by Dave Daren
“I know how to make men talk,” Shifty said in an icy voice. “The Army made sure of that. And if I can make a fuckin’ A-rab talk, I can make some stupid mob guy talk.”
“I wouldn’t bet on that,” I replied in my own cold voice. “But that doesn’t matter. No ‘stupid mob guy’ came all the way to West Virginia just to kill Hup.”
The Sheriff’s lips thinned, and his eyes bore into me. I didn’t flinch and I held my tongue until the coffee machine beeped and I could hear liquid start to splash into the pot. Harris growled, but he picked up a mug from his desk and ambled to the pot.
“If Hup was killed,” I finally asked, “Shouldn’t you be at the crime scene?”
“My deputy’s there,” Harris said as he glanced at me. “But the state troopers are in charge of the crime lab. They’re working the scene.”
“Was he killed at his house?” I asked, mostly just to keep the Sheriff talking.
Harris returned with his mug, and stopped by my chair. We looked at each other, and for a brief moment, I could see him consider dumping the hot liquid on me. But he gave himself a visible shake instead and returned to his seat.
“He was killed at his house,” Harris replied.
“Did you find him?” I asked.
Truthfully, I couldn’t imagine who else besides the Sheriff could have ventured down the road to confront the property appraiser and not been shot. I hadn’t seen any guns, but I assumed there was at least a rifle in the house somewhere. And if it had been some New York goomba, surely Hup would have fired first and then let the Sheriff clean it up.
“His daughter did,” Harris said, and I felt the anger well up in him again. “She shouldn’t have seen him like that.”
“No one should ever see that,” I replied. “She must have gotten there early this morning.”
The Sheriff squinted and then bared his teeth again.
“Oh, you’re good, Mr. Morgan,” he mused. “You’ve got me talkin’ about the case but you still haven’t told me a damn thing.”
“I don’t have anything to tell,” I insisted.
“Let’s talk about that boss of yers,” he suggested.
“I work for Campania Olio,” I replied.
“You work for the Febbo family,” he snapped.
“I don’t discuss my clients affairs,” I said. “I’m sure you’ve heard of attorney-client privilege, even out here.”
“Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be?” Harris retorted as he slammed the mug onto the desk. Somehow, the mug stayed in one piece although brown liquid sloshed over the top of the mug and left an ugly stain on one of the folders.
“You didn’t really think I would just tell you anything about any of my clients?” I asked in disbelief.
“I cannot wait to nail yer ass to the wall,” the Sheriff sniped.
“You’ll be waiting for a long time,” I assured him. “Are you arresting me? If you’re not, I have a friend to drive home.”
“We’re not done talkin’,” he snapped.
“Then I’m calling my lawyer,” I replied as I pulled my cell phone from my pocket. Miracle of miracles, there was a weak signal.
“What lawyer?” he exploded as I started to dial the number on the card.
“A New York area code,” the voice on the other end purred. “And I’ve heard that you were taken to the Sheriff’s office in the back of his cruiser. Do you require my services, Mr. Morgan?”
“I do,” I replied as I kept an eye on the Sheriff. He was halfway out of his chair and he looked like the hardest decision he had to make at the moment was whether to shoot me or strangle me.
“I’ll be right there,” Belle Lucent said. “Tell Shifty I’m on the way.”
“Ms. Lucent will be here shortly,” I said as I placed the phone on the desk.
“Son of a…” the Sheriff muttered. He finally stood all the way up and he glowered at me from the other side of the desk. His hand hovered over his gun, and I could read his plans in his face.
“It won’t work,” I said. “No one will believe that I jumped you, or that I ran away, or whatever you plan to say. Not with Belle on her way here. And while you might convince the locals not to talk about it, you can be damn sure my boss won’t be satisfied with whatever sorry excuse for an investigation you cook up. You’ll have the state AG and the feds in here so fast you won’t know what hit you.”
