Jack Pine, page 27
“Ya,” he shrugged. “If that’s the way you want to look at it.”
“I need the truth about Foster Jones.”
A crack in the sky opened and thunder echoed the lake and shook the trees, stones, earth. They stood under the pines with rain dripping like a shower curtain. Tommy breathed tiredly.
“I could have told you before, you know, but you wouldn’t fucking believe me.”
Reuger watched him against the rain and lightning with one hand to the Colt.
“Try me.”
“Ya,” he nodded heavily. “And if I had said anything then, then I would be at the bottom of the lake with Knudsen.”
Gus shook his head.
“What in the hell are yer talkin’ about?”
He frowned at the world, rain oily on brown cheeks, gun to the angry sky.
“You don’t hear sounds like that in the woods at night, you know.” He shook his head. “A girl making sounds like that. I was walking down the road past the shed when I heard it, you know, and the moon was real bright and you could see a long way. And when I opened the door to the woodshed, I could see him on her there.” He halved the air with his fist. “But I didn’t know it was him until he cussed me for throwing him.”
Gus spat angrily.
“What in hell yer talking about…”
“So I lit the lantern, you know, after he run off, and she didn’t have no clothes, and I woke her up that way and she screamed.”
Tommy pointed his gun out toward the rainy gray plane.
“So I go up toward the Boundary Waters, figured I’d just leave, you know. Figured they’d say I raped her and all, but then I met a fucking bear on the portage trail, and so I went and stayed in the woods that night and went to see Foster early.” He paused, his mouth flat. “That’s when I see smoke over the trees and run back there and the slasher’s burning, and he’s there again. I thought maybe I was dreaming because it was the second time I seen him do something no one would believe, you know, and I was just going to clear out.”
“Who?” Gus sputtered. “Who in hell yer talking about!”
Tommy turned from the lake with his eyes black.
“Cliff Johnson,” Reuger nodded.
“Cliff !” Gus stared at him. “He done that, too?”
The rain pattered mud along the shore and simmered the lake. Tommy reached out and let rain fill his open hand.
“I knew what I saw could get me killed, and I figured that Cliff Johnson say I did it anyway, you know, so I stayed away in the woods” He drank from his palm like a Comanche. “But then I hear the tree hugger’s looking for me, you know, and I meet him in the woodshed. He wants me to tell him about logging in the Boundary Waters, and I figure I say anything he get me killed there, too.” He tilted his head. “I come to see you, and that Ben Johnson and Al Hanes they come and sit down at the table and tell me to say I saw the tree hugger kill Foster.”
“Why in the hell?” Gus sputtered. “Why didn’t yer just say it was Cliff Johnson all along and save us a lot of damn trouble?…Yer changed yer damn story three times!”
“Ya?” He looked at him with eyes half-closed. “What would you say? I knew I’d be in the lake like Knudsen if I said anything. Ben Johnson kill me if I say his son shoot Foster and raped the girl.” Tommy turned north. “But I know where he’s goin’ now; that Cliff Johnson is going up there to finish the job on them trees, I think. You didn’t see it when you were up there.” He gestured with the rifle. “But that Ben Johnson, he has a cutter up there. He’s going to take all the trees, because he knows the tree huggers can’t stop him now.”
Reuger pushed back his hat.
“How fast can one of those hot saws go through trees, Gus?”
“Good skidder behind her?” He shrugged. “Maybe ten minutes a tree. But Reuger, how could he get one of them big cutters up there?”
“Piece by piece, I imagine.”
“Ya,” he nodded. “I’m telling the truth here.”
“Oh, hell!” Gus spat. “It’s yer third try, and how do we know yer didn’t just shoot Foster yourself there?”
“Because his story matches Dana Reynolds’s.”
“Ya, you see there,” Tommy nodded. “Told you I was telling the truth here.”
“Oh, hell,” Gus grumbled. “Yer finally just got lucky.”
Reuger rubbed his jaw and hunched down.
