Twenty-Three
“Deputy Broggart, is it true that your father worked as a deputy for the Ross, Nebraska Sheriff’s Department for thirty-five years?” Jake sipped his beer with appreciation. It wasn’t every day you could interview a witness while enjoying such a beverage.
“Yeah, Dad worked up until three years ago when he retired.” Lewis swallowed. “Didn’t get to enjoy much of that retirement. He passed from a heart attack not long after.”
Connie grimaced. “From the stress left over from that job.”
Lewis’s eyes slid to her. He looked like he wanted to contradict her words, but in the end he said, “You’re probably right. Imagine I’m headed down the same road.”
“You can change that, Deputy. You’re changing that right now. So what do you know about USDA Agent Smiley?”
Lewis took a deep breath and cleared his throat. “I was just a kid, you know? Ten years old. I was always curious because my daddy said curiosity was important for a police officer to have. And I wanted to be just like my dad when I grew up. So I snooped a lot. Grown-ups don’t notice kids, and when they do, they ignore them, thinking they don’t understand what’s going on.”
Connie smiled knowingly. “I’ve learned the hard way about that with Jenny.”
Lewis gave her a half-smile, then grew deadly serious. “So, when my daddy came home upset one night, I crept down the stairs and just sorta faded into the background. Sheriff Stevenson was with him, and they were arguing. My dad was telling him that he didn’t want to be part of another cover-up, especially not this one. Bad enough that Linda Deal went from a victim to a so-called public nuisance whenever she got beat up and tried to get help, he said. But this was way worse. This was…” Lewis’s voice cracked and he took a drink of water. “This was murder.”
“Did he mention Agent Tom Smiley by name?” Jake asked.
Lewis looked at the table and nodded.
Jake’s heart picked up speed. “Can you say yes or no, please?”
Lewis locked eyes with Jake. “You’re wired, I forgot Connie said you might be.”
“And wires don’t pick up nods.”
“Then, yes. Agent Tom Smiley was mentioned by name. Only, they just called him Smiley. I thought it was some kind of nickname until now. Wondered at the time how somebody called Smiley could go and get himself murdered. What could someone like that do that was bad? And then Ernest Deal’s name came up and I didn’t have to wonder. My daddy always told me to stay clear of that bastard on account of he’d kill a dog for looking at him funny.”
“Did either man say that Ernest Deal killed Smiley?”
“Not in so many words, but yeah, that’s the impression I got. Smiley got too curious about the plant’s operations during inspections and Ernest was,” Lewis held up his fingers like air quotes, “forced to take care of the problem.” Lewis ignored his water and went straight for his beer this time, downing half of it in one gulp. “Sheriff Stevenson told Dad he’d better keep quiet, toe the line and go with the story about Smiley and Linda Deal running off together, because he had a son to think about, and who knows what could happen? Dad never talked about it again.” Lewis wiped his eyes. “At least, not when he was sober.”
Connie covered her mouth. “So many things I’ve always suspected. Oh, Louie, you poor kid, having to carry that around. I’m surprised you still became a deputy.”
“Of course. I still respected my dad, wanted to be like him. I thought, maybe I could grow up and arrest Deal for what he done.”
“Any idea where he might have disposed of the body, if that’s what happened?”
“No, of course not. And if I’d known Smiley was the guy’s real name, maybe I’d’ve gotten further. I never could find a trace of Linda Deal. I really wanted to find her because…well, it doesn’t matter why.” Lewis’s blush returned and Jake knew it had to do with Rachael. The deputy looked at Jake. “I did try, Agent Collins. I did try to catch Deal at first, but…” He shrugged. “The man’s too powerful. He owns everything. He damn-near owns the people of Ross themselves. He gets into your soul, Agent. Gets in and turns it dirty and afraid. I stuck around, hoping to maybe shield some folks, not have so many ‘public nuisances’ like Mrs. Deal. I stuck around because…I didn’t want to see Rachael become one of those.”
Jake took a calming breath and strangled the anger threatening to take over when he saw the look in Lewis’s eyes as the man spoke Rachael’s name. Here was someone who could have helped her long ago but never found the courage. “Tell me more about Rachael and Linda. What do you know?”
“I went to school with Rachael all my life. She was a couple years’ behind me, but I’d see her on the playground when we were little. She was always so pretty. And sad. Then more than sad after her mom left. She looked…haunted. She got teased a lot. Kids are cruel. They’d gang up around her, say her mom didn’t love her and ran away to start a new family. I shoulda stood up for her. But I was a fat kid, got teased myself.”
“Did you ever talk to Rachael about her mom leaving? Why she might have looked, in your words, haunted?”
Lewis’s face fell. “No, sir, I did not. Always got a little tongue-tied around her. And, well, considering who her dad is.” Lewis didn’t need to finish.
“Do you think Linda Deal may have known about Agent Smiley’s alleged murder?”
Lewis scratched his chin. “I think the timing of her running away was no coincidence.”
Jake nodded. “One more thing. You said you tried to look up Linda Deal after you became a deputy, but you never found anything?”
“No, sir, I didn’t. Figured she grabbed up a bunch of his money and changed her identity. Coulda met someone, got re-married, even. Maybe even left the country. That’d be the smart move.”
“But left her young daughter behind with a man she believed, or knew, to be capable of murder.”
