The Hallows, page 23
He scooped the eggs and potatoes onto two plates. He said, “Come eat. You’re all skin and bones.”
“Not really hungry right now.”
“You will be later. Just sit down.”
I sat down across from him, and he dug in. I took a couple of bites but couldn’t eat. He noticed and said, “Stress is a helluva thing. Eats you in your sleep.”
“Who says I’m stressed?”
“Since you were a kid you’ve had a tell. You raise your right eyelid when you’re stressed, like you’re trying to stretch it or something. It’s a tic. Your mother thought maybe we should take you to a shrink, and I told her that was ridiculous.”
Man, he was right. I didn’t even remember because it had become so natural I didn’t notice it anymore.
“So this starting over fresh, it working out for ya?” he said.
I shrugged and took another small bite of eggs. “Does it for anyone?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never done it. I was born in this town and I’ll die in this town.”
“You regret that?”
He was silent a second. “Sure, who wouldn’t? But I have a feeling that you only want what you don’t have, and once you trade for it, you realize it’s worse than what you got now.” He took a sip of beer. “Or maybe change is always best. What the hell do I know? I’m just an old fool dying by himself.”
I stared at him a second. “You’re not by yourself, Adam.”
My phone vibrated. It was a text from Gates asking if I wanted to have dinner tonight. I responded that I did, and Adam said, “She really likes you, ya know.”
“Who?”
“Please. Who else would be texting you? She was broken when you left. Her dad told me she cried for days. Wouldn’t come out of her room. You could’ve at least said goodbye to her. I know it shook you to see her in the hospital all broken up like that, but you could’ve said goodbye.”
“Well, hindsight’s twenty-twenty, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “Unfortunately.”
66
After dinner, Gates and I walked around her property. We stopped at a fence overlooking a small valley, and I could see several cows huddled around a calf. The evening sun was dimming, and it gave everything a soft orange glow. Clumps of dandelions swayed with a light breeze. It was quiet. The type of quiet you can never get in a city.
“I forget how loud it is in cities until I’m out of them,” I said. “I’m not sure we were meant to live in proximity like that. There’s some argument that we’re actually not the dominant species on the planet. Wheat is. That wheat forced us to abandon our hunter-gatherer lifestyle and to cultivate it in huge quantities over most of the earth and to make sure it’s the main part of our diet so we’ll always have it around. And the worst part is it’s forced us to live in close proximity so we’ll be better at cultivating it.”
She chuckled. “You’re so morose. I love it. It’s like being around a depressed teenager all the time.”
“I’m not morose. I’m a realist. There’s a big difference.”
She leaned on the fence and stared at the cows. “You know what convinced me to stay here? That one right there. I call her Dallas. She was a calf when I was preparing this place for sale. I was out here one night making a repair to the fence, and she came up to me. She put her nose through the fence and wouldn’t leave until I rubbed it. We sat there like that for a long time. Just . . . connecting. I texted the buyer right then and told him I wouldn’t be selling.”
“That’s what changed the trajectory of your life? A cow?”
“Never know how angels show up in your life to lead you down the right path, do you?”
I scoffed and leaned on the fence with my forearms. “Well, tell whoever my angel is to show up and give me a hand with this case.”
“I reviewed it this morning. Things seem to be going fine. You’ve got Steven after the medical examiner and Cecily Gilbert after Lyle. Seems like a good case to me.”
“Something’s not sitting right with Anderson’s eye injury. He didn’t just fall on a pipe. Something happened. And either Roscoe is lying about it or Nathan Ficco is. One of them doesn’t want me to know the truth, and it’s connected to Patty.”
“Nathan will say and do anything to help his son. I wouldn’t believe a word he says, particularly over Roscoe. But . . .”
“But what?”
“But then again, you never really know what people are capable of when nobody’s watching.”
67
The next day in court, Jia and Will sat behind me, and I didn’t have Howard sit next to me. It was just me, Pritcher, and Anderson at the tables.
“Mr. Graham,” Judge Allred said, “I believe the floor is yours.”
“Thank you, Judge. The State calls Steven Brown to the stand.”
The bailiff went to the back and brought out Steven. He wore a suit and wasn’t cuffed. He was so large he took up almost the entire witness booth.
I rose and stood in front of the lectern. “Name, please.”
“Steven Brown.”
“You live here in River Falls, Steven?”
“Yessir, born and raised.”
“You know why we’re here?”
He glanced at Anderson, who was staring right at him with a smirk on his face. “Yessir.”
“Please tell us.”
“It’s about the killin’a Patty Winchester.”
“Tell us what you remember about that night.”
“Well, we was going down to Skid Row. It’s a bar in Las Vegas. We go there sometimes ’cause they don’t have great bars over here in Utah. They don’t really check for ID neither, so it works out. So me and Anderson go over there, and we meet up with Patty and her friend Cecily. We knew ’em from school. And Patty was really drunk. Like really drunk. Hittin’ on all the guys in the bar. Rough guys, like bikers and such. And so Anderson and I was worried about her. Like them guys was takin’ a likin’ to her, and they didn’t look like they would take no for an answer.”
