Mind's Eye - Part 6
Neil Case was idling in his car at the end of the road that led to site eighty-eight. Jarod pulled up next to him, rolling down the passenger window so they could speak.
"Glad you could make it, Greer," Case said gruffly, as though displeased with the amount of time it had taken Jarod to respond.
"Someone's putting traps on Carl Homer's property again," Jarod explained.
Neil nodded. "Yeah, I heard the call this morning. You get him squared away out there?"
"Yes, sir. He filed another report, and I'll do some checking later on today to see if I can find anything."
"Take care of him," Case admonished. "He's been a resident here for a long time. He's been good to the rangers when they've needed him."
"I'll do that," Jarod promised. "What's the situation here?"
Case looked impassive except for the steely look in his eyes that belayed total concentration. "The same thing it always is this time of year. Kids back near the bluffs getting out of control. Someone called in a complaint to the station. We're going to go quiet them down before it gets out of hand."
"Yes, sir."
"I want you to keep your eyes peeled, Greer. Sometimes, it can get out of hand if they've been drinking, which they probably have."
There was a moment of mental transmission between Jarod and Neil, as though Neil was admitting that Warren's death was too fresh in his mind to ignore the fear he felt. Jarod could not blame him. The trauma of that night must have been overwhelming.
Before Jarod could respond, Case slipped the cruiser into gear and pulled ahead down the road. Jarod followed, and they were soon at the site of the complaint. An immediate hush fell over seven people staying there. They were older, probably out of college but not old enough to have lost touch with those with whom they went to school. There was no way they could hide all the beer cans. Part of the fire ring had been used as a disposal where they were trying to melt the remains of the cans with a hot blaze.
Case stepped out of his vehicle and casually hitched up his equipment belt that held a nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistol. Various other accessories were attached to the belt, the kind of fare a cops needed on patrol. Jarod's was nearly the same, except Neil had taken the liberty of packing two spare magazines for his gun in addition to the two that would have been normally carried.
Together, they approached the quieted group. Neil's face was stony, exuding his authority loud and clear to them. "Howdy," he said in a clear voice. "What's going on back here today?"
A tall, lanky man stepped forward. He was the epitome of the California surfer – long hair, bleached by the sun, tan. He looked quite nervous to be addressed by Case. "Hi, officer. Were we too loud?"
Jarod detected a buried grin on Neil's face, perhaps because Neil was remembering when he was that age. "Well, seems the folks down the road came up here for some peace and quiet. They said all they been hearing all day is your party here. From the looks of it, I'd say you're having quite a serious one." He gave a nod toward the fire ring.
The surfer kid gave a glance back at the fire and winced. "Yeah," he said slowly, knowing they had been caught bringing alcohol into a national park. It was strictly against the rules.
Neil moved in closer to the throng. "You all have some ID?"
The leader prompted everyone to produce licenses proving their ages. "I promise there's no one underage here, sir," he said respectfully. "We're up here on a college reunion."
Neil and Jarod examined each and every license to make sure no one was lying. As Jarod had suspected, they were all in their late twenties, not too old yet to be out of the partying phase.
"You do know alcohol is not permitted in the park, correct?" Case asked, again using his authoritative voice.
No one answered, but it was clear they knew the rules.
"That leaves me with a little problem. I know you folks are having a good time, and no one wants to spoil that. On the other hand, I can't have you all disturbing other campers in the park and being stupid. And I'll tell you this," Case said, allowing a long pause for effect as he eyed each camper individually, ending with the surfer, "it would be a hell of a thing if we get called out here the rest of the weekend to quiet you folks down. If you all have college degrees, I suspect now would be the time to put that knowledge to use. Last time I checked, they did have classes on discretion at some of our finest universities."
The surfer looked as though he was processing Neil's words, reluctant to draw a verbal conclusion. Neil gave him no time to respond. He merely gave a half salute with a flick of his fingers and motioned for Jarod to follow.
When they were out of earshot of the group, Jarod asked, "You let them go? Aren't they in violation of the park's rules with the beer?"
Neil took a deep, satisfied breath and let it out slowly. "They're kids. We'll give them one more chance. As long as they're not acting stupid, I usually let it go. If they screw up, I throw the book at them. It's that discretion thing I was mentioning."
"I see," Jarod said, though he was still slightly confused. The rules were the rules, as far as he had ever known at the Centre. The idea of bending or even breaking them still felt foreign and wrong.
"Let's walk," Neil said as they neared the cruisers. "I've been sitting all day, and I need to stretch."
He turned onto the road, toward site ninety. Jarod felt a twinge of surprise, knowing full well from the day before that Neil was uncomfortable revisiting this part of the park.
"You ever go camping when you were a kid?"
"No, but I coordinated a bivouac for the 101st Airborne once."
