Scratchgravel Road (3 page)

“Paramedic’s been called. I’ll try and get some water into her,” Josie said, climbing in beside Cassidy and slamming the back door.

Otto got into the driver’s seat of Josie’s jeep and aimed the air vents toward the backseat. Josie slowly poured water over the girl’s face. Her body was limp and leaning against Josie’s side. Otto turned the jeep around and headed out to the road to meet up with the paramedic.

“Is that the Harper girl?” he asked.

“Yes. She’s not doing well. Her face is red. Her pulse is rapid, and she’s not opened her eyes since I arrived.”

As Otto maneuvered carefully through the sand, Josie filled him in on the position of Cassidy and the dead body when she arrived.

“Think she found the body and passed out?” he asked.

Josie glanced up and saw Otto looking at her in the rearview mirror. She shook her head in doubt. “What are the odds Cassidy would pick this spot to take a hike on a day like this? She couldn’t have seen anything from the road. I had to climb on the roof of my jeep before I realized something was out there. It’s not like she saw someone and ran to help.”

“Since when did you quit believing in coincidence?”

“My first year on the job.” She looked away from him and tried to pour a trickle of water into Cassidy’s mouth again.

Otto pulled the jeep onto the side of the road as the ambulance made the turn onto Scratchgravel so fast Josie thought it might tip.

“That guy drives like a maniac. I’m gonna cite him for reckless driving after this is all over,” Otto said.

“Cut him a break. He’s just a kid.”

“You were hired on as a kid too, but you didn’t drive like a jackass.”

Thirteen years prior, while he was still chief, Otto had hired Josie as an officer. He had retired as the chief three years ago after a hip replacement surgery and aching knees kept him from doing the job he expected of himself. Josie had applied for the job as chief with Otto’s encouragement and he had been quick to accept her as his boss when she received the promotion.

Marvin Levin hopped out of the ambulance already sweating heavily in his EMS uniform. He had a paunch, and walked as if his belly slowed him down and annoyed him. He left the engine running and went directly to the back of the unit and opened the double doors.

Otto and Josie climbed out of the jeep and opened both back doors. Josie helped Marvin roll the stretcher over to the jeep.

“Fill me in,” Marvin said, already looking into the backseat.

“A female, twenty-two years old. Possible heatstroke,” Josie said.

Josie helped Marvin pull the girl out of the backseat and lay her on the stretcher. Marvin strapped her body down, and they rolled her back to the ambulance and slid her inside. He climbed into the back and started preparing IV fluids as Josie explained what she knew.

“I found her a quarter mile east of here. Passed out. She’s unresponsive. Won’t take any water.” Josie watched Marvin slide the needle smoothly into Cassidy’s arm and get the fluid dripping into her body. “She hasn’t opened her eyes since I got here.”

“Any idea how long she’s been outside?” Marvin asked. He pulled packs of ice out of a small freezer and laid them in between her inner arms and her body, her armpits, and her groin.

“No idea.”

He stood up quickly and headed toward the front of the ambulance. “Anybody taking the ride with me?”

Otto motioned Josie into the back of the ambulance. “Go on. See if you can get something out of her when she wakes up. I’ll get measurements.”

She nodded and stepped in beside the stretcher. Marvin turned the ambulance around and Josie shouted toward the front, “Hey! Drive like you got sense. I don’t want to end up in a ditch on the way there.”

“No worries,” he yelled, laughing at what he thought was a joke.

Sitting on a small bench beside Cassidy’s head, Josie pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. She dialed Officer Marta Cruz’s number. Marta was the third member of their three-person police department. Artemis needed at least five officers to handle the recent spate of violence, brought on by the cartels in northern Mexico, but resources were scarce. Marta wasn’t due in to work for several hours. Josie hated calling her off duty, but it was an accepted drawback of police work in a small town.

When Marta answered, Josie told her about finding Cassidy in the desert beside the dead body.

“Why am I not surprised to hear this?” Marta asked. “How can such a sweet girl attract so much stink?”

“The body is a male. I’m guessing he’s been outside two to four days. Looks like he might have been an illegal making a break for it. Check with Border Patrol and ICE for any recent missing persons reports.”

