Chapter Fifteen

Joe and Melia worked hard. They soon saw Bo and his partner leave the farmyard. Bo hadn’t come looking for him, so Joe guessed that whatever they had decided was firm.

“I hope they didn’t change their minds,” Melia said. Joe had explained to Melia that Bo wanted to send Nattie to a safe house. Melia had not liked that idea at all.

“I know Ron wouldn’t have changed his mind,” Joe said. “But I don’t know about Nattie. She might prefer to not be a burden on you guys.”

“Let’s find out,” Melia said. “She wasn’t in the truck with them, was she?”

“No, but maybe they needed to work something out for her first,” Joe suggested. “I’ll keep at it here. I can finish up in a few minutes and come in. Then you can let me know what they’ve decided.”

Melia was not gone very long. She came just as Joe was finishing up. She had a long face but a handful of cookies. “She’s going, and Grandpa is not very happy about it. Bo just went to make arrangements for Family Services to find a place to take her. Grandpa’s still growling, but it’s Nattie’s decision. She said when they catch Lucas she’ll come back. So I hope they catch him soon. I would love to have someone so near my age to be friends with.”

They finished up and went to the house.

“I wonder what time they are coming to get Nattie,” Joe said as they shed their coats, hats, gloves, and boots.

“I don’t know, but I’d be surprised if it’s tonight,” Melia said.

A few minutes later, Bo and Jim showed up at the door.

“When are they coming for Nattie?” Joe asked.

“They can’t for a couple of days since they don’t have any places available. I’m surprised by that, but it is what it is, so I guess she stays here for now,” Bo said. “One of the people we talked to from Family Services made me really angry. He suggested we just give her a jail cell. I told the guy that was stupid and that we’d do the best we could until they could help her.”

“We’ll take good care of her,” Melia said. “Won’t we, Joe?”

“I won’t be staying here,” he said. “I’ll be okay at home. You guys just need to keep your doors locked.”

“Joe, you don’t even have Herc. I think you should stay with Ron and Melia. I would feel better about Nattie if you were here,” Bo said.

“I’ll come back early in the morning,” Joe said.

Bo shook his head. “You don’t even have your guns.”

“Yeah, and why not?” he asked with a bite to his voice. “I know my pistol was used to shoot Emil, but I should be able to have my shotgun and rifle.”

“You have a good point there,” Bo agreed. “I’ll try to get them back to you. In the meantime, let’s go get some of Nattie’s things.”

“I’ll go get Nattie,” Melia said, and she ran for the house. When she returned, Ron was with her as well as Nattie. “Grandpa insists on going.”

“That’s right,” Ron said. “We’ll take my truck, but I want Joe to drive.”

When they arrived at the Soto residence, Melia and Joe were both shocked. Melia didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t say anything. The place was in terrible shape.

“I’m sorry it’s so cold in there,” Nattie said. “I asked Lucas several times to please get us a new door, but no, he needed his fix instead.”

“How did you stay warm in there?” Melia asked.

“I wore a coat and often kept a blanket around me. I can’t believe I didn’t try to get away from Lucas a long time ago,” she said. “I wanted to, but I guess I was scared and stupid.”

Joe didn’t respond, but he could certainly relate to the stupid bit—on his part, not hers.

When they reached the sagging door, Bo said, “You guys wait out here. Jim and I will make sure there are no surprises inside.”

Both officers drew their guns and entered. A couple minutes later, they came back out with their pistols holstered.

“Nattie, I’m afraid someone’s been here,” Bo said. “But whoever it was is gone now.”

“It must have been Lucas. What did he do?” she asked weakly.

“It’s a mess in there. There’s not a lot for you to gather up,” Jim said as he and Bo again entered with Ron, Melia, Nattie, and Joe following.

No sooner had Nattie stepped inside than fresh tears began to flow. “I knew it. This is Lucas’s doing,” she said with a broken voice.

Joe and Melia looked at each other in horror. The house had been torn apart just like Joe’s had been. The sofa was slashed, totally ruined. Lamps were busted up, and chairs were broken. They moved into the kitchen. Once again, the place was destroyed. The dishes were all broken, and anything that wasn’t breakable in the kitchen was smashed. Kitchen chairs were in pieces. The table had been hacked apart with what could only have been an ax. But there was no ax to be seen.

“I wonder where Lucas got an ax,” Nattie said. She had quit crying and was in control of her emotions. “He doesn’t have one.”

As they moved toward the main bedroom, Joe said to Melia, “This looks like my house after someone had been in it. It must be the same person. Lucas must have a terrible temper.”

They entered the bedroom. The dresser drawers had been pulled out, and the items in it were ripped apart. Nattie looked toward her closet. She stood as if frozen in place. “My clothes,” she said. “They’re gone. I have nothing to wear. What am I going to do?”

“We’ll take care of you,” Ron said. He then looked pointedly at Bo. “And we’ll take care of your baby.”

