by Jay Jackson
“Forget about those other counties right now. See what you can found out about those nine trucks currently registered here. Also, give me the name of every person who ever owned a green Ford pickup truck in this county from twenty to thirty years ago. Hopefully there are some records left. You’re right, not every truck was always kept legal, and there might be some old trucks out there the tax office and DMV doesn’t currently track.”
“What are you thinking?” Kero eyed his friend.
“Well, the killer is sure enough from here. Ain’t no way, high or not, that Althea would’ve let this guy get that close to her if she didn’t know him. No way there wouldn’t be some defensive wounds on her. Hell, she could have beat my ass, and would have a couple of times, if I wasn’t her attorney. I think the green truck was driven by someone around here. Right now, it’s probably in some barn we drive by every day.”
The other two nodded as Delroy picked up his glass of tea. I picked a hell of a time to cut back on my drinking hobby, he thought.
He looked down at the autopsy report. What kind of fury could make a man shove a crowbar over eight inches into a woman’s chest? The thought scared him. He gulped the last of his tea, wishing he had never gone to see poor Althea.
32.
Merry
“Newt MacElroy, you are a good lookin’ son of a gun,” Newt said as he smiled at himself in the rearview mirror of his pickup truck. It was actually his second cousin’s truck, but that didn’t matter as he headed down the road to Savannah. It took every bit of will power, which was almost non-existent to begin with, to keep the speedometer needle south of the speed limit. As he headed through Milledgeville and down to Dublin he wanted the tires to barely touch the pavement.
The last few weeks were tough on a man of Newt’s caliber. He was not made to live in a cabin in the woods. He was not meant to hang out with country boys when there were so many country girls to visit. Newt loved his kin but needed to be out and about amongst the public. He desired it and felt it to be his duty to the rest of mankind, or at least the female half. He also believed he was going to give Merry Clemens the time of her life tonight. God bless Merry, he thought.
Newt fairly jumped when he saw that she was calling him, and decided right then he was going to make his first and only road trip of this long summer. He was due for some quality fornicating and drinking. Combining the two with Merry Clemens would be a hell of a way to break his unexpected drought.
Newt and Merry dated in high school. He remembered the first time he met her in Coach Grey’s driver’s education class. While Coach was telling the class to make sure to come to a full stop, or accelerate when entering a highway, Newt was wondering where Merry had been for the first sixteen years of his life. She was tall, with auburn hair and green eyes, and built in the classic Marilyn Monroe way. Newt had an early appreciation of the classics.
Soon they were skipping class together and hanging out after school. She wore his letterman’s jacket and he gave her a promise ring. They were the picture of young love. After a few months, of course, she caught him cheating with a senior named Beth Metcalf.
Beth was in that same driver’s education class with the sophomores, the only senior to ever fail the class two years running. Going down the road, Newt replayed the fight between the girls the day Merry learned that he was sneaking around. Beth was athletic, but no match for Merry’s reach or sheer ferocity. After it was apparent that Beth was not getting up, Merry came after Newt with the same right cross she used to hammer Beth. Unfortunately, Coach stepped into the middle of the fray. He was there to meet Merry’s punch instead of Newt.
Merry was suspended for the rest of the school year and transferred to a school in the next county. Coach got a new front tooth. He was glad that administration allowed his assailant to transfer, although her family remained in Gratis. The rest of the coaching staff gave him hell as it was, being laid out by a sixteen year old girl in his own classroom.
Newt was just glad that Merry didn’t know the whole story. She would have definitely beat my ass if she knew I got with Beth the night after I first got with her, he mused going down the road. Newt laughed at his younger self.
A few years after high school, he ran into Merry at a party. After she called him asshole a few times, and after he apologized a few dozen times, they talked. Newt may have been worthless, but he really did like Merry. He got her and enjoyed being with her. She was the one person he kept seeing, off and on, even as he was having his fun. Maybe she’ll still be around when I’m old and ready to settle down.
