The Killing King of Gratis (18 page)

First, he was ready to leave everything. He enjoyed his island compound but would be able to enjoy other places on this earth just as much.

Second, he would make himself financially independent of his father. Since his father wouldn’t grant him this freedom he would emancipate himself. It wasn’t his fault that his father refused to be fair. Skipper gave him enough years to see the light, and he refused to do so.

Skipper sat there pondering his exit strategy. He had one that would take some audacity, but that quality was beginning to define him. He was also starting to fixate on his next session. The prospect of it would have drenched him in sweat if he wasn’t already sitting in his pool. He could see his next session form and collapse with every wave breaking on the beach.

Meg Jones
,
it’s so nice to meet you. I’m a friend of your Uncle Delroy.

The thought of that introduction made him fall off his float. He sank to the bottom of the pool, but it failed to cool his fever.

J
ohnnie’s eyes bulged with anger when she opened the door to Delroy and Amy. The duo expected her to yell but she started hyperventilating instead. They helped her to the couch in the living room, making sure not to break any of the figurines. They didn’t know if Johnnie could withstand another tragedy.

Catching her breath, Johnnie sat up and looked at the two perched in her overstuffed pink sidechairs.

“You, Delroy, have some nerve presenting yourself at my doorway. I placed my trust in you like a child’s hand into her parent’s, and all you did was lie about that monster Newt. And you, Ms. Delahunt, I cannot imagine what you are doing with this man. Really, Amy, you too?”

Amy took Johnnie’s hand. “Now Miss Johnnie, you know what your friendship means to me. If you recall I asked you not to get in bed with Delroy in the first place, but you did and here we are. Delroy has come to me because he knows the situation he has put you in, and because he has convinced me that Newt has been set up in this matter.”

Johnnie started to wheeze again, but Amy continued. “I am so convinced of Newt’s innocence, now more than ever, that I have decided to become part of his legal defense team.” At this point, Johnnie stopped wheezing and started shouting.

“Oh my God, you Judas Jezebel! I thought we could form a friendship close to what I had with my dear Millicent. But my Millicent would never have brought this snake back into my house. She would have cut his head off and thrown it over the garden fence. But you, you, you…”

Johnnie collected herself. The other two waited to let her get everything out. “When I’m done with the two of you, you won’t be able to get a case defending a speeding ticket in this town. You won’t be able to walk down the street without children turning away from you because they know the evil in your hearts. You’ll regret the lies and treachery you’ve shown me. You will be finished, done as the devil.”

Delroy was impressed. He didn’t like Johnnie, but she could tell someone to go to hell with style. Before he could answer, Amy surprised him and spoke for the both of them.

“Johnnie, just whom do you think will listen to you now? Really, do you think jumping off the Newt bandwagon is going to help you a bit? Everyone will just think you’re a fool and never believe another word you print, ever. And let me make myself clear, I did not go to law school to be libeled by an old woman who lives surrounded by fake kittens and birdies. If they were real you wouldn’t help one bleeding on the side of the road.”

Johnnie just stared, her eyes wide. Amy continued.

“You and I are not going to be friends, and that’s fine with me, but if you make any trouble for me, at all, I will make you wish you had never put pen to paper. I mean it. Don’t look at me funny or give your ladies at Le Café any reason to look at me at all. You will be sorrier than you can imagine. Do you understand me?”

Delroy was so turned on he couldn’t think straight.
Oh my God, this woman is just plain awesome
. Thoughts of scotch and cheesecake assaulted him anew. Johnnie’s eyes narrowed, and her mouth tightened until her lips were mere memories.

“My, my, Amy. Look who’s a big girl now. Is that the only reason you came by, to tell me not to hurt you or your new boyfriend? Did you feel the need to come over to my house to tell me how you feel? I wonder, sweetie, because you must know I have never given a damn about how you feel.”

Johnnie was testing her claws and at the same time probing to see how this could work to her advantage. She knew she was vulnerable right now and was willing to take help from anyone. If the devil walked in and offered his services, she would invite him to sit and have a glass of tea.

At this point, Delroy decided he needed to bring the whole thing home.

