Harry harrison and leon.., p.5
Left Behind, page 5
She hadn’t slept well because of last night’s storm. The rain had been a deluge, and when she walked out onto the back porch to watch the sunrise, she could hear the water coming off Big Falls and roaring down the creek that ran through Jubilee, even from this far away.
She and her husband, John, were one of the families living highest on Pope Mountain, so the drive down every morning was a long one. She was coming up on the road leading to her nephew Cameron’s house when she caught a glimpse of a white vehicle off into the trees on the south side of the road. It was obvious it had crashed, and the passenger door was standing open.
Annie slammed on the brakes and killed the engine, then got out on the run, taking care not to slide as she moved down into the ditch. Her worst fear was that she’d find a body. She saw a purse lying on the floorboard, but the car was empty. Knowing better than to disturb anything that might turn into evidence, she ran back to her car and made a quick call to Cameron. It rang a couple of times before he answered.
“Hello.”
“Cameron, this is Annie. There’s a wrecked car off in the trees a couple of hundred yards up from your driveway, but no driver in sight. Do you know anything about this?”
“No! It rained so hard last night the only thing I could hear was Ghost whining. He hates storms. So obviously no one has reported this, or the police and a wrecker would already be on the scene. You call it in. I’ll take Ghost and see if he can track whoever was in it.”
“Yes, okay, but I can’t imagine how there’d be a scent left after all that rain,” Annie said.
“It won’t wash it away. It just disperses it a little. Ghost is good. Maybe we’ll get lucky. Thanks for letting me know, Auntie.” Cameron said.
“Of course,” Annie said, and after they disconnected, she called the Jubilee police.
“Jubilee PD, Sergeant Winter speaking.”
“Walter, this is Annie Cauley. I just found a wrecked car off in the trees just up the road from Cameron’s driveway. The car is empty; the door is wide open. I saw belongings in the car but no sign of the driver. It looks like a bad accident. Has anyone been picked up from here in the night?”
“Let me check the log,” Walter said, and then came back. “No, ma’am. There was not. I’ll get dispatch on this. Thanks for calling it in,” he said.
“Sure thing, and Cameron’s taking Ghost to the crash site to see if they can find the missing driver,” Annie added.
“I’ll make a note,” Walter said.
Satisfied she’d done all she could, Annie continued her trip into town, as Cameron headed for the bedroom to change his clothes. Ghost sensed an outing and followed him.
Cameron’s wife, Rusty, was getting their little boy, Mikey, dressed, when she heard Cameron coming toward the bedrooms.
“We’re in here,” she said.
He paused in the doorway to Mikey’s room, and couldn’t help smiling. Their son was growing so fast. He’d be in first grade this year and, like every other Pope, was tall for his age. But he was arguing with his mother about going out to play.
“Michael! What did Mama say?” Cameron asked.
Mikey ducked his head. “Too wet to go outside.”
“Then why are you arguing with her? You’re not in charge around here, boy. You do what Mama says, understand?”
Mikey frowned, but the tone in his daddy’s voice was the one that meant business. He nodded.
“And what do you say to Mama?” Cameron prompted.
Mikey looked up and smiled at Rusty. “Mama’s pretty.”
Cameron grinned.
Rusty snorted. “Lord. Like father, like son.”
“Well, you are pretty, so there’s no arguing that,” Cameron said, and gave her a quick hug. “On another note, Aunt Annie just called. Somebody wrecked their car just up the road from our driveway, but nobody’s in it. She’s already called the police and a wrecker, but I’m going to take Ghost and see if we can figure out where the driver went.”
Rusty frowned. “Oh no! I hope it’s just a case of someone picking them up and already taking them into Jubilee.”
“Me too, but I need to check. If the driver was injured, there’s no telling how disoriented they could have been, or how far they might have wandered into the woods.”
“Yes, I understand, but be careful,” Rusty said.
Cameron slid his arms around her and nuzzled the back of her neck. “Always. I’m taking my sat phone, and I have Ghost. We’ll be fine.”
