Bk 5-Roger Morgan, Chapter 6

UTAH STATE AUDITOR

Monday morning, one week later, newlyweds Jake and Nicole went to work. An auditor who Jake recognized instantly from his dream, was sitting in the entry way. They said hello as they walked past him, but the auditor didn’t respond.

“That’s the auditor,” whispered Jake to Nicole as they walked out of sight into the office.”

“I figured as much.”

Silvia said, “The guy out there wants to see Royce, and he isn’t here yet. The same guy was here last week while you two were on your honeymoon and seemed upset when he left after a short meeting with Royce.”

“I might as well get this started, his name’s Edward Thornton.”

Slyvia’s jaw dropped, “How do you know that?”

“Ask Nicole.”

“Mr. Thornton, I believe you want to speak to me, I’m Jake Montross.”

Thornton stared at him in disbelief. “How do you know my name and how do you know I want to talk to you?”

“That’s not important, let’s go into the conference room.”

“Did Mr. James tell you I was coming?”

“No, why would he do that, you specifically asked him not to tell me.”

The auditor was confused and at a loss about this guy. Montross seemed to know all about him and yet there was no way he could know. If he remembered correctly he hadn’t even told Royce James his name, he had emailed him and said he was an auditor from the State of Utah department of Law Enforcement. The email had come under the name of his boss, the Attorney General of Utah. How did this guy know his name?”

Jake was enjoying Thornton’s discomfort. He knew what Thornton was thinking, so he decided to play with him some more. “I know your name because I can read your thoughts.”

Thornton turned pale. “That’s impossible; you just have the ability to guess about what a man will say in any situation?”

“Whatever you say.”

Thornton sat and decided that he was going to get right down to the purpose of his visit.

Before he could say anything more, Jake said “Why don’t you get right down to the purpose of your visit?”

“You have an amazing gift,” said Thornton, he thought ‘I’ll flatter him then I’ll hang him!’

Jake wanted to laugh, but he stared directly into Thornton’s eyes and said quietly in an ominous voice, “The only person around here that will hang is you.”

Thornton sat there looking at this man who seemed to be reading his thoughts. ‘How can I interview him and trick him into saying something that may incriminate him if he’s reading my thoughts?’

Jake quietly said, “You can’t”.

Without speaking aloud, ‘This is impossible; he can’t answer my questions if I don’t speak them. Let’s see, how was your honeymoon?’

“It was great; you might want to try it someday.”

Thornton was just about to have a nervous breakdown. He stared at Jake and aid out loud, “did you kill those people down by Manti?”

“If I did, you’ll never prove it!”

Thornton thought, ‘now we’re getting somewhere, he almost admitted he killed them.’

“No I didn’t, what I said was, if I did kill those people, you’ll never prove it. The good people down there have a mystery. Some poachers were killed who were bragging to anyone who would listen that they were going to kill the game warden, that’s me. Since they were killed, it must have been the game warden. That’s not evidence and you know it.”

Thornton went over what Jake had just said, ‘I wish I had a recorder to go over this conversation at my office.’

“Thornton, it doesn’t matter how many times you go over what I said, you will never be able to come up with my admitting to anything. You don’t need a recorder.”

Thornton was getting desperate, ‘how can I turn off my thoughts from him?’

“You can’t Thornton, you’re a pathetic little man who makes his living tricking people into saying things they didn’t do or sometimes admitting to doing something illegal. I don’t know how you sleep at night. No, you can’t turn off your thoughts from me. Are you ready to go home now?”

Thornton thought, ‘I sleep just fine thank you, and if I do have a problem sleeping, I can always get some pills or go slumming or go see Victoria…wait, he can hear me.’ “Out loud he shouted at Jake, stop it, you’re learning all kinds of things about me.”

“Yes, I suppose I am, who’s Victoria?”

That was the final straw for Edward Thornton, he gathered his notebooks up and stuffed them into his briefcase, then he ran out of the office muttering something about the devil. As he went out of the front door, he ran into Royce who asked, “can I help you?”

“No, you can’t!” Thornton climbed into his Utah State official vehicle and tore out of the parking lot.

“What’s that all about,” asked Royce as he entered the office.

“That was the state auditor, I don’t think he’ll be coming back or bothering us again,” said Jake.

“What did he want?”

“We just had a quiet conversation about any part I may had with those poachers who were killed near Manti. He seemed to accept what I had to say and rushed out. Maybe he had an appointment somewhere else.”

“He seemed upset when I told him last Monday that you were on your honeymoon. I had to remind him that his email specifically wanted it to be a surprise visit, so there’s no way he should be upset that you weren’t here.”

However, the auditor wasn’t the quitting kind of person. ‘I’ll find a way to get that game warden. I think he killed all of those people in cold blood and thinks he can get away from it’. He talked to his boss, the Attorney General, and stretched the truth about his interview with Jake. He asked for a subpoena to bring the game warden in for a deposition. The legal paperwork went out in the evening mail.

“Honey, we just got a subpoena for you. You have to go to Salt Lake City tomorrow for a deposition at the state office building.” Jake got the message when he came into cell coverage along Skyline Highway.

“Just what I need, another session with that jerk.” Jake called Nicole and told her he would be home tonight. “If I have to go to Salt Lake tomorrow, I better come home to see you first!”

The deposition had also been in Jakes dream, he arrived on time at the appointed place and reported to the receptionist. “Sit down, they’re almost ready for you.”
The same auditor, Edward Thornton, was in the room along with a woman who was going to type every word he said, there was also a recorder set up.

The woman said, “Mr. Montross, glad you could make it.”

“Thanks Irene, Mr. Thornton, good to see you again. How’s Victoria?”

The woman hesitated and started to ask Jake how he knew her name but shrugged and started typing,. Thornton said with a panicked look on his face, “NO NO don’t type that, we haven’t started yet!”

“Mr. Thornton, I’m sworn to record every word spoken in this room starting when I’m set up. Now don’t tell me what to record and what not to record!” She gave Thornton a dirty look and smiling turned to Jake, “this deposition has the same weight as a court of law. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?”

“Yes.” Jake wasn’t quite sure how he was going to rationalize lying to a court reporter but in his dream it went just fine and worked out ok.

Mr. Thornton, you may proceed.

Jake had an inspiration, “Excuse me, but can I ask a question first?”

“Go ahead.”

“I just swore to tell the truth, what about him; doesn’t he have to tell the truth too?”

“No, he’s an attorney; he doesn’t have to tell the truth.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Well maybe a little bit, an attorney, as an officer of the court, is assumed to always be telling the truth.”

“Just about every time I have dealt with an attorney, there’s been some question of honesty, in other words, every attorney I ever met has lied to me. Now you expect me to sit here and tell the truth when we both know this guy will lie every chance he gets.”

Thornton broke in, “Can I say something?”

“Yes, you can, what do you want to say,” said Irene as her fingers were flying back and forth on her machine.

“I’m not going to say anything; I just want to ask some questions.”

“Is that good enough for you Mr. Montross?”

“I guess so, let’s get started.”

They went through the standard introduction questions, name, rank, serial number, address, etc.

“Mr. Montross, I asked you if you killed those poachers who were killed near Manti, Utah. Is that correct?”

“Yes, you asked me if I killed them.”

“What did you say when I asked you if you killed those poachers who were killed near Manti, Utah.”

“I said that if I did, you couldn’t prove it.”

“Will you please explain what you meant by that statement?”

“I asked the county Sheriff who investigated the murders if he was able to find any clues as to who the murderers were. He told me they couldn’t find any meaningful clues. The only information they found didn’t point to anybody.”

“In the matter of the man from Arizona, Jim Turley, the sheriff told me that you shot him, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Will you explain why you shot this man?”

“Mr. Turley had a pistol pointed at the sheriff and was threatening to kill both of us. I was standing there holding a set of elk antlers at the time. The sheriffs’ deputies came driving up the road with their sirens on and lights flashing, this distracted Mr. Turley enough for me to retrieve my pistol. I then told him to drop his weapon or I would shoot him. He refused and I believed he was going to shoot the sheriff at any second, so I shot him.”

Suddenly Thornton’s thoughts were again opened to Jake. ‘Crap, that’s exactly what the sheriff told me.’ ‘I’ll ask him again if he killed those poachers, maybe he’ll change his answer.’ “Did you kill those four poachers east of Manti”.

“If I did, you can’t prove it.”

Thornton’s anger almost consumed him. He paused to bring his anger under control. ‘I can’t force him to confess, but maybe I can make him believe that he has no choice.’
“Mr. Montross, you are required to answer my questions in a truthful manner?”

“Mr. Thornton, you are attempting to force me to confess to these murders. I believe you are out of line. You know you can’t force me to confess to anything. They call that self incrimination.”

Thornton thought, ‘he said self incrimination, that’s the same as a confession.’

Before he could phrase another question, Jake added, “No, that’s not a confession to anything, you’re trying to trick me into saying something so you can hang me. I said self incrimination to point out to you that there are laws about self incrimination. You are trying to skirt the laws to somehow achieve your desired results. Why do you want to hang me with this crime?”

Thornton thought, ‘this son of a bitch is trying to confuse me again. I’ll show him that I’m not someone to play with using mind games.’ “I’m trying to find the killer of those poachers. I want to send a strong message to everyone that if somebody breaks the law, we will find them and prosecute them.” His thoughts continued, ‘If I can convict this game warden I will be on track to elected office, the sky’s the limit, maybe I can even become the governor!’

“Mr. Thornton your desire to use a trumped up charge as a springboard to elected office, maybe even governor, is pathetic. Why would I confess to you of anything? You aren’t interested in enforcing the law unless it somehow helps you.”

This statement knocked the floor out from under Mr. Thornton. ‘He’s doing it again; he knows what I’m thinking. If he asks me about Victoria again, I’ll scream!’

“Mr. Thornton. Why do you want me to stop asking about Victoria?”

Thornton sat there looking at Jake with a cold unblinking gaze. He was shaking and sweat was running down his face and dripping off his chin. The time passed slowly by, he said nothing. 5 minutes passed, still nothing came from Thorntons’ mouth.

The recorder asked, “Mr. Thornton, are you through?”

Jake knew Thornton was gone, his mind had turned off. His eyes were open, but nobody was home.

“Mr. Thornton, you have exactly 60 seconds to speak or this session is ended and Mr. Montross is excused.”

There was no brain activity that Jake could discern from Thornton.

“Ok, so be it, this session is ended, thank you for coming Mr. Montross. I’m sure this will be the end of the questioning about the situation near Manti, Utah.”

In his official state pickup truck, Jake called Nicole on his cell phone, “Honey, you’re not going to believe what happened at the deposition, I’ll be there in about a hour.”

SAM TURNER

Sam Turner returned from the “meeting” with his former roommate Roger Morgan. He couldn’t believe how alive he felt. He had not felt this good for years. He thought back and remembered how sluggish and tired he had felt as he drove home to the apartment when he got off shift. He had even remarked to his remaining roommate that he must be getting old. “The old body needs some excitement, I guess. There’s no way I can go to sleep now. I wonder if Ray’s still awake?”

“Ray, are you awake?”

“Of course I’m awake, do you think I could answer my phone if I was asleep? What’s up?”

“I know that was a stupid question, but I couldn’t think of anything clever to break the tension of making a call after midnight.”

“No, that’s alright, I was in bed but I wasn’t asleep. I guess I was waiting for your call. Ok, so why did you try to break into the sound sleep of an old friend after midnight?”

“Roger and I went to see some guys who were forcing 3 girls to have sex with their paying customers.”

“You didn’t shoot them did you?”

Sam paused, “Nooooooooo, Roger did.”

“And why are you telling me this?”

“Remember when we watched him shoot that doctor? I asked you if you realized we were accessories to murder and you said it made you feel good to be a Robin Hood copy cat, or helper or something like that.”

“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that morning ever since. Every time I see a guilty bastard who I know is going to beat the rap because of his money or influence, I think if I had the guts to come back later and take him out it would make the world a better place.”

Sam thoughtfully said, “Tonight, Roger called me and told me about these 3 dirty bastards who were forcing these girls into prostitution and my blood boiled. I told him to come over and bring that gun I gave him. I know what kind of risk I’m taking, but it seemed like the only thing I could do. I had to make sure those 3 parasites died tonight.”

