Swift Justice: The Southern Way (26 page)

What about Junior? The Sheriff hated thinking about whether his son might have done it, but he had to keep an open mind. Junior has a pickup truck, he is average-height, and he really doesn’t have an alibi as Acton does. However, the Sheriff didn’t know if either Sam Stage or Billy Stage had an alibi either, but that would be his next task—finding out whether Sam or Billy had an alibi. So Junior arguably fits the limited description of the murderer, but Junior hates niggers, thought the Sheriff. It just doesn’t make sense for Junior to kill white people, who were friends of the Sheriff’s family, for the sake of saving some Negroes. Plus, Junior came up with the idea of burning down the Social Club to get the FBI off the Klan’s back. No, he was convinced that it couldn’t be Junior.

The Sheriff paused to consider this again. Maybe it might be worth it to pay Junior an unexpected visit and see what is going around his house. Better yet, maybe the Sheriff could check Junior’s tires on the pickup truck and see if match his makeshift imprint. No, he would not rule out Junior, just yet, though these thoughts tormented him.

Yes, that was the plan. The Sheriff would first pay Billy a visit at the morgue, then Sam, and then surprise Junior.

What about Acton and the remaining names on the construction site list? The Sheriff figured that he would pay Acton a surprise visit at Acton’s house after he made his visit to Junior’s house. He would then address the remaining names on the list on the next day as he wouldn’t have time to get to them because he had too much to do before the KOT meeting.

Right now, the Sheriff thought his number one suspects were Billy and Sam Stage. It’s time to pay them a special visit.

At about five p.m., Leon and Special Agent Hall waited outside the Walnut Hill Lane Hotel in Hall’s car until Perry arrived. Ideally, Hall preferred to take Leon straight up to his room, and then wait for Perry, but it was a major problem getting Leon into the hotel. The hotel did not allow Negroes as guests—only as low-level employees. It was totally prohibited and taboo for a black man to stay at a white hotel.

Leon was used to this treatment, though he didn’t like it, but Leon sensed it was a major inconvenience for Special Agent Hall. Nonetheless, they waited.

Hall had told Leon that Goldstein was serving as their local communication hub. He explained that Goldstein was in one of the rooms at the hotel, and Hall and Perry communicated through Goldstein.

While they waited, they finished eating their dinner, which they had to get as carry outs as no restaurant, in the white area, would serve a Negro, especially considering the tension from the murders.

After about fifteen minutes of waiting, Perry finally showed up with Deron. Leon hadn’t seen Deron since the previous night. When all of them got out of their cars, Leon practically ran to Deron, and the brothers embraced. Leon was so happy to see his brother because he struggled with the thought of the Klan killing Deron.

Perry spoke. “Okay, let’s go into the hotel.”

Leon thought Perry was crazy. “No way,” responded Leon. “There’s no way they’re going to let us in the hotel on a normal day. They’re especially not going to let us in when they are ready to kill every Negro in town.”

Perry replied. “I know that, but we’re going to insist that we have to take you into the hotel. This is too inconvenient for us to have you go to a different location while we go through the evidence. Also, you Negroes need to stay with us for your safety. You’re key witnesses, and we got to protect you.”

“Okay, but they’re not going to let us in,” said Deron.

“Can’t we just wait in your car?” asked Leon.

“No,” replied Perry. “Hey, let’s just go quickly and see what happens.”

“All right,” Leon said with zero confidence. “Okay, Deron, let’s go walk the plank.”

The men walked to the front door of the hotel. The doorman shot them a dirty look and didn’t even do his only job—open the door for guests. They walked through the door and into the lobby. The lobby was bustling with activity. There was a lot of out of towners in the lobby. Leon figured that they were newspaper people.

The people, in the lobby, all stopped talking and turned their heads at the site of two black people accompanied with two white people. They just stared in amazement.

Perry and Hall led Leon and Deron up the stairs, without addressing the owner of the hotel. Normally, guests were required to leave their room keys with the front desk if they left the hotel, but Hall and Perry did not obey that tedious rule. They kept their keys and tried to go to their room without interruption.

The owner saw them. “Hey!” the owner shouted. “Hey, where you going?”

