Walton (The K9 Files #26)

Chapter 9

C helsea couldn’t believe it. She’d heard the story several times, and it was still mind-boggling. She was huddled in the kitchen beside Julie, the two of them silent, just as silent as everybody else in the lodge, as they waited for the cops to arrive. It wasn’t a good day. As a matter of fact, it was a shitty day. They had decided to leave the body exactly where it was, but, with one man standing guard on it, just in case forensics needed some civilian chain of custody in force.

That had been Rick’s idea. It wasn’t something that the others were prepared to argue about, and nobody really wanted to touch the body as it was.

As for Walton, he thought that was a good idea to keep the wild animals off Chad’s body, since they couldn’t move the body until forensics got here. So Rick used his satellite phone to call his ranch hand out there to take a shift to guard the body.

When Walton was asked to explain further, he just smiled at Chelsea. “Nobody will confess as to who was there first, and nobody who was there first will confess to it either. Although George admitted to being right behind Chad but swears he had nothing to do with it so says he wasn’t there first as the killer would have been and that’s not him.”

“Of course not,” she muttered. “This is just unbelievable.” She glanced over worriedly as Rick walked into the room, slipped an arm around his wife’s shoulders, and just held her.

Walton gave Chelsea a quick hug too. “It’ll be okay.”

She looked up at him and nodded, but the start of real fear formed deep inside her. “Do you really think they shot their own friend?”

“After hearing of the earlier death of their other friend Rudy, that’s certainly a good working theory,” Walton noted. “Can you think of any other reason why somebody would shoot Chad?”

“Other than being an asshole and a bully and a misogynist, no,” Chelsea replied. “I mean, he came up here to my brother’s lodge out in the middle of nowhere… but why?” she asked. “Outside of the War Dog getting out and about, and Chad’s messed-up hunting fun,… what was Chad’s purpose in coming up here?”

“From what I overheard when the guys were up on the ledge, Chad wanted to get to the bottom of whoever had shot Rudy,” Walton shared, shaking his head. “That’s what everything leads back to.”

Chelsea nodded. “So whoever shot the first one may have wanted to silence Chad, particularly if he was getting close to sorting it out.”

“Or,” Rick interjected, looking at Walton for the tenth time, “even Chad’s own crew was fed up and tired of him and shot him. His death surely wasn’t accidental,” he declared.

Walton nodded. “Close range, two shots to the head, from the back. Either somebody Chad trusted was walking right behind him or somebody else snuck up behind Chad and popped him. Now, you may already know this, Rick, but just to be clear, you and I will both end up under suspicion, since we both arrived at the crime scene so quickly.”

“Shit.” Rick frowned and rubbed his temples.

Julie grabbed his hand. “You didn’t do anything, so nothing to worry about.”

He gave her a wry look. “It would be nice if I believed that, but I don’t really.”

“Will the police find something they don’t like when they look into your history?” Walton asked Rick. “Because now’s a really good time to bring that out in the open.”

Rick shook his head. “No, I don’t have any big scary secrets.” He hung his head, sighing. “I know it sounds selfish as hell, but my concern is my business. It’s one thing to weather a lack of guests and even some shitty guests,” he shared, “but it’s another thing to weather a murder.”

“But it’s not your fault,” Chelsea pointed out. “You had nothing to do with it. I know that Julie was in the kitchen and you and I were on the veranda when we heard the two shots.”

“Yet,” Rick added, “but since we’re husband and wife and you’re my sister, somebody’s just as likely to say that our alibis are no good either.”

“That goes for all of us,” Walton pointed out.

“You at least have a good reason for being here,” George said, as the rest of Chad’s friends stepped into the kitchen. An odd expression was on George’s face.

“K9 guy also could have shot Chad,” Darren suggested. “I mean, he wanted the dog.”

“You’re forgetting something,” Rick pointed out. “He already got the dog from Chad yesterday.”

