2 A Deadly Beef (15 page)

"That’s
better."  He turned to me and said, "Come on, Girl. 
We’re burning daylight."

"Moose,
it’s been dark for well over an hour."

"It’s
an expression, child, and you know it."

Once
we were in Moose’s truck, I asked, "Where exactly are we
going?"

"We’re
headed over to Abel Link’s place."

"You’re
kidding, right?" I asked.  "Can we rely on anything that man
tells us?"  I’d heard rumors about Abel since I’d been a
little girl.  He was eccentric beyond belief, and I didn’t know if
half the things I’d heard about him over the years were even true."

"Abel’s
a good man, no matter what most folks around here might think.  He said
that he might have an idea about what really happened to Wally Bain, and I say
he’s worth listening to."

As
Moose drove to the eccentric man’s house out in the woods, I tried to
recall some of the wild rumors I’d heard about him over the years. 
Abel was a tried and true hermit, and everything that entailed.  There
were stories that he ate road-kill, and that he took a bath only during the
full moon, whether he thought he needed it or not.  "How do you know
so much about him?  As far as I know, he’s never stepped one foot
into the diner."

"Victoria, believe it or not, I have a full life outside of The Charming Moose. 
I’ve known the man for years.  Abel has been an eco-friendly
advocate before it became fashionable, and he’s proud of the fact that
he’s been off the grid for more years than most folks in Jasper Fork have
been alive.  Granted, Abel’s incentive has always been just as much
about being cheap as it has been about trying to save the world, but he’s
one of the few folks I know who actually practices what he preaches, and that’s
saying something."

As we
drove to Abel’s place, I realized that we were getting closer to
Wally’s farm than I’d realized.  "How far are we from
Wally Bain’s place?" I asked Moose.

"It’s
less than a mile if you go along the back roads, which is exactly what
we’re going to do," Moose said.  "That’s why I
asked him in the first place."

"How’d
you get in touch with him?  I heard that he doesn’t even have a
telephone," I said.

"He
doesn’t," Moose said.  "I had to drive out and ask him
face to face, and when I did, the old coot told me that he’d have to
think about it."

"Then
how did he manage to summon you tonight?" I asked, curious about how the
old guy functioned without the very basics we all took for granted every day.

"Abel
traded some corn to Ernie Oliver today for a pint of fresh milk, and one of the
conditions of the swap was that Ernie had to deliver a message to me."

"It
must not be that urgent, or Abel would have made the trip to tell you
himself."

Moose
shook his head.  "You don’t know just how cheap Abel is. 
He measures his gasoline by the teaspoon, and he doesn’t waste a drop of
it on nonessentials."

"Is
his place even lit at night?" I asked.

"You’d
be amazed by how much light a kerosene lantern puts out," Moose said. 
"Besides, we’re not going there to take in the ambiance.  We
need to hear what Abel has to say."

Moose
pulled off the highway onto the same rut of a path that we’d taken
before, and as we drove up the lane, I recognized the driveway Moose had used
to turn his truck around when we’d tried to get to Wally’s earlier.

 As
we turned off onto the path to Abel’s place, Moose’s truck
headlights reflected back toward us. 

My
grandfather explained, "Abel told me once that he raided the junkyard and
got every reflector he could find.  He claims it’s the only way he
can find his way home at night, though when he was ever out after dark is a
mystery to me."

When
we finally got to Abel’s house, at first I thought the earlier storm had
leveled his place as it had made its way through our area. 

"What
happened?  Did the storm hit his house?" I asked, concerned for the
man’s safety.

"Not
that you can tell.  This is actually the way it’s
supposed
to
look," Moose said with a grin.

"If
you say so," I replied, but I really didn’t believe it.

Just
as Moose shut off the truck engine in front of the house, a face suddenly
appeared in the headlights.

"Turn
those blasted things off!" Abel yelled.  "You’ll scare
the pigs."

"I
didn’t realize they were out running loose," Moose said, though he
did as he’d been instructed and shut off his headlights.

