“Cooper, I understand –” Ozzie started but I felt Sam’s body get taut at my back and I braced because I knew, for whatever reason, he was done.
“No, Sheriff, you don’t understand. If you did, at the very least Ford would have been aware of this situation before Kia’s ass was on a plane. For three weeks, she was wandering Europe alone and unprotected. For a week and a half, she was with me and I had no clue. You do not know who this motherfucker is therefore you do not know what resources he has available to him. She should never have been on that plane. In the months after you learned about this situation, she should have had more than the Sheriff Department’s protection but also the protection of her family and a security system installed in her house or, seein’ Ford’s reaction, her ass moved to this one and a system installed here. None of this happened. And months have passed and you have not found this guy. My experience, you haven’t found him yet means you got nothin’ on him and your leads have gone stone cold. So he’s not in the wind, he is the wind. And when that shit happens, your boys can be brilliant, but unless they’re trained to lock down that kind of target, they got no hope. They also got other shit to do. I do not. The hunters I called in on this do not. And the men at Kia’s back have one focus, Kia. I know you are not unaware of the last seven years of her life and what she’s been livin’ with behind closed doors at the hands of that piece of shit. Now he’s still controlling her life and he’s fuckin’ dead. I got the power and the means to make certain that shit stops and I’m gonna do it. And last, I’ll give you the head’s up that I do not make threats so take that into consideration when I say, I’m doin’ this and you do not wanna stand in my way.”
When Sam was done I was holding my breath, Ozzie was holding Sam’s gaze and Dad was staring at Sam like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny popped in to give him a brand-new hunting rifle and a year-round permit to shoot all things cute and furry and a basket as big as a house filled with chocolate. In other words, like he’d just hit the mother lode.
The silence stretched so before I passed out, I decided to start breathing again.
Finally, Ozzie spoke.
“I’ll admit those leads are cold, Cooper, but they’re cold for us, they’ll be cold for you.”
“First, what’s cold for you is not cold for my boys and second, I’ll ask, you sure you got all you could get from that piece of shit’s bitch?”
Clearly knowing who Sam was referring to, Ozzie answered, “Vanessa was very forthcoming as advised by her attorney. She’s arguing that it was all Cooter’s idea and she was along for the ride, without collusion but with a fair amount of coercion, so I suspect her attorney wants to show she’s been helpful in order for it to assist her case.”
“Interesting to see if the woman who pawned a bunch of shit and conned her husband who she drove to committing murder into getting a second mortgage to pay for a hit can convince a jury of that bullshit but I don’t care about that. I asked if you’re sure you got all you could get from her,” Sam returned.
“And what I’m sayin’ is, yeah. She’s up the creek without a paddle. I reckon she thinks that’s her paddle,” Ozzie stated.
“Then you haven’t got all she could give you,” Sam declared.
“How you figure that?” Dad asked and Sam looked at him.
“Because she’s covering her ass. She was bein’ smart and doin’ the right thing, she’d come completely clean, cop to what she did, confess and use her tell-all as ammunition for a plea bargain. She’s hidin’ something,” Sam replied.
“You can’t know that, you haven’t even met her,” Ozzie told him.
“Have you found the broker?” Sam asked Ozzie.
Ozzie inclined and twisted his neck but didn’t answer. In other words, no.
“My guess, she or the piece of shit met with the broker, face-to-face,” Sam speculated.
“Yeah,” Ozzie confirmed. “She said Coot did but that guy’s in the wind too.”
“Bullshit,” Sam clipped. “His percentage is probably ten, at most twenty. He’s local. He does not evaporate after brokering a deal, he doesn’t make the kind of cake that lets him relocate like that especially seein’ as he’d need to activate or create a network of scum everywhere he relocates. He needs business. He’ll be reachable. We’ll reach him.”
“Vanessa told us he told Coot that he also doesn’t have contact with his men,” Ozzie informed Sam.
“Then either that bitch lied or the broker lied to her. If he doesn’t, he knows someone who does. He can hardly get them assignments without some form of contact,” Sam returned.