The Tamarack Murders (15 page)

Tully imagined all the people in the bingo parlor rushing in long streams of trucks, pickups, trailers, wagons, and even cars, anything that might carry a few bales to somehow save the hay. “So what happened?”

“The folks just laughed and went on with their bingo game.”

“Good heavens!” Angie said. “Was all the hay ruined?”

Pap paused, as though recollecting the details of the event. “The hay got rained on all right, but just enough to ferment it.”

Tully raised a hand. “Stop!”

Pap went on. “But all the cows in Blight Country ate it anyway. Their milk turned out to be about twenty proof, and the school kids thought it was the best milk they ever drunk.”

His audience groaned.

Pap said, “My daddy wouldn't lie about a thing like that.”

Tully laughed. “So he wasn't anything like you. I think I have an explanation for the piano music though. It was probably coming from a radio in what we used to call a trailer house, parked about where the big double-wide is.”

Dave said, “I prefer to think it was ghosts.”

“Me too,” Angie said.

Pap stretched and yawned. “So what we gonna do now, Bo? Sit here all night thinking up stories?”

Tully stroked his mustache. “I don't really know. This is a crime scene, and we're not leaving here until it's secure. I've got Susan and the Unit on their way out. Maybe they can come up with something to explain why anyone would kill an old couple. I myself don't have a clue. Anybody here have an idea?” He looked around. “Just what I thought. Zip. I don't know why I drag you all along.”

Pap said, “Maybe just to torment us.”

“No, there was another reason. Ah, yes, you mentioned there was a footbridge crossing the river a ways from here. How far do you think it was, Pap?”

Pap scratched his jaw. “Been a long time, Bo. Let me think. I'd guess it wasn't more than half a mile upstream.”

“While we're waiting for Susan, I think I'll check it out. It might have washed out years ago.”

Dave said, “I could use a little exercise myself. I'll go with you, Bo.”

They walked into the woods behind the doublewide, mostly second-growth fir and pine and a few tamaracks, fairly scraggly as woods go. They walked down toward the river in search of a trail but found none.

Dave said, “You'd think if there was a bridge across the river, there would at least be a trail leading to it from the mansion.”

“Yeah,” Tully said. “I doubt the bridge has been used in fifty years. It probably washed out long ago.”

Dave pointed to a mountain rising up steeply from the river's edge on the far side. “What I can't understand is why anyone would want to cross the river in the first place. The mountains goes practically straight up on the other side.”

They came to a small clearing and suddenly there was the bridge, arcing up over the river.”

“Wow,” Tully said. “That's a pretty fancy bridge to be tucked away back here in the woods, with no obvious use.”

Dave pointed across the river. “There's a trail going up the mountain but it would be a pretty steep climb.”

Tully stepped up on the end of the bridge. “Yeah, I can see half a dozen switchbacks from here. Somebody put in a lot of effort, building that trail. The bridge still looks fairly sturdy, Dave. Why don't you walk across and see if you notice anything?”

“Your idea, Bo.”

“You remember what Pap said about Famine having a gold rush years ago?”

“Yeah but I'm still not walking across the bridge, Bo.”

“Might be a nice little gold mine up on the mountain someplace.”

“You go take a look. If you find a nice little gold mine, we'll split it fifty-fifty.”

Tully laughed. “Not a chance.” He worked his way gingerly across the bridge, which creaked and groaned a little more than he liked. The switchbacks made the climb up the mountain a good deal easier. He was about to turn back when he came to the mine entrance. He had to squat down to peer into it. The tunnel went back into the mountain a dozen yards, stopping at what appeared to be a cave in. Water was leaking down near the entrance. He straightened up and look around. A small log shelter squatted off to one side. Whoever started the mine must have thought it worth the effort to build something to stay in. He walked over and peered inside. There were signs someone had spent some time in it recently, an empty lunch sack and a potato-chip bag. He turned around and made his way back down the trail and across the bridge.

Dave asked, “Find anything, Bo?”

“Naw. A trail leading nowhere.”

