by Jonathan Ferrini<\/p>\n
For Sale<\/em><\/p>\n 1956 Chevrolet two-door Bel Air.<\/em><\/p>\n Light blue and white.<\/em><\/p>\n Blue rims and whitewall tires<\/em>.<\/p>\n Like New!<\/em><\/p>\n I retired from teaching English within rustbelt schools and found my slice of heaven in a country town with tall pines, lakes, and wildlife. I never imagined my small home outside the tiny town would provide me with the inspiration to write a murder mystery novel.<\/p>\n I purchased a vintage car from my elderly neighbor, Mrs. Jenkins who had buried her husband of nearly sixty years. I helped her clear out the garage which resembled a photograph album of their lives together including the centerpiece, a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air.<\/p>\n It pained Mrs. Jenkins to part with her deceased husbands prize possessions including vintage tool sets, woodworking equipment, and nick knacks Sheriff Jenkins had collected during his long career as a deputy and elected Sheriff of our County from the fifties up through the eighties.<\/p>\n I was new to the neighborhood and didn\u2019t know the Jenkins. They were kindly elderly people always quick with a wave and a smile. Old glory was hoisted every morning and taken down with honor before sunset by Sheriff Jenkins. When the flag disappeared, I knew Sheriff Jenkins had fallen ill or died.<\/p>\n Mrs. Jenkins invited me inside for tea after selling off the final set of tools and I inquired about the car. It was her husband\u2019s prize possession and the last to go. I showed an interest and knowledge about vintage cars, and she offered me the Bel Air for one dollar with my promise I would take good care of the car.<\/p>\n There were old, framed photographs of the Sheriff and Mrs. Jenkins throughout the house including photographs of a baby, young lady, and beautiful teenage cheerleader. I asked about her daughter, and she cried.<\/p>\n \u201cEmily is no longer with us.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cShe left us not long after the photograph of her as head cheerleader was taken the night she disappeared.<\/p>\n \u201cI miss her dearly and pray our family will be reunited in the afterlife.<\/p>\n \u201cSelling the car will enable me to live my final years in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very sorry about your loss.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the car\u2019s connection to Emily\u2019s disappearance?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy darling daughter was the last to drive it to a cheerleading camp.<\/p>\n \u201cShe never came home.<\/p>\n \u201cWe assumed the worse about Emily and the car was stolen.<\/p>\n \u201cMy husband was retired from the Sheriff\u2019s department when our vehicle was pulled out of the muddy bog with no signs of life.<\/p>\n \u201cMy husband brought it home, cleaned it up, and it became a keepsake.<\/p>\n \u201cHe made it immaculate in memory of Emily and runs like new.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter my husband died, I\u2019d spend many an hour alone inside the car as if speaking with Emily.\u201d<\/p>\n The car was a painful reminder about losing her daughter. I drove the car home immediately in hopes its absence would provide Mrs. Jenkins with peace.<\/p>\n It was only a month later when Mrs. Jenkins passed to meet her family in the afterlife.<\/p>\n The Sheriff did a fine job restoring the Bel Air and with a little more work, the Bel Air would resemble the day it left the factory floor except for a locket hanging from the rearview mirror Mrs. Jenkins forgot to remove. It contained a photo of beautiful Emily dressed as a cheerleader holding a trophy.<\/p>\n I came upon a wrapped high school yearbook which had been placed between the seats.<\/p>\n \u201cCanyon High Bicentennial Yearbook 1976\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n As I carefully turned the glossy pages, I came upon two pages which had been \u201cdog eared\u201d including a page with Mrs. Jenkin\u2019s daughter and a Black kid whose name was Wendell Washington with a caption below his name,<\/p>\n \u201cStudent Body President; All Conference Running Back; and Center Fiedler\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Pasted to the inside cover was a photo of a young mother cradling a baby girl. I turned the photo over to find a handwritten inscription,<\/p>\n I\u2019m placing this heartfelt message to you inside the yearbook and the car which became your coffin.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be joining you and your father soon.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n I never came to realize your fate until the end of my life, darling. A woman\u2019s intuition is a strong feeling that led me to the painful understanding of what I know happened to you and Wendell.<\/em><\/p>\n I never shared my suspicion about your death with anybody including your father which would have destroyed him and ruin his beloved career as Sheriff. <\/em><\/p>\n There are ugly secrets inside this county, and I\u2019ve suffered knowing the truth all these many years.<\/em><\/p>\n I pray you and Wendell are together in the hereafter.<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019ll see you and daddy soon on the other side of the rainbow.