Slim To None (Cedar Tree #1) (15 page)

Listening to Joe take charge of logistics helped settle Gus' mind. It left him to solely focus on Emma.

*****

W
hen they pulled up beside Caleb's truck, the wheels hadn't stopped turning yet before Gus had the door open. He was running full speed in the open front door, only to stop dead in his tracks at the scene in front of him. Sitting on the floor in a large puddle of blood was Caleb, with kitchen towels clamped around Katie's head, looking like he was trying to hold her together. He looked up at him with a defeated look in his eyes that sent chills down Gus' back.

"Ambulance?" Caleb croaked out.

"Right behind us. Flight For Life from Durango is also on the way." Gus assured him, sinking down beside him on his knees, afraid to take a closer look, but needing to do something. His hand felt for a pulse against her neck and he could faintly make out a flutter under the pads of his fingers.

"Been afraid to remove my hands. Just trying to keep blood in her body. She's... she..." Choked up, Caleb simply closed his eyes and laid his head back against the wall. Gave up trying to talk.

Sirens announced the arrival of the ambulance and the first of the back up teams Joe had called on.

Barely clinging to life, Katie was loaded onto the helicopter and taken to Durango. Gus had called Dana and she and Neil were on their way to stay by her side. As shocked and scared as he was for Katie, Gus was taken aback by the depth of Caleb's reaction. He offered for Caleb to stay with her, but he wouldn't hear of it. Said she'd be pissed if she found out he ditched his job to hold her hand.

Now with the first responders out of the way, he had his first opportunity to have look around. When he walked into the kitchen, and saw the blood on the counter and the floor, it hit him; That was likely Emma's blood. But when he spotted the purple walker with her cane in the clip standing abandoned off to the side, his knees about buckled. That was her independence.

The nausea he had been struggling to keep down at the thought of Emma hurt surged back up, and he all but ran to the bathroom where he lost the contents of his stomach until there was nothing but bile left.

"You okay in there?" Joe asked from the other side of the door.

"Fine - Be right out."

He rinsed his mouth, splashed some water on his face, looked himself in the eye in the mirror and pulled himself together. No time to lose it. She needs you.

He would find her, and tell her what he didn't have the balls to tell her only a couple of miserable hours ago. If it was the last thing he did.

––––––––

V
oices.

She could hear voices, but they seemed far away. And movement. She was moving... or at least being moved. Carefully lifting her eyelids, only to squeeze them shut again at the instant pounding pressure it released inside her head.

What?

Bits and pieces drifted back through the red haze of pain running from her skull all the way to the base of her spine. A sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. Not even beginning to understand the why and how, Emma could figure out the possible implications of her situation; and none of it was good.

Oh my God...Katie. The memory of the still body in a pool of her own blood almost froze Emma in fear.

Those voices. She could still hear them. Carefully trying again to open her eyes to scan her surroundings, Emma fought down the bile that came up at the sudden surge of nausea when light hit her retinas. She was on a dirt floor - packed sand or something by the feel of it - in an old stone shed that looked like it had been loosely stacked. It reminded her of one of those Pueblo Indian dwellings Arlene had shown her at Mesa Verde on a trip. Through the opening in a wall, she could see two men facing off just outside the shed. Ralph was one, and she didn't know the other, but his back was turned toward her.

Her brain was trying hard to cling on to every detail, but the pain and exhaustion were overwhelming. About to close her eyes, she heard Ralph shout, "No!" - before a loud bang rang her ears. Then she saw him crumpling down to the ground. Numbed with fear, Emma wasn't quite able to process what she just witnessed. When the second man turned around to face her, she recognized his face from a picture she was shown just a few short days ago. She wished she had kept her eyes closed; tried closing them now. Ernst Corbin.

She could sense him walking up to her, nudging her in the ribs with his foot.

"Good, you're awake, so don't even try to fake it. There are ways to make sure you stay alert, but you won't like them."

Cold chills broke out over her skin and trembling started in her fingers. It slowly spread in spasms over her body, and made her breathing come out gaspy and thin. She tried hard to control her bodies' response, not to give this man any satisfaction. Focusing her eyes away from him, she prayed for Gus. For him to be able to find her, because she knew he'd move heaven and earth to.

