JC: Ed Biggers
Part 5: Stasis
Chapter 4
By
Lazlo Zalezac
Copyright (C) Lazlo Zalezac, 2004

They reached the site where the body of the Ranger had been 
found late in the afternoon. The body had been found in a small 
creek bed surrounded by a half dozen trees by a local man that had 
noticed a large number of crows in the area. When he had 
approached, it seemed like twenty of the birds had flown out of the 
creek. Wanting to find out why so many carrion birds were in one 
place, he had found the body expecting to find the carcass of a deer 
killed by a poacher.

There was nothing remarkable about the site. As Albert carefully 
moved around it hoping to find some sign of what had actually 
happened, Ed squatted off to the side trying to see what he could 
find with his truth sense. Leroy, Ling, and Howard all stood back 
watching the two men apply their individual talents to the problem. 
Ed was the first to give up and returned to the three observers. 
Once he reached them, he said, "I didn't see anything."

Albert returned to them ten minutes later shaking his head. Once 
there, he said, "The whole place has been trampled down by the 
police and everyone else that was here. Can't make out a damned 
thing."

Howard heard the sound of a car going by several hundred yards 
away. Thinking about not having to hike anymore, he said, "We 
can hike over to the road and, if we are lucky, we could get a ride 
back to your car, Ed."

Disappointed at what he had found, Albert replied, "That's a good 
idea. Let's go."

As Albert followed the tire tracks of the police cars towards the 
highway, Howard stood there looking at him with a funny 
expression on his face. Rather than follow, he called out, "You're 
going the wrong way."

Testy at the student, Albert turned to him and said, "The tire tracks 
lead to the highway that's a half a mile in this direction."

"Well, I heard a car drive past a couple hundred yards away in this 
direction," replied Howard pointing in the direction from which he 
had heard the car.

Albert looked over at Ed and smiled as he shook his head at the 
irony of the situation. He had been so intent on tracks that he had 
ignored other signs that he should have caught. Looking over at 
Ed, he said, "Let's follow Howard for a change."

The lack of response from Howard caught Ed's attention. He 
asked, "Why the silence?"

Puzzled, Howard said, "I think Albert should lead the way. He sees 
things that I don't."

Albert returned to the four of them and replied, "You're right. If 
there is anything to find, I'm less likely to destroy it and most 
likely to find it."

The others followed Albert as he took a circuitous route towards 
the road that Howard had heard the car come down.  After a 
hundred yards, he stopped and called out, "This is the way that 
they came into the area."

The others joined him around a fallen tree and flattened bush. 
Shaking his head, Howard asked, "How do you know?"

"They dragged him here and one of the men tripped over the fallen 
tree. Someone, probably the Ranger landed on the bush and 
flattened it." As he made the explanation, he pointed to features 
that supported his interpretation of the signs. 

Howard had followed the entire discussion, but was bothered by 
one detail. He asked, "Why do you think it was the Ranger that 
landed on the bush?"

The Ranger was quiet for a moment and then replied, "It's as if a 
dead weight was dropped on the bush. There isn't the kind of 
damage that a person scrambling to recover from a fall would 
make. If you notice over here, some of the brush is broken with 
dead leaves while this brush doesn't have that same kind of 
breakage."

Ed knelt down and examined the scene as Albert had laid it out. 
Footprints and other details had been lost over time, but the 
damage they had created had lasted. In a very quiet voice, he said, 
"You are saying that he was already dead when brought here."

Solemn, Albert replied, "I guess that is what I'm saying. Even 
bound he would have made a sign that would identify who brought 
him here."

"How?"

"We have a short hand that we use to mark areas. A few deep scuff 
marks with his boot and he could have spelled out who his captors 
were," replied Albert as he exposed one of the secrets of the 
Ranger organization. 

Still kneeling, Ed drew a figure on the ground and said, "I take it 
this means Druid."

Surprised to see Ed write something in the secret language, Albert 
asked, "How did you know?"

"Oh, I found it scratched on a couple of rocks around the Druid 
College and wondered what it meant," Ed answered with a wry 
smile. At the startled reaction of Albert, he added, "There were 
enough rocks with that symbol to define the boundaries of the 
college property. A few feet away were other rocks with different 
symbols scratched on them."

"Care to speculate what the other symbols meant?"

