The Territory (Josie Gray Mysteries #1)(81)
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.
“Stop right there, and put your hands in the air where I can see them!”
Kenny didn’t even turn to look at her. He ran half a dozen steps to the trailer and jumped through the open door. Fortunately, the door was held open with a chain and he couldn’t pull it shut, but he moved to the right of the door, inside the trailer and out of her line of sight.
“Kenny, this is Chief Gray. You need to give it up and come out of the trailer with your hands held in the air. You won’t get out of this one.” She stopped talking and heard nothing from inside the trailer. “I don’t want to see you get hurt. Step slowly outside the trailer.” Josie stood with both feet planted firmly, her arms extended, gun aimed on the trailer. The amount of ammunition in the campsite was staggering to consider, and it reminded her of the rattlesnakes roiling around under her feet at Dell’s place, waiting to strike if provoked.
A hand extended about twelve inches into the open doorframe, and Josie realized Winning was holding an explosive device.
“I want you out of here now!” he said, his voice loud and angry. “I want your gun and gun belt on the ground as well as your cell phone. Throw them down now or I’ll throw this and six others just like it! I will blow you to pieces!”
Josie moved just outside of the lantern’s light and opened her cell phone, noting that she’d missed several calls from Otto. She found Pegasus Winning’s cell phone number in her contacts and was surprised when Winning answered.
Josie whispered who she was and asked if Winning knew where her brother’s campsite was located.
“He has a trailer set up straight back from Red’s place. You need to get down here. He’s got a trailer full of guns and he’s talking crazy. Drive down here and talk sense into him before we all get blown up.” Josie hung up without waiting for a reply.