A Long Road Back: Final Dawn: Book 8 (15 page)

     Since they were now in communication with one another, Marty sometimes called in to check up on things when he was in his office and got bored.

     But this wasn’t one of those occasions.

     “Go ahead, Marty, it’s Mark.”

     “Hey Mark. How are things going over there?”

     “Not bad, sir. How’s the thriving metropolis of Eden, Texas?”

     “Oh, it’s still here, such as it is. We have a lot more houses than we have people. But the mayor is encouraging the young folks to have babies by offering to deed an abandoned property for the parents of every baby born for the next five years. I understand it’s given the youngsters something to do at night again. Maybe someday we can revive the population with our own baby boom.”

     “Sounds like a good idea. Planning for the future is something we’ve gotten out of the habit of doing.”

     “Yep. Kinda hard to think about the future when you’re busy trying to survive from day to day.”

     “Anything we can do for you today, or are you just calling to chat?”

     “I wanted to talk to Frank if he’s available.”

     “Sorry, he’s tied up in a meeting right now. Want me to have him call you back when he’s done?”

     “Sure, if you don’t mind. Tell him I got my first murder case, and I want to pick his brain a little bit. I heard tell he was a high-fallutin’ homicide detective in San Antonio for many years and thought he might tell me how to get started on it.”

     “Sure. I’ll have him give you a shout when he’s done. How’s Glenna and those kids?”

     “Oh, they’re adjusting well, I think. They’re happy to be out of their old house and into the new one. Too many bad memories in the old house, I guess. The oldest one found a new friend about the same age. I wish we had more kids that survived.”

     “When are you guys gonna come see us for dinner?”

     “Soon. Very soon. Let me talk to Frank about the murder case, and if he wants to see crime scene photos or anything we’ll bring them by and stay for supper.”

     “Okay. Good enough. I’ll have him call you.”

     “Thank you. Talk to you later…”

     Mark, like most of the other adults in the compound, had heard the rumors about the mysterious trip the Bryans and Brad had taken the morning after Sarah came home. But it failed to register when Marty mentioned he was working on a murder case. He went back to watching the monitors and never gave Marty’s request another thought.

     “So,” Rusty said. “If we decide to restock the mine, and we invite Marty and Lenny to join us, how many others do you think they’ll bring in with them?”

     “I don’t know. Probably a few. Maybe quite a few. But it shouldn’t be a problem. If he and Lenny help gather provisions, we should have plenty of everything. Why do you ask?”

     “Oh, I’m not worried about the provisions. I was just hoping he’d bring a couple of women in with him. I’m thirty now, and not getting any younger. This whole living in a mine thing put a damper on my social life. I’d like to have a woman of my own so I can stop trying to think of ways to steal yours.”

     “I’m not worried about you stealing Hannah. She has better taste than that. And I thought you had your sights set on Rachel.”

     “I did until she fell for Joel. Now I’m back to square one.”

     “Well just hang in there buddy. We’ll get you a woman of your very own. There’s bound to be someone out there who’s desperate enough to settle for a broken down thirty year old man. It’s just a matter of finding her.”

-28-

     Back in the dining room, Joel Hance was getting a crash course on how the group’s system of government worked.

     Rachel leaned over and whispered to him.

     “They patterned it after the way a lot of Indian tribes did it. Any adult can call a meeting for any reason he feels is important. The person who calls the meeting stands up and explains what the meeting is all about. Then each person with something to say takes their turn to say whatever they want.

     “There is no shouting or arguing, and children are welcome to observe the process but aren’t allowed to say anything. After the last person has his say, if there’s a decision to be made it’s put to a vote.

     “If the vote ends in a tie, the three elders will vote to make the final decision.”

     “The elders?”

     “Yes. The three oldest people in the group. Men or women, it doesn’t matter. There are always three elders, and they are not allowed to abstain from voting. That way there’s always an odd number of voters and there cannot be a second tie. Everything gets resolved one way or another before everyone leaves the room.”

     “Interesting.”

     “Yeah. I thought so too. Too bad big governments can’t resolve things the way the Indians once did.”

     They turned their attention back to the front of the room, where Karen was explaining the process for making beef jerky.

     “If we have to go back into the mine, we won’t have enough feed or hay to sustain all the livestock. We’ll pare them down to just enough animals to breed. The rest we’ll butcher. Some of the meat we’ll freeze for the long term, like we did the first time we were there. The rest we’ll season and bake on very low heat until it dries. It can be reconstituted later for use in stews and soups and such, or just eaten as jerky. Either way it’ll continue to provide the protein our bodies need for many years.”

     Karen was the last one to speak. It was time to vote.

     Bryan took center stage again.

     “Karen, would you count hands for us?”

     “Sure.”

     Karen was well liked and trusted by everyone. And in the unlikely event she made a mistake, someone would call her on it. Everyone would be looking around the room and taking their own counts.

     “Those in favor of restocking the mine and then maintaining it in ready condition raise your hands now.”

     Karen’s head bobbed slightly as she scanned the room.

