“It’s hard to say. Twenty-five years ago…even our ranch isn’t the same.”
“Do you get out to the falls often?”
“Not unless it’s summer, and even then, it’s not a regular hangout.” He shook his head, pointing to a cluster of trees on the map. “Honestly, if it were me, I would have dumped her body here.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s always bear activity, so people stay away. Plus, the bears would have ripped her body to shreds, making it less likely anyone would find her or figure out how she died. Plus, this is part of the reservation.”
That was interesting. “So, maybe this wasn’t a planned attack. If it was, then why dump her at the falls where it was more likely they’d be caught? The question is, who would think to dump her body there?”
“Someone with easy access to the falls,” he suggested, eyeing me skeptically. “You don’t think my Pop has anything to do with this.”
“Of course not, but I’ll still need to discuss the case with him. What about the other ranch? The Callahans?”
“Austin is a psychotic motherfucker,” he muttered.
“He’s the one who attacked your brother,” I remembered. “Any chance he was that psychotic as a kid?”
He shook his head slowly. “He would have been too young.”
“There are plenty of child killers.”
“Yes, but this girl was kidnapped from her house. How would a kid as young as that kidnap a girl and take her out to the falls without anyone noticing?”
“Okay, then what about the father?”
“Could be, but I would probably say no. Back then, before his son was in the accident, John Callahan was a good guy.”
Accident? “Wait, what accident?”
Parker walked over to the other chair, taking a seat. “When we weregrowing up, Jeff and Clay hung out all the time. Clay is Austin’s younger brother.”
“Okay.”
“Austin always lived a little more on the wild side. He had an edge to him that just made you a little wary of him. Of course, at the time, Jeff defended him. He thought Austin was just misunderstood. But then one night, Austin dared Jeff to race up the mountain.”
God, this sounded like a tragedy in the making.
“Clay got in the car and took off before Austin could. He hit a tree head-on, and ever since then, he’s never been all there,” he said, tapping the side of his head.
“And the dad now has it out for your family,” I surmised.
“I haven’t been around for a long time, but from what I understand, the feud between the families is growing. Pop tried to help him out with medical bills by buying land from him. But then, after a reappraisal of the land, the lot Pop bought from him ended up being worth the most. John thinks Pop screwed him out of the land.”
“That’s just ridiculous. How would he know the value of the land?”
“It didn’t matter to John. His son is essentially gone. He felt cheated, and since that accident, whatever friendship existed between the families is gone.”
“Wow,” I said, sitting back in the chair.
I had no idea any of this was going on, but now it made me rethink the case. If it wasn’t Austin, and the father didn’t start acting weird until after the accident, which would have been years later, then it had to be someone else.
“A murder like that…there would be signs. Unless you’re a true psychopath, you can’t hide the kind of guilt that would accompany a murder of that magnitude.”
“Well, I’m the wrong person to talk to about that. Like I said, it happened too long ago. I don’t remember anything from that time.”
“Then it looks like it’s time to start interviewing people. I can start with the family.”