“I bet. Just remember, we split fifty-fifty if you hit the mother lode.”

“You'll be the first person I call, Dave. Maybe that mine was the reason the old couple was killed. It did look as if somebody had been fooling around in there. A really stupid person because it looked as if the ceiling could collapse at any moment. So, Dave, how come you knew about the mine?”

“I came across it five years ago, when I was back here on furlough. The cave-in kind of discouraged me from exploring very far in. But somebody had to have a reason for digging it in the first place.”

Tully checked his watch. “Susan should be at the mansion pretty soon. We had better get back.”

A
fter exploring the woods for an hour, they got back to the mansion just as the medical examiner's two vans were pulling in.

Susan rolled down a window and smiled. “You look rode hard and put away wet, Bo.”

“Good. That must mean I'm still alive, which is more than I can say for the old couple in the double-wide over there.”

“Murdered, I take it.”

“Yeah, multiple gunshot wounds, no weapon in sight. Senseless. It will be a great help if you can determine when they were killed.”

Susan climbed out of the van and stretched. “I'll get right to it, Bo.”

“Good.” He walked back to the sheriff's department Explorer parked behind the M.E.'s van.

Brian Pugh got out of the passenger side. “So we have a double murder, boss.”

“Yeah, an old couple. I can't think of any reason to rob them. Their total wealth probably didn't amount to more than their last Social Security checks.”

Ernie Thorpe got out of the rear seat.

“You fellas bring rifles?” Tully asked.

Ernie said, “Armed to the teeth, boss.”

Pugh shook his head. “These days a Social Security check is more than enough to get a person murdered.”

“Yeah, I guess you're right about that,” Tully said. “But I don't think they were killed for their money.”

“What then?”

“Probably to shut them up. About what I have no idea.”

Lurch got out of the second Explorer, walked around and opened the rear passenger door. A grayhaired lady stepped out and walked stiffly over to Tully. Lurch introduced her. “Boss, this is Vera Freedy. She's the one who wrote the chapter about the Beeker Ranch. Miss Freedy, this is . . .”

“Oh, Byron, I know who Sheriff Bo Tully is. Everybody in Blight County knows Sheriff Tully.”

Tully shook the lady's hand. “Miss Freedy, please accept my apology for Lurch, uh, Byron, dragging you all the way out to a murder scene.”

“Sheriff, it wasn't Byron's fault at all. I insisted on coming when he told me it involved the old Beeker Ranch. I'm something of a local historian, and I couldn't resist a chance to visit the place even if it involved the murders of its caretakers.”

“Vera, maybe you can shed some light on our situation here. Before our robbery suspects became robbery suspects, they indicated they had found a place to stay over by Famine. One of them was named Horace Beeker, so that led us to the old Beeker Ranch, which as you can see is now used to grow trees rather than cattle. Lurch, uh, I mean Byron . . .”

“‘Lurch' is fine with me, Sheriff. I like it better than Byron.”

“Good. Anyway, Lurch told me you had recently written about the Beeker Ranch, and I thought maybe, if you can remember, there might have been some mention of cabins or some other place where the ranch hands stayed.”

“I'm sorry, Sheriff, but there was no mention of such a place. All the hands lived in the little town of Beeker, now called Famine. As you may know, the Beekers were not highly thought of by the local population, probably not unusual for rich landowners, particularly rich landowners who build empires the local population depends on.”

“I suspected as much, Vera, but I was hoping you might have come across something while researching the Beekers.”

“I did, actually, something that may be of help to you, Sheriff. Mr. Beeker was not totally bad to his employees and the townspeople. Every year he put on a huge picnic everyone was invited to, even all the forest service personnel in the region. The forest rangers contributed canned hams and all kinds of other food left over from feeding firefighters. Alcoholic beverages flowed freely, and half a dozen bands came out from Blight City to supply music. People danced and sang till the sun came up in the morning.”

Tully said, “Sounds like a good time was had by all.”

“Yes, I'm sure, but I think what may be of interest to you in your investigation, Sheriff, was where the picnic was held.”