I got a chill as I stared at him. Something in his voice was off. I stepped around the lectern and went up close to him, my arms folded as I stared into his pupils. I was close enough I could smell him, and I saw his pulse pound in his throat and the sweat glisten on his forehead. “What happened next?”
“Cecily had to leave. She said she had to work in the mornin’. So me and Anderson was left with Patty.”
“Describe what state Anderson was in mentally.”
“Mentally? I don’t know. He was fine. Bit too drunk, but that was a frequent occurrence.”
“Any drugs?”
“I suppose. Yeah, he was probably high, too. He likes mescaline.”
“So Anderson is drunk and high, and you guys are left with Patty. What happens then?”
“We drank a little, played some pool, and then I decided to drive ’em home. Patty and Anderson were both too drunk to drive.” He swallowed and looked at Anderson and then looked away. “Then I dropped him off at his house and her at her house and that was it.”
My stomach felt like it dropped into my feet. “What did you say?”
“I said I dropped them off at their houses and then went home. Next day Anderson called me and asked if I’d heard from Patty. He wanted to call her and apologize for actin’ like an ass last night. I told him I dropped her off and ain’t heard from her.”
I stepped closer to him. “Do you remember speaking with me a couple weeks ago at the jail, Mr. Brown?”
“Yessir.”
“Do you remember telling me that Anderson was high on mescaline, and that while you were driving home, he hit Patty over the head with a hammer?”
He hesitated. “I do. I was lyin’.”
“You were lying?”
“Yessir. I was in trouble and thought if I blamed Anderson, I could get out of it. But my conscience got to me, so I’m tellin’ the truth now.” He looked to the jury. “Anderson ain’t had nothin’ to do with Patty dyin’.”
“Conscience?” I said, almost laughing. “Your conscience got to you? That’s just fantastic. So you lied to an officer of this court, correct?”
“Yessir.”
“But you’re telling the truth now?”
“Yes.”
“Your Honor, permission to treat the witness as hostile?”
“Granted.”
“Mr. Brown, Anderson kept a townhome separate from his home, as Detective Howard testified to, correct?”
“He did.”
“And a lot of blood was found in that townhome?”
“Yeah, I guess it was.”
“Patty went missing after that night you two were with her?”
“Guess so.”
“And a lot of blood was found in the townhome?”
“Yes.”
“Tire tracks belonging to a vehicle similar to Anderson’s truck were found in the Hallows where Patty’s body was found, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Cecily said in her statement that Anderson was so drunk he was harassing every woman in the bar. You aware of that?”
“I’d heard she said somethin’ like that.”
“Patty was extraordinarily beautiful, wasn’t she?”
“Yeah, she was.”
“No offense to you, but far more beautiful a girl than you or Anderson were used to spending time with. Outa your league, wouldn’t you say?”
“I don’t know. I guess. Hell, everyone had a crush on her. That ain’t nothin’.”
“You just said you drove them, right?”
“Yes.”
“So you were sober?”
“Yeah, I just had one beer.”
“And you, perfectly sober, saw how out of control Anderson was, correct?”
“I don’t remember if he was. Sorry.” He looked to the jury. “I’m sorry I lied. I’m just scared. I ain’t never been in trouble before. But Anderson ain’t have nothin’ to do with Patty. I don’t know how blood got in his townhome or if it’s even Patty’s, but I for sure dropped him off at his house and then dropped her off at her house. That’s the Lord’s honest truth. I don’t know what else to tell ya.”
I glanced back at Pritcher, who smirked.
“No further questions for now,” I said.
68
I asked for a recess after Steven’s testimony. I turned to Howard, who was sitting behind me. He blew a kiss at me, the pleasure at my humiliation exuding from his face like a warm glow, and left. Jia and Will sat there dumbfounded. I joined them in the gallery.
“You don’t seem that shaken up,” Jia said.
“Oh, don’t let my calm veneer fool you, I’m about to bust up this courtroom. The Jolly Green Giant sandbagged us. Pritcher probably coached him before I was even on the case. I’m guessing he was promised they could both get away with it if they stuck together.”
“That’s a felony for an attorney to advise someone to perjure themselves.”
“Welcome to the practice of law. What’s legal and illegal doesn’t matter. It’s what you can show a jury. And we don’t have squat to show anymore.”
Pritcher gathered his things and came over. He patted my shoulder and said, “Better luck on the next case.”
When he and his associates had left, I rose and walked over to the jury box. I put my hands on the banister and stared at the empty seats.
“So what now?” Will said.
“Now, we go with what we got. Lots of blood was found in Anderson’s townhome, tire tracks belonging to a truck like his were at the scene, Lyle is going to testify that he saw Anderson dump the body, and I’ll get Steven back up there and tear him apart. We don’t need much else. We just gotta hit hard in closing that Steven is lying now to protect himself and his buddy, and that he was telling the truth when he told me Anderson killed her. And when this is over, we’re asking Judge Allred to revoke our plea arrangement since Steven lied and putting him on trial for the homicide, too.”
Will was staring at his phone. “Um . . . boss?”
