“That her soon-to-be ex is an asshat, and that she’s never worked a missing kid case in these mountains in ten years. Never even caught wind of one.”
Otis laced his fingers together over his potbelly. “Curious.” He stretched his neck and tried to settle his joints. “I put in a call to that national organization, the one that runs down missing kids. None of the names we got yesterday are on their list. Not one.”
“What about Randle and Friar? You feel them out yet?”
“I did. Them boys are lazy and useless, but they ain’t into anything to worry about. Still don’t want to involve them in this unless we have to. The less they know, the less they’re likely to spill to their buddies.” He sipped from his coffee.
“What I can’t figure is why none of these mothers took things into their own hands and raised a stink along the way,” Dani said.
“That’s because you’re a modern woman, little deputy, and technically you live in the flatlands. Things are done different in the mountains. Traditional. The farther up you go, the more traditional things get.”
Dani furrowed her brow.
“You notice the coffee cups we drank out of yesterday at Laura Farrow’s house?”
“Yeah. NASCAR collectibles.”
“You reckon sweet little ol’ Laura is a NASCAR fan? I mean, fan enough to buy collectible coffee cups?”
Dani shrugged. “It ain’t unheard of.”
“No it ain’t, but the way the rest of her house was decorated, I don’t peg her as a diehard racing fan. I’m guessing she was married at one time or another. Probably recently.”
“I didn’t see no pictures of a man…”
“She’s rid the living room of all her family photos. The only ones she left out are pictures of that daughter of hers.” He took another sip from his coffee. “I’m guessing she was recently widowed, and if I’m right, given where she lives, she was married to a man that was tied to the Ephesians school of marriage.”
Dani’s skin crawled at the mention of Ephesians or any Bible verse. It brought back memories of the shithead who once called himself her father.
Otis cleared his throat and said, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.” He laughed. “Your aunt would sooner die than agree to such an arrangement, but it’s common practice on the slopes.”
“But she made a point to say there was no husband…”
“She can deny it all she wants. I know a wife made unhappy by a husband when I see one.” He hesitated and then said, “Your momma has the same look.”
The mention of her mother turned Dani’s stomach. She quickly took control of the conversation. “So you’re saying the husbands are keeping their wives quiet about their girls going missing?”
“I’m leaning that way.”
“Why?”
Otis smiled and pointed at his niece. “You’ve come to the next step in our investigation, little deputy. We need to find a way to talk to one of these husbands.” He laced his hands over his belly again. “Call up Laura. Find out how she’s doing, and then get as much information as you can on these other mothers. Specifically, I want to know who they’re married to. Don’t push her on the true nature of her marital status. We don’t want her to close up on us.”
Dani stood, but stopped short of leaving. “What are we going to do once we run down these husbands? Rucker’s probably passed along the word to every lawman in the mountains that we’re nosing around.”
Otis groaned as he flexed his sore knee. “You get me some names, and I’ll find a way to get at least one of them sons-a-bitches to come to us.”
Chapter 30
Boss had called Step away on a special assignment so Kenny was forced to set out on his own. He hated the idea of being without his fellow closeout king. Ol’ Step was the most important person in Kenny’s life. He’d never admit such a thing to the skinny hick, but it was as true as the sky is blue. The robust killer with the perfectly arched bill on his cap just felt plain hobbled without his partner.
He repeatedly knocked on Suzanna Campbell’s trailer door without so much as a “fuck off” from inside. He heard the TV blaring and smelled the unmistakable odor of crack sneaking through the rotten rubber lining around the thin door. She was inside, and she knew she had a visitor. She just didn’t give a shit.
Kenny opened the door and stepped up on the landing. Peeking his head inside, he saw the lumpish figure of Suzanna almost melted into the frayed fabric of her couch. Her eyelids hid away half the pained look that had anchored into her battered soul. She was the deadest woman that ever drew a breath.
The chubby closeout king’s mind flipped to memories of his own mother. A saintly woman she was not; her most tolerable moments were spent passed out on a similar couch in Kenny’s childhood home. She guzzled homemade skunk wine from the time she kicked out of bed until the time she planted herself face-first onto the drool-stained fabric of that rat-chewed sofa. In between rising in the late afternoon and drinking herself into oblivion by early evening, she took a hand to Kenny’s fat cheeks every time he dared to place himself in her field of vision. She couldn’t stand how stupid and unkempt he was. “The devil himself could not make something so offensive,” she’d say, “and don’t God want a thing to do with you, neither.”
The dank, confined space of the trailer reminded him of his childhood even more. He spent his youth imagining the walls of his house closing in on him. Every day, he would compulsively check to see if he could fit through the bathroom window in case he ever had to escape his shrinking home. He knew it wasn’t really shrinking—he wasn’t that stupid—but that didn’t mean it didn’t feel real and crushing all the same.
His mother was the first person he closed out. He didn’t do anything to actively bring about her demise. He just watched as she choked on a bone while eating a cold, extra crispy piece of fried chicken over the kitchen sink. She reached for him and mouthed a blue-lipped “help,” even motioned for him to get on the phone and call someone. Eleven-year-old Kenny ripped the phone out of the wall instead. When her heart put out its last thump, he finished off her chicken and smiled at the sight of his ashen-faced mother growing stiff on the cheap laminate floor.
