but the woman was driving him to distraction. The man would try something and the woman would freak out and stop him. I smiled to myself. They were trying to disarm booby traps! If the traps were anything like the ones I’d run into I didn’t blame the woman for worrying but she wasn’t helping matters at all. I wondered what kind it was this time. I wondered how close to the window I should be.
Dang it, they could be at this all day. They could kill themselves. Was I a cop today, a tracker, or a curious hiker? Rusty would kill me if I confronted them. Come to think if it, they could kill me if I confronted them. And what exactly would I be confronting them about? Hell, it could be their house. Was there a procedure for this? Not until I knew they were up to no good. If I was convinced they didn’t belong here I could call Rusty in. But nothing, so far, had told me they had done anything wrong.
Suddenly the man exploded, “Damn it Shay! Get out of here. If we’re going to get this done you’re going to have to go somewhere else.”
“What? And let yourself get blown to smithereens?” Shay said.
“This was your idea. You wanted to come here before that meddling woman got here. Well here we are! Are you happy? Now let me work. Go find something else to do.”
Shay walked off in a huff. I had to dive for cover because she went to the truck and paced. She opened the door and sat sideways in the passenger seat. There was a noise from the house and she leaped inside.
“Go!” ordered the man.
Shay went back outside so I shifted my position to keep the house between us. I slunk up into the trees and found a secure place to wait. I had a view of the house and the truck but couldn’t really be sure what was going on inside. After a snack of trail mix and jerky I got tired of sitting around and changed positions. As I made my way from tree to tree I noticed a movement in the trees. I froze. Now I had to stay out of sight of three people! Shay and the man seemed to be no problem but who was this new addition? I decided to find out. I had to do a bit of triangulating to find hiding places but gradually I made my way around to a spot where I could watch the person on the hill and the people at the house. I found the movement again, barely a shadow flitting from place to place. What was it?
Shay saw it, too. She ran into the house.
“Dirk! Dirk, it’s her! I told you she’d show up here!”
Dirk came out of the house. “Where?”
Shay pointed up the hillside. Damn.
Dirk went to the truck and pulled a rifle out from behind the seat. He took a couple of angry steps toward the hill.
There was a movement to the side. Oh hell, it was Agnes! Who had Shay seen?
I didn’t think I’d done anything to make myself visible. I didn’t want to move. I was almost sure I was still hidden but could I let them take Agnes?
Dirk warily scanned the hill looking for movement.
Agnes looked around for a way out but if she moved she’d be in real trouble. She and I were in the same boat.
Dirk advanced. The tension built as Dirk continued to scan the hillside, rifle at the ready.
I removed my rifle, which hung across my back. I wasn’t ready to use it yet. I took my pistol from the holster and hid the holster with the rifle. Then I pocketed the pistol. In close quarters I was better with it, anyway.
Agnes was ready to bolt.
No, I thought, stay invisible! Don’t move.
It was her or me. All week I had worked to protect her from just this kind of situation. Did Agnes even know I was there? She didn’t act like it. She seemed to think Dirk had spotted her.
He pointed the rifle at the hill and fired.
Agnes shrunk back. That shot should have proved to her that Dirk didn’t know where she was. If he did he would have aimed closer, even if it was just a warning shot. Dirk started toward the hill, ready to ferret us out and Agnes didn’t know what to do. She was fine alone, given cover, a secure wall to sneak past or a doorway to duck into. This seemed to have her unnerved. She inched around the tree, keeping it between her and Dirk. This would work for a little while but a little farther and Shay would spot her.
A half second before Agnes gave herself away I decided I couldn’t let her do it. I had to do something so I stepped forward. Dirk’s eyes narrowed. He walked towards me rifle in hand. I was relieved to note he didn’t know much about walking around with a rifle. He carried it at his side, pointing forward.
“Get down here,” he said evenly. I walked with him down to the house. “Do you have any idea what a mess you’ve made of things? You’ve robbed us.”
“I haven’t taken anything.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“It’s her,” Shay said. “I know it’s her.”
“How did you know about this place?” Dirk asked.
“I found it marked on a map. I was just curious what was here.”
“Not good enough. Why have you been breaking into the stores?”
“They were on the map too. I was just curious why they were marked on the map, then when I saw all the trouble people went to to keep people out I got more curious. But I was just trying to solve a puzzle to satisfy my own curiosity. I have no desire to keep anything I’ve found.”
“Now that I don’t believe for a second.”
“Just because you want it doesn’t mean I have to. Let me go. You have nothing to lose by letting me go. For all I know this property is yours. You have every right to do as you please here. I’m not going to talk.”
“No. I have a better idea. You know how these things work. I have a little job for you.”
Gulp, I knew this was coming. I let them find me so they wouldn’t force Agnes to do it.
“Do you know how dangerous this is? So far I’ve almost tripped a cyanide gun, been shot at by a rifle and nearly blasted away by a shotgun shell booby trap. Whoever these people were guarding their stuff against, they hated them. The traps were deadly.”
“Then why risk it?”
“I’m a goody two shoes. Once I found out how dangerous they were I decided I had to protect other people from them. I couldn’t just leave them for some innocent person to stumble across.” Or some guilty person either, I thought, wondering where Agnes was.
“Then consider me innocent,” Dirk said. Shay stifled a laughed. “Here, I have a little project for you. In the house.”
He poked me with the end of the rifle but I wasn’t particularly afraid of Dirk. He didn’t know how to shoot. I was more afraid of the trap. The trap did know how to shoot, well, at least the ones I’d found so far. He led me into a back room, a library of sorts. One wall was covered with bookcases, no books. Dirk dug a yellowed piece of paper from his pocket. It said simply: you can’t judge a book by its cover.
“It’s what brought us to the bookcase. Either there’s a book somewhere or it’s just a reference to this place.”
“It could be both. It could have been written when there were books here.”
I began tapping around in the back of the bookcase, because it had worked for my closet. I did find hollow sounding spots but I couldn’t find a way to open any panels. I tapped the shelves. I glanced at the edges of the shelves. I had an idea but did I really want to help these people? In one of the shelves an arrow was carved. It was above my eye level so I could only feel it.
“I need to see something,” I said. I climbed the bookcase, beside the arrow. If it was going to do something it would probably be pointed forward. “Stand aside. There’s no telling what we could run into.”
The arrow seemed to be that, just a carved arrow. So what was it pointing to? I felt the edge of the shelf. Nothing. I turned around and looked to where the arrow might be pointing. It just pointed to the rock wall on the other side of the room. I started at the arrow and crossed the room. I felt the rocks looking for a loose one. This seemed familiar and I didn’t like the looks of it. Okay, Cass, if there’s a shot gun shell in one of these spots it’s going to be at head height or chest height. A rock wiggled. I flattened myself against the wall. If my captors were smart they’d do the same.
