In Cool Blood

In Cool Blood

A Teddy Godsell Novel

by

Philip David

Sycamore Books Press

Chicago, Illinois

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

In Cool Blood

By

David Eubanks

Published by Sycamore Books Press at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 David Eubanks

All rights reserved.

Contact Information: ph. 630-791-9810

Chapter 1

Before the Kidnapping - The Chateau Cinq Restaurant

A vodka martini cost about the same as a quart of Tennessee moonshine used to cost, but Winona Lovejoy-McConnell had long gotten over the surprise. She sat at the luxurious Chateau Cinq bar, and as she always did, ordered a top shelf Vodka martini with four olives—like getting a salad for free she’d sometimes say.

Rafael held the shaker over his head for show, shaking it dramatically like chilling vodka in a canister of ice cubes was a real art. She liked his style. And that he cared about what he did.

And here you are, Mrs. McConnell. Rafael poured the clear liquid into her glass slowly, taking care, pouring liquid jewels. He stepped back tall and tugged at his cummerbund. Proud.

Raffie, you are so kind, she said.

Rafael took another step back to bow, smiling and nodding appreciatively. He turned away, but snuck a look at Winona’s bright red lips caressing the glass as she took her first sip. He never wanted to miss that, the way her full lips puckered and parted.

From a table a few paces away from the bar, one of two guys sitting at a small table watched the ceremony. Look at that guy, the first chuckled, and without lifting his hand off the table pointed in Rafael’s direction, the glass shaker in his hand, sneaking a peek at the woman. If she doesn’t watch it, he’s going to take a dive into her drink.

I’d take a dive under the sheets with her.

That’s original, Pug.

Ya think? So why don’t you show me what you got? Go talk to her.

I’m not dressed for it.

Nolan Dollarhide didn’t think that a blue blazer over a nylon Cardinal’s jersey and jeans was the uniform fit to approach a lady dressed like the one at the bar. Anyway, used to be they’d come to him, ones that good and better. Besides, he wasn’t in the mood.

Pug said, Yeah, look at her. Notice that tiny waist. Perky butt. Love mounds about to blow out a button. She’s calling for someone, stud.

You got the tie on, brother, you try, Nolan said.

"Nah. You catch the size of that diamond on her finger?

I did. You know what it stands for, don’t you?

Of course, I do.

No you don’t. It means…

It means she’s married.

Shut up and listen, Nolan explained. That diamond says her husband don’t want you to fuck her. But to her, it says if you’re coming, better bring the heat.

Yeah?

You got heat, don’t ya?

Not like you had, but…

I never had heat, I had finesse. Remember I was a knuckle-baller. Nolan leaned over to his brother. So go on, go, show her what you’ve got, Pug

All right, I will.

Pug got up and stretched as tall as his skinny five-foot seven would take him, then took a moment to pick at his crotch and straighten things out down there. He’d like to have straightened his crooked teeth too, which always held him back with women in the past. Nolan watched Pug and remembered it was Rocky Cavalito got that started, picking at his nuts at the plate. Fifty thousand fans watching. Wasn’t long before all the power hitters were doing it.

Pug walked slowly towards the woman’s end of the bar. She sat on the end stool leaving an open seat on her left. Pug liked that. He’d have her pinned up against the wall, protected from any competition. He slid onto the stool next to her.

Forgive me, miss, I know I have no right to ask this, but could I buy you another martini?

Winona hadn’t looked at him yet. She took another cool sip, sat the glass down and brushed her thick black hair over her ear with her left hand. Then she rested her chin in the cup of other hand then turned her face to him. The diamond on her finger faced him, big as a lighthouse.

Misses, she said.

So, she was going to be tough, Pug thought. Nolan saw her expression from across the room and thought the same thing. Go to it, Pug. Don’t let the brush back scare you off the plate now. Nolan was going to get a good laugh out of it if Pug came dragging tail back to the table without making a good contest of it.

Well, you know, sometimes you take a look at a diamond as big as the one you got on and…how big is it anyway?

Oh, no wider than an altar, no taller than a vault door.

Pug held on to a straight face. So, you a preacher or a banker?

No. Finally, a straight answer, he thought.

