Claws (19 page)

Thirty-Six

On Sunday morning Jackson awoke at dawn. The house was quiet. He looked out and saw the Ford parked below next to his Jeep. Then he looked down the hall and saw Katy’s bedroom door open. His first thought was that she had left. His breath caught in his throat until he peeked in the room and saw that her clothes and luggage were there. Wherever she was, she was on foot and would return.

He did not know that Katy had left at first light to return to the dry creek bed. Nor did he know that while he made coffee and a sandwich of fried eggs and ham, Katy was following the liger’s trail from the gully back toward the farmhouse. The trail was easy for Katy to follow; Kali was dragging her injured rear leg.

Jackson ate his breakfast while driving to the Rexburg hospital. Tucker’s wife and Eileen Stevens were there. He did not talk to Tucker about the incident until the two women left to get coffee. Tucker was drugged, but he assured Jackson that he understood well enough. Even if Tucker still had two arms, his days as a cop were over. Jackson told
him that. Once Tucker improved, Jackson intended to grill him about the Knights of the Golden Circle. He let Tucker know that too. “I’m sorry this is the way it has to be,” he added.

By the time Jackson returned to Buckhorn, Katy had reached the Indian mounds north of his house. She easily found the old root cellar burrowed in the earth. She got a flashlight from the house, fought off a sense of unease, and entered the cellar. She carried the .375 but not the dart rifle. She couldn’t risk using darts in a confined space. She didn’t want to kill Kali, but she would if she had to. Katy hoped to at least save any cubs she found.

The old cellar was empty. Based on the scat and hairs she examined, Katy guessed at least two and maybe three cubs had been there with Kali. “So where did you go?” she said aloud as she stepped out into the light again.

Kali’s wounds from the two recent attacks, first by wolves and then by lions, were plentiful and limited her ability to defend her cubs and herself from further attacks, especially in close confines. So despite her injuries, long before dawn broke, Kali moved her cubs.

In Africa the territory of a lion pride ranges to forty miles or more, while the distance between the root cellar and the Placett barn was less than a mile through
fields and woodlands. With Kali carrying the cubs one-by-one in her mouth, it still took her two hours to move them. Kali then explored all the buildings from the outside, and some from the inside as well. She found no predators and no danger. She found only food and safety.

Cindy Phelps rousted her son, Buzz, out of bed at 7 A.M. Sunday morning and told him to go to the Placett farm to feed the chickens. Mandy and her children were visiting Mandy’s sister in northern Utah. Buzz’s mom believed it was their Christian duty to help the family despite the dangerous wild cats. Cindy prayed about the dilemma, and God had assured her that Buzz would be safe. Still, Cindy instructed him on exactly what to do and where to go.

By the time Buzz reached the farm, the dozen chickens he was to feed had been reduced to feathers, beaks, and feet. The wire coop looked like it had been bulldozed.

Buzz texted Missy that something had killed and eaten the chickens. Then he headed home to tell his mom. As he was driving off he spotted Kali, although Buzz did not know her name, crossing a barley field. The shorn field had a dilapidated log cabin in the middle of it. Wade had planned to tear the ruin down until Mandy intervened. “People’s hopes and dreams went into building it,” she said
upon visiting the log shell for the first time. “We owe it to them to let it be.” Wade let it be.

Buzz didn’t mention seeing the liger until after church. Once he told Missy, she phoned Jesse, who called Shane, who contacted some football buddies. The message that Buzz had seen the monster cat, worth twenty-five thousand dollars, was passed around until ten teenagers gathered outside Buckhorn High School at one o’clock.

The teens brought an odd and mostly inappropriate assortment of weapons. Shane commandeered his father’s .375, for Dell was with Iris that day, and Shane knew the combination to his dad’s gun case. Will Ohly had a Remington .30-30 but only two cartridges. Piper Bowersill added a 20-guage Rossi. The other guns ranged from a .22 to a .45 Colt pistol to a flare gun.

“Nobody’s going to shoot anything anyway,” Jesse said.

“She’s right, twenty-five if alive,” Shane echoed.

After Randy Foyle arrived with some beer, two trucks, an old SUV, and a car set off for the Placett farm. For thirty minutes the teens scoured the road, the yard, and barn area, but they failed to see a liger, big or small. Jesse was relieved, and when she suggested that they quit and return home, nobody argued much. That would have been the end of the foolish adventure had Shane not
encountered a large lion with a red mane crossing the road in front the field where the old cabin stood.