Dirk yelled, “Stop! What are you doing?”
“Following the next clue. It’s likely to be noisy so don’t shoot me if I dive for cover.”
“What is it?”
“How should I know? I’m just preparing for what I’ve seen so far.”
Shay ran out of the house. “I can’t watch!” she shrieked. She knew a little about these people too.
Keeping my hand as flat against the wall as I could, I worked the rock loose. A small explosion blew a hole in the bookcase wiping out the arrow. Wow, they had good aim!
Dirk lifted me off my feet and shoved me against the rock wall. My head hit with a thunk.
“Don’t knock any more loose!” I yelled. “There could be more!”
“What are you trying to do, destroy the rest of the place?”
“What would you have me do? You told me to follow the clues! I’m following the clues! I’d be more than happy to let you do it but NO! You wanted me to. Now go see what’s behind the trap.”
He approached the wall with trepidation, then pointed the rifle at me.
“You do it,” he said.
Shay was outside calling, “Dirk! Dirk are you okay?” He was trying to ignore her.
He really wasn’t very smart. I reached in and took out the pistol. Dirk jumped back and cocked the rifle. I opened the chamber and checked for more bullets, turned the gun to show Dirk.
“They aren’t going to waste ammo on a gun that is only going to fire once.”
He relaxed. I closed the gun and dropped it in my pocket. He didn’t think anything of it. This guy really needed a course in caution. This was getting interesting. I looked in the hole again and pulled out another piece of paper. It said, In case of fire, all hands to the pump.
Great. I handed the note to Dirk.
“Well? I only know of one pump around here. What about you?” I asked.
“The kitchen burned up with half the house,” he answered.
“What about the well? If they anticipated the kitchen burning, they had to mean a different pump.”
He pushed me towards the back of the house with the rifle. The possible uses for a pump in this case were numerous. They could have done anything. I wasn’t touching it. I looked around for cover. It wasn’t far away. I could probably escape from view given a few distracted seconds. How could I buy a second or two?
He pushed me to the back of what would have been the yard. There was the pump, traditional rusted red paint job, spout overhanging a cement horse trough shaped pool. I looked over the handle and pipe, the spout, the trough, trying to find anything that might hold a clue. One thing I did not want to do was move that handle. One pump and I could blow the whole house sky high. When the well didn’t reveal anything I turned back to the pump.
“Try it,” Dirk said.
“No,” I answered.
“Do it,” he said raising the rifle.
“Have you ever seen a pipe bomb?” I asked. “Put a pipe bomb in this contraption and you don’t even have to rig a trigger for it. It triggers just with a pump of the handle. A good pipe bomb would take out the well, the house and your truck, not to mention you and me. If these booby traps have been sitting here since the house fire they are going to be real touchy. You try it.”
He cocked the gun and put it to my head. Okay, maybe he couldn’t miss at that range.
I jiggled the pipe to see if anything felt loose, like it had been taken apart and reassembled differently. A good well needed a good seal to draw the water up. A bomb did not. I tried turning the pump assembly. A good pump would be tight. This moved. Cautiously I kept turning. Turning it could be as dangerous as pulling the handle. When it was loose I tilted it so I could see down the pipe. Felt an icy wave of fear as it registered just what it was I was seeing. Had I raised the pump handle the mechanism inside the pipe would have pulled the pin out of a homemade incendiary device. Carefully I set the pump back down.
“We need wire cutters. Have you got some?”
Dirk didn’t want to turn his back on me.
“Shay! We need some tools!” He yelled across the yard.
After a while Shay appeared with a toolbox, slowly lugging it with both hands. Dirk took it from her and looked around inside for wire cutters.
“What are you doing?” Shay asked.
“Disarming a pipe bomb,” I said. When she looked alarmed I added, “It was his idea.”
When I had clipped the wires that tied the pin to the pump handle I lifted the pump assembly out and set it on the ground. I looked down the pipe.
“Very ingenious, but where is the next clue?”
I wasn’t going to poke around in the pipe so I gave the well another going over. I pried at cracks in the cement. I tapped, listening for differences. But the clue had specifically mentioned the pump. They wouldn’t hide a piece of paper in a pipe. Why not though? It obviously wasn’t going to pump water with a bomb assembled inside it. I looked inside the spout and pipe that I had taken loose. A small envelope was rolled up and clung to the edges of the pipe. Shoot, not again. I peeled the envelope free and handed it to Dirk. The envelope nearly fell apart as he opened it and pulled out another yellowed piece of paper.
“One in the mine are worth two in the bush,” he read. “These are lousy clichés.”
Gulp. A mine. I could just imagine trying to pick my way through a mine. Dirk poked me with the gun again.
“Walk,” he ordered.
“Where? I don’t know where any mine is! And we won’t be able to see a thing if it’s a tunnel.”
“Walk, to the truck.”
When we got to the truck he took a clipboard off the dash and flipped through the pages. The clipboard held maps, forms and notes, pages bent from use. I’d like to get my hands on that clipboard. Was it something he had for his job or had he been researching these homesteads? Which side of this family feud was he on?
Shay walked out of the house. Now that Dirk had things under control she was staying out of the way. That helped a little except I could never predict where she was.
“We have to go to the mine,” he told her.
“You’ll need a light,” she said.
He felt around under the seats and pulled out a small flashlight. Oh hell. That was going to light up a two foot circle on the ground. We needed to watch for trip wires, guns hidden in nooks and crannies, dynamite. We were looking for a little yellow piece of paper. How did he expect to see a little yellow piece of paper with that thing?
Dirk prodded me in the direction of the first homestead. I had been hoping he didn’t know enough about the area to know about a mine but apparently he did. I walked ahead of him purposely leaving a trail. If Rusty had to find me I wanted him to have some clues. We passed the first homestead and followed the curve of the hill away from the house. When we got to the mine entrance it was almost completely covered over with brush. I pulled it aside, snapping a couple of small branches. I taught Rusty enough tracking that he would notice recently broken foliage. The more activity I could create the better. We looked into the dark hole. Dirk jabbed me with the rifle.
“Go,” he said.
“No way.”
“Did you hear me?”
“Yeah. I’m not going in there. It’s a death trap. I’d rather deal with you and the rifle than go in there.”
“Okay, we can arrange that.”
He pointed the rifle at me.
“I’m more dangerous with this little, empty pistol we found in the library than you are with that thing,” I said pulling out my 9mm.
He thought it was the pistol from the library. He smirked.
“What are you going to do? Throw it at me?”
