By the time Jasper’s wife arrived, the cold wind and the shame had gone a long way to sobering him up. But, when he started to get in the front seat, his wife stopped him.
“You sit in the back seat. Leroy rides with me,” she said, and loaded him into the front seat, leaving Jasper to get himself into the rear.
“That’s one pissed-off woman,” Gunner said.
Ash nodded. “With good reason,” he said, and led the way back inside.
Cheryl had just delivered their food to the table as they sat.
“I waited…almost,” Nora said, pointing to the bite she’d taken out of one of her hush puppies.
Ash leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “You pulled the stinger out of that little boy’s heart. You are the best.”
Gunner nodded. “Not gonna get an argument out of me about that. Let’s eat. I’m all fired up to get back to work. All I needed was a confrontation to stir the brain cells.”
Pearl came to their table with three desserts on a tray.
“Bouncer pay and one for Nora,” she said, and flipped back to the kitchen.
* * *
The night sky was clear. The sky was full of stars, but it was too cold for stargazing and too early to go to bed, so the current residents of Jacob Kingston’s house had gathered in the living room to watch a movie. They let Gunner pick. He choseThe Bourne Legacy.
“Why do you always choose this one?” Ash asked.
“Jeremy Renner. He’s a badass in that movie, and a badass in real life. Anybody who survives being run over with a snowplow is a badass.”
Nora glanced at the brothers but said nothing, guessing it likely had something to do with their family history, as much as the movie.
Two hours later, they had moved into the kitchen and were playing Train with a set of dominoes.
“You can’t put that double six there,” Ash said.
Gunner grinned. “I didn’t think you were paying attention.”
“I’m out,” Nora said, and got up to refill her drink. When she sat back down, they were still going at it. “Can I ask questions about the investigation? You already know you can trust me, and I’ll match my security clearance and your security clearance and raise you,” she said.
The mere mention of security clearance got their attention, and the game of Train slid to a halt.
“You have security clearance?” Asher asked.
“I’m in IT. I consult worldwide. Yes, I have security clearance. You both said you have information. You also said the pieces don’t fit with your theory. I’m a troubleshooter…of sorts. I’m here. I already know about the white Mustang. I know you are trying to connect it with Pete Brandt’s death. I understand the timing could just be coincidence, but I doubt it, and I think you both do, too.”
The men looked at each other. Gunner shrugged. “Fine by me.”
Ash leaned back in the chair, eyeing the intent expression on her face, and then he began.
“We had nowhere to go with the investigation until Dad woke up. He told us that a week before the shooting, two men came to the bar, and asked him if he was interestedin selling it. They said their names were Joe and Darren Wilson, and even then, he knew they’d given him fake names and told them he wasn’t interested in selling. They left. About a week later, the shooting happened. It was two men. He couldn’t see their faces. Didn’t recognize their voices, but the one who took him down from behind whispered in his ear, ‘you should have sold the bar, old man,’ and then the other one shot him.”
Nora was leaning forward now, resting her arms on the table, intent on every word.
After that, Ash began to lay out the rest. About the avalanche of DNA from the bar, and the background research they did on every gang member, and about Brandt’s sons visiting him at the prison on his deathbed.
Then Gunner filled her in on the FBI files they’d accessed about the armored car robbery, and Pete Brandt’s statement that he’d hidden the money and was going to take the location with him to the grave. He told her about learning of Brandt’s sons visiting him in prison. That after he and Asher ran background checks on both Everett and Freddie Brandt and learned they both had priors.
Asher picked up the story, explaining how Jacob identified them from their mug shots as being the men who asked about buying the bar. But he could not identify either of the men who shot him.
“So now we knew that much. But neither of Brandt’s sons was at his last known address. One in Fort Worth, one in Mansfield, a suburb of Dallas, and neither of them owned, or had ever owned a white Mustang. Then yesterday morning, Dylan was at a gas station refueling before going to see Dad, and who does he see coming out of a store across the street, but both of Brandt’s sons, getting into an older white Mustang. He was caught at the pumps and couldn’t get free in time to follow them, but he took agood dozen pictures, including several with a good shot of the car tag.”
