small and neither my wife nor I had heard anything. I asked him what time. He said during the night, he didn’t have a watch. Then he said he heard it again early morning- right after sunrise- got up and found the gate open and saw a truck driving away fast. We always close the gate, but it’s just a pull-latch and sometimes if it’s not shut tight, the wind blows it open. So I didn’t consider that any big deal.”
“What kind of truck?” said Milo.
“He said a dark pickup. I didn’t push him because I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. It just didn’t seem that important.”
Milo said, “You doubted his credibility.”
“It’s not a matter of credibility,” said Daney. “Dr. Delaware, you tested Rand. Have you told the detective how severely learning disabled he was?”
I nodded.
“Now, combine that with the challenge of reentry.”
I said, “Had you known him to fantasize about things that didn’t exist?”
“Like a hallucination?” said Daney. “No. That’s not what happened Friday. It was more… exaggerating normal events. I figured he’d heard a bird or a squirrel.”
“Now you’re not sure,” said Milo.
“In view of what happened,” said Daney, “I’d be foolish not to wonder.”
“Anything happen between Friday and Saturday night?”
“He didn’t say anything more about being watched or the dark truck and I didn’t bring it up,” said Daney. “He took a walk and came back and said he’d been by a construction site and was going to go back in the afternoon to talk to the boss.”
“What time was the first walk?” said Milo.
“We eat early… maybe eight, eight-thirty a.m.”
“What kind of job was he looking for?”
“Anything, I guess. He had no real skills.”
“C.Y.A. rehabilitation,” I said.
Daney’s husky shoulders bunched. “Don’t get me started.”
Milo said, “Sir, your wife says Rand left at five p.m. to meet the supervisor. But the site closes down by noon.”
“I guess Rand was misinformed, Detective. Or someone misled him.”
“Why would they do that?”
“People like Rand tend to be misled.” He consulted his watch again and stood. “Sorry, I need to get going.”
“One more question,” said Milo. “I’m going to be contacting Rand’s family. Any idea where to start?”
“Don’t bother to start,” said Daney. “There’s no one. His grandmother died several years ago. Complications of heart disease. I was the one who informed Rand.”
“How’d he react?”
“Just what you’d imagine. He was extremely upset.” He glanced at his Jeep. “I don’t know if any of this was useful, but I thought I should tell you.”
Milo said, “I appreciate it, sir. You didn’t want your wife to know because…”
“No sense upsetting her. Even if it was relevant, it would have nothing to do with her.”
“Is there anything else that might help me, sir?” said Milo.
Daney jammed his hand in his pocket. Looked at the Jeep again. Ran a hand across the steel needles of his beard. “This is… ticklish. I really don’t know if I should be bringing it up.”
“Bring what up, sir?”
“Rand was found far from home, so I was thinking, maybe that truck… what if someone
“A dark pickup,” said Milo. “That ring any bells?”
“That’s the thing,” said Daney. “It does, but I’m really not comfortable… I know this is a murder investigation, but if you could be discreet…”
“About what?”
“Quoting me as the source,” said Daney. He bit his lip. “There’s a whole lot of history here.”
“Something to do with eight years ago?”
Daney pulled at his cheek again. Created a lopsided frown.
“I’ll be as discreet as possible, sir,” said Milo.
“I know you will…” Daney turned as a truck loaded with bags of fertilizer drove onto the lot. Dark blue. A stick-on sign said
Daney said, “See what I mean, pickups are all over. I’m sure it’s no big deal.”
“Give it a shot, anyway, Mr. Daney. For Rand’s sake.”
Daney sighed. “Okay…” Another sigh. “Barnett Malley- Kristal Malley’s father drives a dark pickup. Or at least he used to.”
“Eight years ago?” said Milo.
“No, no, more recently. Two years ago. That’s when I ran into him at a True Value hardware store not far from here. I was buying parts to fix a garbage disposal and he was loading up on tools. I noticed him right away but he didn’t see me. I tried to avoid him but we encountered each other at the register. I let him go ahead of me, watched him leave and get into his truck. A black pickup.”
“You two talk?” said Milo.
“I wanted to,” said Daney. “Wanted to tell him I could never really understand his pain but that I’d prayed for his daughter. Wanted to let him know that just because I’d reached out to Troy and Rand didn’t mean I didn’t understand his tragedy. But he gave me a look that said ‘Don’t go there.’ ”
He hugged himself.
“Hostile,” I said.
“More than that, Doctor.”
“How much more?” said Milo.
“His eyes,” said Daney. “Pure hatred.”
We watched the white Jeep drive off.
Milo said, “Barnett Malley. It has now officially gotten messy. So how would an ambush fit the time frame- and the call to you an hour and a half after he left the Daneys’?”
“Rand could’ve lied to the Daneys about going to the construction site.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Because he had a meeting before the one with me and didn’t want them to know about it. With Barnett Malley.”
“Why would he do that?”
“I told you he sounded troubled. If guilt was weighing him down and he was trying to prove he was a good person, who better to ask for forgiveness than Malley?”
“Daney said he was freaked out by being watched.”
“But the next morning he looked better. Maybe he’d somehow made contact with Malley, decided to take positive action. State law requires notification of victims’ families when a felon’s released, so Malley would’ve known Rand was out. What if Malley kept an eye on Rand, confronted him face-to-face during Rand’s first trip to the site at eight a.m.? They agreed to meet later and Rand invented the appointment with the construction supervisor as cover.”
“Not an ambush,” he said. “He gets in Malley’s truck voluntarily, then it goes bad.”
“Rand was impressionable, not very smart, eager for absolution. If Malley came across friendly- forgiving- Rand would’ve been eager to buy it.”
