by Andrew Allan
The officer cuffed my hands behind my back and led me out of the cage, down a corridor, and into what looked like a conference room.
And, there he was—Stokely.
He was well-dressed, all business, and sitting with the posture of a man possessing authority.
“Have a seat.”
My accompanying officer pulled out a chair and unlocked the cuffs.
I sat.
There was a notepad and a pen and a small, padded manila envelope on the table. Stokely reached into the envelope and pulled out a book.
“Remember this?”
I nodded. It was Razook’s book.
“You don’t look like a killer,” he said.
“Do they always?” I said.
Shrug. “Sometimes.”
Did he know I had actually killed?
“Start by telling me what was going on in Tierra Verde,” he said. “Because it sure looks like a kidnapping to me.”
“Right. Well, I came into the acquaintance of Clark, the man you probably found tied up in the house, out on Shell Key. He was patrolling the area, armed. He confronted me on the beach and tried to, I don’t know, arrest me.”
“He’s not an officer of the law, as I understand it.”
“That’s right. He’s not. He works for the Kith. And, that’s why he was on Shell Key. They were loading a bunch of something, supplies. He said I was trespassing and tried to do something about it.”
“Well, you were in a disaster zone. And therefore, trespassing.”
“As were they. The Kith doesn’t belong there. And, we both know why they were there. If you talk to Clark, he’ll corroborate everything I’ve been telling you.”
“I will.”
“Good. And hey, does anyone else here know about the Kith?” I was getting antsy.
“No. I’ve been doing my own research. Based on what you’ve told me.”
“You still believe me?”
“I believe there is a group that you call the Kith. I’ve visited the website you provided. I’ve seen the sordid pictures and glimpsed their…lifestyle. I can confirm they have a long, wide reach. Lots of influence.”
“And?”
“And, I believe they were connected to my two deputies found dead in Yankeetown.”
Thank the gods he at least believed that.
“Doesn’t prove a whole lot yet. But, it could.”
“I’ll do anything to help.”
“You’ve done enough.”
I leaned in. “I’m serious. Talk to Clark. He works directly for the Kith. And, he knows they’re gonna kill him for screwing up. His only chance is to tell you everything. Because you’re the only one who can stop them now.”
“This is a complicated situation,” he said.
“Tell me about it.”
“I want to do the right thing. I want to help you. But, it’s not going to be easy.”
Why did he look worried?
“I have to quietly investigate Yankeetown. I’ve yet to confirm West Palm Beach. And, I have to find the man who did kill the Governor. Can you tell me anything about him?”
“I just know he’s Razook’s right hand man. If you find Razook, there’s a very good chance you’ll find him.”
“Haven’t had any luck finding Razook. The Kith is not like other groups. There’s no corporate office. It isn’t active online, except for that one site. It is very much a secret society.”
“The only way one hears about them is if they’ve already heard about you.”
He twiddled the pen on the pad. He was looking for answers as much as I. But, something was off. He was going somewhere with all of this. Something bigger was pressing on his mind.
“Are you afraid to go up against the Kith?” I asked.
He frowned. “No. It’s what good men do, scared or not.”
“And, you’re a good man.”
He appeared put off.
“I’m agreeing with you,” I said. “But, something’s bothering you. You’ve never faced anything like this.”
“No. I haven’t.”
“Have you spoken to Wint?”
“He’s missing.”
We both knew what that meant.
“Do you have a family, Detective?” I said.
His expression grew cold. That confirmed my suspicion.
“I ask only because I want you to truly understand how the Kith works. The Kith won’t hesitate to go after them. They already know you’re leading this investigation. They’re already watching you. My guess is they’re watching your family as well. Every move you make is going to be tracked. And, they’re going to make decisions. Are you getting too close to the truth? If so, whose side are you on? What kind of man are you? Are you an ally? Can you be bought? Are you strong? Weak? Will anyone miss you if you disappear?”
No response.
“I believe the Kith will size you up as a competent man of integrity. They may try to bribe you. Usually, it’s done with an invitation to join the club. Make your wildest dreams come true. If they don’t think you can be compromised, they’ll see who up on the police hierarchy controls you. If they deduce that a man of your strong moral code will continue to investigate them regardless if your boss directs you to stop—especially if your boss tries to get you to do the wrong thing—my guess is they’ll get nasty. Perhaps do to your wife what they did to mine. I couldn’t hide my resentment.
“Which was what?”
“They kidnapped her. They put her in a slave auction. They drugged her and tried to sell her to the highest bidder.”
He looked horrified.
“And the only reason she is alive today. And, free. And, dealing with the emotional scars of the Kith is because I didn’t trust them. I didn’t join them. And, I didn’t give up.”
I could feel the hot burn of tears welling in my eyes.
“I need you to fight, Stokely. I need you to find them. And, stop them. Not for me. For you. For your family. For all families.”
He took a deep breath. It was a lot to process.
I wiped my eyes.
“You need to find Razook,” I said.
“How do I do that?”
