Chapter 7
Late Monday Afternoon
They stood at the edge of the ravine watching as two SEALs lowered another down into the depths. Even in winter the thick brush soon obliterated everything but the rope trailing down. One man relayed what his descending teammate was saying.
"It’s really deep here, he’s not sure the rope is going to last. Damn, that’s two hundred feet of rope, sir."
"Son, some of these ravines go down to the Devil’s own lair," Horace said.
"He’s having to tie off the next two hundred feet of rope, Admiral."
AJ turned away. He hoped it was all worth the effort. He prayed that they wouldn't find Rabb's body next to the laptop. They had checked the coordinates with the base camp. The laptop was down there, the signal faint but strong. There was no way a satellite could get a picture that deep.
"Sir! He has it! He has the lap top."
"What about Rabb?" He had to ask. It killed him, but he had to know.
"Sir, according to Parsons, if Rabb fell with the case there would be signs of some kind of disruption in the undergrowth and he doesn’t see those signs. He says he got lucky; the case was on a fairly wide ledge. He can’t see the bottom."
"Get him and case back up here." AJ stepped away from the edge of the ravine and gazed up toward the hill still rising high above them. "How much farther, Horace?"
"Wale, AJ. Don’t rightly know no more. I ain’t ever been up this high. We’re in Jenks country now. Always did reminded me of ‘Nam, course instead of tigers we gots us wild cats. Instead of Cong we gots us Jenks."
"Cute. What will they say if you and I walk in on them?"
"Probably ask us where these old boys are at?" Horace pointed to the SEALs.
"You think they know they’re here?"
"Shoot yes. Probably since last night."
"Beggin’ your pardon, Deputy," one of the SEALs spoke up. Until we got to the ravine, no one saw us."
"If you say so, son."
After they retrieved the laptop, AJ sent two SEALs back with it. "Don’t bother trying to keep quiet. Deputy Evans is probably right. Just get it back and tell the Marines to get the helio ready. If he’s up here, perhaps they can drop in from above. Hone in on my tracking device."
"Aye-aye, Admiral."
It was dusk before AJ heard the first twig snap. He looked at Horace who nodded. AJ was pleased he noticed the misstep; he doubted that many men would have caught it. But, strain as he might, he could make out no unnatural movement. Everything appeared to be where it was supposed to be. He just prayed the three SEALs behind him had better eyesight. "Are we camping out here?" AJ shivered in the cold.
"Hope not. Not with the way you snore."
Before AJ could mutter a retort they both heard gravel skittering down the hill. "Horace? That you, like Tom here says?"
"Preston!" Horace was clearly shocked.
"Come on up, Horace. I guess you’ll have to bring the others with you."
AJ shook his head emphatically. "Preston. That’s okay. Just me and my friend here will come on up. If that’s okay, with Mr. Jenks."
"Ya’ll gonna shoot up my house iffin I says no." A deep growling voice floated down to them.
"Mr. Jenks, my name is AJ Chegwidden. All I want to do is talk. I don’t see any need for anyone to be shooting."
"Well come on then, let’s git this over with."
Two men, both with ancient, well cared for rifles came out from behind two boulders that formed a natural archway.
"Sir." One of the SEALs cautioned.
"It will be fine, son."
As he passed between the two sentinels he knew the SEAL was reporting their position.
He wasn’t sure why the fact that the cabin was reasonably clean surprised him. There were animal skins everywhere, some were used as rugs, others were used as wall hangings. The windows were covered in greased paper as was common a hundred years ago. The room smelled of wood smoke, cooked meats and the body odor of countless generations of Jenks. AJ judged the homestead to be over 150 years old.
Rabb lay, propped up on several rolled up fur skins on a hand-hewn wood bed. The mattress was probably filled with hay and AJ, as he studied the feverish flyer, figured Rabb would never complain about any bed again. "How are you doing, son?"
"Fine, sir." Rabb grimaced as he moved. "They put something on my wound but didn’t try and take out the buckshot."
"A little buckshot ain’t ever hurt nobody," the old man who met them said.
Horace couldn’t keep his eyes off Preston who sat on a three-legged stool and rested his arm on the homemade table in the center of the room. Overhead, they could make out curious faces peering down at them from the sleeping loft.
"Why did you kidnap Commander Rabb?" AJ turned and faced the patriarch of the mountain clan.
