The Crossing

by Gerald W. Darnell

  “First thing tomorrow morning, early!”

  ~

  While Joe and I talked, Nickie had managed to keep Flo busy and away from Joe. But, as the ‘happy-hour’ crowd began to gather, the jukebox got louder and Flo just couldn’t stand it any longer. From behind the bar, she leaned over and spoke right into Joe’s face.

  “Handsome, you still owe me some dances and I ain’t forgot.”

  “Florence,” I interrupted. “Joe has been in an accident and I’m not sure he’s well enough to be dancing.”

  “But boss I…” Joe started.

  “And besides, Flo, don’t you have this skin problem? We wouldn’t want Joe to catch it,” I managed to say with a straight face.

  “Well, I saw them bandages on your arm and..,” Flo stopped in mid sentence, when she finally realized what I had said. “Why, Mr. Reno, you’re talking dirty again! I ain’t got no skin problem, I just been itching to dance with this handsome fellow again – that’s all I meant.”

  “Carson, what the hell are you talking about?” Joe blurted.

  “Never mind,” I said to them both.

  “Well, ‘Hon’, are you up to it?” Flo asked Joe.

  Joe didn’t answer and immediately escorted Flo to the dance floor. Evidently, he had forgotten all about being shot, wrecked in a ditch and left for dead. I know I was that young once, and I was trying to remember when!

  ~

  I watched them dance while continuing to sip Jack and Coke and practice my lip-reading with the news reporters on television. At some point they ran out of ‘new’ news, and began repeating film clips and footage taken earlier in the day. It had gotten dark, Chiefs had gotten crowded and I was contemplating heading to my cabin, when Leroy’s cruiser pulled up out front. He entered casually, so I knew we had no emergency – thank goodness.

  Leroy sat on Joe’s unoccupied stool, looked at Joe dancing, then grinned at me. “You just can’t keep a good man down!”

  “You just can’t keep a YOUNG good man down, would be a better way to say that. But I’m glad he’s here, we may need him tomorrow. Are you ready?” I said to Leroy.

  “Yep, I’m going to tell my guys the story tomorrow morning. You’re going to talk with Raymond’s officers, right?”

  “Yes, just as soon as I get back from the ‘Sugar Shack’, I’m going to City Hall and see who I can find. I’ve asked Raymond to make them available, but that doesn’t mean he will,” I said shaking my head.

  “Don’t worry,” Leroy smiled. “They’ll all get the word soon enough. Good and bad news travels fast!”

  “How’s your jail?”

  “Ha,” Leroy laughed. “Full, but we’ll turn most of them loose tomorrow morning. They’ll pay a small fine for ‘disturbing the peace’ and be back out on the street by nine o’clock. The demonstrators are still there, but at least they are acting civil. And by the way, we never did find that NAACP lawyer.”

  “Don’t worry, you will. He’ll have to answer that bench warrant, at some point, and hopefully Judge Graves will throw his gavel at him!” I chuckled.

  “What about Yarnell?” I asked Leroy a few moments later.

  “Dr. Barker said he took a good beating before freezing to death. He’s going to turn his body over to Baskerville Funeral Home tomorrow; we have no choice.”

  “Can we make it tomorrow afternoon?” I hoped.

  “Yes, I’ll make sure it happens after lunch and later if possible,” Leroy sighed.

  “Can I buy you a beer?” I finally asked Leroy.

  “Nope, I’ve got to go. It’s been a busy day and I think we’ve got one planned for tomorrow, right?”

  “Right,” I answered quickly. “I’m headed to my cabin when I finish this drink, and I’ll see you tomorrow. If I run into any issues, I’ll call your office and have them contact you on the radio. But unless you hear from me, I will have planted the seed by 9:30 – 10:00 latest.”

  Leroy left, and true to my word, I headed toward my cabin after finishing my drink. Joe knew to meet me at 8:30 for breakfast, so I left him to figure out how to deal with Flo. After all, he was a grown man – still young, but grown!

