Her Mother’s Grave

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Noah made Austin Jacks wait it out, let him sweat. Just when Josie expected him to start climbing the walls like some kind of jumping spider, the door to the room opened and Noah poked his head in. “Was that you hollering?” he asked.

Austin stood beneath the camera and pointed to it. “Yeah it was me. You don’t have someone watching me right now?”

“We’re pretty busy right now, Mr. Jacks. I’ve got to use my people on witnesses who have something to say, like your buddy Ian. What do you need? Bathroom break?”

“You talked to Ian?”

“We’re in with him now, yeah,” Noah said, already retreating out of the room.

“He told you about the guy under the bridge?” Austin said.

Noah didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah, but he said he didn’t know the guy’s name.”

“’Cause we never knew his name,” Austin replied. “He’s just, like, the guy under the bridge.”

Josie knew there were only two bridges in Denton that crossed the Susquehanna River, and only one of them offered enough space and privacy for homeless squatters and drug transactions. Noah knew this as well.

“Austin,” Noah said patiently, “there’s more than one guy under that bridge. You think we don’t run busts down there once a week?”

The kid rubbed his scalp with both hands. “I can tell you what he looks like. You could get, like, an artist or whatever to come in, and I can tell him how to draw the guy. You know, like on TV.”

Beside Josie, Gretchen laughed. Everyone thought real-life police work was like what they saw on television, but things like sketch artists cost money. A lot of money. The kind of money no police department would spend on a simple burglary—even for its chief of police.

Noah stepped inside the room, pulling the door closed behind him and motioning for Austin to sit again. This time, the whole chair rattled with his agitation. Noah said, “How about you just tell me what you know about the guy and we’ll go from there.”

Austin’s teeth gnashed on his dirty fingernails. “You gonna help me out, or what? Like with the DA?”

“I can see about some reduced charges, sure.”

Annoyance flashed in Austin’s eyes. “Reduced charges? Come on, man. You could get me out of here. I didn’t even do anything. I mean it wasn’t even my idea.”

Noah leaned back in his chair, relaxed. “Reduced charges is the best I can do, Austin. I don’t make these decisions. You should know, the police lady whose house you broke into was Josie Quinn.”

Austin’s mouth dropped open. “The chief of police? The hot one who’s always on the news?”

“Uh, yeah. We only have one chief of police.”

“Shit.”

“You see my dilemma? I want to help you out here, but my hands are tied. Unless of course you have some information about Lloyd Todd or any of his associates.”

Austin’s brow furrowed momentarily. “Who?”

“Lloyd Todd,” Noah repeated slowly.

The creases in Austin’s forehead deepened. “You mean that big drug dealer you guys busted last month? Todd’s Home Construction?”

Noah nodded.

“I don’t mess with Lloyd Todd,” he said. “Never did.”

Noah tapped his fingers on the table as though bored. “How about someone in Todd’s crew? They’ve been pretty pissed since we put him away. Did someone in his organization ask you to do this job?”

Austin shook his head. “Nah, dude. I told you, I never messed with Lloyd Todd. I’m not trying to get involved in all that. I mean, like, one day I want to go to college and shit. Those guys get in deep with him. He like, controls them.”

“Yeah, we know. How about your guy under the bridge? He work for Todd?”

“I don’t think so. I never saw him talking to any of Todd’s guys. He’s on his own down there, I’m pretty sure about that.”

“What else can you tell me about him?”

Austin rubbed at his cheeks until the skin pinkened. Finally, he said, “Reduced charges, right? What do you want to know?”

“Reduced charges,” Noah repeated. “Tell me whatever you know about him.”

“He’s old, dude. Like, way old.”

“Can you estimate his age?”

“I don’t know, like fifties or sixties.”

Next to Josie, Gretchen let out a lengthy sigh. “Nice to know that fifty is ‘like, way old.’”

Josie laughed at her impression of the kid.

“He’s really skinny,” Austin continued. “I mean, dude’s whacked out most of the time. You know Lloyd Todd don’t take no whackos. You have to be on point to work for him. Anyway, I think this guy lives under the bridge, like, all the time. He’s always got the same old green jacket on, even in the summer.”

Noah narrowed his eyes. “I thought you didn’t know much about him. Sounds like you see him a lot.”

Austin slumped in his chair. “Come on, man. You trying to bust me for something else? So me and Ian go down to the river a lot, okay?”

“To buy drugs,” Noah filled in.

“I’m not saying that. You asked me about the guy, I’m telling you about him.”

“Okay, he’s in his fifties or sixties, skinny, green jacket…”

“Stringy-ass gray hair, wears this old pair of work boots that look about twenty years old.”

“You don’t know his name?”

Austin shook his head. “The people you see down there—you don’t ask for names, you get me?”

“Fair enough. How’d he get involved in your robbery?”

Austin put a hand to his chest, fingers splayed. “My robbery? Dude, that wasn’t my robbery. I’m not trying to rob the chief of police and shit. It was his idea.”

“Who?”

“The guy under the bridge. We get stuff from him sometimes, you know?”

“What kind of stuff?” Noah asked.

“Like stuff, you know? You really want to know? ’Cause if I tell you, you can’t, like, bust me, right?”

Noah sighed. “I’m only interested in what you know about the robbery. I don’t care what ‘stuff’ you were getting from this guy, okay?”

“Okay, okay. We were getting some weed and pills and shit from him—me and Ian—and we were a little behind in payment, so this guy said we could get caught up and get some more stuff if we did a job for him.”

“He approached you with it?”

“Yeah, I guess. He said it would be easy. He’d go with us to the house, get us inside, and then we were supposed to take some shit and mess the place up. But there was nothing in there, you know? Nothing this guy wanted. He didn’t want electronics or anything. He said to look in the bedroom for jewelry and cash, so we did.”

“Who brought the spray paint?”

“He gave it to us. Said we should write something real nasty on the walls.”

“So ‘slut’ and ‘whore’ were your idea?”

Austin’s face flushed. “No, man, not ours. We didn’t even know this bitch—I mean the chief. I said to him, ‘What do you mean by nasty?’ and he said to write ‘slut’ or ‘whore’ or something. He said, ‘Bitches don’t like to be called slut or whore.’”

Noah let out a heavy sigh. “Women don’t like to be called bitches either.”

Austin’s head bobbed. “Hey, man, I know that.”

Next to Josie, Gretchen hung her head. “Progressive,” she muttered.

“Did this man tell you why he wanted you and Ian to do these things?” Noah asked the kid.

“No. We just figured he had a beef with the lady. I mean, he said it was a police lady and she lived alone, ’cause we were like, we don’t want to go into no house if there’s people there or a big dog and shit. He said she was always working. Anyway, he was there, and once we found the jewelry, he left. Said he’d meet up with us later when we were done. Ian said he should stay, ’cause what if we got caught, then we’d take the fall for all of it, so he said he might come back, but I knew he wouldn’t.”

Noah folded his arms across his chest. “Where were you supposed to meet up later?”

“Under the bridge, where else?”

Josie shook her head. “God, this kid is stupid.”

“That’s why the guy used him,” Gretchen agreed.

“You think he’s lying?” Josie asked. “About this man under the bridge?”

“Well, we know from what you heard in the house there’s someone else involved. Hard to say if it’s someone they’re protecting, or if he’s telling the truth about this drug-dealer guy. But there’s one way to find out.”

“He’s not going to be under the bridge,” Josie said.

“Probably not,” Gretchen agreed. “But it’s a good place to start. I’ll head over there with a couple of marked units. Let you know what we find.”