Beneath a Winter Moon (13 page)

Alan Tucker opened the passenger door of the Cessna and tossed a satchel inside. “Hey, now,” the scrawny photographer said in protest, “that gear is breakable.”

“Sorry, Mr. Craig” Alan said. “I wasn’t thinking. My apologies.”

The man scowled, but nodded. “And you are sure that the cameras mounted underneath the plane are all set…and that my trigger will work?”

“Yup,” Alan answered. “It is working perfectly. You will have full control by using the button, or you can use the auto settings.”

There were two cameras mounted underneath the aircraft, each coordinated to snap photos in unison with the other. One was set to take 35mm shots and the other, digital. The photographer could take the photographs manually or he could use the automatic settings, which could take 12, 18, or 24 photos in a series. The series of finished photos could then be put together for a slide or fused for a panoramic shot. Craig wanted to get several hours worth of low altitude photos over the mountains and
Baron
Lake
but he knew he would be limited today due to the weather.

“How long do we have?” he asked Alan.

“Oh, I’d say we have probably thirty or forty minutes of good light and clear sky once we get across the lake and into the north. We’re a good hour ahead of the storm and it will take half an hour to get there, so we do need to get moving. You know, you sure picked the wrong time of the year for these aerial photos.”

“So I am reminded each and every day,” said Craig. His first name was also Alan, which was a bit of a problem for…
Alan
…so he had asked to be called by his last name.

Alan heard some resentment in the man’s voice. “Yeah, I guess so. But hey, don’t you worry about today. You will get some great shots. I’ve double-checked the digital review on your laptop just as you asked and it works great. You will have complete swivel control for a full 360 degrees.”

“Thanks, Alan. You
have
been a lot of help.” And the young man had been. Craig didn’t think that any other pilot would have done the work that Alan had…never mind on such short notice.

“Well, that’s because it interests me, Mr. Craig. Plus I’m always looking for ways to expand my business. These photo shoots have given me some ideas of my own.” He slid a hand along a wing, checking for tears or cracks. “I might do something like this myself and add it to my brochure …you know, aerial photos of hunters while they are at their camps or in the areas they will be hunting in. Might turn out to be profitable.”

“I wish you luck with that venture, then,” Craig said and he genuinely meant it.

Alan finished checking the aircraft’s exterior. “You can climb in, Mr. Craig”

Craig stepped up into the passenger side of the aircraft and reached back, retrieving his laptop computer. He hooked the camera control cable to the laptop, and held the small thumb-button in his right hand. Alan checked to see that Craig was strapped in and then gave him a thumb’s-up. “We will be up and flying in a couple minutes.” Alan said, switching some controls on the console. “You can go ahead and power up your gear, now.”

Within half an hour, they were flying low over the northern lake and the rocky wilderness on its northern side. Craig asked Alan to loop back around certain areas and then afterward told him to go as far as he could into the mountains. Forty minutes later, the aircraft began to hit turbulence as a new and heavy storm system inched its way south into their path.

“That about does it,” Alan said. “I’m turning back and heading for the airfield, now.”

“Okay,” Craig said, “Would you fly over that new cabin and dock that we saw earlier, if you can? I really like the feel of it. Looks like a snapshot out of time from up here.”

Alan smiled. “That is the Svensons’ new cabin. He has a new long-term hunting lease down there. You might want to look him up once you have the photographs ready. He’d probably be interested in buying some.”

“I’ll do that if I have time,” Craig said. “I think I have some great shots.”

After landing, Alan unhooked the belly-cameras from the Cessna but left the mounting system in place. The snow was howling all around them as they gathered the rest of the gear. Alan was surprised at how calm Craig was during the snowy, windy landing and he felt that the guy must have some gumption not to have yelped in fear at least once. Craig had signed up for eight full hours of flight time over the mountains and had only used about two, so Alan would be on stand-by, ready to fly again as soon as they could.

The two men stopped at Enoch’s for an early lunch, where they listened to the latest weather forecast and made tentative plans for a flight sometime the next day, weather permitting. Alan dropped Craig off at his hotel and drove his Ford Bronco to his trailer, which sat about five miles south of town on a lonely, snow-covered stretch of grass. He was lucky that his place was on the electrical grid. If he had settled another mile further south, he would have had to use a generator. Alan loved the little spot, though, glad to be well outside of the town. He could step outside at night and see nothing but the stars and the moon…no lights from town, no street- lights or traffic on the lonely road…just the night.

He parked the Bronco in the drive, happy to see Kathy’s jeep already there. The top of the jeep had about four inches of snow on it, so he figured she must have come over pretty early. She opened the door to the trailer and waived. He waved back and smiled.

He settled in and flipped on a football game that he had recorded the night before. He dozed occasionally while Kathy studied. She was a part time college student, working for her Bachelor’s in English. She hoped to become a teacher at one of the local schools…a local girl who loved Hope and wanted to stay there and teach in the schools and maybe even raise her own children.

Alan jumped when the phone rang. “Want me to get it?” Kathy asked.

“Nah,” he said, picking up the phone.

