Swift Justice: The Southern Way (15 page)

Ryan Ward interjected. “Sheriff, you said that Deron escaped. How did he escape? Did he escape from your jail?”

“Okay, like I said before, we are still investigating,” the Sheriff said irritably. “The crime just happened. I cannot comment on that now. It’s too early. When the investigation is done, we’ll let you know.”

“When the investigation is done, how long is that going to be?” Ryan Ward asked suspiciously.

“Look, this thing just happened a little while ago; give us some time.” The Sheriff paused. “By the way, did y’all find Deron or do you have any idea where he’s at?”

There was a long pause.

Goldstein responded. “Well, as a matter of fact, I do.”

“Well, where is he? You need to bring him in. He’s a suspect.”

“That’s not what he says, Sheriff,” said Goldstein. “He says that
you
kidnapped him, brought him to the warehouse, handcuffed him to the table, and left him to be killed by three white guys”

“That’s a bunch of bullshit. No way. He escaped. You need to bring him in. That’s bullshit.”

“You know, Sheriff, I called the FBI this morning,” said Goldstein, “and they are already on their way, and they’re supposed to be here in a couple of hours. I’m not releasing Deron to you. I’ll release him to the FBI. And the FBI is going to have issues with you for not only kidnapping Deron but with Leon because you kidnapped Leon the other night as well.”

“I didn’t do squat. Anyway, this is a local matter. The FBI has no business being here.”

“Well, there was a kidnapping,” replied Goldstein.

“Yeah, it’s a kidnapping—”

“Oh, so you admit it was a kidnapping,” interrupted Ryan Ward.

“No, I mean …”

“What you’re saying? Is that there was a kidnapping,” said Ryan Ward.

“Listen, listen, y’all do what you want. Okay, we’re investigating this. We’re going to make a decision here for the Negroes who are in jail right now, whether we want to press charges or release them. We’ll decide that later on. But right now, listen guys, I’ve been up for over twenty-four hours, and I got to get some rest.”

“Rest!” said Goldstein. “I thought you said you were going to investigate. What about my guys? They’re stuck in jail, and we got to wait for you to
sleep
.”

“Look, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. We have every officer working on this case. We will make a decision about your guys today.”

As soon as the Sheriff left the police station, he went directly to the Social Club. Junior had arranged for there to be a meeting at half past six. The Sheriff lay on the davenport at the club to get some much needed sleep before the meeting.

Just before the meeting was supposed to start, Junior gently nudged his father to wake up for the meeting. Everyone was there except for Paulie who was still at the hospital getting his wounds treated. Amazingly, the Judge was in his usual three-piece suit. The Sheriff realized that he couldn’t remember the last time he saw the Judge without his suit.

They all sat around the conference table and each of them lit up their cigarettes. It was the same men as in the prior meetings: The Judge, the Sheriff, Acton, Archie, and Junior.

The Judge began the meeting as usual. “Sheriff, why don’t you fill us in on what’s going on?”

“Well, we got a fucking huge mess on our hands.” The Sheriff really wanted to say that the Judge fucked everything up with
his
crazy ideas. This all started with the Judge wanting to kill Leon and then it was his idea to kill Deron. The Judge fucked up, thought the Sheriff.

The Sheriff continued. “It’s a disaster. Two of the Sawyer boys are dead and one is in the hospital.”

“Back up a minute,” said the Judge. “Tell us what happened from the start.”

“Okay, what happened was, I brought Deron to the warehouse like we planned.”

Archie, the banker, interrupted, “Hey, that wasn’t my plan. That was y’all that wanted to do that.”

The Judge stopped him. “Okay, come on Archie,
you
were actually involved in last night’s plan. I know you didn’t like last night’s plan or the plan from the previous night. Hey, let’s not sit here and place blame on anyone. Let’s, let the Sheriff talk, so we can figure out how to deal with this.”

Yeah, let’s not place blame on anyone, thought the Sheriff, because if they did, the blame would fall squarely on the Judge. Maybe it was time for a new Imperial Wizard.

“So, I locked Deron to the table,” continued the Sheriff. “I told him that I had to get something, so I left him there. I went back to the station. And from what I get from Paulie is that he and his brothers came around, and they were going to kill Deron. But then, someone, a person shot his two brothers and killed them. The person was in the back. Paulie tried to get away and almost got away but was shot in the arm on his way out the door.”

