“Sounds like a plan. See you in a few hours.”
Big Pappy showed up right on time in his gleaming, black Kenworth with “Donovan Trucking” emblazoned in gold on the trailer. I’d taken a cab to the truck stop and waved him down when I saw him pull in. He stopped the truck, and I climbed into the cab. I reached over and shook his massive hand.
“Good to see you, my brother,” Pappy said.
“Good to see you,” I said. “I might as well get right to it. The cops might have a line on who killed my mother, but I want to find them first. I’m going to need your help.”
“Who are they looking at?” Pappy said.
“Guy named Donnie Frazier from West Virginia. He was Bobby Lee Frazier’s brother. Did you know Bobby Lee was from West Virginia or that he had a brother?”
Pappy shook his head. “No, man, I didn’t know that much about him. Didn’t want to know.”
“Well, this brother was released from a prison in a place called Moundsville, West Virginia, six months back, and they think he might have been looking for revenge.”
“Moundsville, huh? Know the name of the joint?”
“Northern Correctional Facility.”
“What do you want me to do?” Pappy said.
“Just do your thing. Use your contacts. Find out if anybody’s talking, if anybody knows anything about it. You know how it is in prison. If he talked about this before he left, or even after, somebody’s going to know. He might have had an accomplice, too. Somebody who knows about explosives.”
“And if I find out it was him and that he had a partner?”
“I’d appreciate it if you’d share that information with me.”
“And do you mind if I ask what you plan to do with the information?”
“Don’t mind at all. If I leave this to the system, they’ll probably eventually get around to arresting him and extraditing him back to Knoxville. He’ll sit in a cell, he’ll get three meals a day, he’ll play cards, have sex if he wants to, do drugs, and drink hooch. He’ll live a shit life, but he’ll be living, you know what I mean? Then they’ll either try him or he’ll make a deal, and he’ll get shipped off to a penitentiary, probably for the rest of his miserable life, and the good people of the state of Tennessee will keep him up. They’ll house him and feed him and give him medical and dental care. He’ll have a better social life in the penitentiary than he’ll have in jail. He’ll even get to exercise if he wants to. To be entirely honest with you, Pap, I’m kind of over the system right now. This guy probably blew my mother to bits, trying to kill me. If you find out he really did it, I’m going to hunt down the son of a bitch—and his friend, if he has one—and I’m going to blow their brains out.”
CHAPTER 10
For the next two days, while I was waiting to hear from Pappy, all I could think about was my mom. Had she been awake when it happened? Had she been afraid? Had she heard someone outside the house? Had she been about to call the police? Had she even heard the explosion? Had she felt anything at all? Had she been in pain when she died? And what if Sean had been there that night? He would have been killed, too. The thought of Sean dying along with my mother was almost too much to bear.
Finally, my cell rang. It was a number I didn’t recognize. I answered it, anyway.
“It’s me.” The voice was Big Pappy Donovan’s. “I’m on a throwaway phone. You trust yours?”
“There’s no reason for them to suspect me of anything,” I said, “but no, I don’t trust it.”
“Go buy a burner and call me back on this number.”
I drove to Walmart—by this time I’d bought another used junker, a compact car—and paid thirty bucks in cash for a prepaid cell. Back in prison, they’d gone for between $500 and $1,000, depending on how many minutes they had on them. The guards brought them in and sold them. It was their most profitable hustle. I walked back to my car, got in, and dialed Pappy’s burner phone.
“It was Donnie Frazier,” he said.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. He’s been broadcasting that he was going to kill you since Dino whacked Bobby Lee in your cell.”
“Anybody with him?”
“Cracker named Tommy Beane. They grew up together in the same town, wound up at the same prison, and were released within two months of each other. Word is Beane used to blow holes in mountainsides for a coal company up in West Virginia, so he knows explosives. They’re your guys. I’d bet my life on it.”
“Any idea how I find them?”
“They’re both staying in a trailer with a woman a couple of miles outside of Cowen, West Virginia. It’s on Williams River Road. I’ll have the address tomorrow, but I think a better play if you’re really going to do this is to catch them outside a little bar called Sammy’s, which is on the east end of town on Webster Road. Donnie and Tommy apparently close the place down every Friday and Saturday. The parking lot might be a good spot.”
“I’ll check it out,” I said.
“Do you have a clean gun?”
“No. Everything I owned was destroyed when they blew up the house. Can you get me a gun? And maybe some ID in case I get stopped. I guess I’ll end up driving to West Virginia.”
“No problem. You need a car?”
“I just bought a junker, but it’d be nice to have something more reliable.”
“I’ll get you something. How are you doing on money?”
“Okay, but I’d rather not withdraw money or leave any kind of trail when I get ready to go.”
“I’ll put twenty grand in cash in the trunk of the car. The gun and the ID will be in there, too. You can pay me back later if you want.”
“Thanks, Pappy. Do I leave the car where I pick it up?”
“Yeah, leave it in back of the Flying J out where the truckers park overnight. There aren’t any cameras out there. When are you going?”
“I’ll figure that out as soon as you get me that address. If I can’t do them in the parking lot, I’ll go to the trailer.”
“Dangerous. So many people have dogs. They’ll probably have guns at the trailer. A lot can go wrong there. And don’t be in a hurry. Take your time and do it right. Make sure you do what you want to do, but don’t get caught.”
“I’ll figure it out.”
“Darren, are you sure about this? You haven’t ever killed anyone, have you?”
I took a deep breath before I answered. “No, I’ve never killed anyone.”
“Big step to take.”
“I can’t stop thinking about what they did to my mom. They had to know it was her house and that she was in there. They didn’t give a damn about her. And it was pure luck that Sean wasn’t there that night. They would have killed him, too.”
“You don’t think the cops are up to the task?”
“I think my attitude toward Donnie Frazier’s and Tommy Beane’s constitutional rights has changed. As far as I’m concerned, they don’t have any. I’m going to kill them, Pappy, I’m going to get away with it, and I’m not going to regret it. I really only have one concern.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“I’m afraid I might enjoy it.”
CHAPTER 11