BODY COUNT: Killers (a novel): Chapter 41. Confusion

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Rainbow managed to complete the framework for the new boathouse, but he was having a hard time keeping his mind on the job. It kept popping into his head that he was riding the getaway vehicle used in a double murder. He felt like a pawn on a chess board. He believed that one of the two sons was the serial killer, but what kind of game was the killer playing? Kirk Johnson had to know that when Ted Banks saw that motorcycle there would be a reaction from him. Banks’ telling Rainbow to paint the bike meant that he knew the danger of having the motorcycle show up again on the streets. So why did Kirk give the bike to him in the first place?
    He was deep in thought when a car pull into the drive. The sheriff got out and hollered, “Send the Mexicans home and come to the house. I need your help with something.”
    Rainbow dismissed the workers and told them to come back in the morning. They drove off in their old pickup truck, and he knocked on the door of the house. Banks opened the door with a drink in his hand. He emptied the glass with a big gulp, turned, and poured another one. “Can I get you a drink?”
    Rainbow felt very uncomfortable. “No, I’m good. What can I do for you, Sheriff?”
    Banks walked past Rainbow and retrieved a key from the rack next to the door. “There’s some stuff I need to burn.”
    Carved into a huge mound beside the house was a storm shelter. It had a large metal door with an impressive lock. Banks removed the lock and tossed it to the ground. Inside the door was a light switch.
    “My God,” cried Rainbow, “I’ve never seen so much Klan stuff in one place in my entire life.”
    Banks ran his hand over a speaker’s stand. “This stuff belonged to my father. I should have burned it years ago, but I didn’t have the heart.”
    Rainbow picked up a dress knife with “KKK” on the ivory handle. “This stuff must be worth a lot of money.”
    Banks pushed the speaker’s stand over, and it toppled to the ground. “Go to the shed and get a can of gas. We’re burning every damn thing.”
    By the time Rainbow returned, Banks had pulled the stand, the flags, and a lot of the other stuff outside and was making a mountain of it. “Pour the gas on this stuff, set it afire, and come help me,” Banks said, disappearing into the shelter.
    Suddenly, a car raced down the drive and across the lawn. Wayne and Taylor jumped out with guns drawn. Taylor yelled at Rainbow, “Set that gas can on the ground and back away.”
    Banks ran out of the shelter. “What the hell are you doing on my property?”
    Taylor waved his gun at the sheriff. “Put your hands on top of your head and drop to your knees.”
    Once Banks was on the ground, Wayne moved in, took Banks’ gun from its holster, and handcuffed him.”
    Taylor turned his attention to Rainbow. “What do you have to do with this?”
    Rainbow, who had also placed his hands on his head and dropped to his knees, said, “I was never in that shelter until a few minutes ago. I was just here building that boathouse for the sheriff when he asked me to help burn this stuff. I have nothing to do with this shit.”
    Taylor waved his gun toward the driveway. “Get out of here before you end up in jail.”
    Rainbow ran to the motorcycle, kicked it twice to start it, and sped out onto the open road.
    Wayne stood in the doorway of the shelter. “Taylor, you need to see this shit – it’s wall-to-wall KKK.”
    Banks straightened his back and said, “Agent Manning, may I stand? My old legs can’t take this kneeling.”
    Taylor grabbed Banks’ arm and helped him stand. “What were you trying to destroy, Sheriff? Maybe your involvement in those murders?”
    Banks looked back at the shelter door, beyond which he could hear Wayne digging through stuff. “You’ve made a big mistake. I had nothing to do with the murders 20 years ago, nor do I have anything to do with the murders present day.”
    Wayne stepped outside now. “You were seen picking up one of the victims the night he died.”
    Banks thought for a moment before he realized who Agent Roberts was talking about. “If you mean old drunk Roy, I dropped him off at his sister’s house. I gave up arresting him a long time ago.”
    Taylor looked at Wayne and grinned. “I guess the sister will tell the same story?”
    “My arms are hurting me,” Banks said, “and these cuffs are cutting off the blood to my hands. Please take them off – I’m not going anywhere. I spoke to the sister the day Roy’s body was found, and she said he had got into her purse and stole 5 dollars the night I brought him to her, and then slipped out. That’s all I know. By the time Roy was doing that, I was home and in bed.”
    Taylor took the cuffs off. Wayne said, “Why are you taking the cuffs off him?”
    “Because he’s not the killer.”
    Wayne waved his arms around. “But what about all this Klan shit? You trying to say it means nothing?”
    Taylor kicked at the pile. “I’m saying it’s not illegal to own it. There’s nothing about these murders that would indicate the Klan was involved. Sheriff Banks here is the only one who believes it has anything to do with the Klan. What about it, Sheriff? Why is it that you think the Klan is behind the murders? I want the truth this time.”
    Banks reached out to Wayne. “May I have my gun back?”
    Wayne reluctantly handed Banks his gun, and Banks put it back in its hoster. He said, “We need to get to Johnson’s mill. Once Kirk learns I’ve been arrested, I’m not sure what he’ll do.”
    Taylor motioned Wayne toward their car. “Okay, let’s go to the mill. Get in the back, Sheriff, and I want the entire story before we get there.”
    They all got into the car, but Wayne still didn’t trust Banks. He said, “Start talking, or so help me God, I’ll slip these cuffs back on you.”
    Banks put up his hand in a sign of surrender. “My father and old man Johnson were best of friends. My father was the Grand Wizard and Mr. Johnson was his enforcer. They planned for Kirk and me to follow in their footsteps, but I wanted nothing to do with the Klan – not then or now. The night of the murders, I was in the National Guard Building. A number of us guardsmen were there. Most of them, unlike me, lived a long ways away and wouldn’t have been able to make it by 5:00 the next morning, so they’d come that night. I had another reason for being there that night: I was hiding from my father.”
    Wayne was getting impatient. “Get to the murders. We don’t have all day.”
    Banks nodded his head. “Okay, but this next part I pieced together on my own. I have no proof of any of it, and that’s why I have never said anything. My father had told me that Kirk and I would be joining the Klan the night before I shipped out, and Kirk and I would be baptized in a ‘ceremony of blood’. So…I believe Kirk and his father – maybe along with mine too – killed those boys.”
    Taylor waited a moment after Banks stopped before asking, “What happened a couple of months ago?”
    Banks took a few seconds before answering. “Kirk was elected Grand Wizard a little over two months ago. Shortly after that was when the first body turned up by the tracks. I don’t know why he’s killing these people, but I do believe he’s behind the murders.”

Copyright © 2019, 2020 by Ed Rogers