Marcie's Murder (52 page)

“Suspect secured. We’re coming down.”

“Good job, Detective,” Stanley replied.

Karen guided Rachel back
down
the path. When they were into the trees, she said, “repeat after me, darlin,’
four-ten.”

“What?”

“Just say it. Four-ten.”

Rachel repeated it.

“Eight-six-seven.”

Rachel repeated it.

“Twenty-six seventy. That’s my cell number. Now say it again. Four-ten.”

Karen made
Rachel
repeat it over and over as they walked down the trail to
the
clearing where Stanley waited to take her into custody, hoping it would distract
her
from
the horror that
was about to
swallow her whole
.

3
5

The passenger portion of the helicopter cabin seated five passengers. There were two seats facing the rear, immediately behind the pilot and co-pilot, and a bench seat facing forward that could accommodate three people. Hank climbed into the cabin first and slid along the bench seat all the way to the far side, so that he was sitting behind the pilot, facing forward. Savage got in next, took one look at Hank’s knees pressing against the seat in front of him, and chose the seat immediately behind the co-pilot, facing back. Muncy sat down facing Savage. The seats were not especially luxurious, being covered in cheap cloth upholstery, and their view of the ground below was limited to what they could see through the windows on each side of them.

Hank stared at a poster on the pillar next to Savage entitled “Bell 407 Safety” that explained how not to be decapitated when you entered and exited the helicopter. They
lifted off and
swung around slowly to approach the summit of the mountain from the southwest. Hank could see the cabin below them in a small clearing about 200 feet from the top. A strip of trail wound through the trees from the cabin to the summit. The top of the mountain was shorn of all its trees, like a tonsured monk, to accommodate power lines that ran all the way along the mountain to the West Virginia border. Running parallel to the power lines was a dirt road, and as they skimmed over the point where the trail leading up from the cabin met the dirt road at the top
,
the co-pilot leaned forward and pointed.

“There he is.”

Hank adjusted his headset and moved the mike closer to his lips. “Where?”

Muncy pointed. “There. Moving northeast on the road.”

Hank saw Morris bouncing along the dirt road on his ATV. He threw a look over his shoulder, then hunched down.

“He can’t see us,” said the co-pilot, whose name was Phillips. “We’re coming at him right out of the sun.”

“But he can sure as hell hear us,” Savage said.

“Ain’t that a fact.”

They passed over Morris and kept on going along the mountain, following the road until it suddenly forked. The branch on the left angled off toward a cluster of buildings farther down along the summit. Hank leaned over and saw that the one on the right headed toward the power lines and a hydro tower in a small clearing.
H
e
reached over and tapped Muncy on the arm, then pointed at the buildings
on the left
.
“What’s that?”

“Damned if I know.”
Muncy
leaned
forward, frowning
. “
Phillips, what are those buildings and shit over there
?”

The co-pilot shrugged. “
W
eather station or something.”

“It’s a test facility,”
answered
the pilot
, whose name was Davis
. “They’re talking about putting windmills up here but there’s a lot of controversy. The power company owns most of the
mountain that isn’t part of the national forest
, bought it up a while ago, and they
built
that
test facility to measure the weather, see if there was enough wind to make it viable.”

“Are there people working up here? Right now?”

“I don’t know. I suppose. Scientists, I guess.”

“Meteorologists,” Savage said.

“Maybe he’ll go the other way at the fork,” Hank said.

“We’ll swing around and see.”
Davis
banked slowly
,
and they retraced their flight path back to the fork. Morris was still racing along the road,
a few hundred feet from the fork. T
his time he could see the helicopter
coming straight at him.

“Don’t forget he’s armed
,
”
Hank warned.

“He’s firing at us,”
Phillips
said
calmly
from his co-pilot’s seat
.
“A handgun.”

“We’re all right
.
”
Davis
put
a little more air beneath them as they passed over Morris. “Never fear.” He swung them around in a lazy arc and came back to the road in time to see Morris choose the branch to the left.

Muncy got busy on the radio with Stanley down on the ground, coordinating
the
movement of backup units from the
s
tate
p
olice and the
s
heriff’s
o
ffice to
block any escape routes at the other end of the dirt road. From what Hank could gather, there were several points at
which Morris could descend
and make his way toward Bluefield, where he
could
steal a car and
cross
the
state
border. They needed to seal off each of these escape routes while Stanley and his team raced around to intercept
him
.

“By the way,” Muncy said, turning to Hank, “
Stanley says
your detective brought the girl down for us.
She walked right up there and talked the kid into giving herself up. Put her ass on the line for Stanley and his team.”

