Matchmaker Bandit Novel Pt. 05

"What's so damn important that it couldn't wait until after noon?" Asked the chubby man as he squinted and raised his left hand to block the early morning sunlight that was shining directly in his eyes.

Stepping between the sunlight and James, Sammy said to the man, "I need to talk to you about the gun," Then he added, 'in private!"

"Hey, I told you, I didn't know nothing about it! I bought it from an old wino that was looking for beer money. That's why it was so cheap. So, if it's broken, don't come lookin' to me for no refund. I ain't got your money no more!" Sammy suspected the chubby man was lying but let it pass.

When James started to close their door in the two brothers faces, Sammy stuck his right foot in the door so the James couldn't close it, "Unless you want to go to jail, you better let me in! Jimmy's dead! "

As the unshaven man looked at the two brothers hesitantly, Sammy said to him reassuringly, "Don't worry none, were not here to hurt you or nothin'. Besides, if we was, we aint stupid enough to do it with Cindy around! Now let us in so we can talk."

James opened the door the rest of the way and let the two brothers enter.

For the next five minutes, Sammy told him about the events of the night before.

James looked at him and asked, "What do you want with me? I'm right sorry Jimmy's dead, but it aint my fault!"

"Well," Sammy began, "If you want to stay out of jail you better tell everyone the gun was stolen."

With a look of confusion, James said indignantly, "I didn't do nothin' wrong, why should I do that?"

"Because if you don't, Bert and I are going to tell everyone that you told us you traded it to Ethan for some beer and that your were going to sell the beer up at the high school parking lot after the football game Friday night." Sammy told him flatly.

The bootlegger looked from one brother to the other angrily.

"It was stolen the night of the killing! You understand? You didn't sell it to me. You left it in the glove compartment of your pick up truck that afternoon the way you usually do and you noticed that it was missing the next day." Sammy elaborated.

The nervousness showing in his voice, James Wilkins said, "But what do I say when they ask me why I kept it there?"

"Just tell them that you always kept in the glove compartment incase you came across an injured animal. Everybody knows that deer a getting hit all the time around here crossing the highways." Replied Sammy.

James looked at him questioningly, "But they're going to ask me why I didn't report it!"

"If anyone says anything, you didn't get a chance to report it because you didn't notice it until the next day when you went to get it so you could shoot up some old ammo you had laying around." Sammy answered.

James was trapped and he knew it. If the two brothers went public about his bootlegging operation, he would be up on both federal and state charges. Hell, the D.A. would probably add 'Contributing To The Delinquency Of A Minor" just for good measure. If that happened, the next piece of ass he saw would probably be "Bubba" trying to rape him in prison!

With no other choice, he nodded his head in agreement.

As the two brothers were walking back to their pickup truck, Bert turned to Sandy and asked curiously, "I know Cindy don't got no high standards. But, what you figure she sees in him?"

"Besides the free booze?" Sammy inquired as they both climbed into the pickup truck.

"Yeah." Replied Bert.

"Remember when we was showering after gym class?" Sammy asked.

After he closed his door, Bert thought about it for a minute. Then it dawned on him. James Wilkins might be seventy pounds overweight and sleazy looking as hell, but he was also hung like a horse!

As the pickup peeled off down the dirt road with the sound of a Hank Williams Jr. song blaring loudly from the radio, Bert though to himself, 'Too bad her daddy's the sheriff. Cousin or not, I wouldn't mind tapping some of that a few times.'

Chapter Four -- "The Conspiracy"

Two months later, Ethan's case was about to come to trial. He had spent the entire time in the county jail.

He had no confidence in the public defender assigned to him and almost hit the man when the shyster suggested that Ethan accept the plea bargain offered by the state.

It was a shitty deal. The man wanted him to plead guilty to second-degree murder and with it a sentence of twenty years to life. Ethan told his lawyer that he was innocent, and to tell the D.A. to take his plea deal and shove it up his ass!

At the very same time Ethan was sitting alone in his cell wondering what would happen to him, Ethan's friend Johnny was getting out of his squad car. The young lawman had been sent by the sheriff to get lunch from the town's only restaurant.

