“Down, you idiot!” the chief whispered. “We’re way outgunned.”
He went back on his stomach, the cold ground seeming to suck away the warmth from his body. He held his right arm out straight, the pistol grasped tight in his fist, and his heart was pounding so hard it was like a muted hum in his chest. He was breathing so fast he was scared he couldn’t hear anything coming closer to him, so he tried to hold his breath every few moments, but that didn’t work. All he could see were the lights, way up on the slope of the hill, and a twisted tangle of shadows and shapes on all sides. He was trying hard to make out what was in front of him when the chief slid over.
“Look,” he said. “The lights are gone.”
So they were. Jay stood up with the chief and they resumed their fast walk up the hill, and after a while, the chief switched on a small flashlight. He cupped the end of the flashlight with his fist, so only a little light leaked out. Jay was clambering over a large branch that had cracked off an evergreen when part of it snagged on his holster and he fell, scratching his hands yet again. It was wet where he had fallen, as if he had tripped into a muddy spot. The chief flashed his light at him.
“All right?”
“Yeah,” he said, sitting up. “But it’s wet over here. Looks like I fell in some mud.”
The chief knelt down and pointed the flashlight to the ground, his hand still blocking most of the beam, and Jay felt his stomach tense up. His hands were smeared with rust-brown stains.
“Blood,” was all the chief said.
Jay got up, rubbing his hands furiously on his pants. Blood. The chief moved his flashlight and Jay saw a pool of blood as wide as a bathtub on the ground.
He said, “Chief, the old lady’s right.”
“Yeah, looks that way, don’t it. I’ve seen enough. Come on, we’ve got some ground to cover.”
“Where? The top of the hill?”
“Nope.” The chief took his free hand away from the flashlight, and Jay blinked hard against the bright glare. “Back to the cruiser.”
As the chief sped the cruiser down the dirt road, the flashing from the light bar on the cruiser’s roof lit up the surrounding woods with a bright blue glare. The chief said, “Look at it this way, Jay. If whoever was up there wants to get out, the only place they can use is Mast Road. We’re gonna get there first and cut those suckers off.”
The cruiser roared by Agatha Tate’s house and Jay nodded a greeting as they went by. Well, lady, he thought, we found your lights and we found your blood, but we didn’t find your aliens. But what in hell did we find?
“Execution,” he said aloud.
“What?” the chief asked.
“You know, she was almost right, people were being killed up there. Not aliens. Hell, not that. But I bet there’s pot being grown up there, Chief, and I bet you a breakfast at Dino’s that if we look hard enough, maybe get the DEA involved, you find some serious crops up there. And you know what they do out in California if you trespass on those pot fields? Bang. Taken care of.”
The chief just nodded. Jay spoke up again, reaching down to the radio microphone. “Should I put a call in to county for backup?”
The cruiser made a sharp corner and he could hear gravel being kicked up by the tires.
“No,” the chief finally said. “It’ll take them too long to get here, and I think we can take care of it by ourselves. Honest.”
Jay drew his hand back and bit his lip in frustration. A few minutes ago he had been playing George the Groundhog, burrowing in the dirt, trying to get his head blown off while World War III nearly broke out, and now the chief wanted to play small-town hero. He looked down at his hands. From the dashboard lights he saw the brown flecks of dried blood still sticking to his skin, and he rubbed his hands again on his pants legs.
But the blood remained.
He said, “Chief, look, there are at least four or five guys up there, all with guns, and you want to take care of it by ourselves?”
They came to the Mast Road intersection and the chief slid the cruiser to a stop, and then made a hard left turn. The blue strobe lights lit up the intersection.
“Chief? Don’t we need backup?”
The chief gave him a quick look, his face tight, as they roared up the narrow country road. “Jay, look, I’m trying to drive the goddamn cruiser, so will you please shut up?”
Jay grabbed the armrest as the cruiser made another tight curve and he thought, That’s it, I’m going back to bad dreams in a big department. Better than being held hostage to a small department with a chief who has a hero complex. This night’s probably the most excitement he’s had all year, and he has to make the most of it by playing Super Chief. No doubt the old geezer imagined his picture and an approving story on the front page of next week’s Crawford Chronicle.
The road was narrow blacktop, with no yellow line down the middle, not much of a shoulder on either side. There were no streetlights, few houses, and every now and then, the cruiser’s headlights would catch the quick gleam of an animal’s eyes glowing by the side of the road.
The chief switched on the side spotlight, and Jay wondered what he was looking for. He was going to ask, but no, screw it, this was the chief’s show.
They passed a car on a straight portion of the road, a late-model Ford Taurus with New York plates. Jay turned in his seat to look at the car as the cruiser flew by.
“Chief, we just passed that car. It had New York plates.”
“Yeah,” the chief said.
“Well, don’t you want to check it?”
“Nope.”
Fine, he thought.
Another car was pulled to the side, a Volkswagen with Vermont plates. Nothing. Jay squirmed in his seat. What in hell was going on?
Then, a pickup truck, coming from the opposite direction. The chief swore under his breath and slammed on the brakes. The cruiser skidded to a stop and the chief swung the steering wheel about and made a sloppy U-turn, almost losing the cruiser’s rear wheels in a drainage ditch. The chief slapped a switch on the console and the siren screamed into life, and they bore up fast on the pickup truck, which quickly pulled over to the side. There seemed to be three men sitting in the cab.
The chief snapped open his holster, took out his flashlight, and turned to Jay. “Just play along, Jay, you’ll see what’s up soon enough.”