Page 93 of Nightshade

“Okay, I know this made news on the mainland and you might have seen it, but two weeks ago somebody killed one of the buffaloes up on the conservancy preserve. He decapitated it and took the head. They’re protected animals, and that makes it a felony. The guy in jail is named Henry Gaston. I’m holding him there in protective custody because I’ve got nowhere else to put him. He’s a mechanic who takes care of the carts used by Island Mystery Tours, which got a franchise license from the town about five years ago. I wasn’t out here then but I’m told it was controversial.”

“How so?”

“The franchise owner is a guy named Oscar Terranova. The locals call him Baby Head.”

“What?”

“He’s got a shaved head and I guess people think it looks like a newborn baby’s.”

Juarez laughed and shook her own head.

“At least it’s original,” she said.

“Anyway, the license was opposed by other tour operators, who said there were already too many franchises in town,” Stilwell said. “They claimed it would hurt all of their businesses. But Mayor Allensupported the application, saying the competition would grow the market. The town council voted, and Baby Head got the license.”

“And did it grow things like the mayor said?”

“Not so much. Two of the other companies went bankrupt, but the mayor conveniently blamed the COVID epidemic for that. Tourism did tank out here back then. But Gaston said that he and Baby Head sabotaged those businesses. He said they did all kinds of stuff, from slashing tires on the competitors’ carts to outright stealing them and dumping them off cliffs on the back side of the island.”

“And he’ll testify to all of this?”

“If he gets a deal. But that’s minor stuff compared to what else he says he’s got, starting with the dead buffalo. He said Baby Head ordered him to kill the buffalo so it would make news and would get blamed on aliens.”

Juarez laughed again. “And of course that would bring more customers to his magical mystery tours,” she said.

“Exactly,” Stilwell said.

“What evidence do you have for all of this?”

“Well, last week I got a search warrant signed by Judge Harrell and went to Terranova’s cart barn. This is when I first met Gaston. I seized a saw handle that tested positive for blood. I have it locked up but haven’t submitted it to the lab yet for comparison to blood from the buffalo.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve been busy with a murder investigation, and the buffalo case will be such a low priority at the lab that it’ll be six months before I get a report back. Unless I have a prosecutor pushing it through. That’s what I was sort of waiting for.”

Juarez shook her head.

“That’s a catch-twenty-two,” she said. “I don’t think I couldpress charges without results. And I couldn’t push for results without charges in place.”

“But now Gaston wants to cooperate.”

“To save his own neck. It’s not a good look if he’s the one who killed and cut up that poor animal.”

The desk clerk reappeared behind the check-in counter. Stilwell saw that it was Fred Nettles, the night manager he had dealt with during the eviction dustup. He had apparently just come on duty. Stilwell lowered his voice so that he would not be overheard.

“Gaston says he was also working in the cart barn when Terranova met with Allen about this proposal to build a giant Ferris wheel out on the point past the Casino. Publicly, the mayor’s already supporting it as a big boost to tourism. But Gaston says Allen and Terranova are shadow partners in it. The mayor gets a piece of the action for supporting the project, and he chips off a piece for Terranova.”

Juarez’s body language changed. She leaned in toward Stilwell, and her face lost the mirth it had displayed earlier at the mention of Baby Head.

“Can we trust this guy Gaston?” she asked.

“I don’t know yet,” Stilwell said. “He’s desperate. I leaned on him last week when I was at the barn conducting the search. A couple days later his wife reported him missing. I thought maybe he had lammed it, but then he walks into the sub today and says he’s been hiding because Terranova is going to kill him to keep him quiet.”

“Over a dead buffalo?”

“He says Baby Head’s afraid he’ll bow to the pressure I put on him and talk. About everything. The buffalo, the Ferris wheel, and everything else he knows. And that’s exactly what he’s willing to do if we cut him a deal.”

“Does this Baby Head have any record that supports this kind of reaction?”

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