“Okay.” Time to see what else Cooper might have for me. “What about Chris?”
“What about him?” Cooper grumbled.
“How was he acting that day?”
“Like a jerk.” Cooper’s sour face screwed up a notch more. “But I kinda let it slide.”
“You did?” Hard for me to see Cooper letting anything slide.
“Yeah, I guess, you know, ‘cause his dad was an asshole.” For the first time Cooper wore an expression other than a mean spirited scowl. “I… he and I were horsing around a bit and I like grabbed him.” Weren’t much more favorable to the boy’s features, but the set of his lips and tension in Cooper’s face carried a hint more of sympathy. “You’d have thought I shot him, he dropped so fast.” Like he was trying to sort out his thoughts, Cooper toed around in the slush with his boots for a bit. “Turns out like two days before his dad nailed him with a two-by-four right across his ribs. Cracked ‘em. Man has a mean streak a mile wide.”
The Harris family supposedly had good standing in the Church. Wasn’t something I’d ever asked or been told…but you grow up LDS, seems you know from birth who’s got the little gold stars by their names. Just proved again that ‘cause someone said they followed the scripture, didn’t mean they actually took it to heart. When all was said and done and I’d served my time on this earth…well, let’s just say, I think I got a better chance of hitting the higher levels of Heaven than Chris’ dad.
So far everyone I’d talked to, talked about how Chris got roughed up. Had to wonder if it was one of those
secrets
that weren’t no secret at all. “All Chris’ friends know about that?”
“His dad?” Cooper nodded. “Pretty much. They may not have known how bad, but we all kinda avoided him.” Talking about what Chris went through loosened Cooper up a bit. Made me wonder, given how much the boy didn’t like me, just how awful Chris’ dad had been. “Mr. Harris, once, when I was like thirteen, fourteen maybe, backhanded me ‘cause he said I had a smart mouth.” I guess that told me; folks’ll beat their own kids in private and never lay a hand on someone else’s child. The man must’ve been a terror on his own family if he went after their friends as well. “My mom tore over there and told him if he ever laid another hand on me she’d blow his balls off with a shotgun.”
Now that Cooper weren’t so guarded, I steered us back to where I’d started this little interview. “So how’d you all end that day?”
Cooper blew out a hard breath before answering. “We were all pretty muddy and tired. Went back to my folks’ place and then Chris was going to give Lane a ride home, you know, ‘cause they live real close. Although, I don’t know, I mean, they went off together.”
Wasn’t sure what he didn’t know, but I didn’t want to muck up what he might tell me with my throwing a guess in. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“Chris didn’t have a car.” Cooper almost shrugged again, but stopped like he thought better of it. “His older sister Julie, she let him use hers that day. I mean, you know, Chris spent more time at her and her husband’s place, crashing on the couch or whatever, instead of going home. And Julie lived outside of town.”
“That sit well with the family?”
“Yeah, they were all cool with it.” Cooper stopped and looked at his feet then at me. “Not his dad…Mr. Harris wasn’t cool with anything.” Shaking his head, like he really couldn’t believe it all, Cooper explained, “Julie, you know her dad didn’t hit the girls, but she saw it, from what I heard. And her husband was okay with Chris hanging there because he worked nights so there was somebody at the house with her and he knew Chris needed to get out.” More relaxed then when we’d first started our conversation, Cooper stuck his hands in his pockets and looked off across the lot again. “They were at her in-laws in Boulder for Thanksgiving, so she said he could use her car so long as he fed the dogs and cats and all.”
Figured it was time to see whether Cooper would ‘fess up to the same things Trey told me. “Know what he and Lane were headed off to do?”
He shook his head. “Far as I know they were going home.”
“That it?” I prodded. “Think hard.”
“That’s what Chris told me.” Cooper kinda narrowed his eyes and tensed up a bit. The way he did it read more as confusion than hiding things. “But then again, right when we got back to my place I started cutting the logs down and chopping the kindling…my daddy told me to have that done before they got back. And it was nowhere near done.”
I didn’t see any tells indicating that he weren’t being truthful with me, but there weren’t no harm in staying suspicious. “So you didn’t talk with them about maybe, you know, scoring something.”
“No.” He spit it out like the word tasted bad.
I prodded again, “Never?”
