Read Online An Absence of Principal by Jimmy Patterson - Free Book Online Page B

more detached from Shanna and his daily attempts at reconnecting with his family, although they were all unsuccessful, continued. A week into his new living arrangement, his cell phone rang. It was the first time it had since the day Angela kicked him out.
    “Ben?” the man said. “Beau Martin here. I need you at central office downtown tomorrow morning at eight. Can I count on you to be here?”
    “Yes sir, Beau, I’ll be there.”
    Great, Doggett thought. Another day of worrying about what this was all about. But this was the reality of what his life had sunk to: constantly concerned about where the next shoe may fall. Did the superintendent want to discuss his infidelity with his wife? The arrest of his head custodian? His gambling addiction? Or all three?
    When Shanna came home that night after pulling her part-time summer shift at Target, she found something new. She would soon not know what she hated more: Doggett’s sudden rough behavior during sex, or the once-foreign smell of alcohol on his breath.

Alex arrived at Garrison’s office first thing Monday morning. It had been over a week since Nail’s arrest in the Junior Walker murder. The defense debriefing would likely take the better part of two hours and she came prepared. Coffee, Advil, her iPad and an assortment of notepads. Tony and Garrison joined Alex in the conference room.
    “I spent some time with investigators in Odessa this weekend,” Garrison said. “The deceased was a known drug dealer. A lifelong Odessa resident with a textbook-length criminal history. And he was into everything, not just drugs. Attempted sexual assault, agg assault, burglary, theft, theft by check, theft by deception. You name it, if it was illegal, he had at least dabbled in it, often much more than dabble. Walker took what wasn’t his and he did it a lot. Those in favor of capital punishment would say he got what was coming to him.”
    “How long since he’s had a drug rap on his sheet?” Alex asked.
    “Three years. Mostly petty stuff in between.”
    “Sounds like he was running low on cash, or selling to get money for his next high,” Alex speculated.
    “You knew the man?” Garrison asked Tony. “Newspaper says his name is Junior Walker. OPD had several different aliases for him.
    “I knew him,” Tony said. “I ministered to him several times.”
    “How long had you known him?” Garrison asked.
    “Goin’ on five years probably,” Tony said. “He’d always been high strung. Never could trust him much. I’d sometimes feel uncomfortable around him so I didn’t often see him if I was by myself.”
    “Don’t blame you,” Garrison said, chewing on the end of his pen, a nervous habit when interrogating clients. “Good decision on your part.”
    “Seemed like lately he had been acting a little more irrationally. I’d seen him high a few times, but lately it felt like a lot more. He was actually less violent when he was high; friendlier,” Tony said. “There’s a hundred just like him in West Odessa, Garrison, but I remember this guy because he was so big. You don’t forget the big ones. And he was always open to hearing the Word, it was almost a comfort to him, it seemed like.”
    “How’d you come to get to know him in the first place?” Alex asked.
    “I didn’t know him when I was younger, but he grew up in Midland. Basketball player at one of the high schools. Went to Stephen F. Austin Elementary. Came from a good family.”
    “Stephen F.?” Garrison said. “That’s where you work, right?”
    “Yes, sir. Weird coincidence,” Tony said.
    Tony spent the remainder of the morning bringing Garrison and Alex up to speed on his ministry and on his years since he’d gone straight. And of course the years when he wasn’t straight.
    “I ran into a bad group of people,” Tony admitted. “Never knew him then, don’t know if he left Midland and came back like a lot of people do. But there’s plenty of bad people to run into. There’ll