Chapter 14

Detective Wesley Davis from Miami PD was prepared for an interrogation or a fight, whichever came first. What he did not expect was for their suspect to answer the door. Yet there he was, yellow shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers, head shaved bald, and sporting a vandyke beard.

"Officers. I'm Lonny Joe Pryor. I believe you've come for me?"

Davis was startled. "Mr. Pryor, step out of the house, hands up. Turn and face the wall."

Within moments, he had Lonny cuffed. Just as he was about to hand him off to other officers, Lonny spoke.

"I lied to my cousin, Roly. This is his place. He doesn't know anything about my life. We haven't seen each other in over twenty years. I was using him to hide. He did not know he was harboring a fugitive. He's innocent of any wrongdoing."

Davis pointed at the officers. "Take him to the station."

At that point, Roly appeared in the doorway, pale and shaken.

"He's my cousin. I thought he'd just come to visit. I didn't know y'all was looking for him," Roly sputtered.

"State your name, sir," Davis said.

"Roly Pryor. I've lived here all my life. I ain't never been in trouble. I take tourists out on my airboat. That's all I do."

"Do you live alone?" Davis asked.

"Yes, sir. Been divorced awhile," Roly said.

"If we have further questions, we'll be in touch," Davis said.

Roly stood in silent shock as they drove away, then went back into the house and shut the door. He stared at the fish and fried potatoes as the silence of the house settled back around him. His wife had cheated on him. His cousin had lied to him. He thought he didn't want to be alone, but now he wasn't so sure. At least he trusted himself. He glanced at the clock. He had a tour to take out in a couple of hours, and it would be late before he got home.

He didn't like cold fish. Might as well eat it while it was hot.

***

As soon as Detective Davis got back to Miami PD, he called Detective Gardner at the Bowling Green PD. While he was waiting for the call to be answered, he bent over to pick grass seed from the leg of his pants. He'd noticed the yard around the Pryor property was in dire need of mowing, and now he'd brought some of it back with him. He was still picking at the sticktights when his call was finally answered.

"Homicide. Detective Gardner speaking."

"Detective, this is Detective Davis, Miami PD. Wanted to let you know that we picked up Lonny Joe Pryor today. We have him in custody."

"That's the best news I've had in days," Gardner said. "Was he where we thought he might be?"

"Yes, sir, and it was the craziest thing. Pryor opened the door to greet us, identified himself, and said he supposed we'd come to pick him up. He cleared the relative he'd been staying with of any guilt, and I believe him. The cousin was stunned. They hadn't seen each other in twenty-some-odd years, and he thought Lonny had just come to visit. Lonny admitted he'd lied to him just to have a place to hide."

"Okay then," Gardner said. "We'll get the paperwork rolling to extradite. The U.S. Marshals Service will transport, so you can tell your people we're coming to get him. Thanks a lot."

Davis chuckled. "For once, I can truly say, it was not a problem. I wish all the perps we go to serve warrants on were as compliant."

"That bodes well for us. There's more involved here than what meets the eye, and we need him to talk."

As soon as they disconnected, Gardner called Sheriff Woodley to let him know they'd picked up their suspect. There wasn't anything Woodley could do toward aiding their case, but if Pryor copped to killing Eggers, then that would mean he'd also come after Carey Eggers, and that would clear Woodley's case as well.

But what Gardner did not do was spread the word about Pryor's arrest around the station. He'd long suspected that Carl Henley had someone on the inside there, and he didn't want Carl or Junior to know that Lonny Pryor was in custody. He needed to interrogate Pryor to get his story of the missing Beretta and Junior's truck.

***

Woodley notified Chief Sonny Warren that they'd served an arrest warrant on Lonny Pryor, so the mystery of who shot Carey Eggers might soon be solved.

"That's good news," Sonny said. "I'll let my men know. At one time or another, a good number of them stood guard duty while she was in the hospital. They said she was a real sweet woman. Thanks for calling."

