The Body in the Gravel Read online

  “You’re wearing work gloves. Besides, what’s Gaff going to find?” Jerod asked. “Someone tossed this guy in the truck and covered him with gravel.”

  Gravel dust coated his hair and clothes. Earl bent to get a better look and shook his head. “He has longish hair like Darby. Looks like it might be auburn, too. Do you think…?”

  “Flip him over!” Jerod said.

  Ansel gripped the man’s shoulder and turned him onto his back.

  “No, no, no.” Earl rubbed his eyes. “Is there a pulse?”

  Jerod gave him a surprised stare. Gray dust stuck in the dead man’s bushy eyebrows and sideburns and was embedded in his skin, but Jerod bent to press his fingers over Darby’s wrist. “Dead,” he announced.

  A big dent cratered Darby’s forehead, shaped a lot like the blade of a shovel.

  Chapter 5

  Jazzi couldn’t believe she had to do this again, but she pulled her cell phone out of her jeans pocket and called Detective Gaff.

  He answered with, “Don’t tell me there’s another one.”

  “It’s not like I planned it, you know.”

  There was a pause. She understood his hesitation. How many times could this happen to a person? Finally, he said, “Give me the details.”

  She explained about finding Darby in the gravel.

  “No one leave, and don’t touch anything. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

  She grimaced as she turned to the others. “We can’t leave, and we can’t touch anything.”

  Jerod gave an exasperated sigh. “You know what this means, don’t you? The crime scene guys will drape yellow tape around the driveway, and we won’t be able to do anything until they give us permission. It’s not fair! How many projects have we had to wait on because they became a crime scene?”

  Earl stared. “You mean this isn’t your first dead body?”

  The poor man looked pale despite his tan, and his hands shook. Jazzi guessed him to be in his early forties, going bald in the back with a fringe of brown hair circling his head. He was half a foot taller than her five six. He had beautiful blue eyes rimmed by long, dark lashes.

  “Do you want to sit down?” she asked him.

  His balance was unsteady as he walked to the porch steps. “Darby was all fired up when he came back to the company yesterday. I’ve never seen him so bent out of shape. He swore he was going to get even, that no one had the right to talk to him the way Thane had.”

  “Do you know Thane?” Jazzi asked.

  Earl nodded. “I’ve worked for Darby for twelve years. Thane used to hang out with his kid, Walker. Darby never liked Thane, complained he was a bad influence on Walker. But when Walker and his mom took off two years ago, Darby didn’t blame him. That made me wonder.”

  Jazzi’s curiosity got the better of her. “No one knew what happened to Walker and his mom?”

  “Darby might have, but he never said.” Earl put his hands on his knees, trying to steady their trembling. “When he didn’t show up this morning, I thought he’d gone to have it out with Thane.”

  “Thane. I should call him.”

  Ansel nodded. “He’ll want to know that Darby’s dead.”

  “Is that smart?” Jerod asked. “When Gaff hears that they argued yesterday, Thane’s going to move to the top of his suspect list.”

  Jazzi shrugged that off. “That’ll happen anyway. It’ll be better if Thane’s here to answer Gaff’s questions and clear his name.”

  Ansel reached to pet George. He did that when he was upset. Comforting the dog helped soothe him. “At least warn him that Gaff’s on his way.”

  “Gotcha. Will do.” Jazzi walked a little away from the others to make the call and heard Ansel ask Earl, “Can we get you something? We have a leftover sandwich from lunch. It might steady you.”

  Earl shook his head. “I’ve only seen dead bodies at funerals before. And to have one fall out of the dump truck…” He stammered to a stop.

  When Jazzi returned, Ansel raised his eyebrows at her in a question.

  Jerod was never that subtle. “Did you get Thane?”

  “He’s leaving his job site now. He’ll be here soon.”

  She didn’t add that he’d said, “The bastard probably deserved it” before he hung up.

  Instead, she turned to Earl. “Do you know when Darby filled the dump truck with gravel?”

