Shine (Kentucky Outlaw Book 1) (5 page)

Julie didn’t like the sound of that, but nodded in agreement anyways.
 
The waitress came over, and she ordered a coffee.
 
Once she was gone Julie looked back to Austin and waited

“First off, are you OK?” asked Austin.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb, Julie Mae.”
 
She flared at this.
 
Austin only called her Julie Mae when he wanted to sound like their daddy to get control over her.
 
“I heard you sneak out last night and you look like you were up till all hours drinking.”

“My fiancé was killed, I have a right to have drink,” she fired back at him.

“OK, settle down.
 
After all you been through you got a right to have a drink.
 
I’m just worried about you.
 
You ain’t even told mom and dad that you called off the wedding a goddamn week before Nick was killed.”

Julie looked around to make sure no one had heard him.
 
“Keep your voice down.
 
That ain’t exactly public knowledge.”

“I know it’s not, and that makes it look worse.
 
You break off the engagement and a week later Nick turns up dead.
 
Now, that don’t exactly make you a murder suspect, but it does look fishy.”

“How so?”

The waitress came back with Julie’s coffee and a refill for Austin.
 
He waited for her to get out of earshot before carrying on.
 
“Because you broke it off and I know for a fact that Nick didn’t take it well.
 
He wanted you back and he was trying like mad to make it happen.”

“Don’t gussy it up.
 
He was harassing me.”
 
She said it louder than she meant to and it was Austin’s turn to look around to see if anyone was listening.

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about.
 
He’s making trouble for you and then he dies.
 
Now, I no one’s saying you did it, but it don’t look good.”

Julie blew on her coffee and said, “Only two people that know about it are you and me, and that’s the way it’s going to stay.
 
Now, what can you tell me about his murder?”

Austin shook his head and ran his hand through his hair.
 
Julie noticed that when he did that, he looked just like her daddy did when he was frustrated with her, which was more and more often of late.

Austin reached inside an attaché case and pulled out a manila folder.
 
He opened the folder and began reading from the documents inside, but he kept the folder at an angle so Julie couldn’t see for herself.
 
“Nick Butler was killed by two gunshot wounds to the chest.
 
They were 9 millimeter bullets.
 
The ballistics don’t match any known gun yet.”

“That’s it?
 
Three days and you don’t have anything else?”

“I shouldn’t even be talking to you.
 
This is an open case and you got no business in it.
 
Not to mention you’re a reporter.
 
I could be fired for telling you that much.”

“The chief would never fire you, not with the pull daddy has in this town.”

“Getting fired would be the least of my worries if our father found out I was telling you this.
 
He wants to keep you under house arrest until all this is over anyway.”

“He wanted that long before all this.
 
He thinks women should keep the home and only men should see the sunshine.”

Austin took a long drink of tea.
 
“Julie, you don’t know a damn thing.”

“I know what I know.
 
Is that all you got?”

Austin looked down to the file again and said, “There were no witnesses to the crime, but someone did see a white pickup truck pull away.
 
Witness thought it was a Ford.”

“Who saw it?”

Austin shook his head and Julie quickly reached over the table and took the file from him.
 
Before he could snatch it back, Julie took a look and instantly regretted her decision.
 
Austin had been keeping her from seeing the crime scene photos that were held on to the file with a paperclip.
 
She only saw the one on top, but it was enough.
 
She didn’t think she’d ever get the image of Nick bloodied and slumped down in the seat of his car out of her head.
 

Austin grabbed the file back.
 
“Goddamn it, Julie.”

She wanted to ask more questions, but she didn’t have it in her anymore.
 
It didn’t matter, she had what she needed.
 
As Austin had grabbed the file back she saw that the witness was Avon Traxler.

Austin put the file away and stood up from the table.
 
“You’re really pushing it, you know?
 
Just stay out of the way and let the department do its job.
 
I’ll let you get the check.”
 

Julie threw some money down and followed Austin out.
 
He was at his police cruiser, the door open, but he wasn’t getting in, he knew she would follow him.

“I’m sorry, alright,” she said.

Austin’s face soften.
 
“I know you’re feeling guilty about all of this, but I don’t want you running off getting yourself hurt.
 
Then I’d be the one feeling guilty.”
 
She gave a little laugh at his feeble joke and a smile finally broke across his face.
 
“I didn’t want to say anything inside because the information about the bullets is pretty much public knowledge at this point anyway, but there’s one other thing.
 
You have to swear you won’t repeat this.”

“Scout’s honor,” she said.

“The thing is, the Butlers have a lot of influence in the area, and this case is catching a lot of attention.
 
Even with their money troubles, the Butlers have a lot of pull in the capital and Nick’s father is trying to get the state police to take over.
 
There’s a jurisdictional dispute right now.”

“How?
 
Pin Alley is on the edge, but it’s still inside city limits.”

An older couple came out of The Crossing and Austin greeted them.
 
Julie recognized the man as a city alderman.
 
When they were gone, Austin said, “His body was found in Pin Alley, but the evidence suggests he wasn’t killed there.
 
It looks like he was shot somewhere else, but it was made to look like that’s where it happened.”

“But why would anyone do that?”

Austin shrugged.
 
