Chapter 12

The three member of the Mississippi Justice League were waiting for me in the interview room at the Mississippi state corrections facility at Starkville. Starkville was made famous by Johnny Cash the C&W legend. Johnny got arrested in Starkville. I wasn’t sure whether or not he saw the inside of the penitentiary or not. I did know one thing, I was uncomfortable inside the fences and behind the walls. I was ready to leave the moment I was inside. Visions of doing time for the black kid I shot and killed were still strong in my consciousness.

“Morning all,” I said. “This room was not made for five people.”

“I know, but it’s the best we could do,” Anne suggested. “So why don’t you two men stand while Julie and I sit?”

“Sounds like a plan, but think I should explain to Eddie why you are here,” I suggested. “Alone.” I might as well introduce them to how I did things, I thought.

Anne looked like she was going to complain so I added, “I won’t ask him anything. I also won’t pretend to be in charge. I just speak prison a little better than you guys.”

“Five minutes,” Anne suggested.

The guards brought Eddie into the room. The others had left before he came in. “Eddie my name is Mathew Andrews. Nice to meet you,” I said shaking his hand.

He rolled his eyes at me then asked, “What you want man?”

There are four of us here today. We are from the Mississippi Justice League. We want to review your case. I’m not a lawyer. The others are they can explain that better than I can. I wanted to explain why you need to put aside the convict attitude and try to help them.

As I understand it you have done ten of a thirty year sentence. That means ten more before you are eligible for parole. These guys are hoping to get you a new trial. So you might get out in a few months or at least a couple of years. So drop the tough con act. Just tell us everything that might help you get a new trial.”

“Why you doing this man?” he asked.

“They guys need a win. They think you are the best bet for a quick win, or at least a quick way to show what they can do,” I explained.

“Okay man, but the tough con ain’t no act,” he said.

“Try to remember who you really were when you were seventeen. Just a scared kid, who had to act tough to get by in the hood. Explain things to these ‘white bread’ lawyers.” I added.

“You a white man too,” he said with a smile.

“But I ain’t no lawyer,” I agreed.

When the three lawyer came back in, I stood in a corner behind Eddie. The first thing I noticed was Julie had her blouse buttoned to her neck. I wondered how long it would take Eddie’s mind to wander with two guys and two straight laced women trying to interview him.

He started out with the ‘I be innocent. It was fucking racist jury that convicted me’ speech. I listened to it for a minute just to see how the lawyers were going to play it.

“Well that is a road that if you walk you lose,” Anne said. “I was a sitting judge for almost twenty years and I can tell you playing the race card never wins. So let’s work on the facts. The two real pieces of evidence were the money and statements to your friends. So how about you tell me about those two things?”

“I found the bank bag in the parking lot of the store,” Eddie said.

“What were you doing in the parking lot after your boss had gone,” I asked.

“I wasn’t in the parking lot. I like went for a burger at the burger burger truck parked in the downtown where the bars swing till 2AM. I was walking home and had to go by the pantry. I saw the bag on the sidewalk.” Eddie explained.

“Mister Wilson was nowhere to be seen?” I asked.

“No he wasn’t around,” Eddie said. “His car was gone to.”

“What time did he usually leave the parking lot?” I asked.

“He was usually gone sometime around 12:30 PM. It depends on how busy we are. The busier the later we leave because of the cleanup.”

“Did Martin work there with you,” I asked.

“When I came in at 4PM, he usually went home for dinner. He wouldn’t come back till it was time to close. If I got slammed I called him at home. He would come back to help out.”

“So how long were you gone before you came back and found the bag?” I asked.

“Probably twenty minutes,” he said. I saw that Julie was writing furiously.

“Now listen Eddie, this is something probably nobody asked you, but it could give your life back for you,” I said.

“What is it man?” he asked.

“Forget about the money. Who would kill him for some other reason?” I asked.

“I don’t know honest to god,” Eddie said.

“Did Marcus have a girl friend?” Marshall asked.

“Not that I know of,” Eddie said.

“Eddie in that neighborhood it’s hard to stay out of everybody’s way, so who was looking at Marcus?” I asked.

Eddie looked down at the table. “You gave somebody ten years of your life. It’s time they paid you back. Just give me some names?” I asked.

Eddie gave me three names, two men and one woman. At that point I turned the interview over to the kids and Corcoran. I didn’t ignore them all, but I did not interrupt. Hell they even asked good questions.

“Give me the names and addresses of the guys you ran with back then. Also the names of your brothers and sisters,” I demanded. I needed leads if I was going to go anywhere.

Judge Corcoran had the last words for Eddie. “Don’t loose hope,” she suggested.

I went directly back to the Cruiser and headed for home. The phone rang before I got five miles outside Starkville. “You sure showed the kids how to get the most information in the least amount of time,” Anne Corcoran said.

“What I got was a place to start asking real questions of real people. I have no idea if it will do any good, but it’s a place to start.” I said.

“Julie is here and wants to talk to you,” the judge said.

“Deacon, what are the things I can research for you?” she ask.

“Find out who owned a food truck at the time Marcus Martin was murdered. Get his name and address if you can?” I suggested.

“When I get back to my computer, I’ll do my best,” Julie said.

“What you have one of those fancy phones and can’t check a record. I can’t because I’m a Luddite,” I admitted.

“To be thorough I need my computer and a little time,” she said seriously.

“Julie, he was only joking Anne said.

I didn’t give Marshal her husband a thought. He was a lot younger and in much better shape than me, but I was pretty sure he didn’t have a stun gun in his pocket. “Anne is right it was a bad joke. I need to go. I need to get home in time for Judge Judy on TV.” I said.