  ~

  I managed to rise early, but wasn’t prepared for the heat that hit me when I walked out of my cabin. It was 8:30 exactly and the sun was already having its way with the humid air. I wondered if it was always this hot this early. I didn’t need to know!

  Joe had already eaten when I walked in the backdoor of Chefs. I wasn’t ready for food, so I got a cup of coffee to go and we headed the Ford out the Medina Highway and made the left turn on Pleasant Hill Road. Joe had never seen the ‘Sugar Shack’, and I tried to explain its historical significance during our drive, but somehow I don’t think he understood!

  We made the right turn onto the small farm road and then drove across the harvested cotton field, parking behind the building, just as before. In the kitchen area, I moved around some of the trash and placed Tammy’s necklace, with the broken clasp, among the rubble. I left it hidden, so it couldn’t be easily found, and would require some effort from the searcher looking among the beer cans, whiskey bottles and just plain trash.

  My task completed, Joe and I left quickly and made the short drive back into Humboldt and to Main Street’s City Hall. Several demonstrators remained outside, but as Leroy had said, they were just singing, waving signs and causing no trouble. Perhaps the riots of yesterday, and the heat of today, would prevent any repeat performances. I hoped so.

  I left Joe in the car and I went up the City Hall entrance steps, through the hallway and down the rear stairs. Police Headquarters was on the main floor, but the jail and ‘ready room’ were downstairs, and that is where I would find any of Raymond’s officers that might be available. It was empty.

  I was contemplating my next move, when Tony Bailey came walking down the stairs.

  “Carson,” he was startled. “What brings you down to the dungeon?”

  “Tony, I’m going to need some help today, when you guys get spare time. I know you still have a street full of demonstrators, but I’ve got a clue we need to check out, and I need all the eyes and hands I can find. Who’s on duty today besides yourself?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure, Carson. I know Carl is working, but I don’t know who else. I don’t know if we’ll have the time, because we still have our hands full with these demonstrators. What’s this all about?”

  “The night Tammy Blurton was murdered she was wearing a necklace, a gold necklace with a gold cross attached. When her body was moved to the morgue that necklace wasn’t with her and we need to find it. It probably has some fingerprints on it and they just might belong to the killer. It could certainly help to prove Henry’s involvement or even his guilt or innocence, make sense?”

  “Maybe,” Tony said rubbing his chin.

  “Well, please come help if you can. We’ll be down behind the poolroom and drug store searching for the necklace. Leroy’s deputies are aware and they’re going to help us look when they can. Tell Carl about it, and I appreciate any assistance you guys can lend,” I said heading back up the stairs and into the main hallway.

  Back in the Ford, Joe and I retraced our journey to the ‘Sugar Shack’. Only this time, we drove past the field road and turned on an adjoining gravel road, which was about a quarter mile away; I parked the Ford where it couldn’t be seen from the main road. Then we quickly walked back up Pleasant Hill Road, crossed a small fence and made our way through the cotton field and up to the ‘Sugar Shack’ building. Joe and I both brought our pistols.

  I stationed Joe in a shady area in the small woods behind the building, and I found myself a spot in the bedroom area of the ‘Sugar Shack’; I had a good view of the spot where I had placed the necklace. I sat down among the trash and waited.

  ~

  It was over an hour before I heard the sounds of a car making its way across the cotton field. From my position I couldn’t see the car, but that didn’t matter; I just waited for what
I knew was going to happen next. The car pulled up in the normal parking spot and left the engine running. Then I heard the car door open, but not close. Parking just a couple of feet from the shack’s open back door, it only took a few seconds for him to reach the steps. Walking through the door and into the trash was Officer Carl Menard!

  He immediately began kicking and scrambling through the rubble, picking up some items and then tossing them away, while he grabbed another handful – then he stopped! Carl saw the necklace, just as I had placed it, and stared at it for a moment without picking it up – as though he was questioning himself. Carl stood straight up, without touching the necklace and took a step toward the open door. From his expression, I could see that his mind was retracing the incident and trying to remember the necklace. Carl looked around the room, rubbed his eyes and looked at his cruiser, with the motor still running and the door standing open. Then, he quickly bent over, grabbed the necklace, stood up, stuffed it into his shirt pocket and turned toward the door to leave.