He walked down to the break room to get some snacks from one of the vending machines, and saw Lilah Perry pulling a cold can of soda from a machine.

"Afternoon, Lilah. Like minds, here. It's snack-thirty, isn't it?"

Lilah grinned. She admired the chief and appreciated that he was congenial to everyone, regardless of their rank.

"It was for me. I'd looked at dates and numbers and logs all day until everything was running together. Thought I'd take a quick break and get a snack while I was at it."

"I'll likely add to your work in a day or so when I finalize an open report on that woman who was shot a few weeks back."

"Oh. The one from Pope Mountain, right?" Lilah said.

"Yes, it appears the person who shot her had killed her brother the same day. She was a witness he chased down. But the DNA they pulled off the brother's body matched to a man named Lonny Joe Pryor. When they went to arrest him, they found out he'd done a runner. They finally found him in Florida. We'll extradite him back and hope he coughs up a confession."

"Oh my God," Lilah mumbled as the room began spinning around her.

Sonny saw her eyes rolling back in her head and bolted. He caught her before her head hit the floor and was about to call for help when Bob Yancy walked in.

"Chief! What happened?" Yancy asked.

"I have no idea. We were just talking, and she fainted. Help me get her up on the sofa."

She was already regaining consciousness by the time they laid her on the sofa, but the moment she woke up, she began struggling to sit up, then grabbed Sonny's wrist.

"Chief! I know Lonny Pryor. We dated briefly when I still lived in Bowling Green. And the night of that rainstorm—the one when the girl was shot—Lonny called me out of the blue. He said he needed help. That he'd had a flat during the storm and hurt himself as he was changing it. Said his knee was bleeding. I told him to go to the ER. He said he didn't have the money, and I believed that. He just wanted help with some bandages and then he'd drive home and deal with it there."

"What did you do?" Sonny asked.

"What anybody would do in such a situation. He asked me if I lived in the same place. I said yes, and ten minutes later, he's at my door. Ten minutes. How far up was it from Jubilee where the girl was shot?"

The hair on the back of Sonny's neck crawled. "About fifteen minutes or so."

"That's about right," Lilah said. "I think he thought he'd drive home on his own, but he was in pretty bad shape when he got here, so I guess he changed his mind and that's why he called me."

"Was he shot?" Sonny asked.

"Oh no! Nothing like that or I would have suspected something. He just had a deep gash in his knee and some severe bruising. Like he'd fallen on something sharp."

Sonny nodded. "Chasing down a woman on the mountain in the dark, in a rainstorm, will do that to you."

Lilah moaned and covered her face with her hands.

"I didn't know. I had no idea. I would have said something sooner!" she said.

"Of course, you wouldn't know. All the details of that incident were going through the sheriff's department. But this is valuable information they'll need to know when they interrogate him, especially if he tries to deny being in the vicinity. I'll need to take your statement. Are you okay with this?"

She frowned. "Of course, I'm okay with it. I'm just thanking my lucky stars he didn't consider me a witness he needed to remove."

Sonny nodded. "Yancy, would you help Lilah up and walk her to an interview room so we can get that statement? And Lilah, don't open that pop you just bought. It'll spew all over. I'll bring you another one when I come, okay?"

Lilah nodded. "Yes, Chief, and thank you."

Sonny gave her arm a quick squeeze. "No, ma'am. Thank you."

Yancy helped Lilah up and walked her out of the break room, while Sonny hurried back to his office. He made a quick call to the sheriff's office, and as soon as Rance Woodley answered, he unloaded the latest news.

"I'll get a copy of her statement to you as soon as it's typed up and signed. You can let Bowling Green PD know. It might help with their interrogation."

"Will do," Woodley said. "I'll tell you one thing. This is the most convoluted case I've worked on in a while, and this just added another knot."

They disconnected, and while Sonny headed to the interview room with a fresh can of soda from the dispenser, Woodley made a quick call to Detective Gardner to fill him in.

