“Never knew,” he whispered.
I waited.
“Never knew she was selling them.”
“Yeah, that’s what we figured,” I told him, trying to give him some small comfort now that he was about to die.
“Took the money, though,” he said, and coughed. It made an ugly, wet sound in his throat. I heard Carrie coming up behind me. She stopped at Mingo’s inert form.
“Why?” I asked.
“In-surance ran out before Helen’s cancer did,” he said. “All for nothing. She isn’t going to make it.”
“We’ll tell her this was line of duty,” I said. “She doesn’t need to know the rest.”
He gave me a grateful look in the dim twilight and tried to reply, but then he coughed again and went slack. I stood up slowly. Once the SBI or even the FBI got into it, the whole horrible deal would come out, but maybe there was a way we could shield the widow, especially if she was terminal.
“He’s alive,” Carrie said, and I whirled around, pointing my rifle down at Mingo across the yard.
“No way,” I muttered, but she was kneeling down beside him, her back to me. Then, to my astonishment, she suddenly hauled back and slapped his face as hard as she could.
“Carrie!” I yelled, but she was fixed on Mingo’s pasty face. By the time I got there, he had one eye open and an evil sneer on his face. I stared down at him with disgust, trying not to look at what was uncoiling out of his abdomen.
“He admitted killing my father and taking my sister,” Carrie spat, her fists clenched.
“And now he sells little girls into a lifetime of slavery,” I said. “A true life of accomplishment.”
“Wrong,” Mingo croaked, revealing bloody teeth. “Better.”
“What!” Carrie shouted. But Mingo’s eyes rolled up and this time he was really gone. I pulled her away before she lost it again. There were tears in her eyes, and not for the first time I remembered the old rule about being careful what you go looking for.
“Let’s go,” I said. I wanted to hold her, but she was much too angry for consolation. “His people may come back now that the shooting’s stopped.”
I could see the Bigs standing up now at the other end of the dam. I pointed my finger at Hayes and then made a thumbs-down sign, and did the same thing with Mingo. I collected Hayes’s shotgun and some extra shells from his pocket and then signaled for the deputies to come back to the cabin. I went back inside and retrieved my scope, while Carrie got her coat.
The brothers stood there around Hayes and Mingo for a few minutes, surveying the carnage in the grass. Carrie had walked over to the edge of the pond and was staring at nothing. John had retrieved the Bushmaster. It was a variant I hadn’t seen before, with a flat folding stock and, of course, the modification to make it go full auto. The muzzle brake still looked too hot to touch.
“Reckon we should call this in,” Luke said, indicating the two dead men. John looked over at me.
“If we do,” I said, “Grinny Creigh will get word and she’ll know someone’s coming for her. We’d have no chance of rescuing those kids.”
Carrie walked back, looking hopefully at the lighted panel of her cell phone, but then she put it away with a disgusted sound.
“Cain’t just leave ’em here like this,” Luke said. “Ain’t right. Meat birds’ll be on ’em directly the sun comes up. Them’n the night dogs.”
That was a lovely thought, and he was right: We couldn’t just leave them to the scavengers. I told the brothers that I thought they should make the report, but make it to their supervisors back in Carrigan County. Then they should stay there at Hayes’s place and await the first responders.
“You’re still both technically sworn officers in Carrigan County,” I told them. “This is your duty. Let your bosses call Robbins County, but this way, you’ll be at the scene so none of Mingo’s people can sneak back and screw things up here.”
“They may be out there now, just waiting for us to leave,” Carrie pointed out.
“Okay, so you and I will leave,” I said. “Once the brothers here get on their radio, the black hats will fade away into the woods, assuming they haven’t already done that.”
“Why wouldn’t they come back and check?”
“Because I told that one guy we had a squad of machine guns up here. That’s exactly what they heard.”
“Once someone calls Robbins County, Grinny Creigh’s going to know,” Carrie said. “Live kids are going to become a real liability to the Creighs.”
“Okay, so make sure your people in Marionburg know that, John,” I said. “Ask them to get people over here, secure the scene, and then call Robbins County in-just don’t tell them who’s been shot until they get here. That way we might have a chance to get to the Creighs’ place and do something.”
Bigger John gave me a bemused look. “Like what, exactly?” he asked.
“I have no frigging idea,” I admitted. “But something. We have to do something, and so far, the federal people who’d normally roll on this won’t touch it.”
“You don’t think they’ll come in now that Mingo and Hayes have killed each other?” Carrie asked.
I was getting frustrated. We were standing here talking when we should have been on the move. “Look,” I said. “Mingo’s people are either out there in the woods somewhere or on their way to report back to Nathan that there was a small war out here and nobody came out. Get the local cops into it, explain what we think is happening, and let them pull in the feds. I’m not willing to wait. Grinny Creigh won’t wait, I guarantee it.”
The two deputies looked over at Carrie to see what she thought, and she nodded agreement. “Join up with us as soon as you can turn over the scene,” she said.
“Awright,” John said, and Luke agreed. If John was happy, Luke was happy.
“Okay, then,” I said. “Give us ten minutes to get out to the highway. If you don’t hear any more shooting, you can assume we’re clear of the woods.” There I went again, encouraging people to assume.
It was fully dark by the time we made our way out onto the paved road. We’d gone carefully, lights out, guns poking out of the car in all directions, in case Mingo’s crew had set up an ambush. Carrie rode in the back right seat while I drove; the shepherds were in the way-back. Nothing happened on the way down, so once we got to the paved road I put the hammer down toward Rocky Falls. It was almost seven as we came into the outskirts of town, and I suddenly realized I was starving. Carrie said she was, too, so we pulled over into the town’s version of a fast-food joint and hit the drive-through for greaseburgers all around.
I parked the Suburban in a back corner of the lot where semis would usually park, and we attacked the food. Both shepherds were partial to the No. 2 Combo, which they dispatched with a gusto that gave new meaning to the term “fast food.”
“What did he mean right there at the end?” Carrie asked. “That ‘wrong’ and ‘better’ stuff?”
“Delirium of the dying,” I said. “I don’t think it meant anything.”
There were no other vehicles parked back where we were; the one semi that had been there when we went through the drive-through left. I was wondering whether or not we were being just a mite conspicuous when I saw a Robbins County cruiser pull up into the drive-through lane. There were two deputies riding, but they didn’t seem to be actively looking for anyone. They stopped at the order box, placed their orders, then started around to the pay window. Halfway through the turn, their brake lights came on, followed thirty seconds later by their blue light rack. Hamburgers forgotten, they swerved out of the line, turned left out of the parking lot, and sped off in the direction from which we had come. The girl in the pay window stuck her head out and stared after them.