The Killing King of Gratis (7 page)

D
ays after Millie’s funeral the Proclaimer came out with a front page different from any before. It exclusively covered the life and death of Millicent Knox, lauding her works and accomplishments. It also exalted her family, reminding everyone what the Knox family meant to the community. This was to be expected. The murder and funeral were the biggest news to hit Gratis in decades.

The most noticeable change to the paper was that Johnnie’s column, previously on page seven in the Local Lifestyles section, was now on the front page. Johnnie easily convinced the editor that the paper needed to take a stand in the matter of the Millicent Knox murder investigation. Her column would lead the way.

Johnnie put down her gossip and picked up her cause. She would not rest until someone paid for Millie’s death and intended not to let anyone else rest, either.

“Today, friends, I put Lee’s Little Secrets down. Every secret is indeed little, and not worthy of my time or yours, until we find the horrible person who murdered my dear, best friend, Ms. Millicent Knox. I will keep vigilant, asking questions, making sure that our local law enforcement doesn’t rest until her killer is shackled. There will be no such thing as “all leads have been exhausted.” This is a wound that time itself cannot begin to heal until justice prevails. If anyone knows anything, or has any information, all you have to do is call me. The information will get into the rights hands, and those hands will get busy.”

“Unfortunately, the Sheriff has still not made an arrest, and it is my understanding that private investigators have been assaulted when making inquiries. Believe it or not, the assaulters have yet to be arrested by this Sheriff’s Office, which is rather puzzling. Why would our own Sheriff impede justice? Remember, Sheriff, Millicent was a daughter of this town, and this town loves its daughters. We will be safe. God bless you all, and I will keep you informed.” She signed off without a catchphrase and retitled her article “For Millicent.” When Johnnie committed she was all in.

What horseshit
, Tommy thought after he read the column. He never liked Johnnie. It riled him that this woman held so much sway in his hometown.

He knew about the fight that occurred at Daddy Jack’s. Kero told him about it the day after it happened. He had known Kero all his life. He ran an establishment that by and large observed the law. Tommy would go there himself if he wasn’t the high sheriff.

Still, Tommy’s summer was getting hotter every day. Franklin Knox was thoroughly raising hell about someone getting arrested, and Johnnie was killing him in the paper. Even worse, quasi-legalized thugs were roaming the town not so much asking questions as demanding answers. Tommy had not survived as sheriff this long without getting others to help when he needed them. That’s why he scheduled a meeting with Delroy for later that morning. Tommy needed help and needed it right now.

Delroy knew most of the criminals in town, and they told him things they wouldn’t tell anyone else. If Delroy asked questions of his former clients about Millie’s murder, he might get answers. Tommy knew politics and people. If you leaned hard enough, people would do things that surprised them. Tommy knew how to lean. It was just a matter of finding a weak point and attacking it. Delroy’s weak point was family. He would fight for his family, rabidly. Tommy believed Delroy would compromise his integrity for them as well.

He was looking forward to talking to Delroy. He didn’t hate him so much as find him smug and self-righteous. Delroy had a way of talking down to a person and Tommy wouldn’t be talked down to. He anticipated Delroy’s face when he gave him the choice between either betraying a confidence or his niece and nephew being detained as material witnesses.

I’ll wipe the smug look right off his face
, he thought.

Tommy was ready to make this threat, although he didn’t know if he was willing to follow through. He was sure those children were in the wrong place at the wrong time, nothing more. He also knew that he was starting to feel the squeeze. He might not follow up, but he didn’t know.

Tommy finished his third cup of coffee that morning when his secretary told him Delroy was there. He contemplated what he was about to do.

This is a dirty, dirty business. I should probably be ashamed.

He got up, walked to the door, and prepared to turn the screw. In the lobby he saw Delroy, sitting by himself, looking at his watch.
You better look at your watch,
Tommy mused
, because it’s time to do your civic duty.
Smiling at the thought, he escorted Delroy to his office.

D
elroy drove to Daddy Jack’s after meeting with Tommy. It was just short of eleven in the morning, and he found Kero in the back alley dumping trash from the night before.

