Claire exited the vehicle and hid the gun from any onlookers. Her husband was vain enough to pay for the two corner rooms in the back of the motel and away from the rest of the rooms. Even in this hick-town dive in Texas, Barry thought he was important and deserved the best. After tonight, he would be where he belonged. Dead and forgotten.
She slowly approached the door and took out the spare key the kid from the front desk gave her. Her little song and dance about surprising her boyfriend in his fantasy of fucking two women at once had the young kid drooling with envy. She fooled him. She stood and listened as she heard some sort of struggle going on inside. Her husband was chanting or yelling something as if he were about to come. What perfect timing.
Claire unlocked the door and walked into the room. It was dark, and only the bedside lamp illuminated the scene before her. Her husband was completely naked with his cock buried deep into a woman’s ass. The woman was tied to the bedposts spread-eagle, and there was blood all over the sheets. Claire pointed the gun as the shock of what had happened penetrated her mind. He killed her, and he was having sex with her corpse.
“You sick bastard!” Claire screamed, and Barry threw his head back as he roared and thrust his hips. His eyes locked onto her right as she pulled the trigger.
* * * *
It had been nearly an hour since Eric had last seen Stacy. He felt so sick to his stomach with fear, and his anger was getting the better of him. He gathered around the group of men. There were his cousins, Charlie, Wyatt, and Ben as well as Chuck, Charles, and Louis from the Triple C. They had begun to organize search parties after someone found Stacy’s earring near the fields behind Francine’s restaurant.
Everyone was on the lookout for Stacy and for Barry Weiner. Just as they were about to get on the four-wheel ATVs and search the miles of fields around them, Wyatt’s cell phone rang. He saw that it was Investigator Pellot.
“Wait a minute. I got the agent on the line. He was headed to the hotel Barry Weiner checked into.
“Hello,” Wyatt answered the phone as Max and Eric watched him closely. He covered his mouth, and his eyes darted to Max and then to Eric.
“What? What is it?” Eric yelled.
“Oh my God. That’s crazy,” Wyatt stated then continued speaking to Pellot. Max and Eric were antsy, and so were the others now. “Hold on one second, let me tell the guys,” he stated into the phone.
“Barry Weiner’s wife just killed him. She walked into the hotel room he was staying in and apparently found him having sex with a dead body. It was some redhead, not Stacy, thank God, but she was murdered. It’s a freaking major crime scene over there,” Wyatt stated then went back to talking on the phone.
“If Barry didn’t take her, then where the hell is she?” Eric asked.
“Who else would try to hurt her or take her away from you two?’ Charlie asked, and everyone was silent a moment. Then Eric and Max looked at each other and said at the same time, “Gutry.”
“Motherfucker, that asshole was after her since day one,” Max stated.
“And he hates our family. He’s probably pissed off that we fired him and that no one else would hire him around Pearl,” Charlie exclaimed.
“Could he be the one who committed the robberies and broke into Stacy’s cottage?” Eric asked.
* * * *
They were silent a moment as Max thought about the information they had so far and now Gutry’s involvement.
“He was on the list, but he disappeared and no one had seen him in a couple of weeks,” Max exclaimed, feeling like a fool for focusing on Barry Weiner so much. He allowed his personal feeling to affect his professional judgment.
“Well, he’s our number one suspect,” Kenny stated as he joined the conversation, dragging Smith Petry along with him.
“Tell them what you just told me, Smith,” Kenny stated as he held the man by his collar. Max knew that Smith Petry hung around with Gutry and that he was a loser. Max had personally arrested him for harassing a woman in town a month ago.
Smith looked dirty and mean. Max wasn’t sure he would trust anything the guy said.
“What’s in it for me? I don’t even like cops,” he stated, and before Max could do anything, Eric grabbed a hold of Smith by his throat and threw him on the ground. He held his knee against Smith’s chest as he yelled in his face.
“If you don’t tell me where my woman is, I’m going to kill you right here,” Eric stated.
“You can’t do that. There’s police all around you,” Smith stated in between coughing as Eric gripped his throat a little tighter.
“What cops?” Eric stated as Max, Wyatt, and Kenny turned their backs and looked the other way.
“He’ll kill me if I talk,” Smith yelled.
“I’ll kill ya if you don’t talk,” Eric replied then pressed his knee a little harder into Smith’s chest.
“I don’t know where he might be,” Smith cried out.