Startled, the lion sprinted off, jumped a fence, and crashed through the barley stubble. Although the grain had been harvested, the straw had not been cut and bailed, so the field was covered with dry, golden stalks. Everyone was so shocked to see the big animal that by the time the first gun appeared, the red-haired lion had disappeared.

“That’s not the liger,” Jesse said.

“So? It’s still a lion,” Buzz said. “And it’s huge.”

“I bet it killed somebody already,” Missy said.

“And now we’re going to kill it,” Shane announced.

The teens argued about what to do next. In the end they left the SUV and the car parked on the road and piled into the two pickups. They opened a gate and drove across the field looking for the lion.

The trucks drove back and forth, ruining much of the barley straw, but they did not see the lion again. When the trucks stopped side-by-side near the cabin, Shane pumped two shots into the logs. The shots caused the lion to move around enough that they knew he was hiding there.

Though no one later would admit to suggesting it, they began to empty beer bottles and refill them with gasoline from a five-gallon can. Then they flung the bottles at the
dry logs. Most of the bottles hit and burst. Not everyone liked the plan to burn the cabin, especially Jesse.

“It’s stupid and dangerous,” she said.

One or two others backed Jesse. Even so, Piper Bowersill fired off the flare gun to ignite the gasoline. The flare fizzled out and died short. The boys, for it was mostly boys wanting to torch the cabin, disagreed about what to do next until Shane volunteered to get close enough to toss a match. After the liger hunt fiasco with his dad, Shane wanted to show his bravery.

“Stop showing off,” Jesse told him.

“You didn’t mind it when I saved your ass.”

“Which is why you don’t have to prove anything to these guys.”

While Jesse and Shane argued, Brett Cowel made a Molotov Cocktail. He had learned how to do it on Google.

Brett finished the bomb as someone shot into the cabin. The lion bolted. Maybe he was trying to flee, although the teens later insisted the lion attacked them. Piper quickly lit the rag fuse, and Brett threw the bottle at the charging lion. His skin was spotted with gasoline from the earlier shattered bottles. When the bottle hit him there was a WHOOSH as the lion burst into flame. He ran in circles, then rolled in the dry barley stalks, and then got up and ran around more. The field caught on fire.

Some of the teens laughed and some were now quiet. Brigit Buhler started crying. Shane simply watched. Jesse ripped
the Weatherby from his hands and shot at the lion. She missed. Shane took the big-game rifle from her and shot the tormented lion three times. Others shot the cat as well. After that, they put out the grass fire, although they left the lion carcass smoldering.

The caravan was speeding back to town when they met Mandy’s silver Chrysler minivan on the county blacktop. Nobody had expected her back for days. Her return was bad news for them. Mandy would see the burned field and the lion and call the police to investigate.

Jesse, who had said nothing since the killing except, “Take me to my dad’s,” climbed out of the Toyota the second they arrived at the farm. She did not look at her friends and barely glanced at Shane. He called after her, but Jesse did not slow or turn back. She was done with him.

The red Ford 350 was there, but nobody was home. Jesse was relieved to be alone. She needed to figure out what to do. She knew she would be grounded when her dad and mom discovered what she had done at Mandy’s. She knew if she were grounded, she couldn’t train Touie. If she couldn’t train Touie, she knew she couldn’t race in the Tevis Cup. She had to fix things, so she decided to return to the field to bury the lion and camouflage the burned stubble.

Jesse then hurried to the barn and saddled Touie. She was
tying a shovel to the equipment rings when she heard Katy say, “What’re you doing?” Jesse yelped.

Katy’s shirt was damp from sweat, and her khaki pants were smeared with dirt. She had spent all morning looking for signs of Kali and her cubs. She either found too many or none at all and finally had given up.

“It’s too dangerous for you to go riding.” Katy eyed the shovel. “Jesse? What’s going on here?”

It took prompting from Katy, but eventually Jesse told her about the chicken coop, the lion, and the fire. Jesse cried the whole time.

Katy hugged her and murmured words of comfort, but even while she attended to Jesse, she phoned Jackson and said, “I know where Kali is.”

Thirty-Seven

“Tammy, come put your stuff away like I told you.” Mandy was unpacking her own suitcase while she yelled at her daughter. Although the bag held a week's worth of clothing and toiletries, they only stayed two nights with Mandy's older sister. Soon after Cindy Phelps phoned to tell her about the chickens, Mandy started home. “Tammy Jane Placett! You hear me?” shouted Mandy.