“What about Lucas’s clothes?” Bo asked. “I don’t see any men’s things.”

“I’m sure Lucas took them,” Nattie said. “I can’t believe I let him do this to me. My parents are right. I wish I would have listened to them, but I was so unhappy at home that I jumped at the chance to leave with someone who acted like he cared. I guess Lucas is going to go somewhere a long way from here.”

“Possibly, but then again, maybe he’ll try hiding nearby,” Bo said reasonably. “There is simply no way to know at this point. Nattie, do you and Lucas have any bank accounts?”

She shook her head. “He has a credit card, but he would never let me have one.”

“Do you know what company issued the card? Also, what kind of card was it? Visa, MasterCard, or something else?” he asked.

“I have no idea. He mostly used cash. He’d get a welfare check and cash it.”

Bo turned to Jim. “Make a note of that. If he uses a credit card, we can trace him. Of course, first we’ll need to find out who issued it. Nattie, if he didn’t have an account at a bank, how did he pay off his card, or do you know?”

“That I can tell you,” Nattie said. “He always bought a money order at the post office to pay it with when he actually made a payment. I would think that his card is about maxed out, although when I’d ask him about it, he’d remind me that it was none of my business.”

“Thanks, Nattie,” Bo said. “I’m sorry for what you’ve gone through.”

“Maybe we can figure this out by going to the post office in the morning,” Jim said.

They did salvage a few of Nattie’s belongings, which they took out to Ron’s truck. A trip to Deseret Industries was going to be necessary the next day as well.

Bo and Jim did not leave them until Nattie was secure in Ron’s house and Ron had gotten a couple of guns out, loaded them, and put them where he could easily get to them.

“I’ll bring your shotgun and rifle to you, Joe,” Bo said. “Don’t leave here until I come back with them. Although I would prefer that you sleep here for a few days.”

“I’ll be okay,” Joe said. “I’ll come early in the morning though.”

When the officers left, Melia said, “Please stay here with us.”

“That’s okay. I’ll be fine at home,” he said to Ron as he had earlier to Bo. “I’d like to fix things up a little more there.”

“You aren’t leaving until Bo has brought your guns back,” Ron said firmly. “You can’t be in your house with no way to defend yourself.”

“I’m really not too worried,” Joe said, even though, deep inside, he knew he wasn’t being honest with himself. But he didn’t want anyone to know it. He had to put on a brave face. He had brought his troubles on himself, and he would face them himself. Surely he’d be okay once he had his shotgun and rifle. Bo delivered the guns to him shortly after that. Joe felt more secure now. He’d be okay in his own home.

It was late by the time Bo and Jim quit for the night, but they met the next morning at the office, prepared to get back to work. Bo was on the phone and when he put the receiver down he frowned and said to Jim, “We need to follow up on what I’ve learned just now.”

Since coming into the office early that morning, Bo had been working on finding more about Bryan Bayle’s background while Jim was doing the same for Lucas Soto’s. “What have you learned?” Jim asked. “I have zip on my end.”

“Bryan has a brother. Or at least he had a brother. That brother has not been seen by anyone for a couple of years. I located a sister on Facebook. I found a phone number for her and called. She says that Bryan and the rest of the family have had nothing to do with each other for a long time.”

“Did she say how long?” Jim asked.

“Long enough that she didn’t even know he’d married Belle. But she did have contact with this other brother. His name is Jordan, and he is a couple years younger than Bryan, who, in turn, is three years younger than the sister,” Bo explained.

“Where does she live?” Jim asked. “Is it around here?”

“No, she’s in Phoenix, which is where the brother lived,” Bo responded. “But get this: Jordan left Phoenix about two years ago. The last time she heard from him, he’d phoned and said he’d found where Bryan was living and was going to visit him. She told Jordan that she didn’t want to know where Bryan was, that as far as she was concerned, she didn’t ever want to hear from him again. So he didn’t tell her, although surely she may have suspected that Bryan was living in their late mother’s house.”

“It sounds like she was pretty bitter,” Jim said.

“That’s for sure. The last time she saw Bryan was several years ago. She didn’t remember how many, but at that time, they’d gotten into an argument, and he’d beaten her up badly. She ended up in the hospital, and Bryan left town. The cops looked for him but didn’t ever find him. She says that was okay with her. She told me he has a hot temper and if she never saw him again it would be too soon.”

“Wow! So where is Jordan, the brother? Is he someone we could talk to?” Jim asked.

“I don’t know. Like I said, the last time the sister talked to Jordan on the phone was around two years ago. He never did call to tell her if he actually met up with Bryan. Now, knowing that Bryan has caused the death of a wife she didn’t even know about, she’s worried about Jordan more than ever. She says she tried locating him on social media, but he apparently hasn’t been on it. He did have a Facebook page, but it’s been idle for those two years. She said she gave up trying his phone when she couldn’t reach him on it. She wondered about Price but didn’t think he’d ever go back to the old family house.”

