Skeleton Key (26 page)

“
Larry, do you have any idea who could’ve stolen your truck?”

“
Not a clue, Clay.”

Hearing the word “clue” gave Tanner an idea. “Did you ever go back through your rig, Larry? I mean were there personal affects in the cab or anything?”

“
Yes, sir, I did fetch some thangs from my cab. Course I did.”

“
Do you remember anything unusual?”

“
Unusual? It’s been a long time to recollect somethin’ like that, Tanner.”

“
If I could help you remember, would you let me?” Tanner asked.

“
How’d ya do somethin’ like that?”

“
I could hypnotize you.”

“
Young man, if’n I let you hypnotize me, would y’all do me a favor? I got this gosh-darned pain in my neck—and, no, it ain’t my Missus. Do ya thank ya could make the pain go ’way?”

“
I’ve never done anything like that, but I could try. I promise to try, Larry.”

“
Then let’s do ’er. Whatcha got, a watch or somethin’?”

“
Just sit back and relax. Count backwards from ten.” Tanner focused his powers on Larry’s mind.

“
Tin, non, eight…”

“
You’re hypnotized, Larry.” He turned to his dad. “I just make ’em count for dramatic effect.” Clay laughed.

“
Larry, concentrate for a minute on the cab of your rig seven years ago. The one in the train wreck. After the wreck, you went back and took out some personal items. What do you remember? Oh, and if you don’t mind, would you speak in English, so I can understand you?”

Larry was in a trance. He started speaking quite clearly for a hillbilly. “I climbed up in the cab. I ’member now. The seat was pulled way forward. I got purdy long legs. No way I could git in the cab without movin’ the seat. Someone super-short drove it last. I grabbed things from the glove box—papers and other junk. Had some clothes, bedding, books, food, toothbrush and stuff in the bunk. An atlas, other maps, an’ some garbage was under the seat. Sunflower seeds was spilt all on the floor. I don’t eat seeds. Where’d they come from?”

“
Was there anything else unusual?”

“
I caint remember anything else that warnt the way I left it.”

“
Thanks, Larry. Now, when I snap my fingers you’ll wake up, and you’ll feel rested, and there’ll be no more pain in your neck. If’n you start feelin’ pain agin…” Tanner started laughing…“Jist thank of yer Missus, and the pain’ll go away.” He snapped his fingers and Larry snapped out of his trance.

“
Well, I’ll be. The pain’s gone. How’s about if I bought y’all a beer to show my gratitude?”

“
No thanks,” Clay said. “You helped us plenty in return. That no-count cop friend of yours? He’s the one who stole your truck. Thank you very much, Larry.”

“
Parked it right on the tracks, fixin’ to cause a wreck? He ain’t no friend of mine. You’re gonna make sure that low-down piece of turd ends up in jail, right?”

Clay looked at his watch. “You can count on it, Friend. Now, I need to get Tanner back to college. He has a game tonight.”

Clay and Tanner shook hands with Larry, returned to their car, and drove away without incident. “Dan Duncan’s definitely the one who stole the truck. His car was in the lot, but
he
wasn’t because he was driving the truck to the tracks. He’s a former trucker and would have no problem driving the thing. Then he must’ve run back to the station. It’s just a little over a mile. He wasn’t there when Larry was first looking for him, but Larry saw him run up later, all winded. Dan is short, chews sunflower seeds, and is dumb enough to leave them on the floor. He as much as admitted to me when I read his mind that he killed two men and that he was at the tracks before and after the wreck. He went back to look for Adrian, just like Larry said when Dan left him at the tracks. I think we have our murderer.”

Clay dropped Tanner off to get his car so he could drive back to Ann Arbor. Tanner’s game was to be on television, so Clay was hopeful that he could head back to Durand and watch it with Erika. Maybe if he visited Dan Duncan, the whole mystery would be solved before the day was over. Once Tanner left, Clay took care of a few things, called Erika, who invited him over, and then headed back to Durand. On the way, he called Chief Hopper with his news.

“
How about if we stop by Dan’s today, Luke?” Clay asked. “I’m on my way right now. You could meet me there.”

“
This is a touchy subject with me,” Luke responded. “Dan’s one of my men. I’m not gonna just walk in and make accusations. I’m not sure how I wanna handle it yet.”

“
I’d say that we should present the facts and see what happens from there.”

“
Okay. I’m on my way. Don’t go making accusations before I get there. Wait for me.”

Luke put his gun in his shoulder holster, put a light coat on to hide it, and hopped in his car to head to Duncan’s house. Clay pulled off the expressway, checked his GPS, and followed the directions to Dan’s house.

Chief Hopper was nervous as he reviewed the case in his head. The coroner believed Adrian Payne was killed in the accident. Adrian’s ghost mentioned more than once that he had a heart attack. That
could
be true since Marshall Mortonson discovered Adrian’s body apparently passed out on the train. Marshall attempted to save Adrian’s life by jumping with his body off the train just before the accident. An overturned train car crushed Adrian. Marshall then decided to hide the body, which he later buried with the horses that were killed in the crash. Someone—most likely Roberto Gomez—had wrecked the brakes on the train. The engineer was drunk and was declared responsible for the wreck. There was a semi-truck parked on the tracks at the Oak Street crossing. Someone had stolen the truck, and apparently that person was Dan Duncan, one of his own police officers. Erika didn’t have a good alibi during the wreck, and she had motive for killing Adrian. Roberto Gomez’s alibi was his wife. He had a strong motive for murder because Adrian had raped his wife. Dan Duncan was at the gas station during the wreck, and was on duty, but evidence suggests that he stole the truck and parked it on the tracks. Dan had ample reason to hate Adrian, so motive could be established. If the crash actually
did
kill Adrian, then both Dan and Roberto were responsible if Luke could prove it, but what if he was already dead? Could Erika have had something to do with that? However, even if Adrian
was
already dead, Joseph Carrollton also died in the wreck, so someone was responsible for
his
death. According to Clay; Dan, Roberto, and Marshall all believed that they killed Adrian, but Adrian seemed to think not. This was a very confusing case.

