The Dummy Line (27 page)

Reese was on his hands and knees trying to discern the tracks in the pine needles. Most of the time, the trail was obvious. The recent rain helped. The numerous logging roads crisscrossing the property also assisted him. Twice he had lost the trail in the thick pines, to pick it back up again once his quarry hit the logging roads.

Reese stood, stretched his back, and looked at his watch. He had about an hour and a half until daylight. He leaned his rifle against a giant oak tree and retrieved Johnny Lee’s radiophone from his pocket.

Beep-beep.
“Yo,” he whispered.

Beep-beep.
“I’m here…but dude, the cops are all over me, man.”

Beep-beep.
“Where are you?”

Beep-beep.
“I’m south of Livingston a few miles. I finally shook the deputy off my tail. This thing’s way too dangerous for me, man.”

Beep-beep.
“Look, I need you bad…there’s an old road on Seventeen around mile marker one fifty-four called Brown Chapel Road. It’s pretty easy to find. Go hide there. Wait for me to beep you. We’ll only be a few miles apart.”

Beep-beep.
“Brown Chapel Road at mile one fifty-four. Got it. Hurry up, dude; we gotta get the hell outta here before daylight.”

Beep-beep.
“I know…just hang on, bro.”

Reese folded the phone and stuck it in his pocket. He knelt back down to search for the trail. He picked it up and, like a bloodhound, followed the footprints twenty-five solid minutes without letting up. He knew he was getting close. Once, when he crossed a small creek, Reese could easily see the damp leaves from where they had stepped and the mud had not settled back down in the still waters.

Reese quit using the flashlight, depending on his hearing as much as his eyes. At the edge of a big field, Reese stood silently to listen. A deer was snorting off in the woods ahead of him, maybe three hundred yards away. Something had startled it. Reese blew out a breath to check the wind—to determine whether the deer could possibly smell him. Just as he thought, the wind was blowing his scent away from the alarmed deer.
There was no way that deer smelled me. Johnny Lee’s killer musta spooked it.
Reese’s prey was closer than he expected.

Sitting in total darkness, Jake and the girls had been silent for twenty minutes. Katy was tired but couldn’t sleep. She had laid her head in Jake’s lap, and he was gently rubbing her back. Elizabeth occasionally sobbed, wiping her nose on her shirtsleeve. Jake was exhausted. His adrenaline rush was starting to play out, making his muscles ache. Every few minutes he leaned up without disturbing Katy to look out the shooting slits—each time silently praying he wouldn’t see anything.

“Dad, if you could go any place in the whole world, where would you wanna go?” Katy whispered.

“You mean besides
home
right this minute? I don’t know. There’s a lot I’ve always wanted to do…hunt Africa for sure, Canada maybe, and stay at this castle called Banff. It’s near a huge lake called Lake Louise—I think Mom would like that, too. What about you?”

“I’d like to meet Mary-Kate and Ashley and go horseback riding. They’ve got a stable, you know.”

“That sounds like fun,” he replied, stroking her hair.

“What about you, Elizabeth?” Katy whispered.

Silence.

Finally Elizabeth quietly answered, “Actually, this is gonna sound crazy, but I think…I wanna go to Auburn this fall, so I can be with my boyfriend, Tanner.”

“Why’s that crazy?” Jake asked.

“Yeah?” Katy wondered.

“Well, my dad’s a huge Alabama fan, and he’d probably disown me if he knew I was even
thinking
of going to Auburn. My mom wants me to go The University of Virginia—Dad hates it, but he finally agreed to that.”

Jake laughed quietly, remembering the tough decisions facing high school grads.
Has it really been twenty years ago that I was having the same anxieties? These decisions will affect the rest of their lives.

“Just take your time. Think everything through. You’ve got the rest of your life to be an adult.”

“I’m serious. Until tonight, I…I never really knew what I wanted. But now I do. Tanner was fighting for my life. I could see how scared he was…and he was scared for me.” She added, “Now I realize how much…how much I love him.” The words were barely out of her mouth, before she broke down sobbing again.

This serious tone hung in the air. Jake rubbed Katy’s back. He was about to tell her that life was too short and too long not to do what
she
wanted, when Katy screamed, “
Aaaaahhh!
There’s a spider on me!” as she kicked her legs. “Get it off me!”

