Chapter Eleven

 

“Tom, what happened?” Mary Ann asked again.

Saw a snake and lost my footing,” I said.

Rattlesnake?”

A big one. Scared the daylights out of me.”

Mary Ann giggled. She put her hand over her mouth and turned away, trying not to laugh but without success.

Finding little humor in waking up flat on my back in a pile of brush, I wasted little time descending the slope and returning to the large flat rock. There I sat, despite Mary Ann's protests, stubbornly refusing to move until my temples quit pounding. When my blood pressure finally returned to normal it left me with a tremendous headache. Mary Ann shook her head and disappeared down the trail, returning with a wild yellow rose she had found growing somewhere on the slope. Smiling, she handed it to me.

Thanks, but what's it for.”

Make you feel better. My Daddy would always give me one when I was sad or hurt.”

Your father?”

Yeah,” she said in a suddenly dreamy voice. “Yellow is my favorite color. When I was real little I fell and skinned my knee. That's the first time he gave me a rose. He said, Mary Ann, everything's okay. He would always be there with a rose and a smile when I needed one. It always made me feel better.”

Your father must have been a thoughtful person.”

He was. I cried all night before he went away to the war. Grandpa and I drove him to the bus station the next day and I cried again before he left.”

She paused and a tear appeared in the corner of her eye. This time I didn't wait for the inevitable result.

Let's move on,” I said.

Mary Ann dabbed at her face with the back of her hand and started away down the trail. Soon we reached the saddle, tan as bleached leather against blue afternoon sky. Wind and rain had sculpted it from solid rock and a small stream that followed its surface poured over the ledge into the valley. Mary Ann pointed up the hill to the east.

That's the way back to the Jeep. We are almost there. First I want to check a little cave in the cliff.”

Mary Ann pointed up the hill to the dark entrance of the cave then raced up the trail and disappeared into its mouth without waiting for me. When I reached the natural hole in the wall I took a deep breath, ducked through its tiny aperture and followed her.

Cool air washed over my face and arms and muted light swathed the opening of the silent cave. We weren't alone. In a corner was a pile of droppings left by some small animal. Above us, a lone bat hung from the ceiling. Amazingly, the cave caused me no adverse reaction. After finding nothing of interest, we started back to the Jeep. Feeling remarkably relieved to be in sunlight again I fished in the ice chest for the carton of orange juice.

Sorry about the snake deal back there,” I said, handing it to Mary Ann.

Some of the juice dribbled down her chin when she smiled. After brushing it away with her fingertips, she climbed into the passenger seat of the Jeep.

If it had been me I'd have probably wet my pants,” she said.

So would I,” I said. “Except I'd just gone.”

We both laughed.

***

It was late afternoon when we reached the campgrounds. I was happy to see that John Stewart had already shut down his bottle stand for the day. A hot shower sounded like heaven but I had something else on my mind first. Mary Ann gave me directions to the county seat some twenty miles away. I dropped her off and returned to the highway, hoping to visit with Sheriff Amos Bonner before he went home for the night.

Tomorrow's Saturday,” she said before starting up the hill.

So?”

So there's no school and Grandpa will let me go back up in the hills with you.”

Then I'll see you tomorrow,” I said, waving as I drove away down the dirt path to the highway.

It was late and the eastern range of hills already formed purple outlines against a pink and ocher horizon. From the North, damp gray clouds were rolling in. Purple martins darted overhead, feeding on gnats and mosquitoes stirred up by an approaching front. It looked like the beginning of another rainy night.

I found the road to Dill City deserted and reached the little town in less than twenty minutes. Fast food restaurants, used car lots and cheap motels marked the county seat that was a city in name only. I found the courthouse, just like so many other small southern towns, in the square. It took me five minutes to find the jail and another five to locate Sheriff Bonner. He didn't bother getting up when I entered his office.

Bonner looked like a pro linebacker that had gone to flab. His skin was as pale as a flipped over pile of manure and his pasty complexion accentuated a somber face once ravaged by teenage acne. When I explained who I was, he told me to sit a spell. Stretching out his arms, he clasped his hands in front of his expansive gut and popped all ten of his fingers.

Just what can I do for you, Mr. Logan?”

I'm looking for my brother.”

Son, you come a day late and a dollar short. We done covered the whole county looking for the boy.”

Mary Ann Stewart says Bill told her that someone had followed him, perhaps intending to do him harm.”

