Appalachian Intrigue

by Archie Meyers

  Snake was traveling between eighty and ninety miles per hour when he came up behind a gasoline tank truck. He swerved into the opposite lane to pass the truck, but the high speed caused him to misjudge the distance. The right front of the Lexus clipped the left side of the tanker, snapping off one of the discharge valves. The impact caused him to lose control, and he sideswiped two cars and spun around several times before rolling over the guard rail and coming to a stop on the front lawn of an apartment complex. The tanker had stopped, partially blocking the road, and gas was gushing from the severed valve. The police car that was following Snake slid in the discharged fuel and crashed into the guard rail on the opposite side of the highway. The officer was unconscious for a few minutes, and this allowed Snake to escape.

  Shattered glass from the side window of the Lexus had cut Snake’s arm and the airbag had stunned him when it deployed, but he had no serious injuries. The door was jammed so he slithered through the side window of the Lexus, much like his namesake would have done. He was running full speed and was out of sight before the people in the apartment complex had made it outside.

  The accident happened two blocks from the foot of the mountain and about two miles from the entrance to his cave. If he could just make it to the mountain without getting caught, he thought he would be safe. Snake’s galloping stride wasn’t very fast, but he did make it to the foot of the mountain and was quickly swallowed up by the underbrush; he was now on home turf.

  The accident site was alive with policemen; flashing blue lights lit up the area. Cops swarmed all over the neighborhood looking for the driver of the Lexus, but Snake was on the mountain and still running toward his cave.

  The police interviewed the elderly victim, who gave them a detailed description of her assailant, and they retrieved fingerprints from the wrecked Lexus. The woman’s description closely matched Snake’s mug shot, and the fingerprints later confirmed that Snake Wilson was still in the area.

  That was Snake’s first attempt at carjacking, and he decided it would be his last. It was much easier to steal parked cars. The following night he found a parked Lexus, delivered it to his brothers, and collected his fee.

  Chapter 45

  When Dex was twelve years old, Gigi offered him some sage advice. A boy who was helping him on his paper route had missed two houses, and the customers called to complain.

  “If you want a job done right, do it yourself.”

  She was talking about him letting someone else deliver his newspapers. She would be horrified if she knew that her admonition to him as a child was about to launch him on a mission that could get him killed.

  Intellectually Dex knew that going after Snake by himself was ill-advised, but at some point emotion overrides intelligence. Dex had reached that point. Sometimes the school bully pushes a little too hard and the timid child comes at him with fists flying. Snake had pushed him too far, and Dex was ready to go on the attack.

  The police investigation was based on an intellectual process, and it wasn’t going anywhere. In fairness to Lester Morgan, he was forced to follow specified procedures, but Dex didn’t have that handicap. If he had to break a few rules to stop the madness, he was ready to start.

  The idea of conducting an individual, unauthorized manhunt didn’t just suddenly occur to him. It began to form in his mind the day he finally came to the conclusion that Snake was the only one who was both crazy and depraved enough to have created all the mayhem.

  Dex was ready to go after him, but he wasn’t ready to discuss his plans with anyone. If he did decide to discuss an action plan with anyone, Marie Murphy and Lester Morgan would certainly not be on the list of confidants. Marie would panic, and Morgan would arrest him for obstruction. He had a lot of respect for Morgan, but the detective was hamstrung by official protocol and he played by the rules.

  Actually, at this point Dex didn’t have anything to discuss with Morgan anyway. He hadn’t decided what he was going to do; he had just decided what he would not do. He would no longer sit around and depend on someone else to solve his problem. As Gigi had said, “If you want it done right, do it yourself.”

  Until Snake was either behind bars or dead, and right now he didn’t care which of those options removed the threat, Dex would never have a moment with Marie without having to look over his shoulder and anticipate another attack.

  He had a few days to come up with a plan because he had been selected to run Argon’s booth at a trade show in Jacksonville, Florida. He had already worked the booth at a couple of trade shows, and his sports popularity was like a magnet drawing people to the booth. He actually enjoyed intermingling with people at trade shows, and the Jacksonville show was particularly important. Argon was poised to kick off the nationwide sales campaign for EaseFast, and this was a national show that would be well attended by health-care professionals from all over the country.

  As soon as Dex walked into the trade show, his attention was drawn to a giant banner designed by his marketing department. It was hanging from the ceiling and high enough to be seen over the maze of other booths. It read: “Meet All-American Dex Martin, Argon Pharmaceuticals, Booth 112.” By the time the two-day trade show was over, Dex thought most of the two thousand attendees had accepted the invitation.

  With the show now behind him, Dex could concentrate on what was really foremost in his mind: defining his plan to go after Snake Wilson. The drive back to River City gave him several hours alone to think about a plan and consider any problems he might encounter. He considered and rejected several ideas before deciding on one that he thought could be executed if he didn’t get killed in the process. He wanted Snake to be arrested and sent away for the rest of his miserable life, but only after he had personally had the pleasure of kicking the crap out of him.

