Appalachian Intrigue

by Archie Meyers

  It was a seminal moment in his criminal life when the juvenile judge sentenced Snake to the detention center until he turned eighteen. The first night of his incarceration he got into a fight for stealing another inmate’s cigarettes. It was only the first of several such incidents. The other inmates despised and shunned him. He was an outcast even among other society outcasts. Although he was surrounded by dozens of other young juvenile delinquents, he might as well have been in solitary confinement. None of them would associate with him.

  Snake was finally released on his eighteenth birthday. As he walked through the gate, his counselor made what would prove to be a prophetic statement: “We should just transfer him directly to prison; that’s where he’ll spend most of his life.” Snake was arrested a couple of years later for grand theft auto and spent two years in the state prison.

  His father died while he was incarcerated, and his two brothers got married and moved out of the house. Rufus and Elroy never visited Snake while he was in detention, and his mother, who neither drove nor owned an automobile, had only been able to visit a few times. She was the only one in the family who had ever had any sympathy for Snake. She welcomed him home, even though she could barely support herself on the social security checks that were her only source of income.

  Snake’s mother told him that his brothers didn’t come around very often, and she was afraid they were getting into some kind of trouble. Snake was able to track them down and found that his mother’s suspicions were right. They were distilling moonshine at a still tucked into the side of a nearby mountain. Since he couldn’t get a regular job because of his record, and didn’t want one anyway, Rufus and Elroy agreed to hire him. He had long ago decided that the only people with regular jobs were those that weren’t smart enough to make money without one.

  The brothers needed a packhorse to carry the raw ingredients that were used to distill the moonshine and to then carry the jugs of moonshine back to the mountain road where the bootleggers picked them up. Snake had the right qualifications: a strong back and a weak mind.

  He had been working at the still for less than a week when Dex and Hoagie stumbled on the operation. When the sentry’s shot scared them away, they were moving so fast that he didn’t recognize them. He had intended to shoot Dex the day he was arrested at school, but some kid saw him put the pistol in his locker and told a teacher. That was the beginning of all his problems. In his mind, if it hadn’t been for Dex, he would have never been incarcerated, and he vowed every day he would get even with him.

  Snake could never understand why Dex got so mad about him trying to make out with Marie. She wasn’t related to him, so why did he care? Anyway, she had been asking for it. She obviously wanted him because she said hello every time they passed in the hall, and none of the other girls ever spoke to him. He was just going along with what she wanted, but then she got scared and ran to tell Dex. When Snake was released from juvenile detention, it was too late to carry out his vow to get even with Dex because he had already left for college.

  Chapter 39

  Snake obviously never understood Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. He started stealing cars again less than a week after serving two years for doing the same thing. This time he joined his brothers in what they euphemistically called their “automobile business.” A chop shop by any other name was still an illegal auto theft operation.

  After federal agents destroyed their moonshine still, the brothers stumbled onto the demand for used parts and had already started their new venture before Snake was released from prison. Elroy had been serving as the point man, the one who actually stole the cars and drove them to the mountain. It was the most dangerous job in the operation, and he was glad to relinquish it to his dim-witted baby brother.

  Their shop was portable, and they operated it from the top of a desolate, uninhabited mountain. Every night they loaded their tools in a pickup truck and left the mountain before daybreak. They didn’t set up the operation again until after dark.

  The only access to their shop, other than a long steep hike, was an abandoned logging road from the valley to the top of the mountain. It was unpaved, steep, narrow, and crooked until it reached the summit. A half-acre area on top of the mountain was level and clear. It had been cleared a half-century before to allow logging trucks the space to turn around and start their long descent to the valley lumber mills. The road came to a dead end in the clearing at a precipice overlooking the valley. The Wilson brothers’ “automobile business” operated in the clearing. Stolen cars were disassembled, the useable parts were salvaged, and the carcasses were pushed over the escarpment.

  It had been over fifty years since the last log was hauled off the mountain. Lately the road was only used during the day by an occasional off-road explorer and by the Wilson brothers, who only used it after dark. The mountain’s isolation was a necessity for their illicit enterprise.

  The brothers worked by the light of gasoline lanterns and moonlight when it was available. The only sounds to disturb the mountain’s solitude was the occasional poignant hoot of a distant owl calling its mate, the hiss of their acetylene torch, the metallic clink of tools bumping against metal parts, and an occasional mumbled curse from a thief with a skinned knuckle.

  The day after he joined the operation, Snake discovered a vintage Corvette in the parking lot of a movie theater in downtown River City. While the owner of the Corvette and his date were enjoying the movie, his cherished sports car was hot-wired and delivered to the chop shop. In less than an hour, Rufus and Elroy disassembled it, salvaged the parts for which they already had an order, and pushed the remnants of the once beautiful Corvette over the escarpment. It would rust at the bottom of the cliff with the hulls of dozens of other cars that had met their fate in the same manner. Before daylight the parts from the Corvette were already en route to an auto body shop in north Georgia that had ordered them.

