Page 66 of The Last Grift
Everyone in the area owned one. There were more pickups than people around Heartstone. Damn.
“Then what happened?”
“Somebody dumped some junk since last time I was there,” Gordon said, sounding more awake. “Makes me mad. I was going to toss it in the back of my truck, but first I checked the shed. I’ve found stuff in there before too.”
“There was something inside?” Casey prodded.
“Yeah.” Gordon looked down at the covers he was nervously picking at. “Dwayne Perkins. He was just there. Dead. I made myself check his pulse, but there was nothing. I mean, the back of his head was all over the wall.”
After Gabe’s description of the body, Casey was surprised that Gordon made the effort.
“What happened next?” Casey glanced at his watch. They’d been there about ten minutes so far.
“What do you think happened? I got out of there. Ran to mytruck, didn’t I? Then someone shot me. Just like that, out of the blue. Shot at me!”
Probably not as out of the blue as Gordon thought since Dwayne had also been shot. Had the shooter been in the other vehicle? But that made no sense if they were driving away. Had they been waiting to ambush Gordon? Just how long had Dwayne been dead when Gordon found him? A couple of hours? Maybe only a few minutes? The Perkinses had been caught poaching mushrooms that morning. Karne had his encounter with them at the gas station around lunch time.
Casey calculated the drive back to The Valley. It was about half an hour, forty-five minutes from the gas station. Plenty of time for the brothers to get back up to Gordon’s before he left work.
Which also begged the question, where was Calvin Perkins?
“Do you have an idea what time this happened?”
“The first missed, the second got me.” Gordon’s voice trailed off, still focused on the last question. “Uh, it was just getting dark, but it wasn’t late. I didn’t look at my watch or anything.”
“Gordon, one more question. Then we’ll let you rest.”
He blinked. “What?”
“Has anything else out of the ordinary happened up there lately?”
“There’s always weird stuff up there, you know it too, Casey. Can’t understand why anybody’d want to build a housing development. Nobody wants new people there.”
Casey did know. The Valley was made up of off-the-grid-survivalist-leave-me-alone types. Hell, in Casey’s opinion, it didn’t qualify as a community since the folks up there didn’t want to have anything to do with each other, either. He was more social than most of The Valley’s permanent residents, which was… weird.
Gabe cleared his throat and threw Casey asignificant glance. But before he could speak, Gordon mustered energy for a bit more.
“It’s cursed, or maybe I am,” he said softly. They all leaned in closer so they wouldn’t miss anything. “They’re going to try and say it was me who killed Dwayne. It wasn’t me.” A tear leaked from the corner of Gordon’s non-swollen eye and ran down his cheek.
“I can’t go back to jail, I can’t.”
Casey reached out to pat his arm but considered the injury and settled for Gordon’s thigh. He wanted to comfort him, promise that he wouldn’t go back, but he couldn’t. Life sucked.
“Gordon, who owns those Snowcap Estate parcels? Anyone we know?”
Gordon frowned as he considered the question. Finally, he said, “Not sure. Investors? Deter Nolan? I’ve seen him up there a couple times. But others too.”
“Deter Nolan?” Casey repeated. “The sheriff’s deputy and general all-around asshole?”
Elton cocked his head in agreement. “That’s the only Nolan around these parts. I made some calls this afternoon. Gordon’s right, that land’s owned by an investment group. I haven’t been able to get any names, though, just some horseshit about an LLC.”
“What’s the significance of this Nolan character possibly owning the land by Gordon’s?” Karne asked.
“Maybe nothing,” Casey said.
“Earlier you were thinking this was all about fancy mushrooms.”
“Yeah, that’s still a possibility. People have killed over less.”
