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.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
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.”
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.”
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Bk 5-Roger Morgan, Chapter 3
JAKE MONTROSS
Jake Montross was a Game Warden for the Utah Fish and Game department. Unlike many of the states game wardens, he didn’t like to give out tickets to the hunters he found breaking some minor law. In fact when Jake applied for the job he didn’t realize what a Game Warden really was. He had heard about this great job where a person could be outside most of the time working with the wildlife in the State of Utah. The job advertisement didn’t even say it was for a Game Warden. “How would you like to be outside 90% of the time? Good pay, great benefits, apply now!” It sounded just right to Jake, so he had applied. The personnel director had looked at Jake’s application and talked to him. Her directive was to find some Game Wardens who weren’t the typical abrasive, arrogant, type A personality kind of person. Jake looked like the perfect candidate to her. He would be the first of the new generation of Utah Game Wardens. To her manager she said, “Let’s try this guy out.”
Jake’s friends had been astounded when they heard that he had applied to work for the Utah Fish and Game, had been accepted, and was to become a Game Warden. They couldn’t imagine shy, soft spoken Jake Montross as the typical arrogant, self righteous Game Warden.
Jake was so shy, especially around the opposite sex, that he had never married. In fact up to now he had been on two dates, the girls had asked him both times. He longed for the companionship of a sweet woman to become his wife, but had never developed the social skills to feel comfortable enough to even ask a girl for a date. He rationalized his shyness with, “Someday I’ll meet the perfect woman and we’ll both know we were meant for each other. Then I’ll ask her out.” There was an attractive single woman in the Springville Fish and Game office, where he had a small cubicle assigned to him, that teased him and seemed to be interested in him, but so far he had never build up the courage to even talk to her. ‘Maybe the next time Nicole tells me how handsome I am, I’ll say something clever and ask her to go out with me.’
Jake was surprised when he was accepted to trained to be a Game Warden. He wanted to be outside and in the mountains of Utah. It seemed to be a perfect job. When he learned that he would have to confront angry men who would be carrying loaded high powered rifles, he wasn’t so sure he wanted the job. He expressed his concern to his trainer and was told, “Hey look, most of the hunters in Utah are law abiding men who expect to have a Game Warden check their kills. If they’re breaking the law, they won’t be happy, but they’ll accept a ticket from you, if called for, and go on about their business. They might not be happy about a ticket, but they understand the necessity of laws to protect their right to hunt. A friendly attitude instead of a “holier than thou” attitude will gain you the respect of the people you meet in the wilds of Utah.
For the most part, the advice and counsel of his trainer had been correct. He would approach hunters, wearing his uniform, and they would give him the respect the uniform demanded. He gained confidence as he realized his trainer was mostly correct. However, there were some people in Utah who would like nothing better than putting a high powered bullet in every Game Warden they came across.
He spent most of his time in the wilds of Utah, except for regular big game hunting seasons, looking for those men who hunt and kill wild game out of season and without permits (poaching). Some were after the trophies, others wanted food for their families and others just wanted to kill something. He sympathized with those whose circumstances forced them to look to wild game for food and tried to ignore those. The others made his blood boil and he pursued them with a vengeance.
He was waiting for one of those in his favorite spot in all of Utah when he heard Roger and Patty talk about how they had met and Roger had killed her ex-boyfriend. As a Game Warden he was sworn to uphold the law and he should have marched down through the undergrowth and arrested Roger, but he couldn’t force himself to do it. He wanted to go down, shake his hand and congratulate Roger on a job well done. Of course, he didn’t do that either, he sat there and wished he had the guts to do the same thing Roger had done when he came upon a similar type of person.
It was as if someone whispered in his ear, “You can do it, you can do anything, don’t be afraid.” He asked himself ‘Why not, why can’t I do the same thing? Most of the time, I’m in the field by myself, where I see the worst of human scum killing trophy animals for the horns on their heads or for the fun of it. I don’t catch very many of them. Most of them are so careful that I’m not even in the same county when the animal is killed. I don’t think I could kill the young father out shooting a doe and taking it home to his family.’
Jake sat and thought about the young couple that had just walked out of his hearing range, he watched them walk beside the pond and then they disappeared in the undergrowth on their way back to the trail that led to the parking lot several miles away.
He drifted off into some kind of trance and slipped into a dream where he saw himself talking to Nicole, asking her on dates and getting married. He saw himself become a Game Warden that was feared by the poachers instead of laughed at. He felt the satisfaction of confronting poachers and bringing them to justice. Those who were trying to kill him, he killed without remorse. He awoke with a start, some small creature had just scampered across his chest and the sun had dropped below the horizon long ago. He couldn’t see the pond at all and the trees were dark shadows against a sky filled with stars. Up here on the side of Mount Timpanogos he had an unobstructed view of millions of stars that provided some light but not enough to see any detail in the plants all around him. He lay there thinking about the dream he had just had. ‘Was it a dream or some kind of vision or what?’ He could remember parts of the dream clearly and other parts seemed to be like a picture on high speed. He didn’t know what to think about it all.
If there had been someone watching Jake they would have seen him quietly sitting there deep in thought. They would have seen him lean back in the undergrowth and go to sleep. As the darkness flowed up the steep hillside they would have seen him twitching and turning as he went through a physical transformation. His shirt and pants had been loose fitting but now they were tight. He changed from a normal appearing man with normal features to a man whose physical appearance expanded and become more powerful. When his eyes opened they had gained a deep piercing quality. A quality not unlike that seen when a wild cougar focuses on its next meal. When he stood up his uncoordinated actions had turned into the movements of a highly trained athlete.
Jake didn’t notice any physical changes, except he felt stronger and now had a new sense of purpose. He wasn’t going to strictly follow the Fish and Game policies toward those he found breaking the law. Those polices said, “If you find a hunter taking protected game out of hunting season or without the appropriate permits, you will give said hunter a ticket. Under no circumstances are you to threaten or react to any actions by said hunter. Even if said hunter resorts to using his weapon against you, you may draw your official weapon and return fire, but you may not fire at the individual. In such a case, you are to report the facts to the appropriate law enforcement officer. Unofficially Jake had been told, “If you shoot a civilian, you had better have a bullet hole in you to prove he was shooting at you.”
From that day forward the poachers who killed whatever came in front of their scopes were in mortal danger of Jake. Jake would go after him and if warranted, would end his life of preying on the weak and available. The guy with $100,000 worth of truck, sniper rifle, infrared spotting scopes and every other piece of equipment available might be a candidate for extinction. ’I think it will be all about attitude. Some of the guys I have arrested would have killed me if they had a chance. They’re the ones I would now put in the ground with a smile on my face.’
Transformed, Jake left his place in the undergrowth with new goals.
First off, he now felt a need to go talk to Nicole; he knew she was waiting for him to ask her out.
Secondly he would go find and kill the worst of the poachers who thumbed their noses at the law and would kill him if given the chance. He knew of several and where they usually hunted. ‘I can’t wait to run into one of those guys.’
Jake walked down the path toward the truck and noticed the path seemed to be smoother. He normally would have stumbled time and time again as he kicked the tree roots growing across the path. Tonight, he stepped over them without thinking about it. The darkness wasn’t complete and the path seemed to almost glow in the starlight. He had never before felt like he did at the moment. The air was cool and fresh, he breathed deep and felt so good, he decided to quicken the pace, and he started jogging and then increased to a trot and then a run. A man running through a dark forest is unusual and some would say dangerous because of the ups and downs of a mountain trail; and the tree roots can be several inches above the path. Jake felt like he could run like this all night. He reached his truck in a few minutes and didn’t want to stop; regretfully he stepped into the truck and drove home.
He spent the night thinking about his new goal. At dawn he woke up before his alarm went off. This literally never happened. Normally he pulled himself out of a deep sleep when the alarm went off and was groggy for an hour while he had a shower, got dressed, and had breakfast. He noticed his shirt was tight across his shoulders and his pants were so tight he had to strain to button the belt. It didn’t dawn on him why his clothes were suddenly too small. He made a lunch because he never knew where he would be at lunchtime.
He felt rested and looking forward to the day. He carefully took his personal 9 MM pistol from his safe and put it into his holster in place of his official 38 special that was issued by the department. He had purchased the 9 MM from a man he had caught poaching years ago. The man had just killed a doe and was cleaning it out when Jake had found him. He had given Jake the story that he and his family were out of money and food and the pistol was all he had. He had killed the deer with it and planned on taking the pistol to the nearest pawn shop and buy some food on the way home. Jake may have been naïve but he wanted a pistol like this so he offered him a fair price which was much more than a pawn shop would have given him. The man accepted his offer and told Jake that he had bought the pistol from a guy in Arizona who told him it was not registered. Jake sent him on his way with the venison. Since that time he had used it occasionally at the target range, but didn’t ordinarily take it with him. Today was different, he was hunting human vermin and the 9 MM was his choice of weapon. If he had to use it, it wouldn’t be traceable back to him.
Jake needed to go by his small office in the Springville Central Utah Regional Fish and Game office to take care of some paperwork. He walked in with a smile on his face looking for Nicole. Nicole loved to tease him and jump up to see what she could do to embarrass him. She saw Jake drive up so she ran into his office. Her plan was to run into Jake and force him to put his arms around her. She knew it would embarrass Jake. He was disappointed in not seeing Nicole as he came through the front office. He turned to ask Sylvia where Nicole was as he stepped into his cubicle and ran into her. Her plan worked like a charm, he put his arms around her, but then he smoothly picked her up, gave her a peck on her cheek and put her down.
“High sexy lady.”
Nicole could not have been more surprised. This was so far out of character for Jake, she wondered if it was someone else. He didn’t quite look the same, but yes it was Jake. She couldn’t think of anything to say, she just stood there looking into his eyes. His eyes had changed, or maybe he just had never allowed her to look into them before. Jake winked at her. Nicole couldn’t believe it but she felt herself blush!
“Jake, what’s come over you, you, you’ve changed.”
“I was sitting up on Timpanogos thinking about you. I decided to ask you to go to dinner and a movie Friday night. How about it; would you go with a lonely Game Warden to supper and a movie Friday?”
Nicoles’ jaw dropped but she quickly recovered and said, “I thought you would never ask, yes I would like that, what time?”
“How about I pick you up at 7:00?”
“OK, it’s a date.”
“Oh, where do you live?” Nicole wrote down her address and cell number and gave it to Jake and went back to her desk on the other side of the building. She was so flustered she couldn’t think straight, so she sat down and just sat there for a few moments.