***

Lonny Pryor was kicked back in the Miami jail cell, going over and over the story he intended to spin. He was confident to the point of cocky. And after a discussion with a jailhouse lawyer, he opted not to fight extradition. There was no purpose in it. His DNA had tied him to a murder.

Two days later, two U.S. Marshals arrived to transport him back to Bowling Green, Kentucky. They walked him out of the PD in leg irons and handcuffs, put him in the back of a government van, and handcuffed him to the inner wall.

"Make yourself comfortable, Mr. Pryor. This is a fifteen-hour drive," the marshal said, then climbed out of the back of the van and shut and locked the doors.

"Well, hell," Lonny said. The bench he was on was hard and narrow, and it was going to get a lot harder and narrower before this ride was over.

***

Detective Gardner walked into the Bowling Green PD the next morning, ready for Pryor's interrogation. He knew Pryor had been booked into their jail sometime after midnight, and a lawyer had been contacted. They were just waiting for word that the lawyer was on-site, and it came just before 11:00 a.m.

Gardner took his partner, Detective Rainey, to the interview room with him and entered to find Pryor handcuffed to the table, his lawyer sitting at his side, and a guard in the room with them. Both Pryor and his lawyer looked up as the detectives entered.

Gardner and Rainey sat. Gardner opened his file, sifted through a couple of papers, then nodded to his partner, who turned on the recorder.

"For the record, Detective Gardner, and Detective Rainey, in the interview room, beginning interview at 11:12 a.m. with Lonny Joe Pryor, and his lawyer, Ellis George. Mr. Pryor, for the record, please state your name, age, and occupation."

Lonny was ready. He wanted this over with, and hedging would only delay the inevitable.

"Lonny Joe Pryor. Fifty-seven years old. Self-employed."

"And what kind of work do you do in that capacity?" Gardner asked.

"I served in the military. I have worked as a bouncer, a security guard, and a bounty hunter. For the past four years, I've worked for Carl Henley."

Gardner's heart skipped. "Exactly what did you do for Mr. Henley?"

"Oh, delivered messages, ran errands…pretty much whatever he needed done that he didn't want to do for himself."

"Did you work for Junior Henley, too?"

Lonny snorted. "To a degree. Junior Henley is his daddy's mouthpiece. He delivers orders, but he does not give them."

"What was your relationship with Billy Dean Eggers?"

Lonny blinked. "Was that his middle name? I never knew. We knew each other. Sometimes we ran in the same circles. We often played poker at the same club. Sometimes at the same table."

"Would you consider yourself Eggers's friend?" Gardner asked.

Lonny shook his head, and then remembered the tape. "I don't have friends. I have acquaintances."

"Then, let me ask this another way. Did you and Billy Eggers have a fight on the day he died?"

"Yes. We'd been playing cards most of the night at my place. We had a row. He accused me of cheating. We roughed each other up a little. He left before daybreak."

"Were you cheating?" Gardner asked.

Lonny grinned. "Yeah. Billy was smart. He was on to me before I knew it, and I didn't have the balls to admit it. That's why we had the ruckus."

"When was the last time you were at Billy's place?"

"Maybe the week before. I don't remember exactly," Lonny said.

"You were seen driving Junior Henley's truck. We have video of you in it at a car wash."

"Yeah, Junior wanted it washed. I took it to the car wash and then drove it back to his place."

"Junior says you won it off him in a poker game."

"Well, I did, but he never gave up the title, and he's the boss's son, so I didn't challenge him on it. Anyways, I haven't owned a car in some years. I like to drink. So I take an Uber to get where I need to go, or someone picks me up."

Gardner was worried. This wasn't going the way he'd planned. It was time to quit pulling punches.

"Billy Eggers is dead. Your DNA was all over his body and beneath his fingernails. You were seen driving Junior Henley's truck prior to the murder. That truck was seen at Eggers's property the morning of his murder. You called in to the station hinting that Carl and Junior Henley were people to look at in the death. Would you like to explain that?"

