Baptist DISTINCTIVE: An Adam Mykonos Mystery (The Adam Myknonos Mystries) (17 page)

He snapped “Shut up. You messed up my life
you son of a ….”

I cut him off “How’d I do that?”

“You told my Father-in-Law.
 
That old buzzard told Nancy and she tossed me
out. After all I’ve done for her and her old man.
 
Beau gives me this big old speech about
getting help for my drug use. Nancy and the kids are crying and then that
useless old man just dismisses me as if I was some white trash piece of garbage.”

You are a white trash piece of white trash garbage
I thought. “Sorry for your trouble Jim, but get the heck off my land.”

“Aint your land belong to that old colored
broad.”

My turn to snap. “My mother-in-law is worth
a thousand of you Jimmy.”

He laughed out loud “You got a set I’ll
give you that, you beat and you keep talking. You got that fancy stick, there
are six of us and we got these” He pulled out a glock.

From off to the left came a distinct bass
voice “Hey Adam I done told you and Mom about having parties and not inviting
us.”

I grinned as from the darkness and unto the
back porch where I stood, came my step-son Donald and his cousin Gary.
 
Donald is six feet nine inches with arms so
ripped that one of his makes three of mine. Gary looks short and small by
comparison at only six three. Me I looked like Bilbo Baggins next to them.
 
In each hand Donald held a baseball bat; they
pointed down and hung comfortably at his side. Gary had a pitchfork.

Sinclair snarled “The Nigger brigade ani’t
gonna help you.”

“Did he just use the N word?” Asked Donald
Mockingly.

“I think he meant to end it in an ‘a’.” I
answered. “You know as in ‘my nigga’ so it is not offensive.”

“Did you all mean to be offensive?” Shouted
Gary

I saw the AB shake his head and smile.

“I’ll show you offensive boy.” Said
Sinclair

He whirled the gun as he did I heard the
pop of a bullet from the chamber and saw the dirt spray up as it hit the ground
near the front tire of Jim’s bike.
 
The
others off their bikes by now all took a step back. Sinclair nearly fell on the
ground stumbling backwards.

Rita appeared at my side “You want to be
going home now Jim.” She said sweetly.

I whispered “Cops on their way?”

She shrugged “Kind of.”

Great.

I had notices the light on Stan’s porch go
on moments before and now the lights at Millicent’s house clicked on as well.
Good maybe one of them would have the common sense to call the police.

We had our first Mexican standoff of the
night at that moment.
 
I saw Stan making
his way across the field and come into my view. He held a shotgun lightly over
his arm

“Need some help here Brother Adam?”

“Be appreciated.” I replied.

AB Tat looked around, the odds were
decreasing and he knew it was an only a matter of time before the police
arrived. I hoped.

He yelled out.

“You get that night stick from the cops?”

“NYPD. It’s mine.”

“You a cop?”

“Not anymore.”

“Retired?”

“You could say that. Off the force. I did
sometime.”

“Really where?”

“Pollock and Beaumont mostly.”

“Fed time? Not New York State?”

“No. Feds”

He held up his hand, in the midst of the
tattoos on his arm he knew the one I had focused on. “Got this on the flats at
Auburn.”

“Heard that’s a hard place.”

“You a cop in general pop in the feds, all
places hard for you.”

“Yep.”

Sinclair jumped in “Is this love fest over?
Or you two wanna get married?”

I ignored him and spoke to the AB. “I got
no beef with the Brotherhood. Never have. You really want to got to war over
this clown?”

“They call me Big Ax.” He said and pointed
to a large ax tat on his left forarm.

“Adam.”

He nodded. “The Prihor dude.”

“The dealer or the old man?”

“The dealer.”

“Not my concern.”

Big Ax thought for a moment than got back
on his bike. He fired it up and waved a hand.

Jimmy began to yell at him “We’re you going
you can’t just ride off this mother messed up my life.”

Three of the other four riders also mounted
their bikes.
 

Big Ax slide his up near Jimmy “Meth messed
up your life Sinclair. Pull off and leave this man and his family be.”

“Not going to happen.” Said Sinclair
flatly.

“You on your own then.”
 
Big Ax said as he gunned the bike.
 
He shouted to me over the roar. “Try and
leave him alive he owes me money.”

He and his friends circled once and then
drove away leaving Sinclair, his glock still drawn and one more biker, a guy
about Sinclair’s size with darting gray eyes in my back yard.

“Go on home Jim, I got no desire to hurt
Nancy more by having to kill you.” I said not unkindly.

From the opposite direction that Stan had
come came a voice

“James Sinclair you get off my property
right this minute.”

My Mother-in-Law strode across the yard and
stopped not five feet from Sinclair.

“Mom” Yelled my wife.

“Grandma.” said Donald as he and Grary took
a step forward.

Sinclair whirled the gum and pointed it at
Millicent’s head.

“Now who’s a big man” He said as he aimed
his coward’s weapon at the head of an old lady. Millicent for her part started
at him with unblinking eyes.

“You.” He shouted to Rita “Drop the gun.”

Rita looked at me and I nodded. She bent
and placed the .38 on the porch boards.

“Adam you come on over here and we settle
this like men.” He said to me. “And you put that stick down.”

Hmm he would have a gun I would be unarmed.
Not exactly like men would settle it. I dropped the stick and took a step
forward.

Suddenly from the darkness along the edge
of the house came a red beam. The small red laser dot resting itself in the
center of Sinclair’s forehead right between his eyes.

He blinked once then twice.