Darren’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah, I guess so.… It still sucks though.”

Rick repeated, “Walton didn’t have anything to do with it.”

Darren replied, “ I didn’t have anything to do with the first death and now look at this—a second one. Shit.”

“If you didn’t shoot Chad,” Walton said, turning to face him, “then you must have a pretty good idea which of the other two could have done it. Because if one was with you, running through the woods, where was the other one?”

Darren looked at him and shrugged. “We all split up because it’s so thick with the trees back there. I heard their movements, but I couldn’t really see anybody. You know what it’s like out there. Tons of shrubbery and tons of brush amid tons of big-ass trees that cut out all the sunlight. So, if Chad was just standing there, somebody could have walked up, popped him, dashed back into the woods, then raced back out again to make it appear that he was the one who found him.”

“ Great ,” Hawk snapped. “So, let’s see,… you’re putting that on me then.”

Darren shrugged. “I’m just saying it’s a possibility.”

“It’s not a fucking possibility that I shot Chad,” Hawk swore and looked over at George. “Where the hell were you when all this chaos was going on?”

“Running,” he stated, “particularly once I heard the shots.”

“ Right ,” Hawk replied, “but did anybody see you?”

“What the hell, man? You’re trying to put this on me?”

“It’s not a matter of putting it on you. It’s a matter of figuring out where everybody was at the time,” Hawk explained. “All I know is that I didn’t shoot Chad.”

Chelsea’s gaze went from one to the other. It was so hard to even contemplate that anybody would want to kill someone. Chad was an asshole, no doubt, but he was also supposedly their friend. “Could somebody else be out there?”

Rick looked over at her and shook his head. “That’s always a possibility, but it’s just not very likely. In this weather, camping outside with the elements and the wildlife…”

“But it is possible?” Chad’s crew asked, practically in unison.

“I mean, other places, other lodges, other cabins must be around here.” Hawk looked at Rick expectantly.

“Not for a hell of a long way from here,” Rick stated, facing them. “You know how far off the beaten path my lodge is. And my property entails a lot of acres. We’re out here for a reason, and it’s called privacy.”

“Privacy is one thing, until people start dying, and then it’s a whole different story,” Hawk muttered begrudgingly.

Rick smirked. “You also know as well as I do that the privacy is still one of the big pulls for my guests. You guys came up here looking to find some privacy yourselves, to get away from it all, to get away from the cops and their innuendoes. To get away from all that nastiness of Rudy’s death.”

The three men nodded. “But we didn’t expect Chad to die in the process,” Darren noted. “You sure he was shot in the back of his head?” he asked hopefully.

“Didn’t you look at him?” Hawk asked, turning on him.

“No, I didn’t look at him,” Darren confirmed, hanging his head, his eyes bloodshot. “Jesus, I can’t stand the sight of blood.… You know that.”

Hawk snorted. “That is true. Darren will pass out at the slightest provocation.”

“No need to be judgmental about it,” Darren grumbled. “I can’t do needles either, and it’s not my fault, so whatever.”

But Hawk turned to Walton and added, “He really doesn’t do well with blood.”

Walton didn’t say anything to that comment. If you shot somebody from the back, that shooter may not need to ensure the guy was dead. If you wanted confirmation, you would shoot him in the front of the head. Walton studied Darren. “What was your question about the shooting though? Why did you ask that about where the shots came from?”

“I know it’s stupid, but I just wondered if,… if maybe Chad could have done it to himself.”

“If the shots had been from the front or the side or any other angle, maybe,” Walton replied. “But not this time. Whoever shot Chad came up behind him and popped him in the back of the head twice. Chad couldn’t have done it himself, and the other thing is,… no way Chad could have fired the second shot.”

“Well, shit,” Darren muttered, as he slumped in place. “That cancels that theory.”