Lonny's gut knotted. Who in hell had seen him at the house besides the girl? He glanced at his lawyer, then sighed.

"What I know is that somebody put a bug in Carl Henley's ear about a new crew trying to muscle in on Carl's territory. Carl thought Eggers might have heard something specific about it. I know he told Junior to deal with it. But Carl Henley did not, by God, tell me to do anything to Billy Eggers. He did not send me to his house. I had not even talked to Carl Henley in at least four days before Eggers was murdered."

"What do you call Carl Henley's business dealings?" Gardner asked.

Lonny shrugged. "He buys and sells stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" Gardner asked.

Lonny shrugged. "I don't know for sure."

"For someone who thinks he's in the know, you don't know a lot, do you, Lonny? Did you know someone else was in the house when Eggers was murdered?"

Lonny blinked. "I can't say as I did."

"Well, there was. She was Eggers's sister, and she got away. Or at least she tried. Someone trailed her all the way through two counties, then into the woods during a storm up on Pope Mountain, and shot her in the back."

"That's a terrible thing to hear…brother and sister dying like that on the same day."

"Oh, she didn't die," Gardner said. "She survived. Tough little thing. Oh…I see you are favoring your left knee. Did you hurt it?"

The skin was crawling on the back of Lonny's neck. The girl was alive? "Yeah, fell and cut it on a rock while I was changing a flat."

Gardner leaned forward. "Do you know a woman named Lilah Perry?"

Lonny had a good poker face, but his gut just tied itself into a knot.

"Yes, I know Lilah. What's she got to do with anything?"

"She can place you within ten minutes of Jubilee on the same night Carey Eggers was shot, that's what. You called her for help. Said you cut your knee and she felt sorry for you and helped you. But when she found out your DNA was all over a murdered man, she didn't feel sorry for you anymore."

Lonny hadn't prepared for these two revelations, and he was backpedaling, trying to come up with reasonable excuses for all of it.

"So, it's common knowledge that you issued an arrest warrant for me, and she read it in the papers or something. So maybe she just wants to get back at me for when we broke up."

"Nope. We did not publish your name. Her boss told her."

"Her boss? What are you playing at here?" Lonny asked.

"Oh, we're not playing. Lilah Perry is a records clerk for the Jubilee PD. Her boss is the police chief. He mentioned it in passing, and she put two and two together."

Lonny blinked. The police? Lilah works for the police?

"So, Mr. Pryor, do you have anything you want to add to your statement before I charge you with the murder of Billy Eggers and the attempted murder of his sister, Carey?"

Lonny froze. His eyes widened as he sat there, absorbing the reality that his witness was still alive and that Lilah worked for the enemy. Then he leaned over and whispered something into his lawyer's ear.

At that point, Ellis George spoke up. "Mr. Pryor might have more information to share, but it would involve charging him with lesser offenses."

"We can't ignore murder," Gardner said.

"Manslaughter on Billy Eggers," George said.

"And ignore the bullet in Carey Eggers's back? I think not." Gardner said.

Lonny whispered in his lawyer's ear again.

"That's the deal," Ellis George said.

"In return for what?" Gardner asked.

"Testifying against Carl and Junior Henley for running drugs in and out of the country," George said.

Gardner's eyes narrowed. "Mr. Pryor, would you care to revise the elaborate story you just gave us now?"

"Not until I have your word regarding the charges," Lonny said. "Otherwise, I'll take my chances in court. You can wave your security footage in front of the jury, and I'll repeat in court what I just said to you."

Gardner eyed his partner. "I can't make that call. I'm pausing this interrogation to consult with my superiors. The time is 12:02 p.m."

Then he and his partner got up and left the room.

Lonny glanced at his lawyer. "I'm just gonna rest my eyes a bit. I'm a little short on sleep." Then he scooted his chair back just enough to lay his head down on the table and wished himself to hell.

