It was a short fridge only coming up to his waist. The owner had stuck racing car magnets on the food smudged door. Mathias opened the fridge door expecting to find it half full of beer instead there was a head. A human head. It was pale and wrinkled, with a mop of short black hair. Its eyeless sockets stared at him. He jumped back, quickly shutting shut the door and swore. In shook his head in disbelief.
From the lounge Kevin, the youngest member of the force, walked quickly into the kitchen.
"What is it Chief?" Kevin asked, surveying the room.
Mathias took a breath to still his racing heart. He opened the fridge door, the head was still there. He gestured at it with deliberate casualness.
Kevin's eyes widened and he turned slightly green "What the hell? Is that real?"
Mathias looked at it, pulled out his baton then carefully prodded one cold cheek.
"Seems real," he replaced the baton, pulled out his phone and snapped a couple of photos. Aside from the head there was only a half empty bottle of milk in the fridge door, not a single beer can in sight. He firmly shut the fridge door. Kevin still looked green so Mathias sent him outside for some air. They would have to try to identify the head, and look for the rest of body.
He left the kitchen to pace around the lounge. While circling the couch he called Charles Last Bull who was on patrol to watch the house.
He also called the medical examiner to come collect the head and to ask if any headless bodies had been found (none had).
Outside the sky had clouded it over and it seemed darker than before as if the sun had dimmed. It didn't smell like it was going to rain yet. There was a few people standing around watching them. They had parked in front of the house, Kevin was standing by their car facing the front door. Apparently no-one else thought it was going to rain either.
"You alright?" he asked. The younger cop did look better.
Kevin nodded firmly, "yes sir. Sorry chief."
Mathias smiled tightly, "let's finish searching the house. Charles is on his way here."
The house belonged to Richard Threetrees, an auto mechanic who was currently in jail awaiting trial for vehicle theft. He had stolen four cars from the casino parking lot. They had found three of the cars at his workshop. One of the cars had been partially stripped down and the parts sold.
They had been searching the house for clues about the fourth car, a porsche, that was still missing. They continued searching the house, finding only a bag of weed and forty dollars cash. No clues as to the fate of the porsche and no body to match the head.
A car pulled up outside. Mathias looked out the lounge window to see the familiar face of Charles Last Bull, longest serving policeman on the force.
"Charles is here," he called up the passage to Kevin. Kevin came out of the bedroom shaking his head. "Nothing up here."
"No bloodstains or axes anywhere in the house." Mathias's mouth twisted down and his brow furrowed. "I don't think our fridge guy was decapitated here."
Charles entered the house. "There really a head in the fridge?"
"Yep. ME is on her way. You watch the house till she gets here. Kevin go question the neighbours see if anyone saw anything. Let me know what you find."
Feeling relieved to leave the house behind Mathias made his way to Red Dogs auto repair shop. Alex the owner was an old friend of his and the one who had put him onto Richard Threetrees. Alex's dog came racing over to greet him, followed with less enthusiasm by Alex himself.
Alex looked up at the cloudy sky. The clouds were looking dark and had grown more rugged since he left Threetree's house. Around them the birds had gone quiet, seeking shelter before the rain came.
"This can't be good," he observed. "You bringing trouble with you?"
Mathias shook his head, "it comes with the job."
He took his phone from his pocket and showed Alex the photo of the head, "do you recognise him?"
"Jeez. Where are his eyes? That's creepy," he said, his voice hushed. His eyes had widened but he hadn't gone green like Kevin. "No I don't know who he is."
Mathias put his phone away and asked Alex about Richards' associates. Some names he recognised, others he didn't. The ones he didn't know he would look up and see if any belonged to the mystery head.
Back in his office he was at his computer going through the names Alex had given him. His phone rang, it was Kevin. He had finished questioning the neighbours, who apparently hadn't seen or heard anything. Mathias wasn't surprised by this, he figured that by nightfall everyone would know what had happened in that house but no-one would tell the police.
Mathias sent him back to the house, he could ride with Charles when the ME showed up.
So far none of the names matched the head except one. Isaac Middleton. He wasn't an exact match, but was similar enough to be a family member. He filed that information away.
