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TWENTY-FIVE

CASEY

Friday

The recently remodeled Twana County Medical Center was located on the outskirts of Westfort, about twenty minutes from Heartstone. Casey had been there on more than one occasion, both as a kid and an adult. Even though it was a Friday night, the parking lot was full. Maybe because it was a Friday night. As he looked for a parking space, he drove past a haphazardly parked two-seater dune buggy-style vehicle with roll bars and a fabric top.

Casey cocked his head toward the vehicle. “That’s Elton’s.”

“Huh. Okay. What’s he doing with a dune buggy?”

“That, I don’t know.”

He circled the lot twice before he lost patience and crammed the Wagoneer into a space next to a late-model Land Cruiser that occupied more than its fair share of two spots. Karne had been remarkably quiet during their drive from Greta’s, and that silence made Casey a little nervous. A quiet Charming Fucker meant trouble, at least in Casey’s book .

Before squeezing out of the Jeep, Casey cracked the window for Bowie. “We won’t be too long.” Bowie didn’t ask to get out. He stayed down with his head on his paws as if he knew he had to stay behind. “Good boy.”

“You owe your dog a serious treat,” Karne said.

Casey grunted his agreement. Bowie was the best doggo, better than most people.

“On the other hand, good thing I skipped dinner, or I wouldn’t be able to get out of here,” Gabe complained, scooting out of the car sideways.

So annoying.

The person behind the front desk greeted them with a polite, “How may I help you?”

“We’re here for Gordon MacDonald. Is he still in the ER?” Karne asked, turning on the charm like water from a faucet. Casey tried not to glower again.

The greeter’s fingers flew across the keys as he entered Gordon’s name.

“Mr. MacDonald is in exam room three.” The younger man rattled off the directions. “There’s a note that his grandfather is with him. Visiting hours are technically over at nine,” he added, glancing pointedly at the clock on the wall behind him.

They had half an hour.

Grandfather . Casey caught Karne’s amused look. Elton was going to stick with Gordon as long as he could get away with it. Good. Gordon needed as many people as possible in his court.

“We won’t stay too long, thanks,” Casey said, starting toward the hallway that led back to urgent care.

Exam room three’s door was ajar, and Casey rapped his knuckles against it before pushing inside. Elton sat in a chair next to the gurney on the opposite side of the small room .

“You’re a sight for sore eyes,” Casey said, transferring his attention to the figure in the bed.

Propped up in the hospital bed and covered with a thin blanket, Gordon looked like he’d been through a grinder and was lucky to have made it out the other side. One eye appeared to be swollen shut, the other was just closed. His forehead and the right side of his face had deep scratches that made his existing scar look like no big deal, and a dark bruise was blooming on his left cheek. His left arm was wrapped with bandages, his fingers just poking out beyond the dressing, and an IV tube was hooked up to his other wrist.

Elton glanced from Casey to Karne. “Damn good to see you.”

“Fill us in,” said Casey.

“Somebody took a shot at him, got him in the arm. But it looks worse than it really is. I thought the wound was starting to show signs of infection, and he’s lost some blood. The doc who stitched him up says he’ll make a full recovery as long as he takes it easy. Wants to keep him overnight for observation.”

“He’ll really be okay?” Karne asked, a frown drawing his eyebrows together. Casey was surprised at the level of concern he was seeing in Charming Fucker’s eyes.

Elton nodded. “Yep. Prognosis is good. Just need to get rid of the infection.”

“Heya, Gordon.” Casey broke the silence and lowered himself onto the seat next to the bed. “We’ve been worried about you. I gotta tell ya, I was scared, thought maybe you’d gone over with your truck.”

The lids of Gordon’s good eye rose. “Hey, Casey,” he rasped.

Casey gestured Gabriel’s direction. “Gordon, this is Gabriel Karne. You might remember him from an incident at your work the other day. ”

Gordon’s eye widened and his tired gaze focused on Gabriel. “Oh, weird, the ball buster. That was the highlight of my week. The rest was kinda crappy.” Gordon half-smiled.

“Can you tell us what’s been going on? Do you know who shot you?” Casey asked.

Gordon slowly moved his head in a sort of nod. Casey figured he was exhausted.

“I doubt we have much time before the sheriff gets here. Damn the rules, but the hospital had to call it in,” Elton said urgently.

Under the overhead light of the room, Casey realized that Karne was looking a bit worse for wear. “Grab a chair already.”

“Do you have an attorney, Gordon?” Casey asked. No way was anybody from the Sheriff’s Office talking to Gordon without representation.

Karne grabbed a chair and dragged it over to sit by Elton.

“Yes, he does,” Elton answered impatiently before Gordon could respond.

