Winter Comes Early
Chapter Ten
Mark Shepard was at the door waiting for the team to bring Jess Hawkes in. Just from the look on the trauma team's face he knew it wasn't good. He grabbed the head of the gurney and led them down the hall. He made sure the door closed before Cody and Cutler came in. He saw Matt though the window and went out.
"Shep how is she?"
"You take care of your brother." Shep pointed to Cody who collapses on the waiting room chair. "I'll take care of your sister." He went back in the room and did something he hadn't done in a very long time. Prayed he was good enough to save the patient in front of him.
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Matt sat down next to Cody. His body still trembling from the wild forty mile ride over the mountain range.
"That was the most incredible thing you've ever done. No one could have made that flight Cody. You did it. Jess is safe. You brought everyone safely home." Matt put his arm around his brother's shoulders and hugged him tight. "She's going to be okay Cody." He hoped he was right because he had never once lied to his brother. He didn't want to start now. Morgan and Cutler stood silently across the hall watching the brothers.
"Somebody should call Jesse and Jackie." Cutler said as he looked at two of his best friends.
"I'll go." Morgan looked at Cutler. "You keep those two from looking for someone to blame for this." Cutler looked knowingly at his friends.
"You've got to know them pretty well."
"I'd like to think so but I also know that if I don't leave now I'm going to start looking." Morgan stopped by Izzy and got a set of keys to a truck and headed up the mountain to tell a father and mother they may loose a child.
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Jesse felt it in his gut when he saw the bronco pull up. If it was one of his boys getting out he could deal with it but it was Derek Morgan. Jess didn't get out of the passenger seat. The white stripe of his jacket was crimson red. He opened the front door.
"What is it?"
"Jess. We were coming home and some cons from Coral Ridge shot her. They caused an avalanche. She wasn't breathing when Cody found her. I came to bring you and your wife to the hospital." Jackie was behind Jesse now. Her eyes welling up with tears. Jesse grabbed their coats and followed Morgan back to the bronco.
"What happened to the men who shot her?"
"Buried. The weather is getting bad so we won't know for sure until Matt can send someone up there."
"Is she going to make it Derek?" Jackie looked at him.
"If I have anything to say about it, yes mam." He put the truck into drive and pulled onto the road and headed back to the hospital.
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"Matt she looked real bad when we brought her in." Cody stopped shaking but he was sill pale.
"Shep is the best. He'll do all he can."
"Will that be enough?"
"It's going to have to be." Matt looked at his little brother. Eight years separated them. Most of their lives they had been apart. Cody on the mountain with their father and him in the city with their mother. But the last few years the three of them, Cody, Jess and himself had become as close as brothers and sister could get. This was tearing them all apart. "Why don't you go home with your family? I'll call when I here something."
"I want to be here."
"Sarah, Ava and the boys need you right now Cody. They need to know your safe." Foot steps made the two men look up. Colby Coral stood in front of them, his jacket and hat snow covered. Matt stood up with Cody along side of him. "What the hell do you want?"
"I came to see if there was anything I could do."
"Haven't you done enough?" Cody was a good eight inches shorter then the man but when he was angry he could take on just about anyone.
"Matt, Cody I didn't know it was going to come to this. My father has been hiring drifters for years and never had a problem. "Matt looked at his childhood friend.
"If Jess dies I will bury your body so deep not even the wolves we be able to find you." Derek came up and got in between the men.
"Matt come on my friend, this guy isn't worth it. " He looked at both Hawkes brothers. "He's not worth loosing your badges over. Jess wouldn't want that." He knew what he was saying was true. Next to family and the mountain their badges were what they lived for. "Back down now and I will find a crap load of charges to file on this guy. Federal chargers." Matt took a deep breath and Cody sat back down. Morgan turned to Colby. "I suggest you get the hell out of here before I decide I made a mistake in stopping my friends from kicking your ass." Colby tuned and lead his sister out of the hospital waiting room.
"Thank you for stopping my boys from something they would of regretted." Jesse looked at Derek.
"Luckily my brain over road my heart or I would of gladly helped them." He stepped away from Matt. "I'll be down the hall if anyone needs me." He stepped out into the hall and dialed his phone.
"How's my favorite mountain man?" Garcia's cheery voice echoed in his ear.
"I need anything and everything on a ranch called Coral Ridge. It's about sixty miles from Tahoe. The owner is Colby and Letta Coral. I want everything baby girl."
"What's wrong?"
"Someone shot Jess."
"Oh dear God Morgan. Is she okay?"
"We don't know yet. And tell Hotch I'm not going to be back on Monday."
"I'll do that right away. You want me to call you when I have something?"
"Call me when you have anything. I want this guy Garcia." He hung up the phone, leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. He didn't know how long he'd been there when he heard Cutler.
