DEPUTY
James Fox considered himself a lucky man. His job consisted of patrolling and law enforcement of the unincorporated areas of
‘Where else could I find a job where I’m paid to spend my working hours in these mountains, I love it’. Some days his routine was interrupted by people getting trapped by avalanches, bikers falling down mountains or people getting lost or seriously hurt while skiing, hiking, or bicycling. Many of these people were hurt, some were killed. He also was always watching out for big game poachers. This area had lots of trophy animals, but the only hunting that was allowed here was with a bow and arrow. Since it was so close to town, he found quite a few trophy animals killed each fall with their heads gone and the body left intact. The other part that was good about his job was that he wasn’t elected. His boss had to worry about getting elected every 4 years. There was always the possibility that his boss wouldn’t get elected and a new Sheriff could come in and fire him, but he had been here long enough that he probably knew anyone who had the guts, drive and money to run for sheriff, so he felt secure. In fact he was probably the most qualified person in the department to run for sheriff but he wanted no part of that job. Politics was not his thing. He would much rather be out in the mountains than in an office. The sheriff almost never made it out of his office.
A man on a mountain bike flagged him down as he was starting up
A few minutes later, Fox received a call from the interagency dispatch. A group of mountain bikers had spotted what looked like a red mountain bike at the base of a cliff. They saw a bicycle wheel sticking up from between some rocks. Fox called search and rescue. He knew all about the cliff they were talking about and if there was a dead mountain biker at the base of that cliff he would need help to get the body out. By the time he got to the campground closest to the cliff, the search & rescue unit had already arrived and was on their way to the base of the cliff where the bike and probably a body was waiting. He drove on up the valley to the trailhead where the trail that let to the cliff started. Lots of cars and trucks were parked in every place big enough to park. Some were sticking out in the road. Some days he would ticket those cars, but not today.
The radio came to life “we’re at the base of the cliff. We found a dead guy all right but it’s kind of hard to tell what happened to him. We saw the red mountain bike but no body so we spread out and found what was left of him. It’s a good thing we got here when we did. It looks like a cougar had eaten his fill and was burying the remains when it probably heard us and took off. If the cougar had finished piling stuff on what was left of the body, we might not have found him.”
“You’re pulling my leg, right?”
“We’ve put what’s left of him in a body bag. You’ll see, if you want to, the proof when we make it out.”
“Did you find an ID?”
“Yeah, his name is Grant I. Smith, social security number 123-332-4559.”
“Thanks, I’ll meet you in the parking lot, what’s your E.T.A.?”
“Probably take at least 2 hours or so, this is a tangled mess in here. The trail we made the last time we came in here is all overgrown. We had to hack our way through it in some places. If he was still alive it would take a lot longer to get him out without beating him up.”
When the search and rescue team came out of the brush they looked like a survival team. They were dirty, with scratches on their faces and arms. Sweat was running down their faces and dripping off their chins. A few shirts were ripped. One of them was wearing shorts. His legs from the knee down were crisscrossed with bloody lines that would leave scabs and scars for weeks, maybe longer. The body bag was tied to the stretcher and it had holes in it with pieces of plastic hanging down.
“Do you want to take a look?”
“Yeah, I probably should take a look. I’ve never seen a man who was partially eaten by a cougar.”
Fox zipped the body bag open enough to see what was left of Grant Smith. “Boy, that’s gross. I’ll bet the medical examiner will have a field day working on that.” Fox zipped the bag back up. He was thinking how to report the death. ‘Once a person dies, it’s really not necessary to include all the details of what condition the body is in. I think that I’ll omit this part of the story. This had to have been an old sick cougar or a young cougar whose mama kicked him out of her den. That’s the only time a cougar would ordinarily eat a person. I wonder how that big cat happened to get to the body so fast. Usually a predator like a bear or cougar will follow the smell of a dead corpse, but this cougar had to have got to the body right after he hit the rocks at the bottom of the cliff.’
“Maybe we should have had the helicopter come it to get you,” said Fox.
“We were told that if the guy was alive, call for it, otherwise, bring the body out with you. No use spending all that money to bring in a corpse.”
“Yep, you’re right. Go ahead and take him down to the coroner. Did you get a look at the bike?”
One of the search and rescue men said, “Yeah, it was a mess. The frame is bent and the wheels wouldn’t turn. It was probably nice and shiny red this morning. I hope you didn’t want us to bring it out!”