Harris was making his angry bull noises again, and while the idea of running for the door was tempting, I didn’t want to give him an excuse to shoot me. I just hoped Belle was able to get here before the Sheriff decided he was happy to shoot me even if it did cost him his career. I could almost see him working through the various scenarios in his brain, and I risked a glance towards the front door.
The Sheriff seemed to reach a decision, and his hand eased away from his gun, but he started around his desk as he pulled his handcuffs from his belt. I did stand up then and took a step backwards.
“Are you arresting me?” I demanded.
Before the Sheriff could respond, someone pounded on the front door.
“Yoo-hoo!” Belle called out. “I’m here for my client!”
Belle was loud enough to have been heard along most of Jenkins Road as well as the park. The Sheriff scowled, but he placed the handcuffs back on his belt and stepped towards the door.
“Oh, there you are,” Belle yelled happily when Harris finally opened the door. “I was starting to think I’d gone to the wrong place. And how are you, Mr. Morgan?”
“I’ve been better,” I replied as I eyed the Sheriff.
“Well, haven’t we all,” Belle said as she squeezed past Harris and strode towards me. “Such shocking news. It’s all anyone was talking about in the diner.”
“They’ve already heard?” I asked.
“Well, of course,” she said. “As soon as the call went out to the troopers. Do you know how many people around here have radios? And a lot of them keep ‘em tuned to the department’s frequency. But I know there are people in the big city who do that as well.”
“There are,” I agreed.
Belle looked radiant as she smiled and chatted, and she even managed to bat her eyelashes at Harris.
“Course, as soon as they heard Debra’s name, several of the ladies got together to prepare some food and such,” Bella added. “I believe there are two people sitting with her even now while Willow, that’s the Tewksbury girl, looks after the children.”
“And all of this without cell phones,” I noted.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Bella laughed. “So, shall we get down to business? Why, Sheriff Harris, you look like you’ve spent too much time in the sun, hon. Your whole face is just red, red, red.”
And he was. He was so flushed with anger that his head looked like a giant tomato, and I could see the vein pulsing in his neck.
“The Sheriff seems to think that my employer sent someone to kill Hup, for reasons he has yet to identify,” I explained, “and that my alibi for last night was all prearranged. I think he wants to arrest me for conspiracy, but he hasn’t said that yet.”
“Oh, you have an alibi?” she asked.
“Lila Atcheson,” I said as I felt a flush start to creep up my own cheeks. “She spent the night with me.”
“Well, there you go,” Belle declared as she turned back to the Sheriff. “He has an alibi. So until you can produce this olive oil hitman and tie him to my client, we’ll be leaving.”
Belle grabbed my arm and started to pull me towards the door. The Sheriff had yet to say a word since the woman’s arrival, and he watched us leave with a hard stare that would have stopped most men in their tracks. But Belle managed to keep us moving forward, and though I had to step around the Sheriff in order to reach the sidewalk, he only glared as I escaped his clutches.
We walked along the sidewalk until we were out of view of the Sheriff’s window, and then Belle pulled me into an antiques store. She waved to the elderly woman at the cash register and pul
led be towards the back of the store behind a rack of handmade quilts.
“Just wait a moment,” she said when I started to speak.
Her own gaze was focused on the front window, and a moment later I realized why. The Sheriff’s cruiser drove by, at a very slow pace, then eventually turned along the park and drove towards the other end. Past the government building, the cruiser sped away, on its way to Hup’s house perhaps.
“So, you have an alibi,” she smirked as we started back towards the front of the store. “Lucky for us.”
“Whoever killed Hup wasn’t expecting that,” I replied.
“That’s probably true,” she mused. “Someone definitely wants to see you take the fall for this.”
“You mean, besides the Sheriff?” I asked.
“He wouldn’t kill Hup,” she replied. “Not yet, anyway. Hup might have been a mean son of a bitch, but he brought in money, and he knew how to keep people in line. But Tater would love to pin this on you. He can play up the whole ‘outsiders are dangerous’ line while he takes over amid promises to rid the town of those same outsiders.”
