Rant: The Oral History of Buster Casey

"The last two gadgets are yours," the father guy says, "but you're welcome to take it all."

And the girl says, "How the fuck…?"

Officer Romie Mills (Homicide Detective): Standard procedure is to stake out the residence of anyone emotionally significant to the suspect. We had officers watching the Lawrence apartment and the suspect's apartment. We were well aware of Chester Casey's comings and goings, and we can confirm that both he and Echo Lawrence were in the suspect's apartment, together, for a period of time with the landlord, Lewis Terry.

Lew Terry: The father guy touches a spot on the apartment wall, tapping the paint, and he says, "Look here."

It's one of those hash bumps.

The father guy reaches inside the chest pocket of his bib overalls and brings out a jackknife; he snaps the blade open and stabs it into the plaster.

And I tell him to just hold on. The damage deposit won't cover him carving up the walls.

With the knife still sunk into the plaster, he's wiggling the blade, saying, "But the money you stole should cover it…"

I didn't steal any money. I tell you. I told him, I did not steal anything from this apartment.

"Let's ask the coin dealer over on Grinson Street," the father guy says, and he draws the jackknife blade out of the wall. Where he stabbed and dug, he picks with two fingers. He slides out something and wipes the white plaster dust from it. A gold coin. And he says, "This look familiar?"

Officer Romie Mills: What's less clear is why Echo Lawrence apparently invited the suspect's father to her home, after that meeting. And why she allowed Chester Casey to take up residence in her apartment.

At that point, we had no solid leads on the whereabouts of Buster Casey.

Irene Casey: When I saw Chet onto that airplane, he must've been scared he was going to die. The poor man, he told me, "Reen, you've had a difficult time of this life." He said he was sorry about everything, but that he loved me, he would always love me. The last time he looked at me, from the doorway of going on that plane, Chet said, "You were a wonderful mother."

Shot Dunyun: Boy oh boy, Rant's dad rolls into town certifiably, bona-fide, bat-shit crazy. He shacks up with Echo. Calls that pest-control place to ask for Rant's old job. The first time I meet him, this middle-aged doofus, he grabs my neck with one hand. He gropes me, plants his mouth over mine, and says, "Miss me?"

How weird is that shit?

When I said "mine," I meant my mouth.

Lew Terry: Me and that crippled girl, we watch while the dead kid's father goes around the room. Everywhere there's a soft black lump, he stabs in his knife and digs out a gold coin. Looking at the girl, the father guy says, "In your apartment, when you fell asleep, the last night you and Buster were together, he pasted lumps of his snot around your walls."

The cripple, she says, "Rant wiped boogers on my walls?"

Everywhere she finds a lump of snot, the father says, Rant was leaving her some treasure.

She says, "I still don't understand."

He says, "Don't bother getting tested for rabies, just start your treatments."

This girl, she says, "You're not really a policeman, are you?"

32–In Hindsight

Ruby Elliot (Childhood Neighbor): I can tell you, getting abandoned at the Junction Airport by her husband is not the worstest event ever to happen to Irene Casey.

Glenda Hendersen (Childhood Neighbor): Basin and Ruby and me, we went through school with Irene, and she was always cutting class. Never did seem to matter, how she come into the world without a daddy. Irene was full of grand plans. Talking all the time about college or the army, anything she figured could deliver her out of town. Sad part is, she never did get beyond the ninth grade. The summer we was thirteen years old, her and Basin, Ruby and me, we ran wild, staying out; then Irene quit coming to the phone. Irene quit—well—everything.

Ruby Elliot: Between you, me, and the lamppost, it was no surprise to anybody that Irene was expecting. Three months along, folks say, before she married Chet. Story is, out of the blue, Chester Casey walked up on her porch and asked her ma, Esther, Could he have a word with Miss Irene Shelby? Like him and Irene was total strangers. Nobody hereabouts knew Chester from Adam. He come out of nowhere, no job or family, simply showed up in Middleton, saying, "Good morning, Dr. Schmidt…Howdy, Reverend Fields." Calling everybody by his name.

Wasn't until that day Esther even knowed her girl was pregnant.