Accused

by Michael Kerr

  “They’re beautiful. If I had a place with enough room I’d love to have one of those horses.”

  Logan sipped his coffee and weighed Mike up and decided that if they wanted help, then he would have to tell him the truth, or at least part of it: “We’re in a bind, Mike,” he said. “And we could use some assistance to get out of it.”

  “What kind of bind?”

  “Have you seen the local news about the shooting at Dicky’s Diner?”

  “I heard it on the radio. I’m one of the few people on the planet that doesn’t have a TV. What’s your involvement with what went down?”

  “Ellie was working there,” Logan said. “I was just a customer waiting to eat when some wise guys came in and it kicked off. I got cold cocked and missed the action, and Ellie managed to leg it out back and hide till the police arrived.”

  There seemed no point in holding back what had followed, and so Logan told Mike the whole story up to the point that they’d turned up at his door.

  “That’s heavy shit,” Mike said. “So the bad guys want you both dead, and the police want you as material witnesses?”

  “That’s the state of play,” Logan said. “Everybody wants a piece of us, and if we get found we may not make it out the other side.”

  “You mean the police couldn’t protect you?”

  “It’s not a given. One trooper already got shot dead supposedly protecting us.”

  “What do you plan on doing?” Mike said as he took his and Logan’s cups over to the counter and refilled them.

  “Find somewhere safe for Ellie, and then deal with the problem.”

  “How?”

  “I haven’t decided yet, but I guess it could get messy.”

  “From what you’ve told me you’re up against a guy that has connections and a lot of manpower.”

  Logan shrugged. “They don’t know who I am, and won’t see me coming. I’ve been this route before. Most gangsters like Cassidy are basically stupid. They think that it’s a numbers game, and they usually know who they’re targeting and where they are. I’m not from here, and currently the only person that knows where Ellie and I are is you.”

  “Every cop out there will have a description of you, Logan. You stand out like a tall tree in an otherwise empty field.”

  “I can stoop a little and dress differently, and wear shades and stop shaving. People look for what they expect to see.”

  “So you intend to go it alone?”

  Logan nodded and said, “I prefer it that way as a rule.”

  “You’re welcome to stay here while Logan does his thing,” Mike said to Ellie Mae.

  “I wouldn’t want you getting mixed up in this,” Ellie Mae said.

  Mike grinned: “I reckon I already am now,” he said. “Stay and have a meal and freshen up while you both think it over.”

  “Thanks,” Ellie Mae said for both her and Logan. “Guess you don’t have running water out here in the back of beyond.”

  “Wrong,” Mike said. “You’re not as far from civilization as you might suppose. This cabin and the workshop alongside it stand on concrete foundations. There was a prefabricated ranger station here up until about ten years ago. They had water piped in from a main that feeds a small subdivision not far from here. The highway is less than a mile away as the crow flies; just the other side of the woods.”

  “All mod cons, eh?” Logan said.

  “Yeah. I have an oil-fired generator and plenty of wood for the fire.”

  Two hours later, after they had both had a much needed hot shower, and then a meal of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and collard greens, Ellie Mae and Logan were feeling refreshed and full. It was hard to believe that they were on the run from gangsters and the New Orleans Police Department.

  “So what’s it to be?” Mike said. “Do you want to use my humble home as a base of operations?”

  Ellie Mae nodded her assent.

  Logan said, “You could be putting yourself in the firing line, Mike. I’m ninety-nine percent sure that no one has a clue where we headed when we left the motel, but there are no guarantees. If Cassidy’s crew were to find Ellie here, you’d both be killed.”

  “Sounds like more than good odds, Logan,” Mike said. “And if they stopped by on the off chance to ask if I’d seen a couple in the area, then I’d say yes, and that I’d given you both a drink of water and pointed you in the direction of the highway. And with my shotgun behind the door and Henry by my side, I think I’d have an edge.”

  “If you want to be crazy, fine,” Logan said. “Do you have a vehicle?”

