Peter Grist - Flashback

“Oh craps, what now!” he exclaimed as he looked ahead. A few miles off in the distance he saw the flashing red and blue lights of an emergency vehicle, or maybe more than one. If it was Hodiak his deputy it was no problem, he would just order him to turn around and head back to the station because he had already sorted out the issue. He didn’t trust the numbnuts monkey as his moral compass was set rigidly north, and he was a Polack to boot. No way was he ever going to be invited to be part of the brotherhood. But from this distance, he couldn’t be sure. He doused the lights on the car but kept going at full speed, just making out the center line on the blacktop. His options were running out as he flew passed a small clump of trees and thicket on the right. He hammered his right foot down on the brake and was forcing the gear lever into reverse before the car had become stationary. Tires squealed as he reversed a hundred yards up the road then back into first gear and pulled the car down off the road onto the rutted, dusty earth of the ploughed field behind the trees. He put the car in neutral so he could take his foot off the brake pedal and extinguish the brake lights but kept the engine running. He had to wait less than a minute before an ambulance came speeding by with lights flashing but no sirens on. In a moment it had gone and was just a colorful blur in Rosen’s rearview mirror. He waited another long thirty seconds then selected first gear and started towards the road but no sooner than he had got the Crown Vic into motion than he jammed his foot on the brake, got it back into reverse and put it back behind the trees. Ahead of him he saw a small cavalcade of more flashing lights that had just bridged the mound where the rail tracks crossed the road. They were away off but getting closer quickly and this was the only cover he could see. He sat patiently as the lights came towards him. Instinctively he ducked down as four Police Dodge Chargers, two vans and another EMT wagon raced passed his place of concealment. They never slowed, just kept going straight on down the road. Again he waited for another half a minute then bounced the car back onto the road and hit the gas back towards Ludlow. He couldn’t help but smile to himself, he knew he was going to make a clean getaway and leave these dumb shmucks sniffing around their own backsides looking for clues. He hit the gas harder then shifted into top gear.

“Urgh, I think I just found something.” said the taller of the two men digging. John moved closer to the hole in the ground and was joined by Linda as he shone the torchlight down. The beam clearly illuminated a lock of blonde hair.

“Put the spades down and use your hands now; I don’t want her damaged any more than she is already.” Linda said to the two diggers. They didn’t move, they just looked up at John and Linda in shock. John pulled back the bolt on his hunting rifle and pointed it directly at the man who had found the girl.

“Do it now, before I decide I don’t need you two anymore and do it myself.”

The two men looked at each, nodded and dropped to their knees. The hole was now wide enough that they could work side by side. They started scooping out big clumps of clay-like earth from around where the hair showed through and threw it behind them. Within seconds a pale face appeared through the muck, the face of a little girl. She looked as she did before when Ed and Linda had found her, as if she were just sleeping, with hardly any decay at all. The clay-like soil had preserved them as if they had been mummified.

“Don’t touch her, don’t move her,” warned Linda. “Just work down and find her body.”

They did as they were told and started shuffling backwards to clear around the small body grunting with the effort. After just a couple of minutes the girl’s torso, clad in a pretty dress was clearly visible. The shorter of the two men scraped a big lump of clay away from the body’s right arm and as he pulled, a small brown hand and forearm flopped out onto the man’s knee. He screamed and jumped up. The whole group turned to see what was happening, captive and captures alike.

Linda knelt down beside the grave as John poured light over that part of the uncovered body. Linda looked at John and said one word. “Grace!”

Saunders reached Buster in just a few minutes. The big guys head was on his lap as if he were just having an afternoon nap. Ed gently took the barrel of the pistol and pointed it away from both of them then tugged it gently from Buster’s big hands. The metal felt sticky to the touch. Buster’s head came up as he stirred. Even in the near complete darkness under the canopy of trees, the big guy looked smaller and paler than before.

“It’s okay my friend, it’s just me Ed.”

“Mister Ed, I got one of em, I got the Mayor but da sheriff, he got away from me.”

“You did well just to do that Buster, and don’t worry about Rosen, we’ll catch up with him very soon. George will be back in a couple of minutes with some help to get you back to the cars but I just want a quick look under your hands there okay?” He had seen many bullet wounds in Vietnam and knew stomach wounds were the worst type to get. Buster nodded his head and tried lifting his arms a little but they felt like lead. Ed gave him a hand and peaked under Buster’s yellow check shirt and slightly lifted the blood-soaked handkerchief then placed it gently back. He reached around the giant’s torso and felt around his back, feeling for an exit wound which was usually much bigger than the entry wound, but he found nothing.

“Okay, you’re doing fine Buster, just stick with me and we’ll get through this.”

“Well, to tell the truth Boss, I don’t really feel any pain, I just feel real tired like I could sleep a hundred years.”

“You can sleep soon Buster, but not yet. Stay awake for now. Hey, tell me how you met your wife?”

The big man smiled as he reminisced about his wife, how they met in high school but were both too shy to talk to each other until one day after church service Elsa had bucked up the courage to ask Buster out on a date. “She always said that if we had waited ‘til I asked her we would never have gotten together at all!” His words poured out but were slowing down. Ed kept him talking until George returned five minutes later, out of breath but with another of Buster’s friends, BJ.

“We got here as quick as we could,” he panted, “ Linda has called for a medic.” He knelt down beside his injured friend and tenderly took the hand that was holding down the handkerchief. “Buster, they found her, they found Grace.”

“They found her, they found my baby?” Life came back into the man and with a strength that surprised all of them he started to stand.

“Buster no! You gotta get some help!” cried George. He shrugged them off as if they were a dream and started to stagger back towards the glade. They all realized it would be futile to try and stop him seeing his little girl so George and Ed caught up with him and took the weight off of him on either side and walked slowly back to the others while BJ headed for John’s pick-up and the bottom of the hill. Within a few minutes Buster was almost completely exhausted but somehow he just kept on plodding, one foot in front of the other, his two compatriots taking more and more of the big man’s weight as they fought their way through the trees. Buster found another burst of energy as they spotted lights up ahead and heard talking. While Ed had been away from the clearing, the diggers had been swopped around and now both the blonde girl in the red and yellow dress and Grace Benjamin were almost completely unearthed. Eugene ‘Buster’ Benjamin burst back into the clearing and ran unaided to the pile of earth near the middle. He sank to his knees at the foot of the now very wide grave and took in the sight of the two girls lying before him. Complete silence engulfed the woods, even the animals and birds seemed to understand the significance of the moment and dared not tweet or coo. George came to his side and offered a hand. He took it gladly and his friend helped him down the few feet into the ground. The gravediggers jumped out as the big man came in. Using the last of his strength he crawled up to his daughter and took both her young hands in his large calloused palms. On his knees, he raised her hands to his mouth and kissed them. His tears ran down his face and on to her hands.