“No, it works better this way,” I said firing a shot that tore through the side of his shirt and made him jump. “Now drop the rifle.”
His eyes narrowed. He didn’t like the way the tables had turned on him. He charged me and I jumped aside. He plowed into the brush beside the mine entrance, raised the rifle and fired. The bullet flew down the shaft.
“Don’t fire that way! You’re going to blow us to…” and a roar engulfed my words. I didn’t even think about Dirk. I just ran for my life, picturing crates of dynamite exploding. There was no place to take shelter. No overhangs. No buildings. I dove behind a large tree. Rock and wood, sand and vegetation rained down on me. I made myself the smallest target possible. When the noise had settled I shook off the leaves and sand. I noticed a large rock a few feet away. I didn’t think it had been there before.
“Dirk! Where are you?” I yelled. It seemed kind of strange to be looking for someone who had just tried to shoot me but I couldn’t leave him trapped or injured somewhere. As I searched I pulled out my cell phone.
“Rusty? The big explosion you’re going to hear about soon was out here. Send a crew with a dog. I’ve got one missing person.”
“Cassidy? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but I gotta find this guy. The whole hill blew and he could be buried. I hope he lost his rifle in all the commotion! I need to search.”
“Wait! What do you mean the hill blew?”
“Um, blew up? Kaboom? As in a bullet went down a mineshaft and probably through eighty-year-old dynamite, which is no longer in stick form. Look, I need to find this guy! I’ve got to go.” I flipped the phone shut and thought quickly. Dirk had been standing right there. The ground had raised a few feet since then. Think, think, where did Dirk run? I put myself in Dirk’s shoes. There was no use tracking him. His tracks were buried.
“Dirk! If you can hear me do something!”
Shay ran up to the mine as well as she could in heels.
“What did you do?” she cried.
“I didn’t! Dirk fired down the mine shaft and it exploded.”
We both started moving branches rocks, anything to get closer to where I thought Dirk should be. I was just guessing. It took me a while to figure out there was another searcher with us. I nearly jumped out of my skin. Chase? How the hell had he gotten here?
“Schroeder hinted at me that you might need help out here,” he said.
“Well you could have helped a little earlier, like when you heard shots from the house or before I had to diffuse a pipe bomb!”
“You looked like you knew what you were doing.”
“At gun point!”
“You’ve been there before. Why did you go through all that if you could have just shot the guy? You had your pistol on you the whole time.”
Shay shot me a look like she didn’t like what she was hearing.
“I don’t like shooting people.”
“Why did you come out in the first place? He couldn’t see you.”
“There was a woman. You probably mistook her tracks for mine. She moves like me, is about the same size. I need to track her down when all this is over. I let Dirk see me so he wouldn’t have her.”
“Why didn’t you just pull your rifle and arrest the whole lot?”
“One, I was kind of outnumbered. Two, I’m not a cop today, no senior officer. Three, what would I do with them? My goal coming out here was to find the booby traps so Agnes wouldn’t get herself killed. It kind of worked. As far as I know she is very much alive.”
“Agnes?”
“A cat burglar we’ve been hunting for several weeks.”
“You’re not making sense.”
“It’s okay. Just help me find this guy. I really don’t want him to die just because he tried to shoot me.”
“You sound like there’s an elite club out there of people who try to kill you.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me in the least,” I said, pulling a branch from beneath a load of sand.
Shay was crying and calling Dirk’s name over and over.
A black and white Bronco bumped onto the scene. Carla jumped out with a black lab on a leash.
“Do you have any clothes or something our missing person has held recently?” Carla asked.
“Shay, where’s the truck?” I asked
“I know where it is,” Carla said. She must have passed it on the way in. She and the dog jogged to the truck to give the dog a dose of Dirk’s scent, then she released him and he tore up the hillside sniffing a mile a minute. We continued to search until the dog started digging at a pile of brush mixed with sand.
“Carla, I’m going to track down Agnes Cooper. She was here this morning. I know where her tracks start. If you can spare an officer I could use some help with the take down.”
“What about Rusty?”
“Agnes is his case. He should be there. Send him after me.”
I ran up the hill to retrieve my rifle and then quickly hit the trail. I was amazed how much Agnes’s tracks resembled mine. Luckily, she didn’t make a point to hide them. Her only goal had been to stay out of sight of the house. She had remained in the same place for a while after Dirk took me away. She stuck around and watched, moving from tree to tree. She knew the focus was off her so she felt free to move about. She had even hung around as I diffused the pump and followed when we went to the mine. The explosion had taken her by surprise and thrown her a good ten feet away. When the police started arriving she had backed off going up into the hills and then making a wide circle to the cars. Chase and Rusty caught up to me as I topped a hill, overlooking the cars below. The police had blocked off the two cars parked down there. One was my rental car. I hoped the other was Agnes’s.
Rusty looked me up and down, then embraced me in a hug. “Cass, the things you get into! What am I going to do with you?”
“Agnes can’t be far but, if she made it here, she knows she’s without wheels.”
“What’s her state of mind?” Rusty asked.
“When she was hanging around the house she seemed relaxed and curious. As soon as the police turned up her tracks got more intense. I bet they change gears again now that she knows she’s afoot.”
“Does she know you’re on her trail?” Chase asked.
“I don’t think she knows I can track her. I think she is only running from the officers but she knows I might have sent them after her.”
“Is she armed?” Chase asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve never known her to shoot at people. She isn’t a violent person, just a good cat burglar. When she had a chance to shoot me she just cuffed me to a stairway. She even apologized for knocking me down the stairs. I’m not worried about getting shot at.”
“Can you find her?” Rusty asked.
“Yeah, no problem,” I said hitting the trail again.
As I tracked Rusty and Chase talked. Rusty dragged as much of the story out of Chase as he could. At least Chase gave me the benefit of the doubt telling Rusty the precautions I had taken, explained the care I took before I took the pump apart. He told him how the explosion happened, that I refused to go in the mine.
“You should have seen the guy’s face when he realized the seemingly empty gun was now fully loaded.”
Chase tracked behind me. I knew he was tracking me as well as Agnes. He couldn’t help it. I sure didn’t mind him learning a thing or two about tracking me. Agnes’s trail was interesting. She didn’t hide her tracks but there were no scuffs. Her footprints were always in a perfect line. That was unusual. It made the tracking easier. I didn’t have to hunt much side to side for the next track. Her trail went down the hill like she was heading for the road but then suddenly it veered back into the hills. I followed not even really needing to track as she waded through the dry grasses. The grasses bent in her direction of travel and I only verified Agnes’s tracks as I went along.
