Mr.Everly kind of winced.“Gerald and I… we were a little more careful with our drinking.When we were all younger, we’d learned if we all got deep in it, we tended to…” Mr.Everly raised his hands.“Well, I dealt with both of you in my office for fighting, so I suppose you understand.”
Cal couldn’t picture this sweet old man—or even the younger, kind man in his memories—fighting.But drinking did mess people up.He knew from experience.
“Charles liked it though.We’d think we’d hit the end of something, and he’d always have another bottle appear.Not the smartest while hunting, I know, but, well, we were all grown men.Gerald and I didn’t think it was our job to stop him.”
“So, you do feel like alcohol aided in his fall?”
“Oh, I’m certain of it.He was stumbling around.That particular time Gerald had been talked into drinking a bit much himself.He was getting… agitated with Charles’s antics.”
Cal watched Jake carefully.Nothing really changed in his outward demeanor.Not his expression, not the loose way he leaned his elbows on his knees.But Cal couldseethe way those investigator eyes sharpened.
“They fought then?”
“Oh, no.”Mr.Everly laughed.“Your father wasn’t much of a fighter.And when he instigated things, he never meant to.He and Gerald were…arguingisn’t even the right word.Gerald was getting irritated with him, and he shared some short words.I took a little break from it all and heard the gunshot…” He tsked.“Terrible, terrible accident.Gerald and I both thought if he hadn’t fallen, we would have been able to get him down that mountain and to some medical attention.”
“So, you didn’t witness the gun going off?”Jake asked, thatsharpeningleaking into his voice.
Mr.Everly blinked.Looked taken aback for a moment before he shook his head.“Oh, no.I was there.”
“But you just said you’d taken a break.”
“Yes, I had.Before.”Mr.Everly’s eyebrows drew together, a bit like a man lost.
Cal should know what that looked like, after all.
But then he shook his head.“I… I’m so sorry, Jake.It’s been twenty-five some years.Whatever I told the police then is exactly right.Whatever I remember now… it’s… just not as clear as it was back then.”
Cal studied Jake.He didn’t think the detective quite believed Mr.Everly.
Cal wasn’t sure he believed him either.Not after learning about how Gerald Harrington had died.
But he also knew the tricks memories could play on someone, and there was no way to determine what hadactuallyhappened with only one man still alive and so many years between then and now.
Still, they could try to see if any of these strange threads were linked.“Gerald died not too long after, right?”
Mr.Everly nodded.“Just a few months later.Both of them gone in foolish little accidents.”Mr.Everly shook his head.“Such a shame.”
Cal studied the man.He acted like he knew… “Gerald’s death was an accident?”
Mr.Everly’s eyes sharpened on Cal, moved to Jake, then back again.“That was my understanding from Glenda.Cleaning out his gun.I went and saw him in the hospital a few times, but there wasn’t much they could do.”
Cal figured it made a twisted kind of sense.If Glenda played it off as an accident, maybe no one wanted to poke too deeply into how plausible that was.And, hell, maybe it was the truth.Maybe the death certificate had things a little wrong.
But Cal just didn’t think so.
“I never was one for hunting after that,” Mr.Everly said, staring at his hands.“Really threw myself into teaching, then administration.Helped some ne’er-do-wells find their place.”He reached over and gave Cal a fatherly slap on the knee.
Cal smiled.Mr.Everly had always been good to him.And he really did owe it to those positive forces that he’d managed to get out of Dad’s manipulative clutches.Managed to build something for himself, even if it had been built on a shaky foundation.Maybe the past year had unraveled a lot of that foundation, but he was still standing because of the solid base men like Mr.Everly had helped him find.
So why was he here?Poking at old mysteries that involved men he didn’t even remember.
Because you were ten years old, so you damn wellshouldremember Gerald Harrington.He supposed that was the crux of it.
Jake asked a few more questions about the hunting trip, but Cal didn’t think he was getting any answers or leads he was hoping for.Cal poked into Gerald a little bit more, but really the information didn’t change the picture of what had happened.
A group of friends.One died from a careless accident.One from either a mistake or a choice.Maybe Mr.Everly had or hadn’t seen as much of the accident as he’d told police, but maybe he’d just forgotten.Blocked it out.
Mr.Everly had moved on with his life regardless, dedicating it to the students of Marietta even now, retired, still giving his time to the school board.Letting Jake and Cal come in and ruin a perfectly nice afternoon with talk of death.