“Johnnie, it’s like this. Newt isn’t guilty. Newt’s been set up and I think we’re close to knowing who did it. You can’t back out on us now. If you do, people will never believe you again like Amy said, and Millicent’s real killer will only laugh at you and everyone else. We need each other on this. I need you Johnnie, and I believe you want to do the right thing.”

Johnnie sat there for a moment and her eyes softened as she looked at Delroy.
Maybe I really got through to her
, he thought.

“Delroy, you are the most full of shit man I have ever met, and I’ve met a few. Don’t give me that “I need you” line. If I could get away with it, I would shoot you and your friend Newt right now, but you fixed it so I can’t. You’ve put me on your killer’s team, and we both know I’m stuck. What do you want from me now, and what can you do for me now?” She was facing Delroy by now, letting Amy know that she was, at best, the tail on this dog.

“Just write in your column that Newt has been set up. Tell everyone that the real killer is still out there. Tell them you know because your sources have told you the case is about to break wide open. Tell them before the month is out the real killer will be caught and in jail where he belongs.” Both Johnnie and Amy were staring at him now.

Johnnie spoke, “Well Delroy, do you have anything to back up these incredible claims? I mean anything?”

“Not a damn thing Ms. Johnnie, nope. But if we don’t smoke this guy out Newt is done for, a really bad guy will walk free, and your days in the information business will be over. I don’t think we have much of a choice, do we?”

Johnnie pondered his last comment for a minute and then stood up. She walked out of the room and turned on the faucet at the kitchen sink.

“Johnnie?” Amy called softly. The water ran for a minute and then Johnnie replied.

“I’ll write for you and it will be grand. As the good Lord is my witness, though, you better be right. Now leave. I have to cleanse this home of the vileness you two will leave behind. This is the last time we will meet here, believe it. I generally make all pestilent vermin stay outside.”

Amy and Delroy walked one behind the other as they left Johnnie’s house. Because she was raised well, Amy didn’t start laughing until they left the driveway. Delroy, however, let it rip before he even got into the Chevelle. He was too tired to spare the feelings of a mean old lady. She would get over this present predicament, he knew that, and somehow work everything to her advantage. He only hoped not to get run over in the process.

T
he next morning Delroy found himself cooling his heels in the lobby of the sheriff’s office, waiting to see Tommy. Tommy made him wait almost half an hour before his secretary escorted Delroy to his door.

When Delroy got there Tommy was listening to local station WBLG-AM. The news jockey, who was also the owner and janitor, was breathlessly going into the events of the last twenty four hours. He fairly screeched as he recounted Newt getting caught “in the act” murdering Merry, and how this would surely prove his guilt in the murder of “our dear departed Millicent Knox.”

He never mentioned Althea except to say the Newt was suspected of committing at least one more murder “and who knows how many more.” He eagerly reviewed how some local pundits previously doubted Newt’s guilt, listing Ms. Johnnie Lee as being one of his “most ardent supporters.”

Tommy let the radio play until an ad for Wild Fred’s Ford Dealership came on the air. He turned it off and chuckled.

“Well Delroy, what about this? Looks to me like you put your trust in the wrong man. And hell, you practically abetted him in murdering poor Merry. I wonder if Savannah P.D. is going to have any questions for you. Maybe Walton County will arrest you for harboring a criminal. You did know where he was, after all.”

Delroy wouldn’t bite. He knew before parking out front that he was not walking into a friendly meeting.

“Tommy, I appreciate your opinion. Hopefully you’ll appreciate mine too. I don’t think Newt hurt anyone. I think he was set up. I think your man is still out there, and it’s only as matter of time before he gets some other poor woman. Let’s hope it’s not one of your constituents.”

Tommy smiled and took a sip of his favorite new drink, Fresca with a Tums dissolving on the bottom. He turned the radio back on to see if there was any more news. The “Reverend Jim ‘Cash’ Ivie Old Time Gospel Hour and Flea Market Show” was starting up so he turned it off.

“Set up, Delroy? That shit might work for one of your drug dealers, but not now. My goodness, he was caught staring into her eyes by the Savannah P.D. The boy is an animal. Surely you believe that, at last, surely.”

