The Alligator Man (11 page)

A
fter his conversation with his father, Kevin headed straight for Chico’s. It was a little after twelve and it was time for a good stiff drink. He was almost finished with his second bourbon when he decided to call Susan. He hadn’t spoken to her since he hung up on her a few days before.

“Hey,” he said when she answered, still at a loss for words.

“Hey yourself,” she replied.

“Well, I finally had the conversation with my father.”

“And?”

“It’s complicated. I’ll tell you when I see you.”

“And when’s that going to be?”

“I’m not sure. I want to see the lake house and I want to spend a little time with him—get to know him a little better.”

“You’re not sure. Let me make a suggestion—don’t call me until you are sure. I think there is a lot more going on with you than even you know. I don’t need these occasional phone calls so you can tell me you’re not sure what you’re doing. Do you understand?”

“I don’t know why you’re so upset. I haven’t been gone that long.”

“I’m not upset anymore. And it’s not about money or any of the other things we’ve been arguing about. Something’s happening with you and you need to resolve it by yourself.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I can’t explain it any more than I have. Call it woman’s intuition. Ever since you left I have had the feeling that you’re not coming back, that I’ve lost you.”

“That’s nonsense.”

“Maybe so. But don’t call me until you’re on your way home.”

This time Susan hung up on him.

He was going over the conversation in his head for the fourteenth time when Billy showed up.

“I thought I might find you here,” Billy said. “I stopped at the hospital and Kate told me that you and Tom had talked.”

“Yeah, well, it’s one of the enigmas of my life—when I need clarity I head to the bar. Maybe I really want to stay confused.”

Billy understood the sentiment. “I think we both have the same way of coping.”

“You have good reasons. I’m not so sure I do.”

“Hey, coming to see your dying father after twenty-eight years isn’t exactly a walk in the park.”

“I guess you’re right. It was hard for him today, but he told me what happened and he didn’t embellish it at all.”

“That’s Tom. He tells it like it is. Well, do you feel any better?”

“I don’t know yet. It hasn’t all sunk in.”

“I have a legal matter I need to talk to you about. Maybe this is a bad time.”

“Hell, no. It’s the middle of the afternoon, we both have a full drink—at least we will have when I get the bartender’s attention. What better time and place to discuss the law?”

Kevin was trying to make Billy feel at ease, thinking he had a collection problem or something of that nature and felt awkward about asking for advice. He had no idea what was coming.

“A cop came to my house today,” Billy began. Kevin saw the same anxiousness in Billy when he started talking as he had witnessed in his father earlier in the day. “He had a search warrant for my car and he wanted to talk to me.”

“About what?”

“You know that Alligator Man thing down in Gladestown?”

“You mean the hit-and-run murder?”

“Yeah.”

“What about it?”

“They think I did it.”

Kevin almost choked on the bourbon he was sipping. “You’re kidding me.”

“No, I’m not.”

Kevin’s first instinct was to look around the bar to make sure nobody was listening to the conversation. His second instinct was to ask the bartender for the entire bottle of bourbon. It had been a long day already and it was only half over.

“Did you tell Tom about this?”

“No. I didn’t want to burden him. I called Kate and she suggested I talk to you.”

“She did?”

“Yeah.”

Kevin struggled to concentrate on the specifics of the case for a minute. “So they impounded your car this morning but they didn’t arrest you?”

“That’s right.”

“You didn’t talk to them, did you?”

“No.”

“They probably want to see if they can get any evidence from the car and they obviously don’t have enough to arrest you just yet. Listen, we can’t talk about this in here. And I need to decide whether I can take your case or not. You don’t have any money to speak of, do you?”

“None.”

“All right. Why don’t you plan on coming over to Tom’s office tomorrow at nine? We can make some decisions then. In the meantime, don’t talk to anybody, and I mean nobody. Got it?”

“Got it.”

Kevin threw a twenty on the bar and left.

K
ate was at the hospital when Kevin arrived. She was sitting by the bed and laughing with Tom about something. In the brief time that he had observed them together, Kevin noticed that they had a loose, easy relationship.