“Headed for Canada, then they’ll take Ensign up to Trident, then Frog Lake to Birch and across the border.” He pulled out a resin-coated map. “But if they’re breaking off for the Old Pines, might go across to Basswood too.”
He folded the map into his pocket.
“I’ll need somebody who can track.”
“Ya, that’s what I was thinking too,” Tommy nodded.
“Let’s go, then.”
61
THEY PADDLED BOOT Lake bailing the canoes with wind chopping water and making small whitecaps. Rain stung their cheeks and ran in their eyes and soaked their clothes and ruined matches and soaked tobacco. The wind was cold from the north and whistled the lake plane and blew Tommy’s hat off. He circled to pick it up with his long black hair whipping wild.
“Do yer think that lightning wants a big hunk of metal in the middle of the lake,” Gus shouted with his wet beard making his face thin. Reuger shook his head.
“Not today.”
“Well, I was jest wonderin.”
Tommy reached the far shore first and kneeled in the mud while they dragged the canoes in through jagged volcanic rocks. Gus fell down and climbed out of the water,, pulling out his soggy roll of pipe tobacco.
“God dang it!”
“Maybe two hours ago they come through,” Tommy said standing up.
Reuger stared into the dripping red and white pines and brushed through the tamarack to the portage trail. The path was sharp bends and a steep climb to the next lake. He walked back to the two men and picked up his canoe.
“I’ll lead off until we reach Ensign.”
They slogged through the rainy forest for twenty minutes. Reuger lowered the canoe into the shallows swirling over slate deposits much like gray stepping-stones. Quartz glittered like gold thrown casually across the clear pane of glass. He took off his hat and scooped water onto his face and the back of his neck. Gus trudged up with his mustache puffing and his eyes red and baggy. Tommy swung his canoe down easily.
“I told him he shouldn’t make it look so easy,” Gus muttered wiping sweat from his brow, smoothing back straw-white hair. “I hate to say it, but I’m gittin’ too old fer this shit.”
Reuger stared across the lake while Tommy squatted down and pointed to the print of a tennis shoe.
“I’d say this was made in the last hour, maybe two here.”
“They head north or crossed to that portage,” Reuger murmured.
Tommy swished into the shot scattered water and pointed to two blots of red as an oar snapped off the glacier walls.
“Might be them, you know.”
Reuger swung up the radio.
“Hector!”
The radio bridled static then cleared.
“Ya,go ahead Reuger.”
“Get me Jim Carpenter at Pine Lodge.”
“Ya…10-4.”
He watched the two smudges of red passing slow and steady toward the far end of Ensign Lake.
“Yep, that might be them,” Gus nodded.
“Ya, Reuger, I have Jim Carpenter for you.”
“Thanks Hector…Jim?”
Static.
“Ah, yes sir?”
“Jim, might be looking at your son and Cliff on the far western end of Ensign Lake here, could you tell me what they were wearing?”
Ya, they were both wearing red hunting vests… Over…”
“10-4…that’s them. I’ll keep you informed.”
Reuger clipped the radio and pulled out his map.
“What do you think, Gus, Splash Lake?”
“Well now, that makes sense to me” He rubbed his whiskers and touched the map. “More than if they were headed fer that portage there”
“Ya, going toward the Old Pines then,” Tommy nodded slowly.
“Let’s see if we can close the gap then.”
They waded back to their canoes and slid them into the green sparkling water. Tommy paddled into the lead with his hair flying free over his shoulders.
“See if you can get to where you can keep an eye on them,” Reuger called out.
Tommy leaned further down in the sleek canoe and moved away. Gus turned around with one eye shut.
“Where’d he get that there ultra light canoe?”
Reuger shook his head.
“Not going to ask.”
62
PATRICIA WAS SHIVERING uncontrollably now. She had a flannel shirt over her swimsuit but the cold was through her and even with the gag she felt her teeth chattering. Her hands were in front of her and Cliff pulled her along behind him. They had made a fire and pitched camp, now she was behind this psychopath in the woods. He had told Tim he was going to get more wood and grabbed the .30.06 and her.
“I’ll keep her with me,” he announced.