“Okay, that’s good. Can you tell us what happened this week? How did your truck end up down the embankment by the fort?” That seemed like a good a question as any to start with. They could go from there.

Gordon stared back at Casey with his one eye. Even with the pain medication, fear wrapped around him like a blanket.

“Go on, son.” Elton prompted. “You know Casey. And Gabriel is also a friend.”

“Right. Okay.” Gordon shook his head again, slowly, as if dislodging cobwebs inside his skull and took a breath. “Um. After I got off work, I went up to my place. I just like to go up there and clear my head, you know? It’s my special place.”

Casey nodded again. “This was Tuesday afternoon?”

“Yeah, I guess it was. I got there and somebody was driving away.” He frowned at the memory. “Which pissed me off.”

“Did you see who it was?” If Gordon had seen the driver, that could be helpful. Could also be nothing, seeing as it was a public road.

“No.” Gordon gestured with his right hand. “Going the back way. Cutting over to the fire road that runs to the lake past where that Snowcap Estates is going to be. I’ve posted plenty of No Trespassing signs, but people do it anyway.”

Fire roads crisscrossed The Valley, but they weren’t well maintained. The truck Gordon had seen had to be all off-road equipped or the driver was an idiot. Or the county had done some road work that Casey wasn’t aware of.

“Could you tell who was driving? Recognize the vehicle or anything?”

“No.” He moved his head side to side. “No, it was just a pickup truck.”

Everyone in the area owned one. There were more pickups than people around Heartstone. Damn.

“Then what happened?”

“Somebody dumped some junk since last time I was there,” Gordon said, sounding more awake. “Makes me mad. I was going to toss it in the back of my truck, but first I checked the shed. I’ve found stuff in there before too.”

“There was something inside?” Casey prodded.

“Yeah.” Gordon looked down at the covers he was nervously picking at. “Dwayne Perkins. He was just there. Dead. I made myself check his pulse, but there was nothing. I mean, the back of his head was all over the wall.”

After Gabe’s description of the body, Casey was surprised that Gordon made the effort.

“What happened next?” Casey glanced at his watch. They’d been there about ten minutes so far.

“What do you think happened? I got out of there. Ran to my truck, didn’t I? Then someone shot me. Just like that, out of the blue. Shot at me!”

Probably not as out of the blue as Gordon thought since Dwayne had also been shot. Had the shooter been in the other vehicle? But that made no sense if they were driving away. Had they been waiting to ambush Gordon? Just how long had Dwayne been dead when Gordon found him? A couple of hours? Maybe only a few minutes? The Perkinses had been caught poaching mushrooms that morning. Karne had his encounter with them at the gas station around lunch time.

Casey calculated the drive back to The Valley. It was about half an hour, forty-five minutes from the gas station. Plenty of time for the brothers to get back up to Gordon’s before he left work.

Which also begged the question, where was Calvin Perkins?

“Do you have an idea what time this happened?”

“The first missed, the second got me.” Gordon’s voice trailed off, still focused on the last question. “Uh, it was just getting dark, but it wasn’t late. I didn’t look at my watch or anything.”

“Gordon, one more question. Then we’ll let you rest.”

He blinked. “What?”

“Has anything else out of the ordinary happened up there lately?”

“There’s always weird stuff up there, you know it too, Casey. Can’t understand why anybody’d want to build a housing development. Nobody wants new people there.”

Casey did know. The Valley was made up of off-the-grid-survivalist-leave-me-alone types. Hell, in Casey’s opinion, it didn’t qualify as a community since the folks up there didn’t want to have anything to do with each other, either. He was more social than most of The Valley’s permanent residents, which was… weird.

Gabe cleared his throat and threw Casey a significant glance. But before he could speak, Gordon mustered energy for a bit more.

“It’s cursed, or maybe I am,” he said softly. They all leaned in closer so they wouldn’t miss anything. “They’re going to try and say it was me who killed Dwayne. It wasn’t me.” A tear leaked from the corner of Gordon’s non-swollen eye and ran down his cheek.

“I can’t go back to jail, I can’t.”

Casey reached out to pat his arm but considered the injury and settled for Gordon’s thigh. He wanted to comfort him, promise that he wouldn’t go back, but he couldn’t. Life sucked.

“Gordon, who owns those Snowcap Estate parcels? Anyone we know?”

Gordon frowned as he considered the question. Finally, he said, “Not sure. Investors? Deter Nolan? I’ve seen him up there a couple times. But others too.”

“Deter Nolan?” Casey repeated. “The sheriff’s deputy and general all-around asshole?”

Elton cocked his head in agreement. “That’s the only Nolan around these parts. I made some calls this afternoon. Gordon’s right, that land’s owned by an investment group. I haven’t been able to get any names, though, just some horseshit about an LLC.”

