The Dead of Autumn: A Piper Blackwell Mystery by Jean Rabe

Author:Jean Rabe [Rabe, Jean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boone Street Press
Published: 2022-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

8 A.M. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3RD

The field corn hadn’t been harvested for silage yet. Piper stared at the yellow-brown stalks, tops cloaked by a layer of fog. The sky so overcast this morning, it looked like a dove-gray dome lidded everything.

Basil had gotten here first, and he stood by his Explorer on the side of the road waiting for her.

“The house is back in there.” He pointed down an access road that bisected the field. It was the sort intended for use only by the farmer for his equipment, perhaps also serving as a driveway. A Private Property notice coupled with the lack of a street sign and the narrow road’s rough condition should discourage someone from turning onto it, unless they had business with the landowner or intended to trespass.

“What did the drone catch?” Piper looked down the road, noting clumps of scrubby grass that grew in the center. The cool breeze that cut through the dried stalks conjured a haunted shushing sound and tinged the air with an acrid scent that added to the eeriness. It called up Children of the Corn, a movie she’d watched some years ago and found unsettling.

“The house is rundown, pretty sure it’s wholly abandoned. According to property records the man who owns the land moved to a condo in Santa Claus sixteen years ago. We gave him a search warrant for the house, though he said we were welcome to look anywhere on his property. He still farms the land, but said he’s thinking about selling it and retiring, moving to Georgia.”

“This isn’t the only search warrant you have.”

“No,” Basil admitted. “I got six. One for this and five for some other abandoned properties along the road and around the curve. The judge signed off on all of it fast, says he hates meth, too.”

“And you picked this one first, because—”

“Because Maurice would have passed by this access road between where Billie was found and where he went off the road. Dead middle of his route. And—” Basil again gestured to the distance, “there’s a blue van parked outside the house. At least there was twenty minutes ago when the drone went over.”

“You think it could be a meth house.” Piper didn’t pose it as a question.

“It’s why I called you. Thought you might want to check it out with me.”

Piper left her Explorer on the shoulder and got in Basil’s. He drove down the access road slow, creeping quietly, not wanting to alert whoever might be in the house. The breeze gusted, eerily rattling the cornstalks.

“Ever see Children of the Corn?” she asked him.

“Esme reads him. I’m not a fan of King’s books or movies. Too much squish,” he replied. “We can call in Diego and Thresher if something looks promising. And I have hazmat suits in the back in case we find a lab.”

“Wallace Langston’s attorney is coming in at two, a little before the arraignment,” she said. “Just so you’re back by then. I want you in on it.”

“Yeah. I wouldn’t miss that.

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