Red Clover (32 page)

Travis and Wayne emerged from their bedroom.

“Boys, go wash up. We’ll be eating soon.”

“We just did.”

“Go do it again.”

CJ ran toward the kitchen and came back with a bottle of champagne. “I was going to serve this after dinner to toast in the new year, but I feel like doing it now.” She poured everyone a glass.

All eyes were on Lee, who worked hard to appear as surprised as everyone else.

The boys entered the living room holding up their hands to show their mother they were clean. “How come everybody stops talking whenever we come into the room?” Wayne asked.

“Dinner’s ready, boys. Go sit down at the table,” CJ told them.

Dinner included roast turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, seasoned green beans, and hot buttered biscuits. Nothing fancy—just plain old down-home cooking, something Lee had never experienced until his first visit to the local diner, Miss Sally’s, but had subsequently come to love. The adults kept the conversation focused on the food, but Lee knew it was CJ’s announcement that was on everyone’s mind.

After dinner, CJ assigned clean-up chores to her sons and then joined the others in the living room.

Francine spoke first. “Who called?” she asked in a whisper.

“Dick, at Deer Bottom. He overheard some of the off-duty cops talking about it in the bar this afternoon, so he didn’t have many details. They said it was the biggest pot bust in the history of McHenry County.”

“I wonder how they got on to him. And why the feds?” Francine asked.

CJ shrugged and turned to Bennett. “Do you know why the feds would be involved?”

“Could have something to do with him transporting it over state lines,” he responded.

“CJ, you look like you’re over the moon about this. But how do you really feel when you think about it?” Francine asked. “After all, he is—”

“We’re done, Mom,” Travis said.

“Good job, boys. It’s almost eight o’clock, and you have school tomorrow. Time for bed.”

“Tomorrow’s Saturday, Mom.”

“Never mind. You still need the rest.”

“But, Mom…”

Their discussion resumed once the boys were out of earshot.

“I
am
over the moon,” CJ said. “I hope he’s locked up for a long, long time—father or no father.”

“How long could he get, Bennett?” Lee asked.

“If the feds were involved, it’s a big deal. A Class 4 felony under federal law? We’re probably talking several years at least.”

“I feel like I can breathe again,” CJ said.

“Any chance he’ll get off? He
is
a sheriff,” Lee asked Bennett.

“I doubt it. They can get away with a lot locally, but not with the feds involved.”

CJ smiled. “Serves him right. He deserves what he gets. More champagne, anyone?” she asked.

Lee was the last to leave. CJ followed him out onto the porch. “Hey,” she said with her arms wrapped around herself against the cold evening air. “So did you have anything to do with it?”

“With what?”

“You know what.”

“Goodnight, CJ. Thanks for dinner, and happy new year!”

* * *

Lee called CJ the following day. “How are you feeling, now that it’s had time to sink in?” He knew deep down he had done the right thing, but he needed reassurance just the same.

“I slept better last night than I’ve slept in years. Does that answer your question?”

“What about the boys? Have you said anything to them?”

“I had to. I didn’t want them to hear it from some kid in school, so I told them this morning.”

“How did you explain it to them?”

“I told them he did something illegal and may have to spend some time in jail for it.”

“How did they react?”

“They pretty much just accepted it. Wayne gave me a kiss on the cheek afterwards, and Travis wanted to know what was for lunch.”

“How are
you
?”

“I’m happy. Look, he did the crime, so now he must pay. It has nothing to do with me. I just get to reap the benefit of being able to go to sleep each night with both eyes shut.”

“CJ?”

“What.”

“I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks, Soc. Thanks for whatever you had to do with it, ‘cause I know you did. And so does Frankie.”

“Why? What did she say?”

“Nothing. Just on her way out last night with Bennett, she said—”

“Ha. You say that like they came together.”

“They did.”

“What?”

“You didn’t know?”

“Know what?”

“That they came together.”

“What?”

“Do we have a bad connection or something?”

“No, I heard you. Bennett and Francine came to your house yesterday together? As in what?”