He saw her every couple of months, always going to her place in Savannah. Newt could walk around with her there, pretending that he wasn’t just the hired help in a juke joint. He indulged her and believed that he may really love her, whatever that meant. At the time it didn’t mean commitment more than a weekend here and there. Maybe that would change one day.
Merry moved between Jacksonville and Savannah after she graduated high school. She suffered through a short marriage to a marine she met in a River Street bar. She then suffered through an even shorter college career.
For the last few years she was a trucking company’s personnel manager down the road in Hinesville. Manager may have been an exaggerated title, given that the company only had twelve employees. One of her main duties was going with her boss every winter to the trucking convention in Atlanta. He always asked her to share a room. She always replied, “maybe next year.”
On the weekends she often traveled down to Jacksonville to dance at The Gold Club. She could earn more in tips in one night than she did working during the week. It wasn’t the life she dreamed of, but she didn’t know anyone living that life. She was able to support herself and have the things she wanted, and thought that was pretty good.
Newt was someone she never could get enough of. She was able to make him hers for a few weekends every year and found that to be almost enough. She loved walking with him through Savannah’s old squares and past the gated courtyards. He treated her like a queen and she adored him for it. He couldn’t have hurt anyone, and she didn’t care about Millie’s death, anyway. Millie was more attitude than beautiful, in her opinion, and Merry was attracted to beautiful.
She was surprised to find a letter in her mailbox with a telephone number and a note for her to call Newt. It was signed “from an old friend who cares” and said “meet Newt at your place around 8.” She tried to get in touch with Newt immediately after Millie’s death but his old number was disconnected. She called this new number and got an answer on the third ring.
He sounded like the old Newt and told her the police were no longer sure he was involved in Millie’s death. He continued that he was still lying low, but not so low he couldn’t pay her a visit. She smiled at that and told him that eight worked for her and to come to her place. When she told him about the note he laughed. Kero or Delroy must have known he needed a good weekend. They were the only people who had his new number.
Calling in sick to work on Friday, Merry treated herself. Sleeping late, she got up and worked out for an hour at the gym across the street. She was in better shape now than in high school and admired herself in the mirror after her shower. She noted the small wrinkles starting to etch themselves around her eyes and mouth. They needed some work, and Merry made a mental note to dance extra shifts at the Gold Club to pay for it.
After leaving the gym, she walked down to Clary’s and ate a late lunch. She enjoyed eating after the crowd had thinned, allowing herself to linger over the new Cosmopolitan as she ate her omelet. Leaving her magazine for the next diner, she walked down to the City Market and stopped in the Molly MacPherson Pub to get a pint of Guinness. She sat by the window watching the people go by and ordered another pint before she left. Shopping at the market to get steaks for dinner was a woozy affair, and she almost forgot to pick up the Bacardi and Modelo for the evening.
While shopping she felt she was living in a glamorous old movie, a young model in t
he big city enjoying her life. She wondered whether Newt would be early, anxious for him to get there but happy in the moment. For her this was a rarity.
Merry carried the steaks up to her third floor walk-up, leaving them on the counter of her tiny kitchen after rubbing them with salt and pepper. Before long, the Bacardi was in the freezer and the beer was on ice in a tub on the patio. Finally, she put potatoes in the oven, ready to bake in their foil saunas.
There, she thought, this will be nice. She put on some music, drew a bath, and got into her tub for a long pre-love soak. This was her absolute favorite time whenever Newt visited. The expectation was delicious.
‘So Far Away’ she sang, moving her knee back and forth in the tub, when the doorbell rang. The bathroom digital clock read ’6:27,’ and she smiled thinking how impatient Newt was to see her. Maybe the summer made him realize how important she was to him, how loving one person was enough. Warmed by these thoughts, she draped a towel around her damp body and ran to the front door. She opened the door, ready to throw her towel open as well.
Instead of her Newt, she found a strange man standing in front of her, looking at his watch and holding a large bag. He was faintly familiar, but she couldn’t put his face together with his name. She pulled her towel tightly around her, suddenly feeling very exposed.
