Chapter 27
TWENTY-SEVEN
CASEY
Casey eyed the wall clock, doing his best to ignore the TV currently set on an insipid local news channel. The newscasters were discussing an up-and-coming Tacoma boy band playing in the studio at noon. God help him, he hoped he’d have escaped by then.
It was almost eleven in the morning. Casey had arrived in style over two hours ago and was more than ready to depart. No one recovered from exhaustion in a hospital, but the attending said he wanted to keep him overnight for observation.
When Casey had pointed out that he hadn’t hit his head that hard, the doctor had shaken his head, scribbled something on his tablet, and left the room.
Apparently, there was no room for discussion, and Greta had mouthed, Told you so.
He supposed he was glad she’d come along and that the volunteer was able to come in early and cover the park office.
But he’d hoped she would take his side in the let-Casey-go-home discussion.
“Aren’t you supposed to be caring and nurturing?” Casey asked her.
Greta looked around for a caring and nurturing person. “That’s maybe the most sexist thing you’ve said to me.”
“Sorry,” he said, pointing at his skull. “Head injury.”
When Casey had arrived, the emergency staff had whisked him off to a private exam room, where he’d been diagnosed as moderately hypothermic, something he’d already known.
He was also covered with scrapes and bruises, and his fingertips were raw from trying to climb out of the tunnel.
But his ankle was a whole other story. It was indeed broken, but they had to wait for the swelling to go down before they decided what needed to happen next.
“Where’s Gabe?” he asked for the third time in ten minutes.
Greta raised an eyebrow. “What, I’m no good anymore?”
“I’m tired of you hovering.” Which he knew was contrary to his accusation of not caring. “You called him, right?”
“Yes, I did. Which I already told you. I’m sure he’ll be here as soon as he can.”
Casey frowned. It wasn’t as if they lived in each other’s pockets, but he was surprised that Gabe hadn’t shown up to see him yet. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“Like what?” she said vaguely.
“Like, why Gabe isn’t here yet.”
“Well,” she began, “it turns out there’s been a—situation. Gabe is okay, I promise. But it may be a little while before he’s here, and you’re not leaving this place anyway.”
“Does it have to do with the body he found Monday, Roy Wilson?”
“And Emmett Spurring yesterday.”
“He’s dead too?” Now Casey was really confused.
Greta shook her head. “No, not dead yet. Gabe found him at Fort Hood. He’s here actually. Top floor, in ICU. And now you know everything Elton passed along.”
“Did you bring me that box I found in the cave?” Casey asked abruptly.
Greta scowled at him. “Of course I did. Which I also already told you. Seriously, Casey.”
Okay, so the painkillers were hitting him harder than he’d thought. “Have you looked inside?”
“No. I knew you’d want to do the honors.”
Leaning over, Greta rooted around in her backpack and let out a quiet ta-dah when she pulled out the container with a flourish.
Casey’s throbbing injured fingertips meant that he had to give up after a frustrating thirty seconds and ask Greta to open it. She resorted to picking the lock with a paperclip she found in one of the drawers.
“Scoot over so I can sit,” she said.
Casey scooted as far as he could, and Greta sat where he could see what she was doing. Within seconds, the lid popped open.
“That was fast,” Casey said.
“I have mad lockpicking skills, used to read my older sister’s diary back in the day. But what do we have here?”
Casey bent his head so he could see the contents better while Greta sifted through them.
“Hmm, looks like a memory card and some photographs. Really,” she sniffed, “a cave is not the best place for these kinds of things, but they’re remarkably undamaged.”
“Recognize anyone?” Casey asked.
She plucked a photo out of the box. “Calvin Perkins, and he’s smiling. Holy moly.” She turned the snapshot so Casey could see it. “There’s a young woman with him. I don’t think I know her.”
Casey peered at the photo. It was, indeed, a pleased-looking Calvin Perkins. He guessed the picture was a few years old. “I don’t know who she is either.”
They had their arms around each other and were standing by Calvin’s red truck. Casey thought back to his conversation with Kelly Perkins. Was this the mysterious girlfriend? They did look happy, which, considering this was Calvin, was a surprise.
“What about the memory card?”
“You think I should press it against my forehead?”
If the pain meds hadn’t made him so groggy, Casey would’ve flipped her off.
“Since you’re staying over and I know you won’t rest, how about I run to the house to pick up my laptop and come back?
Or I might send Abby back. She’s the computer expert, and someone needs to pop into the office today.
That new guy, Raffi, is starting, and I don’t want him to quit on his first day.
I’ve texted his number but haven’t heard back.
Poor kid probably doesn’t have service and is waiting on the front porch for us.
Alternatively, Vicky may have already let him in and is going over first day training. ”
Greta looked tired, exhausted even, but she was right. They couldn’t just abandon the office.
“Vicky? I thought she retired and moved to Florida?”