It
took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the lack of direct light once we
got outside into the chilly night air, but once they did, I found that I could
see fairly well with just the light from the stars, and the moon
overhead.  As I looked skyward, I said, "Wow, sometimes I forget
just how bright the stars are out here in the country."

"It’s
free entertainment, that’s for certain," Abel said, as proud of the
display as though he’d had something to do with it himself.  He was
a short and wiry man, and though I’d expected to find him looking wild
with a flowing beard and shaggy hair, he was actually quite presentable, though
whoever had cut his hair so short had butchered it quite a bit in the
cutting.  Abel must have noticed my surprise at his appearance. 
"I trade haircuts with one of my neighbors.  Neither one of is very
skilled at it, but then again, no one has to look at either one of us all that
much, so it doesn’t really matter."  He looked up at the stars
himself before he continued, "I come out most nights it’s clear to
enjoy the show.  I hate to be cooped up.  If you hang around here
past midnight, we might even get to see some shooting stars tonight."

"We’d
love to, but I’m afraid that’s a little too late for me," I
said as I tightened my jacket around me.  "I start my workdays
before six o’clock just about every morning."

"That
will make an old woman of you if you keep it up," Abel said.  He was
wearing an old mechanic’s jumpsuit, but it had been patched so often that
it was hard to say what the original material had been made of.

"I
got your message," Moose said after he shook Abel’s hand. 
"What’s so urgent?"

"Did
that fool Ernie tell you that it was pressing?  It’s more like something
I just thought you might be interested in knowing.  It might be something,
but then again, it could be nothing at all."

I
tried not to show my disappointment by the news.  "We’d be
pleased to hear whatever it is you have to say," I said.  Despite my
expectations, I found myself warming up to the man.  There was an odd
quirkiness to him that appealed to me.

"In
the middle of the night when Wally was stabbed, I saw some strange lights
coming from
that
direction," he said as he pointed out into the darkness.

"What
kind of lights were they?" Moose asked.

"I
can’t rightly say," Abel said as he scratched his chin. 
"I was coming back from a trip to the outhouse when I spotted them off in
the woods."

"Were
the lights from a car or a truck?" I asked.

"Neither
one," Abel said.

"How
about a motorcycle?" Moose asked.

"No,
it wasn’t that, either."

"Enough
with Twenty Questions, Abel," my grandfather said, clearly getting
frustrated with the man’s lack of communication skills.  "What
did you see?"

"Sorry. 
I appear to have gotten out of the habit of talking to folks these days. 
It looked for all the world to me like a pair of flashlights bobbing up and
down in the woods side by side, but it was deathly silent.  That’s
how I knew that it wasn’t from a motor vehicle," Abel said.

I
looked where he’d been pointing and asked, "What’s that
way?"

"Wally
Bain’s place is over in that direction," he said. 
"That’s why I told you that it might be something important."

Moose
nodded.  "Exactly what time are we talking about?"

"Three
o’clock in the morning," Abel said proudly.  "I make
that trip every night at the same time.  You could set your watch by my
kidneys."

I’d
pass on that particular offer.  "Any idea of who or what it might
have been?"

"Not
a clue," Able said.  "I just thought it was odd, that’s
all."

"Did
you happen to see where they were headed?" I asked.

"That
was kind of strange, too, now that you mention it.  Both lights came
toward me at first, but then all of a sudden they vanished as they headed in
the other direction down the old hunting road," Abel explained. 
"That whole path’s pretty torn up from the storm, so I doubt they
walked all the way back to the main road.  Eventually it loops back to the
highway, but no one but a madman would drive it in either direction if they had
any other choice.  It’s bad enough to walk it."

"If
they came in by the opposite way, they couldn’t have driven very
far.  That road’s been blocked by a recently fallen tree.  It
must have come down in the storm," Moose said.  "We saw it
across the path ourselves."

Abel
scratched his bare chin, and then he said, "I don’t know what you
think
you saw, but that tree didn’t come down until
after
Wally was
stabbed.  I heard the chainsaw myself."

"When
exactly was that?" I asked.

