"Who are they?"

"If I get some down time at the court house today, I'll try to check. If the trunk didn't get switched while the auctioneer had it, then it must have been swapped back when it was in storage. Maybe we should visit the place."

Dean could picture him and the old man breaking into the storage building in the dead of night. It was a course of action he had no intention of pursuing. . .but mild snooping was second nature to him, so he began to poke around Joseph Dawkins's room.

"Now that the Fourth of July is behind us," he said, "maybe I'll have some time to do a bit of snooping myself-asking questions around town. You'll be busy with this jury business."

"You're a little light on free time yourself. You've got an election to concentrate on." Then he added, "but if you can sneak it in, you might try Diversion, the coffee house. That's where the curmudgeons get together." Fred was referring to a coffee klatch of elderly town patriarchs whose words and advice on just about anything was often quoted in the local paper. "If anyone would know happenings forty years ago, those guys would."

Dean muttered an agreement as he began to open Dawkins's bureau drawers, more out of a nosy nervousness than anything sinister. Beneath folded boxer shorts, but not well hidden, rested a black revolver. He glanced back at Fred, who had again closed his eyes and was prattling on about the best ways to "case" the storage facility. Dean sniffed the gun and opened the chamber, careful to not make a noise. It wouldn't do to taint Fred O'Connor's open mind about the Dawkinses before the trial. The weapon hadn't been cleaned since it was last fired, but all six chambers contained bullets. He wiped his prints and replaced it, wondering if Joseph or Ginger Dawkins was responsible for the gunshot at the mine.

He turned to the bed. "You'd think you were on trial today instead of sitting in a jury box. What's the scoop? Look, Fred, if you're worried about some old beef, forget it. I did you the favor of running your prints years ago. You're clean. Nobody's looking for you."

Fred sat up bolt upright. "You're kidding me, right?"

"Nope."

"That's a hell of a thing to do to a relative! You've got some nerve!"

"It was before I knew you. God knows, I wouldn't do it now! Back then you came out of nowhere and married my mother out of the blue. I had no idea who you were. You would've done the same thing if the situation was reversed."




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