Perry said innocently, “I’m going to my room.”

“Fine, but those niggers can’t go into your room,” said the owner.

“What do you mean?” asked Perry.

“Don’t be coy with me. You know this is a white only hotel; niggers ain’t allowed. They cannot come into our hotel.”

“Um, listen, they are witnesses of a crime,” Perry said. “We have to interview them in our room. The Sheriff has authorized us to help out in the investigation of the murders.” Perry paused and stared straight into the owner’s eyes, “We’re taking them up.”

The owner glanced over to the white people in the lobby, who were all now watching the scene unfold. “Look man, I can’t have it going around town that I allowed a nigger to sleep in our hotel rooms. No one is going to want to stay in these rooms. It will ruin my business.”

Perry replied, “You don’t have to worry; they are not going to sleep here. We will just be a couple of hours at the most.”

“Come on, people will find out,” the owner begged.

“Then don’t tell anyone,” said Perry sarcastically.

The owner pointed in the direction of the people in the lobby. “Well, these people in the lobby right here, as you can see, are going to tell people.”

“Well, tell them not to tell anyone,” Perry said with a smirk. “We are going up to the room.”

“Shit!” said the owner.

When the men finally entered the upstairs’ hallway, Perry said, “Man, that was a pain in the ass. Jeez, can’t we get any cooperation in this town.”

Leon thought that if they thought that was an inconvenience, they had no idea of a typical day of a Negro trying to coexist in a white town.

Perry spoke softly to Deron and Leon. “Okay, we’re going to put you in Howard Goldstein’s room while we go over the evidence. Then, we’ll get you.”

“What’s your next step?” asked Leon.

