Shine (Kentucky Outlaw Book 1) (12 page)

“We checked with Miss Bowman,” said Austin.
 
“She said you were at the bar around ten.
 
The incident we’re looking into happened a couple hours earlier.”

“Meaning your bullshit alibi is falling apart,” said Willbrook.

Ethan shrugged.
 
“Can we drop all this?
 
I’ve got a headache from staying up too late drinking and screwing and I’ve got a ton of shit to do today.
 
There’s no reason to sit in this room with the cameras rolling pretending you just want information out of me when you already let it slip back at the house that I’m your prime suspect.
 
So cut the shit.”

Austin dropped his Good Cop persona and his face hardened.
 
“Yeah, let’s do that.
 
You’re punk, a runner of illegal liquor in this county, and last night you almost killed an officer of the law with your stupid pranks.
 
Your white trash family has operated for years by breaking rules and bribing crooked politicians.
 
Let me be the first to tell you it ends now, and I’m going to be the one to bring it all down.”

“That’s a right nice speech, Austin.
 
Should’ve been on the debate club in high school.
 
It’s funny to me you bring up bribes.
 
I always wondered something, what’s the difference between bribes and campaign contributions?”

“What?”

“It’s strikes me as strange that you get all high and mighty about bribes, but your own father contributes a mountain of money every year to his elected friends.
 
Not to mention use of your property down on the Gulf Coast.
 
That must be a nice getaway vacation for the state senators, especially when they get there without their wife and kids. So if you want to talk about being crooked, sounds like Walter Prescott is more crooked than anyone.”

“You son of a bitch,” said Austin who was coming over the table at Ethan.
 
Now it was Willbrook’s turn to calm his partner down.
 
He held Austin by the shoulders.

“Better watch that temper, Austin.
 
The tape is rolling.”
 
Ethan nodded towards the two way mirror.

Either by witnessing what happened on the other side of the glass or hearing the commotion, two more officers entered the room.
 
“Get him out of here,” yelled Austin.
 
They grabbed Ethan and forcefully took him from the interview room to a holding cell.
 

They threw him in and slammed the bars shut.
 
Ethan sat on the bench and rested his head against the cool concrete.
 
He was getting very tired of being dragged everywhere.
 
The cell was empty except for a man sleeping further down on the bench.
 
He was in torn jeans and a stained t-shirt and smelled of alcohol and vomit.
 
There was a pack of cigarettes lying next to man so Ethan stole one and sat back down without the man moving.
 
Ethan searched his pockets but couldn’t find a lighter, which wasn’t surprising since Ethan rarely smoked.
 

He saw a familiar face walk by and called out, “Yo, Officer Reynolds.”

The man turned and a big grin broke across his face.
 
“Ethan!
 
I didn’t know you was back in town.”

“Ain’t you heard? I’m public enemy number one.
 
Say, you got a light on you?”

Reynolds was Ethan’s age, but was so gangly and narrow-jawed he looked like he was pushing sixty.
 
His mouth was wide and rubbery, which gave him a friendly and earnest look.
 
Reynolds searched his pockets and found a book of matches.
 
“You ain’t supposed to be smoking in here.”

“So arrest me,” said Ethan taking the matches.
 
He lit the cigarette and felt the hot fire in the back of his throat.
 
He couldn’t remember the last time he had smoked.
 
Three years, at least.

“What they haul you in for?” said Reynolds in his thick country twang.

“Being a Dalton.”

Reynolds snorted and said, “I got shit to do.
 
Keep them matches, I’ll come back and check on you in a flash, you hear?”

“Take it easy, Reyn,” said Ethan.
   
He and Reynolds weren’t really friends, but liked each other well enough growing up, and Ethan was glad he had run into him.
 
It reminded him that not all cops were complete assholes.

Two hours later Ethan was smoking his third stolen cigarette when he heard the doors down the hall open and Lenny Summers stood at the bars.
 
“Congratulations kid, I managed to talk them down from the electric chair.”

“Uncle Lenny, about damn time.”
 
Lenny Summers was Zeke’s lawyer and had been since before Ethan was born.
 
He was a tall, thin man with gray hair slicked back revealing a high forehead.
 

“Not my doing.
 
I’ve been trying to get you out of here for the last ninety minutes.
 
You must’ve pissed them off real good this time.”
 

Reynolds came up and unlocked the cell door.
 
Ethan stepped out, breathing a little easier now that he was out of the cage.
 
Lenny told Ethan he’d give him a ride home so they walked out to Lenny’s Cadillac and took off quickly.
 

Once they were out of sight of the police station Lenny said, “You boys pulled some shit last night.
 
The police are looking to charge you with attempted murder of a police officer.”

“That’s bullshit.
 
The cop fired at me.”

“The good news is if they had any proof at all you were behind that wheel you’d be in front of a judge right now.
 
Is there anything at all that can connect you to that car?”

“No, nothing,” answered Ethan.
 
“The car doesn’t have any plates, it’s not even registered with the state.”

“Is it safe where it is?”

“No.”

“Then if I were you I’d take that car and put it deep in an old coal mine and never touch it again.
 
I’m serious, after last night they are going to be looking for that car everywhere.
 
Don’t keep it on your property.
 
Don’t keep it up near the still.
 
When you do move it wipe your prints off and make sure there is nothing, and I mean
nothing
, in that car that can connect you to it.”

“How pissed is the old man?”

“More mad at the cops than you, but he’s plenty mad at you.
 
