Chapter V: Tyee and Lawrence and Eddy and Gil
In all of his 61-years on the Earth, Tony Twomoons could probably count on one hand all the times he felt truly surprised by events. This was about to be one of those times.
He just witnessed that both Larry and Eddy were still alive and received what he felt as personal confirmation about both of their innocence. Not only that, he had just shifted his focus to his boss as a leading suspect. His mind couldn’t settle on which to think about first. But then the front door to the bar flew open and several law enforcement came forcefully into the bar. About a half-second latter, another intimidating group came in from the kitchen where they had made their entrance through the back door.
A tall man with slicked black hair and wore a jacket that said FBI flashed a badge quickly. “This place is now considered a crime scene,” his voice boomed even though the bar had grown quiet quickly at their presence. “Please vacate the premises immediately.”
The drifters, relieved that they were not being detained by law enforcement, all rose quickly and left. All except Larry and Eddy. They remained seated at the bar and Larry continued to look at Tony. Tony stood behind the bar unsure if the edict included him or not.
When it was determined all the other drifters had left the building, another officer came and stood next to Larry. “Well?” he asked.
“We’ll need to go over the books for sure,” Larry drawled. “But I think he’s clean.” He nodded at Tony.
Tony looked from Larry to the other officer and back again quickly. He still wasn’t sure what was expected of him. Or really, what was going on.
The other man looked at Tony. “Your boss was arrested an hour ago. Seems like he was trying to make a get-away.” He leaned closer to Tony. “But I think you already knew that, didn’t you?” He was chewing a big wad of gum and slobbering a little bit.
Tony had no idea what this man was talking about but he could sense it wasn’t going in a good direction for him. “Gil’s been arrested?” he asked.
Larry studied him. “Gil’s dead, Tony. Or should I say, Tyee?”
The number of times Tony had been surprised in his life now needed to be counted on two hands. He didn’t know which part of Larry’s statement to address first. “Dead?” he asked.
Larry nodded. “He was trying to leave town and had made arrangements to leave the country. When we arrived to arrest him, he decided not to come with us at all. He was trying to sneak out the back and slipped into his pool. He drowned.”
The gum chewer said, “Made our job easier.”
Larry looked at him. “Made your job easier. I’m the one that has to fill in all the paperwork.”
Tony nodded his head slowly. Gil was dead. Should he mourn or ask his next question? “How do you know my name?” he decided he didn’t really need to mourn Gil at the moment.
“Why don’t we go over to a booth and talk?” Larry said and motioned for Tony to come out from behind the bar.
Tony nodded his head again and placed the rag he had been twisting nervously in his hands on the bar. He followed Larry to a booth and noticed the accusatory officer walked behind them. A few officers went to the office, one was at the register, and others were poking around other parts of the bar.
Tony slid into a seat and Larry sat across from him. The other officer stood at the end with his arms folded and continued to stare at Tony while smacking his gum.
“Am I in trouble?” Tony asked.
“No,” Larry smiled. “We’re just talking. That’s all.”
“How do you know my name?” Tony asked. Only people on the reservation called him by his given name Tyee. When he heard it outside of the reservation, he never answered to it.
“I know all about you,” Larry said. “Your name is Tyee Twomoons. You were placed at an orphanage on the reservation when you were a baby. A night with two moons – or a lunar eclipse – if you want to get real. That would have been in what? 1925?”
Tony nodded slowly.
“You married Sheila forty years ago. You have 3 kids that have all left the area and are quite successful in their fields. Good job, dad, for that.”
This night kept getting weirder for Tony. “You know, one of my kids is a lawyer,” Tony said. “Should I call him?”
“Tax lawyer,” Larry smiled while calling Tony’s bluff. “You are not being charged with anything,” he said leaning back. “Unless we find something in that office that doesn’t check out, that may change.”
Tony thought of the missing $200 from the till. “The till was $200 short last night,” he confessed quickly. “But that wasn’t me, I swear.”
Larry smiled. “We’re looking at bigger things than $200.” He studied Tony for a moment. “My cousin Eddy swears you are the most upstanding man he knows.”
At the rate the evening was going, Tony was going to need a third hand to count surprises on. “Cousin?” he asked and looked over at Eddy still sitting at the bar. He was telling some kind of story to the officers behind the bar at the till. None of them seemed to be listening. Tony was pretty sure he knew all of Eddy’s cousins in town.
“On his mother’s side,” Larry nodded to Eddy also. “We don’t see much of each other but I check on him every so often. He called me concerned about the murders that were happening here. Turns out, we had been watching Gil Sanderson’s Chicago connections for some time. Thanks to Eddy, we were able to close down a major drug ring in Chicago.” He leaned forward, “Just following what the First Lady tells us, you know, just say no.”
