Chapter 36
Dex was finally convinced that he had been the primary target all along. He tried not to dwell on it, but it crushed him to think that Hoagie would still be alive and Marie would have never been abducted if it was not for him. Marie was right; she and Hoagie had just been targets of opportunity for whoever wanted to punish or kill him.
Marie made several trips a day to the hospital. She timed her visits to be there during the few minutes the family was allowed in ICU. The doctor had said it would take two to three weeks for the lung to heal but that Dex would continue to be partially incapacitated for longer than that. Gigi spent most days at the hospital. Marie relieved her at night and stayed until the last ICU visitation period ended.
Dex made steady improvement, did not develop an infection, and was sitting up and taking a few steps by the third day. Two days after that he was so restless they were having difficulty keeping him for overexerting. The doctor said the speed of his recovery was remarkable and attributed it to his physical condition prior to the attack. He wanted to go home, and after five days the doctor released him with precautions about what activities he could attempt.
Several days later Dex and Marie were walking in the neighborhood when his cell phone rang. He answered it and then said, “Yeah, she’s here with me now. Where do you want to meet us?” He listened for a few seconds and then said, “We can be there in twenty minutes. We’ll see you there.”
Dex put the phone back in his pocket and said, “That was Morgan. Something has come up, and he wants to see us in his office right now.”
“Did he say what it was about?”
“No, he just said it was important and that he wanted to talk to both of us as soon as possible.”
When Marie and Dex walked into Morgan’s cubical at the sheriff’s office, his first question was, “Do either of you know a man named Buford Wilson?”
Dex and Marie looked at each other with puzzled expressions and both shook their heads.
Dex said, “I don’t remember anyone by that name. Are we supposed to know him?”
“Apparently he’s also known as Snake.”
They both reacted immediately, and Dex said, “I didn’t know his name was Buford, but the only one I’ve ever known as Snake is a creep who went to high school with us. He was sent to a juvenile detention center for carrying a gun to school.”
Morgan said, “Yeah, that’s him, and we’ve discovered some evidence that links him to your shooting. The officers who did the on-scene investigation found an empty shell casing and an empty cigarette pack. The shell casing had a partial fingerprint, which probably wouldn’t have been much help except it was matched to a full set of prints on the cigarette pack. They traced those prints through the database and identified them as Wilson’s.”
Dex and Marie looked at each other, and Marie asked, “You haven’t seen him since he was arrested, have you?”
“No, I never saw him again, except possibly one time just before I graduated from high school. Hoagie and I discovered a moonshine still on the mountain, and I thought Snake might have been one of the people we saw working at the still. They fired a shot to scare us away, and we left in a hurry. I couldn’t swear it was him because Hoagie didn’t recognize him.”
Morgan was looking at a sheet of paper and said, “This guy has quite a rap sheet for someone no older than you. After he was released from detention on his eighteenth birthday, he was charged with assault for attacking a girl at a fast-food restaurant, but she later refused to press charges. After that he was charged with stealing a toolbox from a truck, although the owner later said it was just a misunderstanding. When multiple victims refuse to press charges, we are always suspicious that they may have been threatened and intimidated.”
Marie said, “He’s the type of person who would do something like that.”
Morgan continued referring to his notes. “Then he was nailed for grand theft auto and spent two years in prison. He was paroled about six months ago and has never checked in with his parole officer. We don’t know where he is now, but the evidence points to him being the one who shot you. Do you know any reason why this character would have it in for you?”
“Well, several people said he brought the gun to school to shoot me because of a fight we had, but that was seven or eight years ago. Surely that idiot wouldn’t still be carrying a silly grudge from a high-school fight.”
Morgan said, “Wait a minute, back up and start at the beginning. I want to hear the whole story.”
Dex looked at Marie and asked, “May I tell him everything that happened?” She nodded that it was okay.
“When we were in high school, Snake followed Marie home one afternoon. Her parents weren’t there, and he tried to molest her. She was able to get away, ran next door to my house, and told me what had happened. I went after him, but he was already gone and I couldn’t find him that afternoon.”
Dex kept glancing at Marie who was visibly uncomfortable, but she said, “It’s okay, Dex, that was a long time ago.”
“Marie was embarrassed by what had happened. She said she could never go back to school because someone would find out about the incident and think that she had encouraged it. I talked her into going to school the next day by telling her that I would make sure Snake never bothered her again and no one would ever know about what happened. When classes were over that afternoon, I caught up with him in front of the school where a crowd of students were waiting on the school bus. I pounded him pretty good until several people pulled me off. It really wasn’t much of a fight, but he had several cuts on his face and one eye swelled closed. One of the students got him in a car and took him to the hospital.
“I was told later that he was treated and released. He didn’t come back to school for several days and then on his first day back he was arrested for having the pistol. As far as I know, the police were not notified about the fight. All the people who were waiting for the school bus saw the fight, so he was probably so embarrassed by the beating he took that he didn’t tell anyone what had happened to him.”