Nichole felt someone watching her and turned toward her good friend and boss, Silvia Porter who whispered “I have just witnessed a miracle. I truly believed that Mr. Montross would never work up the courage to ask you out on a date. Suddenly he comes in, a changed man and manages to surprise all of us. Way to go!”
Nicole blushed again and smiled, wondering about the changes in Jake Montross. “What do you think happened to him out there?”
“I don’t have a clue, but I like it! It’s hard to believe he’s the same guy. He looks like he’s been working out.”
“He picked me up like I weighed about as much as a 10 pound sack of potatoes! I’m not a huge girl but I’m not tiny either. I had no idea he was so strong.”
Jake climbed in his truck and waved at Nicole through the office window and pulled out onto State Street on the way to his assigned patrol area. ‘I think that went pretty well, I can’t believe I actually asked a girl out on a date!’
He drove into an isolated box canyon where he liked to do some target practice. He took the 9 MM out and carefully loaded and inserted the clip. He went through a box of ammunition before he was satisfied with his performance. He felt at short range he was deadly and would hit his intended target dead center up to about 75 yards. His plan was to patrol the entire Skyline Highway today and go look for Larry Beus, the worst of the poachers that he personally knew, after dark tonight. To be fair, Beus could be in his bed tonight, but Jake knew that Beus was a night person. A killer out looking for something to kill that would put money in his pocket. Right or wrong, legal or illegal distinctions were not applicable to Larry Beus.
Skyline Highway started at Highway 6 between Spanish Fork and Price and extended along a high plateau over 75 miles almost straight south. He would take highway 6 to the start of Skyline Highway and drive the 70 miles looking at the side roads and checking on campers and anyone else who might be a poacher. He would arrive at the high meadows above Manti after dark. The elk herds were healthy and he had seen some fantastic bulls as he patrolled the area. He knew this was a favorite poaching area for Beus. This is where he had tried to arrest Beus 3 times but in each case Larry’s friends had managed to destroy the evidence. The last time they had shot at Jake and he felt fortunate to have escaped alive. He had just arrested Beus and was standing beside him when a bullet hit a tree branch inches from his head. He dove to the dirt and Beus took off running. Jake had pulled out his pistol and shot over their heads, but they didn’t even duck. They knew he was prohibited from actually shooting at them. Beus rejoined his friends and they causally walked back to their truck.
This was the time of year that the bulls were tearing up small trees and bushes as they cleaned the velvet off their antlers. It was mating season and their bugles could be heard all along Skyline Highway. This was prime time for the poachers. Most buyers of the poached elk antlers didn’t want the antlers until the bulls had rubbed off the blood soaked velvet and the antlers were hardened and polished.
The biggest bull Jake had ever seen was hanging out around a meadow that held several springs and ponds and a dense stand of pine trees close by. On the downhill side of these meadows the hillside was more like a cliff. The bulls loved this meadow because it couldn’t be driven too, dense cover was close, food and water were abundant, and there was a lot of open ground around the areas that made it nearly impossible to sneak up on them. In earlier years Jake had seen Beus and his friends leave their trucks or ATV’s on top of a ridge a mile or so away, and walk to these meadows in the moonlight. They would shoot the largest of the bulls using a night vision scope and then remove the antlers and the cape. Many nights in this time of year, Jake had heard rifle shots in the darkness where he didn’t have a chance of catching the culprit with his limited equipment. He was always outnumbered and underequipped. The poachers also knew that Jake the Game Warden was forbidden to shoot them so they were fearless as they danced around just out of sight of Jake. He would surprise them this time.
There was one Game Warden, a friend of Jakes’ that was shot and killed in this area several years ago. Jake knew who had done it but couldn’t prove it. Jake knew that every time he drove down to this area his life was on the line. He had heard from the locals that Beus and his friends planned on killing him the next time they had a chance. When he first heard about their claim, it scared him, but now the fear was gone and in its place an eagerness to end it tonight.
Over the past 5 years Jake had made friends with many of the people in this part of Utah. All of them considered Larry Beus and his friends to be a cancer to the whole state of Utah. They all knew who he was and what he was doing. The local Chief of Police was an old high school buddy of Beus and had a gentlemen’s agreement with him, “don’t get caught doing anything serious and we’ll leave you alone.” The Chief and other officers were afraid of Beus and were only too happy to ignore what was going on. The local people wished Jake good luck and would watch him drive away thinking, “there goes a good man, but one of these days he’s going to get killed by the Beus bunch.”
He noticed he was hungry about 1 PM, so he pulled over, took his lunch cooler out and walked to the ridge above the road where he knew there was an old tree that had fallen and now offered itself as a ready bench and table. Jake had used this vantage point for lunch breaks many times. He put the cooler down on the log and stretched.
‘Rrrriiipppp!” This was a new experience for him; he couldn’t remember ever ripping an article of clothing before. He remembered the shirt and pants being tight this morning. Maybe I washed them in hot water instead of warm last time and the both shrunk. Suddenly he knew that all of his clothes were now too small for him. He walked back to the truck and opened his duffle bag for a spare shirt. It was too small, just like the one he had ripped. ‘Time for some new clothes I guess. Instead of going directly south on Skyline, I’ll swing down to Ephriam and get some bigger shirts and pants; then come back up the Ephriam Canyon road. Always before he could find a shirt in a Medium-Long and it would be just right and maybe a little baggy. He tried on some large sizes and they were snug, so he went to extra large, they gave him the feel he was used to, not too tight, a little on the baggy size. His pants were also a problem. His waist was 2 inches bigger. The size went from a 32 waist to a 34 waist, but the slim cut was too tight on his thighs and his butt. He had to move up to a baggy size to be comfortable. ‘This is just plain weird!’
Back up on Skyline, the sun had set as he took his time. Jake drove slowly down the main road, passing the reservoir for the Manti city water system. This ridge ran straight west of here and ended in a series of meadows and ponds before it ended and dropped into the canyon a thousand feet below. He drove down a side road to a hidden wash that would hide his truck from any traffic on the main road. He took his fanny pack that contained high calorie snacks, a space blanket, first aid equipment, a flashlight, and extra ammunition. He knew the Poachers would be watching for him, but he also knew where they would be and how to get to them without being seen. They couldn’t see or hear as good as an elk and he was no lovesick bull elk that they could easily find as he bugled. He expected them to have a night vision scope. This would put them at a distinct advantage if they knew he was coming. He had to get close to them before they knew he was anywhere close. His confidence range with his pistol was about 75 yards. That was about the distance from the ridge to the meadows. He would have to play it by ear and hope they didn’t have a lookout watching the ridge with night vision scope. He wanted to walk right up to them while they were working on the elk. That way if he had to run for cover he could go over the edge and get into the pine trees.
He attached the silencer to his pistol and returned it to the holster under his left arm. It was fully loaded and ready if and when needed. He reached the old road on the ridge line just as he heard a rifle shot echo through the night. It sounded like it came from the meadow, exactly where he thought it would be. He couldn’t see that far but if they had a big bull elk down, they may be watching for him but they wouldn’t see him. He would be on the other side of the ridge and come across just above them before he could see them or they could see him.
He increased his pace and soon was sweating, but it felt good as he hiked along the ridge. In fact he noticed he felt better than he had ever felt his whole life. ‘I don’t know what is happening to me but I feel like I could run for miles.’ The moon was bright enough that he could avoid the brush and boulders with ease. The old road was more like 2 paths running beside each other in the grass on the top of the ridge. Jake started jogging down the old road. It felt good and as he neared the end of the road, he should have been a little winded, but he wasn’t. He was breathing normal and felt great. The ridge peaked about a mile from where Jake had parked his truck and it was about another mile to where he thought Beus and friends had shot a bull elk. The old road ended there and there were 3 ATV’s parked under the old gnarled trees that stood at the crest of the ridge. He checked the 3 ATV’s and saw that the keys were still in the ignition switches ‘There would be at least 3 men out there but there could be more if 2 came on some of the ATVs. These guys were confident that they could do anything they wanted with no fear of the law, or anybody to challenge them. There was a steep drop off on the other side of the trees and a fence. Jake jumped the fence and landed far down the steep ridge. The ridge flattened out after it dropped about 100 feet and maintained the level until it ended and dropped 1,000 feet into Manti Canyon about a mile and a half further west.
Here the ridge was covered with all kinds of low growing grass and other vegetation. This area was lush and perfect for the elk herds as well as thousands of range cattle that spent the summers up here. The rainfall down in the arid valleys was maybe 10 or 15 inches a year with summer temperatures at or above 100 degrees. Up here the rain gently watered the lush grass almost on a daily basis and totaled 50 to 60 inches a year. The elevation was close to 11,000 feet so the temperatures in mid summer rarely moved above 70 degrees with the nights just above freezing.
‘I better slow down and walk from here or they may hear me.’ He dropped down the north side of the ridge 20 or 30 yards and kept below the ridge line until he reached where he thought the ponds and meadows started on the other side of the ridge. He was not using his flashlight but the moonlight provided him with plenty of light to see. There were a few trees that appeared as clumps of darkness in the moonlight strung out along the ridge above the ponds. He reached the ridge line and could see the first meadow below him. It was close enough for him to see two pools of light covering an elk carcass where one man was using the light to work on the head of the dead elk. The antlers were off to the side and the man was carefully working on removing the cape. The carcass was laying on the edge of the meadow. If the bull had taken another step or two before falling he would have rolled hundreds of feet down the steep hillside.
Jake was standing near one of the old pine trees that had decided to grow out instead of fighting the fierce winter wind to grow up. The hair on his neck moved to attention and a chill went down his back as he felt a premonition of danger even thought it appeared there were no lookouts watching for someone like him. He reached into the holster in recognition of the premonition and pulled the pistol out. As the pistol cleared the holster, he heard the click of a rifle safety being released behind him; he dove to the left, rolled and looked for a target. He saw a shadow just as a high powered rifle went off and the flames and bullet went screaming over his head and into the darkness. The flames coming out of the bore of the rifle temporarily blinded Jake. He heard the shadow eject a bullet casing and shove a live round home. Jake shot at the sound where he had glimpsed the shadow again and again. His sight returned just in time to see a shadow fall to the ground. He shot the last bullet from his magazine into the shadow and reached for more bullets. In the moonlight he could see that the shadow wasn’t moving or making a sound. The shadow must have been standing or sitting beside one of the pine trees as Jake walked past him.