  “What’cha got there?” I asked loudly, walking out of my dark hiding place and directly toward where he was standing.

  Carl turned and almost fell as he tripped over a beer bottle. Regaining his balance, he instinctively reached for his service revolver - I waved my .38 at him shaking my head!

  “You don’t want to do that, trust me; you can’t draw that fast. Carl, I don’t want to shoot you and you don’t want to be dead, so why not just unbuckle that utility belt and let all that shit hit the floor. You’re not going to need it anymore.”

  Staring at me and not speaking, he did as instructed and unbuckled his utility belt and strap – they made a loud thud as they hit the trash and the floor. Expecting me to relax, he made a quick step to and out the backdoor – then he stopped just as quickly as he had started. Joe was sitting on the hood of his old cruiser waiving his revolver at Carl and shaking his head. Carl got the message, and slowly turned and stepped back into the kitchen to face me.

  “Now, before we talk,” I started, “I want you to reach into your back right pocket and throw that back-up piece on the floor along with the rest of your equipment. And when you finish doing that, I want you to bend over and unbuckle that other back-up piece you have strapped to your ankle, and then put it with everything else.”

  Carl pulled the small revolver from his back pocket and dropped it on the floor; then he finally spoke.

  “That’s it. I don’t have any more guns,” he said staring at me.

  “Pull up your pants legs,” I ordered.

  Carl didn’t move.

  “Pull up your pants legs,” I said again.

  “You can’t do this...”he stuttered.

  “Pull up your pants legs, and I am not going to ask again. Either pull up those pants legs or pull your pants off, your choice!”

  Carl bent over, unbuckled the ankle holster and let it hit the floor.

  “You can’t do this,” he said again. “I am a police officer and you’re…you’re just some private dick and you have no authority! You can’t arrest me.”

  “Oh, yes I can, and will,” I said frankly. “But, if it will make you feel better, turn around and say hi to Sheriff Leroy Epsee – he’s standing in the doorway.” Leroy had followed Carl on his trip this morning and had pulled up and parked behind Carl’s cruiser while we were arguing over his ankle gun.

  “Hi, Carl,” Leroy said smiling.

  Carl walked backward through the trash and stood at the edge of the counter. He was facing us and realized it was over.

  “What…how…I don’t understand?” he stuttered.

  “I don’t have all the answers,” I started, “but I’m sure you will tell us all about it, at some point. You must have been using the ‘Sugar Shack’ for your ‘activities’ for quite some time, because your old boss, Dick Valentine, suggested I ask you about it – but I never got around to it. I guess when you wanted to use the ‘Sugar Shack’, you would just pull that old cruiser up here and everyone else would hightail it out. After all, you are the police and they would naturally run. However, I had no way to link you to this place until that day in the cemetery, that day you lit up the king sized non-filtered Chesterfield. That’s when I knew you had been here.”

  “What…huh?” he was still stuttering.

  “I know, I know. This place is full of cigarette butts, both inside and outside. But, these High School kids don’t smoke those kinds of cigarettes; they prefer the filtered kind - not as messy. When I looked around here, I found a lot of king size Chesterfield non-filtered butts stamped out everywhere – your brand.”

  Carl was looking down and not speaking.

  “But I needed proof, and that’s where that necklace you have in your shirt pocket comes in. Tammy wasn’t wearing a necklace the night she died, but the killer didn’t remember. So, I told everyone we are searching for the necklace, with possible fingerprints, at the site where the body was found. But, you knew better, didn’t you Carl? You knew she was killed here and that she had no necklace when you took her body behind the poolroom and dumped it. So, you figured it must be here – the place where Tammy Blurton died.”

  Carl didn’t speak.

