The Road to Wrinkle Ranch

by Nick Russell

  "You want to send it back?"

  "No, Maddy, it's not worth it," Greg said, using a knife to scrape the mayonnaise off the bun and the surface of the meat.

  “A little mayo isn’t going to kill you," John Lee said.

  "You be nice to him," Maddy admonished. "Not everybody's like you, John Lee.”

  "What do you mean by that?"

  "I mean you’d eat the boogers out of a dead man's nose if you were hungry enough," Maddy told him.

  "Me? I never saw anybody with an appetite like yours, Maddy."

  “If you two are going to sit here and argue, I’m going to go sit someplace else," Greg said.

  Maddy reached across the table and put her hand over the young deputy’s and said, "It's okay, honey. Mommy and Daddy are just talking, not arguing."

  As they ate their meal they talked about the case. Greg had been detailed out at the railroad crossing, keeping traffic away, and told them that the investigators had about wrapped things up there.

  "Any idea what they think happened?"

  "Nobody's told me anything, Maddy. But from what I overheard, I think everybody seems to agree that some big vehicle pushed that car into the side of the train."

  “Which makes this a murder case."

  “I guess, if that's what happened."

  Maddy looked at John Lee and said, "Maybe we should go have another talk with Darci, or Vince Agosti. Or both of them." She reached across the table and dipped one of her French fries into the mayonnaise on Greg’s plate. Seeing both of them look at her she said, "What? You wouldn’t want it to go to waste, would you?"

  Before anybody could reply, a man stalked up to their table and pointed his finger at Greg and said, "You and me need to have a talk, asshole!"

  They looked up at him and Greg said, "We already had our talk, Buster. I'm not going to waste any more time with you."

  "Oh, yeah? Well I'm not done with you, you little redheaded bastard."

  "That's enough of that," John Lee said. "Whatever your problem is, move along."

  “Or what?"

  “Or you and me are going to have a problem.”

  John Lee had tangled with Buster Oswald a time or two before. The man had no regard for the law and felt it was nobody’s business if he drove a car with expired license plates or got behind the wheel after a night of drinking at one of the backroad honky-tonks and bars around Somerton County. Buster got stopped often, and more times than not, he wanted to argue or even fight. He had a wife who was just as hard a drinker as he was, and just as disrespectful when confronted about it.

  “Mind your own business, John Lee. Only problem I have is with this little prick. He arrested my wife last night and treated her like she was some kind of damn criminal or somethin’."

  "Your wife was doing 85 miles an hour, straddling the centerline and drunk on her butt," Greg said.

  “That's bullshit! She might have had a drink or two, but she wasn't drunk."

  "She was according to my breathalyzer," Greg said.

  “How about I stick that breathalyzer up your ass?"

  “How about you turn around and walk out of here while you still can, Buster? Take off before you get yourself in trouble," John Lee said.

  "Are you threatening me?"

  "No, sir, I'm telling you that you need to walk out of here while you still can.”

  “And what if I don't? Who’s gonna make me?"

  “Well, I guess that would be us," John Lee said, starting to get up. Buster was average sized and not heavily muscled, but he had spent his life working in the woods as a logger, and when he thrust his hand forward into John Lee's chest, it pushed him back into the booth. Then the fight was on.

  Greg came out of his side of the booth and threw his arms around the man's body in a bear hug, but Buster shook him off and turned to throw a wild punch that missed. Before he could pull his arm back for another swing, John Lee was out of the booth and punched him hard, just above the belt at his kidney.

  Howling in pain, Buster jerked his elbow back and connected with the side of John Lee's head. Everything went black for an instant and he saw stars, at the same time feeling Maddy pushing past him to join in the battle. With the three of them in the struggle against the belligerent man, it didn't take long to overpower Buster and put him on the floor of the diner, with patrons scrambling out of the way and somebody screaming.

  "Stop resisting,” John Lee said as he pulled one hand behind the man and Greg locked his handcuffs onto it. “Give me your wrist."

