Briery Knob -- Chapter 4 -- The Corn Chopper
Rumors about the "Rainbow Murders" flowed in the mountains like streams. One story said the dead girls and the Rainbow group angered locals for choosing their area for a gathering. Other rumors said the girls died murdered in a hippie-ritual or decapitated or dumped by the Mafia.
If anyone feared the rumors would wind down, they squandered energy. With every round of the backroads, someone would add another detail and give the rumor new wings.
"Jjust a gathering of drug-crazed hippies," said more than one Hillsboro citizen. Tight-lipped attitudes from residents hampered the investigation. In a region where everyone knew everyone -- and related to most -- no one wanted to support an investigation of one of their own.
One July morning, two years after the murders, sunlight filtered through the clouds and sparkled on the green, yellow and black mix of paint which gave John Deere its unique and distinctive shade of green on each of the riding mowers parked in front of Greenbriar Tractor Sales.
Jacob Beard smoothly maneuvered the John Deere around the pickups blocking the service interest as a lavender-scented breeze whispered among the spits of chewing tobacco. He drew a deep breath and smiled just before noticing the sheriff's deputy pulling into the gravel lot.
"Jacob, I need to talk to you," said Bob pulling his gun belt higher on his bloated stomach.
Beard, larger than life and physically imposing, weighed in at more than 250 pounds Well known by the mountain dwellers for being mean, he faced animal cruelty charges for killing his former girlfriend's cat and leaving it on her bed.
The deputy guided the lawn mower mechanic to the corner of the oversize metal building, "Jacob. We've got a problem. But if you'll cooperate with can make the cruelty charges go away."
Jacob followed the cream-and-brown cruiser to the Sheriff's Department where they went inside, got two Styrofoam cups of coffee, left over from last night. Sitting in the gray government issue chairs, they set their coffee on the faux-marble table top and leaned into each other.
"Jacob, we hear you been making phone calls to Miss Durian's parents."
"No. Not me."
"Well, Jacob. You've called them twice. After your first call, we put a tap on their phone and identified you as the caller when you called again."
"No. No, you're mistaken. It wasn't me."
"The Durians told us you said the cops weren't doing their job and that you weren't the killer."
Jacob's hand shook. Coffer coffee covered his hand.
"Now here's what we're going to do Jacob. We're going to grant you immunity for any after-the-fact involvement you may have had. We won't give you immunity for any involvement as a principal or accessory."
Beard thought quick.
"Well, I worked until one -- you can check the time cards."
"We will."
"Then I had to go and work on a customer's tractor."
"And...?"
"About 5:15 I went to the grocery store and before Linda and me went to a school board meeting at seven."
"And then what Jacob?"
"Me and Linda got home about nine."
"Don't you live close to Droop Mountain?"
"Yeah. Oh yeah. On the way home I saw Christine Cooks's car. She was parked near the entrance to the park. She was that boyfriend of hers, Palmer Atkison, and William McCoy."
"Did you see anyone else there?"
"Well, there were two women who could have been the Rainbow women."
The deputies looked at each other and asked Jacob if he wanted another cup of coffee. Nodding, he held the cup out. Bob noticed his hand was still shaking.
"You know, there was another Rainbow hippie-woman killed in September that year," Jacob said when Bob returned to the interrogation room.
Handing Jacob his coffee, Bob's eyes widened slightly and asked, "What woman Jacob?"
"Adkison and Arnold Cutlip killed one of those hippie-women and brought the body over to my place. We put it in my corn chopper and got rid of it."
The police investigated and determined Beard was lying about the corn chopper murder. Despite that, they arrested Cutlip and held him for two months before releasing him.
It would be a day or so before law enforcement got around to interviewing Atkison and McCoy. They stopped by McCoy's home and finding his sister asked to talk with her.
"Yeah, Billy came home late that night. He was covered in blood and told me to burn his clothes."
"Did he say how he got bloody?"
"Yeah. He killed a deer."
Glancing at each other, the detectives asked, "What did he do with the deer? Is it in the freezer?"
"Yah know? He didn't have no deer when he came home."
The next morning the detectives interviewed Christine, and she denied being near the park that day.