Bob Moats - Jim Richards 01-03- 3 for Murder Box Set (17 page)

“I got something to tell you,” I started.

She interrupted, “Linda is dead.” I nodded.

A choke caught in her throat. She took a breath and started to hyper-ventilate. There was a bag of bagels on the desk. I dumped them and had her breathe into the bag. After a few moments, she calmed.

“What happened?” she asked.

I told her what Trapper said. She looked to me with tears in her eyes.

“I’m going to die, aren’t I?” she cried.

“Like hell you are! We aren’t going to let anything happen to you,” I promised.

Buck spit out, “These bastards will have to deal with me before I let them hurt you!”

She started rocking back and forth, hugging herself, crying. I grabbed her and pulled her to me.

Buck went to the restroom, got a glass of water and brought it to her. She drank it between sobs.

Deacon came to the door. He’d been out making sure the audience left. He stopped as Buck moved him back into the hall and told him about Grolich. He was stunned.

“So that means Penny is the last,” Deacon said.

Buck replied, “Yeah, and we can’t get any more protection from the cops.”

Deacon took offense and said, “Don’t put this on us. I’m a cop, yeah, but right now, I would lay down my life for her. Politics is the fucker, not the cops.”

Buck apologized. He said he was just pissed. Deacon accepted and wondered what to do now.

Penny and I came out of the room. “You guys could be a little quieter. Let’s get Penny out of here. We need to think of somewhere else to take her besides her home.”

Buck beamed. “She can stay at my place for now. Waters has no idea where I live.”

“Staying at your place is almost a death sentence.” I smiled. “But I think it’s a good idea.”

I looked to Penny and said, “We need to tell your people that they will have to deal with Phil a bit longer. You are going into seclusion.”

Penny talked to her producer. He understood. We took our leave and headed out. Penny said she needed to stop at her place for essentials and the cat. Deacon grinned and said that I could hold the cat on the way to Buck’s. I stuck my tongue out. We all took our guns from under the seats and slipped them into our belts.

We arrived at Penny’s place around noon. She gathered what she needed and put the cat in a kitty carrier. I was thankful for that.

While still at Penny’s I called my brother and asked him to help get Dad to bed. He said he would. I told him to give my apologies to mom, and I’d explain later.

We piled back into the van and headed out I-94 to New Baltimore and finally into Buck’s drive. Deacon followed us with his patrol car. Buck’s house was fairly secluded, back off M-29, the main road into town.

I said, “OK, no one tells anyone where Penny is. Understood? Not even Trapper. Anybody’s phone could be tapped, or someone slips the info, and the cover is blown. If anybody asks, we don’t know where she is. Understood?”

Everyone agreed. We got Penny into the spare bedroom in the back of Buck’s modest little home.

The house was small but livable. While Penny was setting up her new room, Buck was on the phone. I couldn’t hear him, but he was grinning that walrus smile. Buck then started to clean up his living room, and Penny went to help. Buck apologized for the mess. Penny pulled him down and kissed him on his bald head. She said it was her home for now. He stuck out his tongue at me and said that she kisses him, too.

About an hour later there was such a roar out front I thought we were under attack from nearby Selfridge Air National Guard Base. Deacon and I went to the front window and saw about eight motorcycles and three hot rods roaring onto the huge front lawn.

Buck grinned and said, “My own personal army.”

*

Chapter Fourteen

We went out, and Buck started greeting his buddies and their women. They all gave Deacon the eye as the huge cop came forward. Buck went over to Deacon and threw his arm around the big man, saying that Deacon was a brother to us now. Respect that, he demanded. They all came over to greet Deacon, and then Buck introduced Penny and me. He asked everyone to sit out on the front porch and lawn, then related the story of the last three days. Everyone sat in awe of the tale of murder and mayhem and looked to Penny every so often with respect. Penny was in awe of the gathering on the lawn, her new protectors.

Deacon leaned over to me and said, “This is far better than police protection.” He grinned. I had to agree.

The tale was told, they agreed to help, and the group started pulling out tents and other camping equipment from the cars. It looked like Woodstock after a while. Someone cranked up a boom box and had Cream blasting out, “Sunshine of Your Love.” Talk about flashbacks. They had Penny sitting on a lawn chair in the middle of it all, treating her like a princess. One biker came over and said, with reverence, that he watched her show every day. She suppressed a giggle and then signed the biker’s helmet when he held it and a magic marker out to her. He was in heaven now. So was Penny.

I stayed back, letting her enjoy the moment and forget the horror of it all. She would look around to me every so often, then finally got up and came to me.

“Days ago, you were just a forty year teenage crush for me. Now you are my savior, and with Buck, my super heroes.”

I said, “I hope you don’t love me for just being a savior. I hope there’s more to it.”

She hugged me tight and said, “You better believe it, stud.”  

One of the women, a girl about half of Penny’s age, broke off from her group and came over to Penny. “Excuse me, but we were wondering if you could talk to us about all the celebrities you’ve interviewed? I want to hear about Hugh Jackman. I saw the show he was on.” She beamed.

