by Bill Crider
“Elementary school,” Lawton said. “Or maybe grade school. I never can remember.”
“Never mind what they call it,” Rhodes said. “Just tell me about the robbery.”
“He’s gettin’ touchy again, ain’t he, Hack,” Lawton said. “Happens a lot lately. You ever notice how touchy he is, Ms. Loam?”
“He seems very calm to me,” Jennifer said, grinning at Rhodes. “A little impatient, maybe, but not touchy.”
“I’d say touchy myself,” Hack told her. “They say that as a man gets older—”
“Don’t start that again,” Rhodes said.
“See what I mean?” Lawton said.
Jennifer laughed. “Maybe I should be getting a video of this.”
“Forget it,” Hack said. “I don’t want to be on the Internet. Dang it, now you’ve made me forget where I was.”
Rhodes sighed. “Baldwins. Robbery.”
“Yeah, anyway, seems they had the grandkids stayin’ with ’em last night and one of the girls had some kind of project to do for her school. Some class or other.”
“Bread,” Lawton said. “She had to make bread.”
Hack didn’t even bother to look at him. “I said I was tellin’ this story. You gonna let me?”
“Sure,” Lawton said. “You go right on ahead.”
“Robbery,” Rhodes said. “Get to the robbery.”
“I’m gettin’ there,” Hack said. “Don’t be so touchy. See, Mr. Baldwin, Lonnie’s his name, Lonnie wasn’t there when they made the bread. The granddaughter didn’t want to forget it the next day when she went to school, so she put it in the backseat of the SUV. I think they got a Chevrolet, but it might be a GMC. One or the other.”
“GMC,” Lawton said, and this time Hack wasn’t bothered.
“GMC. She put the bread in the backseat. Today they got ready to go to school and went outside and the bread was gone.”
Rhodes shook his head. “They called about somebody stealing bread?”
“You’d call if it was your granddaughter who was goin’ to have to tell the teacher somebody stole your homework,” Lawton said. “Wouldn’t you?”
“The dog usually ate mine,” Rhodes said.
“Wasn’t no dog,” Hack said. “Dog can’t open a car door. ’Course, the doors shoulda been locked, but they weren’t, and the bread was gone. Della Mae, that’s Ms. Baldwin, called right from the cell phone. She was mighty upset.”
“Did you send anybody out to check on the theft?”
“Didn’t have to,” Hack said.
“Didn’t have to?”
“Nope. All the cryin’ and takin’ on caused the thief to confess. Della Mae called back and told me.”
“The thief was there?”
“Sort of.”
“You might as well tell me who it was,” Rhodes said. “I’m not going to take another guess.”
“It was Lonnie,” Lawton said, and Hack rose up out of his seat.
“Simmer down,” Rhodes said. “It’s about time somebody got to the point. Finish the story. We have a murder to work on.”
Hack sat back down, but he didn’t look happy. “What happened was that Lonnie had been out in the yard early that mornin’, before anybody was up, and he saw the bread in the backseat. He couldn’t figure out what it was doin’ there. Nobody’d told him about the project, so he didn’t think the bread was for school. He decided he’d put it to some use, so he fed it to his layin’ hens.”
Jennifer Loam laughed as Hack got to the punch line. So did Lawton.
“I can’t decide which is worse,” Jennifer said. “Having to explain to the teacher that your grandfather fed your project to some chickens or having to live with the guilt of having done it.”
“Or having to live with Della Mae,” Lawton said. “It’s gonna go hard with Lonnie, I bet.”
“Serve him right,” Hack said. “Feedin’ a little girl’s bread to some hens. You gonna put this on the Internet, Ms. Loam?”
“I don’t think so. I don’t want to make things any worse for the Baldwins. I might put something on there about how the sheriff’s dog used to eat his homework.”
“That’d be a good story,” Lawton said. “Might get him a few votes in the next election.”
“Or lose him some,” Hack said, as Seepy Benton came through the door.
“I’ve solved the case,” Seepy said.
“What case?” Rhodes asked him.