The restaurant was a small whole in the wall place that specialized in fish that was so fresh you actually picked it live from one of the restaurant's large tanks before they cooked it the way you wanted.

With the D.A. and sheriff inside waiting for him, rather than taking the time to put the car keys in his pocket, Johnny hurriedly sat them on top of the food containers and got out of the car. When he was out, he picked up the containers sending the keys sliding towards the ground. They bounced off the toe of his left foot and slid under the squad car.

He bent down to pick up the keys but found they were to far under the car to reach them and had to lie on his back just to get at them.

Once he was on the ground, he noticed something lying about thirty feet away under Ethan's car. Left on the street, it had been towed and was parked in the impound lot on the other side of the chain-link fence near where the police curiser was parked.

Even from that distance Johnny could tell that the shinny object glimmering under the vehicle was a knife!

After setting down the food, he picked up his keys and got and evidence bag from his squad car. Johnny unlocked the gate leading to the impound lot, carefully retrieved the knife and placed it inside the bag. Then marked the bag as evidence and went back to his car to get the food.

"Well how did it get there?" Asked Simon Randal, the town's prosecutor. They were all in the sheriff's office talking about the knife while their lunches sat on the desk getting cold.

Johnny looked at him and said, "Hell, I don't know! I guess it must have bounced off the ground and got stuck in the undercarriage of Ethan's car somehow. It probably fell loose when the car was being lowered to the ground by the tow-truck."

"This changes everything! That knife supports the story Ethan and Becky told. It also means that your two cousins perjured themselves on the stand. I have no choice but to notify the defense of this evidence. I might as well dismiss the charges now." Yelled the now red-faced prosecutor. His temper was renowned and he didn't like to loose.

Johnny said to the sheriff, "Somebody better tell Doc before he hears about it. You bet he's going to be pissed!"

"Don't look at me! I'm not going to be the one to tell him. He's already pissed at me because I wouldn't let Sammy and Bert go into Ethan's cell and work him over!" Exclaimed the sheriff.

Randal spoke up just then and said, "Fine then, get him on the speakerphone and well all do it!"

A few minutes later after the three of them had explained what had transpired, the old doctor screamed into the phone, "I don't give a damn! I want his ass dead! He killed one of us. I don't care how it happened. Do you understand? Make it happen! Loose the knife if you have to. But make it happen!"

"But we can't!" said the attorney into the speakerphone. "He's innocent. Besides, if it ever got out that I withheld evidence from the defense, I'd be disbarred."

The old man bellowed back, "Listen to me Randal, you want to be governor some day don't you? How do you think you are going to get there without my help? If you don't do this, I'll ruin you! When I'm done with you, you won't be able to be elected dogcatcher! Am I making myself clear!"

Just then Johnny spoke up, "Well count me out! He's my friend and I'm not going to see him die for something he didn't do!"

There was a long silence and the two men in the room looked at the deputy in shock for nobody challenged Doc.

"Didn't your wife just have a child? How are you going to feed them when Jack fires you? And where are you all going to live when I have him show up the next day and evict you from that brand new house of yours? Have you forgotten boy who's paying for it?" Came the voice of the old man from the phone.

"Go ahead you old bastard, but I still won't let him die!" Replied the young lawman, rage in his voice.

There was a much longer silence this time. Finally the doctor's voice was heard once more from the phone, "Suppose I had Randal take the death penalty off the table and guaranteed you Jack's job when he retires? Would that ease your guilty conscience boy and give you some piece of mind? Before you answer that, think about this… whether you go along with this or not, I promise you that knife will never see the light of day. You can either keep your job or you can be unemployed and homeless! Is it really worth it?"

Now it was Johnny's turn to be silent. The two men in the room were looking at him expectedly. "Alright, but I want something in return. I want a clear title to my house. I don't want you hanging this over my head in the future."

The old man agreed.

From that day on, unless it was part of his work, Johnny never talked to his Uncle, grandfather or Randal again. What respect he had for them he completely lost along with most of the respect he had for himself. It was also the beginning of a lifetime of sleepless nights!

