Walker (Bowen Boys, #1)(24)
“Can’t tell yet who, if anyone, was in the house when it went up. We’re thinking she wasn’t home yet. Been collecting her mail for a few days now and she usually comes on by and picks it up before she heads home again. It’s going to be quite a shock to her when she comes back, yes sir it will.” He pointed toward the other row of houses about half a mile back. “That’s where we found the man. He’d been on her porch near as we can tell ‘cause if he’d been inside, he’d be in pieces and not just broken up.”
“Broken up?” Both of them looked at Nestor when he spoke. “What do you mean, ‘broken up?’ He didn’t get burned up, did he?”
“Nah. We figured he was coming across the yard toward the house when he was thrown to the other house. His body hitting the wall over there broke near every bone in his body, including his head. Brain nearly spilled out all the way before we was able to get him out of the pool.”
Conrad willed Nestor not to ask, but he did. “You mean to say he was imbedded in the pool? As in, a part of it?”
“Yeap. He was nearly flush with the cement bottom when we had to peel him out. Don’t know how much longer he would have been there if the Millers hadn’t have left a day or two late for their yearly visit to their daughter’s. The missus looked out the window and saw him laying there when she started screaming bloody murder.” Terrence laughed at his own joke. “Course he was, wasn’t he? Murdered, I mean.”
Every drop of blood in Conrad’s body froze. He looked at the cop, trying to ascertain what he knew or what he thought he knew. A glance at his aide told him he was on his own with this one.
“Murdered? I just heard on the report that it was a major gas leak. That there was such a buildup of gas in her house that it blew.” The cop nodded. “Then what do you know that they don’t?”
“Don’t know nothing for sure. Just my own brand of theories. Nice girl like her, what does she do for a living that makes her be able to afford that big old truck of hers? Expensive too. Then there are the long periods of time that she was gone. Days on end.” The cop smiled again. “I don’t think whatever she does in on the illegal side of the law, it’s just that…well…” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded paper. “Got this the day they showed up to look around. Says there that the government was investigating this and we were to stay out. Didn’t like it much at first, but I let them go on. Like that girl, we all do, and wanted some justice for her house. Now you show up acting like you’re just another Joe Blow and asking the same questions.”
Conrad figured out two things in that moment. The cop wasn’t nearly as stupid as he’d first thought or even hoped he’d be, and he knew more than any of the others, including himself, about what McCray was and what she did for them. He tried to laugh it off, but even to his own ears, he sounded manic.
Killing the cop came to mind. He was reaching for his gun in the holster under his jacket when he saw two more cruisers pull up. When Terrence reached under his jacket and took his gun from him Conrad knew better than to try to fight him. He looked at Nestor, and he was being disarmed as well.
“You should know that I work for the government and I have the right to carry that. I’m going to get it back.” He wanted to strangle the cop when he grinned and nodded. “You’re going to lose your job over this.”
“Doubtful. You see, I work for the government too. Chief of police might not be as exalted as you seem to think you might be, but I uphold the law same…well, I was gonna say same as you, but I’m thinking you don’t.” He handed off the gun to the officer standing just behind him. “You see, there are rules. You broke them when you showed up in my town without notice. Then you are carrying a gun you didn’t tell me you had. On top of the fact that I just plain don’t like you. Now. This is how this here is going to work. I’m going to take you back to the office and you’re going to tell me what the f*ck, pardon my language, you think you’re doing in my town.”
Conrad stared at him. The man had balls, he’d give him that. Before he could comment or tell the man that he was wrong, dead wrong, there was a gun at the back of his head. Slowly, he raised his hands until the gun no longer felt as if it was embedded in his skull rather just resting there.
“You’ve made a serious mistake. Do you know who I am?”
The cop nodded and the gun banged him slightly.
“You’re going to regret this more than you can—”
“Not as much as you are.” He nodded and the man behind him jerked his arms behind him. “You should have followed your own rules there, buddy. Right now, you’re going to be sitting in my jail cell until someone comes for you or sends me written word that you’re okay to let lose. But not before I tell them what a nasty piece of dung you are.”
Conrad was shoved in the back of the chief’s cruiser and he noticed that Nestor was put in another one. Someone was going to pay for this and he hoped the hell he got to be a part of the payback. He started to tell the man driving that he was with the CIA when the man turned and looked at him.
“You say a word, one word, and I have full permission to let you go in the woods yonder and let the big cats have at you. You should know that one or more of them owes me a huge favor.” Conrad didn’t speak and the driver turned back to the front.