Walton nodded. “It does, and, yeah, I did contemplate suicide for all of a half second, until I saw the body. After that, just no need to contemplate anything but murder.” Walton sighed. “Unfortunately Chad bled out and was dead pretty fast.”

“Unfortunately?” One of the men turned and glared at him.

“A figure of speech,” Walton replied. “All I’m saying is that he didn’t shoot himself. That would have been anatomically impossible. And, if you wanted to make it look like that, you failed.”

The men just stared at him. “You really don’t like us, do you?”

“Should I? You were all a part of that whole craziness with the War Dog and Rudy’s death,” Walton pointed out. “So, I don’t know whether you really had anything to do with Chad’s murder or not. You say you didn’t, and I’m more than prepared to believe that,” he shared. “I’ve got bigger things on my plate right now. Yet I don’t understand what happened to your first friend. Now all of a sudden, we have a second dead friend, and that is beyond concerning. Would you have believed this yourself?”

“No,… you’re not kidding,” Hawk muttered. “And, if you continue along that line, you’ve got to wonder if the rest of us aren’t in more danger.”

“What are you talking about?” Darren asked, looking at Hawk in confusion.

“Just think about it. Two of us are dead. What are the chances that it’s supposed to end up with three more of us dead?”

Darren’s eyebrows shot up, and he looked at Hawk in horror. “Then that would mean that either you or George here are still planning to kill me.”

Hawk clarified, “Or some unknown third party. That’s exactly what I’m saying, and we don’t know for sure that it isn’t the case.”

“Crap,” Darren muttered. “You know I really don’t want to hear that, right?”

His buddy nodded. “None of us want to. This isn’t how we thought this would go down. We came up here to let off a little steam, to ease up some of the stress of having the cops looking at us. And honestly, because Chad was putting the pressure on us too. All we’ve got now is more cops looking at us,” Hawk pointed out. “So how the hell does that work for us?”

“Not very well,” Darren stated uneasily, “and that’s part of the problem.”

“So, then I have to wonder,” Walton noted, eyeing them, “is there any chance that this is all by grand design?”

“What do you mean?” Hawk asked, turning to him.

“Think about it. You’re now wondering if one of your other two friends is out to kill you. And, if that were the case, this isn’t random. Somebody doesn’t just decide one day that his friends suck and that he needs to kill them. So, what could possibly explain anybody wanting to take you three out? Maybe somebody took out the first two, thinking the other three would get paranoid and take each other out. Or maybe some unknown person plans to take out all five of you? I know you probably don’t want me asking questions, but, when the cops arrive, they’ll be asking plenty of questions of their own.”

“Well, shit,” Hawk groaned, staring at him. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”

“How about the truth?” Walton asked. “That would be a great place to start.”

“We’re really not hiding anything. You have to know that. We came up here because,… because of Chad.” Hawk stopped, shook his head, “Chad wanted us to go off and have a weekend together, get rid of all the stress that we’ve been under. It’s really not rocket science. We weren’t planning anything.”

“Yet you didn’t want to come? Any of you? Except for maybe Chad.”

“No, I didn’t want to come at all, and I told Chad that too,” Hawk proclaimed, shaking his head.

“But he didn’t get it?” Walton asked.

“No, he didn’t get it. Chad didn’t see why I wasn’t ready to come have a weekend with the bros .”

Darren turned and looked at him. “Why didn’t you want a weekend with us?”

“For the same reason you didn’t,” Hawk declared. “It’s a stupid idea. I don’t know who killed Rudy, and I don’t want anybody looking at me for it. Just the thought that somebody might even be thinking that it’s us, as a group, killing off our friends is bizarre. I mean, thinking just one of us wanted to kill Rudy is bad enough, but all of us coming together to plan Rudy’s murder? It just… didn’t sit right.”

Darren nodded. “My fiancée was really having a shit fit about this trip too. But I didn’t say that to Chad because I knew he would have a freaking meltdown over it.”