About a quarter of a mile from the mine we found another house. It wasn’t burned out but it was old and dilapidated, the siding was warped away from the frame and the paint was curled and eroded by the wind. At one time it had been a handsome house. Two story, it had a nice, big porch. I followed Agnes’s tracks as she approached the house. Her steps didn’t go to the front door. They circled around back and vanished. I examined the wall. In her climbing she had knocked off a lot of curled paint and the brittle wood had splintered under her weight. She had simply climbed the wall and entered the window on the second story, cat burglar style. I wished I had been able to watch her do it. I set my foot on a windowsill and pushed myself up. One hold led to another. The warped siding created many little bumps and bulges I could use.
“Cassidy, get down from there,” Rusty whispered.
“This is how Agnes entered the house. Somebody’s got to go in and we know this way is safe. She went this way to avoid traps so it seems logical to follow her. Don’t go in the front door. I’ve seen too many guns rigged to fire through obvious openings. In fact, don’t trust any door, no cupboards, no closets. Anything that opens could be rigged.”
“But this house wasn’t on your map,” Rusty said.
“It might have been on Agnes’s map, though. Nothing says we had the same map to follow.”
As I neared the window I got out my pistol, just to follow procedure a little bit. I doubted I would shoot Agnes but she might not know that. There was no glass in the window but Agnes had opened it anyway, I presumed to avoid cuts from broken glass. I peered into the room. No furniture, just dust, cobwebs and threadbare curtains blowing in the breeze. The sun had bleached away all color and pattern and the weather had made the fabric brittle so only tattered remnants fluttered lazily at the window. I noticed little mouse trails in the dust on the floor and wondered what mice ate in an abandoned building. I wished I could follow them and learn their secrets.
Everything leaves a trail. Even ants, given enough time will wear trails in the dirt. Now, where was Agnes’s trail?
I slid over the windowsill and dropped silently to the dusty floor below. I scanned the room from behind the gun. Chase dropped into the room behind me and grinned at the whole cop pretense.
“She hasn’t left,” he said quietly. “I checked around the house.”
I nodded.
“Rusty’ll catch her if she runs,” he said.
“Don’t open any doors,” I told him. “If we set off any guns Rusty will come running and we don’t want that.”
I put an ear to the closet door. Nothing. I indicated the hallway with my eyes and Chase nodded. He took the lead knowing I’d hesitate to fire no matter what happened when we left the room. Chase flattened himself against the wall and then turned, following his .45 out the door. He took one step and fell through the floor to the living room below. In amongst all the crashing, splintering sounds I heard the zing of a bullet. I looked through the hole in the floor. Chase had tripped a booby trap on his way down, but since he wasn’t standing when he tripped it the bullet went over him. Dust billowed around him and he coughed and fanned at the cloud.
“You okay?” I whispered down to him.
“I’m too old for this stuff,” he gasped. He got up and went to the front door. “I think this door is safe now,” he told Rusty.
I left the downstairs to the real cops and made my way, room to room, upstairs. I watched the dusty hardwood floors for tracks and there were plenty of those. Agnes was searching for something. Something very important to her. Important enough to take a few risks. What was it? And where was she?
I examined the doorway to the next bedroom for trip wires and triggers in the floor, then followed my sidearm in. One by one I found empty rooms. The guys met me on the stairs.
“Nothing,” Chase said.
“She’s here somewhere,” I answered. “Time for a deeper look. If it’s anything like the other house it’s going to get noisy. When she hears shots she might make a run for it, so be prepared.”
“What do you mean, shots?”
“I’ll show you.”
“Cassidy, no.”
“All you have to do is anticipate the shot and stand aside. It could be a pistol, rifle or shotgun so you have be ready.”
We went downstairs and began opening doors. We felt silly, all three of us flattened against the wall while I pulled open a door and nothing happened. It was a coat closet, no booby trap, no funny hidden walls, no loose floor boards, no secret carved clues in the woodwork, just an empty closet. The next door was the kitchen and the door in the kitchen held a pantry. No booby traps, only cobwebs.
“We’ve been through the downstairs rooms,” Chase said.
“One more door to go but I can’t imagine what it would be. A library? A den? This house wasn’t built when houses had dens.”
We approached the door wondering if our caution was misplaced but decided better safe than sorry and flattened ourselves against the hall wall as I silently turned the knob and pulled. Nothing happened but the door opened onto a stairway going down. A basement? Houses in this part of the country rarely had basements. Chase and Rusty stepped out onto the stairs testing them for sturdiness and promptly tumbled down the stairs. Agnes! I’d recognize that stun-gunning anywhere. I drew my pistol and approached the stairs cautiously.
“Agnes! Drop the taser! You can’t hope to keep all three of us incapacitated long enough to get away.”
I stepped to the doorway. There she stood, looking rather sad.
“Toss it up here. Toss it up here or I’ll shoot it. You don’t want to be holding it when I shoot it. I’m a good shot, but still, it’s just not a good idea.”
I aimed at the taser. She tossed it to the top of the stairs.
“Now, hands over your head.”
My training was starting to kick in.
“Spread eagle against the wall.”
I patted her down, making sure she was unarmed. Rusty would be proud. Usually I trusted people to not be armed. I got scolded every time I forgot to frisk somebody. I pulled the cuffs from Rusty’s pocket and cuffed Agnes. She became agitated, almost frantic. She turned on me and, with one swift kick to the head, sent me flying across the room. So much for her interest in a self-defense class. I tested my teeth to make sure they were still there. She stepped over her hands so her hands were in front of her, then dashed to a large roll top desk. She pushed the top open and peered inside, opening drawers she searched intently. I stood and placed her at gunpoint again. She didn’t seem to care. She was looking for something. Why? The police would just take it from her, but she was so intent in her search that I got curious, too. Opening one drawer after another she found all kinds of little tools. One drawer held a little bag of precious stones. A locked drawer frustrated her. What could be in the locked drawer if the owner had left priceless gems in a bag in a cubbyhole? She found a key and tried the drawer. When she pulled the key out of the drawer there was a loud pop behind the desk. It made both of us jump, then flames started licking up the wall behind the desk. Oh hell, this old house would go up in minutes. Agnes became even more frantic. She tried the key in the drawer again. It slid open stiffly and she drew out a leather case, also locked. She went back to the drawers. There were more locked ones and this frustrated her. She was more concerned about the desk than she was about the fire. There was something in there that she valued more.
“Agnes, we’ve got to get out! March! Up the stairs!”
Smoke began filling the room.
I turned to the guys. I’d never get them up a flight of stairs. Chase maybe. Rusty, there was no way.
Agnes took the case and headed hesitantly for the stairs. She didn’t seem to be concerned about getting caught. She seemed more worried about leaving the contents of the basement.