Tom smiled when he saw Kevin walk in the door. “Kate told me about Billy,” he said.

Kate stood up. “I’ll leave you two alone,” she said.

Kevin didn’t want Kate to leave again. He no longer had any animosity toward her and she always seemed to be “leaving them alone.”

“There’s no reason for you to leave, Kate,” he told her.

“I’ll just go to the cafeteria and get a cup of coffee. Do you want one?”

“Sure,” Kevin replied.

“Do you know anything about this?” Kevin asked his father when Kate left the room.

“No,” Tom replied. “In a way I’m shocked. In another way I’m not so shocked.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I don’t think Billy could kill somebody under any circumstances. On the other hand, one of those twenty thousand employees was going to take a shot at Roy Johnson eventually. He hurt Billy more than most. What did he tell you?”

“They impounded his car, which means there was enough evidence to get a search warrant but not enough for an arrest.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Tom replied. “They could just be going slow.”

“You’re right. It is a high-profile case. They don’t want to arrest the wrong man.

“I’ve got to make a decision. Billy wants me to represent him. Let’s assume for a minute that he’s guilty—and I know we don’t have any facts—would you take his case?”

“Absolutely.”

“Why?”

“For one thing, I know Billy. I know he’s not a killer. If he killed Roy Johnson, something beyond himself drove him to do it.”

“I don’t think a temporary insanity defense would work a year after his wife died.”

“It won’t, but it doesn’t mean that Billy wasn’t temporarily insane.”

“So, keeping the same assumption—that he’s guilty—do you think I should take the case? I mean, if he were to be indicted?”

“That’s up to you, son. You know Billy a little bit now and I think that’s a plus. I could help you by doing some background investigation on the computer and even some legal research. I know you’re with a firm in Miami and you need to charge him. I’ll pay his legal fees. I don’t want him going to a public defender.”

“Do you know what Miami rates are for a murder case?”

“I can only imagine.”

It was time for Kevin to be honest with his father. “I don’t work for a firm in Miami anymore. I got fired just before I came up here.”

“Well, then Bernie Stang made a big mistake.”

“How did you know I worked for Bernie?”

“You think I didn’t follow your career? Do you think I don’t know about the high-profile cases that you tried? I know all about you, son. And I know this firing had to be a personality clash because it couldn’t be about your competence as a lawyer.”

Those words from his father certainly made him feel good.

“Thanks. It was a personal issue.”

“You know, you could start your own law firm off with a bang if you had a case like this.” Tom was selling it now. “It won’t matter if you win or lose; you’ll be in the paper every day in Miami and all over the state.”

“I don’t know if I want to go back to Miami, at least not right now.” Kevin could not believe what he was saying. The words just came out.

“Really?”

“Really. I’m starting to feel at home up here. It’s a much slower pace and I like that.”

“Well, you can stay at the house for as long as you like. I’m going to be at the ranch when I get out of here and I don’t think Kate is ever going to let me leave.”

“I appreciate the offer and I’ll think about it.”

As he left his father’s hospital room that day, Kevin remembered what Judge Blackwell had said about his father taking cases that nobody else would take.

This might be one of them.

K
evin met with Billy the next morning at his father’s office.

“Let me explain something to you, Billy,” Kevin told him. “I don’t want you to tell me anything that incriminates you because I can’t ethically put on a defense that I know is false. What I want you to do is tell me facts that prove your innocence. For instance, this murder occurred on April tenth in Gladestown. If you were somewhere else and you can prove it, then I want to hear that. Do you have an alibi or anything like that?”

“An alibi—no. Do you want to know what happened?”

“Not now. Your kids couldn’t testify that you were home on the night of April tenth?”

“No.”

That pretty much told Kevin what he needed to know for the moment.

“I’m going to take your case and my father’s going to work with me on it. After I look at the State’s file, I may have some more specific questions for you.”

Billy let out a sigh of relief. “Whew! You and I haven’t known each other that long, Kev, but I feel a whole lot better with you handling my case rather than some public defender I don’t know at all.”

“Don’t feel too good, Billy. Things can still go very badly for you. I’m going to contact the state attorney now and find out what they have.”