“The marijuana case. Hi, Jennifer. Hey, Hack and Lawton.”
“I need to film this,” Jennifer said.
“Hold on just a second,” Rhodes told her. “You mean you know who’s growing it?” he asked Seepy.
“Well, I haven’t gotten quite that far yet,” Seepy said.
Rhodes had suspected as much. “Just how far have you gotten?”
“I know who’s not growing it.”
Rhodes supposed that was something. “Who’s not growing it?”
“Able Terrell. He’s not the one stealing things, either.”
“I didn’t think he was, but how do you know for sure?”
“I could tell you I made some brilliant deductions,” Seepy said.
“But would I believe you?” Rhodes asked.
“I don’t see why not. I’ve made some before. I’m a regular Sherlock Holmes.” Seepy looked at Jennifer. “Did you know that I can solve Rubik’s Cube in two minutes and twenty-seven seconds? You should get that on video one of these days.”
“What does being able to solve a Rubik’s Cube have to do with marijuana crops?” Rhodes asked.
“It proves my brilliance,” Seepy said.
He had a point there. Rhodes was pretty sure he couldn’t solve a Rubik’s Cube in under three minutes and maybe not in under three months. Or three years, unless he had some instructions. He wasn’t too sure that being able to do it had any practical applications, however.
“I’ve been teaching a special class in Rubik’s Cube and group theory,” Seepy continued. “The idea is to introduce bright community college students to the kind of more advanced mathematics they might see at a university. Maybe you’d like to sit in the next time I teach it.”
“I’ll just concede your brilliance,” Rhodes said, “but I still don’t see the connection to the marijuana patch.”
“It would be nice to see something about that class on your Web site, Jennifer,” Seepy said.
“That’s a good idea,” Jennifer said. “Tell me more.”
“Hold it,” Rhodes said. “You can do an interview with Seepy after he tells me about the marijuana. I don’t want to get in the way of his viral Internet fame, but if he’s got information for me, I need to get it.”
“Impatient,” Hack said. “You were right, Ms. Loam. That’s what he is.”
“Sounded touchy, too,” Lawton said.
Rhodes held up a hand. “That’s enough. Let’s get to it.”
“Okay,” Seepy said. “In this class I told you about, there’s this one young man who’s almost as brilliant as I am. He also knows a little bit about the pot supply in Blacklin County.”
“I don’t suppose you’d like to give me his name,” Rhodes said.
“You don’t suppose correctly. He’ll remain anonymous. I asked him about local suppliers, and he said that Able and Ike Terrell don’t enter into it. Ike doesn’t touch the stuff as far as my source knows, and he doesn’t sell it, either. In fact, as far as my source knows, there’s no marijuana coming out of the southeast part of the county at all. Most of it’s small amounts that people grow in their backyards or closets.”
“So the crop on Billy Bacon’s land is brand-new,” Rhodes said.
“That would be my guess. If it’s been harvested, nobody’s sold anything from it. Not that my source knows about, anyway.”
Rhodes thought it over. Even if it was true that Terrell wasn’t involved with the marijuana patch, it didn’t mean that he wasn’t stealing from people or that he wasn’t involved in Melvin Hunt’s death.
It also didn’t clear Billy Bacon. It was hard to believe that Bacon didn’t know about a crop being grown on his own land.
The phone rang, and Hack answered. He didn’t talk long, and when he hung up he didn’t waste any time getting to the point.
“You need to get out to Milsby,” Hack told Rhodes. “Terry Allison’s found a dead man in his pasture.”
Rhodes stood up. “I’m on the way.”
“You need backup?” Seepy asked.
“I don’t think a dead man will hurt me, but it’s not a bad idea. Hack, get Buddy and tell him he can leave off watching that marijuana patch. Have him meet me at Allison’s place.”
“I meant me,” Seepy said.
“I know that,” Rhodes said, “but it’s not a good idea.”
“What about me?” Jennifer said. “Freedom of the press.”
“I give up,” Rhodes said, and went out the door.
