Chapter Thirty Eight

 

Somehow, I continued holding on but the combined weight of Wat and Mary Ann began to drag us toward the pit. My knotted muscles cried out as I clawed loose gravel with shredded hands sticky with blood. Every time I considered giving up and letting gravity pull us into the hole, Mary Ann's desperate sobs made me renew my efforts.

Multiple cuts stung my body and flies, attracted by sweat and body heat, swarmed around my head. As I locked out the near impossibility of Amber returning with help, the branch supporting us separated and we began a slow-motion slide toward the precipice. My feet dangled helplessly over the ledge and I let go of my right-handed grip and reached for my belt. Before we plunged into dark oblivion, I grabbed the knife and exercised my last chance for survival.

***

When Amber sprinted past her pursuers, One Eye slammed on the truck's brakes and skidded sideways in loose gravel. After turning the confused hounds, they followed Amber back up the logging road. They had almost caught her when she plunged off the trail.

“Get the hell out of here and go after her,” One Eye said. Seeing his little partner limp slowly toward the trees, he followed him out of the truck. “Get out of the way. You couldn't catch a turtle with its tail nailed to the floor.”

Little Man ignored One Eye and followed Amber into the trees. “Look here what's waiting on us,” he said.

One Eye bulled his way through the undergrowth and joined him. Amber was lying in a pile of pine straw, bare-chested and unconscious. Nearby lay the cavern's mouth.

“Well kiss my ass if she didn't just lead us to the Valley door,” One Eye said. Something behind them averted his attention from the mouth of the cave. The killer's burning shack suddenly lighted the horizon with a crackling explosion of orange and red flames. “Damn his sorry hide,” One Eye said.

An ugly frown replaced his crazed grin and he gave Little Man a vicious head slap that knocked him to his knees. Little Man knelt there with both hands, guarding his face as he cowered.

“We got the girl,” he said, trying to placate his angry partner.

“We got fucked is what we got,” One Eye said, glancing back at the flames on the mountain.

“What'll we do?”

“I'm going to get the girl and you're going to get your ass down in the Valley and set it on fire.”

“Why?”

One Eye slapped his partner again. “We need a diversion, that's why. A distraction to give us a chance to get the hell out of here before fire fighters and police start swarming the place.”

***

When Amber regained consciousness, something soft and wet was licking her face. She blinked and stared into the brown eyes of a hound. She froze when she realized someone was standing over her. Not ready to quit and admit failure she struck out with both feet in a violent frenzy. She managed to connect with someone's shin before a familiar voice caused her to cease her struggles. The discernible accent of familiar voices pacified her.

It was Caleb and Pastor Gray and they were not alone. Leon and his men gathered in a circle around her. Gray's jacket draped her bare breasts. When Amber's blurry vision focused, she recognized the two killers. Leon had personally dispatched the large killer, lifting him bodily off the ground and knocking him unconscious with a single vicious head-butt. Up the mountain, flame still licked the horizon.

“Caleb!” Amber cried. “Up the hill! Tom, Wat, and Mary Ann!”

Caleb and his men had horses. Without further question, they saddled up and raced up the logging road to the destroyed shack. When they reached the smoldering fire, they spread out to cover the surrounding area. Caleb's men found me suspended half-in the chasm's dark mouth. With strength derived from three long-dead souls, I had ripped the knife from my belt and driven its long blade deep into hard earth. They found me in a trance-induced stupor, holding on to the knife. After pulling Wat and Mary Ann from the precipice, they had to pry my frozen fingers from the Bowie knife's stag horn handle.

***

Later that night Amber and I huddled beneath a blanket. The villagers had taken Wat and disappeared into the Valley. Police took Mary Ann by helicopter to a hospital in Little Rock where John Stewart waited. The once isolated mountaintop hummed with activity. Twenty or more people had arrived in police cars and fire trucks, and they were busy searching the premises with high-powered lights.

When Sheriff Bonner and his men arrived by helicopter they found the three of us waiting for them, Little Man and One Eye hog-tied on the ground. As Amber and I watched, a police officer pulled himself from the pit that had nearly become my grave. He had rappelled into the hole, searching for evidence. With a flurry of waving arms he explained to the others what he had seen. Minutes later Sheriff Bonner joined us.

I had barely spoken since our rescue but Amber had recounted the story of the killer's capture. She carefully omitted details of the Villagers. After having witnessed her performance with Bear Townsend, Bonner had little trouble believing Amber was quite capable of capturing the two men. He removed his hat and grinned.

“We were in the air ten minutes after John Stewart notified me that dang mule had come home without you. We were looking for a flare but the burning shack served the purpose. We found enough bones in that pit to put those two away for good. Looks like they've been at the same game a long time.”

“Your Valley Monster?” Amber said.

“Sure seems like it,” Bonner said, pumping Amber's hand. “I just want to say for myself and everyone that we think that you two are mighty brave people. I'm going to personally see to it your boss in Brannerville gives you a commendation.”

“Thanks, Sheriff,” she said.

Sheriff Bonner rocked back on his boot heels, his hands stuffed in his pant pockets and his coal-gray stare unnerving. “I guess you saw G. Gray's initials all over the logging map? The day after I gave it to you, I had a warrant filed for his arrest. Cuffed him myself and put him in jail.”

Amber and I exchanged glances. “You didn't have to do that for us, Sheriff,” Amber said.

Bonner chuckled as he rocked on his boots. “Hell, he was out in an hour and mad as a wet hen. But he's in trouble now and he knows it. I got thirty years of dirt on that man.”

“What about your career?” I asked.

“Hell, you two got me to thinking about all the kids around here that cough like twenty-year smokers, and about my Mama and brother that died of cancer before they were sixty-five. Somebody had to do something and I didn't trust those crooked Washington senators to do it.”

“Will Townsend go to prison?” I asked.

“Why hell no!” Bonner said. “But he's got his ass in a real crack and I spread the manure thick enough so that even he'll have a hard time covering up its smell. I suspect we are going to see some real changes around this county before long. Townsend's a sick man. When he dies he'll likely spend eternity hung upside down in the smokestack of one of his own factories.”

With that, he tipped his hat and walked away. I was still very much in a state of shock. Amber and I remained huddled together until another helicopter arrived and transported us to Little Rock. Shaken but safe, our ordeal had ended and I finally knew what had happened to Bill.