  The mountainous terrain around River City was an auto thief’s paradise, and the city’s theft rate was among the highest in the south. A vehicle parked in front of a resident’s home at bedtime could be stolen and disassembled before it was ever discovered missing.

  The Wilsons’ operation had made a bad situation worse in recent weeks. The local media had been warning citizens about a significant increase in the number of thefts. A former car thief, who had served his time and was now supposedly reformed, was interviewed on television. He explained that the cars were not just randomly stolen but were taken in response to orders received for specific parts. He said that after receiving an order, the thieves would cruise the streets until they found the exact make and model to fill the order. Rufus and Elroy wouldn’t know a business model from bread pudding, but the ex-thief had accurately described their operation.

  Chapter 40

  The murder and abduction in River City had already been thoroughly covered by the southern media. But when one of the South’s best-known athletes was shot, the story took on new proportions. The law enforcement agencies hadn’t confirmed or even publically discussed it, but the media had already concluded that the cases were related. The story had been revived and was now being followed in network news reports.

  Dex had dodged the ongoing media frenzy at every opportunity, but his low profile efforts ended when he returned to work. The marketing department had already started developing a new television spot to capitalize on the heightened attention he had received.

  They told him the decision was his to make but tried to convince him that they would be sensitive to his dilemma by taking advantage of the opportunity in a very subtle manner. He was skeptical at first but took a wait-and-see attitude before deciding if he would allow them to use his misfortune as a marketing tool. They talked him through what they planned to do and showed him the script before he finally agreed to go forward with it.

  The ne
w ad featured Dex holding a large bottle of EaseFast while looking into the camera lens and saying, “When life occasionally knocks you down, depend on EaseFast to quickly get you back on your feet.” The camera then faded to an old game film clip showing him bouncing back up after getting clobbered by a huge linebacker.

  Dex was impressed by the adroit merging of the product with his career as a player. There was no mention of his recent adversity, but most people would instantly make the connection with bouncing back from being shot. Hopefully that was the connection made by most people, but it wasn’t what Snake thought. He fumed all night when he first saw it, and his irrational fury increased with each additional airing of the spot.

  Dex had received a letter from the manager of the restaurant where they had dinner the night he was shot. He wished him a speedy recovery, invited them to have dinner at the restaurant, and enclosed two gift certificates for free meals. Since the television spot was running every hour, it didn’t make much sense to continuing trying to keep a low profile. They hadn’t been out to dinner in River City since the shooting and decided to take advantage of the gift certificates. He made reservations and they returned to Harbor Lights, but this time they utilized the valet parking.

  Dex and Marie had become a couple of interest and were recognized by everyone in the restaurant when they followed the maître d’ to their table. Several of the diners came by their table to wish them well.

  They were having coffee after their meal when the restaurant manager came over and thanked Dex and Marie for coming. He grinned and said, “I appreciate all the publicity we received from your last visit, but you really don’t have to go to that much trouble tonight.” He also made a joke about how much valet parking had increased, and they all laughed together. It was nice to be at least temporarily far enough away from their problems to once again laugh and enjoy an evening out.

  The restaurant’s ambiance, the river setting, and the superb cuisine were all as appealing as they remembered. But just being together would have made it enjoyable even if they had been in a hamburger joint. They even danced to a couple of old big band selections before leaving the restaurant.

  Marie was a catalyst to Dex’s libido. As a star college athlete, he had dated a lot of girls in school and pretty much had his pick of campus queens, but none of them had ever excited him like she did. Marie was far less experienced, but she didn’t need experience to appreciate what she and Dex had together. They enjoyed a wonderful dinner and evening together. Of course, the only thing they ever needed to make an evening successful was to be together.

  Chapter 41

  The elected officials were beginning to take a lot of heat from constituents because the investigation of the high-profile cases appeared to be stalled. Political pressure always follows a predictable course; it flows downstream. This time it eventually piled up on the desk of Detective Lester Morgan. It wasn’t the first time politicians had dumped on him as they scrambled to cover their own butts. He didn’t appreciate being unfairly singled out, but he had learned that in politics the boss takes the credit for successes and blames underlings for failures.

  He and the sheriff were jointly summoned to a meeting with the mayor and district attorney. The mayor, who Morgan doubted knew the difference between investigation and indigestion, started the discussion.

  “Morgan, we’re getting some pretty bad publicity because you haven’t made an arrest in any of these high-profile cases. What’s keeping you from getting the investigation off dead center?”

  “Mr. Mayor, it’s a very difficult and complex case. We’re doing everything possible to apprehend the person or persons responsible for these crimes.” He didn’t even try to explain the difficulties because he knew the explanation would fall on deaf ears. The politicians were under pressure, they didn’t like it, and they were looking for someone to take the blame. Morgan was the most convenient target.