A snort of laughter came from Hawk. “Yeah, he would have. He was against all women in a big way.”

“Why is that?” Chelsea asked.

Hawk turned to her, then shrugged. “Chad’s wife,… she left him, took his kids, and took all his money.”

“So, all women are shits then because of the actions of one woman, is that it?” Chelsea asked, shaking her head.

Hawk shrugged and nodded. “Pretty much, and you can’t really blame the guy for thinking that he got the raw deal because he really did. He lost everything.”

“Did anybody look at why she may have taken off?” Chelsea asked, her tone hardening.

“Nope, we didn’t, and believe me that Chad wouldn’t have cared either. He considered her leaving him as a betrayal, and, if a betrayal to him, it was a betrayal to us.”

“So, it comes down to a bros thing again,” Chelsea noted.

Hawk considered it and then nodded. “Maybe,… but we didn’t think of it that way. It was just a matter of loyalty. Somebody did Chad wrong, and we were really pissed and sorry about it,… for him.”

“Did anybody do anything about his wife?” Chelsea asked the group. “Did anybody talk to her? Did anybody hurt her, beat her up, or do anything to her?”

“No, of course not,” Hawk declared, an angry expression on his face. “What the hell kind of people do you think we are?” Then he winced. “Shit. I guess from your perspective, we’re nothing but a group of angry men, killing each other off.” He hung his head. “We’re not like that. I admit we probably didn’t give a great first impression because… Chad somehow—and I don’t quite understand this—controlled us, all of us. I, for one, am a little ashamed of that.”

Groaning, Hawk rubbed his head and then continued. “I know it makes no sense. It really doesn’t. I don’t know why Chad had that level of control over us, but it was really hard to shake him when he got into that mood, wasn’t it?” He turned to his buddies.

They both nodded. “Honestly, none of us wanted to come up here,” Darren admitted.

Chelsea looked over at the three men. “Then why did you?”

Hawk shrugged. “Because of that worry, that suspicion that somebody in our group did kill Rudy,” he shared. “I wanted to know more about it. I wanted to know what the hell was going on, but this is not what I expected.” He stared off into the distance. “Honest to God, I didn’t want the cops looking into my business.… Now I’m not bad or anything, but we do a bunch of recreational drugs.”

He flushed but kept going. “That’s a problem. We all do it. None of us are really hiding it, but we don’t want the cops poking around and making our lives miserable about it. It’s not that big of a deal to us, but having the cops around gets us in shit with our partners and, in my case, also with my family, and I really can’t afford that.”

“Crap,” George muttered. “They’ll really dig all through that, won’t they?”

“They won’t if you just tell them up front,” Walton suggested. “If it’s recreational drugs, and you’re fessing up, it’s hardly worth bothering with. Murder trumps everything else. But you already have a bad rep with the cops, don’t you?”

“I do,” George confirmed, “and I’m not proud of that either.”

“Did it have anything to do with any of the other guys here?”

George shook his head. “No, it really didn’t. It was all about my former profession, being a cop. I took bribes, stole evidence as a cop on the payroll. So I lost my job. I can never be a cop again. It was a stupid thing on my part, and I’ve been paying for it ever since.”

Walton sighed. “Stupid is as stupid does, and it happens to a lot of people. It happens to all of us at one point or another. We’re not exactly getting anywhere here, but you’ll all need to line up your positions on a map,” Walton suggested, “particularly in reference to Chad’s body.”

“Yeah, well, that ain’t happening. What you’ve also got to know,” George added, looking at Walton, “is that only one of us could find our way out in the woods, and that was Chad.”

Hawk and Darren nodded. “Yeah, Chad was the navigator, more or less. That’s one of the good things about him. Otherwise we were always lost. Still, Chad’s the one who somehow managed to get us home, which is great, but it also sucks. Whenever we went out, we were stuck with whatever time frame Chad had in mind.”

“Interesting,” Walton murmured.