A few minutes later he went out the front door with Ghost on a leash and headed up their driveway. Once they got to the road, they turned left and started walking up the mountain. It didn’t take but a few minutes to reach the wreck, and then he jumped the ditch with Ghost and headed for the car.
Like Annie, the first thing he saw was the purse lying on the floorboard. But he wasn’t as cautious as Annie. He wanted to know who he was looking for, opened it, found a wallet, and the driver’s license for a young blonde woman named Carey Eggers. He put everything back in the purse, then let Ghost get the scent.
“Seek, Ghost, seek!” The giant German shepherd whined as his ears came up.
Cameron dropped the purse where he’d found it and gave Ghost his head. When the dog went straight into the trees, it answered one question for Cameron. Carey Eggers was somewhere in the woods.
Ghost turned into the heat-seeking missile that he was and started running, keeping Cameron on the move behind him. Twice, the dog was confused by the scent and circled until he keyed in on it again.
By the way Ghost was tracking, Cameron feared the woman was disoriented, or she would have had no reason to go into the trees. She would have either stayed in the car or started walking down the road.
Then Ghost whined and began straining at the leash to go faster. Cameron unclipped it from the shepherd’s collar and let him go, then had to run even faster to keep up. Minutes later, Ghost disappeared, and Cameron kept running toward the place he’d seen him last.
He was coming upon a small clearing when he saw something on the ground up ahead. A cell phone! Then he heard Ghost whining, followed the sound, and walked up on his dog lying with his head across the legs of a woman’s body.
Damn it. “Good boy,” Cameron said as he knelt beside the body and laid his hand on Ghost’s head. He was about to reach to check her pulse when he saw the bullet hole in the back of her shirt. “What the hell?”
He slid his hand down the side of her neck and was shocked she had a pulse. It was faint and thready, but she was alive. He rolled her over and saw bruises on her face, a cut on her forehead, and when he pushed her shirt aside to look for an exit wound, he saw bruises on her belly. That had to be from the wreck.
“You ran into the trees because someone was after you, didn’t you, Carey? Hang in there, girl. I’m calling for help.”
He grabbed his sat phone to call for an ambulance and then called the county sheriff’s office.
***
Sheriff Rance Woodley was writing up a maintenance request to get plumbing repaired in two of the jail cells when the dispatcher buzzed his desk. He picked up the receiver.
“This is Woodley.”
“Sir, we just received a call from Cameron Pope on Pope Mountain. He and his dog found a woman in the woods up above his house. He thought he was looking for the driver of a wrecked car up in the trees, but when he and his dog found her, she had a bullet wound in her back. She has head wounds and bruises, likely from the wreck. He thought she was dead, but then realized she still had a pulse. He’s already called for an ambulance to take her in to Jubilee Hospital, but since she was shot in our jurisdiction, we caught the case.”
“Shot! Well, damn,” Woodley said, remembering another shooting up on the mountain a couple of years back. “Okay…get the directions to the crime lab and get them on the scene, dispatch a couple of officers, and call a tow service for the wrecked car, too. I’ll be en route to the hospital to see if she’s regained consciousness, and then I’ll contact the team on the ground.”
“Yes, sir,” the dispatcher said, and disconnected.
Woodley glanced at the paperwork. The plumbing request was going to have to wait. He picked up the phone.
***
Jubilee Police Chief Sonny Warren was at his computer when his phone rang. He hit Save and then reached for the receiver.
“Hello.”
“Sonny, it’s Rance. I’m about to invade your world again. Just got a call about a shooting victim in the woods just up from Cameron Pope’s place.”
Sonny frowned. “Who found her?”
