Becks Takes A Vacation

CHAPTER FIVE

Becks and Sue spent most of the afternoon talking about her job as an investigator and the kind of jobs she'd worked so far, and then they shifted to some of the more memorable stories that Sue had worked on.

Each was impressed by what the other had done. Becks' jaw dropped a couple of times when Sue talked about some of the things she's seen and done on some of those stories. Especially one of the Pulitzer Prize winning stories. Of course Sue didn't tell Becks quite everything.

They had picked at the food on the table as they talked, until finally they decided to put what was left in the refrigerator and put away the utensils. By the time they finished the sun had slid far enough toward the western horizon that the shadows caused by the house had pretty much faded away.

They each grabbed another beer and went outside to walk along the edge of the tree line around her cabin. The breeze had died down and the warmth of the afternoon hadn't quite dissipated yet. They were comfortable in their light jackets.

Suddenly Sue put her arm out and stopped Becks in her tracks. Sue pointed off to their right.

"Sssh, look over there." Becks followed the direction of Sue's finger.

Just a few yards into the trees was a mother doe, and her young fawn, munching on leaves from some bushes.

Sue smiled. "That young one must have been born this past spring." Sue glanced at the city girl. "Deer tend to move around the most just after the sunrise, or just before the sunset. That's usually when they are about feeding."

Becks grinned. "They're so cute!"

Sue nodded. "Yeah, but you don't want to ever corner one of them. Those legs can kick pretty hard." Just then the mother doe noticed she had admirers and swiftly sprinted off deeper into the forest. Junior followed quickly after. Both ladies just laughed.

They made their way back to the cabin and sat on the stairs to the porch. Becks took another deep breath of the cool clean air, then looked over at Sue. Sue could tell she had something on her mind.

"Sue, I know you don't spend all that much time up here."

"As much as I'm able." She said.

Becks nodded. "I'll bet. But I went out for a drive yesterday and I ran across something that seemed a bit… off. It might just be the cop in me, but it lacked the innocence I would have expected."

Sue looked at her guest with a frown on her face. "What was it?"

"I had pulled over to… deal with something." Sue grinned as she guessed what Becks had needed to 'deal' with. "And I heard a couple of motors coming closer. It was a couple of guys on big ATVs. They came roaring up, and then stopped in a small clearing about thirty feet in front of me."

Becks blushed. "I didn't want them to see me, so I hid behind the trunk of a tree and watched them. They both got off of their machines and pulled off their helmets. They were just a couple of younger guys, probably in their twenties. The ATVs were pretty big and powerful looking, and both were towing a sizable trailer behind them."

"That's not unusual up here. There are a lot of folks who'll joy ride where ever there is solid ground." Sue nodded toward the forest.

"Yeah, but these guys seemed lost." She ran her hand through her hair. "They pulled out a map and had a loud discussion about where they were and where they were supposed to be."

Sue chuckled. "That's also not unusual. Especially if they weren't all that familiar with where they were riding."

Becks shook her head. "But that's just it. They didn't sound like a couple of guys out for an afternoon joyride. The way they talked and the way they acted, just made me feel like they weren't on the up and up."

"What makes you think that?"

Becks stared off toward the trees, then back to Sue. "They talked about meeting up with someone, and the boss would be angry if they were late. But most of all it was those two big trailers they were hauling behind them. I could only think that wherever and whoever they were going to meet, it was to give them whatever was in those trailers."

Sue nodded. "Okay, that makes sense. But why do you think that there was something off about it?"

Becks spread her hands. "I've been a cop a long time. They just looked and sounded like a couple of flunkies making some illicit delivery." Becks shrugged. "I don't know about such things, but is there… like an illegal fur trade up here?"

Sue shrugged. "I've never been a hunter so I have no idea when the various hunting seasons actually are, but I suppose that there could be something like that, but it's highly unlikely."

"Why?"

Sue pursed her lips. It was something that she did as she organized her thoughts. "Well first off, most commercially used furs are farmed furs. I can't say I know a lot about it, but all over the world there are bans, legislated regulations, and a lot of pressure by humane agencies against the natural fur trade."

"Well, wouldn't that encourage illegal dealings in furs?" Becks asked.

She shrugged. "It might. But from what I've seen, and I can't say I am any sort of expert on the subject. The main argument could be as simple as, real fur has not been all that popular for several years now. The stigma attached to fur farms and wild trapping has made real fur unpopular in a lot of cases."