Darren replied, “ Interesting for you maybe, but not so much for us. Honestly, we just want to go home at this point.”

Walton nodded. “That’s a good idea, but you can’t go home before the cops get here and talk to you.”

“But you can’t hold us here, can you?” Hawk asked.

“I could. I could make a citizen’s arrest and really make you all miserable. That would be a shame.” The men stopped and stared at Walton. He shrugged. “Believe me that I’m not here to make your life miserable. I think you’ve probably got enough of that coming up without getting more from me.”

“What do you mean?” Hawk asked, frowning at him.

“The cops will connect Chad’s death right back to Rudy’s murder,” Walton explained. “Absolutely no way they won’t. You’re just trying to ignore the elephant in the room, but it won’t work, and you know that.”

“He’s right,” George muttered.

“You’re the ex-cop, so you should know,” Darren shot back to him.

George scrubbed his face. “They will. The cops will look at this and see it as being completely related, and we won’t get off easy on any of it.… Shit, I knew I shouldn’t have come on this damn trip.”

“So why did you?” Chelsea asked.

“Honestly? Curiosity and a little bit of fear. I’ve got some issues that Chad knows about, and he threatened to tell people, getting me into a whole lot more trouble.”

“He blackmailed you?” Chelsea asked in disbelief. “This is the man you call a friend?”

George shrugged. “Yeah, I know it sounds stupid, but, up until now, I would have said he was a friend.”

“ Great . Did you ever consider getting new friends?” Chelsea asked, shaking her head.

“Have to now,” George grumbled. “They’re dying left, right, and center, like flies and shit.” And, with that, he got up and announced, “I’m going upstairs. I’m a little wrecked over all this. I just want a break and some time to think about what the hell’s going on in my world.”

“You do that,” Walton said. “The cops should be here in a few hours.”

“ Great ,” George muttered, “just what I wanted.” And, with that, he headed to the stairs and walked up to the second floor. The others watched as he left and then turned back to Walton.

“We didn’t do it, you know?” Hawk stated.

“I hope not,” Walton replied, “but, even though Chad was a bully and an asshole, I still think your friend deserved more than to be shot from behind out in the middle of nowhere.”

Hawk and Darren winced. “That just isn’t anything we would do.”

Walton nodded. “You can say that until you’re blue in the face, but the reality is that somebody did do it, and you guys just haven’t figured out who—which is beyond important at this stage. So you guys need to sit down and, to the best of your ability, sketch out a map, showing exactly where you were when Chad was killed. Share that so we all know, and then we’ll go from there.”

Chelsea caught the note of amusement in his tone.

“And yet,” Darren replied, glaring at him, “this really has nothing to do with you.”

“Maybe not, unless I’m on the hit list now too,” he noted, as a warning heated up in his tone. “So, if you think you’re leaving right now because the cops are coming to investigate, think again. I will stop you.”

The two men stiffened. “So, you really don’t believe us, do you?”

“I’m not sure what I believe at this point,” Walton admitted, “but what I can tell you is that somebody who was a troublemaker and a liar and a bully is dead. He was your friend, and he was out hunting with you guys. So, tell me where in all of this I’m supposed to trust any of you or automatically believe anything you have to say.”

They just looked at him, then at each other. “So we can go to our rooms then?” Darren asked in a hard, mocking tone.

“Yeah, I think you can go to your rooms.” Walton nodded. “It’s not as if you’ll leave the lodge without anybody knowing.”

“Really?” Darren asked. “What will you do? Stay up all night?”

“I don’t have to,” he declared, and he snapped his fingers.

Immediately Brutus stood at attention, his ears forward, and, with a silent hand command that Chelsea barely saw, Brutus bared his teeth and growled at them.

Walton smirked as Darren and Hawk just stared at Walton and the War Dog. The two hunters visibly tensed up and then nodded, almost in a sign of defeat.