“Cameron and his dog. I’m told your ambulance crew will be picking her up, but I’m towing in the car the driver wrecked before it was abandoned. I’m on my way to Jubilee in the hopes she regains consciousness. She left a purse in the car. Cameron checked the ID. It matches the woman he found. Her name is Carey Eggers. When he found her, he thought she was dead, so she’s probably not in good condition. Do me a favor. It’ll take me a while to get there, so would you please go meet the ambulance when they bring her in and see if she’s talking? I don’t want to lose the chance of getting any info in case she passes. You know the drill.”
“Yes, I can do that,” Sonny said.
“Thanks. I’ll see you soon.”
***
Sonny was in the ER when they brought in the woman from the wreck. She looked dead, so it was no wonder Cameron thought she was, and as soon as they had her stabilized, she went straight to surgery. Her condition was dire, and surgery was her only option for survival, so an interview was not going to happen. Disappointed, he sat down to wait, and shortly thereafter, Sheriff Woodley arrived in the lobby.
“Anything?” he asked as he sat down beside Sonny.
Sonny shook his head. “She’s in bad shape. Never did regain consciousness before they took her to surgery.”
“Well, thanks for covering for me. I’ll take it from here,” Rance said.
“No problem,” Sonny said, then went back to the precinct, while the team from the county crime lab arrived on the scene of the accident.
Cameron took them back to the area where he found her. They bagged her cell phone and the flashlight she’d dropped, and bagged a shell casing found nearby, but the rain had destroyed any other signs or clues that might have been helpful.
***
A couple of hours later, Carey’s surgeon, a doctor named Kline, came into the waiting room looking for the sheriff. There was only one man in the waiting room wearing a uniform, so he headed for him.
“Are you here for Carey Eggers?” Kline asked.
“Yes. I’m Sheriff Woodley. How is she?”
“I’m Dr. Kline, her surgeon. She’s in recovery, but in critical condition and will be going straight to the ICU.”
“Did she ever regain consciousness?” Woodley asked.
“No, and if she does regain consciousness, it’s going to be a while before you can speak to her.”
“Understood, but I’ll be needing the clothes she was wearing to take back to the lab,” Woodley said.
“When we saw the bullet wound, we assumed you would. They’re already bagged. I’ll have one of the nurses bring them to you,” Dr. Kline said.
“Thanks,” Woodley said. “And keep me updated on her condition. As soon as she wakes up, I need to talk to her.”
Dr. Kline nodded and left, and a few minutes later, a nurse came looking for the sheriff.
“Sheriff Woodley? Dr. Kline asked me to bring these to you.”
“Thank you,” Woodley said. He left the hospital with the clothes and headed back to his office to turn them over to the lab.
***
It was midday when Woodley got back to his office and began going through the papers that had been left on his desk. Within moments, he came upon the BOLO regarding Billy Eggers’s missing car. He immediately checked the report on the vehicle towed in and, when he realized it was the same one, called the contact number.
“Bowling Green PD. Detective Gardner speaking.”
“Detective, this is Sheriff Woodley out of Jubilee, Kentucky. I just received your BOLO about a missing car belonging to a Billy Eggers. We towed that car off Pope Mountain this morning. It was wrecked during a rainstorm sometime last night.”
“Who was driving it?” Gardner asked.
“A woman named Carey Eggers. Her purse and identification were found in the wrecked car, but the car was empty. However, we were notified later of a woman who was found unconscious up in the woods and it was her. She’d been shot.”
“Shot! Damn,” Gardner said. “Where is she now?”
“The hospital in Jubilee. She’s undergone surgery. I don’t know anything more. She has yet to regain consciousness.”
“Thank you for your information. There are people who’ve been looking for her for hours,” Gardner said.
“What happened?” Woodley asked.
“It appears she was a witness to her brother’s murder. Looks like the killer ran her down.”
The skin crawled on the back of Woodley’s neck.
“Do you know who it was?”
“No, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t advertise the fact that she’s still alive,” Gardner said.
Woodley frowned. “I’ll call the Jubilee PD and ask Chief Warren to make sure nothing is put in the local paper, but I can’t promise word doesn’t spread locally.”
