Chapter ten
A/N: I have to confess that the flora mentioned in this chapter is a total figment of my overworked imagination.
Jim looked around himself; another room full of computers, phones and cops. If he closed his eyes he could almost think that he was back in Major Crimes in Cascade. He lifted his cup of coffee to his mouth and took a sip. Almost gagging he slammed the cup back onto the table spilling some of the cold liquid. Simon looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. Brown passed the detective a paper tissue and a sympathetic smile. Jim nodded his thanks and giving an apologetic grin to Banks mopped up the spilt liquid.
After examining the warehouse and its environs the team had followed Sheriff Black to Sheridan PD. There, they'd gone over the evidence collected by forensics and were brought up to date with the search for Brown and Simmons' movements. The police had a good lead on who the woman Brown had slept with and an FBI agent was out with a cop hunting her up. More police officers and agents were trolling the bars trying to find where the Simmons had drunk and eaten. They were now waiting for a couple of park rangers to arrive.
Sandburg had said that he was somewhere in the mountains. Unfortunately, that meant a lot of ground in this mountainous area. After examining a detailed map, Jim was certain that with the information he'd been able to pick up on the bodies and with the help of the rangers he'd be able to narrow down the area to be searched. He thought that unless they'd been out riding for pleasure, where the kidnappers had hidden Blair was probably in the park where mechanised vehicles were forbidden. For him though, he knew it was going to be difficult trying to get the information he needed without giving away how he'd got his.
Just then a man and woman dressed in the dark green uniforms of the Park Service walked in. Patton, who'd been talking with one of his agents, went to greet them. "SAC Patton, Caspar FBI office. Thanks for coming." They all shook hands.
"Senior Ranger Jane Bristows and this is Ranger Robert Pascal." Bristows was a tall, gangly woman with a fair smattering of grey in her brown hair while the man was younger and stockier with thinning dark blond curls. They both had the tanned, windblown look of people who spent a lot of time outdoors. Jim could smell pine, horses and car exhaust on them.
"Jane, Robert. Glad you could make it." Sheriff Black bustled up with a pile of folders in his arms. "Now that everyone's here we can move to the squad room where we've set up an incident base. Sorry it took so long, but we're not used to all this action."
A large table had been brought into the windowless room and chairs placed around it. It was flanked by two whiteboards and a paperboard and in the corner the ubiquitous coffee machine gurgled. The edges of the table were covered with papers and files while trays of sandwiches and pastries filled the centre.
Black placed the files he was carrying on top of another set on the table and gestured for everyone to take a seat. "Please help yourself to whatever you want. There's coffee over there and hot water if you prefer tea and cold drinks are in the fridge below. So, without further ado I'll hand the reins over to you, Agent Patton."
"Sheriff, you've done us proud. We really appreciate all that you've done." The FBI agent stepped up to one of the whiteboards on which was basically a reproduction of the boards in the airport hotel. He pointed to the five photos that were arrayed along the top and spoke to the two rangers. "This is the kidnap victim, Blair Sandburg. You'll find information on him in the file before you, so I won't go into too much detail now. These two are known to be Escobar's cohorts and flew out here from Cascade, Washington two days ago. These are local men, Brown and Simmons, who were apparently hired by these two. Their bodies were discovered this afternoon in an abandoned unit on the Blue Thunder Industrial Estate. We need to know where they could have hidden Sandburg. The victim managed to tell us that they were in the mountains, but here…"
Jim winced hearing Blair described as a victim, but knew that, unfortunately, that was exactly what he was. 'Not for much longer, " he vowed to himself.
Pascal stood up and unfolded a map of the park. Sheriff Black helped him fix it with magnets to the second board. "As you can see there's a hell of a lot of ground to search and not a lot of people around. There are a number of caves and old cabins that could possibly be where the victim's hidden, but most of these are either visited by the public, are in really remote areas or are in bad condition. Presumably, they'd need somewhere where they could take someone without being seen, but also with reasonable access. Which leads us to the old mines."
"What was mined here?" Simon asked.
"Mostly coal and some gold. The area still has a large number of coal and coke mines, but the gold mines were a catastrophe. There was a small gold rush in the late 1800s but the finds were few and far between. Most of the abandoned mines are up here." He pointed to an isolated area of the park. "However, there're about fifteen and it would take ages to scout them all out."
"We need something to narrow the search down." Patton avoided looking at Ellison. He also was wondering how to introduce the information Jim had without revealing how he'd obtained it.
"Are all these areas the same?" Simon directed his question at the two rangers.
"What do you mean?" The female ranger responded.
"I mean any plants, rocks etc. that are specific to particular areas. If there was anything slightly different so we could differentiate each area in advance once forensics comes back with their results on the traces found on the bodies we'll be ready to go."
'God bless you, Simon,' thought Jim.