“ Great , so we’re not going anywhere until morning,” Darren conceded.

“If the cops allow you to,” Walton muttered. “And let’s hope none of the rest of us get murdered in our beds overnight. In fact, I would suggest that you three sleep in the same room for just that reason.” The two men on their way out of the room stopped and looked at him. Walton shrugged. “If there are three of you gathered together, it will be harder for one of you to kill the others. I would like to think that at least one of you would wake up, if you’re under attack again.”

They looked at each other, then at Walton. Hawk asked, “But what if we’re drugged?”

Walton frowned. “So we’re not talking marijuana now, are we? Chad brought drugs with him, like a date rape drug? Is that something that your friends know how to use?”

“I have no idea,” Hawk replied in frustration. “I didn’t have anything to do with this shit.”

“But according to everybody else in your group, neither did they,” Walton stated, eyeing him carefully. “All I’m saying is that all of us need to be on guard.”

“Yeah, great ,” Hawk muttered, rubbing his temples. “Yet I do appreciate the warning.” And, with that, he turned and walked out of the room.

Darren frowned at Walton. “You really mean it, don’t you?”

Walton nodded. “You only have to look at the odds,” he pointed out. “I’m not a betting man. How about you?”

He swallowed and shook his head. “No, I just want to go home to my girlfriend, man. We’re engaged, and I promised Elena that I would come back, whole and healthy.”

“The fact that you even had to promise that says something.” Walton pointed out.

“Yeah, it says that she’s a hell of a lot smarter than I am. She told me not to go. She said that Chad was on a downward slope and that he was angry, so I needed to stay away from him, but I didn’t listen. Chad’s been my buddy for a long time, but she hasn’t known him all that long, and I thought she couldn’t really know anything about him. Still, she nailed it. She nailed it after just a few minutes of talking to the damn bastard, and I’m the idiot who didn’t listen.” And, with that, Darren turned and walked out.

As soon as the other men were safely out of earshot, Walton turned to Rick. “We need to bring the body here.”

He nodded. “I was hoping you would say that. I really didn’t want to spend the night on guard out there, and we need to relieve my ranch hand. Plus, I don’t know how long it will be until the cops get here. Have you got another reason?”

“Yeah, I didn’t get a chance to search him,” Walton shared, his tone hard. He stood up, looked at the women, and added, “I can go alone, but I could use his help.”

“Go,” Julie prompted. Then she hesitated and added, “I presume you’re taking Brutus?”

“I am taking the dog,” he confirmed, “and Rick will need to bring a rifle, given this is a hell of a sticky situation for all of us. You women need a gun apiece as well. Plus, stay together until one of us returns.”

They both nodded.

Rick got up and grabbed a hunting rifle and two pistols. He gave the handguns to Julie and Chelsea. With nods shared to all, the men headed outside. “How do you plan to carry him back?” Rick asked.

Walton shrugged. “We can make a pallet and take turns pulling him home.”

Rick asked, “What about storing him? I don’t have a place to put him.”

“I know,” Walton agreed. “I already checked your commercial freezer.”

“Yeah, and we don’t have a huge walk-in cooler or anything. It’s not as if this is a place where we can store bodies.”

“But you do store meat.”

Rick stared at him and nodded. “Yes, we do have a hanging place, but that’s hardly respectful.”

“I get it, and obviously it’s not where we want to put Chad, if we had any other place to preserve his body. Not to mention the fact that it’s like hanging a hunting trophy.”

Rick nodded. “Where do you want to put him then?”

“In the back of a police car and be rid of him.”

Rick hesitated. “You really think one of these guys shot Chad, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I sure do,” Walton shared, “but, for the life of me, I’m stuck between two of them.”

Rick stared at him. “You’re ahead of me. I can’t figure if any of these three can be trusted.”

“Oh,… I’m not talking about trust,” Walton pointed out, “because I don’t think that even enters into it. However, I do think there’s more to this than we know.”

