Page 14 of Girl, Reborn

‘Yeah,’ said Luca. ‘He might have beenhere schmoozing voters, pretending he was a man of the people.’

Tucker said, ‘Unlikely. If someone likehim was in town, everyone’d know.’

Ella took the info on board. ‘Youmentioned a farmer found him?’

‘Yup. Carl Jessup. He’s just back there.’

‘We need to talk to him, see if heremembers anything unusual.’

‘You got it. C'mon, I'll take ya over.He’s white as a ghost, so go easy on him.’ Clem set off across the field, hisshoulders bowed like he was walking into a stiff wind. Ella fell into stepbeside him, Luca bringing up the rear.

As they trudged through the dead grass,Ella couldn't help but notice the sheer lifelessness of the land. It was likeall the moisture had been sucked out of the earth, leaving behind nothing butdust and tumbleweeds. Even the air felt stale, like it hadn't been breathed inyears.

Carl Jessup was sitting on an overturnedmilk crate amid a patch of particularly crispy vegetation. He had the wizened,sunbaked look of a man who'd spent his whole life with his hands in the dirt,skin as tough and grooved as old leather. Faded denim overalls hung off hisspare frame and a sweat-stained John Deere cap was pulled low over his creasedforehead.

Ella moved in. 'Mr. Jessup? I'm AgentDark, and this is Agent Hawkins. We're with the FBI. Mind if we ask you a fewquestions?'

Carl's watery blue eyes flicked up to meethers, then darted away just as quickly. ‘Y-yeah. I mean, no. I don't mind.Anything I can do to help.’

Ella crouched down to his level, ignoringthe protestations of her knees. Luca hovered at her shoulder. ‘We understandyou're the one who found Mr. Toledo this morning. Can you walk us through whathappened?’

Carl's hands twisted together and hisknuckles turned bloodless. ‘I was just doing my rounds, y'know? Checking thecrops, making sure the irrigation lines were clear. Not that it matters muchthese days. Ain't hardly anything left to water.’

Ella noted the tangent but filed it awayfor later. One mystery at a time. ‘And that's when you found the body?’

‘Ayuh.’ Carl shuddered. ‘Nearly stumbledright over him. He was just lying there, all twisted up like a pretzel.’

‘Did you recognize him?’ Luca askedgently. ‘Realize who he was?’

‘Maybe not at first, what with him beingall...’ He made a vague gesture. ‘But yeah. Didn't take more than a second ortwo to click. Hard not to know Ricky Toledo 'round these parts. Man's face wasplastered on every billboard and bus bench from here to Richmond.’

‘He was a popular guy then?’ Ella kept hertone carefully neutral, not wanting to lead the witness. Let Carl fill in theblanks himself.

The old farmer barked another laugh, thisone edged with something sharper. Angrier. ‘Popular. Yeah, you could say that.Boy could charm the stripes off a zebra. Always showing up at town meetings,shaking hands and kissing babies. Making big promises about how he was gonnaput Liberty Grove back on the map.’

There was a wealth of bitterness packedinto those words. Ella made a mental note to dig into that particular veinlater. See what kind of grudges Slick Rick had been nursing in his rise topower.

‘What did you do after you found him?’ sheasked, steering them back on track. ‘After you realized who he was?’

Carl seemed to deflate, all the righteousanger draining out of him like pus from a lanced boil. ‘I hightailed it back tothe house and called the sheriff. Didn't know what else to do. I mean, it ain'tevery day you find a dead body in your lot.’

Ella couldn’t find anything to latch onto.It was all by-the-books body-discovery. She needed more. Needed to understandwhat made a man like Toledo tick, what kind of enemies he'd made on his rocketride to the top.

But before that, she needed to know whyCarl's land looked like something out of Blade Runner.

‘Mr. Jessup,’ she began, picking each wordwith care. ‘You mentioned earlier that your crops were struggling. That therewasn't much left to water these days.’

Carl’s expression went hard as slate.‘Ain't hardly anything left to water, period. Whole damn county's drying uplike a raisin in the sun.’

‘Why?’

The old farmer's throat worked as heswallowed, his eyes darting away to stare out over the desiccated fields. For along moment, Ella thought he might not answer, might clam up tighter than avirgin's knees in church.

But then he sighed and said, ‘It’s thedam. The one they built upriver.’

Well now. A dam upriver, cutting off thelifeblood of the land. Ella's mind spun, the threads of possibility weavingtogether in a tapestry of motive and opportunity.

She glanced at Luca, saw the same dawningrealization kindling in his eyes. The dam, the body, the beleaguered farmersleft high and dry while fat cats like Toledo played politics. It was like aset-up to a bad joke.

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