Death By A HoneyBee (38 page)

     
“Sorry to bother you, but I’ve got something important to tell you,” Matt called out to them.
 
“Something terrible has happened.
 
Josiah was attacked and is in bad shape.
 
The doctors don’t know if she is going to make it or not.”
 
Matt stopped and cleared his throat.
 
“The reason I am telling you this is that Josiah made me promise that if anything happened to her – I was to tell you.
 
So I am.
 
If this is some sort of magic thing between a beekeeper and her bees, then do your hoodoo stuff.
 
She needs it.
 
Okay?”
 
Matt could see that most of the bees had gone back up into the hive.
 
“I don’t want you to worry.
  
I will be taking care of you . . . for now.”
 

     
Matt rubbed his face, his skin feeling heavy from fatigue, and made his way back to the Butterfly.
 
He hoped that the cops had finished.
 
He would check on the house and then go to his little shack to get some sleep.
 
Later, he would call a cleaning service to clean up the mess and blood once the house was released from investigation.
 
He stood up on tiptoes to look down the hill at the Butterfly.
  
He could still see a few police cars in the driveway.
 
Goetz was outside leaning against a post smoking a cigarette.
 
He still had his pajama top on but it was tucked into his pants like a regular

shirt.
 
Resigned that sleep was maybe still hours away, Matt stumbled down the gentle sloping Bluegrass hill towards the Butterfly.
 
 
He needed to find out what was going on.
 
Trying to climb out of his mental fog, Matt knew he needed to sit down and make a list of what needed to be done.
 
The executive director at the Farmers’ Market would need to be notified first.
 
Then Shaneika needed to be contacted.
 
He would make the calls when he got to the Butterfly.
 
The cell in his pocket was dead.
   

    
The wind began to whip furiously.
 
Hearing the roar of rotating blades, Matt looked up to see a black MIL MI helicopter descending into the adjoining field.
 
The whirlybird landed with a thud.
 
As Matt ran towards it waving, the door slid open and a tall woman in dark clothing jumped out.
 
The woman, seemingly unconcerned with the motion behind her, waited patiently.
 
Her tight expression was one of concern and anger.

   
Behind her, three men peered out from the black bird.
 
Their severe expressions were mirrored on the shiny guns in their leather shoulder holsters.
 
After the blades died down, the men began pulling out trunks filled with military-looking equipment.
 
Matt saw the men put on rappelling equipment.
 

   
“The cliffs are that way.
 
If you find him alive, bring him to me before you give him to the police.
 
Same if dead,” she barked.
 
“I want him bad.”

    
Matt watched the men take off for the palisades and knew there was going to be hell to pay for this fiasco, all the way down the line, starting with the police.
 
Everyone involved was going to have a piece of his ass chewed off.
 
Josiah’s daughter had just come home.