“If you had called me, I would have come along without a seconds thought. If we are going to do any more of this kind of thing we had better make sure we cover our tracks or we’ll end up in jail with some of those slime balls we put there. That wouldn’t make for a long life.”

“OK, let’s get it out in the open between us. Let’s meet tomorrow afternoon for lunch. I’ll call you when I know when I can take a break.”

Cheerfully, Ray replied, “See you tomorrow Robin.” He thought to himself, ‘there’s no way I’m going to get any sleep tonight’.

The next day, Sam and Ray sat in the parking lot of a hamburger stand. Both had the super sized combo with burger, large fries and a large soft drink; the windows were up and Sam’s police cruiser was idling. Nobody could hear what was being said inside. Even a person who could read lips would have trouble understanding what was being said because the windows were tinted just enough to make it hard to see the faces of the police officers inside.

“Ray, just because I’ve decided to become a Robin Hood copy cat, doesn’t mean you need to come along.”

“Look Sam, you and I got along from the first time we met because we think the same. We agree on every thing I can think of except women. You can’t get past the color of their hair. If her hair’s blonde, she’s pretty.”

“Yeah, you’re right, you on the other hand think they’re all pretty and can’t make up your mind on any one of them. You chase them all, and can’t seem to catch one.”

“Ok, now that we have spelled out our women problems, why are we here? I’m here because I want to take out some of those rotten people I run across that will never be stopped by our present legal system. I’m sick of arresting someone who I know is guilty and then seeing them on the street the next day. I’m not here because you talked me into it, so don’t be go thinking you drug me into a life of crime. Now that’s settled, what do you have in mind?”

Sam spoke in a voice that he barely recognized, “I think we should go about our jobs in the regular way. When ever we see a person who we think needs to be eliminated, we tell the other one about the person and walk away. That way the one who pulls the trigger hasn’t every dealt directly with the target.”

“Sounds like a good plan. What if there is more than one or two? Do we put in a little more planning and take them out together?”

“Yeah something like that. Obviously, we need to take it slow and easy. One mistake and one or both of us are in deep trouble.”

Ray added, “What’s happening with your voice? You don’t sound the same.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, except that since I helped Roger, I feel stronger. I’ve dropped a few pounds, my voice is deeper. My God, I’m turning into the Incredible Hulk!”

They both laughed, but both also realized something was happening to them that couldn’t be explained.

They agreed to get together on the weekend and see what developed. The location was an abandoned subdivision. A handwritten list complete with names, addresses, and why they were on the list would be the way to communicate. Both felt a deep excitement about Saturday. “I’m going to finally be able to do something about those lowlifes who laugh at us and the laws of this country.”

Police officers develop a short memory and a thick skin toward those who keep coming back into the legal system. The officers can’t worry about it or it would drive them crazy. Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny. Sam and Ray met at the predetermined spot. Both were driving there personal vehicles. No connection should be established that would put them together. Both had lists of people to give to the other. The lists contained sexual predators, wife abusers, and drug dealers.

“Now we have a starting list, how do we find the time to scout these people and find a time and place to take them out,” asked Ray?

“I’ve noticed my energy level is now much higher than it was before. I’m getting less sleep but I feel more awake and twice as strong. Should we go over the lists and answer any questions before splitting?”

Ray asked, “The first name on your list is a homeless guy that makes his home in and around the Murray Town Mall. It surprises me that he’s on the loose. How can a guy like this do this much damage and still be able to walk around?”

“I’ve arrested him twice. I’ve seen him in jail and in court numerous times, but I’ve never seen or heard of him being convicted of anything. Someone with a big pocketbook always steps in and hires the top defense legal firm in the valley. The last couple of arrests, the prosecutor’s office didn’t even try to put him away. Money buys justice. I would like to take this scum out myself, but my feelings about him are well known. I need to be somewhere else where I have an iron clad alibi. If you’re going after him first, I’ll give you a couple of days when I’ll be out of town.”

“OK, I’ll go after him today. Wish me luck.”

“Good hunting, shall we get together next Saturday, 10:00 am in this same spot?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you in a week. With a little luck I can clean out our list by then.” Ray drove to the mall and parked where he could see the place where Faren Whitehorse called home. He was a full blooded Ute Indian from central Utah. His criminal record included dozens of sexual harassment charges, rape and attempted rape charges and one attempted murder charge. There were other charges that would have been logged except the officer knew it was a waste of his time. Faren’s official home was on the Ute reservation near Roosevelt, Utah. There was no picture in the material Ray received from Sam.

Ray sat in his truck and watched some panhandlers as they circulated back and forth between the doorways into the Mall. One appeared to have the physical characteristics of the Ute Tribe. The Ute Indians have a bigger than normal head in most cases. Other than that they look like any other American Indian. As the hours passed, the crowds disappeared and the 2 panhandlers sat together on a bench in front of a fountain in the center of the main mall entrance. The two kept looking around like they were expecting someone.

Ray realized that he was alone in the parking lot and would look unusual if he stayed there much longer. He started his truck and pulled over to the restaurant parking lot where he could see the two panhandlers. The panhandlers had noticed his truck and watched him now from across the mall parking lot. ‘This was not good. I guess I had better go inside and get a bite to eat.’ He found a table where he could see the two sitting on a concrete barrier. It was getting dark and harder to see by the minute. After a quick drink and sandwich he exited and walked back to his truck. The two panhandlers were gone. Ray had his pistol, with silencer, in a shoulder holster. ‘I guess its time for a walk.’ The lights in the mall parking lot were on, but there were dark, shadowy hiding places all along the buildings.

Ray walked to the main building; the dumpsters for the mall trash were hidden behind a fashionable wooden fence that blocked a chain link fence and the big trash dumpsters. ‘The dumpsters are always a favorite place for the homeless, so I guess I’ll start there.’ As he approached the gate he heard voices. It sounded like one male and one female talking about dinner. It became a heated conversation as the female indicated she was hungry and wanted to eat before bedtime. The male told her to relax, Sid would be there pretty soon and they would have a supper to remember.

“When’s the last time that Sid showed up when he said he would with dinner,” asked the female?

“He’s always late, but he always brings something tasty.”

“Yeah, but I’m hungry now. Maybe we should just go on over to that house on 54th street where we saw those kids fixing dinner with no adults around.”

“I’m hungry too, the last time we invited ourselves into a situation like that, I thought I would end up in prison.”

“If you had just taken the food and left that little girl alone, it wouldn’t have been a problem, but no, you had to lock all the kids in the basement and take the girl into the bedroom to rape her. I told you to stop before their parents came home. Sure enough the parents came home and I spent the night in jail. You spent a few months in jail until your family could get you out.”

“I’m sick of hearing about that, how about your pimp that you stabbed right in front of a cop?”

“I didn’t see that cop coming.” Ok, you’re right, I’ll be quiet about your screw ups if you shut up about mine.”

“Deal, now shall we go see if those kids are alone again tonight?”

“Sid said he would be here by now. Let’s give him until 8.”

Ray heard a sound behind him. Another homeless man was pushing a grocery cart toward him. The cart was full and he didn’t notice Ray yet. Ray figured he had about 30 seconds before he would be exposed to the newcomer as he came around the concrete barrier. ‘Sounds to me like these three are all involved with bad stuff. I think I’ll just start with this guy.’ The homeless man slowly pushed the cart around the barrier and bumped into Ray. Ray was standing there with his pistol aiming at the man’s head.

“Who…what…why,” Were the last sounds to leave the man’s lips. Ray put a bullet into the man’s head. He spun around and fell to the ground. A sound came from the basket, but he would investigate later. Now he needed to take care of business behind him. He walked back to the fence.

“Did you hear that,” asked the female voice?

“Hear what?”

“I think I heard a gun with a silencer go off.”

“You’re crazy, what would anyone be shooting at here?”

“I don’t know, maybe us.”

“Let’s go see,” said the male voice. There was a rattle, thump as he climbed the fences and dropped in front of Ray. The silencer did its thing and the “clap” was heard again.

“See, I heard it again!” The female climbed the fence like her male friend and dropped in front of Ray. He was ready and put a bullet in her brain. She spun around and hit the basket as she fell to the ground.

Ray started to walk by the basket when he was reminded of the sound he had heard earlier, by another sound. It was a muffled cry of “Help.”
Ray put his pistol in his holster and walked to the basket. It was piled high with what looked like garbage. He started removing the sacks of garbage, newspapers, and plastic sacks. In the darkness he couldn’t see exactly what was asking for help, but it looked like a small person with rags in its mouth and tape over the rags. He couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl but Ray figured it was probably about 8 years old. It was crying and he could make out “please help me”.

‘Crap, what do I do with this?’ “Hang on there partner, I’ll take you over to the restaurant.” The voice stopped begging and quieted down. Ray loaded up the garbage that he had thrown to the ground and pushed the heavy cart toward the restaurant and his truck. How can I help this little person and get away without anyone seeing who I am.

To the little person in the cart he said, “You’re going to have to wait a little longer, but I can’t let you or anyone else see me. I’ll put you where customers from the restaurant will see you and then I’ll leave. Good luck to you, good bye.” With that he pushed the cart up against the rear of a car parked next to the front door. He made sure the cart and the little person inside were facing the wall of the restaurant and not the parking lot. He turned and walked quickly around the corner of the restaurant to his truck and left the parking lot by the driveway opposite the cart. He hoped it was dark enough that the person didn’t get a good look at him.

Dr. Robert Owens and his wife finished their dinner and went to their car parked next to the front door. Someone had pushed a grocery cart full of trash against their car. Dr. Owens grabbed the cart to move it when he heard “Help.”

“Kathy, will you call the police. There’s a person in here.” He pulled the garbage bags up and threw them aside one after another until he found a small person with a gag in its mouth. Dr. Owens quickly picked up the small person and removed the tape that held the gag in place. The person grabbed him and thanked him crying. It was a little girl.

The police arrived within minutes and took her from Dr. Owens. The police talked to the little girl and established the fact that she had been kidnapped that morning. Since that time she had been in the grocery cart; tied hand and foot with a gag in her mouth. She didn’t know who had kidnapped her, but she thought another man had shot the man who kidnapped her and brought her over to the restaurant, he had told her “good luck” as he pushed her against the car. Police searched the area and discovered the 3 bodies near the Mall. It looked like a Robin Hood rescue to the investigating officers. The three dead people were all homeless and each of them were well known to local police. The officer, who discovered them, smiled when he first realized who they were. He personally had been dealing with them for as long as he had been on the police force. Almost every day he would respond to complaints about these three as they circulated around the Murray Town Mall working the patrons for a handout and occasionally breaking into an area home. ‘I won’t have to deal with these three again.’ The little girl had been reported missing that morning. She had been taken from inside her home. Someone had come in an unlocked door and taken her while the little girls’ mother was a few feet away in the kitchen. Her parents were frantic and were overjoyed about her discovery. They were expecting a ransom demand and in fact the three homeless people probably would have made a ransom demand if they had not run into Robin Hood.

The news media were in a feeding frenzy. All of them repeated over and over all day and night for a week about the little girl who was rescued by Robin Hood and left at a nearby restaurant. In each story it was also repeated over and over again about the danger of vigilante justice. “How can we feel safe when there are people being killed all around us? We must find and incarcerate Robin Hood and all his copy cats. All of these killings are unnecessary. We have a system of justice that has been established to handle lawbreakers.” They failed to mention that these 3 homeless people had been a thorn to the side of law abiding people in the area for many years and the justice system couldn’t or wouldn’t take the steps to stop their lawlessness.

Patty read the story and asked Roger if he was responsible for the rescue of the little girl. “Patty, if you remember, the night all this happened I was with you all night. We went to an early movie and then to dinner. We both had to be to work early the next morning so we were in bed before midnight. If I remember the story the police figured the murders occurred shortly after sundown and the girl was found about 9 pm.”

“Yeah, I remember, but it would be so neat if you were the one who everyone is talking about. Maria kept looking at me all day and smiling shyly as if we were sharing a secret about Robin Hood.”

The night after the little girl was found and the 3 homeless people were found murdered, Sam stopped by Ray’s house. Ray’s truck was sitting in his driveway. Ray invited him in. They sat down and Sam asked, “Hey man, what’s going on? Was that you?”

