Death Comes in the Morning

  Chapter 51

  This new information hit me hard. I had to rethink my assumptions. New thoughts raced through my mind, all gelling in seconds. Jeff being alive and telling Allison I shot him and killed Enid meant Jeff was lying. He was the bad cop. I hadn’t expected that. Did that mean he was part of the opium operation with Gates?

  It must have shocked him that I had gotten so much information, yet he didn’t let it show. So he helped set up the ambush. He had played me well. His animosity toward me kept me off balance. He had to figure I would try to mend our relationship since I was dating his sister. Then he got in close, pretending to mend the fences between us, making me believe he was on my side. I had bought it all. I wanted it to be real, and that blind trust got me in deep trouble.

  I had so thoroughly convinced myself that Enid was the bad cop that I didn’t even consider other options. I was wrong. I screwed up. So Enid’s past association with the bounty hunters Joey Hammons and Ross Browne was just that, a past association. It was just history that I twisted into a misdirection that misled me.

  Allison said that the Sheriff and Jeff told her that I shot Enid and Jeff. So I still couldn’t trust the Sheriff either. On the morning of the ambush, Jeff called him to set up our meeting. Instead, it was probably a signal for the Sheriff to set up the ambush. So while we drove up to his cabin, the trap was set. The guy in the sedan and Jeff. And I drove right into it. So did Enid Powell.

  Enid might have just been following me, like he had done before. Jeff surely had not counted on that. That made it two against two. Enid was a big strong kid. He did not go down easily. Jeff got shot. But in the end, it cost Enid his life. It was not the plan. But as Gates said, they made it work for them. They improvised. They put the blame on me and made it work for them.

  I couldn’t just blurt out that her brother was lying. I had to take a gradual reasoned approach.

  “Allison, I don’t know what happened in the ambush. I was knocked unconscious. Jeff was shot. Maybe he can’t be certain about exactly what happened. But please believe me, I did not shoot anyone. What I told you about the ambush is true.”

  She didn’t say anything right away. I took that as a good sign.

  “Why did they take you to the valley?” she asked.

  I gave her the poppies that I had grabbed and stuffed in my pocket before I scrambled up the slope and out of the valley. Like the Afghan who escaped before me and died on Monarch Trail, I too carried out plant parts as my evidence.

  “This really is not the time for flowers,” she said with irritation.

  “But these aren’t just any flowers,” I said softly. I had to admit they were a bit shabby after my trek through the forest, but they were still recognizable. “A week ago I didn’t know anything about them. They’re why people are dying. Opium poppies.”

  “What?” her eyes widened in shock. “Someone is growing opium right here?” I could tell she now recognized them, the thick stem and the bulbous pod on the end. Many news reports about Afghanistan on TV cover the growing of poppies in that country. Pictures of the tall, thick-stemmed, bulbous-headed plants have appeared in the news many times over the past several years.

  “Yes. They took me to the valley to work in the poppy fields along with about 50 other prisoners.” I told her more about the valley, the fences, the row of graves, the soldiers, and the drug money that was their prize. She didn’t say anything. She just lowered her head as if in shame for her town. Or maybe she just could no longer look at me, a bold-faced liar.

  “Allison, I know this is all very difficult to believe. But it’s true.” I waited a few beats, and then repeated my earlier request. “I need to use your phone to call for help.”

  I didn’t recall seeing a land line in the house. She probably only had a cell phone. After a few seconds hesitation and without a word, she reached into her pocket and gently dropped her phone into my outstretched hand.

  “That won’t be necessary, Parker. Put the phone down.”