“Rusty! Come on!” I said shaking him, gun still pointed in Agnes’s general direction. I didn’t really care if she got away. I could track her down again from here. There were more important things at hand. “Rusty, please! Chase, wake up!”
The wall behind the desk was blazing now. The only place for smoke to go was up the stairs.
“Rusty! Come on, we’ve got to get out of here! We don’t have time for this! The house is burning up!” I shook him and shook him as smoke filled the room. I had to do something! Of all the times for Rusty to not have a radio, why did it have to be this time? Did I have time to run to the mine for help? I had to. I grabbed Chase under the armpits and locked my fingers across his chest. I pulled him up the stairs one impossible stair step at a time. He was more than the hundred sixty-five pounds I had practiced on in academy. At the time I thought, I better never have to do this in real life! Now here I was. Up, up the stairs, his heels catching on each stair. A sudden pull, a loosening of my fingers, an adjustment. I counted the seconds as I pulled some more. When we reached the top of the stairs things got a little easier I pulled Chase across the living room and out the open door and into the field. I dropped Chase in the field and sprinted back inside the house. I shook Rusty again.
“Rusty, please!” I begged. “Please wake up!”
I tried to pick him up, like I had Chase but he was just too big. I looked at the fire, now spreading beyond the desk area. Did I have time to make it to the mine? I had to, I just had to. I sprinted to the mine.
Schroeder’s presence at the mine indicated the magnitude of the investigation. He had the highest rank so I went straight to him. I was supposed to stand, salute and wait to be addressed. I didn’t have time for that.
“Schroeder! You’ve got to give me some help! Rusty needs help! He’s in the basement and the house is on fire. I can’t move him! I need two big guys. There’s no time for the fire department. He was stun gunned and took a tumble and I don’t know if he’ll come to in a few minutes or if he took a knocking in the fall. A fire truck can’t get in. It’s got to be on foot. Please!”
Schroeder sent Big John Jankowski and two EMTs. They followed me back. I ran but made sure they could see me the whole time. They used that calm, firm pace that looked unnervingly slow but maintained a professional attitude in the face of chaos. When I saw the house again I nearly collapsed. It was billowing smoke. Rusty! Chase was sitting in the field looking puzzled. I raced past and into the house. Jankowski shouted for me to stop but I couldn’t! I just couldn’t! The smoke hit me and I had to back out. I took a breath of fresh air, held my breath and plunged into the smoky living room, then down the stairs. Oh Rusty! I found him still on the stairs.
The fire had made it up to the first floor and threatened to ignite the stairs. Where were the guys? I couldn’t take the smoke much longer and that made me worry about Rusty. He’d been in the smoke all this time…
“Cassidy?”
I raced up the stairs.
“This… way,” I said coughing.
“Out!”
“Not until… cough, cough… I show you where,” I said turning back into the house.
With a growl of frustration Big John and an EMT followed me in. As soon as Rusty came into view John grabbed me by the arm and booted me up the stairs like a little kid. I tried to turn back but knew I’d just be in their way. As I walked out the front door the other EMT nabbed me. I shrugged away but he was used to that. He guided me to where Chase was sitting.
“It’ll be okay. Just sit still. Cassidy, look at me,” he said.
I looked at him but I didn’t know him. It was weird not knowing an EMT. I was so used to Landon and Victor being there. I looked at the patch on his uniform. It was the same company as Landon’s. The name embroidered on his uniform said Kipp Taft.
“I can’t just sit here. I’ll go nuts. How do you know me?”
“We all know you. Anybody who’s worked with Landon knows you.”
Chase knelt in front of me. “How’d I get out here?” he asked.
“Chase, I could move you. I couldn’t budge Rusty. I had to get help. So I dragged you out and made a run for it. Hell, I need a punching bag. I need a tree. Anything to hit. I’m a mess. If anything happens to him I’ll never live with myself. All this is my fault. If I’d just let Agnes go, if I didn’t have to track her none of this would have happened.”
“Where’d Agnes go?”
“I don’t know. I could only do one thing at a time. She was cuffed when the fire started. I told her to get out. I figured I could always find her later.”
Big John and the other EMT carried Rusty out. I started to get up but Chase and Kipp headed me off.
“Look, if I was going to keel over I’d have done it by now. I’m fine. Let me go.”
“Help me find Agnes.”
“Chase! I don’t care about Agnes. I…”
“I know, but you need to stay away and you need to focus on something else. Let the guys work. When we hear the helicopter we’ll head back. John, we’re going after Agnes Cooper. She’s only been missing about fifteen minutes. If we hurry we can catch up with her.”
We could indeed. Agnes knew there was no use running and she’d been as shaken by the past events as I had. We found her sitting under a tree, the open leather case in her lap. She lovingly fingered the contents with her cuffed hands.
“I finally found it,” she said with a hint of nostalgia in her voice. “I knew it existed but I didn’t know where it was until your map gave me a clue. I had no hope of really finding it but I couldn’t stop trying. The man who lived in that house made jewelry. He imported stones from all over the world and made wonderful, creative jewelry, each piece an original, no two alike. I own some of his creations. They were handed down through my family. The basement was his shop. He made the pieces here and sold them in the best jewelry stores up and down the state. He disappeared in 1926. Not many people know who made his jewelry. He only signed his pieces RK. When I found your map and saw all the dots with the name Kingsley on them, I knew I had to search and see if the legend was really true.”
Leave it to Agnes to give me a history lesson on jewelry in the middle of her arrest. I felt sorry for her. I didn’t want to send her to jail. I wanted to stop the thefts. I wanted to see Dottie get her rings back. But I didn’t want to see Agnes behind bars. I sat beside her under the tree. She brought out a ring. It sparkled like new even after eighty years.
“Here’s something you police won’t understand at all,” she said and lifted out a small pistol totally encased in precious stones. She was right, I didn’t understand why anybody would dress up a gun like that. It was like making a shovel out of gold. The decorations only limited its uses. Some things were just made to be tools.
“Agnes, we’ve got to go. I hate to have to tell you this but, you are under arrest.” Big John took over the arrest. He trundled her off to the mine and a squad car. Chase gave me a hand up and we walked back to the house. It wasn’t far. My pace quickened and I gradually left Chase behind. As the house came into view I broke into a run.
A fire department helicopter buzzed in and took a tour of the situation. I hoped they jumped on the situation because it was a brushfire just waiting to happen.
I pulled up beside the EMTs still working, still waiting on an airlift. I knelt beside Rusty. I took his hand. I was relieved that his color was better. He felt okay. His leg was splinted. He was breathing although the noise of it was frightening.