“You are joking again, aren’t you,” Julie asked.

There was a smile in my voice when I said. “When you get something actionable call me, and I’ll check it out.”

“Why don’t you come to Jackson. I think we would all love to hang out with you a while. Pick your brain a little,” Julie suggested.

“Well Mary Poppins as much fun as it promises to be. The boss won’t pay me to sit around telling tales from the time predators walked the earth. I have things to do that pay the mortgage,” I replied.

“Not very friendly are you,” Julies husband said into the speaker phone.

“No Ken, not even a little bit,” I said killed the connection.

I was within fifteen minutes of home when Julie sent me a text message. I don’t think you are unfriendly. I think you are just all business. I LIKE THAT.

I sent the message ‘K’ back to her. I promptly forgot the message.

I was home working on my next trike when I got another call from Julie. I didn’t have her in the phone so I was surprised when I heard her voice. “hello,” I said.

“It’s Julie,” she said.

“Mary Poppins how are you,” I asked.

“I’m fine Deacon, how are you?” she asked.

“I’m fine to. So what do you have for me?” I asked.

“There was a burger truck that parked outside of the black clubs on the weekends. It was run by the current manager of the Big Burger take out restaurant. His name is Mr. Russell Arm,” she said.

“Thanks Mary I really do appreciate this, You are a damn good researcher,” I said.

“There are some other things I’m better at,” she said.

“Oh, I’ll need a demonstration to judge your competence,” I said with a smile in my voice. “I’ll also take a run at Mister Arm when I get his work schedule for tomorrow.”

“He is working opening at 6 AM till 4PM,” Julie aka Mary Poppins said.

“I’ll arrange to bump into him after work tomorrow,” I said.

“Sounds like the perfect chance to get a lesson from the master,” Julie said.

“Honey, I really don’t need the ‘Surfer Dude’ breathing down my throat,” I said.

“Don’t worry I can take care of Marshall,” she said.

“I’ll just bet you can. Meet me by quarter till four. We will ambush him after work. You did get a picture from the restaurant’s web page?” I asked.

“I’ll send you one before I go to bed tonight,” she said.

“That would be fine. I do appreciate your hard work,” I said.

“Thank you. I like that about you Deacon. You are so polite and respectful, yet your are definitely an alpha male,” she said.

“I’m not at all sure about being an alpha male, but I try to live my life as my father did. He was the best man I ever knew. He never got up from the dinner table without saying, ‘Thank you ma’am that was delicious,’” I explained. “But even the baddest bad man knew better than to challenge him.”

“Was he a cop?” Julie asked.

“No, he was a union organizer. His specialty was standing on the picket lines when the scabs tried to cross or the company strike breakers came to run them off,” I explained.

“Sounds dangerous,” Julie suggested.

“He had more than his share of scars and broken bones,” I explained.

“Just like you?” she asked.

“Not at all. I’m more the talk you out of attempting to strike me. If that doesn’t work I hit you with a stun gun these days. Before stun guns were invented, it was hit them with a baton before they tried to hit me,” I explained. “Now I have to get back to this bike.”

“Yeah, I need to get ready for dinner out with Marshall. I’ll Email you the picture before I go to bed,” she said with a smile in her voice.

I went back to work on the bike. I couldn’t get the new Rhino Bike balanced correctly. To be honest I forgot about Mary Popping completely. I didn’t give her another thought until I was sitting at the kitchen table with a frozen microwave dinner in front of me. I remembered out conversation but didn’t dwell on it.

After dinner and cleaning my one utensil, a fork, I moved to the computer. She had promised to Email me, however I couldn’t remember giving her my email address. It should worried me that she had it, but why get upset about that kind of thing. It was going to be a harmless breach of security, I was sure. I didn’t email anything important, and my name wasn’t Clinton. No one would bother to look through the emails on the server, even if they knew where it happened to be.

The email also gave me instructions for joining an instant message service. Julie’s email explained that it would be faster and easier for us to communicate on the ‘IM’. She advised me in a step by step instruction guide for the joining. It would run in the background anytime I was online.

Since I was twice her age, I should have known better. No fool like an old fool came to mind. It ran though my mind over and over while I signed up for the Instant Messenger. It took me almost twenty minutes to accomplish the five minute task. That was the case because I was digitally challenged.

I signed into the IM using the name Julie suggested. I signed in as BadDeacon. I used the password Deke2212. It was my nickname and my badge number. There were three messages waiting for me. All three were some kind of spam. I deleted them all.

I was doing research an hour later when I got a IM from Mary Poppins, “Good to see you took my advice.”

“Why wouldn’t I. How could there possibly be a down side to a beautiful woman messaging me?” I asked.

MP: “I just wanted to let you know I’ll be in Big G tomorrow at 3PM where should we meet?”

BD: “Are you bringing your KEN doll?”

MP: “Do I need to?”

BD: “That depends on your intentions,”

MP: “Intend to learn about interviewing witnesses.”

BD: “Good see you at three.”

The last thing I did the night before I met Trish, was to bake bran muffins. I wanted to have them on hand for breakfast the next morning. The morning of our meeting I planned to hit the lake with my kayak, so I didn’t want to stop for take out.

That morning I just filled up big bubba, the giant plastic thermos with black coffee. I stayed at the lake thinking about what I wanted to ask Russel Arm about his food truck business. I had a pretty good idea that if he would talk he could tell me a lot about the neighborhood.

I have got to bring an unbaited fishing rod along on my kayak. I thought that because the people who passed looked at me like a had a couple of bolts loose. They looked that way because I just laid back and pretended to be asleep. I found I could think better with my eyes closed.