  Earl took a minute to ponder that. “He must have done it after we left the job site yesterday. He slammed into his office when he got back from his concrete run and didn’t come out until quitting time. I’d guess he was drinking.”

  “Did he do that on the job?” It sounded dangerous to drink and drive a concrete truck.

  “Only once in a while, when he wasn’t going anywhere the rest of the day and he wasn’t happy about something. Believe me. He wasn’t happy yesterday. Got in a ruckus with us before we left.”

  “A ruckus?” Ansel was about to follow up on that when Gaff’s car pulled to the curb. The detective got out and walked toward them. As usual, his suit jacket was rumpled, and the top button of his dress shirt was undone. He nodded at the four of them and then went to look at the body. They joined him. Gravel was stuck in Darby’s hair and beard. Scratches and cuts covered his face and neck. Someone had shut his eyes before tossing him in the truck bed and burying him under the small, jagged stones.

  Gaff looked at Earl. “Are you the truck driver?”

  “Earl Lahr.” Earl started to hold out his hand to shake with Gaff, thought better of it, and dropped it to his side.

  Gaff asked, “Any idea how your boss ended up in the gravel?”

  Earl let out a long sigh and shook his head. “Darby was alive when we left to go home yesterday.”

  Gaff reached for the notepad and pen in his shirt pocket. “We? How many of you worked for Darby?”

  Earl blinked. “Worked? What does that mean? Will we still have jobs?”

  Gaff paused the pen over his paper. “Too soon to tell. Right now, I’m just looking for his killer.”

  Earl’s tan faded again. He jammed his hands into his jeans pockets. “Three of us drove for him, but we all walked to our cars at five and pulled out of the lot at the same time like we usually do.”

  Jazzi started to ask about the ruckus Earl had mentioned, but just then, Thane’s work van pulled to the curb behind Gaff’s car, and Thane walked toward them. His lips pinched when he saw Darby’s body, and he looked unhappy. “He would go and get himself killed. Now I’ll never know what happened to Walker and Rose.”

  Gaff gave him a closer look. “You had a beef with Darby?”

  “Couldn’t stand him. Really hated him once Walker and his mom disappeared.”

  Gaff’s gray brows rose in surprise. “Are you just trying to make yourself our top suspect?”

  “Figured I would be anyway since I argued with him yesterday.”

  Another van pulled behind Thane’s, and the crime-scene techs started toward them. Alex and Ben saw Jazzi and gave her a quick wave. Earl noticed, frowning. Gaff went to talk to them a while. The medical examiner arrived next. He and Gaff exchanged a few words, then Gaff motioned for Jazzi, Jerod, Ansel, Thane, and Earl to follow him into the house.

  Jerod and Ansel dragged two beat-up lawn chairs from the back porch into the kitchen and arranged them close to the card table. The square table sat only four comfortably, but they crowded around it anyway. The kitchen was small and cramped. They wouldn’t start work on the interior of the house until they’d finished everything outside. Jazzi grimaced at the wall they wanted to knock down. This room needed to be expanded. It felt claustrophobic now.

  Gaff pointed his pen toward Thane. “Let’s start with you. You say you argued with Darby yesterday? I want to hear all about it.”

  Jazzi leaned forward in her chair. She was curious about what
Darby had done to make Thane despise him forever.

  Chapter 6

  Thane’s jaw locked, and he gripped the edge of the card table. He didn’t kill Darby, Jazzi was sure of that. Thane was too nice, too thoughtful. Sure, he had lost his temper with the old man, but that in itself was a novelty for him.

  Gaff put his notepad on the table and got comfortable. “Okay, what happened between you two? What’s the background story?”

  Thane scraped a hand through his longish auburn hair and swallowed nervously. “Darby was my best friend’s dad. Walker and I hung out together since second grade. We were close, shared everything. He came to our place whenever he could to get away from his old man. Darby was always giving Walker grief, wouldn’t leave him alone, but he sure put him to work. Walker had chores at the cement company—heavy chores—as long as I knew him. When we were little, I used to ride my bike there on weekends to pitch in, because then Walker could finish faster and we could play. But Darby just started adding more jobs to the list, and together it took us just as long as it once took Walker alone. My dad finally went over and talked to him, and I wasn’t allowed to work there anymore.”