“What do you think? One of those three was on your list of who you would like to erase and we agreed I would go check him out while you were establishing a solid alibi. Of course it was me. I went over to see if I could find the guy on the top of your list. I saw those two hanging around the Mall entrance and I figured one of them was the target.. The other guy showed up pushing a basket, I just figured “Birds of a Feather flock together” and took them all out. The little girl was a bonus but also a potential problem. I was afraid she would see me and recognize me, but I had old clothes on and an old baseball cap pretty much covering my face. I also worried about someone in the restaurant seeing me walking up to the front door, but I guess it worked out ok.”

“It worked out fantastic. The only problem is that the Mayor is putting all the pressure he can on us to find whoever was responsible. In our staff meeting this morning, the captain reamed us up one side and down the other, and then the Mayor took his turn. I was sure glad that I wasn’t on duty when it happened. Murray Police Department is cooperating with Salt Lake City Police Department and forming a task force to stop Robin Hood vigilante activity and arrest as many of them as possible. I think we should probably take it easy for awhile.”

“You’re probably right. Who is the Salt Lake PD contact? I know some of the guys there.”

“Detective David Rizzo is the contact. I really like him. He spoke for a few minutes and I was impressed. There is something about him that makes me trust him.”

“About Robin Hood,” gasped Sam?

“Ah maybe, he’s one of those men with a natural leadership ability I guess. It just seemed to me like he should be in charge. And I didn’t get the feeling he was a danger to my extracurricular activities. In fact after the formal chewing out session and the introduction of Rizzo, he circulated around the room. He shook my hand and it was as if he could read my mind. He looked me in the eye and said “It’s my honor and pleasure to meet you Officer Olsen. I heard him speak to a number of the guys and he never said that to them!”

“OK, let me get this straight, this guy, Detective Rizzo, is the main contact in the Salt Lake City Police Department looking for Robin Hood. You think he knows you were involved with that murder and you think he’s in fact going to help us in our Robin Hood activities?”

“That’s not exactly what I said, but yeah, that’s’ the feeling I got.” Ray continued, “Did you tell Roger about our involvement with the latest Robin Hood activity?”
“No, I haven’t talked to him recently, but I expect him to call me one of these days.”

DETECTIVE DAVID RIZZO

Ray Olsen was a very perceptive person. He was right; Detective Rizzo was someone he could talk to about anything! In addition to being the Salt Lake City Police Departments lead man on the Robin Hood Task Force; he was also the Utah point man for Justice For All, a secret organization formed to promote patriotism and a stronger America in any way possible. He was on a first name basis and talked to the original Utah Robin Hood on at least a weekly basis and actively worked in their behalf. He was a very busy man and if some of his superiors at the Salt Lake City PD knew of his other activities they would be surprised and enraged. And to top it off, Rizzo’s sixth sense wasn’t as finely tuned as some people, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt that Ray was the man who shot those 3 homeless lawbreakers that everyone in town was talking about. He would be watching Ray as close as he could and would contact him for a secret personal interview when the time was right.

‘About time someone on the Murray Police Department had the guts to do something about all those freeloading parasites around that mall’, thought Rizzo to himself as he drove back to his office. ‘I wonder if he was involved with those 3 guys that were whacked in the van in Rose Park or if he has a partner.’

BIG BILL

Sam looked at the list prepared by Ray. There were a total of 7 names with a paragraph on each, #1 was a drug dealer, #2-6 were sexual predators, and #7 was a pedophile. ‘I have heard of this “Big Bill” guy. He has the ability of our former president slick Willy. He’s been arrested for and suspected of all kinds of drug dealing, but nothing sticks. We haven’t been able to prove anything although we know he’s a king pin in the drug business.’

Since the 2 big West Valley gangs were wiped out by Robin Hood, William, “Big Bill”, Thomas took over the mob’s import business of the illegal drugs coming into Utah. He didn’t get into the actual distribution, he simply supplied the local drug lord with product. His profit was plenty for him and the risks of taking it further were more than he was willing to take. “Big Bill” owned a small fleet of long haul trucks that were rolling around the clock.

Sometimes one of them would deliver a load of cocaine or marijuana with the other cargo. His trucks had been searched again and again and no drugs were ever found. Many times the police dogs found the scent, but there were no drugs. What the police didn’t know was that the load of drugs was taken off the trucks before they reached the Salt Lake valley. The road from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City is 420 miles of mostly emptiness. Trucking companies allowed their drivers to pull off the interstate in any number of places to take a much needed rest.

The law enforcement officers couldn’t check every truck sitting beside the highway, there weren’t enough officers to handle that many trucks. “Big Bill” was every careful with the unloading procedures. He had a number of dump locations along the road for the drugs. The actual unloading and pickup happened at night. There were armed sharpshooters with high powered rifles sitting in vantage points who would take out any unauthorized person who tried to pick up the drugs. The locations were all in the wide open spaces where the look outs could spot a vehicle long before that vehicle arrived at the pickup spot. It was all controlled by radio and code words. Even if someone overheard the radio conversation, the place and time of the pickup wouldn’t be discovered.

The pickup vehicle usually was a farm truck full of a family unit. The truck would be loaded with hay, grain, or cattle. The destination would be an auction or some legitimate business who had bought the cargo. In fact most of the delivery drivers didn’t know about the illegal cargo or where it came from, but they were paid a reasonable amount and were thankful for the opportunity to make a little extra spending money. They were hired by a friend of a friend who needed a driver for a load to Salt Lake City. Once in Salt Lake, the driver and his family would be expertly unloaded and driven back home. “Big Bill” knew that one of these days, one of his delivery trucks would be discovered with a load of drugs so he took every possible precaution to distance himself and his organization from the process. It would take an inside informant to prove “Big Bill” was involved, and there was only a slim possibility of that happening. His people were treated well, paid a lot and nobody was added to his organization without a personal introduction from an existing member. If a new member proved untrustworthy, both the new guy and the person who invited him were eliminated. Therefore there were very few opportunities to insert someone into the organization. The law enforcement people were impatient but couldn’t find a way to nail “Big Bill”.

Sam read all he could find on “Big Bill”. He lived in an exclusive community on the east side of the Salt Lake Valley above the city. It was a gated community with guards at the entrance. Without a pass, or a call from a member of the community, you weren’t allowed to enter. His office was in a high security building in down town Salt Lake City. He traveled all over the valley to oversee his trucking facilities but didn’t seem to have a specific time to be anywhere. He traveled in a Suburban with his bodyguards at all times. Sometime he drove, other times he rode in various positions in the vehicle. Sam followed him around for a few days when he could break away from his patrol duties. He didn’t want to blow up the Suburban and kill any of his employees, but was about to resort to that method, when he noticed “Big Bill” went home at about the same time every day. He would come from different directions, but he was always alone when he drove up to the security gate to his home subdivision. He would roll down his window and show his pass to the guard. The guard would compare his face with the card and then open the gate. The guard probably knew “Big Bill” by sight, but he went through the motions every time.

Sam went to the public rifle range and practiced his medium range shooting every day to bring his skills back up to where he could hit a 1 inch circle in the center of the target 99 out of 100 times at 100 yards. Sam’s rifle was a popular big game rifle, a 7 MM magnum. He didn’t have a silencer for it, and wanted to take this guy out as soon as possible. There was a “greenbelt” along the fence around the development that Sam decided to utilize. It was thick with trees and bushes. It would be easy to find a place to set up but he had to get out of there unseen to make it work.

He went online and looked at the strip from satellite. He noticed a path that he had not noticed from the roads. It ran along the fence and was hidden by the trees and bushes. Another path joined it at about the right place and led out of the “greenbelt” to a street. This would be perfect. He had a golf bag on wheels that would cover his rifle. He put on some jogging clothes and went for a walk. He went through the area at about the right time and found a place to set up where he would be hidden from anyone who might be walking or jogging along the path. He could see the cars as they stopped at the guard station.

“Big Bill” pulled up and Sam placed the cross hairs between his eyes. This was supposed to be a practice run, but it was perfect. He clicked the safety off and squeezed the trigger. Just as his trigger finger passed the point of no return, the guard raised his arm to hand the Identification card back to “Big Bill”. Wow, that was close. If the guard has raised his arm one inch higher he would have lost the arm. The bullet would have gone through the guards arm on its way to “Big Bill” with no problem, but Sam was glad the guard didn’t lose his arm.

The 7 MM magnum slammed him back as it delivered its message to “Big Bill”. The high energy 175 grain cartridge entered “Big Bill” just a little higher than Sam had aimed,
This cartridge was designed to penetrate the thick hide of an elk or deer, and mushroom for more energy transfer when it hits a bone. It will knock down and kill an elk if the animal is hit in a vital spot. An bull elk weighs 2 to 4 times more than “Big Bill”. The skull and hide of an elk is a lot tougher that any human and this bullet is “overkill” for a fragile human skull. The head of “Big Bill” was pulverized and spread all over the inside of the Suburban and out the other side of the broken window.

The cartridge didn’t meet enough resistance to mushroom until it encountered and shattered the window on the other side of the car, and successfully hid itself in the grass on the manicured grass covered hill on the other side. The guard didn’t hear anything. He was looking at “Big Bill” when his head came apart. His training was to ask for identification and raise the gate. If there are any problems; call the police. He didn’t know what to do. He just stood there until the next car behind “Big Bill” honked. At that point he went to plan B and called the police.

Sam quickly put his rifle back into the golf bag cart and jogged down the path to his car several blocks away. He didn’t eject the shell casing. Even If the cartridge was recovered, it would not be traceable to him. He bought this rifle from a friend when he was a teenager 15 years ago. He figured a single shot from his rifle may be noticed, but with only one shot, the direction the sound came from would not be clear and anyone who heard it would not be able to pinpoint the location. The investigators would quickly identify the general direction the bullet would have come from anyway.

He needed to get out of the area as quickly as possible. He loaded his car and drove down to the freeway. Just as he reached the freeway on ramp, he saw some police cars with lights flashing and sirens screaming go speeding up the road toward “Big Bill’s” subdivision.

Officer Ted McBride arrived at the bloody scene at the entrance to Utah’s most prestigious neighborhood. He was the first police officer to arrive, but the neighborhood security car, 3 fire trucks and 2 ambulances were sitting off to the side of the street. Dozens of residents were all milling around and looking off in the distance as if to identify the person responsible for the carnage in the polished black Suburban. They seemed to be taking turns walking by the Suburban and looking in the shattered window. The caller, the guard at the location, had said there was a man shot as he sat in his vehicle at the guard house at the entrance waiting for the gate to open. Ted was a rookie policeman and had never seen anything like this. He took control just like his training had said to, putting tape all around the car and the guard house. It would be a mess until CSI could get there and examined the crime scene, but he had no choice. His backup would be there any minute and assume control.

He asked the guard what had happened.

“I was handing his identification back to him when his head kind of exploded. I think I heard a gun shot, but I’m not sure. Ted looked in the car and winced, the bullet had obviously traveled beside the guard and through the open window. It was responsible for the mess all over the inside of the vehicle and exited out the opposite window and shattered it in the process. He looked in the direction that it had to have come from and saw trees and bushes along the subdivision fence that was probably 50 yards wide. That would provide the shooter all kinds of cover for as far as he could see. The “greenbelt” filled with trees and bushes wound around the hill away from him. ‘I’ll bet there are a hundred places in that 50 yards wide greenbelt where a shooter could take his time and prepare for his shot. I’m glad I don’t have to go through that mess of grass, bushes, weeds, and trees looking for clues.’

For miles around, people outside their homes had heard the gunshot as the sound echoed back and forth along the foothills.. Any of them who were hunters recognized the sound as a high powered hunting rifle. They also realized that the sound was not usually heard here inside the city limits and the area adjacent was closed to any kind of big game rifle hunting. Experienced hunters stopped what they were doing and subconsciously waited for the second shot to more accurately identify where the sound had come from. The second shot never came and they went back to their business.

The news outlets reported “Prominent local businessman gunned down as he waited for the gate to his neighborhood to open! Police report they have no clues as to the why he was killed or who the shooter was. Anyone who has any information to help the police is urged to report the information to the Salt Lake Police Department.”