We were back on the sidewalk again, and I noticed that a few gray clouds had moved in. The first few drops started to patter against the sidewalk, and Belle tugged on my arm again.
“Have you eaten?” she asked.
“Not yet,” I admitted as I glanced towards the inn. “But maybe I should check on Lila.”
“She’ll be fine,” Belle replied. “At least until you’ve eaten, and we’ve had a chance to talk.”
“She’s probably hungry,” I added.
“We need to talk,” Belle said. “Now. And preferably, without an audience.”
She was right, but I was still worried about Lila. Even though the Sheriff had driven away, that didn’t mean that some unnamed member of the network wouldn’t pay the environmentalist a visit.
“She’ll be fine,” Belle repeated. “They don’t have any reason to hurt her.”
I wasn’t completely sold on that, but the rain patter had started to fall harder and Belle tugged on my arm again. We fast walked along the sidewalk towards the diner and darted inside just as the rain turned into a deluge.
“Good to see you, Mr. Morgan, Ms. Lucent,” Joelle called from the counter. “There’s a booth in back.”
“Thank you, hon,” Belle called back as she waded through the tables.
It was late enough that most of the breakfast crowd was gone, but it was still too early for the lunch rush. Even so, there were a few stragglers in the place, and they all watched us as we dropped into the last booth in the very back corner of the diner.
“I thought you wanted to talk privately,” I noted. “Don’t you have an office where we could do that?”
“Trust me, I have my reasons,” she said as she handed me one of the menus. It was still sticky from being wiped down and smelled like bleach, but I accepted the laminated paper and once again reviewed the breakfast options.
Joelle came by with coffee and took our orders, mine for a cheese omelet and Belle’s for a corn muffin, then swept into the kitchen. After we’d both tasted the coffee and Belle had added sugar to hers, we looked at each other and smiled.
“I think you saved my life,” I said sincerely. “He was ready to pull his gun and he already had the handcuffs out.”
“I was already walking towards the station,” she admitted. “As soon as I heard he’d arrested you, I knew it was dangerous. Hup was his best friend since they were kids, and if he thought you had killed him, he’d have used any excuse to drop you. Actually, I’m sorta surprised he didn’t shoot you at the inn.”
“Lila was still there,” I replied. “And one of the other guests was watching with his cell phone.”
“And to think I used to hate cell phones,” she snickered. “Well, the main thing is that we got you out of there. Hopefully, Shifty will cool off, and in the meantime, the troopers will start processing whatever evidence they can find.”
“I was out there,” I remarked.
“Where?” she asked.
“Hup’s house,” I said. “Shifty took me out there yesterday to meet Hup. Hup told me he wasn’t afraid of New York goombas and then gave me the spiel about local taxes.”
“Taxes,” Belle snickered again. “Like any of that money he gets goes back to the town.”
“The Sheriff seems to think some of it does,” I said.
Belle shook her head then took another sip of her coffee.
“Oh, every so often Hup would condescend to repave a road or buy some computers for the high school,” she replied, “but that was just to keep the masses from revolting. Hup may have lived in a shack, but I can promise you, he had plenty of money stashed away. I think the town’s going to be surprised just how much he had.”
“And then what will they do?” I asked.
Belle pondered that until Joelle returned with our plates. My omelet was fluffy and smelled like fresh ground pepper, but best of all I could see plenty of orange cheese oozing out the sides. I gulped down two quick bites while Belle pinched off a bit of muffin to nibble on.
“I suppose it depends on how quickly the next man takes over,” she said. “If he can consolidate quickly enough, there won’t be much they can do other than force some vague promises from him to do more for the town. On the other hand, if things take too long and the details become known, I think they might rebel.”
“Is Shifty the next one in line?” I asked.
“It would make sense,” she said. “But I’m not sure. The Sheriff’s a tough guy, no doubt about that, but I think he prefers being in the background and not in the lead.”
