Page 41 of Night Prey
“I won’t be silenced anymore.” She lifted her hand again but let it fall as her face creased with guilt. “Maybe it’s my fault he’s dead. If I had stood up to you, maybe he’d still be alive.”
“Nonsense,” Flagg said, his tone patronizing. “You couldn’t do anything for him. He was destined for this path.”
“You’re wrong, as usual, and it’s time the truth came out.” Karen shifted her gaze to Ian. “Apparently, Junior was good at selling drugs. He moved up the chain and was a righthand man to the boss.” She swung her face to Flagg. “Which he could’ve been for you, if you’d only given him a chance and time and encouraged him to do the beekeeping thing on the side instead of mocking him.”
“Do you know who he worked for?” Ian asked.
“A man named Tirone Olivo.”
“Are you sure?”
Karen nodded. “I tried to ignore Junior’s lifestyle. Flashy car. Nice clothes. Lots of dining out. Luxury vacations. I knew he had to be doing something illegal to have all of that. I confronted him about a year ago. It took me that long to work up the courage. When I did, he told me everything. He was proud of what he’d accomplished and was glad to finally be able to tell someone about it.”
“Proud?” Flagg scoffed. “If either of you had told me, I would’ve turned him in. We don’t break the law, Karen. Ever.”
“Which is why he didn’t say a word to you, and I didn’t tell you until yesterday.” Karen gritted her teeth. “But you knew something was up. You had to.”
“Did you ever meet Olivo?” Ian asked Karen to keep her talking.
“Once.” Karen shuddered. “He was quite charming and seemed normal, but there was a dangerous vibe underneath it all. Junior told me he was a ruthless, terrible man, and he wouldn’t let Junior go when he wanted to take a break.”
“Was this recent?” Ian asked.
She nodded. “Something spooked Junior, and he said he had to fix it. Could’ve been the cancer, too, that set him on the path he was on when he died.”
Now, Ian thought they were getting somewhere. “This thing. He said it had to do with Olivo?”
She shook her head. “He just said he discovered something that he had to fix, and that he was sorry, but it had to come out. That it wouldn’t be good for the family. So I figured he did something with Olivo, and he planned to go to the cops, and it would all make the news.”
“Did he come to you people?” Flagg looked hopeful.
“There’s no report of him filing a complaint or communicating with our department in any way,” Ian said, wondering. Did the thing Junior had mentioned cause his death? Did it have something to do with why Olivo had hunkered down in his home with his family?
“Then I don’t know what he was up to,” Karen said.
Ian turned his attention to Flagg. “Before Junior died, he spoke with one of our classmates whose parents had died in a car crash in the nineties. He told her that the crash wasn’t an accident, and if she wanted to know about it, to meet him in the room. She did, but before he told her anything, he was shot.”
“Do you think these parents were involved with this Olivo thug too, and he killed them?” Karen asked.
“Perhaps,” Ian said, but he doubted they had any involvement with drugs. Still, he couldn’t rule that out. “The classmate has just moved back into her parents’ old home, and I’m wondering if that somehow triggered Junior’s comment. Her parents were Lewis and Joanna Rice. Do those names ring a bell?”
“No.” Flagg paused, eyes narrowed. “No. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard of them.”
“Me either,” Karen said. “And I have no idea how Junior knew about them.”
“You should know,” Flagg said, sounding solemn. “Our son had very low self-esteem and had a habit of embellishing things to make himself seem more important. He had trouble getting girlfriends too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was just making up the story to find a way to connect with this woman.”
It sounded like Flagg contributed to Junior’s low self-esteem, as his wife had claimed.
Karen fired a testy look at her husband. “You’re so quick to say he was wrong, but maybe he wasn’t.” She shifted to lock gazes with Ian. “Whatever you need to find this killer that I can provide, it’s yours. Anything. I will see that my son’s death is avenged.”
9
Ian was once again ensconced in the back seat of the Nighthawk Security vehicle next to Malone, heading out to Peck’s house. He updated the others on his interview with Gilbert Flagg. As he finished, his phone chimed, and he looked at the text. “Blake found a friend of Junior’s. Name’s Timothy Richardson. He wasn’t in our class. Sound familiar?”
Malone shook her head. “Did Blake talk to him?”
Ian nodded and read the rest of the text. “He claims not to know about Junior’s job. Thought he was an importer. They met in a bar a couple of years ago. Basically, just hung out to watch sports and drink beer.”
