Scott Andrews struggled for breath while Jed throttled the life out of him. He was sprawled out on the hood of his unmarked police car, flailing and trying to reach the gun on his hip. Jed grinned widely while Billy Brown looked over his shoulder and down at Scott with an impassive look that conveyed disappointment. "Good help is so hard to find these days," Billy said with the shake of his head. "I tell you to kill a guy, you botch that. I tell you to find him, two of my boys find him first. He ends up dead, only he might be a goddamn undercover state police officer, so we come up with a plan to put the heat off of us... only you can't find the guy we're supposed to be framing!" Billy patted Jed's back and he let go of Scott's throat. He gasped for air and slid off the roof of the car, falling into the dirt that surrounded the deserted boat ramp. Scott saw spots around the corners of his vision as he stood and pulled his sidearm, aiming it square at Jed's big frame. "You touch me again, you fucking nigger, and I to God I will shove this gun down your throat and pull the trigger till it goes click!" Jed just winked as Billy stepped forward. "Put the gun down, Scott," Billy said calmly. "Jed got a little too carried away, I admit that, but there's no need to escalate it. Think calmly and think rationally about this." Scott hesitated a moment before finally holstering his gun. The pain around his neck was stinging. In a few hours it would be a dark ring of bruises. "Now," Billy said one the gun was gone, "If this guy Jed killed was indeed a SLED agent, we need to find out who knows about it and, more importantly, what he knew about us. I think Jed's girl is the key." "Fucking Carol," Jed said dismissively. "Bitch don't know when to close her legs." "She's your woman," Billy said with a look back to Jed. "Find her, goddammit." He turned back to Scott and aimed a finger in his direction. "And you, find John Norman. Make sure he dies resisting arrest." "It ain't that simple, Billy," Scott said. "I--" "No," Bill said curtly. "It is that simple. We are in a world of shit, and you will get us out of this. Because I say so. Don't forget who the fuck you really work for. Get out there and find Norman and kill him dead." Billy walked away towards his truck without another word while Jed stared straight ahead at Scott with a smile that had no trace of warmth of friendliness in it. Scott turned around and got in his car. His hands trembled against the wheel. What exactly had he gotten himself into? This wasn't the usual bullshit Billy paid him to do, he wasn't making evidence disappear or tipping him off on a raid... this was murder, plain and simple. And he wasn't sure if he could do it. Don't forget who you really work for, Billy had said. All the warmth and the sons dried up real fucking quickly when Billy Brown showed his true colors. Scott sighed and started his car up, pulling out the boat ramp a few minutes after Billy and Jed. -- It took Carol a few hours to wake up and have half a mind about her. John and Mike sat parked at a spot a half mile down the road from Beggs house while she came to. Mike napped while John spent that time trying to make sense of what all was going on. He thumbed through the information Parker gave him at the start of it. Scott Andrews started it all by arresting Howard Beggs last week on bullshit charges. Beggs made bail, and then pulled a vanishing act on the Pickett County sheriff's Department and Billy's Boys. From there enter the hero John Norman, whose investigation goes to shit and Beggs is dead with the hero the likely suspect. John wondered what was so important about Beggs that they went through all this trouble? Did he reveal something to Andrews while he was in lockup? Or was Andrews gunning for him right off the bat, but Beggs made bail before that? Something was gnawing at him besides all those questions. He felt like I was missing something, something his white trash brain couldn't figure out. They were a few miles outside of Mt. Carmel, a small community a few miles away from the Pickett County line. The rain from earlier stopped an hour ago, but the trees still shed the excess moisture from their branches and leaves. John needed a cigarette but he was all out. The smoke would help his brain,likke nicotine would be the Drano to eat away the clog in his mind. He went back over it again; Beggs get stopped for small potatoes, goes to jail and makes bail... Makes bail. He started to dig through his jacket and came up with a few sheets of paper folded several times over. John opened them up and rifled through the sheets that made up Beggs' arrest report and record. Suprisingly for someone that looked as strung out as he did, this was only his second pop for drugs in the past year, a felony wrap for Beggs. He had a record, but it was for shit like DUI, public urination, even a few spousal assault charges, but no drugs until last year. John stopped when he reached the latest charge. Possession of a Controlled Substance, Schedule II. The amount they found on him was enough to get the charge, but not enough to bump it up to the felony Possession with Intent to Sell that cops love to tack on regardless if you're selling it or not. After reading through all that, John came to the end and the part where the judge sets bail. It was blank. Nothing from the judge about bail, which would have been a pretty penny for a guy like Beggs. No bail, so what? He just waltzes out of jail? No way he broke out, not even Parker could hush something like that up and it still doesn't explain Billy's angle. That entire train of thought violently derailed when he heard a groan from the backseat of the Cadillac. he quickly turned around to see Carol sitting up and rubbing her eyes. The rubbing made the mascara smear and made Carol look