  “Let me guess at the rest, I know you will tell us, but I figure this is pretty close to what happened. You had been seeing Tammy ‘on the side’ for quite some time, and things were going well. Going well until you found out that she was seeing a colored man too! I don’t know how you found out, but you thought it was Henry Walker. That didn’t set well with you, so you brought her out here to have it out, discuss the problem, to find out about her and her colored man lover. You two had an argument, a fight, and a fight that got out of control, and somehow Tammy fell and hit her head; probably on that counter corner you are leaning against. That’s when you panicked and got scared. Tammy was hurt badly and was probably in a lot of pain and crying. So, instead of calling an ambulance, you made that big decision, that big decision to rid yourself of this problem, and make that colored man pay for messing with your girl. You undressed her, right here in the floor, among all this trash. It must have been here, because this is where you came looking for the necklace that could have come off, right? You undressed her and used her panties to strangle Tammy until she stopped moaning, stopped crying and finally stopped breathing. Then you put her naked body in your old police cruiser and drove over to Henry Walker’s house – and that’s when you made two more mistakes.”

  Carl looked up at me as if he wanted to ask a question, but didn’t speak.

  “Don’t worry, I’m going to answer it for you,” I said. “You went into his unlocked house and picked a shirt from his closet, a clean shirt, and placed a note in the pocket with Henry’s name and phone number – just to make sure everyone would have no doubt who the shirt belonged to. Then, you took one of Henry’s kitchen knives from a set and went back to a dead, naked Tammy in your car. You put the shirt on poor Tammy, dumped her body behind the poolroom, stabbed her with the knife, wiped off all the prints, tossed the knife near the body and then simply drove away, right?”

  Carl was still staring at me.

  “The problem with the shirt is that it was a clean shirt, and his sister does his laundry and always cleans the pockets. Therefore, that note would not have been ‘accidentally’ left in the pocket – it had to have been put there on purpose. Something Henry Walker would not have done, if he had killed Tammy. Also, you wiped all fingerprints from the knife, and that was stupid. It was Henry’s knife and should have his prints, why would he wipe it clean? His prints on the knife would have proved nothing, but being wiped clean makes me think other prints would be there and they needed to be removed.”

  Carl was still staring and rubbing his chin. His eyes and looks were frightening; he would kill me if he could.

  “But, you just couldn’t leave it alone – could you Carl? When you finally figured it was Yarnell and not Henry who was seeing Tammy, you had some of your ‘friends’ go after him, just like they h
ad gone after Joe, and eventually after me. You looked for Yarnell all over town, and when you finally found him, you chased him out the Humboldt Lake Road in your cruiser. He stopped on the side of the road and your ‘buddies’ did the rest. Right, Carl? I know you did, because some high school kids told Tommy Trubush about you chasing a car out Humboldt Lake Road that night - just about the same time as he abandoned his car. Isn’t that right Carl?”

  Carl’s eyes were like daggers; he was an angry man.

  “Cuff him, Leroy. I think he prefers your company to mine. I’m through with the bastard and glad of it. Make sure he goes to your jail and not the city jail; it’s better that way.”

  ~

  Joe and I walked back to the Ford and headed toward the Gibson County Sheriff’s Office. We arrived before Leroy and Carl, so Joe and I planned to wait inside with the air-conditioning until they arrived. My next mission was to find Jack and start the process of getting Henry Walker released and make this whole circus show in the streets of Humboldt disappear.

  We walked up the sidewalk, past the demonstrators and I noticed something just as I reached for the door handle. It was Thomas Whitmore standing off to the side; he was still clutching that framed photograph.

  “Hello, Mr. Reno,” he said shyly as I walked over. “I’m sorry about yesterday, but I have just been overcome with grief since putting Tammy in the ground.”

  “Please don’t apologize, Mr. Whitmore, I understand. I want you to know that we have caught the person responsible for your daughter’s death, and Leroy is on the way here with him now to put him in jail. And in jail forever, I hope.”

  “What? You...you mean that ‘nigger’ didn’t kill my little girl?” he stuttered.

  “No sir, Henry Walker had nothing to do with your daughter’s death. We have the guilty person and he’ll stand trial for it, I promise. I also promise that we have enough evidence to guarantee a conviction. Perhaps, then you can put your mind at rest.”

  “Perhaps,” he said staring off into space.