  “If the cases weren’t difficult and complex, you wouldn’t have a job. We’d let rookies handle them. We expect more from the people we put in positions like yours. I’ve got people clamoring for answers from my office, and you haven’t given me anything to tell them.”

  Morgan didn’t want to discuss the details of the investigation with the mayor because he was fairly certain that whatever he said would wind up in the newspaper the following day. But he finally realized the mayor wasn’t going to let up on him until he gave him more information.

  “Mr. Mayor, I’ve identified four possible suspects and interrogated three of them. We don’t yet have enough evidence to bring charges against any of them. We do have enough evidence to charge the fourth suspect with the shooting of Mr. Martin, but we have not been able to find him.”

  “Well maybe that will satisfy them for a little while.”

  “Mr. Mayor, it would be helpful if you could just respond by telling them we have identified four potential suspects. If we release too much information, the one we are trying to locate will likely flee the area and further complicate the investigation.” He assumed that his request for confidentiality would fall on deaf ears, but the limited information he gave them at least allowed him to escape the contentious meeting.

  Morgan didn’t tell them, because he didn’t have enough evidence yet to get a conviction on anything except the shooting, but he was already convinced that Snake Wilson was the single culprit responsible for the murder, abduction, and shooting. The only thing he could prove against the other three was that they all had motives. Norton and McPherson were certainly guilty of the white collar crimes for which they had been indicted, but there was nothing linking them to the crimes he was investigating. Dr. Bishop was guilty of making a fool out of himself over a younger woman who detested him, but there was nothing linking him to these events. Everything, including his usually reliable gut instinct, led him to believe that Snake was the only perpetrator.

  Morgan had talked with Snake’s mother and his two brothers. His mother told him that her son no longer lived with her, and that she hadn’t seen him in several weeks. His gut feeling was that she was probably telling the truth, but when Rufus and Elroy said they hadn’t seen him and didn’t know how to contact him, he was pretty sure they were lying.

  “If I catch you guys concealing your brother, I will personally arrest both of you for obstruction of justice and do my best to get the district attorney to throw the book at you.”

  His instinct about the brother’s truthfulness was correct. Snake had delivered a car to them the previous night. They really didn’t know where he was staying because he refused to tell them, but they could easily contact him by cell phone.

  After Morgan left, Rufus said, “We’uns done always been scaret bout Snake gittin us in one of his dadbum crap piles. Now he dun dun it. We’uns gotta shet down the bizzness.”

  “Rufus, you be who calls him. I ain’t got his numer. Jes don’t call him agin.”

  “I’s gotta call and tell him we shet down.”

  Snake answered his cell phone on the first ring and Rufus told him they were going to shut down the chop shop because Detective Morgan was getting too close.

  “Snake, you be the cause we shet down. Git outta town fore theys fries you ass.”

  “I’s ain’t goin’ nowheres. It be none of your nevermind what I’s do. Mind your own bizzness and stay outten whas mine. Theys comes atta me, I’s take sum of ’em wit me. Theys ain’t gonna get me live, so you’ens don’t fret bout my ass gitin’ fried.”

  Snake was never more than twenty-five miles from Detective Morgan’s office, but he only surfaced when protected by the cover of darkness. Rufus had told him about the all-points bulletin Morgan had issued, but Snake ignored the warning.

  Despite operating outside the law for their entire careers, neither Rufus nor Elroy had ever been convicted of a crime. In their illegal business ventures it was important to be able to operate without
police scrutiny. Even before being contacted by Morgan, they had been nervous about doing business with their baby brother because he was so dumb and unpredictable. The risk was probably even greater now that he was being actively hunted by the authorities.

  The brothers had always been afraid that Snake would eventually draw attention to them, because they knew it was inevitable that he would eventually do something stupid and get caught. They didn’t think he would intentionally involve them, but since they had been outsmarting him his entire life, they knew that the police could easily outwit him.

  His brothers had known for years about Snake’s hatred for Dex Martin, although he never told them why he hated him so much. After Dex was shot, Rufus grilled him about the shooting, abduction, and murder.

  “Snake, youse dun bin hatin’ Martin fer years. Did youse shoot ’em?”

  “I’s ain’t know nuttin bout no shootin’, but I’s wish he was kilt.”

  They never accepted anything he said at face value because he had been a liar his entire life. They knew he was capable of murder and dumb enough to do it, so they weren’t convinced of his innocence. The only reason they gave Snake the benefit of the doubt was because they didn’t think he was smart enough to pull it off without being caught.

  Even though he had denied shooting Dex, he told them he laughed every time he saw a news report about the shooting. He also told them that Dex and Marie was “gittin it on” in high school, and that they both deserved what had happened to them.

  The concept that Dex was trying to protect Marie’s honor was beyond Snake’s comprehension.