Chapter Thirteen
It was around ten a.m. when Cade, Elliot, Kanan and Briar pulled into Sunbury, PA. It was a scenic medium size town with a population of just under ten thousand people. Some of the buildings dated back to the 1700’s and it was also the county seat for Northumberland County.
They parked just down the street from the police station and as they walked to the station house, no one paid them any attention. When they got inside, they asked to see Jonathan Dillman.
A few minutes later, they were sitting in his office. Dillman was sitting behind his desk and when Cade and the others sat down opposite him, he stared at them for a moment. Jonathan Dillman was an older man with almost white hair. He was slim but you could see time had begun taking its toll on the man. He wore thick glasses and a handlebar moustache. “After your visit yesterday, I did some digging and what I found started me thinking.”
“Thinking about what?” Cade asked.
“Sunbury isn’t really that big of a town. I’ve lived here all my life. Some families around here you just know enough to stay away from. That’s been my experience with the Hudson family. When I was a boy, Leroy Hudson lived on the old place out by the river. Leroy was not exactly the kind of man you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley. He was big and when he drank, he was mean. But he didn’t come to town very often, which was a good thing. People were afraid of him for good reason.”
“What does that have to do with why we are here?” Elliot asked.
Jonathan turned to look at him. “If you’ll listen to an old man, I’m trying to give you some background on the family history. Now Leroy had a couple of sons and a daughter living with him out there and those two boys of his were always in trouble. The oldest boy, Beau took right after his daddy, big and mean; Sam the younger boy he followed his brother and his father every time and then there was Loretta. Now that girl never had an easy life. Leroy’s wife Elena died when Loretta was about five. They say she got bit by a snake but they never brought her into town for medical care or nothing. They just buried her on the property.”
“Was that legal?” Cade asked.
“Leroy didn’t bother much about being legal, if you know what I mean. My dad and grandpa used to tell me stories about how Leroy had a still somewhere in the woods he owned and how if anybody got too close he’d chase them off with a load of buckshot.” Dillman leaned back in his chair. “But anyway, after Leroy died, the boys took over but they weren’t the same kind of men their father was and before too long Beau got in trouble with the law.”
“What kind of trouble?” Elliot asked.
“Leroy was a smart man, when he ran somebody off his property he always aimed the gun a little on the high side. Beau wasn’t the smart man his father was. One day, Carl Drextler was out hunting and he accidentally strayed on Hudson land. Beau shot him down before he had a chance to turn around and go back. When the law caught up with him Beau tried to claim self-defense but the jury wasn’t buying it. They sent him to prison for twenty five to life. He ended up getting into a fight with the wrong man and he was murdered in jail.”
“What about the rest of the family?” Cade asked.
“Sam tried to make the farm go but after three years of failed crops, he gave up and moved away. We haven’t heard from him since he left town. Loretta moved to town for a while then she hooked up with a summer bum. He came out here to find himself before he went off to college. He moved her back out to the farm and they lived quietly for a while but then one day around the end of August, he just wasn’t out there anymore. He left her alone and pregnant. She had her baby and named him Flynn. She was the only one of the bunch that turned out half way decent. She got a job here in town and worked hard to provide for her son, but the boy took after the rest of the men in the family. He was no good from the beginning, and he’s been no good ever since.”
“So what we’re dealing with is a man that knows no bounds as far as breaking the law. Is that what you’re telling us?” Cade asked.
“That’s about it.” Dillman nodded. “Oh there’s one more thing I think you should know. It was rumored that Leroy had money, but how he got it is a mystery. The man never did an honest day’s work for himself or anyone else.”
“OK, you’ve filled us in on everyone but the current Hudson,” Elliot said. “What can you tell us about him?”
“Flynn is a private man. So private in fact that he went and put up an eight foot fence around the property. He even put in a privacy gate. Now that is his right, but people around here have started to ask what he’s doing behind those walls. There is one man you could talk to while you’re here. His name is Dale Two Moons. He’s a neighbor of Flynn’s and the most outspoken. I’ve got a fistful of complaints from Dale but there isn’t anything I can do legally about them. The complaints are mostly just a pain in my ass, but I have to take a report. He’s the man I think you should start with.”