From down below came an angry voice, “HEY CLINT, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING UP THERE?”
Jake’s ears were ringing from the blast of the rifle, he tried to put a whining sound to his voice and yelled back toward the men below, “I TRIPPED AND THE GUN WENT OFF”
From the darkness came the retort, “YOU RETARD, WE CAN’T TRUST YOU TO DO NOTHING, NOW GET YOUR WORTHLESS ASS DOWN HERE AND HELP US PACK THESE ANTLERS OUT. YOU’RE NO GOOD UP THERE AS A LOOKOUT ANYWAYS.”
Jake allowed himself to relax and take a deep breath; they had believed his answer was from Clint, their deceased lookout.
More voices from below, “I told you not to call my brother a retard,” said Beus!
“I told you not to bring him, he’s worthless. We can’t depend on him for nothing. He almost killed me just now. I heard that bullet go over my head. Now he has the night vision scope up there and we don’t know what’s going on.”
“Settle down, he’s fine. CLINT COME ON DOWN, WE’RE ALMOST DONE!”
The comment from below clicked in Jakes’ consciousness, ‘The night vision scope is up here!’ Jake hurried to the shadow and jerked the rifle from the dead hands of Clint. He looked through the scope. ‘Wow I had no idea these night scopes worked this well. I’m lucky that none of my shots hit and damaged this scope or the battery pack, I hope the rifle’s ok.”
He looked at the three men 75 yards below him. They were still gathered around the dead bull elk. Two were still shining their lights on the elk so that the 3rd man could work on the carcass. ‘It’s a good thing those lights aren’t pointing at me or I would be blinded.’ It looked like the poacher was now cutting out the back straps to take with them. Jake checked the magazine and counted the cartridges with his fingers, there were 4 shells remaining in the rifle. ‘That should be plenty.’ He couldn’t feel any damage to the rifle. He found the safely and knew instinctively which way was on and off. It was still off from when Clint shot at him a few minutes ago.
Jake dropped to his belly and steadied the cross hairs in the night scope of his new rifle on the chest of the biggest of the three who he thought was Larry Beus. The man glowed fluorescent green in the scope.
The glowing figure in the scope turned toward Jake and yelled, “HEY CLINT, WOULD YOU GET YOUR SORRY ASS DOWN HERE.”
Jake felt around and found a fist sized rock. He picked it up and tossed it downhill toward the men below. They would think Clint was coming and had knocked a rock loose.
He could hear them talking about how much this set of antlers would bring from old man Turley in Phoenix, plus the cape would bring at least $100 from a taxidermist friend, and “don’t forget the loin meat”.
Jake squeezed the trigger, he didn’t know what kind of rifle this was, but he thought it was probably a 7 MM Magnum or a 300 Savage. Whatever it was, it kicked him harder than any rifle he had ever shot. ‘Ouch, I had better hold it a little tighter next time.’ The 200 grain cartridge hit Beus right in the middle of his chest. The coat, breast bone and back bone didn’t offer much resistance to the bullet as it went tearing through Beus on its way to the hillside on the other side of the ravine.
The big man was thrown backward over the edge and into the darkness. Jake worked the bolt to eject the empty casing and shove the next bullet into the chamber; he brought the scope back down and found the other guy that had been standing who was now reaching for his rifle that was laying on a backpack. He had turned his flashlight off, a deadly mistake. The angle had changed on this target and the bullet entered his chest slightly to the left of center and pulverized the heart as it passed through him at supersonic speed. He also went flying backward and landed at the edge of the drop-off and dropped his rifle as the heavy slug tore through his chest.
The third guy was crawling toward the trio of packs and trying to find a rifle. Jake gritted his teeth and prepared for the punishment of another shot. This guy was moving on the ground toward the backpacks and a lone rifle laying on top of them. He placed the cross hairs on his head and jerked the trigger. This time the heavy bullet missed its intended target and went harmlessly across the canyon in the moonlight.
“Damn, Damn, Damn, I must have flinched!” He put the final bullet in the chamber and looked for the 3rd man. At first he couldn’t find him. The beauty of a night scope is that the infrared shows the heat of a living person or animal. A man hiding in bushes is outlined as if the bushes weren’t even there. The third poacher had reached the packs and the final rifle and had dove behind a big bush to his right. Jake panned the area with the scope and found the fluorescent figure crouching behind the bush. The fluorescent man was searching for Jake in the moonlight. The moonlight was too faint for him to find Jake who was lying on his stomach aiming the rifle. This last poacher would see a bright light as exploding gun powder pushed the 200 grain bullet out the rifles bore at supersonic speed toward him. The light would get to the man a split-second before the projectile; but he wouldn’t have time to react and pull the trigger. His life would end as the echos bounced back and forth along the ridge tops. Jake placed the cross hairs in the middle of the guys’ chest and forced himself to slowly squeeze the trigger so that he wouldn’t miss again. This time the target was slammed against the ground with his rifle spinning into the bush as Jake was slugged again on his now tender shoulder. The first shot bruised his shoulder when Jake didn’t hold it tight enough. Each additional shot pounded the bruise. Jake’s shoulder should be black and blue and hurting him for weeks, but his newfound physical abilities would heal his shoulder overnight.
Jake watched the carnage below through the scope; nothing was moving so he went back to make sure Clint wouldn’t surprise him again. He pulled his flashlight out to see that Clint was a mess. It looked like most of Jakes shots had hit him. Jake put the rifle down and went through Clints’ pockets. He found some more shells for the rifle and a billfold. First he reloaded the rifle and then discovered about $100 in cash that went into his pocket. He put the billfold back in Clint’s pocket, clicked off the flashlight, picked the rifle back up and again panned the entire area down below. The body heat of the elk was still bright but not as bright as the body heat from the 2 dead men glowing bright in the infrared scope. The 3rd man was out of sight over the edge of the drop-off. He slowly walked down the steep hillside to the carnage below. He swung the scope from one body to the next and back again. There didn’t seem to be any life left in them, but he didn’t want to make another mistake. His overconfidence and assumption that all of the poachers were down by the dead elk had almost got him killed a few minutes before.
Jake looked at the antlers, they were the biggest he had seen in a long time. This was the monster he had seen up near the road several weeks ago.
Talking to himself, ‘Ok Jake, now what. Hunting season doesn’t start up here for another 2-1/2 weeks. By then these guys will be pretty well chewed up by the flies, maggots, bugs and all kinds of critters. If I leave them here with the antlers, a hunter will find them and report them to the first game warden they see, it will probably be me. Or they just might take the antlers and the rifles and let the next guy turn them in. Anyway, for now, I’ve got a 2 1/2 mile hike back to the truck.’ He decided to take the rifle with the night vision scope. ‘This was too good to leave out here to be claimed by the first guy to come along.’
As he was turning toward the truck, he decided to look in each mans’ billfold. ‘Robin Hood steals from the rich.’ Jake had to climb about 50 yards down the steep hillside to reach Larry Beus and found almost a thousand dollars in his pocket. His flashlight was still turned on and had fallen another 30 yards down the hillside. Back up to the meadow level he checked the pockets of the others; each had a couple of hundred dollars. He took the cash and returned the billfold to each pocket for later identification. He looked at the back straps that had been taken from the bull. This would compare to a T-Bone steak, Filet Mignon and New York Steaks. Most poachers will cut out the back straps and leave the rest for the scavengers. I might as well take them. They will be gone out here in a day or two if I leave them. He grabbed the biggest of the back packs that were stacked neatly together, and dumped the contents on the ground. A new lightweight hatchet-knife combo caught his eye and he threw it back in the pack. He filled it with the 40 pounds of prime loin meat (back straps) and attached his fanny pack to the back pack. ‘I’m going back to the truck with a lot more weight than I came out with.’
When he reached the fence below the start of the old road and the poachers ATVs, he had a feeling come over him like he had never felt before. It wasn’t a danger feeling like he experienced when Clint had tried to shoot him. It was more of a peaceful feeling. He climbed on up to the crest and sat on one of the ATVs putting the backpack and rifle on the ground. He let his mind go and tried to absorb whatever it was that he was feeling.
He watched his actions starting from the moment he decided to take control of his life. It was almost like having a ring side seat and watching every movement on a movie screen right up to where he now sat, and then it went forward to his walk to the truck, his drive back to Provo, his meeting with his boss, and his date with Nicole.
He awoke, lying on the ground beside the rifle. He didn’t know how long he had been there, but it was still dark. ‘I have got to get out of here!’ He quickly put the pack back on and jogged for a few yards but with the pack bouncing on his back, he dropped to a fast walk back to his truck.
30 minutes later he was back at his truck with the sweat dripping from his brow. He hoped nobody had come by and noticed his truck sitting in this hidden draw. ‘I need to establish some kind of alibi, so I’ll drive back home, take care of the elk meat, take a short nap, take a shower and go into the office first thing in the office. I need to stop in and see Nicole and get some paperwork done anyway.
The Skyline Highway runs along the top of the ridges so a person can see the lights of vehicles for many miles depending on where the other vehicle is located; other times a truck could be 100 yards away and be hidden in a depression. Jake tried to keep an eye on his rear view mirrors just in case there was somebody else out driving who may have seen his truck. He didn’t want it seen by anybody, especially by a county sheriff on an early morning patrol. He was almost to the Ephraim City turnoff when he saw a light. Jake estimated it was at least 20 miles behind him and no danger to Jake because he would be back on the main highway and headed home in Provo before that light reached the turnoff where he now turned. The Skyline Highway runs back and forth on the top of the ridges. It’s classified as an improved backcountry road but it has potholes big enough to lose a Volkswagen in.
The next morning he thought he was going to feel wasted all day from lack of sleep, but he felt great. He went into the office at 8 am with last nights’ weird dream still fresh in his mind. He thought about his shoulder and expected to feel pain and see a nasty bruise, but if there had been a bruise it was gone. All the way back to Provo he had the feeling of seeing it all before. Stepping into the office the feeling persisted. When his boss came in, every word was exactly as he had experienced last night.
“Well Jake, I didn’t expect you to show up until just in time for your date tonight with Nicole.”
Since Jake knew what the boss was going to say, he also knew what his answer would be. “I drove down Skyline and dropped down to Manti about supper time. Nothing much was going on, lots of campers and some people scouting the deer and elk herds but nothing like it will be in a few weeks when hunting season opens, so I figured I should head for the office and work on my paperwork. I also wanted to make sure I wasn’t late for my date tonight.”