He leaned back in his chair and swirled the last of his coffee around. It was cold now but it was still coffee. Outside the sky was dark and the smell of rain was coming in through the open window of his office.
Charles rang to say the medical examiner had arrived to pick up the head from the fridge, she had brought some crime scene techs along with her. Mathias sent the duo to Threetrees workshop. If the head had been at the house maybe the body was at the workshop. He doubted it was, they had gone over the place thoroughly when they found the missing cars and arrested him. Then again they weren't looking for bodies at the time.
He left the office to get a fresh cup of coffee.
On his return he saw he had a message. It was from the Absaroka County Sheriff's office. They had sent a missing person report for a Timothy Middleton. His photo was a match to their mystery head. Noting the name, Mathias guessed he was related to Isaac Middleton. He frowned, how had Timothy Middleton's head ended up in Richard Threetree's fridge. And where was the body. He would have to go to Durant. Outside it started to rain.
It was not raining in Durant. Mathias felt this was a good sign, he may find some answers here. At the sheriff's office Mathias smiled and greeted Ruby who was busy typing at her computer. As always Ruby was friendly, very different from Deputy Moretti who always seemed to be angry with him. The office was quiet, very different to his own station where something was always happening. Moretti was at her desk writing, Ferguson's desk was empty. Out on patrol maybe.
"Sheriff in?" he asked breezing past the blonde deputy.
"In his office," she replied, dropping her pen she quickly stood and hurried after him. He opened the office door, without knocking, to find Sheriff Longmire busy with paperwork.
"Mathias," he greeted him, looking relieved for the distraction. "What brings you here?"
Mathias approached the desk and pulled the print out of the missing person report from a brown folder.
"Timothy Middleton. I believe we've found him, or his head at least. We're still looking for the rest of him."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Moretti demanded coming to stand beside the desk. The Sheriff looked similarly confused. Mathias placed the folder open on the desk showing the photo of the head.
"This morning while searching the house of Mr Richard Threetrees we found this head in the fridge, minus the eyeballs. We're still looking for those too. It looks like it belongings to Timothy Middleton."
He placed the missing person report next to the photo and asked "Who reported him missing?"
Walt picked up the two images and studied them, "his mother phoned in this morning to say he was missing. We checked his house, couldn't find anything out of the ordinary."
"Any other family?" Mathias asked.
"A brother. Isaac Middleton. Unmarried, lives here in Durant," Moretti replied.
"So if this is Timothy, where is the body? Did you find anything else at the house?" Walt asked putting the photos down.
"Just some weed. We don't believe he was killed there. No blood stains, axes, or anything to indicate it happened there. I have some people searching his workshop now."
Walt nodded and closed the folder. "Ok, Vic go talk to his mother see what she can tell us."
Before he could say anything further Mathias interrupted, "Walt we need to go talk to the brother Isaac. Isaac was an associate of Richard Threetrees."
Walt stood, "alright we'll go talk to him. Anything else we need to know?"
Mathias thought of the porsche, the vehicle thefts. "Nope, nothing."
Walt had trouble thinking clearly where the casino was involved. He didn't need Walt thinking Jacob Nighthorse was behind this.
Isaac Middleton lived in one of the nicer parts of Durant. He had a good sized house, and a two car garage. It was not what Mathias was expecting.
"What does Isaac do for a living?" Mathias asked.
Walt looked at him, "he works at that tyre place here in Durant"
"How can he afford this place?"
Walt looked over the house, and started to up to the door, not answering his question.
Mathias followed him, making a mental note to talk to Alex about Isaac Middleton. Walt banged on the door.
There was no answer.
"We'll try his work." Walt said turning away.
Mathias went over to the garage and looked in through the garage window.
His eyes widened. Sitting in the garage was a porsche.
"What sort of car does Isaac own?" he asked Walt.
"A subaru land cruiser. Why?"
Mathias pointed at the garage, "got a stolen vehicle in there. A porsche. It was stolen from the casino last week."
Walt eyes narrowed, "this have anything to do with Timothy's head ending up in the fridge."
Looking around Mathias breathed in and let it out slowly.
"Yeah." he explained out the casino vehicle thefts.
