Swift Justice: The Southern Way (18 page)

Hall interjected. “Can you wake him up and see if he’ll want to speak with us first before we speak to the lawyer who called the FBI?”

“Okay,” Junior said hesitantly. “I hate to wake him up, but let me see what I can do.”

~~~~

“Dad, dad … wake up.”

The Sheriff slowly opened his eyes to the realization that his idiot son was trying to wake him up when he told him not to disturb him.

“What the fuck … I need some sleep. What are you waking me up for?”

“Hey, the FBI is here, and they want to talk to you.”

“So tell them I’m fucking sleeping.”

“They’re insistent.”

“Well, make up something.”

“Hey, you know what; you might want to speak to them because they said that they really don’t want to be here. And if this is a local matter, then they’ll leave.”

The Sheriff couldn’t believe how stupid his son was. “Son, are you fuckin’ naïve? They’re just playing you. Don’t believe a fuckin’ word they say.”

“I know, but what should we do? We want them to go after the Negroes. If we avoid them, it will be difficult to implement our plan.”

“Okay, what have they been asking you?” asked the Sheriff.

“Well, they’re asking about Deron. They’re asking if Deron escaped.”

“That’s why I can’t talk to them right now. Stall them. Tell them that I will be glad to talk to them once I’ve had a little more sleep, but you’ll answer their questions for them. And then when they ask about Deron, you don’t know anything about it. Just tell them that they are going to have to talk to me about Deron, and then I’m going to have to figure out something to tell them.”

“Okay … all right, so I’ll go back down, tell them I did wake you up, and you’re glad to talk to them but just need some more sleep. You got hardly any sleep last night.”

“Yeah, that’s perfect,” replied the Sheriff. “Try that.”

“Okay, Dad, go back to sleep.”

“Wait,” said the Sheriff, “what time is it.”

“It’s almost ten o’clock.”

“When do you think you will do the job?” The Sheriff didn’t want to say the words “burn the social club” in case someone could overhear them.

“Probably in about an hour or two. I’ll keep tabs on the FBI to make sure that they are nowhere near the Social Club.”

“Be careful, Son. Don’t burn yourself.”

Perry saw that Junior was walking his way—alone. “Is the Sheriff coming?” asked Perry.

“No, I’m sorry, he can’t speak to you right now, but he’ll be glad to speak to you once he’s had a little more sleep. He was up for more than twenty-four hours, so he just needs some more sleep. But I’m available to speak to you and get you up to speed.”

Perry glanced over at Hall. They both squinted their eyes at each other, which meant that they didn’t like what they were hearing.

Hall spoke. “Well, we really wanted to speak to the Sheriff.”

“I know that, but I can fill you in,” replied Junior. “Here, why don’t we go into one of the interview rooms, so we can have some privacy.”

“Okay,” said Hall.

Junior led them down the hall to the first interview room. Perry and Hall subtly inspected the room. Before everyone sat down, Perry asked, “Are there any cameras or hidden microphones in here?”

“No!” Tyler shot back defensively. “Not that I’m aware of.”

Hall started feeling under the chairs while Perry inspected the light fixture. Perry quickly found the hidden microphone. He pulled out a pair of wire cutters and cut the wire just above the microphone. He held the microphone up to show Junior. “How about this?” asked Perry sarcastically.

“Hey, I didn’t know that was there,” said Junior.

Perry shook his head. “Are there anymore?”

“Look, I didn’t know that one was in here.”

Perry realized that this wasn’t starting right, and they needed to tone down their interrogation. These guys were amateurs and stupid, Perry thought. Also, both Perry and Hall had recording devices in their bags, but the Sheriff’s son didn’t even think to confront them. They would use the tape recording later to see if they missed something during the interview.

“Okay, okay, let’s get started.” Perry said.

They all sat down with Hall sitting next to Junior. This was intentional to make it seem like Hall was on Junior’s side. Perhaps this would subtly make Junior more willing to cooperate.

“Okay, tell us what happened?” asked Perry.

Junior breathed heavily. “Well, I’m not sure where to start.”

