Sea Change by Dave Balcom

Author:Dave Balcom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: oregon novel, mystery detective, northwest usa, mystery action, newspapers fiction, romance after 50, prince rupert british columbia
Publisher: Dave Balcom

28

Ryder looked a lot older as he was ushered into the interview room at the Whatcom County Jail. His face was drawn and gray. His eyes looked out at me with a dullness that I recognized, but couldn’t place.

“Thanks for agreeing to see me, Steve,” I started.

He didn’t respond at first, and I just sat there waiting. Finally, he locked his eyes on mine, “I wanted to tell you I appreciate that you didn’t continue to hurt me that night at the beach. You were real human, there.”

“I wasn’t interested in hurting anyone. I just wanted to be free. I hear you’re not talking with the police.”

“I’m not talking with anyone, including you.”

“I heard you had a visit from your attorney?”

Ryder’s lips turned into a kind of snarl, “Yeah, I got a visit and one piece of advice: ‘If you care for your family at all, you won’t say a word to the authorities, ever.’”

“If you’re eventually tried for murder?”

“I’ll go to the chair silently.”

“Why? What hold can anyone have on you that strong?”

“I have a sister, a mother and a fiancé. If I care for them at all, Crocker said, I’ll go to my grave in silence and alone.”

“Your lawyer is called ‘Crocker?”’

“Yeah, Wallace Crocker. I’d never heard of him until I called the emergency number they’d given me.”

That name sent a wave of shock through me: Wallace Crocker? I thought he was dead!

I just sat there with my mouth open until Ryder looked up and I saw concern in his eyes, “Mr. Stanton, are you okay? Should I call a guard?”

I shook myself, trying to find my balance. Wallace Crocker’s name had not been in my mind for six years, and here he pops up out of the blue involved with this?

I tried to recover, “What number was that?”

“Eight-one-four, three-six-six, three-seven-seven-eight. They made me memorize it and told me if I ran into any trouble I was to call that number.”

“What happened when you called?”

“A guy asked what was wrong. I told him I was in jail, that you’d come to and messed up the transfer and that Skinner was dead. The guy put me on hold, and then came back on and said for me to keep still and a lawyer would be there the next day. Then he hung up.”

“So who are these people you fly for?”

He shook his head. “Are you not listening? I’m not going to talk with you or anyone else about these people.”

“And as long as you don’t, they’re going to keep right on murdering and sacrificing people. Don’t you get it? They can’t have enough soldiers to kill all the people they’re threatening.”

He looked at me like I had two heads. “You think not? Well you’d better not ask Everett Lintz or Dizzy Fallon.”

“Who are they?”

“Two guys, ten years apart, who tried to ease their burden by giving information about The Outfit.”

“What outfit?”

“That’s the only name for it: The Outfit.”

“What happened to Lintz?”

“He was drawn and quartered, but not before he watched his entire family raped, mutilated and killed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.