"You shot him." She breathed out.

"I killed him." Corbin corrected. "He won't be getting up. Fucked up what should've been an easy job and almost got himself caught. Bringing you here was his last chance, he delivered - but he won't be needed anymore."

"I don't... un... understand any of this." Emma had a hard time getting her words out, she was shaking so hard by now. Positive he wouldn't hesitate to shoot her. But why hadn't he yet? Why not just point and pull the trigger and be done with it? There must be more. Keeping him engaged was her only chance at dragging this out long enough to give Gus a chance to find her. If he even had one.

"You don't need to. Do you know who I am?"

Deciding to go with honesty for now, she responded, "Yes, I've been shown a picture."

"Good, saves me an explanation. Any copies ever made or printouts made of the ledger I had you do up?"

This was where she didn't want to give everything away, so she opted for obscurity.

"I never make copies, or save to USB keys. And if I make printouts, it's only to work on mistakes and those copies are run through the shredder when I'm done. No hard copies are kept." Technically, nothing she told him was a lie, even though she did leave out the online drop box, but she couldn't help dropping her eyes away as she said it.

The small move didn't escape Corbin's attention. Before she could take another breath, he was up in her face, one hand in her hair. He had her head pulled back so far, she was afraid her neck would snap.

"You're lying!" He spat out, shaking her body like a rag doll from the precarious hold on her head. She could feel the hair ripping from her head in chunks, as blackness started to encroach on her vision. Barely able to cling to consciousness, she defiantly forced out: "Fuck you!" Which earned her a vicious punch to her jaw with his free hand and sent her over into welcome darkness once again.

*****

T
en minutes after the Flight For Life helicopter lifted off with Katie, Emma's house was crawling with law enforcement personnel. Frank had arrived as well and had just informed them that he had found the patrol car at Ralph's house. His personal Jeep Cherokee was missing from the driveway however. With an APB out for car and driver, the limited forensics team on scene and the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office aligned with the Cortez PD, a network was being thrown out to attempt to cut off exit routes. Officers were also venturing out, trying to actively pursue any witnesses they could find in and around Cedar Tree.

He figured that was how Arlene came to be storming up the porch steps, right for him. The diner was likely one of the first stops they made. Gus didn't step back from the hard slap she delivered to his face.

"You fucking asshole! You promised you would look after her." Overtaken by anger and fear, Arlene continued to pound him with her fists, when Joe stepped in, trying to pull her back.

"Leave her." He all but whispered at Joe. "She's right. I was supposed to..."

Wrapping Arlene up in a tight hold, feeling the struggle seep out of her as slowly her body sagged in his arms, he bent his head to her shoulder and softly repeated. "I was supposed to, I'm so sorry. I promise I'll find her."

With a deep breath in, Arlene pulled back and with a tear streaked face looked at him.

"You'd better, and not without me. Now what have we got?" Getting a smirk from Joe.

"Lady..." Joe started, "This is a police investigation that is ongoing and right now—"

"Oh save the official bullshit lines, will ya?" Arlene bit off. "That is my soul sister you are talking about. Closer than any blood relative of mine. Now, I know everyone and everything that goes on in this county. See if I can't be of help. I need to help."

With a look at Joe, who nodded his assent, Gus told Arlene what he knew. When he mentioned Ralph's Cherokee, her head shot up. "Is that thing green?"

"Why? What do you know?" Joe jumped in before Gus could.

"It's just that my waitress just came in half an hour ago, complaining about being nearly forced off the road. Some idiot cut across the county road onto that back road that leads to the Cemetery. The one north of the reservation. She said he was driving a forest green Cherokee."

Joe was immediately on the radio relaying the information. Both Gus and Joe took off for his truck, leaving Arlene swearing at them from the porch. As he tried to maneuver the truck around the fleet of law enforcement vehicles cluttering the drive, he could see her and Caleb running at her truck, parked at the end. "Fucking stubborn woman!"

"Who?" Joe wanted to know.

"Arlene is behind us with Caleb. Fuck. She better not get in the way." He slammed his fist on the steering wheel.

"Tell me where to go." he instructed Joe.

