tell me, what were you doing out there that night?”
“Since you were there, you already know.”
“Well, I had my suspicions.”
“You know what I was doing. That’s not the first time you saw me there.”
“You’re right, it wasn’t.”
“Why don’t we leave this conversation for another time?”
“You’re right. Anyways, I want to thank you. I heard you did a fine job getting me to the cave and covering me up. You saved my life. I don’t know how I can repay you.”
“Oh, I don’t know. How about a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card?”
The warden smiled. He liked Cat. She had a heart of gold. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“I am glad you’re awake. It was getting kind of boring me just doing the talking.”
“I heard you’ve been up here every day.”
“Yep, well, I had better get going. Have some chores to do at home. Let me know when your stomach can handle it, and I’ll bring you a steak and potato.”
“Venison?”
“Season’s not in yet.”
Conrad smiled. “See you tomorrow.”
*****
Judge Bean went to the hospital to see how Officer Conrad was getting along. He walked into Conrad’s room.
“You’re looking a lot better than the night they hauled you in here.”
“I would hope so. From what I hear, I was in pretty bad shape.”
“That would be putting it lightly.”
“Cat just left about an hour ago.”
“You had her worried. She’s been up to see you every day since you’ve been here.”
“That’s what the nurses told me.”
“So what were the two of you doing out there at that time of the night?”
Conrad sat up in his bed. “You probably already know.”
“I have an idea, but go ahead and fill me in.”
“Well, you know how Cat likes to bend the law a little.”
Judge Bean laughed. “A little?”
Conrad smiled. “I guess maybe more than a little. You know that Cat has been helping a lot of the poorer families in the area.”
“Yeah, like Widow Johnson and her young’uns.”
“I heard a couple of women talking to each other about how Cat was keeping their freezers full of meat. I stopped in to see old man Smith, who lives in that small cabin by the abandoned railroad depot.”
“He tans animal skins and peddles them at rendezvous?”
“Yeah, him. He was tanning a fresh deer hide when I stopped by. He told me that he had a few left in the freezer from last season.”
“You didn’t think so?”
“No, I started putting two and two together and decided to start following her.”
“And…?”
“I went down to the valley one night. Sure enough, there she was sitting by a rock with her shotgun. It was a pretty well-lit night. I stayed back and watched through my binnacles. A huge buck came into the area. I think it was the one all the hunters have been talking about, the one that disappears opening day. Cat raised her shotgun and looked through her scope. I sure didn’t want to see him killed that way. Before I could do anything, she put her gun down.”
“Then what happened?”
“The strangest thing I have ever seen. The buck nodded at her as though he knew she was there, then he walked away. Two minutes hadn’t gone by when a yearling came in to view. She raised her gun and shot, the deer ran about twenty yards and fell over.”
“You think that big buck lead that deer to her?”
“Had me wondering. I watched her clean that deer. It was the neatest job I had ever seen. She cut the meat off the bone, wrapped it in sheets, put in plastic bags, then packed it in her backpack.”
“You didn’t approach her?”
“No, I just watched. In the distance I saw some coyotes just sitting, waiting, and watching. Cat put her backpack on, went back, and picked up her gun. She walked across the valley then just disappeared.”
“Went up that hidden trail?”
“I was told that Cat brought the SWAT team in that way. No wonder I never saw her leave. Anyway, after she left, the coyotes went and cleaned up what was left. It was like they knew. It was as though the wild had accepted her as one of their own. I observed this a couple of more times. The same thing happened.”
“Why didn’t you arrest her?”
“I don’t know. I mean, she was helping people.”
“So having a problem with what is legal and what is right?”
“It was starting to bother me. After all, she was breaking the law. I decided to bring her in. That’s when I ran into that meth lab. That was my fault. Knowing that Cat wouldn’t give me any trouble, I had let my guard down. Walked right into trouble, you know the rest.”
“I’m glad to see you’re getting better. Hey, I’ll see you later. I need to stop by the office before I go home, see you tomorrow.”
“All right, I ain’t gonna be going anywhere.”
Judge Bean opened a letter from the State that was left on his desk. It was the answer to his request for a DNR officer to fill in while Conrad was recuperating. He read the letter over. Just as I figured, someone that hasn’t been with the DNR very long. I’ll call around tomorrow and see what kind of guy he is.
*****
Mike installed new target holders and rebuilt the benches on his rifle range. It had been a long time since it looked this good.
Mike took his .308 Winchester rifle out of his safe and picked up a target and a box of cartridges. He hung a target at the hundred-yard mark. After squeezing off three shots, he walked down and checked his target. He took a dime and put it up to the holes. It didn’t quite cover all three. “Not too shabby for an old man.”
Mike put his rifle away and started to look over some old catalogs. There was a lot of catching up to do since he had been out of the game for a few years. He found some old papers he brought home from Camp Perry.
“I