"You need to find a chair my friend." He handed Derek a cup of coffee.
"Thanks. Any word?"
"No. You held it together pretty good up there for a city slicker."
"It was all Jess. She saved my ass."
"Jess is really good at that. Saved mine a time or two." Cutler looked at the younger man. "I'm only going to say this once as her friend and nothing more. If you don't plan on finding a place on this mountain walk away now. Jess has been hurt by too many people leaving her behind when things get tough. Me included. I know I messed with her head but I did my best to make up for it. She forgave me and I thank God every chance I get she's still in my life. I don't know if she has it in her again Morgan." Derek looked at Cutler. He had been Jess's first love. The one she cared for most of her life. What do you say to a man that once loved the woman you wanted to spend the rest of your life with?
"I'm not going anywhere Cutler. You my friend are stuck with me. If you got a problem with that we can settled after this is over. I know she loved you for a long time and that she still does. Like a brother. I'll never stand in the way of that as long as you don't stand in the way of what we have."
"Deal. But if she gets hurt you know we're going to hurt you." He smiled.
"I wouldn't have it any other way Cutler." They saw Shep heading toward the waiting room. They both followed him into the room. The Hawke family stood when Shep came into the room.
"She's out of surgery. The bullet tore up her shoulder a little. I got some fragments, nothing you can trace but you never know. I'm a little worried about her cat scan. There was some swelling. My concern is she didn't regain consciousness when she began breathing on her own. I inserted a ventilation tube just in case she decides to forget how to breathe on her own. I'll do another scan in twelve hours to see if the swelling went down." Shep looked at his old friends. "If you need anything just have them page me."
"When can we see her?" Matt asked.
"Give her an hour in recovery and an hour to get settled in the ICU. Go home, change, eat something and come back in a couple of hours." Shep looked at them all. "Doctor's orders. This storm will be here full force before we know it and no one will be going anywhere." Matt nodded.
"Thanks Shep." Matt turned to his parents. "We should do what he says."
"I'll stay." Morgan looked at Matt. "Make sure Cody gets some rest. He looks like he's going to pass out."
"What about you?"
"I live for this crap. I have a call in to Garcia about your buddy Coral. I let you know what she finds." Matt nodded. "I'm sorry I let her get hurt."
"You didn't have a chance up there. They had you pinned down. Jess saw it coming enough to stop it before it got too far. You did everything right. Both of you." He patted the younger man on the shoulder and grabbed his brother by the shoulder and led him out. Jesse and Jackie stood in front of him.
"My daughter will pull though this Morgan. And when she does we have to sit down and go over your intentions." Jesse smiled. "I promise I won't be cleaning my gun when we do." He left and Jackie hugged him.
"Keep her safe Derek." She left tears in her eyes. Derek was left alone in the waiting room with his own thoughts of what Jess Hawkes meant to him.
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Two hours later the storm hit Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area with a force no one had anticipated. Not even Cody Hawkes. Matt, Jesse, Cutler and Cody made it back before the wind shut every thing within a hundred miles down. Jackie and Robin stayed at Cody's to help Sarah with the babies. Hart and Izzy stayed at Ranger station and monitored the weather. Derek Morgan was sitting in the ICU waiting room when the four men returned.
"Any news?" Matt asked.
"Nothing. She's resting comfortably they said."
"Can we see her?" Cody looked down the hall.
"Shep said he'd come when it was okay. How are things at home?" Derek asked Cody.
"They boys were fussy so I left mom and Robin there." Derek nodded his head in understanding.
"Garcia find anything?"
"I had to turn off my phone up here so I'll go downstairs and see. I wanted to wait till you got back."
"I'll walk down with you." Matt followed Derek down the hall to the steps and down to the first floor. "How are you holding up?"
"Scared." He stopped at the bottom of the steps. "I never want to feel as helpless as I did up there ever again."
"I know the feeling." Morgan stepped into the lobby and turned on his phone. It rang instantly.
"Talk to me baby girl."
"I might have found a way we can get a federal warrant. The warrant's Jess and her brother served last week netted some real hard core criminals. Drug lords, gang members. If the federal prosecutor can get one to role on another they may have cause."
"What's your take?"
"I'm thinking drug lab somewhere in those mountains."
"That's what I was thinking. Anything else?"
"Letta Coral killed two people twenty years ago. One Lee and Hale McCormick. She was trunk and ran them off a canyon road. Spent eight years in jail for it. They left a daughter….."
"What is it Garcia?"
"They left a thirteen year old daughter. Jesse Lynne McCormick Hawkes. Letta Coral killed Jess's parents." Derek looked at Matt.
"Is that it?"
"For now."