"I would surmise that it described the state of the property. One of 
the places next to ours is over cultivated while another is 
completely wild. I'm sure that I can decode the symbols if I so 
desired."

Albert shook his head as he replied, "We shouldn't have marked 
your place. You guys are too observant."

Chuckling, Ed replied, "I didn't know it was you that left the 
marks."

Standing, Albert said, "Let's find where they entered the woods. 
Maybe there is more that we can learn there."

They went in the direction from which the tracks originated. It 
didn't take them long before they reached the edge of the woods 
and found the road. It wasn't much of a road, little more than a dirt 
track that was wide enough for a single car. Looking around, they 
couldn't find anything that gave clues as to where the bad guys had 
parked. 

Howard sat on the ground a good distance away from where Albert 
was examining the ground. Bored with watching the three other 
men search the ground, he tossed rocks into the field across the 
road as he thought about returning to school. Noticing a couple of 
cans, he tried to hit them from where he sat. This had been an 
interesting break from classes, but he missed the social interaction 
with the other students. 

After spending a half an hour searching the area between to road 
and the woods, Albert gave up and said, "There's nothing here."

Ed said, "I don't see anything wrong here."

Leroy added, "With a dirt road like this, any tracks would be wiped 
out in three days as a result of trucks going up and down the road. 
It's even hard to tell that the last truck that came through here 
headed up the road in that direction."

Nodding his agreement from where he was sprawled out on the 
ground, Howard said, "Right. There's nothing here except a couple 
of beer cans thrown into the field over there. Do you think we can 
walk to one of the places along this road and get a ride back to the 
car, yet?"

Leroy burst out laughing at the statement. The poor guy was so 
ready to get out of the woods, that he was noticing every sign of 
civilization. The ironic thing was that he was seeing signs that 
shouldn't be where they were. Leroy said, "Oh, we'll go see one of 
the locals soon. We have to call in the local police to collect the 
evidence."

Surprised, Howard asked, "What evidence?"

Giggling, Ling replied, "Oh, a couple of beer cans that are in a 
place where they don't belong."

Surprised at the suggestion that there was something important 
about the beer cans, Howard asked, "What? Someone just threw 
them over there after they finished drinking them."

"And who might that be?"

As he realized the significance of the cans, he knocked his 
forehead with his hand. At least he hadn't actually managed to hit 
one of them with all the rocks he had tossed in their direction. 
Howard answered, "Sometimes I just don't get it. I'm not used to 
thinking about things as clues to a crime."

Albert said, "Let's head in the direction that the last truck that 
passed here was going. If they live up the road, it might be the case 
that they saw something suspicious."

The group walked up the road. Albert, Leroy, and Ed were walking 
side by side discussing the amazing co-incidence that all three had 
missed the two most important clues. Trailing about thirty feet 
behind the three men, Ling walked beside Howard occasionally 
looking at him out of the corner of her eye. The poor guy was 
really out of his element here, but was doing his best to stay out of 
the way. She broke the silence when she said, "They are three very 
intense men. Once they put their minds on a problem, they don't 
give up. I imagine that you are the same way, but this isn't the 
place where you can show that ability."

Surprised by the observation, Howard answered, "It's not that bad. 
I've just never spent any significant amount of time in the woods. I 
grew up in the suburbs. To me, wilderness is the local park before 
they mow it."

"So did John Carter, but he hiked every chance that he had. Even 
today, he likes to take off and hike for days. It's a shame that his 
responsibilities at the College do not allow him to hike as often as 
he would like."

The idea that John Carter was sacrificing himself for the sake of 
the students was a total surprise to Howard. Glancing over at Ling, 
he asked, "What about Ed?"

"Living at the College is slowly killing him."

"You're kidding!"

Knowing Ed the way that she did, she could see the signs that 
living at the College was slowly wearing him down. The 
infrequent trips to Arizona were enough to revive him for a month 
or two, but it wasn't long after he returned before he became sullen 
and withdrawn. Shaking her head, she replied, "No. I'm not 
kidding. He's got a great sense of humor and a tremendous love of 
life, but that humor is shown less and less frequently. He needs 
open spaces to embrace life."

"That's so sad," remarked Howard as he thought about it. He asked, 
"What is it that he likes to do?"