“As in he got in his car. He drove to her house. He knocked on the—”

“Don’t be a smart ass.”

“Okay. All I know is he and Frankie have been talking, on the phone mostly, about whatever they have in common with Sam Wheland and other stuff, I guess. And then he asked her if she wanted him to pick her up for my dinner party. And she said, ‘Sure.’”

“Hmm. He never mentioned it to me. I feel a little left out.”

“You shouldn’t. There’s really nothing to it.”

After they hung up, Lee called Bennett on the pretext of asking him how the roads had been when he drove home from CJ’s the previous night.

“I didn’t know you and Francine had come together,” he said after their small talk.

“Mm-hm.”

“You sly dog. You didn’t tell me you two had something going on.”

“There’s nothing going on. All I did was offer to drive her to CJ’s.”

“So how did that just happen?”

“It just did, that’s all. Look, she a great gal. The whole Senator Wheland thing was such a godsend to my cause. There’s nothing more to it.”

“For now.”

“I’m still legally married, remember. I have to keep my nose clean. But if I’m honest about it...”

“Go on.”

“I’m not going to lie. I’ve thought about what it would be like to be with someone again.” He paused. “Someone genuine...like Francine.”

“You deserve that.”

“I’m not so sure of that. When I think back to my marriage, I think I may have been more wedded to my law firm than to Daphne. That wasn’t fair.”

“You’re not thinking of reconciling with her, are you?”

“No. I guess I’m just feeling a little guilty about things.”

Lee learned the divorce was moving ahead and that Bennett and his wife would have to appear in court at the end of the month. He was giving her more than half of everything they owned and would be paying alimony and child support.

“And the kids?”

“I talk to them as often as I can, but she intercepts their calls most of the time. I’ll be glad when they’re old enough to make their own calls. Hopefully, she will not have turned them against me by then.”

“They’re smart kids.”

“I know, but if they hear from her how I am ‘the bad guy’ enough times, pretty soon it becomes a matter of fact.

They moved on to discuss DeRam’s arrest. When Bennett insisted on knowing what Lee knew about it, Lee tried to maintain that he was as surprised as everyone else.

“Right, little brother.”

“Okay, so I had a little something to do with it.”

“Spill it.”

“There’s this guy in town who hates DeRam as much as I do. His nickname is Bulldog, if that gives you any indication about this guy’s character. Anyway, he’s been in his share of trouble over the years, has a record, but he’s not a totally bad guy. So I find out DeRam recently arrested him for a burglary he didn’t commit along with a bunch of other trumped-up charges, and this guy had no money for a decent lawyer and was looking at jail time for something he didn’t do. So I helped him out.”

“You paid for his lawyer?”

“I did.”

“So this punk tells you he was arrested for something he didn’t do. And you believed him?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Why? You said he has a record.”

“Because the burglary was at a Milwaukee gun store owned by one of DeRam’s brothers, and the guy said he would bet any amount of money DeRam was somehow involved in it and was trying to pin it on him. Maybe even an inside job to get insurance money. It wouldn’t be that farfetched.”

“The same thing DeRam tried to pull on you.”

“Right. It’s his MO.”

“But you still didn’t know for sure, so you were taking a big risk getting involved. But go on.”

“I know I didn’t think it all the way through at the time. Looking back, I think I probably attached more importance to seeing DeRam suffer what he justly deserved than to any risk I was taking. Anyway, I put a little bug in Bulldog’s ear that if police were to search DeRam’s house for the stolen guns, they might also find a rather large stash of pot.”

“So what was the probable cause for searching DeRam’s house? No judge is going to issue a warrant on a hunch or an unsubstantiated suspicion.”

“Well, it turns out DeRam’s sister-in-law, the wife of the gun store owner, hates him. Thinks he’s a bad influence on her husband and won’t even let him around her kids. And Bulldog knew this because he’s dating her sister, Roberta.”

“Ah, the plot thickens.”

“Something like that. Did I mention that this guy Bulldog walks with a limp?”

“No.”

“He held up a gas station one time. Got caught running from the scene of the crime by DeRam...who shot him in the back of his knee.”

