Free An Unmarked Grave by Kent Conwell Page A

off a tree and rolled down into a gully.
The JP, George McDaniel-he runs the feed store up the
road-well, he said Chester was drunk" He wrinkled his
nose. "Smelled like a still in the pickup"
    "He, uh, have any sobriety tests run?"
    Perry shrugged. "No need. It was obvious."
    I had to remind myself I was in the middle of good-oldboy country. They approached just about everything much
more casually than did the boys in Austin. "This Buck Ford.
He live close by?"
    The sheriff hesitated a moment before replying. "First
road past Hooker's. Take a right. His is the first place you
see, about half a mile up" He paused and chuckled. "It's
the only place on the road"
    "Thanks" I paused and nodded in the direction of the
UFO museum. "Justin was pretty deep into that UFO stuff,
wasn't he?"
    Perry eyed me suspiciously. "Like I told you before. That's
all it was, just stuff and nonsense. It was all one big hoax.
Everyone knows it." He rose and headed for the coffeepot.
"Care for a cup? This time of day, I need a pick-me-up."
    "Might as well"
    He set out an extra cup. "Sugar and cream if you want it." He poured two cups and continued. "I didn't know
UFO-I mean, Chester-all that good. He was a strange
bird, but maybe if he hadn't took that UFO nonsense so serious, he'd still be alive. I tried to convince him, but he paid
me no mind"

    The coffee was strong, almost as strong as the brew served
back in Louisiana. "Did he ever tell you what he was looking
for?"
    "Some. He was convinced the hoax really happened. That
it wasn't no hoax"
    I knew the story, but the sheriff seemed to be loosening
up. I cleared my throat. "I never heard it all, just the bits and
pieces Justin told me on the way back to Austin last month"
    He sipped his coffee and fished a cigarette from his pocket.
He offered me one, but I declined. "Gave it up years ago"
    Perry grinned ruefully, the freckles on his face all scrunching together. "Wish I could. Bad for a feller." He touched
a match to his cigarette. "Nothing to the story. Like I said,
it's one big hoax" He chuckled. "Even got some newspaper
coverage. But that's all it was, just a hoax"
    "Newspaper coverage, huh?"
    He nodded emphatically. "Yep. Dallas Morning Telegram. Got a bunch of write-ups for a month or so until it
sort of died out. About fifty years later, it popped up again.
Well, the mayor at the time, Jim Bob Houston, whose pa
had been one of them what made it all up to begin with,
wrote the Dallas paper a letter telling them about the hoax.
In fact, Mabel Hooker over at the gas station has the letter
framed on her wall. It's right next to the original newspaper
article. We get a big kick out of them"

    "I'd like to see them"
    "Like I said, they're right on the wall at Mabel's."
    I sipped my coffee. "Justin called me after he got back
here. Said he'd been exploring. He find anything?"
    Perry pursed his lips and with a wry grin replied, "I don't
know how. Ain't nothing out there to find"
    For some reason, I said nothing of the piece of aircraft
skin Justin had mentioned. I wasn't sure why. Maybe I didn't
want to appear gullible. Or maybe I didn't want the sheriff
to know as much as I knew. "You lived around here long,
Sheriff?"
    "All my life." He dropped the cigarette butt onto the wood
floor and ground it under his heel. "My pa and grandpa
before me. That's how I know it was all a hoax. When I was
six or seven, Grandpa Joe told me all about it. He said the
townsfolk got a good laugh until so many city people came
in, running over plowed fields, putting the cows off their
milk, and in general upsetting everything"
    Setting my empty cup next to the pot, I thanked him. "Enjoyed our visit, Sheriff Perry. Now, who do I need to see
about getting into Justin's room?"
    He pointed in the direction of the museum. "The big redbrick house on the hill behind the museum. "Marvin Lewis
lives there. He's got a few sections of land out back. He owns
the museum. Used to be a state