  If Morgan found out what he was doing, Dex would be the one who was locked in a cell. Morgan himself was no closer to making an arrest than when he first started, and Snake was still running around creating mayhem. It might not be Morgan’s fault, but Dex understood why the mayor and district attorney were losing patience with his lack of success.

  Dex respected Morgan, but he had completely lost confidence in the procedures that handicapped law enforcement officers. Why hadn’t they been able to catch a guy with a room-temperature IQ? Dex thought they were too busy following the rules of their job to do their job. He didn’t have to abide by the ridiculous rules that gave an unfair advantage to criminals. He felt it would be more pragmatic to do it his way and beg forgiveness from Morgan after Snake was either behind bars or dead.

  Snake had to be hiding somewhere in the mountains. It was the only explanation for how he could suddenly appear, commit one of his criminal acts, and quickly disappear. Throughout history the mountains had always provided refuge for people fleeing from the authorities. Dex knew the mountains as well as Snake and certainly better than Morgan. He also knew it would be both foolhardy and unproductive to go after Snake while he was in the mountains. The success of any plan would depend on being able to trick or flush him out onto neutral ground.

  Dex was sure Rufus and Elroy were the answer; he just hadn’t yet figured out the question. The premise of his plan was that he knew they were lying; it was a genetic fault inherent in the Wilson DNA. It was inconceivable that they didn’t know how to contact Snake, and he couldn’t believe that Morgan was willing to accept their word at face value. They were all career criminals, and Dex was going to find some way to exploit their activities and force Rufus and Elroy to lead him to their demented brother.

  However, before he started chasing criminals, Dex wanted to get some advice from an old friend who was a former policeman and now a private investigator.

  Chapter 46

  Lundy Sloan was the owner of Sloan Investigations. He was also the only employee. Dex heard his friend answer the phone as he approached his open office door.

  “Good
morning, Sloan Investigations. Yes, Mrs. Gregory, I still have him under surveillance. No, I haven’t found any evidence that he is seeing another woman. Yes, I will keep you posted on what I find out.” Lundy hung up the phone, and Dex heard him talking to himself. “Damn, I hate divorce work.”

  Lundy had only been in business for a year but had already discovered why he didn’t have a lot of competition: there wasn’t much need for private investigators in River City. He hated undercover divorce work, but he had to do it to survive. No one was ever happy in a divorce case. The suspicious wife always wanted to shoot the messenger who told her about her philandering husband. And the cheating husband wanted to kill the wife’s investigator. Lundy had learned to live with the abuse, as long as the clients could afford his hourly rate, but he didn’t have to like doing it. He was sitting at his desk smoking a particularly foul-smelling cigar when Dex walked in the open door.

  “Good Lord, Lundy, did you set the place on fire?” Dex was waving the smoke away from his face as he stood in front of his friend’s battered desk.

  “Well if I had known a celebrity was going to drop in, I would have taken a bath and had the office deodorized. It’s about time you came to see the one who sacrificed his body blocking oversized goons just so you could look like a hero.”

  “Yeah, and I’ve still got cleat marks on my body from all the linebackers you didn’t block.”

  “Dex, how are you? Have they caught the guy that shot you? I always thought some jealous husband would get you. Is that really what happened?”

  “No Lundy, there isn’t a jealous husband involved, and they haven’t caught the idiot that shot me. I’m sure you know better than I do that the police in this town aren’t world-class crime solvers, present company excluded.”

  “No offense taken. I’m not a cop anymore and didn’t like the job very much when I was one. Of course there are also days when I don’t like this job very much. By the way, I’ve seen your girlfriend on television. She’s too good looking to be stuck with you, but if she’s cheating on you, I’m the guy to catch her at it.”

  Dex laughed and said, “No, Lundy, I don’t want you to check up on Marie; I just want to pick your brain. Is there any charge for that?”

  He grinned and said, “Not unless I have to leave the office.”

  “Lundy, Snake Wilson is the idiot that shot me. Do you remember him from high school?”

  “Yeah, and I also remember you kicking his ass in front of school one day.”

  “Well, believe it or not, he apparently is still harboring a grudge about that.”

  “Is he also the one who kidnapped your girlfriend and killed Hoagie?”

  “We think so, but the police only have enough evidence to hang him for shooting me. The problem is that no one has been able to find him. He’s got two worthless older brothers who have never worked a day in their lives. They’ve got to be doing something illegal to support their families, and Snake is probably mixed up in it too.”

  “Okay, what have you got in mind.”

  “I’m going to find out if they are drug dealers, thieves, or whatever and threaten to expose them if they don’t lead me to Snake.”

  “Why do you think you can locate him when the police haven’t been able to find him?”

  “Because they are so hamstrung by procedures that they can’t get away with what I just suggested. I need for you to help me figure out how to execute my plan. We fought a lot of battles together on the field, and I’ve always known I could depend on you to have my back.”

  “Thanks for your confidence, Dex. I don’t get to hear a lot of that in my job, but let me start coaching you by calling a great play. Stay the hell out of this, and let the police do their job.”

  “I’d be delighted to stay out of it if I had any confidence that the police could catch him. The detective in charge is a good man, but he is so caught up by the Mickey Mouse rules that he can’t do anything.”