"He likes to hunt rocks and ride his horse. This trip would be good 
for him, but he's stuck walking. He hates hiking. He feels that you 
don't get the big picture so close to the ground," replied Ling.

"But he's so confident and focused."

"Yes, he is. He'll work himself to death in order to right some 
wrong. I know that he's come close to that in the past."

"When?"

"Have you been with him to an IRS office?" asked Ling as she 
stopped to look at Howard. The look on his face told her the 
answer.

"Yes. The trips are complete agony for him," replied Howard. He 
had seen how hard Ed worked. It hurt to be around him when he 
went through the files that contained lies. 

"He went through the files in New York City one year. He tried to 
get through the entire office in one week. Every night, he collapsed 
and had to be carried back to the hotel. He would have killed 
himself to clear up every case they had, if it had been necessary."

"Wow."

"Yes, wow. When you find your service to the Gods and 
Goddesses, I am sure that it will be the same for you. Even if you 
aren't called, you've learned much greater focus than most people 
can even imagine," replied Ling as she resumed walking to catch 
up with the three men. 

Howard walked faster to keep up with her and asked, "You have 
that same focus, but you don't serve the Gods and Goddesses. How 
did you get it?"

"My uncle taught me the martial arts in the old manner. It imposed 
a kind of discipline that you don't see anywhere else. I spent hours 
standing in the yard practicing movements in slow motion. Even 
the slightest error brought the sharp rap of a stick on the offending 
muscles. I went to school for six hours a day and practiced the 
martial arts for eight hours every day," answered Ling. She walked 
along quietly thinking about those years. She had hated the 
unrelenting lessons that her uncle put her through and it wasn't 
until years afterwards that she realized he had given her a far 
greater gift than mastery of an obscure fighting style. He had given 
her a strength that allowed her to be her own person, unbound by 
societal convention and able to break it by having the skill to keep 
others from forcing her into anything that she didn't want to do. 

Grimacing at the thought of what a life like that would entail, 
Howard replied, "It sounds like a horrible way to grow up."

Smiling, Ling replied, "I thought so at the time, but he saved me 
from a lifetime of misery."

"How so?"

"As an orphan, I could have been sold into virtual slavery. When I 
grew up, I could have been married off to an important man. 
Instead, he gave me a real future that allowed me to meet some 
wonderful people and marry for love," replied Ling.

"Sounds like it has worked out for you," replied Howard. He 
looked over at her as they walked along and noticed a sadness 
settle over her. Unsure, he asked, "So why are you sad?"

"I'm trying to have a child by Leroy, yet after six months of trying 
nothing has resulted. I'm still without child."

Howard didn't know much about that topic, but he felt that he 
should give an answer that would cheer her up. He remarked, "It is 
probably a matter of timing."

Ling laughed at the observation, realizing that the poor guy was 
closer to the truth than she wanted to admit. They were busy 
following some herd of deer or elk and would risk scaring them 
away by making love. Her screams when making love tended to 
scare the wild animals, particularly the hoofed ones that were often 
hunted.

Confused by what they were doing out here, Howard asked, "What 
exactly is it that you are doing out here?"

"Leroy wants to observe the infection of a deer in the wild. It has 
never been observed and the real question is how it happens in the 
wild where deer are actually able to avoid contact with infected 
animals. We've seen several infected animals, but the herds we 
have followed avoided them and in some cases chased them off. 
Leroy is taking samples of all the places where the herd grazes to 
see if there is anything there that may have left by an infected 
animal, but so far nothing has turned up."

It was an interesting question and he wondered how else the 
questions could be answered. It seemed like a waste to have such 
an educated man as Leroy wandering around the wilderness 
following deer. He looked around at his surroundings and noticed a 
very odd sight emerging from the woods in the nearby field. He 
called out, "Stop."

Surprised at the fact that everyone stopped and turned the upper 
half of their bodies to look at him as soon as he called out. Not 
wanting to scare off the bird, he pointed to a very large owl 
walking across the field. It waddled from side to side in a manner 
reminiscent of a penguin.  Everyone turned to look at what he was 
pointing. For the next fifteen minutes, they watched as the owl 
trekked across the field with single-minded determination without 
once taking flight.  

When the owl disappeared into the woods at the far end of the 
field, Leroy and Albert burst out laughing. Howard didn't know 
what was so funny, so he asked, "Why are you laughing?"

