Shine (Kentucky Outlaw Book 1) (19 page)

“That girl’s got an appetite,” said Zeke.

“That’s what a night with jar of your shine will do to a person,” Julie said and Zeke smiled at her.
 
She got the feeling that a smile from Zeke Dalton was a rare as any precious metal.

Jackie came in the back door and said to Ethan, “Where the hell you been?
 
I can’t fix that thing by myself.”

“Hush up and sit for a spell,” said Zeke.
 

Jackie sat next to Ethan and fired up a cigarette.
 
“OK, what’s the news?”

Ethan said, “You’re going to have questions, but just let us get all this out.
 
Then you can ask anything you want.
 
First off, you have to know Nick Butler wasn’t killed randomly.
 
He was murdered, and right now it looks like Avon Traxler is the killer.”

“Are you serious?” said Ged loudly.

Ethan held up his hand.
 
“Anything we say has got to be kept in the family, so don’t go repeating any of this.”

“Why is everyone looking at me?” asked Jackie.

“Because after you get done screwing, you blab on for hours,” said Zeke.
 
“We can all hear you through the walls when you bring your gals back here.”

Jackie turned red and shrugged.

Ethan went on, “Couple of days ago, Julie finds out from her brother that Nick wasn’t killed in Pin Alley.
 
His body was moved there to make it look like he was killed in a robbery.
 
An old pick up truck owned by Kenny Salo was spotted leaving the scene. The person who spotted this was Traxler.
 
We think Traxler convinced Kenny to kill Nick and then Traxler killed Kenny to cover it up.”

“Kenny Salo’s dead?” asked Jackie.

Ethan nodded.
 
“I forgot, you went to high school with him.
 
He was shot and his body was thrown in a dumpster.”

“Goddamn,” he said softly.
 

“The fact that Traxler is talking to cops at all is strange, but last night when Neil and I were picking up the car from Traxler’s he kept asking me a bunch of leading questions, trying to get me to say out loud that I was part of a moonshine operation.
 
This morning Julie took a poke around that garage and found microphones hidden all around it.”

“That son of a bitch tried to set you up,” said Ged.
 

“Looks that way.
 
I just don’t know why.
 
He gets me on tape saying I’m a bootlegger, OK, but then what?
 
He’s on tape saying he purchases illegal liquor.”

“Insurance,” said Zeke.
 
“In case he gets pinched then he gives us up in order to get out of any jail time.
 
We always been careful not leave any evidence.
 
If he can’t prove it then it never matter who he named.”

“I was careful not to say anything last night.
 
The whole thing was funny to me, so that’s why I had Neil switch routes with me.
 
He was supposed to go out Fichtner’s Way, but I did instead.
 
Then I noticed someone following me so I ditched down a dirt road out near the lake and hid out.
 
It was Traxler and that goon of his, Cutler.
 
They were looking for the still.”

“The still ain’t near the lake,” said Ged.

“I led them away from it.
 
They said they’d come back in daylight and look for it, but they ain’t going to find shit.”

“Doesn’t make sense,” said Jackie, stubbing out his cigarette.
 
“We been selling to Traxler for years.”

“And his father before him,” said Zeke.

“So what is going on all of a sudden?
 
You say he’s recording folks?
 
Looking for the still?
 
You’re saying he killed Nick and Kenny, for fuck’s sake.”

“And he just tried to get Julie,” said Ethan.
 
“He’s gone completely insane.”

“You didn’t call your brother?
 
Him being police and all?” asked Jackie.
 

“I tell them what happened and I’ll never see sunlight again.
 
We need those recordings,” said Julie.
 
“That’s how we’re going to find out what he’s up to.
 
We sneak in, grab the recordings, and get the hell out.”

“That’s very dangerous,” said Ged.

“I don’t see another way,” Julie said.

“If Trax made a recording talking about killing Nick, that’d be enough,” said Ged.

Ethan looked to Julie and said, “That part I heard Mark Alexander tell Kenny.”
 

“Who’s Mark Alexander?” asked Jackie.

“Your state senator, you nitwit,’ said Ged.

Zeke stared hard at Ethan, “You mean to say Mark Alexander is mixed up in this?”

“Maybe,” said Ethan.
 
“We know that he was mixed up with Kenny, but that’s about it.”

“And I talked to him last night.
 
He never said anything direct, but I was shaken just from running into him,” said Julie.

Zeke nodded, “That’s how he does.
 
Before he was a senator we ran in some of the same circles and I’ve never once seen him threaten anyone or harm anyone physically, but let me tell you he always gets his way.
 
Either people bend over backwards to help him or those who stand in his way suddenly change their mind.
 
He come around a few years ago, looking for donors for his first run on the senate.
 
I don’t have the respectability of Walter Prescott, but folks around the holler know I got some money stashed away.
 
Alexander comes knocking, wanting hell of a lot of money.
 
I tell him our politics don’t match.
 
He gets this look in his eye, then he smiles wide like we’re all of a sudden best friends.
 
He clamps me on the back, thanks me for my time, then heads off. Next few days I got a shadow on me, some little asshole following me around.”

“What happened?” asked Julie.

Zeke smiled again and said, “Let’s just say I made myself clear.
 
I wasn’t bothered again, but I’m one of the few rare ones to walk away unharmed.”