  “But Walker could still come to your house?” Gaff asked.

  “Only because his mom stuck up for him and told Darby there was a law about child labor and if he didn’t knock it off, she’d report him.”

  Gaff rested his pen on the notepad, thinking. “How did Darby and his wife get along? Did he listen to her?”

  “He belittled her all the time, but he could push Rose only so far, and he knew it. And he hated it when she got really mad at him. If she stopped talking to him, gave him the silent treatment, he went crazy—bought her flowers and candy, followed her around, begging her to forgive him.”

  Jazzi frowned, trying to add things up. “But then he’d do the same thing again?”

  “He couldn’t quit being Darby. He didn’t have it in him.”

  She wondered when things had reached the breaking point.

  Gaff must have wondered the same thing. He asked, “What finally happened?”

  “The older Walker got, the more things he was responsible for. By the time we graduated from high school, he almost ran the company. The more Walker did, the more money they made. He was a natural at business. And the better things ran, the worse Darby treated him.”

  The word popped out of Jazzi’s mouth before she realized it. “Why?”

  “Darby always resented Walker. He was all the things Darby couldn’t be. That, and Darby always needed to have a whipping boy, someone to be his scapegoat.”

  Earl’s eyes went wide. “That’s why he started picking on Andy. Walker left, and he needed someone new to be mean to.”

  Thane clenched and unclenched his hands. “If he left.”

  Gaff’s pen poised over his notepad again. “You don’t think he did?”

  Thane leaned forward, his expression intent. “When I started the internship with my company, I got paid while I trained and worked. I got an apartment and asked Walker if he’d like to be my roommate. That way, he wouldn’t have to spend any more time with Darby than he chose to. Walker turned me down, told me he loved the cement business and his mom, that he’d never leave her alone to deal with the old man. He meant to take Darby in his stride. But things got worse and worse between them. Then two years ago, he came to my place, and we played cards for most of an evening. He left, and I got a call from him late that night. He said his mom and him had to leave, that he couldn’t be around Darby anymore, that he needed a fresh start. I never saw him or Rose again. I called him over and over again, but he never answered. He and Rose just vanished.”

  Jazzi stared. “That’s why you accused Darby of burying them somewhere on his property.”

  “What would you think?” Thane curled his hands into fists. “If Darby thought Rose was walking out on him, he’d go berserk, especially if she was leaving with Walker. I drove to Darby’s place and demanded to know what happened, but he cussed me out and told me to get lost. I finally called the cops, told them my story, and they let me walk every inch of the grounds with them. They brought a dog trained to find corpses.”

  “And?” Jerod demanded.

  Thane shook his head. “We didn’t find anything, and somehow Darby convinced them that Rose got tired of him, ran off, and took Walker with her.”

  Earl rubbed his forehead, a worried scowl on his face. “Darby poured a cement slab a month after Walker left. Odd, because it’s stuck in a strange spot, doesn’t serve any purpose.”

  Thane flinched and pinched his lips together in a tight line. “When I accused Darby of killing them yesterday, that’s when he punched me.”

  Gaff’s expression had grown more and more thoughtful the longer he listened to Thane. “It must have stirred up lots of old memories when you saw Darby yesterday.”

  “It ruined my mood, that’s for sure.”

  Gaff straightened his shoulders. “I hate to say it, boy, but you sound like a top candidate for someone who’d like to see Darby dead.”

  Thane scanned the rest of them at the table. “I can’t deny that, but I didn’t kill him.”

  Gaff asked, “Could you tell me where you were last night from five p.m. to this morning?”

  “That’s easy. I left my job site and drove straight home. Olivia doesn’t work at the salon on Mondays, so she was there when I got back.”

  “Was she with you all night?”