<\/em><\/p>\n Love,<\/em><\/p>\n Momma<\/em><\/p>\n I was puzzled by finding the sequestered high school yearbook including the photo and handwritten inscription. Mrs. Jenkins alluded to a dark secret surrounding the car and the disappearance of Emily and Wendell. This matter was reminiscent of the mystery thrillers I devoured and inspired me to learn more about the mystery in honor of Mrs. Jenkins\u2019 and her daughter.<\/p>\n Clear Lake High School<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHome or the Rumblin\u2019 Reb\u2019s\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThank you for seeing me, Principal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd your name, Sir?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m Vincent Light.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow may I help you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m attempting to locate records relating to a young lady inside this yearbook named Emily Jenkins.<\/p>\n \u201cHer photograph is marked inside the 1976 yearbook.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMay I take a look at that yearbook?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll also find the photograph of Wendell Washington which was marked by Mrs. Jenkins who sequestered this yearbook inside a car I bought from her.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy grandmother graduated in 1978.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s on page 88.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to solve a puzzle why Mrs. Jenkins marked these photos and left a note inside for her departed daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre you saying Emily passed before her mother?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow terrible!<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t fathom the thought of losing my beloved little girl.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI hope to solve the mystery of Emily\u2019s disappearance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDisappearance?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe never returned home from a weekend cheerleading camp and your high school might have documentation relating to the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEven if you were a family member, I have no records to give you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBack in the seventies, all records were kept solely on paper.<\/p>\n \u201cThe records were placed into cardboard boxes and taken outside town and stored inside the warehouse.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t you have a method for retrieving files?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA flood washed away the warehouse.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou have nothing left?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s as if everybody attending this high school never existed until we upgraded to electronic record keeping in the eighties.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m flabbergasted a generation of students\u2019 lives simply vanished.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLife in a small, rural, county, is like living inside a time warp where seemingly simple matters like record keeping become enigmas.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI taught English before retiring and this entire matter is \u2018Kafkaesque\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSpeaking of literature, after hiring on here as a new teacher, I overheard near retirement age teachers speak about an interracial \u2018Romeo and Juliet\u2019 romance involving two former students.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy would they be speaking about it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always been a racial divide inside this town.<\/p>\n \u201cWhite people live north of the county highway up in the woods near the lakes, and the Blacks live south of the highway down by the sawmill, quarry, and slaughterhouse.<\/p>\n \u201cThe racism remains today, but I manage to keep the lid on the simmering pot of racial animosity before it simmers over.\u201d<\/p>\n County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe Sheriff will see you, now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m Sheriff Portia.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand you\u2019re seeking information about the two missing kids back in the seventies.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, Ma\u2019am.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI bought a vintage Bel Air from Sheriff Jenkin\u2019s widow who passed, and I found this yearbook with the Sheriff\u2019s daughter and a classmate named Wendell Washington marked.<\/p>\n \u201cEmily never returned home from a weekend cheerleading camp back in the seventies.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to learn about Emily\u2019s fate in memory of Mrs. Jenkins.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI found two archived missing persons reports filed.<\/p>\n \u201cSheriff Jenkins reported his daughter and vehicle missing after she departed for a cheerleading camp.<\/p>\n \u201cThe second report was filed by the Washington family reporting their son, Wendell, missing.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth reports were investigated but the young people were never located, and the cases were closed.<\/p>\n \u201cIf investigating the reports today, I\u2019d assume the two kids ran off together.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWasn\u2019t that suspicion investigated?