Fire on the Mountain

By Clabe Polk

Peter Stanwick did one thing wrong; he got killed.

Stanwick, the dead ‘cook’ for Jack Haven’s crank operation, was found with Jack’s wife, Susan’s cross in his pocket; its chain broken. How did it get there?

Mike Eiser needs to know.

Jack’s lab where Stanwick worked is torched. Susan is beaten severely. Jack dies suddenly. A traffic accident or murder? Who burned the lab and why? Why was Susan beaten and by whom?

Mike Eiser needs to know.

The Havens are a dynasty of bootleggers with history dating back to reconstruction progressing from bootlegging moonshine whiskey to growing and distributing marijuana. Brothers Jack and Jason compete to produce and distribute crank. DEA is unable to locate one or more crank labs in Jericho County. Will Eiser’s investigation of Standwick’s murder lead the way?

Mike Eiser needs to know.

Can Eiser, his girlfriend, Arson Investigator Donna Miley, and his partner Malcom “Mini” Moore wade through the Haven family’s entangled motives while sorting through piles of twisted confused evidence to solve multiple murders?

Will Susan use the ongoing investigations and the internal family tension to burn the Haven family down?

Mike Eiser needs to know!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clabe Polk
• Release date: May 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370470105

Clabe Polk

CLABE POLK is into a second career as a writer of fiction. So far, he has written four novels, three novellas, several short stories, and has a couple of other novels in process. He is a lifelong reader with a great variety of life experience.With a background in biology and natural sciences, Mr. Polk has more than thirty-seven years in professional environmental protection program management and law enforcement.He lives in Powder Springs, Georgia with his wife, two daughters, and the family’s Cockapoo named Annie.

Book preview

Fire on the Mountain

Books by Clabe Polk

The Detective Mike Eiser Series:

Backslide

Hot Summer Nights

Schism

Angelica

Fire on the Mountain

The Adventures of Harry Morgan Series:

The Adventures of Harry Morgan (A collection of three novellas: Collegial Conspracy, Emilio, and The Pirates of Cayo Pelau)

Christian fiction:

The Road to Armageddon

Short stories:

Short Fuse

Devolution

Fire on the Mountain

A Detective Mike Eiser Novel

Book 3

By

Clabe Polk

Published by Clabe R. Polk

Powder Springs, GA

[e-mail]

Fire on the Mountain is entirely a work of fiction. All events, characters, actions and events are products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual events, activities, locations, organizations, or persons either living or dead are purely coincidental. Locations and organizations are sometimes used in a fictitious manner to establish conditions, setting, and orientation for the story, however, these locations and organizations have no actual association with events in the story.

ISBN 13 – 9781370470105

Copyright © 2017 by Clabe R. Polk. All rights reserved.

Except as permitted by the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 (Title 17, United States Code, as amended), no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or information retrieval system without the written permission of the author.

Dedication

To my family.

Without their love and support none of my books would have ever happened.

Acknowledgements

Special Thanks are due Felicia Tiller-Sullivan whose hard work and superb editing contributions are gratefully acknowledged. http://indie-editor.webs.com/

Thanks are also due Christian Bentulan at coversby christian.com for the awesome cover art.

Table of Contents

HISTORY OF THE HAVEN FAMILY

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

EPILOGUE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

EXCERPT FROM The Illusionist

History of the Haven Family

Justice P. Haven (1865) grew up in the north Georgia mountains during reconstruction. He grew corn for his liquor, apples, peaches and other things his family needed, but his cash business was producing and distributing corn liquor, much of which was sold in the growing town of Atlanta, that by 1880 had swollen to a population of more than thirty-seven thousand. By 1884, The Georgia Temperance Association was founded and Justice Haven found himself and his business jammed tightly between the political extremes of temperance. As Georgia, and Atlanta in particular, vacillated on the issue, Justice Haven carried on as though nothing had happened, but made the necessary plans and contacts to continue in business in case temperance became the law in Georgia. In 1887, he married Clara Bart and a son, Ezekiel Haven was born in 1890.