  "Go to hell, you bastard,” Buster said, trying to fight him off with his other hand. It took Greg and Maddy both to pull it behind him so it could be secured. They got up and pulled him to his feet.

  "Man, you are a special kind of stupid, aren't you? You just made your life a whole lot worse,” John Lee said.

  “That little asshole had no business arresting my wife. All he had to do was call me and I’d have come down and gotten her. But no, he had to play the badass. Well, I guess we know who the badass is now, don't we?"

  "No, we just know who's the dumb ass," John Lee said, hustling him out the door into the parking lot. They bent him over the hood of Greg's police car and patted him down, finding a wallet, car keys, a can of snuff, and a short-bladed pocketknife.

  "You’re under arrest for disturbing the peace and assaulting a police officer," John Lee said. "Make that three counts of assault on a police officer."

  “I don’t give a rat’s ass what you charge me with. When I get out, I’ll kick all your asses. You too, bitch,” he said glaring at Maddy.

  John Lee pushed his face into the hood of the car, and said, "You need to watch your mouth. You’re only making things worse for yourself."

  "How ’bout you kiss my ass, prick?"

  Greg opened the back door of his car and said, “Get in."

  "Go to hell!"

  “You’re not going to make this easy, are you?"

  “Ain’t nothin’ in life easy,” Buster said.

  Maddy went to the other side of the car and opened the rear door and leaned in.

  “Last chance to get in like a man. Otherwise, we’ll drag you in like a bag of potatoes," John Lee said.

  “Go to hell, you bastard. Ain’t none of this your business in the first place!”

  “When you attack one of us, you attack all of us," John Lee told him.

  “That’s because you’re all a bunch of pussies afraid to face a man one on one.”

  “Whatever you say,” John Lee said. “But I’m going to be sleeping in my own bed tonight. I hope your cellmate doesn’t snore.”

  He pushed the man toward the back seat, and when Buster resisted, Maddy reached through from behind and grabbed him by the armpits and pulled forward. He kicked at John Lee two or three times, and when they got the car doors closed, he began kicking the window.

  “Son of a bitch," John Lee said. “Got any hobbles in the trunk, Greg?"

  “Yeah,” the young deputy said, going to the back of the car and opening his trunk and getting out a set of vinyl restraints. John Lee opened the door and when the man tried to kick again, he grabbed his legs and held them down while Greg slipped the hobbles over his ankles and cinched them tight.

  "This ain't over, you assholes. This ain't over by a longshot! I’m gonna get all of ya. Gonna get you and make ya pay!"

  "Just shut up," John Lee told him, slamming the door.

  “Well, at least you got a couple of bites of your sandwich before that started," Maddy said.

  “Why do people always start crap just when we sit down to eat?"

  "Greg, that's one of the mysteries of the universe that we’re never going to solve," John Lee told him.

  "Let me take him down to the jail and get him booked," Greg said. “I'll see you guys later."

  They watched him drive away and then John Lee and Maddy went back inside, feeling the eyes of every patron on them. Someone clapped their hands, and most of the other people in the diner followed
suit.

  "Sorry for the disturbance, folks,” John Lee said. “It's unfortunate, but things like this happen once in a while."

  "That fool deserved everything he got, and then some," observed Carl Parker from his seat at the counter. "You guys okay?"

  "We're fine, Carl," Maddy told him.

  “Do you want me to bring you some more sandwiches or something? I don't mind," said Susie Clarke, their waitress.

  “No, that's all right,” Maddy told her. “We don't usually get to eat a warm lunch anyway.”

  They sat down and finished their sandwiches, and then left money on the table for the bill and a big tip before they left the diner.

  Chapter 20

  "What have you two hooligans been able to come up with? That’s assumin’ y’all ain’t just been runnin’ ‘round the countryside sightseein’.”

  “We’ve got quite a bit of information, D.W.," John Lee said. "The thing is, I don't know how much of it is useful, if any of it.”

  "We never know until we look at it from all angles,” said Chief Deputy Schroeder. "Lay it out for us."