Leroy said, "I've heard stories about walking owls before, but I 
never believed them."

"That's the funniest thing I've ever seen a bird do," remarked 
Albert. He added, "And I've seen birds do a lot of funny things."

Surprised, Ed said, "I've seen a number of owls do that in the 
desert and never thought anything about it. None of them were that 
big, though."

"That was a Great Horned Owl and a large specimen at that, 
probably a female since they are larger than the male. They often 
hunt by walking, but I've never observed it before," remarked 
Albert as he shook his head. As Howard and Ling joined the three 
men, Albert added, "Thanks for pointing that out. I wouldn't have 
believed you if you had told me about it later."

The group returned to their march up the road. When they passed 
the woods from which the owl had emerged, they found a wooden 
house. The tire tracks they had followed turned into the drive and 
ended at a truck parked in front of the house. Ed and Albert went 
up to the house. The door opened and a man with a gun stepped 
out to confront them. His left cheek bulged out from a wad of 
chewing tobacco. Ed shouted, "Hello. We need you to call the 
local law for us."

Looking over to the side, the man spit out some tobacco juice and 
asked, "Did you find another body?"

"No. We are investigating the murder of a man that we know," 
replied Albert.

Chewing for a moment and spitting out more tobacco juice, the 
man studied Albert for a moment. Finally, he said, "Yeah. The guy 
I found was dressed just like you. Odd clothes for a hiker."

Ed asked, "You found him?"

"Yeah. Noticed a bunch of crows and went to investigate. I figured 
it was a deer killed by poachers. Found the dead man and came 
back here to call the cops. Damn near got fired from my job that 
day because I didn't make it in to work," replied the man. He spat 
and lowered the gun.

"Did you drink a beer or two while waiting for the cops to show 
up?"

"Nah. I hate beer, I prefer whiskey."

Ed could tell that the man was telling the truth by the sweet sound 
of his voice. He asked, "Did you notice anything unusual on the 
road here, a day or two before you found the body?"

"Nope. Of course, if anything happened during the day, I'd be at 
work. Old lady down the road would have noticed any unusual 
traffic. She sees everything. It doesn't matter what time of day or 
night it might be," replied the man. Tired of chewing, he spit out 
the whole wad of tobacco onto the grass next to the porch. That 
done, he sat down on the edge of the porch cradling the gun across 
his legs. Shaking his head, he added, "Sure was a shame about that 
guy. He looked too young to die."

Albert asked, "How do you think the body got there?"

"I thought he was a hiker at first and had fallen there and died. I 
figured that he had hiked in from the highway. Heard later that I 
was wrong about how he died. Seems someone killed him and 
dumped the body there. I figure that whoever did it must have 
come down this road here."

Ed looked at Albert for a minute and then said, "We found some 
beer cans in a field about where we figured they parked to drag the 
body into the woods. Can you think of any way those beer cans 
could have come to be there?"

"Not unless the feller that killed the hiker threw them there. Only 
four houses on this road. There's the old lady, me, the Reverend, 
and some guy from town that comes here on the weekends. I don't 
think any of them are beer drinkers." The man scratched his 
stomach with his right hand as he spoke. 

Ed knew that he was telling the truth as he saw it. Softly, he said, 
"Please call the local authorities and have them come out here."

Pulling a card out of his pocket, Albert added, "Please call the 
game warden and ask him to come here, as well. Tell him that I am 
here."

The guy looked at the card with a puzzled expression. For a 
moment, Howard wondered if the guy could read. His doubts were 
put to rest when the guy said, "A Ranger? You are a park ranger?"

"No. I am a consultant for the Department of the Interior and the 
Game and Wildlife Departments of half the states in the country. 
The Game Warden will know who I am."

The man looked at him out of the corner of his eye before 
answering, "You don't say. You sure are a strange group; A guy 
dressed like Robin Hood, a cowboy, a nigger, a chink, and a fat 
kid."

Getting the man's eye and staring at him with a cold direct stare, 
Ed answered, "The black gentleman is my husband and the lady is 
my wife. You will talk of them with respect. The young man is my 
student."

"Sorry, didn't mean nothin' by it," replied the man with a shrug.

The odd thing was that Ed's truth sense told him the guy was 
actually telling the truth. After a moment of silence, Ed asked, 
"Will you make the call?"