Cooper went back to being real tense…like I was making him walk over ground he didn’t want to cover. I let him stew for a bit, to see which way he’d jump. Finally, Cooper looked down at his boots and mumbled, “Not then.”
“Ever?”
Cooper kinda tilted his face up to look at me sideways. “Why?” The question reeked of suspicion.
Crossing my arms over my chest, puffing it out a bit, I hit him with, “‘Cause I’m looking at things on why Lane might have ended up on that mountain and I heard tell that you boys liked to smoke some.”
Like he thought his bosses might have snuck up on us, Cooper took a long hard look around the lumber yard. Then, voice dropped kinda low he hissed, “Yeah, okay.” Again he looked to see who might be in earshot. “But if that’s where he was headed that afternoon, he didn’t tell me.”
“What about Chris?”
“No.” Cooper jerked almost like I’d slapped him. “Not Chris. Chris was so saintly he lost it if we started cussing.” His derisive snort drove that thought home. “Like he had to be the best of the best, you know.” Another small shake of his head told me he thought I might just be crazy for asking. “If Chris thought Lane was using his ride to score dope, he’d have kicked Lane out on the side of the road. I don’t know if it was because he thought his dad might catch him and, you know, kill him or if he had a stick that far up his butt, but…no, Chris wouldn’t.”
“So what do you think happened?”
“I think Lane screwed up somehow, but I don’t know how.” He huffed and scratched at the edge of his collar. “Chris, really with Chris, I don’t think one had to do with the other. I think Chris, after that last beating, he finally figured out he didn’t have to stay there and take it no more.” Scuffing his toe in the mud, Cooper took a moment like he needed to put his thoughts in order. When he started talking again, the words were a little rushed and his tone said he might actually be sorry for something. “You know, I told him as much. When I saw that last bruise, I’m like, ‘dude, you’re eighteen, they can’t make you stay with that asshole no more. Go, get a job somewhere, it can’t be worse than home.’ I think he finally figured that one out.” With a deep sigh that made me almost think he was sad to see Chris go, Cooper added, “I mean, he had a whole long weekend to think it over and decided it was just time to walk away. For some reason, he didn’t see fit to tell us.”
Although that rang pretty true, I asked what I needed to ask, “You don’t think Chris would have done something to Lane?”
“Not hardly.” Cooper rolled his eyes. “Chris wasn’t that type. He’s the kinda guy who fades back from the action…his daddy beat that into him, you know.” That I could see…you kick a dog enough and it learns to lie down the moment it hears you coming. “Then again, you never know. My bet is that Lane hooked up with someone kinda bad. I mean, most of us smoked some, he had a habit. So, you know, I’d look there.”
“Okay. Look, I may need to talk to you again, so you don’t be going nowhere.”
Cooper’s gaze sidled over towards the mill and his whole body slumped. “I ain’t going nowhere.”
Even with my head all wrapped up in the investigation, I had bigger fish to fry the next couple of days. My hearing had been scheduled for first thing in the morning at the Peace Officer Standards and Training Council’s headquarters…the main police academy for Utah. That meant I had to go on into Sandy just outside of Salt Lake for it. Sheriff Simple said he’d come on down with me and be there through the process. POST rules said I could have my superior officer present at all stages.
Instead of driving down in the morning, having to leave at four in the A of M to get to my hearing by half past eight, the three of us headed up I-15 after my shift ended. After three and a half hours of a real tense ride, where none of us seemed to be able to keep even a half-hearted conversation going, Kabe and I’d dropped Sheriff Simple at his cousin’s place in the suburb of West Jordan. Then we ate a not so elegant dinner at this dive where I could hardly eat nothing. Finally, Kabe and I ended up in a dingy little hotel room with barely enough room to walk around the bed. We were slightly north of Sandy in a place called Midvale…all of it part of the greater Salt Lake City.
Kabe was in the shower and I had the TV, bolted to the wall across from the bed, on for the noise. Mr. Potter taunted Jimmy Stuart at half volume.
It’s a Wonderful Life
seemed slightly less depressing than the news when I turned it on. Now, it just annoyed me, but not enough to go switch channels.