“You do know we aren’t the only ones interested in what Flynn Hudson is doing don’t you?” Cade asked.
Jonathan Dillman nodded. “Yes I know about the DEA. Mr. Parry and I have been working together for a while now.”
“What do you feel about that?” Cade asked.
“I’m hoping Flynn is stupid enough to be guilty of whatever the DEA thinks he’s doing. That would rid my county of the entire lot of them. Most folks around here are good people. They work and play hard and they abide by the law. But the Hudson’s are a different breed of folks and it’s been my understanding they aren’t good people. When Loretta died, Flynn just went off on his own. He didn’t have anybody out there to keep him on the straight and narrow anymore.”
“What do you know about Cooper Hudson?” Elliot asked.
Jonathan leaned forward in his chair and frowned. “Cooper Hudson is nothing but trouble. He was born out on the farm and he lived there with his parents until he and his mother left. But a few years later, he was back. Flynn let the boy run wild when he was here visiting. He could do just about anything he wanted. Flynn was under the impression that his money could buy whatever Cooper broke or ruined in his youth. Then the boy grew into a man and things got very dicey for a while. There was a spot of trouble on more than one occasion. Then Flynn sent the boy to college and things settled down for a while.” Jonathan took a deep breath. “He became some sort of expert on Ancient Egypt, he even went over there for about six months or so. Flynn used to brag his son found some ancient papyrus or something. There were even rumors flying around that Cooper might have recovered some long lost secrets of the Pharaohs.” He paused and shrugged. “I never paid too much to the rumors but suddenly things were happening out on the farm. They began making improvements to the house and the barn. Flynn increased security and brought in three guard dogs.”
“What did he need guard dogs for?” Cade asked.
“I have no idea but that was one of Dale’s complaints against Flynn. He’s called several times about the dogs next door. He called me early one Sunday morning complaining that he just watched the dogs rip apart a doe he’d been tracking.”
“How did the dogs get the deer?” Kanan asked.
“The doe climbed the backwash and jumped the fence. The dogs were on her in minutes. The poor thing never had a chance.”
“You seem to know quite a bit of personal information about these people,” Elliot pointed out.
Jonathan turned to look at him. “Yes, I suppose you could say that.”
“Why? I mean why do you know so much about them?” Cade asked.
Jonathan didn’t answer the question right away. “I’ve lived here all my life. I watched this town grow and I’ve seen people come and go from here. My father used to be a sheriff here seems a lifetime ago. When I was a boy, I used to listen to the stories he would tell. My father was an observer. He watched and learned to read people and he was a damn fine officer of the law. He taught me to love the law the same way he did.” He shifted in his chair. “When I was old enough I went to the police academy and became a cop and I told him I was going to be just like him. He said, ‘No, I want you to be better than me.’ So I went back to school and I graduated with a law degree, but being a cop was all I ever wanted to be, so after my father died, I became a cop just like him.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you know so much about the Hudsons.” Kanan sat back in his chair.
“The most valuable lesson my father ever taught me was how to judge a person, and to watch and learn. I have watched and learned everything I could about the Hudson family because in order to stop them you have to know them. Hell son, I probably know more about the people in this town than they do. I watch and I learn.”
“If Flynn is such a private person how did you learn so much?” Kanan asked.
“There’s a small diner on the east end of town called Maisy’s. His mother used to work there. Hell, he practically grew up there. He still visits the diner regularly. The owner Maude has a soft spot for him and she likes to brag about how good he’s doing. I just learned to listen.”
“Is there anything else you think we should know?” Cade asked.
Jonathan got up and moved over to the window. He looked out over the town. “I’m almost seventy years old. Some people say I should retire.” He turned to look at the door to his office. “I’ve got a whole squad room filled with eager people just waiting for the day I step down and they are all good people, good cops, they just don’t know how to read people.” He went back to his desk and sat down. “The real reason I’m still here is I’ve been waiting all these years for someone like you to come here and tell me you found a way to stop the Hudson’s.”
