CHAPTER 50
Beaver Creek, MT
Yoni drove Laney and Jake to a restaurant called The Firehouse in the downtown area of Beaver Creek. On the car ride over, they explained what they’d learned so far, including the nature of Paul. Yoni seemed to take the information in stride.
“So, to kill him, we completely obliterate the heart.” He nodded, his expression thoughtful. “I’m pretty sure suffocating would work and dismembering would work pretty well, too. It’ll at least take awhile to grow back some arms.”
Laney had stared at him, amazed. Apparently, Yoni wasn’t fazed by much.
Stopping for lunch, they’d gotten a booth in the back corner where they had a complete view of the Firehouse Saloon. And saloon was apt, with its poker tables for dining, long wooden bar along one wall, and spittoon by the front door. The waitress mentioned they’d missed the lunch crowd by about an hour. Though from what little traffic there’d been in town, Laney couldn’t imagine it had been much of a crowd.
After everyone put in their order for burgers and fries, Yoni explained that the ranch Senator Kensington had purchased had formerly been owned by a man named Kenny Coleman. His daughter had been the one who’d sold the property to Kensington.
When Yoni had gotten in last night, he’d tracked down Kenny Coleman’s daughter, Kelly Nickels. She worked at Wal-Mart during the day and she waitressed at a bar called the Rusty Nail a couple of nights a week. She was a single mom with two kids. She’d really been struggling to make ends meet since her Dad passed away two years ago.
Jake took a handful of peanuts from the bucket on the table. “What’d he die of?”
“Three bullets to the chest.”
Laney choked on her water and Yoni whacked her on the back.
“Oh my God,” she said when she could finally talk. “Every time I think this can’t get any worse, it does.”
“Well, apparently it gets a little worse than that. The police believe he was shot on his ranch. Then the body was moved. They were never able to find the original crime scene. And the ranch is 300 acres, so that’s pretty understandable. Whoever killed him, carried him back to the house and dumped him on the porch. And then killed Coleman’s dog.”
“His dog?” Jake asked.
“Yeah. Coleman must have left the dog in the house when the murderer showed up. The dog apparently ripped the door to shreds trying to get to him. Guy shot him right through the door. Then he grabbed Coleman’s computer and camera.”
“Do the police have any leads?” Jake asked.
Yoni shook his head, “Nothing. And the daughter didn’t have any idea why either. Before he died, her father had told her that he had a plan for making some more money. He never went into detail, though. According to the police, she’d said he’d been afraid he would jinx it, whatever it was.”
Yoni halted his story to smile at the waitress as she dropped off their drinks. “So I went by the Rusty Nail to see her last night. Nice lady. She’s got it tough, though. One of the kids is sick a lot. In fact, she had to rush home last night to take care of him. I stayed at the bar and talked to the owner who was tending bar, Travis Heymaker. I’d been sitting at the bar for about an hour when one of those political commercials comes on for Senator Robert Kensington. And Travis starts saying how this guy is a real shyster. That’s the actual word he used - shyster. So I start agreeing with him. Saying how you can’t trust any politician.
“And Heymaker just lets loose. He starts telling me how when Kelly’s dad died two years ago, Kensington bought up all his land after the estate was done with probate. Travis said he underpaid, but that he’d scared off anybody else who was interested."
“How’d he scare them off?” Laney asked.
“Anybody who was interested in the land got visited by the IRS or had a warrant issued for their arrest based on old parking tickets, or something else along those lines. Didn’t take too long for people to get the message and stop being interested. And the only money Kelly could get was half of what it was really worth. But she had a sick child and the bills were really beginning to pile up. So what could she do?”
“Does he know why Kensington wanted the land so badly?” Jake asked.
Yoni shrugged. “No. He knows something isn’t right. Apparently, Kensington put a fence around the whole property – all 300 acres. And he has guards patrolling it.”
Yoni stopped talking to give the waitress another flirtatious smile as she placed the food on the table. “So, I did a little checking into the property. I couldn’t do much recon on the land because, well heck, I just got here last night. I did check it out online. Kensington pulled a Cheney on Google Earth and had it removed. He even pulled some strings with the governor to have it declared a no-fly zone so that no planes can even fly over it. Seems like Kensington is trying to keep something hidden.”
“So we can’t get in?” Laney asked.
“I didn’t say that,” Yoni replied, swallowing a pickle slice and licking his fingers. “It’s just going to be a little difficult. I did a little recon last night and again this morning before I came to pick you up. It looks like the guards patrol every twenty minutes or so. The best call would be to go in at night. But there’s not much cover anywhere.”
“Ghillie suit?” Jake asked, a grin beginning to form on his face
Yoni returned the grin. “Ghillie suit.”
“What’s a ghillie suit?” Laney asked.
Yoni gave her a grin that was usually reserved for four-year-olds on Christmas morning. “Oh Doc, you’re going to love it.”