Chapter Four

Deke looked up through his goggles and saw the foreman heading towards him. He shut off the torch and waited.

“The boss wants to see you, Brucker, pronto.”

Walking towards the office, Deke was uneasy. There were rumors of layoffs. Was he being fired? He clenched his jaw. So what was new?

When he reached the office, he saw a couple of men talking to his boss. Suits. He knew their type. Cops. Feds. They all had the look. He could spot one a mile away.

Deke knocked on the window and Joe Peavy heaved himself up out of his swivel chair and opened the door.

“These guys want to talk to you. Any trouble I should know about, Brucker?”

One of the suits spoke up. “He’s clean. We just need to ask him some questions about his father. Anywhere we can talk alone?”

Peavy chewed on his cigar, looking from one to the other. “You can use my office, but make it snappy, I’ve got work to do.” He went out closing the door hard behind him.

Deke stood quietly, wary. “Yeah?”

“I’m Detective Billows and this is Detective Norman.” They flashed a couple of badges but Deke ignored them.

Billows studied Deke a moment. “Your father, Ray Dupont, died shortly after he got out of prison. Were you able to talk to him before he died?”

“He’s dead?” Deke shook off the strange emotions that heaved his insides. Dead. He lifted his chin. Nobody was going to see how they got to him. “Look, my old man left when I was about three and I haven’t seen him since. He didn’t bother to get in touch with me.”

The police detective’s face remained bland. “He didn’t write to you?”

Deke glared at him, barely able to hold his anger in check. “Oh yeah, every week, we were just regular pen pals.”

Norman moved forward menacingly. “Just answer the questions, Brucker, we don’t need any smart mouth from you.”

Deke glared at him “I didn’t even know where he was.”

“He was in prison for robbery and attempted murder.”

Deke’s eyes widened. “Attempted murder?”

“His partner shot a bank guard. Fortunately for your father, the guy lived. Your father’s partner died in a shootout. ”

A scene flashed in Deke’s mind, his mother grabbing him and running. Men bursting in the bedroom and pulling them from the room. He pushed the scene away.

“And you’re going somewhere with this?”

Detective Norman broke in. “Your old man stole almost a million dollars.”

A Million? Now he got it. “And you’re looking for the money? The LAPD sends you guys out twenty years later to look for the money?”

“We work for the, ah, insurance company. They’re looking for the money.”

Deke sneered. “Look, if I had close to a million grand, would I be working in this place? You guys are nuts if you think I know where it is.”

Billows took another tack. “Did your mother ever talk to you about your father?”

Deke jammed the anger down. After all these years it was still a pain in his gut.

“She died shortly after they took my old man away. I got dumped into the system”. He swore. “I was a kid. Nobody talked to me about anything.”

Billows narrowed his eyes, studying Deke for a moment. Finally, he sighed. “Okay, Brucker, it appears you’re telling the truth. We just needed to check out all the angles. You can go back to work.”

He was giving himself away but he had to know. “You say my old man’s dead. How did he die, heart attack?”

Billows hesitated, his smile complacent.

Deke waited, not sure he wanted to hear. He had a feeling it wasn’t going to be good.

“Somebody beat him to death.”

Deke turned away from them. Get yourself under control, Dekey boy, don’t let them see they got to you. You didn’t cry through all the years in foster homes when they beat up on you, don’t do it now. He put on the mask again. The bland face he could hide behind, and faced the detectives again.

“They were looking for the money.” It wasn’t a question.

Norman glanced at Billows and back to Deke. “That’s what we think.”

“Where is the body?”

“City morgue. You can claim it with I.D.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Deke saw Peavy standing outside the office, scowling.

The detectives opened the office door and Peavy stalked in. “You guys done?”

Billows gave him a cold glance. “We’re done. Thanks for the use of your ffice.”

Peavy watched them walk away and turned to Deke. “What was that all about? You sure you’re not in trouble? I don’t stand for any of that stuff around here.”

Deke ignored Peavy, looking after the cops. “They just wanted some info on my old man. He’s dead. I didn’t have anything to tell them.”

“Well, get back to work then. Time is money.”

You’ve got a real heart, Peavy. “Yeah, time is money.”

Deke walked slowly back to his workplace. So his old man was beaten to death by someone who knew about the money. He hadn’t even been out of prison very long. Somebody was waiting for him. It was a rotten end for anyone.

What did he remember about his father? Old memories pushed themselves into his conscious mind and he ran his hand over his face, willing them away. He didn’t want to go there now, he couldn’t. Yet something in those thoughts triggered an unfamiliar response. He was tough, he’d had to be, but he wasn’t like Peavy. Deke swore. No, he wasn’t like Peavy. He knew where he had to go and what he had to do.