"Wale, now, I don’ts rightly sees it that way."
"Well how do you see it? Did Commander Rabb walk all the way up here, willingly?"
"Wale, he was out of it most of the time, I grants ya, but the girl here needs a mate and she don’t cotton to any of her brothers or cousins." He said it like it was a perfectly natural thing that she should. "Sent word that she found her somebody and was even bringin’ her real daddy to witness it."
"Real daddy!" Horace glared harder at Preston.
"Now Horace, don’t start. There’s no evidence."
"Then why’d you come with her!" The old man growled.
"I figured this young man needed help." Preston licked his lips and looked at Chegwidden and Evans for support. Both men ignored him.
A wraithlike young woman stepped into the room and went to sit on the bed next to Rabb who tried hard to move away from her, which only allowed her more room to settle next to him. Rabb had a panicked look on his face that under other circumstances AJ would have found hilarious. But he didn’t like Rabb’s color and he knew he needed a doctor. No matter what he heard about mountain medicine, AJ knew that the mortality rate was high and lifespan short. Old man Jenks might look like he was in his eighties but if this was the man who came down the mountain and brought back Cici’s mother with him, then he was probably in his mid-forties.
AJ considered their options and prayed that the SEALs or Marines or both would get to them soon. The plan all depended on Rabb being aware enough to follow his lead. If it were Webb he would have felt more comfortable, Rabb didn’t do subterfuge well. "I need to get Commander Rabb to a hospital," he opened.
"Don’t need no doctor for a little thing like a hide full of buckshot. Hale, young Micah there done gots him a knife blade in his side what never did come out."
AJ didn’t bother to tell the old man that young Micah looked like shit and he wondered if the encephalitis was symptomatic or a birth defect. "Well, I can appreciate that. But Commander Rabb still needs to return to his duties."
"His duties are to my girl, here. Ain’t that right, Preston."
The lawyer looked from one man to the other. AJ could see the fear in the man’s eyes and wondered what threat they held over him. There was a look of utter shame in his face. AJ glanced over at the young girl sitting possessively next to Rabb and the thought came unbidden that she had slept with her father. AJ wondered if she had the wiles to orchestrate such a maneuver or hadn’t realized who her john was at the time. He didn’t want to know. "Jenks, I told you that you couldn’t make Rabb marry the girl."
"Wale why not. He done slept with her!"
"Sir. I never did. I swear I didn’t."
"Well son, that’s good. Of course, your wife won’t believe that, considering."
"He ain’t married. He done told me all about his girl friend and how sweet she was and how smart and how he didn’t think it would work out cause it never did and she deserved better!" Cici met AJ’s glare boldly. "He can love me and give me babies and then iffin he wants ta leave in a couple years then that will be jess fine with me!" Cici held her head high and defied AJ to argue with her logic.
"He would have been talking about Commander Manetti?"
"Didn’t heared that name. He called her Tracy."
"That’s right. Tracy works with Rabb – and his wife."
"Sir!" Rabb gasped in shock and then, what AJ was trying to do finally sank in. "Oh sir, why’d you have to bring her up?" Was it enough? The old man looked like it might not be.
"Why? Because she’s still married to you until the divorce goes through. Damn it, Harm. What did you expect when those test results came back?" AJ tried to communicate the answer but Rabb, whether from the pain or the inability to lie about something so fundamental, just looked back in sheer panic. "Come on Harm. I know you wanted it to work with…Lauren, and I know it was a blow to your ego." Come on son. Get it.
"What’s wrong with him." Old man Jenks demanded.
"Well, Mr. Jenks, if you kidnapped my officer as breeding stock I’m afraid you are in for a disappointment."
"Horace, what is he yammerin’ on about?"
Evidently Horace was more on the ball than Rabb. "Oh that’s too bad, Rabb. My cousin Josiah had him the same problem. His momma, my sister Ruthie, almost disowned him. Course, he is a favorite with all the girls. Hale, he walks around with the doctors report in his pocket."
Rabb’s face went through a series of transformations, confusion, understanding, embarrassment and finally capitulation. AJ thought he was going to ruin it even then but the lawyer played his hand with as much finesse as he could in his condition. "It isn’t funny, sir. Lauren is a good woman." He spared a glare for his CO. "I still love her. But, she wanted kids real bad. When I told her that the doctor said I couldn’t give them to her, she cried but told me she wanted a divorce. Thank God, Tracy doesn’t mind. She’s more career-minded than Lauren."