Well, if you were either, I’d want you on my side. Pug laughed a little, still being cautious.

Ain’t you witty?

Won’t turn down a compliment, but I hardly deserve it.

No, you really don’t. You know, bubba, Winona suddenly put on an accent, I come down out of the hills nine years ago, and I have learnt a little bit here in the city.

Oh, you have. You have. I can see that.

You can?

Yes.

And don’t you want to know what that is?

I’m thinking no. Pug on the defense.

It’s okay. It’s free. Like I know a spotter when I see one, and I can see your spotter over there. She cocked her head slightly showing him where. You know, the one looking out of place in a fine establishment such as this, wearing the sports jersey under the sport coat. Like maybe he lost his suitcase and wore what was left on the floor of his motel room?

Uh, huh. Pug turned to look, like he had to make sure she was pointing to Nolan. Still playing innocent, even though it was feeling hopeless.

He spotted my ring about ten minutes ago. I saw him perk up. And that’s about the same time he made you the bet, wasn’t it? How much was it for?

Pug knew now he’d lost, but couldn’t help smiling at the woman’s wit. No, no money involved—Mrs. That would cheapen the whole thing, don’t you see?

So it was just pride involved.

You could say that.

My condolences…what did you say your name was?

Amos, Name’s Amos.

Not likely, but good-bye, Amos. Pug turned, ready to get off the stool and make his retreat.

What the hell’s going on here? Garret McConnell, the Mrs.’ husband, stood not more than a jab away from Pug’s nose.

Pug ignored the inquiry, stepped away from the bar, and left Winona with the man who had intruded on them. Nolan got up gingerly, wincing as he did so, and the two of them left while Garret McConnell, now with his arm around Winona’s shoulder, glared them out the door.

What did he want? Garret asked Winona.

He wanted what you apparently don’t. Winona kicked her head back and chugged the rest of her martini.

Chapter 2

Two Months after the Kidnapping - Winona in Jail

Winona McConnell walked into visitation, handcuffed, wearing her blue Davidson county jumpsuit and took a seat across the table from Teddy Godsell. Teddy, now a freelance crime-reporter, was there to get her story first-hand.

It was hard for him to look at her and not imagine her in a light-cotton summer dress, and hope for a summer breeze out of somewhere to make it cling to her. Her coal-black hair draped over her shoulders seductively, and no matter how she looked at you, her black eyes were in a natural state of permanent flirt.

Or maybe it was just Teddy. He told himself he was too old for that stuff, but he still had the antennae, divorce and the passage of time notwithstanding. He was only fifty-eight and fit as bourbon allowed.

Teddy scanned the room to see it was starting to fill up, half civilians—family and friends come to visit, wearing cheerful smiles in spite of circumstances, the other half lethargic inmates drifting into the room, feeling conspicuous in their prison garb, yet every one of them more or less looking alike. They took their places at gray, metal-topped tables, the size of picnic tables, and started the awkward initial exchanges. How you been? Whaddyathink? Teddy had seen plenty of this scene before.

He turned back to Winona and watched her gracefully lower herself in the seat across from him. She’d agreed to meet to tell him exactly what happened, but said she wanted him to understand her first. Start further back, she said. Get to the kidnapping charges in a bit.

She put a hand to her cheek, looking a bit weary, and started telling about a time up on Sparks Mountain, not too far from where they were sitting in a Tennessee jail. "I want to tell you about the Flint boys and the day me and my daddy had to face them down over a land deal.

"It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was almost down. Light at that time of day always come filtering in through trees so evening came a little early to our spot on the hillside. Things outside were getting hard to see, and Daddy was up and down, pacing, staring out the window, restless.

"Daddy kept saying, ‘I ‘spect them any day now.’ Then he’d go to the window and try to peek out a little off to the left, then to the right. You couldn’t see much through our tiny, little window—‘bout the size of a pinhole. The fact was there were a lot of ways the Flint boys could have snuck up on us without us spotting anybody.

"Daddy says to me, ‘When they come, they’ll split up. One up the middle. One around the pig sty. One comin’ down the slope on our right. That one’ll have the best chance of getting close before we know it.’