“Did Paulie see him?” asked Acton.

“No, he couldn’t see a fuckin’ thing. He says it was too dark.”

“Was it a nigger?” asked Acton.

“He really doesn’t know. He couldn’t see the guy. We can’t get much out of Paulie.”

“Shit!” said Archie.

The Judge nodded for the Sheriff to continue.

“So Paulie runs out, and the guy chases him but not for long. Paulie escapes and hitches a ride to the hospital. He’s got a bullet in him, and they have to take it out. He’s unavailable right now.”

“Okay, so what else is going on?” asked the Judge.

“It just keeps getting worse,” said the Sheriff. “Deron’s gone. Whoever killed the Sawyer boys, gave Deron the keys for the cuffs. I don’t know where he’s at, but apparently this Goldstein, Jew, fuckin’ lawyer, knows where Deron’s at.”

“What!” yelled Acton. “He knows where he’s at. Well tell him to bring him in.”

“Well, that’s what I fuckin’ told him, but he being a little smartass, says no. He’s going to bring him to the FBI.”

“What?” said Archie.

“The FBI is not coming here,” said the Judge.

“Well, I know we thought that yesterday,” replied the Sheriff, “but Goldstein swears that he called them this morning, and they are already on their way and should be here in probably in about an hour. He originally said a couple of hours but that was a while ago, so they might even be here now for all I know. I think he’s telling the truth on that, and he says that he is going to bring Deron to the FBI. He’s already spoke to Deron, and he knows that we kidnapped him because Deron told him. Now I think of it, he must have Deron because he knew the details.”

“Holy Shit!” said Acton. “So what did Deron tell him?”

“Well, Deron told him the fuckin’ truth, unfortunately. He said that I brought him over there, I handcuffed him, and left him there to be killed by three white men.”

“And what did you tell Goldstein?” asked Acton.

“Well, of course, I told Goldstein that Deron’s story was a bunch of bullshit.”

“Fuck, fuck,” cried Archie. “Oh, man. We’re fuckin’ doomed.”

“Okay, go on, keep giving us the bad news,” said the Judge as he was shaking his head in frustration.

“So, I’m tired; I haven’t slept, and they were firing questions at me. I was trying to get out of there. They kind of got me admitting that I kidnapped Deron. I couldn’t believe—”

“You got to be fuckin’ kidding,” barked Acton.

“No, I’m not. He tricked me into it.”

“Wait, back up a minute,” order the Judge. “Exactly, what did Deron tell them?”

“Like I said before, Deron told them exactly what happened and it jives with what I know and with Paulie’s version of events. Goldstein says that the FBI is going to have issues with us kidnapping Deron, and that we’re going to be in trouble.”

“Well, we got to find Deron, ourselves,” said the Judge.

“Yeah, I have no idea where he’s at,” said the Sheriff, “and I haven’t even thought about it. We could check his mother’s house, but I doubt that he would be there. It’s obvious he’s hiding.”

The Sheriff paused. “Oh, and also the newspaper guy was there. He was taking notes and asking questions. They had that fuckin’ state trooper there as well. People were already coming down here for the three murders. I’m sure that more will come now that there are two more murders. For all I know, this could be national news by noon today. I’m sure the reporter has already wired in the story to other news organizations. We got a colossal fuck on our hands. This is going to blow up so fast. We got to figure out a plan.”

“Yeah, that’s right we do,” said the Judge.

The Sheriff continued. “Oh yeah, Goldstein is demanding that we immediately release the prisoners. They couldn’t have done it. That’s what Goldstein says. And our forty-eight hours is almost up.” The Sheriff paused and glanced at the Judge. “So, Judge, it’s all the news I have. There’s no good news. I guess the only good news is that Paulie is still alive.”

“So what are we going to do, Judge,” asked Acton.

“Okay, let me think about this for a minute,” replied the Judge. “Okay, let’s say he’s correct and not bluffing, and the FBI is coming. Sheriff, they are going to question you right away. Goldstein probably has already told them Deron’s story, so you got to kind of figure out how you are going to address that, but let’s think about this. They’re going to come in and wondered about these prisoners. I think what we do is tell them that it is a local matter, and it’s none of their business. And don’t tell them squat.”

