12. Code of Silence

Chapter Four

Joe had noticed the three car pile-up and had decided it would be safe to make a detour but when he arrived at Pequot Road, he learned the truck hadn’t arrived, so he backtracked, taking the route they would have but didn’t see the truck until out of the blue the truck passed right by him with a stranger at the wheel. He would have made a U-turn right then, but couldn’t because of traffic. But by looking in his rearview mirror, he saw where the truck took a turn. 

He finally found a spot to turn around and call the police. He reached the gravel road the truck had turned on but didn’t see it and that bothered him. He kept driving, all the while thinking he’d missed another turn-off or the truck had backtracked and he’d missed it somehow. He found a dirt road to turn around when something filtered into the open windows of the Mustang. It was wood smoke. It wasn’t truly cold enough for a fire and too early for a camp-out. He stopped the car and got out, looking around. 

He spotted a column of smoke reaching skyward as both a police vehicle and his partner’s white truck pulled up. Joe saw Saul Gardner get out  and his partner, Ethan Ashworth, joined them a second later. “Camp out gone awry. Smokey would not be happy. ‘Only you can prevent forest fires’.”

Joe resisted the temptation to punch his partner. They moved deeper in the trees, then they found it. It looked to be a small cabin and it was on fire. Saul turned around and ran back to his vehicle to call the fire department. Joe started for the cabin but the heat pushed him back. Ethan grabbed his shoulder. “Joe, no. We don’t know if they’re in there. It’s probably a rabbit’s warren of roads back here, they could have gone anywhere.”

Joe shook his head and pulled free of Ethan’s hand and lunged for the cabin. This time Saul and Ethan held him back. “Let me go.”

Ethan shook his head, holding his partner tight. Joe sank down to the ground. “Oh, God.”

By the time two fire trucks arrived, the cabin was half burnt to the ground, the stone fireplace pointing heavenward like an obscene finger.

A dark-haired man pushed off his helmet and sighed. “From what we can tell, an accelerant was poured around the base of the exterior walls. This was deliberate arson.” His voice held a distinctive New Orleans accent, even though he’d not lived in his native Louisiana for a good ten years. “I don’t know who owned this cabin, but we’ll find out.”

Ethan saw his partner was staring at the cabin. “Cade, was…?”

“Anyone inside?” Cade Duplechain looked at Ethan, puzzled, then Joe, his brown eyes narrowing. “We haven’t sifted the debris and ashes yet, why are you asking?”

Ethan pulled him aside to tell him and Cade went pale. He muttered something that almost sounded French but with an odd cadence. “I’ll check right now.” 

Ethan swallowed hard and wondered who would burn a cabin in the woods for no apparent reason. Joe hadn’t moved from his spot on the ground and his gaze seemed locked on the fireplace. It appeared to be made of river stone and was blackened by soot.

It was several minutes before Cade returned. He held something in his hand and Ethan prayed it wasn’t what he feared it might be. Cade opened his palm. It was a handle. “There was a trap door, leads down to a hideaway that leads to a floating dock. All that’s left is the handle. There were no bodies. The heat was high but not enough to burn…that to ash. No one was in there.”

Ethan spun around to haul his partner to his feet. “Joe, they weren’t in there.” He half-dragged Joe around a stand of trees, hoping there was another way to the floating dock. There was a set of stones leading down to a small pond and a floating dock. From this angle, he could see the upper visible part of the cabin had probably been for show, the real cabin had been built into the overhang that held up the fake cabin. “Joe, look, they got away.”