Known Dead (14 page)

‘‘Don’t think so.’’

‘‘Where is he?’’

‘‘I think he’s at the window to the left of the door . . .’’

‘‘Can you get it if I keep him busy for a few seconds?’’

‘‘Maybe.’’

‘‘Okay, let’s do it!’’

I rose to a kneeling position, saw the window he was talking about, and was bringing my rifle to my shoulder when the man fired. I didn’t hear the round so much as I felt it. Like somebody had snapped my cheek with their finger, hard. Very, very close. Very high velocity. I fired at the window, fast but not too fast. Twenty-eight rounds later, I stopped, and ducked back behind my car. Empty magazine. I reached in, found the gym bag where I kept my spare magazines, and reloaded my rifle, thinking to place two extra magazines in my back pocket. I thought I heard Lamar, but couldn’t be sure, as I was now almost completely deaf from the noise of my rifle. I stuffed three more magazines in my pocket, and crawled a little way behind my car, trying to lose the sound of the exhaust.

‘‘Lamar?’’

‘‘Got it . . .’’

‘‘Good.’’

I was wondering if I’d gotten the man with the gun. My ammunition would have absolutely no problem penetrating the wooden sides of the shed. And continuing on through whoever was back there. If I’d hit him. Cautiously, I got to my knee again, near a big wooden corner post on the right side of the lane. As soon as my head cleared the tall grass, I saw a muzzle flash. From the window to the
right
of the door. I ducked. Damn.

‘‘He’s still with us, Lamar. Stay low.’’

Lamar mumbled something. I still hadn’t seen him.

‘‘The kit doin’ any good?’’

‘‘Yeah.’’

‘‘Okay!’’

I grabbed my walkie-talkie, turned it on. ‘‘Comm, Three!’’

Nothing.

‘‘Comm, Three!’’

Obviously she couldn’t hear me. But 884 could, and she sounded close.

‘‘Three, 884, what you got?’’

‘‘Two officers down, man with a high-powered rifle in a shed, I’m pinned but fine.’’

‘‘Right.’’

‘‘When you come down the lane, you should be able to see my car. Stop as soon as you do, and I’m in the grass to the right of the lane, by a corner post.’’

‘‘Ten-four.’’

‘‘Stay low. I think I can crawl back out, but I have a wounded officer in a junk pile, and he needs to come out.’’

‘‘Ten-four.’’

I moved just a bit to my right, and very cautiously stuck my head up out of the weeds. I got my first truly good look at the layout of the farmyard. I had a high, tree-covered hill to my right, and nestled at the foot of that hill was the shed where the fire was coming from. About midway between me and the shed was a pile of junk that contained old lumber, scrap metal, and Lamar. Behind the shed was an old chicken coop with a drooping roof, which had a faded red combine nestled up against it. The lane behind me, as it passed through the fence I was behind, pretty well split the yard in half. On the left side of the lane was a wood pile. Behind that, a large rundown barn. All the buildings were that purplish gray that red faded to after years in the weather. At the end of the yard, and about two hundred feet directly ahead of my fence post, stood the house. Two-story, white, frame, no shutters or any other decoration. The paint was flaking, and one of the front steps was swaybacked. Right in front was a year-old blue pickup truck, and a five- or six-year-old four-door Mercedes, in a maroon shade that complemented the outbuildings. Strikingly enough for it to catch my eye. A large satellite TV dish stood to the right of the house, the newest and best-cared-for piece of equipment on the place. Behind the barn, and continuing to the left for almost a quarter mile, was a cornfield, with cornstalks about four to five feet high, that transitioned into a grassy hill in the distance. I concentrated my gaze back toward the shed/fort, and lifted my head a bit higher. Great. No shots. I brought my rifle to my shoulder, and pointed it at the window at the right side of the door. I was hoping that when 884 arrived, she’d draw some fire, and I could just take out the side of the shed it was coming from.

Just as 884 pulled up, and before I could put my little plan into effect, a young man in blue jeans and a gray tee shirt stepped off a path out of the wooded area at the base of the hill to the right of the shed, and hollered.

‘‘What the goddamn hell is going on here?’’

Right to the point.

I hollered back at him. ‘‘We have a man with a gun in the shed. He’s shot two people already. Get back!’’

‘‘Were they cops?’’

Now, that’s a funny question. As he asked, he was looking closely in my direction, trying to figure out where I was.

‘‘BACK OFF, MISTER! GET BACK AWAY FROM THE BUILDINGS!’’ That was 884, on her car’s PA system.

‘‘Were they cops?’’ Again.

‘‘Yes!’’

