"I see." He gestured to a booth at the side. "I honestly had no idea. I mean, I guess I should've, huh? You're kinda famous, Miss Dawson."
"Violet," I reminded him.
The man actually blushed. "Sorry, habits."
I took the spot by the wall, and Cessily slid in beside me, leaving the bench across from us for Dan. No one was in the booth behind him, and behind us was a wall, which meant this was somewhat private. Dan glanced back casually, checking the faces in the grill, then turned back around.
"I'm guessing this is about Luke's case, huh?"
"And Ash's," Cessily agreed. "Bev gave us copies of the tapes. It's pretty clear those two were the victims, not the perpetrators."
Dan nodded. "Yeah, but you're missing the small-town politics, ma'am. Paul Simmons gave Charlie Morgraves a loan when storms came through this spring and hail tore up his roof. Steve Bells, the Captain? Well, his grandaddy leases his land to Paul Simmons. There's more. Our dispatcher's cousin cleans the Simmons' house, the Wallace brothers sell him hay, and so on. There's a lot of people in this town who make their living by working with that man, and a lot of cops in the station are related to them."
"And Paul doesn't want this charge to go away," I realized.
Dan slowly bobbed his head. "Exactly. Now, my family lives in the next town over, and I commute in to work. My partner's the same. Aaron Sawyer's his name, but he's dating a girl from here whose brother hauls Simmons' cattle to slaughter. Long-haul driver."
"It's an inbred line of connections," Cessily grumbled.
Dan actually laughed at that. "Welcome to the country, Ms. Blackburn."
She looked up, her eyes meeting his. "Cessily, but most of my friends call me Cess. How old are you, officer?"
"Thirty-four, ma'am, but figured you'd already know that. I was a senior when Luke was a freshman."
"Thought you grew up in the next town over?" Cess lifted a brow, daring him to correct her.
But Dan just chuckled. "So, out here, not every town has a school. Most of them aren't big enough for a post office. Rural kids are bussed in to whichever place put up the school. For me, I went to Cats Peak. Aaron went to Ector. We live like thirty miles apart, north of town."
"I went to Southwind," Cessily told him. "Didn't really get out much back then. Now, I live in California, and it's a little more civilized."
"I bet," he agreed. "Look, all I'm saying is that you need to subpoena the records for that night. We got a call with a timestamp three minutes before Luke and Ash left the grill. Came from a number that belongs to this girl whose boyfriend's stacking hay for the Wallace brothers, but it was a guy on the phone. He said Luke and Ash were picking a fight. We had all officers - all four of us - dispatched. I showed up to find Luke straddling a guy's chest and wailing on his face. Didn't think a damned thing of it until he called out to check on Ash. That's when I started to wonder if this was a setup. Luke honestly sounded worried."
"They called him a queer before they jumped Ash," I said. "Hate crime, Dan."
He nodded again. "Yep, and my report has that. I also took a statement from Bev. It's in the file now, and I got my ass ripped for that. Told Bells that I couldn't exactlynottake one, and Simmons couldn't come back at me. That made him back off, but sorta proved my theory too."
"Which is?" Cess asked.
"Paul's been talking about buying Vera's land since that woman got ill. He tried to go see her in the hospital, he said, but she wouldn't let him in. He was ranting about it at church. Look, Cats Peak's not rich enough to buy a larger share of water. The power lines? They're so old that they fall down in a bad storm. What little town there is can't get bigger unless the city council can get utilities lined up. They can't do that without taxes and resources. Whole place has been bickering about it. Some folks don't want Cats Peak to grow. Others love the idea of becoming a rural suburb, since the Metroplex has almost made it out this far. Lots of rich retirees who want a little peace and quiet, right? Well, guess what Vera had?"
"Water," I said. "Southwind is sitting over the aquifer."
He nodded. "And it's just an arm of it. Across the street, they have a well tapped, but it's ag level only. Owner lives out of state and uses the land as a write-off. The rest is outside city limits, so it's you two, and the out-of-state guy doesn't answer his phone. Southwind butts up next to Simmons' ranch, though."
"This sounds like some post-apocalypse, dystopian shit," Cessily said, looking over at me.
"It's all about infrastructure, though. Low population means low taxes, which means no money to upgrade. That makes it hard to do much."
"But the school taxes come from everyone in the Cats Peak district," Dan said. "That's bigger than the city, and they've been increasing it. The extra? I'm gonna bet it gets rolled into the city surplus."
"But what does Paul get out of this?" Cess asked. "Why is he willing to let Luke's daughter get hurt for this?"
"Shit," Dan scoffed. "Paul doesn't care about that. He's looking to make money. Buy the land, sell the water, and sell off the top for a subdivision. He keeps the mineral rights, so he keeps getting the water fees." Dan canted his head. "And his property value goes up, meaning his place is worth more because it's beside this nice development. Sell it, buy a bigger chunk, rinse and repeat. Real estate's a hot commodity, you know."
"And a very slow investment," I told him. "I'm also not selling. I told him my price is thirty-five million, but if he comes up with that, I'll raise it. I'm not selling to that man. That's my home, and if he thinks he can run me off, he's very wrong."
"Yeah, but Luke's the only one who's gonna get hurt by this," Dan said. "That man's been busting his ass for as long as I can remember to take care of his kid. Paul's been getting cozy with Meredith, and Aaron heard that he's paying for something to do with the case."
