Two Bits Four Bits (5 page)

“Did you tell John
Donnelly they want to talk to you again?”

“Yes, he’s going down
there with me. He said it’s probably nothing, but I’m just
wondering if I need to be concerned. That’s why I thought I’d ask
you. That is what you did, isn’t it? Investigate
murders?”

“That’s right,” I
said.

“Am I just being paranoid
and silly?”

“Look, its normal for you
to be concerned, but I’m sure the detectives are just making sure
all bases are covered. It isn’t unusual to question witnesses
multiple times in a murder investigation. Sometimes the initial
shock makes people forget things that come to them later, or they
forget to mention details that might not have seemed important
during the first interview.”

“I guess you’re right. I’m
just worried that things might get, I don’t know,
overlooked.”

“What do you
mean?”

She sighed heavily and
stood up from the table. Walking to the kitchen window, she stood
looking out the window while gathering her thoughts.

“Russell played golf twice
a week with Dave Adams, the chief of police. He did for years. I’m
just worried that if something about Russell’s business dealings
turns up, Dave might try to cover it up to protect Russell’s
reputation.”

“What do you
mean?”

She turned away from the
window and leaned on the counter, staring down at her
shoes.

“I think Russell may have
been involved in some business deals with some guys who weren’t on
the up and up. People who could never walk in the front door of the
bank or meet with Russell in public. People the board of directors
would never approve of lending to.”

“Like who?”

“Well, Benny Shanks, for
one. I heard Russell talking about some sort of investment deal he
was in with Benny.”

I remembered Benny Shanks
from my high school years when the rumor was his pawn shop was a
front for a long-running bookmaking operation. Shanks spent a few
years in prison for income tax evasion, and he was probably the
closest thing to an organized crime figure that Elmore had ever
seen.

“And you think one of
these business deals might be connected to the murder?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she
said, raising her hands to her face. “I’m just— I don’t know how
sure I am that the truth will come out. There’s a lot that goes on
in this little town that makes me wonder.”

“Like what?”

“Oh, you know. You hear
rumors about certain people who are involved in drugs and other
types of crime, but never seem to get caught. It may just be talk,
but I think there’s definitely a good-old-boy network, and the
people who are in it don’t have to worry about the law knocking on
their door when they cross over the line. I just want to make sure
the police don’t look the other way when it comes to catching
whoever killed Russell.”

“I understand how you
feel,” I said. “But I really don’t think you have anything to worry
about.”

“Well, I hope you’re
right. But just the same, I think I need to do more than just sit
back and wait to find out. I’d like to hire you to look into
Russell’s murder.”

“Hire me? What do you
mean? From what I hear, the detectives working on this case are
very good and will do a fine job without my help.”

“No, I don’t want you to
work with them; I want you working by yourself in case they miss
something, either intentionally or not. You are a homicide
detective aren’t you?”

“Listen, Kandy. I was a
homicide detective when I retired from the Austin Police
Department, but I’m not anymore. I work for a security company now,
spending most of my time doing background checks on job applicants
for high tech firms.”

“Ray told me you were a
licensed private investigator. And he said you were getting bored
doing all those background checks.”

“Well, Ray shoots his
mouth off a lot when he shouldn’t.”

“So, you won’t help me?
I’ll promise to make it worth your while.”

She smiled, and for just a
split-second I detected a twinkle in her eye that looked oddly out
of place on a woman who had experienced the violent death of her
husband less than 48 hours earlier.

“I’m sorry, Kandy, but I’m
not for hire. Now with that said, I’ll tell you what I will do. I
had planned on staying around Elmore long enough to get the place
here cleaned up and ready to sell. I took a leave of absence from
the background checks while I try to figure out if I’m really happy
there. While I’m in town, I’ll ask around to see what I can find
out about Russell’s business dealings and see if it leads anywhere.
Just a few questions, that’s all. But anything important I learn
goes straight to the Elmore homicide detectives.”

“Oh, thank you Buddy,” she
said, throwing her arms around me and pulling me tightly against
her. “I knew I could count on you.”

* * * *

CHAPTER EIGHT

Picking Angie up for lunch
at the Donnelly Law Firm at noon on Monday, I happened to catch
John Donnelly coming back from meeting with Kandy Chilton and
homicide detectives Bob Clemmer and Reese Puckett.

“Kandy told me she talked
to you about doing some investigative work. I really think we’re
going to need all the help we can get,” Donnelly said.

“Are the problems with the
Elmore P.D. really as bad as she says?”

Donnelly
smiled.

“No, not at all. When
Kandy starts in on the police department it’s her old man you hear
talking. Bill Lofton was always at odds with old Chief Beaumont
back when Kandy was growing up. She inherited that
attitude.”

“So, why would you need my
help?”

Donnelly glanced around
and pulled me into the doorway of his office, lowering his
voice.

“Things are not adding up
exactly the way Kandy laid them out. There’s some evidence that
doesn’t totally jive with her version of the events.”

I saw Angie and a local
oilman I recognized strolling toward the lobby from a hallway that
led to her office. Donnelly glanced up and smiled as she
approached.

“I see your lunch date is
finally ready,” he said. “Let’s get together and talk about this
later. Just keep your ears open for anything that might be
helpful.”

* * * *

CHAPTER NINE

Angie and I decided on a
steakhouse located south of town on the Odessa highway. We talked
about food on the ride there in my pickup.