Chapter 15
Milsby was north of Clearview and had once been a thriving, if small, community. Not much of it was left of it now except a few skeletal buildings. People lived in the surrounding area, but they thought of themselves as being part of Clearview if they thought they were part of anywhere. Most of them hadn’t been alive when Milsby had begun to vanish.
Terry Allison didn’t live there. He lived in Clearview, but he had a little piece of property where he had a camp house that he sometimes visited on summer weekends. His property didn’t have a gate, just a cattle guard, so Rhodes drove right on in and up the road toward the camp house. Allison was waiting for him when he arrived.
“I sure never expected anything like this when I came out here,” he told Rhodes as soon as Rhodes got out of the Tahoe. “I hadn’t been here for a while, and I just came to check on things. See if everything was okay with the camp house. I’ve been hearing about those thefts southeast of here, so I thought I’d better take a look.”
Allison had once sold athletic equipment to little schools all over East Texas until he’d retired. He’d traveled a lot and dealt with a lot of school districts, but he’d been loyal to Clearview and was a strong supporter of the local athletic teams. He’d never been an athlete himself, as was clear by looking at him. He was short and round and red-faced and looked like a prime candidate for a heart attack. He must not have seen his shoes in years except when they were off his feet and some distance away from him.
“I don’t come out here much these days,” he continued. “It was just lucky that I did. Or unlucky. I sure didn’t think I’d find a dead man.”
“You want to show me where he is?” Rhodes asked.
“Sure. He’s easy to spot, though.” Terry pointed. “Just look over there past the camp house.”
Rhodes looked in the direction that Terry indicated. In back of his camp house was a thick stand of trees. Above the trees six or seven turkey vultures made slow circles in the sky.
“Saw the buzzards,” Terry said, “so I thought maybe somebody’s dog had wandered into the woods and died, or maybe one of those dang hogs that are all over everything. I wouldn’t mind if one of those dang hogs died, to tell you the truth. Or if all of them did. It wasn’t a dog or a hog, though. It was a man.”
“I’d better go have a look,” Rhodes said.
“I’ll go with you,” Terry said. “Show you where he is.” He looked back to the county road where a car was rattling across the cattle guard. “Who’s that? Doesn’t look like a county car.”
“It’s not,” Rhodes said. “It’s probably Jennifer Loam.”
“She’s the one’s got that Web site, A Clear View of Clearview, right? Is she going to put me on the Internet?”
“If she doesn’t, I’ll be surprised.”
“Let’s wait for her,” Terry said. “I always wanted to be on the Internet.”
It took only a minute for the little black Chevy Cruze to get to where Terry and Rhodes stood. It stopped, and Jennifer got out on the driver’s side. Seepy Benton got out on the other.
“I have a new job,” Seepy said.
“I don’t want to hear about it,” Rhodes said.
“I’m now a part-time reporter for A Clear View of Clearview.”
“I told you I didn’t want to hear about it.”
“I know that, but you didn’t really mean it.”
“Yes I did.”
“I needed somebody to help me out with the site,” Jennifer said. “I can’t cover everything. Seepy’s going to be the college correspondent.”
“Right now, though, I’m here to help with the reporting on the discovery of a body,” Seepy said. He looked at Terry. “Are you the one who found it?”
“Sure am,” Terry said.
Seepy looked around. “Let’s go over there and stand in front of that house. It will be a nice background for the interview.”
“Interview?”
“That’s right. I’ll interview you about your discovery while Ms. Loam here does a video. Let me get a little bit of information from you.”
In response to Seepy’s questioning, Terry told Seepy his name and a little about himself. Rhodes sighed. Seepy had been on the job for what? Five minutes? And he was already taking over. Jennifer didn’t seem to mind. She was taking video of the circling buzzards.
Rhodes thought this might be a good opportunity for him to slip away and look for the body without too much interference, so he went off toward the trees. Nobody followed him.
When he got into the trees, he started to wonder just how far the little woods went. If his mental GPS was functioning correctly, something that wasn’t always the case, he might be able to figure things out. First, though, he needed to concentrate on finding the body.