“No it’s not worth it. Bringing out the stiff was hard enough. Thanks for all the help. Oh, please don’t mention to anyone the fact that this guy was partially eaten by a cougar or that the bike was left at the base of the cliff. I don’t want some environmental wacko screaming that we’re destroying the earth because that wrecked mountain bike is still out there and I don’t think it’s important that a cougar made a meal out of a dead mountain biker.”
‘I’m going to check out the parking lots. I got the description of his car from the motor vehicle department, maybe his car’s up there at the trailhead parking lot.’ Fox decided to go down the canyon and check out each campground. He pulled into the lowest campground, saw some people on bicycles coming down the hill so he got out and walked over to take a look at them. He thought that he saw a look of alarm on the 2 girls, but as soon as they stopped and got to talking, they seemed alright. He got the same look lots of time, a natural reaction when someone saw his badge and uniform. He didn’t mention the dead biker to see if they gave any indication of knowing anything about it. None of them said anything about an accident or acted overly nervous, so he told them to “have a nice day.” He got back in the truck and started back up the canyon stopping in each campground and looking around. There were mountain bikers at every campground coming down the trails and getting in their vehicles.
He stopped at the bike rental shop to see if he could learn anything.
“Hi Steve, how’s business?”
“It’s been slow today. What’s Deputy Fox doing up here? Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping under a big pine tree somewhere? I never see you except when somebody gets hurt.”
“You’re right, we do have a problem. A guy took a header off that cliff on #654. Did you rent a red bike to anyone today?”
“Yup, he looked like a novice and was in a hurry. I tried to rent him a helmet but he said no. If the guy took a header, he’s probably dead, what kind of shape is the bike in?”
Fox replied, “I don’t know, search and rescue brought out the body, but they didn’t bother with the bike. They said the frame was bent and neither wheel would turn, it was a mess. Did he fill out any kind of registration?”
“I gave him a receipt for the deposit on the bike, but I didn’t get his name. I don’t mess around with any kind of credit so I don’t need any personal info. They have to pay cash or credit card and it’s got to be enough to replace the bike and make me a little profit if they don’t bring it back. That guy, may he rest in peace, will contribute about $200 to my net income today.”
“Cash or credit card?”
“3 hundred dollar bills, cash.”
“Take care Steve, if you want your bike, you know where it is.”
“No thanks Fox, that bike is trash and belongs to the dead guy, it’s not worth the time to go get it, I’ll see you next time.”
Fox drove on up to the trailhead. The same 4 people that he had seen earlier were just unloading 2 of the bikes, putting them in another truck. “Anybody know whose car that is,” he asked as he pointed to a blue pile of junk that some people would identify as a car?
One of the young ladies said “my ex-husband has a car like that, why.”
“In that case, I need to get some information from you.”
Jan, with a look of concern said, “Why?”
Fox hesitated and looked at her and the others, hoping that they would give him some clue that would be useful to his investigation. ‘Could it be that these folks are mixed up in the death of the addict? Probably not, that would be too much to hope for. They all looked interested but no sign of panic.’
I got a report from a concerned mountain biker that a man, by himself, had parked this beat up blue car and raced down the trail on a red mountain bike. He wasn’t sure which trail, but the strange thing is, ‘why would a person ride a bike down one of these trails when he has to know it’s a long ride back up the road to get to his car parked here?’ I’ve been patrolling this area for 8 years and I’ve never seen a person start their mountain bike ride from up here. People either do it like you folks did, or else you ride up from town and then take a trail back down the mountain. What’s your ex-husband’s name?”
“Grant Smith.”
I received another report from a biker who had seen a bike wheel sticking up from some rocks at the bottom of a cliff. Search and Rescue brought out what was left of your ex-husband. It looks like your ex-husband went mountain biking and was unprepared, lost control of his bicycle and fell off a 200 foot cliff. It also appears that a hungry cougar was close by and had eaten its fill by the time Search & Rescue chased it away. He’s on the way to the
Jan repeated the look that she had practiced just a few hours earlier, it was perfect. “I don’t understand, he doesn’t go bike riding. In all the time I knew him he never so much as got on a bicycle.”
Fox thought, ‘Well that explains how he could have lost control and plunged off that cliff. The trail comes down the hill and makes a sharp turn to the right and then drops on down the hill, if a person was going too fast, they could easily go right off the cliff. It’s happened before. Maybe the Forest Service will give me the money to put in some kind of guard rail or barrier so it doesn’t happen again.’
To them Fox asked, “what do you think he was doing up here if he doesn’t ride mountain bikes?”