Thinks you should’ve been able to avoid the whole mess.”

“I told him I been out of the game too long, he’s the one that put me behind the wheel,” said Ethan angrily.

“Tell it to him, or Ged maybe, I’m just the messenger.”

“Do the cops really have a case?” asked Ethan.

“Not right now.
 
Not as far as I can tell.
 
The police may know that you run moonshine, they might even know you were behind the wheel, but they can’t prove it.”
 
They pulled into the driveway and Lenny put the car in park.
 
He turned and faced Ethan, “But they are going to be looking for that proof, you hear me?
 
The cops want you more than an inmate wants a six dollar blow job.
 
They are going to be watching you, and waiting for you to fuck up.
 
Do not give them anything.
 
If you can, get someone outside the family to move the car.”

Ethan said he would be careful and got out of the car.
 
Before shutting the door he turned back to Lenny, “The cops said Jackie had an airtight alibi last night.
 
Where the hell was he?”

Lenny shook his head.
 
“That brother of yours, I swear to Christ almighty.
 
Jackie’s alibi last night was Judge Smoak.”

“Jackie was with a judge last night?”

“No, he was fucking the judge’s daughter and they got caught.
 
While you were pulling your little stunt, Jackie was running away from the judge’s shotgun.”

No one was home when Ethan went inside so he took a quick shower, got in his Mustang, and headed out in search of food.
 
He had no interest in being at the house when Zeke got back.
 
He sat at the counter of a greasy spoon eating waffles, drinking coffee, and feeling sorry for himself.

He wasn’t usually the self-pitying type, but sitting there by himself he finally had time to reflect on everything.
 
That day marked the fourth time Ethan had found himself in a jail cell, but not once while he was away from Kentucky had he ever been arrested.
 
Except for speeding, he’d not broken a single law while he was traveling and less than forty-eight hours after getting back into town he’d been thrown in the slammer.

He was in a foul mood and he wanted to blame that on getting locked up and he wanted to blame his family for
getting
him
locked up, but it was more than that.
 
It was an emptiness inside him, a feeling in his gut that never went away.
 
He tried leaving everything he knew behind and starting over fresh, but no matter how much changed that feeling always remained.

As he drank his coffee, Ethan thought back to Nick Butler.
 
They’d been friends in high school, despite their family’s social distance.
 
They met playing baseball for the school team and they had bonded over the expectations others had for them.
 
Nick was told from a very young age that he would go to college, major in business, and come to work for the family.
 
That he didn’t want to do any of that didn’t matter to his parents.
 
Nick was a history junkie, reading every book he could get his hands on about World War II or the Battle of Hastings.
 
He dreamed of majoring in history and going on to teach at a college level.
 
As far as rebellions go, it wasn’t the sexiest decision, but it was what he wanted.

After high school, Nick attended a private college known for its business school and ability to generate Fortune 500 leaders while Ethan went to Eastern Kentucky University.
 
They didn’t keep in close contact but saw each other over the holidays.
 
During that first year, Nick’s story was always the same.
 
He would graduate from business school per his father’s orders, but after that he would be able to access his trust fund and he could go on to any graduate school.
 

During Nick’s second year of college it became widely known that the Butlers were having financial trouble.
 
Their furniture stores had closed and they sold off large chunks of real estate, land that had been in their family for generations.
 
Ethan thought they could’ve turned it around if they limited spending, but the Butlers came from old money and were used to a certain way of life.
 
Just because they were hemorrhaging cash didn’t mean they should go without a new Rolls Royce every year.
 

When Nick had come back for Christmas there had been an obvious change.
 
Gone were his plans to teach history, and now he was only focused on business and saving his family.
 
He went on and on about how he had plans not just to save the Butler name, but also to expand the empire.
 
In the end he turned into the thing he’d resisted for years.

Nick went on to graduate, then return to Remington with hopes of saving his family’s sinking ship.
 
Ethan lasted two years in college, which was much longer than anyone had expected of him, but after both he and Nick returned to Remington they never saw each other.
 
When Ged called to tell him that Nick was dead, he was saddened by the violent act that had taken his life, but Ethan had already mourned the loss of his friend years ago.

Standing
next to his car, Ethan spotted Kenny Salo’s pickup truck speeding down the street.
 
Without being able to explain why, he was behind the wheel heading in the same direction.
 
He thought he’d lost Kenny until he saw the KY GNGSTA plate in the parking lot of the country club.
 
Ethan pulled the Mustang into the parking lot and was almost run over by a Mercedes SUV.
 

 
He entered through the worker’s entrance and was surprised to see Julie Prescott eavesdropping on a private conversation.
 
To avoid the people in the room hearing him, he snuck up and put his hand on her mouth so she wouldn’t yell out in surprise.
 
He put a finger to his lips, indicating to Julie not to make a sound.
 
She looked angry, but said nothing.
 
The two of them tried to keep listening, but it was too late.
 
The meeting was over.
 

Julie closed the door silently and turned to Ethan.
 
“What the hell are you doing here?”
 
She said in a low, but angry voice.

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“I’m a member here,”

“How do you know I’m not?”

“Please.”
 
She walked past him and headed towards the exit.
 
Ethan followed.
 
When they were outside Julie looked around the parking lot and said, “Shit.
 
I guess my ride left.”

“Was that the homicidal woman driving the Mercedes?
 
She looked pissed.
 
Come on, where you headed?
 
I’ll give you a lift.”