get on to work,” she said, then swatted him on the butt.
He glanced back at the cabin. “How can you stand to live out here?”
“It ain’t forever,” she said. “Once I get the gold, I’ll be livin’ in a mansion.”
“Can you get a mansion with only ten million dollars?” he asked.
“Of course, you idiot. Now go.” She gave him a shove.
He got into the truck and turned it on. He gave her a long look, then backed the truck up, giving me a perfect view of the dented and red-streaked front panel over his tire. I snapped a few more photos to give to Marco.
Louise stood in front of the house, watching him go, then got into the other car and drove away.
I started to turn around to leave, but I decided to take the opportunity to search the inside of her cabin. I doubted she’d have anything inside that could help me, but it was worth the few minutes it would take.
As soon as I heard her car on the road behind me, I picked up the gun and ran over to the cabin and climbed the steps, surprised to find she’d left the front door standing wide open.
It was dark inside, but I found a flashlight on the counter and flipped it on to search the one-room cabin.
While it had still been a pit, Lula had at least tried to keep the place picked up. Louise, on the other hand, had made a mess. Papers were scattered all over the kitchen table, but most of them were receipts. A few were pages she’d ripped out from a notebook and crumpled into balls. I set the gun down on the table and unwrapped one of the papers, surprised to see it was a letter addressed to Lula. It didn’t take more than a few sentences to figure out she wasn’t asking for a reconciliation. Instead, Louise had blasted her daughter for turning her back on her. The words “ungrateful,” describing Lula, and “sacrifice,” describing Louise, had been used liberally. Several more wadded-up papers were different versions of the same thing. I’d spent nearly five minutes searching the place, finding nothing helpful, when I heard a car engine approaching.
I rushed over to the table to grab the gun and crept to the door. There was only one way in and out. If Louise had come back, I was in big trouble. But a quick glimpse around the door showed that it was Hank.
I stepped into the opening, and he shouted out his open window, “What the hell is taking so long?”
“Louise left, so I decided to take a look around. I’m almost done.” I sure wasn’t leaving until I checked out the loft.
I set down the gun again and made my way up to the loft, where I checked out the boxes and things piled at the back. There wasn’t any sign of a black toolbox, not that I’d expected to find it so easily. Still, it would have seemed irresponsible not to take a peek.
I climbed back down, put the flashlight back where I’d found it, and picked up the gun, carrying it out to Hank’s car and getting into the passenger seat.
“Find anything?” he asked.
“I guess it depends on how you define finding something. I got a photo of the guy who threatened me. He’s in some kind of weird relationship with Louise.” I turned on the camera and showed him one of the photos.
He took the camera and squinted at it.
“I can make it bigger.”
“I didn’t bring my damn readers.”
I took the camera and zoomed in on the man’s face before handing it back to him.
“That’s Derek. Derek Carpenter.”
Relief that Barb wasn’t the third person hit me so hard, it took me a moment to put two and two together.
“Wait.” I sat up straighter. I’d seen this man’s name in my internet search a couple days before. “Big Joe’s son?”
His eye twitched. “One and the same.”
I sat back in my seat. “How?”
He put the car in reverse, then took off down the long driveway to the county road. “I don’t know, but I need to pay a visit to Big Joe, and you can’t be anywhere around when I do.”
“Before you do that, let’s talk about what they said.” I closed my eyes and focused on the memory. “They were in the cabin when I got there, and he was shouting at her. He told her she was out of control. Then something along the lines of