Chapter 22

Fred Boyd his brother.
Alice Boyd his sister in law.
Nephew John 15
Niece Gabby 13
Jo Anne Wall old girl friend
Windy Wall her ex husband.
Lewis and Ellie Keith’s in laws.
Sarah Marsh retro hippie
General Briggs rd
Doris owner of the consignment shop.
Jo Anne Joyner Wall : Keith’s first girlfriend. Three girls 16 13 10

oldest daughter ginger
Mr Jessup buyer of Keith’s scooter.
Rebecca Avondale deacon and keith’s client.
Marsha stylist to Rebecca
Gulfcrest hotel/casino
Elanor, Mark and Simon family being stalked
Sylvia Amos sheriff’s detective.
Tomas Gorseski Sylvia Avery’s husband
Willow goth chick. Computer nerd
Abdi arab family victim of arson.
Ginger Moss Willow’s mother
Mr Serpico client in motel.
Liam Amos hunter.
Jasper Amos Liam’s son
Jerry Geyser first separated man to stay in cabin/tent.
Lou Anne Mason justice dept
Jill one of the federal cops.
Ashley Marcy’s friend.
Nurse Jane at hospital in grenada
Rodney Markham and Marcus Wilbert Deacon’s attackers
Sylvia Simmons (Marcy’s client) aka sonya
Mark Wilson sheriffs detective.
Lisa Preston mother of delinquent cook
Mike preston catfisherman and cook
Agent Rogers Doj
Marsha Edwards the girl who had a drug reaction in one of Keith’s cabin.
Debbie Schultz my first trailer rental not in danger.
Barbara Matros photography community college instructor.
Sally Rider and Teddy Martin his first bride and groom.
Iva Goodman dead Josey roommate
Josey Everette Johns dead friend.
Menendez supplier of fancy drugs to Josey.
Rita Moreno Menendez lawer.

“If you know someone is coming for you, and if you don’t actively keep an eye out for him, then you are a fool,” I explained to Alice. The man who cut Josey may decide John is too big a threat and an easy target,” I said. “So I’m going to at least make him a harder to get at target.”

“You think that person will come for my son?” she asked.

“I don’t know. First someone has to find out who it is. To do that we need to know who Josey was. To do that we need to find the someone who knew her and all her secrets. So John, who is that if not you?” I asked.

“Tell him John,” his mother demanded, in her irritated voice.

“Mom, I just had one class with her last year. I met her again when I moved back into the dorm. She seemed to be a cool chick that’s all there was to it,” John explained.

His mother might have believed it, but nobody else would, I thought.

“You don’t expect us to believe you don’t know anything about her?” Alice asked in a slightly too loud voice.

John tried to shrug. I thought it was time for a wake up call. Anne beat me to it. She turned him back to her and slapped the hell out of him. The pressure in the motel room went up a notch. John started to move toward the door again.

“Don’t,” I said putting a hand on his shoulder. What was I prepared to do. Let’s just say I’m very glad he didn’t push it.

“Okay, I caused a lot of trouble down there, so what do you want to know,” John asked. “But does mom have to be here?”

“Alice go to that cute little restaurant across the road. We will be there within a few minutes.” I said.

“Once Alice was gone he told me all about his very minor (according to him) drug use. He also mentioned he owned the drugs the deputies found in the cabin. He had told the deputies that the drugs belonged to Josey. True or not, I gave him points for that.

“So tell me, who did you buy the drugs from,” I demanded.

“A dealer I know from around,” John said. “It wasn’t Josey. She doesn’t sell drugs.”

“Serious drug users buy and sell if for nothing more than to support their own habit,” I said. “In doing that they come into contact with some really bad dudes.”

“She wasn’t like that,” John said.

“Okay, who was her best girl friend?” I asked.

“I guess it was her roommate, Iva. They lived in an apartment in downtown Oxford.”John said scribbling something down.

“Okay, let’s go talk to this Iva,” I said.

Since we had the option, we rode in John’s truck. I was surprised that the exterior of the building looked like a historic retail store but the inside was filled with two bedroom renovated apartments.