They held their collective breath and fortunately, natural cunning aside, they convinced Cici and then Old Man Jenks that Rabb was not good breeding stock. In the end they were able to airlift Rabb out by helio without worrying about fending off stray bullets. Preston advised Horace he would walk back down the mountain later. "I need to talk to Cici. I swear to God I never knew until after her momma died and left me a letter. She didn’t know Cici had already started looking for suitable husbands while working for Miss Lorraine. God, you have no idea how it makes me feel to know that my blood could be this backward. I don’t know what to do."
"Ain’t much to do, Preston. Ya’ll will have to deal with what you done. But, I cain’t see her ever being happy out of these hills."
They walked back down, freed of the need for stealth or stopping at each little cabin to ask questions or just keep the peace while ‘trespassing’ on public land claimed by these hill people generations ago. Still they ended up having to camp out part of the way down. The three SEALs who accompanied them back were grateful for the warmth of the campfire and they talked long into the night about the way things were changing in the Navy. AJ felt every one of his 54 years listening to them and when he stretched out in his sleeping bag his last conscious thought was, Hell, I’m too old for her anyway.
Late Monday Night
The cabin, set in what was probably a beautiful setting in the summer, surrounded by old growth oaks, hickory, and pine had a fishing pond the size of three football fields. The mist was just beginning to form in the moonlight. The team quickly secured the one outbuilding and called up one of the Marines they had quickly deputized. He showed them the PDA in his hand. "This shows three heat signatures inside."
"Terrific. So much for three fruitcakes acting on their own." Seaborn sighed. "What about weapons?"
"Sorry sir, the display on this isn’t that sharp. There are weapons there, see in their hands. Whatever they have as backup though I can’t get a reading on."
"You mind, sheriff?" Seaborn reached for the bullhorn.
"Go ahead." She leaned against the car and met Webb’s concerned gaze.
"You sure, you’re okay?"
"Just peachy keen. I just found out that my father was murdered by a man we will never bring to justice."
"Why not?"
"Oh please. Come, Webb. You know who Sam is."
"No I don’t. Pretty big man in the state?"
"You told Loraine you knew. Even asked about his pet perversion. Which even I d...shit you made it up!"
"Please, Bobbi Jo." Mac snorted and glared in exasperation at Webb. "Clay is the consummate liar of the Western Hemisphere." Then she blushed and added softly, "When it comes to business. On a personal level, he’s a straight arrow." Webb looked at her in pleased surprise and Bobbi Jo figured that Mac had given him as much righteous grief as she had given Bobbi Jo herself. Only from the looks of it, Webb hadn’t put up with it.
"Gee, thanks for the endorsement, sis." Webb snorted.
"You guys ready." Seaborn hissed. "Tracy, get down and keep your head down."
"Yes, Jace." Webb and Mac exchanged a quick glance. Bobbi Jo pulled out her gun and crouched behind a one of the cruisers.
"You in the cabin! Come out with your hands up. You are surrounded by local and federal authorities. We are armed and we will use deadly force if need be."
The cabin was deadly quiet. The Marine with the PDA hissed, "Holy Shit!" right as they heard a rifle go off.
"Who is in charge out thare?" a voice called.
"Special Agent Jason Seaborn. Who am I talking to?"
"Don’t shoot. Me and my aide are comin’ out right now."
"Don’t move until I know who I am speaking to!" Jace yelled through the bullhorn.
"Sir!" The Marine inched forward. "Sir. Somebody just up and shot one of the other men. I saw it sir. The guy was kneeling and never knew."
"Well, well. I don’t suppose that records does it?"
"Uhm…"
"Now, Seaborn," Webb sighed. "Don’t be asking questions you don’t want the answer to."
"Gotcha."
"You two take this act on the road?" Bobbi Jo snarled as she glared between the two men grinning evilly at each other.
Two men walked out of the cabin. Seaborn whispered hoarsely. "He’s a crafty SOB Webb. I don’t know."
"Follow my lead."
"Sure. I never thought you could get Loraine to talk."
"Hey. I can get lots of people to talk." Webb grinned at Mac. "But only about business, right, Mac."
"Do your stuff, double oh seven."
"Cuff ém, Sergeant," Webb growled as the two men boldly walked up to them.
