Red hadn’t eaten all morning. He was surprised he was hungry at all. But he was a big man, and big men, even in the hardest of circumstances, cannot forgo food for very long.
The night before he had thrown up his dinner by the subtle red glow of road flares when he arrived at the scene of his deputy’s death. He had seen death before. Had seen carnage. But it was always detached. At arm’s length. Here was his own . . . Officer PJ Morey. What was left of her.
He had got the call at 7:24 p.m., right before the last “Final Jeopardy” question on the TV. Red had sent James out looking for PJ when she hadn’t radioed in for a while. James called him in shock . . . crying . . . screaming like a little girl.
“What’s wrong, James?”
“Red . . . you got to get up here . . . she . . . PJ . . .”
Sounds of retching.
“. . . she’s . . . Red, she’s just . . . !”
Red had left his cat Sox to lie in the faint shadow of the TV set and headed out to see what happened. He found James wandering along the shoulder overcome with shock and grief. He stopped his cruiser and got out.
“James . . . James!” Red yelled, pulling the deputy out of his delirium. “Where is she?”
James held up his trembling hand, his voice shaking. “O . . . ov . . . over there . . .”
Red walked over and saw what remained of Officer PJ Morey. Her body lying below the hanging front bumper of the smashed police car. A stream of blood darkened the pavement, stretching out. This beautiful young woman cut down, her life cut off.
That was where he had lost it. The mix of horror and beauty caused him to vomit as well.
He wiped the corners of his mouth and called to James. “Get some help up here, James. Doctor . . . ambulance . . . I don’t know . . . just get someone.”
“All right.”
And that was the last memory he had of his young deputy. He and James waited for the ambulance from the safety of his idling police cruiser.
Now, Red walked down the aisle of the decrepit convenience store outside of Goodwell. He picked up a candy bar and marched to the back room, its door next to the cooler. James stood by the entry door, his gun out even though Red told him to keep it holstered.
“Cole! You back there? Cole!”
The chief punched the door open but the room was empty. He returned to the front of the store. Everything was still.
“You really think it was Cole done that?”
“I don’t know, James, but he better be praying right now if he did.”
He bit into the candy bar and chewed slowly. Reaching over the counter, he rifled through the stack of magazines next to the overflowing ashtray. Just some celebrity gossip rags, with an outdoor one thrown in for balance.
“You ever see Cole go anyplace else?”
James scratched his head. “Not sure. I saw his truck one time up by Shim’s place. But that must’ve been about a year ago.”
Another bite of the candy. “I want you to go around here and talk to some folks. Find out if he’s got a place he goes to, someplace he might be at right now.”
James walked to his car and headed into town, leaving Red still standing at the counter. What was going on? Nothing ever happened like this out here. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Cops around these parts grew old and bored; they weren’t supposed to die young and brutal.
He couldn’t get the vision of his deputy out of his mind. The once vibrant lady now gone to her eternal rest.
People feel more horror in the act of death than in death itself. The results are the same, dead. But the process is what got under people’s skin. The method. And Red, through all his years in this line of work, had never seen a method such as what he saw on the highway.
He kept himself from breaking down. He wasn’t that sort of guy, but sadness filled his heart and mixed with the anger welling up toward Cole. It had to have been him who did this. His was the last name spoken between the two cops. It was her last reported stop. It was him.
Red punched the rack display on the counter and a medley of lighters and air fresheners flew to the ground and splintered across the floor. If he found Cole, he was sure he would kill him on the spot.
He stepped over the mess he made and headed outside. The midday heat already setting the earth on fire. He got in the cruiser, but had no idea where he should head off to.