“Of course there is,” Rick muttered. “The trick is trying to get anybody to give a shit about dealing with it.”

They walked out to the body, where Rick’s one and only ranch employee was sitting, having a smoke. As they approached, he hopped up. “Are the cops here?”

“Not yet.”

“Well, damn, I was really hoping to go back inside and get some food.” He glanced nervously around.

“Anybody been out here?” Walton asked.

He looked at them and shook his head. “Ain’t nobody else here.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Rick muttered and released the ranch hand to return to the lodge. Rick turned and asked Walton, “What now?”

“Now I search the body. I need a witness. That would really help if you say I didn’t or did find something here. Plus, film it too. We need both.”

“In that case, go ahead,” Rick noted. “I don’t want to touch him.” Rick pulled out his phone and switched on the camera app.

“Right, and with good reason,” Walton said. “I’m not sure what the hell’s going on, but something definitely is off about all this.” He approached the dead body and squatted beside Chad, then quickly checked his pockets. The pockets yielded a cell phone, which was also something Walton needed to go through, but he found nothing else except a wallet. He flipped open the wallet, looked through it, and then whistled. “This guy’s got multiple IDs in here.”

“Really?” Rick asked, coming over and taking a look, filming all the while. “Why the hell does he have all that?”

“I don’t know, unless he was planning to take off, which could be plan B, considering Chad was potentially looking at a murder charge or was being investigated for that and more. Still,” Walton added in confusion, “it’s not as if he needs multiple IDs for that.”

“Yes, but, once your passport is triggered at the airport, the authorities know where you’re going. If they can, they’ll stop you before you get on the plane. If you’re already on the plane, and it’s still on the tarmac, they’ll haul you off of it.”

“I guess,” Walton replied doubtfully. “It just doesn’t seem like something Chad would do.”

“Why not?” Rick asked, turning to him.

Walton shrugged. “Chad honestly didn’t seem all that brilliant.”

Rick chuckled. “I’m not arguing with that. He definitely didn’t come across as the brainy type. He was all brawn.”

“Yep, he sure as hell was. Yet I’ve met a lot of strange people. Do you have much trouble up here?”

“No, I wouldn’t say so, at least we haven’t had much trouble. I hope this isn’t the start of something we really don’t want to continue.”

“Of course not,” Walton murmured, as he continued to go through Chad’s pockets.

When Walton got down to checking the pant legs, Rick gulped, a hint of repulsion in his tone. “Are you seriously checking his pant legs?”

“Yes, I’m seriously checking his pant legs.” Then he smiled and turned to Rick. “And it’s a good thing I did.”

“Why is that?” he asked, frowning.

“You got the video still recording, right?” Rick nodded. “Good thing you’re filming it all, so keep that on.” Then he held up the item Walton had fished out of an ankle holster under his pants.

“A hunting knife?”

“Yep,” Walton stated. “It doesn’t really help when you are facing a loaded gun, but I’m really hoping one of his buddies can tell us what they think about this.”

“You expect them to?”

“Yeah, I expect them to because it’ll be one of the reasons they don’t go down for murder, and, right now, we’ve got two murders. I don’t think one of them wants anything to do with this.”

“What about the other two?” Rick challenged.

“I think they probably had something to do with it.”

“Two of them?” Rick asked, staring at Walton in disbelief.

“Yeah, it’s the only way they can cover their alibis.”

“Oh, shit,” Rick muttered, staring at him, nonplussed. “I hadn’t considered that.”

Walton nodded. “Hopefully it won’t be something that we have to continue to consider, but knowing that something shifty is going on here and that two men are dead now, it’s not something we can leave to chance.”

He kept searching the body, and, when he got down to Chad’s boots and socks, Walton nodded. “This is what I was looking for.” And, with that, he pulled out a small USB key. He looked back over at Rick and asked, “What do you want to bet this is the reason that Chad was killed?”