“Unless that’s a text from Anderson saying he’s ready to give a full confession and get me some cowboy boots that don’t make my toes feel like they’re in a vise, I don’t want to hear it.”
“You’re going to want to. It’s a text from a patrol officer at the sheriff’s office. Lyle’s mom called them and said Lyle never made it to school this morning.”
“What?”
“She says she saw him off, but then the school phoned to ask why he was absent.”
“Go tell the judge I need to call it a day. Jia, you’re with me.”
We rushed down to Nikyee’s house. She answered the door in a panic, her hands trembling, her eyes red and wet with tears.
“He never got to school,” she said, her voice quivering. “He never got there. It’s never happened before.”
“It’s okay. We’re going to find him. Now, could he have gone to a friend’s house?”
“He only ever goes to two friends’ houses. I called their mothers. They haven’t seen him. Their kids are both at school.”
“Who else walks the same route as him?”
“Our neighbor . . . our neighbor does. Her name’s Jill.”
“Which neighbor?”
“Right over there.”
I hurried to the house next door and knocked. After a few seconds, a woman with frizzy blonde hair answered.
“Hi, Tatum Graham. I’m with the County Attorney’s Office. We’re trying to find Lyle next door. He never got to school. I was hoping you could let me talk to Jill?”
“Oh my gosh, yeah, of course. She’s at school, though.”
“Mind giving the school a call and getting her on the phone?”
Jill was pulled out of class, and a few minutes later I was able to speak to her.
“Jill, hi, I’m a friend of Lyle’s, your next-door neighbor. He never came to school today, and I was wondering if you’ve seen him.”
“Yeah. He gave me some gummy bears today. I asked if I could have some and he said yes.”
“That’s nice of him. Where did you see him last?”
“Near Nimbley Park.”
I looked to her mom and said, “Nimbley Park?”
“It’s about halfway between the school and here.”
“What did you see at Nimbley Park, sweetheart? Did Lyle leave the park and head home?”
“No, he got into the car.”
“What car?”
“I dunno.”
“What color was the car?”
“Blue.”
“Was it a big car or a small car?”
“Small.”
“Do you remember anything else about the car?”
“Umm . . . it had a bull on the back.”
“A bull? What kind of bull?”
“A red bull on the window.”
“A red bull. Okay, and did you see who was in the car?”
“No.”
“Was there more than one person?”
“I dunno. I just said bye and went to school.”
“Okay, thanks for talking with me, sweetie.”
Nikyee was standing a little behind me on the lawn. I turned to her and said, “Blue car with a bull on the rear window. Ring a bell?”
“Oh no. That stupid bastard.”
“Who?”
“Roscoe. He’s got a blue Nissan with a Chicago Bulls sticker on the back.”
“Has he ever picked up Lyle like this before?”
She shook her head. “No, we have strict visitation rules. He took him outa state once without telling me, so we got an order from the judge that he can’t see him without my permission.” She took out her phone. “I’ll call him.” It rang a few times. “Voice mail. I’m gonna head over there and get him. Thank you for your help.”
I stood on the lawn and watched her walk away. Jia said, “Well, that was a lucky break.”
“Luck, my ass. He’s running.”
“Coach Mallory?”
I nodded. “He blamed everything on Nathan to get me outa there. Must’ve slept on it and decided it was best to hit the road. Call Howard, get out a BOLO call on his car, and call his credit card companies and get an alert whenever he tries to use one. We need to catch him before he leaves the state, or we’re not seeing him or Lyle again.”
69
Court was called off for the rest of the day, and the jurors were released to go home. Pritcher didn’t object. I could just picture the little ferret laughing it up tonight over drinks about how he’d run circles around me.
I sat in the conference room and tossed a tennis ball against the wall, catching it with one hand on the bounce. The BOLO—be on the lookout—call had gone out for Roscoe and his car, and an AMBER Alert had been issued for Lyle. A police unit was sitting outside the high school and another one outside Roscoe’s house. But I didn’t think we’d see him anywhere near there.
Jia and Will came in. Will said, “Okay, last time anyone saw him, he was leaving the high school. Vice principal said the coach came in this morning to tell him he had to cancel his classes for today because of a family emergency, and he wasn’t sure if he’d be in the rest of the week.”
Jia said, “Got a list of his known relatives. Sister in Arizona about three hundred miles away and an uncle in California.”
“Call the police departments in whatever towns the sister and uncle live in and ask if they’ll put a unit outside the homes. Tell them it’s for a child abduction case. If they’re resistant to help and don’t seem too inquisitive, tell them you’re FBI.”
“Local cops hate the feds,” Will said.
“That’s a myth they portray on crime shows. Every cop wants to join the FBI, so they’re willing to go out of their way to help them and get brownie points.”
“On it.”
As Jia and Will left, I yelled, “And make sure to get them a photo of Roscoe and Lyle.”
When I was alone again, I began bouncing the ball. I received a text from Gates.
No??? was all it said.
Yes
That lying scumbag. I’ll string him up myself
What’s the point? Let’s just find the kid
I’m sorry I told you he could be trusted
Don’t worry about it. You didn’t know
