Page 47 of Walker

“You’ve been missing the fourth man in your crew for a couple years,” I started. Andy’s eyes went wide, and he shook his head. “We didn’t have anything to do with that.”

Well, fuck. That wasn’t where I thought this was going to go. “Are you sure about that?”

“It wasn’t our debt, man. Fucking Josh had to find a way to pay that bitch to keep her mouth shut. He borrowed money at first, but then he needed a way to pay that back too. We took him to the casino, and he won a few thousand dollars that first night. He gave it to Terry to keep her from talking. Then, she wanted more. When he told her he had no way to get more, she set him up with Joey Farina.”

“Who the fuck is Joey Farina?”

“The mob guy that handles loans for the Martinelli Family.”

“We don’t have mobsters around here.” Even though I didn’t let on that we knew exactly who the Martinelli Family was, the chances of them setting up shop in Georgia or North Carolina was inconceivable. They were an outfit out of Chicago and not big enough to expand out this far from their home base.

“We do. Terry knows them. Joey is her kid’s dad.”

“The boy?” I asked because I could have sworn Ree said he was mixed race, and it had to be from the dad’s side. I didn’t think she would mix up and olive skin tone for being a different race.

“Nah, the girl.” Andy blabbed. “He was here when he was a senior in high school. Got kicked out of school back in Chicago and he was sent to live with a relative who settled here.”

“So, Joey’s been here all along?”

“No,” Andy shook his head vigorously. “He only came back recently when he found out the girl might not be his. While he was here, he said he had some business with an MC and that they were going to partner up on something. I didn’t get all the details, but he put the blame for Terry’s kid on Josh and told him he needed to pay up for all the years of child support he’d sent to Terry. She was milkin’ him for like three Gs a month for twelve years. It was like half a mil, or something.”

“You’re telling me that the Italian asshole loaned money to Josh to gamble with so that he could make more and pay him back all the child support he spent on Terry’s daughter for twelve years, and Terry was blackmailing Josh about the same kid and wanted money from him?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m telling you. That accident he had that got him dead was no accident. He was in for the half mil that Joey thought he owed him plus the $30,000 he borrowed to try to win more.”

“How fucking stupid are you guys?” Trouble asked. Andy glanced around as if either of the other two assholes could speak up.

“I don’t know. How the hell else was Josh supposed to come up with that kind of money?”

“He wasn’t. He was supposed to figure his shit out and take care of the threat to his family,” I said.

“We aren’t like you. We don’t just go around kidnapping and killing people.”

“Well, that’s why you’re all hanging from the rafters and we’re getting answers from you so easily. Probably also why your friend is dead.”

“Jesus,” Andy’s leg developed a dark stain right around the time the acrid stench of piss ramped up.

“Two for three. Wonder if we’ll get all three to piss themselves before playtime is over?” Hollywood laughed maniacally as they all turned to stare at him. “You guys were too easy to nab considering you got in bed with the Italian mafia.”

Chuck rolled his eyes and moved forward to rip the tape from his mouth while Trouble shut Andy up by putting tape over his.

“What do you have to say about your involvement with the Martinelli Family?” I asked.

He shook his head. It took one punch to his stomach to change his mind about being stubborn. Once the asshole finished gasping and sputtering, he glared at me.

“Joey is a chump. He was always a chump. He thought he was so fucking cool when he came to our high school because the girls fell all over his dick back then.” Chuck spit onto the floor, as if he wished it was Joey.

“Ah, he fucked your girl, huh?” Hollywood surmised.

“Fuck you!”

“Was Terry your girl?”

“Fuck no. That bitch was all about Josh. I can’t believe she even hung that kid on Joey, or that he believed it. They only hooked up once, not long after Josh went back to Terry.”

“When did Josh go back to Terry?”

“Around the time she got knocked up in high school. He already had Theresa pregnant, but he panicked about being a dad and then Theresa refused to marry him, so he went back to Terry.”

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