Darlene worked at the diner until she became pregnant with their first daughter. They weren’t married, they hadn’t been together very long when Darlene found out, but they knew they loved each other and they both saw the pregnancy as a good omen for their union. They had known one another for almost a year and Darlene thought over the course of that time that she could spend the rest of her life with Paul. She worked at the diner and she helped her mother with her catering business when she had the time. She thought about school, maybe college to train to be a real chef, but that cost money and over time, her mother had come to depend on Darlene for the function of her business. She didn’t feel trapped, she enjoyed her life in Knoxville while she figured out what she would do with herself. And then Paul came along and she loved him intensely, then God gave them a baby girl and she knew the universe was telling her that her life wouldn’t be complete without him.
Young insists that Darlene tell a false version of the story of their engagement. He says that he presented a ring to her in a very low-key way at the diner, and she said yes, and they kissed and the rest is history. But in actuality, Darlene had proposed to him the day she found out she was pregnant. When he came to pick her up from work and he opened her car door, she looked at him and knew that she loved him, and then wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Marry me, please,” she whispered into his ear. And they cried together as he said yes a hundred times.
She told him about the pregnancy as they drove away and Young knew that they would be together forever.
Falon pulls onto the dirt road of the trailer park and she slows the car considerably because of the dust that flies up around her. The trailers are laid out along the road and they are all significant in size, all are at least four bedroom homes, with large lots that create considerable lawns for each of them. Falon noticed that one has an above ground pool in the back and it is surrounded by a considerable deck.
The neighborhood is quiet and most everyone in the neighborhood is white. She sees children playing outside, some people walking dogs, groups of people standing around drinking and laughing or debating something passionately. When she arrives at the address in her GPS, there are a group of people sitting in the shade. She parks and then approaches them with a friendly smile and wave.
“Well who is this?” an older woman asks. She rocks in a chair and she slows the pace as Falon approaches. “You one of Jimmy’s girls?”
“Nah, I’m here for the cook,” Falon said. “It’s nice to meet y’all, call me Fefe.”
Some of the people stand to introduce themselves and the few people near the woman stare at her skeptically.
“The cook?” the old woman says, obviously confused. “What kind of cook you looking for?”
Falon laughs nervously. “I was hoping someone here would know who I was talking about, ma’am. The Cook, not a cook, a man they call the Cook.”
“Oh!” the old woman exclaims, she is very tickled by the misunderstanding. “I was confused, sweetie, I thought you messed around and ended up at the wrong place for a cookout or something.”
“Naw, mama,” a young man says and he stands. He has a noticeable tan like he works outside all day and he has a serious look on his face that is undercut by his lack of shirt and bowel haircut. “Somebody take her inside, she been out here in this heat long enough. You,” he pointed at Falon, “walk with me.”
Falon nods as two people help the old woman inside, and then the man waves at her and they stroll toward the back of the trailer that has two storage sheds in the expanse of the neatly trimmed lawn. There is a trampoline in one corner and a tree house in another; it’s a kid’s paradise, Falon thinks to herself.
“What a pretty girl like you doing out this way?” The young man asks and then introduces himself as Clete.
“I ain’t looking for no trouble if that’s what you asking.”
“Oh I know what you looking for,” Clete says as they make it to the treehouse. He sits on a wooden bench that looks to be handmade. Falon sits beside him and she notices two big, muscular guys standing nearby. “They told me about you. You Phil’s daughter ain’t you?”
Falon scowls at him. “You know my daddy? You know where he at?”
Clete shakes his head. “They told me you been asking around about him. They thought you was a cop at first. Pretty thing like you don’t go to the places you been alone, not unless they police. But somebody recognized you, and everybody know Phil. Either they love him or they want to kill him, but everybody know Phil.”
“Which one you wanna do?” Falon asks and she drops her hand to her ankle where she keeps a small gun tucked into her sock.
“Ah, you would be dead or tied up by now if I hated Phil. He always been a friend to my family, helped us out of tight places, so I’m glad you made your way here. Phil was supposed to be at that meth house. He wasn’t using it or selling or none of that, he was running a errand for somebody and then that house went fucking crazy. Don’t nobody really know what happened.”
“I saw those people,” Falon says angrily. “Y’all better hope my daddy wasn’t in that mess.”
“I don’t know for sure, but I ain’t heard from him since. I can tell you this,” Clete says and leans closer to her. “The boss man showed up about a month ago with some new glow-in-the-dark shit that they was supposed to be trying to make in that house, that’s what I think happened. They got some new, fucked up ingredients and it fucked them all in the head. I ain’t seen what happened in that house, but the ones that was handling the glowing shit they was copying went crazy as fuck too. I think it was a crew your daddy ran with.”
Falon nods silently. “Glow-in-the-dark meth?” she says after a while.
“It was like this blue neon. It looked like ice with blue lights under it.”
“You touch it or anything? Is your head gonna explode?”
