The Wild Hog Murders (28 page)

Everyone was looking at Rhodes. He grinned, thinking he might be able to get his own talk show if things kept on going well.

Munday wasn’t grinning. He stood up and grabbed at the mic, but Rhodes backed away.

“Ed Garver,” Rhodes said, “isn’t a killer, but I think he can identify the killer. Ed got separated from some other hunters the other night when Hoss Rapinski was shot, and Ed got a look at the shooter. He’s here today to tell us who that shooter was. Isn’t that right, Ed?”

Garver looked nervous and unhappy. It was clear that he didn’t want to say anything, and he didn’t.

“Ed?” Rhodes prompted. “You did see the suspect, didn’t you?”

Garver nodded.

“The listeners can’t see you nod, Ed. You’ll have to speak up.”

Garver cleared his throat and said something, but nobody could understand it. Before Rhodes could ask him again to speak, Munday made another grab for the mic. He wasn’t successful, so he left Rhodes and headed for Garver.

Things were beginning to go bad. Rhodes had thought it would be simple enough for Garver to play his part, but he hadn’t counted on mic fright. Since Garver hadn’t seen the killer at all, Rhodes had thought that the threat of a revelation would make the killer confess. It worked in old movies, but it wasn’t working on radio.

Garver cleared his throat. “That’s him,” he said, and he pointed at Andy Chandler.

“They can’t see you pointing at Andy Chandler, Ed,” Rhodes said.

At this point, Ruth was supposed to take over and arrest Chandler on suspicion of murder.

It didn’t work out exactly like that.

Munday lunged at Rhodes and wrenched the mic away from him.

Andy Chandler grabbed his mother and shoved her into Ruth. Janice and Ruth fell in a tangle, and Andy sprinted around the radio van. Rhodes started after him. Janice, though she was hampered by Ruth, stuck out a foot and tried to trip him.

Rhodes stumbled, got his balance, and kept going. He thought he could hear Munday screaming into the mic, describing the action as if he were doing play-by-play at a football game.

Andy was headed for the house, and Rhodes figured he was going after some firepower. In reruns of
Perry Mason
that Rhodes had seen, the guilty party always jumped up in the courtroom when Mason pointed him out, and Lieutenant Tragg grabbed him. Simple as that. Rhodes wished that he’d been lucky the way Perry Mason was. Maybe he should have stationed himself closer to Chandler. He hadn’t counted on Janice’s interference, which was yet another rookie blunder.

The reasoning that had led Rhodes to Andy was simple enough, and Rhodes should have figured out that Janice was also involved. Two people come from nowhere with a lot of money, and nobody questions them when they say it’s from an inheritance. They seem like civic-minded people, interested in good things and in the improvement of the community, but, as Burns had told Rhodes, they hadn’t registered to vote. Could they have been worried that registering would have somehow led to something that revealed their past? Rhodes didn’t know. They seemed like such nice people. Certainly nobody would suspect their money came from bank robberies.

Nobody but Gary Baty, and he knew the truth. He’d somehow discovered that his old partner had located in Blacklin County. Rhodes was sure that Baty was the one who’d slaughtered Baby the hog and put the bloody body parts at the Chandlers’ place. The convenience store thefts had occurred when Baby’s remains turned up, according to the crime reports Rhodes had checked, and, sure enough, traces of animal blood were in Baty’s car. Rhodes figured the hog butchering had been done just to let Andy know that Baty had the goods on him. The Chandlers must not have realized at first that Baty was the hog killer, or they’d never have called Rhodes. When Baty revealed himself to them, he no doubt tried a bit of extortion. He’d met Andy, and they’d been headed to the Chandler place when Rhodes started chasing them. They’d abandoned the car because of the accident, and when they’d gotten into the woods, Andy had decided to get rid of Baty once and for all.

Andy and his mother had turned up in the woods both times there had been a death. Rhodes was pretty sure Andy had called Janice on a cell phone and had her meet him in the woods after Baty was killed.

