“So you’re sitting on a rival club’s couch looking at the man you know got framed and you’re about to roll over on your club?”
“Not my club. I don’t belong to The Black Saddles. I’m just related to an idiot in the group. I’ve got no passion to belong to it or know what they do with their lives or anything like that.”
“But you hang out with them,” I said.
“When I think my brother’s about to do something stupid, sure. It’s what I’ve always done. Tried to keep him out of trouble and deal with our mother leaving for years,” she said. “But he didn’t listen to me that night.”
“You were there?”
“I was. Sitting on a log bench off in the corner. They knew you guys were coming. I don’t know how, but they did. They kept talking about how a guy named Diesel or something would probably send a guy named Knox. Possibly with some other guys. I kept telling my brother to shut up and pay attention to the fire, but all he did was kick rocks at me.”
“He kicked rocks at you.”
“He’s an idiot. Trust me.”
“What happened next?” I asked.
“I didn’t understand exactly what was going on. I had no idea why they were excited about you guys coming, but they were. We heard you guys coming through the woods and the closer you guys got the further they pushed us into the forest. Said they didn’t want us being seen with what was about to happen next.”
“Are you saying your brother pinned this on me?” I asked.
“He did. The confrontation between you and Blaze happened, some of the guys in the back started talking. About how they could use that confrontation as leverage. When Blaze started beating up on you-”
I watched Everly pause as she gathered herself. She turned her face away from me and looking down at her hands. I studied her, waiting for her to gather herself. I could see tears glistening in her eyes and I saw the hurt roll over her face. Her hands started twirling up in her shirt and her leg started jiggling.
I drained the rest of my beer and waited for her to collect herself.
“Rex came running back to the edge of the woods where we were and said we needed to leave. The couple of other girls there turned to leave, but I was still trying to get to Rex. His guys were holding me back, trying to get me to run with the rest of them. Like the fucking cowards they really are.”
“Guess we agree on something,” I said.
“I saw Rex stab Blaze. When you hopped back up and knocked him to the ground, Rex was tiptoeing around the edge of the forest. Watching and just… waiting. Like some psychopath. I saw a guy grab you off him and once you guys disappeared Rex emerged. Slid a knife right into Blaze’s back. He just… stabbed him like it was nothing. In the fucking back.”
Her entire body was shaking as a tear streaked across her cheek. It took her makeup with it and it made her look even more tired than she already was. She was probably suffering from nightmares, watching all that shit go down. That was why our club kept family away from all this shit. They couldn’t handle the lives we lived, and that wasn’t a fault of their own. It meant they were pure and good. Filled with light and love.
That didn’t deserve to be tainted with the things she was talking about.
“Rex killed Blaze. I saw it,” Everly said. “And I was shocked. Because I never thought my brother would kill one of his own. The guys started to panic and Blaze was choking on his own blood. He kept saying ‘we’ll pin it on him. We’ll pin it on him. I had no idea what he was talking about until he came home one day. Pissed that you had been let out of jail. Had I known you were in jail, I would’ve come forward sooner. I was just… trying to forget everything and move on. Distance myself from Rex altogether.”
“Why would your brother wanna frame me?” I asked.
“I don’t know. He was always bitching like a child about how Redding was getting too crowded with people he didn’t like. As if he fucking owned the damn place. My brother’s always been too territorial for his own good. Even if the territory isn’t his in the first place.”
“Did he want to pin the murder on me? Or on my club?” I asked.
“I think just you. But I really wouldn’t put the latter past him. He always takes on more than he can chew, then pawns it off like it was someone else’s bad idea if it goes south. My brother is the epitome of what a coward tries to do to act like a man. My father was so drunk out of his mind most of the time that he didn’t know which way was up or where his own bedroom was. My brother had no male role model growing up, but a shitty childhood doesn’t excuse being a shitty adult.”
“Truer words were never said. But you know I gotta take this to my club, right? And they’re gonna wanna know where I got the information,” I said.
“I figured,” she said with a sigh.
“If I can get outta telling them who told me, I will. But if I can’t, we can protect you. It’s part of what we do.”
“I would say it’s not necessary, but with what I watched my brother do I’m not so sure,” she said.
“Gimme your number so we can stay in touch. I’ll let you know if my club wants to know where I got my information. You can’t stay here. It’s gonna be safer if you get outta here as fast as you can once I get your number. But you’ve got no idea how much you’re helping us out. We’ll owe you a favor in return.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll give you my number then.”
I put her number in my phone before I walked her out to her car. She was shaken up and beyond tired, and I watched as she drove away from my apartment. Her car was swerving a little bit, but I couldn’t concern myself with that. What I needed to do was call Diesel immediately and tell him what the fuck I’d just found out.
“Knox. My man. What’s up?”
“Diesel, I got some serious news.”
“Define ‘serious’,” Diesel said.
“It blows our entire investigation we’ve been doing outta the water.”
“How so?” he asked.
“I know who fucking set me up. And you’ll never guess who the hell told me.”
