Caching Out (20 page)

Tate
had just turned out of the diner parking lot when his cell phone rang. Seeing
that it was Martin, he pulled off to the side of the road to take the call. “Echo
here.”

“Tate,
I just got a call from a deputy on patrol, they found Walt and it’s bad. Can
you meet me out on County Road 2214?  That’s the road that borders the Res on
the northern end.”

“On
my way. Who found him?”

“Gary
Barnes found him while doing regular patrol. My team only runs that road a
couple times a week because it’s so isolated. I already told him to hold off
calling the coroner until we take a look and he’s working to secure the scene
now.”

Tate
put the SUV into gear and eased back on the road, glancing at Emma as he
continued to listen to Martin.

“Barnes
says that it appears to be a homicide, and from the description it’s the same
bastard.”

Tate
hung up and quickly relayed the details to Emma. There was little traffic in
town today with almost everyone out looking for Walt or in the diner. Slowing,
Tate turned the SUV onto County Road 2214 and picked up speed on the bumpy dirt
track bordering the Reservation. A tunnel of white dust billowed behind the SUV,
announcing his arrival.

Fifteen
minutes later, Martin, Tate and Emma stood looking at down at Walt Mabry’s
crumpled and mutilated body. Squatting in front of the dead man Tate blurted,
“Why an old man?  He’s changed victim types three times now. We’ve got to find
this son of a bitch.” 

Moving
to stand at the end of Walt’s truck, Emma turned to face Tate when a flash of
light caught her eye. Moving slowly so as not to disturb anything at the scene,
Emma quickly slid a latex glove on, stooped and picked up a piece of glass from
the ground. Turning she held it up to the sunlight. “Take a look at this.”

“What
is it?” Tate made his way to where Emma stood at the end of the truck.

“Not
sure, but it looks like a camera lens. How would something like that get out
here?” Tate also slid on a glove and took the broken glass from Emma, holding it
between his thumb and forefinger to examine it.

“Tag
and bag it. We’ll let the guys at County Lab tell us exactly what it is and
then determine if it has any significance.” Turning to Martin he continued, “Any
sign of the dog, Martin?  I’m wondering how someone got close enough to hurt Walt
with King around.”

“Yeah,
he was in the cab of the truck. Poor old guy was pretty dehydrated. I had
Barnes pull him out the passenger side and give him some water then we loaded
him into the patrol car with the air running. Wore out as he was, me and Barnes
still had hell putting him to the car. He kept trying to get to Walt.” 

Emma
peered into the passenger side window without touching the truck, and said, “Looks
like he did a fair job of trying to get out, the windows are covered with what
I can only assume is dried dog slobber and there are deep scratches on the top
of both doors and below the rear window. Too bad he wasn’t able to get free.”

Martin
pointed down the road at a cloud of dust. “Looks like the CSU team is on the
way in.” He turned to his deputy. “Barnes, take King over to Doc Wells and have
him checked out. Go ahead and ask him to keep King until Jewel can be notified.
Be sure you go in the back way so that the whole town doesn’t know.” 

Gesturing
to the three member crime team climbing out of their van, he continued. “We’ll
finish up here and then I’ll come back to the office before I call Jewel. Do
not
let this leak out to anyone before I get a chance to call Jewel in and tell
her.”

“You
got it, Sheriff.”

One
of the men from the Crime Scene Unit called out, “Sheriff, I’m pretty sure I
have the murder weapon here. Take a look at this rock. There’s dried blood,
hair and some other matter stuck to it. Seems consistent with his head wound.” 

Martin
nodded, “Bag it up and get it over to the county lab, Jeff. Try to keep it intact
and dry.” 

Martin
watched the second man of the team as he dusted the outside of the truck for
prints. “Be sure you get the inside of the truck too, Matt.”  Without looking
away from his work, the man acknowledged Martin’s request with a nod.