While Luke was reviewing the case in his mind, he came to a railroad crossing with an unmoving train. Luke looked as far as he could see to his right and left in hopes of locating the engine so he could determine which direction the train was running, but he couldn’t see it. He was nervous about Clay getting to Dan’s house before him, so he did a U-turn and made a guess which direction the train was facing. He decided to head north, hoping he could make it to a crossing ahead of the train.

Clay was nearly at Dan’s house. He was feeling a bit jumpy because of Tanner’s vision. What if Dan tried to shoot him? Would mind control work? Mind control kept Jessie’s murderer from killing Clay, but it didn’t keep him from killing Jessie. Clay wondered how he could be prepared for all possibilities. What if he didn’t see Dan in time? He pulled into the driveway before Chief Hopper arrived. He paused, trying to decide if he should get out of his car or wait.

Luke found the next street farther north and turned down it. The train was crossing that street as well, and it still was not moving. He turned his car around again and headed another street farther north.

A sports quote from Clay’s past entered his mind while he was indecisively waiting in Dan Duncan’s driveway. “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” Clay was admittedly a bit afraid of Duncan’s gun, but as he thought of the quote, he realized that his purpose—to find the truth and help Erika and Logan Payne—was more important than his fear, so he opened his car door and stepped out of his car. Whether Luke was there or not, it was time to confront Dan.

As Luke turned on the next street north, he could finally see the end of the train. The train was still sitting, unmoving, across that set of tracks, as well. Luke was getting anxious. Clay might be at Dan’s house already. What Luke could see was the engine, so he knew that he could go one street farther north and cross the tracks ahead of the train. He turned his car around for the third time, and headed for the next crossing.

Clay stepped up on Dan’s porch, took a deep breath, and rang his doorbell. There was no answer, but Dan’s car was in the driveway, so Clay patiently rang the bell again and waited.

Luke turned down the next street and groaned in dismay. The train had begun moving forward and was now blocking that crossing as well. It was moving incredibly slowly. Luke was already three streets farther north than he needed to be. As he paused a few seconds to think, the train stopped once again. The chief was forced to decide if he wanted to risk driving another street north, hoping the train wouldn’t move again, or if he wanted to head back to the south, knowing, at least, which end was the back. He decided to head back to the south.

Dan never answered the door. Clay didn’t know if he was being ignored or if Dan was somehow occupied; there was no way to know for sure. So Clay stepped off the porch and headed around the house to the back yard. It was a cold day, but maybe Dan was outside. As he rounded the house, his heart jumped because there was Dan with a gun in his hand. But he wasn’t aiming it at Clay; he was aiming it at a squirrel that was sitting on one of his bird feeders. “You know there are bird feeders that are squirrel-proof, Dan,” Clay said.

Dan jumped in surprise to hear his name. He looked at Clay, first in surprise and curiosity, but then in anger. “What are you doing here?”

“
Waiting for Chief Hopper. We plan on talking to you about the night of the train wreck again. Don’t you think shooting your pistol at a squirrel is a bit dangerous?”

“
I’ve earned my certificate as a marksman. I can hit it.”

“
You’ve obviously tried and missed in the past. Why don’t you just get a different bird feeder?”

“
Because I want to kill that stupid squirrel!” Dan yelled. “
Then
I’ll get a different feeder.”
BOOM!
Thunk!
In a crazed state, Dan actually shot his police revolver at the squirrel. He missed and the semi-automatic Glock .22 sent a 9-millimeter slug into the wall of his shed, putting a nice hole into a wooden sideboard. “Crap!” Dan yelled. The squirrel looked up temporarily, but within seconds, it continued attacking the birdseed.

“
Listen, Dan. Is it legal for you to be shooting that gun in your yard? There might be another way to get rid of that squirrel, you know?”

“
I’m kind of in a killing mood, Clay. What is it again you’re here for?”

Chief Hopper turned the car and started heading south again. As he headed back for the street he originally planned to turn on, he got a call on his radio. “There’s been a complaint of a gunshot, Chief. It’s the same lady who said Dan Duncan shot out her bathroom window. Says he just shot his gun again in his backyard.”

“
I’m on my way to his place right now.”

Luke hung his radio back up, and felt his heartbeat increase noticeably. “
What are you doing, Clay?
”

***

“
I talked with Lawrence Maloney yesterday, Dan.”

“
Who’s Lawrence Maloney?”

“
He’s that tall, thin, Southern truck driver whose truck you stole on the night of the train wreck.”

Dan visibly stiffened, but he said, “I don’t know where you’d get such a crazy idea as that, ’cause I didn’t steal no truck.”

“
Exactly.”

“
What? I thought you just accused me.”

“
I did. And you just confessed. You said you ‘didn’t steal
no
truck,’ so you must have stolen
a
truck. I’m simply suggesting that I have proof that you stole Larry Maloney’s.”

“
You think you’re clever, don’t you? What proof do you have?”

“
Well, first of all, Roger from the gas station explained how your car was parked in the Shell lot, and you weren’t there. Explained how long it was before you finally showed up. Then I talked to Larry Maloney. Seems when you finally showed, you were
running
down the road from the direction of the crash. Seems, also, that you were in a hurry to get away and weren’t too cooperative concerning his stolen truck. The most damning evidence, though, Dan, is that the truck seat was moved forward considerably, and there were sunflower seeds on the floor of the cab.” Clay began to wonder where Hopper was. Cops were never there when they were needed most.