  They told them everything they knew, from Darci McBride’s suspicions that her husband was fooling around on her, as well as her accusation that her brother-in-law Vince Agosti might somehow be involved in her husband's death, to Roger Bentley saying he had no idea about any real estate deal involving Agosti, to Alice Shaw’s statements about how Audrey and Sonny Rittenhouse’s marriage was on the decline, and the information they had about Wanda Coleman.

  When they were done, D.W. shook his head and said, "Well, ain't that a can of worms to try to sort through? What do ya think, Dick?"

  “Somebody is lying about something," Schroeder said. "I think our first step is to find out who. Maybe you should call that hotel in Ocala where Lonnie was supposed to have been at a seminar and see if they've got any video of him checking in? If he had company, they might be on the video, too."

  “That's a good idea," John Lee said.

  "Of course it’s a good idea. That's why I came up with it. D.W. didn’t call me out of retirement to be the chief deputy just because I’m so damn pretty."

  "No, he called you out of retirement to be the chief deputy because I talked him into it when he wanted to stick me with a job.”

  Schroeder laughed and said. “That reminds me, I still owe you an ass kicking for that, John Lee."

  "I heard you two and Carson had a little bit of excitement at the diner today," D.W. said.

  “It wasn't a big deal," Maddy said. "Just some redneck who thought he was ten feet tall and bulletproof. We had to convince him otherwise."

  "Way I heard it, you did a pretty good job of it," the sheriff said.

  "We got it done," Maddy told him.

  "You did more than get the job done," D.W. said. You confirmed something I already knew, Missy."

  If anybody else would have called her missy, Maddy might have taken offense, but everybody knew the sheriff was a dinosaur with a heart of gold, and he was loved by all of his deputies. "What are you talking about, D.W.?"

  “I knew all that counseling was doing you good, but that thing today was your first real test. I think some women who’ve been through what you did would start wailin’ on a guy like that and just let all that aggression come out and pound him into mush. But you didn't do that, Deputy. You did your job the right way, the professional way, and I'm proud of ya."

  “I hadn't thought about that," Maddy said.

  "All I know is, anytime I have to go hands-on with somebody, I want you covering my back," D.W. said.

  “Have you had a chance to look at the Impala they pulled in?"

  “Not yet, Dick. We were planning to go over to the garage and check it out when we're done here," John Lee said.

  "Shoemaker, Portman, and Stringer are out there processing it. Go take a peek and see if you can pick up anything from it that they missed. Not that I think they would, but it never hurts to have another set of eyes on something."

  "Let me call that hotel down in Ocala and then we'll go do that," John Lee said.

  "Sounds good to me," the sheriff said rocking back in his chair and looking at the two deputies. “You two work good together, ya know that? You make a good team."

  ***

  “So is that some kind of hidden message from D.W., about what a good team we make?”

  “D.W.’s not much for subtleties, Maddy,” John Lee said as they walked downstairs to the big squad room the deputies used for daily briefings, filing reports, eating lunch, and whatever else they had to do.

  "I don't know," John Lee replied. "But he's right. You do know that, don't you?"

  “It's good to be back working with you,” she said, then, looking around to make sure no one was in sight, she put her arm through his and squeezed it, saying “It's just good to be back with you."

  Dispatcher Sheila Sharp saw them and Maddy quickly pulled her arm away. Sheila was an excellent dispatcher, but she was also a busybody who wanted to know what everyone was up to and why.

  “John Lee, I was just going to try to reach you on the radio. Some woman named Bella Reed from Iowa has called three times, wanting your phone number. When I told her I couldn’t give it out, she said you have to call her. I asked if it was work related and she said it was personal. A family matter. I didn’t know you had any family in Iowa.”

  “I didn’t either,” he said, wondering what kind of foolishness his mother might have gotten into now. More than once Lisa Marie had called him because her latest dream had crashed and burned and she needed money to get out of a jam.

  “You do that and I’ll call Ocala,” Maddy said.

  Not wanting to call from his cell number so whoever was on the other end could capture his personal number, John Lee used one of the phones in the squad room.