“I know you have lots of
the great places to eat in Austin,” she said. “I miss that about
living in a larger city.”

“When I first moved to
Austin, back in the eighties, I couldn’t get over how many great
places to eat and drink there were,” I said. “And the music?
Unbelievable. But, after a while you narrow it down to just a few
places where you really like to spend time.”

“I love the clubs and the
music down there,” she said. “I’ve been there a couple of times
with a girlfriend who went to UT. John said you originally moved
down there to go to school.”

“Yeah, I had a partial
football scholarship, but got hurt before the season started and
never played a game. To help pay for school I took a job tending
bar at a place where a lot of cops hung out, and that’s how I ended
up becoming one.”

“And you retired
recently?”

“Yeah, they let you retire
after 23 years on the force, so I decided maybe I’d try something
else for a while. Not that I’ve figured out what that will be
yet.”

She laughed. “I hear you.
I’m still trying to decide what I want to do with my life too. I
always thought I wanted to be a trial attorney when I was growing
up, but decided it really wasn’t my cup of tea when I was interning
during college breaks. So, after law school I ended up going to
work for an oil and gas attorney in Odessa that my father knew, and
I ended up here.”

“Which law
school?”

“Texas Tech.”

“Really?” I said.
“Adrienne, my daughter goes to the medical school there. Of course
I wanted her to go to UT, but Peg’s parents are both Texas Tech
graduates and they lobbied hard for their alma mater. Peg is my ex,
by the way. Are you married?”

“No, I’ve been close a
couple of times, but so far I’m unattached. Or, maybe detached is
more accurate. I can’t remember the last time I went on a real
date.”

“Really? I find that hard
to believe.”

We pulled into the
steakhouse lot and parked. The tables inside were crowded with
groups of men wearing casual or work shirts adorned with oilfield
company logos.

“This Russell Chilton
shooting has been the talk of the town,” she said after the
waitress had taken our orders. “Do you think they’ll figure out who
did it?”

“Hard to say,” I answered.
“I don’t know what kind of evidence the police found at the scene
or if their interviews with Kandy gave them anything to go
on.”

“Where do you even start
with something like that? I mean, obviously it isn’t as easy to
solve a murder case as they make it look on TV and in the
movies.”

“No, it isn’t. But, most
real life murders aren’t as complicated as they are in the movies.
A lot of times it’s somebody close to the victim, or the result of
events that were witnessed by other people.”

“So, you look at the most
likely suspects first?”

“Sure, but you also talk
to everyone you can who might know anything about the victim and
the events of the days and weeks leading up to the murder. You
start accumulating information and sooner or later some of it helps
you formulate a theory, or validates a theory you may have formed
early on in the investigation.”

“You’ve done it a long
time? Worked on murders?”
“Twelve years. But, even when you start out as a beat cop you’re
conducting investigations of one sort or another on a daily basis,
whether it’s a break-in or a domestic disturbance. You talk to
people and try to make sense of all the different versions of
events you hear.”

“Not to pry, but is that
what you’ll do with Russell Chilton’s murder?” she
asked.

“Well, I’ll approach it a
little differently since I’m not investigating the official sense,
but yeah, I’ll be mostly talking to people and looking for
connections. There might be a few people who would be reluctant to
talk to the detectives on the case that might be more at ease
talking to me.”

“Do you enjoy
it?”

“Investigating? It’s funny
you ask. When I retired I was so ready for a break from it that I
never thought I’d miss it, but I do. I’m actually looking forward
to doing something besides paperwork again.”

“Why don’t you open up
your own shop, then? Don’t they need good private
investigators?”

“Sure, but Austin’s got
too many retired cops working as PI’s as it is.”

“You could always open up
an office here,” she said.

“That’s not a bad idea,
you know. I like Austin, but coming back here makes me realize how
much I’ve missed it.”

Our food came and we spent
some time talking about a strategy for dealing with the oil
properties in the estate. But, I managed to let the time run out
before I’d had a chance to ask all of my questions, necessitating
the request of another lunch date together sometime soon, which she
readily agreed to.

* * * *

CHAPTER TEN

After dropping Angie off
at the Donnelly Law Firm, I walked down the street to Elmore Bank
& Trust, where Russell Chilton had worked as President and
Chief Executive Officer. It was quiet inside, and seemed thinly
staffed, but some of the staff was probably at lunch. I found the
office of Chilton’s second-in-command, Jay Bradley.

“Kandy said you might be
coming by to ask questions,” he said, leading me into his office
and closing the door.

“We’re all still in shock
over this, as you might imagine. Not much work is getting done, but
state banking regulations won’t let us close more than three days
in a row, and we’ll probably close for Russell’s
funeral.”

“I won’t keep you long,” I
said. “I just wanted to get a little bit of background on
Russell.”

“Whatever you need,” he
said. “I’ve met with the board of directors and they’ve asked me to
cooperate in any way I can if it helps to find Russell’s killer
quickly. While we’re all grieving, we are also cognizant of the
fact that this kind of publicity just isn’t good for the
bank.”

We talked for a few
minutes about Kandy and her girls before I began asking questions
about Russell’s business dealings.

“I can’t think of anything
Russell has been involved in from a personal investment standpoint
that might put him in any danger. As you know, most banks deal with
people of all sorts of character, and we’re no
exception.”