Jake put his hand over her mouth, a split second too slow. The scream pierced the darkness. Katy was deathly afraid of spiders. Jake tried to calm her and keep her quiet. Finally, he clicked on the flashlight.

“Where is it?” he whispered, agitated.

“It was on my leg. I could feel it!”

“Katy, be quiet…we have to be quiet,” Jake whispered.

He saw a small brown wood roach and quickly brushed it off her leg, then crushed it with his boot. He immediately clicked off the flashlight and was about to tell Katy not to scream any more when wood chips flew through the air and a loud whacking sound enveloped the box, followed instantly by the booming report from a high-powered rifle.

“Get down! Is anyone hurt?” he screamed, quickly lying on top of Katy. Jake rubbed his hands all over Katy. He didn’t feel anything that felt like a bullet wound. His heart was pounding.

“No!” Elizabeth answered immediately. She was covered in tiny wood splinters.

“Katy, are you hurt!”

“No! What was that! Dad, I’m scared!”

Jake burst open the door. “Come on—we’ve gotta get out!” Grabbing Katy around the waist, he started down the ladder. When he was five feet from the ground, he slid her down his body, held on to her arms, then dropped her. Katy grunted when she hit the ground and stood up quickly. Immediately, he was back up the ladder. He reached in and grabbed the shotgun, putting it over his shoulder. Elizabeth was waiting for help.

“Here, lean out over my shoulder. I’ll carry you down. Hurry up!” he yelled.

Another shot whizzed by, striking the wood just above their heads—
KABAM!
The thundering report was almost instantaneous. Jake hesitated for a fraction of a second.

“Dad, what’s going on!” Katy yelled.

The sound of Katy’s voice snapped Jake back to reality. Darkness was Jake’s only ally. He could tell the shots were at least two hundred yards away and knew it would be hard to hit a specific target in the dark.
We gotta get into the woods fast,
he thought.

When he hit the ground, he grabbed Katy and threw her over his left shoulder. He had Katy on one shoulder, Elizabeth on the other. The two of them were too heavy to run with, so he settled into a slow, awkward trot. Jake was really straining under the load and was scared to death. He was making a significant amount of noise plowing through the thick brush, but he had no other options. “Shit!” he exclaimed, huffing and puffing his way through the woods. He tried to look behind him several times, but couldn’t. He couldn’t see or hear anything.

Slowly, the realization hit him that he was going to have to be proactive if they were to survive. These guys were only a few yards behind them with a high-powered rifle. They had been tracking him every step of the way. Jake could only think of one option, and he didn’t much like it. Jake prayed that his tactic would work.

A couple of hundred yards behind Jake and the girls, Reese was struggling to see and hear. The muzzle flash and report had briefly blinded and deafened him. When Reese heard the first screams and then saw the light in the elevated house, he had gotten excited and shot too fast. He cursed himself for not being patient. He should have found something to support the rifle on. Two hundred yards was too far to shoot off-hand.
I could have snuck right up on the shooting house and executed all of ‘em.

After rubbing his eyes, he was ready. He’d take it slow. He knew he had the advantage. There was no way the girl he had heard scream was going to keep quiet now. They’d be running scared, making mistakes. The thought of catching Johnny Lee’s killer and the girl aroused a prurient interest in Reese.
This ain’t just for you anymore, Johnny Lee,
Reese thought as a sinister grin spread across his face.

R.C. and Steve Tillman had just gotten out of the Jeep when they heard the first rifle shot. They had followed Tanner’s tire tracks to an opening in the middle of the property. It was the end of the road. It appeared they had pulled in and stopped before turning around and leaving.

“That’s got to be them!” R.C. exclaimed after the shot. He let out a deep breath. He had been looking around where the Jeep was parked.

“How far away was that?” Tillman asked.

“Not more than a mile,” R.C. said as he stared in the direction of the shot, “but it’s hard to be sure. It may be closer.”

“Is there a road that will take us closer?” he asked excitedly after the second shot. He took a directional reading from the compass on his watch.

“No, not that I’m aware of,” Tillman replied after a moment.

“I’m going on; you need to stay here,” R.C. said in a very serious voice. “It could be dangerous.”

“Whoa, whoa, I’m going with you. You’re not leaving me.”

