The Last Mile

Chapter 58

They all sat in the car in front of Smithers’s house staring out the windows.

Bogart spoke first. “The chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and possibly the next Speaker of the House. I have to admit, I didn’t see that one coming.”

Jamison said, “He was one of the Musketeers. I wonder who the other two were.”

Decker said, “Easy enough to find out.”

“Where?” asked Jamison.

It was Mars who answered. “High school football stars? Why don’t we start there?”

Decker looked at him. “We’ll make a detective out of you yet, Melvin.”

Cain High School was smack in the center of town. They found the school office, made their request, and were quickly shuttled off to the library. There a young woman in slacks and a sweater greeted them.

“The Three Musketeers?” she said in response to their question. “I have heard that. It has to do with—”

“Football,” answered Mars. “Back in the sixties. Thurman Huey?”

“Right, okay. I just started here a few years ago, but I can show you where all the yearbooks are.”

They were led to a shelf on which were kept all the yearbooks for the school, dating back to the 1920s. They had already determined Thurman Huey’s exact age, so they knew when he probably graduated from high school. Jamison found the right volume, and they gathered around looking over her shoulder as she slowly turned the pages.

Mars saw it first, probably because it was on the pages dedicated to the football team.

“The Three Musketeers,” he said.

It was a photo of three young men in football uniforms. The caption below the photo read, “Thurman Huey, Danny Eastland, and Roger McClellan, the Three Musketeers.”

Mars took the book and pointed to the three figures. “See how they’re lined up? Huey’s the QB, and the other two are the halfbacks. They’re running a version of the veer offense. Off that they can run the triple option. We used to do a variation of that at UT sometimes.”

“And that formation came into being during the 1960s, when they were in high school,” added Decker.

Bogart studied the pictures of the young men. “So, Danny Eastland and Roger McClellan? Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“Already Googling,” said Jamison.

She hit the keys on her phone, waited, and then studied the results. “Let me make sure this is the same Danny Eastland.” She hit a few more keys and the results came up. She read quickly.

“Damn!”

“What?” said Decker.

“Danny Eastland has done well for himself. He’s the founder and CEO of a government defense contractor. It says here they used to build weaponry, but about five years ago moved more to intelligence gathering, which turned out to be a smart move. Last year it had revenues of more than five billion dollars, most of it with the DOD. It’s based in Georgia, but there’s an office in Jackson, Mississippi, too, among many others. This article says he has a net worth of over a billion dollars and his primary home is in Atlanta.”

“How about the other Musketeer?” asked Bogart.

Jamison did a search for Roger McClellan. “Holy shit!” she said when the results came up.

The three men looked at her.

“Well?” said Bogart.

She looked up at him. “Roger McClellan is the current police chief of Cain, Mississippi.”

Decker said, “Ironic, if he was part of a terrorist act against a church in the very same town.”

Bogart said, “Okay, we need to start marching very lightly here. Folks here already know we’re making inquiries about the Hueys. And I bet Pierce from the police station has already reported our meeting to McClellan.”

“And he’s probably already contacted Huey and Eastland,” said Jamison.

“I’m sure he has,” agreed Bogart. “So we have to be very careful. The last thing we need is to get pulled off the case because the FBI director gets a call from a pissed-off Huey.”

“There’s no statute of limitations on murder,” Decker pointed out.

“Granted, but in D.C., Thurman Huey is an eight-hundred-pound gorilla.”

“Wait a minute,” said Jamison. “Do you think they’re the ones who kidnapped Davenport? That would make it a very recent crime.”

Bogart shook his head. “I can’t believe Thurman Huey would be involved in something like that.”

Decker said, “If Roy Mars has evidence that Huey was involved in the church bombing, and that evidence comes to light, Huey won’t just lose his career, he could very well end up in prison for the rest of his life. Given that, I think the man might be capable of anything.”

Mars said, “What sort of evidence would my dad have?”

“Whatever was in the safe deposit box,” said Decker.

In a shaky voice Mars said, “You think he was involved in the bombings?”

“I don’t know, Melvin. But somehow he ended up with something that will bury some very powerful men. No wonder he went on the run and changed his name.”

Mars tried to say something but nothing came out. He finally just shook his head.

Decker returned the book to the shelf while the others headed to the door. He had a sudden thought, opened the yearbook to a certain page, scanned down it, and then ripped the page out and put it in his pocket. He did this one more time with another page. He replaced the book on the shelf and joined the others as they headed back to the car.

They all climbed in and Bogart started it up. He said, “Okay, we have a lot of work ahead of us. But as I said before, we step lightly. I don’t want any specific details getting out to the locals.”

“Oh crap,” said Jamison, who was looking out the rear window. “I think it’s too late.”

They all turned.

A police cruiser was pulling up behind them.