Michael Lister - Power in the Blood

I placed one in the VCR. The TV screen blinked from royal blue to a shot of two men having sex on the bed in the very room in which I stood. The camera seemed to be shooting the video footage from where it still sat on the shelf beside the VCR. The room was well lit, and the camera was obviously an expensive one because the picture was crystal clear. It showed a fat white man from the side hunched over a thin black man. The fat white man was Russ Maddox. He was moaning and occasionally blurting out obscenities. The other man, whose face I could not see, was making noises, too, but his seemed to be pain rather than pleasure. However, the two are hard to distinguish sometimes, and I could have been projecting.

In another minute or so, Russ had climaxed and collapsed, the black man disappearing beneath his blubber. I hit the fast forward button on the machine, and in a few seconds the black man beneath Russ began moving slightly and Russ finally rolled off him. The black man jumped up. When he did, he came face-to-face with the eye of the camera. I paused it on the familiar face. It was Ike Johnson.

As I stopped the tape, I heard a voice from the hall.

“JJ, your dad would like to see you downstairs,” the serious young female officer said when she reached the door to the bedroom.

“Thank you. I’ll be right down,” I said. Quickly replacing the tapes in their original place behind the others, I closed the armoire and walked down the stairs.

Downstairs I found my dad and brother in the living room talking. The body, along with everyone else, was gone.

“JJ, the reason I called you is probably obvious. We haven’t had a homicide investigation in this county in several years. And this week we have two mysterious murders. Do you think they could be related?” Dad said.

“I think it’s possible,” I said and felt guilty for not telling him everything. I wasn’t even sure why I didn’t. It was probably the mode I was in-I wouldn’t say anything to anyone until I knew more. I hated to be less than honest with him, but it wasn’t the first time. “Like you say, it seems a little much to just be a coincidence. Was Russ murdered?”

“It looks like it. Like maybe he was poisoned. We’ll know for sure in a day or so. What have you found out about the other murder so far?”

“It’s still just bits and pieces now, but I hope to put it all together soon.”

“Why the hell do they have you looking into it?” Jake asked. “Aren’t you just the convict preacher?”

“Yes, I am. And I’m not conducting the investigation I’m just assisting in it.”

“With your father-in-law?” Dad asked.

“Yes, Tom Daniels,” I said.

“I’m just glad to hear you’re using your God-given abilities again. It’s been too long. You are a damn fine investigator. I’d like to have you in our department.”

When I got out of law enforcement and went into the ministry, it broke my dad’s heart. Since that time, he and Jake had been extremely close, and I had been the odd man out.

“Thank you,” I said, “but I really am just assisting. I love my work as a chaplain.”

Jake snickered softly. I didn’t look his way.

Dad ignored him, too, and said, “If there is a connection, I wonder what in the hell it could be. I mean, what do a black convict and a white fat-cat banker have in common?”

“If their deaths are connected, we will find out what they had in common. And, thanks for calling me, Dad. It really means a lot.”

“Let’s get out of here,” he said. He looked at his watch. “Rudy’s opens in another ten minutes. Let’s go get some breakfast together.”

“You two go ahead. If you don’t mind, I’m going to look around some more first and then I better get back home.”

Jake laughed again. Dad smiled and said, “That’s right, you weren’t alone.” The pride in his voice was obvious.

“Well, it’s not what you think or what Jake thinks anyway. But this man was her uncle, and I need to go and tell her.”

“Okay, Son. We’ll let you know something whenever we do. You do the same, okay?”

“Yes, sir,” I said.

They left.

I went and took another look upstairs, got the tapes, and went home.

“I think Captain Skipper has been supplying inmate prostitutes to Russ Maddox. And Ike Johnson was one of them,” I said. I was sitting with Merrill and Anna in her office on the morning of the longest Monday of my life, a day which I began in the company of my friends and ended in the hands of my enemies.

Anna looked pretty this morning, though a little sleepy. And Merrill looked as he always looked, like he didn’t have a clue as to what was going on around him and didn’t care. But it was just a look. I had seen him look the same way just prior to nearly killing a classmate of ours who had attempted to rape his little sister when we were in high school. Anna did not look as devastatingly beautiful as she usually did. I wondered if it were just that my eyes were still full of Laura. I looked at her again and determined that’s exactly what it was.

“You want to run that by me one more time?” Anna said.

“You heard me. And the two people who have died recently both have ties to Skipper and each other.”

“What do you mean?” Anna asked.

I told them. When I finished, they were both silent. I could see the wheels turning in Anna’s head. I knew that wheels were also turning in Merrill’s head, but I couldn’t see them.

“It’s just not possible,” Anna said at last. “There’s no way he could pull it off. It would take . . .”

“Help from higher up,” Merrill said.

I shrugged. “It’s a possibility.”

“At least,” Anna added. “But he couldn’t do it without getting caught.”

“He could do it without help from Patterson or Stone. They’re never here during the late shift. Besides, he is getting caught,” I said. “We’re catching him.”

“No we are not. I am just a weak little woman,” Anna said. Merrill and I both laughed as hard as we ever had at anything. “I’m serious,” she said. “We need to call FDLE and let them handle it.”

“I plan on telling FDLE, and the inspector, as far as that is concerned, but I need to know a little more first.”

“Like what?” Anna asked.

“Evidence. Like some proof of money swapping hands,” I said.

“How are you going to get that?” Anna asked.

“I was hoping you would have an idea.”

“You’re joking, right?”

I shrugged. “I would be happy to entertain any suggestions either of you might have.”

“Why don’t you get his niece’s help? You’ve slept with her recently, haven’t you?” Merrill asked.

“As recently as last night,” I said, “but enlisting her help would be tricky. And you weren’t supposed to mention it.”

Anna sat up and leaned forward, her eyes growing wide and slightly wild. “What did you say?” she said to Merrill. Before he could answer, she said to me, “What did he say?”

“As it turns out, I started seeing Laura Matthers this past week and she is Russ Maddox’s niece.”

“Whoa, wait just a damn minute. Why wasn’t I aware of this?” she asked.

“I was going to tell you today. It just happened this weekend.”

“You all are joking, because I know the next time you sleep with a woman, it will be in a marriage bed.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I’ve been having a hard time convincing these jaded men of that.”

“Why would they think that you did?” she asked suspiciously.

“When Dad called, Laura answered the phone, and technically we were sleeping and technically we were together, but we were not sleeping together, if you know what I mean.”