Josey and her roommate Iva lived on the top floor. Their apartment had windows overlooking the downtown shopping district. To my thinking they had the best views in the building. Then again I’m an old fart. We knocked on the door and got a response.

It was the one I expected. The man who answered could have been the poster boy for the ‘rent a gun-thug.com website. He took one look at me and decided he could push past me. If it had been a wide outside hallway, he would have made it easily. However, it was a narrow hallway. When he pushed me, I bounced off the close wall. I came up with the folding baton.

John was also standing between the thug and the exit. That slowed his progress even more. I managed to get a couple of blows in before he escaped. While he was covering up, John being the techno-freak that he was, took a picture of him with his phone. Since I couldn’t hold him, I used the chance to go inside the apartment. I found Iva Goodman struggling to get off the floor.

“Take it easy,” I said supporting her. “Are you in pain?”

To his credit John stood out of the way with his eye on the door. He was watching my back while I dealt with the slightly older woman. By slightly older I mean older than the twenty year old John, not me.

“I’m okay I think,” She said.

I helped her onto the sofa. I sat on the sofa within reach in case she needed anything.

“John see if there is anything in the refrigerator to drink, Ice Tea or a coke,” I suggested.

“Coke,” Iva replied. John disappeared.

“Who was your visitor?” I asked.

“I have no idea. He just showed up at the door. He demanded to see Josey’s room. I tried to stop him, but he hit me. Why did he do that?” she asked as John handed her the can of Coke.

“I have no idea. By the way you do know John don’t you?” I asked.

“Sure, John is a friend of Josey’s,” Iva replied.

“I’m John’s Uncle. I’m going to look around Josey’s room while he waits with you. Is that okay?” I asked.

“What is it you are looking for?” she asked simply.

“I have no idea honey. I expect I’m trying to find out why the Thug de jour would pay you a visit.” I walked through the door she had pointed toward. John stayed outside. Josey’s room proved to be fairly orderly. Nothing out of place except the things that were obviously missing. I had a pretty good idea that we would find out eventually that her lap top had been taken from my cabin tent. The previous visitor could have taken an I-phone, but nothing much larger. Best I could do was get a feel for Josey from her room. She was obviously not a typical junkie user. She was at the top of her slide into oblivion, or she was strictly a dealer. Either way she was someone who would be of interest to a drug distributor in a college town.

“So Iva, tell us about Josey?” I demanded but in a soft tone.

“First you tell me has something happened to her?” she asked.

“I’m afraid so. Josey was visiting John at my campground when someone came and attacked them. The attacker bludgeoned John, then tortured Josey before killing her,” I said. Iva took it better than I expected. She cried, but she didn’t break down.

“Why are you here instead of the cops?” she asked.

“That’s an excellent question and I have absolutely no answer,” I said. “They should be coming along soon. Before they get here could you tell me did Josey have a laptop computer and smart phone?”

“Yes of course, she would never go anywhere without them,” Iva said. John nodded his agreement.

That probably explained why they questioned her before they finished her off. The killer needed her pass words to get into her customer list. She was likely dealing to a student and faculty customer base. The bad guy wanted to take over her clients. A drug user had very little customer loyalty. Even I knew that.

“We were never here,” I said as we prepared to leave. Iva had at least been on the edge of the drug trade. She had at least an idea how things worked and how serious they were. She simply nodded her head.

John and I got out of there before Amos and the local cops showed up. I was very sure the Oxford PD was used to cooperating with outsiders. Probably not my kind of outsiders, but ones with a badge for sure.

“Oh had you ever seen your visitor before?” I asked.

“Not really. I didn’t know any of Josey’s business people,” Iva said. She was pretty adamant, so I let it slide for the time being. Let the cops sweat her. John and I would continue being the push overs, I thought.

John drove us to a student sit down burger joint. The burgers were custom made but to me were not as good as the side of the road cafe burgers. The fat content was too low, I decided.

“So what do we know?” I asked John.

“We know somebody killed Josey, but I couldn’t tell the cops anything about the killer. He gave me a beat down before he did it. I didn’t see a thing,” John explained.