Becks harrumphed. "Well, whatever was in those trailers, I find it hard to believe that it was completely on the up and up."

"Well, if that was so it's fortunate that they didn't see your vehicle on the side of the road." Sue added.

Becks looked sheepish. "I never thought of that. They must have been focused on where they had to go to get where they needed to be."

They sat in silence for a while, just enjoying the peaceful quiet of the coming night.

Becks noticed some motion from the corner of her eye. She glanced off toward a thick copse of evergreens. It was already pretty dark, but she thought she saw something slinking through the trees. She couldn't discern a shape but it seemed pretty big.

Sue noticed Becks diverted attention. "What's up?"

Becks pointed in the direction she had thought she sighted whatever it was. "I thought I saw something moving back in those woods."

"You don't think it might have been Guy coming back from his walk do you?" Becks was mildly confused by Sue speaking louder than normal when she said that.

"No, it was just a black blob of shadow, but it didn't seem upright like a person would walk. It must have been some sort of animal because it was more horizontal in shape."

Sue shrugged. "It might have been a wolf that had strayed away from its pack, or been driven out."

"A wolf!" Becks' eyes got big.

Sue chuckled. "Could be. They've been known to be seen around the area now and again. You know that Ely, which isn't far from here, is the home of the International Wolf Center, or whatever they call it."

Becks nodded. "Yeah, I read that somewhere, but I didn't expect to see them wandering around where I was going to be."

Sue just ducked her head and smiled. "Well, wolves are mostly nocturnal, and about now they would be out on the prowl. Usually they stay away from known places where there are humans."

Becks gave her a look. "Well you're not exactly in some developed neighborhood. I don't think I saw a building of any kind in the last few miles that I drove to get here."

Sue grinned. "And that's why I like it." Sue appeared to be thinking. "It might have been a small black bear. They might have caught a whiff of our luncheon."

Becks glared at the look on Sue's face. "You're just doing this to freak me out, aren't you."

Sue shrugged, but she had a big smile on her face.

"Good evening ladies."

Becks nearly jumped out of her skin. Her attention shot over toward the edge of the cabin as the silhouette of a tall figure came around the corner. He walked up to them.

"I'm sorry to have surprised you. I thought I made enough noise as I approached."

Becks could now see that it was Sue's friend Guy. The man who supposedly had been out 'for a walk' most of the day.

Sue was giving him the evil eye. "You did that on purpose, didn't you." Sue admonished.

Guy chuckled. His voice was a soothing baritone. He sat on the steps next to Sue.

Sue cocked her head toward him. "So, did you have a pleasant walk in the woods?"

He nodded. "It was very nice. I saw some interesting things, but not everything I hoped to have been able to see."

"Oh really?" Sue raised her brow.

Guy just shook his head. "Yes, it seems that what I was hoping to find was even farther away than I had expected."

Becks frowned. "You've been out all day long. What were you hoping to find?"

Sue looked over at Becks, then back at Guy, then she stared off into the forest. She reached over and grabbed Guy's hand. "I think we should tell Becks what we're up to. I think she might be able to provide us with some helpful insight."

Guy gave his head a single nod in acquiescence to Sue's desires.

Sue stood up. "Let's go in the cabin and make a fire. It's starting to cool off." Sue looked at Becks. "I have some things to tell you."

The three of them all went into the cabin and set about their individual tasks. Guy moved over to the fireplace and began to get a fire going in the large firebox. Sue went into the kitchen and took out the leftovers from earlier and used them to create a plate of snacking foods. She also started an old fashion 'pot' of coffee. Becks wandered over and looked at the book titles that sat on Sue's bookshelf. She grinned when she saw a couple of Nikki Heat books.

By the time the fire was going strong, and the coffee was ready, Sue had all the finger foods presented on what appeared to be a rolling tea cart. She had some plates for everyone to use to get their food, and cups for the coffee if wanted.

Sue parked the cart behind the middle chair of the three, quickly grabbed some food as a signal that it was okay to eat. She took her plate and set it on the side table near her chair.

Becks filled a plate, and poured herself a cup of coffee and took them with her over the chair to the left of the fireplace. Guy just made a quick sandwich and stuffed it into his mouth as he moved over to the recliner.

They all sat in silence staring at the fire as they ate. The crackle of the fire somehow heightened the silence in the rest of the cabin. By now it was fully dark out, and the gentle breeze that had blown all day had faded to less than a whisper.

