Sara squeezed Jake’s hand as she watched Fred reach down and bury his hands beneath the body’s shoulders while Mister Redmond took hold of his boots. They each lifted Chester Elliott’s body from the ground and quickly lowered it onto the blanket.
Jake had expected some decomposition, but it wasn’t as bad as he’d anticipated. The top of his body was still covered in dirt, but he didn’t even look at his father’s face. Instead, he concentrated on his torso searching for the bullet hole. When he didn’t see it, he began to think he was wrong about the cause of his father’s death.
He glanced down at Sara before releasing her hand and stepping around the hole and joining the sheriff as he approached the body. Before they could ask, the mortician rolled the body onto its side exposing his father’s back. Even amid the dirt that coated the entire shirt the darker blood stain stood out. It only took five seconds before Jake and Sheriff Zendt found the bullet hole, but once they spotted it, the sheriff nodded to Isiah Redmond, then he and Jake stepped back.
As the mortician and his assistant wrapped his father’s body, Jake asked, “Can you remove the bullet from my father before you prepare him for burial?”
Mister Redmond replied, “I was going to do that already, Jake. Will you be burying him in your family cemetery beside your mother?”
“Yes. I’ll stop by to make all the arrangements later today.”
“That’s fine.”
Jake waited for Sara to join him. Then when Isiah Redmond and Fred began carrying his father’s body out of the forest with the sheriff walking alongside, he took her hand and followed. As they snaked through the trees and rocks, it was nothing less than a funeral procession that was taking place in his natural cathedral.
_____
When they left the refuge, Mister Redmond and Fred continued carrying Chet Elliott’s body to the waiting hearse, but Jake, Sara and the sheriff stopped near their horses. Jake hung his father’s dirty Stetson over his saddle horn and watched as his father’s blanket-wrapped body was slid into the hearse.
Sheriff Zendt then turned to Jake and said, “When you get a chance, stop by the office. I need you to write a statement, but I should have talked to Mister Jones before then and I’m sure he’ll issue a warrant this time.”
Jake shook his hand as he said, “Thanks, Arv. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it to your office today, but if I can’t, I’ll see you in the morning.”
“I know this sounds bad, but I’m kinda glad that your father didn’t do it, Jake.”
“It doesn’t sound bad, Arv. I feel the same way.”
The sheriff mounted his horse then waved before he rode away.
Jake and Sara mounted, then walked their horses to the hearse and after it began rolling, they rode about twenty feet behind the black carriage as it headed across the uneven ground.
As they trotted behind the hearse, Jake took his father’s hat from his saddle horn and held it in his left hand rather than risk having it fall to the ground and get trampled.
When the small procession reached the barn, Jake and Sara pulled up and sat in their saddles watching the hearse roll away until it turned east at the end of the access road.
Jake then looked toward the chow house and said, “Let’s go talk to the men before I go into town to take care of the arrangements for the burial. I’ll plan on having it tomorrow afternoon around three o’clock.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“This is nothing more than paperwork, Sara. After we talk to the boys, why don’t you get something to eat, and I’ll join you when I get back. I should only be gone for a couple of hours.”
While she knew it was far more than just paperwork for Jake, Sara felt that he wouldn’t need her help to handle his father’s arrangements, so she replied, “Alright,” before they turned their horses to the left and walked them to the chow house.
After they dismounted, Jake hung his father’s hat over his saddle horn again before taking Sara’s hand and entering the wide door.
After providing a concise and unemotional report of the discovery and removal of his father’s body, Jake told them of the time for tomorrow’s memorial service. None asked any questions or offered any meaningless condolences before Jake and Sara left the somber group.
Once outside, Jake took his father’s hat from his saddle horn, handed it to Sara and asked, “Could you leave this on the desk, Sara?”
She replied, “Of course,” as Big Tom stepped out of the chow house, took Vulcan’s reins and led the black gelding away without saying a word.
Jake mounted Mars and turned him toward the access road while Sara walked to the ranch house. He didn’t look back as he finally had the time to deal with the ramifications of the startling discovery. The burial and his statement were just tasks that needed to be done. As he told Sara, he’d leave the search for Dave Forrest to the law.
Dave had already been gone a week, so he could be almost anywhere by now, but Jake didn’t believe that he’d left the territory yet. He was also convinced that he didn’t take the road south to Meagher County. One of the few things that Jake knew about Dave’s past was that he seemed more familiar about the land west of Fort Benton than the south. It was only a few comments Dave made when the foreman had talked about Woman’s Breast. Teenage boys remember those things.
He soon reached the town and pulled up before Redmond’s Funeral Parlor. Most of the businesses in town