‘‘Good!’’ With that, he turned and ran toward the house. I looked back over my shoulder, and could see the top of 884’s head as she knelt behind her car door. I called her on my walkie-talkie.

‘‘884?’’

‘‘Go.’’

‘‘Look just to your right . . . see my hand?’’ I held my right hand up, out of the deep grass. There was a pause, then . . .

‘‘Ten-four.’’

‘‘Okay, I’ll be coming your way, so don’t shoot.’’

‘‘Ten-four.’’

With that, I stooped and ran as fast as I could, expecting to feel a round slam into my back at any moment. None did. I was moving so fast, for me, that I went right past her car, and slipped in the wet dirt of the lane as I tried to stop. Not graceful, but I made it. When your weight slips up over 250 pounds, momentum can be a problem.

‘‘Hi.’’ 884 motioned me up toward her car door. I went, keeping remarkably low. She seemed a little cavalier about the whole thing, half standing. No shots had been fired since she arrived, so she was dealing with sort of an academic appreciation of the situation. But suddenly shots were being fired. Just as I got up to her door. One slapped the hood and went singing off into the cornfield to the left of the lane. Another hit the spotlight on the driver’s window post, and glass and bits of metal went all over us. I got a scratch in my right arm, and she got small bit of glass embedded in her forehead. She flinched just like I did, and instantly was settling in at my level.

‘‘Hi,’’ I said.

‘‘Is he pissed or what?’’

‘‘He seems pissed. Look, my sheriff is in the scrap-metal pile over to our right. Did you see it?’’

She nodded.

‘‘Our civil deputy is in the weeds to the left of the lane, just about the level of my car. He’s dead, I think.’’

She nodded again.

‘‘My sheriff is alive, but he’s been hit in the legs. I threw him my first-aid kit, and he got it all right, but his voice seems to be getting weaker.’’

‘‘Got it.’’

‘‘Look, I’m gonna have to go back up toward Lamar. Try to protect him until we can get him out.’’

‘‘Who’s the dude who went into the house?’’

I sighed. ‘‘I don’t know. It could be his kid. I think it’s the old man who’s doing the shooting, but I don’t even know that for sure.’’

‘‘Right.’’

‘‘We’re gonna need a little help.’’

‘‘Oh, yeah,’’ she said emphatically. ‘‘I’ve asked for a TAC team.’’

‘‘Swell. But doesn’t that have to come from a sergeant?’’

‘‘Yes, but they’re sending one.’’

‘‘From where?’’

‘‘Post sixteen.’’

‘‘That’ll take about an hour.’’ I started to move back around the rear of her car. ‘‘Look, when my people get here, let me know. I can’t see too well from up there. We’ll try to get Lamar out of there fast. Before they get anybody else.’’

She nodded. ‘‘I’ll tell ’em to get the team assembled and ready. That way, when the supervisor orders it, they can be here real fast.’’

I was beginning to like this 884.

I sort of duck-walked back to her and stuck out my hand. ‘‘Carl Houseman.’’

‘‘Diane Blakeslee.’’

‘‘Buy you a doughnut when we’re done.’’

‘‘Sold. Keep your ass down.’’

‘‘Yep. Tell our office what’s happening, will you?’’

‘‘Sure. I think an ambulance is almost here. What do you want to do with them?’’

‘‘Let me know when they get here, but don’t let ’em in until you clear it with me.’’

‘‘Okay.’’

I half crawled back to the rear of her car again, and then went thundering back toward my fence post. Stepped in a puddle, slipped, fell, got up, continued, got to the post, and no shots. Whew. After I got some breath back, I said, ‘‘Lamar,’’ in a loud voice.

‘‘What?’’ He did sound a little weaker, but still relatively healthy.

‘‘Cavalry’s on its way. Can you move at all?’’

He was quiet for a few seconds, and I thought that he hadn’t heard me. ‘‘Lamar?’’

‘‘Just give me a second.’’

I gave him about fifteen, and was just about to say something again when he spoke up.

‘‘Just a little. I backed up your way. You see me?’’

I peeked up. YES! By God I could. I could see about the lower half of him, between a crumpled sheet of rusted steel siding and a disorganized pile of twisted steel fence posts. But I wished I hadn’t a moment later, when I got a good look at his right leg. He had taken his belt and applied a tourniquet, but his foot was just about blown off. I could see what looked like bone sticking through his boot, and the whole thing was at a weird angle. There was a white bandage wrapped around his left leg, below the knee. Well, it had been a white bandage. It was now red and rust-colored. If I could get to him, I’d have to drag him. He’d never be able to move on his own. Damn.

