Chapter 37
“This is Jeff.”
I had considered again calling the Sheriff, but figured that was useless. I couldn’t call Deputy Powell. So that left Jeff. While we had not gotten off to a good start in our relationship, we were now civil to each other and improving. And he was a receptive audience.
“Jeff, can we talk? Now?” I asked urgently.
“What’s so urgent?”
“It has to do with what we talked about earlier, the fence in the forest. I have some new information. You really need to see this. We need to talk. I want to get your advice on what to do next,” I pleaded.
“I’m already on patrol a long way from Willow Run. I’ll be on duty until 6 tonight. Can’t it wait?” he questioned.
“No, it can’t wait. When can we meet?”
He sighed loudly as if he regretted getting tangled up with me. I was a burden pressed upon on him by his meddling sister. Then he relented. “I’ll stop by as soon as I can. It might be a couple of hours, though.”
“OK,” I said. It was a long time to wait, but I felt there was no choice.
“And if it’s so important,” Jeff added, “Please don’t call Joseph Custer about it. OK?”
“No problem,” I conceded as I rang off. Besides, I couldn’t even find Joseph Custer. But waiting was going to be a problem. I felt as if the information could not possibly be contained inside me. I was boiling over with excitement. The days of fumbling around in Willow Run and the National Forest had finally all come together. I wanted to scream to the whole world that I had value, that I was back, that I had been right.
I could just call the feds anonymously, as Ed had suggested. But this was happening right in the backyard of Willow Run. It was only right to alert the locals first.
Jeff was the right one to tell. He sounded a bit annoyed with me, but that would change soon enough, as soon as I laid out all the information for him. Jeff could then alert the proper authorities, whether they are county, state, or federal. Bring in the cavalry and clean up the valley. He would have the contacts for that.
While I was juiced up by all of these pieces of information coming together, I also wanted to get it over with. My stomach was in knots knowing all this and not being able to share it. I tried to write, but couldn’t focus beyond putting down in outline form what I had just learned. I fidgeted and paced the room. Finally I just left and took a walk. There was an open field behind the motel, with the creek running along its edge. I headed in that direction.
I always found that hiking alone was a way for me to think. I could still enjoy the outdoors, but my mind was working, often without even trying to focus on the problem. It would just naturally wander there.
I wondered what was the connection, when and where was the point of intersection, between the AWOL soldiers and my suspected rogue citizens of Willow Run: Ranger Andrew Pine and Deputy Enid Powell. I already had a connection between Enid and his old bounty hunter buddies, who were among the AWOL soldiers. As for Pine, I had no connection. I made a mental note to add that to my discussion with Jeff. We could cross-check the names on the AWOL list with Andrew Pine, looking at high school, college, previous jobs, anywhere.
But then I considered another possibility. Coercion. Even though I had only talked with Ranger Pine once, he did not seem to be the criminal type. He seemed too prissy, wound too tight. But he might be convinced to cooperate. Allison said his wife Edith left him suddenly a year ago. What if she didn’t leave him, but was instead taken as hostage to force him to help? That made a lot of sense. Get the ranger to be compliant with their needs in the National Forest. If that was the case, then there was a high degree of urgency. There might be a hostage to rescue. If Pine was being coerced, his wife must still be alive to keep him cooperative. I was glad then that my call to Jeff had impressed upon him that this was important.
All that had happened since I arrived in this town a week ago raced through my wandering mind. I didn’t come here for this, but it all found a way to me. The body on the trail, the fortress in the forest, the missing Mrs. Pine, the hasty departures of Cortina Perez and Joseph Custer, the Afghan prisoner, the AWOL soldiers, the opium poppy farming. It was all connected. While the phrase conspiracy theory was overused, I suspected that was precisely what was going on here. A conspiracy to use forced labor to produce opium. I had to act on it because there were crimes being committed. But I also had to do it for my own salvation. I needed this to heal my shattered confidence. My sense of worth, of having a purpose, was still alive in me.
There was something else, though, that bothered me. If Cortina and Joseph went missing because my probing had made them unwitting victims, then why was I still roaming around free? It seemed Cortina and Joseph could disappear without a lot of fuss being made. They had no family here. While their absences from work were noticed, no one seemed to be worried about it. And no one seemed to be really trying to find them either. So maybe they were easily expendable.
Then I should be expendable too. I had no family ties here. I didn’t even have any work that would make my disappearance noticed. After all, I was an unemployed drifter. And if they had gotten rid of me early enough, the disappearances of Cortina and Joseph would not have been necessary.
Then again, maybe me disappearing was more complicated for them to pull off. I was an ex-cop. Even ex-cops usually had connections with lots of other police officers. I had Ed Garvey. OK, so I didn’t have a lot, but they didn’t know that. I also had the connection to Allison, a cop’s sister, though that had not progressed to a strong bond until just in the past couple of days. I would be missed, at least I hoped. Regardless, messing with a cop, and likely even with an ex-cop, might be risky business. It mobilizes those in blue to defend their brethren. I had seen that happen many times.
Then a thought occurred to me. I had been pursuing the bounty hunter and Hispanic angles pretty much from the start. Those were mis-directions of my own creation. And everyone knew about them because of the active gossip wire in Willow Run. Enid Powell and the guys in the valley might have liked those scenarios. Let me run myself ragged looking for links to bounty hunters and Hispanics. Those took the focus away from what was actually happening. They might have found that amusing.
Then again, maybe I was still walking around because they had some other plan for me, how to deal with me, something more sinister in mind. Well, if they know about me and what I’d learned, then bring it on. Let’s get it out in the open and finish it.
While I was juiced up by all this, I was also feeling frustrated. I found the evidence, but felt hemmed in by my lack of standing. If I was an employed cop, there were avenues of investigation that could be followed because I would have a connection to the system and access to resources. Ed Garvey had been my only source, and now I had already pushed our relationship to the breaking point.
I couldn’t wait for Jeff to arrive, even though it would only be a couple of hours. I had to keep driving this investigation. I decided to have a conversation with Andrew Pine. Now.