Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Harry looked to Sean. “We need to talk to Cheryl Ballard ASAP. And we need to track down Karl. He quit the minute Dern was out. He was before your time, but you heard of him?”
“You got skin my color, or you have female parts, you knew all about Karl Abernathy, and you avoided him.”
Goddamn fuck.
“Don’t know what to say, Sean,” Harry said.
“Nothing for you to say, Harry,” Sean replied. “Not you who’s a racist piece of shit with a badge.”
No, he wasn’t, which begged the question why no one said anything to him about this.
But that was victim blaming. They probably thought Harry was as powerless to do anything about it as they were.
Until girls started dying, then Harry’d had enough.
“You know anything else about him?” Harry asked.
“Know he’s a bigot. Know he was a dirty cop. Know he had his nose far up Dern’s ass. Know he expected, as in demanded, the cop discount anywhere he went, that being getting food and coffee and donuts and shit for free. Most of the schlubs that were tight with Dern were just lazy, liked playing cops and robbers but didn’t spend much time being actual cops, but they still got a paycheck for it. Abernathy was the worst of the lot. Not even sure Dern knew what garbage he was. Just doubt, even if he knew, he’d care.”
At least Harry knew all of that.
But he’d been powerless to do anything about it.
“The female parts thing you said?”
Sean shook his head. “I don’t know. Just rumors. The thing is, Harry, if he busted our chops, pulled us over driving while Black, if he took it further, he’d have to deal with you. So he just busted our chops. Being fair about this, he’d dick with anybody if he felt like it, and it didn’t matter the color of your skin. Women, though…”
“What?” Harry pushed.
“I have no proof of this, but heard word, BJs extorted for getting out of tickets.”
It took Harry a lot longer than it normally did for him not to lose his fucking mind.
“I thought you knew,” Sean said quietly.
“I did not fucking know,” Harry returned furiously. “He was the first one to quit.”
“I see it. You the boss, man, if you learned of his shit, he’d be so fucked, he wouldn’t get himself unfucked for years. But he might get a whole lot more fucked in ways he really didn’t like in prison.”
“He wasn’t one of the ones women came forward to report when we went through that shit when Dern was ousted,” Harry pointed out.
“You and me both know, women hesitate or don’t come forward at all. Someone like Abernathy, I could see they’d be shit scared, even if he wasn’t a deputy anymore. The man had one serious mean streak.”
“Christ, get on the phone with Polly,” Harry ordered. “I want Cheryl in my station, and I want Karl in my station. And if they have to arrest either one of them to do it, then they arrest them.”
“For what?”
“We’ll start with obstruction of justice, and we’ll figure it out from there.”
“You think they know something?” Sean asked, pulling out his phone.
“I think Roy and Karl were friends. I think Muggsy Ballard didn’t like his ex-wife with Karl, and it doesn’t matter what a nice guy everyone says he was, they also say he did stupid shit all the time. I think Karl would put up with his girlfriend’s ex giving him grief for about five seconds before he did whatever the fuck he wanted to do about it. And I think he was a cop back then, a cop who thought he could do whatever the fuck he wanted at all times. I think that might have gotten out of hand, Karl called Roy, they figured a way out of it, and if anyone asked questions, they set Dern up to take the fall. That’s what I think. What I can prove, though, is nothing close to that. Not yet.”
Sean nodded and got on his phone.
Harry pulled his out too, and he made a call.
Dern didn’t pick up, and again, Harry was good with leaving a voicemail.
“So, in less than a day pursuing our homicide investigation, we’ve learned that Muggsy Ballard’s ex-wife was dating Karl Abernathy. I’m sure you remember Karl. I’m sure you remember Karl and Roy were tight. So now it seems like two of your boys set you up to get fucked over. You got something for me that might help us figure this shit out, you might think of making a return to Misted Pines. And maybe you do that before that return becomes mandatory.”
He ended the call and looked out Stormy’s grubby window.
They were so fucking neck deep in Dern’s incompetent shit.
Harry just had to hope he could keep their heads above it.