"Get back to me if you find anything else." Derek closed his phone.
"Why haven't you ever told her about Letta?" Matt's eyes widened then her turned to watch the snow fall out the big front window.
"It's something she never needed to know."
"She didn't need to known that your fiancé killed her parents?"
"She was thirteen years old. It took me three months to track down the second vehicle in the accident. When I did Letta had already run off. I chased her down and sent her to jail. Who would if of helped if I had told her?"
"Jess would have known why you and Letta never got married."
"That was twenty years ago. Jess was a child. It wouldn't have made a difference."
"Maybe, maybe not but she still had a right to know." Matt turned and looked at Morgan.
"It was my decision to make. I loved Letta Coral for three years and she took Jess's parent from her and hid it from for three months and then tried to use my love for her to get out of going to jail. Jess might have had a better life with my parents but she never got a chance to find out with hers."
"I think I can understand why you did it twenty years ago but now you should tell her."
"I wanted to. Yesterday morning I came to the lodge to tell her. Then I realized it might spoil your week end. Now I know it would have saved her life." Matt turned back to the window. "If you had stayed off the mountain she would have never gotten shot."
"Then blame me. I wanted her to take me up there and show me what she loves about it. I wanted her to tell me what it was like growing up with all that room to run. I needed to know how deep her roots ran."
"I thought you already knew that." Derek looked out the window.
"I did. But I wanted to see if I could see what she saw."
"Did you?"
"I think I did. I do. I see the love and the commitment all of you have for each other and that mountain. I see why you wake up every day wanting to protect it." He took a deep breath. "Jess makes me see things that I never saw before. And things I thought I saw she makes me see them differently."
"She has her own way of seeing things." Matt looked at Derek. "As soon as she's better I will tell her about Letta and the accident."
"Do you remember that last day? When her parents left?"
"Yeah, Jess hugged them good-bye and said she loved them and she'd call them soon and took off with Cody somewhere." He always made a point to be with his parents on the day Jess came for the summer. It was almost the only time the five of them spent together in the summer.
"Start off with that. She thinks she never said good-bye that day."
"She never said anything."
"It's the one thing that hurts more then loosing them; the fact that she may not have said good-bye." Matt understood why it took her so long to grieve. She was feeling guilty. She thought that in her excitement to be with the Hawkes she had forgotten to tell her own parents good-bye.
"Thank you for telling me that. It clears up a lot of things. You're good for Jess. She would have never opened up to us like that."
"She's good for me too. Matt I know it only been six weeks but I love your sister."
"Have you told her yet?"
"More then once."
"Good for you Derek, good for you."
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"Dad?" Cody was sitting next to his father.
"What?"
"I can't stop thinking I could have done more for Jess."
"Cody you did everything you could up there. Hell more then anyone could have. From what your brother tells me you flew in almost impossible conditions."
"I never wanted Jess to live with us."
"What?"
"When her parents died, I didn't want her coming to live with us." Cody stared down at his boots. "I love having her to play with in the summer but living with us all the time seemed a little weird."
"You never said anything."
"I got over it after awhile and I forgot about it till today when she wasn't breathing. I wished she'd never come to live with us twenty years ago and some how her almost dieing made me remember that for a few months back in nineteen eight-eight I wished she would go away and never come back."
"You got over it, right? You and Jess are closer then most brothers and sisters are. Maybe it made you both stronger."
"Maybe. I really don't know what I would have done without her."
"Me either son. Me either." Matt came in with Morgan. They both looked like they had been though the ringer.
"Dad can we talk?"
"Sure son." Jesse got up and followed his son to the hall way.
"Derek ran the Coral's though their data base and came up with some things that worry me. Also he found out about Letta. When Jess is out of the woods I'm going to tell her about her parents."
"I think its time son."
"Derek thinks there might be a drug lab somewhere around Coral Ridge. The four we arrested were big time thugs and the ones that got it in the avalanche were on some pretty nasty payrolls."
"Sounds like when this storm lets up we may have to do some major police work."
"Yeah, I'll fill Cody and Cutler in on everything." Shep came up to them.
"She's resting comfortably so if you want to go in two at a time for five minutes."
"Thanks Shep."
"Remember if you need me."
"Yeah, I'm glad it was you today man. There isn't anyone I trust more."
"Thank you Matt. "He walked away.
"Why don't you go alone? I'll talk to Cody and Jim. When you're done we'll go see her."
"Okay." Jesse walked down to his daughter's room and went in. She was not a frail woman but she seemed so small in the hospital bed with all the wires and tubes around her. He went to her side. "Oh Jesse girl." Holding her hand a tear fell down his cheeks. "Wake up sweetie. We all need to see your beautiful eyes." Closing his eyes Jesse Hawkes did something he hadn't done in a long time. He prayed.