“This is the first time I’ve heard of you going on a date, so I didn’t know what to expect. I told Nicole that there was no way for me to contact you to remind you about your date.”
Every word was coming out just like he remembered it from last night. “If I get started now on my reports, I should be able to bring them right up to today.”
Jake was a little concerned about his date with Nicole, but decided he would just rely on his experience of the night before. Everything up to now seems to be following the script. When it came time to kiss her goodnight, she put her arms around his neck and he straightened up and picked her off the ground and kissed her just like he thought he should. The feelings bursting through his consciousness were all new.”
“Wow big fella, I’ve never been kissed like that before!”
“I can truly say, I’ve never had a kiss like that before either!” He was still holding her firmly, 6 inches off the floor. He kissed her again and wanted to keep on going.
When they came up for air, Jake lowered Nicole back down to the ground. She was so flustered she just stood there looking at him. This is where Jake’s advance picture of his actions today ran out. He didn’t know what to do or say. It was ok, since Nicole was also at a loss of what to do now.
“Nicole, I have never enjoyed a night as much as I have tonight. Would you go with me to dinner and a movie next Friday night? We could see that movie that we saw the preview of tonight.”
“Yes I would love to. What are you doing this Sunday?”
“I don’t know, probably go to church, and then clean my truck.”
Laughing, “Would you like to come to church with me on Sunday?”
“Yes I would, what time?
“It’s at 10 am.”
“Ok, I’ll see you 9:45.” Jake bent over and kissed her again and then she turned and went into her apartment.
Jake walked back to his car and drove home. He sat in the driveway and thought about the evening. ‘Wow, so that’s what it’s like to kiss a girl! I can’t wait to do that again!’ I need to remember to go buy some church clothes tomorrow; I suspect my old ones won’t fit.
3 weeks later, the news outlets blasted the headline 4 POACHERS FOUND SHOT TO DEATH. The story went on to say that the 4 men were found by hunters on opening day of the general archery deer and elk hunt. They appeared to have been shot an estimated 2 to 3 weeks earlier. An elk carcass minus its antlers and cape was also found nearby. It is assumed by law enforcement officials that these four men were members of a big game poaching ring and some kind of argument must have developed while they were in the process of removing the antlers and cape. The antlers were missing and it’s assumed the winner of the fight took them. The black market value of a prize set of Elk Antlers is about $10,000. 2 of the slain men have a history with the Utah Department of Wildlife and have been accused but never convicted of poaching activities in the past.
Jake went into Penny’s Diner in Manti for lunch. It was a few days after the news release about the death of Larry Beus, his brother Clint, and 2 other local men who were reportedly business partners of Beus. Several area ranchers, who he had met before, came over and asked “is it ok if we sit down and talk for a spell?”
“Sure, what’s on your mind?”
The spokesman frowned, looked at Jakes plate and said “You’re not going to eat that are you?” Then all the ranchers laughed and made faces as they pointed at Jakes plate.
The owner of the diner, Penny, was walking by and good naturedly said, “if you guys don’t want your meatloaf, I’ll just cancel your orders!”
“That’s ok Penny, we’ll take them!”
Turning their attention to Jake, “When we saw you sitting here, we had to look twice, you look different. Have you been working out? From my memory you look 20 pounds heavier than the last time I saw you.”
“I try to keep fit.”
“We want to thank you for cutting out that cancer that has been eating us alive. Those guys were not only poaching wild game, but they were also stealing cattle from us. If somebody wanted a discount beef, or someone killed or beaten, all you had to do was go to one of those bastards and for a price the job was done. You probably knew that they had talked about how they were going to kill you this hunting season.”
“Yeah, I had heard that, one of them shot at me last year, obviously he missed. As far as your thanks, I just try to do my job, but you don’t need to thank me; I’m just a Game Warden. We aren’t allowed to shoot poachers even if we catch them in the act and even if they shoot at us first. As far as those 4 dead bastards, an archery hunter flagged me down as I was driving along Skyline. He walked with me out the ridge where he found the bodies. You all know what the carcass of an animal looks like after it’s been dead for a couple of weeks. Those 4 looked pretty bad, but I could recognize Larry Beus because his head was kind of wrapped up in his coat and his billfold was in his pocket. If the billfold had been missing, we wouldn’t have known for sure who he was without the lab people checking out his dental records. It’s a mystery to me as to what happened to those Bastards, I’m just glad somebody took care of them for us.”
“One of the ranchers at his table looked him in the eye and winked. Ok, whatever you say; I don’t know how you did it, but my hat’s off to you, thanks again. If you ever want or need anything, don’t hesitate to call on any of us. We figure that we could give you a prime beef every week and still come out ahead.” The ranchers stood, soberly shook Jakes hand and walked back to their table and Meatloaf Special dinners.
Jake sat and finished his Meatloaf Special dinner as he thought about the ranchers. The looks he was getting from all of the patrons in the eatery were of admiration and respect; this wasn’t the normal attitude towards a game warden. ‘If everybody thinks I killed those 4 outlaws up on the hill, I could have a problem with the Chief of Police and the County Sheriff. He walked out and there beside his truck was Allen Wyland, the County Sheriff.
“There you are Jake. I wanted to talk to you about those 4 ornery outlaws that were found up near Skyline Highway. Do you have a few minutes to talk?”
“Sure, anytime’s ok with me. Where do you want to talk?”
“I was thinking here, but since you probably just finished eating, let’s go to my office.
“How about something to drink?”
“A diet soda would be great.”
“Jake, one of my deputies was doing a midnight patrol up the Manti Canyon Road a couple of week ago. He got out of his truck to relieve himself and heard 6 rifle shots up on the north ridge. Normally when a poacher shoots an animal there will be one or maybe two shots. This time he heard a shot, so he waited to try to pinpoint where it came from, and then probably almost an hour later he heard 1 more shot and then a few minutes later 4 more shots close together. He was at the bottom of that big ridge and as you know the road from there to Skyline Highway is about as rough a road as I know about. If there has been a hard rain in the last 24 hours, it would have been impassable. As he bounced and clawed up that road he saw a light on the hillside but it was so far away he couldn’t see anything else and it wasn’t moving. Anyway it took him a couple of hours to get up on the top to Skyline Highway. When he finally made it to the top, he pulled up to the highest point on the road and could see some taillights going north on Skyline, but they were so far away he couldn’t recognize them and figured there was no way to catch up with them. It could have been the murderer.”
“It could have been the murderer all right. What time was it?”
“He said it was about 4 AM, but not exactly sure. Where were you at 4 AM?”
“I don’t know. If you tell me the date I can narrow it down. Most likely I was asleep in bed, 4 AM which day?”
“Never mind, I figured if I kind of asked you out of the blue, you might react if you were the one who hammered those 4. You didn’t’ react, so that tells me nothing.”
“For your information, I can check back through my daily log and tell you exactly were I was on any given night or day patrol.”
“I said never mind, this was a good thing. Those 4 were outlaws. They liked to kill things and that includes people. I could never prove anything, they made sure of that, but I’m sure they were responsible for several murders around here each year. Probably more than I know about. Sometimes they would leave town for a week or two, and come back with lots of cash. I believe they were contract killers as well as poachers.”
“Did you ever go after them?”
“No, my deputies were all afraid of them. I figured if I ever went up against them, my deputies wouldn’t back me up. I just hoped something like this would happen. Anyway, if you’re the person who killed those 4 outlaws, I’m indebted to you, thanks.”
“I’m glad to see them gone as well. Every time I came down Skyline Highway, I wondered if that was the day that Larry Beus would finally find a way to kill me. If I knew who blew him away, I would send him a thank you note.”
“I heard that Beus was telling people that he was going to kill “that Game Warden” this year.”
“Yeah I heard that from several people. Did you get any evidence from the bodies?”
“Not much. Three of them were killed with a high power rifle. The bullets blew through them killing them instantly. We couldn’t find a scrap of metal from the bullets. The only inconsistency was that one of the four was killed with shots from a 9 MM pistol. He looked like he was hit with a full magazine of high powered pistol rounds. 2 of the slugs were still in the body. No match was found from the FBI data bank. The fourth guy was on the ridge above the others, probably a lookout. I think the killer, came down the ridge, saw the lookout, emptied his gun on him with his pistol and then took out the others from up there with his rifle. My deputy didn’t hear any pistol shots, so the pistol probably had a silencer. We found 6 rifle casings from a Remington 7 MM magnum rifle, so I guess he missed twice. We’ve got no clue of who the shooter was. There were no rifles around the bodies. The killer could have taken them or the hunters who found the bodies could have taken them, but we know they must have had a rifle with a night scope on it. The moon was out but it’s tough to shoot a bull elk with only moonlight. Do you have a 9 MM pistol.”
“Nope, I have my 38 special issued by the state. The archery hunter that flagged me down told me there were no rifles when he found the bodies.”
“Did you know that Larry Beus has another brother?”
“No, I didn’t know. I suppose he thinks I killed two of his brothers too?”
“Yep, be very careful down here. That’s a bad bunch. The youngest brother is mean and nasty just like his oldest brother and his dad. Clint, the middle son was the best and the old man is probably the worst but he’s dying from cancer or he would probably go after you too.”
“How old is this other brother?”
“16 years old and he has the hottest temper of the bunch. He’s quite a good athlete but they won’t let him play because he can’t control his temper. He would start a fight in every game so they kicked him off the high school football team.”
“Does this 16 year kid have some identifying marks or something that I could use to identify him?”
“He has the size and looks of his brother Larry. Now he also has his brother’s truck and hunting equipment. He has bragged to some of the other kids that sometime his older brother would take him along on their midnight runs. That truck is a new red Ford F-350 with every conceivable piece of add-on equipment.”
“I’ve seen that truck many times. I’ll keep that in mind. Does he have any other suspects or am I his only target?”
“You’re it and he’ll be looking for you. I expect that one night when you come through on patrol he’ll spot you and follow you and try to kill you. There’s nothing I can do until he tries to kill you. Then I can go after him?”
“Well that’s’ good to know. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me to know that once I’m dead; you can go after my killer!”
“There’s nothing else I can do. I’ll try to keep track of where he is. I’ll have my deputies take turns following him around, but my grandma could lose those jokers on her bicycle.”
“Maybe I should take some lessons from your grandma.”