Neil smiled, thinking it was a joke. "My dad used to take me and my brother up here when I was real young. We stayed in this very park, in fact. The way this part looks right now is the way it all used to be, rugged and wide open. That was before the city folk decided to pave paradise and put up a parking lot."
"Does your father still come up here?"
"No, he and my mother passed on when I was about nine or so. Car accident."
"And your brother?"
Neil smiled fondly, but it quickly faded. "We were separated after my parents died. I never saw him again."
Their shoes kicked up the gravel as they walked, making a crunching sound beneath sturdy boots. They reached the site at the end of the road. Neil shoved his hands into his pockets and surveyed it carefully.
"Mildred said you were asking about this place this morning."
Jarod folded his arms in front of him. "I'm sorry. I hope you weren't offended."
"No, I wasn't, Greer," Neil answered wearily. "It's just that this place holds my worst nightmare. Warren loved her job, and this is where it all ended."
"It wasn't your fault, sir," Jarod comforted. "There was nothing you could have done."
Neil's vision was seeing a memory. "That's what they tell me, but it doesn't change the fact that she hit the call alone. Maybe I would have been able to save her. Maybe I would have seen the shooter before he got one off."
Jarod wanted to ease Neil's pain, but it seemed so terrible that he was not sure anyone could ever say the words that would make it all just a bad memory.
"When I was working poacher patrols," he said, "the hunters would do whatever it took to blend into the terrain. Sometimes, the only way we could find them was to track their footprints. Stoltz was a hunter. I don't think anyone would have seen him that night."
Neil seemed surprised by Jarod's knowledge of the case file but did not comment. His eyes swept over the site and up the bluff in a darting motion that made Jarod realize it was an alerted gaze.
Case remained calm, but his senses were at full status. "We're being watched," he said quietly. "On the rocks, two o'clock, about forty feet up."
Jarod casually brought his sight up the outcroppings until he saw what Neil saw. It was a man in woodland camouflage, standing very still and observing them. "I see him. What do you want to do?"
"I suppose shooting him from here is out of the question?" Neil joked, though it was more sarcasm than humor.
"I'll circle around and see if I can head him off," Jarod said.
Neil agreed. "And I might as well go see what that fella wants. He seems pretty interested in us. See you on the other side, Greer."
Casually, Case stepped forward and headed in the direction of the man on the bluffs while Jarod worked his way to the side where he had a chance of cutting off the mystery man's escape route. The moment the man detected Neil approaching, he bolted from his observation place.
Neil was like an agile animal as he scaled the ledges of the bluff toward the man's path. Jarod made good time, but he was nowhere near as nimble as Case in climbing. Their suspect had a good fifty feet of running distance ahead of both men by the time they reached the flatter areas of the bluff. Large trees anchored themselves to the boulders brought down by glaciers thousands of years earlier. The man dodged in and out of them, putting even more distance between him and his would-be captors. Neil put up a fight, and he might have even caught up except that he tripped on a tree root, which sent him flailing forward to the ground.
Jarod saw him fall face forward and ran over to check on him.
"Dammit!" Neil yelled. His voice echoed in the forest as he watched his suspect disappear into the heavy woods.
"Captain, are you all right?" Jarod hollered as he approached.
"Yeah, I'm all right, Greer," Case said with disgust, prone and resting his weight on his elbows. "I'm just fine." With that, began to stand.
At the very last moment, Jarod spotted the trap in the thicket where Neil was about to place a foot. "Captain!" he cried and pulled Neil bodily away from the danger.
"What the hell, Greer?" Neil bellowed, pushing Jarod away from him and brushing dirt off the front of his own uniform.
Jarod turned around and picked up a branch, shoving it into the brush. A loud snap made Neil jump. The sound was unmistakable. He had nearly stepped into one of the claw traps. Neil looked at it in disbelief, realizing he had almost stepped on it.
"I - I don't know what to say, Greer. I'm sorry."
"It's all right, sir. I'm just glad one of us saw it in time." Jarod felt shaken at the thought of what could have happened.
Case wiped away the sweat on his forehead. "Looks like Carl's trappers are moving into national land."
"It would look that way," Jarod agreed. "On the bright side, we can prosecute under federal law now if we find them."
"Yeah, you're right, assuming we ever find them. Let's head back to the station so I can change into some clean clothes. We'll have Mildred order some lunch."
Neil turned and left Jarod in his wake. It was clear the park's commanding officer was beyond mad at losing his suspect. More than once on the way back to the cruisers, he kicked a fallen tree in frustration. Jarod kept a certain distance, lest Case mistake his leg for a tree trunk.
He thought about how perceptive Neil was to see the man standing on the bluff, especially one in camouflage. Jarod had nearly missed what had Neil had seen. That only reinforced what he had suspected from Centre DSA records – Neil was one of the children.