Page 54 of The Killing Plains

He cast her a sly look and wiped a trickle of sweat from his temple with the heel of his hand. “Sure, freak accident. But the company was taking flak, anyhow. Lowell needed a scapegoat, so he drummed up a bullshit excuse. Fired me on a technicality. Then went around giving folks the impression that the real reason he let me go was that I caused the accident.” The insinuations had been subtle, Hoyer said—nothing overt enough to allow fora defamation lawsuit. But a few winks and nods from Lowell to the right people had been enough to render Hoyer unemployable.

He tossed the whetstone onto the workbench. “I can’t even defend myself, ’cause he made me sign a goddamn NDA.”

“How come?” Avery asked.

Hoyer laughed harshly. “Lowell ain’t the business genius folks think he is, and he ain’t no choirboy, neither.”

Colly took a step closer. “If Lowell did something illegal, the NDA’s not binding. You’d be covered by whistleblower statutes.”

“Think I’m stupid? Who’m I gonna make a report to, Russ Newland and his Ranger buddies?You?I already lost my house, and I reckon they’ll repo my truck any day now. When a grand jury subpoenas me, I’ll tell ’em all about it. Till then, I got nothin’ more to say on the subject.” Hoyer tested the knife blade with his thumb, then strode over to the hog and began to score long, thin strips in its hide.

Colly followed him and leaned against the truck. “Okay, new subject, then. Talk to me about Denny. I heard the two of you didn’t get along.”

“Denny didn’t get along with nobody. Kid needed a lot more ass-whuppin’ than he got.”

“And that’s where you came in?”

“Done my best, but Denny’d go crying to Jolene, and she’d get pissed at me. She wanted us to bond.I tried it her way—used to let him tag along to the factory, sometimes. But how can you bond with a kid who gets his kicks setting fires and blowing up frogs? Something wasn’t right upstairs.” Hoyer tapped the knife against his temple. “Ain’t just my opinion. The shrinks at that clinic done some kind of brain scan on him. Kid was a psycho.”

“That’s pretty harsh. Where were you on the afternoon he disappeared?”

“Right here, working on my truck from lunch till after dark. Then I came in and drank myself silly.”

“The Rangers never verified that,” Avery said.

“How could they? I was alone, for Chrissakes. Jolene was working a double. Denny was a little shit, but I didn’t kill him. If I did, I woulda made damn sure to have a better alibi than the one I got.”

Colly thought for a moment. “What about last night?”

“What about it?”

“Where were you between six and ten?”

Hoyer hesitated. He hunched his shoulders. “Home. Jolene and me watched the Mavs game then went to bed.”

“She’ll vouch that you never left the house?”

“She better—it’s the truth.” He dropped the knife into his apron pocket and seized a strip of hog skin, pulling it down in one long, smooth motion to reveal a layer of glistening white. “Best way to flay a hog’s to peel it like a banana. This way, you don’t rip off the fat. It’s how the old-timers do it. Those YouTube morons with their tutorials don’t know shit.”

“Ever do anything with the skin?” Avery asked abruptly.

Hoyer shrugged. “Hog’s hide ain’t much use for tanning. Too greasy. Sometimes I sell the bristles on eBay. Folks use ’em for fishing flies and whatnot.”

Avery started to ask another question, but Hoyer waved them away. “That’s enough, now. Leave me alone and lemme work, before this hog rots on the gambrel.”

The women walked back towards the trailer in silence. They stopped beside a rusty clothesline, where a lone floral sheet hung limply in the still air.

“What do you think?” Colly asked. “He’s got a motive. Sounds like he couldn’t stand the kid.”

Avery shrugged. “Small feet, though—definitely not size ten.”

“True, but he’d know how to make those rabbit masks.” Colly ran a hand through her hair. “Let’s talk to the wife, see if their stories match up.” She paused. “Good work getting Hoyer to talk, by the way.”

Without waiting for a reply, Colly turned and led the way up the path towards the trailer’s front door.

Chapter 16

When Colly knocked on the door of the trailer, Carmen Ortiz, the woman they’d met earlier, opened it almost immediately. She wore a pair of rubber gloves slick with suds, which she wiped nervously on her apron.

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