Bk 5-Roger Morgan, Chapter 5

JAMES BRIGHAM BEUS

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

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

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

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

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

“Where can I find Mr. Beus?”

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

“What kind of truck does he have?”

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

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

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

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

“Yes sir.”

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

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

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

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

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

“Why did you kill Clint?”

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

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

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

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

“What are you going to do now?”

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

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

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

“Need any help before I leave?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“It was Jakes turn to blush.”

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

“Howdy Royce, what’s cooking?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Off the record?”

“Off the record,” answered Royce.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PROPOSAL

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

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

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

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

“High beautiful, want a lift?”

“I was getting worried, are you ok?”

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

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

“Sure, what do you have in mind?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Is that better?”

“How did you do that?”

“Do what?”

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

“You’re not very heavy.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“That’s it?”

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

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

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

“Is the Sheriff coming after you?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What was it about?”

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

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

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

“That’s kind of spooky.”

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

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

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

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

“How did you do that?”

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

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

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

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

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