like a racoon. She pulled her hands away from her eyes and saw him. "John," she said cautiously. "Where the hell am I? Why are you here?" "Just calm down and everything's going to be okay, alright." He held his hands up as a sign of peace and threw in a smile to go with it. "I saved you." "Saved me from what?" "From whatever's our there, uhh... I found you at Howard Beggs' house, passed out." "Whose car is this?" "It's my grandpa's," he said, motioning towards Mike snoring in the driver's seat. "John," she said slowly. "What the hell did you do? I fall asleep and then I wake up in a car with you of all people." "You didn't fall asleep," John said a scowl. "We both know what you were on back at Beggs' house. And as for me doing anything, you damn well know I didn't do a goddamn thing." His face was beginning to flush in anger, that basic need to just lash out and hurt the closest thing he could find was beginning to creep up the back of my spine towards his head. He tried to shake it off by holding his hands up again. That old familiar feeling. When it came to Carol, some things never changed. "Carol, what happened between us was the past. ..I've done good since. I'm being honest when I say that calling the cops on me was the best damn thing you could have done." "We talked about this," she said quietly, her body wincing in advance of some outburst. John sagged a bit. It's a hell of a thing to love someone that don't love you back. He got out of prison thinking they would be back to how they were, but she had moved on and he couldn't accept that. He ended up being arrested for harassment and stalking. Sheriff Parker, for whatever reason, stepped in to talk to Carol's parents about dropping the charges. They did so in exchange for a restraining order. He was never charged with anything, but the restraining order stayed valid until a few years ago. He still kept his distance before this shit forced them together. They weren't good for each other, he knew it... but why is it the things that aren't good for you feel so good? "Tell me what's going on," said softly. "Please." "Alright. Beggs is dead. Did you know that?" "No," she said in a hollow voice. "I didn't. I've been at his house since he got let ot I... I knew something bad might happen to him if Jed or Jim Brown caught up with him, but..." "Sheriff Parker hired me to find him, force is more like it. I found him dead, killed by either Jed or Jim Brown. They're setting me up to take the fall for his murder, Carol." He made sure to look in her eyes when he said the next part. "I need to know why they wanted him dead. What did a tweaker like him do to piss off people like that?" "I think he was trying to steal from Billy." Carol turned away from John's gaze, but he could see the tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "I think him and George Silvers were gonna start expanding outside Pickett County and cook meth for the other counties." "That shouldn't have been a problem, I always thought Billy didn't mind guys making some money on the side." "But they were going to cut him out the deal." John stayed silent while Carol silently wept for Howard Beggs. A low-life methhead rated higher in her book than he did. That pissed him off more than he ever wanted to admit, and he hated himself for it. Carol had just lost a man she cared about, and he was getting jealous over the fact she'd never cry like that for him. There was another flash of anger from deep down somewhere. He wanted to slap Carol, wrap his hands around her neck and make her love him. "Where do you fit in with all this?" John asked after he pushed the anger down to a safe enough level. "Were you just with Beggs?" "No," she said between sobs. "Jed... he made me hook with him. Th-they were suspicious that Beggs was working with George, so they wanted me to find out for sure." He let her go on crying some more while he tried to make sense of it all. George and Beggs were planning to branch out without Billy getting his cut. To run a racket and not give Billy a taste is tantamount to breaking a commandment around here. But why was Beggs dead but George still walking around? "Listen," he said, reaching out across the backseat to touch Carol's shoulder. She flinched at the touch, sending another ripple of anger through him. He shoved the anger down again and instead laid his hand on the headrest of the seat and started again. "Listen, whatever's going on, you should get out of town for a few days. Find a motel or something to stay in and lay low until this all blows over." "I can't," she sniffled. "I have my kids to think about." "Carol," he said with a sigh. "I went by your house. Your momma's more of a mother to them than you are. You're just afraid you'll run out of pills, right?" "Fuck you, John! Who the fuck are you to judge me? You sell weed! There are a bunch of goddamn dope fiends and drunks in your fucking family, and you're just as crazy as the rest of them." "I'm not judging," he said through gritted teeth. "I'm not preaching at you, I'm just stating the truth. If I give you enough money to get your shit, will you do like I said and get out of town." Carol looked out the window before she nodded slowly "Yes." "Good." John turned around and gently woke Mike up. A few minutes later they were back on the highway and John told his grandfather all Carol told him.. "Where we headed?" Mike asked. "North through town, all the way up to Anderson." "Why?" "Get her to safety," he said with a nod towards the backseat. "I got some money, she can lay low in a hotel for a few days." Mike grunted as they headed north. John felt uneasy about the whole damn thing, but he knew getting Carol to safety was at least the right thin. If she got out of this mess, he would at least be able to say he did one good thing in this whole goddamn mess.