Deadly Revenge (Pearl River #3)

Chapter 12

12

In the minutes following Junior’s outbursts, it was like everyone was waiting for the other shoe to drop. The big man uncapped the bottle and took another sip. “Wasn’t talking about anything. Just repeating some rumors I heard.”

Jenna tried to recall the details of the dam project, but she’d been in middle school the first time she’d heard of a possible dam and then away from Pearl Springs at college when they started condemning the land, although she had been home for the summer when the men came through the county surveying land for the dam.

That year she’d skipped the summer session at Maryville to rest after a hard first year. By the time the dam was finished, she was a detective with the Chattanooga Police Department and rarely came home.

Jenna leaned forward. “I get you don’t like Carter, but if you thought Joe Slater was his partner, why’d you hang out with him?”

Junior gave her a slow smile. “Joe was one of those folks you couldn’t help but like—he just had a way about him. He was always helping people out, like Widow Thompson. Don’t know how many times he took her groceries and paid her utility bill.”

“And she wasn’t the only one he helped,” Todd said. “He—”

A long howl interrupted him, followed by more howls.

“That’s Thunder!” Her dad jumped to his feet. Every coon hunter knew their dog’s bark, and her dad was no exception. “He’s got him one treed.”

Suddenly a different kind of bark came from one of the dogs, a bark Jenna had never heard before.

“That’s my Blue,” Gordon said. “But something’s wrong.”

“Maybe they’ve treed a bear,” her uncle said.

Junior grunted. “If it’s a bear, more likely they’ve backed one in a corner.”

They were all standing now, and her dad had his GPS tracker out. His dog, Thunder, wore a tracking collar to make it easier to find him once he treed a coon.

“According to this ...”—he tapped the handheld unit—“Thunder’s close to an old logging road. We ought to be able to drive right to the dogs.”

More frantic barking echoed over the ridge. “Sounds like we need to get to them pretty quick,” Junior said.

Jenna sighed. Just when the men had started talking, this had to happen. She should’ve tried harder to steer the conversation to Joe Slater’s accident earlier.

Everyone trekked out of the woods to their pickups. Since her dad had the tracking unit, he took point and the others followed.

Jenna opted to ride with her dad, and he’d given her the tracker to follow. “This says there’s a narrow road up ahead—turn there.”

“Probably an old log road.”

When they reached what looked like a driveway, he turned into it. She frowned as limbs brushed against the window. If the trees got any closer to the edge of the lane, they would have to get out and walk. “What do you think the dogs have cornered?”

“Not a clue. I just hope it’s not a bear. Last time Thunder tangled with one, he lost half an ear.”

“Are there bears around here?” She didn’t remember any being in the area when she was a kid.

“They tend to stay closer to the Smokies, but every once in a while, one will make his way over here.” He was quiet a minute, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. “I’m glad you came tonight. I’ve missed our time together.”

“I’m glad I came too,” she said. “And thank you for taking up for me with Sam.”

“Don’t pay him any attention.”

“I didn’t know he was drinking again.”

“Yeah,” he said. “There’s nothing I can do about it. He’s the one who has to make the change.”

“What made him start again?”

“Your guess is as good as mine ... although he got really upset about a month ago when he ran into Harrison Carter.”

“Why?”

“He blames Carter for losing our family farm when the dam was built.”

“Didn’t they go to school together?” She didn’t know why she remembered that ... unless it was because Sam liked to talk about important people he knew. He would’ve put their former mayor in that category.

“Yeah, they were good friends at one time—Harrison came around quite a bit when you were little. That was before he became mayor.”

Maybe that’s why she’d known about the school bit. The front tire hit a rut, and Jenna grunted as she grabbed the armrest. Her dad stopped the truck and nodded his head toward the window. The barks were much louder.

“How close are we?” he asked.

She glanced down at the tracker in her hand. “Looks like we’re about even with them.” Jenna pointed to the left. “They’re that way.”

He killed the motor, and they climbed out. The others soon joined them, and her dad cocked his head. “Doesn’t sound like they’re that far or like they’ve found a bear ...”

“Doesn’t smell like they’ve spooked a skunk either,” Junior said. “I say go to them rather than call and have them not come.”

“And I say let’s call ’em in and go home,” Todd said. “I gotta get up early in the morning.”

Her dad eyed the banker. “Why’d you even come then? I’m going. I want to see what’s got their attention.”

The others agreed albeit Todd still grumbled. She fell in behind her dad as they trekked through the woods toward the barking dogs, the light from their headlamps bouncing across the rough terrain. There was no air stirring, and her long-sleeve shirt soon clung to her back. Jenna wiped sweat from her face with her sleeve.

The dogs were farther than they sounded, and their strange barking sent chills down her back in spite of the heat. Thunder was the first to come into view. He sat on his haunches, baying at ... Jenna couldn’t see anything other than a pile of brush. And that shouldn’t make the dog howl like that.

He wasn’t the only dog acting weird. Gordon’s dog was doing the same thing.

Her dad scratched his head. “Why would someone cut a bunch of brush and pile it here?”

The hairs on the back of Jenna’s neck rose. There was only one reason she could think of. “Don’t get any closer until I can check it out,” she said.

Sam brushed past her. “I’ll check it out.”

Before she could stop him, he grabbed a branch and pulled it back, bringing several others with it. Suddenly he dropped it. “Not good,” he muttered.

Jenna stepped around him and shined her flashlight at the pile of branches. She blinked and looked again. A shoe with a leg attached to it lay at an odd angle. Brush covered the rest of the body.

“Don’t touch anything.” She pulled out her phone and dialed Alex’s number.

The chief deputy answered on the second ring. “What’s wrong?”

“We have another body,” Jenna said calmly, though she felt anything but calm. “Judging from the leg I can see, it looks like a male.”

“Where are you?”

She gave her the directions to the log road. “Let me know when you get here, and I’ll send someone out to bring you in.”

“Do you think the death was from an accident?”

Jenna turned toward the pile of brush, her headlamp illuminating the green leaves. “No.”