“She’s on the back porch, Mom,” Josh said from the doorway of Mandy’s upstairs bedroom. Unlike his sister, Josh already had unpacked.

“What’s she doing out there?”

“Looking at the chicken coop.”

“Again?” Mandy’s expression was equal parts concern and anger.

“She’s weird.”

“Get her, Josh. Tell her to get her butt up here and unpack her suitcase or no pizza and movie tonight.”

“Mom!” Josh stretched the word into two syllables. After a deep sigh, he went off in a huff.

Mandy smiled for the first time in days. Josh was a
miniature version of Wade, despite what Wade had thought.

“Mom wants you,” Josh told his younger sister a minute later. He found her with her nose pressed against a windowpane staring at the ruined chicken coop.

Tammy didn’t budge. “You think it hurts?”

“What hurts?”

“To get eaten,” said Tammy.

Although Katy spent ten minutes arguing with Jesse before she left, she still got to the Placett farm before Jackson. In the end Katy had decided it was safer to bring Jesse with her than to risk having her ride off on Touie. “Remember, you stay in the house,” Katy said as she shut off the engine. Jesse’s groan conveyed how much adults exasperated her, even a cool adult like Katy.

Katy got out and looked in every direction. Both her .375 and the dart rifle were within easy reach. When she saw nothing to alarm her, she motioned to Jesse.

Mandy’s bedroom had windows on two sides, and when she heard knocking, she looked out and saw Jackson’s red Ford. “Oh Lord.” She had shed her wrinkled travel clothes and was in her underwear. She hurried away from the window,
went to the doorway, and yelled, “Josh, answer the door. I’m not dressed.” Someone knocked again. “Josh!”

Josh ran to the door, but Tammy remained glued to the window. A few second later, she saw the baby liger in the barn entrance, although she did not recognize the cat for what it was. “Kitty,” she said. She turned around to tell her brother about the kitty. “Oh!” she said to the empty space. When she looked out the window again, the new kitty was gone. Tammy opened the door, jumped from step to step, and ran toward the barn, calling, “Kitty, here kitty.”

Minutes later, Jackson parked beside his pickup, removed his M4, and slammed in the clip. He then laid the tactical rifle across the back seat and locked the Jeep.

Katy, Jesse, and Mandy were in the living room when Jackson tapped on the door, called "hello", and then entered. The others were seated, but Mandy was pacing. “Is it true, Jackson? The monster cat’s back here again?”

“Probably” Jackson said, while looking at Jesse.

Jesse met her father’s eyes. “Daddy, I know I –”

“Not now, Jesse. We’ll talk later.” Jackson’s voice was flat. “Right now, I need to –” Jackson stopped when he heard the loud slap of sneakers against linoleum.

“Mom! Mom!” Josh ran into the living room and grabbed Mandy by the hand. He pulled her in the direction of the back porch. “I can’t find her. Tammy’s gone.”

Mandy shook her son loose and dashed to the back of the house. When Josh started to follow, Jackson grabbed him and said, “Stay here with Jesse.” Katy already had sprinted after Mandy. Jackson looked back at his daughter as he too ran out of the room.

As Jackson banged through the back screen door, he could hear Josh crying and Jesse trying to comfort the boy. Jackson jumped the steps and hit the ground running. Fifty feet ahead, Katy had caught up with Mandy. She was trying to hold onto her, but Mandy was struggling.

Jackson called out, “Mandy, wait.” Then they heard Tammy scream. Mandy went berserk. She punched Katy on the side of the head, broke free, and scrambled toward the barn. “Get the rifles,” Jackson yelled to a stunned Katy as he ran past her. He didn’t need to tell her to hurry.

Jackson finally grabbed Mandy a few feet from the barn door and wrapped her in a bear hug. She kicked and screamed and clawed at his arms. “Let me go! Let me go! Damn you, let me go!”

Her nails were not long but when Mandy raked them down Jackson’s cheek, she drew blood. He flung her away and sent her sprawling to the ground. Jackson thought about handcuffing her. But he instead removed his Glock pistol and rushed into the barn. “Stay back, Mandy,” he yelled as he ran. “Goddamnit! Stay back!” He knew his handgun would be next to useless when confronting a lion or tiger, let alone a giant liger, but he could not wait for Katy.

“Tammy,” Jackson yelled from the doorway. The interior of the barn was dark and shadowy even in daylight. He didn't see Tammy or the liger. Then he located the light switch, flicked it on, and saw them.