  Mike frowned and said, “I’ve got an old truck behind the workshop.”

  “I don’t want to take it,” Logan said. “But I’d appreciate you driving me out of here tonight to the nearest diner. I can hitch a ride from there to the city.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  ROD and Lucy had grilled Benny Cooper and Clayton LaSalle throughout the night, and got nothing for their efforts. Cooper was sticking to his story; that Nash and LaSalle were playing poker with him at his apartment when the shootings went down at Dicky’s Diner. He was obviously fearful for his life and knew that if he broke the alibi he would end up being killed. He’d made his bed and was going to lie on it.

  “None of them are going to roll over,” Rod said when they took time out to have coffee and go over what leads they had. “All we have is what Logan said on the phone to you, and without an official statement from him it’s just hearsay.”

  “We’ll find him and Ellie Mae,” Lucy said. “It’s just a matter of time. And I’ve got the feeling that Logan will get back to me when he’s good and ready.”

  “That doesn’t help us charge Nash and LaSalle with anything,” Rod said. “Neither of them was in possession of a weapon. Knowing that they’re guilty as hell isn’t enough to keep them under lock and key.”

  “We could charge Nash with attempted robbery. He admitted that he had the intention.”

  “He’d get bail. We want him for murder, not on a charge that wouldn’t even put him in prison.”

  “So what do you plan on doing?” Lucy said.

  “Having one last run at Benny Cooper. If he sticks to his story, they get to walk, and we’ll have them tailed.”

  Benny was a mess. His nerves were shot and he needed a joint. A muscle was twitching in his left cheek and he was sweating like a pig, sure that one way or the other his future was looking bleak. When the two detectives came back in the room they looked unperturbed and smug.

  “You’ve blown it, son,” Rod said as he turned one of the wood chairs round and sat on it with his forearms resting on the back of it. “All that’s left to do now is for us to decide what charges to hit you with. One of your poker buddies just decided to lay it all on the other dummy and do a deal for lesser charges. He admitted that they were not with you for the best part of the evening.”

  Benny stared into Rod’s eyes and thought it through. He wasn’t the sharpest tack in the tin, but was a decent stud player, and could usually tell when another player was bluffing. The cop was raising the stakes, and so Benny knew he had to play his hand or fold. He was hoping for a ‘tell’; a look or mannerism that would indicate a lie.

  And he got one.

  Rod scratched at the stubble on his right cheek a couple of times, the way he’d done earlier when he had attempted to trick Benny into changing his story. It was an unconscious act, but enough to show the underlying tension the cop was feeling.

  “Pretty good,” Benny said to Rod. “But if one of them said he wasn’t at my place, he’s lyin’ to you. And we both know that you’re just tryin’ to turn me around. I’ll stick with the hand I’m holdin’.”

  Without the two witnesses to the incidents at Dicky’s and the motel, they had nothing. Benny had surprised them by holding out.

  It was a little after ten a.m. when Rod and Lucy were shown into the room where Brad Dicky was recovering. The gunshot to his thigh was bandaged, with a drain in the
exit wound. He would be leaving the hospital in a wheelchair, which to his way of thinking was a result. For a few minutes he had thought that he would die at his desk from blood loss. His main concern now was Nate Cassidy. They had been friends for a long time, and he hadn’t thought that the loan shark would get so heavy over an amount of money that to Nate was a drop in the ocean. He supposed it was principle. Not paying the agreed installments had ended up causing a massacre at the diner. He guessed that it hadn’t been planned that way, but that’s how it had panned out. He needed to talk to Nate and set things right, but at the present time he did not have the privacy to make a phone call.

  “Take a seat and let’s get this done with as quickly as possible,” Dicky said to the two detectives, knowing that they had come to ask him questions that he would not answer truthfully.

  “You shot a man in the back, Mr. Dicky,” Rod said.

  “He came into my diner and killed a man. I did what needed doing to stop him shooting anyone else.”

  “You could have told him to drop the gun.”

