Mind's Eye - Part 2
PRIME HOOK NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
DELAWARE
6:54 a.m.
Jarod looked up into the sky and closed his eyes to the bright sun of fall. It was warm and bathed him in a soothing heat that would soon disappear in the coming winter months. With a deep breath, he drank in the smells of decaying leaves that were unique to the fall season. He wished he could bottle that moment, to savor it and forget that the rest of the world existed.
He grudgingly brought his head down and opened his eyes. He was new guy who would be starting today, a replacement for the officer who had been killed in the line of duty. It was five minutes to seven, and Jarod had no intention of being late his first day on the job. Deb Warren had never been late when she was with the rangers.
Jarod locked his car and headed toward the ranger station where an older woman was waiting, smiling broadly at him as he passed through the glass doors. He was a park ranger, in uniform and obviously catching the eye of the station's manager.
"May I help you?" she asked. Her stark white hair was a blatant contrast to the dark blue dress with small white flowers she wore.
His smile was kind. "I hope so," he said. "I'm Jarod Greer. I'm supposed to meet Captain Case here this morning."
She held out a greeting hand. "I'm Mildred Miles, Captain Case's secretary. Welcome to the Hook, Officer Greer. He should be here any moment."
As if on cue, the doors opened. A man stepped inside, wearing a uniform identical to Jarod's, save the captain's bars on his shoulders. Jarod towered over him by a good four inches, but the man's stocky build gave him the appearance of a bulldog. His hair was dark, combed to the left, his face strong and square.
"And you are?" the man asked without any warmth.
Jarod held out his hand. "Jarod Greer, sir. I'm your new officer."
The man hesitated for a moment. He seemed to resent Jarod's very presence in the station. The air bristled with tension. He reluctantly returned the handshake and said, "You're prompt. That's good."
Mildred gave a click of frustration with her tongue. "Jarod, this Captain Neil Case," she said with an equally frustrated shake of her head. "He may be the commander in these parts, but he could use some training in the hospitality department."
The corner of Case's mouth turned up in a smile toward Mildred. She was the ideal grandmother type who apparently had loving authority over even the park captain. Neil cleared his throat. "My apologies, Greer. As Mildred said, I'm Captain Neil Case. You'll be working on my crew here at Prime Hook."
Jarod smiled. "I'm looking forward to it, sir. It'll be nice to see the ocean."
"What brings you down to sea level? Most rangers wouldn't give up a mountain assignment on a bet, especially in the big parks."
The pretender gave a small shrug. "Poacher patrol gets a little lonely after a while. I wanted to see something different. When the slot opened up here, I took it."
Anger flashed on Neil's face, and he made no attempt to control it. "That slot didn't just 'open up' here, Greer. A ranger was killed in the line of duty, and you best always remember that. You read me?"
Mildred stirred uncomfortably behind the desk. She busied herself with papers, carefully removing herself from Neil's crosshairs.
Neil failed miserably to intimidate Jarod, because Jarod was there for purposes other than to be a park ranger. He stood his ground, not backing down at the wrath flung at him. "I heard about Officer Warren, sir. I'm sorry for your loss. It's never easy when you lose one of your own." He voice was gentle and understanding.
Case seemed to be at a loss how to respond. Jarod left no room to fire off another volley. His sympathy and politeness were genuine, leaving Neil to say quietly, "No, it isn't."
Mildred's lovely smile had turned to an impossibly sad look at the mention of Warren's name.
Neil sighed and adjusted his equipment belt. There was a definite detente in his agression. "Come on, Greer. I'll give you the nickel tour."
Jarod's mind cataloged the speed at which the entire encounter was taking place. The mention of Warren's death felt like taboo in the office. Mildred was still shuffling papers on her desk, looking up just long enough to give a comforting smile to Jarod as he followed Case out the door and into the parking lot.
The white Explorer with with kelly green stripes was parked in the first slot by the door. The shield of the park service was emblazoned on the door. They climbed inside the cab. Jarod buckled his seatbelt dutifully while Case seemed to rebel by refusing to use one.
Neil put the Explorer into gear and pulled out of the small parking lot. The roadway was smooth asphalt, a recent gift from the Department of the Interior. Not all the park had been upgraded, but enough of it was to keep the tourist contingent happy.
"I talked to Captain Richmond in Yellowstone about you. He said he couldn't place you but that your performance reviews were good."
