Page 127 of Long Gone

Betty brought out my sandwich and I ate, turning my attention to searching more about James Malcolm. I knew I should let it go and focus on J.R. Simmons and his involvement in Lone County, but my curiosity was gnawing at me. I tried to reason that the more I knew about Malcolm the better equipped I’d be to find Hugo’s murderer, but some small part of me acknowledged that I was doing this for myself. Then again, I was committing crimes with this man. It would be prudent to know more about him.

I’d done a similar search weeks ago, but now that I’d worked with him, I felt like I had a better understanding of the man and things might hit me differently. The top results were about his connection to a crime organization called Hardshaw Group. There was little information on it other than it had collapsed nearly four years ago. Malcolm had cooperated with the FBI to bring them down, but he hadn’t fulfilled some part of his bargain, so he’d gotten thrown into federal prison.

Why had he set up the Hardshaw Group? And what had he done to piss off the FBI?

I doubted searching on the internet was going to answer that question. If I wanted it, I was going to have to get it out of him, and hell would freeze over before he ever told me anything more than what he wanted me to know. Had there been personal reasons?

I looked up the articles about the sting with J.R. Simmons again, this time taking more time to read every word. Most articles were vague about the sting, but it had involved the kidnapping of Rose Gardner. Had Malcolm worked with the ADA to help save Deveraux’s girlfriend? Or had he known her personally? That part seemed preposterous, but then, most people would never suspect me of working with Malcolm either, so maybe not as preposterous as one would think.

How had Malcolm known Rose Gardner?

Maybe she was the key.

I searched Rose Gardner next, surprised at the multiple hits. She owned a landscaping business called RBW Landscaping as well as Gardner Sisters Nursery, which specialized in plants and landscaping. I found a business spotlight piece about her in the Henryetta Gazette from about a year ago. Though the focus was on her businesses, it dipped into her personal life. She lived in a nearly hundred-year-old farmhouse with her husband and four kids, two of whom were the children of her deceased sister. The article also mentioned her dog Muffy, who seemed to be well known by her clients. But it was her husband’s name that caught me by surprise. Rose was married to Joe Simmons, the recently elected sheriff of Fenton County.

Simmons.

Could he be any relation to J.R. Simmons?

It only took me about twenty seconds to discover that Joe was J.R.’s only son. Was it a coincidence that Rose Gardner had been the ADA’s girlfriend during the Simmons sting, and then married Simmons’s son? And that Malcolm had been involved in the sting when she’d been kidnapped?

Why had James Malcolm, a crime boss, saved the now-wife of the chief deputy sheriff? Who was James Malcolm and what was he doing now?

The only thing I could surmise was that his organized crime past was perhaps a front to help law enforcement bring down other organizations. He’d vanquished the elder Simmons, and then Hardshaw Group.

Shit. Was he undercover now? Was I helping him work his own cases?

The idea filled me with equal parts relief and rage. But at the same time, I knew he’d killed the Sylvester brothers. There was no way he would have done that if he was law enforcement. So what was he up to?

My phone buzzed and I saw Malcolm’s name on the screen. I almost let it go to voicemail, but then changed my mind.

“Where the hell are you?” he demanded as soon as I answered.

“I’m getting lunch in Jackson Creek.”

“Why?”

“Because I was hungry,” I said flippantly. “Guess who Betty remembers seeing here in her café?” I asked good-naturedly.

“I’m not playing guessing games,” he grunted.

“J.R. Simmons. Having pie with Hugo Burton the day he disappeared.”

“We knew Simmons was involved,” he said without hesitation. No hint of surprise. Had he known?

“Yeah,” I said, letting the word drag out. “I suppose we did. But what I didn’t know was that you were involved in Simmons’s arrest in Fenton County shortly after Hugo’s disappearance.” Not technically true, but I hadn’t known until a few hours ago. I just hadn’t mentioned it.

There was a long pause before he said, “We need to have this conversation in person.”

“Who is Rose Gardner to you?”

The phone felt electric from the silent tension coming from the other side.

“Who is she, Malcolm?”

“You diggin’ into my past? Have you found my speeding ticket from the Lone County Sheriff’s Department three years ago? And the ticket I got for the bullshit charge of not wearing a seat belt a week after that? But I guess there’s no record of the dozen or more times they pulled me over for bogus reasons, only to harass me and let me go. All because they were trying to make it clear they didn’t want me here. But guess what? I’m still here.”

“Does any of this have a point?” I spat out.

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