A long silence fell on the other end of the call.
Then it was broken when Pike’s voice came back, “Yeah little girl, I remember that very well.How did you survive when my brothers found your parents five years later?”
Avery exhaled as she gripped the phone so tight that her knuckles turned white.“Your brothers killed the wrong people that night.They never saw a thing and I didn’t testify at your trial because I was in shock and couldn’t remember what happened at the park.”
Another long silence fell before Pike asked, “What do you mean what happened at the park?Do you know who really murdered my brother?”
“Yes, Mr.Pike, I finally remembered what happened.”
Silence continued over the speaker.
Chapter Nine
Avery went on, “Yousee I followed my big brother and his best friend home from the pizza place.They didn’t know that I was about half a block behind them.I was Trever’s little sister and I used to follow him everywhere.They had just stopped at the corner when they heard someone fighting in the park.They stood under a streetlight and we all heard the two people shouting at each other.One of those people was a man in a leather vest with your markings on them.The other person was standing in the shadows.Then we heard a gunshot and we watched as your man fell to the ground.Then the person moved into the light and she saw the boys standing there.So she charged toward them.She swung on my brother’s best friend and with the butt of her gun.He went down then she turned and shot my brother in the head.”
“You saw all of this?”Pike asked over the speaker.
Avery stopped talking for a moment then she sniffled through her tears and continued, “Yes, I did.Then she made a mistake just today...she said something so outrageous and it was the one thing that opened up my mind so that I finally remembered who shot them.I think she said something like,“This is such a clusterfucking mess.”
They all heard Pike catch his breath and then he growled, “Someone I know says that all the fucking time.”
“Yes and I know that now,” Avery admitted.“So when I heard her say it again today, the door in my brain finally unlocked and I remembered when I heard it the first and only other time in my life.After I remembered those words, the dots all connected in my mind.”
“Fucking hell, little girl,” Pike swore.“I admit I was drunk that night and when I found my brother the cops were already there.Spike and I had had words before that meeting and he pissed me off earlier in the day.I had his blood on my clothes because I hit him in the face.I broke his nose around noon that same day then I went out and got drunk.When I found him again, he was dead and because I had his blood on my clothes the cops thought I killed him.I tried to tell them what happened but they said it didn’t matter.They railroaded me into prison for eight years and it wasn’t me this whole time?”He paused then blew out his breath.“I couldn’t remember because I was drunk as all hell.I blamed myself for all these years and now you’re calling me because I didn’t even pull that trigger?”
Looking totally afraid, Sarah kept her mouth shut while shaking her head.
Avery narrowed her eyes at her and gladly replied to Pike’s question, “Yes, it was Sarah that pulled the trigger that night, but there’s more that you need to hear about her.Listen, to what I recorded just a half hour ago.”Avery tapped the screen and Sarah’s voice spoke as her earlier comments played,“Well what did you expect, half?I was the one doing all the work, I was the one who set the whole damn thing up.I was the one who had to talk to the Double Devils and I was the contact they had to the Morales Gang.I hated I had to see that fuckin gang.It was my life on the line every time I saw Pike Carter.He never did like me but I had to get him to trust me.He was such a fool but he loved that green every week didn’t he?I used him and that stupid gang of his like a tool.He took all the risk when he transported the Red.Just like the Double Devils did when they produced those stupid pills.The cops can’t find any connection to me on either side of that equation.Besides, I made a hell of a lot of green on my end too.I was making the green from both sides wasn’t I?”
When Avery shut the recording off that she had made earlier, the whole room went silent.
Sarah was fully shaking now while shaking her head back and forth as she realized Avery was literally using her own words against her.
“Where.Is.She?”Pike finally asked in a hard voice.“Where is that bitch right now?”
Grizzly snorted then finally spoke, “She’s in the custody of the U.S.Marshals at the moment.I’m a Mashal and was brought into this after Sarah Asher kidnapped her sister in an attempt to coerce her to turn over money to her and her father.She’ll be going to Dallas and placed in a holding cell until we finish gathering evidence against her.”