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA Black young man disappearing with a white young lady who was the Sheriff\u2019s daughter likely caused quite a stir in this county, and frankly, it was politically expedient for all concerned to let it go.<\/p>\n \u201cSheriff Jenkins retired after the cases were closed and Deputy Perkins was elected Sheriff.<\/p>\n \u201cThe car belonging to Sheriff Jenkins was towed from a bog after sitting beneath the murky water for decades.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were no remains or any other evidence.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have a cold case unit here, Mister.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re a low-tech law enforcement agency.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m pleased to find a woman heading up the Sheriff\u2019s department.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a local girl.<\/p>\n \u201cI did a hitch inside the Army\u2019s military police, came back home, and signed on with the department.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid you know Sheriff Jenkins?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSheriff Jenkins is the third photo to the left of mine on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWho\u2019s the Sheriff in the photo following Jenkins?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s Sheriff Pointer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m reminded of the Comedy and Tragedy masks of Greek theatre.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t follow you, Sir.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI apologize for the literary reference.<\/p>\n \u201cI was pointing out the difference in appearance between Jenkins and Pointer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSheriff Jenkins was a \u2018Sheriff Andy Taylor\u2019 type from the television series but he did carry a sidearm and knew how to use it.<\/p>\n \u201cHe kept the peace and treated everybody with respect.<\/p>\n \u201cSheriff Pointer wasn\u2019t liked within the department and didn\u2019t take kindly to women or minorities serving on the force.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was elected Sheriff after Sheriff Jenkins retired.<\/p>\n \u201cHe represented \u2018tragedy\u2019 inside your literary reference.<\/p>\n \u201cHe committed suicide with a self-inflicted 9-millimeter gunshot to the head and was incinerated inside his house which burned to the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy did he commit suicide?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe was a lonely man without any friends, and nobody came forward with a motive.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have the resources to investigate any cold case.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of my time is answering barking dog complaints.<\/p>\n \u201cI suggest you visit the VFW Saturday night which attracts a few old timers who likely graduated from high school with Emily and Wendell.\u201d<\/p>\n VFW POST <\/em><\/p>\n It was a small smoke-filled room with a juke box spinning seventies southern rock music with a pool table. I took a seat at the bar with a sign hanging above the register saying,<\/p>\n CASH ONLY<\/em><\/p>\n I was ignored until a hand resembling a bear claw was extended towards me.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m Sarge.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not a veteran but thank you for your service.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you ain\u2019t a veteran, what ya\u2019 doin\u2019 here?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSheriff Portia suggested I stop by and ask about two missing high school kids from the seventies inside this yearbook which I found inside a car I purchased from Mrs. Jenkins.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMrs. Jenkins was a fine woman and so was Sheriff Jenkins.<\/p>\n \u201cSheriff Jenkins won the Bronze Star.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all graduates of the same high school.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a nineteen seventy-six yearbook.<\/p>\n \u201cThe girl is Sheriff Jenkins\u2019s daughter, and the young man is Wendell Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cRecognize them?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was a year behind Wendell, and I played on the football and baseball team with him.<\/p>\n \u201cWendell was a standout student and natural born leader who did a lot to heal the racial divide within the student body.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was heading off to West Point and would have made a good officer.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll raise my glass and toast the soldier he never became.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDo you recognize Emily?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe was out of my league but a standout student like Wendell.<\/p>\n \u201cIt must have been tough on the families not knowing the fate of their children.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy wasn\u2019t their disappearance ever accounted for?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was frowned upon \u2018round these parts a White girl may have taken up with a Black kid and I think the investigation was conveniently dropped.