“You can probably untie her, Cliff,” Tim said, looking up tentatively. “We don’t want to hurt her.”
He shrugged, winking. “Sure, after I get the wood, we’ll untie. Hell, maybe we’ll just let her go. We’ve made our point here, I think,” he said, nodding to Tim. “The tree huggers know what’s it like to be scared now.”
Tim nodded.
“Yeah…we’ll let her go.”
Then Cliff jerked her into the woods. Patricia felt every nerve in her body. She knew what was coming and settled it again with herself. She would fight back and maybe die, but she wouldn’t let this son of a bitch rape her. Patricia found herself flying suddenly then she was against him.
“Well, Ms. Tree Hugger,” he said, pulling his belt loose and yanking down his zipper. “Alone at last.”
Patricia pulled against the nylon mooring rope cutting into her wrists. Her eyes teared over.
“Now, don’t get all chocked up,” Cliff grinned, stripping his shirt off.
Then she felt his arms go under her shirt and rip it open.
“There we go,” he whispered, kissing her neck.
Patricia felt her suit break over her biceps then his lips on her neck.
“Let’s see what kind of tits a tree hugger has,” he muttered huskily.
Patricia felt the top of her suit fall and then the air was on her breasts. His lips traveled down.
“Well, well, well,” he murmured, and then she felt his lips on her nipples.
She winced and brought up her knee. It caught him in the thigh and Cliff stepped back. His eyes flickered.
“Fucking bitch!”
Patricia felt the back of his hand break across her face. The pain was inside her jaw, and then the hand came back the other way. She saw stars.
“You aren’t going to stop me now, you cunt,” he shouted, jerking his pants down.
Cliff pulled her tight as she felt his penis against her stomach then against the outside of her suit. He breathed on her hotly, his breath a mix of tobacco and beer.
“I’m going to fuck the shit out of you right here and now.”
Patricia counted to three then brought her knee up as high as she could and this time she felt his pelvis bone. Cliff fell back in a heap and she turned and ran. She broke through some pine trees and then hit a tree head on and fell back stunned. Cliff was on her. He drew back his hand as she heard a shout. Patricia waited for the pain, but he pulled her up. Cliff then dragged her roughly through the trees and stopped.
“Well,” he muttered, raising the rifle. “Looks like your boyfriend just arrived.”
63
THEY REACHED THE edge of Found Lake with darkness between the trees and the cooler air like compost. Reuger smelled the dew in the pines and stagnant water around the tamarack and the cool scent of cedar hanging low. The dusk was lighter on the water with the forest rimmed in darkness.
“Campfire?”
“Oh, ya,” Tommy nodded pulling in the canoe.
Gus held out the pump twelve-gauge, and Reuger checked the slide.
“Where are they?”
“Maybe a half-mile in.” Tommy looked over his shoulder. “I tracked them, you know, and waited until they made camp and started cooking. They’re on the lower edge of the forest. Old Pines are farther up across one more lake, but these trees are pretty big too. I figured they were pretty hungry and wouldn’t move again, you know.”
Reuger stared into the close woods and heard the low throb of insect life. The lake pooled the sky behind like some giant mirror.
“Cliff’s a good shot,” he nodded. “So we want to get the drop on them here. Let’s try and keep the fireworks out of this. Tommy leads us to where they are, and I’ll take it from there. Let’s go.”
They hiked the dark forest until there was only lighter sky. They moved through the trees as three shadows until Reuger saw a fire bleeding through pine needles. Tommy crawled up and leaned down by a fallen tree. Reuger crouched and heard the fast crackling of burning branches. Tim Carpenter sat in a hunting vest with his father’s deer rifle leaning against a birch log. The outfitter pack was against a tree.
“I don’t see Cliff anywhere. We’ll get Tim and wait for Cliff to come back,” Reuger whispered to the two men watching the fire. “Let’s go.”
They pushed through tangled growth with guns forward and emerged from the forest like three hunters. Tim was staring at the fire when they fanned out around him. He jumped up and shouted.