That circled Tony’s thoughts back to his original question. “Gil is dead?” he asked again. “Was he the killer?”
“Not directly,” Larry said looking at Tony again. “His Chicago connections used his location here as a hub to send out their product. They had a warehouse in town they manufactured their drug. He used men he found on the reservation that wanted to make extra money to do the labor.”
Tony swallowed. A pit was growing in his stomach. He had known some of the victims or their families. “You mean, all the victims worked for Gil?”
Larry nodded. “Yes,” he sensed this was sensitive for Tony. “His Chicago family decided to close up the warehouse here and move to a different location. They needed to clean everything and everyone up here.”
Tony looked at the table.
“You really had no idea what your boss was doing, did you?” Larry asked.
Tony looked him in the eye and slowly shook his head.
Larry looked at the officer still standing with folded arms. “I think I can handle this, Rossetti. Why don’t you call it in?”
Rossetti looked from Larry to Tony then back again. Finally, he nodded his head and walked off.
Larry sighed. “He’s been after that Chicago ring for years. Not sure what he’s going to do now.” It was a small attempt to lighten the mood but Tony wasn’t ready for the mood to be light.
Larry continued. “The plan was to move Gil and his operation to a more centralized location. But then Eddy contacted me and asked me to check into all these killings in his town. At first, I couldn’t get any help since all the victims were from the reservation,” he glanced in Rossetti’s direction. “But when I dropped the name Gil Sanderson, they all showed up this morning after their run-in with the Chicago group last night.”
“Did you have a run-in with Gil?” Tony asked and pointed to his own eye then at Larry’s.
Larry nodded. “Yeah, Eddy and I were snooping around the warehouse in town this morning when he pulled up. It was still dark so I couldn’t tell who hit me. Eddy rammed into him and knocked him down. And then we heard him run away. I couldn’t tell for sure who hit me but I know whoever it was packed a wallop.” He gingerly touched his face.
Tony was actually a little offended that Larry couldn’t tell the difference between him and Gil even in the dark.
“Sorry about earlier but had to be sure,” Larry said.
“So, I was a suspect?” Tony asked.
“You seemed to fit the mold of the type Gil hired. But after doing some digging, we found that you worked here with his uncle. He just kept you on. Oddly enough, probably because you are so trustworthy. He could trust you with the measly bar while he took care of his real business.”
“Officer Farady,” another officer came to the table. “Sanderson’s wife is in custody. She was at the airport.”
“Farady?” Tony asked and looked at Larry.
“Right,” Larry smiled. “The name’s Lawrence Farady, III. Larry Dowd is my undercover name.”
Tony couldn’t help but let a smug smile form. “I knew you are no Larry. You are a mask wearer.” He circled his own face.
Larry bit his bottom lip and thought for a moment. “I guess a fellow mask wearer would recognize his own kind.”
Tony’s smile disappeared and he leaned forward. “I am not a mask wearer.”
Larry was surprised at the seriousness. “Really?” He asked and paused for a moment deciding to continue. He decided to continue, “Tyee or Tony?”
Tony sat back as the weight of Larry’s three words took hold. He was a mask wearer! He, himself was actually a fake. Maybe Larry, or Lawrence rather, was right. Maybe he could detect mask wearers because he was wearing one himself.
This was so much information to wrap his mind around.
Larry seemed a little amused at Tony’s defeated reaction. “You okay?”
Tony nodded slowly. He’d process this all later when he was by himself. For now though, he changed the subject. “And your Eddy’s cousin?” Tony asked again.
“I am.”
“And Eddy is the one that brought you here?”
“Yes.”
“Huh,” Tony said. Another thing to mull over. He may not sleep at all tonight.
“I think that’s all we need for tonight. You will probably be pulled in for more questioning so don’t go anywhere. You’re not going to leave the country or anything like that, are you?”
Tony shook his head.
Larry smiled. “Go home, get some sleep if you can.” He stood up and walked over to Eddy.
Tony nodded at Eddy and grabbed his things. As he left, his mind circled around several questions quickly.
1) was he going to not like himself now that he realized he was a mask wearer?
2) what was he going to do tomorrow since the bar is closed?
3) what if the bar didn’t reopen?
4) who would hire a 61 old man?
5) how was he going to tell Sheila he no longer had a job?
6) was it crazy for him to think that maybe he could buy the bar?
That one caught his attention and he wondered if it was possible. But then another thought entered his mind and this one was the most puzzling question of all.
7) how is it possible that Eddy – Eddy is the hero of this story?
And that led to the question he thought of for the rest of his drive home:
8) who was possibly going to believe this story?
ck's days 