Mineral Lake. 8:45 PM.
As Jim drove around the bend in the road, he came upon an assortment of vehicles stopped ahead of him. He turned on the switch and the red and blue-flashing lights on the roof came alive. Jim turned into the oncoming traffic lane. At first, he expected to have to dodge traffic coming from the other direction, but everyone appeared to be going his way. A quick examination of the vehicles showed that many were on the side of the road and empty. Some had people inside, waiting patiently while the occupants of still other vehicles were walking about, wondering what the hold up was.
When he reached the turnoff, he saw that Deputy Kruger had the road blocked. Jim pulled off the road, got out of the vehicle, and walked up to him.
“Where did all these people come from?” he asked with astonishment. Kruger handed him a piece of paper and Jim examined it. It was a map of the area with an “X” at Buck’s house. The map was titled “D.B. Cooper’s Secret Hideout”.
Before Jim could ask, Kruger spoke up. “Mr. Brunner’s been selling these, at his motel, for twenty dollars per copy.”
“What the heck does he think he’s doing?” Jim said angrily. “It’s going to take hours to get these people out of here!”
“Do you want me to go down and talk with him?” Kruger asked.
Harper thought about it for a moment. “No, we’ve lost too much time as it is. I’ll deal with him personally. What have you got going here?”
“Crowd control mostly,” Kruger replied. “I’ve got the road blocked off. There’re a few stuck in the mud by Henderson’s and Townsend is helping them. Some of the people parked on the road and are in the woods. Conley is watching from the house. When they show up, he sends them up the road to Townsend who then sends them packing.”
“Where’s Simms?” Harper asked looking around. “He was supposed to relieve you by now.”
“I don’t know,” Kruger shrugged. “He must be as busy as we are.”
“All right, you seem to have things under control here. I’m going down to the house.” Jim turned and walked back to his Blazer. As he drove up the gravel road he noticed several cars stuck in the ditch. From their appearance, Jim concluded that, although the road was now dry, the ditch was still quite muddy. He came up upon Townsend’s Blazer sitting in the road. Townsend was hooking the cable of his winch to the frame of a Volkswagen rabbit.
Jim maneuvered slowly around the scene so as not to go in the ditch himself, and then gave a quick hello wave to Townsend. He continued down the hill and parked in front of the porch of Buck’s home. When he got out he noticed Deputy Conley standing on the porch with binoculars staring out at the lake. As Jim walked up the porch he glanced towards the lake, but it was dusk and too dark for his old and tired eyes to see anything very far away.
“What are you looking at, Conley?”
Conley pointed out into the distance. “About two hundred yards out is a small aluminum boat. A man has been out there with a camera and huge telephoto lens snapping pictures. He’s been there for almost two hours.”
Jim squinted and could barely make it out in the low light.
“Here, use these.” Conley suggested as he handed over the binoculars. “They’ll bring in more light.”
Jim lifted and adjusted them to his eyes. “Oh yeah, I see him now.”
“Do you think I should run him off?” Conley asked.
“No, he doesn’t seem to be bothering anything. He probably came from the camp on the other side of the lake. He’ll have to head back soon anyway or get caught out there in the dark.” Jim trained the binoculars on the opposite shore. He could make out almost a dozen small campfires and a large bonfire on the beach. “It looks like the campground is busting at the seams.”
“Yeah, it’s way over capacity. I drove through there earlier and had to break up a few arguments about who was there first, but everyone seems to have settled down now.”
Jim lowered the glasses and looked around, then trained them back on the boat. The man was rowing away from them. “See, there he goes now.”
It was a full moon, which helped him make out the tree line. Just inside the trees, Jim saw the beam of a flashlight. “I hope that’s one of ours.”
“It is,” Conley nodded. “That’s Thomson. He’s been walking the trails behind the house and along the beach in order to get everyone out of here before it gets too dark.”
“Good idea. We don’t want these city folks getting lost. Have many sightseers made it to the house? Harper asked.
“Quite a few,” Conley confirmed. “Most went peacefully, but others wouldn’t leave until I took a picture of them in front of the house.”
“They got all the way up here?” Jim said, surprisingly. “I hope none walked off with any souvenirs.”
“Don’t worry, Sheriff. Most of the evidence has been taken back to the station. All that’s left is this box which I’ve been guarding like a hawk,” Conley replied.
Jim turned around to see the box. In it were Buck’s scrapbook, storybook and the two coffee cups. “Why don’t you give Thompson a hand? I’ll look after things here.”
“Right,” Conley replied, then picked up his flashlight and both men walked towards the steps. “I’ll see you in a little while, Sheriff.” He turned and walked towards the corner of the building.
“I’ll be here,” Jim assured him, then walked to his Blazer. Opening the door, he reached over and pulled the envelope with the photos over to him. Jim looked up and watched Conley disappear into the trees. He then glanced back at the box on the porch and frowned. Taking a long, slow look around, he saw no one, so he left the envelope where it was and walked back towards the porch where he picked up the box and returned to the Blazer with it.
He sat it on the seat and examined the contents. Lifting the storybook, he paged through it slowly. I wouldn’t want this stuff to fall into the wrong hands, he thought. After a few moments, Jim looked around again, then placed the book back where he found it and placed the box behind the front seat. Pulling an old, raggedy blanket off the backseat, he placed it over the box. After closing and locking the door, Jim, with envelope in hand, walked toward the barn.
Pushing open both big doors, the darkness inside was impenetrable even for the full moon. Jim turned on his penlight and used it to find the two Coleman lanterns. Firing both up, he hung them from their hooks. They hissed and hummed as they lit up the inside of the barn.
That’s better, he thought as he walked to the feed bin, pulled the photos and report from the envelope, and scattered them on top. Jim looked around and was relieved to see that the animals were removed as he had asked. That was one more thing he didn’t have to worry about.
“Let’s see now,” Jim thought as he picked up the report, then fumbled through the photos and pulled a few out. He only needed three, each was of Buck lying in the mud and taken from different locations. Jim walked outside the barn and placed one on the ground where Buck had last rested. It was taken from directly above.
The light from the barn cast long shadows that streamed off into the distant lake. Jim could hear frogs croaking in the marshy shadows, as he watched the bonfires on the opposite shore flicker and reflect off the water.
He looked down at the picture of Buck. Haunting eyes stared back at him, and a half opened mouth seemed to say, “Figure it out, Jim. I know you can do it.” But Jim didn’t know if he could.
Harper let out a heavy sigh as he lifted his head in the air. Looking out at the millions of twinkling stars and the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy, he said out loud. “What happened, Buck? What in the hell went wrong?”
He was half hoping for an answer as he stared off into space wondering where Buck was now. Was Buck looking down on him, watching? He hoped so. He could use some guidance, and in a silent prayer, he asked for it.