Murder Mountain (31 page)

“Eric,” I whimpered, “I’m so sorry. You were right! I shouldn’t have come here. I thought I would never see you again!”

“Shhhh, it’s okay. I’m here, and you’re alive,” he whispered, stroking my hair.

“Kincaid! She was shot!” I remembered, sitting bolt upright.

“I know. Coop just went over to her now. I think she’ll be all right.”

I looked over and saw Michael, who had remained quiet, standing by the side of the Blazer with tears in his eyes. I’d never wanted anyone to get hurt in this whole mess, but I’d turned it into just that. After several minutes spent in Eric’s embrace, I turned to him with tears in my own eyes, and put his face in my bloody hands.

“Eric, I need to talk to Michael for a few minutes, alone; I know you understand why.”

Eric understood. I knew by the way he looked at me, and at Michael. He took both of my hands and kissed them.

“Okay. I’ll be over checking on Kincaid and Coop. I love you, CeeCee,” he said as he stood up and walked away.

“Come here, Michael,” I called out, holding out my hand to him.

Michael walked over and knelt down in front of me, taking my hand while he began to sob.

“CeeCee, I was so scared! I thought you were dead …”

“Michael, I thought you were dead, too. I was devastated! When I heard them talking about you being alive, I couldn’t believe it!”

“I thought I would never again get to tell you that I love you, CeeCee: I love you! I know I can never have you, but I need to tell you that.”

“Oh, Michael! A part of me loves you, too. If things were different, but they aren’t! I’m sorry I hurt you. I never meant to hurt anyone! Now isn’t our time. Maybe the future holds something different, but for now, I have to stay with Eric. I love him, and I’m sorry, Michael!” I sobbed.

“CeeCee, I understand,” he said as put his hand on my battered cheek, “but knowing that you know how I feel helps. I didn’t think I could take it if something happened to you, but you’re okay, and if that means I wait for you for twenty years, or however long it takes, so be it. Just promise me something. If you ever find yourself single, make sure I’m number one on the list.”

I smiled at Michael as best I could with my battered face, took his hand from my cheek, and gave it a squeeze. Before I could give him an answer, a thought came to me that made my blood run cold.

“Where’s the sheriff and Eddie?” I shouted, looking around in a panic.

“Two people ran into the woods when we started shooting,” Michael told me, “but we couldn’t run after them, and who is Eddie?”

“Michael! Eddie from the motel is E, the guy that started this whole thing. He’s a major at the sheriff’s department!”

“Holy shit, that explains a lot.” He stood up. “I don’t think they have the balls to come back here right now. Plus, they’ve been made and they’re screwed. C’mon, CeeCee, we need to get you to a hospital.”

I tried to stand up, but as much pain as I was in, I wasn’t able to completely, so I held onto Michael for support. We walked, or hobbled, over to Coop and Eric, who were tending to Kincaid by the well.

Eric, seeing me, ran over and took my arm. “I’ve got her, Michael. Thanks.” He led me over to the tree stump the sheriff had been sitting on, sat me on it, and told me, “The ambulance is on the way. We told them we needed two, but we’ll see.”

“Let Kincaid take the first one,” I told him. “I’ve been okay this long and she doesn’t look so good.” I’d noticed how pale she was.

“CeeCee, do you want to tell me what happened here?” he asked quietly. “What is all over you?”

“I don’t want to get into details right now, Eric, but I’m covered in hamburger grease and honey so they could throw me into a well full of rats.” I nodded towards the well. “If you go look, you should still see some remains of Andrea Dean and Allen Davis down there.”

Eric turned three shades of green, and as if my word wasn’t enough, he walked over to the well and looked down inside. “Oh, dear God,” he cried. “What the fuck kind of people are these?”

I looked over at the well, where Coop and Michael were now looking down, and felt a shudder go through my body. I had to block out what had happened, if only for a little while, or I would have gone crazy right there on that stump. Sensing my thoughts, Eric asked Coop to walk down to their car, which was parked in the woods outside the clearing, and grab a shirt out of his bag. He also said it might be a good idea to check on Laurie, who had been waiting in the car.