Ezekiel followed in his father’s footsteps, helping him produce and sell corn liquor. Already successful as an aggressive bootlegger by the age of sixteen, Ezekiel married Mildred Mayfield in 1906. Between 1906 and her death from the Spanish Flu in 1919, she would give Ezekiel twelve sons, each named after one of the twelve tribes of Israel: Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, Reuben, Simeon, Gad, Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, Dan, Asher, and Naphtali. Eventually, like the twelve tribes they were named after, they scattered throughout the south. Benjamin and Gad remained in Georgia; Judah and Issachar migrated to Kentucky; Zebulon and Ephraim to West Virginia; Manasseh and Dan to North Carolina; Naphtali and Simeon to South Carolina; and Reuben and Asher to Tennessee.

In 1907, when Ezekiel was seventeen, Georgia passed the state prohibition act. Undaunted, Justice and Ezekiel used the plans they had made many years before and continued to smuggle moonshine into Atlanta supplying numerous drinking establishments. In 1913, when Ezekiel was twenty-three, the sheriff of Fannin County, Georgia destroyed Justice Haven’s still and shot Justice in the back as he fled on horseback. As he held his dying father in his arms, Ezekiel swore, "The law will never have a day’s rest as long as I live!" Ezekiel moved his bootlegging business further east and went back to business running moonshine into Atlanta and for another fifty years he never gave lawmen a day’s rest.

After Mildred died in 1919, Ezekiel married Myrna Simpson in 1920 and Russell Benjamin Haven was born in 1925. Russell had twelve half-brothers born to Mildred, all of them mountain moonshiners fighting a running battle with law enforcement over prohibition laws and eventually with the Internal Revenue Service.

Ezekiel supplied two major gangs in Atlanta throughout Prohibition, both at different times. Because they were competitors, he never supplied both at the same time. But he also supplied many blind tigers directly. When the Volstead Act implemented Federal Prohibition in 1920, Ezekiel, who already had an established distribution network, became a major supplier of moonshine to Atlanta, tripping with a small fleet of Model A Fords loaded with gallon tin cans in mesh or burlap feed sacks or Ball jars in corrugated cases. Toward the end of Prohibition, Ezekiel had advanced to 1929 Chevrolet tankers carrying more than a hundred gallons per load. Most of their drivers were Russell’s half-brothers and later, as the brothers moved to other states to establish themselves, they were gradually replaced with trusted men with whom Russell had grown up in the mountains. Their route of choice from Dawson or Dahlonega was State Highway 9/US-19, or Roswell Road. They used dirt roads whenever possible because lawmen preferred to watch the main roads. As Russell grew up he learned the trade from the best in the business.

Russell Haven married Sarah Martin in 1943. Sarah gave birth to Martin in 1945, Samantha in 1947, and Bret in 1950. Martin would become an Atlanta lawyer handling the Havens’ affairs. Bret would take over Russell’s bootlegging business, and after the highly televised rock music festival held in Woodstock, New York in August 1969, he would expand it into marijuana production and distribution.

Bret married Maggie Pearson in 1967. They had Mary (1968), Jonah (1975), and Elizabeth (1980). Bret was convicted on growing and selling marijuana and spent six years in Georgia’s Homerville State Prison from late 1980 until 1987. Maggie died alone during Elizabeth’s birth while Bret was in prison. After his release, Bret settled down to farming conventional crops and married Sally Johnston in 1988. She delivered triplets, Jack, Jason, and Jake in 1990.

Mary never married. She became a school teacher, and after teaching a few years quit and adopted the role of family nanny to Jack and Susan’s kids, Stephanie and Robbie, and housekeeper to Bret and Sally.

Jonah became a lawyer like his Uncle Martin, but with none of Martin’s scruples. He established himself as the talented Atlanta ‘agent’ for Jack’s methamphetamine business.

Elizabeth married a con man named Charlie Dowd and they assumed the same role for Jason’s operation. Because of mutual distrust between Jason and Charlie, they constantly beat each other senseless in drunken rages. The others wondered why they didn’t finish it and kill each other, but regardless of what Jason really thought of Charlie, Charlie always had Jason’s back.