He didn’t go without beatings after her death. His old man knocked him around for this and that. His old man’s girlfriends slapped him around. His grandparents, his teachers, even the kids at school lit into him more frequently than not. Kenny was pretty much beaten by nearly everyone who ever came into contact with him, until he started punching back. As it turned out, he was pretty good at beating the snot out of anyone who had it coming, including his old man. Throwing punches led to a stint in prison for involuntary manslaughter, which led to meeting a cousin of Boss Perry’s, which led to a career as a closeout king, which led to meeting the only and best friend he’d ever had: Step Crawford. And if you asked Kenny, he’d tell you he had a pretty good life because of it.
“Suzanna?” Kenny called. “It’d be Kenny Fable. You remember me?”
She didn’t answer. Her zombie stare couldn’t be torn away from Hoda and Kathie Lee on the TV.
“I was—am friends with that man of yours, Billy.”
Still no reply.
Kenny sat down next to her on the couch. “I know you two ain’t in the talking frame of mind with each other. Relationships can get messy.”
The two women on TV cackled and roared and did everything but make sense.
“I need to talk to you about some things. You mind if we shut them two on the TV off? They’re about too much to compete with. I can’t squawk near as loud as them.”
She kept fixated on the pulsating image on the TV.
Kenny looked around for the remote and then spotted it in her hand. He slowly reached over and gently took it away from her. He clicked it off just as the women were going on about the amount of wine they drank most mornings.
Su
zanna’s expression didn’t change.
Kenny watched for a few seconds before he said, “I’m here about your girl, Suzanna.”
The dead-ish woman slowly turned to him.
“That’s it. There you go. Do I need to go through introductions again, or did you get who I am?”
“Sarah,” Suzanna whispered.
“Sarah? No, ma’am. Kenny…Fable…I knew…know Billy…Oh, Sarah! That’s your girl, ain’t it?”
Suzanna reached for Kenny with a trembling hand. “I want my Sarah back.”
“Yes, ma’am, I expect you would. I come to find out more on that.”
“Please…” She buried her face into Kenny’s chest.
He clumsily patted her on the shoulder. “Now, that ain’t necessary, Suzanna. Me and my partner want to run her down for you, but we ain’t got a clue where to start.”
A muffled screech escaped her raw throat.
“You gotta give us something to go on. Was you around when she got took?”
She nodded, still against Kenny’s chest.
“Good…I mean at least you got an idea of the folks that took her. Did you know them?”
She shook her head.
“How many was there?”
“Two,” she said weakly.
“Uh-huh. Two. That’s good information. What’d they look like?”
She shrugged. “Monsters.”
“Okay,” Kenny said still patting her shoulder. “Now that’s a bit general, description-wise. Was they tall or short or fat or skinny…anything along those lines?”
She pulled her head away from his chest. “Pirate.”
“Pirate?”
“The meanest one. He was tall, had a pirate patch.”
Kenny perked up. “Across his eye, you mean?”
She nodded.
“I know that fella.” He grimaced. “Lord howdy, I have wasted a lot of sad thoughts that fella’s way. I can see that now. Boss shoulda done more than shoot his eye out.” He moved to stand, but Suzanna buried her head in his chest again. “You gotta let me loose there, Suzanna.”
“Don’t go.”
“I can appreciate your sadness…” He caught a glimpse of her crack pipe lying on the cluttered coffee table and replayed Step’s talk about triggers in his head. He eased on back and patted her on the shoulder again. “You go on then, Suzanna. You forget all this for a time.”
Chapter 31
Dani hung up the phone with Laura. Rucker had been a shit to the grieving mother after they left. He’d remained at her house for at least an hour, stressing to the poor woman that she was being a pain in the ass, and if she didn’t behave herself she would find out how he truly dealt with such a pain.
Laura was terrified, but nonetheless resolute. She was going to find out what happened to her daughter. She didn’t care if Rucker planted her six feet under, she was going to get answers. She’d allowed too much time slip by letting others tell her she shouldn’t make waves.
Dani asked her who those others were, hoping Laura would verify that she had indeed been married, but she avoided the question. The deputy followed her uncle’s instructions and didn’t press the woman on the subject.
By the time Dani put the phone back in its cradle, she had the names of three of the husbands of the women they’d met the day before. A quick search of the database brought back a litany of scrapes with the law by all three men. They weren’t model citizens by any means; most of the charges were of the drunk and disorderly nature. A few were a little more serious. One of the men had actually served eighteen months for involuntary manslaughter.
In a little under an hour, Dani had enough background information on the three men to share with her uncle.
He examined her notes and clicked through their list of violations on his computer. “This Trace Connor, he still drive long haul for the casket company?”
“Got fired. He’s gone independent. His old supervisor gave me a list of his regular clients.” Dani pointed to the companies she’d written at the top of the page.
Otis read them over. “Well, I’ll be pinched. You got Tanner Tobacco written down here.”
“Yes, sir.”
“He hauls for them?”
“That’s what the man said.”