After a few more minutes of peace, Sue finally broke the silence. Sue turned toward Becks.

"I might have mislead you a bit when we first ran into each other the other day." Sue took a sip from her cup. "You see, though this is a vacation home for me, I'm not really here on a vacation."

Becks raised her brow. "Yeah, I've been getting that vibe."

Sue nodded, while Guy leaned back in the recliner and closed his eyes. "When you told me about those two fellows that you saw pulling trailers behind their ATVs I knew they had to be part of what I came up here for."

She sighed. "No good journalist is ever a one man or woman band. They have friends, friends all over the world who tell them things. Friends that have the curiosity and the intellect to see something and realize it probably isn't what it seems to be. When they do, they pass the information on to me in case I might be interested in looking into it."

Becks pushed some hair behind her ear. "Kind of like what I told you about those guys I saw yesterday. They fit in with what you are looking into?"

Sue tapped her nose. "If it smells like a skunk, it probably is a skunk." She emptied her cup of coffee. "A few weeks back I got some calls from some people I know who live up in this part of the state. They mentioned to me that there had been a lot more ATV type traffic zipping around than normal. And it had been going on for several months. All the way back into this past winter. The snowmobiles running around were more numerous then they'd seen in a long time."

Sue chomped on a carrot stick. "So I did some checking with people in the know about such things up here. When we met at the Antler Inn, I had finished talking to a county sheriff about a half an hour earlier. She mentioned that she'd been getting more ATV nuisance complaints than she had in years past."

Sue leaned forward in her chair, her hands folded in front of her. "So yesterday after we left you at the Inn, I drove out into some of the real wilderness north of here to visit with Joseph Grey Bear, a full-blooded native Ojibwa, or Chippewa if you prefer. He lives in a small cabin further up north. Just him and his companion. A large Timber Wolf that he raised from a pup named Jocko. It might have been Jocko you saw tonight. He sometimes wanders down this way, but left when he saw I wasn't alone."

Becks eyes got wide, but before she could say anything Guy interrupted.

"No, that was me." Becks' gaze shot over to the relaxed man in the recliner across the small room.

"What!" Becks managed to choke out. She was really confused now. She was sure that the dark shadow she'd seen earlier was too short and too wide to be Guy wandering around in the woods. Wasn't it?

And what was this about Sue having an American Indian friend who just happened to have a pet wolf? Maybe New York wasn't so crazy after all.

While Becks mind was having trouble collating all that she'd just heard Sue pushed on.

"Anyway, before I was interrupted." She glared at Guy who just grinned. "Yesterday I went and dropped in on Joseph and Jocko. But he wasn't home. They both were probably out for a walk. That man goes out for more walks in the woods than even Guy does, and that's a lot."

Sue got up and pushed the tea cart back into the kitchen. She spoke while she was putting away whatever was left of the food, which wasn't much.

"It isn't that snowmobile and ATV activity has increased is in itself all that concerning. That kind of outdoor adventuring has been growing every year. It's just that it has become more noticeable up here in this area."

"Why is that concerning then?" Becks got up and began to make another pot of coffee.

Sue stared at her. "Because there's nothing up here. Once you get a few miles north of here, there isn't hardly a town our community anywhere. You have to move further west toward Ely before you see bits of civilization again. Or head east back toward the North Shore." Sue swung her arm around. "That's why I came up here in the first place."

Sue paced around the kitchen table. "I came up here myself to see what I could find out. And after you told me about that run in you had with those two boys who talked about making some deliveries I knew that something rotten was going on.

Becks leaned against the sink. "But what? What is going on if it isn't illegal fur trading or something like that?"

Sue captured Becks eyes with her own pale blues. "Think about it. What would be profitable enough to be have dozens of mules running around northern Minnesota in their all-terrain vehicles consistently?"

Becks scowled. "Normally I'd say drugs. But where would they get their drugs to move? From what I know, most of that shit is grown south of the border. That's why all the drug enforcement efforts tend to concentrate on the drugs trying to cross the border between the U.S. and Mexico."

Sue nodded. "True, but what if there was a source up here somewhere. Maybe there is a source in the upper reaches of northern Minnesota where the average population is about one person for every square mile. Or maybe they take advantage of the longest undefended border in the world between two countries and the source is in Canada. It's just as wild and empty just across the border as it is here."

Becks began pacing also. Guy just shook his head at both of them.

