Kentucky Murders: A Small Town Murder Mystery (12 page)

“You never know,” she said. “It may be clear up in Cincinnati.” Just then a long lightning bolt shot down, connecting the heavens and earth. It was followed two seconds later by a loud
boom
. “Then agai
n
”

They laughed, and he went around and got into the car.

---

The car slammed into a torrential wall of water, just as they passed the southernmost suburb of Cincinnati. A purplish blue cloud closed like a curtain over the last hours of daylight. Zack flipped on his headlights. He pulled off the expressway when the windshield wipers on full speed still failed to clear away enough water to allow him to see the road.

“I guess I’ll never see a live professional baseball game,” sighed Kate. “They’re probably swimming at the stadium.”

“I think you’re right. What now? Do you want to see a movie?”

“It looks like we won’t be going anywhere for a while.” She looked up at the river flowing down the windshield.

They sat silently for the next few minutes, listening to the heavy thud of drops beating down on the car roof. Kate snuggled under Zack’s arm the best she could with the gearshift lever poking her in the thigh. Zack rolled down his window a crack to prevent the glass from fogging up from their breath, but it didn’t help.

“Kat
e
”

“Zac
k
”

They laughed when they both tried to speak at once. Zack motioned to her. “You go first.”

Kate took a deep breath and began. “I know we haven’t been dating that long, but …” She stopped.

“But what?”

“Well, I just wanted you to know tha
t
that I care about you a lot. When I’m with you, I fee
l
I don’t kno
w
good, comfortable, I guess. More than with anyone else I’ve ever known.”

“Kate, I care about you, too.”

She took another breat
h
this time an even deeper one. “I think I love you,” she said, staring straight ahead, afraid to see his reaction.

When Zack didn’t say anything for several seconds, she turned to him, her mouth serious and her eyes desperate. “Say something please. You’re killing me here. Am I making a fool of myself?”

“Of course you aren’t making a fool of yourself,” he said softly. He reached over with his right hand and hugged her tightly against his side.

“Well?” she asked, looking up at him. “How do you feel? Can you tell me?”

“Kate.” He paused. “We haven’t known each other that long, like you said, but there’s something that really makes me crazy.”

Her mouth dropped open. Her eyes widened. She turned back ahead and sank into the seat, staring at the windshield, starting to get upset.

“The thing is, wel
l
”

“Go ahead,” she said in a low, toneless voice.

“You got a chance to tell me before I got a chance to tell you,” he said, grinning.

Her head turned toward him slightly, and then swung around. “You mean? You think you might love me, too?”

He nodded, and she mimed his head movement as if he were looking in a mirror. “Yes, of course,” he said. “I think I’ve loved you since the moment I first saw you. Maybe the old expression, ‘love at first sight’ is true after all.”

She threw her arms around his neck and locked her lips onto his. They didn’t come up for air for a long time. By then, they were both breathing heavily, her lips were red and puffy, and her hair was a mess.

Sometime later, they noticed the rain had let up enough to drive. Zack disengaged his arm from around Kate and helped her straighten her clothes. He pulled back out into traffic, took the next exit, and reentered the expressway heading south, back toward Michaeltown.

Zack briefly thought about Max as he drove.

Chapter 22

By the time they reached the box factory, the clouds had drifted away; a bright moon and a blanket of stars lit the night sky. He turned to Kate. “I promised Frank that I’d check on Max. He didn’t show up for work today, but I was in too much of a hurry after work tonight to stop by. Since we’re going right by his house, do you mind if we stop for a few minutes and just do a quick check?”

“Do I have any choice?” She smiled. “Sure, go ahead. You and Max have been seeing a lot of each other lately. I’m beginning to get a little jealous.”

“He’s a good guy. You just have to get to know him. He’s a lot smarter than people around here realize. Did you know that he took a broken-down shack and fixed it up himself? You should see the inside. It’s nothing fancy, but it looks pretty good.”

Zack turned onto Max’s road and entered the forest. Outside the headlight beams, the night stood pitch-black. Water splashed from puddles in the muddy dirt road. No moonlight or stars shone through the thick tree cover. The once-grassy road had been worn down from Zack’s daily trips to two tire tracks. They pulled into the clearing, where the night sky reappeared, and the moon shone down on Max’s home, which was seemingly dark and lifeless.

