Bolt Action Remedy by J.J. Hensley

Author:J.J. Hensley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Down & Out Books

TARGET 4

Unstable

Chapter 16

The once-empty lobby was filling up with officers and investigators from most of the neighboring jurisdictions as well as state troopers who could double as skyscrapers. I have never been able to figure out where state police departments find their troopers. They must send recruiters to college basketball and football games to pick out the players who will look the most intimidating in a hat.

Colby and I sat on a couch and she took notes as I recounted discovering the body parts in my bed. The inn’s front door opened and a humbled Deputy Lemons squeezed past the troopers. He moved toward the couch and handed Colby and I cups of coffee.

“I don’t know what to say,” the deputy muttered. “I’m sorry. The place was locked up tight when I got here and I checked to make sure there weren’t any people in the building. It never occurred to me to check for…parts of people.”

“It’s not your fault,” Colby said. “You said it yourself—the locks are worthless and can be easily picked. I’m sure they can be locked back as easily as they’re unlocked. There was no way of knowing he’d been here.”

There was a silence and I pulled out of my thoughts and realized Lemons was looking at me for some sort of reassurance. I couldn’t think of anything else to say, so I echoed Colby.

“It’s not your fault.”

This seemed to comfort him and he told his chief that he would head upstairs to see if any of the cops up there needed his assistance.

Lemons started to leave, but turned back and said, “I don’t get it.”

“You don’t get what?” Colby asked.

Lemons hesitated and seemed to be uncomfortable asking someone else for answers.

“I mean, you told me about the sick thing with the eyes. You told us he wants to take Mr. Galloway’s eyes on account of him killing the man’s cousin. But I don’t understand the fingers. Why lay fingers between the eyeballs? And why four fingers, but not the thumb?”

I rotated my hand in a circle and watched the coffee in my cup swirl around.

I didn’t look up as I spoke. “It means he wants and eye for an eye. An eye, four fingers, and another eye. It’s a game to him.”

Lemons mumbled, “Damnedest thing I’ve ever heard of. Damnedest,” before he once again excused himself.

I sipped the coffee and my stomach churned. The lack of sleep and stress was having a negative impact on my ability to think clearly and, to make matters worse I was starting to feel the itch of the needle again. I drank more bad coffee as much to punish myself as to stay alert. After a minute, I realized Colby was looking at me. Seeing I was checked out, she got to her feet, moved to center of the room and asked for everyone’s attention.

“Since you are all here, it’s a good time to update everyone as to the situation. I know how word spreads through this area, as

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