Claw Back (Louis Kincaid) (17 page)

The
Hendry
entourage had been led here by Gary who had reluctantly left late last night to summon help once it had been decided that four humans and a cage holding a panther would not fit in Gary’s truck. And Katy’s Jeep was too low on gas to travel far. 

“I asked what the fuck happened?”
Zeedler
asked again, looking hard at Louis. “Who’s been kidnapped? Who’s been shot? Who shot him and who the hell are you?”

“Louis
Kindcaid
,” Louis said, producing the badge Mobley had given him.
Zeedler’s
dark eyes flicked to the badge and back to Louis’s face. He seemed surprised there was a cop on the scene.

             
Louis had asked Gary to tell the Hendry County sheriff that a Lee County officer was involved and that Mobley would need to be notified. Apparently Gary had forgotten that last part.

             
“You’re one of Mobley’s guys,”
Zeedler
muttered.

             
Louis ignored the slight.
“Yes, sir.
Could you tell me if you have notified Sheriff Mob
--
”

             
Zeedler’s
eyes shot up to Louis, squinting against the rising sun. “Who got shot here?”

             
“An Indian named
Hachi
Keno.”

             
“Is Keno alive?”

             
“Yes, sir.
He’s tied up inside.”

             
“Was he armed?”
Zeedler
asked.

             
“Yes, he had --”

             
“Fuck,”
Zeedler
muttered again, looking off toward the cypress trees.
“An officer-involved shooting.
Just what I need right now.”

             
“With all due respect, sir, I’m not your officer and most of the paperwork and investigation will fall to Lee County. Now, I would --”

             
Zeedler
looked back at him. “Who did this
Keno guy
kidnap?”

             
Louis held
Zeedler’s
little black eyes for a moment. Louis
was sure
the sheriff wouldn’t notify Mobley until he knew exactly what had happened and how it would play out in the media.

             
Damn Gary.

             
He had done a piss-poor job at explaining things to
Zeedler
. And Louis knew why. Gary had hoped to give them enough information to get Hendry County out here, and then he planned
to turn
into a ghost, just like he had after the episode with the Fort Lauderdale robbers. But that wasn’t going to happen this time. The Hendry County deputy had not left the side of Gary’s SUV. 

             
“The victim, officer,”
Zeedler
repeated. “Who did
Keno
kidnap?”

             
“Her name is Katy
Letka
,” Louis said. “She’s an officer with the Florida Wildlife Commission.”

             
“And that man
Gary
Tootillo
outside
-- how is he involved in all this?”

             
“Katy and I were working on
a
poaching case. When Katy disappeared yesterday morning, I suspected
Hachi
Keno had taken her and was keeping her at one of these old camps.
Gary
knew about the camps and we spent most yesterday searching. We found her and Keno last night.”

             
Zeedler
blew out a breath and again wiped his brow. He was so sweaty his dark uniform looked as if were melting onto his body.

             
“Don’t fuck around with me, officer,”
Zeedler
said. “You’re a cop. Why not just arrest
Keno
last night and drive him and the victim back into town in Toot-whatever’s vehicle?”

Louis hadn’t been fucking with
Zeedler
but he would now.

“Because we couldn’t have brought Grace with us,” Louis said.

             
Zeedler
yanked off his hat. “Who the fuck is Grace?”

             
“Follow me,” Louis said.

             
“Now wait a minute,”
Zeedler
said.

             
Louis walked toward the shack. “Follow me, sir.”

             
Zeedler
hesitated then decided to follow Louis to the shack. When Louis pushed open the door and
Zeedler
stepped inside, his hand went immediately to cover his nose.

             
Louis had heard that sunshine
was
the best disinfectant but in this case, the light only elevated the place from disgusting to revolting.
Feces.
Bones.
Maggots.
Rust.

             
How Katy had stayed in here all night, Louis didn’t know. It had to be a powerful devotion to Grace and those
kittens
. Even now, she was still sitting on
the floor near the cage. He could tell she was exhausted but her eyes were lit with exhilaration.

             
Keno was tied to a hook on the opposite side of the shack, awake but pale. Katy
had
taken off his sh
irt
and cleaned his wound the best she could. Louis’s bullet had caught him in the
fleshy part of his shoulder, exiting cleanly
.
But even a minor gun wound could easily become infected.

             
“Sheriff
Zeedler
,” Louis said. “That’s
officer
Katy
Letka
, on the floor.”

             
Katy raised a hand in a weary acknowledgement.

             
“That man is
Hachi
Keno,” Louis said, “and that’s Grace in the cage.”

