Page 50 of Long Gone

“Other three?” He narrowed his eyes. “I only knew about four of us—me, Brett, Bill, and Tim Heaton. Who are the other two?”

“One is a man named Pete Mooney.”

He shook his head again. “Never heard of him.”

“He was from Pine Bluff. He died in Little Rock soon after Hugo disappeared.”

He grimaced, then his eyes widened. “Tim died a few months later, and so did Bill. Is someone going to come after me?”

“Tim died in a car accident and Bill died of colon cancer.”

“How did this Mooney guy die?”

I hesitated. “He was mugged and murdered.”

He nearly jumped out of his chair.

“Mr. Martin, I’m positive you’re safe. All three men died less than a year after Hugo disappeared, one by natural causes and the other in a car accident. I’m sure it’s coincidence.” But I wasn’t about to admit it was too big of a coincidence to suit me, particularly given what I’d learned about the car accident.

“But people say Tim was run off the road…”

“Again, if something was going to happen to you, I believe it already would have happened.”

He settled back in his chair, but he didn’t look convinced.

“You said Hugo mentioned a big-time investor,” I said. “Did he happen to tell you anything else about the person?”

“Not really, although I know it was a man because Hugo kept calling him a ‘he.’ I also know he wasn’t from around here. He said he’d been talking to the guy for a while and that he was finally ready to invest. He was pretty hopeful.”

“So why did he need more money from you if this mysterious guy was about to invest?”

“Something about showing the guy he could raise more capital.” He shook his head. “Stupid. I know.”

“You seem like a successful guy, so I suspect Hugo Burton was pretty convincing.”

“That’s for damn sure.”

“If the big-time investor wasn’t from around here, did Hugo mention where he was from?”

“Somewhere in the state, but not Little Rock.” He forehead creased as he seemed to ponder my question. “I think he said the guy was from El Dorado.”

“El Dorado. How sure are you of that?”

“Not one hundred percent, but pretty damn sure.”

Clarice had mentioned Hugo going to El Dorado for work lunches. Maybe he’d met the big-time investor there. “That’s helpful, Mr. Martin. Thank you.”

“Sure,” he said with a wave of his hand. “Anything else you want to know?”

“Yeah, one more thing. Do you happen to have a copy of the contract you signed with Hugo for Sunny Point?”

He shook his head. “No. I gave my copy to the state attorney general. I never got a contract for the payback restructure.” He made a face. “See, stupid.”

But Skip Martin didn’t seem like a stupid man. Hugo must have had enough of a silver tongue to sell beachfront property in Arizona. “I know this may seem like an illogical question, but do you know anything that could possibly help me locate Hugo Burton?” I asked. “Anything at all.”

He snorted. “If I did, I would have gone and gotten him myself.”

That was fair. Skip seemed like the kind of guy who liked to settle things personally, without involving other people. “Well, thank you for your time.”

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