“The Sheriff?” I asked in disbelief.
“Oh, I know,” she said. “He likes to intimidate people and he likes having power, but he doesn’t like dealing with the logistics of running everything. That’s what Hup was good at. And that’s how you really make money.”
“You seem to know a lot about their operations,” I pointed out.
“I’ve had years to study them,” she chuckled. “I’ve even gotten close to dragging them into a court a few times. But something would always happen. A witness would get cold feet, evidence would disappear.”
“What about Tweedy?” I asked. “The man who wanted to buy the mine before us.”
She shook her head as she crushed the rest of the muffin she had in her fingers to mere crumbs, and then she watched the crumbs fall back to the plate before she looked at me again.
“I wished I’d had the chance to talk to him,” she said quietly. “But Bam managed to keep his arrival quiet. He wasn’t even supposed to stay overnight, on Bam’s recommendation, apparently, but his flight got cancelled, and there wasn’t another one until the morning. So he stayed to eat at the diner and walk around the town, and then he was supposed to drive to Morgantown and stay over there.”
“So he pulled over on his way back to Morgantown,” I mused.
She nodded and sipped her coffee.
“I learned all this later, mostly from Bam,” she said. “He was pissed as hell when he found out that his buyer was missing, and he had a huge fight with Shifty right in front of the Sheriff’s office. Shifty managed to keep his cool and swore up and down that he and Hup weren’t involved.”
“Do you believe that?” I asked as I thought about Hup’s threats against me with the missing buyer as his example of what might happen.
“No,” she said flatly. “And the worst part is, the man’s death wasn’t really about the buyer. Shifty and Hup were trying to get Bam back into the fold.”
“It would have been nice to know all this before Salvatore signed the offer,” I murmured.
“Oh, Bam wasn’t about to tell anyone from outside the town,” she replied. “Not if it meant he wouldn’t sell the land. And once he found out who was behind the next offer, well, he was sure he’d hit the jackpot. He had a buyer who could finally stand up to Hup.”
“But months went by and nothing happene
d,” I noted.
“Yeah, Bam was pretty depressed about that,” she said. “Not even the money made him happy.”
“Why is he so desperate to sell the land?” I asked.
“Oh, there’s at least a dozen reasons,” she replied. “But it all comes down to the fact that coal mining is such a dirty operation. I think, for a long time, he told himself that it was okay that his family had made their money in coal because it was back before anyone really understood the link between coal and cancer and all the other diseases. But when he lost his wife, and that was a long, slow death, let me tell you, I think he decided he couldn’t justify keeping the mine any longer.”
“He said the mining operations had been shut down some time ago because there wasn’t enough left to make it worthwhile,” I said.
“Well, the last of the big mining was done about a year or two ago,” she said as she stared thoughtfully over my shoulder. “There were some smaller digs after that, but I doubt Bam made much money off of those. I think those were just to keep Hup happy, and keep a few people employed. But then Bam and Hup had their falling out, and Bam announced he was going to sell the mine.”
“What was their falling out about?” I asked.
“I have no idea,” she said. “And I don’t think anyone except Bam and Hup, and maybe Shifty, really knows.”
“That seems strange in a town that seems to thrive on gossip,” I remarked.
“Oh, they know how to keep secrets when they need to,” she said with a smirk.
“So what can you tell me about Hup’s death?” I asked.
“Not much,” she admitted. “He was shot, once in the head and once in the chest, but that’s all the details I have on the shooting. From what Debra said, it sounds like he was shot in the house.”
“Any idea of what time?” I probed.
“Not yet,” she said. “If I was a gambling woman, I would guess around midnight.”
“Oh?” I laughed. “Why midnight?”
“He wasn’t in his pajamas yet, but he’d already had his whiskey,” she replied. “The TV wasn’t on, so he’d finished watching the late news from Morgantown, but Spot, that’s his dog, was outside in her run.”