“Cassidy,” Chase said. “They aren’t going to let you in the helicopter. I can tell you that right now.”
“What! Why? I have to! I get lifts out of places with victims all the time. They let me go then.”
“We’ll get a destination from them as soon as they know. You’ll be right behind the helicopter.”
“But I want to be there.”
“I know, kid, but they are going to have to do some things that you don’t want to see.”
“I don’t care. I have to be there.”
“You don’t have to, if you can’t.”
We heard the clatter of the helicopter, but they couldn’t land close to the house without spreading the fire into the dry grasses nearby. Chase knew what needed doing. He verified the hospital they were going to. It was in Joshua Hills. That was good news. It meant they were optimistic. It also meant doing all the piddly little details like getting cars home would be less hassle. I drove the rental car to the hospital. Chase arranged for an officer to drop the Explorer off at the hospital. I don’t know what I would have done without Chase. He thought of everything. I would have stumbled along until I ran into a problem and then tried to figure it out. He left me free to think about Rusty. He rode with me, talking me through what I could expect. Just what everybody needs, an emergency consultant. He’d been through it all, seen all the hang-ups, seen how things might have gone a little smoother if only some little detail had been thought of, and he thought of them. He kept me sane, filling my mind with little things, not letting me dwell on the fear. Even when I was sitting with Rusty I could focus. Things didn’t overwhelm me like they had in the past.
The EMT’s got word to Landon. After Landon arrived I had a medical translator. Schroeder checked in daily. I was even able to call Kelly. He was shocked by the news.
“Kelly? I have some news,” I said.
The line was eerily silent.
“It’s bad news but it’ll be okay. I thought you ought to know. Rusty was in a fire. He wasn’t burned but he’s got complications from smoke inhalation. He’s on a respirator, but it’s just to keep his airway open. They’ll take it out when the swelling goes down.”
A long silence, then, “I’ll be right there.”
He rushed in half an hour later prepared for a long wait in the emergency room but what he found was me and Chase sitting, talking in Rusty’s room. He heaved a sigh of relief. Last time I’d been in this situation he’d found me barely able to function.
“Can you tell me about it?” Kelly asked.
A big lump formed in my throat. “No, Kelly, I can’t. I can’t think about it or I turn into an emotional mess. Maybe when I know he’s fine and over a boxing match.”
Chase got up and signaled for Kelly to follow. All I caught as they walked out the door was, “Don’t push, she blames herself.”
And boy did I. What could I have done differently? I could have dropped the case when Rusty asked me to. I could have been more careful. I could have kept Agnes from touching the desk and setting off the booby trap. I still wasn’t convinced the booby trap had functioned properly. A fire obviously wouldn’t stop someone from getting the things in the desk. I thought it had misfired and the fire was the result. But still, if I’d have just arrested Agnes and kept her in line the guys would have come around and taken over. I felt guilty for Rusty’s accident and Chase’s too for that matter. I even felt guilty for sending Agnes to jail. I needed something to feel good about. I looked at my big strong detective, his raspy breathing being monitored closely, his leg in a cast. The tube. I had to remind myself that the tube was a good thing. Or rather only having the tube was a good thing.
He stirred and I turned the chair around. I sat on the back of it, putting my feet on the seat so I could look down at Rusty.
“Take it slow,” I said. “Don’t push it. I know it feels weird.”
His hand moved so I took hold of it. He seemed to tense a little.
“Can you hear me?” I asked.
Nothing.
Chase and Kelly walked in. Chase took the other chair. Kelly came up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. I felt Rusty’s hand try to move again.
“I can feel you there.”
Every once in a while his hand would move and I’d perk up.
I asked Chase, “Have you talked to Elan? How are things going at the ranch?”
“I’ve heard more from Patrick. While you were missing he called every day. I got the impression he was hiding in the bushes when he talked to me,” he said grinning. “He was mostly worried about you but I asked tracking questions to get his mind off his worries. He has hundreds of questions and Elan can’t always answer them but they seem to have more fun just walking around doing chores together. He certainly keeps Elan thinking. I was counting on that. Patrick’s questions teach Elan as much as they teach Patrick.”
“Doesn’t Elan consider him a pest?”
“Actually he is quite impressed with Patrick. He only asks intelligent questions and when he gets an answer he comes up with intelligent conclusions. Elan gets most of his work done while Patrick is in school. He likes the work, loves training the horses. He can’t wait for Frank’s Choice’s first race. He’s been working with the horse. He and Randy work well together. They have a lot in common as far as horses go. Something else you’d be interested in, he thinks Shasta misses you.”
“I wonder what Randy thinks about that.”
Rusty’s hand moved again.
“Rusty? Are you there yet?”
His hand jerked a little harder.
“Don’t try to talk. You can’t talk yet.”
This seemed to worry him. His movements became rougher and jerky.
“Shh, it’s okay. You won’t be like this for long. Relax, come on, relax.” I stroked his arm. “We’re doing good. We’re right on track.”
Kelly stepped in. “Rusty, it’s okay. Cassidy’s doing great. She’s a trooper. Relax, you numbskull, you worry too much. If she needs anything we’re all here. Chase is here. I’m here. Landon’s in an out. Schroeder’s on standby. Cassidy can’t move without someone watching out for her.”
He seemed to settle a little after that. I couldn’t believe he was in any shape to be worrying about me.
That night was the worst. Kelly went home and Chase went to wherever Chase goes when he’s in town. He said he needed to go over the case with Schroeder. I offered him the keys to our house but he declined. I sat with Rusty, worried that I would miss something if I fell asleep. I sat on the back of the chair watching him until I got drowsy and thought I was going to fall off the back of it. I got up and paced. I tried every trick in the book that I’d come up with on long guard duties. It didn’t work. I’d just been through too much that day. Okay, I thought, half an hour. I’ll nap for half an hour. I sat in the uncomfortable naugahyde chair, held Rusty’s hand, and drifted off.
In my dreams I dropped Chase in the field and when I turned to the house again it was fully engulfed in flames. There was no time to run to the mine! I ran back in the house and the flames leaped at me. Panicky, I ran from room to room but I couldn’t find Rusty. I couldn’t see. The stairs to the basement were on fire! Suddenly alarm bells went off. Rusty’s hand jerked violently. I woke up scared of the fire and then realized it was Rusty’s breathing monitor going off. Nurses rushed in. They sent me out of the room. I was having trouble waking up, still halfway in the dream. I was scared for Rusty but as I settled down, I knew what had happened. My nightmare had worried Rusty. It upset him enough to interrupt his breathing. I knew he’d be okay. But I decided that I couldn’t sleep with him.
