“You’ve got someone on the take,” Alex guessed.
“We’re figuring out what happened,” he said diplomatically. “Anyway, we have confirmation that Watts was released and collected by King after the Mayor called in a complaint. Watts was then passed over to Lord Kirkwood,” he rolled his eyes at the name. “It’s unusual that Johansen does anything for the Kirkwoods, though, so it’s possible the person on the take is working with the family or was paid off by them to fuck up the footage submitted. That’s the last we saw of him until the bodies were discovered this morning and called in.”
“There was no sighting of Watts in Piersville after that, either. How do you go from being a hinky bastard with a corrupt dad to a murderer?” Alex asked, taking notes.
Judd ground his teeth together, then glanced at Kapono. “Well, when you’re the one mixing the drugs, and your new dealer gets caught and is a weak link, you do what you can to stop the hammer coming down?”
Smiling at what he was about to impart, Kap spun his pen on the top of the table. “It goes like this: Your mayor, Dirk Kirkwood, is the head honcho. King’s the one who makes sure the product gets mixed up and is ready to go, while Lord manages the operation and distribution. Our theory is that our mayor is getting paid handsomely to look the other way while they sell in the town, and that he also handles where and gives them tips on the best and most lucrative areas for sales, but we don’t have enough confirmation of that yet."
"Jesus," I growled, thrusting my hand through my hair. How did my day start so great and move into this shit? “How long has this been going on?”
Judd focused his seriousness on me. “It was widely known Kirkwood was up to something, but no one thought he was doing this.”
No shit.
“We need evidence,” Alex muttered, staring blankly at the table. “And it needs to be solid. A mayor stepping down because he’s caught doing something isn’t rare. One being arrested because he and his family are involved in the manufacturing and distribution of drugs, murder, and attempted murder? That is, and it’s not an easy job with a relatively small department.”
“Well,” Judd drawled, leaning forward with his elbows on the table as he looked between the two of us. “A helpful resident of your town put us in touch with Ned Dahl, who’s offered his assistance. He’s busy at the moment with other things that need his attention, but he’s offered us some extra brains to get what we need. He’s going to distract the mayors with their excitement over an impending visit to commend them on how they’ve dealt with the death of a young man and attempted suicide of a young girl.”
“The Governor?” I asked, shocked and confused. “Why would he involve himself in something like this?”
“Seems he’s recently found himself related to the helpful resident.” Judd’s eyes were twinkling.
“Just to make sure we’re talking about the same Dahl—the Austin Dahl? The Austin Governor guy? The Governor of Texas who said he was bringing Austin with him when he was elected?” I clarified.
Ned Dahl was a Texas icon. When he became governor, he immediately embarked on a road that got him overwhelming support from a vast majority of the state. It wasn’t that he gave false promises and crap like that, either. Ned was honest, hardworking, had zero intolerances, and had made shit happen for all of us.
He spent most of his time in Austin instead of at the Governor’s mansion but made himself available to everyone—no matter how big or small a person was. His speeches were televised worldwide and played a huge role in an increase in tourism to Texas.
My favorite speech of his was something like:
“I’m just a normal guy from Austin, standing here, offering myself to the whole of Texas. I grew up in a beautiful house, sure, but I grew up with reality around me. Life, beauty, and the heart and soul of Texas are right around me every day, and that’s something I hold close to my heart. I’ve worked for years for Austin, and I’m dedicated to our beautiful state and everyone in it. I’m one of you, I’ve listened, I’ve made plans for what I’ve heard, and I’m ready to put those plans into action. Test me, I won’t fail you.”
Hell, I had a huge dislike of politics, but even I liked the guy, and so far he’d lived up to his word and then some. Even more bizarrely, senators and representatives from different parties even liked the guy because he didn’t favor one over the other.
If ever politics had been more confusing to us all, it was with Ned Dahl, the average Austin Joe, as he was known. Reporters joked that he was going to be the next president, but Ned always looked horrified at the prospect and swore he had zero intentions of even considering it.
His heart was in his home state, and that was who he wanted to work for. He went gung-ho for the small towns in the state, too, proving he was here for all of us, not just the bigger cities.
The funny thing was that his home in Austin was like Elvis’s Graceland now. People went to take photos in front of it or leave messages for him on the gates. Last winter, he’d even sent out coffee to visitors and some reporters who were covering a story about something he’d done. I was a firm believer in the actions of people proving who they truly were, and that’s what’d done it for me with Dahl.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t confused and shocked by his interest in what was going on here, though, regardless of any link he