Delroy sat on the edge of his chair. “Tommy, do you think Newt would hide out for weeks and then go all the way down to Savannah, over four hours from where he was, to kill Merry? If he had some kind of blood lust he could have gone to Athens or Atlanta. It would’ve been a hell of a lot closer to Monroe.”

Delroy continued. “You think he would have been caught in the act? This same person who dragged Millie down into a cave and snuck into Althea’s? Where was the bottle of bleach? Did Savannah say they found an empty bottle in Merry’s apartment, or the instrument she was stabbed with? What about the marks on Merry’s hands? There was a pretty good fight in that apartment, and Newt didn’t have a mark on him until the cops beat his ass. The devil’s in the details, Tommy, and this ain’t adding up.”

Tommy fought off the urge to smack Delroy. He heard him use the “devil’s in the details” defense on more than one jury. He won with it too many times.

“Delroy, you believe what you want. As far as I’m concerned, your man did it. My office’s investigation is no longer ‘who did it’ but instead ‘how much proof can we find on this son of a bitch.’ Of course if you quote me on that, I’ll call you a liar.”

Tommy smiled at Delroy and turned the radio back on.

Both men listened to Cash thank the choir and segue neatly into touting this weekend’s sale of slightly damaged Broyhill recliners at the flea market. “You’ve tithed to the Lord, now tithe to yourself and come on down and get that recliner you’ve been looking for. A healthy soul needs a healthy body.”

Delroy spoke up. “Well Tommy, I’m not going to try to change your mind anymore but do me a couple of favors.”

“Depends on what they are Delroy.”

“First, keep your men at Anna’s house. I think we would both feel better about that. Even if Newt is your guy, some people might take it out on her since I’m going to be his attorney.”

Tommy nodded, “I can do that.”

“Second, Tommy, just keep an open mind. I’m not just here as Newt’s lawyer. I think the bad guy is out there and someone else is going to get killed. I don’t want that to happen. This is my town and these are my people.”

“I always have an open mind Delroy, don’t worry about that. And don’t tell me about how the people around here are yours. I know damn well they are, but remember they’re mine, too.”

Delroy got up, nodded, and left the office without saying another word.

Tommy closed his eyes and listened to Cash go into his pitch for “Old Elmer Bridge’s stall at the flea market, where you don’t know what you’ll find, but you can be sure it will make you rejoice. If you see him or his son, Boe, make the deal, and God bless!”

Tommy turned the radio off and sat there, thinking. He was unsettled by Delroy’s warning. He might be an arrogant bastard, but there was a lot of truth in what he said.

Damn lawyers
, he thought,
just enough truth to confuse the hell out of you
. Tommy poured another Fresca, opened a new pack of Tums, and wished Anna was there to make things better.

S
kipper sat in his father’s study in the house he grew up in, looking at what remained of the man who sired him. He thought the man looked pretty small, now hog tied on the Persian rug, his face caked with blood. He took the ropes off the corpse and sat him in his desk chair. It seemed an appropriate perch, given the amount of hell his dad gave people from that same chair through the years.

Skipper knew his dad wouldn’t give up the bank account numbers very easily. He would fight and bluff his son until he could no longer do so. Skipper’s job was to make sure that didn’t take too long. Due to his recent practice, it only took a day.

He got his father’s account numbers and passwords and then transferred all the money he could find into offshore accounts. Skipper now had a cushion of almost eight million dollars. This was money a man could live on a lifetime in South America and never want for a thing.

Skipper dreamed of the places he would visit down there. The forensic capabilities of those countries lagged far behind most places in the United States. He stood a much better chance of not getting caught before he became the person he saw himself being.
So many small places to change
, he thought.

Killing his father was much easier than he expected. He didn’t worry about work. One phone call to the office made sure nobody would look for them for two weeks. That was plenty of time for Skipper to complete his ‘Gratis exit strategy.’ After the money was secure, it was simply a matter of stabbing his dad and getting the body ready to dump in the Neck. All it cost was a little time and effort.