Shine (Kentucky Outlaw Book 1) (13 page)

“I’ll be fine,” said Julie.

The doors to the country club opened and they turned to watch.
 
Kenny Salo had come tumbling out of the main doors of the country club, followed by Essing.

He was a big man and Ethan could see he was well built under his expensive suit.
 
He corralled an unwilling Kenny into the truck he looked over at Ethan and stared at him.
 
He didn’t let it show, but under his jacket Ethan shuddered.
 
There was something very unsettling about that guy.
 
He kept staring at Ethan until Kenny was secure in the truck and Essing climbed in the driver’s seat.
 
The truck squealed its tires leaving the parking lot.

“I changed my mind, I’ll take that ride,” said Julie.
 
“We need to follow them.”
 
She started for Ethan’s car but he didn’t move as he watched the truck pull away.
 
“Come on, we’ll lose them.”

Ethan got in the Mustang and they pulled out of the parking lot.
 
Ethan barely got the car above twenty miles an hour, and then pulled into a church parking lot not more than a hundred feet from the country club.

“What are you doing?” said Julie.

Ethan didn’t answer right away, but pulled the car into a spot where they could keep an eye on the front door of the club.
 
“What did you overhear?”

“What?”

“When you were listening in that room, what did you overhear?”

“Not much.
 
Kenny was bothered by something, really bothered.
 
It seemed like, I don’t know, he was coming apart or something.”

“What else?”

“Not much, just that whoever he was talking to said he’d take care of it.
 
Said that Mr. Essing, whoever that is, would drive him home.”

“Right,” said Ethan.
 
“So we have Kenny, Essing, and a mystery third man.
 
I know where Kenny lives, we can find him again.
 
I want to know who that third man was.”

Ethan was right and Julie knew it, but she didn’t admit to it out loud.
 
She prided herself on being a good reporter and this was something she should’ve caught, but she had been too wrapped up in the chase.
 
They waited for twenty minutes, neither of them saying much to the other.
 
Julie was uncomfortable with Ethan, to say the least.
 
Not just because he was a Dalton, although that was more than enough reason, but at one time the man sitting next to her had been her fiancé’s friend.
 
They should at least be able to make small talk, but she couldn’t think of anything they had in common besides Nick, and she sure as hell wasn’t bringing him up.

Finally the doors opened and a tall and handsome man with dark skin in an impeccably tailored suit came out the front door.
 

“Now that’s interesting,” said Ethan.
 

“Who is that?”

“Really?
 
You should pay more attention to your father’s cocktail parties.
 
That is state senator Mark Alexander, known to his golf buddies as “Lex,” or “Lexie” if you donate enough money to his campaign.
 
What in the hell is he doing taking a meeting with a shit kicker like Kenny Salo?”

“How do you know that was the man in the room with Kenny?”

“Essing is his personal assistant, bodyguard, and disposal man.”

“How does someone like you know so much about political players?”
 
Julie asked, with more than a hint of incredulousness in her voice.

“It’s my family’s job to know.
 
The Prescotts and the Daltons really aren’t that different.
 
You might live up on that hill and we might live down in the holler, but our families play the same game.”

“I doubt it.”

Ethan pulled out of the parking lot, following the senator’s Jaguar down the road and over to the interstate.
 
He merged with traffic and flowed through the lanes of the highway with ease.
 
He didn’t follow too closely, but they never lost sight of the senator’s car.
 

The sky had turned a gunmetal gray while Julie was inside the country club and as they traveled down the interstate a light rain started to fall. They followed the senator back to the statehouse in Frankfort, but didn’t see any reason to go inside.
 
Instead they found a diner not far away and decided some coffee and a bite to eat would be nice.

Sitting across the booth from Ethan, she got a good look at him for the first time.
 
Except for seeing him at Traxler’s the day before she hadn’t seen him in a long time.
 
She had met him a few times when she was still with Nick and he’d always looked like a punk kid to her, acting out to get attention, but now he looked different.
 
Not exactly look older, but he did seem wiser somehow.
 
He was quieter than before, as though when he had been younger he had had to act confident, but he just
was
confident.
 

“OK,” he said.
 
“I think it’s time to start sharing notes here.
 
I came back to town thinking that Nick getting himself killed was bad luck, but I’m starting to think there’s more to the story, and you seem to know something about it.”

“Thanks, but I work alone,” said Julie.

“And yet, here we sit,” fired back Ethan.
 
When she said nothing back to him he said, “Whatever the hell your problem with me is, don’t you think it would be better if we worked together?”

“My problem is that you’re a Dalton and so you can’t be trusted.”

He blew out a large breath.
 
“Jesus Christ.
 
You’re actually falling for that petty Hatfield and McCoy bullshit?
 
I thought you were different from the rest of them.
 
Has any Dalton ever done anything to you or any living Prescott?”

“My daddy said–”

He cut her off.
 
“Your daddy was a bootlegger just like my old man.
 
They used to run shine together forty years ago.
 
Did you know that?
 
Did Walter Prescott ever mention that to you?
 
I didn’t think so.
 