“I’m sorry, but I think you must be looking for one of the girls who live downstairs.”
Skipper smiled at her. “No ma’am, I believe I’ve found the right place. Newt should be here shortly.”
33.
A Jail Visit
“Wake up Delroy, your phone is ringing.”
Anna woke Delroy from his slumber on the couch. This was Anna’s fourth night of freedom, and Delroy wasn’t about to let anyone harm her. Tommy’s deputies were outside in their cruisers, but Delroy didn’t trust them not to fall asleep. He felt better with Anna down the hall and himself on the couch only steps away. It helped to have a Glock 9mm resting under the couch and directly under him. Lately he never slept unless that gun was within arm’s reach. He felt like a baby with his woobie.
Anna handed his phone to him as he looked at the clock on her mantle. It was almost four in the morning. All he could think was please let the children be ok before he answered.
“Hello, it’s four in the morning, so what do you want.”
All he heard was a raspy sobbing and multiple voices in the background. It sounded like a bunch of drunken frat boys in a cave.
“Seriously, I’m tired. Tell me who you are or I’m going to hang up and turn the phone off. I’m hanging up in three, two…”
“Please Delroy, don’t hang up on me, please.” It was Newt.
“Newt, what the hell are you doing. You sound drunk. Whose number is this?”
Again he heard the raspy sobbing that he now realized belonged to his client. He waited for an answer.
“That son of a bitch killed Merry. He killed my Merry.”
Delroy knew Merry and that she and Newt had an off and on relationship. He also knew, instantly, that this was bad.
“What are you talking about Newt? Slow down, buddy, and collect yourself, okay? Tell me what’s going on when you’re ready.”
Newt tried to catch his breath on the other end of the phone. Delroy heard labored breathing and small squeaks that sounded like a rat was stuck in the phone’s receiver.
“Merry is dead and I’m in jail in Savannah. They, they think I did it, Delroy. I truly loved her.” Newt sobbed a bit more, trying to stop and finding it impossible.
“Well, why do they think you did it? You weren’t even in Savannah.” Delroy heard nothing and before Newt could reply he said, “don’t say another word, Newt. Tell them I’m your attorney, and that’s it. I don’t care what the question might be, don’t answer another thing until I’m there. Are you in the Chatham County jail?”
Delroy still heard nothing but heavy breathing. “Damn, Newt, you can answer that question.”
“Yes,” was all Newt could manage to utter.
“Okay, just hold on buddy, I’ll be there in a few hours.” Newt started to sob again and Delroy hung up. He looked at the mantle. Fifteen minutes had elapsed. He creaked up off the couch and went into the bathroom. He didn’t have time to shower but did manage to wash his face, wet down his hair, and brush his teeth. He wanted to get to Savannah as soon as possible. Time was of the essence when a client was in jail surrounded by multiple detectives.
Delroy stumbled to his truck and called Kero. In ten minutes he was in front of Daddy Jack’s and there met Kero carrying two travel cups of coffee. Good man, he thought. They got on the road and didn’t say a word until they had a chance to down some coffee. Delroy had the radio on a local am channel, listening for any news of the arrest. He didn’t expect to hear any, but was curious whether they had picked up the story yet.
They were gliding down I-16 when Kero broke the silence.
“What the hell? Did you get any details out of Newt?”
“He was shook up and I didn’t want to know any details. It sounds like they had him in a holding cell with others. I didn’t want them to hear a thing Newt had to say. I just want us to get to him as soon as possible, and tell him to shut the hell up in person.”
Kero leaned his head back and closed his eyes. The local am station was starting to break up and he turned the radio off. It wasn’t his radio to turn off, but he was too tired and pissed off to ask. He wanted answers now and wished Delroy would sometimes stop acting like an attorney. This new sober Delroy was a bit too careful at times, or so it seemed at five in the morning.
“So is Merry dead? Damn that’s a shame. She was truly fine, and she was nice, too. Newt would have done well to stay with her, although I doubt he would’ve had the sense to. Damn, she was gorgeous.”