Laughing, Sheriff Wyland said, “Good luck Jake, let me know if I can do anything to help.
Jake Montross was a Game Warden for the Utah Fish and Game department. Unlike many of the states game wardens, he didn’t like to give out tickets to the hunters he found breaking some minor law. In fact when Jake applied for the job he didn’t realize what a Game Warden really was. He had heard about this great job where a person could be outside most of the time working with the wildlife in the State of Utah. The job advertisement didn’t even say it was for a Game Warden. “How would you like to be outside 90% of the time? Good pay, great benefits, apply now!” It sounded just right to Jake, so he had applied. The personnel director had looked at Jake’s application and talked to him. Her directive was to find some Game Wardens who weren’t the typical abrasive, arrogant, type A personality kind of person. Jake looked like the perfect candidate to her. He would be the first of the new generation of Utah Game Wardens. To her manager she said, “Let’s try this guy out.”
Jake’s friends had been astounded when they heard that he had applied to work for the Utah Fish and Game, had been accepted, and was to become a Game Warden. They couldn’t imagine shy, soft spoken Jake Montross as the typical arrogant, self righteous Game Warden.
Jake was so shy, especially around the opposite sex, that he had never married. In fact up to now he had been on two dates, the girls had asked him both times. He longed for the companionship of a sweet woman to become his wife, but had never developed the social skills to feel comfortable enough to even ask a girl for a date. He rationalized his shyness with, “Someday I’ll meet the perfect woman and we’ll both know we were meant for each other. Then I’ll ask her out.” There was an attractive single woman in the Springville Fish and Game office, where he had a small cubicle assigned to him, that teased him and seemed to be interested in him, but so far he had never build up the courage to even talk to her. ‘Maybe the next time Nicole tells me how handsome I am, I’ll say something clever and ask her to go out with me.’
Jake was surprised when he was accepted to trained to be a Game Warden. He wanted to be outside and in the mountains of Utah. It seemed to be a perfect job. When he learned that he would have to confront angry men who would be carrying loaded high powered rifles, he wasn’t so sure he wanted the job. He expressed his concern to his trainer and was told, “Hey look, most of the hunters in Utah are law abiding men who expect to have a Game Warden check their kills. If they’re breaking the law, they won’t be happy, but they’ll accept a ticket from you, if called for, and go on about their business. They might not be happy about a ticket, but they understand the necessity of laws to protect their right to hunt. A friendly attitude instead of a “holier than thou” attitude will gain you the respect of the people you meet in the wilds of Utah.
For the most part, the advice and counsel of his trainer had been correct. He would approach hunters, wearing his uniform, and they would give him the respect the uniform demanded. He gained confidence as he realized his trainer was mostly correct. However, there were some people in Utah who would like nothing better than putting a high powered bullet in every Game Warden they came across.
He spent most of his time in the wilds of Utah, except for regular big game hunting seasons, looking for those men who hunt and kill wild game out of season and without permits (poaching). Some were after the trophies, others wanted food for their families and others just wanted to kill something. He sympathized with those whose circumstances forced them to look to wild game for food and tried to ignore those. The others made his blood boil and he pursued them with a vengeance.
He was waiting for one of those in his favorite spot in all of Utah when he heard Roger and Patty talk about how they had met and Roger had killed her ex-boyfriend. As a Game Warden he was sworn to uphold the law and he should have marched down through the undergrowth and arrested Roger, but he couldn’t force himself to do it. He wanted to go down, shake his hand and congratulate Roger on a job well done. Of course, he didn’t do that either, he sat there and wished he had the guts to do the same thing Roger had done when he came upon a similar type of person.
It was as if someone whispered in his ear, “You can do it, you can do anything, don’t be afraid.” He asked himself ‘Why not, why can’t I do the same thing? Most of the time, I’m in the field by myself, where I see the worst of human scum killing trophy animals for the horns on their heads or for the fun of it. I don’t catch very many of them. Most of them are so careful that I’m not even in the same county when the animal is killed. I don’t think I could kill the young father out shooting a doe and taking it home to his family.’
Jake sat and thought about the young couple that had just walked out of his hearing range, he watched them walk beside the pond and then they disappeared in the undergrowth on their way back to the trail that led to the parking lot several miles away.
He drifted off into some kind of trance and slipped into a dream where he saw himself talking to Nicole, asking her on dates and getting married. He saw himself become a Game Warden that was feared by the poachers instead of laughed at. He felt the satisfaction of confronting poachers and bringing them to justice. Those who were trying to kill him, he killed without remorse. He awoke with a start, some small creature had just scampered across his chest and the sun had dropped below the horizon long ago. He couldn’t see the pond at all and the trees were dark shadows against a sky filled with stars. Up here on the side of Mount Timpanogos he had an unobstructed view of millions of stars that provided some light but not enough to see any detail in the plants all around him. He lay there thinking about the dream he had just had. ‘Was it a dream or some kind of vision or what?’ He could remember parts of the dream clearly and other parts seemed to be like a picture on high speed. He didn’t know what to think about it all.
If there had been someone watching Jake they would have seen him quietly sitting there deep in thought. They would have seen him lean back in the undergrowth and go to sleep. As the darkness flowed up the steep hillside they would have seen him twitching and turning as he went through a physical transformation. His shirt and pants had been loose fitting but now they were tight. He changed from a normal appearing man with normal features to a man whose physical appearance expanded and become more powerful. When his eyes opened they had gained a deep piercing quality. A quality not unlike that seen when a wild cougar focuses on its next meal. When he stood up his uncoordinated actions had turned into the movements of a highly trained athlete.
Jake didn’t notice any physical changes, except he felt stronger and now had a new sense of purpose. He wasn’t going to strictly follow the Fish and Game policies toward those he found breaking the law. Those polices said, “If you find a hunter taking protected game out of hunting season or without the appropriate permits, you will give said hunter a ticket. Under no circumstances are you to threaten or react to any actions by said hunter. Even if said hunter resorts to using his weapon against you, you may draw your official weapon and return fire, but you may not fire at the individual. In such a case, you are to report the facts to the appropriate law enforcement officer. Unofficially Jake had been told, “If you shoot a civilian, you had better have a bullet hole in you to prove he was shooting at you.”
From that day forward the poachers who killed whatever came in front of their scopes were in mortal danger of Jake. Jake would go after him and if warranted, would end his life of preying on the weak and available. The guy with $100,000 worth of truck, sniper rifle, infrared spotting scopes and every other piece of equipment available might be a candidate for extinction. ’I think it will be all about attitude. Some of the guys I have arrested would have killed me if they had a chance. They’re the ones I would now put in the ground with a smile on my face.’
Transformed, Jake left his place in the undergrowth with new goals.
First off, he now felt a need to go talk to Nicole; he knew she was waiting for him to ask her out.
Secondly he would go find and kill the worst of the poachers who thumbed their noses at the law and would kill him if given the chance. He knew of several and where they usually hunted. ‘I can’t wait to run into one of those guys.’
Jake walked down the path toward the truck and noticed the path seemed to be smoother. He normally would have stumbled time and time again as he kicked the tree roots growing across the path. Tonight, he stepped over them without thinking about it. The darkness wasn’t complete and the path seemed to almost glow in the starlight. He had never before felt like he did at the moment. The air was cool and fresh, he breathed deep and felt so good, he decided to quicken the pace, and he started jogging and then increased to a trot and then a run. A man running through a dark forest is unusual and some would say dangerous because of the ups and downs of a mountain trail; and the tree roots can be several inches above the path. Jake felt like he could run like this all night. He reached his truck in a few minutes and didn’t want to stop; regretfully he stepped into the truck and drove home.
He spent the night thinking about his new goal. At dawn he woke up before his alarm went off. This literally never happened. Normally he pulled himself out of a deep sleep when the alarm went off and was groggy for an hour while he had a shower, got dressed, and had breakfast. He noticed his shirt was tight across his shoulders and his pants were so tight he had to strain to button the belt. It didn’t dawn on him why his clothes were suddenly too small. He made a lunch because he never knew where he would be at lunchtime.
He felt rested and looking forward to the day. He carefully took his personal 9 MM pistol from his safe and put it into his holster in place of his official 38 special that was issued by the department. He had purchased the 9 MM from a man he had caught poaching years ago. The man had just killed a doe and was cleaning it out when Jake had found him. He had given Jake the story that he and his family were out of money and food and the pistol was all he had. He had killed the deer with it and planned on taking the pistol to the nearest pawn shop and buy some food on the way home. Jake may have been naïve but he wanted a pistol like this so he offered him a fair price which was much more than a pawn shop would have given him. The man accepted his offer and told Jake that he had bought the pistol from a guy in Arizona who told him it was not registered. Jake sent him on his way with the venison. Since that time he had used it occasionally at the target range, but didn’t ordinarily take it with him. Today was different, he was hunting human vermin and the 9 MM was his choice of weapon. If he had to use it, it wouldn’t be traceable back to him.
Jake needed to go by his small office in the Springville Central Utah Regional Fish and Game office to take care of some paperwork. He walked in with a smile on his face looking for Nicole. Nicole loved to tease him and jump up to see what she could do to embarrass him. She saw Jake drive up so she ran into his office. Her plan was to run into Jake and force him to put his arms around her. She knew it would embarrass Jake. He was disappointed in not seeing Nicole as he came through the front office. He turned to ask Sylvia where Nicole was as he stepped into his cubicle and ran into her. Her plan worked like a charm, he put his arms around her, but then he smoothly picked her up, gave her a peck on her cheek and put her down.
“High sexy lady.”
Nicole could not have been more surprised. This was so far out of character for Jake, she wondered if it was someone else. He didn’t quite look the same, but yes it was Jake. She couldn’t think of anything to say, she just stood there looking into his eyes. His eyes had changed, or maybe he just had never allowed her to look into them before. Jake winked at her. Nicole couldn’t believe it but she felt herself blush!
“Jake, what’s come over you, you, you’ve changed.”
“I was sitting up on Timpanogos thinking about you. I decided to ask you to go to dinner and a movie Friday night. How about it; would you go with a lonely Game Warden to supper and a movie Friday?”
Nicoles’ jaw dropped but she quickly recovered and said, “I thought you would never ask, yes I would like that, what time?”
“How about I pick you up at 7:00?”
“OK, it’s a date.”
“Oh, where do you live?” Nicole wrote down her address and cell number and gave it to Jake and went back to her desk on the other side of the building. She was so flustered she couldn’t think straight, so she sat down and just sat there for a few moments.
