Read Under Suspicion - The Legend of D.B. Cooper Page 98

Deputy Rissley and the rest of the crew were painstakingly searching the area around Buck’s house when they heard what sounded like distant thunder. What was that? They all wondered as they looked to the sky, but saw no sign of a storm. They all looked at each other and shrugged, then continued working.

  “Look!” One of them said as he pointed to the sky a minute later. Joe saw a line of black smoke lifting up from the horizon then slowly trail across the sky. A shiver went up her spine, knowing that something terrible had just happened.

  She hurried to her Blazer and turned the radio to the emergency station. It was awash with chaos. All she could get straight was something about a fire and plane crash. Remembering the TV set in one of Buck’s back rooms, she rushed into the house. She turned it on and played with the rabbit ears until the picture cleared up.

  Joe was stunned as she stood in front of the TV. She stared in disbelief as she watched the news anchor recap the events that had just taken place.

  She didn’t know Shaffer well. Few people did. He was a skeleton in this county’s closet that nobody liked to talk about. She knew he had some mental problems and was misunderstood by almost everyone. Instead of monsters, parents would tell their children that if they weren’t good, the airfield boogeyman would come get them.

  She felt sorry for Jim. He had lost another friend. She knew that whenever there was a problem at the airfield concerning Rick, Jim would be there to straighten things out. She found that out the hard way.

  After her first quarter in school, Joe decided to go out to the field and meet Rick. She had just learned about mental illness and was eager to try and help Rick solve his problems. Her attempt backfired and Rick had gone running out of the hanger in a cold sweat.

  When she got back to the station, Jim was noticeably upset and called her into his office. He told her that what she had tried to do was wrong. She was not qualified to treat Rick, and he asked her– no– he ordered her to leave Rick alone and never go out there again.

  She tried to argue with him. Rick needed help if he was ever going to fit into normal society. She was sure of it. Jim explained to her that he knew all about Rick’s problems. He said that Rick had been treated by some of the finest doctors in the military and they could do nothing for him.

  “Rick doesn’t want to fit in to what you think of as normal society.” Jim had explained calmly. “He has done a lot for this community. He just wants to fly his plane and be left alone. He deserves that much. We owe that to him.”

  She knew that he was right about her not being qualified, but she didn’t agree that he shouldn’t get more treatment. In the end, she reluctantly promised that she would not go back out there. But she also secretly vowed to herself that someday when she was more qualified, she would return. She felt that no matter what Jim thought or how good his intentions, Rick deserved proper treatment.

  She felt sad that she was never going to get the chance to fulfill her vow. She wondered what happened to cause this reaction. What did Bradley do that pushed you over the edge.

  She knew that it had to be Bradley’s fault and she started to feel guilty. Why had she not confronted him? Why didn’t she arrest him? Why didn’t she do something… anything, before Bradley hurt someone else?

  She knew that there was nothing she could’ve done. They had no evidence to arrest him. All they could’ve done was to watch him closely, but they didn’t watch him close enough. She vowed to not let this charade go long enough that someone else got hurt. Bradley had come into her county and done this right under her nose, and she was going to make him pay.

  * * * *

  Chapter 20

  Coming Clean