“So what do we do now?” asked Jackie.

“First things first, we got our last run to make and nothing in the world can stop us from it, not if we want to make good on our plans.
 
After that we’ll have to see about the rest of it.”
 
Zeke concluded the meeting, and they all went off in their separate directions.
 

Ethan had to help Jackie fix the car and Julie asked if she could tag along.
 
Zeke gave his approval, saying their bootlegging days were done, so her seeing the site wasn’t a problem.

Out in the woods Ethan pointed out the operation to Julie.
 
She could tell he was excited to show her everything. “That’s where we cook the liquor.
 
It’s the original shed, the very same one my great grandfather used.
 
As the years went by and our moonshine got more popular we had to add more sheds and cooking equipment.”
 
He pointed to another shed, this one newer and made of fiberglass.
 
“That’s where we keep the runner car.”

The day was cool, and the sky was overcast, but the air was full of the sweet smell of spring.
 
Julie took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, feeling some of the tension leave her body.
 
It was like another world out there, a place where bad things couldn’t touch her.

“Can I ask a question?” she said.

Ethan was standing close to her and she felt his presence intensely.
 
“You can ask me anything you want,” he said softly.

For half a second she considered throwing out her original question, instead asking if they could get back in his car, drive deeper into the woods, and make good use of his backseat.
 
She restrained herself and said, “This isn’t a dry county, so why do people want your homemade liquor instead of store bought?”

“We deliver all over the state, especially to dry counties.
 
In fact, the last run will be over to Ohio County.
 
That place is dry as a bone and they drink shine like water over there.
 
But we make local runs too for a couple of reasons.
 
First off, our stuff is cheaper than store bought.
 
Second, folks around here like tradition.
 
Moonshine is just a way of life.
 
Wild Turkey is only made fifty miles from here, but some of them, especially the older folks, still think of it as outsider whiskey, but our stuff is made in town and a lot of folks like it better anyway.”

Jackie called to Ethan to get his ass in gear, so Ethan gave Julie a shrug and headed into the shed where the little car was parked.
 
Julie didn’t know much about cars, but she could tell this one was a wreck.
 

“I hope my car is OK.
 
I left it parked in a bad neighborhood with the back window shot out.”

“We got to get you another car,” said Ethan.

“I bought that car myself.
 
Walter wanted to buy me something, but I put my foot down and got something I could afford on my salary.”

“You can still get something you can afford, but we’ll make sure you got something with some power under the hood.”

“That car had a great safety rating,” she said.

With his head under the hood, Ethan said, “I’m sure it did, but you would’ve been a hell of lot safer today if you had something that could move.”

Julie smiled to herself, Ethan was worried about her and wanted to make sure she would be OK.
 
She thought back to their conversation of the previous night and felt the urge to check that he would be OK. Maybe they would be able to do that for each other.
 
It wouldn’t have to be just the man protecting the woman, like her father or Nick, but it could be mutual, a team effort.

Ethan and Jackie fell silent as they got deeper into their work, so Julie wandered through the area.
 
Not far from the still site was a clearing, a large oval shape in the middle of the woods with a single tree in the middle of it.
 
She walked out to the tree and listened to nothing but the sound of wind blowing gently through the leaves.
 
She watched the light gray clouds move overhead and felt like this place was heaven.
 

She laid down in the grass, using her jacket as a pillow, and closed her eyes.
 
Exhaling a deep breath the tension left her.
 
She felt calm and finally at ease with the world.
 
Out there she was on a different planet, a place where nothing could touch her.
 
The only thing she was missing was Ethan next to her.
 
She was falling in love with him and wanted him more than she wanted anything.
 
Julie just hoped he felt the same way.

Hours later, the car was fixed and they took off back for the house.
 
Ethan had grease marks streaking his face and hands, so he excused himself to take a shower.
 
Zeke was sitting on the front porch smoking a cigar, and he invited Julie to sit with him.

“You’re mixed up in something dangerous here.
 
You know that, right?” said Zeke.

“I do.”

“I know you do.
 
I just thought it should be said.
 
You know you remind me of Walt quite a bit.”

“Please don’t say that.”

Zeke gave a short laugh.
 
“Don’t take offense, darling.
 
It was meant as a compliment.
 
Walt is a strong man, capable of many things.
 
I see that same strength in you.”

“Too bad he doesn’t,” she said.

Zeke flicked the ash from his cigar and said, “If he’s near the same man I knew years ago, he does.
 
Parents have the disadvantage of time.
 
We’ve seen how things go wrong and we want better for our children, but he needs to learn he can’t control you.
 
If parents could control their children, Jackie and Ethan would be very different people.”

“If Ethan was a different person I wouldn’t be here,” she said.

“Our families go way back.
 
Both the Daltons and the Prescotts been in this area as long as anyone can remember.”

“What happened between you and Walter?
 
Why did you stop being friends?”

“We were never friends,” said Zeke.
 
“We worked alongside each other and we made a lot of money together, but we were never close.
 
Your daddy always had his eye on bigger things.
 
He was working to get to a better life, and when he had the money he bought that better life.
 
I worked for myself because I never could stand the thought of having a boss.
 
I was in the army for two years and I swore that was the last time anyone told me what to do.”

Julie smiled.
 
It was a feeling she knew very well.