     She turned to Bryan and said, “Twenty six.”

     Several other heads nodded in agreement.

     “Those opposed?”

     Another group of hands went up. Karen duly counted them although she knew there was no real need in it. More than two thirds of those present had already voted for the measure.

     “Six,” she reported.

     “Any votes by proxy?”

     No one offered them. There was no reason to.

     Bryan sighed in relief. He was ready to vote by proxy on Sarah’s behalf if he needed to. If the vote was close. But had he done so, it surely would have provoked an objection. Those not agreeing with Bryan’s view would claim that Sarah was not of sound mind at the moment, and was therefore unable to give her husband proxy to vote on her behalf.

     But it didn’t come to that. In the end it wasn’t even close. The motion carried, and everyone in the group would be expected to help in the effort.

     Debbie stood up and asked, “So, where do we go from here?”

     Bryan was at a loss. He hadn’t thought past the possibility of the motion passing.

     “How about I get with Mark and Hannah and we make some volunteer sign-up sheets? We’ll break them down by categories, such as truck drivers, canning and food preparation, mechanical repairs, and whatever else we can think of. Those who sign up for a particular detail can get together and select their own leaders and priorities. Fair enough?”

     A few heads nodded, a few shoulders shrugged.

     “Okay. I’ll make sure the sign-up sheets are on the tables before dinnertime. Any other business?”

     There was none.

     “Very well. I guess we’re adjourned.”

-29-

     Bryan and Frank walked back to the control center together to brief Mark and Rusty about the meeting. Mark was glad the vote went the way it did.

     Mark relished big projects. And this one promised to be huge. He and Hannah and Bryan and Sarah had done the initial renovation and stocking of the mine before Saris 7 hit the earth. Their planning and efforts helped forty one people stay alive for the long freeze.

     They could do it again.

     For half an hour they discussed plans on how best to bring the mine up to speed again. Things were going swimmingly, until they wrapped the meeting up and Mark told Frank, “Oh. Marty Hankins called in. He wants you to give him a call. He says they found a dead body and he thinks the man was murdered. He’s looking for help to solve the case.”

     Bryan got the funniest look on his face. So did Frank. The two of them looked at one another, and at that moment Bryan knew that Frank knew. They all did.

     Mark got a sick feeling at the pit of his stomach.

     None of them, thankfully, spoke about the six hundred pound elephant in the room. It would remain one of those things that everybody thought about, but that nobody mentioned.

     Frank hoped that the murdered man they found was in no way connected to the compound or to the people in it.

     He wasn’t the only one entertaining those particular thoughts.

     Frank relieved the others on the security console and waited until they all dispersed before reaching for the microphone.

     He used an old CB term to hail his friend.

     “Hey, Marty Hankins. You got your ears on?”

     Marty was at his desk, having just downloaded eighty crime scene photos onto an old tablet.

     He was flipping through them when he heard Frank’s voice.

     “Go ahead, Frank. Thanks for getting back with me so quickly.”

     “No problem at all, my friend. How can I help you, or hurt you, whichever the case may be?”

     “I opened a homicide case yesterday. My very first one. And I know as much about solving a homicide case as you know about driving a truck. I was hoping you’d give me some pointers.”

     “I don’t mind at all. Who was the victim?”

     “White man. In his early forties, I’d guess. Gunshot victim. Somebody found him in the woods, a couple of miles east of your place.”

     “Close to my place? Hell, that’s not even in your jurisdiction, Marty.”

     “I know. My jurisdiction is within Eden’s city limits. But the county sheriff’s office don’t exist anymore. So I figure I better work the case or no one will.”

     “It’s really a case for the Texas Rangers if there’s no longer a sheriff. They might not like you tramping around on their case.”

     “Yeah, I thought about that too. But I don’t even know if there are any Texas Rangers anymore. And I wouldn’t know how to get ahold of them if there are.”

     “You got a name on the victim?”

     “Nope. He wasn’t carrying ID.”

     That didn’t surprise Frank. Nobody carried ID anymore. Frank couldn’t even remember the last time he’d seen his own wallet.

     Marty’s next comment made Frank’s skin crawl.

     “He’s got a tattoo on his back. Black ink, kind of rough drawn. Looks like it was made in prison. Martel. M-A-R-T-E-L.”

     Frank fell silent for a moment before continuing.

     “Why don’t you come by here for supper tonight? Afterwards we’ll let Glenna and the kids socialize with the others and you and I will sit down together and look at what you got. Where’s the body?”

     “At the clinic here in Eden. The local undertaker is picking it up later for burial.”

     “Did you pick up the murder weapon without smudging the prints?”

     “There was no murder weapon. At least not that I could find.”

     “Any other evidence left behind by the killer?”

     “None. Some footprints. But they weren’t good ones. I took some photos, but you can’t make out any tread marks or other features.”

     “Did you photograph the whole crime scene?”

     “Yep. I’m looking at the photos now.”

     “Bring them with you tonight.”

     Frank held his breath after asking the final question.

     “Any eye witnesses?”