“If we knew that this case would be over.
 
That’s why I’m telling you to drop it.
 
Things aren’t adding up.”
 
He got into his car and shut the door.
 
Before pulling away he rolled down the passenger window and leaned over.
 
“I mean it, Julie.
 
I got a bad feeling about this.
 
We’re ain’t some podunk town, but this sort of thing don’t happen here.”

Julie walked back to the office, digesting a lot of information.
 
Why would anyone move Nick after shooting him?
 
Everyone had assumed it was a robbery gone wrong, since Nick’s wallet and car were missing.
 
But if was a set up, then why had he actually been murdered?
 

Julie was almost back to the office when her phone rang.
 
She answered it without looking to see who was calling.

“Julie Mae, where the hell are you?” her father asked, angrily.

“I’m at work where else do you think I’d be in the middle of the day?”

“We just talked about this last night.
 
I don’t want you running around town.”

“I’m at work, which unfortunately is very boring today.
 
I can’t just not come to work.”

“Forgetting for a minute what happened to Nick, you know I don’t like you working in the first place.
 
A woman your age needs to be settling down, not playing Nancy goddamn Drew.”

“If you need me, I’ll be at work,” Julie said, and hung up the phone.
 
She’d pay for that later.
 
There’d be a giant discussion around the dinner table that would turn into an argument, but she wouldn’t be like her sister, sitting around, waiting for a man to come by and keep her locked in a tower.
 
That wasn’t her, it never would be, and the sooner everyone learned it the better off the entire family would be.

Ethan woke up wondering how long he had to stay in Remington to show he was properly grieving for his old friend.
 
Could he be back on the road by Sunday?
 
He wouldn’t head north this time, he’d seen enough that direction.
 
This time he’d head west.
 
He’d never seen the Pacific before, and it was time to change that.

When he finally got out of bed, he headed downstairs expecting to find Zeke sitting at the table, but instead found his younger brother Jackie.
 
Jackie was the family wild card, not just in attitude, but in looks.
 
While Ethan and Ged both shared their father’s nose and dark hair, Jackie was rail thin with a shock of blonde hair.
 
He sat at the table drinking a cup of coffee and smoking a cigarette, but when he saw Ethan he ran over to hug his brother.

“Hot damn, am I glad to see you.”

Ethan hugged his brother back and couldn’t keep the smile from his face.
 
“It’s good to see you, too.”

Of all the family, Jackie had aged the most from the last time Ethan had been around, which wasn’t really surprising.
 
Ged had gone from twenty-eight to thirty, which wasn’t life’s biggest journey, but Jackie was twenty now.
 
He still had his boyish good looks, but his jaw was covered with stubble and he had the hint of lines around his eyes.

“Sorry I missed you last night.
 
I got in late.”

“What’s her name?” asked Ethan.

“Janet,” he replied.
 
“Come on, I got something to show you.”

Ethan slipped on his boots and followed Jackie outside.
 
Next to Ethan’s Mustang was a black 1969 Dodge Charger.
 

Ethan let out a low whistle.
 
“Holy shit.
 
You finally got it.”

Jackie ran his hand over the hood affectionately, and without taking his eyes from the car he said, “Cost me everything I had.
 
All the money from the runs I’d been saving up over the years, but just look at her.
 
Most beautiful thing in the world.”
 
He opened the passenger door and gestured Ethan inside.

“You’re not going to let me drive her?”

“Hell no,” Jackie said.

Ethan slid into the passenger seat and Jackie got behind the wheel.
 
The engine started easily and before Ethan was even buckled in, the Charger was down the drive and onto the road.
 
Jackie hit the gas so hard Ethan thought his stomach was going to lurch out of his mouth, but there was nothing reckless about Jackie’s driving.
 
He took corners with amazing agility and the car gripped the road better than any forty-five year old car had the right to.
 

Ethan watched the speedometer hit seventy-five and saw the crazy grin Jackie had on his face.
 

They drove for fifteen minutes on the dirt road, heading further back into the woods.
 
The trees and bushes were thick on either side of them, creating a natural wall between the road and woods.
 
When Jackie came to a stop, Ethan jumped out, and grabbed the wire that strung up the false bushes, pulling the blind to the side to reveal another dirt road.
 
Once Jackie had pulled the car through, Ethan replaced the wire to hide them.
 
The bushes and trees were so thick that even if someone were standing directly on the other side, they wouldn’t be spotted.

A quarter mile down the dirt road the Charger stopped just outside a wooden structure, one of several sheds the family kept there, each one important to the business.
 
Most were newer structures made of corrugated steel, but the one they stopped nearest was made from old wooden pallets.
 
It had stood in this spot for at least forty years.
 
It was well hidden under the canopy of trees, and even though he couldn’t see what was inside, Ethan could smell it.
 
The smell of his past, one he had not known in years, the sweet smell of fermenting alcohol.

Ethan was instantly transported into the past, the summers spent in the shed, watching his father work, and later he learned to drive and became a moonrunner himself.
 
There was a time when Ethan was sure he would always be a part of the family business.
 
Before the wanderlust had taken him over he thought the rest of his live would be spent in Remington.
 
Find a nice girl and settle down, and just run shine for the rest of his life.