Chapter 26
Monroe
Bradley’s trip to the police station proved to be fruitless. Everyone there was tight-lipped and not saying a thing. He came back with lunch and we continued to pour through documents while my highlighter sat unused. California law was a beast, and every loophole I thought I’d found was then covered in the next paragraph. At this rate, it would take me two weeks to get through this damn book, and I wasn’t sure I would come out with a solution.
Our best bet was to actually figure out who killed Blaze. Because if it was one it was one of the Black Saddles, it would throw the entire RICO case off The Dead Souls.
I still had doubts about Knox. I loved him. I really did. I was worried for him in ways I couldn’t explain. But I still had my doubts. Looking for a loophole in all this still painted guilt across his forehead. What the loophole meant was that he wouldn’t be prosecuted for his perceived guilt. He ran with a club that was known in this area to work with some of the most notorious crime families when it came to running and laundering their money. That wasn’t something to easily come back from. One good altercation over a decent sum of money could lead to a murder, and with Knox head-deep in that world I couldn’t put it past him.
I was in love with someone I thought was capable of murder, and it made me sick.
There was something we were missing. I could feel it.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I need more coffee,” I said.
“Good idea. I’m expecting another call from the assistant U.S. attorney in an hour, so I could use the caffeine to fuel the argument that’s coming,” Rose said.
“You get the feeling there’s more to this than we know?” Bradley asked.
“There always is,” Rose said. “We just have to find it. Monroe, get us two large black coffees from wherever you go. Bradley keeps his own cream and sugar.”
“And Rose takes it black. Like
her soul,” Bradley said with a grin.
“The two of you are too much. I’ll be right back,” I said.
I left the office space and headed in the exact opposite direction of the coffeehouse. Blaze’s evidence load was at the police station, and I was going to access it. I got into my car and drove up the block, then parked myself right in front of the station. I knew I didn’t need to be there and I knew I could potentially sink this entire case, but I had to prove Knox innocent.
I had to get this RICO case dropped.
I slipped into the building and made my way down to evidence. I avoided signing in at the front desk, just in case I got into trouble. I had no idea what the hell had overcome me, but I was out on a mission. If Bradley couldn’t get what he needed through legal means, then I had ways of getting what I wanted with means that were a little grayer than the ones he used.
I walked down the staircase to the basement of the police station. The man sitting at the desk was typing away on his computer. Beer gut. Scruff on his face. Crumbs on his uniform. The man didn’t look fit to be guarding someone’s cat, much less an evidence locker.
But a man who looked like him was more susceptible to the tactics I was about to use.
“Afternoon, officer,” I said with a kind smile.
“Hello there,” he said. “How can I help you?”
“I’m Monroe Williams. I’m the new hire over at Lowen And Scott. I was wondering if I could take a look at Andrew Shepard’s evidence box?” I asked.
“You guys must not communicate very well. Bradley was just by here a couple of hours ago. I can’t let you see that file because the case is closed for now. You’ll have to get a judge to sign off on a new warrant to reopen the box.”
“It’s already taped up?” I asked. “Wow, you must be an efficient man.”
“Well, it’s not taped up yet. But I’m getting around to it today,” he said.
“An efficient man on a schedule. I wish more men operated like that.”
“Eh, a lot of guys around here aren’t raised the way I was. Parents around here are sloppy, at best. My father kept me on a strict schedule and if I deviated from it in any way, there was hell to pay.”
“Military man?” I asked.
“Oh yes. Traveled a lot. Lived overseas a couple of times. And the schedule he kept our house on was for the sanity of everyone.”
“You come from a big family?” I asked.
“Five sisters. I’m the oldest.”
“Wow. You just keep getting better,” I said with a smile.
“How so?”
“You enjoy schedules. Routine. You’re the oldest, which means you probably have an innate sense of looking out for your family. Your father would be proud of you.”
“I’d like to think he would be, yes.”
“Your wife’s one lucky woman,” I said.
“Oh, I never married. When my father died in combat, I took up the requirement of taking care of my family.”
“Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry. When did he pass?”
“Years ago. But taking care of my mother and five sisters didn’t leave much time for a love life,” he said.
“What about now?” I asked.
I leaned forward onto the desk and shoved my boobs together. The man’s eyes descended to them and I watched him try to not lick his lips. His cheeks flushed and his neck began to redden. His eyes danced along the part of my body he could see before his eyes met mine again.
Then a grin slid across his face.
“You must really wanna see that evidence box,” he said.
“What evidence box?” I asked.
“I know what you’re doing. Women have done less for a peek in evidence boxes.”
I put on my best shocked face and kept my eyes open to the harsh air in the basement. They began to dry out then water, making it look as if I was about to cry. There were two sides to this man. The side that never got laid and the side that felt an innate sense to take care of a female. The flirting didn’t work, so the wounded woman would have to do.
“Miss Williams, are you okay?” he asked.
“I can’t stand that about you men,” I said breathlessly.
