Chuck Thurston

The Coroner Takes A Ride Chuck Thurston

Woodrow "Woody" Stanton, is the 63 year old retired Chief of Police of West Hepzibah, a small valley town in the North Carolina mountains. He plays some golf, counsels his successor, and babysits his eleven-year-old autistic great-nephew, "Bruiser," whose savant observation skills compliment Woody's dogged pursuit of the truth. His quietude is interrupted by the escape of an eccentric mountain man - Morris Kearsey - originally captured by Woody eight years ago, charged with the brutal murder of his family, and institutionalized as criminally insane. Woody, uneasy about the conclusions reached in the case, suspected the Villains - a notorious biker gang - may have had a role in the killings. Events develop rapidly. Woody's old friend Everett Hartsell, the elderly, oft reelected Sykes County Coroner, admits that he is cozily familiar with a 40-something red-headed waitress, Rusty Kinkaid, a biker's dead body shows up in a golf course privy, Everett and Rusty disappear together, and Woody gets a night visit from the escaped Kearsey who reveals that Rusty was once the go-between connecting him and the bikers in their marijuana dealings. Woody chases down the clues, ultimately locates Rusty, and they wind up in 'Old Hep', during a furious winter storm as he ties everything together in the tumble-down, derelict ghost town that looks down on West Hepzibah.