Marie said, “I didn’t see the fight, but a couple of weeks after that I moved to Atlanta with my family. I’ve never seen Snake since the day he tried to assault me.”
Dex added, “Hoagie had nothing to do with the fight, but he was the only one other than us who knew what it was about. I told Hoagie after Marie had moved, but I told him he could never tell anyone, and I don’t think he did.”
They talked for a while longer, and when they stood up to leave, Morgan said, “I wish I had known about this earlier, but I understand that it had been so long you didn’t think it was important. I think Wilson must be our man.”
Dex asked, “What about the investigation into Marie’s abduction and Hoagie’s murder?”
“I’ve interviewed all the people we identified as potential suspects, and we don’t have anything to connect them with the crimes. Of course, we also don’t yet have the evidence to link Wilson to anything other than shooting you, but it seems reasonable to assume that he was the culprit in all of it. His motive may have been his high-school obsession with Marie or hatred of you for embarrassing him in front of the other students. It may not make sense to us, but I learned a long time ago that those who think logically can’t always understand the irrational impulses of a criminal’s mind. I’m not yet going to eliminate McPherson, Norton, or Bishop, but right now we have nothing to link them to any of these situations. What we need to do is locate Wilson.”
Chapter 37
Years of athletic conditioning and an indomitable spirit had hastened Dex’s recovery thus far, and the doctor told him if he continued to improve he would soon be released to return to work.
Marie and Dex had tried for days to go for neighborhood walks, but the media was driving them crazy. Every time either of them ventured outside, some representative of
the media latched onto them. They were both tired of responding to questions for which they had no answers.
“Dex, the only way we are going to get away from reporters is to slip out of town for a while. We need to go somewhere where there aren’t any reporters who recognize us, and maybe you can relax for a few days before you go back to work.”
“Where do you suggest we go?”
“I don’t care as long as it’s at least ten miles from the nearest TV or newspaper reporter.”
“I had a friend at Georgia who talked all the time about his family’s place on Lake Burton in the north Georgia Mountains. He said it was his favorite place in the world.”
“Okay, I’ll go online and see if I can find out anything about Lake Burton.”
Marie got on the Internet and found a rental agent in the general area. The agent told her most of the houses around the lake were private summer residences, but she knew one family that would accept short-term or even weekend rentals. She booked the house before ending the conversation.
The three-hour drive took the couple through several small, picturesque mountain towns. The scenery on the trip through the beautiful mountains of north Georgia made the trip worthwhile, but it did nothing to prepare them for their first breathtaking glimpse of Lake Burton. The lake, nestled in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, was a bucolic paradise that virtually whispered tranquility.
After the problems they had encountered recently, they were in serious need of a place where they could simply kick back, relax, and let the world pass them by. Lake Burton looked like just the place to do it.
The residents around the lake were apparently not too interested in encouraging tourists to invade their sanctuary. Street signs were almost nonexistent. They had to stop twice for directions, such as, “Turn right at the white house and left at the big rock, and it’ll be down there a ways.” After wandering around trying to follow the directions they were given, they finally located the rental house. It faced the water and was surrounded on the other three sides by white pines that essentially isolated it from neighbors. They loved the privacy, boat dock, and unobstructed view of the lake.
Marie made Dex watch as she unloaded the car and carried their two small bags into the house. Although the doctor had said his medical condition was significantly improved, his nurse and lover refused to allow him to lift anything heavier than a beer bottle. He murmured a comment under his breath about bossy nurses but acquiesced to her temporary authority.
They had not brought any food with them, and it was almost time for dinner. They were both hungry after their long drive.
Dex said, “There’s probably not an abundance of restaurants in the mountains. We better get started; we may have to search for a while.”
Fortunately, they stumbled on a small restaurant only a few miles from where they were staying. They wouldn’t have recognized it as a restaurant except for the sign. Buffy’s Place looked like a campground with one large cabin surrounded by several smaller ones. The rustic setting was interesting, but they didn’t hold out much hope for the quality of the food.
“Marie, do you want to take a chance on this place?”
“We might as well try it. There probably isn’t another restaurant for miles.”
As soon as they went inside, they were enthusiastically welcomed by Buffy herself, who was working behind the bar near the front entrance.
“Good afternoon, folks. Are you just passing through?”
Dex said, “We’re staying at a place on the lake for a few days.”
“Well, I’m Buffy, and we’re happy to have you stop by tonight. Are you here for dinner or can I get you something from the bar?” Dex looked to Marie for approval, and when she nodded, he said, “We’re going to stay for dinner. Maybe we’ll have something from the bar after we’re seated.”
They were ushered to a larger dining room. It had seats for perhaps two dozen people, but since it was still early, only a few of the tables were occupied.
Dex asked the waitress, “Can we have a couple of Coors Lights while we look over the menu?”