Delroy looked as angry as Kero had ever seen him. Before he could say anything Kero shooed him inside to the bar. Once there he poured Delroy a tall glass of Jack Daniels over ice and gave him a beer to ease it down.

Delroy took a couple of long sips. The chill of the air-conditioning hitting his bare arms felt good after coming out of the morning heat. He always liked this place and that Kero knew exactly what to pour when he needed a drink.

“Kero, you know where Newt is? I have to talk to him.” Delroy took another long sip.

“You know I do. What’s going on that you’re drinking your last call triple before lunch time?”

“Had me a long talk with Tommy this morning. He implied that he was going to consider Meg and Peck as two prime suspects until he found some others. I told him to go to hell, and that I’d beat his ass and shove his badge up it in the meantime. Then I left. Thing is, I can’t let those children go to the YDC. It’s nothing more than a jail for kids, and would kill them and their mother. Looks like I’m going to start doing my own investigation of the Millie Knox murder.”

“Well, what do you want with Newt? You know he didn’t do it.”

Kero felt ill with Delroy. He wouldn’t turn on Newt but he let Tommy shake him. Of course, Kero didn’t know what he would do if someone threatened any of his seven children. Kill them, probably. He did know that he was going to look for someone to run against Tommy in the next election. This threatening of children, along with looking the other way when thugs roughed people up, was just flat wrong.

“Newt knows more about Millie than he’s told either of us. I don’t think he did anything to her, or that he even knows who did. He does know who else she was partying with, though. I know this was connected to that. This person is from around here. I don’t know, maybe they had a grudge against Millie. I do know that they knew about the tunnels and how to get in them. This wasn’t some random trucker. Hell, Kero, the killer may be your best customer as far as we know.”

Kero knew that wasn’t the case. His best customer was the retired Baptist preacher he made home deliveries to. There he could drink in private with friendly old deacons. At the same time Kero knew it was someone local. The killer knew about the tunnels and where to find Millie. Some knockabout wasn’t going to luck into such a good killing ground, or meeting up with someone like Millie.

“Well, I’m done around here for a while, and this is the usual time I waste talking to Newt about nothing. Let’s go see him.”

“No, let’s wait a minute, Kero. I would really like one more glass of what I just drank.” Kero poured him another tall glass and got himself a beer. They sat there drinking in the cold bar, listening to the Allman Brothers on the jukebox. Kero looked out over his place, at the red upholstered booths, and wished they could stay there all day.

Of course they couldn’t, and Kero left Delroy alone while he went to get his keys and call in more staff since he wouldn’t be there that evening. Of course, Newt was gone too, which meant his replacement would automatically be more sober and less prone to skim from the till. Kero’s new, and hopefully temporary, “Newt” fill-in was his cousin Garo Peters, and he was solid. Garo was honest with the bar money, and didn’t drink on the job. Still, the till was somehow always more full when Newt was working.

Newt’s good for business
, thought Kero as left his office to fetch Delroy from the bar,
ain’t that a kick in the ass?

K
ero drove his old pick-up truck north while Delroy drank a red solo cup of Jack in the passenger’s seat. They took the back roads, driving through Dublin, Wrightsville, and Madison before finally entering Walton County.

Newt had family near the county seat of Monroe and was staying with a cousin. Some said this cousin was in the Dixie Mafia and others said he was affiliated with the Outlaws motorcycle gang. Either way, Newt was as safe there as anywhere else.

On the ride up Delroy told Kero more about his conversation with Tommy. He convinced Tommy to give him some details from the official investigation, saying that “if I do help an asshole like you, I need to know where to start.”

Tommy related that an extremely high level of cocaine showed up in Millie’s toxicology screen, and that it was ingested within hours of her murder. Some less common drugs of abuse may show up in further tests, but those tests would take more time. A search of her store and residence turned up two tabs of ecstasy and five grams of weed, but no cocaine. This wasn’t enough to get Millie past lunch.

