Chapter 63

"Now listen to me real good Jason. Not only does your life depend on it, but so does Marie's. If you lie to me, I going to put this pistol in your hand and shoot Marie in the head with it, then I am going to put it in your mouth and pull the trigger. Since your business is not doing well, it will look like suicide. I'm still a lawyer, I know what evidence to leave here for the cops to find. Do you understand me?" I asked. "I know you can't speak with the barrel of the pistol in your mouth hun, but you can nod. Now do you understand?" Jason nodded his head.

The home invasion by Royce and I went off without a hitch. Why wouldn't it? Between the two of us we had been involved, one way or another, in scores of them. Hell, Maybe it was more like hundreds of them.

"Now Jason I am going to remove the pistol from your mouth and you are going to answer me. You are not going to say a single word that is not in response to a question by me. Do you understand?" I asked. He nodded again.

I removed the barrel from his mouth. "Now what did Wilma give you at that last party?" I asked.

"It was her business card. That's all I swear. I never called her." he added.

"Jason just shut the fuck up. You answer my questions do not elaborate, remember?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"Who called you Sunday to get her address? I know that someone found out you were our sponsor. I also know they found out she was calling around to the papers and the cops about the underage boy and girl who were there. So who made the call?" I demanded. It was easy to tell he was terrified.

"Listen to me Jason. The man who called you might kill you, but he isn't here. I am and I am sure as hell am going to kill you, if you don't tell me who called." I said menacingly.

"Some kid named Angelo called. He wanted to talk to Wilma to convince her stop the calls. He said that he could clean up the mess and keep us all out of the press, if he could convince her to retract it all. So I gave him the information from her card. If he found her somehow, I don't really know." Jason explained.

"You do know what happened to her?" I asked.

"Yes I know. I swear I had no idea." he said.

"Shut the fuck up and listen to me. Angelo killed Wilma to be sure there was no one to testify. He has a contract on me for the same reason. Now, how long do you think it is going to be before he has a hit on you and Marie as well. Give it some thought, then do what you need to do." I suggested.

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

"I am going to do what I have to do to stay alive," I replied. He did not need to know that it wasn't just about staying alive, it was about Wilma and Shawn. I had plans for Angelo and his mom, if she decided to join the fray.

I knew damn well that I was on my own, unless Angel Jo came to help out her whelp. If that happened, then there would be something in it for my dad. When that happened, it would be hell in the south till Angel Jo was dead or beaten into submission never to rise again. Her best move was to stay out of it. Just let the kids of two crime families do battle. But with mothers and sons, who knew.

"You need to call your cop friends. I want to know if they are looking for Angelo." I suggested it to Royce, when we were back at my old law office. With those words I handed him the burn phone. He just nodded then walked off to a corner of the waiting room.

I cleaned up the place. I never got to start the new mash so it was just wash out the buckets and cooker. The stuff did not look anything like a still. Especially when I unwound the plastic tube I used for a condenser.

"My friend tells me there are no leads yet in Wilma's death," he said.

"Come on, we know who did it, how can they not?" I asked.

"They can't ask every junkie in town like your dad's people can. They aren't keeping Angelo on the radar like the Russians are. He isn't potential competition for the cops. They also aren't going to put a gun in Jason's mouth and threaten to shoot him and his wife." Royce said.

"Those are fair points, so do we tell them?" I asked.

"If Angelo goes in for it, the pressure to have you killed increases. If you kill him,, Mama is going to increase the contract to have your head. You don't have a good option, Lucy."

"I'm not the only one who fucked up. Junior went from kiddie porn, and pimp to murderer in one night. That can't be good," I said.

"I would bet you a million bucks his mom had no idea what he was doing. The risk reward just isn't there. He made some kid type decisions, probably to prove to her that he was a man," Royce suggested.

"So how do we find him?" I asked as much for myself as Royce to answer.

"I guess we do it like the cops would. Start with the school where he is enrolled," Royce said. "The problem is that will make it easy for the head hunters to find you."

"They can find me, but they can't kill me till after I find Angelo. So does Angel Jo have a cop in her pocket?" I asked.

"Why would she bother with a local cop. The local cops would be more likely to be in the Russian's pocket," Royce suggested and I agreed.

I didn't even answer Royce. I just called the Russian. "Ivan, it's me Lucy. I need a local cop. So give me a name," I said.