"Oh, I see what you mean." She got up to join her colleague at the board. "Well, there's not a lot we can tell you as most of the mines are in very similar areas. However, there are a few particularities that could help. For example, at Mine 65 fossils of prehistoric animals were found, here at Bucko's Bluff a seam of lead was mined at the same time as the gold and at this one," she pointed at a point on the map, "over 30 miners died of the Spanish flu and are buried in the mine."
Neither Simon nor Patton had missed how Jim had stiffened at the mention of lead.
"What about plants?" Patton continued.
Ranger Pascal looked up at the map. "That's harder as the flora is pretty uniform over the whole area. It's true that different plants grow at different altitudes. Cockscomb pine grows no lower than this line here, for example."
"I was thinking more of a flower."
"Flower? Bristows questioned. "What sort of flower?" She turned to look at Jim when he replied.
"Um, something oily, quite strong smelling. Sweet."
Thankfully, neither of the Rangers seemed ready to question him on where he was getting his information from, but he noticed some of the agents and cops looking at him curiously.
"What do you think?" Pascal looked at his boss. "Spruce Bloom?"
"Possibly. What colour is it?"
"Sorry. Couldn't tell you."
"Well, Spruce Bloom does flower this time of year and is found mainly under spruces; hence the name. It's quite rare and does have a strong smell."
"Excuse me," Sheriff Black called from the back of the room. Everyone turned to look at him. "Sorry to interrupt, but I just got an urgent message from one of my men out at the airport. Seems that two men loosely answering to the descriptions of Escobar's men flew out on a flight to Oklahoma this morning."
"And we're only hearing about this now, because… ?" Patton barked.
"An elderly gentleman in the airport had a heart attack and in the kafuffle no-one paid too much attention to people boarding the plane. It was only as the gate person came back on duty this afternoon that they put two and two together."
"Damn," said H.
"Perfect," Banks looked at Patton. "We need to…"
"On it." The other man was already on his phone asking to be put through to the Oklahoma FBI office.
"Sheriff, do we know what time the plane landed?" Simon called out.
"Couple of hours ago."
"So they'll be long gone."
"I guess. I asked the airport to send us their surveillance films."
"Two field agents out of Oklahoma City are going to question staff there." Patton interjected.
They all avoided looking at Ellison who was sitting at the table with his head in his hands. Feeling his eyes on them he looked up. They were surprised to see steely determination in his eyes instead of the despair they expected.
"We'll find him," he stated firmly. "If we can't find Escobar's men, we'll do it the hard way, but believe me, failure's not an option." He stood up and went to join the two Rangers at the map.
"Close are they?" commented Black.
Simon looked at him sharply to see if there was any innuendo hidden in his bland question. The Sheriff looked back at him neutrally.
"You don't know the half of it."
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"Why don't you go and get Jim?" Blair stared at the black panther sitting in the corner to his right. "What's the point *cough, cough* of being a spirit guide if you're not going to do anything to help?" He was so hot, but he wasn't sweating due to his increasing dehydration. He gulped down another mouthful of water. He had to force himself to stop drinking and placed the bottle carefully on the floor. "What, cat got your tongue?" He chuckled at his lame humour and coughed again. "You know, I must be dying. Why else are you here? Seems I only see you when I'm dying. Or dead." He looked at the cat. "Am I dead?" The cat lay down and started cleaning its paws.
The light was fading and Blair was becoming weaker as his illness progressed. He was half propped up against the metal door and hadn't moved all day. His head fell on his chest and then jerked up again when he spotted movement out of the corner of his eye. "Whoa, Incacha."
The Chopec shaman that had helped Jim when he'd been stranded in Peru and who had later died in the loft while trying to protect his tribe sat cross-legged next to the panther. He eyed the sick man, but said nothing.
"Incacha, am I dead?"
"You have met and conquered death once before."
"Huh?" Blair's brow furrowed. "Does that man I'm going to conquer death again? Cool!"
"A true shaman seeks enlightenment and follows the right path."
"Umm, I don't quite get you *cough, cough*. Sorry, I'm not really up to philosophy at the moment. Couldn't you go and get Jim for me? You know, contact him like at the fountain?"
"Use the power of your spirit guides and all shall be revealed."
"Incacha, I don't know how use their power. Jim's the one with all the powers. If you *cough, cough* can't get Jim, help me reach him somehow on the spirit plane." He looked hopefully at the ghost, spirit or whatever, but the man merely looked back at him.
"The power of the spirits is strong."
"I hear you, man. Really, I hear you. Though I'd rather have *cough, cough* Jim or even a key for this door. Or how about a phone?"
"What's up, Chief?"
Blair almost hit his head on the door jerking it round at the voice. He saw the Sentinel sitting in the corner he'd designated as his toilet. The smell didn't seem to be bothering the man or the grey wolf that lay beside him. Probably had his senses turned right down.
"Hey, Jim. Great to see you, man. Glad you found me."
"You know, you were a really good friend and a great cop."