The head of the Utah drug operation, Ramon Escobar, saw the report about the assassination of his biggest product supplier. “SHIT, first we lose a couple of our dealers to Robin Hood, then he takes out those 2 gangs who handled the bulk of our sales, then he eliminates our entire leadership of Utah drug operations, he kills my boss, and now I’m in charge, and now my main supplier gets whacked! How am I going to keep my dealers in line if I can’t supply them? More importantly, how am I going to survive?”

“I dunt know, boss, what do you want me to do,” relied Tony?

“I’m not asking you for advice, I’m just talking to myself! Go get me some coffee.”
Ramon had been promoted to be the personal assistant to Louis Samboli, drug lord of the western US headquartered in Las Vegas, after Robin Hood started dismantling the Utah organization. Ricky Sanchez, had been Samboli’s number 1 and was sent to Utah to clean up the mess. He had died at the hands of Robin Hood. Now Ramon was in charge of Utah and Samboli was dead of a heart attack, or at least that was what he was told at the funeral. Ramon was officially promoted to head up the Utah territory at the funeral, but there were a lot of unanswered questions about the organization and what was going to happen if Robin Hood wasn’t stopped. Samboli had been the picture of health until Robin Hood showed up, he became obsessed with killing Robin Hood and had said on many occasions that he would kill him if it was the last thing he ever did.
Ramon sat and reflected about what had happened to bring him to this place and what he had to do to keep his position. ‘I have to find and kill Robin Hood, but if I become obsessed with that phantom, he will kill me like Sanchez. I’ve got to be smart and figure out a way to strengthen my organization here, or if Robin Hood doesn’t kill me, the new boss in Las Vegas will. First I’ve got to step in and take over “Big Bill’s organization to keep the drugs coming.’

“Hey Tony, who did you talk to when you couldn’t find “Big Bill”?”

“Vic Burnham.”

“Find him and bring him to me for a meeting. It needs to happen as soon as possible!”

“Big Bill’s funeral is today.”

“Then that would be a good place to find Vic. I want to meet with him today!”

“You got it boss.”

At the funeral, detective Charlie Slater watched the people milling around. His partner, John Clarke sat beside him with binoculars focused on the widow and “Big Bill’s general manager of operations, Vic Burnham. “Who’s that guy that just walked up and spoke to Vic?”

“I think that’s some guy that works for Ramon Escobar the local drug boss.”

“Interesting, we figured “Bib Bill” was making deliveries of drugs for Ramon, but we never could prove it. It looks like Ramon wants to make sure his drugs keep coming.”

“That would be my guess.”

“Who do you think took out “Big Bill”?”

“I figured that he could have pissed off the drug people, but if that was the case, why would he want to talk to “Big Bill’s” number 1 man. He would have already made arrangement. I think we have a random element, probably Robin Hood that wanted “Big Bill” gone. If that’s the case, Vic Burnham will probably follow him to hell.”

Charlie added, “If I was Vic Burnham, I would run as fast and as far as I could. He’s in a no win situation. If he takes over “Big Bill’s” operation, Robin Hood will take him out, if he doesn’t, Escobar will take him out. He’s as good as dead right now.”

“Maybe this would be a good time to go see Mr. Burnham and make him an offer that may keep him alive.”

“I was thinking the same thing. Let’s give him time to meet with Escobar then pay him a little visit tomorrow sometime?”

“We’re from the Salt Lake City Police Department, is Vic Burnham in,” demanded Charlie as he displayed his badge for the receptionist to see.

“Yes, ahhhh I’ll tell him you’re here”.

Vic cautiously asked, “What’s this about officers?”

Charlie began, “Let’s begin by jumping over all the bullshit about this being a reputable company. We know that this company has been responsible for transporting the bulk of drugs that have come into Utah for the last few years.”
Vic tried to interrupt but couldn’t.

“Hear me out, and then you can throw some bullshit. We also know that your boss was killed by an unknown assailant, better known as Robin Hood. We should add that this unknown assailant will take out the successor to “Big Bill” as soon as it’s clear you’re following in his footsteps.”

Vic turned pale, “How can you know who killed him and that he’s going to kill me?”

“Look, let’s try some common sense. Why do you think “Big Bill” was killed?” Before he could answer, “You have already met with the customer for all those drugs shipped into by Utah by your company. Now I don’t know what Ramon Escobar told you in your meeting today, but he probably didn’t tell you that if you don’t go along, he will kill you and every succeeding person to run this company until he finds someone who will work with him.”

Vic turned even paler and a light color of green was slowly showing. “What can I do to survive?”

“What an intelligent question,” responded Clarke. “You can work with us to stop Escobar and his organization from supplying drugs to Utah. After we get rolling and take Escobar and his cronies out of Utah we’ll give you a new identification and new place to live.”

“I didn’t realize what Bill was doing when I first came to work for him.”

“So why didn’t you turn him in when you found out,” asked Charlie?

“He kept increasing my salary and told me that someone would bring in the drugs. If it wasn’t us, it would be someone else. He said he was so careful, no one would ever find out.”

“You were his general manager, were you involved in every step of bringing it in?”

“Not at first, I just got sucked in and I kept rationalizing that I wasn’t really hurting anyone, they were going to get the drugs from somewhere. I would use my money for good things so some good would come out of it. Ramon is going to kill me when he finds out, isn’t he?”

“Maybe, if we aren’t careful, or if you give us some bogus information, there’s a greater chance he will have a chance to get to you before we lock him away,” replied Jason.

“We’ll work with the department and they have experts in all aspects of what is going to happen, but we don’t know who Robin Hood is. He may decide to speed up the process and there’s a chance he already knows that you’re heading up the drug importing business so the quicker we get started the better.”

“You’re saying don’t be surprised if Robin Hood steps in and takes me out before you can protect me?”

“Yeah, that’s what we are saying. The good thing is that this way you have a chance to do more good. If you get whacked, we don’t get anything on Escobar. When’s the next shipment.”

“It’s going to be picked up tonight at the Hurricane exit. I’ll get you the information of how it’s done from start to finish. We have shipments coming every other day to keep the size down and make them easier to handle. Ramon told me that he would keep his side of the operation working the same as it has been. The only change is the money will now come to a secret bank account with my number on it instead of Bills.”

“We’re going to hand you off to some other department people who will work with you. We’re detectives not drug enforcement specialists. If you have any problem, just give us a call, here are our cards with numbers to reach us at any time. Good luck, you’ve made the right decision.”

John and Charlie got back in their unmarked car, Charlie brought his hand up, spread his fingers in the Vulcan salute and said “Live long and prosper, I’ve always wanted to do that to someone in the that setting rather than say good luck but thought maybe Vic might not see any humor in it. He’s now thinking he will live short and die a violent death.”

“Yeah, if you had done that stunt, Vic probably would have called the whole thing off.”

Bk 5-Roger Morgan, Chapter 5

JAMES BRIGHAM BEUS

A month after 16 year old Jeremy Beus was found dead in his burned up truck, Jake was driving Skyline Highway on a routine patrol. He dropped down to Manti for lunch at Penny’s Diner when Deputy Farnsworth came in and sat down across the booth from him.

“Sir, I left you messages every day since I heard that old man Beus is coming after you!”

“I got your messages; that’s why I’m here; go on, I thought the old man was dying.”

“He is, but he woke up long enough to learn that his boys were all dead and went nuts. He’s been so high on drugs for the last few months he didn’t know what had happened. He asked his wife to tell him where the boys were, but she wouldn’t tell him. He wouldn’t take his medicine until he found someone in town who told him you killed them. I was in Penny’s Diner when he came in screaming and yelling about the yellow bellied cowardly lawmen around here.

He then said, “I may be fighting cancer and some tell me that I’m going to die soon, but I’ll kill that dirty bastard Game Warden first!”

“Where can I find Mr. Beus?”

“I don’t know, he left Penny’s Diner after his screaming fit, crawled into his truck and tore out of town. That was 4 days ago and he hasn’t been seen around here since. I’ve been looking for him at his house and all along my patrols, but I haven’t spotted him. I even went to his house and asked his wife. She said he came in 4 days ago, took his rifle, some heavy clothes, a tent, a sleeping bag, his mangy dog, a box full of food; and left without saying a word to her, “He was still mad because she wouldn’t tell him what happened to his boys.” She went on to say that the doctor says he only has about a week or two to live without his medicine.”

“What kind of truck does he have?”

“It’s a white 10 year old Chevy with a stock rack on the back. Jake, I recommend you stay away from here for a week or so and he’ll probably die up there waiting for you.”

“I’m not running away from him. I would like to talk to him and explain to him what happened to his three sons.”

“I don’t think he’s interested in talking, he’s out for blood, your blood.”

“Maybe, but I won’t run away from him. Call me on the radio if you see him, I’m going back up to Skyline. Tell the Sheriff about our little conversation.”

“Yes sir.”

Jake finished his lunch and drove back up the Manti Canyon road. This road started out good enough, but sure enough, the last few miles below Skyline turned into something worse than a cow path.

‘It’ll take about an hour to walk up to Skyline and probably twice as long to drive this ridiculous path called a road.’ Jake backed down off a slick rock and found a wide place in the path to park his truck. “Anybody crazy enough to drive up this cow path will give it up when they see my truck.’ Jake figured the old man would be somewhere near the place his sons had died.

An hour later he saw the old white Chevy truck parked in a grove of pine trees just below Skyline. It was almost covered with pine boughs and would be totally hidden from anyone coming from the opposite direction. That would explain why Deputy Farnsworth didn’t see it as he drove along Skyline on his patrol. There was usually a hunting camp placed here. There was a fire going as he walked up beside the Chevy. He patted his chest to make sure his pistol was in its holster. He heard a deep growl come from somewhere in the darkness.

“Shut up Duke!” The voice came from a man sitting on a log in front of the fire, his back toward Jake, but he didn’t turn to look at Jake. A big mongrel dog of some kind walked out of the darkness and up to the man with his tail between his hind legs. The voice continued, “I knew you would come find me when you heard that I had told everybody I was going to kill you.”

“Yeah, I figured your outburst was designed to get me up here to talk.”

“Why did you kill Clint?”

“He almost killed me, I didn’t want to shoot him, but I didn’t have much of a choice. Jake went through the sequence of events that took the lives of the old man’s 3 sons. He didn’t hold back anything and didn’t’ add anything either.

“Larry was a bad seed. I tried to start him right but he fought me every step of the way. One night we were completely out of food so I took Larry with me and we went and found a deer standing beside the road. I took it and we had venison for the next couple of weeks. After that night, Larry started sneaking around and taking my guns and going out shooting at night. He was about 8 years old. This whole mess is my fault, I maybe could have stopped him then, but I didn’t. I figured if I let him find his own way he would be ok. I was wrong. As he got older, he got meaner and wilder. I thought he was going to shoot me a couple of times. He got to the point he wouldn’t take anything from me or my wife. We didn’t know what to do. Clint was a good boy but he never had a chance. We tried to protect him but Larry sucked him in and Jeremy was turning out to be a carbon copy of Larry. I didn’t have any hope for them at all. I knew Larry would run into somebody like you someday and I didn’t want to see it happen. I hoped this cancer would take me before now, but it’s too damn slow!” The old man coughed, spit something in the fire and continued, “I planned on ending it up here as soon as I had a chance to talk to you. I have a reputation of being a loud mouthed bastard. I’ve encouraged that because I was embarrassed by my oldest son and didn’t know what to do. I figured if I spouted off to that deputy you would get the message and come looking for me.”

“What if I had just went back north for a couple of weeks and let you die up here without facing you?”

“I considered that. From what I heard about you, I figured there was probably a 99% chance of you coming up here before I died. I’ve got enough food for a few more days, if that doe would have stayed away from my camp, I would be out of food now. I’m feeling better than I’ve felt for years. I’m wondering if maybe that medicine I was taking had something besides medicine in it. Now that I think about it, Larry always went into town to get the medicine for me. I wondered a few time if he was poisoning me, but dismissed it because I didn’t care. He took a life insurance policy out on me several years ago. He was the only beneficiary. I questioned him at the time and he added my wife in case something happened to him. I asked him how he was paying for it and he wouldn’t tell me. He said it was fully paid up and not to ask questions when I didn’t want to hear the answers.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“I came up here to die, but I feel so much better now, I think this fresh air has cleared my head and maybe helped the cancer. I think I probably still have the cancer and it will kill me pretty soon. With the life insurance money on the boys, I think I would like to take my wife and get out of Utah for awhile, maybe for good. There’s nothing but bad memories here.”