Lamar has the constitution of a horse. He’s known for that. Otherwise, I think that he would have gone into shock long before I got there. He was going now, however. I could see his legs quivering. Now what? I didn’t know if he’d bleed to death first, or if the shock would get him. Either way, he had to come out of there, and had to do it now.

Just then, when I thought things were bleak before, I heard the rumble of thunder. I looked up, and the sky to the west was black, and threatening. Even as I looked, the wind came up, and little bits of dust and debris began blowing through the air. Rain. All I needed was fucking rain.

I picked up my walkie-talkie. ‘‘884?’’

‘‘Go ahead.’’

‘‘You got an ETA on that ambulance? I don’t want it to rain on him. Shock.’’

‘‘Stand by . . .’’ She paused for a few seconds. ‘‘About three or four minutes.’’

‘‘Okay.’’

I looked at the open trunk of my car. I thought about my emergency blanket, which was waterproof. I thought about my raincoat, which was too. Both in the trunk. Naturally. I could almost see my headstone: ‘‘Died trying to stay dry.’’

Resolved to get soaked, I forgot about the contents of my trunk, and tried to see if there was any movement in the shed. Nothing. I got 884 on the radio again.

‘‘See if they’re still in contact with the people in the house. Tell them we have an ambulance, and if anybody else is hurt, we’ll be glad to take them out with One.’’

‘‘Ten-four.’’

‘‘Then just tell them that a plainclothes officer is going to go to the sheriff with a blanket, and will stay with him until the ambulance gets here.’’

There was a pause. ‘‘You sure about that?’’

‘‘Nothin’ else to do.’’

‘‘Okay.’’

I waited about a minute. The door of the house opened, and the young man came out, this time with a rifle in his hand.

‘‘Just one,’’ he yelled. ‘‘Just for the ambulance.’’

‘‘Okay,’’ I yelled back. ‘‘Are you all right too?’’

Silence, as he stood there, looking generally toward me. Then: ‘‘Yeah!’’ Pouty. Like I shouldn’t have asked, shouldn’t have cared. Well, I didn’t. But he’d gone for it.

I got 884 on the radio again. ‘‘You hear that?’’

‘‘Yes. You believe it?’’

‘‘I think so. Might as well. Unless you can think of anything else?’’

No answer.

I stood up, very slowly. Leaving my rifle by the post. I was carrying a .40 caliber S&W auto under my shirt, but forgot about it until I was halfway to my car. Well, what the hell. If they were going to find that, they’d have to do it up close. I got to the trunk, got both the blanket and my raincoat, and walked slowly toward Lamar. I kept looking at the shed, but could see no movement, no silhouette, nothing. I was beginning to wonder if he was still in there.

When I got to Lamar, he was just about out. I knelt beside him.

‘‘Hi there.’’

He looked up, tried very hard to focus his eyes. ‘‘Yeah,’’ he said, weakly. His head went back down. I reached down and put my hand on his shoulder looking for the first-aid kit. It was a little further away, just past his head.

‘‘You’ll be fine. We’re getting you out of here real soon.’’ I ripped off the plastic cover of the emergency blanket, and the wind whipped it toward the shed. It snagged in the fence posts, then some old wire. It was a struggle, but I finally got it around him, just as big drops of rain splattered down.

I got 884 on my walkie. ‘‘I think you can send the EMTs in now. We’re lookin’ good.’’

I put on my raincoat, and looked back. There were about five cop cars sitting in the lane, and an ambulance was coming around them, lights flashing. Good. Very good. It was raining harder all the time, but we could handle that now. I watched the first two EMTs struggle in their bright yellow raincoats, leaning into the wind, as they came around the corner of their unit, and putting their heads down, they trotted through the rain. Brave people. When they got to us, I recognized them both. One owned a hardware store, and one was an electrician. In rural areas, they’re all volunteer EMTs.

‘‘Hi.’’ I gestured toward Lamar. ‘‘Gunshot, both legs, pretty bad. Shocky, he’s been out here for a while. The guy who did it is in that shed there. If he starts to shoot, just get out of here.’’

‘‘You got that right,’’ said the hardware man. They immediately began doing their EMT things, but keeping as low as they could. ‘‘Who bandaged his legs?’’ asked the electrician, looking at me accusingly.

‘‘He did.’’

‘‘Oh.’’

It began to rain harder.

The two ambulance people motioned, and two more EMTs came forward with a stretcher. It was becoming difficult to see the police line clearly, through the rain, and through the water running off my balding head. My coat didn’t have a hood, and I’d forgotten my hat.