"No hold on there, boy."
Webb pulled the older man into his grip. "Listen here, old man. Don’t call me boy. I’ve got little to lose and no enemies in DC left alive so I suggest you keep your mouth shut." He looked at the Marine with the PDA. "Corporal. You make sure that has plenty of power and you don’t lose the picture we got of one of them murdering…" he looked around. "Hey! Who the hell got killed?"
"Jimmy Bob!" Bobbi Jo called keeping her amazement well hidden. Could they pull this off? Did Webb know what he was doing?
"Sweet Jesus! It’s the Reverend Densiton."
"Who are you, sir?" The older man spat out. The younger man was tense and his eyes kept moving back and forth, judging the situation. Bobbi Jo saw it, but after two agents patted him down and found no other weapons she breathed a sigh of relief and promptly turned her attention back to Sam Nichols who still hadn’t identified himself.
"My name isn’t important. Who the hell are you?"
"Hey! You watch your mouth, boy." The younger man, who probably had played football for one of the southern colleges, snarled. "This here is Samuel Nichols. You best watch yourself."
"Oh yeah? Why’s that. I’ve got one of you murdering Reverend Deniston on a heat signature monitor. I figure with the difference in your sizes we won’t have any problem pointing out who pulled the trigger. Will we Agent Seaborn?"
"No, sir! There will be no question on that."
"No hold on." Nichols wiped his mouth and glared at his bodyguard. "Mr. Ryan was jess protectin’ me. I don’t know nothin’ about those heat things ya’ll are talkin’ about but Deniston was sayin’ he was gonna kill us all. Said he had the whole house wired and he was just waitin’ for ya’ll to get closer so we could all go up in a blaze of glory." He paused and then continued, "You know I only come out here to help Mayor Bodine, him bein’ an old friend and all. Said Deniston was talkin’ about leadin’ two queers to God’s way but it got out of hand. Bodine told me he didn’t know anything about it until Deniston came to him for help. Man was crazy. Me and Ryan here came up to talk some sense into the man."
Throwing caution to the wind, Bobbi Jo decided to play along with Webb and Seaborn. "Funny, for a man who didn’t know much, he certainly left a detailed note." She glanced at Webb out of the corner of her eye and was patently pleased with the sparkle of appreciation she saw reflected in the lights of the squad cars that lit the area like daylight.
"Note? Whatchu talkin’ about a note?"
"Why most men about to commit suicide leave a note." At the look of relief on Nichols face she coolly added. "Fortunately, Deputy Hickock got there in time. It’s all over Nichols. Once you’re behind bars, Loraine will finish telling her story about how you had my father killed. Why was that, by the way?"
"Whore!" Nichols screamed and lunged at her, knocking her to the ground. In the pandemonium that followed with Seaborn and Webb trying to help her to her feet and several of the Marines pulling at Nichols no one noticed when Ryan leaned into one of the Marines and pulled the knife from his belt.
Spinning around he grabbed the closest person to him and screamed. "Nobody move or I swear I’ll cut her throat!"
Ryan began pulling Mac away from the crowd. "Oh God. Not again," Webb groaned. Bobbi Jo looked at him in surprise. "Everyone do as I say. Don’t ad lib. Follow my lead," he hissed.
Like he had done it before, Webb yelled at everyone to drop their weapons. Bobbi Jo watched as Mac went perfectly still as if waiting for a break and sure enough when Ryan paused, to quickly look over his shoulder, something Mac couldn’t see for herself, she suddenly took the minute opening and pushed Ryan away, falling to the ground as she did. Ryan died in a hail of bullets.
In the deadly calm that followed, Bobbi Jo heard Webb laugh softly as Mac hugged him tight, "We'll actually get that right one of these days."
"God, I hope we don't ever have to do it again."
"Me too, Mac."
"Hey you guys!" One of the Marines called excitedly. "They’ve got Commander Rabb! He’s safe! They flying him straight to Port Royal!"
"Oh God." Manetti sagged and Seaborn caught her.
"Sergeant!" Webb yelled. "Get the Commander to Port Royal – whatever it takes!"
"Yes sir!" No one but Bobbi Jo saw the look of regret on Seaborn’s face.
"Come on Bobbi Jo." Webb threw his arm over her shoulder. "Let's go break Miss Loraine and find out the rest of the tale."