  It rang twice and a woman's voice asked, “Is this John Lee Quarrels?"

  "It is. Who's this?"

  “This is Bella. Billy’s daughter. We need to talk."

  “How are you doing, Bella?"

  "I'm fine, John Lee. Do you know if my father's there?"

  “Yeah. He’s been here a couple of days now."

  "That damned old man. I've been trying to call him and he won't answer his phone. It just goes to voicemail and announces the mailbox is full. Can you have him give me a call, John Lee?"

  "Yeah. Is anything wrong?"

  “Is anything wrong? Do you have any idea what that old fart is doing, John Lee?"

  "I don't know what he's doing right this minute, Bella. The last time I saw him he was drinking beer and telling war stories with Paw Paw."

  "He needs to be locked up, John Lee."

  "He said something about you wanting to put him in a nursing home or something," John Lee said, chuckling.

  "A nursing home or jail, one or the other."

  "According to him, a nursing home would be jail. What did he call that place you wanted to stick him in? Wrinkle Ranch?"

  “I wasn’t trying to stick him anywhere. I was trying to help him!”

  “Apparently he doesn’t see it that way.”

  “My father had his own way of looking at the world. I'm serious, John Lee. Have him call me. It's important. "

  "Okay, I'll tell him. You sound like something’s wrong, Bella. Is everything okay?"

  “No it’s not okay,” she said sharply. “You really don't know, do you?"

  "No, I don't."

  “Of course not. You’re a cop. Just have him call me,” she said, then abruptly ended the call.

  John Lee looked at the receiver in his hand, then hung it back on the phone’s cradle, shaking his head.

  It took another moment or two before Maddy was finished with her call.

  “What’s your mother up to now, John Lee?"

  "That wasn’t about my mother. It was Uncle Billy's daughter, Bella. She says he's not taking her calls and she needs to talk to him."

  "I got the impression he doesn't want to get too close t
o her for fear of getting settled down," Maddy said.

  John Lee shook his head, perplexed, and said, “Something is going on, but I don't know what. Let me call the house and tell him.”

  He dialed his grandparents' number and Mama Nell answered the phone. "Hey there, John Lee? What's up?"

  “Mama Nell, is Uncle Billy around?"

  “Him and Paw Paw are out in the backyard shootin’ bows and arrows," she told him. "I guess as much as they act like a couple of wild Indians, they might as well shoot arrows, too."

  “I need to talk to him. Can you get him on the phone?"

  "Sure. Anything wrong, John Lee?"

  “I don't think so. I just need to talk to him for a minute."

  It took a couple of minutes before he heard the screen door slamming and then Uncle Billy picked up the phone. "What's up, John Lee?"

  "I had three messages from Bella and called her back. She said she's been trying to call you and your voicemail is full and you’re not answering your phone."

  "I hope you didn't tell her I was here, John Lee."

  "Yeah. Was there a reason I shouldn't?"

  “Only because she’ll try to lock me in a nursing home someplace.”

  "She can’t do that against your will," John Lee said. “You’re fully competent as far as I can see. But she was pretty agitated. Can you give her a call?"

  “Yeah, I'll get around to it," Billy told him.

  "Please do, Uncle Billy. I told her I would have you call."

  When he was finished talking to Billy, Maddy said, "I talked to someone at the hotel in Ocala. They’re hoping they haven't erased the video or however they do it. I guess they only keep those things a certain amount of time. They're supposed to call me back as soon as they check."

  "Okay. In the meantime, let’s walk out to the garage and look at that car Shoemaker found."

  ***

  "You two out slumming?" Andy asked when they walked into the garage.

  "Just came out here to see how the other half lives," John Lee told him. "What have you got so far?"

  “Don't look like anybody stole the car and dumped it," Andy said. "Looks to me like the owner just parked there and left it. There was a briefcase on the floor in back, and a folder with a bunch of legal papers about some real estate deal in the front seat. The car doesn’t have any damage and there’s no sign of a struggle or anything like that."