Leaving his engine running, Zack fixed his low beams on the dark, unpainted structure. He tentatively opened his car door and stepped out, his shoes sinking deep into the muck. Leaning back inside, he said, “He’s probably asleep. You wait here. It is really muddy outside. I’ll go and take a look.” He lifted his foot so she could see his muddy shoe. “You wouldn’t want to step out here anyway.” He pointed to the glove box. “Would you give me the flashlight in the glove compartment?”

Three knocks brought no response, so he tried the doorknob. The door opened easily, and Zack clicked on his flashlight. He stepped inside and panned the flashlight around the darkened room. “Max?” No answer. “Max, wake up.” The small bed in the corner stood neatly made and undisturbed. He called out louder, “Max, where are you?” He twisted around and shone the light on Max’s tiny dining table. It leaned on the floor, with two legs broken off. Hurrying over, he pushed the table aside and found Max lying on the floor behind it.

“Shit,” said Zack, kneeling down beside his friend. “Oh, my God, what happened?” He felt Max’s neck and found a weak pulse. He sighed. “At least you’re still alive, buddy.” Blackened, dried blood covered most of Max’s face. “Looks like someone beat the hell out of you. And I think I know who.”

He ran outside to the car. Opening the door, he called to Kate, “Max has been hurt. It looks like someone attacked him. He’s unconscious, but he has a weak pulse. He’s still alive.”

Kate looked back with huge eyes, mouth open.

“I’m going to need your help,” Zack continued. “We’ll have to get him to the hospital, and he must weigh over 250 pounds.”

Somehow, they managed to partly drag and partly carry Max to the car.
He has internal injuries
flashed across Zack’s mind. Could they be hurting him more than helping? He pushed away the thoughts. They strapped Max into the front passenger seat, and Kate slid in behind Zack.

The nearest full-service hospital was twenty miles west of Michaeltown, so Zack decided to take him to the town clinic instead. There would be only one attendant on duty at night, but Kate assured him that Doc Richardson would be on call and was a good doctor who would do everything he could to help.

A curly-haired man about Zack’s age sat reading a paperback when they arrived. His eyes widened when he looked at them. Then Zack realized for the first time that they were covered with mud.

He and Zack got Max, who hadn’t regained consciousness, onto a rolling gurney and wheeled him into the examining room.

“Would you call the doctor?” said the attendant, nodding to Kate. “His number’s written near the phone in the hall.” He turned to Max, peeled back his eyelids, and shined a penlight down into Max’s pupils.

A tense fifteen minutes later Doc Richardson stood examining Max. “Did you call Crestville?” The doctor asked the attendant.

Zack glanced at Kate, puzzled. “Hospital,” she whispered, and he nodded.

The attendant shrugged. “I was waiting for your word.”

“You’ve got it,” said the doctor. “This is much too serious for our facilities. I’m surprised he’s lasted this long. He must be exceptionally strong.”

---

Hours later, Zack and Kate left Crestville General Hospital. Max had been admitted into the intensive care unit, still unconscious. The doctor told Zack and Kate that there wasn’t much else that could be done for Max tonight and there was no reason for the two of them to stay around and wait. Max would be out, hopefully, for only a few days, but possibly for weeks, or worse. Only time would tell with head injuries.

They drove back to Michaeltown in silence, each wondering what had really happened. Zack had only one thing on his mind, and Kate knew what it was. She reached over and held his hand.

“You know what I’m thinking, don’t you?”

“You think Tommy did this.”

Zack nodded his head in agreement.

“Zack, please don’t do anythin
g
stupid.” She paused, and when he didn’t respond, continued. “I actually agree with you. Tommy is probably behind this. Especially after what you said about Max making Tommy look bad in front of everyone in the parking lot. But Zack, let the proper authorities handle this. It’s a job for the police, not you. Please, let’s go to the sheriff tomorrow.”

“Max is in the hospital, possibly dying, and Tommy is probably out drinking and having a great time. It’s just not right. It’s not fair.” He pulled his hand away from hers and slammed his fist against the dashboard. “Damn it, Kate. If Tommy did this, he has to pay for it.”