Both Zeke and Walter made a damn good living, but when the heat came down on them your father used his money to buy into high society.
 
My father never had any use for pretense and stayed in the holler making shine.
 
That is the extent of our family feud.”

“J.R. Prescott and Donovan Dalton spilled blood,” she said.

“Yeah, a hundred and fifty years ago.
 
Do you give a shit what happened a hundred and fifty years ago?
 
Because I don’t.
 
Truth is, you and I don’t know a damn thing about each other.”

She started to continue the argument, but stopped.
 
“You’re right,” she said.
 

He held out his hand.
 
“Ethan Dalton.”

She shook, giving him a little smile.
 
“Julie Prescott.”

“Now that we’re friends, can you tell me what the hell is going on?” he asked as the waitress put down two slices of pie to accompany their coffee.

Julie took a bite and nodded approvingly.
 
“Some of this is from a confidential source.”

“Your brother.”
 
She shot him a look, and he said, “You have confidential information and your brother’s a cop.
 
It doesn’t take a spy to figure shit out.”

She laid out everything she knew about Nick’s body being moved and Avon Traxler being a witness to Kenny Salo’s truck leaving the scene of the crime.

“I was afraid that it wasn’t just a robbery.
 
The whole thing just had a bad ring to it.”
 
Ethan sat back and digested the information.
 
“And the thing about Traxler makes less sense than moving the body.
 
Traxler talking to the cops?
 
No way.”

“He was a witness, he had to talk.”

Ethan stared into space and shook his head.
 
“Traxler doesn’t talk to cops, ever.”

“I saw the police report.
 
His name was on there.”

Ethan pulled out his phone and dialed up a number.
 
“Ged?
 
Never mind where I am.
 
That thing we got, that thing that needs to be moved, it has to be tonight, maybe even sooner if we can.
 
No, we can’t use Jackie.”
 
He looked at Julie, then turned his head away from her.
 
“It has to be someone outside the family and it has to be someone we trust.
 
OK, talk to you later.”

He hung up the phone and Julie said, “That sounded like a legitimate business transaction.”

“Finish your pie, we got to go.”

Ethan paid the check and they headed back to the car.
 
It was forty-five minutes back to Remington and Ethan drove as fast as he dared.

“I really liked that place.
 
It was just a diner, but it had a solitary feel to it.
 
The kind of place you know no one’s going to bother you,” said Julie.

“Yeah, that’s a good way of putting it. I used to drive all night, just head out and see where I could end up.
 
It was the summer just after graduation and I found myself in Frankfort and I was hungry and found that place.
 
I had biscuits and gravy at four in the morning.”

“All by yourself?”

“Yeah.
 
That’s what made it special, I guess, like the whole place existed just for me.
 
Whenever I needed to get away for a while I’d drive over there and get myself a bite to eat.”

“You must feel that way a lot.
 
Needing to drive away, I mean.
 
Is that why you left?”

“I left for a lot of reasons,” Ethan said softly, making Julie think he didn’t so much mind her asking.
 
Then he changed switched the subject back to Nick.
 
“So he was moved after he was killed.
 
You’re the reporter, what questions do we need to be asking?”

“The five basic questions of reporting are ‘who, what, when, where, and why’ so let’s go down the list.
 
Who moved him?
 
What did they move him in?
 
When was he moved? Where did the murder actually take place?”

Ethan added, “And the big question, why kill him? OK, let’s start with what we do know.
 
Nick was shot in one place, but his body and car were found in Pin Alley.
 
He didn’t drive himself, so someone had to drive his car.
 
He was found in the driver’s seat?”

“Yeah.”

“OK, someone drives his car and puts him in the seat.
 
Takes his wallet to make it look like a robbery.
 
Then that person gets a ride out of there, so someone else was driving as well.”

“So we’re looking for at least two people.
 
Kenny Salo and that Traxler guy?”

“Maybe, but we need more information to go on.
 
Is there an appointment book or something Nick used?
 
Anything that might tell us what he was doing that night?”

“He kept all that stuff on his phone and his mother has that,” said Julie.

“Can you get to it?”

“Probably, but it won’t be easy,” she said, hating to think of what she’d have to do to get that phone.

Back in Remington, Ethan pulled up to the Prescott house.
 
The gates were open, which was strange.
 
Ethan looked up at the big house on the hill and said, “I’ll be busy tomorrow, but call me if something comes up.”

“Yeah, sounds good,” said Julie, nervously looking around.
 
The last thing she wanted was to be spotted with Ethan Dalton.
 
“You have my number, so if you find out anything you can text me.”

She got out of the car and watched him drive away, surprised that she was actually looking forward to their next meeting.
 
Julie saw several people milling about as she climbed the long driveway, bringing long tables into the house, flowers, and truckloads of food.
 
Her mother hurried up to her as she walked in the door.

“Julie Mae, where have you been?
 
The party is starting in just a couple of hours.”

“Party?”

Vera rolled her eyes, exasperated.
 
“For the love of all that’s holy.
 
The party we’ve been planning for a month now?
 
The fundraiser?