With the knife missing and the two brothers testifying that Ethan had shot Jimmy in cold blood, poor Ethan didn't stand a chance when he went to trial.

The jury came back with a guilty verdict in less than twenty minutes. To make matters worse, with no one except Becky to testify on his behalf, the judge was prepared to sentence him on the spot. He through the book at Ethan and gave him twenty years to life.

Upon his conviction, the Army discharged him ending his military career. His DD-214, discharge form, had indicated that he was Unfit For Military Service. As far as Ethan was concerned, at twenty-five years of age, his life was over.

Chapter Five -- "The Woman"

But Becky Daily didn't give up on him.

At first, she remained in the tiny little town of Magnolia. But it became quickly apparent to her that she would never make a decent living there. Even if she did, it wouldn't be enough to provide her the financial resources to both survive and mount a successful fight to see Ethan go free.

After the trial, Becky had started saying quite publicly that it sure did seem odd how the only piece of evidence that would have backed up Ethan's story mysteriously disappeared.

She must have said it in front of the wrong person, because that Friday she was called into her boss's office in the middle of her shift. He told her that she was being laid off from her job at the hatchery.

Doc had told the man that she was developing carpal tunnel syndrome and her days were numbered. When she pointed out to her supervisor that she hadn't even been to see the physician! His reply was, "Sorry Becky, but if Doc says you don't work, you don't work!" As she was leaving, when she got to her car, she found that all four tires had been cut! It became obvious to her that someone was trying to run her off.

Two years before when her mother died, Becky had inherited what could laughably be referred to as 'the family farm'. It wasn't a real farm any more, only about fifty acres of land, and only about a third of that was cleared and fit for farming, the rest being wooded. But it was just too small to produce enough crops for anyone to live on any more and she realized it was time for her to leave Magnolia.

Becky thought about where she would go and there seemed only one logical choice, Columbus Georgia.

There she might find better employment with which to finance her fight for Ethan's freedom. It was the largest city in the state of Georgia by area, if not by population, and was located near one of the country's largest military bases, Fort Benning. It certainly didn't escape her mind that the move to Columbus provided the added bonus of putting her closer to Ethan as the state prison was conveniently located just at the edge of town.

She had a cousin, Joni, living in there who was working as a secretary for one of the local real estate brokers. Her cousin had had the good sense to get out of Magnolia two years earlier. Becky was pretty sure that Joni would put her up for a couple of weeks.

So Becky called her, just to make sure she would and then, sold what wood there was on the land to Georgia Wood and Logging for $10,000. A week later, after the company had cleared the land of all its timber, she sold it to one of the local farmers for about $700 an acre. She went out of her way to choose one of the few men who openly despised the Doc because she knew the farmer would never let the old bastard buy the land from him.

With her few meager belongings loaded in her car, she headed off to Columbus, stopping only in town long enough to fill her gas tank for the long trip. The store had a policy of prepaying and when Becky went inside to give the cashier twenty dollars, she realized that she had been in such a hurry she had left her purse in the car. As she walked back to her car, she discovered that all four of her tires had been cut once again.

Furious, she left the car where it was sitting and walked to "Doc's" office at the other end of town. When she got there she walked right past the receptionist, and began looking around until she found him in an examination room with the Mayor's wife. From the looks of it, she must have caught him in the middle of giving the woman a pap smear.

When he heard the door open, he turned around to look at her. With sweat dripping from her, she said, "Look you old bastard, I'm trying to leave this fucking town. If you want me to leave, tell your boys to stop slicing my tires!" Then on inspiration, she glanced over at the woman and said, "Otherwise, I'm going to tell everyone you were giving her more than a pap smear!" Without waiting for a response, she turned around and stomped out leaving the old man sitting there with his jaw wide open."

When she got back to her car, it was to find that there was a note stuck with something stapled to it under the left windshield wiper. There were four brand new tires on her car. Shocked, she picked up the note and read it, "Don't come back! Doc". She looked at the paper stapled to the note, it was a receipt for four tires, one tank of gas, one oil change and a new fuel filter, all paid in full!