I forgot I was still in my bra and underwear. I didn’t care by that point, either, but throwing one of Eric’s shirts on was something I welcomed. It was the second part of his request that confused me. “Eric, who is Laurie?”

“Laurie Kaylor, she’s ...”

“Allen Davis’s girlfriend, I know. Why is she in your car?”

“CeeCee, if it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t be here right now. Not that she had much choice in the matter, but she showed us how to get here. She was apparently at Davis’s house when you were taken and saw the whole thing.”

So Laurie Kaylor was my saving grace, but Eric said she didn’t have much choice, which told me that they’d basically threatened to rip her eyes out if she didn’t show them where I was, which was fine by me.

I could hear the far sounding wail of a siren making its way up the mountain to the clearing where we waited. I was in so much pain it was hard for me not to scream out in agony and beg to be taken to the hospital, but I only heard one siren just then, and Kincaid would take the first ambulance. She’d saved my life.

Tim Carr was still on the ground where Eric had left him, bleeding and unconscious with both legs and arms broken, but he could lay there forever as far as I was concerned. I had half a notion to pick him up and throw him down the well before anyone else got here.

As if reading my mind, when Coop walked back to the clearing with Eric’s shirt, he was also carrying a gas can. Handing the shirt to Eric, Coop walked over to the well and began pouring gasoline down the center, splashing it over as many of the rats as he could.

“Sure you want to do that, Coop?” Michael ventured. “I mean, there is bodies down there that need recovered.”

“They’ll never get to the bodies, or what’s left of the bodies, through the rats. The ones that don’t burn can die of the smoke, and it’ll probably be the top ones that burn, anyway. The remains of the bodies are underneath all of them.” Coop looked down the well. “Jesus! How long do you think it took them to round up that many rats and put them down there? I mean, how
exactly
do you do that?”

No one had an answer for Coop because no one knew. I didn’t want to even try to answer because that would have required me to think about the rats, which I couldn’t do just then. After I’d put on Eric’s shirt, Coop walked over to me holding a matchbook.

“CeeCee, I think you should do this,” he said quietly, handing me the matches.

He was right—burning all the rats might make me feel a little better.
At least if they’re burned,
I thought,
in the almost remote chance I get thrown back down the well, it won’t matter.
I walked to the same side of the well where I was forced to kneel, looked down, and thought that I could be down there now, dead and eaten. I didn’t want to jinx my second chance, and standing there made me nervous, so I lit the matches and closed my eyes, stepping back as I threw the flame into the pit below.

The screeches and squeals from the rats were immediate, and so loud that I put my hands over my ears and began to cry.
I’ll hear this sound in my dreams for years to come,
I thought,
I’m sure of it.
Eric picked me up, carried me away from the well to the edge of the clearing, and lay me on a small patch of grass. The first ambulance was just pulling in, and the others were gathering up Kincaid.

I could barely move, but since there was something important I needed to take care of, I forced myself. I hobbled over to the ambulance as they were loading Kincaid in. The ambulance personnel looked at me in shock and demanded to take my vitals and so on. I declined and told them that I would be fine until the other ambulance arrived.

“Naomi, I wanted to say thank you for what you’ve done,” I said, grabbing her hand, tears welling up in my eyes. “You saved my life. I’ll never forget that.”

“You would’ve done the same, CeeCee, except you probably wouldn’t have gotten yourself shot doing it,” she smiled weakly. “You were right all along; I knew you would end this somehow. I’m proud of you, and I’m glad you’re okay.”

I gave her hand a small squeeze and smiled back at her. Naomi Kincaid earned my respect today, more than I would ever have imagined, and I knew that from this day on our relationship would be different. I watched the ambulance drive away, including the emergency medical technician who had demanded to stay with me until the other ambulance arrived, but whom I’d ordered to go, repeating that I would be fine.

I made my way back to the grassy area and lay down, waiting for my own ambulance to arrive.
It’s a good thing I’m not dying,
I thought,
the local emergency response time is for shit.
Eric and Coop sat with me while Michael made phone calls.

He joined us when he was done. “I’ve got five agents on their way now,” he reported. “The district supervisor is in shock about this whole thing, and I think some people in the bureau are going to get their asses chewed; we should’ve never been denied our request for extra agents, nor had it take this long.”