“Solve the murder,” replied Perry.

~~~~

As soon as they got into their hotel room, Perry whispered to Hall, “Hey, I think I might be on to something on the Klan, here.” Perry was excited about his discovery and excellent detective work.

They both walked to the small, round table in the corner of the room and sat down.

“Oh yeah, what do you got?” asked Hall.

“Well, I visited that guy in the hospital who got shot. He kind of admitted that the Judge and the Sheriff ordered the hit. I mean he didn’t deny it.”

“Really?”

“Well, I got it on tape. We’ll have to listen to it.”

“Great job. How did you get it on tape?”

“Wait, it gets better. I slid the tape machine under his bed and left it there. Then, I saw that the Sheriff went into his room after I left. I then went back into the room and retrieve the recorder without that asshole Paul Sawyer noticing.”

“That’s some fuckin’ great work,” replied Hall. “I can’t wait to hear what they had to say while they were alone.”

“Oh, I got more,” said Perry.

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, did you hear about that fire at the town’s social club?” asked Perry.

“Yes, it’s all the talk,” said Hall. “What did you find out?”

“Well, the social club did burn down, and the town is very close to engaging in a full blown race riot. The Sheriff threatened to call in the Texas National Guard, but Atwood Baker stepped in to curb that.”

“Wait a minute. You met Atwood Baker?”

“Oh, yes. I met both the Sheriff and the so-called Judge.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“So what did you find out?” asked Hall.

“I got a lot to tell you. First, they want
us
to investigate the crimes. That is, they have formally asked us to find the Negroes that committed the murders.”

“They automatically think that Negroes did it?” asked Hall.

“Exactly, but let me get back to the fire.”

“Okay.”

“This whole fire is strange. The Sheriff, the Judge, and this guy named Acton all seemed to think that a Negro must have burnt the social club. In fact, some unlucky Negro happened to be walking by, and the town started beating him up thinking that he must have set the building on fire.”

“What are you thinking?” asked Hall.

“Well, they’re real quick to assume that it was arson to begin with. They haven’t done any investigation into how the fire started. The fire wasn’t even put out yet, and they had concluded that it was arson, which to me was strange.”

“So you don’t think it was arson?” asked Hall.

“No, I think it was arson, for sure, but for different reasons. I know you are going to think I’m nuts, but I think those sick fucks set their own social club on fire just to blame it on the Negroes.”

“No way,” said Hall. “That’s crazy.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right. It was just a hunch.”

“Hey, I think it’s obvious who set the place on fire,” said Hall.

“Really, enlighten me,” said Perry.

“It has to be the killer. This person has already killed five Klan members and injured a sixth. This person obvious hates the Klan. It only makes sense that he would burn down a white man’s social club.”

“Hmm, maybe you’re on to something,” replied Perry. Perry paused. “Oh, I briefly interrogated the men, and they quickly regretted that they gave me permission to investigate.”

“Oh yeah, did they reveal anything?”

“No. How about you?” asked Perry. “What do you have?”

“Well, I went to the first crime scene and the morgue. We found what I think is the area where the first killer hid his car. Actually, based on the tire tracks, it looks like a truck, a pickup truck. There were some footprints, so I made a plaster mode out of the prints. We’ll have to send it to the lab.”

“Great,” replied Perry.

“I took a lot of pictures. I also figured out that the person who killed them was probably five feet, ten inches based on what Leon said, but it’s really an educated guess more than anything on the height.”

“What did you find out at the morgue?” asked Perry.

“Well, the first three victims were shot with a shotgun twice and were kicked repeatedly.” Hall lowered his voice. “Leon eventually confessed that he was the one who kicked them.”

“Really? I can’t believe he would admit to that. What should we do about that?”

“Nothing, absolutely nothing,” replied Hall. “I don’t give a shit what he did to the guys who tried to kill him as long as he wasn’t the guy who killed them, and I’m sure he wasn’t.”

“Okay,” Perry said. Perry was glad that Hall felt that way because Perry agreed with him. If someone was going to kill him, he probably would have done the same. “What about the other guys?” asked Perry.

“Well, the second guys weren’t shot with a shotgun. Instead, they were shot with a rifle.”

“Actually, I think they were shot with a rifle and then with a pistol,” interrupted Perry.

“Oh, how do you know that?” asked Hall.

“Deron reenacted the scene and told me that the shooter also shot them with a pistol.”

“Okay, that’s good to know. The coroner said that the second two weren’t kicked. Is that consistent with Deron’s story?”

“Yes,” replied Perry. “The second two weren’t kicked. This makes sense.”

“Why is that?” asked Hall. “Why didn’t Deron kicked them?”

“Well, different person; he actually wanted to get out of there. He didn’t think he had enough time to seek his revenge. I don’t know. Does it matter?”

“Actually, it does matter,” interjected Hall.

“Why is that?”

“Something is fishy … something is fishy about them not being kicked. I cannot pin it on what is causing me to think that that the second two not being kicked as being important. It something that someone said, but I can’t remember what was said or who said it. And I think it is significant.”

The FBI agents continued their discussion and then started to listen to their tapes. They would soon have to call in to their office with their report of the day’s activities.

While Perry and Hall were at the hotel, the Sheriff paid Billy Stage a visit at the morgue. The Sheriff wanted to be discreet in prying information from Billy. The coroner’s staff allowed the Sheriff to walk unescorted to the main examination room, where Billy was working.

Billy turned and noticed the Sheriff. “Hey Sheriff, how are you doing?”

“Well, not that good with all these murders,” replied the Sheriff. “Hey, can I see the bodies?”

“Sure. You’re the second one here today?”

“Who else was here?”

“The FBI agent.”

“Oh really? What did he have to say?” asked the Sheriff. The Sheriff was not liking the FBI poking around in the white areas. They needed to be in the Negro areas looking for the killer.

“Oh, he was interested in the bodies, nothing much. He was asking me the typical questions that a cop would ask.” Billy paused. “You know, he had that Negro, Leon with him. You know, the guy you arrested for the first crime.”

“No shit,” said the Sheriff. The Sheriff was astonished that the FBI was dragging Leon around. This definitely was not going the way he wanted. “What was he there for?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”

“Okay, show me the bodies.” Now was the time to start asking Billy some questions.

Billy showed the bodies one by one. The Sheriff briefly examined the bodies. The Sheriff felt a sudden sadness in seeing his friends dead. Their skin had a mixture of a bluish tint mixed with grayness and paleness. It was a horrible site for the Sheriff.

As he was examining the bodies, the Sheriff said, “So … um, this FBI guys have been snooping around. You know, I think you need to be ready for them. They’re going to ask you some questions.”