  “I could have offered him a free steak and salad, or asked him to stand on one leg and whistle Dixie, but I chose to shoot an armed intruder to ensure the safety of others, including myself.”

  “Okay,” Rod said. “What were Clayton LaSalle, Dwayne Nash and Kyle Tate doing at the diner?”

  “Those name’s don’t ring any bells,” Dicky said.

  “They should. They’re collectors for Nathan Cassidy. And Clayton LaSalle had been to see you a couple of weeks earlier.”

  “I didn’t see him if he was with the guy I shot. My eyes aren’t what they used to be. I thought it was a robbery in progress.”

  “And what exactly is your relationship with Nathan Cassidy?”

  “We grew up in the same ‘hood. I’ve known Nate for more years than I care to remember.”

  “So explain to us why he sent an armed crew to the diner.”

  “I don’t know that he did. If you think he did, then you should be talking to him and them, not me.”

  “We know for a fact that you owe Cassidy a lot of money and that you were being leaned on to pay up or sign your diner over to him.”

  “I don’t owe anyone a dime. But if you come up with any proof that I do, feel free to harass me again. I was a victim, Detective, and I’ve told you everything I know.”

  “You’re putting yourself in a corner, Mr. Dicky. Why not tell us what you do know and let us take care of the man that in all probability wanted you whacked.”

  “I got nothing more to say. I need to rest.”

  “We’ll be talking to you again, real soon,” Rod said. “You and I both know that you’re lying. Maybe it’s because you’re scared of Cassidy.”

  Dicky turned his head away from them and closed his eyes. He was done talking, and would not compound the shit he was in by ratting on Nate.

  “We’re getting nowhere in a hurry,” Lucy said to Rod after they left the room and were headed for the elevators. “We know what happened, and those responsible. All we need is a break. Find the weak link and pull it apart.”

  “Cooper is the only one that we have any chance of turning. And even if he does admit that LaSalle and Nash didn’t spend the evening at his apartment, that doesn’t prove anything. Without Logan and Ellie Mae we can’t put them at the scene.”

  “They both identified LaSalle,” Rod said.

  “We’d need them on a stand for it to count for anything. Two witnesses in the wind aren’t going to get a DA to run with this case.”

  “Maybe Logan and the woman are halfway to New York or LA, which would probably be the sensible thing for them to do.”

  “Logan isn’t the type to run away from trouble, Rod. I looked in his eyes and saw a ruthlessness to match that of any of the assholes he took down in the Big Apple for twenty years. I made an official request to the NYPD for his personnel file. I think I know how it’ll read. He’s a Dirty Harry type; a loose cannon that they reviled but valued because he got results and cleared cases.”

  “So what’s he running away from? Why would someone like him become a drifter?”

  Lucy shook her head and said: “Maybe he just needed to cut loose and do his own thing for a while. A lot of people retire and travel. He could be on an extended vacation, working out what to do next with his life.”

  “What do you reckon he’ll do next?”

  “Whatever he thinks will safeguard Ellie Mae from Cassidy and his muscle. You saw what he did to Nash to get information.”

  “If he phones you again, get him to meet on neutral ground. Maybe we can talk him into coming in and helping us deal with this without him breaking the law.”

  “Any trust he had in us evaporated when we didn’t put Ellie Mae in protective custody. And that was compounded when the trooper and motel owner were shot dead. It could have ended there if Logan hadn’t somehow got the upper hand.”

  They walked out of the hospital and across to the parking garage. Lucy drove back to headquarters, with a stop off for coffee and bagels at the Laurel Street Bakery on Broad Avenue.

  “Do we go another round with hear, see and do no evil, or spring them?” Rod said through a mouthful of cinnamon bagel.

  “I think if we let them walk, then LaSalle or Nash will contact Cassidy for instructions. He’ll still want Logan and Ellie Mae taken out, and so they’ll do their best to locate them.”

  “If we can’t find them, how the hell can they?” Lucy said.

  “I doubt that they can, but who knows? We need to stick to them like glue and hope that they can somehow find a trail.”