“What’s the significance of this Nolan character possibly owning the land by Gordon’s?” Karne asked.

“Maybe nothing,” Casey said.

“Earlier you were thinking this was all about fancy mushrooms.”

“Yeah, that’s still a possibility. People have killed over less.”

“Then what does Snowcap Estates have to do with it?”

Casey lifted his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose; he didn’t know if Snowcap had anything to do with the murder, but it was possible. “Look, mushrooms are worth money. A lot of money. Maybe there’s a whole magic mushroom patch on Gordon’s land.”

“Okay. But why shoot Dwayne and Gordon? Dwayne was executed. Middle of the forehead. Boom.” Gabe pointed at his own temple and mimed pulling a trigger. “They seem very different to me. Not that I am an expert on this kind of thing.”

“If it’s two shooters, that complicates things.”

Gabe shrugged. “Sorry?”

“The important thing right now,” Elton interjected, “is that we find some kind of proof that Gordon wasn’t the one who killed Dwayne. And fast.”

A ruckus in the hallway caught everyone’s attention. Raised voices and the sound of footsteps coming quickly toward Gordon’s room. Casey winced; he’d hoped they had more time. The door was pushed open, and Deputy Deter Nolan invaded the room.

“Sir,” the young nurse following behind him was saying, “this is out of the ordinary. Even with paperwork, our patients have a right to care.”

“You said he’ll be fine.” Nolan finished tucking folded papers into his breast pocket as he stepped to the middle of the room. The nurse stopped next to him, clearly not sure of the protocol.

“This patient is dangerous,” Nolan told the nurse. “The sooner I get him out of here and into custody, the better off you all are. He’s already murdered at least one man.”

“Oh, um.” her eyes widened as she glanced uncertainly at Gordon and took a step back.

For fuck’s sake. Casey rose to his feet. He was bigger than Deter Nolan and liked to remind him of that fact. Karne stood too and walked around the bed to stand next to Casey .

“Can I see the warrant?” Casey asked. Technically, it was Gordon who needed to ask, but from the expression on his face, he was too scared to open his mouth.

Ignoring Casey, Nolan crossed over to the bed. Gordon shrank further back, trying to disappear into the meager mattress, his good eye wide with fear. Casey thought he heard him whisper, “No.”

“Gordon MacDonald, you are under arrest for the violent murder of Dwayne Perkins. You are coming with me. Now. You can get dressed or I can take you in that hospital gown.”

“Now?” Elton asked. “Why now? Can’t it wait until morning? He’s not going anywhere. I vouch for him.”

“ Now . It’s obvious he’s not so badly injured that he needs hospital care. I’m not endangering the lives of others by letting a cold-blooded murderer stay where there are vulnerable patients.”

“What the fuck, Nolan?” Casey stepped toward him, hands clenching into fists. Karne grabbed his arm holding him back. Nolan’s hand had started for the butt of his service weapon.

“Because you’ll be a thorn in my side, Lundin. Dwayne Perkins was killed—executed—on MacDonald’s property up The Valley. We have a credible witness who saw him fleeing the scene not long after we think the murder took place.”

“What witness?” Casey demanded, trying not to sound angry. The problem was he was furious. “What reason on earth would Gordon have to kill Dwayne?”

“We found several buckets of chanterelles on the property. The working theory is that Gordon interrupted Dwayne, got angry, and shot him.”

“That is extra thick horse shit,” Elton growled.

Casey narrowed his eyes. Why was Nolan answering his questions? He had considered the mushroom angle, but now it seemed too easy. Just like Charming Fucker had hinted at. Dammit.

“We’re going to process his fingers for GSR.”

“Come on,” Casey said. “Even if he did do it, it would have worn off by now, right? GSR only lasts four to six hours. We’ve been looking for Gordon for a couple days now.”

There was the question Nolan was going to not answer.

Casey changed tactics. “What does Calvin claim happened? He had to have been somewhere close by.” He didn’t believe Calvin would off his own brother, but where was the unpredictable man?

“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to ascertain Calvin Perkins’s location. Come on, MacDonald. It will go better for you if you comply.” Nolan eyed Gordon, who’d sat up and reluctantly pulled the cover away. He was wearing jeans but had no shirt on under the blue gown. “Hurry it up, the doc said you’re going to be fine. Wear the goddamned gown.”

Casey sighed inwardly. There was nothing they could do tonight. The three of them were forced to watch as Nolan cuffed the now crying Gordon and pushed him out of the room ahead of him.

“I don’t know about you two, but I’m not letting Gordon go to the station alone.” Elton shoved himself to his feet and determinedly marched out of the room. “I’ll call my lawyer on the way.”