As she pulled off onto the state highway, a road with a name that only those poor unfortunate souls who were misfortunate to live in Magnolia ever seemed to remember, Becky thought to herself, "This town hasn't seen the last of me you old fool!"

Chapter Six -- "The City"

The almost two hour drive to Columbus gave Becky time to cool off and it occurred to her, as she passed an especially pretty grove of Magnolia trees, that she was going to miss living in the small rural town. No, she wouldn't miss the people. With her mother dead and gone, she didn't care if she ever saw anyone from the town of Magnolia again. What Becky was going to miss was the landscape.

She decided to enjoy the drive to Columbus, realizing that it would probably be the last time she would get to see in one place so much of the beauty that nature had to offer. Becky allowed her mind to think back of the pleasanter things she had seen, like how old man Nelson's peach trees looked when they were in full bloom.

Becky remembered fondly how much the old man and his wife must have love those trees to get up at five o'clock on mornings when there was frost on the grounds just to make sure that heaters in their front yard were lit so the trees stayed warm. The old couple only had hand-full of them; and, the trees certainly did not produce enough to make a profit. Nonetheless, every day for six months, the couple would tend them as if they were children in need of care. Becky believed they loved the trees very much. Perhaps the trees even returned their love by giving their caretakers the largest, sweetest, most beautiful peaches she had ever seen.

Despite herself, it occurred to her that she would even miss crying sound of those awful little birds that would wake her from their tree branch perches in the woods outside her bedroom window every morning. For months she had tried running the little buggers off without success until finally one day, she realized that she gotten used to them.

Why is it when you are enjoying something it seems to go by fast, Becky wondered? Have I driven that far? She had just started enjoying the drive and was already passing a sign reading "Columbus City Limits".

The city of Columbus Georgia is located almost dead center of the state's western border. On the other side of that border lies the small town of Phenix City Alabama and together they form the Bi-City area. You would think that two municipalities so close together would be virtual mirror images of each other but nothing could be farther from the truth. The town of Phoenix City was small and economically depressed while Columbus was large and very prosperous.

In some ways Columbus was very similar to Magnolia. Just a lot less of those similarities were visible. But, most of those similarities were geographical. For example, both municipalities had magnolia trees, but then, it's hard to find a place in the state of Georgia that doesn't have magnolia trees. And of course, as did Magnolia, Columbus also had an abundance of the red clay and pine trees. The big difference between the two cities was not geographical. It was, that in Columbus, the corruption was hidden far better to the point you could actually live with it!

She was lucky enough to find a loft apartment for about two-hundred dollars a month in the area of the business district of Columbus known as Uptown. For most of the city's existence, the locals used to refer to it as 'Downtown' until someone advised them to rename it to the more politically correct, upbeat Uptown. Then again, because of the numerous fountains running along Broadway, Columbus used to be a known as the 'Fountain City' until a developer tore them all out the last time the business district was remodeled.

The apartment, conveniently located directly across from the Federal Courthouse / Post Office, was actually the entire 2^nd floor of a two story building. The bottom floor of the building was occupied by a small sandwich shop and was probably the only one of its kind in the business district. It had three massive glass windows that were about six feet wide and eight feet tall, ten feet high ceilings and was almost 1800 square feet in size. Except for a bathroom, it was all one really large room. As it was just two blocks away from the Government Center with its massive law library it was perfect for her.

Becky's first order of business after finding a place to stay was to enroll in the nursing program at the local technical college, Columbus State Technical College.

She had neither the time nor financial resources for college and then law school. So she enrolled in the schools nursing program.

Becky had always been interested in nursing and there was the added bonus of the fact that there was a shortage of nurses, which meant that it would pay well.

Becky was aware that if she were to have the enough free time to devote to Ethan's appeal, she could not take a job working for one of the local hospitals. So, when she graduated and became an LPN, she accepted a job working for a local family practice physician. In her spare time, she started studying law and became quite an astute paralegal.