It wasn’t hard to do. The smell was enough to notify Rhodes of where the body was. He didn’t even have to look up to see where the buzzards were. They wouldn’t wait around much longer if the humans kept tramping around in the woods.
Not much of an attempt had been made to hide the body. It lay behind a couple of elm trees that had grown together into one large trunk. It didn’t appear that the body had even been covered, and small animals had torn the clothing and gotten at it. Whoever had put it there had probably thought the feral hogs would find it and take care of it before Terry Allison showed up, since Terry didn’t spend much time on the place.
Within another day or so, the buzzards and hogs would have pretty much done away with the body and left nothing but a few scraps of clothing and some bones, making identification difficult if not impossible. Rhodes had a pretty good idea who it was, though. He wasn’t going to rush to judgment, but as far as he knew, only one person was missing from Clearview, and that was Riley Farmer. What was left of the face looked a lot like Farmer, too.
Rhodes got out his cell phone and called Hack. “Is Buddy on his way to Allison’s?”
“Yep,” Hack said. “Should be there in a little bit. Is there really a body there?”
“There really is,” Rhodes said.
Hack didn’t ask any more questions, proving once again that he could be a professional when it counted. Rhodes hung up and took a closer look at the body. Flies buzzed all around it. Ants crawled over it. There were other insects as well, but Rhodes couldn’t identify them. It was impossible to tell for sure how Farmer, and Rhodes was now almost sure that’s who it was, had died, thanks to the depredations of the animals, but the area of Farmer’s back was a mess. Rhodes thought he might have been shot. He patted the back pockets of the pants but found no wallet. No cell phone, either. They’d have to identify the body for certain some other way.
By the time Rhodes had finished his quick examination, he heard Seepy’s voice.
“He’s right over there,” Seepy said. “By that big tree. That’s where the smell is, too. Do you want video of him with the body?”
“I don’t think my readers are ready for video quite that gory,” Jennifer said.
“If it bleeds, it leads,” Seepy said. “That’s what I’ve heard, anyway.”
&n
bsp; Rhodes stepped out from behind the tree. “You’ve been reading too much about TV news.”
“It’s true of the Internet, too,” Seepy said. “Haven’t you heard of clickbait headlines?”
“Do they have anything to do with fishing lures?”
Jennifer and Seepy laughed. Terry looked as if he had no idea what was so funny.
“The Sheriff Walked into the Woods,” Seepy said. “You’ll Never Guess What He Found There!”
Rhodes could almost hear the capital letters.
“That’s a clickbait headline,” Seepy said. “You put a few of those on your Web site, Jennifer, and you’ll double your hits.”
“You’re worth every penny I’m paying you,” Jennifer said.
“Have we discussed salary?”
“Not yet.” Jennifer pointed to where the body lay. “I can see a pair of boots sticking out over by that tree. That’s as gory as I’m willing to go. Could I get some video of you standing over there, Mr. Allison?”
“Sure,” Terry said. “Why not?”
Terry walked over to the tree, and Jennifer took a few seconds of video while Rhodes looked around the woods, trying to get his mental GPS to clarify things for him.
“Does Crockett’s Creek run back there behind the trees?” Rhodes asked Terry when Jennifer was finished with her video.
“Yeah. Runs right across the back end of my property. I don’t ever go back there, but I heard it was running pretty high earlier this year.”
“How far is it to the creek?”
“Not too far. Half a mile, maybe.”
“I’m going to take a walk down that way. Terry, I’d like for you to go back up to the camp house and watch for my deputy. He should be here in a few minutes. Bring him down here and show him where the body is. He’ll know what to do.”
“Sure thing,” Terry said.
He seemed happy about the Internet fame that was about to be his, and he wasn’t even panting from his walk, which surprised Rhodes a little.
“Jennifer, you and Seepy can go on back to town,” Rhodes said. “Don’t go over there and mess up the crime scene while I’m gone.”
“What are you going to do?” Seepy asked.