It was Craig and he sounded upset. He said that he had to show something to Alan and asked if he would please drive back into town to take a look. When Alan asked what it was, Craig said that he would rather not try to describe it over the phone…he wanted to show him. Alan could hear the anxiety in the man’s voice and so he agreed, telling Craig that he would be there in about half an hour. Kathy frowned but understood once Alan described how worried Craig sounded.

Half an hour later, he knocked on Craig’s hotel room door. Craig opened it and motioned for Alan to come in. Alan saw large photographs scattered around the room. Craig noticed Alan looking the room over, and said, “Some are still drying. Had to keep them flat and separated.” He motioned for Alan to have a seat at a small round table near a window.

He brought over a series of photos and laid them on the table in front of Alan, and then handed him a large, round magnifying glass. “Please take a look at these and tell me what you think.”

“Look, Mr. Craig, I hope you didn’t call me over here just for an opinion on your photos. I mean…I don’t mind so much, really, but I am no judge of quality…”

 Craig cut him off, “Please just look at them,”

Alan paused. “Okay.” He took the heavy magnifying glass and looked at the first aerial photograph. He saw horse stables and a fence, which surrounded the stables and extended further, forming a corral.
Nothing unusual
, he thought. He slowly moved the magnifying glass toward the cabin. Just as he moved the edge of the glass away from the stables, he saw it. “That looks like a dead horse.” He said.

“Yes, it is,” Craig replied. “Now look at the boards underneath and around the horse. It looks like he broke open the fence.”

“Yep, I see it. Looks like the horse might have tried to break through. Might have broken his neck or something.”

“Okay, now look to the front of the cabin—look closely at the porch and the snow around it”

Alan didn’t like what he saw there. The snow around the porch was stained with dark splotches and protruding from the porch, hanging down into the snow, was what looked like a leg and a boot. He eased the magnifying glass up, further from the photo, trying to get a better look. “It looks like a leg sticking out from the porch.”

“Yes, yes…that is exactly what I thought. Now, look to the very far top right-hand corner of the picture, where the trees begin.”

After a moment Alan said, “A man on a horse? I can see his shadow better than I can see him.”

“Exactly, exactly,” Craig said, sounding excited. “Now, go to the second photo and look at those same areas.

Alan could see a saddled horse in front of the cabin and then noticed that the leg was gone. It was no longer sticking from the porch. Craig slipped a third photo in front of Alan before he could say anything. This one was the worst angle of the three but he could clearly see that now the dead horse was also gone and so was the saddled horse that had been tied up to the porch.

“That photo is from the second flyover. Here….” Craig said, sliding two more photos toward him. “See the smoke on this one?”

He did see it. Something just in the edge of the woods to the north was on fire. He wondered why he didn’t notice the fire during the flyover, but shrugged it off. The wind had been blowing hard and would probably have dispersed the smoke into the atmosphere.

“Now, look at this one. This is the one I am most concerned with.”

While they flew over the area, Alan had explained that the cabin belonged to the Svensons, who had just built it and took a long lease on the land. Alan said that he considered Steven and Jenny to be good friends, people he had known since he was in High School when he was interested in flying and was trying to get odd jobs at the airfield.

Alan held the magnifying glass over the photo. It took him only moments to see what Craig had obviously wanted him to see; a man on a horse behind the stables, dragging a bundle toward the trees. Alan’s blood went cold and goose bumps broke out on his neck. It looked like the thing being dragged was a body…
a human body
. He set the magnifying glass down.

“You saw it? You think it was a body, don’t you?”

Alan said nothing, but picked up the magnifying glass to look again.

The photo clearly showed a rope tied around what had to be a human leg. The leg was hiked awkwardly skyward as the horse and rider pulled the body. The worst part was that the body looked like it was mutilated, like the chest and abdomen were somehow opened up. The dark splotches had to be blood.

“Yes, I do.” He said, breathlessly. “I think it really is a body and it looks all torn up, too.”

“What do we do now?” asked Craig.

“We tell someone...the authorities. They’ve got to get up there and check this out.”

“Good,” Craig said. “That is why I wanted you to come. I wanted someone who knows this land and knows the people to be there with me when I show these. You would be a great help, Alan. Will you come?”

“Of course,” Alan said, feeling a little nauseated. “They would ask me to come in and answer questions, anyway, I suppose. More than that, though...I want to know if the Svensons are okay. I sure hope that wasn’t one of them in that photo...the body
or
the one doing the dragging.”

“So, you can’t tell exactly who that was…I mean…if it was a body,” Craig asked.

Alan thought for a moment. “Oh it is a body, Mr. Craig and unfortunately I might end up knowing
knowing
exactly who it is…but I don’t care to take a guess. The folks who run this place are my friends.” Before he realized it, however, Alan heard himself saying, “It might be Kyle…a guy who works for Steven …or it could be one of the Svensons’ clients. It might even be Steven. I don’t know…” his voice trailed off. He could not believe what he was saying. He hoped that the man on the horse had a good explanation for what he was doing. Maybe he was moving the body to protect it…but that didn’t make any sense. Anyone with half a brain would know not to move a body, regardless of the situation.
I wonder if he was going to burn that body?