Chapter Eighteen #2
This wasn’t some asshole fucking around.
This took planning.
My phone vibrated again. Same number, and I declined it.
Myth glanced at the screen. “Popular today.”
“Fuck off.”
He shrugged.
Taco and Hose came back in not even two minutes later.
“Fucking fake,” Taco called.
“Thing is a piece of shit,” Hose agreed. “I don’t know how the hell we thought it was ours in the first place.”
“Because the dead body inside threw us for a loop?” Bull suggested.
We now had a fake Grave Casket with a dead body inside it and we were all still fucking clueless.
My phone vibrated for a third time. I grabbed it, ready to shut the fucking thing off.
Same unknown number, except this time they weren’t calling.
A text.
I opened it to three words. ANSWER NEXT TIME.
Myth saw my face. “What?”
I turned the screen toward him. His expression hardened.
Dealer moved closer. “Who the fuck is that?”
“No idea.”
The phone vibrated again, and another text appeared. WE NEED TO TALK.
I stared at the words.
“Call the fucker,” Humpty growled.
I nodded. Before I could touch the number, my phone started vibrating against the wood.
Same number.
Everyone looked at it.
“Well,” Rowdy muttered. “Persistent fucker.”
I answered and hit speaker. “Yeah.” Nothing. Nobody around the table moved. “You called me,” I said. “Start fucking talking.”
Still nothing.
I looked at Myth.
He shook his head.
Then I heard fast, uneven breathing. Whoever was on the other end wasn’t trying to sound intimidating. He sounded scared. “Is this Bone?”
My jaw tightened. “You already know it is.”
A pause. “Yeah.”
“Who the fuck is this?” I demanded.
“My name’s Eli.”
I waited. When nothing else came, I leaned back in my chair. “That supposed to mean something to me?”
“No.”
“Then you’re gonna have to do better than just your name.”
Another pause. “I work at the transfer facility in Milwaukee.”
Every man around the table went still.
My eyes met Myth’s and his face hardened.
“Which facility?” I asked.
“You know which one.”
“Humor me.”
“The one Grave Casket uses.”
There it was.
“Why are you calling me, Eli?”
“I saw your guy there.”
“My guy?”
“The other day. The one with the vest. Mouth or something like that.”
Myth rolled his eyes.
“His name is Myth,” I corrected. “And yeah, he was there.”
“He came in asking about the coffin,” Eli continued.
“You talk to him?” I asked.
“No.”
I tipped my head to the side. Then how did he know about Myth being there? “Why?”
Eli didn’t answer.
“You scared of us?” I asked.
“Yes.”
Dealer silently mouthed, “Smart.”
I ignored him. “Then why the fuck are you calling me?”
“Because I’ve been trying to figure out what to do.”
“About what?” Silence. I was getting fucking tired of that. “Eli.”
“I knew Owen.”
Nobody breathed.
I sat forward. “Owen Mercer?”
“Yeah.”
“How?”
“He came in to work on the cameras. Security system. Stuff like that. I work nights. He was there a lot when something needed fixing.”
“Friends?”
“No. Not really. I knew him. We’d talk sometimes.”
“About?”
“Nothing important. Work. Football. Shit like that.”
Myth grabbed Bull’s pen and pulled the notebook toward him. He wrote, ASK WHEN HE LAST SAW HIM.
I nodded. “When’s the last time you saw Owen?”
Nothing. Then Eli whispered, “That’s why I’m calling.”
I stared at the phone. “What does that mean?”
“I saw him the night he disappeared.”
My hand tightened around the edge of the table. “At the facility?”
“Yes.”
“What was he doing there?”
“I don’t know.”
“You work there.”
“That doesn’t mean I know why everyone comes in.”
“Was he working?”
“I don’t think so.”
That lined up with what Dave had found. It wouldn’t have been the first time that Owen was at the facility unofficially. Owen hadn’t had a scheduled service call that night.
“What did you see?”
Eli breathed out. “I was coming back from break. There’s a side lot where some of the trailers sit overnight. I saw Owen.”
“Alone?”
“No.” The word came fast.
