“I have a message for you,” he said again.
“Yeah, you told me. What’s the message?”
Leroy wrung his hands. “I really hate to do this to you, boy.”
He paused. I waited. Crickets chirped. A dog or two barked in the distance. So much silence. Way too much silence. It wasn’t really the calm before the storm, but somehow, it still felt like it.
“Hey, did you finish the cabinets in the kitchen?” Leroy asked and I sighed.
I crossed my legs at the ankles and leaned forward, snapping my finger’s in Leroy’s face. “Leroy, focus. The message?”
He nodded and scanned my face with half lowered lids. “Oh! It’s from an important man. A very important man. He says—he says you best get your ass out of town right quick.”
I shook my head. “No can do, Leroy. This very important man must not understand the conditions of my parole. I can’t get out of town. I can’t even get out of this motel without written consent.”
Leroy grimaced, his hands twisting in agitation. “You got to! He says if you don’t, if you start selling again, if you don’t get out of town, you’re gonna end up dead.”
A flash of insight disrupted the indignation which tried to rise up inside of me. I hopped off the counter and got right up in Leroy’s face. “This very important man threatened my life? Interesting. Who was it, Leroy?”
Leroy scuttled backward, shaking his head in an awkward, erratic rhythm. “Uh-uh. No way, Kash. You know I can’t tell you that. Just trust me, you best believe him. He don’t want you here at all. You start up your business again, he’ll make good on that threat.”
I crowded him again. All six-feet plus of me hovering over the meekness of him. He was like an ant and I, the microscope. “Will he? How do you know? Has he done it before? Maybe with Hunter?”
Leroy paled and his lips thinned. If I said his bones shook beneath his skin, I wouldn’t be lying. “I-I-I don’t know, man,” he stuttered. “I don’t know! But believe you me, Kash, he’s capable. He’d do it, no question. None at all. No questions asked. Don’t cross him, Kash. You don’t wanna cross him. Just do what he says. Come on, man, don’t do this to me!”
I took one step forward and then another, not stopping until Leroy was backed into a corner – physically and metaphorically. I could see fresh chafing on his neck where he’d been lifted or dragged by his collar, and I knew it wasn’t my doing.
I glared into his eyes. “What’s the matter, Leroy? You in debt with your dealer?”
Leroy shook his head furiously. “Nope, nope, all paid up. Just guilty by association, I guess. He don’t want me buying from you. He’s real big on loyalty.”
“I bet. What’s his name?”
“Can’t, can’t tell you—”
I punched the wall beside his head. “Damn it, Leroy! This is my life on the goddamn line! You said so yourself.”
“B-b-but,” Leroy stuttered.
“No goddamn buts,” I bellowed. “Who the fuck is he?” This time, my fists found the spot on the other side of the wall and I didn’t hesitate to put two holes in it.
Leroy was shaking like a leaf now, his eyes wide open and the teeth left in his head chattering like they’d gotten a lick of frostbite.
“Jenkins!” Leroy squealed. “Dayle Jenkins! He’s got the big game in this town now. Don’t cross him, Kash, just do what he says. He’s scary man. He…he’s ruthless, man. He’ll set the dogs on you!” Leroy cradled his damaged arm against his chest, rubbing it as though he could still feel the teeth in his flesh.
I backed off. Of course it was Dayle. That ass had been trying to move in on mine and Hunter’s territory from the very beginning.
“Where’s he living now?” I asked.
Leroy shook his head. “Nope.”
“Leroy—”
“Don’t hit me! I’m gonna die for what I already told you, Kash, don’t make it worse! Figure it out your damn self. I’m done.”
Leroy’s chest shuddered and his Adam’s apple bobbed. If he’d had any liquid left in his body, he would have been crying, but he’d burned it all off.
I gripped a bottle of water that was sitting on the table and tossed the water at him as I walked away. “Drink up and get the fuck to sleep, Leroy. You’re gonna give yourself a goddamn heart attack.”
Dayle Jenkins.
That son of a bitch.
Everything started making sense now. That new client six years ago must have been one of Dayle’s targets—when Hunter and I got to him first, Dayle must have taken his displeasure out on Hunter’s skull. That explained why the murder weapon was in my shed—Dayle was probably trying to get rid of two birds with one stone. It worked, at least for a while. Now I was back, and he was nervous.
It all fit.
Confident that my name was days away from being cleared—and that all would be forgiven on Daisy’s end as soon as she heard—I finished my day’s work around the motel and went to her place on foot. Might as well try this whole bedroom sex thing again. That was, if she was up for it, which I honestly didn’t think would be a problem. Daisy never had stayed mad at me long.
I waited around in the woods behind her house until all the lights went off except for hers. Then I crept to her window the way I had the night before. It was open, as I expected it to be. See? She’d been waiting for me. I let out my signature whistle and grinned when I heard her get off her bed and walk toward the window. She was going to be so excited that I’d solved the mystery that she would—
Shut the window?