“I’m sorry,” I cried when they let me back in. “It was just a dream. It’s okay. You can hear and you can feel. That’s good. I’m sorry I upset you. Don’t let my dreams get to you. I want to stay, but I can’t if it upsets you.”
By the time Chase arrived in the morning I was ready to drop but I was scared to. I didn’t want to worry Rusty but the nightmares were not going to go away. When they came they usually stuck around until I found peace in the situation and I couldn’t find that peace here, watching Rusty suffer for my actions. I would plunge right back into the fire as soon as I slept but I had to sleep or I wouldn’t be in any shape to help Rusty. Chase could tell something was wrong.
“Go home,” he ordered.
“It’s a half hour drive. I don’t want to be gone that long.”
“I’ll stay.”
“I still don’t want to be gone that long.”
“Then let’s get a cot. You can sleep here.”
“I can’t. I have nightmares about the fire and it upsets Rusty.”
“Then try the car.”
The Explorer was in the parking lot so I folded down the back seats and stretched out willing the nightmares to stay away. They didn’t. I forced myself to stay there and try to sleep for an hour. First I had nightmares. The second time I dozed off I heard a knocking on the window. It was a cop. Jayce Thompson grinned at me.
“So you’re the poor homeless person living in their car in the hospital parking lot. What’s up Cassidy?”
“Apparently me,” I answered. “Please let me sleep. Rusty’s laid up in there and I haven’t slept in forever.”
“Okay. I think we need a code for you in our reporting. Shots fired? It was just a Cassidy call. Homeless people lurking in the hospital parking lot? A Cassidy call. Mysterious explosions in the hills? It’s just Cassidy. You know we could write off a lot of minor calls off to you and everybody would believe it.”
“Good night, Thompson.”
“I hope you can sleep. Tell Rusty I said ‘hi.’”
“I will, he can hear now. Go up and say ‘hi’ yourself.”
Thompson left to go say ‘hi’ to Rusty and I drifted back to sleep and into the fire. It was no use. Sleep was my enemy right now. I forced myself to lay still and just rest for an hour. Maybe rest would suffice while sleep was impossible.
I went back to Rusty’s room and took up my watch.
“Any change?” I asked Chase.
“Talk to him. He can understand you. He needs to talk to you.”
“Hey,” I said to Rusty. “I’m back. You doing okay?” I took his hand in case he had a response. He began fighting the tube. “You can’t talk. The tube will win every time. Just relax. You’re doing great.”
His hand moved. The jerky, worried movement.
“What is it? Don’t worry about me. I’m getting along. Chase made me go take a nap. I didn’t want to leave but I was afraid the nightmares would bother you.”
More worried hand movements.
“Rusty, what’s wrong? I can’t guess what’s on your mind. Do you want to know what happened? It was a fire. You’re here because you were in the smoke too long… I can’t tell you the whole story. I just can’t. Just get better and then maybe, maybe I can… We got Agnes. While we were waiting for the helicopter we tracked her down and Big John hauled her in.”
That was the most detail I could handle at the time. He fought the tube some more and I tried to calm him. I knew he was frustrated with his circumstances. He was used to being in charge and in control and everything was out of his control right now.
“Rusty, calm down. The tube is there because your throat is swollen from the smoke. The more you irritate it the longer the tube stays in. Just relax. Nothing’s going to happen while you’re here. We’ve just got to get through this and we’ll do it faster if you stay calmer.”
I knew reasoning with him was almost useless. But at least it kept me talking and he could hear my voice.
Chase and Kelly switched off, passing on an update.
“Kelly, you have a life, too. Go home. You can’t spend your afternoons here. You have work to do. You have a wife. She misses you. She doesn’t want you hanging out here with me.”
“When I’m convinced that you’re taking care of things on your own I’ll go home. You haven’t convinced me yet. When was the last time you ate a meal?”
“Dang, why’d you have to pick that? Yesterday.”
“I’m going downstairs to get something. What do you want?”
“Anything that will keep a while and I can pick at,” I said burrowing in my pack and handing him my wallet. “Get something for you, too.”
Kelly left and I sat with Rusty again. “I swear, these guys are worse than living at home on the ranch.” He felt around for my hand and found my knee. His actions seemed more coordinated now. “Rusty? Can you open your eyes? I want to see your eyes. I miss you so much. Can you open your eyes, just for a second?”
I didn’t get to see his eyes then, but later in the day he seemed to reach a milestone. His eyes opened and he looked around. His hand movements were controlled. Now he just needed his voice back, but at least I could read his expression.
“There you are. I’ve waited a long time to see those eyes. Next we need to let your throat heal. You’ll be rid of that old tube soon.”
His eyes held a question but I was afraid to know what it was. Still, I had to try.
“What is it? I told you what happened. I told you we got Agnes. You know I’m being watched over day and night and can’t even sneeze without the guys handing me a tissue. What else is there? Schroeder will explain the work aspects. I’ve told you all I know about your condition. If you want the scientific terms for it all Landon can help with that. He’s due in here in a few hours.”
The question didn’t go away.
“Rusty. You want to know why I can’t tell you what happened, don’t you?”
His expression softened. Shoot. Just thinking about it enough to form an answer brought tears to my eyes.
“I can’t. To do that I have to admit something and I can’t even think it again. I can’t. Please don’t ask me that. Just get better. It’s the only way I can cope. If I have to go back I’ll…I just can’t. I’m sorry.”
I toughened up inside, sat a little straighter and pasted a look of confident optimism on my face. It didn’t fool Rusty. It seemed to make him sadder.
A doctor and two nurses walked in.
“Miss, could you step out of the room for about fifteen minutes?” the doctor said.
“He’s my husband. Whatever you need to do, you can do with me here.”
The doctor looked at me weird. I know, I know, I thought, what’s a kid like me doing married to a hunk like him? I was used to it.
“We’re just going to do a quick exam. If everything checks out I’ll still ask you to leave while we take the tube out,” the doctor said. Then he turned to Rusty, listened to his lungs.
I worried. To me Rusty’s breathing still sounded awful. I hoped they would take the tube out so Rusty could talk again.
“Take a deep breath,” the doctor told him. “So far so good.” Then he nodded to the nurse.
“Mrs. Michaels?” the nurse said guiding me to the door.
Kelly came, too. The nurse didn’t stop at the door though. She guided me down the hall to a waiting room.
“Kelly, what am I going to do? He’s going to want to know what happened and I can’t say it. I just can’t. I know he won’t blame me, and he needs to know but I can’t say it. It sticks in my throat and I turn into a basket case. Look at me! I can’t even talk about talking about it. Just talking about it this much makes me want to go to the station and take on the punching bag.”
“Sit down,” he said.