“That sounds about right,” Hank said.

“They were all set to put a round right
through
the kid’s head,” Muncy
said
. “Stainer saved
her life
.”

“Stanley’s en route, is he?” Savage asked.

“Yeah,”
Muncy
replied, “but I
doubt
he’s
going to get up here in time
.”

Savage reluctantly agreed.

“We have to take him ourselves,” Hank said.

“I think so,” Muncy said.

“Not from this helicopter
,” Savage disagreed.

“We need to set down ahead of him,” Muncy said, “disable the ATV when he reaches us and take him down.”

“Where?” Savage frowned at him. “Where do we do that?”

They
’
d
over-flown
Morris
again.
Davis
swung around over the test facility.

“How about here?” Hank pointed at a tower beneath them that was festooned with microwave dishes and other
assorted ornaments. The tower was the first thing Morris would pass as he entered the station compound. “We could wait for him right there.”

“Sounds good.” Muncy relayed their plan to Stanley, who
had his own ideas
. As they debated it back and forth, the helicopter
passed over
Morris
again and swung around to approach him once more from the rear
.

As they came up behind him,
Phillips
suddenly leaned forward. “He’s stopped.”

“
Uh oh, h
e’s got a rifle,”
Davis
said. “
Climbing.
”

Before they could ascend out of range, however,
one of Morris’s
rounds
punched through the
floor, passed between
the co
-
pilot’s
legs on an angle, traveled over his shoulder
,
and clipped the left side of
Savage
’s headset in the back seat before passing through the roof above Muncy’s head.
Savage
grabbed
at
his left ear as
his headset was blown sideways, half-
across
his face.
Hank and Muncy ducked
as shards of plastic flew everywhere.

Davis looked over at Phillips and did a double-take. “Pete!”

“I’m all right! It missed me! Let’s get the hell outta here!”

“Christ,” Savage said,
scrabbling at the headset and
looking at blood on his hand
.
“
W
hat the hell happened?”

“We’ve been hit,” Hank said
, freeing his right ear from the headset
. “
Everyone all right in front?
”

“Jesus, my ear hurts,” Savage said.
“I can’t hear anything!”

“He nearly killed me!” Phillips yelled.

Muncy
removed his headset,
unbuckled
,
and moved forward
to
examine the left side of Savage’s head. “
Y
our ear
’s cut
.
Maybe from a piece of plastic.
” He took out a handkerchief, wadded it up
,
and gave it to Savage.

“
Look
.” Hank pointed at a hole that had been punched above Muncy’s head. “That’s where the round went.”

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Savage exploded, “the bastard nearly killed me!”

“You’re okay,” Muncy soothed. “It was close.”

“Too fucking close! Jesus Christ!”

Muncy frowned out the window. “Hey,
we passed the station.
Pilot
, where are you going?”

Davis
didn’t reply as the helicopter altered course and began to leave the ridge on a northwest heading.

Hank put his headset back on. “Davis, where are you going? We need you to set us down back there at that station.”

“
Fuck this
,” Davis said. “
We’re
outta here
.”

“Get us back there right now!”
Hank shouted.

Davis said nothing, staring straight ahead.

“Savage,” Hank said, “put your headset on and order him to turn around! Now, before we lose Morris!”

Muncy handed Savage his headset before putting on his own. Gritting his teeth, Savage held the right earphone to his ear. “Davis, turn around and put us down
where we told you
. T
hat’s an order.”

“Negative.
Too dangerous
.”

“
Look, s
et us down and then
you can
get the hell out of here!
”

They went back and forth for anoth
er angry minute
before
the pilot reluctantly banked around and
returned
to the
top of the mountain
. He refused to bring them right to the main compound of the test facility, dropping them off instead at an outlying building about 150 yards from the spot they
’
d chosen as their ambush site.
They scrabbled
out from under the rotor wash
and watched
the chopper
lift back into the air.

“We’re too far away,” Muncy complained
as they reached the shelter of the building
.

“He may have already reached the compound,” Hank agreed, drawing his gun. “Let’s go.” He led them around the building and down the driveway to the dirt road.

They paused, looked both ways, saw nothing and turned left, trotting up the road toward the next building, an open shed containing a pickup truck, a backhoe
,
and a panel truck.
Seeing no one
in the shed,
they
trotted on.

“Truck tires,” Muncy said, pointing at fresh tracks in the dirt, “but no ATV.”

Savage nodded. “Right. He
hasn
’
t gotten this far yet
.”

Hank looked at him. “You all right?”