Page 14 of The Last Grift
“Where can I find him? Do you think he’d mind if I asked him a few questions?” He tried not to sound overly excited, but she didn’t seem concerned about his interest.
She waved vaguely up the road. “Keep driving a mile or so down the road, you can’t miss Elton’s property. But if you pass Smitty’s RV Park, you’ve gone too far. Anyway, among other things, Elton was a welder back in the day and created scrap metal sculptures. There’s a fifteen-foot-tall sea monster made from mufflers standing guard over his driveway. Can’t miss it.”
“A fifteen-foot sea monster?”
“Yep,” she confirmed with a nod. “Do you want to take a second Americano with you? Like I said, Elton loves his coffee.”
“I guess I do.”
“Tell him Mercy sent you.”
While Mercy put together the second coffee, Gabriel circled the store and picked up a few groceries that wouldn’t be in danger of going bad right away. He paused briefly over a locally made “Cornish-style hand pie” before deciding to add it to his basket. It would do for tonight. Sleeping in his car was not ideal but, for one, there was not a hotel or even a motel on the island, and two, he’d ditched his credit cards. Maybe this Elton person would have a line on a place to stay.
EIGHT
GABRIEL
Tuesday
“Jesus Christ.”
Gabe peered through his windshield at the metal creature.
Sea monster didn’t begin to describe the massive iron beast that loomed over Elton Cox’s driveway, and Gabriel had to admit it was damn impressive.
Twenty feet wide and fifteen feet tall, the metal art looked like a cross between a mythical Kraken and a 3D rendering of a cold virus. Rusted-out car exhaust pipes and mufflers stuck out from the creation at all angles. Massive cog-like crank wheels had been used for the midsection, and other bits whose origins were unknown to Gabriel made up the rest.
“Holy crap. This week is just getting weirder and weirder.”
Gabriel would not have turned in there had he not been given directions by Mercy the Coffee Angel. But here he was.
“Here goes nothing.”
He parked the Honda next to a silver-green Ford F-10 pickup with a dented canopy topper that had seen better days.
With a go-cup in each hand, Gabriel got out of his car and approached the worn but well-cared-for mobile home. He crossed a miserable patch of mossy lawn bisected by stone pavers. The grass, adjacent to a tiny porch area, was doing its best to survive the wet fall weather, but in Gabe’s opinion, the weather was winning. Before he could successfully juggle the coffee cups and raise his fist to knock, the door opened.
An older man with wrinkles like gutters, almost as if his skull had once been much larger but had shrunk beneath his skin as he’d aged, stood before Gabriel. “Is one of those for me?” he asked, waggling a pair of eyebrows so bushy they probably threw shade at the height of summer. Was facial hair a sport on Heartstone? “Mercy must have told you to drop by. Come on in.” He paused to peer more closely at Gabriel. “You seem familiar, but I don’t think I know you. Although my memory’s not what it used to be.”
The man was on the far side of seventy, possibly even into his eighties. He was about six inches shorter than Gabriel, reed-thin and knobby, like he’d originally been fashioned from malleable spring twigs that had dried and become brittle.
“You don’t know me. At least, I don’t think so,” Gabriel replied as he held out one of the Americanos. “My name’s Gabriel Karne. And yes, Mercy told me where you lived.”
He’d entertained the idea of giving a false name but had ultimately reasoned that his notoriously suspicious mother had trusted this person. And if he wanted to find out whatever this man might have been watching over for Heidi, a fake identity would likely only cause problems later. Gabriel had enough of those.
Elton had his hand out, ready to take one of the coffees. But he paused to give Gabriel a long, hard look before accepting the hot drink.
“Karne, huh?” Cox said slowly, as if the name was just registering, “I suppose you have ID or something to show me?”
The idea of handing over his ID made Gabe extra twitchy. Just how honest did he have to be with the old man?
Blowing out a puff of air, Gabriel nodded, then reluctantly reached around and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. A particularly strong gust of wind swirled and raindrops dripped down the back of his neck. A few made it into Elton’s living room.
“Hold your horses there,” Elton admonished. “Get inside and then I’ll take a gander at it. Haven’t talked to anyone with the name of Karne since—welp, it’s been a damn long time. Since before you were born, anyway. Come on,” he said, impatiently waving Gabriel past him.
Inside, Gabriel stopped on the rectangular doormat and wiped his feet before stepping onto the carpet.
Manners, Chance.
