Page 4 of Hell and Gone
Braddockhmmed. His eyes softened, though, as he held Lawrence’s stare. “You know he was supposed to get gone,” he said quietly. “No matter what he had to leave behind. It was the only way.”
His temper spiked, anger rushing through him until his fists clenched. “Like those boys from Heart’s Rafter had to get gone?”
“Law, those two were told to get gone, and they got. What you think happened to them other than that?”
“They’remissin’, Sheriff. They’re gone all right, but they ain’t gone by themselves. They left everythin’ behind—”
“They didn’t leave everythin’ behind. They took their cell phones and wallets, Law. That’s what folk do when they skip town. They take what’s important and get.”
“In the middle of the damn night?” Law shook his head, his hands on his hips as he paced away from the front desk. “Bill’s pulled out, ya hear? He’s cut ties and left the mountains. Walked away.”
Bill Warner owned the Heart’s Rafter ranch and, after the troubles last year, he’d gone and hired on Dell and Aaron when no one would touch them, when they’d been told to get out of town, light a shuck and get gone.
“Every man deserves a second chance,” Bill had said. “Look what a second chance did to you, Law.”
But Dell and Aaron had vanished off the face of the earth.
“Bill got spooked, and it is no wonder he did, not with the rumors you keep spreadin’ ‘round, Law. You keep huntin’ trouble, stirrin’ up folk, and now here you are droppin’ dead bodies on my front desk. I’m ‘bout ready to throw you in my cells right now. I’d be within my rights what with you disturbin’ the dead and interferin’ in a crime scene. Maybe these damn mountains will settle the hell down if you’re coolin’ your heels.”
“You’d have come on out to see him? You’d have done a real investigation?”
“I would, if you’d left him the hell alone.” Braddock waved his hand over Carson’s corpse. “What the hell am I supposed to do with this, Law? This ain’t a crime scene, and my office ain’t a dumping ground for dead bodies!”
“’M sorry, Sheriff. You’ve been so attentive to my complaints in the past. I figured you’d be just as attentive here.”
“People dyin’ are serious business, Law.”
Lawrence snorted.
Braddock’s bushy mustache twitched. He spread his hands on the desk and leaned forward, pushing into Lawrence’s face. Carson’s body stank between them. “What is it that you want?”
“I want you to do yourjob, Sheriff. The ranches are missin’ stock. Our cattle are disappearin’. These mountains keep swallowin’ up men. Those Heart’s Rafter boys aregone, and now Carson’s been murdered—”
“Murdered?”
“Look at him!”
“Looks like he hung himself.”
Lawrence snarled. Rage shimmered through him, alongside the bone-deep pain. “Carson wouldn’t have done that. He never woulda killed himself.Never.”
“After last year?” Braddock’s thick eyebrows crawled up his forehead. “You know he took it hard, much harder than the others. You know he lost everythin’.”
Not everything.Lawrence swallowed slowly. “He had no cause to go’n kill himself.”
“You’re sayin’ someone hung him, then? Someone got the drop on Carson Riley, a man six feet tall, more’n two hundred forty pounds. Someone got a noose around his neck and hung that man without restrainin’ his wrists? I don’t know about yourfineinvestigatory skills, but I don’t see rope burns ‘round those hands, Law.”
“What about his fingers?”
“I seen that before in all my suicides. They panic. Some regret their choice, but by then, it’s too late.”
“This is your fine investigatory work is it, Sheriff? Glancin’ at a body and decidin’ it ain’t murder?”
“I could’ve done a better job of it, Law, if you’d left the scene well enough alone,” Braddock growled. “As it stands, we’ll get this body autopsied and we’ll see what we can find out, beyond the obvious, that is. You want a death investigation? You’ll get one. We’ll see what we dig up, every corner of this man, no matter where it leads.” Braddock’s eyes narrowed. “You ready for that? For what you’re askin’ for?”
“That’sexactlywhat I been after, Sheriff. That’sallI been after. And maybe you can do somethin’ about the missing stock while you’re at it!”
“Law, I swear to God—”