I paced between the little area with a sink on one wall and a coat rack on the other and the bed. Couldn’t go too far, tethered like I was by the phone cord. I fussed over my uniform with some poor gal at the front desk about finding me a dry-cleaner. “What do you mean, there ain’t nobody open?” Even hung up in the suit bag, the drive down didn’t do my uniform no favors. One of the dark pocket flaps on the shirt had done gone and curled up, and the creases I’d asked the laundry to put in the sleeves and pants seemed to have disappeared during the drive. I wanted to look my best tomorrow morning. My uniform was the first visible sign of who I was. If I looked spit and polish then, well, maybe, that’d carry through.
“They all close at seven,” she explained…for about the seventeenth time. “It’s half past seven now, they’re all closed for the night.” I could hear the clicks of a keyboard on the other end of the line. “Look, I found one in South Salt Lake that opens at like, six-thirty; they might be able to do it while you wait.”
I slammed my fist against the excuse for a headboard. “What am I supposed to do, stand there in my shorts?” I shouted so loud that I’m sure folks three rooms down heard. Then I remembered myself. Weren’t her fault that I was in this predicament. “Sorry, ain’t your fault.” I managed to back my voice into something almost contrite. “Thanks for looking.” I hung up the phone, took two deep breaths and then kicked the nightstand so hard it rocked. “Shit!”
“Oh my fucking God, you cussed!”
I spun. Kabe stood there, nekkid as the day he was born. Water beaded on his brown skin as he mussed his hair with one of the thin hotel towels.
“Knock it off, boy.” I didn’t want him reminding me that I’d lost my temper.
“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard a bad word out of your mouth.”
Trying to shove my shame down, I ordered, “Put some clothes on or something!”
“I was going to suggest you take yours off,” he laughed, “and then something.”
“Don’t mess with me.” I kneaded my forehead with my fingers. “I got too much to think on right now.”
With a smirk, Kabe grabbed his junk. “You could think on this.” Then he came up at me, grabbing at my hands and my middle.
Normally, not something I’d mind much, him being all frisky, but tonight I just weren’t for it. “Back off.” I growled and tried move past him to where I’d been sorting my uniform.
Kabe tossed his wet towel and hit me cross the shoulder with it. “Butt head.”
Pulling the towel off, I shot him a paint-peeling glare. “Don’t you take that tone with me.” Then I started checking my gear. Lord, I wished this dive had a safe for storing my weapon. As it was, my duty belt was going to spend the night on the night stand, since this place didn’t even have no dresser.
I grabbed the whole mess up and headed towards the bed. Kabe’d flopped on top of the covers, still all nekkid, and flipped though channels of nothing much on. When I came up next to the bed he lunged out, grabbed my middle again and tried to drag me onto the bed.
“Good Lord, boy!” I managed not to spill over on top of him. “I had my piece in my hand!” I had just pulled it from the holder to check the safety.
He leered. “I’d hold your piece for you.”
Safety on, it had been, I shoved the weapon back into the holster. “What has gotten into you?”
He darn near purred out, “Nothing yet.” Like he hadn’t caught my tone, Kabe slid his hand over my crotch.
I grabbed his wrist. “Knock. It. Off.”
“Make me.”
Normally his pawing at me would get me interested…and he knew it. Tonight, though, the thoughts about tomorrow pulled me six ways to Sunday. Dinner weren’t sitting right in my stomach. Already felt like I’d been rode hard and put away wet. All my nerves jangled. I let him go and went back to sorting things. Tried to whittle off some of that energy by fussing with my gear: weapon, pepper spray, flashlight, handcuffs and the like. And as I’m all wrapped up in that, Kabe decided to come up behind me and grab at me again.
At that point I didn’t even think on it. I yanked out my handcuffs, whipped around, caught his shoulder and spun Kabe. As he fell towards the bed, I got hold of his right wrist. Used that grip and his own momentum to land him face down on the mattress.
“What the fuck!” Came out kinda muffled since his mouth was full of covers.
I jammed my knee up against his butt. “Shut up!” I might have even caught his nuts by the way he grunted. I wrassled his hand around behind him and slapped the cuff down across his wrist. Kabe used his left hand to try and push off the bed. Couldn’t quite manage that…what with my weight on top of him. It took me a bit to catch up his free arm, but I’d cuffed enough drunks and guys with a piss-load of vinegar in them that I managed alright with Kabe. Got the second cuff locked down on his left wrist.
I struggled back off the bed; didn’t even remember getting all that way up on it. I guess all that tangled up energy just took me along for the ride, ‘cause I was breathing hard and broke out into a sweat, and it weren’t half enough of a tussle for that.