Page 90 of Nightshade

Stilwell slid the single-page document across the table to Gaston.

“All right, that’s a rights waiver. You need to sign it if you’re going to talk to me. But first I’m going to read it to you.”

He slid the page back and read it slowly and loudly, then said, “Do you understand your rights as I have read them to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“That you have a right to an attorney. And that what you tell me today can be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand all of that, Henry?”

“But you’re going to make me a deal.”

“Well, before we can talk about that, you have to sign that you understand your rights.”

“Okay, I’ll sign. Give me a pen.”

“You have to answer first. Do you understand your rights as I have read them to you?”

“Yes, I understand. Jesus, why is it so complicated?”

“It’s actually not. So, you understand and you’re willing to waive your rights so we can talk?”

“Yes, I told you.”

Stilwell pulled the pen out of his shirt pocket and handed it across the table.

Gaston signed the document and slapped the pen down on top of it. Stilwell put the pen back in his pocket and pulled the document to his side of the table.

“Okay, Henry, let’s start with where you’ve been for the past few days. Did you know your wife reported you as a missing person?”

“I couldn’t tell her where I was. They’d be able to get it out of her.”

“So where were you?”

“I was camping up near Eagle’s Nest.”

Stilwell had been up there. It was on the west side of the island. He’d gone out there on a Catalina Island Conservancy ecotour as part of his learning process when he was first transferred from the mainland.

“What made you come back?” he asked.

“Because I can’t stay out there forever. I got a wife and I gotta figure things out.”

“What are you looking for from me, Henry?”

Gaston held his hands up, wrists together like they were cuffed.

“I want to stay out of jail, man. I only did what I was told. It was that or lose my job, and now I’m fucked. He wants me dead.”

“Who wants you dead?”

“Baby Head. I know too much. I heard he brought somebody over to do it.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know, man.”

“Well, who told you that?”

“I don’t want to get anybody else in trouble. I just know. Once you came to the barn and took the saw handle, the shit hit the fan. I knew then he was looking at me funny. Like I was no longer on the team, you know? I was somebody he had to deal with.”