Dempster Road

Chapter 18

With Adelaine locked in the back of Stan's patrol car, Barney and Belinda began the circuitous route back to Dempster. Liam drove the Sheriff's car and Doc his morgue wagon with Stan's body. The shock blanket hadn't done a complete job and Liam was tasked with getting the car all cleaned and ready for service on the double.

Belinda had to sit sideways even though it meant having Adelaine able to watch her. She was too terrified to keep her back to the woman in spite of the mesh divider. Barney kept flitting his eyes from the road to the mirror, his own neck bristling uncomfortably.

"Take that mic off the hook and push the red button. Tell Stella when she answers what's happening. I haven't told her anything since Doc arrived."

Belinda did as asked, and when Stella came on she told her they were on the way home. Liam had passed them earlier and would probably be back sooner. He was going to have Barney's car for a day or two to clean it up. Stella listened and then just acknowledged the report, signing off, the sorrow in her voice undisguised.

"She's gonna take this real hard," Barney noted. "She and Stan had a good friendship goin'."

"Poor baby." Adelaine sneered from the back.

"You'd be wise to just stay quiet, Miss Curtis. There's very little sympathy in the area for you as it is."

"I don't need your dumb sympathy." She tossed her head, and the cluster of curls bounced around her face.

"Good." Barney turned on the radio and found an acceptable program of music, and turned it up to squelch any more conversation.

The darkness was growing even darker as the threatening possibility of rain crept closer, from the west. A large tanker truck whistled past them in the opposite direction, rocking the car in its wake and Barney cursed under his breath; too many truckers were using this highway to make up time between the seaport to the south and the rail head to the north.

He looked at the small ornament on the dash and reflected on Stan's jokes about Italian interior decorations; it had been a fun gift from his mother who was Italian. He noticed that Belinda was staring at it and her eyes were red and watery.

"Want me to put that away?"

She shook her head. "No need. It's just another dash ornament now."

"Yeah. I know what you mean."

****

They reached the Dempster Road junction and Barney headed southeast for a number of miles until the road turned north again. Beyond the trees to the east they could catch glimpses of the Crow River where it widened into a good-sized lake, an area where the fishermen took most of their business.

The clouds shifted slowly overhead, pressing down their miasma of smoky grey onto the landscape. Barney snapped on the bright lights as the patrol car rounded a long curving turn and suddenly slammed on the brakes bringing the car to a skidding sideways halt.

"Holy shit!" He slipped it into park and undid his belt. "Wait here."

The Doc's wagon arrived with squealing brakes as it slid up behind them. Barney jumped out of the car and ran toward the smouldering wreckage of an old farm truck. The name on the side was Cletis McCord, Spataro's neighbour. Barney ran around to the driver's side, but the front windshield was smashed right back into the cab, and he could see that the driver was beyond any help. He went around to the front and saw the problem.

A large brown bear was half under the front of the truck, its head bent awkwardly and blood was running from several large cuts on the body. Barney bent close and saw the animal was still breathing, and he hesitated only slightly before putting it out of its misery.

The shot brought the Doc to a halt, his flashlight beam waving like a searchlight in the sky, as he was rushing to help. "Sheriff! Sheriff, you okay?"

Barney returned to the back of the truck and nodded to the doctor. "He hit a bear, a big one. It was still breathin', but pretty smashed up."

"What about the driver?"

"If he's alive we won't find out in time; the cab's almost squashed flat." He borrowed Doc's light and walked around the truck, and sagged as he saw that the road was impassable. "We can't get past that on either side. We're gonna have to call Tony to bring his truck down and tow this out of the way. Liam musta got through before this happened."

The two men stood for a minute, each waiting for the other to come up with a brilliant plan, and then Barney expelled a long breath. "Doc, take your wagon back to the intersection and block the road in case we get any more traffic. Tell 'em they'll have to find another way around until this mess is cleaned up. Tell 'em I'll post a sign when it's open again."

"What are you gonna do?"

"Call Tony and then wait. Don't like sitting around with this woman, but there's no choice."

"We could go back and head up the river road."

"Somebody's gotta wait here in case there's more traffic. Comin' around that bend at night blind could get a body killed; hell, we nearly ploughed into the back of that mess. I'll have to wait here for Tony."

Belinda was out of the car and leaning on the grill and shading her eyes from the glare of the car lights when the men came back. "What happened?"

"Truck hit a bear," Doc said. "Both driver and bear are goners."

"Was that the shot I heard?"

"I had to finish it off." Barney walked over and looked in the window at Adelaine. "She behavin'?"

"I couldn't sit in there alone." Belinda wrapped her arms about her and shivered. "So now what?"

"We can't get by."

"So it's the river road? That where Doc went?"

"No. He's gonna watch for traffic and redirect them."

"Can't we just put up a sign or something?"

"Well, aside from not havin' one, I don't want to take any chances of somebody else windin' up like . . ." Barney jabbed a thumb at the wreck. "So I'll call Tony and we just wait."