Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
N ATHAN S HARP WATCHED the red dually speed away. He’d driven to Dry Oaks for lunch with Hanna, and he still needed to eat. He grabbed a coffee and a bagel across the street from the station and climbed into his car to drive back to Sonora for court. Once there, he checked in with the prosecutor, then joined his partner, Manny Pacheco, on a bench outside the courtroom. Nathan had been the arresting officer on this case, not the primary investigator, so he could not be inside the courtroom until it was time for his testimony. Manny leaned his head back, resting his eyes.
As Nathan waited, he thought about Hanna’s predicament. Even though Nathan had not been raised in Dry Oaks, one couldn’t be in the town for any length of time without learning about Joseph Keyes, even all these years after his arrest and conviction, thanks to Marcus Marshall. Everyone in local law enforcement knew Marshall. He was an “I know my rights” and “I pay your salary” kind of guy.
Murders at Beecher’s Mine Cabin might not have been a national bestseller, but it sure had sold locally. The story of Joe Keyes was the “blackest black eye a small town could get,” according to Marshall. He’d also self-published two other true crime tomes, one on the Zodiac Killer and one on the Green River Killer. As far as Nathan knew, neither of those sold as well as the story of the murders right here in Dry Oaks.
Marshall still laid out copies for purchase every week at the local farmer’s market. Nathan had never purchased a book, but he had leafed through one. Joe Keyes was clearly the villain in the book.
Dry Oaks now had a police department because of the murders. Sonora had been the only incorporated city in the county. Every other city relied on the county sheriff, including Dry Oaks. But after the murders, Everett Buckley and his father, Al, made it their mission for the small burg to develop and pay for its own PD. The residents went for a bond measure and DOPD was born about thirty-three years ago. It started with one chief and three sworn officers. The pay was not extravagant. Being a cop in Dry Oaks was really a labor of love.
And Hanna loved Dry Oaks.
She was the third elected chief. Now she had six officers, including one who doubled as an investigator, as well as one sergeant and three volunteers. They all did a great job, and Dry Oaks was a safe and quiet place to live.
He supposed every town had a bogeyman. Joe Keyes was certainly that for Dry Oaks. He’d confessed to his crimes and was put away a long time ago, and Nathan felt that justice had been served. He didn’t think the request for compassionate parole was out of line.
Of course, mysteries still surrounded the case, and Nathan wondered if Joe could, or would, try to clear those up. There was the matter of missing DEA Agent Brett Gilly. He’d been investigating Joe at the time. A few weeks before the murders at Beecher’s Mine cabin, a meth lab had exploded in the forest. Gilly’s last report indicated that he believed Joe was responsible for the meth lab and its destruction. If Joe was responsible, it had never been proven. After the murders, Gilly himself disappeared.
The agent had not been heard from in thirty-five years. Also, while no concrete evidence existed to connect his disappearance to the murders, they were forever connected in time by Marshall’s book because Marshall talked a lot about Gilly and the meth lab destruction. The Feds investigated for many months after the murders and never found a trace of the DEA man. The issue still drove law enforcement crazy. Gilly’s case was cold, and every so often an agent would come into the county and ask around, trying to find a rock that had not been turned over.
The Carsons’ bodies were never found either. Beecher’s Mine cabin burned down after Joe threw acid at Chase and the other caustic chemicals in the cabin caught fire. There was no indication that the bodies burned in the fire. Marshall put forth a theory in his book that Joe “hacked their bodies into little pieces” to destroy evidence. Nathan had heard others speculate that Blake and Sophia ended up at the bottom of an abandoned mine shaft. There was no shortage of those in the area.
Why Chase was spared was a question that was never answered. Marshall wrote that after dousing Chase with acid, Joe probably thought that he was dead. And he fled without making sure.
And now corrections wanted to let Joe out. Nathan figured corrections was not that concerned about a sixty-year-old man with terminal cancer.
Nathan had heard about Hanna before he met her. In a profession that could sometimes be chauvinistic when it came to women, she garnered a lot of respect. Even old-school cops in Sonora talked about her in positive terms.
He got to know her personally because, as an investigator with the county sheriff’s department, Nathan had worked with Dry Oaks PD often. When Hanna was the PD’s only detective, they’d collaborated on a couple of cases together.
From what Nathan had seen, Hanna was nothing like her bitter mother. She didn’t hold grudges, and surprisingly for a cop, she always looked for the good in people. Even when, after all the years, a lot of Joe’s negative past had been thrown at Hanna when she ran to be chief. Nathan remembered the ads. “Don’t be deceived, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree...” Hanna took it all in stride.
It had been like that her whole life, Nathan guessed. Living under the shadow of a double murderer was what made Hanna want to be a cop. And now she was the youngest chief to ever serve Dry Oaks PD.
He tried to shift his thoughts and review the case file in front of him. Shortly, he’d be testifying. He’d recorded some spontaneous statements that were incriminating. He’d need his thoughts centered on this case, not on Joe Keyes from years ago. And not on Hanna, who he hoped to be spending a lot more time with. She was the real deal as far as Nathan was concerned, the one he knew he could spend the rest of his life with.
This was one of the more straightforward cases he’d handled as a homicide detective. Boyfriend shot his girlfriend, there were witnesses, and they had the murder weapon and a lot of forensic evidence that assured victory.
His phone buzzed. The prosecution wanted him in court.
“You up?” Manny asked, his eyes open now.
Nathan nodded and stood. “Yep, here we go.” File under his arm, Nathan opened the courtroom door, prepared to testify.