The rest of the ride was spent in a distant silence. They arrived in town, and Zack turned in the direction of Kate’s house. “Aren’t we going to the police?” she asked.

He swung around in a U-turn and pulled up in front of her house. “I’ll take care of it,” he said through tight lips, while getting out of the car. By the time he got around to Kate’s door, she was out and facing him.

“You’ll take care of what, Tommy, or talking to the police?”

Zack stood there without answering.

“Zack, I asked you a question. What’s it going to be?”

He walked over to her fence gate and opened it. “Are you coming?” He looked up. “The clouds are coming back. It could rain again soon.”

Kate stomped up to him and confronted him face-to-face. “Damn it, answer me!”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m still thinking,” he growled back at her.

Kate pushed past him and climbed the steps to the porch. She turned to him. “You decide what you want to do, but if you go after Tommy and his thugs, don’t expect me to visit
you
in the hospital. You’ll end up just like Max. Zack, I love you. I told you that. But I’m warning you now. Go to the polic
e
o
r
forget about us. I can’t worry about you and wonder if you are going to get hurt or even killed. I just can’t!” She didn’t wait for his response before disappearing into the house.

Chapter 23

Zack pulled into the parking lot at Zeb’s. It only took him a minute to find Tommy’s truck. He stopped behind it and cut his engine and lights. He sat still, thinking. He’d been right. Tommy and his friends were inside drinking while Max lay unconscious in a hospital bed. What now? He could slash their tires like they had done to him, but what good would that do for Max? Wouldn’t that make Zack as bad as Tommy? Zack could hide out, follow him, and then wait until Tommy was alone to confront him. He figured that he could take Tommy in a fair fight, but Tommy didn’t know how to fight fair. Even if he won, where would that lead? That son of a bitch may have murdered Max, or had come close to it, and he had to pay. But how? Zack started his engine and drove away slowly. Kate’s words pounded in his skull. He drove west, away from Michaeltown, as fast as he could. After almost losing control on a slippery curve, he was jarred back to the real world. He was angry, but he didn’t want to hurt himself. He slowed down to the speed limit and drove cautiously the rest of the way.

The clock on the dash read 12:47 as he pulled into a roadside motel where a neon sign flashed
“Vacancy.” He had noticed a bar across the road when he left the office with his room key. A drink sounded good. Maybe he could forget for a while what had happened to Max. First, he got into his car and drove a mile or so back to some unknown town he’d passed along the way. He found a liquor store and bought a fifth of Jack Daniel’s, which he slid under his seat. With his car parked back at the motel, he walked across to Carl’s Bar and Grill.

Inside, he found country music and cowboys, or rather cowboy wannabes. The place was complete with sawdust on the floor and a bucking-bull ride.

Zack walked over and took a stool at the bar. A minute later, a bartender wearing a cowboy hat came over. Zack paid for a double shot of whiskey and a can of beer, then sat staring at them for a while when they arrive
d
thinking. He finally picked up the whiskey glass, downed the fiery liquid in one gulp, slammed the glass down, and scooped up the beer. The bartender was watching him the whole time. After sipping the beer, Zack said, “Another double.”

The bartender spoke up. “I’d say that you’re trying to get drunk real quick. You got woman problems?”

Zack raised his beer in a toast. “Women, can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em.” The clichés flowed as the alcohol took effect. He left the next empty glass on the bar and wandered off with the beer.

Leaning against the railing that circled the miniscule dance floor, he watched a nicely stacked brunette sashay toward him. He smiled, and she smiled back.

---

Half an hour later, they entered Zack’s motel room. Zack set the whiskey bottle, which he had retrieved from the car, on the dresser. He went into the bathroom and returned a few seconds later with two plastic cups wrapped in clear plastic.

“So you’re from Detroit, huh?” she said, as Zack removed the paper and poured the brown liquid into the cups. Well, she wasn’t a stunning conversationalist, but she looked good.

“That’s right,” he said in a slurred voice. He turned to her, a cup in each hand. “Wanna drink?”

“Straight?”