Chapter Fourty-four
Summer was drawing near, and the daylight was stretching into the early evening. It had been a long day, but Wes had tracked down and interviewed several people who knew Eddie Gowins. He was looking forward to his last stop because he hadn’t seen these guys in years. Wes climbed the steps to the porch and approached James “Buddy” Waites and Pete Daniels, two original Southern Soul band members. These guys stopped playing in the band around the same time as Nick Roberts. A new generation of band members came in as replacements, but nobody had the chemistry of the original set.
“Well, I’ll be,” Buddy shouted from the porch chair, where he held a cold beverage. “It’s a treat to have Lenny’s grandkid visit us old fogies.”
Wes shook Buddy’s hand and then Pete’s. “I appreciate you guys letting me interrupt your evening.”
“No problem,” Pete said. “So to what do we owe this pleasure? I saw you in that magazine. Eligible bachelor? Please tell me some lady has snagged you by now.”
Wes threw his head back and laughed. He was not going to ever get away from that article. As he laughed, he saw Angel’s face in his mind. He took a seat on one of the vacant porch chairs as he answered Pete’s question. “Maybe. It would be nice. I think I’m ready to settle down and have a family.”
Buddy cackled. His voice was hoarse from years of smoking cigars, and from a short distance away, Wes could tell Buddy still enjoyed having one or two. “Well, that’s a good thing. In order for a marriage to work, you have to be willing to try it out.”
Pete shook his head. “That’s for sure. If you aren’t really ready, you might as well stay single. People get together in a hurry and then divorce faster than you can blink your eye.”
“I know your granddad will be proud of you. We’ve known you since you were this high.” Buddy held his hand to his waist. “With your granddad only having a girl, he was so proud to have his grandson. How’s Lenny doing these days?”
Wes cleared his throat. “He’s declining. Mom has decided to place him in the nursing home.”
Pete and Buddy nodded. They all remained silent for a moment. Wes knew with the guys being close in age to Pops, that was hard to hear.
“I have some questions about Southern Soul,” Wes said, breaking the silence.
Pete clapped his hands. “Sure. Ask away. You know Lenny and Nick Roberts started the band. Now, those two could jam. Nick strummed that guitar, while Lenny beat them piano keys.”
“All that was before my time. Pops left the group first.”
“Yeah, he got interested in the police academy. Told us he needed a real job to support his family.”
Both men laughed and then grew quiet again.
Wes said, “The last few times I talked to Pops, he seemed to be focused on the night he left Southern Soul. Do you remember it?”
Pete and Buddy looked at each other. Pete finally answered, “Lenny actually left because he and Nick couldn’t agree over a few changes in the group.”
Wes raised an eyebrow. “Oh? What changes?”
“We had lost our drummer. Nick met this young dude. He was really good, but he just didn’t fit in with us.” Pete rubbed his hand over his bald head. “He was just too young, a little bit reckless.”
Buddy grunted. “A whole lot reckless and impulsive. He was a charmer, but something about him always just rubbed most of the guys the wrong way, except Nick. Nick took up for him. Lenny just got tired and decided it was time to move on.”
Wes looked at the men. “This guy? He was Eddie Gowins?”
Both men nodded and looked off in another direction, neither focusing on Wes. He asked them, “What happened to the original drummer?”
Buddy sighed. “Levy was killed.”
Wes sat up. “Killed? Like murdered?”
Pete nodded. “Somebody stabbed him, left him for dead at his home.”
“Did they ever find the killer?”
Buddy shook his head. “Nope.”
“So how did Nick find Eddie?”
Pete shrugged. “You know, I don’t know. I think we asked him a couple of times. He just showed up, but he could play the drums. I will give him that.”
“How did the band feel about him opening Southern Soul Café?”
Buddy narrowed his eyes at Wes and leaned forward. “Is this what this conversation is all about? That restaurant burning over the weekend?”
Wes licked his lips. “Yes. There was a lot of memorabilia from the band. It’s all gone.”
“He had no right to most of those things,” Pete snapped back. “That’s what we didn’t like about him. We accepted him into a band that had been around over a decade before we let him in. Nick had a lot of that stuff in his home. Somehow, Eddie opened this restaurant and took over all of it like he owned it.”
Wes was starting to see another side of the jovial Eddie, whom he’d met just a few weeks ago, when he had lunch with Angel at Southern Soul Café. The older band members resented the man. He didn’t want to mention that Eddie was missing, since some of the information, Wes knew, the public didn’t know yet.
“You know what was really difficult to see?” Pete added. “Nick allowing Eddie to be such an influence over his little girl.”
Wes asked, “Are you talking about Elisa?”
Buddy nodded. “Yep. Elisa was a spoiled child, but she could sure bring tears to your eyes when she opened that mouth. I remember her singing as a small girl. Just took to being in front of an audience like water. Nick really encouraged her.”
Wes had really come to talk to the two former band members about Eddie Gowins and was surprised that the conversation had turned to Elisa Roberts. “I heard she had a record deal about the time she went missing. Did you know about that?”
Pete responded, “Nick had told us she was offered a deal. He wasn’t happy about it, though. I think by then, Nick was starting to see Eddie wasn’t the right person to be managing Elisa’s career.”
“Huh?” Wes wasn’t sure if he’d heard right. “Are you saying Eddie was Elisa’s manager?”
“Oh yeah, Eddie called himself managing a couple of young people’s careers. He was all about being a star and wanting to be behind the next big star.” Pete took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his brow.
Wes rubbed his chin. “I came to ask you some questions about Southern Soul Café, but now you have my mind going in another direction. You mentioned that Nick was against the record deal. Do you think Elisa’s pursuit of a singing career had anything to do with her going missing?”
Buddy and Pete looked at each other. Finally, Buddy said, “We are pretty sure that when Nick let Eddie get involved in managing Elisa, he had no idea that the man was going to lead his daughter to her own demise. Eddie was a talker, a charmer, and he always had shady folks around him.”
Wes started to think about the body found at Southern Soul Café. Why was Larry Stowe there? “You guys, I have one more question. You said Eddie managed other people. Do you know if he represented any rap artists?”
Pete answered, “Yes, he had a lot of kids under him that rapped.”
Buddy leaned forward. “Eddie played with a lot of young entertainers’ dreams. But he let them down. Anything that Eddie did was always about Eddie.”
Wes took in all that he’d heard. Now he realized that Pops might have been trying to drop hints the past few weeks. He wondered if Pops had suspected Eddie all along but met resistance to the idea from Nick.
He had to get to Angel. They hadn’t talked since Sunday, but he needed her to know about the man she referred affectionately to as her uncle. Would Angel believe him, though? Remembering her reaction on Sunday, Wes hoped he wouldn’t push her away completely.