“Well this is getting’ outta hand,” he rumbled, “and startin’ to irritate me some, so let’s sort this thing out for good, and maybe have a little fun with Mrs fancy-pants librarian at the same time.” He looked towards the owner of the local junkyard Ashley Barrett. “Ash, take someone with you and go to her house, see if she’s there. If she is, bring her back here and wait, the rest of us are going up to the hills.”
“What if she ain’t there?”
“Well then get your sorry asses up to the hills with us ya numbnuts, but if she is there, don’t kill her, she is mine” Barrett nodded then herded another guy away from the group and over to his pick-up. The rest of the order looked back at Ryan and Mayor Willets expectantly. Willets was the next to speak.
“Sheriff, I think we are going to need some spades. Whether or not they have been found, we are surely going to have to move the evidence I’m afraid, and the sooner the better. Any of you fellas got guns I suggest you bring them with you. I know some of you younger members haven’t been to the site before so follow the Sheriff here to the hills. We’ll take the back roads behind town so as not to draw attention to ourselves. We shall dig them up and take them out to the pig farm, those porkers are always looking for a meal. Questions?” Nobody replied but some of the group looked less enthused than others. “Okay then,” he finished, “let’s go!”
THIRTY-ONE
It was 8 pm on a bitterly cold winter’s evening and the patrol car hidden behind the billboard on the outskirts of the town limits had its engine running and the heater blasting warm air around the car. Snowdrops melted instantly and turned to water the second they hit the windscreen, making crazy patterns as the water ran down the glass. In disgust the sole occupant of the car flicked off the radio, cutting the Christmas carol off in mid-verse. The patrolman used the hand-crank to wind down his window and throw the butt of another cigarette out onto the settling whiteness around him, the fiery red end of the butt sizzled briefly then died as it sank into the snow, joining half a dozen other discarded cigarette ends. His boss hated smoking in the vehicles but who really gave a sweet crap. No way was he getting out of this damn car unless he had to, it was colder than a witch’s tits in a brass bra out there. Bad enough that he had to sit out here in the first goddamn place waiting for local youths to race past in their hot-rods. Who the hell was gonna be out on a filthy night like this anyhow? Even the local teenagers weren’t that stupid. He hadn’t seen another car for nearly forty minutes. Just as he was about to crank the side window back up he heard the unmistakable rumble of an automobile in the distance. He turned his head towards the road and cupped an ear. Yep, he was sure, at last, some action to get the circulation pumping. Just a minute or two later a beige Ford station wagon rumbled passed the billboard, its headlights fighting to see through the flurries of snow and the car’s rear tires kicking up a spray of slush in its wake. The officer looked down at the monitor on the dash and the speed that the wagon was doing came up in red lights as 67 miles per hour. Bingo!
The officer slammed the gear shifter into first and after an initial spin of the rear wheels the tread finally caught and the 1976 Dodge Monaco patrol car shot forwards from behind its camouflaged hiding place. He was already up into third gear and whistling along at a fair lick before he turned on the car’s regular lights and then the emergency light bar on the roof. Up ahead he saw the rear lights of the station wagon get brighter as the driver touched the brakes. The patrol car quickly caught up with speeding driver and just the quickest blip on the siren made the driver ahead pull over to the side of the road nudging into a two foot high wall of dirty snow and mush. The police car pulled in ten feet behind. As the lawman got out of his car he zipped up his black leather bomber jacket against the cold then unclipped the holster that carried his 38 Special and moved slowly towards the car in front, his right hand hovering over the weapon. He looked down and saw the licence plate said ‘West Virginia’ along the bottom and ‘Wild & Wonderful’ in the blue strip across the top. As the man in the uniform came up to the driver’s door the electric window buzzed down. “Hello officer, did I do something wrong?” The tall man in the police uniform bent down so that he could peer inside the car. He came face to face with a slim, balding man who looked to be in his mid-thirties wrapped up for the winter in a tasteless festive sweater of a reindeer with a shiny red nose. Next to him was seated a young teenage red-headed girl also with poor taste in sweaters and looking incredibly embarrassed and worried. Behind them on the back seat were a pile of already wrapped Christmas gifts.
“Can I see your driver’s licence please sir?”
“Yes, yes of course.” The man fumbled behind his seat to the back of his pants and extracted his wallet from a back pocket. “Did I do something wrong officer?” he repeated as he slid the licence out of its cover and passed it out of the window. The officer took the licence and stood to full height, seemingly oblivious to the wind and snow that snapped around him. In the beam of the patrol car’s lights, he could clearly read the details that the occupant was a Mr John Mackenzie from Madison, West Virginia. He held on to the licence and bent back down towards the occupants. “Can I ask you where you are going on such a god awful night like tonight sir?”
“I am taking my daughter to my ex-wife’s house over in Kenton for the holidays, we should have been there a couple of hours ago but I didn’t check the weather before I left, never realised the snow would be this bad!”
“So is that why you were speeding sir?”
“Oh, was I? I am so sorry officer, I was concentrating on staying on the road and forgot to look at the speedo, it must have crept up a bit.”
“Sir, I clocked you at 67 miles per hour and this is a 55 zone along here.”
“Oh dear, I really am sorry.” The man looked and sounded truly repentant. The officer looked from the driver over towards the teenager, who was trying to bury her head in the folds of her roll-neck Santa sweater. He stared at them both a while as if pondering what to do with them, then smiled.
“Okay as it is the season of goodwill sir I am going to let you off of a ticket and let you get on your way.” Mr Mackenzie sighed in relief, “Oh thank you officer, I promise I’ll keep an eye on the……” The officer put his hand up to stop the driver talking. “But I am still going to have to take a few details for our log back at the station, so if you could join me briefly in my car so we can keep warm and dry?” The lawman stood back to give the driver room.
“Yes, yes of course, indeed.” He turned to his daughter, “I won’t be a second bunny, stay strapped in.”
“Okay Pops.” She replied as her dad opened the car door and stepped out onto the roadside.