"Go back through town, past the diner. On the other side is a turn off on the left only. It won't have any markings. I'll tell you when."

Joe was beside him alternating between cell phone and radio, barking out instructions. Gus' focus was on the road, trying to steer clear of any traffic as he floored it. Trying to keep his mind as balanced as the truck was another matter. His thoughts were bouncing between what he was going to do to Ralph Murphy when he got his hands on him, and what might be happening to Emma. All the while the road took forever to be eaten up by his wheels. Finally he resorted to praying Emma was going to be alright, but the whole time he felt like he was going to crawl out of his skin. For the short period he'd known her, he could sense there was something unique and unguarded between them. For most of his life he had worked hard to simply live on the surface. He was good at not letting things touch him too deep. But with Emma he didn't seem to have a choice. The woman was made up of such courage. She had an open and welcoming attitude towards life without trying to block away or deny the tough parts. She simply accepted them and brought them into her positive attitude. He wanted to have more of that; be a part of that. Of her. At least have a chance at that. He was not going have this fucking asshole take it - take her - away from him.

"Hey!! Watch it!" Joe grabbed the wheel and pulled them away from the ditch.

"Don't fucking get us killed. Stay focused." 

"Sorry." He mumbled, forcefully clearing his mind from anything but driving.

"Turn coming up on the left." Joe pointed ahead.

Slowing down at the last minute, he almost had the truck on two wheels as he made the turn sharply.

"Jesus Christ! Next time I'm driving." Joe swore beside him. "Slow down a little. Lots of little turn offs here into the bush, mostly dirt roads. I want to check for tracks."

Just then Gus' phone rang. Pulling it from his pocket he looked at the screen and handed it to Joe to answer.

"It's Caleb, put it on speaker. He's still behind us. Maybe he's seen something."

"Caleb. Talk to me."

"It's Arlene, Gus. Caleb and I were talking. The cemetery is on the edge of the reservation and fairly closely patrolled for vandalism. I doubt anyone would go there, but there is something I just thought of. There are some old Anasazi ruins just a mile or so this side of the cemetery. A dirt road - well, more like a set of tracks really - going into the sagebrush on the left hand side. They go in for about half a mile to a bit of a clearing. The ruins should be only 50 yards or so straight north from there. Caleb said to call you. We're almost on your tail."

"How much further up ahead is it, Arlene?" Joe asked, checking his mirror to see Arlene's truck closing in on them.

"Just a minute or two."

Gus looked at Joe, trying to gage his thoughts.

"Stay on the phone," Joe instructed, "Give us a head's up for the turn off. I want to check for tracks. If there are any fresh ones, we both turn in, but you stay well behind. Should we be heard or spotted, and they get around us somehow, you will be second tier. Reinforcements are not far behind us, so if anyone is in here, we'll get them."

Relaying the same instructions to the teams in the rear, all eyes were now focused on the left side of the road.

*****

F
resh tracks had lead them onto the trail. Trying to drive on it making a minimum of noise wasn't easy. Aside from the engine noise, the uneven surface jolted and rattled the big Yukon. Gus almost had to slow down to a crawl by the time they reached a clearing of sorts and spot two vehicles.

Joe immediately got on the radio, with the phone line still open to Arlene's truck far behind them, giving updates.

"Forest green Jeep Cherokee confirmed and a tan Toyota 4Runner unknown, looks to be a rental. National ZRE-839, Colorado plate. Run it. We're going in.

Leaving the Yukon at the opening of the clearing, so it faced the trail out, Gus and Joe carefully scanned the surroundings for any movement. Not able to spot anything, Gus was the first to get out, leaving the door unlatched. Then he saw Joe do the same. Weapons drawn, both made their way toward the north side of the clearing, eyes and ears peeled for anything unusual.

Gus could hear his own heart pounding in his ears with the heightened level of adrenaline that was pumping through him. He could somehow sense Emma was close, but shut down any emotions. He had a job to do. Keeping Joe in his vision from the corner of his eye, he saw him motioning to the right. Changing direction, he followed closely behind. Joe lead them through an old burned out patch of spruce. On the far side he could see what looked to be some piles of stone.