“Thanks,” Gardner said. “If we can find the shooter, we’ll let you know, and if she wakes up and is able to be interrogated, let me know.”
Chapter 4
Tom Wheaton had taken personal leave and was at Johnny’s house when his cell phone rang. His heart skipped as he glanced at caller ID. It was coming from the precinct. He’d left his number as contact for updated information regarding Carey’s disappearance.
“Hello, this is Tom.”
“Tom…Detective Gardner here. I have news. Eggers’s car was found early this morning, wrecked on Pope Mountain, and with the driver missing. A local resident found her in the woods. It’s Carey. She’d been shot in the back, which indicates she was running, and she had not regained consciousness before they took her to surgery. It’s not good, but last I heard, she’s still alive.”
“Oh my God,” Tom muttered. “Where is she? What hospital?”
“She’s in Jubilee. There’s only one hospital there,” Gardner added.
“Thanks for the update. She mentioned something about Billy arguing with someone called Gunny, or something about money in her text to Johnny. Did you get a hit on the alias?”
“Nothing as of yet, but they are still running tests on evidence from the crime scene. We’re hoping to get a hit on some prints. The living room was destroyed in the fight, so there should be prints all over the place, and hopefully we’ll pull some DNA from Eggers’s body to point us in the right direction.”
“Got it. Thanks again. Keep me updated,” Tom said, and breathed a sigh of relief as he hung up. This wasn’t the best news, but it also wasn’t the worst news. Carey was still alive.
He googled the number for the Jubilee Hospital, then asked for the nurses’ desk at the surgical wing and got the runaround about not giving out information to anyone but family, but he persisted.
“Yes, ma’am, I know that. But I’m a police officer with the Bowling Green PD. I gave you my name and badge number. You can confirm that with my commander. I gave you his name and number. Carey Eggers’s only family member was murdered last night, and I am standing in her house with her fiancé, who is recovering from very serious orthopedic surgery. So, at this moment, I’m the only upright and mobile person on this earth who gives a shit about what’s happening to her. All I need to know is if she’s still alive. Because if she’s not, I’m not driving a man on crutches all the way to Jubilee to look at her body.”
“Please hold,” the nurse said.
Tom took a breath and waited, and then waited, and finally, the nurse was back online.
“She is in the ICU. Her condition is grave. That is all I am allowed to tell you.”
“Thank you,” Tom said. “That’s all I needed to know. The next time you hear my voice, you’ll be looking at my face, and I’ll be pushing a man in a wheelchair. His name is John Knight. And don’t fuck with him like you just did with me. She is his world.”
He was shaking when he hung up. Now he had to tell Johnny, help him pack a bag, then go home and pack for himself and rent a wheelchair. The last time he and Johnny had gone on a trip together was their long fishing weekend just before his fall. And now this. Life had a way of lifting you up so high, just to see how well you fared after you were dropped.
And then Johnny hobbled into the living room. “What’s going on?”
“Sit down,” Tom said.
Johnny paled. “Just say it!”
“They found the car. It had been wrecked. They found Carey in the woods on Pope Mountain. She’d been shot in the back, which means she was running when it happened. She had not regained consciousness when they took her into surgery. She is out of surgery and in critical condition. That’s all I know.”
Now Johnny sat. “Where is she?”
“In the hospital in Jubilee.”
“The big tourist town?” Johnny asked.
“Yes. I know you want to go. I’ll take you. I’ll pack your bag; then you sit and wait while I go pack mine and rent a wheelchair. I’ll be back within a couple of hours. Okay?”
There was a muscle jerking at the side of Johnny’s jaw, but he was scary calm and quieter than Tom expected.
“You okay, buddy? She’s still alive. We have to hang on to that.”
“Just get my suitcase out of the back bedroom. It’s in the closet. I can pack it myself,” Johnny said.
Tom didn’t argue, and when he carried the suitcase back to their bedroom, Johnny was already stacking a few things on the bed. Tom opened the suitcase, then stepped aside.