Marie only looked at the menu for a few seconds before saying, “I didn’t expect anything like this here in the mountains. Look at the descriptions of the entrees and the number of choices. If they are as good as they sound, this place would rival some of Atlanta’s better restaurants.”
In a few minutes, people began drifting into the restaurant, and before Marie and Dex were served, the room was almost at capacity. From the snippets of conversation they overheard, it was obvious that most of the people knew each other. And they weren’t local mountain people. The casual but trendy way they were dressed, together with the urbane chatter about market conditions and social events, clearly identified them as some of Atlanta’s movers and shakers.
Marie whispered, “These people probably own all those expensive homes we saw on the lake. They look like permanent residences, but I bet they’re just used on the weekends.”
This wasn’t the type of place where one would expect entertainment with dinner, but while they were eating, a man was setting up a portable CD player and microphone. He was a solo vocalist, and his only accompaniment was CDs of popular recordings from past decades. He had just started his routine when some of the restaurant patrons starting singing along.
One diner, with a questionable voice and a vague knowledge of the lyrics, soon stood and joined him on the microphone. In any other setting, he would have been roundly booed, but the joyful crowd at Buffy’s laughed and loudly applauded his efforts before the DJ finally convinced him to sit down. The quality of the food, festive attitude, and friendliness of the staff created a perfect ambiance for two young lovers seeking some normalcy for their recent chaotic lives.
When they walked outside after dinner, Marie said, “Remind me to never judge a restaurant by what it looks like from the outside. Buffy’s was wonderful.”
The remainder of the weekend was everything Marie and Dex had hoped it would be. Each day they bundled up and braved the chill of the mountain air to spend time in the Adirondack chairs on the dock. But most of the time they were content to stay in the cabin. They spent long hours together sitting, talking, and reading on a plush rug in front of the fireplace. And they kept the promise they had made to each other before leaving home: they didn’t mention their problems until they started the trip back to River City.
Chapter 38
Their self-imposed ban on discussing their problems was over, and Dex and Marie used the return trip to talk about the events that had happened and what they could anticipate in the coming weeks.
“I haven’t thought about Snake in years, but I’m inclined to agree with Morgan,” Dex said. “He’s just the type of creep who could be behind everything.”
“I agree, Dex. But the only thing that continues to bother me is that I would have never thought he was smart enough to pull off the abduction or resist the temptation to attack me while I was helpless in that cabin.”
“Thank God he didn’t follow through on that, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have eventually attacked you. You may have just been rescued before he did anything. What I don’t understand is why he would still hold a grudge when we were only fifteen years old at the time of the fight. He must be insane to still be harboring anger about something that happened so long ago.”
“Don’t forget what Morgan said about trying to understand an illogical mind.”
“Marie, do you even still remember what he looked like in high school?”
“You’ve got to be kidding. Yes, I remember exactly what he looked like. He was the ugliest guy in school. He was tall and had a scrawny body with this lumbering way of walking. He didn’t have any hips, and he kept his pants clinched tightly around his waist, like he was afraid they might fall down to his ankles. I even remember that lump of an Adam’s apple on
his scrawny neck and the elongated nose that shaded his upper lip. There was nothing pretty about Snake, but what turned my stomach was the inflamed acne all over his pockmarked face.”
“Wow, you really do remember him.”
“After what he tried to do that day, it would be pretty hard to forget him. I can’t believe it now, but before he attacked me I actually felt sorry for him. No one would have anything to do with him, but I at least spoke to him when we passed in the hall. He must have got the wrong signal from my friendliness, but the only time I was ever within three feet of him was the day he tried to force himself on me. I can still remember the putrid stench of his breath when he tried to kiss me… Oh, for God’s sake let’s change the subject. He’s just vermin that needs to be eradicated.”
Snake was the last of the three sons of Hobart and Daisy Wilson. Rufus and Elroy were older siblings. As the baby in the family, he learned to defend himself at an early age. He actually got his nickname at age five when he bit Rufus on the leg for taking one of his toys. His mother said, “Buford, you just bit him like a snake.” The nickname stuck.
Rufus was five and Elroy was three when Snake was born, and he was tormented by his older brothers his entire childhood. He was on the receiving end of all their pranks and constantly berated about his appearance and intelligence. When he tried to follow his brothers around the neighborhood, they would throw rocks to chase him back home.
Snake’s parents knew he was mentally challenged before he ever started to school, because he didn’t walk or talk nearly as early as his brothers. Rather than improving, his diminished intelligence became more noticeable as he grew older. He was a miserable student and as socially inept as he was dumb. He had his first skirmish with the police at age twelve when he was caught shoplifting candy at a local supermarket. The store didn’t press charges, but when the police drove Snake home, his father beat him unmercifully with a leather belt. It never occurred to Snake that he was being beaten for his thievery; he thought it was because he got caught. He had several other run-ins with the police, so when he was caught with the pistol at school, the local police already knew that he was simply a young criminal in the developmental stage of what would probably be a lifetime of crime.
Appalachian Intrigue Page 19