“Excuse me?” Cade questioned.
“Ever since he was born, Flynn Hudson has had a black cloud hanging over him. I can’t explain it or see it but I know it’s there. There isn’t a decent bone in his body but he’s a smart man. He’s more like his grandpa than either of his uncles ever were. He hasn’t done anything illegal around here, at least nothing that we can pin on him. There have been incidents where he was a suspect but people around here are afraid of him for a reason. Every time I think I’ve got him on something, the case falls through. People say they have to live here and they can’t live here always looking over their shoulders. So I’ve waited for the right time. Then he had a kid and I watched the kid grow into a man worse than his father. What do you think Cooper has done?”
“He’s a person of interest in a string of murders starting fifteen years ago,” Cade replied.
Jonathan sat there for a long time before he got up and went over to his filing cabinet. Opening the top drawer, he brought out a file. He gave the file to Cade then went back and sat down.
Cade looked at the file in his hands. The name on it read Helen Leary. He looked at the man behind the desk and asked, “What is this?”
“Shortly after Cooper came back from Egypt, Helen disappeared. The boy had been interested in her before he left town and when he came back, he was obsessed with her. Helen didn’t want anything to do with him but that didn’t stop Cooper from pestering her, if you know what I mean. The day she disappeared, they had an altercation outside the diner where she worked.”
“Don’t tell me, the Maisy’s diner?” Cade said.
Jonathan nodded. “Cooper asked her to go out with him and Helen made it clear in front of everyone that she wanted nothing to do with him, not in this lifetime or any lifetime. She disappeared right after she finished her shift that night. I guess she humiliated him good. That was sixteen years ago now.”
“And you think he did something to her in retaliation,” Kanan stated.
“Yes I do,” Jonathan said. “The whole town does but no one will say anything. Flynn has this town under his thumb and he knows it.”
“Where do you suggest we start looking for answers?” Kanan asked the older man.
“I’d start at the diner. I think you might find some interesting items there. Just don’t tell anyone why you’re here. Word gets back to Flynn real quick if you know what I mean.”
Cade and the others stood. Cade reached out to shake his hand. “Thank you for everything. Do you mind if I hang on to this for a while?” He lifted the file in his hand.
“You can have it. If you do find something, please let me know. That’s been the one case in my career I haven’t solved yet. I’d like to know what happened to her before I retire.”
“We will,” Cade promised.
About twenty minutes later, they entered the Maisy’s Diner. It wasn’t a big place but it had both booths and tables. It was filled with the noise of people talking and dishes rattling. There were a few people enjoying the food and having conversations. It seemed to Cade that everything went silent for a brief moment when they walked in but then went back to normal.
They chose a booth half way down the aisle to sit down and as they waited for a waitress to join them, Cade looked around. The diner reminded him of a soda shop of the fifties. There was faded black and white tiles on the floor and red covered chairs. The counter was Formica and it was lined with large glass jars filled with candy. To get to the kitchen, a person would have to go through swinging wooden half doors. It was a quaint little place. Then he spotted something sitting on a shelf beside the cash register and his heart skipped a beat when he realized what the object was.
He turned his head to his brother and said, “I think we just got our connection.”
Elliot frowned and asked, “What is it?”
“Without being obvious take a look at the shelf next to the register. Doesn’t the jar that’s sitting there look familiar?”
Elliot glanced over to where Cade suggested and his eyes widened. It was the same type of jar India had buried fifteen years ago. When he looked back at his brother, he shook his head. “You don’t suppose there’s a piece of Helen in that jar do you?”
“I don’t know,” Cade said. “On our way out, let’s see if we can get a picture of it, mainly the top of the jar. If there is a cartouche we can send it to Jerah and see can see if it’s a name.”