Standing up and carrying his gun in a negligent manner, the guy 
went into the house. Ed turned to Howard and said, "Put on your 
robe. We are doing official business from this moment on."

Even as Howard dug through his pack, Ed went through the pack 
looking for his robe. Finding it at the bottom of the pack, he put it 
on and repacked his belongings. After ten minutes, the man 
returned to the porch and sat down on the edge. Shaking his head, 
he said, "Al, you must be some sort of important person. As soon 
as I mentioned your name, they said they were sending an FBI 
agent out with the game warden."

Albert, who hated being called Al, shook his head and pointed to 
Ed saying, "He's the important one here."

Looking over at Ed as surprise crossed his features, he said, 
"Damn. You're one of them Druds."

Ed corrected him by saying, "I am a Druid." 

"I've seen you fellers on the television. Never saw one wearing a 
black robe or a blue robe before. What's with the different colors?"

"I serve the Two-Sided One, so the color of my robe is black. 
Howard is an initiate who has not yet been called to service, so his 
robe is blue."

Shrugging in disinterest, the man took a bite out of a brick of 
chewing tobacco. After chewing for a moment, he said, "I'm a 
good Christian man. Not sure that I approve of folks that claim to 
serve other Gods. Sounds like Satanism to me. Do you'll practice 
animal sacrifice?"

Smiling, Ed was about to reply that he was more than happy to 
consume a steak cooked well done as a sacrifice, but realized the 
man would probably not get the joke. Shaking his head, he replied, 
"No. We don't sacrifice animals or people. We serve the good and 
I'm glad to hear that you are a good Christian. We need more good 
Christians in this world."

The guy was silent as he chewed his tobacco, occasionally letting 
loose with a spittle of tobacco juice. Watching from a distance, 
Ling shuddered in disgust at the thought of kissing the man. Rather 
than pursue the religious issues, the man changed the topic, "Did 
you happen to see the walking owl?"

"Yes, we did. Funniest thing I've ever seen," answered Howard. 

"Most folks don't believe me when I tell them about that damned 
bird. Too many people think I've been hitting the bottle and seeing 
things."

Albert replied, "Well, tell them that it is a Great Horned Owl and 
that walking around like that is well known behavior. They'll even 
walk into a stream after fish."

"You don't say. That's good to know."

Howard, Ling, and Leroy were tired of standing around waiting for 
introductions and sat down on the ground to wait. Howard dug 
around in his pack for a bit and then pulled out a couple pieces of 
beef jerky. After handing a piece to Ling and Leroy, he sucked on 
a piece of the jerky. The three of them watched as Ed and Albert 
joined the man on the porch. 

The time slowly passed as evening startled to settle. The silence 
was broken by the sudden noise of a helicopter approaching. They 
all looked up in the air as the helicopter settled on the ground in 
front of the house. A man in a dark suit stepped out and ran, bent 
over, towards the house. Once a good distance away from the 
helicopter, he waved and the helicopter lifted off the ground. 

Coming over the group on the porch, he walked directly to Ed. 
Stopping a couple of paces away, he said, "Dr. Biggers, I'm Special 
Agent Chuck Abrams of the FBI."

Smiling, Ed replied, "Nice to meet you Chuck. Please call me Ed. 
The ranger to my right is Albert Mandel. I'm afraid that I don't 
know the name of our host."

The man replied, "I'm George Hayber."

Leroy, Ling, and Howard stood up and joined the other three 
where Ed provided introductions. Chuck said, "Another agent will 
be here in about thirty minutes in a car. I came by helicopter to 
provide what little help I could. What's the situation?"

Albert and Ed exchanged looks trying to decide which of them 
would be the one to tell the agent that his trip was a wasted effort. 
Finally, Ed said, "We found a couple of beer cans that we believe 
were left by the individual or individuals that killed the Ranger that 
was found near here."

The news that he had been brought in to take care of a couple of 
suspicious beer cans seemed like overkill. However, he wasn't too 
upset as he was getting a chance to work with the famous husband 
of John Carter. "Beer cans you say. What makes you think that 
they might belong to the killer?"

"They are located where they drug the body into the woods."

"Ah, so you found a bit more than a couple of cans," replied 
Chuck, relieved that it was more than just beer cans strewn along a 
road. 