R.C. was checking his pistol and his flashlight. Patting his belt, he felt the additional rounds of ammunition and the absence of his radio. He fully realized that protocol dictated that he back off and call in support, but R.C. knew he didn’t have time to go all the way back to his cruiser.

Tillman continued, “Tanner was responsible for Elizabeth’s safety. I’m going with you, R.C.”

R.C. stopped to listen to Tillman. He could hear the concern in his voice, and he really didn’t want to chase these guys alone.

“OK, but you have to do exactly what I say,” R.C. insisted.

“No problem. I know you’re doing what you think is right, and I agree with you.”

“You sure?” R.C. asked, as he reached down and took a small revolver from his ankle holster. He checked it, then gave it to Tillman. Taking a deep breath, Tillman gripped it tightly.

“I can use it if I have to,” he said calmly.

R.C. nodded, then clicked on his flashlight. “Let’s go get to the bottom of all this mess!”

Ollie opened his office door. He glanced around the room at everybody diligently working. There were a few new faces in the crowd.

“Miz Martha, have you gotten in touch with R.C.?” Ollie asked.

“No sir.” She sighed with frustration.

Ollie stood thinking.
That piece of property’s very remote, or maybe his handheld just isn’t working. The battery could be drained. He probably doesn’t even have it turned on—which would be typical of R.C.

“Have Ricky go and check on him. I’m sure in all his years of game wardening he knows the lay of that land. Tell him to just look for R.C. and report in. No hero crap.”

“Yes sir. Sheriff, the helicopter will be here in about twenty minutes.”

“Does it have a searchlight?”

“No one’s mentioned one. I don’t think so.”

“Me either…so we’ll have to wait until it’s daylight,” he said, looking at his watch. “At least an hour I’d guess. I just don’t know. I don’t ever get up this early.”

“That’s about right,” Martha confirmed. She knew exactly when daylight occurred.

Glancing up, Ollie saw Zach Beasley talking firmly to someone on his cell phone. He turned back to Martha.

“Have you heard from the hospital?” Ollie asked, sipping his coffee.

“Tanner hasn’t changed. He’s stable, and the Mississippi lady’s doin’ better,” she explained.

“Mick will be here soon. I think he knows everybody mixed up in this,” Ollie said with a tone of exasperation.

Martha reached for the ringing phone. Ollie watched Zach pacing back and forth like a caged animal; he was off the phone. The front door opened, and Marlow strutted back in after copping his media fix. He went straight for the coffeepot and a day-old doughnut. Ollie glanced back at Martha. He could tell from her tone that it was an important call. She started waving at him as he headed back to his office.

Ollie’s phone beeped. He picked up the receiver as he sat down.

“Sheriff Landrum,” he answered.

“Sheriff, this is Bill Bracker from the Alabama Bureau of Investigation. I met a guy through a friend a few years ago—I hardly remember him; I spoke to the Rotary Club there—and anyway, he just called me. A Mr. Zach Beasley. He’s worked up something fierce. What’s going on over there? Anything I can help with?” he asked with a thick Southern accent.

Ollie could tell that he was very genuine in his concern. So he gave Bracker the story from the start and explained the dragnet that they were throwing over the area. Ollie knew that Bill Bracker could lend some serious manpower, and he needed it. It didn’t bother him at all that Zach had called Bracker.

“Sheriff, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna send you some men from our Tuscaloosa and Birmingham offices. I could have sent some guys from Montgomery on the helicopter if I had known. It sounds like you have a good plan, and I don’t want to usurp your authority. When my guys arrive, you deploy them however you see fit. I’ll keep in touch. The Bureau will be glad to assist any way it can,” he offered sincerely.

“Thank you, sir. I
really
appreciate it.”

“Since Marlow’s there, I’m sure the TV crews are on site already,” Bracker added and then chuckled.

“Oh, yeah.”

“Yeah, well, that old goat loves the cameras, but you don’t need that distraction right now.
You
especially don’t need the media scrutiny. Stay focused; my boys are en route. I’m a phone call away. Here’s my home number. Please keep me posted.”

“Yes sir. And thanks again,” Ollie replied as he jotted down the ABI chief’s home phone number.

“No problem. Good luck, Sheriff.”