Nichole felt someone watching her and turned toward her good friend and boss, Silvia Porter who whispered “I have just witnessed a miracle. I truly believed that Mr. Montross would never work up the courage to ask you out on a date. Suddenly he comes in, a changed man and manages to surprise all of us. Way to go!”
Nicole blushed again and smiled, wondering about the changes in Jake Montross. “What do you think happened to him out there?”
“I don’t have a clue, but I like it! It’s hard to believe he’s the same guy. He looks like he’s been working out.”
“He picked me up like I weighed about as much as a 10 pound sack of potatoes! I’m not a huge girl but I’m not tiny either. I had no idea he was so strong.”
Jake climbed in his truck and waved at Nicole through the office window and pulled out onto State Street on the way to his assigned patrol area. ‘I think that went pretty well, I can’t believe I actually asked a girl out on a date!’
He drove into an isolated box canyon where he liked to do some target practice. He took the 9 MM out and carefully loaded and inserted the clip. He went through a box of ammunition before he was satisfied with his performance. He felt at short range he was deadly and would hit his intended target dead center up to about 75 yards. His plan was to patrol the entire Skyline Highway today and go look for Larry Beus, the worst of the poachers that he personally knew, after dark tonight. To be fair, Beus could be in his bed tonight, but Jake knew that Beus was a night person. A killer out looking for something to kill that would put money in his pocket. Right or wrong, legal or illegal distinctions were not applicable to Larry Beus.
Skyline Highway started at Highway 6 between Spanish Fork and Price and extended along a high plateau over 75 miles almost straight south. He would take highway 6 to the start of Skyline Highway and drive the 70 miles looking at the side roads and checking on campers and anyone else who might be a poacher. He would arrive at the high meadows above Manti after dark. The elk herds were healthy and he had seen some fantastic bulls as he patrolled the area. He knew this was a favorite poaching area for Beus. This is where he had tried to arrest Beus 3 times but in each case Larry’s friends had managed to destroy the evidence. The last time they had shot at Jake and he felt fortunate to have escaped alive. He had just arrested Beus and was standing beside him when a bullet hit a tree branch inches from his head. He dove to the dirt and Beus took off running. Jake had pulled out his pistol and shot over their heads, but they didn’t even duck. They knew he was prohibited from actually shooting at them. Beus rejoined his friends and they causally walked back to their truck.
This was the time of year that the bulls were tearing up small trees and bushes as they cleaned the velvet off their antlers. It was mating season and their bugles could be heard all along Skyline Highway. This was prime time for the poachers. Most buyers of the poached elk antlers didn’t want the antlers until the bulls had rubbed off the blood soaked velvet and the antlers were hardened and polished.
The biggest bull Jake had ever seen was hanging out around a meadow that held several springs and ponds and a dense stand of pine trees close by. On the downhill side of these meadows the hillside was more like a cliff. The bulls loved this meadow because it couldn’t be driven too, dense cover was close, food and water were abundant, and there was a lot of open ground around the areas that made it nearly impossible to sneak up on them. In earlier years Jake had seen Beus and his friends leave their trucks or ATV’s on top of a ridge a mile or so away, and walk to these meadows in the moonlight. They would shoot the largest of the bulls using a night vision scope and then remove the antlers and the cape. Many nights in this time of year, Jake had heard rifle shots in the darkness where he didn’t have a chance of catching the culprit with his limited equipment. He was always outnumbered and underequipped. The poachers also knew that Jake the Game Warden was forbidden to shoot them so they were fearless as they danced around just out of sight of Jake. He would surprise them this time.
There was one Game Warden, a friend of Jakes’ that was shot and killed in this area several years ago. Jake knew who had done it but couldn’t prove it. Jake knew that every time he drove down to this area his life was on the line. He had heard from the locals that Beus and his friends planned on killing him the next time they had a chance. When he first heard about their claim, it scared him, but now the fear was gone and in its place an eagerness to end it tonight.
Over the past 5 years Jake had made friends with many of the people in this part of Utah. All of them considered Larry Beus and his friends to be a cancer to the whole state of Utah. They all knew who he was and what he was doing. The local Chief of Police was an old high school buddy of Beus and had a gentlemen’s agreement with him, “don’t get caught doing anything serious and we’ll leave you alone.” The Chief and other officers were afraid of Beus and were only too happy to ignore what was going on. The local people wished Jake good luck and would watch him drive away thinking, “there goes a good man, but one of these days he’s going to get killed by the Beus bunch.”
He noticed he was hungry about 1 PM, so he pulled over, took his lunch cooler out and walked to the ridge above the road where he knew there was an old tree that had fallen and now offered itself as a ready bench and table. Jake had used this vantage point for lunch breaks many times. He put the cooler down on the log and stretched.
‘Rrrriiipppp!” This was a new experience for him; he couldn’t remember ever ripping an article of clothing before. He remembered the shirt and pants being tight this morning. Maybe I washed them in hot water instead of warm last time and the both shrunk. Suddenly he knew that all of his clothes were now too small for him. He walked back to the truck and opened his duffle bag for a spare shirt. It was too small, just like the one he had ripped. ‘Time for some new clothes I guess. Instead of going directly south on Skyline, I’ll swing down to Ephriam and get some bigger shirts and pants; then come back up the Ephriam Canyon road. Always before he could find a shirt in a Medium-Long and it would be just right and maybe a little baggy. He tried on some large sizes and they were snug, so he went to extra large, they gave him the feel he was used to, not too tight, a little on the baggy size. His pants were also a problem. His waist was 2 inches bigger. The size went from a 32 waist to a 34 waist, but the slim cut was too tight on his thighs and his butt. He had to move up to a baggy size to be comfortable. ‘This is just plain weird!’
Back up on Skyline, the sun had set as he took his time. Jake drove slowly down the main road, passing the reservoir for the Manti city water system. This ridge ran straight west of here and ended in a series of meadows and ponds before it ended and dropped into the canyon a thousand feet below. He drove down a side road to a hidden wash that would hide his truck from any traffic on the main road. He took his fanny pack that contained high calorie snacks, a space blanket, first aid equipment, a flashlight, and extra ammunition. He knew the Poachers would be watching for him, but he also knew where they would be and how to get to them without being seen. They couldn’t see or hear as good as an elk and he was no lovesick bull elk that they could easily find as he bugled. He expected them to have a night vision scope. This would put them at a distinct advantage if they knew he was coming. He had to get close to them before they knew he was anywhere close. His confidence range with his pistol was about 75 yards. That was about the distance from the ridge to the meadows. He would have to play it by ear and hope they didn’t have a lookout watching the ridge with night vision scope. He wanted to walk right up to them while they were working on the elk. That way if he had to run for cover he could go over the edge and get into the pine trees.
He attached the silencer to his pistol and returned it to the holster under his left arm. It was fully loaded and ready if and when needed. He reached the old road on the ridge line just as he heard a rifle shot echo through the night. It sounded like it came from the meadow, exactly where he thought it would be. He couldn’t see that far but if they had a big bull elk down, they may be watching for him but they wouldn’t see him. He would be on the other side of the ridge and come across just above them before he could see them or they could see him.
He increased his pace and soon was sweating, but it felt good as he hiked along the ridge. In fact he noticed he felt better than he had ever felt his whole life. ‘I don’t know what is happening to me but I feel like I could run for miles.’ The moon was bright enough that he could avoid the brush and boulders with ease. The old road was more like 2 paths running beside each other in the grass on the top of the ridge. Jake started jogging down the old road. It felt good and as he neared the end of the road, he should have been a little winded, but he wasn’t. He was breathing normal and felt great. The ridge peaked about a mile from where Jake had parked his truck and it was about another mile to where he thought Beus and friends had shot a bull elk. The old road ended there and there were 3 ATV’s parked under the old gnarled trees that stood at the crest of the ridge. He checked the 3 ATV’s and saw that the keys were still in the ignition switches ‘There would be at least 3 men out there but there could be more if 2 came on some of the ATVs. These guys were confident that they could do anything they wanted with no fear of the law, or anybody to challenge them. There was a steep drop off on the other side of the trees and a fence. Jake jumped the fence and landed far down the steep ridge. The ridge flattened out after it dropped about 100 feet and maintained the level until it ended and dropped 1,000 feet into Manti Canyon about a mile and a half further west.
Here the ridge was covered with all kinds of low growing grass and other vegetation. This area was lush and perfect for the elk herds as well as thousands of range cattle that spent the summers up here. The rainfall down in the arid valleys was maybe 10 or 15 inches a year with summer temperatures at or above 100 degrees. Up here the rain gently watered the lush grass almost on a daily basis and totaled 50 to 60 inches a year. The elevation was close to 11,000 feet so the temperatures in mid summer rarely moved above 70 degrees with the nights just above freezing.
‘I better slow down and walk from here or they may hear me.’ He dropped down the north side of the ridge 20 or 30 yards and kept below the ridge line until he reached where he thought the ponds and meadows started on the other side of the ridge. He was not using his flashlight but the moonlight provided him with plenty of light to see. There were a few trees that appeared as clumps of darkness in the moonlight strung out along the ridge above the ponds. He reached the ridge line and could see the first meadow below him. It was close enough for him to see two pools of light covering an elk carcass where one man was using the light to work on the head of the dead elk. The antlers were off to the side and the man was carefully working on removing the cape. The carcass was laying on the edge of the meadow. If the bull had taken another step or two before falling he would have rolled hundreds of feet down the steep hillside.
Jake was standing near one of the old pine trees that had decided to grow out instead of fighting the fierce winter wind to grow up. The hair on his neck moved to attention and a chill went down his back as he felt a premonition of danger even thought it appeared there were no lookouts watching for someone like him. He reached into the holster in recognition of the premonition and pulled the pistol out. As the pistol cleared the holster, he heard the click of a rifle safety being released behind him; he dove to the left, rolled and looked for a target. He saw a shadow just as a high powered rifle went off and the flames and bullet went screaming over his head and into the darkness. The flames coming out of the bore of the rifle temporarily blinded Jake. He heard the shadow eject a bullet casing and shove a live round home. Jake shot at the sound where he had glimpsed the shadow again and again. His sight returned just in time to see a shadow fall to the ground. He shot the last bullet from his magazine into the shadow and reached for more bullets. In the moonlight he could see that the shadow wasn’t moving or making a sound. The shadow must have been standing or sitting beside one of the pine trees as Jake walked past him.
