Parts of Book Four #2
Shay glanced at the red dots and sucked in his breath.
There were red dots in Chicago, New York City and Kansas City.
“What the hell?” Shay grabbed the book from King and studied the map.
All total there were two dozen red dots but now they knew where to start looking.
He looked up at the others now and asked, “I wonder who they got to build the bombs other than Dale Bailey?”
Mindy scoffed. “Anyone that ever knew Soleman Porter would know he always has a backup plan. They would also know that Soleman never pays what he said he would pay. He engaged Dale but he never expected him to build those bombs nor did he expect to have to pay him. He would accept anything Dale might have had ready for him but he knew the type of man Dale was.” She nodded at the book in his hand, “You might find another name in that book, but more important you might find his real reason behind the bombings. Soleman always had more on his agenda than he ever told anyone, even his own council.”
Shay studied her then commented, “He sounds like he never trusted anyone he considered a friend.”
Mindy stared at him. “Because he never did. I used to watch him and I could see him growing more paranoid every year. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he didn’t even trust his own son.
I think something happened about three years ago, something that shook him deeply.
I mean he’s always been unstable but in the last three years that’s grown to deep paranoia. ”
Shay stared at her. “Any idea why that might be?”
Mindy shook her head. “Not really. Soleman never mentioned anything that happened behind his own walls.” Then she paused and a look of shock came over her face. She glanced at Jordy then back at Shay. “But I think that was about the same time Salvador found his girlfriend.”
Shay kept his gaze on her and asked, “What does the fact of Salvador having a girlfriend have to do with anything?”
She trembled a bit as she whispered, “Have you ever heard of Lester Diamond?”
Shay halted as he looked a bit spooked. “What does he have to do with this?”
King turned and asked him, “You know this name?”
“Oh yeah, I know that name,” Shay admitted.
“I put him in prison fifteen years ago when he blew up a dam and flooded a valley in Montana. That flood killed twenty-three people and wiped an entire town out. And when we tracked him down and asked him why he did it, do you know what he told us? He said he loved the panic and he said he laughed as the people scattered. He didn’t care that people died, he got off on the panic he caused.
” Shay shook his head. Then he paused and glared at her. “How do you know that name anyway?”
Mindy swallowed hard and explained it, “Three years ago, Salvador brought a woman home with him and her name was Louise Matteo. They lived in Soleman’s house but she’s even more crazy than Soleman ever was.
I thought I heard once that Matteo wasn’t her real last name and my grandfather talked about the name Lester Diamond.
I heard him speaking to another member of Soleman’s council and he only said that name was whispered in the shadows.
I mean even he seemed afraid of the man.
If Lester really is Louise’s dad wouldn’t she know how to build a bomb too? ”
Shay nodded at her. “I don’t doubt it but let’s check on our end first before we label her unnecessarily.” He reached for his phone and made a call.
King looked over at Mindy and asked, “What else do you know about this Louise person?”
Mindy shrugged. “I know that when she came, things changed. Salvador seemed more confident and Soleman became more rigid. He changed and began looking over his shoulder all the time. The longer she was there the more paranoid he got. It was almost like he was afraid of her but he would never say a bad word about her either. And Salvador? He began getting more confident and meaner. She wasn’t very nice but of course we couldn’t say anything bad about her.
If we did, Soleman’s fist got tighter and he had a hard grip on them already. ”
Seth looked up from his laptop and shook his head. “I ran a check on Louise and you were right.” He looked over at Shay. “Her mother’s name is Leslie Matteo but her father is reported to be Lester Diamond. His name isn’t listed on her birth certificate but he was there the day she was born.”
“Damn,” Shay swore. “This is not good news.”
They all stared at him.
After they caught Leroy...
Shay glared at Leroy. “We found something else while we were collecting the bombs you made.”
“And what was that?” Leroy growled back.
“We found your wife.” Shay growled. “Or rather what was left of her.”
Louise froze then turned her head to glare at him, then she asked, “What do you mean what was left of her?”
“We found her bones buried by the first bombs, the ones that were leaking into the soil,” Shay explained. “The ones that were so unstable that we had to bury them in cement rather than try and move them.”
Louise gasped. “She’s dead?”
Shay stared at her. “Yeah she’s dead, like eleven years dead.”
“You fucking liar!” Louise snapped at Leroy. “You lied straight to the one woman you never should have lied to, boyo. She gonna fucking rip you apart with her bare hands.”
Shay looked puzzled. “Who are you talking about?”
Louise looked livid as she replied, “My mother bucko. Althea was her sister, the sister she raised after her own mother died. Yeah, that’s right, the two sisters married brothers and when Leroy fucked up with that yacht, my father told him to find someplace and hold up for a while, he was supposed to drop out of sight until everyone forgot what he did but he kept doing what got him in trouble in the first place.
Leroy kept making his stupid bombs and kept failing until he finally got it right.
” She looked back at Leroy. “But you couldn’t stay right, could you?
You had to kill the one person you never should have touched.
” She turned back to Shay. “How did you figure it was Althea? How do you know for sure it was really her?”
Shay folded the papers in his hand. “We did a DNA test. We checked Bethy’s blood against the maternal DNA from Althea bones. They matched. The bones we found were hers.”
“You better learn to pray, Uncle Leroy. When my mother hears what you did they won’t be a rock big enough for you to hide under.
She will pulverize them all until she finds you.
You lied to her and your own words will come back to haunt you.
” She crossed her arms over her chest. “And I’ll be sure she knows, I’ll tell her what you did and that they finally found her remains.
” Then she looked at Shay again. “How did she die? Can you tell?”
Shay nodded. “Yeah, we could tell. Her bones told us that much.”
“What did he do to her?” Louise asked softly.
“First, he dislocated her shoulder and we believe he smashed her eye socket out then he broke her wrist,” Shay told her. “Finally, he snapped her neck.”
Louise looked even angrier. “You sick fucker. My mom believes in an eye for an eye. Better hope you can take the pain cuz its coming.”
One of the guys from Chester’s group had been listening and he said, “Hell, Leroy the fat lady is about to sing. And her song won’t stop until you’re down and bleeding out. You never should have hurt her sister, son.”
Leroy just stumbled back to the cot in his cell. He laid down and stared at the ceiling for a long moment.
Shay stood there watching then he saw a single tear fall down his weathered cheek. “Yeah, feel sorry for yourself, cause no one else will.” Shay turned and headed toward the door.
Leroy called out, “If she comes after me, you have to make sure she pays for her own sins, right?”
Shay didn’t say a word, he just went through the door and locked up the room again.