  Thane leaned forward, put his elbows on the table, and rested his chin in his hands. “No, she went to a meeting for small business owners that started at eight. Was gone about two hours.”

  Gaff raised an eyebrow. “Plenty of time for you to drive to Darby’s place, smash in his head, and drive back.”

  Ansel sat up straighter in his chair. “Is that when Darby died?”

  “It’s too soon to know for sure.” Gaff used his professional voice when he looked at Thane. “You’re a suspect, so don’t leave town. I’ll probably have to ask you more questions later.”

  Thane gave a curt nod. “It’s not like I had plans anyway.”

  Earl squirmed in his chair.

  Gaff turned to him. “Since you’re here, let’s get your questions done before I meet the two other drivers.”

  Earl gripped his hands together and swallowed hard. “I can tell you right now, I live alone. Once I left my parents’ place last night, I was by myself.”

  “Why were you at your parents’?”

  “Mom called and asked me over for supper—a big pot of vegetable soup and her homemade bread.”

  “When did you arrive and leave there?”

  “I went there after work, probably left around eight. Dad’s retired, but Mom and I still have to get up for work in the morning.”

  “No neighbors saw you drive into your garage? No one can vouch for your timing?”

  “I have a small house a few miles out of town. No one can see my place. I like it that way.”

  Jazzi thought about their house. One of the reasons she and Ansel loved it was because of the privacy. Where they lived, homes were set so far apart, with bushes or fields between them, that you didn’t pay much attention to your neighbors. Besides, even if people lived close, how many could vouch for you anyway? She didn’t sit looking out her window to keep track of her neighbors’ comings and goings. And what if Darby died at one or two in the morning? Who could swear you’d never left your house then?

  Gaff flipped his notepad to a fresh page and nodded at Earl. “I’ll take your full statement anyway. We’ll see what we come up with.”

  Earl nodded but looked worried.

  Chapter 7

  Jazzi went to the cooler she’d packed with lunch things and carried two open bags of chips to the table. Taking out a handful for herself, she passed the bags to Ansel. He dumped a small pile from each on a napkin a
nd handed them to Jerod. When they reached Earl, he took the last of them. Jazzi stood to throw away the empty bags and brought back a cold can of Pepsi for each person.

  Gaff ate a handful of chips and took a few sips of cola before turning his attention back to the interview. “Okay, Earl, let’s start at the beginning. How many years did you work for Darby?”

  “Twelve.”

  “Your name?”

  “Earl Lahr. Two other guys and I drove for Darby. He paid us good wages. We had steady work except for the down season. Every cement driver has that. The business did better when Walker ran it. Since Darby’s been in charge the last two years, things have been slipping.”

  Gaff frowned. “Why’s that? He ran it until Walker got old enough, didn’t he?”

  Earl rubbed his chin. He glanced over at Thane. “Darby hasn’t been the same since Rose left. I don’t think he’d ever harm her, so I don’t think he killed her. He might not have been nice to live with, but she was his rock, his foundation. He’s been off-kilter without her. He drank more, forgot to write down deliveries if he was in one of his moods, and just didn’t seem to care as much as he once did. We were beginning to wonder how much longer we’d have jobs.”

  “How did you and the other two drivers get along with him?”

  Earl rubbed his palms on his jeans. “No one got along with Darby. He could get under anyone’s skin. From one breath to the next, he could flip from laughing and joking with you to saying the meanest thing you’ve ever heard. We used to joke that he was bipolar, but then we decided he was just mean. Once he found your soft spot, he wouldn’t leave it alone.”

  “Did he find yours?”

  “The best he could do was call me a momma’s boy. He’d say I’d rather hang on to Mom’s apron strings than find a woman of my own.”

  “Did that bother you?”

  “Not much. I was married once. Met my wife when we were both studying to be dental hygienists.”

  Jerod stared. “You worked in a dentist’s office?”

  Jazzi rolled her eyes at him. Her cousin had no tact. Whatever thought flew through his mind had a chance of popping out of his mouth.