Jan repeated the practiced answer, “he was always crazy jealous. I even have a restraining order from the judge. I would guess that he was following me.”
“How long have you been divorced?”
“6 months.”
“I know that this may seem like a personal question, and I guess it is, but are you two a couple or what?”
“We have been dating for a couple of weeks, this is our 3rd date,” said Cole.
“If he was following you, why was he on the wrong trail?”
“I don’t know; how would he know which trail we were on? There are 5 or 6 trails leading out of the parking lot. He was so crazy jealous, he probably just took the first trail he came to. Maybe he didn’t know or didn’t bother to check with the map to see that these trails all come out in different campgrounds along the road.”
Fox thought ‘great answer, this girl is sharp. The big guy looks like he really likes her. None of these people look like the kind of people who would kill somebody. And if they did kill that drug addict, who cares, I certainly don’t!’ To them he said “I need to get your addresses and phone numbers.”
They all gave their personal information to Deputy Fox. Fox told them that all fatalities in Salt Lake County were investigated in coordination with Salt Lake City Police, “you will probably get a call from a Salt Lake City Police detective, or some other city office, like coroner, or crime scene, don’t worry about it, I’m done here, if you have any questions, here’s my card, call me anytime.”
Fox got into his truck and left the parking lot.
Cole, Aaron, Rachel and Jan gathered together. Jan said “Cole, you’re good, he asked the questions and responded almost word for word like you predicted!” Jan, Aaron, and Rachel all clapped their hands.
Cole hesitated, looking at each of them. “I watch too much television. I need someone to help me cut down on my TV viewing.” Jan blushed and said “are you taking applications?”
“You’re invited to submit an application! The job is by invitation only.”
Aaron chuckled and said, “Look’s like we need to leave, Rachel, are you ready?”
“Seriously, I would like us to get together in a couple of days, how about Wednesday night,
“Sure.”
Aaron said, “Rachel, can I pick you up at
“I’ll be ready.”
Aaron and Rachel left the parking lot for the 17 mile ride down the canyon. Cole and Jan just sat there in the truck.
“Penny for your thoughts,” whispered Jan.
“I was going over everything that has happened to us since we met. I don’t know how to separate what has happened today from where we were this morning. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I want to keep seeing you.”
“I wasn’t kidding when I asked about giving you my application,” Jan whispered.
Cole put his arms around her and she melted into an embrace and extended kiss. The bucket seats were uncomfortable but neither noticed.
DEPUTY SHERIFF
Deputy Fox was running over the days events as he drove down
There were campers, hikers, bikers, hunters, skiers, and sightseers coming up these canyons to experience the majesty and beauty on a daily basis. A few were hurt and some died because of accidents, inexperience, stupidity or just bad luck. ‘Damn, I love this job,’ he said out loud. ‘I wish I didn’t have so much paperwork each time someone died in my mountains.’
Fox’s cell phone rang; it was a news reporter from a TV station. He wanted to do a story about the guy that died. “It’s not everyday that a person gets eaten by a mountain lion.”
‘Crap, I was afraid that one of the Search and Rescue guys would tell someone about the cougar. The last thing I want to do is talk to some idiot in front of a camera. The last time I did an interview about a fatality up
To the news man, he said, “look, the last time I talked to you, you cut and pasted what I said to make it look like the death was my fault. I won’t talk to you unless I get to approve every word that you put on TV.”
“I can’t do that” snapped the reporter!
“Fine, then do your report without me” snarled Fox.
“If I do, I’ll say that you wouldn’t’ talk to me,” replied the reporter sounding like a school yard bully.
“That’s fine with me; I think most people know how you do your reporting. I would rather have you say that I wouldn’t talk to you than help you put some kind of spin on the death!” Fox hung up and thought that ‘the boss wouldn’t be too happy with me, but then it would probably work out ok, especially if the reporter called his boss for an interview. His boss was always willing to talk on TV for any occasion. It would be a trade off; the sheriff would be happy to get more publicity and a just a little ticked off because Fox wouldn’t cooperate with the news people. Yep, it should work out just fine.’
METAMORPHIS
Aaron grabbed Cole at church. “Do you have time to talk for a few minutes after the meeting?”
“Sure, how about we go get a burger or something?”
At the Burger Shack, they took their orders outside where they could talk and Aaron asked, “Well, what do you think?”
“I assume you’re talking about yesterday’s little excitement up the canyon?”
“Well Duh” snapped Aaron. “Any thoughts about what we should do now?”