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Matt sat in the corner of the waiting room with Cody, Cutler and Derek. Taking a deep breath he started telling a story he had never wanted to repeat one let alone twice in one night.
"Twenty years ago when dad and I were investigating the McCormick's death we found some things that led us to believe there was another car on that ridge the afternoon Jess's parents were killed. I found some silver paint and had it analyzed. I found it belonged to a silver Toyota. I went to Coral ridge and found Letta gone and her car recently repainted blue. Later some other evidence let me to some of Letta and my friends who where in the car that day. They said Letta forced a black BMW to swerve and it missed the curve and went into the ravine."
"Jess's parents?" Cody looked at him. "Letta killed them?"
"Yeah. It took me three months and I caught her brought her back here. She served eight years of a ten year sentence. Apparently she was trouble from the get go. I never saw it but they say love is blind." Derek stood up.
"Letta."
"What about her?"
"Where did she do her time?"
"High Desert State Prison near Susanville."
"How close is the nearest men's prison?"
"Half a mile. The California Correction Center is nearly next door."
"I need to make a call. I'll be back." Derek left the waiting room and headed down stairs.
"Is he thinking what I think he's thinking?" Cutler looked at Cody and Matt.
"Letta has something to do with the con's going after Jess?" Cody looked at Matt.
"If he's right Letta's been hiding some mighty big secrets from big brother."
"What if she isn't hiding anything?" Cody asked.
"Then Colby Coral is a dead man." Matt said with anger in his voice neither his brother nor friend had ever heard.
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"Baby girl, find out whom of the ex cons working at Coral Ridge did time at the California Correctional Center in Susanville eleven or so years ago." He waited as Garcia typed something into her computer.
"Just one. Jeff Rutherford, armed robbery, attempted murder, assault. That's only the small stuff. He was released in ninety-six. He was arrested again and sent to Folsom till he was released in two thousand six and stopped checking in with his parole officer in June of this year. The warrant went out in July and the Rangers nabbed him in their raid last week."
"Call the state police and make sure that man does not get released. Tell Hotch I'll call him with what I got but I need to figure some things out before I do."
"How's Jess?"
"She hasn't woken up yet."
"I'm praying for you both my friend."
"Thanks Garcia." He hung up and closed his eyes. This wasn't supposed to turn out this way. Not now. Not with Jess.
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Jesse came into the waiting room. His sons and Cutler quiet.
"What did I miss?" Cutler looked up.
"Why don't you guys go see Jess? I'll fill Jesse in on what Morgan figured out." Morgan came back into the room. "Better yet you tell him." Matt and Cody went to see Jess as Derek Morgan explained what he thought might be going on at Coral Ridge.
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"She looks like a kid." Cody stood at the door. "Like she did that summer she came to live with us. She was so frail and sad all the time." Matt stood next to his sister's bed.
"She just lost her parents Cody, what do you expect?"
"I know. It's just hard for me seeing her like this."
"It's hard on all of us. We're used to Jess being the strong one."
"I'll be with dad and the others." Cody turned and walked away. Matt sat on the chair next to Jess's bed.
"You sure know how to scare the crap out of our brother." He pushed the dark blond hair out of her face. "Hang in there Jess. We need you strong again. We have big problems at Coral Ridge and we need you to help fix them." Matt squeezed her hand. "Come back to us Jess. We need you." Leaning over he kissed the top of her head and got up to find Cody.
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Jesse Hawkes wasn't sure he believed what he was hearing. A drug lab on the mountain he spent most of his life protecting. Lincoln Coral is surly turning over in his grave knowing his daughter and maybe his son are producing drugs on the purest place left in the United States.
"I hope I'm wrong Jesse." Derek stood up. "I want to be wrong."
"You're not wrong. Those cons up there never did harm to anything or anybody till now. When that warrant was served it scared them. Scared them into doing something about the law on the mountain."
"I don't think Colby would have called Matt about the robbery if he was in on it."
"He wanted to get the Rangers on the mountain."
"Could be but he didn't go after the ones that investigated the robbery. Just Jess and me." Derek looked at Jesse. "We were too close to where the lab was. Maybe we passed it." Cody looked at Derek.
"Or went over it when you passed the winter pasture. It's been snowing up there since the end of September. A small cabin in the lower pasture would be buried by now."
"Why would they let the lab get buried?"
"Planes or helicopters coming in and out this time of year would raise suspicion but not in the summer with the tours of the lake. When we stopped searching the mountain for Parker's decoy bodies the air traffic almost was down to nothing. They had to shut it down till spring."
"Not cost effective but safe." Matt came in the room. "So we have summer time drug manufacturing to add to the tourist brochures. Great."