She was placed at her store from noon until five in the afternoon the day of her murder and later seen at the country club around eight that night. Somebody at the country club heard her say she was going to meet Newt. He pressed Tommy for more information but Tommy told him it was his turn to dig.

Kero called Newt when they were about thirty minutes out. He got directions to a hunting cabin and they finally turned down a rutted dirt road. It ran through a six hundred acre tract and down to the Alcovy River.

After going through what seemed like miles of pine they came to a clearing with a cabin. Kero stopped at the gate in front and got out of his truck. As soon as he was out three men stepped from the woods and leveled their shotguns at Kero and Delroy. Delroy sobered up immediately.

“Who the hell are you?” asked the first one, an ancient man with a face every bit as rough as the butt of the old shotgun he was holding.

“I’m Kero and the man in the truck is Delroy.” The situation called for brevity.

The men looked them over, pointing their shotguns at the duo’s faces. Just as Kero thought he was going to pass out, Newt came strolling out of the cabin with an AK-47 strapped across his back.

“Y’all can put your guns down. These are my friends. Come on now, put them guns away.” At that the men lowered their guns, looking sorry they wouldn’t be using them.

Newt walked up to Kero. “What the hell are y’all doing here? Trying to let the Sheriff follow you and give me away?”

“Damn Newt,” Delroy said, stepping out of the truck. “I feel sorry for Tommy if he does find you.” At that Newt smiled. Kero didn’t see the humor in it.

“Newt, they’re looking for your ass on a murder charge and you’re walking around like an idiot on a camping trip with an AK strapped across your back. I don’t have the words to tell you what an asshole you are.”

“Well boss, it’s good to see you too.” Newt smiled again. “Why don’t we go to the firepit behind the cabin and talk? I’ve got a deer leg on there, and some tenderloin. Might have something to drink, too. I feel the need to get a little tight.”

They followed Newt to the back of the cabin. The three men with shotguns melted away into the woods. Delroy knew they were around even though he couldn’t see them. It comforted him.

Delroy told Newt about Tommy’s threat against his nephew and niece and that he had them in hiding. He didn’t tell him where, just like he didn’t tell Kero. Of course, Kero didn’t ask.

“Look Newt. You know more about Millie and what she did that night than you’ve let on. I know you don’t want anyone to know more than what’s already out there, because it wouldn’t look too good. Hell, I wouldn’t even ask, but my kids are in trouble because of this mess. Whatever you tell me stays with me because I’m your lawyer. It’s called attorney-client privilege.” Delroy took a sip of the Turkey and Seven he mixed when they got to the firepit.

“What about Kero? He’s not my lawyer. He’s my boss. Can’t they make him tell whatever I say?”

At that Kero finally exploded.

“Look here you shit, I have put my ass on the line for you. I’m as deep in this shit as you are. Damn, I might even have some suit and bow-tied gangsters after me, and you’re asking about whether I’m going to tell on you? I oughta whip your ass, put you in the truck, and bring you back to Gratis with a pink bow tied around your sorry ass. Ungrateful son of a bitch!” One of the three shotgun men crept up to the edge of the woods, ready if needed.

“Shut up, just shut the hell up!” Delroy shouted at his two friends. He hoped they didn’t notice the slur beginning to twist his tongue.

“Look Newt, Kero has come here to help me, sorta like an investigator. As such the privilege you have with me extends to him. I work for you and he works for me. He won’t be allowed to say anything he learns from our talk.”

The creaky wheels turned in Newt’s mind and a smile broke across his face. “So I guess, in a way, Kero works for me.”

“Well, yes, I guess you could say that Newt.”

“Well hell, I’ll tell you everything I know then. First, I’m gonna need Kero to go fetch some garbage bags out of the cabin to put my beer cans in. Damn, it’s hard to find good help.”

They all laughed at that, even Kero. Of course, it was Newt who ended up getting the garbage bags. If he got out of the summer alive or not in jail he was going to need a job. He was still a juke joint man, and Kero owned the only good one in town.

O
n the way back to Gratis, Delroy and Kero mulled over what Newt told them. It wasn’t hard to understand why he previously kept some things so quiet.