Chapter 10: A Piece of Hell

Horned Serpent Cave
Henbane River

It took Sheriff Troy Harrison and Chief Noah Deveraux a significant amount of time to reach the summit entrance of Henbane River's ill-reputed Horned Serpent Cave, despite the fact that the sheriff's uniquely modified Dodge Charger was outfitted with off-road tires. This massively cavernous cave posed a very apparent and serious danger to those who dared to venture inside it, as the cave's entire interior had a hot spring running throughout.

However, unlike most hot springs, the water temperature inside Horned Serpent Cave constantly remained at a dangerously boiling 212 Degrees Fahrenheit. Several lost hikers, cave explorers, and amateur treasure hunters had all received some very severe and extensive burns to various limbs and extremities over the years. Sheriff Harrison and Chief Deveraux slowly journeyed up the long, winding dirt road that lead up to the summit, passing several emergency vehicles along the way.

"Why do they call this place Horned Serpent Cave anyway?" Deveraux asked as he sat in Harrison's front seat.

"I don't know exactly why, Chief" Harrison replied as he slowly drove the car up the elongated dirt road, "All I know that if God was a gastroenterologist who decided to give Satan a colonoscopy, the interior of that cave looks most like what I'd imagine the inside of Satan's rectum would look like."

Noah Deveraux grimaced at the thought of that. "Nice thought", he said with great sarcasm, "So you've been inside there yourself, then?"

Harrison nodded. "Yeah", he began to explain, "While we were all fighting the cult, there were several rumors floating around that the Peggies were stashing the money they stole from Hope County's citizens inside Horned Serpent Cave. I took it upon myself to head up here and get back as much money as I could grab to get it back to its rightful owners."

Deveraux smiled. "You're a regular Robin Hood, Sheriff", he said, "Was there any money to find?"

"Hell yes, there was", Harrison replied, "Close to five hundred grand worth of cold, hard cash banded into bricks. It took me three treacherous trips back and forth on my hands and knees, but I managed to bring back about fifty thousand in cash bricks. Earl Whitehorse told me later on that the Montana National Guard was able to go in and get the rest and return it to people."

"What'd you do with the money you found?" Deveraux asked curiously.

"I turned it over to Earl", Harrison replied, "It sat in a safe at the jail until the FBI came to Hope County and took custody of it during the execution of the Governor's Martial Law order. As far as I know, it's still sitting in the Bureau's secure lab vault in Virginia."

Harrison and Deveraux finally reached the summit entrance of Horned Serpent Cave. The two men almost immediately took note of the fact that a few vehicles from the Missoula Fire Department were at hand on the scene in addition to Hope County's own volunteer fire department vehicles. Additionally, the white pickup truck that Adam Xander had reported finding sat on the edge of the final turn before the summit and was in the process of being meticulously photographed and searched by a crime lab team from the Montana Highway Patrol.

The sheriff and the Major Case Section Chief exited the sheriff's Dodge Charger and approached Adam Xander. Xander was dressed in bright yellow firefighter's turnout gear, complete with his Hope County Volunteer Fire Department helmet, and was looking down the deep one hundred-foot hole that served as Horned Serpent Cave's rear entry point. This deep entrance was only accessible by repelling down inside it on a rope line, as Harrison himself had previously done for his mission to retrieve the stashed money.

"Hey Adam!" Harrison said, "Thanks for the heads up, bud. What's going on?"

Xander looked up from the hole and nodded to Harrison and Deveraux. "Hey Sheriff", he said, "Dakota and I were on patrol in the area when we received a report from a Cessna pilot who had heard about the bulletin you put out on those missing Eden's Gate vehicles. He spotted the white pickup from the air seemingly abandoned up here, so we proceeded up to the summit and spotted the truck. It was clear, sir, nobody inside."

"What's with all the fire trucks up here?" Harrison asked intriguingly.

"That's the thing, man", Xander began to explain, "As soon as we got up here and decided to take a look around, we were hit with the smell of burnt flesh, like boiled skin, you know? I shined my flashlight down into this hole here and spotted the body of what looks like a white adult male. He's burnt up pretty bad. I know our fire department doesn't have the equipment for a deep cave operation to do a body recovery, so I put in a call to Missoula FD."