From down below came an angry voice, “HEY CLINT, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING UP THERE?”
Jake’s ears were ringing from the blast of the rifle, he tried to put a whining sound to his voice and yelled back toward the men below, “I TRIPPED AND THE GUN WENT OFF”
From the darkness came the retort, “YOU RETARD, WE CAN’T TRUST YOU TO DO NOTHING, NOW GET YOUR WORTHLESS ASS DOWN HERE AND HELP US PACK THESE ANTLERS OUT. YOU’RE NO GOOD UP THERE AS A LOOKOUT ANYWAYS.”
Jake allowed himself to relax and take a deep breath; they had believed his answer was from Clint, their deceased lookout.
More voices from below, “I told you not to call my brother a retard,” said Beus!
“I told you not to bring him, he’s worthless. We can’t depend on him for nothing. He almost killed me just now. I heard that bullet go over my head. Now he has the night vision scope up there and we don’t know what’s going on.”
“Settle down, he’s fine. CLINT COME ON DOWN, WE’RE ALMOST DONE!”
The comment from below clicked in Jakes’ consciousness, ‘The night vision scope is up here!’ Jake hurried to the shadow and jerked the rifle from the dead hands of Clint. He looked through the scope. ‘Wow I had no idea these night scopes worked this well. I’m lucky that none of my shots hit and damaged this scope or the battery pack, I hope the rifle’s ok.”
He looked at the three men 75 yards below him. They were still gathered around the dead bull elk. Two were still shining their lights on the elk so that the 3rd man could work on the carcass. ‘It’s a good thing those lights aren’t pointing at me or I would be blinded.’ It looked like the poacher was now cutting out the back straps to take with them. Jake checked the magazine and counted the cartridges with his fingers, there were 4 shells remaining in the rifle. ‘That should be plenty.’ He couldn’t feel any damage to the rifle. He found the safely and knew instinctively which way was on and off. It was still off from when Clint shot at him a few minutes ago.
Jake dropped to his belly and steadied the cross hairs in the night scope of his new rifle on the chest of the biggest of the three who he thought was Larry Beus. The man glowed fluorescent green in the scope.
The glowing figure in the scope turned toward Jake and yelled, “HEY CLINT, WOULD YOU GET YOUR SORRY ASS DOWN HERE.”
Jake felt around and found a fist sized rock. He picked it up and tossed it downhill toward the men below. They would think Clint was coming and had knocked a rock loose.
He could hear them talking about how much this set of antlers would bring from old man Turley in Phoenix, plus the cape would bring at least $100 from a taxidermist friend, and “don’t forget the loin meat”.
Jake squeezed the trigger, he didn’t know what kind of rifle this was, but he thought it was probably a 7 MM Magnum or a 300 Savage. Whatever it was, it kicked him harder than any rifle he had ever shot. ‘Ouch, I had better hold it a little tighter next time.’ The 200 grain cartridge hit Beus right in the middle of his chest. The coat, breast bone and back bone didn’t offer much resistance to the bullet as it went tearing through Beus on its way to the hillside on the other side of the ravine.
The big man was thrown backward over the edge and into the darkness. Jake worked the bolt to eject the empty casing and shove the next bullet into the chamber; he brought the scope back down and found the other guy that had been standing who was now reaching for his rifle that was laying on a backpack. He had turned his flashlight off, a deadly mistake. The angle had changed on this target and the bullet entered his chest slightly to the left of center and pulverized the heart as it passed through him at supersonic speed. He also went flying backward and landed at the edge of the drop-off and dropped his rifle as the heavy slug tore through his chest.
The third guy was crawling toward the trio of packs and trying to find a rifle. Jake gritted his teeth and prepared for the punishment of another shot. This guy was moving on the ground toward the backpacks and a lone rifle laying on top of them. He placed the cross hairs on his head and jerked the trigger. This time the heavy bullet missed its intended target and went harmlessly across the canyon in the moonlight.
“Damn, Damn, Damn, I must have flinched!” He put the final bullet in the chamber and looked for the 3rd man. At first he couldn’t find him. The beauty of a night scope is that the infrared shows the heat of a living person or animal. A man hiding in bushes is outlined as if the bushes weren’t even there. The third poacher had reached the packs and the final rifle and had dove behind a big bush to his right. Jake panned the area with the scope and found the fluorescent figure crouching behind the bush. The fluorescent man was searching for Jake in the moonlight. The moonlight was too faint for him to find Jake who was lying on his stomach aiming the rifle. This last poacher would see a bright light as exploding gun powder pushed the 200 grain bullet out the rifles bore at supersonic speed toward him. The light would get to the man a split-second before the projectile; but he wouldn’t have time to react and pull the trigger. His life would end as the echos bounced back and forth along the ridge tops. Jake placed the cross hairs in the middle of the guys’ chest and forced himself to slowly squeeze the trigger so that he wouldn’t miss again. This time the target was slammed against the ground with his rifle spinning into the bush as Jake was slugged again on his now tender shoulder. The first shot bruised his shoulder when Jake didn’t hold it tight enough. Each additional shot pounded the bruise. Jake’s shoulder should be black and blue and hurting him for weeks, but his newfound physical abilities would heal his shoulder overnight.
Jake watched the carnage below through the scope; nothing was moving so he went back to make sure Clint wouldn’t surprise him again. He pulled his flashlight out to see that Clint was a mess. It looked like most of Jakes shots had hit him. Jake put the rifle down and went through Clints’ pockets. He found some more shells for the rifle and a billfold. First he reloaded the rifle and then discovered about $100 in cash that went into his pocket. He put the billfold back in Clint’s pocket, clicked off the flashlight, picked the rifle back up and again panned the entire area down below. The body heat of the elk was still bright but not as bright as the body heat from the 2 dead men glowing bright in the infrared scope. The 3rd man was out of sight over the edge of the drop-off. He slowly walked down the steep hillside to the carnage below. He swung the scope from one body to the next and back again. There didn’t seem to be any life left in them, but he didn’t want to make another mistake. His overconfidence and assumption that all of the poachers were down by the dead elk had almost got him killed a few minutes before.
Jake looked at the antlers, they were the biggest he had seen in a long time. This was the monster he had seen up near the road several weeks ago.
Talking to himself, ‘Ok Jake, now what. Hunting season doesn’t start up here for another 2-1/2 weeks. By then these guys will be pretty well chewed up by the flies, maggots, bugs and all kinds of critters. If I leave them here with the antlers, a hunter will find them and report them to the first game warden they see, it will probably be me. Or they just might take the antlers and the rifles and let the next guy turn them in. Anyway, for now, I’ve got a 2 1/2 mile hike back to the truck.’ He decided to take the rifle with the night vision scope. ‘This was too good to leave out here to be claimed by the first guy to come along.’
As he was turning toward the truck, he decided to look in each mans’ billfold. ‘Robin Hood steals from the rich.’ Jake had to climb about 50 yards down the steep hillside to reach Larry Beus and found almost a thousand dollars in his pocket. His flashlight was still turned on and had fallen another 30 yards down the hillside. Back up to the meadow level he checked the pockets of the others; each had a couple of hundred dollars. He took the cash and returned the billfold to each pocket for later identification. He looked at the back straps that had been taken from the bull. This would compare to a T-Bone steak, Filet Mignon and New York Steaks. Most poachers will cut out the back straps and leave the rest for the scavengers. I might as well take them. They will be gone out here in a day or two if I leave them. He grabbed the biggest of the back packs that were stacked neatly together, and dumped the contents on the ground. A new lightweight hatchet-knife combo caught his eye and he threw it back in the pack. He filled it with the 40 pounds of prime loin meat (back straps) and attached his fanny pack to the back pack. ‘I’m going back to the truck with a lot more weight than I came out with.’
When he reached the fence below the start of the old road and the poachers ATVs, he had a feeling come over him like he had never felt before. It wasn’t a danger feeling like he experienced when Clint had tried to shoot him. It was more of a peaceful feeling. He climbed on up to the crest and sat on one of the ATVs putting the backpack and rifle on the ground. He let his mind go and tried to absorb whatever it was that he was feeling.
He watched his actions starting from the moment he decided to take control of his life. It was almost like having a ring side seat and watching every movement on a movie screen right up to where he now sat, and then it went forward to his walk to the truck, his drive back to Provo, his meeting with his boss, and his date with Nicole.
He awoke, lying on the ground beside the rifle. He didn’t know how long he had been there, but it was still dark. ‘I have got to get out of here!’ He quickly put the pack back on and jogged for a few yards but with the pack bouncing on his back, he dropped to a fast walk back to his truck.
30 minutes later he was back at his truck with the sweat dripping from his brow. He hoped nobody had come by and noticed his truck sitting in this hidden draw. ‘I need to establish some kind of alibi, so I’ll drive back home, take care of the elk meat, take a short nap, take a shower and go into the office first thing in the office. I need to stop in and see Nicole and get some paperwork done anyway.
The Skyline Highway runs along the top of the ridges so a person can see the lights of vehicles for many miles depending on where the other vehicle is located; other times a truck could be 100 yards away and be hidden in a depression. Jake tried to keep an eye on his rear view mirrors just in case there was somebody else out driving who may have seen his truck. He didn’t want it seen by anybody, especially by a county sheriff on an early morning patrol. He was almost to the Ephraim City turnoff when he saw a light. Jake estimated it was at least 20 miles behind him and no danger to Jake because he would be back on the main highway and headed home in Provo before that light reached the turnoff where he now turned. The Skyline Highway runs back and forth on the top of the ridges. It’s classified as an improved backcountry road but it has potholes big enough to lose a Volkswagen in.
The next morning he thought he was going to feel wasted all day from lack of sleep, but he felt great. He went into the office at 8 am with last nights’ weird dream still fresh in his mind. He thought about his shoulder and expected to feel pain and see a nasty bruise, but if there had been a bruise it was gone. All the way back to Provo he had the feeling of seeing it all before. Stepping into the office the feeling persisted. When his boss came in, every word was exactly as he had experienced last night.
“Well Jake, I didn’t expect you to show up until just in time for your date tonight with Nicole.”
Since Jake knew what the boss was going to say, he also knew what his answer would be. “I drove down Skyline and dropped down to Manti about supper time. Nothing much was going on, lots of campers and some people scouting the deer and elk herds but nothing like it will be in a few weeks when hunting season opens, so I figured I should head for the office and work on my paperwork. I also wanted to make sure I wasn’t late for my date tonight.”