“You know he’s going to show up at Fort DeSoto, sometime soon. Or, he’ll be in Governor Hoyt’s orbit.”
“I can’t be in both places at once. Not while leading the task force to capture the Governor’s killer.”
“There’s no one you can trust?”
“I trusted those two deputies. Saw where that got me. No, I don’t trust anyone at this time.”
Persuasion time.
“You can trust me,” I said.
“Yes, I do believe I can.”
“So, let me help you.”
“How? You can’t do much in here.”
“Maybe I can help you out there?”
“Are you serious?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Because we just arrested you. You think I’m gonna let you go and wait for you to screw up again? Damn, I trust you up to the point. Don’t treat me like a halfwit.”
This was now the biggest persuasion job of my life. I had to summon all my powers.
“Wouldn’t letting me go be the smartest thing you could do?”
“You’re crazy. I need you here for questioning. To corroborate the information I dig up.”
“But, I could help you dig up twice as much. I’ve done most of the digging so far.”
“Don’t get cocky.”
“I’m not cocky. I’m confident. Look. If the Kith think I escaped from you they won’t be scared of your coming after them. They won’t think you’re competent.”
“And, neither will my constituents, which means I’ll have my ass fired and be out of a job.”
“You want a job or justice?”
“Both.”
“Then bring down the Kith. A massive criminal enterprise like that? Up there with the drug cartels. You’ll be Sheriff #1.”
“This conversation is g
oing off the rails.” Exasperation on his face.
“No, it’s not. We’re finally getting somewhere.”
“You’re crazy, Asher.”
“I’m right, Stokely. And, you know it.”
He was stone faced.
“Look at it this way. If I accidentally escape, that does two things: It sends the Kith hunting me instead of watching you, watching us, watching this building right now. They might even have someone in the building. Don’t think they wouldn’t try to kill me in here tonight.”
“That’s preposterous.”
“You had two deputies, in uniform, ready to hand me over to that sweet girl in Yankeetown. They’d do it here.”
My pitch was heating up.
“I can be where you can’t. Your eyes in the field.”
He turned away, flummoxed, because the logic was sound. Undeniable.
“You know, I’m right.”
“I know you’re insane. And, let me remind you I’m the one in charge here. This is my conversation—not yours.”
“You’re welcome to think that.” I wasn’t backing down. “It’s not about whose conversation this is. It’s not even about right versus wrong. It’s about staying alive. Keeping our loved ones alive. It’s about doing what needs to be done in order to get past this. That’s what I’ve been trying to do for more than a year. Get it over with. What’s the fastest way to get this over with?” I held up finger number one. “It’s either death. Or, it’s defeating the Kith.” I popped up finger number two. “And, neither of us can do that alone. We have to work together.”
“We’ve been doing that.” A forehead vein bulged.
“You know what I mean.”
“If I let you escape, my career is over.”
“Your career is over because you hired bad deputies and couldn’t even keep your department clean. And, it’s over if you don’t do exactly what the Kith want you to do. And that, honorable detective, goes against everything you stand for. And, everything I stand for. You don’t want to spend the rest of your life worrying and wondering. And, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in a cell waiting for someone to show up and kill me.”
“How do I know you won’t just disappear for good? Huh? How do I know down to my bones this hasn’t spooked you enough to never come close to the cops again?”
I leaned back in the chair. We had reached the heart of the matter. Time to make the sale.
“Stokely, you can trust me because I don’t want to spend the rest of my life running. I’m tired and I’m scared. You don’t have to treat me any differently once I’m out. You can act like I escaped. Add it to my list of offenses. I’m happy to take that rap. If something happens to me while I’m out, if the Kith gets me, if they kill me…feel free to blame everything on me. I was the bad guy. I was the killer. I just don’t want to spend the rest of my life running. This gets settled now, one way or the other.”
What else could I say? Oh, there was one thing—
“You know I’ll come back because you have my wife. And, you have my best friend. I’m not gonna just leave them to rot. If I did, they’d help you find me. You can’t lose.”
I wasn’t going to break my stare until he gave me an answer.
“You are one persuasive motherfucker, Asher. I will give you that,” he said.
“Is that a ‘yes’?”
He scribbled something on the notepad and tore it off. He rose from his chair and walked over to the door.
“Is what a yes? We never had this conversation. All I know is there’s an open door to the left and my car is the black, unmarked cruiser with the keys inside it.”
I turned to face him.
He looked at me. No smile. He was a conflicted man taking a huge risk.
“I expect an update by midnight tonight,” he said. He handed me the paper he had torn off. It had a phone number on it. He rapped the doorframe and walked out.
I was alone.
My hands were free.
The door was open.
Time to go.
59
IF I THOUGHT I was in trouble before, I couldn’t imagine how dicey things were about to get. Once word broke I had escaped, shit.…
There was someplace I wanted to go. I just wasn’t sure how to get there.
Did I feel bad putting Stokely’s career on the line? Sure. Did I feel guilty DG and Ilsa were still stuck in jail? Indeed. But, there was nothing I could do about it now. This had to happen.
