The Chicken Hanger

Chapter 25

171 TWENTY-FIVE Brent nielsen hoped herschel gandy would now comprehend the full stupidity of his actions. The shooting was being investigated, and the victim had filed a lawsuit. Deep down, Nielsen couldn’t help but feel a certain amount of satisfaction. “You’ve got yourself into a real mess, Herschel,” Nielsen said.“You’re going to need a good criminal attorney.” Gandy didn’t react. Just sat there staring into space. He looked hung over. He smelled like booze. “I can refer you to someone,” Nielsen said. “Best guy in the county.” “I’m not worried.” “You should be.” “I’ll look guilty if I hire some bigshot lawyer.” You are guilty, Nielsen thought. He wanted to gather his things and leave. Let Gandy deal with this fiasco himself. “I saw a TV commercial for McDonald’s the other day,” Gandy said. What in the world are you babbling about? Nielsen wondered. “It had a couple of Mexicans in it. They were selling some kinda chicken sandwich, but they didn’t call it chicken, they called it pollo.” Nielsen was starting to have serious concerns about Gandy’s mental condition . “What’s your point?” Gandy shook his head, “Boy, you just don’t get it, do you?” Nielsen treated it as a rhetorical question and didn’t answer. After several moments, Gandy said, “What about the lawsuit?” “What about it?” “What’s it gonna take to get it thrown out?” “What makes you think it’s going to be thrown out?” “The guy’s not even a U.S. citizen. He was trespassing.” “That makes no difference.” Gandy gaped at him. “It doesn’t?” “Of course not. Delgado has rights, too, just like you and me. I tried to tell you that the other night, at dinner. Didn’t you ever hear of a group called Ranch Rescue?” Gandy hadn’t, so Nielsen told him the full story. As Gandy listened, an expression slowly crept onto his face. Rage? Anguish? Incredulity? But he didn’t 172 say anything. He looked down. His shoulders were slumped. He looked like a boxer lingering on his stool after a losing night. Nielsen said, “I’ll contact Delgado’s attorney and get negotiations going. Your best bet is to settle the lawsuit as quickly and quietly as possible. Go to court and you never know what’s gonna happen. Plus, if they like the settlement , there’s a good chance they’ll drop the criminal charges. They can’t come right out and promise that explicitly—it violates state bar rules—but it happens anyway. Sort of an implied part of the deal.” “Sounds like fucking blackmail.” Nielsen shrugged. “I guess you could look at it that way.” He rose to leave. But Gandy wasn’t done. “Look,” he said. “I didn’t tell you the complete truth.” What now? “How so?” “When I said it was me and Clayton in that deer blind ... it wasn’t. It was Clayton, all by himself.” Nielsen reluctantly sat back down. He didn’t know what to believe. “Why did you lie?” Gandy took a moment before answering. “Clayton was my friend, so I wanted to back him up. See, if I was there with him, I could swear that it was an accident. But I wasn’t there. He didn’t tell me about it until later. He said it was a mistake, but ... Christ, you think I’m hard on Mexicans, Clayton was even worse. He mighta shot Delgado on purpose. He started all this bullshit, and now he’s gone.” “Gone where?” “I don’t know. Just gone. I haven’t seen him since Saturday afternoon. I called his cell phone a couple of times, but no answer. I think he took off. Left me to deal with this clusterfuck. You need to tell the sheriff. It was all Clayton.” “So you’re saying he’s the one who fired the shots?” “Yeah. Weren’t you listening?” “You weren’t there, and you’re willing to swear to that in court?” Gandy looked up. “What, you don’t believe me?” It wasn’t easy, but Nielsen managed to say it. “Yeah, I believe you, Herschel. Now tell me everything Clayton told you about the shooting. Don’t leave anything out.” c It had to be Anthony. Ricky didn’t know what to do. His heart was booming. He was trembling all over. The door to the carport could provide an escape route, but...