I sat and brought my feet up into the chair and put my head on my knees. That told him more than anything I could say verbally. He knelt down and pulled my feet down.
“Look at me,” he said. “I’ve only heard this from Chase, so let me see if I’ve got this right. You tracked Agnes to a house and you searched the house for her. You found her in the basement. There was a fire and you were able to get Chase out but you couldn’t move Rusty. So you ran for help from the officers at the mine.”
I nodded. “Chase doesn’t remember part of it. They went into the basement first and Agnes stun gunned them. They were out while I cuffed Agnes but then there was something she had to see before we hauled her off to jail. I couldn’t take her in myself. I needed a senior officer and I wasn’t going to leave the guys…I was an idiot. I let her look and when she did she triggered a booby trap. It started a fire. I had one able bodied but cuffed cat burglar, an unconscious Rusty and Chase and a fire to deal with. I told Agnes to get out. I figured I could always track her down later. I…I knew I couldn’t move Rusty. Even Chase was a rough haul. Up all those stairs…When I chose to pull Chase out it took precious minutes. The house was old and dry and burned easily. The basement was filling up with smoke…the only way for the smoke to get out was up the stairs. Now Rusty’s paying for it.” Up went the feet, out came the tears. “I left Chase in the field and ran to the mine. I brought back help but Rusty’s the one paying for my inability. Why did I do it? How could I? Damn it, now I can’t even go back in there without upsetting him.” I cried, just sitting there in my usual hiding position, curled into a little ball.
“Cassidy, come on, no hiding. Come on. You can cry, as long as you do it here.” He held out his arms. “Would it help if I told Rusty?”
I shook my head no.
“Why?”
“I have to face it eventually. He can’t know I blame myself. It’ll just make him feel worse.”
“You can’t blame yourself. Nobody would expect you to be able to move Rusty.”
“But I could have dropped the search for Agnes when Rusty asked me to. I could have run for help before I pulled Chase out.”
“Then Chase and Rusty would both be in the same boat. Chase is amazed you could have pulled him out. And he knows it cost you. He understands why you feel like you do even if he doesn’t know how the fire started. He knows it was bad and he knows you had to make a choice.”
“A choice that hurt Rusty.”
“You think Rusty wouldn’t have chosen to make that sacrifice for Chase? If Rusty could have told you to get Chase out he would have.”
“But I left him there, unconscious, unable to do anything but breathe smoke. I’ll never forgive myself. But it’ll be better as soon as Rusty’s all right.”
“And he will be. Just wait and see. He’ll be out of here soon and then what will you do?”
“I don’t know. Rusty wanted to go someplace. He needs to be able to relax and get out and play and build some good memories. He needs to see everything be all right for a while. I’ll need to stick close to home.”
“Mrs. Michaels?” the nurse said poking her head into the waiting room. “You can go back now.”
I looked at Kelly. Kelly gave me a hug before leading the way back to Rusty’s room. I felt like I was going to face a firing squad.
“Rusty’s going to want to know the facts.”
“And?”
“He should know them. Just keep it general. If there’s any way, keep my feelings out of it.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s got enough problems right now. We’ll deal with my feelings later, when he’s got the facts all straight in his head.”
I was saved from the telling for a little while. Rusty was tube free but he was also very sore. He lay there exhausted. I sat quietly with him and stroked his arm so he’d know I was there. He opened his eyes.
“There you are,” he whispered hoarsely.
“You don’t need to talk if it hurts. I know those tubes are no fun.”
He lay quietly for a while but his curiosity got the better of him.
“I don’t remember a fire,” he said.
“I know. Agnes got you with the taser when you entered the basement.”
“Must have been some stun gun. How did I break a leg?”
“Agnes stunned you at the top of the basement stairs.”
“And you got Agnes?”
“Yeah, we got Agnes. Chase and Big John helped me.”
“Good job, babe.”
I just shook my head.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Hon,” he was down to a whisper. “You can’t fool me.”
“You were unconscious. You were gray. We were lucky you were breathing on your own. The EMTs only had their orange boxes. We had to wait for a helicopter to get oxygen. I had to leave you to go after Agnes. I knew I had to stay out of their way but I just wanted to let Agnes go. It was too much. I had to leave you twice not knowing what would happen, not knowing if you’d survive my decisions.” I had to stop. “We got Agnes but there was no victory in it. Then after all that they wouldn’t let me in the helicopter.”
He felt around for a hand, always needing to feel things be okay.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Most of the time. I have my moments.”
“Why the nightmares?”
“You know I have nightmares.”
“I know. It’s the only way I can tell when you’ve been truly affected by something. You only have nightmares when you’re hurt deeply.”
Dodging the issue I told him, “I relive the fire, except it’s bigger. I’m scared and I can’t find you. That’s not the way it was in real life. In real life I knew where you were. I led the guys right to you. In the dream I can’t find you and the house is in flames and falling around me. But it’s not the fire I’m scared of. I’m afraid I won’t find you in time.”
He fell silent, thinking, resting his voice.
“You went in that burning house?”
“I had to. Big John yelled for me to stop but I couldn’t. I had to know.”
He struggled with that. I hated what I was doing. Only half telling things to keep my emotions in check.
Rusty continued to improve. He went through physical therapy sessions to increase his endurance and get his wind back. His voice was still raspy when they finally released him. When we got home I dragged him to the old brown couch and fell into his arms. This time I needed my minutes. I was still battling. Still having nightmares. Still kicking myself. I was glad he took it as worry.
Schroeder came over. At first he’d visited at the hospital to get progress reports. Now he needed to know the details. He tossed a file folder on the table.
“This is what happened from Agnes’s point of view. Now I need it from your point of view.”
I read through the report. Agnes had been very detail oriented. She’d drawn the right conclusions and everything. She knew I stepped forward to save her skin. She guessed right at what Dirk had made me do. She sure saved me a lot of explaining. The report fell apart when she stun gunned the guys. She wasn’t going to admit to assaulting a police officer. I gave Schroeder the real story including why Agnes had been looking for that particular place and what she had found. She admitted tripping the booby trap. She had left the house intending to run away but she knew she would never get far in handcuffs and without her car, so she had simply given up and spent the time proving to herself that she really had found Ronald Kingsley’s jewelry making shop. It was worth it to her just to have found it. It confirmed something in her. It was the fulfillment of a dream.
“Will any of the women get their jewelry back?” I asked Schroeder.
“A few. We’ll contact the owners. They will have to come forward and identify it. Those with proof of ownership will have it easy. Those who insured their jewelry will have identified it somehow.”
Dottie. I’d never know if Dottie got her rings back. But I’d know I did all I could to make that come about.