Ed flung his arms up to protect himself from the impact when he hit the earth. He felt himself tumbling forwards for just a second before he hit the earth on his butt. Then silence, and stillness. The quiet seemed to invade the salesman’s head. Was that it? No pain, no broken limbs, no explosions? Of course, I’m dead, there wouldn’t be any pain would there?
“Ed, are you okay? Ed, please, wake up?” Linda’s concerned dulcet tones seeped into his consciousness. He tentatively opened his eyes to see Linda’s big chocolaty eyes just a few inches from his face, staring straight at him. She looked so worried but he couldn’t help smile at her. “What? What are you smiling at, I’ve been so worried about you?”
He carefully put his hands up to her face. “You are so beautiful Linda, it’s hard not to smile when I see you.” The words were out of his mouth before he even knew he had said them. Her look changed from worry to shock. Now it was Ed’s turn to look worried. “I’m sorry, did that come out loud?! I shouldn’t have said that, I don’t know what…” Linda softly put a finger on his lips to stop Ed’s ramblings then as she removed her finger, replaced it with her full lips as they kissed properly for the first time. Ed stared into her eyes as he thought to himself ‘Yep, died and gone to heaven!’
The kiss turned into a passionate embrace. When they finally, breathlessly pulled apart they had kissed fervently for what seemed to Ed to be an eternity but was still not long enough. Their cheeks were flushed as they tried to slow down their breathing and pulse rate. “Wow!” was all he could finally manage.
Linda looked around the clearing to see the others peering through the gloom at them. “We’ll finish this later.” she said promisingly.
THIRTY-SIX
Captain Dewhurst and his team were met at the bottom of the foothills by Buster’s friend BJ. They followed him up into the woods as he drove John’s pick-up through the winding tracks to where the rest of the vehicles had congregated. Some of the hastily put together response team from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and Ohio State Troopers were in civilian clothes with a bullet-proof vest over the top, while others looked like they were part of a heavily armed SWAT team dressed from head to foot in black and sporting assault rifles. A few were in their two-tone grey trooper uniform, topped by their grey wide-brimmed drill hat. Now on foot, they made their way quickly through the trees, two medics at the rear carrying a lightweight stretcher. At the front, BJ tried to explain to Captain Dewhurst the situation as it had been when he left to meet them. They paused briefly at the body of the Mayor but he wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry so continued on. BJ stopped them again just after they crossed the small river.
“We are almost there now,” he whispered to Dewhurst, “but we should be careful in case things have changed ya unnerstand?”
Dewhurst nodded and brought his team around. He quickly split them into two squads with the medics staying way back at the rear. Dewhurst gave his first team a few minutes to run left so that they could come in from two directions, just in case the captives weren’t captives anymore. On a signal from him over his radio, both teams moved tactically through towards the clearing.
Everyone there now knew that bodies were buried beneath them and the whole area had taken on the feeling of a cemetery. The few people that talked were doing so in very hushed, solemn tones. In the time it had taken the State troopers to get up the hill and through the trees, Ed had told Linda what he had seen in his latest flashback and where he thought the children may have been held whilst awaiting their ceremony of murder. She listened in stunned silence as he described his harrowing car chase and crash. The sharp snap of a branch caused Ed and the others to hear before they saw the State Police coming through the trees, the snapping of twigs underfoot alerted the group to the presence of people getting closer, then lights on top of rifle muzzles flicked on and searched through the darkness for targets. Ed went over to George, who was still staring at the body of his best friend.
“George, I’m going to go before these guys arrive, I have some unfinished business to sort out, and if I wait until they get here I am going to be held up for hours”.
“Well that’s all fine and dandy, but if you are going after Rosen I’m coming with you”.
“I know you want to come to George but you need to stay with Buster and explain to the State Troopers what’s been going on here, and to be honest I don’t want you getting involved in what I have to do”. George looked dismayed but understood the logic of Ed’s way of thinking. “You know they’re gonna ask how we found out about all this stuff don’t ya? What do we say, some Oracle came along, looked into ‘d past an’ the future an gave us clues? I don’t think they are gonna buy that.”
“Just tell them the truth George; Buster called you, found out who had taken Gracie and you wanted to lead them to where she was buried. You can say I helped by doing some investigation work I guess, but keep it simple… and believable.” The lights were getting brighter from two directions. Ed shook George’s hand then turned and kissed Linda swiftly but passionately on the lips. “Please be careful!” she pleaded.
“I will, promise.”
As Ed Saunders slipped out of the far side of the clearing and into the dense trees, Captain Dewhurst and his team entered from the other side.
The State troopers surrounded the tightly packed group of people gathered in the middle of the clearing. It was plain to see who the captives were and who the captures were. Without shouts or drama, his team replaced Buster’s friends guarding the seated men. Buster’s friends were then corralled away from the members of the brotherhood and politely but firmly disarmed.
Being the only woman there, Dewhurst approached Linda.
“Mrs Saxon? I’m Captain Dewhurst, Martin.” Linda shook the offered outstretched hand. Martin Dewhurst wasn’t quite what Linda was expecting. Over the phone, he had sounded much taller if that were possible, but he was quite short and rotund, but solidly built, and although he had just marched through a forest, he wasn’t out of breath at all, and not a hair of his buzz cut was out of place. His smooth complexion was very fair with freckles painted randomly across the bridge of his nose and upper cheeks, and she guessed he would be in his very early thirties, more from his rank than his baby-faced features.
“Thank you for coming so quickly, I wasn’t sure you would.”
“I’ve got to be honest with you Mrs Saxon, none of what you said over the phone sounded plausible but the names you gave and the briefest of checks on our database showed that there could be something to what you said, and now we are here, well, the evidence seems pretty overwhelming. The briefest of looks shows me we have something to work on, so I can bring in a lot more assets; equipment and men, secure the crime scene, etc. When we know more, it is quite likely the FBI might want to get involved too, depending on if the victims came across any state borders. From what you said on the telephone a body has already been found?”
“Yes, two actually, but we don’t know who one of them is. They are both little girls.” She led him over to the open grave and as Linda looked away Dewhurst used a small Maglite to look down onto the corpses, then over the mound at Buster’s body.
“I recognise him,” he said, as he played a beam of light down the big man’s length, “Guy from the gas station, right? I’ve filled up there a few times”.
“Yes, that’s Buster Benjamin, he is the father of the coloured girl down there, that’s Grace Benjamin.”