Part 78 (1/2)
”No, I definitely know you. You were here yesterday, right? You talked to Craig.”
”You're-” he stiffened a little. ”Look, I don't want any trouble, okay? Just go on, leave. I'm not looking for anything.”
”Well maybe I am, you think about that?”
”It ain't going to happen, chickie. That man would kill me if he even saw me talkin' to you.”
”Really, that much, huh?”
”So you need to buzz off, and you need to buzz off quick before one of the Angels see me, you feel me?”
”Angels?”
”Who the f.u.c.k are you? Some kind of reporter or something? Digging for a story? You a cop?”
”Just looking to find out who I've been seeing.”
”Well why don't you ask him, then, and get the h.e.l.l out of here?”
”You and I both know he won't tell it to me straight. You come over here, have a beer with me-” The guy on the other side of the table sent the cue ball into the side pocket, and now it was flat-nose's turn.
”I wish I could help you, alright? But I can't.”
”You at least got a name?”
”Why?”
”Just in case Craig asks who I've been talkin' to.”
”f.u.c.k you.”
”I just don't want to keep calling you 'hey you,' if we run into each other.”
”I already said I wasn't going to tell you. Ain't gonna get myself into trouble giving out my name.”
The guy across the table, leaning on his cue and waiting for flat-nose to make his shot spoke up. ”His name's Ryan. Satisfied? Now take your f.u.c.kin' shot, a.s.shole.”
The way that flat-nose's face twisted up in annoyance told her that she hadn't just been played, unless they'd rehea.r.s.ed it. He gave the tall guy a look and then started to line up his shot. He sent the nine into the corner pocket and Erin left them to play. She had to finish these fries before they got cold.
The ride home was longer than she would have liked, with too many questions to answer. Either they were better actors than she thought, or she'd gotten his real name. None of the names from the dating sites were 'Ryan,' so it was something new to go on.
She put her foot down harder. Speed limits were mostly a suggestion, this far out, anyways. Just don't go too far over. She whipped past something on the side of the road and immediately regretted it.
A motorcycle. A very familiar motorcycle, in fact. She swerved over four lanes and pulled off to the side of the road a ways up, trying to put her Jeep where n.o.body would pay it special attention, and then she got out the pa.s.senger side. No reason to risk getting hit by a d.a.m.n car for this.
Then she went back. That was Craig's bike, no doubt about it. She thought for a minute before she kept going. This was a dangerous road she was headed out on, and no mistake. The man was dangerous and now, if she was lucky, she was finally about to find something out about him without his express permission.
The bike seemed abandoned, initially. n.o.body would pull off to the side of the road like this. It looked fine from the outside. Two full tires, and she didn't figure him for the kind of guy who ran out of gas on the side of the road.
There was a place nearby where the trees spread just about enough for someone to go on through, and the gra.s.s kinked down where someone had stepped through, more than just once. She sucked in a breath and hoped to h.e.l.l that she hadn't come at just the wrong time.
It was a tight squeeze, but it would have been tighter for Craig and he made it through. She stepped on through and found herself facing another path. It widened enough that she didn't have to go through sideways, which was a blessing all by itself.
Erin kept herself low. Any minute now, someone could come around the bend in the path, and the wall of trees were just a bit too thick to duck off to the side and try to let them slip by. If you were going to have someplace you didn't want people going, then there were worse ways to separate it from the street.
She heard the voices before she was close enough to know what they were saying. They weren't making any effort to speak in hushed tones, though, that was sure enough.
The path started up a hill, and around the base of the hill the trees started to spread out. She stepped off and went tree-to-tree. The way she'd hoped to have done it before, but there wasn't much opportunity up until now.
She peeked over the ridge-line of the hill and saw a dozen-odd men, most of them heavily tattooed, and not a one of them weighing less than two hundred pounds. Most looked like they could crush a baseball in one hand, and might do it if you disrespected their momma.
”My brother's none of your concern, Lee.”
”Well, I just don't want to walk into nothin'.”
”I ain't gonna compromise this club just for some family s.h.i.+t, you know that. I got that cop on the line specifically so I could get that monkey off our back. You got me?”
Twenty-Two.
Erin slipped back into the Jeep. What the h.e.l.l was he talking about? She was there to get what off his back? Something told her that she already could guess. He knew, in fact was intimately acquainted with the fact, that she was a police officer.
Which meant that he was letting her think that she was getting away with something. Why? The only reason that made sense was that he also knew why she was getting acquainted with him. The pieces fit into place better than she liked.
He was just going to go up the line of the previous killers and introduce her to them, was that how it worked? The entire idea seemed strange. But more than that, it made no sense. Why? What was he trying to protect by driving her attention towards them?
A few serial killers in their midst would eventually drop the law hammer on them. So maybe that was it. She was the release valve for the guys who were drawing too much heat. Well, if that was all it was-was that a bad thing?
Why not just tell her straight out? Informants weren't unheard of. Even the ones that just came in and said ”hey, I'm part of such-and-such gang.”
But instead they'd gone for the long game, some sort of big charade where he pretended not to know anyone in a gang and slowly introduced her to all these men. His brothers, he'd said. Then what was the speech he'd given her the other day? A bunch of bulls.h.i.+t?
Craig Hutchinson seemed at all times like the kind of guy who would bulls.h.i.+t her. Yet, in that moment, he'd seemed more serious than anything. As if for the first time she was getting a look behind the curtain.
He said he wouldn't let anything happen to his brothers, and she believed him. Even after she'd heard him tell someone that she was there specifically to bring his brothers in.
Which meant there was something more to it. Something that he was leaving out, either with the others in that little club he'd been talking to, or leaving something out with her.
She had heard them talked about before, and it wasn't unheard-of for motorcycle gangs to call their other members brothers. They might be his family, too, in that sense. But none of it made sense, not really. She needed to get someone else's eyes on this.
Her fingers were shaking enough to make it hard to dial Roy's number. He answered quickly. ”Is everything okay?”
”I'm fine,” she said, holding the phone up in front of her face with the speakerphone on. ”But I've got some information for you.”
”Shoot.”