Marcie's Murder (49 page)

The radio crackled. “Command, this is AU-3. Got a visual on a structure, turning now to approach.”

“AU-3
, copy that,” Muncy said. “
Approach with caution. Suspect is armed and dangerous.”

“Roger that.”

They waited for several long moments until the radio crackled again. “Command, this is AU-3. Got a visual on what looks like a red all-terrain vehicle parked outside the cabin. Someone just stepped outside. Stand by and we’ll make another pass.”

“Copy,” Muncy said. “Proceed with caution.”

“Will he fire at the plane?” Taylor asked.

“How would I know?” Muncy growled.

“I’ve got a visual on two individuals,” the spotter in the Cessna radioed back after a few moments.
“
They’re m
oving to the edge of the clearing where it looks down into the gully.”

Muncy asked for the coordinates and Taylor qui
ckly found the spot on the map. “Right here. Elevation
at that spot
is about
4,000
feet
, roughly 240 feet from the top.” She slid her finger down the map. “We’re at 3
,
120 feet here.”

“Bit of a climb,” Hank said.

They all jumped as the fluorescent yellow radio sitting on the corner of the map sputtered to life.

“We’re taking fire! Ann, are you there? Come in!”

Taylor snatched up the radio. “Billings, what’s happening?”

“We’re taking fire, we’re taking fire! The
s
tate
t
rooper’s been hit, we need backup!”

“Jesus Christ!” Stanley exploded.
He
spun around and slapped White on the arm. “Bring the ATV over here. You and I are going up there.”

“Jim!” Taylor yelled, “
What’s
happening?”

“
T
he trooper’s okay,
” Billings replied
, more calmly now
.
“T
he shot
barely
grazed
him
on
the right arm just above the elbow. I dressed it and I think
the
bleeding’s almost stopped
. He’s okay
. We’ve taken shelter behind the ATV.
Send backup to get us out of here
!
”

“Are they still shooting at you?”

“No,
it’s stopped.
There were a couple of other shots but they missed.
Since then w
e haven’t moved
–”

The rest was lost in the growling of the
state
ATV as White drove up to the table to pick up Stanley. Taylor frowned and waved him off, turning away. “Repeat, Jim! Repeat last!”

Stanley
yelled at
White to kill the
motor on the
ATV.

“—said we haven’t moved since the last shot was fired a couple of minutes ago and there’s been nothing since. The trooper’s conscious and talking. He’s okay.
It was almost a complete miss
.
”

“Suppressing fire,” Karen said.

“What?” Stanley
looked at
her
.

“Suppressing fire. He
’s
just pinning them down. Not trying for the kill.”

“He shot my man! How the hell do you figure that to be suppressing fire?”

“
He’s dealing with
a helluva recoil,” Karen shrugged. “Could be he was
trying to disable the vehicle
with his first shot
and missed.
The other shots are just to keep them from moving up any f
a
rther
.
”

“Command, this is AU-3,” Muncy’s radio came to life again
as the Cessna checked in
. “We’re taking fire and are withdrawing at this time to a safer distance.”

“AU-3, copy that
,
”
Muncy
replied
. “Were you hit?”

“Ah, roger, Command, we heard a little
thunk
somewhere aft. No problems
presently
but I had a visual on
a
suspect
at the edge of the clearing
and he was
pointing
a rifle at us.”

“Copy, AU-
3. Get to safety and stand by.”

Stanley looked around. “Williams!”

The dog handler hurried over.

“White and I are going up the
mountain
. I need you to handle
comm and liaison.
Get EMS out here right away
for Jackson
.
He’s coming back down with a gunshot wound.
”

“Hang on,” Muncy said. “Just what do you plan on doing up there?”

“
Look
,” Stanley growled
,
“
we’re too far away here to be effective.
”
He stabbed a finger at the map. “We’re here. We need to be
up
here.” He poked again. “We move the command post, extract my wounded officer
,
and bring him back
down
here to the highway for transport
, then effect our hostage rescue
. You and the Forest Service stay
down
here and meet EMS when they arrive,
contain
the media if they show, all that.”

Muncy shook his head. “Not me. I’m going up there.”

“I’ll stay here,” Branham told Muncy
.
“Your
d
eputies can stay with me
for
crowd control.”

“I like it,”
s
tate
p
olice Detective Savage said. He turned to Taylor. “How do we get up there? Drive?”

“I wouldn’t take the SUVs off-road here,” Taylor replied. “If we’re moving forward we’ll have to use the ATVs.”

“We’ve got two,” Stanley said. “We’ll have to shuttle it. When we get there we’ll send Billings back on his. That’ll give us three.”

“Lou,” Karen said, tapping Hank lightly on the arm.

Hank followed her away from the discussion around the table. A car was approaching
at high speed on the highway. “Media?”