  “Where would you go if you were Logan?” Lucy said.

  “Somewhere out of the way and remote, but not too far from the action if I wanted to resolve the problem myself.”

  “He could use reverse psychology and be in town, under our noses,” Lucy said. “His background gives him an edge. He knows what to do, what we’ll do, and what Cassidy will attempt to do.”

  “So we’re out of the loop, eh?”

  “That’s about it. We need him and Ellie Mae. They don’t need us.”

  “Okay, put yourself in Logan’s shoes. What would your next move be?”

  “I’d cut the snake’s head off and negate the threat.”

  “So you think that he’ll target Cassidy?”

  “Yes. He’ll know that with him out of the way, the others will just look after their own skins.”

  “Out of the way?”

  Lucy hiked her shoulders and said, “He hurt Nash. Perhaps he’ll maim Cassidy, or even kill him.”

  “I don’t hold with vigilantes on the loose taking the law into their own hands, Lucy.”

  “He’s not interested in what we do or don’t condone, only what will be the best way to ensure that Ellie Mae remains alive. He no longer believes that we have the wherewithal to deal with it.”

  They left the coffee shop and were soon sitting at Lucy’s desk in the squad room, jacking up twenty-four/seven surveillance on LaSalle and Nash as they ate the blueberry bagels and washed them down with coffee. Nash was in the A&E department of the same hospital as Dicky. He had a taped up nose and a splint on his wrist, and was going to be pleasantly surprised to be told by a cop that he was not going to be charged with any crime at present. He was not to know that Rod and Lucy wanted him as free as a bird, to be followed and hopefully meet up with LaSalle. Benny Cooper was not considered as being more than a frightened man who’d been told to lie and furnish the other two with an alibi. Tailing him would be a waste of time.

  Back on the street, Dwayne bought a burner cell and called Clayton, who had also been released from custody, but told that he was still a suspect.

  “I’ll give you a call later,” Clayton said to Dwayne. “Just go home and chill out. I’ll check in with the boss and see what he wants us to do.”

  Clayton got a cab and thought it through before being dropped off at Jeanne G’s bar on Stumpf Boulevard, which was just a few minute
s walk from his apartment in Terrytown. He was not unduly worried about being suspected of anything. Without Logan and the waitress they had nothing. And it was obvious that the couple had decided to keep their whereabouts unknown. He would locate them and kill them, and that would be an end to it.

  The bar wasn’t busy, just too damn noisy, due to the shit-kicking music emanating from hidden speakers.

  “Yo, Clayton,” the barkeep said. “What can I get you?”

  “A cold one, Rusty. And I need to borrow your cell. Mine needs charging.”

  Rusty Nolan handed over his Nexus 6P and moved along the bar to pour a beer for Clayton and give him space to make his call.

  “Who is this?” Nathan said.

  “Me, boss. I’m on a clean phone. What do you want doing?”

  “Nothing for the time being. They’ll be watching you. I’ll deal with this, and then we’ll see what we see.”

  Nathan ended the call and decided that none of his other employees had enough brains to find and deal with Logan and the broad. He made another call to a guy by the name of Ed Jansen in Houston. Left a short message and contact number on voice mail.

  Ed Jansen was a mechanic that Nathan had used before to negate problems permanently. Jansen took his chosen profession very seriously, and was highly proficient at finding people and killing them.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “ARE you one hundred percent sure that you want to be involved in this?” Logan said as Mike stopped in the lot of a roadhouse next to the highway outside the city limits.

  “Like it or not I became involved the second that you and Ellie Mae turned up at my door,” Mike said. “If anyone comes by looking for you both, I’ll point them in the direction of the highway. They’ll have no reason to think I’d lie to them.”

  “Keep Ellie out of sight,” Logan said as he climbed out of the truck and picked up his rucksack from the foot well. “If they do turn up and see her, they’ll kill her, you and Henry, after they’ve satisfied themselves that you don’t know where I’ve gone.”