“I’m glad I came up here to find you.”

“Me too, for a Game Warden, you’re OK.”

“Need any help before I leave?”

“Thanks, no I can handle the campsite cleanup. You’ve got poachers to chase, get the hell out of here. I’ll go down to town and spout off some more about you getting the drop on me, taking my gun and threatening me. I’ll tell them you told me to get out of Utah or you would kill me and my wife with my own gun and make it look like a suicide. The only way to protect my sweet wife is to get away from that dirty bastard Game Warden and leave Utah. How does that sound?”

Laughing Jake said, “You make me out to be a real bastard. I guess it can only help my reputation. Maybe it’ll keep some of those poachers home at night. I wish we could have met and talked under different circumstances. I hope you have enough time for some good times with your wife, good bye.”

“You better take my gun or someone is likely to see it and see a hole in my story. Hey Jake, do you have a family?”

“Not yet, I’m working on it though.” Jake looked at the old mint condition Winchester lever action 30-30; “I can’t take this.”

“In my story you took my gun, so take it! What else am I going to do with it? I’m never going to hunt again and my wife is afraid of guns. I don’t have anyone to give it to; If you don’t want it, give it to somebody who will take good care of it. I’m glad you’re planning on a family. I think you’ll make a great father, have a big family and tell them about me and my family and what happens to people who don’t obey the law. Now listen to me, I know what not to do. Keep a tight rein on your kids especially when they’re young. Don’t break their spirit, but don’t let them get away from you.”

Jake walked back down to his truck and backed back into the ruts that served as a road and thought about the old man. He drove down to Manti and back home to Provo. He ran through the events of the past month looking for something he could or should have done differently.

‘I can’t come up with anything that I should have done that would have turned out as good as it worked out. A murdering group of poachers are gone and I’m still alive. A good old man and his wife have the money to get out and see the world before they die. And Jake Montross is a changed man with a date tomorrow night! Damn, I can’t wait to see Nicole. I’ll go into the office to work on the never ending paperwork. I’m so far behind on my reports; I may never catch them up to date.’

Jake was almost to highway 6 when he had that same feeling he had on the ridge on his way back to the truck. He pulled off the road and parked, slumped back in the seat and opened his mind to whatever was coming. This time he glanced at the clock in the dashboard as he closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes and looked at the clock; it had been 45 minutes. He had watched old man Beus telling him about his sons and giving Jake his trusty rifle. He remembered what was going to happen tomorrow in the office. His boss was going to question him in detail about some stories he had heard about a game warden on Skyline Highway East of Manti. He waited to see what was going to happen, but nothing else came to him. ‘I guess it’s a warning to be ready to talk to the boss about the deaths of the poachers near Manti.’

The next day Jake went to the office about noon. He wanted to be rested and he didn’t get to bed until 4 A.M, but again, he woke up before the alarm went off and felt rested and clear headed. “Hi Nicole, are we good for tonight?”

“Maybe, where are you going to take me?”

“I thought maybe we would go grab a burger and then go somewhere to neck.”

“I don’t believe you, but that’s ok with me.”

“It was Jakes turn to blush.”

“Hey Jake, come in here, I need to talk to you,” came the voice from the corner office.

“Howdy Royce, what’s cooking?”

“Jake, I’ve heard some wild stories from my cousin who lives in Manti. The rumor is that this game warden killed 4 scoundrel poachers plus one of the poachers’ brothers and maybe the father to 3 of them. The father is missing, probably dead too. Then there’s a story about the same game warden shooting some rich guy from Arizona. She says the law is letting him get away with it. What in the hell have you been up to down there?”

“It sounds to me like I have a great reputation that may keep some of those prospective poachers home at night.”

Royce looked at him “Well, that parts probably true; now about those murders. You go up and down Skyline all the time. Did you run into anybody who you think may be the murderer?”

“I can’t read minds, I see people every day that give me a dirty look that could mean something, but I just don’t know. I was told by some of the people that I’ve met around the area that Larry Beus was planning on killing me this hunting season, so when that archery hunter showed me his dead, decomposed body, I have to say I was relieved.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet you were. I talked to Sheriff Wyland and he tells me that he had a long talk to you about those murders and the two of you worked together on arresting that rich guy from Arizona but he wouldn’t put down his gun even after you warned him twice. Together you couldn’t come up with any clues of who killed those poachers. Does that sound right to you?”

“Yeah, it does. I should add that I found old man Beus and he was going back to town to get his wife, the insurance money and leave Utah.”

“Wyland called just a few minutes ago to tell me that he had seen old man Beus. He didn’t talk to him but his Deputy heard the old man say that the dirty bastard game warden took his rifle and threatened him if he didn’t leave Utah.”

Royce looked at Jake as if he was trying to make a decision and paused for at least a minute, “Jake, when you first started as a game warden for me, I wasn’t sure you were cut out for the job. You seemed so quiet and shy; I thought the hunters would eat you alive. I don’t see that quiet, shy guy sitting in front of me now. Have you been working out or something? You even look different, what happened to you?”

“Off the record?”

“Off the record,” answered Royce.

“I was sitting in the undergrowth above my favorite pond on the north side of Timpanogos trying to catch a poacher in the act. I listened to a man tell a woman that he had killed her ex-boyfriend who was trying to kill her. I sat there thinking I should go down and congratulate him. I decided it was time for quiet, shy Jake to become a man like that. That may be the difference, I don’t know.”

Royce stared at Jake with his mouth open; he hesitated, winked at Jake and said, “You’re not serious, are you?”

Jake wasn’t sure how he should answer, but he had been following the script from his dream so far, might as well go ahead, “You’re right; I had you going there didn’t I?”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Where are you and Nicole going tonight?”

“I feel like some seafood tonight, I heard there’s a new place in Orem, the Crab Shack or something like that.”

“Well, you kids have a great time! Before you leave I want your reports all caught up to date. Oh one more thing, what the hell happened to your truck? It looks like you either backed into something a lot bigger than your truck or you were rammed from behind by something big.”

“You got it right; I was in a hunting camp when this truck came roaring past me. I could see the racks of a couple of big bucks in the rear. I backed up to turn around and almost knocked this big old pine tree over. Sorry about that.”

“Well go get it fixed in the shop. That’s the first accident you’ve had so I guess you’re about due. Now about those reports.”

Almost done, it’s been a routine couple of weeks,” added Jake with a wink back at Royce.

+++++++++++++++

PROPOSAL

Jake and Nicole enjoyed each others company through dinner, a movie and a long lingering good night kiss(s). “I’ll pick you up for church Sunday?”

“Ok, you’re going to have dinner at my place after church?”

“Of course, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

Jake sat on the bed and thought about Nicole, “I wonder what she would say if I asked her to marry me.” He felt the feeling that came before one of his dreams; he lay back and closed his eyes. He woke up and the room was light, it was daylight outside. He couldn’t remember the dream, but he knew he had to hurry to get ready for church with Nicole. As he was driving to Nicole’s apartment, he tried to remember his dream. It slowly opened up to him and he quickly pulled over, Jake watched as he worked with Sheriff Wyland and shot the Arizona guy, he proposed to Nicole and she said yes, he watched their honeymoon, it then jumped to Royce telling him about an auditor who wanted to go over his actions over the last 6 months. The dream slowed down for the auditor and his questioning. Jake knew what the auditor was thinking and what he was going to ask before he could express himself. Jake had a good feeling about the audit but the auditor came back and wanted something else, something dangerous. Jake woke up and realized he was 5 minutes late and he was never late. Nicole was standing on the sidewalk with a worried look on her face.

“High beautiful, want a lift?”

“I was getting worried, are you ok?”

“Never better, I’m sorry I’m late, lets go.”

“Jake, can we just go somewhere and talk?”

“Sure, what do you have in mind?”

“You go driving through the back country every day, but I never get to go anywhere. Can we just go for a ride to some of the places you go that you think I might like?”

“It sounds like a great idea to me, why don’t you go get changed and then we’ll go by my place to change clothes and we can leave from there.” Jake knew from his vision/dream what Nicole was going to say but he didn’t want to spook her by being in his old clothes when he picked her up.

“Ok, would you turn off the oven and put the roast in the refrigerator while I change clothes?”

30 minutes later they were driving toward the Alpine Loop. Jake wanted her to see his favorite place in all of Utah. He parked at the summit of the Alpine loop and they walked down the same trails that Roger and Patty had walked months ago. He pushed the ferns aside and pointed out the game trail that led from the main trail to the hidden pond and grove of quaking aspen. They talked about all kinds of things as they walked along the path. Here on the game trail, they didn’t talk. Jake nudged her to go to the right as the game trail split to go around the pond in both directions. Nicole seemed to be completely at ease going through the ferns, grasses and bushes.

“On the uphill side just below where the spring trickles out of the hillside there’s an old log that makes a perfect bench above the water flowing down to the pond.”

Squish, “Oh, my feet are getting wet.” Jake picked her up and sat her on the log.

“Is that better?”

“How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Lift me up and reach over and set me down without any visible strain. I watched your face as you picked me up and you didn’t act like I weighted anything!”

“You’re not very heavy.”

“Look Buster, I weight 135 pounds and with my shoes and stuff it’s probably closer to 150 pounds. I went to the gym for awhile and worked out with weights. I know how heavy a 100 pound weight is, you shouldn’t be able to lift me like that and then reach out and set me gently down on the log unless you were twice as big with muscles bulging out everywhere. I’ve seen the guys who can do that and they’re massive.”

“Would you believe I’m stronger than I look?”

“Well that’s certainly true but it’s not an answer. I don’t know if you have noticed or not, but I love you Mr. Jake Montross and I want to know all about you.”

Jake was awestruck, she just said she loved him! He collected his thoughts and tried to come up with something that told her how he felt. “Nicole, I’ve loved you from the first time you teased me in the office. You’re everything I’ve always wanted in a wife, will you marry me?”

Nicole was speechless, tears came into her eyes, she whispered “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you, …now answer my damn question!”

Jake knelt in the soggy ground, pulled his mothers engagement ring from his pocket, took her hand and placed the ring on her finger. It fit perfectly. “I’ve been carrying that ring in my pocket since we went on our first date. Now the answer to your question, if we weren’t going to get married, I wouldn’t tell you, but now I have to. I don’t want any of my secrets to come between us.”

“Wait, do I really want to know? Give me a hint, if you’re going to kill me some night when I’m asleep, I don’t want to know, If you’re a mass murderer, I probably should know, and if you are some kind of pervert, I would like to know. Oh shoot, whatever it is, pleases tell me or it will drive me crazy.”

“Remember the day that I came into the office and picked you up, kissed you on your cheek?”

“How could I forget that, it was the first time you ever spoke directly to me? You seemed to be different somehow that day.”

“I don’t understand it, but it happened here, or up that hillside a few yards from here. I was hiding in the undergrowth waiting for the poacher that has been coming here to take deer and elk, when this couple came up the same path we did. I could hear them talking and felt guilty to be listening in to their private conversation. He told her that he had killed her ex-boyfriend. The girls’ ex-boyfriend had tried to kill her by pushing her car under a semi-trailer with his pickup. I had read all about it in the newspaper.”

“Yeah, I remember something about that on the news.”

“I knew that I should come out of my hiding spot and arrest him, but instead I wanted to shake his hand and congratulate him on a job well done. Of course I didn’t do either one; I just sat there thinking about what he had done and what I wanted to do.”
“After they left I couldn’t stop thinking about them. I decided that from that second forward, I was going to change my life; I wasn’t going to allow anyone to break the law and abuse others. I was going to be assertive and quit being the shy, timid guy I had been all my life. If I found the poachers who were trying to kill me, I would kill them instead. I would prepare myself to take the initiative and quit waiting for others to make my decisions.” He paused and looked at Nicole; tears were streaming down her cheeks. “I also decided that it was time I started dating that beautiful young lady in my office in Springville.”