“I figure that we may still get some phone calls from deputy Fox or someone from the police in Salt Lake City, but for now at least, we should just sit tight and don’t do anything stupid.”
Cole continued, “I’m going to keep seeing Jan for a couple of reasons. First, I really like her and secondly, because of what happened yesterday, I need to keep close to her and make sure she doesn’t do anything crazy like telling anybody about what happened. I don’t know how long it takes for the mind to put something like yesterday in the old history files, but until it happens I need to see her as often as possible. What about you and Rachel.”
“I understand, you’re telling me that I need to do the same with Rachel, and that’s not a bad thing. I like her too. We’re coming over to your place Wednesday and I plan on talking to her at least on a daily basis. Maybe, it will lead to a permanent relationship. At least for now, it needs to be a daily thing.”
“What happened on the way home yesterday?”
“Rachel didn’t want to go straight home, so we drove around for awhile, got a pizza, and talked about lots of things, mostly about
“Is she OK?”
“Yeah, I think so, we rehashed everything that happened and what we expect to happen. She is worried about what would happen if the real facts came out to the police, but I tried to explain to her that we were afraid to tell the true story because we thought the police would think we were responsible for his death. The worst that she would receive would be a slap on the wrist for not coming forward to the police. She said that she would probably have nightmares for awhile. Her roommates all sleep in different rooms, so she isn’t worried about the possibility of talking in her sleep or screaming from a nightmare or anything like that. I think that she’s handling it fine. She didn’t want to be alone, so I stayed with her until her roommates come home. In fact I was having a really good time when the front door opened!”
“I’ve been thinking about what happened, I don’t think we could have done anything different that would have helped anything. I was never in the military, but I always figured that if I needed to, I could kill a man, and while we didn’t kill a man, I think that under the circumstances, if that guy showed up and tried to do anything to Jan, I could have thrown him off that cliff without a second thought. What do you think, am I some kind of crazy, wacko that should be locked up?”
Aaron laughed and said, “No, I feel the same way.”
“I’m picking up Jan and her son Billy for dinner in a couple of hours, what are your plans for today?”
“I plan on calling Rachel as soon as I have a chance to get rid of this shirt and tie. See you Wednesday night.”
AFTERMATH
The misleading news report headline was, “MOUNTAIN LION EATS BIKER IN BIG COTTONWOOD CANYON.” The story stated “A bicycler died in
Cole was sound asleep late Sunday Night/Monday morning when the phone rang and rang. “Hello” mumbled Cole as he tried to remember where he was and whose voice was talking to him.
“Cole this is Jan, I’m scared, there’s a car sitting in front of my house, the lights are on and the motor is running. That loud bass music is rocking the whole house. What do you think I should do?”
He remember who Jan was, “I think that you should call the police, I’ll be right over.”
Cole lived about 10 minutes away from where Jan’s house. He pulled up to the house and parked behind a
“Are you Ok,” asked Cole when he met Jan at the door?
“Yeah, I’m fine. I feel so stupid.”
“Why?”
“By the time the police got here, the car was gone. The police officer is going around the house to see if anything looks out of place.”
The officer came up to them and asked who Cole was.
“We’ve been dating. Jan called me before she called you.”
“Do either of you know or have any idea who these people were?”
“I think that they were friends of my ex-husband”, said Jan.
“Please explain,” asked the officer.
“My husband became abusive and we were divorced about 6 months ago. He died in the mountains on Saturday. I think that the people in the car could have been some of his gang friends”, said Jan.
“Ok, I remember the report about the fatality. Why would they be parked in front of your house in the middle of the night?”
“I don’t know. I never met any of his friends, but from a distance they always seemed to be scary Mexicans with tattoos, weird clothes, long hair or shaved heads, and jewelry. Their cars looked just like the one that was sitting here tonight with black windows.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. It isn’t against the law to park beside the road, but it is against the law to park with music so loud that it disturbs nearby houses,” said the officer. “I’ll file a report and patrol this street occasionally the rest of my shift. I’ll also include this street and your address in the report as a place to keep an eye on. Our patrols will include your home for 3 days. Be sure and call us if it happens again. You also might want to keep an eye open for similar cars parking up the street. These gangs are dangerous. Their reasons for doing things don’t always make much sense.” The police officer returned to his car, turned off his flashing lights and drove down the street.
“Do you want me to stay until morning or do you want to come over to my place”, asked Cole.
“Billy is still asleep so I think I’ll stay here, but I would like you to stick around if you can”, whispered Jan.