Archie interjected. “Yeah, but they aren’t going to say that the Sheriff kidnapped Deron, and wouldn’t that be a federal matter?”

“No, it’s not a federal matter because we didn’t bring him across state lines,” replied the Judge. “Okay, I think we need to release the guys—the niggers.”

“You think so?” asked Acton.

“Yes, if we release them, then we don’t have to deal with the FBI,” said the Judge. “We need to tell them that we released them and we’re still looking for the murderers. We don’t have sufficient evidence, at this time, to press charges against the prisoners, so let’s release them.”

“Really, you want to release them?” asked the Sheriff.

“Yeah, let’s release them,” replied the Judge.

“What about Deron?” asked the Sheriff. “What are we going to say about Deron? Are we still going to stick to the story that he escaped?”

“Yeah, I don’t know about that,” said the Judge. “That’s a good point. Golly. Why did you fuckin’ say that?”

“Hey, I didn’t know what else to say.”

“What the fuck are we going to do?” asked Archie. “The FBI is going to be up our fuckin’ asses.”

“We got to get the FBI out of here,” said Acton. “They’re thinking that we did the kidnapping. We need to get the FBI thinking that the niggers did it and let them investigate them.”

The Judge interrupted. “Yeah, let them do our work for us. That would be great. They’re coming here thinking that we’re the bad guys. We need to get them directed to chase after the niggers, but how do we do that?”

The Sheriff spoke. “We just tell them that it has to be a nigger. No white person would do this for a nigger.”

“They’re going to need more than that, Sheriff,” said Acton.

“Dad, I have … a suggestion,” Junior said hesitantly. “Can I speak?”

The Sheriff shot Junior a threatening look. All the men turned their heads in bewilderment that Junior finally spoke up.

“Sure, go head,” said the Judge.

“Well, what I have is a very creative and outrageous idea, and you’re just going to have to hear me out. Just do me a favor and don’t say anything until you hear me out.”

The Judge nodded for him to continue.

“I have a sure-fire way where we’ll have the FBI looking for the niggers versus us.”

“How would they do that?” the Sheriff asked irritably.

Junior continued. “If the FBI thought we were under attack—if they witnessed that we were under attack themselves, they would all of a sudden go after the niggers. How do we do that? This is the part that is going to shock y’all out, but hear me out.” Junior paused and seemed reluctant to speak. “We should burn down the Social Club—”

“What the fuck are you talking about,” exclaimed the Sheriff. “We’re not burning down this social club. I love this place. This place has been here for over fifty years.”

“Yeah, Junior, what the fuck idea is this,” said Acton.

Junior defended himself. “Look, just hear me out. I asked you to hear me out.”

The Judge nodded for him to continue.

“Okay, this is what Hitler did in World War II. I read about this. How did he get into power? I don’t know the exact facts, but he burned down his headquarters or something like it. It riled up his base, and that was the start of him going into power. He was the one who set fire to his beloved headquarters. No one suspected that
he
burned down his own headquarters, and he blamed his enemies. So let’s do the same here.”

The Sheriff noticed that the idea was starting to resonate with the other men in the room. The Sheriff had to stop his son’s nonsense. “This is fuckin’ crazy,” said the Sheriff.

“Dad, hear me out.” Junior paused. “We burn it down while the FBI is here.”

“Yeah, but what are we going to do without our social club?” asked the Sheriff.

“Well, we got insurance money,” replied Junior. “Isn’t this place insured? Insurance will pay for it.”

“Not if it’s arson,” said the Sheriff.

Junior continued to defend his plan. “Yeah, it is going to be arson. It’s going to be arson because the niggers are the ones that actually have done it. That’s what we’re going to say. They would never suspect that
we
burned down our own social club. It’s perfect. We should get insurance for someone that burns down our own building. It’s like getting robbed. Insurance should cover it.”

“What about the buildings next to us?” asked the Sheriff. The Sheriff was starting to see that his son might have a decent idea after all. Plus, the Sheriff noticed that the other guys seemed to like his idea as well.

“Well, we just have to hope that it doesn’t spread,” said Junior. “There’s a little gap between buildings, so we should be okay.”

“This is fucking crazy, Judge,” said Archie. “Junior, you’re are off your rocker.”