Scratchgravel Road (Josie Gray Mysteries #2)(89)

Diego placed his hand on her shoulder and turned her slowly toward him. He touched the red area gently with the back of his fingers. “It doesn’t feel hot to the touch. You need some cream applied to it to stop the burn.”

Josie held her arm out and saw the red that stretched down her forearm and across her wrist.

He removed his hand from her shoulder and looked at her in confusion. “Why would Brent attack you?”

“I watched the security tapes from Saturday and Sunday. I’m sorry. I couldn’t afford to wait for permission.”

Anger flickered across his face, but he nodded.

“Brent killed Juan Santiago.”

“What?” Diego looked incredulous, as if he wasn’t capable of hearing one more horrendous piece of news.

“That’s why he attacked you? You saw him kill Santiago on the security tapes?”

“I was watching the tapes. Brent came into the security room carrying the beaker. When I refused to leave the room, he threatened me with the chemicals. That’s when Otto approached with his gun drawn. Brent threw the acid in an attempt to break free.”

Looking at Diego’s stunned expression she was hit by a sudden realization. This is the difference between cops and other people. He still feels shock and disbelief at the atrocities people do to one another.

“I haven’t watched the rest of the security tape,” Josie said. “But I have no doubt what we’ll find.”

*

They heard a boom like thunder ripping through the inside of a metal drum. The sound lasted for what seemed like an eternity. Mitch had just detonated the explosives in the trench. They left the bathroom and ran outside to find Otto with one of the DPS officers who had been helping with the mudslide, locking Brent Thyme in the backseat of his patrol car.

Otto turned to Josie. He looked bad, Josie thought.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice cracking.

She could see he was searching her face for signs of damage, and she realized how shaken he had been over her safety.

“I’m fine. Skip says it was a neutralized chemical. The burning is already easing up. I’m going to be fine.”

Otto’s shoulders slumped in relief.

She noticed Brent in the back of the police car. The anger and betrayal she felt over his attack toward her, and toward Santiago, were too much to put into words at that point. She turned away from the car to keep from looking at him. She needed time to mentally cool off before she had to confront him at the jail.

Diego and Skip left for the parking lot to meet with Sandy to check the results of the explosives. After Brent was driven away in the DPS car, Josie and Otto stood in the courtyard, surveying each other without word.

Josie finally said, “Hell of a day.”

“When I left to get you, the peak was just crumbling,” Otto said.

Josie looked toward the mountain range but one of the buildings blocked the view. “You need to get to the hospital. You need to be examined,” Otto said.

“Let’s go check the hillside. If it’s under control I’ll take off.”

Otto climbed on the four-wheeler, and Josie slid on behind him.





TWENTY-FOUR


As Otto drove around the side of the Feed Plant, the mountain range came into full view. Josie couldn’t believe the sight. Losing the peak, the highest point on the mountain range, completely changed the landscape, creating a void in the sky.

Two streams of water were flowing down the mountain: one down the original arroyo a half mile to the left of the plant, the other a newly formed stream that was flowing through the trench Mitch had blown into the earth. Mitch was on the ATV. His crew was located between the two flows, and they were beginning to drive the truck back toward the plant. Josie noticed the trench operator was to the left of the newly blown ditch.

“He needs to get that trencher out of there before he gets stuck!” she said, pointing at the machine. It appeared to be caught on the edge of the path of water and mud moving down the hill.

Otto yelled back to her. “Looks like he lost traction in the moving water.”

The trencher was pointed east, away from the runoff, but the machine wasn’t built for speed. It probably only moved about two miles per hour.

Using the four-wheeler, Otto drove to where Mitch and his crew had stopped their pickup truck to watch the trencher. The Excursion, several four-wheelers, and the pickup truck were all congregated, watching the operator try to beat the slide.

Josie was amazed at the fast-moving stream of mud and debris. She’d seen the aftermath, but she’d never seen an actual mudslide in person. It looked to be alive, engulfing everything in its way, completely unstoppable. She realized now how ineffective the concrete barriers would have been in the wake of its widening path.

Otto killed the engine and the group turned briefly to ask if everything was okay, but the focus was now on the mudslide. Massive slabs of earth were dislodging and collecting with the debris and water sliding down from the base of the mountain. The mess was fortunately following the path Mitch had predicted, headed straight for the ten-foot-wide ditch that would bypass the Feed Plant. The problem now was the mudslide was spreading wider than the ditch and was about to catch the trencher and pull it along.

“We’ve got to get him out of there!” Otto yelled. Josie could tell he was ready to start up their four-wheeler and take off toward the machine, but she was afraid it would just put another vehicle in the way of the slide.