“I wish Belle were alive so we could talk to her about the brother,” Jim said, echoing Bo’s thoughts.

“So do I, but since she isn’t, I think we should go have another look at their house. Maybe we can find some sort of clue there,” Bo suggested.

After Bo had let the Price City officers know what they planned to do and been told to go ahead, Bo and Jim began to search the dumpy little house. They worked for over an hour with no success while Two Face lounged on the dirty carpet in the living room. “Let’s check the yard. I see a small shed back there,” Jim said after they had exhausted their search inside.

“I doubt we’ll find anything that will help us, but I guess it can’t hurt,” Bo said, and the two men and the bulldog went out the back door.

The yard was large, and there were bushes and some trees there, mostly dead ones. An old car and other junk littered the area. The shed had no door, and inside there were some old tools and implements that clearly had not been used for years, probably not since the previous generation. Bryan Bayle obviously had made no effort to do anything with his yard. There was a small porch on the back of the house, but there was no patio furniture of any kind on it.

“I don’t think Belle ever spent any time on her porch,” Jim observed.

“I guess there isn’t anything else we can learn here,” Bo said as he looked around for his bulldog.

At first he could not see Two Face, so the two men went through the tall weeds and shallow snow toward the back of the yard. There they found Two Face digging between some dead bushes. He was energetic about his work, and when Bo called his name, he looked up, barked, and then went back to digging.

“Did you see a shovel in that shed, Jim?” Bo asked as an ugly thought occurred to him. “I think I remember seeing one clear in the back hanging between a couple of nails. It’s probably nothing, but I’d kind of like to poke around where Two Face is digging.”

“Yeah, there was a shovel. I don’t know what kind of shape it’s in, but I’ll get it,” Jim said and hurried off. He came back carrying a rusty, dull shovel that had a flat nose and a short handle, not one good for digging. “I guess we can try this. If we need to, we can borrow a better one from somebody. The ground is probably still frozen.”

“I’ll try this,” Bo said. He stepped near where his dog had been digging and tried to get the shovel to go into the ground. “It’s pretty frozen, so I don’t think I can accomplish much with this shovel. There must be something here or Two Face wouldn’t be so determined. He’s not making much progress though.”

“Is it even worth our time to dig here?” Jim asked.

Bo put his foot on the shovel and tried getting it in deeper. “I don’t know,” he said, “but I can tell that the ground here, even though there’s frost in it, is not packed as hard as I would have expected.”

“What do you think’s in there?” Jim asked.

Bo threw some dirt off to the side and looked up at his partner. “I’m probably way off base here, but just think. If Jordan Bayle is missing and his brother is not a good man . . .”

“You think Jordan’s buried there?” Jim asked, stepping back and throwing his hands wide in surprise.

“Something is, or my dog wouldn’t be working at this like he is. But I need something better than this shovel,” Bo told him. He threw a little more icy dirt with the shovel. “What we need is a cadaver dog.”

“I think that can be arranged,” Jim said thoughtfully. “There’s a lady by the name of Lottie Dawson who works with the search and rescue team sometimes. She has one.”

“I’ll keep chipping away at the ground here,” Bo said. “You take my vehicle and see if you can locate her. If you can, see if she’ll come. While you’re at it, see if you can find a good shovel and a pick. If need be, we can go out to Ron Brady’s place. He’d have good shovels for sure.”

“Okay, I can do that,” Jim said. He turned and started away.

Bo stopped him. “You know, I guess I don’t really need to stay right here. I’m getting nowhere. Let’s both go. We’ll get a shovel and a pick, if Ron Brady has them, and then we’ll see if we can find Lottie.”

It was around ten by the time they got back to the Bayles’ place with the tools and a promise of Lottie and her dog arriving soon. It was a nice day, and the sun was shining brightly. The officers worked with the pick and the shovel they’d borrowed from Ron Brady while they waited for Lottie to come with her dog. Two Face had been left in Bo’s patrol vehicle so he wouldn’t interfere with the cadaver dog when it arrived.

“It looks like I got the right place,” Lottie said in an enthusiastic voice behind them.

Bo looked up and spotted her as she came around the house with a tri-colored beagle on a leash. The dog was walking sedately beside Lottie. He was a mixture of white, black, and brown and was clearly well cared for.

“Thanks for coming,” Bo said as he put his shovel down and walked toward Lottie.

“What do you have here?” Lottie asked with a grin. She was a tall, slender woman in her mid-forties.

“We honestly don’t know, but my dog was digging back here the best he could, considering the condition of the ground. The brother of the man who owns this place and who killed his wife this morning is missing. I’m probably way off base here, but I thought it would be a good idea to check things out with an expert. So if you don’t mind, let’s see what your dog can do.”

“He’s good. That’s for sure. So some guy killed his wife?” Lottie said with wide eyes. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“It’s not,” Bo agreed.