Perry said, “I tell you what, why don’t you start by pointing out on a map the two crime scenes.” Hall took out a map from his briefcase and spread it out on the table.

Junior pointed out the two crime scenes and indicated that the woods was the first crime scene, and the warehouse was the second crime scene.

“Okay, what happened at the first crime scene?” asked Perry.

“Well …” Junior sighed. “Three white people were brutally murdered.”

Perry opened a file folder and flip to a specific page. “Yes, we heard it was a Robert Bennett, John Favors, and Tom Jenkins. Is that correct?”

Junior paused staring blankly at the desk. “Yes, that’s correct.”

“Were they friends of yours?” asked Perry.

Junior sighed. “Yes. They were my friends.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said Perry. At this stage of the questioning, Perry and Hall had previously agreed that Perry would ask all the questions. Hall was supposed to observe the witness and pretend to be the good cop. Perry nodded for Junior to continue with the story.

“Okay, we got a report that those three guys were missing from their wives, and then we also got a report that this Leon was missing. His father called the police. So we started looking for the missing people.”

“What time was it?” asked Perry.

“Well, this was early in the morning on Wednesday.”

“Where did you look for them?”

“Well, we went to the woods.”

“Why the woods?”

“I don’t know. Well, first of all, we drove around the streets, and we couldn’t find them on the streets, so we decided to hit the woods.”

“And how did you know where they were?” Perry sensed that the Sheriff’s son knew more than he was telling. Perry figured that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. And if the Sheriff was bad, his son was probably bad.

“We didn’t. My father and I were walking in the woods, and I went back to the car for something. Then I saw a group of people. It was our local police plus this Leon Brooks, his father, his brothers, and some friend of theirs. So they were showing the cops where the bodies were. So then we put two and two together, and figured that they were the ones that did the murders.”

“Okay, what makes you think that?”

“Well, um, they knew where the bodies were, and we just weren’t sure.”

“Okay, my understanding is that this Leon guy says that these three white guys tried to hang him according to our reports.” Perry said this while looking over the report.

“I don’t know anything about that. He does say that. He claims that they kidnapped him and were going to hang him, and then someone came from out of nowhere and shot the three people. Some Negro we think.”

“Why do you think it was a Negro?”

“Well, come on, guys, do you think it would be a white guy?”

Perry just realized something that was odd. The Sheriff and his son must have been very close to the actual crime scene. Plus, he didn’t ask him how they actually found the bodies.

“Let me back up a minute, here,” said Perry. “How did you find the bodies?”

“Well, we had Leon show us where the bodies were at.”

“How far was it from where you met the suspects?”

“Um … not too far because they already told the other policemen where to go.”

“Wow, you and your father were really close,” Perry said with slight hint of suspicion.

“Well, we were searching for a long time.”

At that point, Perry knew that both the Sheriff and his son were definitely involved in the murders some way. Perry figured that they probably knew that the guys were going to try to hang Leon Brooks.

“Hey, I’m not here to get interrogated. I’m just here to fill you in on our local matter. I don’t have to speak to you.”

“Okay, I’m sorry if I seemed like I was interrogating you. You know, us cops can’t help it.”

“Yeah. Okay what else do you want to know?”

It was at this point that Hall would step in if the witness was getting tense. Hall was supposed to step in and calm things down.

“Again, we’re sorry,” said Hall. “So is the only person who saw the three men being killed, Leon Brooks?”

“Yes.”

“So what does he say?” asked Hall.

“Well he says that he couldn’t identify the guy. He couldn’t tell whether he was black or white, and the guy was all covered.”

“What do you mean … ‘covered’?”

“Well, he had a white hood on, overalls, and a long-sleeve shirt. He was completely covered per Leon. He couldn’t tell. Plus, it was dark.”

“So what happened after that?”

“The guy shot everyone twice and kicked them too.”

“How do you know this?”

“Again, this is Leon’s version.”

Hall nodded for Junior to continue.

“The guy gave Leon the keys, and Leon was able to free himself from the cuffs. He then ran all the way home. … Okay, then he came to the police station. And what’s suspicious is that he already has an attorney.”

