Firebreak (Josie Gray Mysteries #4)(27)

Josie heard the drums but couldn’t see them. She followed the sound to the other side of the high school building, where she found four kids standing with the drums strapped over their backs, and another kid playing the bass drum. They were standing in the shade of the building but sweat dripped down their faces as they pounded their mallets in rhythm. Slim Jim stood in front of them, eyes closed, beating a drumstick against the side of the building. He was yelling a rhythm as they played. “Rata tata rat tat. Rata tata tata rata tat tat.” The kids noticed her round the corner, zeroed in on her police uniform, and lost their concentration, breaking the rhythm. Jim’s eyes flew open.

He looked first at the kids, and then behind him to find the source of the interruption. He recognized Josie and tried to reel in his anger, waving his hands in the air for the kids to stop playing. Their expressions were guarded, assessing their instructor’s possible trouble.

He faced the kids. “All right. Ten-minute water break. Be back here, instruments ready. Exactly ten minutes. Not eleven! Ten!” He watched them lift their drums up and over their sweaty heads and set them on the ground, already chatting, ecstatic at the few minutes of freedom, their instructor and his troubles forgotten. Josie smiled. Ten minutes was a lifetime at sixteen.

“Sorry to interrupt, Jim. I just need a few minutes.”

“What’d I do?”

Jim was tall and skinny, wearing long mesh basketball shorts and a tattered T-shirt with the sleeves cut off.

“Why so paranoid?” she asked, smiling at his resignation.

“Look. They told me, I clean up the language or I’m out. On my ass.” He said the last word quietly between clenched teeth. “You know what that’s like for a guy like me? If I didn’t like these knucklehead kids so much I’d tell the principal to ram a drumstick up her ying yang, and I’d go back to the bar where I belong.”

“I’m not here to cause you grief.”

“Ohhhh! Really?” He opened his mouth and eyes wide, his expression incredulous. “Don’t they teach you in cop school that all you have to do is show up somewhere and you cause a guy grief?”

She grinned and held a hand up in the air to stop him. “If the principal gives you grief, you tell me and I’ll talk to her. Agreed?”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“What can you tell me about Billy and Brenda?”

“I got ten minutes, not ten hours.”

“Give me the short version.”

“He’s a musician. She’s a wannabe. She couldn’t make it in Nashville on her own, so she’s using Billy to get there.”

“She’s a musician too?”

“Hell no!” Jim blew air out slowly and then drew more in through his nose as if he were conducting a deep-breathing exercise. Josie assumed he was trying to control his temper. Finally, he said, “Okay. Here’s Brenda’s deal. She comes from a long line of Nashville royalty. But here’s the kicker, she has no musical talent herself. Zip, zero, nada. Her daddy was a famous bluegrass fiddler. Ever heard of the Netham Sisters?”

Josie nodded.

“That’s Brenda’s sisters.”

“No kidding?”

“Kid you not. Better than that? Her own sisters kicked her out of the band. Brenda left home to make a name for herself as a solo singer and couldn’t do it.”

“You think she’s using Billy to make up for own failure in country music?”

“You said it. Billy, bless his dumbass self, is too stupid to believe it. And he’s been told. Multiple times. By yours truly.”

“I hear she’s negotiating a record deal. She can’t be all that bad, right? The band would benefit as well.”

He laughed. “You give her way too much credit. She’d sell us out in a heartbeat. Billy’s her concern. Not us. If it suits the record company that Billy’s band comes with him, then we’re gold. But if they want us gone?” He shrugged.

Josie saw the kids wandering back outside from the air-conditioned school, their ten minutes dwindling. Before she left she asked, “Can you imagine anyone wanting to cause trouble for either one of them?”

He looked taken aback at the question. Jim wasn’t the type of person to be at a loss for words, but he wrinkled his forehead. “Why would you ask me that? Come to think of it, why are you asking me any of this?”

“Do they have any enemies? Somebody who would want to end Billy’s career before it got started? Somebody who would want to frame Brenda to cause her grief?”

His eyebrows furrowed and his expression turned dark. “What’s this about?”

“There’s been some trouble. I can’t get into it at this point. I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough from Billy, but for now, I’m trying to understand who’s connected to the Nixes.”

The kids were quietly pulling their drum carriers back over their heads, obviously trying to catch the conversation. Jim motioned Josie away from them and Josie followed him into the parking lot. He turned to her, his expression earnest.

“Look. You know what it’s like out here. Two-hour drive to the closest Walmart? This is a great big pond with a lot of little fishes trying to get noticed. Everybody wants their big break. And finally, our band’s close. There’s some jealousy out there. If we make it to Nashville, that means somebody else doesn’t.”