“Ouch! That had to smart.”

“I guess. Anyway, when Roberta heard about Bulldog’s most recent arrest, she told her sister she wanted revenge against DeRam. So now we have two scrappy sisters
and
a reckless ex-con all wanting DeRam out of the picture, and I had the opportunity to help them make that happen.”

“Now you’re scaring me. Tell me you didn’t do anything illegal.”

“Of course not.
I
didn’t, anyway. I’m not so sure about Roberta.”

“Go on.”

“So Bulldog gets Roberta to come on to DeRam at the Deer Bottom Inn one night after DeRam has had a few beers. She tells him she broke up with Bulldog—a lie, of course—is feeling pretty lonely, and starts flirting with him. He buys her drinks. One thing leads to another, and she goes home with him. Once she’s in his house, she lays it on even thicker and gets him to drink more. Then when he’s just short of passing out, she tells him she’s been afraid to be alone in her apartment these days because Bulldog wasn’t happy about their breakup. She tells him she’s so scared of him, she’s thinking about getting a gun.

“Well, DeRam is all over that. Apparently, he puffs out his chest and tells her he can take care of that for her, but she can’t tell anyone where she got the gun. She tells him it has to be a small gun because, ‘I’m just petrified of guns.' Roberta knew, of course, that many of the guns stolen from her brother-in-law’s shop were 9mm revolvers.”

“And here I thought this kind of thing only happened in the movies.”

“From what I hear, Roberta is quite a character. I’d like to meet her one day. Anyway, DeRam disappears down his basement stairs and comes back with a nice little compact Beretta. She waits until he passes out on the sofa and then leaves. When she shows the gun to DeRam’s brother, he verifies it’s one of the stolen guns and gets livid that his own brother had something to do with the burglary. He goes to the Milwaukee police, who turn the case over to the feds.”

“So there’s your probable cause for the search warrant.”

“And when they search his basement for the rest of the stolen weapons, voila! They find over a hundred pounds of marijuana.”

“And DeRam gets arrested, thanks to you.”

“All I did was come up with a few
what ifs
for three rather spirited individuals, shall we say. They came up with the plan and carried out the deed all on their own.”

“Nice work, man.”

“Thank you.”

28 | Unauthorized Entry

Knowing so little about his real father was beginning to gnaw at Lee. Here he was developing hundreds of acres of land to meet the man’s criteria without having any idea what life experiences or thought processes had led to them, and now he didn’t feel confident he was doing the right thing. Sure, Stonebugger had given him the go-ahead, but that may have been only because he was too overcome with grief over his sister’s death to argue.

Determined to know more about Nelson Sambourg before he took his latest project any further, Lee went to the library and perused the names of printing companies listed in the Gary, Indiana Yellow Pages. There were fourteen companies. Arietta, the name his mother had thrown out, was not among them. She had said she thought the name of the company was musical. None of the names appeared musical to him, but he wrote down the addresses and phone numbers of all fourteen anyway.

When he got home, he called all of them and asked to speak to Nelson Sambourg. Not one of the people who answered knew anyone by that name.

Lee next got out a map of Indiana, wrote down the names of the four smaller towns surrounding Gary, and then called the library to see if they had Yellow Pages for these smaller towns. They did not.

Not to be deterred, Lee drove two and a half hours to Clarke Junction, Indiana, the first town on his list, and found a phone booth. He flipped through the Yellow Pages only to find there were no printing companies listed. There was none in Ivanhoe either. Black Oak listed one company, Sorenson’s Printing. When Lee called the number, a recording told him it had been disconnected.

He stopped at a diner for lunch before heading out to Aetna, the last town on his list. Prepared to find nothing, he finished his sandwich and thought about the disheartening drive home he was likely to have.

The roadside sign indicated less than three thousand people lived in Aetna. He drove through the modest town looking for a gas station but found none until he was about five miles out of town. He pulled in, but the only phone book in their phone booth was the one for Gary, which he had previously examined. He went into the gas station.

“Do you know anything about Aetna?” he asked the young clerk behind the counter.