Chapter Six #4
“What did you argue about?”
“About the same damn thing we always argued about. Bill beating the shit out of her and Allison making excuses. He near about knocked her head off. Herniated a disc in her neck. She was having all kinds of pain down her arm. Couldn’t even take the trash out.
I thought for sure that was finally it. She was really going to leave him.
Then she starts weaseling around like, ‘I dunno, Reg …’” His voice took on a falsetto.
“‘Bill’s a good provider, he loves Mandy, he gets in these moods and it’s my fault for not leaving him alone … ’”
That sounded familiar, but Emmy wasn’t going to let him off the hook. “Bill told me you tried to put the fear of God into him.”
“More than once. Never did a damn bit of good.”
“Did Allison tell you she filed for divorce?”
“Yeah, after she found out Bill gave her the clap.”
Emmy felt her head spinning. “What?”
“I told you he was a regular at the Dew Drop. Bound to happen eventually. Allison was pissed the hell off. No idea why that’s what finally pushed her over the edge.
Everybody knows Bill’s been paying whores for years.
She got him served with divorce papers at work.
I bet his mama had a heart attack.” He laughed, but then his expression suddenly turned serious.
He gave a rueful shake of his head. “Maybe it would’ve stuck this time.
I heard she had her bags packed when she was killed. She was so close.”
Emmy wouldn’t let him sidetrack her. “So which thing did you and Allison argue about—Bill herniating a disc in her neck or Bill giving her the clap?”
His eyebrow raised in a gesture of respect. He wasn’t used to people calling him out on his inconsistencies. “I might’ve made some off-color jokes about Bill’s proclivities.”
Emmy had seen the way Allison quickly rallied to Bill’s defense whenever anyone pointed out that he was actually a piece of shit. “Why did you demote Allison from the drug squad?”
“Because nobody on her team trusted her anymore. I didn’t have a choice.
She couldn’t bust down a door not knowing who was gonna have her back.
” He paused a beat. “She agreed with me when it happened. She was ready to ride a desk. More time with Mandy, got to keep her rank, didn’t take a hit on her salary.
Slow walking into retirement. That’s not a demotion. That’s a gift.”
“Then why did she quit?”
“She hit her twenty years.” Reggie shrugged. “Damn, Emmy. Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it. You wanna be up to your ass in alligators all day or sit on a beach somewhere collecting a pension?”
“She didn’t sit on a beach. She got her PI license. She kept working.”
“It’s hard to stop chasing bad guys.”
Emmy knew that, at least, was some truth. “Why did her team stop trusting her?”
He didn’t answer immediately. There was something furtive about him. He checked the squad room for eavesdroppers. Then he leaned forward, his meaty hand resting on her desk. “Dropping that case last year was a bad look. Wasn’t her fault, but you know how it is—all the blame, none of the glory.”
“What case last year?”
Reggie looked genuinely confused. “You know the case.”
“If I knew the case, I wouldn’t be asking.”
He gave her a look like she was bullshitting him. “Your dad never told you?”
Emmy had no idea what he was talking about.
“Seriously?” Reggie gave an incredulous laugh. “You’re telling me your dumbass ex-husband was caught buying ten grams of fentanyl and your dad never said a word?”
She felt like he’d just set the room on fire. Her eyes searched for Cole. His headphones were wrapped around his head. Still, she kept her voice low, because she had spent Cole’s entire life protecting him from the abject stupidity of his father. “Buying fentanyl from whom?”
“Whom do you think?”
There was only one name that came to mind. The Dew Drop Inn was not Wesley “Woody” Woodrow’s only place of business. From all reports, he’d set up a satellite office in the back of Jonah’s bar. If fentanyl was being sold on the property, it was being sold by Woody.
She said, “Tell me exactly what happened.”
“Allison made the arrest around midnight. Your dad knocked on my door half an hour later. I didn’t even know we’d picked up Jonah. Took me a while to understand what Gerald was asking. I thought he was a pretty straight shooter. Shocked the shit out of me, if I’m being honest.”
Her teeth set. She could tell Reggie was enjoying dragging this out. “What did my father ask you to do?”
“Make the case go away.” Reggie shrugged. “Which wasn’t easy. You know what a dick Jonah is. Allison’s whole squad was ready to send him to big boy prison.”
Emmy was momentarily speechless. Her father had bent the rules, but to her knowledge, he’d never broken any of them. “What did you do?”
Reggie motioned for Emmy to lean in closer. “I had Allison lose the fentanyl. Never made it to the lab. No lab test, no proof, no charges, no case.”
Emmy felt her mouth go spitless. “Did Dad know you destroyed evidence?”
“’Course he did. That’s what he wanted. Problem was, some of the guys on Allison’s squad figured it out, too.
They were super pissed off.” Reggie shrugged again.
“Didn’t help that Jonah bragged about skating on the fenty.
The squad assumed Allison did it as a favor to you.
Women covering for other women—that kind of thing.
Made the guys question her loyalties. Like, if shit got real, was she gonna be on their side or yours? ”
There weren’t supposed to be sides. They all wore a damn badge. “And you never told her team what really happened?”
“Nope.” He leaned back in his chair. “She could’ve told them herself, but she didn’t. We both respected your dad too much. He was a legend.”
Emmy didn’t buy it. “Gerald Clifton asked you to destroy evidence to protect Jonah Lang?”
“Naw, he didn’t give a shit about Jonah.” Reggie dragged it out another beat. “He asked me to kick the case because he didn’t want to burn a valuable source.”
Emmy shook her head. None of this made sense. “What source?”
Reggie basked in her confusion for a second longer. “Gerald really never told you?”
“Told me what, Reggie?”
“According to your dad, Woody was his confidential informant.”