"That was because the tree line was closest to the house on the right. Maybe forty feet off.

I told him I’d watch for the one on the right. Daddy had his rifle and three shotguns all laid out on the table and loaded. He was going to use the 12-gauge pump action—that was his old Remington, his favorite. Used 385 grain, Sabot slugs. No one was gonna survive the hit if he got a bead on them. A bear wouldn’t. Winona gave Teddy a confirming glance. Take that as the God’s honest truth.

"So I told him I’d take the other twelve gauge. It was a two-shot, over-under. I was thinking I wanted a sure kill if I had to use it on one of those Flint boys. Every one of them big. Dumb as elk.

" ‘No you won’t.’ he says. ‘It’ll knock you on your ass. Take your .410’ he says, ‘and make the shot count. Wait ‘til they get real close. You just hide behind the stove there and wait.’

Shot placement, that was the trick—he would always tell me that. That and Magnum Silver Slugs. Daddy always said with those shells he could take any man down with any .410, inside of twenty yards—if you put the shot in his belly. Plus, my gun held five shots and reloaded quick with a magazine clip. So even if I didn’t hit anybody, I sure as hell could light up the place. Scare the pee out of them at least. Winona laughed and covered her mouth.

"They came after dark. Dumb asses, smoking cigarettes just inside the tree line down the hill. Might as well have sent up flares. We could see them start to move.

My heart started to thud, and Daddy says to me real low, ‘Get ready.’ And I’m thinking how could I get any more ready? We had the lights off, of course. He was sitting in a chair, about as far in front of me as that table over there, Winona pointed to a nearby table across the aisle fifteen feet away, "and looking out the wide open front door, sitting just inside the cabin so’s one of the boys couldn’t pick him off from the side. Daddy had the pump action across his lap. His over-under leaned up against the wall next to him.

"I couldn’t stand the tension, and I whispers ‘Daddy, I gotta pee.’ I was such a girl.

"He says, ‘Hot damn it, Winona. Let her go behind the stove, but keep ahold of your gun. Don’t lay it down.’

" ‘You’ll hear me,’ I says, whining at him.

Daddy says, " ‘For Christ’s sake, Winona, hush.’

"Then I had an idea. I said, ‘Why don’t you just give him the land back?’ I thought that was a better idea than having a shoot-out.

Right then the first shot hit our iron stove, sounding like God pitched a boulder against an empty steam engine. Lord it was loud. Scared the pee out of me and solved my problem just like that. Winona snapped her fingers. "Must have been a 30/30. Using a night scope maybe, and from a good seventy-five yards away. Daddy fell backwards to the floor.

" ‘Get down, Winona. Belly on the floor. Get ready,’ he says. ‘They’re coming.’

"I laid still and pulled my gun up my side. I put a finger on the trigger and wrapped the others around the pistol grip on the barrel. I liked that grip. Helped me shoot straight. I rolled over a little bit onto my side so I could aim and fire easily.

‘You all right, Daddy?’ I asked him.

" ‘Shush. Remember to wait. Let ‘em in the room. Then open up.’ He was straining. Not sounding good at all.

‘Daddy?’ I says again.

"He didn’t answer.

" ‘Daddy?’

"Still no answer. It was creepy quiet, and I’m figuring I’m doing to die.

"I thought he might have been hit, and that’s when I took matters into my own hands. I wasn’t going to face the three of them inside that little room all by myself. So I got back on my belly and slithered my way to the back door and out. I rolled off the back porch onto the ground then rolled for about forty, fifty feet until I got into the tall grass. I tried to settle down, but I was breathing too hard. I tried holding my breath so I could listen.

"In a minute, I heard them moving. Slow steps. Getting closer. Finally, I saw some figures in the dark, crouched, moving in close, one from each side of the cabin. Then they went out of sight, disappearing when they moved in front of the house. That’s when I got up and started to circle around.

"I’m moving towards the cabin when I hears ‘You got him,’ one of ‘em hollering. Sounded like Bobby, the youngest. I kept moving slowly off to the low side of the cabin, tip-toeing, making no sounds, though every step seemed to crunch loud enough to echo. So I was still twenty yards away, going slow, circling. I could hear Daddy Flint walking