Johnson was high-centered, and even with the four-wheel drive trying to pull the truck off the stump from the front, he wasn’t going anywhere. Teddy tried to get the truck unstuck for about three seconds, but seeing it was futile he jumped from the cab and started running.
The two officers were just pulling up next to Teddy’s rig when he jumped and ran. Both were out of their trucks in an instant. McCain in front, Hargraves right behind. Hargraves saw a yellow flash take off out of McCain’s truck and knew Jack was on the chase too.
“Stop, Teddy!” McCain yelled as he ran behind the man, but it was of no use.
McCain almost laughed as he thought about chasing down another Johnson. He’d just told himself only a few hours earlier he didn’t want to have to do this again.
Teddy kept running and might still be running if Jack hadn’t come up on him and clipped his right heel from behind. Johnson tripped and went down rolling, like a short, round human bowling ball. It was most likely an accident that Jack had hit the man’s leg as it was coming back, but it sure did the job of putting him down.
McCain got to Teddy first, and even though he had the guy by almost ten inches and twenty pounds, Johnson wasn’t intimidated. He was built like a fire hydrant and was tough. He took a swing and hit McCain in the shoulder. Johnson wound up to swing again when he stiffened, started shaking and fell over.
McCain looked at Hargraves, who was holding his Taser. He’d just hit Teddy with five seconds of 50,000 volts. It didn’t matter how strong the man was, he definitely was feeling the effects of the electricity. It was known technically as “electrical pulse incapacitation.” And incapacitate it did.
“You can thank me later,” Hargraves said with a smile on his face.
“Hey, I had him just where I wanted him,” McCain said. “But I’ll go ahead and thank you now.”
McCain put his handcuffs on his second Johnson of the day, and he helped the dazed man to his feet.
“That was quite a move Jack put on him,” Hargraves said. “Did you train him to do that?”
“Nope, that was all Jack,” McCain said. “I’m glad he did it though. I wasn’t gaining much ground on Teddy here. Those short little legs of his were churning pretty fast.”
“Screw you,” Teddy said. “Where’s my brother?”
“I’m guessing by now he’s in a cell right next to your father,” Hargraves said. “And they’re saving a spot for you too. It will be like one big family reunion.”
When they got Johnson secured in the backseat of Hargraves’ truck, the two officers went and looked through the Dodge. There were no bear parts, but as McCain had seen before, there were signs of dried blood in the bed of the truck. They found a rifle and a shotgun under the bench seat in the front of the truck and confiscated them.
Hargraves took Johnson to Yakima to be booked into the county jail, while McCain awaited the wrecker that would be arriving, whenever the spirit moved them, to pull Teddy’s truck off the stump and haul it to the impoundment yard next to the sheriff’s office.
McCain told himself he’d wait for an hour to meet the wrecker and show them where the truck was. If they didn’t show up by then, they could just find the thing by themselves. He knew Jack was starving, as it was way past his dinner time, and McCain was feeling a little peckish himself.
The next day, with a search warrant in hand, Hargraves, McCain, and Jack went up to the Johnson place in Tieton to look for more bear parts and anything else that might incriminate the two men in their quest for bear bladders. This time they found no buried bear parts. They did, however, find a couple plastic containers in a refrigerator out in the garage with a bladder in each.
The day after the Johnson brothers had been arrested, Kittitas County sheriff’s deputies located and arrested Aaron Armitage. He was staying at Teddy’s cabin in Cle Elum. They had a search warrant, based on the arrest of Teddy, and found two more plastic containers with bladders in them, along with four bear hides rolled up in plastic bags in a chest freezer.
Chapter 21
One evening, a few days after the run-in with the Johnson brothers, McCain was at home, replenishing his to-go pack with more snacks and water when he started thinking about the little toothpick wrapper he had picked up in the mountains and given to Sinclair. He again wondered if it might have come from the vehicle the killer used to transport the body. He and Sinclair had really spent very little time in Antonio’s the night they went, so he decided to visit the bar again. It was a longshot, but he decided to check it out.
He left Jack in the cool air-conditioned house, jumped into his Tundra and headed to Yakima. McCain wasn’t sure what or who he expected to find when he arrived at the place, but figured he’d go into the bar, look around, and have a chat with the bartender. It took him a while, but he found a place to park and headed for the bar. As he entered, he was almost overwhelmed by the number of people in the place. It might have been busier and louder than when he was there with Sinclair. The tables were all full, as were all the seats at the bar. Once his eyes adjusted from the bright evening light outside, McCain scanned the room and caught the eyes of a familiar face looking right back at him.
“Crap,” he said to himself. It was Andrea Parker. As soon as she saw him, she headed his way. The biologist from work didn’t look like