Kali had Tammy’s right leg in her mouth and was dragging her away. The girl’s arms trailed limply. Her body bounced against the ground like she was a rag doll.

Mandy screamed, and Jackson knew she was right behind him. “Stay back!” he shouted, but even as he said it, he knew Mandy wouldn’t listen. He spun around, grabbed her arm, dragged her to the doorway, and shoved her outside. He closed the barn door and used a two-by-four to bar it.

The liger had not moved much in the seconds he was away. In fact, Kali didn’t seem to be in a hurry. Jackson had no
way of knowing yet if the girl was dead or alive. Oh Christ Almighty!Not again, he thought. Not again!

“Let me in!” Mandy cried as she pounded on the door. “Let me in you sonofabitch.” She kept pounding the door.

Jackson raised the Glock. What if he hit Nancy? Did he just call her Nancy? He meant Tammy. Of course he did.

“Oh God, oh God. Please God, save her!” Mandy cried. She said it over and over, and as she did, the pounding got weaker and her tears and her wails stronger. “Please save her…”

Jackson squeezed the trigger. The Glock 21 sounded like a bark as it echoed through the barn. As Jackson walked toward Kali, he fired again and again. The shots from the handgun didn't bring down the liger, but Jackson now saw that Kali was limping. He also saw dried blood on her and a nasty face wound that still was oozing. Jackson stopped, used the two-handed stance taught to police, and shot the liger in the lower neck.

Kali finally released Tammy and turned her full attention to Jackson. There was blood on Tammy’s leg, but Jackson could not tell if the blood came from the liger’s teeth clamping her leg firm enough to hold her or if the blood meant something worse. Kali roared and flashed her teeth. Jackson knew the charge was coming.

How many bullets were left, and where was Katy? Then he remembered; he had locked her out. It was just him now, and he had a good idea of how things would end. Well, if he was going to die, he thought, he would die saving the girl. He would save Tammy. This time he'd get it right. Jackson opened his arms wide and motioned to Kali to come for him.

“Come on! Come on!” he said.

As Kali began to lope toward him, Jackson heard a loud crash. The wooden barn door splintered. He also heard the sound that sheetmetal makes when it crunches. Jackson glanced away long enough to see the nose of his red Ford punch through the barn door. Just as quickly as he had looked away, he looked back. Kali was coming faster now. The Glock spit bullets, but they didn’t slow the liger. Kali covered the distance in seconds and leaped. She extended her claws, flashed her teeth, and growled.

Jackson tucked his head into the curl of his arms a second before Kali hit him. He flew backward ten feet before he slammed against the floor. The last thing he heard before all the breath left his body and he blacked out was the sharp explosion of a big-game rifle.

Katy stood in the doorwell of the Ford, the .375 resting against the frame. Her first shot took out a long incisor and pierced Kali’s throat. Her second shot destroyed Kali’s lungs. Even that didn’t stop the liger. As she wheezed for breath, Kali crawled toward Jackson. Kali had nine bullets in her – Jackson had missed a few shots, but she still was intent on protecting her cubs from the predators. Katy fired again. When Kali finally collapsed, Katy climbed down from the pickup, cautiously approached her, and placed the rifle barrel against the liger she had tried to save and blew her heart to pieces.

Nobody would ever know why Kali did not kill Tammy right off. Perhaps the small girl was not viewed as a threat by the giant cat. Nobody would ever know.

In fact, Tammy was not seriously injured, although she would have tiny scars on her leg from the liger’s teeth. When she was told about this, Tammy replied, “Cool.”

Jackson had a numerous cuts and bruises, two busted ribs, nail marks on one cheek, and claw marks on the other. The claw marks made by Kali required thirty-four stitches from the doctor at the medical center in Buckhorn.

Before long, Jackson’s face was half numb, and he was high on some drug that made him feel far better than he had
a right to feel. Iris and Jesse came to see him as soon as the doctor allowed it. He assured his daughter and his ex-wife that he would be fine and then fell asleep. It was left to Katy to tell Iris all that had happened.

Once Jackson was released, Katy drove him home in the Jeep. For a while they rode in silence, although Katy kept glancing over at Jackson. Suddenly, she gasped.

“What?”

“Did you notice anything different about Iris?”

Jackson slumped against the door. “She was nice?”

Katy grinned but said nothing more. At the farm Jackson changed into a t-shirt and sweatpants and went to bed. After he was asleep, Katy poured a glass of red wine and took it with her to the bathroom. Alone at last, she cried for Kali.