“She did, but while they were packing up the house, she somehow found out Jerry had been having an affair with Alexis from the salon. For years! Jerry went off to Florida and Vicky stayed behind. It was quite the scandal, I’m not sure how you missed it.”
“Well, I’m not always the most plugged in.”
“Anyway,” Greta began, “back to current affairs.”
“I’m sorry,” Casey said, “for worrying you.”
“You mean, for going off without telling anyone and falling down a cave? For doing everything you tell us all to never do? Yeah, buddy, you’re going to owe me for a very long time. Gabe is going to kill you for making him worry, and I’m going to help him bury the body.”
“Go away. Send your lovely and kind wife back in your stead.”
Greta stood up from the side of the bed, leaned down, and gave him a peck on the forehead.
“I’m very glad you’re not dead. But you’re grounded for the rest of your life.”
Casey didn’t remember shutting his eyes, but they opened when the door handle to his room was pushed down and Abby peeked into his room.
“There you are, Casey. It took me a while to get here, but here I am.”
“I think I used the time wisely. For a nap.”
“You gave everyone a scare,” she said primly.
Abby was nothing like her partner. It was a perfect case of opposites attract, the outdoorsy park ranger and the computer nerd. His visitor set her briefcase on the end of the bed next to his feet and pressed the snaps open.
Abby looked around the room until she spotted a wall plug, then quickly plugged her laptop’s cord into it.
“Sorry, I let this get to red alert levels.” She pulled the visitor’s chair to the side of his bed. “You look like you were trapped in a cave for a while.”
“One hundred percent do not recommend. But the worst is my ankle and Greta’s lecture.”
“There’s a cautionary tale in there somewhere,” she scolded.
“Will you able to tell what’s stored on the memory card? Is it okay to open it?” he asked.
“This here is my safe laptop. If there’s something hinky on this card, it won’t have any fun at all because it doesn’t connect to the internet.”
“Thank you for doing this and for coming over here. It could be nothing, but I just can’t help thinking it’s important. Otherwise, why put a memory card in a metal box and leave it in a cave?”
“Well, whoever did couldn’t have been thinking too clearly. If they had been, they would’ve used one of those fancy weatherproof boxes with foam inserts to protect everything. Ready?”
Casey nodded, his eyes intent on the computer screen.
The memory card loaded, but the screen displayed numbers and thumbnails too small to see with exhausted eyes. Abby did something and they enlarged.
“Looks like more snapshots,” Abby said.
“Can we click on some?”
“Sure thing.”
Abby started with the image at the top of the list. Casey squinted at it.
He wasn’t positive since he didn’t have the forest memorized—yesterday’s mishap a perfect example his lack of total knowledge—but the photo looked like it had been taken near or around Snowcap Estates.
The big cedar tree was one he’d been near on Monday.
She clicked on the next one, and an out-of-focus hand flipped them off. In the third one, Casey recognized a very much alive Dwayne Perkins scowling at the picture-taker, which Casey suspected could only be his brother, Calvin.
“Definitely Calvin’s, then. I need to let Sheriff Eagan know about this.”
“That man is his brother, Dwayne, correct?”
“Yeah, and I’d bet a dollar Calvin was the one taking the photo. Let’s look at the rest. The reason he hid the box has to be on this card.”
“How about we skip down to the last few images. Maybe one of those is what prompted the disposal. After that, I’ll call the sheriff if you want.”
Casey blinked at a couple more of the images, mostly forest and blurry close-ups of mushrooms. The exhaustion was overtaking him. His eyes weren’t focusing correctly, and his brain couldn’t make sense of the fuzzy blobs in front of him.
“I give in.” He slumped back against his pillows while Abby fiddled with her laptop. “I’ll look at the rest later, if that’s okay with you.”
Anna continued scrolling through the photos. “I think this is the man who was attacked at the fort yesterday. Emmett Spurring, am I right? You can’t see his entire face, but…”
That roused Casey. “Show me.”
Abby tilted the laptop so he could see it better. “Isn’t that him?”
“Looks a lot like Spurring to me. Do you know happened yesterday?” He had chosen the wrong day to go missing.
The picture had been taken on Gordon MacDonald’s property. At the shed where Gabe had found Dwayne’s body—when the shed was still standing.
“I only know what Greta told me, which isn’t much. She spoke with Elton, who—”
“Elton is involved in this? For fuck’s sake.”
“Basically”—Abby shot him a look that shut him up quickly—“Emmett Spurring asked Gabe to meet him at the fort, but by the time they got there, Emmett had been shot. No witnesses.”
Casey wanted to ask more questions, but his eyes were closing again.
“You need to rest, and I should get going.”
“Thanks, Abby,” he murmured.
The room door clicked behind Abby, and Casey let himself drift off, his last thoughts revolving around Gabriel.
Where the hell was he, and what the fuck had he gotten himself into this time?