Karen shook her head. “Betcha five bucks it’s not.”

They strolled down to the end of the driveway
, watching the car approach.

“Poor judgment,” Hank said quietly.

“What’s that?”

“Poor judgment on my part.” Hank ran a knuckle across his
mustache
, eyes on the car. “I should have let
Muncy take him to Tazewell. He should have been questioned in a controlled environment. Now lives are at risk unnecessarily.”

Karen made a noise. “Disagree, Lou. You told Muncy if he put him in a little room with no windows he’d just tough it out and give them nothing, and you were right. If they come up empty on the physical evidence, they’ve got zip. This way,
he’s made his move and it’s out in the open
. Anyway, it’s pointless to second guess.”

A
battered
gray
Toyota Camry pulled over onto the shoulder and parked behind Karen’s
Fire
bird. Debbie Stump got out and hurried over to them.

“Where is she? I talked to her. She said the police
were
after Professor Morris and she wasn’t going to let them get him.”

“Hold on now, hold on
.
” Karen
held up her hands to stop her
. “What’s all this about you talking to Rachel? When was this?”

“About ten minutes ago,” Debbie said.

Hank frowned.
“Ten minutes ago?
How’d you get here so fast?”

“I was already on my way. Everybody’s texting everybody about what happened.”

“Slow down,” Karen urged her, “just slow down a sec. Did you call her or did she call you?”

“I
texted
her,” Debbie said. “I’ve
been
texting
her since it went viral. She finally answered ten minutes ago.”

“You’ve got cell coverage out here?” Hank asked, incredulous.

“Actually, yeah. There’s a tower right close by, near Wittens Mills
.
The dead zone is about five miles from here and it zig-zags along the top of the
mountain
, but where
we are
right now, there’s coverage.”

“Amazing
.” Hank
turned to watch a
s
tate
t
rooper jump into his cruiser. He drove it about fifty yards back up the road from the loop and parked it cross-ways to block the road. He lit up his roof rack and got out to watch as Brooks drove the Harmony PD cruiser up to join him, making a two-vehicle barricade.
Debbie’s car would be the last that would be allowed to get through to the loop.

“How did she sound?” Hank asked. “Was Morris holding her against her will?”

“No
,
s
he’s helping him.”

“Helping? How?”

“I don’t know. She just
texted that
she was going to
hold them off
so he could get away.”

“Omigod,” Karen said. “She’s the shooter.”

“All those trophies,” Hank remembered.

“White, Lou.” Karen looked at him. “He’s their counter
-
sniper. They’ll take her out.
”

“They may,” Hank agreed.

“She’s just a kid.” Karen started toward the command table. “I gotta get up there.”

Over the next half hour Karen begged, pleade
d
,
and bullied, all to no avail. Neither Muncy nor Stanley would give her the time of day, even after she explained to them that it was Rachel who was laying down the suppressing fire, according to Debbie Stump. They remained focused on moving the command post and setting up their operation.

It took several
trips on the ATVs
to convey everyone who was moving forward
up
to the new command post, which was
established
inside
the gully
about 800 feet away from the spot they figured was Rachel’s sniper position. Stanley and White made the first run, and
Billings
returned with Jackson sitting behind him, looking pale
,
upset
,
and blood-spattered
but otherwise all right.
Given the rounds that Rachel was firing, he was lucky to be alive.
Williams took him inside the house and got him to lie down while they waited for EMS to arrive. A Richlands radio crew got there first, however,
followed closely by a
reporter from the
Clinch Valley News
and a
crew from the television station in Bluefield
on the
West Virginia
side
.
Branham strolled
up
t
o
make sure they respected the barrier
.

The Cessna continued to circle around the spot from a safe distance, reporting that one of the suspects could be seen moving back and forth between the cabin and the ATV.

Billings
had just returned from his latest shuttle run on the
ATV when
his borrowed state police radio received
a transmission from the helicopter, announcing that it was five minutes out. Billings got off the ATV and helped guide the helicopter to a landing in the field east of Morris’s house. It was a Bell 407 helicopter bearing the markings of the Virginia
s
tate
p
olice, with a crew of two and seating for up to five passengers. Only one passenger climbed out of the cabin, however: Tazewell County Sheriff Isham Steele.

Billings trotted forward to meet him. Steele walked briskly
up
to the command table, now virtually abandoned except for Hank, Karen, Hall
,
and Debbie Stump. The Forest Service maps
remained
on the table, as Taylor had taken another set forward with her.

Steele approached the table with the air of a field general about to take command of a battlefield.
Billings
showed him on the map where the cabin was located, where Rachel was thought to be pinning down the team, and where the new command post had been established.
He paused as they all turned to watch the arrival of another television crew down at the barricade.