He continued, “I leaned back in the ferns and opened my mind to my new future. I woke up several hours later. I felt better than I had ever felt in my whole life. I stood up and walked down to my truck parked several miles away. Well actually I walked for a little while, jogged for a little while and ran the rest of the way. I realized on the way down that my body had changed. I’ve always been kind of awkward. I would normally trip on every rock and tree root along the path, probably fall down a couple of times on the way down. This time I didn’t notice any rocks or tree roots. I guess I was picking my feet up higher or something. It was dark with only the starlight, but I could see pretty well. When I reached my truck I felt really good. Normally I would have been soaked with sweat, and even though it was mostly down hill, I would have been breathing hard, tired and ready for a nap. I felt great and ready for my hour long drive back to my place. The next day you remarked about how I had somehow changed.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s only the start? There was a poacher down by Manti that I had tried to arrest 3 different times. The last time I tried, one of his buddies shot at me. The bullet hit a tree branch inches from my head. I felt the bullet pass my cheek. I hit the dirt and the poacher took off. He told everyone in the area that he was going to kill me this hunting season. He doesn’t care about hunting season, but it’s the time of the year that the elk racks are in their prime condition. Some of the people down there told me about his boasting. They warned me to stay away from him or to bring some help. I was worried until that night on Timpanogos. After that, I looked forward to going out and stopping him and his friends. I knew he had killed Tom Armstrong 3 years ago, but there was no proof.”

“I remember when Tom was killed and on the news the county Sheriff said there were no clues as to who had shot him. He figured some poacher had shot him.”

“I was assigned that patrol area at that time. I was afraid of Larry Beus and had dodged him and his friends every since. I caught him red handed three times, but each time his friends destroyed the evidence. Anyway I went to the ridges above Manti looking for him. I found him and killed the whole bunch of them. I was lucky; one of them shot at me from a distance of about 10 feet, he probably missed me by a couple of inches. Then the little brother came after me to avenge his brothers’ deaths; I had to kill him too. I talked to their father and explained what had happened. Then the guy from Arizona who was buying the illegal poached trophies showed up and I ended up shooting him too.”

“Is the Sheriff coming after you?”

“No, he was with me when I shot the guy from Arizona. He knows for sure that I killed the little brother, and he suspects I killed the others, but doesn’t know for sure.”

“We listened in to your conversation with Royce. It sounded like he knows but he isn’t going to do anything about it.”

“How did you listen in? Does he know you can listen in to his conversations?”

“I’ll never tell, but it drives us crazy when he has a conversation behind closed doors so we fixed it so we can listen, and no he doesn’t even suspect. Jake, I’m so relieved, I was afraid you were some kind of pervert or something like that.”

“So it’s ok to be a mass murderer, but it not ok to be a pervert?”

“Yep, that’s about it. Killing a poacher who has tried to kill you and says he will try again isn’t what I would call mass murderer. I love you even if you kill people sometimes. Would you please pick me up and take me across the swampy area so I can keep my feet dry. I want to put my arms around you and feel your rippling muscles!”

Jake stood and reached out to pick up Nicole. She jumped into his arms knocking him off balance. He stumbled, regained his balance and then acted like he was falling on his back unto dry land. She was on top of him and kissing him.

An hour later, Jake and Nicole were lying together on the carpet of ferns and grasses. “Ssssshhhh don’t move.” whispered Jake. “Do you hear that?” There was a crashing sound coming from up the hill. They watched as a small herd of Elk came loping down the hill. 5 cows came first, then a big bull, then some more cows. They didn’t seem to be in panic or hurry. The cows ran down to the edge of the pond and walked into the water taking a drink, looking around, then drinking some more. The bull stopped on the side of the pond in a boggy area, urinated, raked the muddy black dirt with his magnificent antlers, and then rolled around in the mud until he was pretty much covered with stinky, wet, black, mud. He then stood up and raked the wet earth some more. Apparently satisfied that he was now irresistible to his harem, he walked into the pond for a drink. The bull leisurely walked across the pond drinking again and again, jumped up to where the cows waited and then they disappeared into the undergrowth and aspen trees.

“Have you ever seen something like that before,” asked Nicole?

“Yeah, lots of times, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to become a game warden. How else could you get paid to watch something like that?”

“They were so big, so beautiful, how could anyone shoot them?”

“In this setting, I sure couldn’t but in other setting where the bull was bugling or running across a meadow, yeah, I could shoot a bull. I’m not sure I could take a cow though. We have cow hunts where the hunters can harvest a cow. It’s necessary to keep the herd sizes down, but it would be hard for me to shoot one of them.”

“So, you seem to have thought out everything. When do we get married?”

“There’s one more thing I need to tell you.”

“Oh no, well hurry up and tell me before I go crazy.

“I told you about going to sleep and waking up a different man. I’ve had dreams or visions several times since. Each time I can feel it coming, so I pull off the road if I’m driving or just lean back if I can and let it happen. Each time, I see what has just happened and then go forward and see what is about to happen to me.”

“I think we all have premonitions and feelings of déjà vu sometimes.”

“This is more than that. In the meeting I had with Royce. I knew word for word what he was going to say before he said it. Not a feeling or a phrase, but the whole conversation. That’s why I was late today. I was driving toward your place when I had the feeling so I pulled over. 30 minutes later I wake up and I’m late.”

“What was it about?”

“We have an auditor coming to the office tomorrow.”

Nicole said, “How did you know that? I saw a confidential email to Royce Friday telling him that. I have to forward that type of email directly to him; I’m not supposed to read them. What about our little party and your proposal to me?”

Jake winked at Nicole, “Yep, right down to your impulsive jump off the log to knock me down.”

“That’s kind of spooky.”

“Everything isn’t covered but anyway, we’re supposed to go to Wendover, Nevada today to get married.”

“Then what are we doing up here, lets get going. I can call my family and make arrangements for us to go see them next week. Do you know where they live?”

“Seattle, but you told me that when we were talking about families.”

In a smooth coordinated motion Jake jumped to his feet and held his hand out to help Nicole get up.

“How did you do that?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t think about it, I just wanted to get to my feet so I jumped up. I think it will take 4 or 5 hours to get to Wendover from here.

Jake and Nicole became man and wife 6 hours later at a Justice of the Peace in Wendover, Nevada. As soon as they had cell phone coverage coming out of American Fork Canyon, Nicole called Royce James and Sylvia Porter. They both arrived with spouses, right behind Jake and Nicole, and were their witnesses to the marriage.

After dinner at the Peppermill hotel and restaurant, “Royce, we’re going to stay here for a couple of days for our honeymoon. We’ll come to work on Wednesday.”

“I’ve got a better idea, take the week off, I’ll see both of you a week from tomorrow.”

“Thanks Royce, if something comes up, you have my cell phone number.” In the following week, Newlyweds Jake and Nicole drove to Seattle to see her parents and the Washington State ocean beaches.

Bk 5-Roger Morgan, Chapter 4

MANTI CHIEF OF POLICE

The next time Jake was in Manti, he saw the flashing blue and red lights behind him of a police car. He pulled over and Manti Police Chief, Matthew Price, walked up to his open window. “Would you follow me to my office so we can talk?”

“Sure.”

“I wanted to talk to you about those poachers who were killed the other day. Sheriff Wyland told me he had talked to you about it and neither of you know who the killer was.”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Jake, you, the Sheriff, and I all know who the killer was, but since there’s no proof of who killed those outlaws, there’s not a lot any of us can do about it. I want you to know that Larry Beus was a friend of mine. We go way back. I don’t appreciate the fact that it looks like you’re getting away with murder. On the other hand, Beus was an outlaw that caused me quite a bit of embarrassment, because it was known by most everybody that he was breaking the law and I wasn’t doing anything about it. I guess it all worked out for the best.”

“Just so we’re clear Matt, you just accused me of murdering those 4 outlaws and you don’t have any proof. Just because Beus had told a lot of people that he was going to kill me this hunting season and ended up getting himself killed, doesn’t make me the murderer. If you have something else you want to say or do, I would like you to do so right now. It would seem to me that if I was the murderer, you would thank me and send me a Christmas Card every year thanking me for making Larry Beus go away.”

“Now don’t act all pissed off. We’re all friends here and I don’t want you to think that I’ll be trying to catch you doing something illegal every time you come through town. Whether or not you killed those 4 really doesn’t matter. The truth of the matter is that he was planning on killing you. Assuming you got to him first is a good thing. I’m just glad it happened in an area out of my jurisdiction. This is a better place now with those guys gone. I’m not aware of any poachers still operating around here. Wyland said that he told you about the younger brother of Larry Beus?”

“Yeah, sounds like a hothead.”

“That he is. I’ll try to head him off, but from what I know about him. He’s headstrong and swears he’ll kill you. Watch out for him. He’s just like Larry.”

“Matt, I’m glad we had this meeting. Thanks for the warning, I’ll keep an eye out for young Beus. I guess I’ll handle him if he comes after me; and I hate to tell you, but there are quite a few poachers still out there. If you find out who any of them are, you might tell me or at least let them know that I’ll be coming for them. I don’t’ plan on shooting any poachers that I find, but at the same time, I do intend to defend myself if anybody should decide to come after me. Have a nice day Chief.”

“Thanks for coming in Jake.”

Jake drove up Manti Canyon Road until it turned into the cow path, turned around and went up and down every side road. One took him up to Skyline Highway. He was thinking about his meeting with Chief Mark Price. ‘I guess I’ve now talked to all of the law enforcement people in this area and I’m officially in the clear. Who would have believed it would be so easy to kill a bunch of people and get away with it? I should be home early enough to take Nicole out for dinner for a change!’
+++++++++++++++
16 YEAR OLD KILLER

‘If I tell my boss that I’ve heard there’s a 16 year kid in Manti that intends to kill me, he will laugh at me and ask me if I’m really cut out to be a game warden. I need to see if he’s all talk or if he really intends to kill me. It’s business as usual until he shows up.’

Jake went through his daily routine of driving around the main roads and the side roads looking for anything out of the ordinary. When he saw a hunter with a kill, he would go check the hunters’ license and make sure his tag was punched and attached in the prescribed manner.

One night at dusk, Jake had just finished checking out a hunting camp and had climbed in his truck and started north along Skyline when he saw the lights of a truck speeding up behind him. He pulled over to let it go by, but as he did he felt that rising hair on his neck premonition to get back on the road in front of those lights. From the height of the lights he knew it was one of those big trucks. He figured the 16 year old kid in his brothers big red truck was about to attack him. He stepped on the gas and pulled back in front of the lights. Somehow he felt that if that truck pulled up beside him, it was likely he would die of a gunshot through the window.
The truck smashed into his rear bumper and he almost lost control of his truck. The lights were on a truck that was much bigger, heavier and more powerful than his standard issue Ford F-150. Somehow he had to get out of the truck with his new rifle and its night vision scope. With his luck, young Beus probably had the same model rifle, but at least that would be an equal playing field. He remembered the Sheriff telling him about the kids temper. ‘Maybe I can use that little bit of information to my advantage.’ The truck smashed into him again, but this time he was ready for it and held the little truck under control. There was a turnoff into a camping area just ahead. He would turn the truck as hard as he could and stop as fast as possible and bail out of the truck with his new rifle. There was a 20 yard drop off where he could get away from the lights of the truck. Beside the rock cliff was loose rock that he could slide down and get behind some trees. If the kid hesitated more than a few seconds, Jake would have a chance. It worked to perfection. The truck was coming up on him again as he came through a narrow rocky stretch of road just before the road branched off into the campground. Just as he reached a point where he felt he could turn and slide, he turned as sharp as he could and hit the gas. When he felt the rear end sliding, he slammed on the brakes. By the time the kid realized what was happening, he was 50 yards down the road and Jake was out of the truck, back across the road, down the loose rock slide beside the drop off and behind an old bushy tree 20 yards below. The kid pulled up to the drop off with the headlights stabbing harmlessly into space.

The kid got out of the truck and ran to the edge trying to see Jake. “Come out and fight like a man you coward!”

Jake faced away from the kid and tried to confuse him as to where his voice was coming from, “Who’s the coward, little boy with the big truck?”

“Show yourself and see who the coward is; you backstabbing bastard. You killed my brothers and I’m going to avenge them by killing you!”

