Page 40 of In Cold Blood

He shook his head. “No, I had things to do, but seriously, after his name was attached to that operation, I knew it was only a matter of time before someone took him out or my name got connected to him.” He took a bite of his food and chewed it, his eyes welling up. “Who knows if I’ll be next.”

“Then why are you still in the county?”

“Because it’s my home. It’s the only place I have connections. Where someone is willing to give me a job.”

“The pub and brewery?”

“Yeah. I applied everywhere, Noah and only a few places are willing to touch a guy who has a record.” He paused, picking at his food. “Anyway. If you want to know why I think they killed him… I think they wanted your brother out of the way. Payback for his involvement.”

Noah nodded thoughtfully. It made sense; however, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was something more than retribution. Something about it didn’t sit right with him. If that was the case, whoever had targeted him would have taken out others. These kinds of stings weren’t a one-man operation. Multiple agencies would have been involved, including the DEA, local PD, and county sheriff’s offices, especially since it had crossed into a different county.

“All right. So eventually Luke got those he was after.”

“No. He thought that was just the tip of the iceberg. I thought he would get the fifty-four they arrested to flip and spill thebeans but he came back to me. Left multiple voice messages.” Dax dipped into his pocket. “Here, you can listen to them if you want,” he said, taking out his phone with a set of headphones attached to it. Dax swiped the screen with his thumb and then set it down.

Noah hesitated for a second but he wanted to verify what Dax was telling him. He picked up the earbud and stuck it in his ear and accessed the voicemail.

It was eerie to hear his brother’s voice again. The first few messages were just him asking Dax to call him back, the final two were him venting, threatening to put him inside if he didn’t get back in touch. It was unlike him. There was an edge to his tone. The tension and fear were almost palpable. There were no names but from what he could tell, Luke seemed convinced that the recovery of 850 bags of heroin mixed with fentanyl, sixty-five grams of heroin, and three kilos of cocaine was nothing but low-hanging fruit. Luke felt it was smoke and mirrors, for something far bigger. However, he didn’t say what that was.

Noah hit stop and took out the earbud and then slid the phone back across the table. “Give me a name?”

“What?”

“A name.”

“Oh no, we’re not doing that. I did that with your brother. It ended there.”

“Dax, this isn’t just about getting narcotics off the street. Hell, that will always be there. It isn’t even about getting justice for Luke. Anyone who would do this is a danger to the community. If they would gun down a cop in cold blood, what do you think they are doing behind the scenes to others?” Then he brought it home. “What do you think they will do to you if they find out you were involved — and believe me, I’m sure somewhere, someone besides Luke knows you are involved, and if that gets out…” He trailed off letting him fill in the blanks.

Dax nervously shoveled more food into his mouth and delayed answering. His hand trembled ever so slightly. He looked at Noah, contemplating the gravity of the situation.

“You must have heard someone’s name. Someone who did these kinds of things before. Someone people are afraid of. Something like this doesn’t happen in a small town without a few egotistical pricks trying to take the glory for it — you know, I killed a cop. I got away with it. They’ll never find out.”

Dax shrugged.

“C’mon. Think.”

Noah knew it wouldn’t be easy to extract this from him. If he was willing to run from his brother, it meant he was scared, truly scared of those pulling the strings. When he could tell that he wasn’t getting anywhere, he changed it up and shifted gears. “All right. Hawk Island. What do you know about that?”

“Your brother believed that it was linked to this big thing.”

“What’s the deal with this big thing?”

“I don’t know,” Dax replied.

“Right, because my brother was a closed book. Got it. So, what led him to believe that something big was happening?”

Dax set his cutlery down. “A local family who were renting the island for the weekend. Their youngest found a packet of drugs in the boathouse floating in the water near one of the boats. The owner of the island denied knowing anything about it and said it could have floated in from any number of places, but some old guy on the mainland said that he’d seen boats coming and going to the island in the late hours.”

“Ed Baxter?”

“Yeah. You’ve met him?”

Noah thought of the long morning jog. “You could say that.”

“Anyway, your brother thought that it might be connected. That possibly a brick of gear had been dropped in the water orone of them had skimmed off the top, planning to swing back and pick it up.”

“And so who is the owner of the island nowadays?”