“This is the first time I’ve heard of you going on a date, so I didn’t know what to expect. I told Nicole that there was no way for me to contact you to remind you about your date.”
Every word was coming out just like he remembered it from last night. “If I get started now on my reports, I should be able to bring them right up to today.”
Jake was a little concerned about his date with Nicole, but decided he would just rely on his experience of the night before. Everything up to now seems to be following the script. When it came time to kiss her goodnight, she put her arms around his neck and he straightened up and picked her off the ground and kissed her just like he thought he should. The feelings bursting through his consciousness were all new.”
“Wow big fella, I’ve never been kissed like that before!”
“I can truly say, I’ve never had a kiss like that before either!” He was still holding her firmly, 6 inches off the floor. He kissed her again and wanted to keep on going.
When they came up for air, Jake lowered Nicole back down to the ground. She was so flustered she just stood there looking at him. This is where Jake’s advance picture of his actions today ran out. He didn’t know what to do or say. It was ok, since Nicole was also at a loss of what to do now.
“Nicole, I have never enjoyed a night as much as I have tonight. Would you go with me to dinner and a movie next Friday night? We could see that movie that we saw the preview of tonight.”
“Yes I would love to. What are you doing this Sunday?”
“I don’t know, probably go to church, and then clean my truck.”
Laughing, “Would you like to come to church with me on Sunday?”
“Yes I would, what time?
“It’s at 10 am.”
“Ok, I’ll see you 9:45.” Jake bent over and kissed her again and then she turned and went into her apartment.
Jake walked back to his car and drove home. He sat in the driveway and thought about the evening. ‘Wow, so that’s what it’s like to kiss a girl! I can’t wait to do that again!’ I need to remember to go buy some church clothes tomorrow; I suspect my old ones won’t fit.
3 weeks later, the news outlets blasted the headline 4 POACHERS FOUND SHOT TO DEATH. The story went on to say that the 4 men were found by hunters on opening day of the general archery deer and elk hunt. They appeared to have been shot an estimated 2 to 3 weeks earlier. An elk carcass minus its antlers and cape was also found nearby. It is assumed by law enforcement officials that these four men were members of a big game poaching ring and some kind of argument must have developed while they were in the process of removing the antlers and cape. The antlers were missing and it’s assumed the winner of the fight took them. The black market value of a prize set of Elk Antlers is about $10,000. 2 of the slain men have a history with the Utah Department of Wildlife and have been accused but never convicted of poaching activities in the past.
Jake went into Penny’s Diner in Manti for lunch. It was a few days after the news release about the death of Larry Beus, his brother Clint, and 2 other local men who were reportedly business partners of Beus. Several area ranchers, who he had met before, came over and asked “is it ok if we sit down and talk for a spell?”
“Sure, what’s on your mind?”
The spokesman frowned, looked at Jakes plate and said “You’re not going to eat that are you?” Then all the ranchers laughed and made faces as they pointed at Jakes plate.
The owner of the diner, Penny, was walking by and good naturedly said, “if you guys don’t want your meatloaf, I’ll just cancel your orders!”
“That’s ok Penny, we’ll take them!”
Turning their attention to Jake, “When we saw you sitting here, we had to look twice, you look different. Have you been working out? From my memory you look 20 pounds heavier than the last time I saw you.”
“I try to keep fit.”
“We want to thank you for cutting out that cancer that has been eating us alive. Those guys were not only poaching wild game, but they were also stealing cattle from us. If somebody wanted a discount beef, or someone killed or beaten, all you had to do was go to one of those bastards and for a price the job was done. You probably knew that they had talked about how they were going to kill you this hunting season.”
“Yeah, I had heard that, one of them shot at me last year, obviously he missed. As far as your thanks, I just try to do my job, but you don’t need to thank me; I’m just a Game Warden. We aren’t allowed to shoot poachers even if we catch them in the act and even if they shoot at us first. As far as those 4 dead bastards, an archery hunter flagged me down as I was driving along Skyline. He walked with me out the ridge where he found the bodies. You all know what the carcass of an animal looks like after it’s been dead for a couple of weeks. Those 4 looked pretty bad, but I could recognize Larry Beus because his head was kind of wrapped up in his coat and his billfold was in his pocket. If the billfold had been missing, we wouldn’t have known for sure who he was without the lab people checking out his dental records. It’s a mystery to me as to what happened to those Bastards, I’m just glad somebody took care of them for us.”
“One of the ranchers at his table looked him in the eye and winked. Ok, whatever you say; I don’t know how you did it, but my hat’s off to you, thanks again. If you ever want or need anything, don’t hesitate to call on any of us. We figure that we could give you a prime beef every week and still come out ahead.” The ranchers stood, soberly shook Jakes hand and walked back to their table and Meatloaf Special dinners.
Jake sat and finished his Meatloaf Special dinner as he thought about the ranchers. The looks he was getting from all of the patrons in the eatery were of admiration and respect; this wasn’t the normal attitude towards a game warden. ‘If everybody thinks I killed those 4 outlaws up on the hill, I could have a problem with the Chief of Police and the County Sheriff. He walked out and there beside his truck was Allen Wyland, the County Sheriff.
“There you are Jake. I wanted to talk to you about those 4 ornery outlaws that were found up near Skyline Highway. Do you have a few minutes to talk?”
“Sure, anytime’s ok with me. Where do you want to talk?”
“I was thinking here, but since you probably just finished eating, let’s go to my office.
“How about something to drink?”
“A diet soda would be great.”
“Jake, one of my deputies was doing a midnight patrol up the Manti Canyon Road a couple of week ago. He got out of his truck to relieve himself and heard 6 rifle shots up on the north ridge. Normally when a poacher shoots an animal there will be one or maybe two shots. This time he heard a shot, so he waited to try to pinpoint where it came from, and then probably almost an hour later he heard 1 more shot and then a few minutes later 4 more shots close together. He was at the bottom of that big ridge and as you know the road from there to Skyline Highway is about as rough a road as I know about. If there has been a hard rain in the last 24 hours, it would have been impassable. As he bounced and clawed up that road he saw a light on the hillside but it was so far away he couldn’t see anything else and it wasn’t moving. Anyway it took him a couple of hours to get up on the top to Skyline Highway. When he finally made it to the top, he pulled up to the highest point on the road and could see some taillights going north on Skyline, but they were so far away he couldn’t recognize them and figured there was no way to catch up with them. It could have been the murderer.”
“It could have been the murderer all right. What time was it?”
“He said it was about 4 AM, but not exactly sure. Where were you at 4 AM?”
“I don’t know. If you tell me the date I can narrow it down. Most likely I was asleep in bed, 4 AM which day?”
“Never mind, I figured if I kind of asked you out of the blue, you might react if you were the one who hammered those 4. You didn’t’ react, so that tells me nothing.”
“For your information, I can check back through my daily log and tell you exactly were I was on any given night or day patrol.”
“I said never mind, this was a good thing. Those 4 were outlaws. They liked to kill things and that includes people. I could never prove anything, they made sure of that, but I’m sure they were responsible for several murders around here each year. Probably more than I know about. Sometimes they would leave town for a week or two, and come back with lots of cash. I believe they were contract killers as well as poachers.”
“Did you ever go after them?”
“No, my deputies were all afraid of them. I figured if I ever went up against them, my deputies wouldn’t back me up. I just hoped something like this would happen. Anyway, if you’re the person who killed those 4 outlaws, I’m indebted to you, thanks.”
“I’m glad to see them gone as well. Every time I came down Skyline Highway, I wondered if that was the day that Larry Beus would finally find a way to kill me. If I knew who blew him away, I would send him a thank you note.”
“I heard that Beus was telling people that he was going to kill “that Game Warden” this year.”
“Yeah I heard that from several people. Did you get any evidence from the bodies?”
“Not much. Three of them were killed with a high power rifle. The bullets blew through them killing them instantly. We couldn’t find a scrap of metal from the bullets. The only inconsistency was that one of the four was killed with shots from a 9 MM pistol. He looked like he was hit with a full magazine of high powered pistol rounds. 2 of the slugs were still in the body. No match was found from the FBI data bank. The fourth guy was on the ridge above the others, probably a lookout. I think the killer, came down the ridge, saw the lookout, emptied his gun on him with his pistol and then took out the others from up there with his rifle. My deputy didn’t hear any pistol shots, so the pistol probably had a silencer. We found 6 rifle casings from a Remington 7 MM magnum rifle, so I guess he missed twice. We’ve got no clue of who the shooter was. There were no rifles around the bodies. The killer could have taken them or the hunters who found the bodies could have taken them, but we know they must have had a rifle with a night scope on it. The moon was out but it’s tough to shoot a bull elk with only moonlight. Do you have a 9 MM pistol.”
“Nope, I have my 38 special issued by the state. The archery hunter that flagged me down told me there were no rifles when he found the bodies.”
“Did you know that Larry Beus has another brother?”
“No, I didn’t know. I suppose he thinks I killed two of his brothers too?”
“Yep, be very careful down here. That’s a bad bunch. The youngest brother is mean and nasty just like his oldest brother and his dad. Clint, the middle son was the best and the old man is probably the worst but he’s dying from cancer or he would probably go after you too.”
“How old is this other brother?”
“16 years old and he has the hottest temper of the bunch. He’s quite a good athlete but they won’t let him play because he can’t control his temper. He would start a fight in every game so they kicked him off the high school football team.”
“Does this 16 year kid have some identifying marks or something that I could use to identify him?”
“He has the size and looks of his brother Larry. Now he also has his brother’s truck and hunting equipment. He has bragged to some of the other kids that sometime his older brother would take him along on their midnight runs. That truck is a new red Ford F-350 with every conceivable piece of add-on equipment.”
“I’ve seen that truck many times. I’ll keep that in mind. Does he have any other suspects or am I his only target?”
“You’re it and he’ll be looking for you. I expect that one night when you come through on patrol he’ll spot you and follow you and try to kill you. There’s nothing I can do until he tries to kill you. Then I can go after him?”
“Well that’s’ good to know. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me to know that once I’m dead; you can go after my killer!”
“There’s nothing else I can do. I’ll try to keep track of where he is. I’ll have my deputies take turns following him around, but my grandma could lose those jokers on her bicycle.”
“Maybe I should take some lessons from your grandma.”
Laughing, Sheriff Wyland said, “Good luck Jake, let me know if I can do anything to help.
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