***

Gardner was in the conference room with his captain and the Bowling Green police chief, on a Zoom call with the district attorney. It didn't take long for them to come to a consensus. Taking Carl Henley down mattered. A lot. They knew the court would agree that both Eggers and Pryor had fought, because Eggers's knuckles had been bruised and bloody. With a good lawyer on Pryor's side and evidence of a fight between the two men, the court would have a difficult time proving premeditated murder. But Pryor wasn't getting off of the attempted murder charge. That bit about tracking prey through a storm and shooting her in the back was in cold blood.

Gardner had his orders. He and his partner went back into the interview room, resumed the recording, and began again.

"Your charges will be reduced to manslaughter for Eggers, but you do not get a free pass on hunting down an innocent woman and shooting her in the back. That's attempted murder any way you look at it. And you can't admit to one and deny the other, because the same gun was used in both crimes. Now start talking."

Lonny sighed. It was the best he could expect, and he wasn't going down alone. If Junior Eggers hadn't sent him there with a gun, none of this would have happened. But he was glad the woman was still alive. That shit had bothered him to no end.

"Junior Eggers called me to come to the house, so I did. Carl wanted Junior to pay Eggers a little visit, and Junior didn't want to go, so he sent me instead. All I was supposed to do was talk to him. Tell him what Carl had heard and ask him if he was involved."

"What had Carl heard, and involved in what?" Gardner asked.

"Drugs. Word on the street was some new crew was about to muscle in on Henley's territory, and he wanted to know if Eggers knew anything about it, or if he was involved. So, as I'm about to leave, Junior hands me this gun. I didn't know it was Carl's until later, and yes, I was driving Junior's truck. I drive up. The only car there is Billy's. I didn't know anyone else was there, and it wouldn't have mattered to me anyway. I was just asking questions and delivering a message.

"Eggers let me in. I asked him about what Carl wanted to know and warned him that if he was involved, Carl would not let it slide. Billy freaked out on me. Started shouting, telling me I was wrong and full of shit. He took a swing at me. Then we fought, and I panicked in the fight and pulled the gun, thinking he'd back off and that would be that. But he jumped me. The gun went off. And he was dead. None of that was supposed to happen."

"So how did you come to go after his sister?" Gardner asked.

Lonny shrugged. "I didn't know until later that it was his sister. But I think that's why he freaked out on me. When he saw the gun, I reckon he was thinking about protecting her. I saw her running to his car from the living room window. By the time I got outside, she was already out of the driveway and flying. I ran back inside in a panic, grabbed Billy's phone to see if he had a tracking app on the phone for his car, and he did. That's how I found her. I couldn't let her get away and give me up."

"She never saw your face. She never heard your name. She didn't hear anything that was said between either of you. She just heard the gunshot and ran, like her brother told her to do. She could never have fingered you. Not in a million years," Gardner said.

Lonny sighed. "I'll be damned. Well, it don't matter. I'm glad she lived. I'm sorry about Billy."

Gardner kept pushing. "We need the names of Carl's fences and everything that has to do with his involvement. How does he transport the drugs? Where does he get them? Who are his suppliers?"

"I can answer some of that, and I will testify against the both of them in court."

Gardner nodded.

Lonny added. "Just know that you're gonna have to keep me alive to make all that happen, which means you better get Carl and Junior off the street before he gets a chance to put a hit out on me, and the moment they go to jail, the people he does business with are going to go to ground or disappear."

"So, start talking, Lonny. We need names. We'll make a sweep and pick the whole lot of them up at once. They'll be so busy trying to make deals for themselves, they won't have time to worry about you."

"Carl will want revenge. He'll want me dead anyway. If you want to nail him to the wall, Junior is the one who will break. He's only along for the ride on Daddy's money anyway. Daddy is the one who lowers the hammer on what's happening, and who lives and who dies."

"Duly noted," Gardner said. "So, we're listening. Start talking."