“That’s what we knew this morning. Now we suspect Josey was in the business of supplying students and faculty who didn’t want to deal with street corner drug dealers. She probably sold designer drugs. You know like these designers hamburgers,” I said.

“So you are thinking whoever killed her was trying to take over her business?” John asked.

“Well he left with her I-phone and Laptop, so yeah I do think that,” I admitted.

“So what’s next,” John asked.

“We need to identify, the man in the hall,” I asked. What I didn’t ask was why he came to Josey’s apartment. If he already had her laptop and I-phone, then he was the killer. I didn’t want to believe my suspicions. I needed to do something difficult to prove, a negative.

“John, the cops are going to zero in on her drug connections after they find Iva. You did mention Iva to Detective Amos?” I asked.

“I don’t think she asked me,” John said.

I called Sylvia Amos. I told her John had mentioned Iva’s name to me. I thought it might be important to the investigation, so I was passing it along. She didn’t believe me of course, which is what I had expected before I called. I sent Deacon a copy of the man in the hallway’s image. I told him I didn’t know who he was or what he was doing at Iva’s apartment. I asked that he have Marcy and any of his police friend take a look at it. I also insinuated he might be involved in the drug trade.

“I get why you are protecting your nephew, but what has that got to do with a drug hit?” Deacon asked.

“To be honest Deacon I have no idea. Probably nothing, but college kids and drugs go hand in hand. Drugs and money also go hand in hand.” I said.

“Drugs, money, and violence are the triple threat to kids these days,” he suggested.

“Even the innocents wind up in the sights of men looking to settle scores, or protect themselves from the law,” I said.

“Keith, it smells wrong,” Deacon said.

“Yeah I know. It bothers me some as well,” I said.

I spent the evening at home alone. I did keep my ‘sort of new’ Taurus .357 magnum, five shot wheel gun, with the two inch barrel close by. Nothing like a little homicide in the neighborhood to get my attention. It actually kept me awake a few minutes longer than usual. Also it made me keep the 12guage Mossberg pump shotgun with the trench length barrel handy. Even with so much fire power within reach I slept light that night.

Chisum and I were up with the sun. I managed breakfast on the deck before I got an audio alert that someone was at the gate. I looked on the almost smart phone and found a Sheriff’s car sitting there. It wasn’t a patrol car, but I still knew that it was a plain police car.

I opened the gate with the cell phone. I sat and waited for the Sheriff’s deputy. Chisum and I had finished breakfast so he was napping. I was alert but not really looking forward to the next few minutes. I am really not much of a dancer and Sylvia and I were about to do the Mississippi two step, without music.

“Mr. Boyle, I checked out your information. The young woman didn’t seem to know much about Josey. We are having the Oxford police look at the two of them,” Detective Amos said.

“I expected you to skip the local police in Oxford and go right the state police,” I said.

“No reason to do that. I’m pretty sure you have something to do with it,” she said.

“I see. So you think the county can afford for you to investigate me again?” I asked.

“Oh trust me I am going right by our rules of engagement. That’s what they call the rules don’t you?” she asked.

“I don’t have any rules. I just do the right thing and let the chips fall where they fall. So what is it you want today?” I asked.

“I want to know what you and your nephew did in Oxford?” she asked.

“Who said I was in oxford?” I asked.

“No one. I just figured you wouldn’t give me the girl’s name without talking to her first,” she said.

“Well since you and I have a history, I think I’ll talk to my lawyer before I answer anything,”I said.

“I kind of expected that,” she said.

“Then we are both acting as the other expects,” I said. That is when I stopped talking all together.

“I’m sure you are curious, we think your nephew knew more about Josey than he is telling,” she said. “Or maybe you both do.”

“I’m going to make a statement you can use against me. I never met Josey Everette while she was alive. The only time I saw her was when the paramedics carried her out on a gurney. I didn’t even get a look at her then. Since she was covered with a sheet,” I explained.

“How would you like to rectify that?” she asked.

“What does that mean?” I asked.