Chapter Three

 Cash had gotten back from town with a whole lot of questions in his mind and yet, he should’ve been tipped off that something was a amidst for the chief had been extremely eager to get him to Canton. There was something deeply planted in the roots of Canton and his job was to either keep it covered up or bring justice to it. What exactly needed sorting out and would be even be able to trust his new partner? Apparently his partner would come to him groomed into persuading him in favor of what the chief would want. Well Cash didn’t work like that. Then, on the other hand, maybe the chief and his precinct were the ones being controlled? He’d find out and it wouldn’t take him long. For now, he trusted no one. What he had hoped to be a smooth transition was quickly proving to be otherwise. The towns folk had made that quite clear. He had been in a good and positive mood heading into Canton that morning for his first time smelling the fresh air that he hadn’t taken in years and the trip ended being anything but comfortable. No matter where he had stopped people were blatantly judging him and following his every step that seemed to rush him along and out the door. He hadn’t bothered with the furniture store and nor had he stopped to pick up a rake to attempt cleaning up his yard either that he wanted to get to. He’d just look on line later for what he wanted and would have it delivered. He passed by the Ford dealership and was on the phone with them ordering up his pick up truck he had wanted for years before he had even made it back home. The truck he could pick up later that afternoon but for now what he had was a new coffee pot and backseat full of groceries. That would have to be his start. It wasn’t a big start but it would have to do for now. He had questions on his mind and he wanted a head start on his own answers before calling up his new partner. He needed to do a bit of digging first to see what skeletons that Canton had shoved deeply into the back of the closet first. All of this uncertainty about Canton would sort itself out. If he had survived one hell of a wicked divorce and the city, he would fight for the sanctity of his new chapter of life here in Canton as well. This was merely a hiccup. He was just unaware in that moment at how very dramatically his life was going to change and even so within that following 15 minutes when he’d crack his laptop open. Canton had more then one puzzle for him to put together. 

After making himself a sandwich and snagging a beer he looked to his living room for somewhere to sit and now absolutely regretted not sucking up the awkwardness and stopping at the furniture store to just pick himself out a sofa and recliner so he could trash what mice had more than likely made homes in. He kicked the couch frame a few times with the side of his boot to stir anything out if anything were in there before he’d have a seat with his lunch and laptop. Given his stout and muscular stature, he sank as he sat bringing his knees damn near up to his arm pits. He minus well have just had a seat on the drafty floor boards. Now that he sat on broken down springs he really regretted not stopping at that furniture store. Making himself as comfortable as he could get he situated himself. “So, Canton, what do you have for me?” He asked out loud as he tethered his phone to his computer off a hot spot and waited for it to load. There was something to be missed in connection speed he realized out there in the middle of the woods as he took a bite of his sandwich. When the screen appeared for him the sandwich found the plate and he took a healthy swig off his beer to wash it down with and began typing. Plenty popped up for him. With a quick scroll down the links he noticed a consistent pattern in each headline. Two names to playEd tug of war in mention, Negan Coldwell, Negan Coldwell, Bob Mackey, Negan Coldwell, Bob Mackey and the pattern repetitively repeated itself over in a loop. Gangs were Cash’s first inclination. He was no stranger to this. Just because Dorothy didn’t find himself in Kansas anymore didn’t mean that a struggle for power wouldn’t exist. Maybe given his back ground with gangs was why the chief wanted him. “Well, Boys, what are we fighting over?” He asked taking another swig and clunked his bottle down on the coffee table. “Let’s start with you Nee’-g. You seem to be Mr. Most Popular. Are you king?” He questioned sarcastically and minimized that window to open another to run just a search on Negan Coldwell alone. He’d start at the top and work his way down. Cash took a seat back at first realizing his search on Negan had given him plenty. This might be a bigger mess than what he had anticipated at first glance. What possibly could be in a small town like Canton to cause so many goddamn problems? “You’re a busy boy aren’t you?” He mentioned looking to all his links but his curiosity had him looking to the top of the screen at all the thumbnails of a dark haired and featured gentleman with a bit of salt and pepper in his thick beard and mustache that he would guess him to be in his early to mid 50’s. “View images. Don’t mind if I do.” He talked back into nothing and clicked the button to bring up enough to satisfy himself with. One thing that was most constant in these photos with him were race horses. Gorgeous horses. Studs and mare alike.  He was a horseman Cash nodded. He’d bank on the fact that given the type of town that Canton was, was that horses were probably the problem. If he could tear himself away to another window he’d bet that Bob Mackey too owned fine horses. Big money was on the table and money and power would destroy men and anything in their way to sit top of the mountain. There was probably land involved too. He had noticed a lot of cattle trailers in town that morning and he guessed that each of them had their hands in those pots too. Cash chose one photo to take a closer look. He knew a thing or two about horses himself having had been raised on a farm in a small town. It was funny how life could make one giant loop like it did. As a young man, he couldn’t wait to leave the country for the city and now here he was back to it and couldn’t be more excited about it. He hadn’t realized that he had done this till he saw this man Negan with his champions. As he took to looking at one photo and another and another yet that he wasn’t realizing that he was studying the horses far less than the time that he was spending looking at their owner and he had yet to read a single word. What he did notice of was that there were no photos of him with anyone in particular. A filthy rich man like that would’ve had photos of him on vacation on some remote tropical island snorkeling or swimming with dolphins with some picture perfect beautiful woman. There was no wife or girlfriends. He wasn’t a playboy by any means and if he was, he was a hell of a good one because nothing had surfaced. There only seemed to be photos of him with horses and he apparently liked to run marathons all over the world. It made very little sense to him as to why a man as wealthy as he apparently was and active and attractive as he was that he wouldn’t have anyone. “Hmmm...” Cash hummed sitting back in the sofa and scratched his chin staring at the photo for a long moment. “You’ve got some dark ass eyes you know that?” He spoke to the screen that seemed to be looking directly back at him and threw himself forward to stretch for his now piss warm beer off the coffee table and starred into the river stone eyes as black as coal as if sitting across a table from him. “You’re going to give me sleepless nights aren’t you?” He asked swinging his bottle by the neck as if stirring a pot and then took a down a slug. “Yeah, you’re trouble alright and you’re smooth. You’re probably a real son of a bitch aren’t you?” He questioned. “Hmm?” He hummed again raising an eye brow. “Well I tell you what pretty boy, I’m going to straighten your ass right the fuck out because you know what? I’m one hell of an asshole too.” He narrowed in his promise and that promise he became fixated on. He hadn’t looked up Bob Mackey yet because he had found himself falling down the rabbit hole of Negan Coldwell and time had began to slip away from him.