"I only know what I saw when I was with Junior, or what I heard him talking about. There are food trucks and a pawnshop he drops drugs off in. Carl has a storage unit on the outskirts of the city. I went there with Junior once to drop off some boxes, but I don't know what was in them, or what's in the storage unit. I've seen a couple of invoices from trucking companies, and I think he has a shell company somewhere around the seaports in Houston bringing stuff in from overseas. One night I drove Junior home from a club because he was too drunk to drive, and he kept talking about wanting to go on the next run into Mexico to pick up a new shipment. I thought he meant drugs, but he was talking about girls for the sex trade. That's about all I know for sure," Lonny said.

Gardner nodded, and ended the interrogation.

"Lock him up," Gardner said. "No visitors but his lawyer."

The guard took Lonny out in shackles and cuffs as Gardner began stirring the pot. They had but a short time to find the leads and evidence needed to get search warrants and arrest warrants before Henley got wind of what was happening and destroyed the evidence.

Gardner went back to the office, gathered a half-dozen detectives around him, and began issuing orders about researching properties in Henley's name.

"I want around-the-clock surveillance on both Carl and Junior. Take note of everywhere they go and who they meet with. Now get cracking. We don't have much time."

***

Linette was, as of today, officially moved out of her apartment, her furniture was in storage, and she was at the elevator with a briefcase containing her personal papers, waiting for her ride down.

When the elevator car finally arrived and the doors opened, Cecily Michaels was standing against the wall, staring at her.

Linette stepped inside and then leaned against the opposite wall and stared her down.

"I haven't seen you around much," Cecily said.

Linette shrugged. "I moved out today. Now, you won't be seeing anything of me."

"Leaving town?" Cecily asked.

"No."

Cecily persisted. "See Wiley lately?"

"I live with him," Linette said.

Cecily rode that gut punch like a boss and never blinked. "Heard he has a kid. You can have him."

Linette laughed. "He was never yours to give away, and the child is his sister. Have a nice life, Cecily…and while you're at it, grow up."

The elevator stopped. The doors opened, and Linette walked away, leaving Cecily so speechless that she forgot to get off.

***

Ava had been in Wiley and Linette's life long enough that she had settled to his satisfaction. He would go back on duty now, and she would be at Dani's house during the day. He'd already pre-enrolled her at school, and she'd been taken with the building and all of the new playground equipment. The idea of making friends appealed to her, but she was so easily hurt, and he was dreading it.

His mom told him that's how all parents felt with a new baby—when they had to go back to work, and leave the child in someone else's care—and to be glad that it was his sister-in-law, and not some random day care. But his separation anxiety was real, and there were times when he couldn't remember a day without Ava and Linette in it.

Last night, Ava had forgotten to panic about closing blinds and curtains when it got dark, and she'd giggled hysterically as Linette was helping her bathe and get ready for bed. Wiley heard both of them chattering as if they'd known each other forever, and she wasn't afraid now to ask for food when she was hungry. The first time she rejected a suggestion and asked to play in her room instead, he felt justified. Ava Dalton was becoming the child she was meant to be.

But what they'd planned to do today was over the moment he woke up to a downpour. There would be no playing outside, or going to Reagan Bullard's campground and playing on the waterslide, or riding a pony. That would have to wait for another day. Linette was off, too, and they could have just spent the day together in the house, but he wanted to do things with her, for her, while he had the time, so they opted to go up the mountain to visit Shirley and Sean.

"Are we climbing the mountain today, Bubba?" Ava asked.

"Driving. We're driving there," he said. He put her little yellow poncho over her head and buckled her in the back seat, as Linette slipped into her raincoat and got into the front seat.

"Does Grammy know we're coming? Does Sean know we're coming?"

"Yes, ma'am. I already called them," Wiley said.

He jumped in the car and lowered the garage door as they were driving away. The rain was steady enough that he had the windshield wipers on high as he drove through town and took the road headed up the mountain. Everything was lush and green around them, and the rain was blurring the landscape just enough that it wasn't long before it began to feel as if the greenery had swallowed them whole.