“Who is going to process this scene?” Eric asked.

“They’re sending the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation to do it. They’ll be here within an hour. Once I get all of our paperwork to headquarters they’re going to start issuing search warrants and arrest warrants, putting Sheriff Conroy and Eddie Lewis at the top of the most wanted list. Laurie was the key. She told me where their main meth lab is and gave me enough for the warrant, and obviously, the events of today give us more than enough for their arrest.”

“They confessed everything to me,” I said. “They thought it would be funny to tell me what I missed before they killed me. They told me about Boz, Lizzie Johnston, Hensley, Karen, and Lisa Grendle. They were also going to kill Delphy too, but he killed himself first. That guy you shot next to VanScoy was a fucking corrections officer in our jail. He was the one that gave them my home address, not to mention they had a tracking device on our car the whole time.”

“I thought that guy looked familiar!” Eric and Coop said, in unison.

I kept looking around, concerned about the whereabouts of the sheriff and Eddie Lewis, knowing I would never rest until they were caught, but instead of seeing them, I was alarmed to see a tall, blonde female approach.

“Eric! Behind you!” I yelled, reaching for my gun, which was right beside me. I didn’t trust anyone right now.

“CeeCee! It’s okay! That’s Laurie Kaylor!” Eric said, grabbing my arm and taking my gun out of my hand.

Laurie slowly made her way to us, looking around at the carnage that was spread throughout the clearing, a look of horror coming over her face. Putting her hands over her mouth, she walked over to the well, where the fire still burned, and found Big Al’s boot that was sitting by the wall where he went over. Holding the boot, tears in her eyes, Laurie looked over at Michael, who shook his head, “no,” telling Laurie what she already knew. Big Al was dead. She fell to her knees, sobbing, still clutching the boot. That day had changed me inside and out. Maybe I would’ve had sympathy for Laurie a day earlier, but I didn’t then. I didn’t feel sorry for her one bit. If she was stupid enough to hook up with a monster like Allen Davis, she deserved everything she got. I wasn’t the least bit thankful to her either. She hadn’t been human enough to help me until she’d been forced to. Only under threat did she tell anyone where I was.

Getting herself together, Laurie made her way over to us, setting Big Al’s boot down in front of me, which to her surprise, I immediately kicked away.

“You!”
I screamed, “Get away from me! Go over and mourn your monster boyfriend, who, God willing, is in pieces at the bottom of the well!”

“CeeCee, don’t—she helped us,” Coop said.

“Helped us my ass! This stupid cunt would’ve let me die here if you guys hadn’t forced her! God only knows how many other people she could’ve saved, Andrea included, but she didn’t!” I turned my battered face straight at Laurie. “Your boyfriend is in pieces honey,” I taunted, “too bad you couldn’t join him!”

Laurie looked at me, astonished, before she turned and ran away, crying again. I watched as Michael went after her. She was our only informant about the past practices of the sheriff and his gang, but I didn’t care just then. If she’d fallen down the hill and broken her neck right there before our eyes, I would’ve been thrilled.

Eric put his arms around my shoulders and held me tight. I closed my eyes and rested my head back on his chest, suddenly aware of how exhausted I was. With the exception of my blackout from the chloroform, I had been awake for over twenty-four hours. Being chased through the woods at the motel seemed like weeks ago, not two nights before. To keep my mind of the excruciating pain in my body, and the mental pain in my head, I asked Eric to tell me how, exactly, they managed to get down here and save me. Coop joined in and together they told me, while we waited for the second ambulance.

What they told me was astonishing; Laurie Kaylor had filled them in on what happened at Big Al’s, and of course, they were there for the rest of it.

While I lay on the ground unconscious at Big Al’s, the man who put me in that state helped the other two drag Michael’s body to the car. After drugging Andrea Dean, they put the both of us in the trunk of their car, and Michael in the back seat of our rental car, before driving away, one following the other. Laurie Kaylor sat silently on the front porch, having seen, and heard, everything that had just happened. She knew where they were taking us, but after years of watching situations like these, she was too terrified to do anything but watch.