(no subject)

38.
“To Begin Again”

Jeff Barsimmon was the one. Of the trio Pappy was going to interview when the entire case exploded and the world decided it was all over, this one was the only one he hadn’t talked to.

To leave a Barsimmon out of anything happening in Setonville or the environs would seem unlikely, and anti-politic.

Getting a meeting with him wasn’t hard, since he was working to get Porter Gates a congressional seat he was happy to speak to anyone who would listen, and had a special place in his heart for anyone involved with what was now being called the “Wiley Earl Serial Murder Case.”

Pappy called and set up an appointment for Monday morning, and then set along the gossip road to find out as much about this young fella as he could.

The boy had the same problems that many young men who grew up in over pampered situations exhibit.

There tended to be a feeling of entitlement that was the worst of the defects in the class. Because everything was given to them from birth they came to believe, for some reason, that it was no less than they deserved.

In the tiny feudal state that was Setonville, Jeff Barsimmon was a duke in training. He had little to point to him as out of the gates of those who lived within the law however. There was a shop lifting arrest from when he was eleven, but that was quickly fixed up by his father. There had been some alcohol charges and driving infringements, but nothing that any other boy might get while testing his limits.

On the plus side the kid had always been fast to volunteer for charity. He was especially involved with childhood diseases and their cures. Pappy wondered how much of that came from the feeling he and the others of that age must have felt during the original set of killings.

He had gone off to college in Springfield, Mo. And was known as a good
student of Political Science. He later signed on in several election campaigns and his path for the future seemed to have been chosen.

He had come back to town for unspecified reasons, just after the eighth boy was found. He had been in the process of buying Atlantis from the Mayor. The reason for this was going to be a subject of questioning also.

But, there didn’t seem to be anything that could link the boy to any of the dirty dealings in this case, but Pappy thought he might be able to shed some light on the case. He was, after all, someone who knew most of the boys in the first set of killings. He also knew Wiley Earl from the camp, back in the days when he went to that camp. It wasn’t a surprise that he had tried to keep it open.

Pappy prayed that this rich boy could at least open a door through which he could find a perspective that might lead to something that had slipped past everyone so far.

 

© 2005 by C. Wayne Owens