Enough of that. If I just focused and got the job done, they’d be free, I’d be free, life would be peaceful, and harmony could be restored across the land. Maybe.
I skipped the Interstate and drove into south St. Pete and cut north. Downtown was a ghost town. How soon until the manhunt fired up?
The first pay phone I found had no directory. The second, same result. Third, no dice. But, there were a couple guys hanging out in the littered, overgrown field around the corner. They weren’t as sly as they thought tucking their drinks away.
“Either of you have a phone by any chance?” I said.
They looked to each other. If they were the corner dealers, as they appeared, of course they had phones.
“What you need?” said the one wearing the oversized Buccaneers sweatshirt with a hand tucked down the front of his pants.
“I need to get an address. Don’t even need to use the phone. Just need you to look up a place.”
They exchanged another glance that clearly said ‘the fuck?’
But, I got the address I wanted. It was in Pinellas Park.
I drove the cruiser into the parking lot of the rundown four-space strip plaza. Tompkins Temps was open.
Gritty, blue-collar laborer types lingered along the sidewalk; more waited inside the lobby. There were six desks, each staffed, each with a laborer.
“Excuse me.” A husky redhead turned from her client to me. “Sir, you’ll need to sign in and wait outside.”
I ignored her and walked to the back of the room and stepped into an office space as she called “Sir?” repeatedly.
I waited.
She showed up a beat later.
“Sir, you cannot be back here—“
“Where’s Jimmy Tompkins?”
“I have no idea.”
“I’m an old friend of his.”
“We’re very busy right now and I need you to—“
“Gimme his number.”
“If you’re an old friend why don’t you have his number?”
“Lost my phone.”
“Sir, I can’t give that out. If you’re here to work—.”
“Look, he asked me to come here about the DeSoto deal. That’s what this rush is all about, right?”
“Yes, you are correct.”
“I know I am,” I said. “I’m supposed to head out there with Jimmy.”
“He’s not supposed to be here for another twenty minutes,” she said, consternation on her face.
“Fair enough. You don’t have to give me his number if I can wait in here ’til he shows up.”
She sighed, considered it. “Okay, but please don’t touch anything.”
“I won’t. Go back to what you were doing. They’re waiting for them on DeSoto.”
She nodded, confirming every suspicion I had. Razook needed muscle to build the resort to Wint Wilson’s specifications. It wasn’t a fluke Jimmy Tompkins was at Razook’s Air Force base compound. He was a dedicated member of the Kith and ready to flex his business muscle to help the cause.
Sassy secretary split.
I sized up the room—a dusty computer, file boxes, stacks of files.
My fingers did the walking. There—a file labeled ‘FDS’. Fort DeSoto? Application files inside. All the forms were there, W-9. 1099, all scribble scrawled to legitimacy. I flipped through a handful, didn’t recognize any names. No surprise. They were just guys wanting to earn a check.
Look at the job descriptions—hauler, boat captain, mason, swingman, bricklayer, a man for e
very job, a job for every man.
There was a small fridge containing staff lunches. I rummaged through a selection of plastic grocery bags, grabbed what looked appetizing and chowed. Sorry, ladies. You can go get another lunch. I could be dead within the hour.
Tompkins showed up. The walls were thin enough I could hear the redhead say “Yes, he’s back in the office.”
Tompkins opened the door.
“How can I help you?” he said.
“The Kith sent me,” I said.
“The who?”
My look said don’t bullshit me.
“You mean Razook.”
“Yes.”
“So again, how can I help you?”
“You’re heading out to DeSoto right?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going with you. I’m down from Green Cove Springs.”
“Hell of a spread up there.”
“Indeed.”
Was he dim enough to buy my story outright? Or, did he know enough not to ask questions?
We cruised back to Fort DeSoto in his massive pickup, back into the hot zone. He had no problem slicing past checkpoints. Maybe it was the yellow construction lights that flashed atop the truck roof. Gave us authority.
“Hell of a thing that hurricane,” he said.
I agreed even though I knew nothing about it, its size, what had been expected of it, or the damage it had done.
“How bad did it hit DeSoto?” I said.
He smirked. “Not all that bad.”
“But, just enough for us.”
“Yep. Just enough.”
“It requires a hell of an operation to do something this audacious. And away from the public eye,” I said.
“That’s how Razook does it. Although it’s not gonna be a terribly big build.”
“The blueprints indicate otherwise.”
“Don’t get me wrong. It’s certainly gonna be big. Just not so much that it’s too costly to run.”
“Razook thinks of everything.”
“It’s impossible not to be impressed with the man.”
I could prove him wrong.
We arrived at a checkpoint formed by a pair of police cars blocking the road. Two officers in rain slickers stood guard. One walked up to Jimmy’s window.
Jimmy held up his credentials.
I looked down to reduce any chance of being recognized.
In the console between the seats was a trio of metal rings. Same size as you’d put on your fingers only each one had a configuration of two or three spikes protruding from the band. The spikes weren’t so long you couldn’t conceal them in your palm. Could be handy.
