Hitched and Tied (The Morelville Mysteries, #4)

Chapter 2 – Falling

Chapter 2 – Falling

Wednesday Evening, August 6th, 2014

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Kris looked up at the clock; 8:50. Ten more minutes and she could lock up. She checked the list of all of the things she still needed to get packed up and ready to go for county fair camper move in on Friday night and the animal move in on Saturday morning. She jumped, seemingly caught off guard by the black Escalade pulling up to the pumps.

She shook her head and said out loud to the empty station, “I hope JD’s boss is driving his own vehicle this time instead of letting that ass borrow it again.”

Kris watched through the glass front doors from behind the cash register counter as the driver’s side door swung open and someone started to step down. One of the pumps was in her line of vision so she leaned out over the counter to try and see who had been driving. No one was visible.

Looking confused, she stepped out from behind the counter and over to the double doors. The driver was lying face down on the pavement, not moving. The door was still hanging open. All she could see of him was about mid-back, down of a man in dusty Levi’s and steel toed boots. “JD, drunk as usual!”

Kris stepped outside into the humid evening air, “JD?”

The prone man didn’t respond.

She moved forward and stopped at the service island but didn’t step over it. “JD?” she called again. He still didn’t move or respond.

Kris stepped back and walked around the island to his side of it, stopping near his head. She stooped down and put a hand on his shoulder and called, “JD” again as she attempted to turn his face up to her. She fell backwards when she saw his bloody, battered face.

After scrambling back to her feet, she ran into the station, picked up the phone and dialed Mel’s desk phone number at home.

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Mel

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We were looking through the local realtor listings on my computer when the phone rang.

Dana was closer to it. She glanced at the caller ID and said, “It’s Kris calling from the station,” as she picked the handset up.

“Hey Kris, what’s up?” she asked my twin sibling.

Even though the phone wasn’t on speaker, Kris’s voice came through loud and clear, “Tell Mel she needs to get up here right away. I think JD is dead!”

I grabbed the phone from Dana, “It’s me, sis. What’s going on?”

“JD pulled in here in that big SUV he was driving the other day and he literally fell out of it. He’s all bloody and he’s not responding. I think he’s dead.”

“Did you call 911 for an ambulance or for the police?”

“No dummy! I’m calling you!”

“Kris, listen to me. Don’t touch him or his vehicle. Call 911 and get an ambulance and some of my deputies to the scene. I’ll be right up there.”

Kris hung up on me without saying anything else.

“Sorry Dana! Duty calls.”

“Go; I’ll hold down the fort here.”

“Thanks babe.” I kissed her forehead, grabbed my wallet style badge and my go bag from my den closet and then I headed up the street to the gas station in my pick-up.

When I got to the station, all of a quarter mile away, the neighbors and the looky-loos were already starting to gather around the place. News travels fast in a tiny village like this one and a potential dead guy at the gas station is definitely news.

“Hey there Sheriff, it’s about time you showed up!” nosy old man Purcell cackled loud enough for all that were gathered around to hear. The old coot had only had to walk 20 yards across the street to get to the station. I ignored his barb.

“Everyone needs to move back please. A squad and other officers have been called and they’ll be arriving soon.”

“Don’t need no squad Sheriff. You need the Coroner for that one!” Purcell piped up, yet again. “He’s dead as a door nail!”

I stared at the old man hard. “You didn’t touch him, did you?”

Purcell shrank under my gaze. He shook his head no and then stepped back into the gathering crowd.

I bent down and felt for the pulse point on JD’s neck. There was nothing. He wasn’t moving and there was no indication he was breathing.

Turning to Kris, I handed her the keys to my truck. “Park it across here so nobody can gape at him from the front.” I motioned for her to park the vehicle sideways blocking entry to the pump island and the view of the most likely deceased Jeremy David Roberts.

Once Kris had started to move my vehicle, I bent back to JD, took hold of his shoulder and gently tried to turn him over. I wasn’t prepared for the amount of damage I saw to his face.

JD had been beaten to a bloody pulp by someone. His fall from the SUV probably only heightened injuries he already had when he tumbled. His neon green road construction crew tee shirt was also marked with either his own blood or someone else’s but it appeared to be mostly dry now. Bending low over his face, I tried to feel for inhaled or exhaled air while I watched his chest for rise and fall. There was nothing but, even with the matted and congealing blood, I could detect the faint odor of alcohol.

I looked at his hands. His visible knuckles were scraped up pretty bad. They were all the proof I needed that he really had been in a hell of a brawl.

Standing, I stepped over him to the SUV. The door was still open. It was obvious JD had hit it on his way down. There was smeared blood on the window, the upper door just below the window and on the arm rest. Poor JD was as good as dead when he pulled in, but his fall finished the job.

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Once the ambulance and a couple of my deputies arrived, we cordoned off the area temporarily and started talking to the gathered crowd. We tried, in vain, to find a witness that had seen or knew anything more than the direction JD came from when he pulled in. Kris had been able to supply that information herself. No one else knew a thing but everyone sure seemed to have an opinion.

The squad guys did what they could for JD which primarily consisted of covering his body with a sheet and calling the County Coroner to come and do the actual pick up since the cause of death was more than a little indeterminate. I called for a tow truck and had the big SUV he’d been driving hauled to the impound lot. Trying to figure out who owned it and if it should be searched or not could wait until morning.