The game warden was the next person to arrive at the house. He 
pulled up in front of the house and got out. Looking around, he 
saw the robes of the Druids and the dress of the Ranger. Walking 
over to the Ranger, he introduced himself, "I'm Scott Darling of the 
Game and Wildlife Department. I'm glad to see that a Ranger is in 
the area once again. I'm so sorry about John Wilkins, he was a 
good guy."

Solemn, Albert replied, "We will catch his killers."

The Game Warden asked, "Killers?"

Nodding, Albert said, "We have sufficient evidence to show that 
he was killed somewhere else and brought here to be dumped. Two 
men dragged his body to the ravine and threw it in. We speculate 
that they parked on the road down from here and drank a beer each 
before leaving."

George said, "Yeah, you'll definitely want to talk to the old lady 
down the road if that is the case. They wouldn't have been able to 
drive up the road without her seeing them."

Scott was quiet and said, "I'm sorry. I'm not an investigator and I 
totally missed the signs."

"Let's go down the road and interview the woman," suggested Ed 
ready to get to work. 

Realizing that they only had one car and loath to walk any more, 
Howard said, "I'll stay here so that when the police arrive, they'll 
know where you went."

Ed, Albert, and the Game Warden went down the road by car. 
Stopping in front of a run-down wood house, they got out. Ed 
noticed a slight movement of the curtains that suggested someone 
had been watching them approach. It was a few seconds later that 
the woman, bent over from bone loss, stepped out of the house and 
looked at the Game Warden. She asked, "What do you want 
around here?"

Ed stepped forward and said, "We just want to ask you some 
questions. I'm sure that you heard about the body that was found in 
the woods not too far from here."

The elderly woman, seventy years of age, grumbled for a moment 
and decided to invite the men into her house. Standing was too 
hard on her bones and she didn't want to stand outside engaged in a 
long conversation. She was short and overweight, with fingers 
twisted from arthritis. She had not aged gently. Emphasizing her 
age, she had lost a lot of her hair. There were large growths on her 
scalp that were just barely covered by the little hair that remained. 
Hands trembling, she croaked, "Follow me."

She led them into her house. The inside wasn't much better kept 
than the exterior of the house. The fabric on the sofa was 
threadbare with portions covered by old towels intended to keep 
the stuffing inside it. The wood chairs squeaked when moved, as 
joints loosened by decayed glue allowed wood to rub against 
wood. The musty scent of old dust hung heavy in the air. Looking 
around the room, Ed realized that two days of hard work by young 
hands could fix much of the room. As the old woman sat in the 
chair, he said, "Ma'am. Would you like me to have some of my 
young colleagues come here and fix some of this furniture?"

"Are you saying that my house is a mess?"

Recognizing that the old woman still retained a sense of pride, he 
said, "No ma'am. I only suggest that young hands can repair chairs 
and reach places that arthritis prevents."

"Perhaps that is true," she replied with a frown. She turned to 
Albert and said, "You want to know about the white pickup truck 
that came down the road two days before they found the body in 
the woods. There were two men that I've never seen before in the 
truck. They drove down the road around two in the afternoon and 
left about three-thirty."

"Can you tell us about the men inside?" asked Albert anxious to 
learn as much as he could.

The woman was silent for a moment as she tried to remember the 
details that her eyes, weak from age, had captured. Shaking her 
head, she answered, "They were young, maybe in their early 
thirties. Can't tell you much more than that. My eyes aren't what 
they used to be."

"They see a lot despite their age. Why didn't you call your 
observations into the police?" asked Ed, curious about how she 
could sit there without telling anyone what she had seen.

"I don't have a phone," replied the old woman as though they 
should have known that fact. At the expression on Scott's face, she 
said, "I'm not all that cut off. My daughter comes out here every 
week with groceries. I just didn't think to tell her about it."

Ed nodded and looked around the room. On the fireplace was a 
picture of a young woman in her mid-twenties. He asked, "Ma'am, 
is this a picture of your granddaughter?"

"No. That's the only picture I have of my daughter," replied the 
woman. 

"I shall get some people here to help you," replied Ed as he looked 
around the room taking in the cobwebs in the corners of the room. 
The idea that an elderly person would have to live in such squalor 
hurt him.