<\/p>\n \u201cI never cared for that pencil neck Deputy Pointer who won election after the Sheriff retired.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard he was medically discharged from the Army for psychological reasons.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the bastard had a Napoleon complex the way he carried himself as Sheriff.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry I can\u2019t be of more help but good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBartender, please buy a round of drinks for the bar.\u201d<\/p>\n I was approached by the bartender who was an elderly Black man who motioned me to the end of the bar and spoke quietly.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m born and raised in these parts.<\/p>\n \u201cI graduated a few years after Emily and Wendell\u2019s disappearance but didn\u2019t know them.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a janitor who worked at the high school when I attended who may know more about the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhere do I find him?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGo over to Perkinsville which is a Black neighborhood just south of town.<\/p>\n \u201cWalk inside the barbershop and ask for \u2018Mister Green\u2019 who is the shoeshine.<\/p>\n \u201cTell the Black folk \u2018Robbie\u2019 over at the VFW sent you or they\u2019ll think you\u2019re the police.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The Stylistic Barbershop<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I felt like I was in the segregated sixties inside an all-black barbershop. The shop fell silent and tense when I entered. It reminded me of teaching inside tough Detroit schools.<\/p>\n \u201cExcuse, me, gentleman.<\/p>\n \u201cRobbie sent me over to ask for \u2018Mister Green\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m Green.<\/p>\n \u201cShine?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, please.\u201d<\/p>\n The din of the barbershop resumed, and I breathed a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m attempting to learn about the disappearance of Sheriff Jenkins\u2019s daughter Emily and a student named Wendell Washington who are inside this yearbook.<\/p>\n \u201cYou ain\u2019t no undercover police, are you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a retired English teacher who moved to town from Detroit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI got family in Detroit.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you want to know?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow did a Bel Air end up in a lake for decades and two high school students within the yearbook placed inside by Mrs. Jenkins, disappear?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m gonna\u2019 whisper to ya\u2019, young fella\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a Janitor at the jail back in the seventies.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was late at night, and I worked quietly.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody inside the Sheriff\u2019s office knew I was in the hall mopping the floor.<\/p>\n \u201cI overheard Deputy Pointer speaking frantically inside his office.<\/p>\n \u201cI heard him start and stop several times like he was recording his voice.<\/p>\n \u201cThe conversation went somethin\u2019 like this.<\/p>\n \u2018I was eatin\u2019 my dinner just off the county highway at about twenty-three hundred hours and saw the Sheriff\u2019s Bel Air speed across above the speed limit with two passengers.<\/p>\n \u2018I gave chase and as I grew near, I saw the Sheriff\u2019s daughter in the passenger seat and the driver was a male Negro.<\/p>\n \u2018Fearing for the girl\u2019s safety, I hit the lights and saw the arm of the male Negro quickly removed from around the girl\u2019s shoulder appearing they were romantically involved.<\/p>\n \u2018It was my intention to pull them over and get to the bottom of the matter, but whatever the circumstances, I\u2019d teach the Black boy a lesson and leave him to walk home while driving the Sheriff\u2019s daughter home.<\/p>\n \u2018The Black kid got scared, turned off onto a dark dirt road and drove into the ice-cold lake.<\/p>\n \u2018The car sank like an anchor.<\/p>\n \u2018The Sheriff\u2019s daughter screamed and attempted to claw her way out of the car window.<\/p>\n \u2018The car sank quickly in the freezing water, and it was impossible for me to render any rescue without sacrificing my own life.<\/p>\n \u2018I accidently killed the Sheriff\u2019s daughter and decided to let it go or face charges.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018This confession is being made on this fifteenth day of March in the year nineteen and seventy-six while the facts are clear in my mind and may be useful as future evidence in my defense.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThe Black kid was Wendell Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cHis family wasn\u2019t aware of the interracial dating and in those days \u2018round these parts, neither the Washington family nor the Sheriff would have approved of their dating.<\/p>\n \u201cWendell\u2019s family reported their son missing but as time passed, both families and everybody in town presumed the kids ran off together.<\/p>\n \u201cThe parents lived out there lives never knowing the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of their children who were dead inside the car at the bottom of the bog.