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.”