Breaking Steele Part 7

Taking it, I thanked the woman and hurried out the front door.

Heather Dade 610 Mockingbird Lane Eagle, ID 83713 It was a long shot but her name had come up too many times not to follow up, and Joshua ran into a dead end trying to find her.

I frowned as my mind reeled with questions. Taking out a pen and notebook, I jotted down a few of the questions right away before I forgot. There was only one thing on my mind now: find this person and see what she had to say about Hank Williams.

As I walked to my car, I rolled my neck from one way to the other and closed my eyes. The restless nights were getting to me. I was going to have to learn how to tame that nocturnal side, or I might break.

I typed in the address on the GPS in my phone. It was on the other side of town. I wanted Joshua with me on this one. We could combine our information on the way there.

And he had a face anyone would trust-those round cheeks and big brown eyes-most people were putty in his hands. No one suspected that he usually had multiple schemes and motivations behind each of his questions.

Chapter 22.

WILLIAMS HAD MONEY, HE had power, and this afforded him the means to hire out. But like his father used to say, "If you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself." Hunting was a solo job, it was a sport really-and one he enjoyed, but the mess, cleaning up and doing the dirty work, that's what he paid others to do.

"You see, Marco, if you would've done your job, if you'd just once done what I told you to do, this would not be happening." Marco squirmed, but Williams held him down with a knee in the chest.

"I'm sorry, you said fix it, so I did." Blood trickled from his nose and his eyes darted to Williams and to the eight-inch knife Williams was holding.

"No, Marco, you didn't fix it, you fixed nothing. If you fixed it then why is she still snooping around, hmm? Tell me, Marco, why is she still alive if you fixed it?"

In a way he was glad Marco misunderstood him. He needed this, needed to feel again, to see the fear. It fed him like a drug. He was addicted.

"No, boss, you said fix it, not fix them." Williams. .h.i.t Marco in the neck with the palm of his hand. Marco gagged and tried to get free, but Williams was a strong man.

"Don't tell me what I said.You failed me and now I have to do it. I have to do your job, Marco. How do you think that makes me feel?"

Marco couldn't speak. He spit out more blood and Williams pressed harder into his chest, feeling a rib snap. This felt almost as good as a good scotch ...

"Marco, Marco, Marco ..." He lowered his tone as if calming a child. "You made a mistake, it is okay." Marco stopped struggling and looked up at Williams. A new hope filled his eyes. This was the best part, giving them hope, making them think that they might live.

"Just tell me, Marco, did you do your job? All I want is the truth and this will all be over, you will be free.Just tell me the truth."

Marco was crying now and the sight filled Williams with glee. "No, I didn't, I failed you."

"Lie!" Williams screamed and thrust the blade into Marco's side. "You weak little man, you did just what I told you and now you are lying to me?" Pulling the knife out, he stabbed him three more times, once in the left side and two in the right. Blood pooled out of Marco's mouth and Williams stood to watch. His lungs would fill up and he would drown, it was not a fast way to die. Which made it one if his favorites.

"You should have told me the truth, Marco. Not let me push you around. But you were weak, and the weak deserve to suffer."

Chapter 23.

"SO WHAT ARE WE hoping to find out from Heather?" Joshua asked. He rolled down the window and set his arm on the sill to feel the breeze.

"I don't know, just want to talk to her, see what we can find out. I want to see what happened that made her file that ambiguous abuse claim. And if it's anything, maybe get her to testify about him."

"So we are fishing?"

"Pretty much."

"Got it."

"Have we got anything back from the evidence in the barn yet?" I asked, needing something concrete to hope in.

"Nope, not yet," he replied. "It is a long shot, not sure the judge will even let us use it.It has been in that barn a long time and it'll look to the other side like it has been planted."

"I know, I need it more for my own motivation then anything else, proof in my own head."

The whole case from start to finish didn't make sense. The more I thought about it the more messed up it seemed. From the paid jurors, my kidnapping scare, the forensic c.o.kehead, the witness flaking out, the way Hank Williams was so calm through the trial, the flowers and threats, Hannah's reticence, and it went on and on.

"What is going on in that head of yours?" Joshua broke into my thoughts and I snapped back to reality.

"Oh, just thinking about this case, the trial, and all of it."

"Kind of messed up."

"Yeah."

Joshua looked out the window. "I think he is just a spoiled man who has a lot of money and has some guys on his payroll that do his dirty work. I think he gets off on it."

"I agree. I just feel like I am missing something big, like he is playing this game and I only have half the rules."

"I feel the opposite," Joshua said. "I feel like we're searching for rules that aren't there. Does he seem like the kind of man who plays by rules to you?"

"No." I sighed. "No, he doesn't."

Chapter 24.

HEATHER DADE LIVED IN the not-so-expensive part of Eagle. The whole town had been remade down to the cobblestone streets, but the old Eagle still had trailers and older homes from when all the stoners lived there twenty years ago before the housing boom.

I parked behind a beat-up Nova and walked to the door of the single-wide trailer. I could smell something funky coming from inside, and when a skinny girl with dark rings around her eyes opened the door, the smell hit me in the face, almost taking my breath away.