<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t smell right with the Black folk, but Sheriff Jenkins\u2019s was never the same.<\/p>\n \u201cDeputy Pointer saw an opportunity to run for Sheriff against his boss using the racial runaway gossip as leverage in the election.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Sheriff chose to retire rather than lose.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy did you remain silent?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d end up deader than those two kids.<\/p>\n \u201cI quit the janitor\u2019s job at the Sheriff\u2019s department and took up cleaning the schoolhouse until I retired.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to expose the murder.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m an old man with lung cancer from smoking my entire life.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me die in peace and forget the matter.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll deny everything and have nothing to lose.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you have to gain?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI want to bring Justice to Mrs. Jenkins and the Washingtons.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLife around these parts won\u2019t be friendly towards you if you keep poking around.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m an old man and can tell you from firsthand experience, \u2018let sleeping dogs lie\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll leave you out of it but is there anybody who can corroborate your story?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSheriff Pointer was a racist prick and kept a tight lid on life around these parts.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a distant cousin who told me Pointer was seeing a Black prostitute named Billie.<\/p>\n \u201cShe might help you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhere can I find Billie?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBillie is livin\u2019 out her final days with a bad case of Alzheimer\u2019s at the Shady Oaks Rest Home.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can speak with her but the gibberish comin\u2019 out of her mouth won\u2019t make no sense.<\/p>\n \u201cBillie always had a taste for whiskey.<\/p>\n \u201cGive her a bottle and maybe she\u2019ll remember somethin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Shady Oaks Memory Care<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The sign painter failed to properly paint over the word \u201cAsylum\u201d when replacing the word with \u201cMemory Care\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t recognize you, boy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA friend told me to visit and ask you about a former client.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said you enjoyed whiskey.<\/p>\n \u201cI snuck this bottle in for you hoping it will rekindle your memory.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe dear lord has sent his angel bearing Billie\u2019s favorite friend in the entire world, mother whiskey.<\/p>\n \u201cGive me that bottle, boy!\u201d<\/p>\n Billie nearly finished half the bottle in one long swallow.<\/p>\n \u201cTell me about Sheriff Pointer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat White devil was a tough kinky snake who enjoyed a big Black women dominating him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019d come in hot and horny, and momma Billie would give him lines of coke to snort off her big ass.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019d have fun, get high, and talk about what a big shot he was.<\/p>\n \u201cHe needed a secret job performed by somebody he could trust, and I referred him to my pimp, Maxwell.<\/p>\n \u201cMaxwell was an ex-con and wanted to stay on the good side of the law.<\/p>\n \u201cHe found a tow truck and drove with Pointer to the bog and towed out a Bel Air.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were two skeletons inside.<\/p>\n \u201cPointer and Maxwell smashed the bones and scattered them from the bridge into the river.<\/p>\n \u201cPointer retrieved a portion of a skull as a souvenir but didn\u2019t realize Maxwell also kept a portion of that skull when Pointer wasn\u2019t lookin\u2019 which was a \u2018insurance policy\u2019 against the law.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter one of our sessions, Pointer revealed a portion of a skull sayin\u2019,<\/p>\n \u2018This is what happens to Black folk who don\u2019t toe the line in my county.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cHe threw me a bone which looked like part of a human skull.<\/p>\n \u201cHe passed out and I knew it was a portion of a skull from the two missing high school kids Maxwell towed from the bog.<\/p>\n \u201cI hid my \u2018insurance policy\u2019 knowin\u2019 he\u2019d forget about it.<\/p>\n \u201cI kept my mouth shut not wanting any trouble until he started threating me with jail unless I serviced him for free, but Billie showed that \u2018ol cracker justice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat was justice?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaxwell decided to blackmail Pointer.<\/p>\n \u201cHe threatened Pointer sayin\u2019 if anything happened to him or me, an unknown person would mail the bone to the FBI and demand an investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow did it work out?