I heard Greg Grant yell from the darkness.
“Mister Sinclair please put that gun down. If you don’t I will blow your brains
out the back of your heard, Sir.”

Off to Jim’s left Stan cocked his shotgun.
“Listen to my boy.” He yelled.

I watched Sinclair cross his eyes trying to
understand in his primitive brain where the bullet would hit. His hand wavier
once, then twice. He glared at me. I smiled and made a motion with my hand for
him to place the gun on the ground.
 
He
looked over at his one remaining friend who shrugged his shoulders. Big help he
was.

We stood for a long moment and then Sinclair
finally dropped his gun as at long last I heard the sirens approach.

“Both of you on the ground hands behind
your heads.”
 
Stan yelled as he approached
Sinclair and his clearly useless buddy and moved into position behind them.
Donald braced the little guy and took a .44 from him throwing it on the ground.

Greg Grant stepped up on the poach and said.
“Mom called the cops.”

I looked at him and cocked my head.
“Where’d you leave your gun?”

He smiled “What gun?”

He took a red laser pointer from his pocket
and aimed it back at Sinclair’s head “This thing drives the cat nuts.”

Chapter
Eighteen

The problem with the Police, and I thought
this even when I was a cop, is that they just don’t know when to go home.
 
Because my wife had fired her gun, because
Sinclair had held his on Millicent and because he had used the N word, we had a
major crime scene on our hands as far as the Sheriff’s department was concerned.
Throw in how much they loved me and it rated the presence of the County Sheriff
Jake Welter himself and an almost three and a half hour investigation.
 

I was sitting on a rocking chair on the
back porch sipping coffee and watching the sun come up, as Greg gave what I
hoped would be the final statement of the night or was it morning to some poor
uniform cop who had clearly taken one of those in service training classes for
dealing with children traumatized by violent crime. The problem was that Greg,
was not a child, was not traumatized and I don’t; think he actually saw
pointing a laser light at some moron’s forehead as violent.

Across my yard Jake Welter stood next to a patrol
car which was in turn parked next to Sinclair’s bike, which they still had not
taken on my back lawn. I swear I am going to bill the Sheriff’s department for
the landscaping.
 
An older deputy whose
face I knew but whose name I could not place came up to Jake and whispered in
his ear. Jake turned up the volume on his radio, spoke into the collar piece
for a moment than came towards me.

“Mr. Mykonos.” He said in that false sincerity
he always used with me.

“Yeah Jake what’s up?”

“I……er…” He thought for a moment. “I don’t
think these….” He stopped again, I whirled my hand in a get on with it motion.
I was tired.

He stroked his chin wishing I suppose he
had the testosterone to grow a bread. “Do you know Dennis Prihor?”

“Yes.” I said trying to hide my surprise.
“We went to Calvary together.”

“Along with Jim Sinclair.”

“And a lot of other people yes.”

“Seen Dennis recently?”

And here is where a lot of people make
their mistake when dealing with the police. It may seem like I good idea to lie
in a moment like that but the fact is that would be the worst thing to do.
Either Welter knew I had seen Dennis yesterday or he soon would and a lie would
complicate my already complicated life.

“I had coffee with him yesterday at Sheetz;
we shot the breeze caught up.”

He smiled grimly. “Apparently that was your
last chance to do so.”

“Huh?”

“Prihor seems to have gone out for a jog
about ten o’clock last night. His wife claims she fell asleep and that it wasn’t
until about 4AM or so when she got up to use the bathroom that she noticed he
was not home. She called his cell and when she got no answer she called us.”

I did not like where this was going.

Welter went on, “A few minutes ago a patrol
car spotted a figure off the side of White Marsh Pike, just off the road in a gully.”

“Dennis?”

“Apparently he was hit by a car.”

“Dead?”

“Yep.”

I shook my head in disbelief and to force
some blood into my weary brain cells.

Welter went on “Hit and run it seems.”

I nodded. “His father know yet?”

Welter smiled “Not that I know of. Wife
doesn’t know yet either.
 
One of the
reasons I’m talking to you. I’m thinking Beau Longstreet is her minister?”

“Pastor, yes.”

“He’s a little busy. “ Welter said rolling
his eyes a bit. They were an odd color, almost purple.

That he was. “I can call Luke Blaine he’s Pastor
at Guiding Light but he was the Assisant at Calvary for a long while.”

Welter nodded “I’d be obliged.”

He thought for a moment than said. “I think
that Lexington’s wife killed him. I would not have had her arrested if I did
not think that.”

“You’re a good cop Jake.” I said meaning that
much at least he may have been a little lacking on the administrative side,
which was what caused the departmental problems that Christina and I had
investigated and to me his was a spineless political crony but he tried his
best and he was honest, to a fault in my opinion. The honesty allowed people to
take advantage of him.

“Chrissy says you’re a good cop as well.”
He said flatly

Chrissy?? I was going to need to ask my old
buddy about that.

He went on. “I think Ivy did it. But
between this stuff here at your place and now Prihor, there’s more going on
than I am seeing.”

I shook my head. “Seems so.”

“I got to head over to where they found Prihor.
Want to ride along?”

“Yes. Mine if I follow though. Want my own
wheels when the time comes to leave.”

He nodded. “Kiss your wife good bye and get
your car I’m rolling in five.”

He walked back towards his car and then
yelled over his shoulder. “And don’t forget to call Reverend Blaine I’m not
thinking the wife is going to take this well.”

Neither I thought was Old Man Prihor.