Penny looked to me, smiled, then said to the woman she’d be delighted. They went off, and Penny was given a lawn chair as the group of women and a few men gathered at her feet.

Buck came over. “Looks like Penny’s got some new friends.”

“Buck, you’ve been a real good friend to me, but this tops it all. Thank you so much.” I gave him a hug. He looked a little surprised, then smiled and patted me on the back.

“My pleasure, man. So, you and I are free now to really do some investigating.”

I said with a sigh, “I now feel safe leaving Penny alone. Yes, we are going to have to do something about this.” I looked to Deacon and said, “We should go and have a war counsel.”

Buck, Deacon and I went around back of the house where it was private, sat on the porch steps and talked.

“OK, we know that Waters’ house has been discovered, so she will not be going back there. Morgan’s house will be looked at when Trapper gets the warrant. So where would they hide out now?” I inquired.

“Motel?” Buck offered.

“Is Morgan from around here, I mean does he have any relatives?” Deacon asked.

I said I didn’t know, excused myself and went to interrupt Penny where she sat talking to the wide-eyed group. I asked her if she knew where Morgan was from. She thought a bit, then said he once mentioned he came from the Midwest, but no particular place. I went back to Buck and Deacon. I said I thought we should go to Morgan’s apartment to check it out. We went back around front. Buck said he put his friend Luther in charge of the compound, as he now called it. We went to Luther and told him we were leaving for a while, and not to let anyone on the property they didn’t know. He said, “No fear, man. The lady will be safe with us.”

I went to tell Penny we would be back. She kissed me from the chair and went back to her stories. This time we took Deacon’s patrol car. It looked more official even if it wasn’t authorized. I told Buck to sit in the back so he would feel at home. He grunted but did so, and we headed out. I checked the address of Morgan’s apartment on my Palm and got the location. It was in the north end of Clinton Township, not too long of a trip.

We got there and went to the manager’s office to ask about Morgan.

The lady inside said, “The police had already been here, and I told them I hadn’t seen Morgan today. They had a warrant and looked through the apartment, then left.” She looked at Deacon and assumed we were cops, too, so I played it up.

“We just need to know a few more details. Did Morgan put any references on his rental application?” I asked, like a cop.

She had his file still on the desk from the earlier police visit. Opened it and read off a couple of names. I asked her if she could write the names and addresses on a paper. She did so. I also asked if we could get into the apartment under the previous warrant. She took the keys from her desk and handed them to me. I handed them to Deacon to make it official. She gave me the paper, and I thanked her, saying we would return the keys.

We entered the apartment and started our search. We had no rubber gloves so carefully handled things. I found his desk and went through the bills and letters scattered there. I hit the replay button on his answering machine and listened. Just a couple of guys calling about bar hopping Saturday night. One from a female voice saying, you know who, call me. It kind of sounded like Waters voice that I heard on the VHS tape, but I couldn’t be sure.

As I was pulling open drawers on the desk, there was a banging on the door. Buck and Deacon came in the living room, and I signaled them to get back a little. I went to the door and could hear a voice yelling, “Open up, Davey. It’s Mick.” I looked through the peephole and saw a rather small, young guy with his hat on sideways. I hated that.

I opened the door and said, “Hey, Mick, how’s it going? Come on in.”

Mick paused for a minute and asked where Davey was. I said, “On the crapper. Come on in.”

He smiled and strutted in. I closed the door, and Buck and Deacon came around the corner. He saw Deacon’s uniform and turned to go out, but I blocked him. He raised a fist to hit me, but Deacon grabbed it and swung him around.

“That’s attempted assault, slimeball. I guess I’ll have to run you in.” Deacon twisted the kid’s arm around his back and slapped a cuff on it.

“Whoa, whoa, Officer Deacon. Let’s see what this fine young man needs before we incarcerate him,” I said, acting the part. “Just what is it you want with Davey?”

The kid looked scared but defiant. “I ain’t talking to no pigs.”

“Wow, double negative. You are a genius. Maybe you’d like a night in a cold cell with some big biker. You like that idea?”

Buck stepped around, grabbed the boy’s mouth and squeezed it, saying, “Yeah, my buddies would like his lips.”

I wanted to laugh, but held it when the kid’s eyes went big. I could see a dark stain growing around his crotch.

“OK, Slasher, let the boy be. Now, let’s try this again. What do you want from Davey?” I asked as Buck released his grip.

“OK, OK. I came to see if he still needed my van for tomorrow night. That’s all. Really!”

I wondered why Davey would need a van. For kidnapping, maybe?

“Since he’s not here, do you know where else he hangs?” Deacon asked.

“He sometimes hangs out with his loony sister up in Lake Orion. But they aren’t staying there now. Davey says it’s infested with cockroaches and needs fumigating. I don’t know where else he’d be. Maybe his mom’s house.”

That caught our attention. “Where does his mom live?”

Mick paused, looking like he was having a bad gas attack, then said, “Somewhere out in Chesterfield. I don’t know exactly.”