Page 114 of Rest In Pink

My cell phone buzzed and I pulled it out. Caller ID read UNKNOWN. I accepted the call as I walked away from the group. “Mickey Pitts. Enjoying the show?”

“Detective Cooper. What show?” His voice was gravelly. A man who’d taken some blows to the neck. I’d heard old guys at the gym where I boxed as a youngster who sounded the same.

“If you’re going to be stupid,” I said, “let’s end this conversation now.”

“You have my money?”

“I have your money. You didn’t need to do this.”

“They deserved it,” Mickey said.

“It isn’t their house.”

“I know exactly whose house it is. Andtheydeserved it.”

“You got Navy killed,” I said.

“He killed himself,” Mickey said. “Drove right off the fucking road trying to run. He should have brought the money in and he’d be alive and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“And Thacker?” I asked.

“Thacker would still be shitting on people. And I’d be south of the border long before now if Navy had done what he was supposed to. It’s all on him. And his father. Navy should have kept his father’s promise to me. People should keep their word. Don’t you agree?”

“Yes. Do you keep yours? If I give you this money, you’ll leave Burney?”

“I told you. If Navy hadn’t been so stupid, I’d have been long gone.”

“Will you leave?”

“Yeah.”

“For some reason, I don’t trust you. Why did Cleve promise you half a million dollars when you got out of prison?”

“Ask Cleve.”

“I’m asking you.”

“That’s old news,” Mickey said.

“Was it to keep quiet about Cleve and Senator Alex Wilcox?”

“They’re both dead,” Mickey said. “But a person is supposed to keep their word even beyond the grave. There’s a code you have to live by. Your word is your bond. Cleve put money aside for all his brats. Even poor little Skye, who wasn’t his. But he forgot about me. That was a mistake. He took my sister, threw my mother out of her life’s job, embezzled her pension, and took ten years of my life.”

“You took those years away from yourself.”

“Cleve fucked over everyone he ever met. He fucked over Burney, that’s for sure.”

“That why you burned the factory and the museum?”

Mickey laughed. “You cops. You’re so keen on going after people like me, but they build a fucking museum for a crook like Cleve Blue. Let him destroy people’s lives just so he can make an extra buck. Who’s the real criminal? Who hurt the most people? Me or Cleve? The town didn’t miss me at all when I got sent to the Pen. But boy, they missed that fucking factory, didn’t they?”

“I’m not here to discuss your bullshit philosophy, Mickey. I want you to leave town.”

There were several seconds of silence.

“You’ll give me the money?” Mickey asked.

“If you promise to leave.”

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