The Territory A Novel - By Tricia Fields Page 0,103
wife. “I’m through with the Gunners.”
“He should have never joined them to begin with. Bunch of grown men acting like animals.” Karen squeezed her arms tighter.
“It’s not the organization or the men’s club I’m referring to. It’s the business.”
Fallow looked to his wife, then Otto, his expression still confused.
Otto sighed. “Dr. Fallow, we found the trailer you rented behind Goff’s house. Your belongings are being confiscated as we speak. Parking the trailer on federal land wasn’t a good idea.”
His eyes were wide now, and he sat down on the couch by his wife as if his legs had given out from under him. “What in the world are you talking about?”
Otto looked between the two of them. Karen’s expression turned from confusion to anger. Her lips were thin, pressed tightly together. “So help me, if you bought more guns, or gave more money to that group without my knowledge, we are through. Finished, Paul.”
He looked at his wife but pointed at Otto. “I don’t know what he’s talking about!”
Otto opened the binder on the coffee table and handed a piece of paper that lay on top over to Fallow. “Here’s a copy of the rental agreement for the U-Haul trailer. There’s your name.”
Fallow grabbed the paper and studied it, his face turning pale.
“You son of a bitch.” Karen’s voice was low and steady. Her eyes were filled with rage, and it made Otto remember her serene expression during her yoga pose.
Otto pointed to a list on the front page of the binder. “Here’s the hierarchy, Mr. Fallow, right in your manual. Number one, Red’s gone. Number two, Hack’s gone. You’re next. Number three man on the totem pole. That gun-trading business with the Medrano cartel? You take the reins, now the others are out of the way. I’d say that’s pretty good motive for murder.”
Fallow stared at Otto, then down at the manual, then back at Otto. “Where did you get this?”
“This is the Gunners’ manual we confiscated from Red’s house.”
“No! That’s not right!” His look of confusion had turned frantic. Fallow stood and walked quickly from the room.
“Dr. Fallow. Fallow!” Otto yelled after him. He and Karen both stood and ran after him. Otto pulled his gun. He’d misjudged Fallow. Accusing a murderer at night alone? He suddenly felt stupid.
The doctor walked down the hall and into a small office area, where he pulled a binder off a bookshelf that sat next to a messy desk.
Fallow’s eyes were wide and unfocused. He opened the binder to the front page and held it up to Otto. “See! This is the hierarchy you’re talking about! That manual you have is wrong. We never changed it after Kenny left. Bloster refused to move me up the list.”
Otto leaned in and read. It was a typed list, not the handwritten one they had. The list read:
1. Red Goff
2. Hack Bloster
3. Kenny Winning
4. Paul Fallow
Otto felt his pulse begin to race. “Why didn’t you tell me Kenny was a member of the Gunners?”
Fallow’s mouth opened. “You didn’t ask! Why would I tell you that? He’s not participated for the past few months because he moved out of town. He and Red got into it over something.”
Otto grabbed the manual from Fallow, ran down the hall, and picked up the manual he brought with him, then left the house, making a run for his car. When he got inside, he called Josie’s cell. She didn’t pick up. It was probably silenced. He had to reach her before she connected with Kenny.
* * *
Josie parked her car at Vie and Smokey Blessings’s house and walked toward Fallow’s campsite. She could see the dim light from one lantern, and the thuds and bangs convinced Josie he was packing up camp. She had hoped he would be home and the campsite empty. Josie wondered if Fallow hadn’t been thrown out of the house and taken up residence at the campsite. She figured Otto could talk with Mrs. Fallow while she confronted the doctor at the campsite.
Moving cautiously through the grass, Josie spotted someone removing armloads of guns from the storage unit and putting them into the pop-up camper. But it wasn’t Fallow. It was Kenny Winning. He was moving quickly, not worrying about careful packaging, obviously trying to make a quick escape. After Winning dumped a load of guns onto the camper floor and started making his way back over to the trailer for another load, Josie took several quick steps into the dim light of the campsite.