             
Zeedler
spun back to Louis. “Grace is a goddamn panther?” he asked.

             
“Yes, sir.”

             
“You son of a bitch,”
Zeedler
said. “You sneak into my jurisdiction, you solicit civilian help in a search for a kidnapper and then you shoot a
n
Indian -- all over a goddamn lost panther?”

             
“Poached panther,” Louis corrected. “Keno abducted Grace, which is what started all this.”

             
Zeedler
just stood there,
hand back at
his mouth, his gaze circling the tiny shack. He was blanching a little and Louis hoped he would at least move outside if he puked up his coffee. 

             
“Now will
you
call my sheriff and get him out here?” Louis asked.

             
Zeedler
lowered his hand. His eyes grew even smaller, like shiny drops of oil. “Yeah, I’ll call your sheriff. And I’ll be surprised if you even have a job when he gets a load of all this crap.”

             
Louis suspected
Zeedler
was probably right, but he said nothing. Job or no job, he didn’t regret a moment.

             
Zeedler
grabbed his radio and told his dispatcher to contact Sheriff Mobley. He added that he would be transporting a suspect to the hospital. Then he jammed the radio back in his belt and pointed to Keno.

             
“Untie that man,”
Zeedler
said. “I’m arresting him for kidnapping.”

             
“There was no kidnapping,” Katy said. “I went with him willingly.”

             
Louis glanced at Katy, not surprised she did
n’t
want Keno arrested. During the long night, Louis had wandered in and out of the hot fetid shack but Katy had stayed inside, watching Grace and the kittens but also talking to Keno. Even standing outside, Louis could hear the soft murmur of their voices. Keno would clam up every time Louis came back inside. Louis didn’t know exactly what Keno had told Katy but he had the feeling they had reached some understanding about Grace and some forgiveness about what Keno had done to Katy.

             
Zeedler
stared at Katy for a moment then looked back to Keno, who was now paying attention to what was happening. He looked terrified.

             
“Then I’m taking him in for poaching an endangered animal,”
Zeedler
said.

             
A new voice came from behind them, deep and commanding. “I don’t think so.”

             
Everyone turned to the doorway. Moses Stanton stood there, arms crossed.

             
Like
Zeedler
had done, Moses took in the interior of the shack, his eyes resting a long time on Katy and Grace.
H
e stepped inside and slowly took off his hat.

             
“Who the
fuck are
you?”
Zeedler
asked.

             
“Moses Stanton, executive assistant to the Seminole chief.”

             
“And who the hell called you?”
Zeedler
asked.

             
“Smoke signals,” Moses said, with a small smile.

             
“Very funny, Stanton,”
Zeedler
said.

             
“Let’s get to the point,” Moses said. “You have no reason to be here, sheriff.”

             
“The hell I don’t. We’re in my county,”
Zeedler
said. “And that panther over there is a federally protected animal. That means no one can hunt it. Not even Indians.”

             
“You’re wrong, sheriff,” Moses said. “May I remind you of a 1985 case right here in Hendry County. A Seminole man killed a panther and the state charged him with a felony for killing an endangered animal.”

             
“I remember that,”
Zeedler
said. “He got off because the court ruled old treaties said you could hunt anything you wanted on the reservation. But this panther is not on your land.”

             
“The lawyers said the treaties gave us the right to hunt anywhere, not just on our own land,” Moses said. “And it was argued that the Seminole had the right to kill the panther to use in a religious ritual.”

             
Louis glanced at Katy. She gave him a small shake of her head as if to warn him not to ask any questions.

             
“It doesn’t matter what the fucking lawyers said,”
Zeedler
said. “The case was dismissed.”

             
Moses nodded. “Do you want to spend the next two years fighting about this again?”

             
For a moment,
Zeedler
looked so angry he couldn’t draw a breath. But then the anger faded to
simple
frustration. He looked down at Keno and then at Grace in the cage.

             
He shook his head. “All right,” he said. “I’m not going to the mat over a fucking cat.” He looked at Louis. “Mobley can deal with this -- and you.”

             
Zeedler
pushed by Moses out the door. Louis turned to watch him as he stalked back through the tall grass toward his swamp buggy.

             
“I will be taking
Hachi
with me,” Moses said.

“I can’t let you do that,” Louis said.

             
“Why not?”

             
“Because I shot him,” Louis said.

             
Moses nodded. “He probably deserved it,” he said.

             
“That’s not the point,” Louis said. He wiped his sweating forehead, his head clouded from exhaustion. “I’m a cop,” he said. “I’m looking at a shit storm because of this.”

             
Moses smiled slightly. Then he turned to Katy.