Trip Wire_ A Cook County Mystery - Charlotte Carter [62]
“Yes. He didn’t die in ’Nam. They killed him at home, in Bristol, four weeks after he got out of the army.”
“Why?”
“There was a racist group among the officers in ’Nam. Some of them were in the Klan. They had this conspiracy to get black GIs. These officers would send them on suicide missions. Some of the black troops were out-and-out murdered, but the white guys made it look like they were killed in action. All kinds of horrible things were done to those soldiers. Out of hate. Resentment and hate.
“Alvin Flowers was over there. He knew what these white officers were doing. When he got out of the army and came home, he started this movement, August 4. They were trying to get black servicemen to desert, refuse to fight for America. That’s what they said they were about. But they were also tracking down the racists—and paying them back.”
“Jesus. And your brother was one of the racists?”
“No.”
“What do you mean, no? If he didn’t do anything, why should the August 4 people kill him?”
Cliff began to laugh then, hopelessly. “They made a mistake. Alvin Flowers and his people had to have inside help. Somebody who could send them army records, keep them up-to-date with who was getting sent home, where people lived, and all. There must have been a mix-up somewhere, though. Cary got marked as one of the racists, and the August 4 people killed him. They killed him for nothing, Sandy. For nothing. My mom didn’t raise us to hate anybody.”
It was an ugly story. I figured any explanation was going to be ugly. But this was the worst.
“How did you find out about August 4? And where does Wilt come in?” I said. “How’d you know he was a member of August 4?”
“He wasn’t.”
“What?”
“Not a real member, I mean. I came home one day, before you moved in. Wilt had a black guy up here. They were talking in his room. I didn’t know who he was, but I heard Wilt call him Alvin. After the guy left I saw some papers and a pamphlet that told about the so-called mission August 4 was on. I tried to get Wilton to talk about it, but he wouldn’t. And I never saw the guy again.
“I followed Wilton all over the city sometimes. But I could never catch him with Flowers. I guess Flowers had gone underground. You were living here by then.
“That weekend we went up to the farm, when Mia was doing all her cooking, she and Wilt thought they were alone in the house one afternoon. But I heard them talking. He told her everything. He said he wanted to join Alvin in the radical work he was doing, but he didn’t feel like he was enough of a man to kill anybody, even a racist bastard. So he was helping August 4 in the only way he could. He was letting them use his parents’ property and he was giving them money.”
“Money he took from his father.”
“Yes. Wilton said he’d found out his father had money hidden all over the property, a fortune. And he’d learned the money was dirty.”
“Dirty how?”
“I don’t know. But he said he was going to take it away from his old man and use it for something the old man would hate. He was going to make a fool of him. It would be poetic justice. He laughed about it.”
Yeah, he did laugh.
“What else did you hear, Cliff?”
“That Alvin Flowers knew how hot he was. The feds were looking for him, the Chicago pigs, too. He was holed up in an apartment somewhere, and he and his men were going to be splitting soon. That’s when I knew; if I was going to catch him, kill him, I didn’t have long to do it.”
“So. That day,” I said. “The day you murdered them.”
“I didn’t exactly have it planned. But the time just seemed right. We all ate lunch together. Dan was out. Barry came and went real fast. You split to go see Nat. I told Wilt and Mia I was taking Jordan out sledding.
“Mia had a class. That herbalist course that she went to. I knew it lasted two hours. I sat in the window at Jordan’s place, watched Mia leave the building. I knew Wilton was alone. I went back to the building and up to the vacant apartment. Then I called him up there. Just to look at the space, I said.”
“He was kind of surprised when you tied him up and started slashing