Installment #8
Chapter 12
12
As evening came on, the reflection of the range fire flickered brightly across the windshield of Sheriff Cady’s squad car. He had stopped off to check up on Mike and Mike before heading home for a late supper. He watched as tiny orange flames twisted and danced in a line just over the top of his shotgun mounted on the dashboard.
From where he was parked on the side of the gravel road, he could keep an eye on the fire—and the two firebugs who had started it. He stared, mesmerized by the range fire’s likeness in the glass until Mike or Mike – it was too dark to make out which -went screaming across the burning field on an all-terrain vehicle.
They were patrolling behind the fire line, making sure their fire crept forward in the direction they intended. But it was a big field, and Sheriff Cady thought it a good idea to double-check their work for them. He was about to get out of his car when he saw lights coming up on the road behind him.
The headlights grew brighter as they drew nearer, then slowing. Deputy Randall pulled his squad car up alongside the sheriff’s.
“Hey,” Randall said.
“Hey.”
“Why didn’t you want me to tell you over the radio?”
“Too many folks with scanners,” Sheriff Cady said. “No big deal, just got a feeling. No reason to go spooking the nosy.”
“We could have used code,” Randall said. “Like call him Secretariat or Seattle Slew.”
“True. But then we would have had to work that out ahead of time, right? Can’t say on the radio, hey, let’s call that Walt fella Seattle Slew now can we?”
“Yeah, I guess. Anyway, he’s still there.”
“You saw him?”
“His truck,” Randall said. “Still parked at the motel, right in front of his room.”
“But did you see him?”
“Nope. Just his truck. But where’s he going to go that he don’t go in his truck?”
“It would be better if you had seen him,” Sheriff Cady said.
“What’re you afraid he’s up to?”
“Hell, if I know. If I did, I wouldn’t be so interested in where he is now. I’d just meet him wherever it is he’s going to do whatever it is he came to Eden to do. Assuming there is anything he came to do.”
“You don’t think it’s just like he claims? Looking for the deceased?”
“He was looking for her, I buy that much,” Sheriff Cady said. “But it’s the why. I reckon there’s more to it than just love, if you want to call it that.”
“You think?”
“Just a hunch.”
“I don’t know,” Randall said. “That love, it’s a pretty strong monkey once it climbs on your back. Tough to buck off.”
“Well, if he’s still here tomorrow, I’ll have more than just a hunch, won’t I?,” Sheriff Cady said, then motioning toward the fire. “Look at these idiots.”
Mike and Mike were racing. Their ATV’s leaped back and forth through the flames.
“Gee whiz, I don’t know why you don’t trust them, Sheriff?” Deputy Randall said, laughing. “They seem awfully professional to me.”
“Uh-huh. Going to have professional black eyes if they burn one more acre of range than they’re supposed to. I was just getting ready to walk the perimeter.”
“Want me to tag along?”
“Suit yourself.”
Sheriff Cady grabbed a small fire extinguisher from under the seat and waited for Randall to park his squad car. The two men took off walking down the road, heading toward the back section of the field where the fire had been started and already burned off.
“Full-on dark now, ain’t it?” Randall said. He was looking over his shoulder at the fire behind them. “That sucker really stands out in the evening, don’t it?”
Sheriff Cady glanced back at the fire, grunting his agreement. “Just keep an eye out for stray fires. Neither Mike has what you might call an eye for detail.”
They walked along the shoulder of the road, watching for small, unnoticed fires down in the ditch.
“Man, you can really taste the smoke, can’t you?” Randall said. “Tastes like it smells. But it looks like Mike and Mike did an okay job of it.”
Sheriff Cady just grunted.
“Better keep checking though, huh, Sheriff?”
Sheriff Cady hummed in agreement. They walked on.
In the distance, they could hear the whining of the ATVs. Whenever Mike and Mike rode out of earshot, they heard the fire’s low roar as it ate up the wheat stalks.
Stopping abruptly, Sheriff Cady pointed down into the ditch and without a word exchanged, Randall hopped into the gully. He stomped around trying to scare up embers but turned up nothing. After climbing out of the ditch, he and Sheriff Cady continued down the side of the road.
“How about that Walt, huh?” Randall said.
“Like I said, it’s just a hunch.”
“No, not that. I meant there but for the grace of God, you know? He seems like a good old boy.”
“Good old boy who got caught trying to rip off a horse track, sounds like to me,” Sheriff Cady said. “Steal from the thieves. That’s the way to do it if you’re going to do it, I guess.”
“That’s what I mean. He seems all right. A lot like you or me, just living. Likes horses and working and whatnot. I mean, come on, you knew Joni.”
“Geri.
“There you go. Anyone goes by different names, well, I don’t got to tell you. You met her. You just know it wasn’t his idea.”
“I don’t know that,” Sheriff Cady said.
“Of course you don’t know that. But you and I know it, you know?”
“Maybe.”
“Yeah, I bet he was just floating along like the rest of us and here she comes, looking like she did. He follows along. Of the two, who would you say was behind it?”
“Don’t matter what I say.”
“But you know people, how they are,” Randall said. “I’m just saying, the right woman—or rather I should say the wrong woman—she comes along and it could be you or me led astray.”
“Horseshit.”
Sheriff Cady pointed down into the ditch.
“You doubt it?” Randall said, jumping into the ditch. Kept on talking as he kicked around at the high grass.
“Love is like walking over hot coals. That’s what my wife said to me the other day. Elaine reads a lot. Books about women and men and relationships, stuff like that. Don’t interest me much—I like history books and travel books. But she likes them kind, then feels the need to fill me in on what she read. And she said that to me just the other day: Love is like walking over hot coals. Or, I don’t know, maybe it’s like walking through this here range fire.”
Randall stopped kicking at the grass, glancing up at the sheriff.
“I mean, whatever,” Randall said.
“Yeah, whatever,” Sheriff Cady said, his right eye squinting, opposite eyebrow cocked. A look that begged, Are we really having this conversation? Then his face turned to a smirk.
“Hey hotfoot,” Sheriff Cady said. “You’re standing in fire.”
The grass around Randall suddenly lit up with a hiss. He kicked around, stomping at the grass and launching flaming bits of grass into the air. The orange embers floated around him like lightning bugs as he worked to stamp out the small fire.
Randall turned in circles and saw the fire was spreading rapidly around him. He kicked furiously. He appeared to be losing the battle.
Sensing his deputy’s desperation, Sheriff Cady bounded down into the ditch, spraying white foam from the fire extinguisher.
Side by side, they fought the small fire for a few moments before it was completely out. The two men stood in the ditch, catching their breath, looking for any place that looked like it might rekindle. Once he was satisfied the fire was snuffed out completely, Sheriff Cady climbed from the ditch.
“Why don’t you go on home,” Sheriff Cady said. He extended a hand to Randall to help him out of the ditch.
“Can you handle it?” Randall said.
“Yeah. I need to have another Smokey The Bear conversation with Mike and Mike.”
“Knock their heads together for me, will ya?.”
“Go on,” Sheriff Cady said. “Tell Elaine I said hello. Gonna walk on something hot, may as well be something that matters.”