“Won’t it be hard for you and your dad to work together with you in Miami and him up here?”

“I’m not going to be in Miami. I’m going to be right here.”

“Man, I don’t want you to do that. Your livelihood is in Miami.”

“Don’t take offense, Billy, but it has nothing to do with you. I want to spend some time with my father while he’s still here.” Again, they were words he had never spoken before, even to himself.

Three days after his conversation with Kevin about Billy, Tom Wylie went home. Alex did not want to release him but Tom was relentless and Kate assured him that she could change Tom’s bandages, make him take a walk twice a day, and watch him like a hawk.

“If he has any problems whatsoever, I want you to call me on my cell,” Alex told her. “And I’m going to stop by every few days just to check on you,” he told Tom.

“That’s twenty miles out of your way, Alex. You don’t have to do that. I’ll just call you,” Kate told him.

“All right. But I want to hear from you every day.”

“That’s a promise.”

The weekend after his father went home, Kevin drove to Miami. He planned on calling Susan on the way, just to tell her he was coming, but she beat him to the punch. He was just east of Tallahassee when the phone rang.

“I’ve decided to move out,” she told him. “I’ve been living in limbo with no word from you.”

He was about to tell her once again that he hadn’t been away that long but he caught himself. She was absolutely right. He had left her and he wasn’t going back to stay anytime soon. The length of time he had been gone had absolutely nothing to do with that fact.

“I understand,” he told her.

“No, you don’t. You don’t understand anything about me and I don’t understand anything about you. I’m trying to think about the future and you’ve got your head in the clouds. I’m not criticizing you. I’m just stating facts.”

Kevin had been dreading the confrontation that awaited him when he showed up to get more clothes. Still, he wanted her to be there. He wanted to see her and hold her. They had problems, but he knew that he loved her and she loved him. He didn’t know what to say to make it all right.

“I’m on my way home. Maybe we can talk about the future. Work out a plan.”

“You don’t get it, do you? There is no future. I’m moving on.”

He suddenly felt it in the pit of his stomach—the pain of losing someone he loved. He had been with Susan so long he took her for granted. Sure, she was difficult at times but she had been his family since his mother died.

“Don’t say that. I understand you’re moving out and I understand why. But I’m going to be back eventually and we can patch this up.”

“I’m sorry, Kevin. It’s over. We can talk about it from now until doomsday. It’s not working and it hasn’t been working for a long time.”

S
heriff Cousins got Billy’s personnel file from Robert Morris, the St. Albans County state attorney, and promptly shipped it over to Jeanette Truluc. It took Jeanette two weeks to get the case before the grand jury, but she presented it in an afternoon and got an indictment for first-degree murder.

Kevin had been in contact with Jeanette so she gave him a courtesy call to let him know that an arrest was imminent.

“Don’t send anybody out to arrest him,” he told her. “I’ll drive him down tomorrow morning and he’ll turn himself in. That way I can file my motion to set bail immediately.”

“What time tomorrow?”

“We can be there around one, I guess.”

“You need to be here exactly at one. If I am going to allow you to do this, I need to be very specific. I have people I have to answer to and this case is about as high-profile as you can get.”

“I hear you. And I appreciate you allowing us to do this. We’ll be there exactly at one tomorrow.”

“Fine.”

Kevin had been talking to Billy for a while about what would happen if he got indicted. Billy had to be prepared.

“If you’re indicted for first-degree murder, they may not let you out on bail. I can file a motion, but it’s up to the judge whether he lets you out or not.”

“Well, what do you think?” Billy asked.

“I wouldn’t count on it. I don’t know all that the prosecution has yet, but they just need to show the judge they’ve got a decent case and he can deny bail.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“I guess I need to tell the kids and make arrangements for my sister to keep them.”

“That would be a good idea, Billy. They can only hold you for ninety days so they either have to try you within that time or let you out on bond. My sense is they will push for a quick trial. This is too high-profile a case to let it linger.”

“Is that what we want to do—have a quick trial?”

“I’m not sure. I need to see their evidence.”

“When will you see that?”

“If the indictment happens, I’ll hear a summary of their case very soon afterward.”