As expected Walt yelled and stated they had to talk to Nighthorse about this.
Mathias's phone rang cutting off Walt's tirade. It was Charles Last Bull. They had gone over the workshop and came up with nothing. Mathias sent them to talk to Chris Parker and Jeffrey Sinclair, Richards associates on the Rez.
"I already talked to Nighthorse." Mathias said. "I talked to him when he notified me of the thefts."
Walt gave him a hard look, "I want to talk to him myself."
Mathias sighed, "he doesn't have anything to do with this. He is a victim here."
Walt snorted, "victim?"
"Cars being stolen from his car park is bad for business. Isaac is the one we need to talk. It's his garage the porsche is in."
Walt agreed and they drove to the tyre place Isaac worked at.
It was late afternoon. It was cooling down and a cold wind was starting to blow. There were no customers there. Mathias parked a few feet away from Walt. He got out and waited while Walt talked on the radio.
"Vic talked to the mother. She doesn't know anything. As far as she knows neither of them have even been on the Rez."
Mathias grunted disparagingly and pointed out the back where a stack of tractor tyres loomed.
"He's out there. He ducked out when we pulled in."
On meeting him Mathias quickly realised they had met before. He had pulled him up several times for speeding on the Rez. He tried to think if he had met Timothy before but was drawing a blank. Walt had run Timothy through the computer when he was reported missing and the man had no criminal record. Not even a speeding ticket.
"Any word on my brother?" Isaac asked nervously playing with an oily rag in his hands. He glanced at Mathias and chose to address Walt. Perhaps he remembered Mathias and the speeding tickets. Or maybe he knew what had happened with his brother and if it was connected to the car thefts.
Walt chose not to answer, instead asking him about the car thefts.
"There's been a few cars go missing at the casino. You heard anything about that?"
Isaac looked around the yard as if looking for a way out.
"No sir. I don't steal cars."
"Didn't say you did. Do you know what happened to the stolen cars?"
"Heard they were found," this he addressed to Mathias.
"They were. Except for a porsche. Seen any porsches lately?"
Isaac looked between the two, the light dawned in his eyes as he realised they had found the porsche in his garage. He was wringing the oily rag now, strangling it.
"I didn't steal it. It was my brother, Timothy took it."
"Took it from who?" Mathias asked.
"From the guys who stole it. You found my brother?"
Walt glanced down at the floor, then at Mathias, who with a slight hand gesture indicated Walt to tell him. In a heavy voice Walt told Isaac that his brother was dead.
Mathias' cell phone rang and he excused himself to answer it.
Charles and Kevin had found Timothy's body. It was in the freezer at the home of Richard's associate Chris Parker. There was also a blood marked axe in the garage. The ME and the crime scene techs were on there way to Parker's house. The ME had also confirmed the head as belonging to Timothy Middleton. Charles had arrested Parker, they also took Jeffrey Sinclair in for questioning. Kevin was now on desk duty for the remainder of the day. The young man had been the one to find the body in the freezer.
Mathias hung up as Walt was coming outfront with Isaac. He put him in the back of the bronco and closed the door. He walked over to where Mathias was leaning against the side of the tribal police car.
"I'm taking him back to the station to give his statement." he said. "He claims Timothy stole the car off a Chris Parker and Jeffrey Sinclair."
Mathias told him about the phone call. He had to get back to his station. Walt could handle Isaac and the porsche.
Back on the Rez the rain had cleared up and a crisp afternoon breeze was blowing. He was glad to be back on the Rez. Under questioning Parker and Sinclair eventually told what had happened. Timothy had stolen the porsche from them and with Isaac had tried to extort money from the car's owner. Parker had found them out and killed Timothy. They were then going to use the eyeballs to scare Isaac into handing over the porsche. The whole case left Mathias tired and with a bad taste in his mouth. The porsche was returned to its owner. Jacob Nighthorse was happy the car thieves had been caught. Timothy's mother was notified of her son's death, and the arrest of her other son. Mathias was sure Kevin was going to have nightmares for a month. After work he went and had a beer with Alex. Looking up at the stars in the crisp clear sky he felt proud of the day's work. A case solved, stolen vehicles recovered and a pair of murderers arrested.