  “Dex, if the police don’t follow the rules, a bleeding-heart judge will just pat the criminal on the head and put him right back out on the street to sin again. Do you know where Snake’s brothers live?”

  “No, but I’m sure I can find out somehow.”

  “I am not going to tell you what to do because I don’t want to feel so guilty that I have to take time off from work to attend your funeral.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I hear you. I don’t want you to tell me what to do, but if you have any suggestion on how I can avoid being the guest of honor at a funeral, I would appreciate it.”

  “Dex, if I was doing it, I’d follow one of the brothers until I found out what he’s doing that’s illegal. You should document whatever it is with photographs if possible. Then I would follow him until I caught him in a very public place and confront him. Now listen closely, Dex. I would make sure it was a place where he couldn’t just shoot me and walk away. I’d tell him what I had discovered about his illegal activities and offer proof, if you have it. For self-protection I’d tell him I have proof of his activities in a sealed envelope and I’ve instructed someone holding the envelope to immediately turn it over to the police if anything happened to me or anyone connected to me. If you can make him believe that, and he still swears he doesn’t know where Snake is hiding, he’s probably telling the truth. Now that’s what I would do, but again, I’m not making any recommendations to you.”

  “Okay, I’ve got it. I appreciate you telling me what you would do. I would have never thought about the envelope. I promise not to tell anyone that we discussed this, and I also acknowledge that you are recommending that I let the police handle it.”

  “Dex, I do still think you should let the police handle it, because you are playing with fire when you start fooling around with career criminals. They’ll squash you like a gnat if you aren’t careful.”

  “Thanks, Lundy. I appreciate your advice. I don’t have a death wish, so I’m definitely going to be careful.”

  Chapter 47

  Although he knew the consequences, Dex changed his mind about not telling Marie. What he planned to do was for both of them, and she deserved to know what he was doing. He knew there would be an argument as soon as he told her, but he was determined that her anger or tears were not going to change his mind. She wanted Snake caught as much as he did, she just didn’t want him in harm’s way. She was in jeopardy as long as this lunatic was free, and he was tired of constantly worrying about her safety.

  Dex knew that telling Marie might be the most hazardous part of the operation, so he chose to tell her in a busy downtown restaurant while they were having lunch. His reasoning was that Marie was a cultured woman who wouldn’t create a scene in front of a lot of people. He was dead wrong. She blew her stack, and there wasn’t a soul in the restaurant who didn’t know he had done something to really infuriate his luncheon date.

  She jumped to her feet so fast that her chair almost overturned, and her face flushed a blotchy red color. She was trembling with anger when she stuck her finger in his face and said, “You are as crazy as he is. He killed Hoagie and almost killed you, and now you want to give him another chance? You know he’s insane and unpredictable, and you still sit there and calmly tell me you are going to try to track him down in the mountains.” She was practically screaming, and everyone in the restaurant stopped eating to look at them. To her credit, she stopped just short of profanity.

  “Marie, I’m tired of waiting on someone else to solve our problems with him. Morgan is a good cop, but he’s so bogged down with legal restrictions that he can’t do what it’s going to take to catch him. I’ve got to go after him myself, and I had hoped you would understand.”

  “Dex, you knew dang well that—”

  He stopped her by saying, “Marie, let’s talk about this outside.”

  Dex quickly paid the check and followed Marie as she stalked out of the restaur
ant ready to continue the argument. Every eye in the restaurant was on them when they left the restaurant.

  Marie was standing on the sidewalk with her hands on her hips ready to confront him, but Dex spoke first. “Most of those people in there know us, and they heard everything you said.”

  “I don’t care what they heard. If they heard about your stupid plan, they would agree that you’re out of your mind.”

  He grinned and said, “Well, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to come back here for a while.”

  “Don’t try to make a joke out of this, Dex. This is serious, and you’re treating it like there’s no other option. You’re pretty arrogant to even think you can find Snake when half the cops in Tennessee haven’t been able to find him. He can’t stay hidden forever, and when he comes out of hiding, Morgan will catch him.”

  While she was talking, he took her arm and was trying to steer her toward his car.

  “Okay, Marie, you’ve made your point. I only told you because I thought it would be unfair not to do so. You’re right; I didn’t expect you to agree with me. I know you’re upset, but I’ll never forgive you if you tell Morgan or do anything else to stop me. I know you don’t want to hear it, but I’m doing this for—”

  Marie interrupted him. “Don’t you even dare say you’re doing this for me. You’re the one he wants to kill, and you’re going to be dumb enough to make it easier for him to do it.”

  “Just calm down a minute and let me make one point and then you can yell at me until you get hoarse. You’ve got to know that we are never going to be able to live a normal life until Snake is caught. I can’t sit idle any longer and depend on the police to protect us. That is not the way either one of us wants to live.”

  “Dex, I’ve told you time and again to quit worrying about me, and—” Dex stopped Marie in midsentence with a glare that reminded her that she wasn’t supposed to offer an opinion until he had finished making his point.