Harrison nodded. "So theoretically then", he said, "Our supposed Peggie shoots at our boys in Holland Valley, takes off like a bat out of Hell, only to drive all the way up here, repel down into a cave chock full of two-hundred-and-twelve-degree water and kill himself."

"It's amazing he was able to try and crawl his way out before dying", Deveraux said.

With that, Adam Xander eyed Deveraux suspiciously. "I'm sorry", he said, "and you are…?"

Harrison smirked, realizing his oversight. "My apologies, fellas", he said, "Adam Xander, this is Chief Noah Deveraux with the Montana Department of Criminal Investigation. He and his agency will be helping us out on the Eden's Gate case."

Xander shook Deveraux's hand. "Nice to meet you", he said, "Anyway, that theory seems to be correct. We think that our suspect jumped into the hot spring's water, sustained massive burns, and then instinctively tried to crawl his way back out before ultimately succumbing to shock."

"Was there any ID on the suspect?" Deveraux asked.

Xander shook his head. "Too soon to tell", he said, "We didn't find a wallet or anything like that inside the truck and I think our boy's a little too badly burned for anything distinguishable to still be on him."

"Where's Dakota?" Harrison asked Xander.

"He's with the Highway Patrol's crime scene team going over the suspect's truck", Xander replied, "I'm going to stay here and help the Missoula team get the body out of the hole."

Harrison nodded. "Nice work Adam", he said with a very pleased tone.

Xander nodded back at the sheriff with gratitude as Harrison and Deveraux walked a bit further back down the dirt turnoff to where Dakota Michaels stood by the now deceased suspect's parked pickup truck and diligently writing down notes in his memo book. All around him, technicians from the Montana Highway Patrol's Crime Lab thoroughly photographing and documenting the truck.

"How goes it, Dakota?" Harrison asked.

Dakota Michaels looked up from his thorough notetaking to see Harrison and Deveraux. "Hey Troy", he greeted before motioning to Deveraux with his eyes, "Who's this?"

Deveraux extended a polite hand to the deputy. "Hello Deputy", he said warmly, "Noah Deveraux, Montana Division of Criminal Investigation."

Michaels shook the Major Case Section Chief's hand quite firmly. "Dakota Michaels", he said, "Nice to meet you, sir."

"Chief Deveraux's going to be helping us out on the Eden's Gate case for a while", Harrison said, "Two of his agents will be joining us here in Hope County later on this evening. So, what's up with this truck here, bud?"

Michaels flipped his memo book back open and glanced at what he had written. "Well", he began, "We have a white Two-Thousand-Sixteen Dodge Ram fifteen-hundred pickup truck, Montana license plates four-one-three-Alpha-Frank-Kilo. Matches the bulletin about the missing Eden's Gate vehicles that the FBI put out, and the plates match exactly to the number Kevin Dodd called into Dispatch when Mike Whitehorse was shot last night."

Harrison sighed with great reprieve. "So, this is it, then. The dead guy in the hole is most likely the shooter."

Deveraux nodded. "Your Deputy Xander just told us you guys couldn't find identification of any sort inside", he said.

"That's right, Chief", Michaels said, "but the crime scene guys did find the weapon we believe to be the one that shot Mike." He motioned to a young black male technician with gloved hands who wore a "Montana Highway Patrol: Crime Lab" windbreaker. The young tech held up a black-tinted AR-C assault rifle with both hands.

"Where'd you find it?" Harrison asked.

"It was laying on the passenger side floorboard", the tech replied, "I'm taking it back to our laboratory to be checked for trace evidence and fingerprints."

Noah Deveraux then chimed in. "Do me a favor please", he asked the tech as he slipped one of his business cards into the front pocket of his windbreaker, "When you get those test results back, please fax the necessary copies to my office at that number. Could you also send copies to Sheriff Harrison here and also to Special Agent Dennis Donovan at the FBI's Resident Agency in Butte?"

The young technician nodded graciously. "Copy all that", he said before walking away.

Harrison nodded to Deveraux. "Thank you", he said.

Deveraux put up his hands. "No need to thank me, Sheriff", he said, "We're all on the same team. I promised you I'd keep the lines of communication open, and you're trying to help me find my sister. That's more than enough payment."

