The decoy

Epilogue

Epilogue

He dug by the light of his car. The county sheriff's vehicle had the roof lights spinning and the high beams shone a bright path that allowed him to see what he was doing. He was digging in Clark County and the writing on the car said "Tall Pine County" on the side but it didn't matter. If someone was to come by and ask what he was doing here he would explain that many years ago he was involved in an investigation here and he was simply doing a little follow up on his own time.

It would be odd but if they checked the file the story would be believable and he knew that no one ever caught him digging out here anyway. He had dug here on and off for many years, first when he was working for this county and later when he could drive down in his spare time but now of course time was running out.

He always dug at night. He had started close to midnight tonight and now it was after two o'clock. He would keep digging until he was exhausted. The boy had dug these holes and he felt if that child could dig so could he.

He would find nothing. He never found anything.

Once there was a treasure buried here. He helped to compile it and so it belonged to him. But it was gone now. In his heart he knew that it was gone and he knew who took it.

Still whenever he had the time he came here and he dug, hoping that maybe some of it had been missed. Maybe there would be one box filled with money that he would uncover. It would be enough. If he found one box of money he would never come back.

He could explain his presence on this old ranch but still it was a risk. He had been involved in something very dangerous. He had taken a risk and built a fortune with his partner and now it was gone. If he could find one small box, just a little of the loot that they had amassed then he would count his blessing and never return to this place. He was like the tourists at the slot machines. Just one more try before going to bed and then one more after that.

There was a sign nearly half a mile south that identified this former ranch as the site of a new subdivision of homes and a golf club which would have two eighteen hole courses. They had already started excavating for the homes and soon someone would be moving dirt to make way for a water trap or a fairway.

That of course made the digging a little more frantic. Time was of the essence. Already the wooden skeletons of homes were popping up a half mile to the south. Even in the dark, he could see one of them on the horizon.

During the day, construction crews were working all over the old ranch. Men were removing trees and sod, measuring lots, surveying and of course excavating.

They were already excavating.

He couldn't stand the thought of some stranger in a back hoe over turning a container full of cash. They would hoot and holler and dig more carefully until they found all of the fortune he had helped to amass.

It sickened him.

Although in a way, it satisfied him more to think some stranger might find it than the alternative.

That boy had taken the money.

How many times in the past had he said, "Kill him?"

The red headed cop dug frantically for the last time before the construction crew came here to dig but he knew it was a waste of time. He knew who had the money.

Sebastian sat on a patio sipping a latte and reading the same story in the newspaper three times over;

The construction crew had missed it at first.

Manuel Ravego had been working the back hoe when he turned it over and threw it into a hill of dirt.

They were building the twelfth hole of the golf course and he was moving dirt. It was when he climbed down out of the machine to pour a coffee from a thermos that he noticed something white in the pile of earth. He thought it was a stone but when he pulled he found a finger, then a hand, an arm and then the rest.

He still thought it could be some kind of animal until he saw the skull.

Construction stopped and a coroner's investigation ensued. The arm was attached to a complete human skeleton. The body had been buried for somewhere between five and thirty years. It was a human male over six feet tall with a slender build. He was estimated to be in his thirties or early forties. Although there was evidence of an animal attack on the body it was clear that he had in fact died from two gun shot wounds to the head. The gun used in the murder was a 9mm. pistol.

There was no way of knowing if he was shot before the animal attack or afterwards.

Initially a cougar attack was suspected but the coroner was able to match the teeth and he was confident that it was likely a very large domestic dog and it seemed likely that it had been more than one.

The housing development was being built on property that was owned by the estate of Mr. Deacon Hill. Hill had lived there alone for more than fifteen years. He had purchased the large property with a fortune built in the high tech boom and had interests in a number of computer and soft ware firms. Hill built a large modern home on the property but he had lost much of his fortune soon after the house was completed and then he became something of a recluse.

He was a suspect in the abduction of young girls off of the streets of Las Vegas. There was no way of knowing who had shot him and buried his body.

There was no mention of a red headed cop named Carl Lang who had broken the case and likely put the bullet through Deacon Hill's head. Sebastian had followed Lang's successful career in law enforcement. He knew that Lang was now employed by the Tall Pines County Sheriff's department. Soon he would have amassed enough service to draw a pension. Sebastian also knew that Lang was the sort of fellow that would leave his profession when the first opportunity came. He knew that Lang had some old scores to settle and he would want the free time that a police man's pension would give him so that he could settle those scores.

He continued reading the paper, focusing mostly on criminal investigations.

Just last week, Sebastian had read a report of a double murder in Winona Arizona. The FBI had broken the case. The wife of the victim had accepted a plea bargain and would spend the rest of her life in jail.

Sebastian put the paper down, took a bite of a blueberry muffin and sipped his coffee. It was a busy corner and a great spot to watch people come and go.

He liked eating breakfast on the patio of a coffee shop and he planned to do it much more often.