"So, I can buy into your isolation advantage." Becks tucked more hair behind her ear. "But even if there was some sort of source up here, what's the advantage. There's only what, four or five million people in all of Minnesota. Not really the best market."

Sue held up her finger. "Ah, but you are looking at it the wrong way. It isn't about the local market. It's all about the access to distribution."

Becks shook her head. "I'm not following."

Sue was nodding to herself. "Think about it. If you are bringing product into the states from somewhere remote, you need a way to get it to your customers." Sue poured herself a cup of coffee that had recently finished brewing. "One thing that Minnesota has is two main methods of moving something. First, since you are already near a major sea route. If you can manage a way to get your product on a Laker ship, you can run it all the way to the east coast, or many points in between. Overland, you have Interstate 35 that splits the country in two. You can hop on I35 and drive all the way to Texas and the gulf."

Becks was impressed with Sue's scenario. It was well thought out given the coincidental information she had to build her theory. But it sort of made since. All except, where did the product originate from.

"So," Becks began. "You think there is some sort of operation hidden up her amongst the trees and the lakes that is producing the drugs and then being shipped east and south to their customer base."

Sue nodded. "That's my work in process model."

Becks frowned. "I don't know much about Minnesota, or Canada for that matter. But I do know it's too damn cold much of the year to have a poppy farm up here."

Sue nods her head in agreement. "That's true, but who says it has to be grown outside?"

The light bulb suddenly goes off in Becks' head. She lets her head fall back as she rolls her eyes. "Are you suggesting that someone is raising their product in some sort of giant greenhouse type complex?"

Sue spreads her hands out. "That is my thought. I asked some people I know in drug enforcement and they told me some numbers that I don't have at the tip of my fingers at the moment. But I was told that under controlled conditions, tons of heroin poppies could be grown in a climate controlled greenhouse the size of a football field."

Becks paled a bit. "So all they would have to worry about is camouflage against fly over planes."

Sue paced again. "That's my thought. But really, I have to find this place if it does exist to prove my theory. Once I do, then we can figure out how they manage to keep themselves under the radar, so to speak."

Becks walks back to the chair she has been sitting in. The immensity of what Sue theorized had figuratively taken her breath away. Could something so bold really work?

Her experience with the drug trade came tangentially from murders that she had investigated that touched the drug trade. It was her experience that there were no standard models of how drugs moved or were sold. She tended to see more of the street side of that business rather than the big organizations feeding the curse and raking in the obscene amounts of money the illicit industry raked in.

As she sat back down in the chair she turned to the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. She just knew that if this was now on her radar, she was going to follow it to whatever ends it led to.

"Would you by any chance want some help finding this secret product greenhouse?"

Sue smiled. "I didn't invite you over to try and con you into helping me out on this. I wouldn't have even mentioned it if you hadn't told me about those two possible couriers you ran across." Sue reached over and grabbed her hand. "I appreciate the offer, but you're on a much deserved and needed vacation. You should enjoy it."

Becks leaned back and looked at the ceiling. "You said you worked with Kate and Rick about five years ago?"

Sue nodded. "Yes, it was about that. They were a couple but they were keeping in on the down low." Sue laughed. "From what I could see, I don't think it was ever a big secret."

Becks laughed. "Yeah, that's the impression I got too, when they told me how they got together." Becks blushed faintly. "Well actually, I got most of my information on their relationship progression from Kate's best friend Lanie." Becks rolled her eyes. "So, after working with them for a few days, did you ever get the impression that vacations were a big part of Kate's to do lists?"

Sue chuckled. "No, I found Kate Beckett a driven person. I don't know if she ever took a vacation before she started going out with Rick."

"I do." Becks said. "And no she didn't. At least not until the captain forced her to."

Sue kept smiling. "So is there a relative point to this?"

Becks nodded. "Yes there is. I asked Rick for a vacation because I just needed to get away from everything for a while and relax. That's why I picked coming out here. I thought that it would be peaceful and relaxing. And it was. And I've enjoyed visiting the state parks, and driving around looking at the beautiful scenery over the last two days."

Becks chewed her bottom lip. "I've been granted a two week vacation and I've been here two days." Becks frowned at her fingers which were twisting around each other.

Becks looked over at Sue. "The truth is… I'm bored."

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A/N: While it might take me another day or two to be bored up North I guess a native New Yorker might be used to other types of rest and relaxation. What do you think? Do you think that Sue will invite Becks into her investigation? (If she doesn't, this story will be severely shortened).

All Readers are Appreciated, Review if you wish.