“Really? Where?”

“On Round Top Mountain.”

“Round Top? I've heard of it. But why would it interest me?”

“It had a forest service lookout tower on it. I believe the tower is still there. The forest service has done away with most of the towers, but I'm writing a history of them. They're fascinating. Anyway, the Round Top tower still exists, or did last year when I was working on my book. It would be a great place for outlaws to hang out.”

Tully stared at her in disbelief. He suddenly remembered something Ed Dance had said, only to be hushed up by Beeker. Dance had blurted out the only thing their cabin came with was a view. “You didn't happen to bring a map showing the road to Round Top, did you, Vera?”

“I'm afraid not, Bo. I imagine the road is long gone. I doubt you can even find any evidence of it.”

Tully tugged on the droopy corner of his mustache. “Here's what I think, Vera. The men who killed the old couple in the double-wide over there did so because they didn't want us to find out about the tower on Round Top. Somehow the killers knew about the tower and are hiding out there, until they think they can slip away. Maybe the Beeker woman told Horace Beeker about it, and he killed her.”

“But, Sheriff, if the road is gone, how are you going to find the way to the lookout? I know Round Top is on the highest range of the Hoodoo Mountains, but I don't have a clue how to get there.”

Tully smiled. “Don't worry about that. I just happen to have the world's greatest tracker along. If our killers left any trail at all, he'll find it.”

T
ully heard the tracker shout that he had found several sets of tire tracks. Dave strolled out of the woods. “The freshest one is the last to come out. One or more of our suspects may be long gone. I still haven't found any sign of a road. The tracks just wind in and out through the trees.”

Tully walked over to Dave and looked at the tracks. “What do you make of them?”

Dave shook his head. “Not much. Looks to me as if the first vehicle had some vague idea about where it was going its first trip in. It wandered around quite a bit. Once it found the the right track, it made three trips in and two trips out. That would seem to mean some of the folks are still in there. What do you think, Bo?”

Tully studied the tracks. “It looks to me as if the people in the first vehicle tried to brush out the first part of their tracks with branches or something. Once the driver of the second vehicle found the tracks of the first one, he didn't bother hiding his own tracks. I figure the occupants of one of those vehicles shot the old couple to keep them from telling about the hideout. The old woman was a Beeker, if Batim Scragg is correct. So maybe she recognized Horace Beeker. That might be reason enough for either Beeker or Dance to kill her. The old man was just an eyewitness to her murder and had to be disposed of too.”

Susan walked over from the double-wide “So far I've checked only one body. My best estimate is she was killed three days ago, maybe even a little earlier. It's been pretty cold in there, so I'm mostly guessing.”

Tully said, “Two days or earlier fits my time frame. I think their killers may be where we can find them. If you can manage it Susan, you might want to stick around for awhile, save you from making a trip back here.”

“You think there might be more bodies?”

“That's my intention.”

“I assume you're talking about the monsters that killed the old couple.”

“Yeah. According to the tracks, they're still in there, unless they rode out with the second vehicle.”

Susan said, “I'll send the two bodies we have here back to Blight and follow you in the other van with a couple of assistants. Don't expect any backup from my guys in a firefight. Following you always turns out to be a big mistake.”

Tully smiled. “Not always, you have to admit.”

Susan smiled back. “I guess you're right about that, once or twice anyway.”

The caravan of cars consisted of the two red sheriff department Explorers, followed by the M.E.'s van. Vera rode with Lurch and Angie in Tully's back seat, Dave alongside him in the front seat. Pap rode with Pugh and Ernie in the second vehicle. Dave pointed out the tracks to Tully as their vehicle bumped and slid among the trees. After half an hour the tracks veered sharply off toward the mountains. Soon they could see the Hoodoos rearing up in the morning sun, a blue background flickering through a line of yellow tamaracks. Dave pointed to a stream flowing out of a drainage in the mountains. “An old road winds up through there, but it doesn't look like anything we or anybody else could navigate. I doubt it goes to Round Top.”