"It
had to be around nine in the morning.  I didn’t think much of it at
the time, and since it was well after the lights I saw earlier, I never put the
two things together.  Some folks from town who are too cheap to buy their
Christmas trees from the lots in the city poach a pine from back in the
woods.  I get one from back there myself."

"Did
you happen to notice who was back there cutting?" Moose asked.

"No,
I’m sorry to say that I was sitting with a sick pig.  Anyway, I
thought you might like to know about the lights."

"I’m
curious about one thing," I asked him.  "You keep saying
lights.  Are you
sure
that there was more than one?"

"Why
do you ask?"

"I
noticed that there are a lot of reflectors on the drive up to your
place," I said.  "Could one beam have been reflected into two
before you saw it?"

Abel
thought about it, and then he shrugged.  "Now that I think about it,
I can’t be sure.  It could have been one person on that path all
along, but it wasn’t more than two or three, at least not with the lights
I saw."

"So,
we’re either looking for someone working alone, or two or three folks
acting together," Moose said, the exasperation clear in his voice.

"That
sounds about right to me," Abel said.  With a look of keen interest,
he asked, "Are you two heading back into town by any chance?"

Moose
nodded.  "I’m taking Victoria home, and then I’m headed
that way afterwards.  Why do you ask?"

Abel
picked up a bushel basket that was loaded with corn that he had nearby. 
"I was kind of hoping that you could drop this off at Doc Piper’s
place on your way and save me a trip."

"Are
you paying down your bill with your corn, Abel?" Moose asked with a
smile.

"The
doc and I have an understanding," Abel said as he nodded. 
"The deal is, I keep him in corn, firewood, and wild honey, and he tends
my needs.  I like a man who’s not afraid to barter."

"I
bet you do," Moose said.  "Sure, throw it in the bed and
I’ll see that he gets it."

"Good
man," Abel said with a smile.

Moose
asked, clearly joking, "All I want to know is what’s my pay for
delivering it?"

Abel
reached into the bed and pulled out a single ear of corn.  "There,
that ought to cover your expenses.  If you like it, come on back. 
I’ll make you a deal for more that’s so good that you won’t
believe it."

"I
know better than try to horse trade with you, Abel," Moose said as he
shook the man’s hand.  "Thanks for the information, and the
ear of corn."

"I
just hope that it will help you catch that killer.  It’s bad for
business when someone starts getting rid of farmers around here.  Tell me,
who am I supposed to swap with if everybody else is gone?"

As we
drove back toward town, Moose said, "Well, that meeting wasn’t
nearly as productive as I’d hoped it would be when we left the
diner."

"I
don’t know about that," I said.  "Abel thought it could
be useful information, and even if it doesn’t pan out, I’m happy
for the opportunity to meet him.  I like that man."

"I
figured you might," Moose said with a smile.

"Why,
because I’m drawn to quirky folks?"

"You
wouldn’t be my granddaughter if you weren’t," Moose
answered.  "I just hope it’s not another dead end."

"Come
on.  It has to be significant, if we can just figure out what it means,
don’t you think?"

"Maybe,
maybe not.  It might mean something, or nothing at all, just like Abel
said when he first told us.  Victoria, that’s all we need, another
wild goose to go off chasing to nowhere."

"Don’t
forget that one of these days, if we follow enough of them, we might just end
up catching a killer," I said as Moose pulled up to the house I shared
with Greg.

"Stranger
things have been known to happen," Moose said.  "Good night, Victoria.  Do we start digging again bright and early tomorrow?"

"I’m
willing if you are," I said.

"I’ll
be at the diner first thing, then."

As I
got out and closed the door, I asked, "First thing for you, or for
me?"

"If
I’m not there at the crack of noon, you have my blessing to rouse me out
of bed yourself," Moose said.

I
waited until he drove away, and then I glanced up at the stars before I headed
in.  Despite the chill in the air, I stood there in silence staring
towards the sky.

Greg
came out a minute later.  "Victoria, is something wrong?" he
called out from the darkened porch.