Rhodes figured that Hoss Rapinski had talked to Andy the afternoon before his own murder. Rapinski couldn’t have been sure Andy was the bank robber he was after, but he must have hinted something. He’d also made the mistake of telling Andy he’d be hog hunting. So much for Rapinski. His own rookie mistake had been a lot more costly than the ones Rhodes had made.

Things might not have happened exactly the way Rhodes had them figured, but Rhodes was certain his reconstruction was close to the truth. Andy had confirmed it by running.

Rhodes didn’t know the extent of Janice’s involvement, but he knew that Ruth was taking care of that end of things. He hoped Munday thought it made for good radio. A murder suspect on the run. Too bad it wasn’t on television.

It wouldn’t be much good for radio or TV, either, if Rhodes didn’t catch Andy Chandler. Chandler had nearly reached the house, and Rhodes wasn’t far behind. Rhodes had ditched his little .32 for the occasion and was carrying a .38 Police Special in a leather holster at the small of his back. It had been concealed by the windbreaker that he wore. Most law enforcement officers had given up revolvers for automatics with more firepower, but Rhodes was a traditionalist.

He didn’t want to try to pull the pistol out while he was running, and he didn’t want to stop running. So he yelled at Andy instead.

“Chandler! Stop and talk to me. We can work this out.”

Rhodes didn’t mention that he’d already worked it out, and he was quite surprised when Andy stopped.

He was even more surprised when Andy proved that he, too, was carrying a pistol. Not a revolver, though. Rhodes didn’t know where the gun had been, but it was in Andy’s hand now. Rhodes dived to his left, off the asphalt driveway and onto the grass. He hit and rolled just as he heard the crack of the pistol. When he stopped rolling, he came to his knees with his own gun in his hand, but Andy had gone behind the house.

Rhodes holstered the revolver and went after him.

He didn’t see Andy anywhere, but the animals were excited. Dogs barked. Hogs grunted. Horses whinnied. Cows bawled.

There was a large barn near the back of the animal pens. The barn door was open, and Rhodes went in that direction. He hadn’t gone far when he heard a noise above the racket the animals made. It was the sound of an engine starting.

A big gray Toyota pickup erupted from the barn and bore down on Rhodes, who didn’t have time to draw and shoot. He jumped out of the way, and as the pickup went by him, he reached out and grabbed the tailgate. He was jerked off his feet and his arms nearly popped out of their sockets, but he held on.

It was quite an accomplishment, and it would be a lot more impressive if he managed to get himself into the bed before his arms separated from his body. As it was, he had all he could do to hang on. The toes of his shoes bounced in the dirt as the pickup pulled him along.

Rhodes knew that a good movie stuntman would be in the pickup bed in seconds. It was too bad he wasn’t a stuntman.

After a few seconds, Rhodes realized that Chandler wasn’t going back toward the radio van or the road. He seemed to be headed for the woods. Rhodes didn’t know if that was good or bad. It was definitely bad if he couldn’t get into the bed, because he knew he couldn’t hang on much longer.

Rhodes tightened his grip on the tailgate and tried to swing his legs to the right. He didn’t get them far enough to do much good the first time, but he was encouraged enough to try again. This time he succeeded in getting his heels onto the wide bumper that Andy had installed on the back of the pickup. With his feet braced on the bumper, Rhodes could push himself up enough to hook his arms over the tailgate. When he’d done that, he hauled himself over the top of the tailgate and into the bed. He lay on his back and tried to let his breathing get back to something resembling normal while he bounced around. He hoped Andy didn’t know he was there. If he did, all he had to do was stop the truck and shoot Rhodes, who couldn’t do a thing to stop him. His arms felt like boiled noodles.

The pistol dug into Rhodes’s back, and his head bonged on the metal bed every time the pickup went over a bump, which was every time the wheels turned.

It wasn’t easy, but Rhodes tried to think. Andy was going to bypass Ruth, which was probably a smart move for him, but to get across to the road, he’d have to go through the woods. Rhodes didn’t see how a pickup could get through, but Andy might know a route that Rhodes wasn’t aware of.

Rhodes got to his knees and reached behind his back for the pistol.

Andy made a sharp turn, and Rhodes fell over on his side. He slid and bumped his head, but he held on to the pistol.