“Yes I killed those thieving outlaws, and I’m going to kill you too. You’re just a snot nosed little boy driving his dead brothers big truck. You little pussy! How do you think you’re going to kill me? I can whip your ass with one hand tied behind my back. At least your brothers weren’t afraid of the dark. Is there someone in the truck to hold your hand so you don’t cry when you get lonely?”

“Hey I hear all the Beus brothers were slightly retarded. How bad are you? Is that spittle running down your chin? I notice you talk in short sentences. Can you walk and talk at the same time? I’M GOING TO TURN YOU INTO THE STATE GAME & FISH DEPARTMENT, THEY’LL TAKE AWAY YOUR HUNTING LICENSE BECAUSE YOU’RE A RETARD!”

That seemed to do the trick. Beus screamed and cursed. He went back to his truck and came back with a Spotlight beam that looked like one of those million watt packages that plugs into a truck’s cigarette lighter.

“OK big mouth game warden,” he screamed. “Sooner or later I’ll see you and then I’ll blow your head off!” The kid shot at something he thought was Jake. He shot again and again, the rifle was a big one and the concussion hurt Jake’s ears. He must not have one of the night scopes or he would have turned off the spotlight.

Through the branches of the old pine tree he could see the kid pointing his rifle and the spotlight down the slope toward some scrub bushes and boulders. The kid assumed that Jake was moving down the hill to get as far as he could get away from him. The power cord on the spotlight shouldn’t be very long and Jake figured he probably had it stretched to its limit. He pulled his pistol out and peeked through the bushy tree. The kid was staring down the hill and didn’t see Jake. It looked like his rifle was a duplicate of the one Jake had beside him with a different type of scope. The tree and branches that Jake was hiding behind were wide enough to completely hide him from the kid with room to spare.

‘I might as well end this now’. Jake took his time and found a spot where he could see through the branches and where he could place the pistol against the trunk of the old pine tree to keep it steady, he eased the safely off, it was loaded and ready to end this kids life here and now.

Jake heard a voice that sounded like it originated from behind Beus, “What the crap are you doing?”

“Who’s there,” asked Beus?

“Deputy Farnsworth, now put that light and rifle back in your truck or I’ll arrest you.”

Jake could see the kid turn and point the spotlight and aim his rifle back toward the road. “If you don’t get your ass back in your truck and get out of here right now I’ll kill you where you stand, now get out of here before I change my mind!”
Jake heard the sound of a truck door shutting and rocks flying as the deputy revealed his true cowardly self. The kid swung his rifle and the spotlight back around and aimed down the slope. In the process Jake was momentarily blinded as the spotlight beam swept by the old tree and hit him in the eyes. When Jakes’ vision returned he placed the aiming pin of the pistol back on the kids head. ‘I really don’t want to do this, but I don’t see I have much choice.’ He squeezed the trigger and the 16 year old kid dropped out of sight dropping the spotlight, it broke as it hit a rock on the ground extinguishing the beam of light as it streaked across the valley below.
The silence was deafening as Jake stood there waiting to see if there was any sound above him. He waited a few minutes, the kids truck was still running and the headlights were still aimed across the canyon but lit up the ground beside and in front of the truck enough for Jake to find his way back up the drop off. The kid was stretched out on the ground beside his truck in a pool of dark blood; his head looked like one of those deformed bloody Halloween masks. Jake walked over to his truck, it was scratched and the back bumper was bent a little, but all in all it was ok. ‘There will be hell to pay over this little escapade!’

‘I probably should see if I can do some damage control!’ Before getting in his truck, he dragged the kid to the passenger side of the red truck and started to pick him up. ‘I’m going to be covered with his blood this way. ‘Maybe he has something to put around him to keep the blood off me.’ The back seat was filled with all kinds of gear, including a canvas tarpaulin and a flashlight. He checked the flashlight and it was fully charged. He took the flashlight and the tarpaulin, rolled the bloody body in the tarp, picked it up and threw it into the passenger side of the front seat. The thought occurred to him that with his new found strength, the 200+ pounds of young Beus felt about a heavy as 50 pound sack of grain.

The truck was 10 yards from the edge of the drop off. It was a vertical cliff for about 20 yards and then a steep hillside that gradually leveled off by the time it reached the bottom of the valley a half mile away. The truck was still running, Jake climbed in the truck, put his foot on the brake, pushed the gear shift into drive, and dove out of the truck. The truck slowly started to move and then smoothly pulled ahead over the cliff. It crashed and rolled down the hill for about 100 yards and stopped upside down against a truck sized boulder. Jake pointed the flashlight beam down at the upside down truck; the front wheels were still spinning. ‘I really don’t want to climb down there in the dark and then climb back up here; I wonder if I can start a fire by shooting into the gas tank. He spotted a gas tank with the flashlight, took out his pistol and fired into it again and again. On the 4th shot it erupted in flame and then exploded.

The other tanks followed suit and exploded with a fireball that would have made a Hollywood stunt crew proud. The truck, young Beus, and the flora and fauna nearby, were all burning furiously. Jake could feel the heat from where he stood.

Jake drove toward Manti to look for sheriff Wyland. ‘I suspect the deputy would have called him on his radio and I’ll meet up with him on the way down the hill.’ Sure enough, he spotted the flashing red and blue of a law enforcement vehicle coming toward him as he came around a switchback in the road. Jake pulled off the road and waited.

Sheriff Wyland pulled up beside Jake. “Get in, we need to talk.”

Jake went around and got into Wyland’s Suburban. “Howdy Sheriff.”

“Now you’ve done it. The Beus kid is probably dead and my deputy saw your truck up there beside his truck!”

“Well Sheriff, that remains to be seen. From where I was sitting, a crazy man was trying to kill me with a high powered rifle and a spotlight. Your deputy came along, recognized exactly what was going on and turned tail and ran away when the kid threatened him.”

“Yeah I know, but now there’s a witness who saw you up there with Beus.”

“Has your deputy had time to spout off to anyone else?”

“No, I told him to follow me back up the hill and to keep his mouth shut until we get this figured out. He just pulled up behind us.”

“Let me help you out. That red truck, along with that crazy 16 year old Beus kid and a couple of acres of scrub brush are burning as we speak. I figure it will probably still be burning when the sun comes up. It appears to me that the crazy kid was going too fast on a mountain road, lost control and went off a cliff. His truck crashed and burned on impact. The fact that there’s a bullet hole in the kids head and four more bullet holes in one of the fuel tanks will of course be overlooked. That way the fact that your deputy ran away from a deadly confrontation can also be overlooked. Any other facts about the situation should be between us and the cowardly deputy behind us.”

Wyland stared at Jake for at least a minute that seemed much longer. “You’re something else Jake. The only problem with your little story is my deputy. I’m not sure he’ll keep his mouth shut.”

“Well it seems to me that he should be told that his decision to run away from a confrontation was a dereliction of duty punishable by losing his job, a heavy fine and a possible prison sentence. Out of the goodness of your heart and the approval of the crazy Game Warden, he has the opportunity to right this error in judgment and never let it happen again. Plus he should be reminded that any stories to the contrary will be his word against yours and mine. One more implied threat; the Game Warden will undoubtedly come after him if he ever hears even a rumor about some other sequence of events concerning the death of young Beus.”

“It could work. Get in the back and glare at this young coward, we’ll see if we can put the fear of the grim reaper in him.”

Jake exited the front seat, stepped away from the suburban and glared back at the deputy in the truck behind them. The Sheriff got out and motioned for the deputy to come to his suburban. Farnsworth sat there looking back and forth between the sheriff and the game warden who he knew had shot and killed 4 of the worst outlaws around and probably the crazy Beus kid as well. He was terrified, but resigned himself to whatever fate these men had prepared for him. Jake stared at him while Farnsworth nervously walked beside him and climbed into the front seat. Jake got in the back and positioned himself so that he could look into the eyes of the deputy through the rearview mirror.

Deputy Adrian Farnsworth glanced in the rearview mirror and into the glaring eyes of Jake and quickly looked away.

The Sheriff gruffly asked, “Adrian, do you like being a deputy sheriff?”

“YYYYYeesssir.”

“Do you enjoy your life, your wife, and your kids?”

“YYYYYeesssir.”

“Then let me explain what happens now. You had a serious lapse in judgment up there on Skyline. The Beus kid was trying to kill the Game Warden, who is sitting behind you, and you turned tail and ran off.

“YYYYYeesssir.”

“At best your actions constituted a dereliction of duty punishable by losing your job, a heavy fine and a possible prison sentence. Worst case, the game warden comes after you, with my blessing, and puts you in the ground. Are you following me so far?”
“YYYYYeesssir.”

“What were you thinking when you left the Game Warden to be shot by that crazy kid?”

“I figured the Game Warden would be able to kill the kid or I would be able to get you up there in time to stop him.”

“Why didn’t you take control of the situation?”

“He pointed his rifle at me and blinded me with that spotlight, I figured he would kill me if I didn’t leave right then. I knew that I couldn’t shoot him even if I had a chance and I need to take care of my family.”

“If you can’t shoot a person under any circumstance, why are you my deputy sworn to uphold the law?”

“I didn’t think I would ever need to make that decision. Most of the time my job is just driving around on patrols. Sometimes I get to stop somebody for speeding, but that’s about it.”

“Farnsworth, here what’s going to happen. You’re going back up there and find an accident scene. You will call in a wrecker big enough to pull that truck back up on the road. You will determine that young Beus was speeding on the Skyline Highway and somehow lost control of his truck and ended up rolling off a 60 foot cliff and down the slope where it caught on fire killing him and destroying the truck. That wrecker will destroy any evidence on or close to the road that may still be up there as it drives back and forth getting in place and then dragging the burnt shell of a truck up on the road. Don’t try to put the fire out, we want young Beus to be totally gone if possible. You will examine his head, if you can see a bullet hole; you will crush the head with a rock. I’m guessing that won’t be necessary. If you see bullet holes in a gas tank, you will take a rock and make sure they are hidden. If you do find any other evidence contrary to your report, you will destroy it and never mention the incident again. Do you understand?”

“But…how…how…what…Yes, I understand.”

“Let me repeat so there can be no misunderstanding. You almost caused the Game Warden that was under attack to be killed. He has every right to hold you responsible. It is only thru the goodness of his heart that you will be able to resume your life and provide for your family. If you cause this Game Warden any problem by telling someone a different version of what happened tonight, I would expect him to come see you some dark night and bury you! If he fails to kill you, I’ll fire you. I’m not sure you understand, so I want you to tell me what happened and what you’re going to do.”

“I’m going up to the Skyline Road and find the wreckage of Beus’s truck where he had an accident and rolled it off a cliff. The truck caught on fire and the young Beus kid was killed and pretty much all burned up. It’s real sad that the kid was killed in the truck that was owned by his brother who was killed a couple of miles away from the location of this accident. The kid was pretty much all burned up and I will recommend a closed casket for his funeral. There were no witnesses to the accident but all the evidence points to young Beus driving too fast in his new truck. I’ll call the big wrecker from Nephi and have them pull the wreckage up to the road and bring it down to Manti. I’ll inspect the truck to make sure any bullet holes in the kid or the gas tank are not visible before I call for the wrecker.”

“Anything else?”

“Yeah, I want to apologize to you and to Jake.” Farnsworth looked at Jake, “I let you down and left you to be killed. I appreciate the chance you’re giving me. I’ll try to make it up to you by watching your back. Anybody who tries to get me to come up with another version of what happened will get my fist in their face.”

“Jake do you want to say anything to Farnsworth before he goes back up the hill to take care of business?”

“Deputy Farnsworth, I accept your apology. I expect you to come to me and tell me if you hear anything that may concern me. If anyone like Larry Beus and friends shows up again, I expect you to call me immediately. I don’t expect you to go into a situation where you will be killed, but I do expect you to watch my back at all times. If you hear of anybody poaching you will give me their names and any details you have.”

“Thanks Jake.”