“HEY!”
Reuger crouched and covered his mouth. The fire shined on his badge and cylinder wheel of the Colt.
“Nice fire, there, Tim. Need a nice fire on a cold damp night, don’t get up,” he commanded, keeping his hand on his mouth. “Just sit here with me and let’s not make a sound, and you tell me where Cliff went.”
He slowly took his hand away.
“Went to get some more wood,” he gasped.
“How long’s he been gone?”
“Maybe fifteen minutes.”
Reuger watched Tommy and Gus walk the perimeter then circle back. They hunched down with their hands toward the flames. Reuger spoke with his eyes on the trees.
“Why’d you run?”
He looked down with the flame light glistening in the trees. The men waited. Tim sniffed then wiped his eyes. He sniffed again.
“Did you help him, Tim?”
He nodded, wiping his eyes with the back of his wrist.
“Ya,” he sobbed with eyes red and hot. “He told me to wait in the shed…I didn’t think he was going to rape her, you know, I just thought he was going to make out or something…but then…” He broke into sobs with his back heaving up and down. Reuger put his hand on his shoulder.
“Easy there, Tim, easy.”
The boy cried harder and shook his head.
“Did you help him, Tim?”
He buried his head in his arms. The fire snapped and popped. The sobs sounded like a wounded animal in the forest. He looked up suddenly, his face wet.
“What could I do?” He cried out. “He started to rape her, and I ran out the back door.” He sniffed and looked at Reuger with mucus running from his nose. “Do I have to go to jail? Cliff said I would go to jail if I said anything.”
Reuger pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket and handed it to the boy.
“Here, clean yourself up there.”
He looked at Tommy and Gus.
“Let’s all move out of here into the woods and wait for Cliff to come back. He’s close and probably watching us right now.” Reuger nodded to Tommy. “Why don’t you get that deer rifle there, Tommy, then let’s all move out of the camp.”
The forest was dead save for the snap and pop of wood. He looked at Tim brushing his eyes on the shoulders of his shirt.
“Does Cliff have his gun?”
“Yeah…” Tim nodded.
Tommy lifted up the deer rifle and turned toward the trees. Reuger watched his body stiffen.
“What is it?”
“Something there,” he murmured, staring into the trees.
Reuger motioned to Gus as Tommy slowly brought up his rifle.
“He’s there,” he nodded. “He’s watching us…”
“Count of three here, Gus, we’re going for those trees with Tim,” Reuger said in a low voice.
“Got yer,” he nodded breathily, grabbing his other arm.
Tommy pivoted slowly with the Winchester to his shoulder.
“He’s drawing a bead…”
“One, two…”
“Reuger—he’s…”
“Three!”
They ran as the clap-roar slapped their ears. Pulmonary blood burst from Gus’s chest, spraying leaves and fireweed and splattering a tree like thrown paint. Reuger shoved Tim toward the trees and fell next to the blooded hole in Gus’s back. He turned him gently and pulled off his vest then pressed the welling mash in his sternum. Blood frothed his lips, seeping out in a growing pool from his chest.
“Hang in there, partner, not over yet,” Reuger nodded, working fast.
“All them trees never got me,” he groaned beyond a whisper, beyond a groan.
“Hector!”
Static sizzled and screamed. Reuger dropped the radio, pushing hard against the hole pumping blood. Lurid fire shadows played on the waxy pallor rising from Gus’s neck. Sparks flew upward and smoke drifted over. Gus coughed then gurgled blood out of his mouth.
“C’mon Gus,” Reuger shouted, pushing against his bare white chest with arterial blood welling up darkly.
“Reuger…Reuger…”
“I’m here, partner.”
“Take my hand…”
He grabbed the old hand and felt the heat leaving. Smoke blew over them, and Gus disappeared into white mist. Tommy kneeled and rested on the stock of the rifle.
“Gus…fight! Don’t leave…fight!”
He kept one hand on the blood flow, watching the gleam in his eyes grow faint. Tommy reached and held Gus’s other hand, and the three men waited by the fire.
