Ollie hit Send again, but he didn’t verbally reply.
Beep-beep.
Reese sensed that something wasn’t right. He stood still, trying to think.
Jake crawled to within forty yards of the shocking scene. He recognized the big, muscular dude with the flashlight in his mouth. He had been with the gang at the camp; now he was holding down a nearly naked young girl. Shit! She’s covered in blood. She was begging him to leave her alone. Jake also could see a knife stuck in the ground. To make a killing shot with turkey loads, Jake knew he needed to be a little closer. This guy was taking his time, but there was no doubt he intended to rape this girl.
Sweat never noticed that Jake had slipped up to within twenty yards and was on his knees about to shoot. Jake could clearly see Sweat holding down the girl with one hand and trying to loosen his pants with the other. She was bucking like a mule but couldn’t resist much longer. Jake couldn’t let him rape her. Twice in the same night, Jake did something he had never done in his life. He placed the front bead of the shotgun on the guy’s chest and took a deep breath.
Ka-BOOM!
Sweat collapsed forward, lifeless, on top of Elizabeth. She was stunned but instantly started trying to free herself from under the heavy weight of the dead man. Screaming louder and louder, she pulled herself loose.
Jake was shocked, motionless. He hadn’t shot. He then saw the fat guy from the camp house standing in the edge of the woods, a pistol hanging at his side. What in the world? Elizabeth got up screaming, running in Jake’s direction. Half-naked and running blindly, she was screaming at the top of her lungs. She didn’t know Jake was there. Jake took one more look at the fat guy. He briefly thought about killing him, but didn’t. This is crazy. The fat guy appeared to be in a trance. He was staring at his dead buddy, whom he had just killed. He didn’t seem to care about the girl at all.
Jake got up silently and took off running after the girl.
R.C. and Larson were talking when they heard a distant gunshot. R.C. pointed and explained that the shot had come from the west; Larson pointed south. Ollie was staring intently at the radiophone and didn’t have a clue; he never offered a guess.
“It’s hard to course a direction on a single unexpected gunshot,” R.C. explained, “’specially in these thick-planted pines.”
R.C. and Larson argued for a minute about the direction and whether it was related to any of the night’s events. In the country, gunshots are heard at all hours. A single shot this late at night usually meant some stray just got dead getting into someone’s trash. Ollie returned his attention to the phone.
“Damn it…that phone call caught me off guard,” Ollie said.
“Well, at least you know it’s Johnny Lee Grover. That’s a starting point, Chief,” R.C. said.
“Johnny Lee always has Reese Turner with him. Those guys are joined at the hip. That Turner dude makes my skin crawl,” Larson added.
“Should we call him back?” Larson asked, holding Shug’s leash.
“That’s not a bad idea. But what should we say?” Ollie responded.
A minute passed in silence.
“Let’s think about this. Obviously they’re not together, but somehow Johnny knows something about the girl,” Ollie said. “Where does this Tiny character live?”
“I don’t know,” R.C. responded.
“Find out.”
“Yes sir, boss.”
“Larson, do you know where the-what the hell’s the name of that huntin’ club?” Ollie asked looking at R.C.
“Bogue Chitto. It’s Indian for-”
“Larson, do you know where that camp is? It’s maybe fifteen miles back down this road,” Ollie interrupted, rolling his eyes at R.C.
“Yes sir, sure do.”
“Go there. See if that mutt can find anything other than his own balls. We found some blood earlier tonight in front of the camp house. It may be turkey blood. I need to know if there’s anything else in the high grass. All this may be connected. Radio me when you get finished. I’ll probably have something else for you to do. In fact, I may want you to go to this Tiny character’s place and check it out.”
“Yes sir,” Larson said as he ran to his car.
“R.C., all this must be connected, but I sure hope it isn’t. I need you to stay here and keep your eyes and ears open. Don’t try and be a hero. I’m gonna ride down this road while I radio the Beasleys.”
“You got it, Chief. Be careful.”
“Stay close to your radio.”
Ollie pulled his Expedition even with the big Chevy truck, easing between it and the gateposts.
“Unit One to Base.”
“Go ahead, One,” Martha promptly responded.
“Are the Beasleys there yet?”
“I expect them any minute. Mr. Tillman just pulled into the parking lot.” That surprised Ollie. He expected him to be at the hospital.
“Call me when they all arrive. Miz Martha, get me Sheriff Marlow…no, no, I’ll get back to you on that.”
“Ten-four, Sheriff.”
Ollie didn’t want to deploy another county’s deputies until he had more facts. He laid the microphone across his leg and stared down the road. Where in the world are Elizabeth and Tiny and Johnny Lee and the four-wheeler? They could be anywhere. It’s miles and miles of woods. The shot could have been anything. Just as he started easing down the Dummy Line, the radio crackled.
“Sheriff, they’re here.”
“OK, put them by the radio so they can hear me.”
Ollie stared out the window for a second trying to decide how much to tell them. He decided to concentrate on the events around Tanner and Elizabeth. He nodded as he decided not to tell them about the mysterious phone call. It might not even be related. He grabbed the microphone.
“Mr. and Mrs. Beasley, let me tell you what we know. One of my deputies just happened to find Tanner Tillman on the old road they call the Dummy Line. As y’all know, he was beat up pretty bad. We did find your daughter’s purse in the Jeep, but we haven’t found her yet. We don’t have any serious leads right now. We just don’t have anything. I need to know who was with them, if anybody; where they were going; and establish a time-line. There could be other kids missing. This could be some type of an accident…we just don’t know. We don’t need to jump to any conclusions.”
“We’ll get you the answers, Ollie,” Steve Tillman responded.
“We also need to know if there any conflicts in Tanner’s life right now…any enemies?” Ollie said. “But let me add…finding Elizabeth is our top priority right now, so we need to know everything.”
Elizabeth’s mother started crying again. She was hanging on every word. Elizabeth’s father, Zach, had a lump in his throat and could hardly speak. Olivia remembered speaking to Elizabeth as she and Tanner left the baseball game at about nine o’clock. She was pretty sure they had been by themselves, but they might have met some friends after the game. She didn’t know. Elizabeth usually got back home by eleven. Sometimes Tanner stayed for a while and they watched television. Tonight, the Beasleys were exhausted from the tax deadline and the drinks celebrating the end of tax season, so they had gone straight to bed after arriving home past midnight.
Tillman truthfully said he wasn’t aware of any problems in Tanner’s life. He added that he owned a hundred sixty acres that was accessible off the Dummy Line. Maybe they had gone there for some reason.
Ollie agreed that it would be worth a look since all this was just unfolding. He assured them that he was doing all he could and would keep them informed.
“How is your son, Mr. Tillman?” Ollie asked, genuinely concerned.
“It’s serious, Sheriff, but they don’t think its life-threatening. The doctor said he should be OK with some time…he was just in so much pain when he got there. I haven’t spoken with him. He’s heavily sedated. His condition is listed as stable. I’d be glad to come and show you where the property is if you need me to. There’s nothing I can do at the hospital, and I just had to come here to try to understand…maybe make sense out of…and I want to help find Elizabeth.” Tanner had recently asked his father how he would know when he met the right girl to marry, and he knew he was referring to Elizabeth.