This book is a work of fiction about a terrible coal mining accident that happened in Hazard, Kentucky during the early 1980's. The date of the accident was about 1982 plus or minus maybe three years. It's hard to pin it down any better than that. But, I can tell you this much, it occurred back when Catherine Bach was playing the role of "Daisy Duke" on a TV show called "The Dukes of Hazzard" What a beautiful woman she was when she walked across my TV screen. Everything about her body was absolutely adorable and, at the time, she just took my breath away. My protagonist in this particular tale is a man by the name of Caleb Baker. He is a Houston widower who has nothing to do since the passing of his wife. His lifelong friend is the Mayor of Hazard, Honorable Herbert Ray Henry who wants him to return to the mountains where he was born and reared. Henry wants it so bad that he has thrown in analytical laboratory and a staff of two talented people. Baker's first case involves a coal mine explosion. So you can go home again.
YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN
A Caleb Baker MysteryBy Charles HaysTrafford Publishing
Copyright © 2012 Charles Hays
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4669-5598-1Contents
Chapter One: ALONE................................1Chapter Two: FIRST CASE...........................16Chapter Three: MONEY TRAILS.......................37Chapter Four: ENDEARMENT..........................55Chapter Five: SORROW..............................67Chapter Six: LOVE.................................84Chapter Seven: TRAP...............................106Chapter Eight: INTERVIEWS.........................123Chapter Nine: MORE INTERVIEWS.....................151Chapter Ten: COFFEE TREE..........................169Chapter Eleven: PRIORITIES........................201Chapter Twelve: RESULTS...........................223Chapter Thirteen: OFFER...........................246Chapter Fourteen: ARRESTS.........................271Chapter Fiveteen: VENGEANCE.......................286Chapter Sixteen: EPILOGUE.........................301
Chapter One
ALONE
CALEB BAKER WAS sitting on his favorite chair and the new television was turned on but, he was unable to relax. He was bored and he was sad. It had been over two long years since his wife had passed on 11SEP10, a victim of ovarian cancer for the best part of twenty years. At the end of the day, her tumor had spread to other parts of her body and, suddenly, she was gone.
Her death was a horrible and painful one to witness. She was not the same person that she used to be, not even close. Dorothy had been transformed into a minor fraction of the beautiful woman that she had been. The hospice was very kind and respectful but, injecting her with morphine every few minutes, is not living but, instead, it's sort of like floating between this World and the next. One minute here and the next minute at some other place.
I will never forgive the Henderson Hospital for the treatment that my wife received. Their regimen for her was to use one of the Statin Family of drugs to cure her problem. The Food and Drug Administration has since recalled the drug that she used with the official statement of "It does more harm than good."
In brief, they were using my wife as a Guiana pig and I shall never forgive them for that decision. Neither Medicare nor her personal insurance would pay for that treatment and I can't blame them for that. They said that we won't pay because you killed Mrs. Baker. But, now they want me to pay for something that my normal coverage will not cover and those hospital invoices amount to more than I can afford. What a dilemma I'm in.
So what I really need is to disappear for a while but, where could I go and how would I hide from that pestering collection agency? I called my best friend from Hazard High School, Mayor Ray Henry, to ask him if there was any way that he could find me some cash-only employment in Eastern Kentucky.
I told him why and his answer was, "You need somewhere to hide from those money-hungry pirates at Henderson Hospital and I've got just the place for you. You can go home again. I have a Forensic Laboratory that you can run. It is fully staffed and it comes with all the major electronic toys and miscellaneous equipment, one of everything and two of most. Are you interested?"
I thanked him for his friendship and I told him that my bags could be quickly packed. I would leave the Houston area during the early morning hours. And, was I ever the happy one, I can go home again. And, I did exactly that.
The trip to Hazard from Houston was roughly 1080-miles and I enjoyed every moment of the journey. Suddenly, the grass was greener and the trees were never more beautiful. I had not felt this good since I had recovered from my heart surgery back in the 1970's.
I was free and clear of all those invoices which I could not pay. The hoods at Henderson Hospital could search all they want but they would never find me, not in Hazard. That's a place where large waves of earth grow dense forests that can shield hundreds of men if they want to be shielded.
I am reminded of all the stories about draft dodgers of World War II that still live on and around those hills of Hazard Town. Originally, they came to us in swarms from Ohio.
Now, they are seen only at night when they visit the local Wal-Mart store where they buy their essential needs of beans, bread, beer, bananas and prescription drugs. They have hidden among those hills since 1943-1945. And, evidently, they don't read newspapers.
If they can get away with that, why can't I? During the day, I will try to solve forensic problems for Mayor Ray Henry but, at night, I shall disappear among all of the draftees and runaways like myself who are dodging exorbitant invoices from fictional bookkeeping at Henderson-Houston.
Then, Caleb paused before saying, "Shit, I've got to get out of this rut." The problem that plagued him at Houston was still active so he pulled his car over to the side of the highway to read Henry's official letter of offering employment at Hazard, Kentucky where he was born and reared.
His problem was that he had only two mood swings. First, he would feel extremely sad and, later on, he would feel depressively bored. It was time to read the letter once again.
He had read that letter many times before and, each time that he re-read it, he discovered that it was the only thing in his possession that gave his an uplifting feeling. It's sad to admit but, at least, Caleb did have something while some other unfortunates had nothing.
The official offer of employment letter was from his old high school buddy, Ray Henry who was now the Mayor of Hazard, Kentucky. He had been in office for more years than I could remember because he was so popular and since he had done many wonderful things for the City.
For those two reasons, he kept getting re-elected to that Honorable Office. No single Mayor had ever achieved his level of success, not even Gene Cecil Baker who was my previous candidate for the best Mayor that Hazard ever had. Nevertheless, Ray had sent me a letter that I couldn't ever throw away, it was priceless.
The gist of Ray's offer was simple. He wanted me to return to Hazard because the new Appalachian Hospital did not have a forensic laboratory capability. Mayor Henry said that the Lexington and Louisville laboratories were killing his budget with overcharges so, he needed a solution to his problem and he wanted someone that he could trust, unequivocally. He wanted me. Better still, he needed me.
I had talked with him on the telephone about the fact that my former laboratory had been a metallurgical laboratory, not a forensic laboratory. Ray laughed and said, "Don't tell me that. I have read your classic paper on how to analyze bullets to determine which party was guilty or not.
Every Laboratory in the Country has benefitted from your natural forensic capabilities. And, I want Hazard to be the host city for your special talents. As I remember, that trial was held in Madisonville, TX where someone was accused of killing his wife's lover, remember?" I replied, "Of course, I remember but, that was a simple case and forensics involves a lot more than just bullets."
Henry should have been on the debate team at Hazard High School because he would not listen to any of my arguments. He wanted me to come home again and that was it, no if's, no and's, or no but's. His main point was the following, "Caleb, do you remember how many murders we had when you were attending Hazard High School? No, let me just answer that question for you. Back then, we had a murder rate of...