Otis sat back in his chair and smiled. “Little deputy, I think I found us a way to get Mr. Connor over to our corner of the woods.”
Chapter 32
The wind bent the treetops and shook the leaves in fits and starts. The chill in the air was a crisp gift that broke the yellow heat of the sun. Randle stood propped up against his cruiser, watching his cousin’s expression with Kenny peeking around his shoulder. The pair of closeout kings studied the photo from the tobacco shop.
“The little deputy stumbled ass backwards into a lead,” Randle said.
“There,” Kenny said, pointing at himself in the picture. “That’s the way the bill of my cap oughta look all the time. I just can’t get it to keep that shape.”
Step handed the picture back to Randle. “What’s she doing with it?”
Randle shrugged. “Nothing. She handed it off to me because she says Otis has got her working on something else.”
“What?”
“Shit if I know.”
“You tell her about me?” Kenny asked.
Randle rolled his eyes. “I told you I wasn’t gonna do that. What the hell is wrong with you?”
“It won’t hurt nothing to tell her you got a friend she should look into. That’s all I’m saying.”
“Cousin, your partner is half dead in the head.”
“Tell me about her,” Step said.
“Dani? There ain’t much to tell…”
“Hold on now, Step,” Kenny said. “I put in a claim way before you.”
“Goddamn!” Step roared. “You are creeping up on a fist, Kenny! I swear to fucking God! You are needling away at my nerves!”
Kenny and Randle stood stunned as the echo from Step’s outburst tickled the treetops.
“You got any idea what this Dani deputy lady and some old fella woulda been doing in Rock Hollow yesterday?” Step asked, making an effort to not sound like he was mad at the world.
“Rock Hollow? Is that where you and dead-in-the-head here seen her with binoculars?”
“It is,” Kenny said. “She was wearing a pretty yellow dress.”
“What about Laura Farrow, that name familiar to you?” Step asked.
Randle considered the question and then said, “Not in the least…” He stopped when a thought came to him. “Now, I knew a Bubba Farrow some years back, and he was from Rock Hollow. He had him a wife. Her name could have been Laura, now that I think about it.”
“Bubba Farrow?” Step looked past his cousin as he mulled the name over in his head.
“Shit, Step, you might know of him yourself. He belonged to the gun club we joined when we were kids. Meaty fella. Big ol’ sideburns. Looked like a mix between Elvis and Fred—”
“Flintstone,” Step said as the visual of the man came to him. “I remember…” His face drained of color. “They had a girl.”
“I don’t recall that,” Randle said.
“I do. I remember because…She went missing.”
“Missing?” Kenny asked.
Randle shook his head. “I don’t recall nothing about that.”
“She did. I used to track that shit. Missing girls. Because…” He didn’t finish explaining. They all knew he’d tracked missing girls for a number of years because his own daughter had been declared missing for a brief time before it’d been determined she’d drowned in the river.
“I’m kind of turned around on what all this has to do with Dani tracking you two boys down.” Randle placed his hands on his gun belt and rose up on his toes.
“Not a thing,” Step said. “Your little deputy gal there appears to have fallen ass backwards into something else altogether.” He reached in his shirt pocket, pulled out Dani’s card, and handed it to Kenny.
A wide grin spread across Kenny’s face. “I get to keep it?”
“You get to do more than that. Use it.”
“Use it?” Kenny raised an eyebrow. “How would I go about doing something like that?”
Step slapped Kenny on the back of the head. “Call her up. Make a date.”
“Really?”
“What are you doing, Cousin?”
“This Dani has come up on my radar one too many times. I aim to find out why.”
Kenny hooted. “Ima romance the shit out of this deputy gal. Flowers, wine, chocolates, condoms with that special lotion for the lady knob. She’s gonna fall all kinds of in love with me.”
“Yeah, well you might want to hold off on the condoms,” Step said.
“I prefer to be prepared.”
“Well, since Ima be on this date with you, you should be prepared to keep your pecker in your pants.”
“With me? I can’t romance a gal with you around, Step. You’re better looking than me.”
“I got no interest in romancing your deputy, Kenny.” Step handed Randle a wad of cash. “I may call on you to get your hands dirty, Cousin. You up for that?”
Randle looked wide-eyed at the money in his hands. “Shit, you ply me with more of this green stuff, and I’ll get my hands as dirty as you want.”
“Why the hell you gotta go on my date?” Kenny asked as Step headed for his truck.
Without breaking his stride, the skinny closeout king said, “Because I aim to get some answers. One way or another, Ima find out what the hell is going on.”
Chapter 33
Dani climbed the last step and turned to head for her room. Her mind was on the cigarette filter. She wished like hell she hadn’t lifted it from the crime scene. When she’d done it, solving the double homicide had been more or less a game to her. It had seemed like a harmless thing to do, picking up that filter and stuffing it in her pocket. It just hadn’t appeared to be that big of a deal.
However, having met Armstrong, she felt awful for doing it. Dani had interfered with a bona fide police investigation, and while it shouldn’t have mattered, the fact that a woman was heading up the state’s inquiry made Dani feel even worse. She felt like she had screwed over a fellow female trying to make it in a man’s world.
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