Delroy just nodded his head. He met her only once but that one time was memorable. A few years back, just after his divorce, he went to Savannah to meet an old friend from college. The friend lived on Wilmington Island, and they spent five days drinking on the beach at Tybee, playing bocce ball, and generally being idiots. After coming off the beach the second day they went to the Tiki Bar. It was set on the intercoastal waterway and had no roof save the thatched one immediately over the bar. Just before sundown the bar band started playing Jimmy Buffet covers to all the sunburned islanders coming off the beach.
He was working on his third margarita when Newt walked up with a long, beautiful redhead. They came to his table and she practically sat in Newt’s lap. Delroy was usually pretty civilized when it came to staring too obviously at a woman in a bikini, but not this time. Tequila and Buffett had a way of corroding his manners.
After five minutes they moved on to another table of friends. Thereafter, Delroy’s head swiveled every few minutes looking for the couple. He was powerless to stop himself and didn’t care that he looked like a woozy bobblehead. Damn that Newt. What the plu-perfect hell does he have? All he could do was drink more, listen to the band, and ogle Merry.
The two kept moving on I-16, past Statesboro, motoring down the emptiest piece of highway the state of Georgia has to offer. Finally the sky started to glow with the first hint of sunrise, the pink and yellow streaks pointing the way to Savannah.
They made their way to the Chatham County jail and parked in the public lot. Delroy didn’t see any Gratis cruisers, but knew they would probably be in the back if Chatham County was ready to release him. Delroy seriously doubted, however, that Chatham County was ready to do that. A murder of a beautiful woman occurred in their city. Anything Gratis authorities desired with Newt would have to wait for Chatham.
Delroy and Kero walked into visitation at the jail and strode up to the desk.
“What can I do you for?” The jailer, still sporting wisps of peach fuzz missed during his morning shave, spoke to them without looking up from his computer screen.
“I’m Newt MacElroy’s attorney. I need to see him now.”
“Well let me look here.�
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The young jailer spit into a paper cup and started tapping keys on his computer. He took his time, hovering over each key for a couple of seconds. His grasp of the alphabet seemed as tenuous as the hold the baby whiskers had on his chin. He finally got to Newt’s name and looked at the screen for a good thirty seconds.
“Well, you can see him, but we’ll have to get him up from the infirmary. Looks like he took a pretty bad fall while he was getting arrested and all.” The jailer smiled up at the two.
“That’s fine, just tell us where to go.” Ten minutes later, after convincing the jailer that Kero an invaluable paralegal, they were waiting in a visitation booth.
Newt stepped into the booth across from them, separated by glass, and sat down in the chair. Both his eyes were black and his lower lip was almost three times its normal size. An orange prison jump suit hung from his shoulders, drops of blood speckling it from his shredded lip.
The room shook when Kero shouted “What the hell did they do to you? Sons of bitches!”
Delroy grabbed his shoulder, “Stop Kero, Newt doesn’t need that.” Kero shook, looking at his friend and employee sagging in front of him, wanting nothing more than to hurt Newt’s assailants.
“Newt,” Delroy asked, “I just need one question answered before we go any further. You’re going to hate me for this question, but I have to hear this from you.”
Before he could ask the question, Newt answered it.
“I didn’t kill Merry. I truly cared for her, but she died because of me, I can tell you that.” Newt hung his head and started to cry.
They sat there waiting on Newt, neither ashamed of their friend’s tears. Kero, now calm, spoke.
“Newt, this is awful, but you have to tell us what happened. We have to know everything. The only way we get you out of this mess is to know the full story. Take your time, we’ll wait.”
After a few seconds, Newt began to talk. He told them how Merry called him and about the note he believed came from either Delroy or Kero. He told them how he borrowed his second cousin’s truck, which just happens to be a bluish green Ford, and drove down to Savannah. They saw him almost smile as he recounted how he aced some college student out of a parking space. He turned dark as he told how Merry’s door was open when he got there. The smell of bleach when he entered the apartment was overpowering.