C. Box - Nowhere to Run

Brent’s face got redder, and Joe could see the cords in his neck pull taut from his clavicle to his jawline.

McCue said, “He knows what’s in your statement and the report. I told him all that.”

Joe wasn’t sure. He looked to Brent’s face for clues but read only fury. Jenna wouldn’t meet his eyes.

Brent closed his eyes and took several deep breaths, obviously to calm himself. A full minute passed. Joe started wondering where his pepper spray was amidst the clutter. Just in case.

Finally, Brent said, “To accuse me of anything is beyond ridiculous. I love my Diane more than life itself.”

Joe felt ashamed. “Really, Mr. Shober, I didn’t mean to imply you were guilty of anything.”

Brent waved him off and continued. “Do you realize, Pickett, what a special girl she is? That she has the capability of representing her family and her country in the Olympics? Do you know how rare that is? Do you realize that in the life of a long-distance runner, you get maybe- maybe -two shots at the Games? That’s how short the window is. And if you miss your chance, you never get it back for the rest of your life. You grow old knowing you had your shot and you didn’t take it.”

Joe said, “Are we talking about Diane here?”

McCue was faster than he looked, and was able to throw himself in front of Brent Shober before the man could leap over the desk and throttle Joe.

McCue and Jenna managed to get Brent turned around, and McCue wrapped him up and guided him out the door. Brent yelled over his shoulder, “YOU’VE GOT TO HELP ME! YOU’VE GOT TO HELP ME! ” even as McCue pushed him across Joe’s lawn toward the Expedition. Jenna followed, her head down.

As they reached the SUV, he turned and looked back at the house, as if sizing it up for demolition.

After they drove away, Joe moaned, collapsed on the couch, and put his head in his hands. He ached for Brent and Jenna Shober. What torment they’d gone through. Torment like that would likely turn him into someone like Brent, or worse. He didn’t have to like the man to feel sorry for him.

He closed his eyes and tried to recall the fourth person on the mountains, but her face became no clearer.

After clearing away the breakfast dishes and noting that the girls had eaten the magic bacon but little else, Joe called the FBI field office in Cheyenne and asked for Special Agent Chuck Coon.

When the receptionist asked who was calling, Joe gave his name. When she came back, she said Agent Coon was in a meeting and would have to get back to him. So Joe called Coon’s private cell phone number.

“Hello?” Coon said.

“It’s me, Joe.”

“Damn, I didn’t recognize the number. If I knew it was you, I would have let it go to voice mail.”

“You gave me this number last year, remember?” Joe said. “You said to use it if I couldn’t get through to you.”

“That was last year,” Coon said.

When they were both working on the Stenko case, Coon wanted Joe to be in contact. Joe pictured the agent on the other end of the conversation. He had close-cropped brown hair, small features, and a boyish, alert face that didn’t jibe with his tightly wound manner. He had a young son and another child on the way. He’d worked for several years under Tony Portenson before Portenson got his wish and got reassigned. Joe assumed Coon and the entire FBI office had sighed a collective sigh of relief when Portenson walked out the door.

Joe asked about the baby on the way (she was due in a month) and Coon’s son (four and starting preschool), and he briefed the agent on his family and how things were going now that April was back with them. It all took two minutes. Then: silence.

Which said to Joe that Coon was being very cautious.

“You know why I’m calling,” Joe said.

After another pause, Coon said, “Why don’t you tell me just so, you know, I don’t start giving national counterterrorism secrets away or something like that?”

“The Grim Brothers,” Joe said.

“I was afraid that was what you’d say.”

“Tell me about them.”

“There’s nothing to be said.”

“Which means exactly what?”

“Joe,” Coon said with some finality, “the Grim Brothers don’t exist as such.”

Joe’s stomach hurt. “Please translate? As such?”

“Exactly that. They don’t exist.”

“Are you saying I made them up?”

“Not exactly. But I can’t go much further than what I already said. Let’s just leave it at this: it’s a matter we’re keeping our eye on. The bureau doesn’t comment on ongoing investigations. You, of all people, should know that.”

“Man, I’m confused.”

“So,” Coon said, “how is that dog of yours? Tube, wasn’t it?”

“Not so fast,” Joe said. “I need to get something straight. Are you saying they don’t exist because you can’t find them in your database? Or that you think I made them up?”

Coon sighed. “They’re not in the database, Joe. Caleb, Camish Grim, or G-R-I-M-M, or Grimmengruber, or any combination thereof. They gave you a false name, Joe.”

“Why would they do that ?”

Coon exhaled, as if he were going to answer Joe, but he caught himself. “I’ve already said enough, I think.”

“But I’m investigating them, too. So’s the governor and DCI. I thought we shared information these days?”

Coon laughed, “When did you come up with that one? Nice try, though. Besides, at some point in this conversation, were you going to let me know you’re on administrative leave? Did you think I wouldn’t know that?”

Said Joe, “Chuck, what is going on here? Why are you guys so interested in what happened up there? From what I know, it’s purely a local or state matter on the surface unless you got asked to assist. I know the state didn’t ask you to come in on this, and I doubt Sheriff Baird would. So that means there’s some other reason. I don’t buy it you have nothing else to do and you’re bored.”

“As I said, the FBI doesn’t comment on ongoing. ”

“Sheesh, I know, I know. But why is there federal interest?”

“I’m sorry, Joe. That’s the best I can do.”

Joe said, “You’ve done nothing .”

“I’m sorry you feel that way, Joe. My best to Marybeth and the girls. And don’t call me on my cell again.” With that, he punched off.

Joe closed his phone and stared out the window. Ed Nedney was back outside putting fertilizer on his lawn.

Despite what Coon withheld, he’d inadvertently confirmed a couple of things. There was an investigation going on, and it was obviously big enough he’d felt the need to play it coy. That the bureau hadn’t tipped off DCI or the governor of their investigation was suspicious. Even so, Joe was heartened they believed him and his story after all.

Joe spent the afternoon walking aimlessly though the house with his bucket of tools, but his mind was back up in the Sierra Madre. He tried scenario after scenario and came up with nothing plausible. When he tried to link up the Grim Brothers, the FBI, Terri Wade, the mystery woman, the UP. he got nowhere.

He realized he’d forgotten about dinner, and he looked at his watch. There was an hour before Marybeth and the girls got home. He’d told Marybeth he’d cook burgers on the grill, but he’d forgotten to get the meat out of the freezer and he hadn’t been to the store to buy buns or the other things on the list she’d left him. On the way to the kitchen to see what he could scramble up, the doorbell rang.

It was Jenna Shober. She was alone and crying.

“How many more of these are there?” Smith asked, gesturing toward the perfectly round lake in the bottom of the alpine cirque. Vertical rock walls rose sharply on three sides of the water, and the fourth side was sloped and grassy. A trout nosed the surface and concentric rings rippled out across the still water until it finally flattened again.