Page 94 of Left Behind

“And what kind of work do you do in that capacity?” Gardner asked.

“I served in the military. I have worked as a bouncer, a security guard, and a bounty hunter. For the past four years, I’ve worked for Carl Henley.”

Gardner’s heart skipped. “Exactly what did you do for Mr. Henley?”

“Oh, delivered messages, ran errands…pretty much whatever he needed done that he didn’t want to do for himself.”

“Did you work for Junior Henley, too?”

Lonny snorted. “To a degree. Junior Henley is his daddy’s mouthpiece. He delivers orders, but he does not give them.”

“What was your relationship with Billy Dean Eggers?”

Lonny blinked. “Was that his middle name? I never knew. We knew each other. Sometimes we ran in the same circles. We often played poker at the same club. Sometimes at the same table.”

“Would you consider yourself Eggers’s friend?” Gardner asked.

Lonny shook his head, and then remembered the tape. “I don’t have friends. I have acquaintances.”

“Then, let me ask this another way. Did you and Billy Eggers have a fight on the day he died?”

“Yes. We’d been playing cards most of the night at my place. We had a row. He accused me of cheating. We roughed each other up a little. He left before daybreak.”

“Were you cheating?” Gardner asked.

Lonny grinned. “Yeah. Billy was smart. He was on to me before I knew it, and I didn’t have the balls to admit it. That’s why we had the ruckus.”

“When was the last time you were at Billy’s place?”

“Maybe the week before. I don’t remember exactly,” Lonny said.

“You were seen driving Junior Henley’s truck. We have video of you in it at a car wash.”

“Yeah, Junior wanted it washed. I took it to the car wash and then drove it back to his place.”

“Junior says you won it off him in a poker game.”

“Well, I did, but he never gave up the title, and he’s the boss’s son, so I didn’t challenge him on it. Anyways, I haven’t owned a car in some years. I like to drink. So I take an Uber to get where I need to go, or someone picks me up.”

Gardner was worried. This wasn’t going the way he’d planned. It was time to quit pulling punches.

“Billy Eggers is dead. Your DNA was all over his body and beneath his fingernails. You were seen driving Junior Henley’s truck prior to the murder. That truck was seen at Eggers’s property the morning of his murder. You called in to the station hinting that Carl and Junior Henley were people to look at in the death. Would you like to explain that?”

Lonny’s gut knotted. Who in hell had seen him at the house besides the girl? He glanced at his lawyer, then sighed.

“What I know is that somebody put a bug in Carl Henley’s ear about a new crew trying to muscle in on Carl’s territory. Carl thought Eggers might have heard something specific about it. I know he told Junior to deal with it. But Carl Henley did not, by God, tell me to do anything to Billy Eggers. He did not send me to his house. I had not even talked to Carl Henley in at least four days before Eggers was murdered.”

“What do you call Carl Henley’s business dealings?” Gardner asked.

Lonny shrugged. “He buys and sells stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?” Gardner asked.

Lonny shrugged. “I don’t know for sure.”

“For someone who thinks he’s in the know, you don’t know a lot, do you, Lonny? Did you know someone else was in the house when Eggers was murdered?”

Lonny blinked. “I can’t say as I did.”

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