She felt the ambulance lurch through the lone stoplight in Artemis and continue forward. She could see the courthouse tower out of the front window and knew they were just a block from the Trauma Center.

Josie hung up with Marta, called the sheriff’s department, and asked for Sheriff Roy Martínez. He was a burly retired marine who took his job seriously, was fair-minded, and operated on the same shoestring budget she did. The sheriff also ran the Arroyo County Jail. The majority of his staff was needed just to keep the jail running smoothly, which left Josie’s police department in charge of both city crimes and often the county calls that the sheriff’s department should have taken.

The sheriff answered with a gruff, “Martínez.”

“Hey, Roy. It’s Josie. I’m headed to the hospital with a probable heatstroke victim. And we’ve got a body in the desert.”

“I heard from dispatch. I’m headed to Marfa in about ten minutes. I’ve got a prisoner transport. The body in the desert a Mexican?”

“That’s what I’m calling for. We’re not sure. It’s your case to take at this point, but I talked to Lou this morning and she says you’ve got problems.”

She listened as he blew air out in frustration. “I got one officer in Guadalajara for his wedding and two on sick leave. Peterson called in this morning. He’s got a broken leg and won’t be back for weeks. Fell off a ladder painting his damn kitchen.” He paused. “You okay to take this one?”

“Otto’s getting measurements now. I’m hoping with some fluids Cassidy will come around and tell us something about the body. I’ll keep you posted.” She watched as the girl tried to move her arm, which was still strapped down to the stretcher. She moaned quietly and Josie took it for a positive sign.

“I appreciate it. I owe you one or two,” Martínez said.

Marvin pulled the ambulance up to the side entrance of the Arroyo County Trauma Center and killed the sirens. The building was split into two discrete halves, each with a green awning covering a separate entrance: one for the county health department, another for the Trauma Center. Mayor Moss had won a homeland security grant after 9/11, and the money was used to build and outfit a Trauma Center to deal with the increased border violence. Josie was amazed they had survived so long without the center when the closest hospital was two hours away in Alpine. It was the one credit Josie could give to the mayor.

Vie Blessings, the nurse on call, pushed through the Trauma Center’s double doors and rushed outside wearing a set of purple scrubs. Her expression was all business, but her spiked red hair and brightly colored makeup and eyeglasses indicated her real personality. Marvin met Vie at the back of the ambulance where the doors swung out as Josie stood from the bench.

“How is she?” Vie asked.

“She’s trying to move her arms some. She’s moaning too but hasn’t opened her eyes,” Josie said.

They pulled the stretcher out and the legs folded down and locked into place with a kick of Vie’s foot.

Vie nodded at Josie. “Got it from here. Give me a call in a couple hours.”

She and Marvin pushed the stretcher through the open doors, leaving Josie standing beside the ambulance in the hot afternoon sun.

Marvin called over his shoulder, “I’ll give you a ride back. Give me five minutes!”

THREE

After Josie left for the hospital, Otto returned to her jeep and sat in the driver’s seat with the air-conditioning vents pointed directly at him. He was certain Artemis would beat the record books that day. His shirt was already soaked. He pulled his ball cap off and wiped the sweat from his head with the handkerchief he kept in his back pocket. He hated wearing the Artemis PD ball cap, but he had burnt his balding head enough times that he finally started taking the extra precaution.

He opened Josie’s metal evidence kit that lay on the passenger seat, certain she wouldn’t mind him using her equipment. They worked well together. He respected her as an officer, and liked her as a person. It was his opinion that Josie needed to spend less time worrying about her job and more time worrying about her love life. She had not had much luck in that arena, and Otto worried her current romance with the local accountant was doomed for failure if she did not move things along. He had told her this, and was told to mind his own business in return.

Otto found the plastic accident template that was used to draw accurate pictures of the scene, as well as a graphite pencil and a sketchpad in the back of the kit. He opened the notebook and used the template to draw straight lines representing Scratchgravel Road, a rectangle showing Cassidy’s car pointed south, the bodies roughly a quarter mile east of the car, and
X
s to signify the larger mesquite and creosote bushes and boulders in relation to the body. Once he had a rough sketch of the area he looked at his watch and sighed. The hottest part of the day. He knew it would be instant nausea when he stepped back out into the desert furnace, but he had to take the measurements, which meant leaving the air-conditioning to walk from the road to the corpse.