“Who was with him?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know, or you couldn’t see?”
“Both.”
I frowned. “Explain.”
“I wasn’t close. They were down by the loading area. I could see Owen because he was under one of the lights. The other guy was farther back.”
“Guy?”
“Yeah.”
“You sure?”
“Pretty sure.”
“What did he look like?”
“I don’t know.”
“Tall? Short? Fat? Skinny? White? Black? Give me something.”
“I don’t fucking know!” Eli’s voice cracked through the phone.
Then he went quiet.
I looked at Myth. This guy wasn’t fucking with us. Either that or he deserved an Oscar.
“I was far away,” Eli said, quieter. “It was dark. I wasn’t paying attention at first.”
“What got your attention?”
“They were arguing.”
“Could you hear them?”
“Not what they were saying.”
“Then what happened?”
Silence again.
This one lasted longer. I didn’t rush him. Something told me I wasn’t going to like whatever came next.
“I saw him kill Owen.”
Nobody at the table moved.
I stared at the phone. “Say that again.”
“I saw him kill Owen.”
“How?”
“I—” Eli stopped.
I could hear him breathing.
“How?” I repeated.
“He shot him.”
The room went dead fucking silent.
Hose’s eyes narrowed. “Where?” I asked.
“Loading area.”
“No. Where did he shoot him?”
“Oh.” Eli swallowed loud enough for us to hear it. “Chest. I think. Owen fell.”
One shot. That lined up with Hose finding the damage to Owen’s chest beneath all the decomposition.
“You see what happened after?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I fucking ran.”
Taco’s mouth opened. I pointed at him and he shut it. I knew he was going to spout some bullshit.
“You ran.”
“What would you have done?” Eli asked.
I looked around the table. Wrong fucking group to ask. “Keep going.”
“I went back inside. Didn’t say anything. Didn’t call anybody. I just...” His voice trailed off. “I kept my mouth shut.”
“For almost two weeks.”
“Yes.”
“You watched a man get murdered and didn’t call the cops.”
“I was scared.”
“Of what?”
“What the fuck do you think? Getting my own ass killed.”
I didn’t answer.
“I didn’t know who killed him. Didn’t know if somebody else saw me. I have a wife. I have a kid.”
That changed the room slightly.
Not much.
Enough.
“So you said nothing,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“And Owen disappeared.”
“Yeah.”
“Then Myth showed up,” I said.
“He kept asking who authorized the return.”
Myth nodded at me. That was exactly what he’d done.
“I didn’t talk to you,” Eli said, “but I heard enough.”
“Enough for what?” I asked.
“To start wondering.”
“Wondering what?”
“If Owen was in that coffin.”
There it was. I leaned back. “How’d you make that jump?”
“Because his body was gone.”
“What do you mean gone?”
“After I saw him get shot, I stayed the hell away from that part of the yard. Next shift, everything looked normal.”
“You went back to work?”
“I need my fucking job.” Fair. “I kept waiting for somebody to say something. Police. Management. Anybody. Nothing happened.”
“And?”
“Then a few days later, your guy comes in asking about a coffin nobody knows anything about.”
I looked at the phone. “You see the coffin?”
“Yes.”
That got my attention. “When?”
“The morning it went out.”
“With Jackson?”
“I didn’t know his name then, but yeah. I saw it getting loaded.”
“You know where it came from?”
“No.”
“You work at the fucking facility.”
“I know.”
“So how does a coffin appear without anybody knowing where it came from?”
“I don’t know.”
I leaned forward. “That’s not a good enough answer.”
“It’s the only one I’ve got.”
I rubbed my hand over my beard. “Was it unloaded from another truck?”
“Not that I saw.”
“Did it come through receiving?”
“I checked.”
Every head at the table turned toward the phone. “You checked?”
“After your guy came asking questions. I went through what I could.”
“And?”
“There isn’t anything.”
“No receiving record?”
“No.”
“No truck?”
“No.”
“No transfer?”
“No.”
“Then how the fuck did it get there?” I demanded.
“I don’t know.” Eli’s voice dropped.
“You’re giving me a lot of fucking nothing, Eli.”