“Can I help you?” A waitress brought them water and menus and for the next half hour they were busy eating. When their orders came Cade realized he was hungry and he was surprised at the amount of food on his plate.
“Oh my god, I’m full.” He groaned as he looked at his empty plate. He had ordered a burger and fries and the burger had taken up half the plate. “Now I need a nap.”
Elliot looked at Kanan and then looked at his brother and smiled. “You’ll just have to walk it off.”
“I’d have to walk five miles to walk this off,” Cade commented. “It was just so darn good I had to eat it all.”
“It was excellent food,” Kanan agreed.
Cade pulled out his wallet and went up to the cashier. While he was there, his eyes were drawn to the jar again. “Wow, I’ve never seen a jar quite like that one,” he told her.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” she said. “A young friend of mine brought it back from Egypt for me.”
Cade looked at the older woman behind the counter. She had grey hair and a sweet smile. His eyes went to her name tag and it read Maude. “Would you mind if I took a picture of it?” Cade asked. “I have a niece that loves everything Egypt. She tells me she’s saving her money for a trip there one day.”
“Sure, take all you want,” Maude told him as she rung up the bill.
Cade took his phone out of his pocket and began snapping picture of the jar. He was careful to get a good photo of the top of the jar. There was a cartouche engraved there and he wanted Jerah to be able to tell him who the jar belonged to. He managed to sneak a picture of Maude in as well.
Cade put his phone away and collected his change. “Thank you lovely lady, not only for the pictures but also for the delicious lunch.”
Maude smiled and blushed.
When Elliot tapped his shoulder, he nodded and moved away and out of the diner. They walked down the street to where the car was parked. When they were sitting inside the vehicle, Cade sent the pictures to Jerah along with a message to get the information on the jar back to him as quickly as possible. “Now I think we need to speak to Dale Two Moons. If only to verify what Dillman told us.”
“What did you think of Dillman?” Elliot asked his brother. “I thought he was flakey at best.”
Cade glanced at his brother and shook his head. “I thought he was a wily old codger. I also think he knows more about the Hudson’s than he told us about.”
“What makes you think that?” Elliot asked. “If that’s true why didn’t he tell us?”
“For the same reason no one else in this town has come forward,” Cade told him. “He has to live here. This is ground zero for the Hudsons. Anywhere else is their hunting grounds but around here, they keep their noses clean. That’s what makes them dangerous and crafty. As long as they follow that one rule, the local police won’t have a reason to come knocking on their door.”
“What if DEA agent Parry is right?” Kanan asked. “Wouldn’t the fact that Flynn is making the drugs here be breaking that rule?”
Cade nodded. “It would be breaking that rule big time. Maybe Flynn thinks he’s above the law somehow. He knows the law needs probable cause to get past the gates and the locals are too afraid to give them what they need.”
They drove out of town and as they passed the Hudson place, they slowed down enough to see the fence and the gates.
Kanan whistled and mumbled under his breath, “Somebody’s got something to hide that’s for sure.”
“Do you think?” Elliot asked sarcastically as he saw the elaborate security.
Cade drove past and continued on to the Two Moon residence. Pulling into the driveway, he could see the house and barn. The house was a blue two story building with white trim. It had a wraparound porch and a flower bed in front of the porch. The lawn was well cared for and the barn sat back away from the house.
They sat in the car for a few minutes before someone opened the door to the house and stepped outside. He was a tall man with long graying hair pulled away from his head in a long braid.
Cade watched as he came to the edge of the porch. Then he noticed the man had a rifle in his hands. Very carefully, Cade opened his car door and holding his hand up in the air he called out, “Dale Two Moons?”
The man on the porch nodded and called out, “State your business.”
“We’re looking for information on a neighbor.”
Dale lowered his rifle and motioned them to come closer.
Elliot and Kanan got out of the car and joined Cade. They walked up to the porch.
“Are you the police?” Dale asked.
“Not exactly,” Cade told him. “My name is Cade Rivers. This is my brother Elliot and a member of our team Kanan Dasher. We’re from the Rivers Foundation.”