With that said, Jake got out of the suburban and walked to his beat up Government Issue pickup truck. He sat and watched the suburban turn around and head back down the hill. Deputy Farnsworth drove up the hill to see what was left of the 16 year kid and his brothers’ truck. Jack was bone tired. Instead of starting his truck, he dozed off thinking about the hour long drive back to his house. He woke up with a start. A wrecker big enough to pull a semi had driven by on the gravel road and flipped up a rock that hit his truck and woke him up. He looked at his watch, it was almost daylight and too late to go home for some rest. ‘I’ll sleep for a few more hours here and then make a run along Skyline, and then I’ll call it a day and go home. When I wake up I think I’ll call into the office and see if Nicole is willing to go on another date with me.

++++++++++++++

JAMES R. TURLEY

A few days later Deputy Farnsworth called Jake on his cell phone and left a message. Several hours later Jake was in a place where he could return the call. “Hi Adrian, what’s going on?”

I went into Penny’s diner, Penny came up to me as I was having lunch and whispered, “Adrian, did you see those men who left as you were coming in?”

“Yeah, I saw them. Looked like city slickers with their shiny shoes and sport coats. What about them?”

She continued, “They asked me how to contact Larry Beus. When I told them that he had been killed, they asked about Bob Jensen. I told them that he was also killed at the same time”

They said, “What happened?”

“I don’t really know.”

He said, “I had advanced Larry Beus some money for, aaah some personal property and I was supposed to pick it up today. His cell phone is dead and Bob Jensens’ cell phone is also dead. Who would I contact about our agreement?”

Penny said, “I told him Larry Beus’ mother and father lived in town, but his father is under medication and his mother doesn’t take kindly to strangers.”

He asked, “Is there a motel in town?”

“One nice one, you may have passed it on the main highway coming into town if you came from the North.”

“He then thanked me and asked me to tell anyone that may have some information about Larry Beus to come see him at the motel, his name is Jim Turley from Arizona. He will be in town for a week or so,” added Penny.

Adrian continued, “I changed into my regular street clothes so they wouldn’t know I was a Deputy Sheriff. Gladys told me which room he was in so I went to see him. The door opened as I was walking up to it. This man asked me if he could help me. I told him that I had heard at Pennys’ Diner that you were looking for information on Larry Beus.”

“He said, it’s kind of strange, a guy just left who told me that he knew Larry Beus and filled me in on how he thinks he died. He said that rumor has it that a Game Warden killed Beus, his younger brother, Bob Jensen and his brother.”

“I said, Yeah, I’ve also heard that somebody took a huge elk rack that was there when they were killed.”

He replied, “That’s why I’m here. Larry told me he had a line on a world class rack, the price was $15.000, with $7,500 advance. I paid the advance and was supposed to pick it up yesterday. We even have a place where we always meet. I was there and he didn’t show up. I’ve bought a lot of racks from him over the years and he was always on time. Somebody has that rack and I want it. Can you help me?”

“Maybe yes, maybe no; what’s in it for me?

“If you can find that rack and it’s as good as I think it is, I’ll pay the agreed $7,500 plus another $5,000.”

“Let me do some sniffing around, I’ll get back to you.”

“Well, what do you think, asked Farnsworth?”

Jake sat there thinking about how he could nab this guy in the act of buying an elk rack that he knew had been poached. “I would like to put this guy away. Do you have any idea who has that rack?”

“I figure Jensen’s family probably went looking for him a day or two after he was killed. If they found the bodies and the rack, they probably would have taken the rack and left the bodies where they lay so there would be no link to what happened to the rack. I’ll do some snooping around. I figure that if they knew who this guy was and how much he’s willing to pay, the rack would show up.”

“Keep me in the loop, be sure and tell the sheriff exactly what we’ve talked about. I don’t want to go behind his back. I’ll be around so call me on my cell phone if anything develops.”

Sherriff Wyland called Jake the next day. “Jake, what’s this I hear from Farnsworth about you two and the missing poached elk rack?”

“I told him to tell you everything he told me?”

“Yeah, I’m just giving you a hard time. I’m on board and agree completely. I appreciate your efforts to make sure I know what’s going on. We think we’ve found the rack. Farnsworth told one of the Jensen boys that the rack was worth a lot of money. The kid lit up as if he was going to get a pile of money. Where are you now?”

“I’m just outside Manti heading south; I can be in your office in 20 minutes. Did you call the Chief of Police?”

“Yeah, he’s out of town until we’re done. He’s up for election this year and doesn’t want to upset any potential voters. Don’t come to my office, I’ll meet you at the Jensen’s place. Let’s go get that rack. They live at 657 North 100 East in Manti.”
Wyland said, “I think one of us should stand by the back door and see what happens when the other one knocks on the front door. You take the back.

Sheriff Wyland knocked on the front door, “Hello, can I help you Sheriff,” said the woman who answered the door?

Wyland could hear movement in a back room and the back door close. “Yeah, I would like to talk to your men folks.”

“I’m here by myself right now, Sheriff.”

Wyland had known Mrs. Jensen since high school. Both know many intimate details of the other. Her husband, Monte, had also been a classmate of Wyland and they’re relationship had always been shaky. Wyland had whipped Monte Jensen every day for 3 years in the high school wrestling program and Jensen seemed to hold a grudge that he just couldn’t get over. “Diane, I heard the back door close. You should know that the Game Warden is in back.” Wyland nodded his head toward her back door.

Diane Jensen’s face paled, “He’s already killed two of my sons, now you tell me he’s fixin’ to kill my other sons and my husband!”

“I didn’t say anything about anybody killing anybody else. Do you want to tell me what’s going on as we go outside to look at that rack.”

“How did you know about that rack?”

“This is small town, how did you think you could keep something like that quiet?”

Diane Jensen led Sherriff Wyland out the back door and into the big lighted shop building. Jake was standing just inside the front door with a pistol in his right hand. It was pointed at her husband who was holding the biggest elk rack Wyland had ever seen. Two teen age boys were in back of her husband holding what looked like 22 rifles.

“I was just telling Mr. Jensen that it’s a felony to possess or sell any body parts of a big game animal out of season. There’s no open season where this elk rack could have been harvested legally. I haven’t yet covered what kind of trouble these boys will be in if I press charges for pointing a loaded firearm at a game warden.”

Monte Jensen said, “Look, two of my sons were killed over this rack. The least you could do would be for you to let me keep it! Hey boys, put those guns down.”

The tallest of the boys said, ”Pa, that game warden killed Mark and Bob. We can’t let him get away with that!”

“I said put those guns away! Mark and Bob were killed as they were poaching an elk. We don’t know who killed them. I don’t want to lose you two boys over the same damn animal. Besides I suspect that if you tried to shoot this Game Warden, your mom and I would have to live through the funerals on two more of our sons.”

The boys stood there, not moving. Monte continued “did I raise a bunch of stupid idiots for sons. Would you use your head for a change? Each of you is holding a 22 semi automatic rifle. That pistol in the game warden’s hand is probably a 9 MM caliber. If you both shot first and you both hit him with those little 22’s, he wouldn’t even be knocked down. He would have plenty of staying power to kill both of you and me too if he wanted to.”

“You could help us dad!”

“How, by throwing this big old elk rack at him?”

Diane Jensen walked in front of Jake and then toward her two youngest sons. “I will not stand here and watch as you two boys are killed.” She grabbed the rifle from one son and jerked it out of his hands and threw in on the floor in front of Jake, then repeated the process with the other. She then walked to her husband and took the rack and carried it over to Sheriff Wyland. “Is there anything else you want from us tonight?”

“No, not tonight, I’ll have to come back tomorrow and talk to all of you. I’ll be here at 1 PM, tomorrow afternoon. Monte, do I have your word that you and your sons will be here waiting for me?”

“We’ll be here Allen.”

In the sheriff’s suburban, “I figured that if you called the guy from Arizona and set up a time and place. We can do a sting operation on him.”

“I like the idea; do you have a number for the motel,” Jake asked?

Jake dialed the number motel, “please connect me to Mr. Turley, I don’t know the room.”

“Hello, this is Jim Turley.”

“Hello, I understand you want to buy that elk rack that was poached a couple of weeks ago,” asked Jake in a gruff voice.

“I don’t know anything about a poached elk rack, but I’m in the market for a nice world class set of elk antlers.”

“I think I have one that fits what you’re looking for. There’s a campground located up Manti Canyon Road. Just past the campground there’s a road that turns to the right. A half mile up that road is a parking area that is day use only and would be empty after dark. I’ll meet you there in 30 minutes.”

“I’m not sure we should take this rig to the sting.”

“You’re right, I’ve got an old pickup just right for the occasion. I’ll need to change clothes as well. Do you have any civilian clothes?”

“Yep, I always try to be prepared. I’ve got a duffle bag behind my seat.”

“Yeah that’s a civilian shirt alright, but its brand new, it still has the tag on it! I thought you might have an old shirt in your duffle bag.”

“Well I kind of outgrew all my old clothes so all I’ve got is new shirts.”

“They’re going to have to do.”

They pulled into the day use campground in the sheriff’s old beat up pickup. A nice shiny new truck with Utah license plates was sitting in a parking stall. “I was expecting one or two men, but it looks like there are 4 men in that truck.”
“Good thing the cavalry is just up the road,” said Wyland. “All I have to do is flick my radio call button and they’ll be here in about a minute.”

The four men exited their truck and walked toward Jake and Wyland. Jake and Wyland got out and walked to the back and Jake picked up the rack. “Is this what you’re looking for?”

“Wow, that rack is better than Larry described,” said one of the men.

“We’re new at this; you have cash for us or what?”

One of the men pulled a pistol out of his coat and said, “We kind of figured that you guys were amateurs at this so we figured we would just come out here and take it from you. I mean what are you going to do, call the sheriff and tell him that you were cheated when you tried to sell that illegal rack?” The rest of the men followed suit and each produced a pistol aimed at Jake and Wyland.

The Sheriff keyed his radio. “What are you taking about, that isn’t right! You said you would pay $7,500 plus another $5,000 for this rack.”

“This rack is well worth it, but if I get it for what I’ve already paid plus what it cost for a motel room, a rental truck and some hired muscle, so much the better. I figure it will end up costing me about $10,000, a great deal for this trophy. I can sell it tomorrow for at least $25,000.

One of the other guys walked toward Jake with the intention of taking the rack. At that instant flashing red and blue lights from 4 vehicles could be seen speeding up the main road and into the parking lot. 3 of the men panicked and ran into the trees. One of the men, obviously Jim Turley, stood there in silence. His pistol was aimed at Wyland.

Jake said, “If you don’t drop that pea shooter in 5 seconds, you’re a dead man.”

“I figure my only option is to pay off some hick town sheriff, so I’ll keep my gun on this here guy until hick town sheriff shows up.”

“Don’t tell me that I didn’t’ warn you,” said Jake as he squeezed the trigger.

“What…wait” were the last words spoken by Jim Turley of Arizona. Jake was only about 20 yards away from Turley and had drawn his 9 MM when the attention of Turley was diverted by the flashing lights. Turley slumped and fell to the ground as the bullet from Jakes gun passed through his heart and went flying through the air until it hit and flattened against the bed of the rental truck.

“Sheriff are you ok,” yelled one of the deputies?

“Yeah, I’m fine and you’re right on time. There are 3 city slicker bad guys that took off into the trees. They’re armed but I think that after a couple of hours out there in the dark, they’ll come in begging for you to arrest them. You might want to leave the trucks here with one of them running with its lights on so they can find you. Stand out of the lights so they can’t see you and wait. I’ll be surprised if any of them last more than an hour out there in the dark. If they don’t come back soon, we may have to look for them tomorrow. Don’t leave until we have them all. I’ll call the ambulance to come pick up the boss; he’s the one bleeding on the ground.”

With the deputies dismissed the Sheriff whispered, “Jake, I wish you hadn’t shot that guy.”

“I thought about all the different reasons to let him live as opposed to killing him right there. It seemed to me that this guy had all kinds of money. He would have some sleaze ball attorney from one of the big Salt Lake City firms come down and make monkeys out of our prosecuting attorney. The very least this guy would have got would have been to get out of jail card with a bond. That would have been the last we would have seen of him. It would have taken years and hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenses and in the end he would have walked. He would have pulled the deaths of the Beus boys into the testimony and it would have got messy for both of us. It just seemed easier, cleaner, and less expensive to end it right here for that rich bastard.”

“You’re probably right.”