Jarod felt relief that his methods of manufacturing work histories were still doing the trick. "Yellowstone is a large park. I was up in the higher elevations most of the time working poacher patrol. I didn't exactly make it into the administration building every day."
"So why the transfer? Weren't you happy taking aim at hunters?"
The question sounded distinctly like a test to Jarod. It was likely that Case was a hunter, himself, given the stuffed birds on the wall above his desk at the station. "It was a chance for a change of pace - a new identity, so to speak."
There was a slight twitch on Neil's face, as though the words had struck a nerve with him. "I think maybe the air was just too thin for you up there. We don't get that philosophical down here at sea level, Greer."
Jarod grinned. Case seemed to be opening up a bit, calming down from the exchange in the ranger station. They drove at length through the park. Neil pointed out various facilities for campers and tourists. The park was pristine and clean, suited for those who wanted to get away from the confines of the city but not too far away from basic creature comforts like showers and electricity.
The road abruptly turned to gravel and dust, the line of demarcation where Uncle Sam decided to halt his benevolence of road improvements. The trees grew thicker. Heavy pines and deciduous types with leaves on the run fought for space on the forest floor. The going was rough, even for the Explorer. They were on a winding road that circled through the thick woods. The campsites were more rudimentary in this portion of the park. There was plenty of room between the sites to allow for privacy. Down the stretch of road, the terrain began to change where a steep incline of rock rose into the sky. Below one of the bluffs was an abandoned site that looked as though it had not been used in weeks.
Neil pulled into the parking area of the site and cut the engine. He slouched back in his seat and stared out the windshield. Jarod knew where they were, and he knew why Case had brought him there.
The stand of trees was thick, creating a canopy of shadow against the strengthening sun. The air was damp with forest humidity that still clung to the branches. If someone wanted privacy, this was certainly the place to find it. The closest campsite was over fifty yards away from the bluffs.
"Right there," Neil said, nodding toward the rusted metal fire ring, "is where Officer Warren was shot and killed. She was thirty-two years old with a husband and a kid. Had one hell of a future ahead of her."
Jarod concentrated on the site, experiencing it in all its detail. His mind cataloged all the variables he saw. There were trees, hiding spots, a bluff high above them, places to run, places to hide. What he had read in the newspaper clippings was beginning to coalesce into the scene before him.
"What happened?" Jarod asked quietly.
Neil's stare was one of reverie as he stepped backwards in time to the night of the shooting. "College kids come back here to party because it's out of sight of our station. We had severe thunderstorms that night, lots of rain and lightning. The kids were drinking and getting as riled up as the weather was. Warren did a run through here to check on the sites because we've had some flooding in the past with the runoff from the bluffs."
Case paused and licked his dry lips, then continued. "The party was going at a pretty good clip. She got out to quiet them down and to let them know about the runoff. When she got up next to the fire ring, a sniper on the hill took his shot."
Jarod let a brief moment pass before he asked a question to which he already knew the answer. "Did you get the shooter?"
Neil head bobbed slightly in affirmation. "Yeah, we got him," he said softly. "Some nut from up state got a Rambo urge and decided to do a little uniform hunting. Said he figured a cruiser would show up eventually to the loudest party." His face became hard. "He lured Warren here like an animal and shot her."
Case turned toward Jarod. "That's why we don't respond to calls around here alone. You get me on that one, Greer?"
Jarod was somber. "Yes, sir, I get you."
Another beat of silence passed before Neil turned over the engine of the Explorer and turned it back onto the road. "Let's head back and get some coffee."
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At The Old Mill Stream Coffee Shop near the Broadkill River, Jarod sat in the Explorer while Neil ran inside for coffee. In the moment of privacy, the pretender took out a small red book and leafed through the contents.
The first page contained an article entitled, "RESERVE MOURNS LOSS OF OFFICER." Deborah Warren's picture lay alongside the words, accounting the facts of her job, her motherhood and her marriage. All had been robbed of existence by a man in the woods.
The second article read, "PARK SERVICE AWARDS MEDALS." One was given posthumously to Warren, and another was given to Neil Case for his work in capturing the gunman. The picture for the article was that of Case loading the suspect into the squad car. The author praised Neil's professionalism and tenacity in bringing a killer to justice and how proud the public could be of its servants.
Jarod closed the book and slipped it back into his briefcase. He was sure he was in the right place. He only hoped it was at the right time.