“Then what do you want?”
“We’re looking into a case involving Cooper Hudson and his father Flynn,” Cade explained. “We work in coordination with the police in some of their more colorful cases.”
Dale turned and said, “Come on in the house then. I don’t know how colorful this case is but I bet it’s a bad one.” When he got into the house, he put the gun close to the front door and moved into the kitchen. He began making coffee while they all sat down at the table. Dale turned to them. “Okay, what is this all about? And what is the Rivers Foundation all about?”
Cade replied to this, “The Rivers Foundation is a privately run foundation that investigates and works with police on some very serious crimes. When a case goes cold and we’re asked to look into it, we start investigating the crime all over again. Sometimes we find something the police missed.”
“What are you doing here?” Dale asked.
“When we started this case we were looking into a connection between Cooper Hudson and a string of murders going back fifteen years. We now believe his father Flynn is somehow involved as well.”
“What makes you think I can help you?”
“Jonathan Dillman gave us your name. He thought you could help us,” Elliot told him.
“Dillman’s a good man but he can’t take on the Hudson’s,” Dale agreed. He seemed to be thinking about something for a moment then he spoke, “If you’re serious about putting them out of business follow me.” Dale turned and walked to the back door of his house. He grabbed a different rifle sitting there and proceeded out the door.
Cade looked at his brother but followed the man leading them through the pasture and into the wooded area in his back yard.
They followed him up to the top of a hill and when Dale stopped, he pointed toward the left side. There they could see right into Flynn Hudson’s yard. From here, they could see his house and his barn and everything in between.
Cade quickly looked at Dale and then back at the scene below him. He could see the activity in one of the sheds behind the barn and the pasture where there were four horses. Dale squatted down and told them, “From here you can see them but they have no idea we’re even here.”
“How do you know that?” Elliot asked.
“Because I’ve sat here for hours watching they and they’ve never noticed me.”
Cade squatted down beside Dale and asked, “And just what is so interesting that you would watch them for hours at a time?”
“There is always goings on down there. Once about seven years ago they did some work inside the barn. They hauled a lot of dirt out of there and put a lot of cement in. Then about two years ago they added those sheds over there.” He pointed to the trio of buildings to the right of the barn. “The whole place is lit up at night and they get quite a few cars coming and going after dark. The cars always drive into one of the sheds before anyone gets out of them.”
“Why is that?” Kanan asked.
“Because around dusk, someone always lets the dogs out. They have three of them and they are the meanest pure breeds I’ve ever seen.”
“Yeah, Dillman told us about your phone call regarding the deer,” Elliot said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that vicious.” Dale shook his head. Then he turned and pointed to a small building way back in the woods below them. “About five years ago they put that shed up. Old Leroy had a still out there. I could smell the sour mash every time he started it up. Flynn still fires it up every once in a while.”
“What else can you tell us about your neighbors?” Cade asked.
“They’ve been real busy with some sort of project ever since young Cooper came back from Egypt. I’ve spotted cars with license plates all the way from New York to Florida coming in and going out on a pretty regular basis now. Every few weeks they come in just after dark and a few hours later before the sun comes up, they leave.”
“That isn’t really against the law,” Cade reminded him.
“No it isn’t,” Dale agreed. He reached into his pocket and brought out a small envelope then handed it to Cade. “One day, I found this out in the woods behind their place.”
Cade looked at the small packet. It read Egyptian Gold. The packet was small and reminded him of a sugar packet. It had been torn open and whatever was supposed to be in it was gone.
“After I found it I was looking on the internet and found out that a new drug had hit the streets. I called the DEA and they said they would look into it but I haven’t heard from them since.”
“How long ago was that?” Kanan asked.
“A few weeks now.” Dale nodded at the packet in Cade’s hand. “I don’t know for sure but I think they’re making drugs down there.”
“You could be right about that,” Cade said as he stared down into the yard. “We’re supposed to meet a DEA agent later today.”
“Well if you do, you bring him out here. I’ve got lots to tell him,” Dale said.