"Uh, thanks, I think. Don't you think we should be getting out of here? Wait a minute, 'were'? You trying to tell me something, Big Guy?"
"I'm sorry I didn't treat you right, but you know I can't trust you."
"What?" *cough, cough*
"I need someone I can trust. You really should try to drink more."
"I don't understand. You said… you apologised… huh?" He was finding it difficult to follow the conversation.
"It's over."
Blair stared at the man who was caressing the wolf in slow, light strokes still seeming oblivious of where he was sitting. "What's over? What's going on? *cough, cough* Jim, come on, let's get out of here."
"You sure he can really help you?"
"What the fu.. *cough, cough*." Blair gripped his hair with both hands and shook his head. "Oh man, oh man," he groaned.
Jim turned and looked at Simon who was puffing on a cigar squatting in front of Blair and looking at him appraisingly. "Don't worry, Simon. Once I've got control of my senses I'll cut him loose."
"You know he's not a cop, just an observer?"
"The way of the shaman leads to greatness."
Both Jim and Simon ignored Incacha though the panther yawned exposing his ferocious teeth.
"You're not really here, are you?" Blair whispered the words holding a shaking hand over his mouth.
"I'm sorry, Chief, but I think you should find someone else to help you. Come on Simon, Incacha, let's go."
Incacha stood in one fluid moment and brushed a tender hand over Blair's curls. His eyes were full of regret, but just before turning away, he winked at the perplexed man. Blair gaped at him with his breath wheezing in and out of his open mouth.
"Incacha, do you like fishing? I heard there's a really good river not far from here where the fish are this big." Banks stood up with the native man and before Blair's eyes the three men faded out leaving him alone with the two spirit animals.
"Oh, God, oh… oh *cough, cough*. Someone help me, please." The distraught man slid down the door until he was lying uncomfortably on his side. The panther padded over to where the wolf was stretched out on the floor. It was then that Blair noticed that his spirit animal was thin and ragged looking. Its fur was patchy and dirty and its breath came out in short pants, but it thumped its tail tiredly on the floor when the panther started licking its ears. It looked over at Blair and he could see the pain in its eyes. The animals then began to fade as well until they'd disappeared entirely. He was once again, alone.
Blair began to shake as tears ran down his face. His shakes increased in intensity, but by then he'd lost consciousness and didn't notice. He also didn't notice when his jerking body up-ended the bottle of water that in his fevered state he'd forgotten to close. The water ran across the stone floor soaking into his hair and mingling with his tears.
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"I'm off to bed." Megan yawned and pulled herself out of the armchair in Brown and Rafe's bedroom. "It's going to be a long day tomorrow and it's been a long while since I've ridden a horse. I NEED to be rested."
Taggart stood as well. "I'm not riding any horses, but you're right, it's going to be a long day." They walked out of the room together.
Simon, Rafe and H looked over at the hunched figure sitting at the end of H's bed elbows on knees. Jim looked out of it, but they could see the muscle jumping in his jaw as he grinded his teeth.
"Come on, Jim, Connor's right. Time for bed." Simon stood and put a hand on the man's shoulder. "You'll want to be fresh for tomorrow." He knew, and understood, that Ellison was chafing at the bit. He'd wanted to hare off to the park that evening, but although for him night was no obstacle to his vision, it would have been sheer madness to expect the others to follow him.
Jim looked up at Simon and opened his mouth to reply. Changing his mind he shook his head and heaved himself off the bed. He was tired and tomorrow looked as if it was going to be longer than today. He'd talked at length with the rangers and had narrowed the list of mines down to four possible sites where Blair could be. Unfortunately, two were far from the others and all four were in the park where no motorised vehicles were allowed. Sheridan PD had agreed to go with some of the Rangers and look at the two outlying sites while Bristows and Pascal were taking the Cascade group to see the two others. Jim had high hopes for one of the sites. Every time he thought about it the itch between his shoulder blades intensified.
Not everyone could ride horses though, so Taggart and Brown were staying at the hotel and would be helping the search for Escobar's men. Connor had ridden many times in Australia and, surprisingly, Rafe was an accomplished rider if a bit rusty. Ellison had ridden as a youth. It was one of the accomplishments that his father thought that someone of his social standing should have. He'd also done some riding as an Army Ranger. Simon had ridden a few times when younger and had even been on a few riding holidays with his ex-wife. He knew though, that he was the person with the least experience and the most likely to hold them back. He was determined to not let that happen.
"Don't forget, Rafe. 5am alarm. We don't want to lose anymore light than necessary."
The younger man groaned. "Thanks, Captain." He looked at the pinched look on Jim's face. "Don't worry. I'll be up and raring to go. Just don't forget the thermos of very strong coffee. I think I'm going to need it."
Twenty minutes later silence reigned in their bedrooms. Jim lay on his back with his hands under his head as sleep pulled him under. His last thoughts were of his former partner, 'Hold on, Chief, I'm coming. Just hold on.'