“Cobb was looking into turtle poaching in Tyrrell County and made the bear discovery by accident when he was shadowing Harvey Pearce.”
Anger welled in me as I thought of Harvey Pearce.
“The son of a bitch baited bears with Honey Buns, then blew their brains out, cut off the paws, cut out the gallbladders, and dumped the rest.”
“Maybe Pearce’s particular circle in hell will be full of bears, and Harvey without so much as a peashooter.”
I thought of something else.
“That note in Brian Aiker’s wallet really threw me.”
“Cobb’s note to Aiker.”
“Yeah. I assumed Cobb meant Columbia, South Carolina. I forgot Harvey Pearce lived in Columbia, North Carolina.” I shook my head at my own stupidity. “I also thought Cobb was referring to Palmer Cousins as the person who was dirty.”
“He meant plural not singular, the Dynamic Duo from Sneedville, Tennessee.” After some grammatical stumbling, Ryan and I had agreed on the masculine pronoun for Charlotte Cobb.
“The Melungeon cousins.”
I watched a pelican swoop over the water, tuck its wings, and plunge toward a wave. Seconds later it came up empty.
“Do you suppose the Spix’s macaw and the goldenseal were just opportunistic sidelines?” I asked.
“Dorton may have asked Cousin J.J. to gather the goldenseal. He probably planned to persuade his regulars that the stuff was effective at masking drugs during urine tests.”
“And Harvey Pearce probably got the macaw the same way he scored the bird Pounder mentioned.”
“Probably,” Ryan agreed. “Tyree sold coke on the street for Dorton. Tyree, Dorton, Pearce, and Park met periodically at the Foote farm. Pearce probably brought the bird to the farm on one of those trips. Sadly for all, it didn’t survive its ordeal.”
“But someone saved the feathers, thinking they might be good for a few bucks.”
Exactly as Rachel Mendelson had suggested.
“That would be my guess,” Ryan said.
Boyd spotted a kid on a bike, ran with him a few yards, then veered off after a sandpiper.
“Tamela had nothing to do with the drugs, just went to the farm with Tyree.” I pictured the Banks sisters in my kitchen. “You should have seen her face, Ryan. I believe her account of the stillbirth.”
“Couldn’t prosecute anyway. No way to prove cause of death.”
We both rolled that thought around. Then I had another.
“So Cobb alerted Brian Aiker, and the two began poking around. Dorton or Park found out.”
“Dorton probably gave the order, but according to Tyree, Park killed Aiker,” Ryan said. “Drugged him, took two cars to the boat ramp, and rolled Aiker’s car into the water. Wouldn’t surprise me if Tyree drove one of the cars.”
“And Tyree killed Cobb.”
“According to the innocent accused, he ain’t no killer. He only does ‘bidness.’ Fills a human need. All Tyree admits to is hauling Cobb’s head and hands to the Foote farm in a sack provided by Park, who wanted to make the body more difficult to identify.”
“Two bullets in the head strike you as Park’s style?” I asked.
“Not exactly,” Ryan agreed. “Tyree claims to know nothing about bear parts, either. Claims that was entirely Jason Jack’s and Harvey’s enterprise. Claims he had to dig up and move some of the bears because the privy was becoming overfull and he was afraid the smell could draw attention to Cobb’s remains.”
“Only the moron dug up part of the very thing he was trying to hide.” Another question skipped into my mind. “Did Park kill Dorton?”
“Very doubtful. No motive, and the tox screen showed Dorton was skyed to the eyeballs on coke and alcohol. We may never know if the cause of death was homicide or acute numerical ascension.”
“OK, Ryan. I’ll bite.”
“His number was up.”
The orbital roll caused moderate pain.
“But we do know Park made a trip to Charlotte two days after Sonny Pounder’s arrest.”
About the time I was analyzing Tamela’s baby’s bones.
“Why?” I asked.
“That’s unclear. But Slidell discovered Park made a credit card charge at a gas station on Woodlawn and I- 77.”
“Think Park and Dorton were planning to take Pounder out if he talked?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me. What is clear is that Park killed Murray Snow. Woolsey found a tin of Ma Huang in the chapel basement.”
