01.044 Interlude - Apsáalooke
2 Years Ago (Monday, January 20, 2020)
Southeast Unincorporated Montana, United States
Isaac regarded the body laying in the snow. A young boy, no more than 10. Looked murdered and probably violated. He’d wait for the coroner report, but it looked pretty similar to the last one.
The sheriff came up by him, “About 200 yards further up and it’d be Crow territory.”
“Yeah.”
“You think it is the same killer?”
“Yeah.”
“You think the boy was raped like that last one?”
Isaac paused a moment to uncover his mouth from the neck gaiter he wore. His breath crystallized in the air. He spit his gum out.
“Yeah.”
Then he covered his mouth back up.
“I’ve got my deputies here to cordon off the body. What you gonna do?”
“Reckon I’ll walk 200 yards and speak to my pa. Then get out of the cold and get some coffee.”
Isaac walked over and imagined he could feel when he crossed into reservation land. The cold felt a little more bitter, the glare off the snow just that bit harsher.
“Hey pa.”
“Isaac. How’s your mother?”
“She’s good. She had the ‘Rona but better now. Bit of cough still but she’ll be good.”
“Good to hear. You tell her to stop on by when she is feeling better.”
“Yeah.”
“What’ll you tell the Bureau?”
“That it’s cold. And that we found another dead person right outside the Nation. Kid this time.”
“You know they’ll think it is one of us.”
“Yeah.”
“You’ll be leaving soon.”
“Yeah. I’ll stick around until it is time to go or we catch this guy.”
Iaaac tipped his hat and headed into the reservation.
Later he sat in his Pa’s house with a beer and a joint.
“Thought you gave that up?” His father was still working the snow off his boots at the entry. Letting all that cold air in.
“I did. This one’s yours.”
“Brat.”
“How’s your father?”
“Good. He says you should come by and see him.”
“He should come by and see me.”
“The people in town are getting worked up. They say a Crow is doing the killing and raping and such.”
“Not surprised. But what do they care? These dead folks, they ain’t from around here. Nobody knows who they are.”
“They’re kids Issac. And there is talk saying that there have been others, just further round the res.”
“What about the folks in Billings?”
“They got their own problems. City problems.”
Isaac’s mother pushed her long hair out of the way to reveal her high cheekbones and narrow, cerebral face. Her pale skin was flushed from the heat of the fireplace they sat by. She coughed a bit.
“So what’ll the Crow do?”
“Police station didn’t really get started up last year. So it’ll fall on the Bureau maybe. All the killings are outside Crow land though, so no jurisdiction yet.”
“What’ll you do?”
“Reckon I’ll go nose around. See if I can drum up someone who saw something or knows someone. See what the coroner says.”
“You were always too young for this job.”
“Don’t feel it.”
“You started three years ago when you turned twenty. Too young to be in charge of the Bureau police here.”
“Well they are going to send over a new chief” and both he and his mother said it together “in three months.”
“Bureau sucks anyway. Wish our police department had gotten off the ground.”
His mother went back to doing the dishes. “I wish your father would move off the reservation. He is a wonderful man, but that place is a slow death.”
“We have only that left, we ain’t giving it up.”
“That is your father talking. You have two heritages. I’m glad you are leaving.”
“Me too.”
The fourth body they found was a young woman this time. And this time she wasn’t frozen solid yet. But there was a problem. The girl was from town.
“Gonna get ugly. Campbell girl” The town sheriff loved stating the obvious.
“Yeah.”
“‘Spose it depends on what that drunk does.” Isaac had his rifle cradled in his arms. “Justice Services didn’t give us these to make tea with.”
“I can’t have you shooting the townfolk just because they are angry.”
“I won’t.”
The sheriff eyes Isaac, but Isaac was just looking at the body.
Then Isaac strode forward to the body. She was naked like the others. Blood freezing on her body where an organ had been removed. Like the others. He wondered which one it was this time.
“Any match for the semen?”
“None yet. We will run the rape kit and sends to the lab. But first two came back the same person. Bet this will too.”
“Bet.” Isaac chewed his gum. The wind was bitter everywhere today. “The old folk, the ones that believe anyway, they want to do a Sun Dance. The Baptists are all up in arms about it.”
“What’s your pa say?”
“Not much.”
It wasn’t until next morning that Campbell showed up. His old pickup truck pulled up in the morning and he had two people with him — all armed. Violence and a howling wind were in the air, but the three of them standing outside staggered around. Drunk.
Some Crows had left but most didn’t. Whatever they had, it was in this town.
One of them shot a round up in the air.
“Whoever killed ma girl, come on out. Time to die.” Slurring their words. Liquid courage.
Isaac looked out from the Bureau office through the scope of his rifle. He could probably take the shot. But even a shithead like Campbell probably deserved a chance after what had happened to his daughter.
He yelled out, “Put down the gun and I won’t put you down.”
“Isaac. That you? You supposed to e police. What you doing about this?”
“Wrong place. She was off the res. Not my jurisdiction.”
“Sheriff says it isn’t his either. Whose is it? Who is going to get justice for my little girl?” And Campbell fell to his knees and dropped the shotgun into the snow and started crying.
Isaac called out, “You other two. Drop your guns. I’ll let you all sleep it off. Or I can close your eyes forever. You decide.”
He waited and the other one, the one who shot the gun in the air tossed the handgun away.
The third didn’t.
“I don’t know who you are mister. But drop that gun.”
“Shelly, she was mine. We was going to marry next month. I’m going to kill the bastard who killed ’er.”
Shit. The fiancé sounded strung out. Isaac kept a bead on him. Meth maybe.
“You aren’t going to kill anyone if you’re shot. Put down the gun.”
If anything putting the fiancés back up against the wall was the wrong move and he looked more desperate.
“You protecting him? Maybe you the killa’?”
This guy was an idiot. He was waving his gun around. Isaac took his finger off the trigger guard and put it on the trigger.
And then his father stepped out onto the street.
“We are planning to do a Sun Dance to ask Isáahkawuattee to help us.”
The third swung his gun to take aim on his pa. Isaac almost pulled the trigger there, but his father was in the way, intentionally.
Damn you. You watched too many of those Hollywood movies.
“No need to shoot me. I didn’t do it. And when we find the bastard, Crow or not, he’ll pay.”
“You promise?” The boy was weeping. What a shit show. As if his dad could promise justice.
“Yes.”
And damned if the third didn’t rope his gun too. Isaac wasn’t going out there. He pulled his sidearm and put it beside him.
“Leave the guns where you dropped them. And come in here.”
They all came in and Isaac stuck them in the drunk tank to sleep it off.
“Damn fool. You like the others, trying to end it?”
“They need someone to pay. And if we had shot them, then the townsfolk would be sure we were hiding the killer. It would happen again and again.” His pa seemed unperturbed, but then he said something surprising, “You’re right though. It was a damn fool thing to do.” And Isaac could see the lie his fathers passivity was. He was a bit pale, his ruddy skin a bit gray and he was trembling a bit.
“So long as you know it.”
“The Sun Dance will sort it.”
“You a believer now?”
“What else do we have?”