Andy drove into the trees. Bare branches lashed the pickup. The tips skreeked along the side, scoring the paint. Rhodes stayed down to avoid being slapped in the face by the branches.

When they came to a clearing, Rhodes tried again to get up. He almost made it, but there was a hole in the ground that Andy must not have seen, and the pickup’s front right wheel went into it.

The bumper of the pickup slapped the ground, and the bed whipped right, throwing Rhodes out. He landed hard and rolled over a couple of times before coming to a stop against the trunk of an elm tree. He spit out some dirt and pushed himself into a sitting position as quickly as he could. The pickup sat twenty feet away with the bumper dug into the dirt. Andy was gone.

Rhodes didn’t know if Andy had seen him. He did know that the air bag in the truck had been disabled. Too bad that wasn’t a felony.

Using the tree trunk to push against, Rhodes stood up. He didn’t think he had any broken bones, just bruises and scratches. He couldn’t hear anything other than the hissing of the radiator or a broken hose. Rhodes looked around to see if he could tell which way Andy had gone. No clues. Rhodes started in the direction of the county road. He limped a little at first, but by the time he crossed the clearing, he was jogging pretty well. He kept his pistol in his hand.

He wasn’t far into the woods, and the ground was rutted and churned. Hogs had been there, rooting for acorns. That was no surprise, but what bothered Rhodes, aside from the difficulty of walking, much less jogging, was that the earth was freshly turned. The hogs had passed that way not long before. They rambled at night and went into hiding during the day. Nobody hunted them in daylight.

Rhodes thought he heard Andy thrashing through the trees ahead of him. Andy wasn’t trying to keep quiet, so it was likely he didn’t know Rhodes was after him. Rhodes hoped to catch up with him and take him by surprise.

Unfortunately, the hogs surprised Andy first. Rhodes had just caught sight of him through the trees when Andy stumbled into an area of fallen branches that some of the sows had taken for nesting with their young. The sows didn’t take at all well to being disturbed, especially with the little ones nearby. Rhodes heard the grunting and then the squealing.

Andy skirted the place where the sows congregated, but the noise of the sows aroused some of the boars. Rhodes drew his pistol, even though it wouldn’t be much protection against a feral hog. He didn’t think Andy’s automatic would be any better.

Andy heard the hogs and started to run. Most of the hogs stayed where they were, but not all of them. Rhodes heard a boar snort, and then it came crashing through the trees after Andy.

Rhodes stood still. He didn’t see any point in attracting attention to himself. He hadn’t started this, and as far as he was concerned, Andy’s problems were his own.

Hogs didn’t see too well, and since Rhodes had been a good distance behind Andy, he didn’t think the boar had spotted him. If it had, it wasn’t interested. It didn’t even glance in his direction.

Andy was moving faster than Rhodes would’ve thought he could, dodging trees and jumping over fallen limbs. Within seconds he was out of sight. Rhodes followed at a slower pace, moving away from where the sows nested and being as quiet as he could. Let sleeping hogs lie, that was his new motto.

Even though he was going slowly, Rhodes caught up with the hog. He heard it before he saw it. Besides the snorting and grunting, there was another noise, almost like a hammer hitting a board.

Rhodes picked his way, being careful to look as far ahead as he could. After he’d gone about fifty yards, he saw the big hog ramming the trunk of a tree. Not far above the hog, Andy sat on a limb. He had one arm wrapped around the trunk of the tree, and he held the automatic in the other hand. Rhodes started to yell at him and tell him that if he shot the hog, he’d only make it mad, but it was too late for that.

Andy pulled the trigger. Either because the hog shook the tree or because Andy was nervous, he missed.

Worse, he fell out of the tree.

Even worse, he landed on the hog.

Rhodes didn’t know who was more surprised, Andy or the hog, which stood frozen for a second with Andy draped over its back. Then it bucked like a bronco, throwing Andy into the air. Andy did a flip and landed flat on his back. Rhodes heard something crack, but he thought it was a stick and not Andy’s back. The pistol lay a few feet away from Andy, but he didn’t make any move to get it. Rhodes didn’t think he
could
move.