“What? That’s what you were doing, right?”
“No. I know what ‘no’ means. It’s not my fault you have beautiful eyes and a kind demeanor. Just because I come down here and want to talk with a guy doesn’t mean I’m trying to get something. You told me I couldn’t have it so I got the picture.”
“Miss Williams, I didn’t mean to-”
“You didn’t mean to what? Insinuate that I was using my body to get something for myself?” I asked. “Is that what you do to all women you encounter? Accuse them of some underlying notion?”
“No. Not at all,” he said.
“Because that’s probably why you don’t have a love life, if that’s what you do.”
Tears continued to rise in my eyes and the man wiggled around in his seat. I could tell watching me become so emotional was rough on him. Part of me felt bad, but part of me knew something in that evidence box hadn’t been communicated to us.
And if it wasn’t taped up yet, then that meant anything could’ve been slid into it.
“What do you want?” the man asked. “I don’t want you to cry. I can’t handle women crying. It’s not right.”
“Great. Now when I tell you I’d really enjoy seeing that evidence box, you’re going to think I threw myself at you to get it. When all I wanted was to ask you for your number so I could call you sometime,” I said.
“No, no, no. It’s fine. Look, the box isn’t taped up. I’m sure it won’t hurt if you take a look at it. And I’d love to hear from you sometime. You’re a beautiful woman, Miss Williams.”
“You mean it?” I asked.
The man got up and came around his desk and stood toe-to-toe with me. We were eye level with one another and I tried to blink away my tears. He studied my face intently, like he was trying to figure out if I was still lying to him.
Then he sighed and pulled out his keys.
“You’ve got ten minutes,” the man said.
“Thank you,” I said as I put my hand on his arm. “I really appreciate it.”
“Yeah, yeah. Never been able to resist a beautiful woman.”
“I won’t be a woman you regret,” I said.
“Somehow, I doubt that.”
The two of us shared a grin before I made my way into the evidence locker. I walked down rows of cardboard boxes, taped with that red tape that said ‘evidence’ on it. I ran my fingers along the names and numbers. Evidence of murders and thefts that had put people in jail in this area. My eyes scanned the shelves, looking for the few boxes that hadn’t been taped up yet.
And back in the far left corner was what I was looking for.
I pulled the box off the shelf and sat down on the floor with it. I slid the top off and began digging through everything. Pictures of Blaze’s body on the autopsy table and an official record of his autopsy report. Knox’s boot they collected off him when he was carted off to jail and some blood-covered sand in vials. DNA lab results that connected back to the vials of sand and all sorts of shit they’d recovered from the crime scene.
But there was something at the very bottom.
Something none of us had seen before.
I pulled out the evidence bag and found a knife. A blood-soaked knife. My eyes widened as I looked at the inscription on the metal, then I began to dig around for the autopsy report. It was a perfect match. The width and depth of the wound in Blaze’s back was an exact match to the bloodied knife in the evidence box.
And it was a knife we’d never seen before.
I looked around the evidence locker before I pulled out my phone. I began to take pictures of everything to take back to Rose and Bradley. I had no idea how long this knife had been in this box, but none of the possibilities were good. If the prosecution had this knife to begin with, then they were withholding evidence and obstructi
ng justice. If this knife had been placed in this box after Knox’s trial, then someone was trying to wash their hands of the incident while still portraying a facade to the assistant U.S. attorney.
I put my phone away and began stuffing everything back into the box. I put the knife back at the bottom where I’d found it, then I slid the evidence back onto the shelf. I walked out of the evidence locker and found the desk empty, which meant the man was probably trying to give me some sort of privacy. I could only hope he had cut the camera feed into the corner I was sitting in long enough for me to do what I had done.
I walked up to the man’s desk and reached over for a piece of paper and a pen. I wrote my name and number down, then put ‘IOU’ at the top of it. Because I did. Had he not let me into that evidence locker, we would’ve never known about the knife. That blew this entire fucking case wide open and gave us a chance at figuring out who the hell was responsible for killing Blaze.
Especially if we could legally get that knife in our custody.
I ran back out to my car and raced to get us all some coffee. I was trembling with fear. Wondering what Rose and Bradley would do to me. I walked into the office and divvied out the coffees, and that was when Bradley started studying me closely.
“What happened?” he asked.
“What?” Rose asked.
“You guys are going to be upset, but just bear with me,” I said.
“What the hell did you do?” Bradley asked.
“I went back to the police station,” I said.
“Oh. That’s not so bad. Did they turn you away like Bradley?” Rose asked.
“Not exactly.”
I pulled out my phone and started flipping through the photos. Bradley’s eyes were wide as he ripped it from my hand. He emailed himself the photos before sitting at his computer, then he blew them up on the screen for us to zoom in and look.
“What the fuck is that?” Rose asked.
“It’s a knife. And it matches Shepard’s wound perfectly,” I said.
“Go get our copy of the autopsy report,” Bradley said.
Knox (Dead Souls MC Book 1) Page 16