The sheriff then turned his attention back to Michaels. "Dakota", he said, "I think the lab folks have the truck covered for now. Why don't you go help out Adam over by the hole? They're going to be pulling out the body soon and I assume they're going to need all the hands they can get."

Michaels nodded. "You got it, boss", he said before walking over to where Adam Xander and the other firefighters were. He put on brown leather work gloves as he jaunted over.

The firefighters on scene had set up a pulley system that would normally be used in scenarios where live victims would need to be extricated, such as rescuing an injured hiker off a mountain with uneven terrain. In this case, however, they were going to be removing the dead cult shooter's body from the hole without physically having to go into the deep hole themselves due to the hazard posed by the boiling water.

Adam Xander initiated the process by attaching the long, dense pulley rope onto a long metal post they had stuck into the ground. A pair of Missoula firefighters then mounted a portable gurney basket, known as a Stokes Basket, onto the opposite end of the rope. The two firefighters and Deputy Michaels then went over behind the post with Michaels gripping the starting end of the pulley rope with his now gloved hands.

"You guys all set?" Xander asked the three men

The three men nodded confidently. "We're ready to go, Adam", Michaels said.

"Alright", Xander said as he took a moment to look down into the hole. "Looks like the Stokes Basket's aligned well with the body, so what we're going to do is slowly pull the basket with the body as best as we can. On the count of three, we start pulling."

When Xander's verbal count hit three, Deputy Michaels and the two firefighters began to gradually pull the Stokes Basket up and out from inside Horned Serpent Cave. Sheriff Harrison and Chief Deveraux had made their way over the hole just as the Stokes Basket finally appeared above ground.

Everyone on scene was met with the ghastly sight and smell of a severely burned body, its features so badly scalded and contorted that it looked like some sort of monstrous creature rather than a human being. Even experienced investigators Sheriff Harrison and Chief Deveraux were taken aback by the unsettling sight and pungent aroma of burnt flesh.

"Dear God", Harrison exclaimed as he put a hand over his mouth. He then composed himself and donned a pair of blue nitrile examination gloves before leaning down to visually inspect the body. "It doesn't matter how long you do this work", Harrison said very matter-of-factly, "you never get used to how awful burnt human flesh smells."

Deveraux put his own pair of gloves on his hands before leaning down near Harrison to take a look for himself. "I don't see anything obvious that could help us to better ID this poor son of a gun", he said, "no tattoos, no visible birthmarks, unique piercings…"

Harrison shot the Chief a look that basically cut off what remained of that statement. "I appreciate your sympathy, Chief", he said, "and it's my belief that everyone should have sympathy for the dead, but please do me a favor and don't lose sight of the fact that this numb-nuts just shot at and nearly killed two of my deputies, putting one in the hospital with three busted ribs and a bruised lung."

Deveraux nodded respectfully. "Duly noted, Sheriff", he said, "I meant no disrespect."

Harrison sighed deeply and stood back up, addressing Adam Xander. "Did someone call the Medical Examiner's Office?" he asked.

"I put in a call right after Missoula FD arrived to help us out", Xander replied, "the first available Missoula County M.E. was tied up with a fatal house fire, but Dispatch just radioed back an update. He'll be here in about forty-five minutes."

"Okay", Harrison said, "Let's take some photos of the body at all angles, please, then put him in a body bag as carefully as possible and keep him in the back of an ambulance 'till the M.E. gets here, okay? There's no need for his body to just lay out here and decay before the doc's able to get to him, right?"

"True", Xander replied just before heading to one of the emergency vehicles, presumably to retrieve a camera and a body bag.

"Sheriff?" Deveraux asked softly, "Can I speak to you privately for a moment, please?"

With that, Harrison went off to the side to speak with Deveraux. "Look Sheriff", Deveraux said, "I hope I didn't offend you with that comment. I, of all people, have the utmost empathy toward your men, especially with what happened to Deputy Whitehorse. But whatever our suspect was before he died tonight, he was still a human being first and foremost."

"Understood", Harrison said, "And your absolutely right, Chief. I'm sorry for coming off as brash. Let's considered it squashed, okay?" He extended a hand.

Deveraux gladly reciprocated the sheriff's handshake. "Squashed", he said. Just then, the Chief's cell phone vibrated, and he promptly took his phone off his belt clip and checked it. "Good news", he continued after a moment, "My two agents are waiting for us at your office."