“So why did you arrest them? Or who did you arrest?”

“Well, we arrested all those guys. We thought that … and we still think this that Leon’s brothers, family, and friends followed them somehow and killed everyone. If it’s not them, then it has to be another set of Negroes. We really like you guys help us find the Negroes that did this.”

“Okay, so tell us about the other crime.”

“The other crime happened at the warehouse.” Junior pointed to it on the map. “Okay, I know very little about this one. This just happened last night. We’re not even close to being done investigating either of these crimes. They just happened. We have so much more to do. But anyway, two of the three Sawyer brothers were shot and killed. They weren’t kicked this time. The other Sawyer brother got away, but he was shot getting away. So he’s a survivor, and he’s in the hospital right now.”

“Now, why were they at the warehouse?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that we have two dead bodies at the warehouse. We don’t know why they were there.”

“What about this Deron Brooks. We hear that your father has reported to the newspapers that Deron Brooks has escaped, and the police are looking for him. They suspect that he is the killer.”

“You know, again, this just happened. You’re going to have to speak to my dad about that. I wasn’t the one that said that. I wasn’t there. I don’t know what to tell you about that.”

Perry decided to change the subject and to retake over the questioning. “So what kind of clues or evidence do you have?” asked Perry.

“Well, at the first scene, the shooter picked up all the gun shells. So that was kind of interesting, but he definitely used a shotgun. But at the second crime scene, the shooter didn’t pick up the gun shells presumably, because maybe he was in a rush. The gun shells look like they were from a rifle versus a shotgun.”

“So you think it was a
he
?”

“Yeah, the guy that got away said that it was probably a guy, and even Leon said that he thought it was a guy. Leon said that the person wasn’t real tall but taller than a woman.”

“Do you have the gun shells here?”

“Yes.”

“Can we have it? We can check the fingerprints on the shells.”

“Sure, but, oh shit.”

“What?” asked Perry.

“My father and I picked up the shells and our fingerprints are probably on it.”

Perry wanted to fucking scream. How could they be so stupid? This was basic detective work, and they blew it. Nevertheless, Perry didn’t want to rattle the witness anymore, so he calmly said, “Okay, let us check it anyway. Maybe we might get lucky and still get the print of the killer.”

“Okay,” replied Junior.

Again, Perry flipped through the file folder. “We understand that there was a noose at the first crime scene,” said Perry. “Can you explain that?”

“No, your guess is good as mine.”

Yeah right, thought Perry. A noose is only use for one thing—hanging people, especially Negroes. “Do you know why they would want to hang Leon Brooks?” asked Perry.

“Okay, I don’t know if that really happened. That’s what Leon says.”

“Why do you think those guys were at the warehouse?”

“Again, I don’t know, but we are going to find out,” Junior said irritably. Junior continued forcefully. “Again, this is a local matter. We’ll use your assistance on some things, but we are in charge of this investigation.”

“Okay, I understand,” replied Perry. Perry paused and decided to switch gears to the Chief Justice guy. “Um, can you tell us a little bit about this Atwood Baker? What’s his role?”

“Boy, that question is way out of left field.” Junior paused. “I know him. Everyone knows him here. He is the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, but why do you ask?”

Now was the big question, so Perry had to be careful how he asked. “Did he have any involvement in any of these crimes? Was he involved at all?”

“Of course not. Why would you think that?”

“I don’t know,” replied Perry. “I’m just trying to figure it out. Who do you think was behind it?”

“I have no idea. We think it is a Negro, and we would like you to help us find the Negro that did this.”

Perry decided to downplay their role. “Well, again, if this is a local matter, we will be on our way. While we are up here, we will be glad to assist you. Why don’t you give us the evidence box, and we will see what we can discover from it? We have some fancy tools that may be able to shed some light.”

“Well, I would have to check with my father before I could hand something like that over.”

“Well, why don’t you just give us the gun shells for starters, and we will wait for you to get approval from your father.”

“Okay.”

Junior left and returned shortly afterwards with a small brown envelope with the gun shells.