Opening
the passenger side of the truck, Tate surveyed the cab for anything out of
place then bent to take a look under the seat. That’s when he noticed the
hand-held GPS device laying in the floor. Pulling a paper napkin from his
pocket, Tate retrieved the GPS with one hand and hit the power button with the
gloved hand to preserve any evidence. Dead. Turning he motioned the female
member of the team over and said, “Once you three are through dusting this I’d
like to see what data is entered on it. Battery’s dead now, but I think it may
give us some insight as to what Walt was doing out here.” 

The
tech nodded, pulled a large bag out and slid the device inside. With a black
sharpie she noted the time, date and place on a square paper label attached to
the bag then moved to place the item in her holding box.

Drawing
Martin outside the yellow crime scene tape and away from the primary evidence
bearing area, Tate pointed to the cruiser’s tire prints in the dirt road. “Walt
went missing three days ago and we had rain four days ago and while it may have
washed away any foot or shoe prints, tire tracks usually leave a rut in dirt
roads like this, especially after a rain.”  He pointed to the deep ruts behind Walt’s
truck. “I don’t see any ruts or tire prints leading up to this point or going
forward other than those made by Walt’s truck. Doesn’t appear that anyone has
traveled this road from the time that Walt stopped here until Barnes came
through on rounds.” 

Martin
looked closer, “Yeah, I would agree with that. So you’re saying that our killer
walked up here? Hell, it’s at least four miles from the highway to this point.
If he was walking, maybe Walt passed him or even stopped to give him a ride.” 

Tate
scanned the other side of the road to the dense copse of trees. “Or just maybe,
he was already here. The question would now be did he come down from the hills
on Reservation property, or did he cross the road from the woods over there?”

 “Why
either one?” Martin puzzled. This is just about the most isolated spot on the Reservation.
I can’t imagine what someone would have had to maneuver around if they came
across Res land, and they would have had to cross on foot because no car could
make it through all the rocks and ravines.” 

Tate
moved toward the road. “I agree. It’s more likely that our UnSub came from the
woods. ”

Motioning
Emma over, they all crossed the dirt road and pushed their way into the thick pine
and cedar trees on the opposite side of the road from where Walt’s body still
lay. Their footsteps were silenced by the thick covering of pine needles carpeting
the ground.

Martin
was the first to speak as they entered the woods. “We know that this is the
same guy that killed the other two victims, and you think he sat here waiting
for someone to show up so that he could kill them?  That doesn’t make a bit of
sense. Hell, this is an isolated area; it could have been weeks before anyone
other than Barnes came down this road.”

“I
don’t think he was going to sit around and wait for someone to come down the
road. I think he knew that someone would come. Whether he knew it would be Walt
or not is another matter. Keep an eye out for signs of a camp site.”

Stopping,
Martin looked incredulously at Tate. “You’re not making sense to me. How could
the killer know that someone would come?”

Tate
replied, “Martin, I’m betting that Walt was out here looking for a geocache. Jewel
gave him a GPS just a couple days ago and he had it with him.”

Breaking
in, Emma confirmed, “This is a cache site. I found it under a group of rocks
not twenty feet from where Walt is now. It’s also on my list. There have been
four recent finds here, maybe that’s how the killer knew that someone would
show up. He monitors activity on the geocaching website and then picks an
active site.”

Tate
nodded, “Let’s see if we can find any sign of our UnSub.”

Walking
further into the dense woods, Tate scanned a clearing near the creek. He noticed
a dark spot on the ground twenty yards up and on the other side of the small
stream. Crossing the water, he made his way toward what he suspected was the
remains of a campfire.

Tate
called out to Martin and Emma then pointed at the charred ground. “I’m pretty
sure our UnSub camped here.” As Martin joined him, Tate studied the surrounding
ground and trees. “Doesn’t appear that he set up any kind of shelter, no tent
and probably not a tree tarp.” 

Martin
looked at Tate, perplexed, “How do figure that Tate?” 