Otto pulled the measuring wheel from the back of Josie’s jeep and pushed the button to reset the distance to zero. He took off walking, counting steps to ensure he was getting an accurate measure with the rolling wheel in the thick sand. He recorded 825 feet from the road to where he and Josie had stopped their vehicles in the sand, and another 47 feet to the body. It was almost a quarter of a mile from the road to the crime scene.

As Otto finished making his second sketch to scale and labeled the distances, the ambulance returned and Josie exited from the passenger-side door. Several minutes later she had driven her jeep to where Otto’s was parked. She grabbed her evidence kit and camera and walked the remaining distance to the body.

“How’s the girl?” Otto asked.

“I think she’s coming around. Vie said to call back in a couple of hours.” Josie placed her kit under a mesquite bush for a small amount of shade and pulled her camera strap around her neck. She held the 35-millimeter camera up to her eye to check the settings. “The coroner is on his way,” she said.

“Mr. Personality?”

Josie smiled. “Have you ever once heard that guy laugh?”

“I suspect he doesn’t know how.”

Josie pointed to the ground around the boulder, about ten feet from where Cassidy’s body had lain. “These are fresh prints. Make sure you get them noted on your sketch, and I’ll get pictures.” She focused her camera and snapped several pictures from different angles, trying in vain to keep her mind off the putrid smell. “I’d like to get a cast of one of the prints but that sand is just too fine.”

“There aren’t any prints around the body. It’s blown clear,” Otto said. “Makes it pretty obvious whatever happened to him took place first, then Cassidy came into the picture.”

“Or she came
back
into the picture.”

Otto swore and swiped at the flies swarming them.

After twenty minutes, they were satisfied they had thoroughly photographed and logged the area.

“Let’s get this over,” Josie said.

They approached the body and Josie handed Otto her camera.

“You snap pictures. I’ll record.”

“You’re a good person. I’ll be smelling that tonight in my nightmares.”

Josie shuddered. She had volunteered for the task that would require getting personal with a dead body that had been out for several days in blistering heat. The bugs and small animals had already started on the exposed flesh. She was surprised the coyotes had not finished him off.

Otto pointed toward the man’s ankle, where blackened flesh had been torn away from the bone. “Looks like the vultures have already started on him.”

Josie looked up into the sky expecting to see the circling birds, angry at the human intrusion, but there was nothing but blue. She pulled her plastic gloves from her back pocket and said, “I heard once that the reason vultures are bald is so they can stick their head into decomposing roadkill and not get their feathers all nasty. You ever heard that?”

“You have to quit hanging out with cops. You need a life.”

Josie smiled and pulled a mask out of the evidence kit lying under the bush. The kit was already so hot the metal clasp burned her fingers when she touched it. She slipped the mask over her nose and mouth, then pulled the gloves on. She turned on the handheld recorder she pulled from her shirt pocket, tested it once, then started her recording.

“Today is July twenty-third. It is 1:34
P.M.
This is Chief of Police Josie Gray, in Artemis, Texas. Location is a quarter mile east of Scratchgravel Road, about a half mile from River Road. I am examining a deceased male, age undetermined due to breakdown of the body. Decomposition is visible on face, hands, neck, and on the right ankle.” Josie paused and leaned closer to the man’s face, forcing her gag reflex down at the smell. “There are larvae around the eye sockets and mouth. The neck and face area also appear to have been eaten by small animals.”

Josie paused the recorder and stood suddenly, walked several steps away, and removed her mask, taking in fresh air. Otto handed her a water bottle and after several minutes she returned.

She kneeled again in the sand, and held the recorder to her mouth. “The man is bald. Dressed in a button-down Western-style shirt with a thin black bolo tie. He is wearing blue jeans and black work boots.” She paused and lifted the man’s untucked shirt slightly above his waist. “He is wearing a black belt with an expensive silver buckle. Clothes are in good condition. No other bags or luggage in the area.”