Sheriff Bonner's homey grin disappeared and he leaned forward in his chair and rested his elbows on the desk. His pockmarked jowls formed a frown and I could see something ignite in his watery gray eyes. He pointed out the window, toward the mountain front.

You know what them woods is like out there? They's miles and miles of nothing but brush, rattlesnakes and razorback hogs. You break a leg and you don't come out. Am I making myself clear?”

Bill was an expert woodsman. He hiked and camped and climbed rocks for sport.”

Don't square by me if he was an Eagle Scout. Makes no never mind if you get yourself in trouble up in them hills.”

Despite his explanation, Bonner seemed disturbed by my visit. He raised his substantial bulk from the chair and poured himself some very black coffee from the pot in the corner. He didn't offer me a cup.

You don't think foul play is a possibility?”

Bonner stared at me, as if I were a mosquito he was preparing to swat. He blinked, shook his head, and said, “Rattlesnake, maybe, but not the human kind.”

My brother kept his thesis notes and recordings in his truck. According to your report, they weren't found. Any idea what happened to them?”

There weren't nothing in the boy's pickup I didn't report. Now, this case is closed and there ain't no ifs, ands or buts about it.”

Had you ever talked with Bill? Mary Ann says he complained to you about BST.”

You and me are speaking on different wavelengths,” he said, leaning even further over the desk. So close, I could smell coffee and nicotine on his breath and the aromatic oil in his stringy hair.

I was up in the mountains today near the place you found Bill's truck. Someone's clear-cutting the forest—the National Forest.”

Ain't nobody clear-cutting illegal in my county,” he said. “What makes you think you can come in here and accuse the biggest employer in these parts of doing something you don't know shit about?”

I'm not accusing anyone of anything, Sheriff. I just thought that maybe some of the loggers might have met Bill from time to time. Maybe there is a lead there. I don't know.”

Son,” he said, popping his fingers again. “I don't guess you know there was a warrant out for you brother's arrest when he turned up missing?”

Bonner's statement caught me like a lead pipe to the back of the head. I blinked and said, “Mind telling me what the charge was?”

Breaking and entering.”

My brother was no thief. What proof do you have?”

Don't make no never mind now. BST dropped the charges after your brother disappeared.”

Maybe they trumped up the charges to discredit him for blowing the whistle on them. Maybe after they took care of him on the mountain they didn't need to worry about setting him up.”

Now you look here,” Bonner said, turning dangerously red in the face and pointing his crooked index finger at me. “BST don't have nothing to do with your brother's disappearance and I don't won't you flagging around town spouting it. You hear?”

Fine,” I said, standing up from the chair. “I'll just go over to BST and get the facts myself.”

You leave them people over there alone,” he said, practically coming over the desk at me. “Get my drift?”

He was standing in my face when I said, “Loud and clear.”

I got up and backed out the door, finding a pay phone outside a main street cafe. After I had eaten my first hot meal in two days, I made a long distance call to Professor Fridel. Just as I had hoped, I located him in his campus office putting the final changes on some research paper. As I suspected he knew nothing about why Bill was mapping quartz veins. Finally, I called Amber.

You didn't tell me about the bumps in the floor of the tent,” I said.

Buy an air mattress.”

I did.”

This a social call?”

I just wanted to hear your pleasant voice but I also have a favor to ask.”

Shoot, Troop,” she said.

It seems someone is illegally clear-cutting National Forest land down here on a large scale. Can you check out BST Corporation for me? I think they may be involved.”

Are you on to something already?”

Don't know yet.”

I'll see what I can turn up,” she said. “Anything else you would like me to check?”

Yes. Ask Professor Quinn the significance of quartz veins.”

Is that all?”

Nope,” I said. “I wanted to make sure you were still planning to join me Monday.”

I wouldn't miss it for the world.”

When I returned to the Jeep, the rain had just begun spotting its dusty windshield. Before I reached Turkey Gap, the sky had turned pitch black, except for the ribbons of lightning lacing the horizon with remnant flashes of electric color. After parking the open Jeep beneath the wash house overhang I rushed inside the tent, just as dark clouds opened up and began dumping their noisy torrent on my shoulders.

That night I blew up the air mattress and draped the sleeping bag over it. I closed my eyes a few minutes before my plan to scurry to the wash-house to brush my teeth and wash my face. When I opened them, the rain had stopped. It was morning and the sunlight was shining through the window of Amber's tent.