“Yep. He left a folder with some information that makes me pretty sure Sheriff Donald Griffin is behind the drug smuggling. J.T. Boone’s in jail, because O.C. caught him in a lie about when he was supposed to come help us in the army camp and he didn’t. They found a thick envelope full of money in the trunk of his car and put the screws to him. He confessed to working with Whitlatch to keep the law away from what was going on. They may have him on the attempted murder of y’all, too, because of being in on the army camp ambush.”
Cody paused, absently watching the kids. “I guess the last thing we need to wrap this up is more evidence against Griffin, but it might be a long time coming. None of what we have will stick right now, even though I have a strong suspicion he’s behind everything that happened.”
Ned moved the arm attached by a clear hose to the last of many bottles hanging above his bed. “We’ll get him, when I get out of this damn hospital.”
“That’s a fact.” For the first time in his life, Cody hoped he’d have a dream that would tell them what to do.
“Watch your language Daddy.” Miss Becky patted his hand. “The kids are right over there.”
They snickered.
Ned coughed and grinned at them. “What’s so funny, you two?”
“The look on Pepper’s face laying there in the snow.” Top angled the little booklet to show the adults. “I took these with my secret agent camera when Uncle Cody was in the hospital.” He passed the packet of photos to Cody. “Here’s some of you when you didn’t know I took ’em.”
Miss Becky asked Ned if he was comfortable and Norma Faye rose to adjust his pillow. Distracted, Cody took the packet and absently flipped though the shuffled photos. There was one of him the day before the accident, walking across Miss Becky’s yard in a blur of motion. He flipped past one of the kids playing in the snow outside of the hospital while they waited for their turn to visit Cody. His gaze lingered on a photo of Tom Bell standing in front of his house, staring upward at the new roof. Others were of Tom in his hat, in the yard littered with lumber scraps, and kneeling to pat Hootie. The next to last shot showed the snow-covered statue of the Confederate Soldier in front of the courthouse.
The last picture of two men standing at the base of the statue made Cody feel better than he had since the ambush. “Top, where are the films to these pictures?”
“In a shoe box in the bottom of Miss Becky’s chifferobe.”
“Do you like that one?” Norma Faye leaned over his shoulder.
“Sure do!”
Ned adjusted himself in the hospital bed to settle his pillow. “Oh, I got something else for you to do, Cody.”
“What’s that?”
“Call and tell O.C. he needs to forget where them fruit jars full of money are buried.”
As everyone laughed, Cody stared downward at the surprisingly clear black-and-white photo of Sheriff Donald Griffin handing a thick envelope to the recently deceased Whitlatch.
The hospital phone rang. Norma Faye answered, because she was closest. “Well hidy, O.C.”
She fell silent and listened. Cody slipped the packet of photos into his shirt pocket. “I see. All right, I’ll tell them.”
Norma Faye gently replaced the receiver in the cradle. “I don’t believe this.”
“What?”
“Mr. Ned, you have kinfolk down here in the Valley?”
“I don’t know. There’s some family that split off and came down this way back in the Indian days. They mixed in with some colored folks, too, out near Hondo. We call them the Black Parkers.”
“Well, I believe this is a different line. Mr. Bell’s daddy was a Parker, one of your grandaddy’s boys. Mr. Bell dug around these last few years and found all that out, and Judge O.C. figures that’s why he came back to Center Springs after he retired.”
“The good Lord brought him back to us for a reason, Ned. That’s why you’re a-layin’ in that bed.”
“Might be.” Norma opened the blinds to let in a little more of the south Texas light. “Judge O.C. also said he left an envelope for you back home. Said it’s what you’re gonna need to clear all this up.”
“Does he know what’s in it?”
“Nope, just what’s wrote on the outside. It said, ‘To Ned. The dreams told me to find you. Inside is what you want to know about Griffin. It’s signed by him in his legal name. Thomas Belton Parker.”
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The Right Side of Wrong Page 30