But Not For Lust by BJ Bourg (comprehension books .txt) 📕

he said. “Just a few hits here and there. You know, to bring in a little cash.”

“How’d it work?”

“Well, I would meet J-Rock in a parking lot—we never used the same one twice—and I’d give him my leather bag with meth inside,” he explained. “A few days later, we would meet up again and he’d give me back the leather bag, but there would be money inside of it then.”

“Who’d he have working for him?”

“Nobody was working for him,” he said. “I didn’t approve that.”

“Do you know what happened to your satchel?”

He studied me for a long moment. Finally, he nodded. “Yeah, you found it when you killed J-Rock.”

“I didn’t kill J-Rock.”

“His girlfriend filmed the whole thing.” Neal leaned back and nodded. “How y’all chased him down and pushed him over the cliff.”

“There’re no cliffs in southeast Louisiana,” I said dismissively. “So, you think I found your leather satchel after J-Rock died?”

“Well, yeah, how else would you have it?”

I studied his features carefully. Unfortunately for me and my case, I was starting to believe him. If he wasn’t involved, then who could it be? I’d run out of suspects. It’s always the hope of the investigator that one witness leads to another, who leads to another, who hopefully leads to the perpetrator. That wasn’t happening for me with this witness. I’d reached a dead end.

“I got it from Ty Richardson.”

Neal’s face remained blank.

“You knew nothing about Ty Richardson working for J-Rock?” I pressed. “You expect me to believe J-Rock never told you about Ty?”

He shook his head. “I’ve never heard that name before tonight.”

I continued questioning him late into the night, but I got nowhere. There were only two options—he was doing a damn good job of lying, or he was telling the truth. I believed it was the latter, but I wasn’t going to cross him off of my suspect list just yet.

  CHAPTER 27

I woke up early on Wednesday morning and dressed in old jeans and a hoody that had the word “Police” displayed across the back and our department’s logo on the front—just as I had on the previous day. I was used to eight-to-five hours when we didn’t have a major case going on, so waking up at five was a bit out of my comfort zone.

Susan was still in bed. I was tempted to curl up beside her and fall back asleep, at least for another hour. After all, it’s not like I had been told to be up at that hour—it had been my choice, and I could change my mind if I wanted to.

Susan rubbed her eyes and gave me a once-over. “Are you going back out there today?”

I nodded. I had spent most of the previous day searching the wooded area behind Orange Way, going inch-by-inch, trying to find the slightest clue to tell me if Ty had been there. I had also spent some time driving the streets of Mechant Loup, speaking to residents and asking them if they had seen or heard from Ty since Saturday night. It seemed as though he had simply vanished from the face of the earth.

“Didn’t you check that area yesterday?” Susan asked, stifling a yawn. “If he was there, I’m sure you would’ve found him.”

I explained that I had begun branching out from his camp and had covered a lot of ground, but there was still so much area to cover. “If he went out there Saturday night after what happened to his mom, he might’ve gotten turned around in the dark. He could’ve wandered deep into the swamps and gotten lost. He could’ve even fallen into a canal or stepped in a hole and broken a leg. Hell, he might be lying out there right now just waiting for someone to come along and help him.”

Susan pursed her lips. “Okay, I’m not gonna let you go out there alone again. Let me get some people together. The more eyes in the woods the better. Get permission from the landowner for a large group of us to go out there, and I’ll meet you with a posse.”

I kissed her and left the room, stopping to see Grace before leaving for work. She was sound asleep in her bed, her small arms spread wide like she had been falling-down tired when she went to bed. I gently kissed her forehead and rushed down the stairs. Achilles was in the back yard with Coco, and I called him over to the gate.

“You’re coming with me today, boy.” I could’ve sworn he understood what I said, because he whipped around in a complete circle and then sat abruptly on his haunches, his entire body quivering with anticipation as I opened the gate. Coco’s eyes drooped and she seemed to frown. “Sorry, girl, someone needs to stay behind and guard Gracie and her grandma.”

Achilles took a giant leap, landed on the driver’s seat of my truck, and then scrambled to the passenger’s side. I had decided to take my truck, because I didn’t want Achilles’ claws tearing up the upholstery on the Tahoe. I had also used it yesterday after making a trip to the landfill to unload the remnants of the outhouse from the Waxtuygi Wildlife Nature Park.

As I drove up the long street that led from our house to Main Street, Achilles stuck his head out of the window and allowed his tongue to flap in the wind. His eyes were half closed. He was the picture of sheer pleasure.

Before heading to the back of Orange Way, I drove to Sam Beard’s house and quickly downloaded the footage from his surveillance cameras to a flash drive. I had meant to do it yesterday, but had gotten so wrapped up in my search for Ty that I’d run out of daylight. Today, I decided to do it before I