Beware The Hitchhiker
From the second David Allen stepped out of his back door upon the dew-laden grass of his farm in Lebanon, Indiana; he had a strange feeling. Something was just not right this morning, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. Grey clouds were creeping across the heavens and through them; he could barely see an early rising sun beginning to peek.
Next to the barn sat his old tractor. He’d spent the whole day before, trying to get it working again and this morning it started right away, though he had his doubts whether it would or not. He would finally get some more plowing done, things were difficult this spring and he’d hoped the funding would come through for another tractor but he’d had no such luck.
The sun was initiating plenty of birdsong when he got to the field and he began his task. He hadn’t gone far when something caught his eye. Climbing down from the tractor, he walked over to a protrusion in the ground and examined it. It was a gun but it certainly was not one of his. Showing no rust he wondered where it had come from? Someone had obviously been on his property but whom?
When his hired farmhand, Joe Whitby arrived for the day, he asked him about it; Joe didn’t even own a gun. David had the feeling he’d better report it to the police. Forty-five minutes later, detective Raul Zaragoza arrived with another officer, surveyed the situation and began taping off the area as usual; doing a thorough search for any clues. After questioning David and Joe extensively, he and his deputy departed with the suspicious weapon.
The two men puzzled over the situation for a couple of days. They were unloading some new seed from Joe’s truck when a neighbor, Bobby Stall came by.
“David, Joe, did you hear what they found at the Evan’s house, down the road, this morning?” Bobby asked. “Jim and Lela, have been murdered! They’ve been dead in the house for three days now! The mailman noticed that no one had gotten the mail for a while so, he reported it to the police. My God, David, what they found was horrible!”
“Oh my God, do they know who did it?” asked David. Then he and Joe looked at one another, both had the same thought about the gun that David had found a few days earlier.
“You didn’t happen to see any strangers in the area the last few days, have you David? The police were asking everyone about it,” said Bobby.
David and Joe looked at one another again, then they related the events of days earlier, regarding the gun they’d found. As they were discussing it, Detective Zaragoza arrived in a cruiser. He sauntered up to them.
“Good, you’ve probably been talking about the murder this morning, Hello again, Bobby.” Then he looked at David and Joe...“Do either of you know a Michael Satterly?”
The three exchanged glances and David answered, “He used to work for me but, it was a couple of years back. I’d hired him as a farmhand for awhile but, he left to go back to Terra Haute. The last I saw of him was a year and a half ago when he dropped by for a visit.”
“His prints were on that gun,” said Detective Zaragoza. He’s suspected of killing the Evan’s. If you see him, you will give us a call, won’t you?”
“Sure, of course.” Came the reply, in seconds, Zaragoza was back in his cruiser and pulling away.
“It’s not like Mike to commit murder,” said David. “I don’t believe that he did it. Mike is one of the mildest tempered men that I’ve known.”
“He sure is,” agreed Bobby, “and he was always willing to help someone out in a crisis...just a good guy.”
The whole situation kept nagging at David, so he called Michael’s home in Terre Haute; his cousin, Brad picked up the phone, he and Michael shared a house. “Hello”.
“Brad, hi, it’s David Allen, do you remember me?” “Yeah, David, I got the worst news yesterday, Mike...he’s, been accused of killing someone. I know he didn’t do it, he couldn’t have but, have you seen him?”
“No, Brad but the police have been here questioning me. Brad, I found a gun on the property that they say belonged to Michael. It’s a Glock 32, the police have it and they say it was Mike’s but, I had no idea he had one or that he was coming here.”
“He’d lost his job and needed work, he was going to see if he could work for you temporarily, just for the planting season, so he could get back on his feet. He left four days ago, David. And you haven’t heard from him at all?” Came the response.
“No, I haven’t seen or heard from him. Brad, how long has he had a gun?”
“About a year and a half. He bought it because he was working part time at night at a mini-mart. He would have to close up every night and get the money to the bank. He felt safer, just having it. David, if you hear from him, please let me know as soon as possible.”
“I will Brad, you take care, man. I’ll call if I hear anything at all.” David pressed the button to end the call on his iPhone and laid it on the table. He finished his supper and tried to sleep but it eluded him. He couldn’t get the situation with Mike off of his mind.
Two days later, Detective Zaragoza called David downtown to identify a body, it was Michael’s, he’d been murdered with his own gun. His body and car were found, just across the river from the town. One of the townspeople had spotted him on a nearby roadway, picking up a hitchhiker.
David was crushed, he told Zaragoza that he’d call Brad and let him know. Brad arrived the next morning and David offered to let him stay at his place.
Not long after the body had been, found and identified, Detective Zaragoza visited David’s farm once again. He gave Michael’s possessions to Brad and settled his business, leaving Brad to, make the arrangements for the body and funeral.
“We’ve got the killer,” he told them. “A witness came forward who had seen Michael picking up a hitchhiker and identified the man from one of our mug shots. The guy had robbed and murdered the couple for a pocketknife and a lousy three hundred dollars in cash. He escaped on foot, across over three miles of farmland, tossing the gun away on your property, David. Apparently, he had no idea that you knew Michael. One of my officers had found the killer in town drinking the very day that you came to identify the body.” Zaragoza continued, gently laying a hand on Brad’s shoulder, “I’m sorry about your cousin.”
“We found Michael’s lighter in the man’s jean pockets, along with three hundred dollars cash that he stole from the Evan’s and Jim Evan’s pearl-handled, pocketknife. If I can do anything else for either of you, feel free to ask.” With that he shook hands with David and Brad and left the house.
Brad went downtown to take care of his cousin’s body and funeral arrangements just as Joe was coming in from the fields. David filled him in on what had happened.
“The poor guy, I feel for Brad, he seems just as nice as his cousin. It’s kind of weird though, the odds that the killer would throw away that gun on your property David,” commented Joe.
“A sad irony,” repeated David, “and I didn’t even know he owned one.”
Written 12-10-19
Copyright, 2019, M.L. Kiser
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