“Naw, I just saw it from the doorway.”
“What happened to the people that took that shit?”
Clete shrugs. “Hell if I know, but it probably ain’t good. I’m sure you’ll be hearing about that soon enough.”
Falon thinks a moment. “You’re not the Cook are you? Who is?”
“It don’t matter, you got the info you need. Go find your daddy, I really do hope he alright. And I don’t have to tell you about the strict confidence under which our conversation unfolded, do I ma’am?”
They smile at each other and shake hands as Falon stands to leave.
“I’m Phil’s daughter, I got more secrets than you got facts. I appreciate everything. I won’t forget this.” She starts to leave and then she gets an idea that suddenly springs into her mind. “Hey, you got muscle obviously, you mind lending me a gang, no more than five? I done seen a lot of bodies already and I imagine that there’ll be more.”
Clete shrugs affably, “Why not. Honestly, we shouldn’t have been playing with that shit, I told them not to trust those nigger scientists. They sell solid stuff, don’t get me wrong, but they make shit up too and they try to push it on us every now and then. We should just stick to what we know. I’ll have Bunny call you, let him know when and where you need whatever it is you need.”
Falon hugs him. “You’re sweet. I’ll come find you when all this is done.”
Detective Young arrives at the very same trailer that Falon leaves, just as she is leaving the trailer park. The two had passed one another and Young should have recognized her, they even waved to one another as they passed on the dirt road, but he had gotten a lead from someone in the neighborhood where the meth lab had exploded and he was excited to chase it down. Apparently, there were always shady characters in and out of the house at night. The neighbors could hear when they were there, a witness told Young.
“They had this loud ass muffler, go speeding down the road at all hours. You call a noise complaint, but it don’t last long enough for somebody to show up to shut em up.”
Young pulled reports of noise complaints in the neighborhood and he was able to find one with a physical description of a truck.
“Yep,” the witness told him, “big ugly truck with unnecessary colors on it. I only saw it a few times when I was up late, but that was it.”
Young ran the plates and he found the owner at the race track losing his money. It didn’t take much pressing for Young to learn about the glowing meth.
“You better not be lying to me,” Young said as he spoke with the young man who owned the garrish truck. “I can tie you to that house and if I don’t get no other leads, I’ma make sure all of that shit fall on you son.”
The young man was nervous and he shifted back and forth on his legs. “I’m not in it like that man. I just drive ’em back and forth every now and then. You police, you know who sell meth around here. Why you need me to tell you?”
“‘Cause y’all done let the devil lose and I ain’t got time for games. Point me somewhere worth going or I swear, I will bring you in and put my reputation on you going down for all of it. And it was a lot of bodies in that house son.”
“I don’t know names like that,” the young man said desperately. “I just drive back and forth where they tell me.”
“They ever pick up money?”
“All the time.”
“They go to the same place after they pick it up?”
The young man nodded, but he was confused at the series of questions.
“Tell me where that place is.”
When he arrived at Clete’s trailer, there were fewer people sitting outside and Clete walked from the backyard with a hard look on his face.
Young smiled and flashed his badge and he asked to speak to the owner of the trailer, though he knew that the man he wanted to speak to was Clete. He could tell by the look on his face, and sure enough Clete greeted him near his car on the curb.
“What can I do you for detective?” Clete asked and his expression never changed.
“I heard some stories,” Young paused, “sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
“Cletus, you can call me Clete.”
“Well, Clete, I done heard some stories. You heard about that house blowing up and all them dead bodies we found? It’s been on the news. Crazy times we living in, for sure. Turns out they was making drugs, and doggone it if I ain’t made a connection between that drug operation and this here trailer. Now, I ain’t accusing nobody of nothing, just out here doing my job, and I’m hoping you can clear some stuff up for me.”
Clete smiled for the first time during their encounter and he became much more welcoming.
“Anything you need detective. Come on in, let’s see if we can’t help you out.”
Clete allowed him to search the house and even the outside storage sheds, and Young didn’t find anything suspicious. He was honestly disappointed and realized that all he could do was leave.
“Thank you for your cooperation, sir.”
“Any time,” Clete said as he walked Young to his car. “Honestly, I hope you figure this out. It’s scary. And I’ll talk to my brother about the company he keep, that truck really is annoying. I don’t know much about all that drug stuff, and I definitely don’t want my brother getting mixed up in it.”
“Make sure you send him to talk with me when he back in town.”
“Sure thing. I appreciate you detective. Get them bad guys. Might be the bad guys you think you chasing was the real victims. That’s what it sound like anyway, all tore up like that. Maybe something scarier than them out there.”
“For sure,” Young said. He knew that Clete was a professional criminal, the house had been too clean not to raise flags for Young, but he was content to play along because there were children and at least one elderly person present. He appreciated the bone that Clete seemed to throw him. Sure they were cooking meth, but maybe the brutality of their murders was clue to someone else’s misdeed and Young would explore the possibility.
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