"What do you want?" Her voice was gruff and it sounded like she just woke up. She eyed me suspiciously, but her gaze softened when she saw Joshua. He was like a big teddy bear.

"Heather?" I asked in my kindest voice. Joshua smiled tentatively.

"Who wants to know?Are you reporters?"

"No, I'm with the DA's office. I need to ask you a few questions."

"Not interested." She started to shut the door but I held up my hand. I know it was a bluff, but I banked on the fact that most of her information on law enforcement came from CSI Miami.

"We can come back with a court order if you like, but then you will have to talk to me down at the courthouse."

Two court order threats in one day. I was getting my money's worth out of that one.

Heather stopped and looked at me through faded blue eyes. She was in her mid-twenties but looked forty. I was guessing meth.

"Fine, what do you want?" she asked, opening the door a smidge.

"Can we come in?"

She opened the door all the way and we walked into her trailer. I couldn't believe the mess; beer cans, cigarette b.u.t.ts, rotting food, animal feces, and trash littered every surface. My stomach churned. How could someone live like this? She lit a joint and I was about to protest until I realized the scent helped, so I decided not to say anything.

"This is my a.s.sociate, Joshua." I motioned toward Joshua, who stood with a fake smile on his face. His eyes were watering and I had a feeling he was dealing with the smell a lot worse than I was.

"Sorry about the mess. I don't get many visitors." Heather cleared a spot on the flowered couch and I sat down. She slouched on the arm of the couch and peered over at me. She looked like a crow perched on the edge of a headstone.

"Heather, I first want to ask you about the abuse claim you filed against Hank Williams-"

"I never filed an abuse claim," she mumbled and took another toke.

"There was one on file for ten days at Williams, Inc. From July 7 to the 17. And then it was dismissed. It had your name on it."

She tilted her head. "Don't even remember."

So this is the way it was going to go. She wasn't going to sing so easily for me. Well, I could pull a song from just about anyone if you gave me enough time, bribed or not.

"Why'd you quit at Williams, Inc.?" Joshua asked. I stiffened. If he ruined this for me, so help me.

The question clearly agitated her. She flushed, and her hands trembled so hard the ash crumbled from her smoke.

She wasn't going to answer. Joshua looked at me, and shifted uncomfortably. Taking out his handkerchief, he wiped the sweat from his brow.

I started with something easier. "Do you know a Glen Williams?"

Heather shot me a glare. And then she nodded as if it pained her.

"I understand why you didn't file the abuse claim. I know how that works-" I thoughtlessly put my hand on the couch cushion, right into something white and gooey. I yanked my hand away, trying not to make a big deal of it, and wiped the goo on my pants. Hopefully it was just rotten yogurt, and not something worse. "It doesn't have to be about that claim, Heather." I leaned back. "Just tell us a story."

Joshua looked at me, confused. Heather finished her smoke and put it out in an ashtray shaped like a skeleton hand. She eyed me sideways. "A story?" she said.

"Yep. A story. Any story."

Heather suddenly looked like she was a million miles away. She stared at nothing, her eyes flashing with memories. I waited, trying not to tap my toe or shift or anything that would distract her from her thoughts. Joshua looked around for a place to sit. He dragged out a kitchen chair, dusted off the seat with his handkerchief, and sat down heavily.

It pulled Heather from her reverie.

She took a deep breath and sighed. "I haven't thought about him in a long time. This trial and the news just brought back a lot of bad memories."

She seemed so breakable and her face was sunken in, as if she was dead but her body hadn't received the memo.

"We want to hear a story, Heather," I said.

"Okay, but all I know is a horror story. Don't say I didn't warn you."

Chapter 25.

"WHEN I TURNED TWELVE it started. My mother died and Hank lost it. He's such a pig. I think he killed her, but that's another story."

So she was his ... daughter?

"He gave me everything; I even had a frickin' pony, just like in the movies. That was our life, parties, people always over, and then night after night of terror. He turned into a different person, mean and jumpy. He would get angry at the drop of a hat. I hated him, wanted to kill him, but I was scared."

"Did you tell anyone?" Joshua said.

"Yes, my uncle Glen, but he did nothing. Said I was imagining things. That I was stressed because of my mother's death. He told me that if I told anyone my lies that I would lose everything. But a few nights after I told him about what Hank was doing he came into the room and ... watched."

"I'm so sorry, Heather." I meant that with every fiber of my being.

Her eyes filled with tears and they spilled down her pale cheeks. I didn't think she had seen kindness in a very long time and my heart broke for her. "I made it to my 18 birthday then I left, changed my last name, and moved in with my boyfriend. He left me a year later when the money ran out. Guess he didn't want a broke girlfriend."

"Did your dad look for you, try to find you?"

"No, that was the strange part. He just let me go, didn't say a word. No police report, nothing. That's when I filed the employee abuse report. I was too scared to go to the cops. Hank would kill me, I know he would. I started to imagine killing him, but even in my dreams he was there with his stun gun."

My heart jumped at the familiar weapon. So Heather had seen the end of one, too.