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDeputy Pointer pleaded for mercy.<\/p>\n \u201cMaxwell demanded Pointer pay him one thousand dollars every month in cash and allow the whorehouse to operate with immunity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid Pointer agree?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHell, yes, and paid Maxwell like clockwork for decades.<\/p>\n \u201cMaxwell shared the extortion money with me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI heard Sheriff Pointer committed suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaxwell and I were getting\u2019 older and decided to tighten the screws on Pointer.<\/p>\n \u201cMaxwell upped the monthly blackmail to three thousand dollars which would have been more than half of the cracker\u2019s annual salary.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Sheriff was a church goin\u2019 hypocrite and rather than be exposed or live out his life payin\u2019 us, he swallowed the end of his service pistol and blew his head off after settin\u2019 his house on fire destroying everything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat about a tape-recorded confession I was told about?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPointer was a hoarder and every earthly possession of his including recordings, kinky vids and pics of him and me, were consumed by the fire of hell where Pointer lived.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m getting\u2019 tired, young man.<\/p>\n \u201cBring by another bottle some time and I\u2019ll tell you more stories.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cStories, Billie?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy memory is jumbled, and I don\u2019t know what\u2019s real or not,<\/p>\n \u201cI won\u2019t remember you stoppin\u2019 by when I wake up in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019s Maxwell?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaxwell died many years ago and took my heart with him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRead this note Mrs. Jenkins placed inside the yearbook which includes photos of her daughter and Wendell.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have to young man.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter Sheriff Jenkins died and Mrs. Jenkins was getting up in years, I mailed her an anonymous note tellin\u2019 her everything, and I included the bone fragments.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t imagine a mother suffering all those years and being married to the Sheriff who was blindsided by his own deputy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy would Mrs. Jenkins keep silent and not seek justice?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe had her family\u2019s reputation to defend, and thought it was best to remain silent and take the truth to her grave.<\/p>\n \u201cMay God bless her soul.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid you contact Wendell\u2019s parents?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWendell\u2019s family received a lot of hate inside this county and were pressured to move far away.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cI left the decision to Mrs. Jenkins to contact Wendell\u2019s folks.<\/p>\n \u201cI suspect Mrs. Jenkins felt the same as me, Black folk makin\u2019 charges against the Sheriff\u2019s department would only find trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n Weeks later, I was awoken by my bedroom window breaking in the dark early hours of morning. My floor was littered with glass and shards of a broken whiskey bottle smelling of gasoline including a wick. A note was attached,<\/p>\n Your snoopin\u2019 opened old wounds and brought the heat down upon the dark side of town. <\/em><\/p>\n Best you get steppin\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n A friend.<\/em><\/p>\n A tin of pomade and a 9-millimeter bullet was taped to the bottom of the bottle.<\/p>\n The small town became a slice of hell, and I moved away after having the funeral home bury the locket and yearbook alongside the graves of Sheriff and Mrs. Jenkins.<\/p>\n I hope Mrs. Jenkins is reunited with Emily and Sheriff Jenkins.\u00a0 I pray for the family of Wendell who also suffered silently. I\u2019ll dedicate my future murder mystery novel to their memory.<\/p>\n For Sale.<\/em><\/p>\n 1956 Chevrolet two-door Bel Air. <\/em><\/p>\n Light blue and white. <\/em><\/p>\n Blue rims and white walls<\/em>.<\/p>\n Like new including Provenance! <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Jonathan Ferrini For Sale 1956 Chevrolet two-door Bel Air. Light blue and white. Blue rims and whitewall tires. Like New!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1800,77],"tags":[1801,1123,1758],"class_list":["post-15930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-egophobia-86","category-english","tag-egophobia-86","tag-english","tag-jonathan-ferrini"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DakB-48W","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15930"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15933,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15930\/revisions\/15933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egophobia.ro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}