“What if I did, are you going to ground me?”
Dan looked at her a moment. It seemed only yesterday he was showing her how to ride a two-wheeler. Last week he made the mistake of showing her how to hotwire a car. It scared him thinking what she would do with that knowledge now. It was a sad fact she would be driving soon. Where did the time go?
“I better get ready for work. I have a murder to solve.”
Somehow solving this murder seemed a lot easier than trying to raise Kelly to adulthood. There were fewer hurdles to cross.
* * *
Dan walked into the Sheriff’s office. Mac was busy sweeping the floor. It was something he did at the end of the week. Once that was done, he would dust the furniture. Money was tight and the county board felt there was enough downtime that either he or Mac could clean up the offices when not on patrol.
Dan turned to him and asked, “Been quiet this morning?”
“Thursdays usually are.”
“Good,” Dan said. “How’s Junior?”
“Not a peep out of him.”
“Did the medical examiner call?”
Mac grinned. “Were you expecting her to?”
“I was just curious,” Dan added quickly.
Dan took off his gun belt and put it on the rack with his hat. He grabbed the key off the rack and walked over to the cellblock door.
He was glad it was a slow night with no drunks to contend with. He did not know how well Junior would have handled having company.
Dan walked up to Junior’s cell. Junior was sitting on the bunk rocking back and forth, hitting his head on the wall. Dan wondered if the simple-minded kid even slept last night.
“Hey kid, I would think you’d have a headache by now.”
“I want to go home.”
“You can’t. Not until we clean up this mess,” Dan said with a concerned look on his face. He felt sorry for the boy.
Junior stopped rocking. “I don’t like you,” he announced and then started rocking again.
“You okay?” Can I get you anything for breakfast?”
“Mommy makes me rabbit in a hole.”
Dan’s eyes rolled back. He remembered rabbit in a hole like it was yesterday from when Kelly was a little girl. It was one way of getting her to eat a balanced breakfast and not a lot of sugary cereals. Kay always had a way of working around a picky eater and made a meal fun.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Dan finally mustered up to say.
“I’m a good boy,” Junior replied proudly.
“No one is saying you ain’t,” Dan argued. “Junior, can you stop rocking please? I need some information from you right now.”
Junior stopped rocking again and watched Dan as he unlocked and opened the cell door. Dan slowly walked in and stood over Junior for the longest time.
“I didn’t do bad things.”
“Did you work for the Senator two days ago?” Dan asked even though he knew already that he did. He wanted to build some trust with Junior.
Junior just stared ahead as Dan sat down on the other end of the bunk.
“I need to know, Junior,” Dan said, making sure he had Junior’s attention. “You want me to find the person responsible for what happened to Richie, don’t you?”
Dan slid closer to Junior and slowly put his hand on Junior’s knee.
Suddenly Junior attacked Dan. He punched Dan wildly while yelling and screaming. Junior jumped up off the bunk and ran out of the cell as Billy Bob and Mac came running into the cellblock.
Billy Bob tackled Junior before he could reach the door. Junior’s arms flapped wildly while Billy Bob struggled to restrain the boy.
Dan collected himself and wiped the blood off his cheek. Mac walked up to the cell door and glanced down at Dan.
“Looks like you been in a catfight,” Mac mocked with a twinkle in his eye. It surprised him that anyone could get the upper hand on Dan, let alone a simple-minded boy. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. One minute he was okay. I was asking him questions and then he went nuts on me.”
Billy Bob had Junior pinned behind his back and shoved him back into the cell.
“You ain’t going anyplace,” Billy Bob snapped as he turned and walked out of the cell.
Junior cowered when Dan got up. “You’re a bad person,” was all he mustered up to say.
Dan almost grabbed Junior by the arm, but then stopped. “What did I do to set you off?” Dan snapped and then turned and walked out of the cell.
Billy Bob and Mac looked at Dan a moment. The phone started ringing in the office. Mac turned and rushed to the door.
“Duty calls,” Mac said as he rushed out of the cellblock.
Billy Bob shut the cell door and locked it. Dan stood outside the cell, just staring at Junior.
“I wish I could plug into his brain.”
Mac ran back into the cellblock. He was out of breath. “Better get out to Murphy’s place. Says he found bones.”
Dan looked puzzled. “Why should I care about that?”
“Says they’re human,” Mac said, gasping for breath.
Dan did a double take. “It’s probably just a ploy.”
He frowned. This was the last thing he needed right now. Murphy playing games with him to get him out to his place to deal with those damn hogs.
“No. He sounded serious, and he was upset. I don’t think he’s lying.”
Dan motioned for Billy Bob to come along. The two rushed out of the cellblock together.
* * *
The two squad cars sped down city streets and headed out of town to the country. All the while he drove, Dan kept thinking about what he planned to do to Felix if this was only a ploy to get him out there to deal with his hog problem.
Dan pulled into Murphy’s driveway and quickly parked the squad while Billy Bob parked next to him. They got out of their squads. Murphy rushed out of the house. The old coon dog lay sleeping at the bottom of the porch steps and Dan wondered if the dog ever moved off his spot.
“Took you long enough,” Murphy snapped as he rushed over to the squad.
Dan glanced at his watch and then gave Murphy a warning glance. It had been ten minutes since receiving Murphy’s call. There was no reason for him to think that Dan’s response time was not adequate. Under different circumstances he would have called Murphy on it, but he was more concerned about why they were there.
“Mac said you found some bones,” Dan snapped.
“Yeah, while I was out doing your job.”
Dan raised his hands. “I won’t go into that. Just show me where you found those bones.”
Murphy’s hand shook as he pointed in the direction of the tall pines in the distance.
“I spotted them devils digging near a clearing. Suddenly one pulls out this leg bone from the mud and starts chewing.”
“How can you be sure?”
“I know animal bones, and that weren’t no animal bone, trust me.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that.” Dan shook his head at Murphy.
Murphy took a red bandana out of his pocket and wiped his brow. “Nearly crapped in my pants when I saw that thing.”
“Then what?” Dan asked.
“I took aim and shot the son-of-a-bitch.”
“Did you kill it?”
Murphy glanced down. “Wounded him pretty bad.”
Dan turned and walked away, but then turned back to face Murphy. “That’s just great,” he snapped.
“Well what did you want me to do?”
“If you couldn’t take it down, you shouldn’t have taken the shot,” Dan added and then turned to Billy Bob. “Get the rifle out of the trunk. I’m not going anywhere near those woods without something that will take that bastard down in one shot.”
“If you’d been more helpful, none of this would have happened.”
Dan pointed a finger at Murphy. “Don’t turn this around on me. I told you to gather up some of your neighbors. But no! Would you listen?”
“Do you want me to show you the goddamn place or not?”
Dan looked angrily at Billy Bob, who just raised his hands. Billy Bob walked to the back of the squad car and opened up the trunk. He reached in for the rifle.