Tate
pointed, “No holes in the ground that would have been needed to stake a tent,
no holes in the trees that would indicate a tarp. Nothing but a fire ring. He
must be familiar with roughing it because not too many people are going to camp
in these woods without some sort of shelter for protection from not only the
weather but the wildlife.”

“This
area of woods backs up to the State Park,” Martin reminded. Maybe we should go
over and take a look at who registered for the last week or so. Maybe our perp
came in that way and then got off the park property. Why don’t you take a ride
over there and check out the registrations while I go back to town? I’ve got to
talk to Jewel before anyone else lets this leak.” 

 “I
know it’s going to be a hard conversation with Jewel,” Tate said, “but if you
can get any questions in, try to find out if she loaded any cache sites in his
GPS. I don’t know if Walt has a computer, but he never struck me as the technological
type. We’ve already got the registration logs from the Lodge and I’ll do a
cross match to see if any of the campers on their log match up with anyone who
came through the State Park in the last month or so.”

“I’ll
give you a call after I’ve talked to Jewel, but I can tell you that Walt did
have a computer. Jewel gave it to him a couple years ago at Christmas. Don’t
know that he ever got the hang of using it, but he did have access if he wanted
it.”

Leaving
the woods, Tate and Emma slid into the SUV as Martin stopped to brief the CSU
team on their plans, letting them know that he expected a full report before
the end of the day. At the highway crossroads, Tate and Emma turned left toward
the State Park and Martin turned right, going back to town to speak with Jewel.

When
Martin reached the station, the first person he saw was Curtis Weston from the
Pine Ridge Daily.

Weston
stepped forward, “Martin, is it true that your team just brought Walt Mabry
in?  What happened to him, heart attack?” 

 “Weston,
go back to your office and let me do my job,” Martin said as he attempted to
brush by the reporter. I am not going to talk to you or anyone else until I
talk with Jewel. You were friends with Walt and I’m asking you to put that
friendship first and leave this alone for now. As soon as details can be
released, I will make sure that you are the one I call.” 

Indignant,
Curtis, blurted, “You’re right Martin, I was friends with Walt, best friends
and that’s why I asked. I’d like to be there when you tell Jewel, if it’s bad
news. Since her Mama died, Jewel didn’t have anyone but Walt and she’s going to
need someone with her now.”

Nodding,
Martin groaned, “Sorry about that Curtis, I guess I should’ve thought of that
myself. Come on up to my office.”

Entering
his office, Martin motioned the other man toward a faded brown leather chair
while Martin coordinated some necessary arrangements with his office. Martin then
sat at his desk staring at the phone wishing there was a way out of this. After
a moment he sighed, “Come on, Weston, we can’t put this off. We’ll have to take
a ride out to Walt’s and talk to Jewel. She’s going to take it hard.” 

Pulling
into Walt’s driveway, Martin rolled the patrol car to a stop and took a deep
breath. “Curtis, this is going to be rough. I talked to Jewel just last night
and she was hysterical.”

Jewel
stepped out onto the porch of her childhood home and watched Sheriff Crawley
and Curtis Weston get out of the patrol car, their hats in their hands. “Dear
God, no.” She  took a step forward as the two men approached the porch.

 “Let’s
go inside where we can talk, Jewel,” Martin said softly.

Dry-eyed,
she turned and opened the screen door, motioning them inside. “Just tell me
Sheriff. I’ve waited so long and I need to know.”

Taking
a seat in a chair across from her, Martin waited until Curtis sank down on the
couch next to Jewel. “Sweetie, we found your daddy this morning.”  Blinking
back his own tears Martin turned his face away from her and shook his head.

Fat
tears rolled from her eyes, streaming down her face to drop somewhere out of
sight. Wrapping her arms around her middle Jewel rocked, soft sobbing sounds
escalating to great heaving moans. “I knew it. I did, I knew. Where…where was
he?  What happened?”  She choked out.

Sliding
closer to the young woman, Curtis slipped a supporting arm around her shoulders
and pulled Jewel tight against him.