“I need to be at work at 8 AM, so if everything is still normal at 7 AM, I’ll go by my house, get ready and go to work. You should get some sleep. If you’re asleep when I leave, please call me when you wake up. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Jan handed him a blanket, kissed him, whispered “thank you so much” and went to bed.
Cole looked out the front window and watched the street for a few minutes. There was no traffic going by. Nothing broke the silence except some cats chasing each other around. He set his cell phone alarm for
“What’s going on,” asked Jan as she stepped into the room?
Cole told her, “I need to get you out of here until those guys back off. I figure they don’t know what happened. They may not even know that Grant’s dead. They’re probably thinking that you can give them some answers. I would expect in a day or two they will have more pressing issues and will leave you alone. In the meantime why don’t you and Billy come over to my place? I have an extra room for Billy and I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“I don’t want to put you out, but I don’t know what else to do.”
“OK, it’s settled. Since Billy isn’t old enough to go to school yet, we don’t have to work around his schedule. Get what you need together, we can go now. I’ll call my office to tell them I’ll be late.”
At that moment Jan’s phone rang. It was the police, following up on the 911 call. “Has the problem been resolved?”
Jan told them, “I guess so, a police car came and chased the car that was parked in front of the house away, and we don’t know what happened after that. I’m going to stay with a friend for a few days; if you need to call me you can call my cell number
GRANTS’ GANG
Grant was sitting in the bar feeling sorry for himself. His wife, Jan, had told him that he had to find a better job so she wouldn’t have to work after the baby was born. Grant had lost his good paying job and now he could only find a minimum wage job. He was trying to go to school, but he would have to drop out to support Jan and the baby. A group of Mexicans came into the bar, one of them yelled in Spanish, “Does anyone here understand me?”
Grant turned toward them and beckoned them to come over to him. In Spanish, he replied, “I understand you, my mother was from
“We should go outside and talk, what we have in mind is against the law. Do you have a problem working with “illegal aliens?”
Outside, the Mexicans explained that they needed some way to communicate with their buyers. “We steal a nice car, and take it to a buyer. The buyer says something we do not understand. We say ok and he gives us money. We think that we are being cheated but we don’t know for sure and we cannot talk to them. We thought that maybe we could meet someone, like you, who can speak for us and tell us what’s being said.”
Grant was desperate for extra money and saw an easy way to increase his earnings by helping these Mexicans. “I need to make some extra money. Tell me exactly what you are talking about?”
“All 5 of us are experienced in stolen cars and also in drug dealing. We would prefer to stay out of the drugs and specialize in stealing cars. It’s quick and easy and with you to speak for us, we can make lots of money.”
“What happens if we get caught?”
“We would be probably be sent back home to
It worked out like a dream. He went to the meeting with the buyers/fences and talked for the Mexicans. His income doubled and then tripled. He was making enough money to replace his old job and Jan’s income.
His simple communication job turned out to be more than just talking to the fences. He ended up driving some of the cars and then he was pulled into some drug dealing. His personal drug use increased dramatically. The gang contracted to kidnap a farmer who was resisting the Mexican union organizers. The farmer ended up dead and while Grant wasn’t directly involved, he realized that he was an accomplice.
A few months later, he reluctantly confessed to Jan that his increased income was coming from a Mexican gang who was stealing cars. She told him that she was going to divorce him and he would have to move out. Grant lost his temper and beat her and hit the baby. He realized what he had done and left. A few hours later he returned and asked Jan to forgive him and give him another chance.
“I told you to get out. I’ll have no part of you or your dirty money. If there was a chance of ever getting back together, you destroyed it when you hit me and Billy.”
“The divorce court will give me the house. If you try to get visitation rights to see Billy, I’ll tell the judge about your friends!”
The night that Grant died on the cliff, the gang was meeting with a fence who handled the stolen cars. Grant was supposed to be there. The meeting went badly and the gang was angry. They went to his ex-wife’s home and figured that they would park out front and turn up the stereo music.
“Maybe she will contact Grant for us and he will answer his phone.” They saw her on the phone talking to someone.
“I don’t like this,” said the leader, “If she was calling Grant, she would have called one time and he would have called us, she has called at least 2 people. Lets leave and come back early in the morning.”
In the early morning they pulled up in front of the house, “I don’t remember that truck being there when we were here last night.” At that moment, a police cruiser pulled up behind them with its lights flashing and they took off. A few blocks down the street was more flashing lights so they decided that they had better pull over. They didn’t learn anything about Grant and as expected they would be getting a free trip back to
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