Chapter 20 - It's the Small Things That Can Kill You! - Billy Touche

                                           Chapter 20 – Billy Touche  

“There is what I know, firsthand and what I learned from informants. Then, there is what I can and what I can’t talk to you about...mostly for my protection but also for your own good.” Joey Flowers said carefully, slowly, as if he were still sorting information into bins.

“First, I was on the crime scene, Martin Gaynor’s property, before the murder occurred. I had discovered the spot that overlooked the ballfield and the tree stand that Cody must have put up himself or maybe Gaynor did it. It was in line of sight with three of the field lights. I stepped behind a tree that was near Cody's car. I saw Cody walk from the tree stand to the edge of the woods. He had a handgun with him. A .38 pistol. A standard cop gun. He was checking to see if there were intruders near the edge of the woods. A smart move. So, all of this is firsthand, you know. I saw this myself.”

“Duh! Of course you saw it! You’ve all but told us that you were the killer. Tell us something we haven't put together ourselves.”  I said, as a challenge.

“Okay. How about this. After Sal dropped me off, I knew there was another person that had come on the property.”  Joey winked at me.

“Okay, this is news. You’ve got my attention again. Who else was there, the F.B.I?” Clara sat up straighter in the back seat of the gray sedan.

“Generally speaking, the F.B.I doesn’t show up until after a murder is committed.” Joey chuckled. “No, this wasn’t the F.B.I., but I knew who it was. I recognized his scent.”

“You what?” Clara said in disbelief.

“Oh yeah. Old Spice Cologne and Slim Jim snacks. Who are we talking about Sal?

Salvator laughed. “Billy Touche from Reno.”

“Give that man a cigar!” Joey waggled his eyebrows. “See, I played poker with him every third Tuesday of the month. Sat right next to him. That Cologne used to give me an awful headache.

“Why would he be up west of the baseball field?” Clara stared cluelessly at Joey.

“He knew that Frank’s nephew Mikey had driven Frank to the ballfield and was looking for an ideal spot to observe him.” Joey replied. He was part of my organization. Billy was a sniper in the military, like James Cody was. Different war.  Billy is my age. He served in the Korean War.”

“What the hell was he doing up there with Cody?” I asked. My mouth was hanging open.

“Cody didn’t know he was up there with him. But Billy liked the spot he had picked.” Joey answered.

“Picked for what?” Clara was getting a bit impatient. There was a tension in her voice.

“Well, here is where it gets a bit complicated. As I understand it from people that got drunk with Phil Jennings after the game that night, James liked the spot because, from there, he could easily shoot out a couple of field lights before the game started. Plan was, when the crowd saw those lights shatter it was a signal for something else to happen.”

“The detonation of the car bombs.” Clara shouted.

“I think so. The explosions from the car bombs would have been more damaging than Cody, Jennings or Davidson ever suspected. But that never happened, as we both know. After the explosions Jennings and Davidson would have officially evacuated the ballpark and effectively cancelled the game for that night. The plan was to collect on a longshot bet one of them made that the game would be either cancelled or postponed that night. I’ve got to tell you that Tony’s guys would paid off if the reason was weather but under these other circumstances would have never honored that bet.”

“Did I miss something here? So, why did the situation call for two snipers? Why was your poker buddy Billy there?”

“Oh, he was there to kill Frank.” Joey grinned.

“What! Clara gasped.

“Yeah. Jaxon's friend Mikey got to whining about Frank’s symptoms and the possibility he was going senile. He whined to one of Tony Accardo’s informants down here. The person in question was feeding us info on what Cody and his cop friends were up to, but this other stuff got back to one of Tony’s lieutenants…can’t use his name in this story, sorry. One of the things I can’t tell you.” Joey looked a little less friendly right then.”

“No problem, I didn’t want to know anyway.” Clara swallowed and then said, “Please go on.”

“No, you don’t want to know any more names than I’ve told you.” Joey stated flatly.

“What about Billy, um…I forgot his name.” I said, feeling foolish.

“I love this kid Sal.” Joey said. His smile was back.

“He grows on you.” Sal said in a deadpan voice.

“Billy Touche was supposed to come down and “pop” Frank. Word was, they were going to blame it on one of our two rival organizations.

“But Frank’s okay, correct.” Clara said. Her voice trembled a bit.

“Naw, he’s got Alzheimer’s. But he is still above ground.” Joey took a handkerchief out of his jacket and then dabbed his forehead a bit.

“Is Billy still in town?” Clara asked.

“Yes and no. His body is.” Joey replied.

“You killed him? We didn’t hear any gunshots that night.” Clara’s eyes dropped.

“He died unexpectedly from a heart attack. Billy had a bum heart. His wife had nagged him for years to see a doctor. On poker night, one time I saw the idiot try to fill an inside straight. The son of a bitch did it too. Afterwards he had to eat some nitro tablets. He didn’t have the temperament for this type of job. I watched him watch James put his .38 back into his car. I saw him backtrack through the woods and creep up to the car and get the gun out again. I knew what was going to happen. Billy was going to kill Cody before I could talk him out of shooting out the field lights. Then, Billy was going to kill Frank.”

“And then what? At that second Billy dropped dead from a heart attack!” Come on. I doubt it.” I shook my head.

“Stranger things have happened. I could have just shot Billy in the head, but I was trying hard to not draw attention to myself. I had my gun. Billy had Cody’s gun. We were about a full block away from James, right by his car. I had a noise suppressor in my pocket, but I hadn’t attached it to my own .38. That was Frank’s weapon of choice. A cop gun. Frank taught me how to shoot with that gun. A pistol.”

“They don’t accidentally jam like semiautomatics sometimes do. They are heavy enough you can smack someone in the face with it and the gun works perfectly afterwards. But I digress."

"No, if I had pulled the trigger there would have been a lot of noise. Cody might have even tried to kill both of us with his own rifle.” Joey shook his head.

“So, you whispered ‘boo’ and Billy just keeled over from a heart attack.” Clara snorted.

“I whispered ‘boo’ and hit Billy in the head with a cattle prod. Then I put it right over his fat heart in his fat chest and leaned on the button for two minutes!”

“As an aside, for a town no bigger than Kildeer, they have an excellent farm implement store.” Joey poked Sal in the ribs. 

Sal chuckled “That they do!”