Now twenty-seven years old, Jack and Jason learned from Bret’s struggle to grow and distribute pot. They established their own rival enterprises producing and distributing methamphetamine. Jack, the only one of the three to wed, married Susan Elliot, a lovely, intelligent local girl who wanted nothing more than a family and a quiet life.

Jake learned from his father’s time in prison. He could foresee his brothers serving time; especially Jason, whom Jake saw as a man with few scruples and little restraint. Although both brothers had offered to bring him into their operations, he didn’t want any part of that action.

And so our story begins…

Prologue

Wednesday, May 31st

Jack Haven downed the last of his coffee and picked up his keys. Mar, have you seen my cell phone? he asked, donning a Stetson hat to go with his jeans, cowboy boots, and western style shirt. I can’t find that thing anywhere!

I’ll call it, his sister Mary replied, dialing her cell phone.

I don’t hear anything. Is it ringing?

It’s supposed to be. Maybe you left it in the truck.

Maybe…yeah, maybe that’s where it is. Can I use yours to make a call?

She handed him her phone and filled bowls with breakfast cereal for Jack and Susan’s kids.

Jack dialed a number. Hello, this is Jake Haven. I can’t come to the phone right now, but please leave a message and I’ll call you back. tolled Jake’s answering machine.

Jake, this is Jack. Could you run by Georgia Hardware and Lumber today and pick up a couple of packages for me? George Harris has them ready and they’re paid for. I can’t get into Poplar Bluffs today, so thanks for getting them for me.

He ended the call and handed the phone back to Mary. Thanks. Say good morning to Susan and the kids for me. I’m out of here.

***

Susan climbed out of bed. Her hands were shaking. She needed medicine and Jack wasn’t home. Jack was never home.

She walked across the room to the mirror, pulled the long tee-shirt over her head, and stood naked in front of the mirror. A young mid-twenties woman with natural dark blonde hair, blue eyes, full breasts with delicate pale pink nipples, and ginger colored public hair stared back at her. She stared at the gold cross hanging below her throat, remembering how much she had loved going to church as a child with her family and how much she missed it. Jack had given her this cross, but he wouldn’t go to church. She idly rubbed her shaking hands over her breasts and watched her pale nipples harden. Her body fascinated her.

Most men want me, she thought. Most men would kill to have me. Why doesn’t Jack want me anymore?

She looked around the bedroom; a room in a farmhouse so similar to the one she’d grown up in, her parent’s house a few miles down the road. Looking out the window, she recalled playing with her dog in her parents’ yard and climbing the tree behind the house. She thought back to Jericho County High School, where she’d once been popular. She and her best friend Samantha Lang had been cheerleaders and popular with the football players. Especially Jack. He had taken her virginity, marrying her after graduation. Living in a rundown mobile home stuck to the side of a north Georgia hill, she’d given him two children, Stephanie, now nine and Robbie, now five. Jack was involved with his business, always traveling and meeting people. There had never been anyone but Jack, at least until Jason, Jack’s brother, had explained to her the nature of Jack’s business. She’d tried to get him to quit; to get a real job and work like everybody else. Instead, he shut her out. It’s in my blood! he said. After that confrontation he ignored her and she dropped into depression and misery. She remembered going to her father-in-law Bret and begging him to talk to Jack; to warn him about jail. Bret had laughed at her. It’s the family business…a tradition, he’d said. Should I tell my sons they shouldn’t be part of the family roots? Women have no say in our business. Stay out of things that don’t concern you!

It’s my fault! I should have just let him run his damned business and stayed out of it.

Jason, Jack’s brother and business rival, had given her some meth pills to ease her depression. It made her feel better, She felt sexy and strong as long as it lasted. She felt Jack still didn’t want her, but she was equally certain every other man on Earth did. Jason gave her just enough to keep her floating on that plateau and almost immediately she became an addict. But now when she needed help, Jason was out of town.

Picking up her cell phone, she dialed a number. When a disembodied voice answered she said, Hey…we need to talk.

A few minutes later she placed the cell phone on the table, sighed, and stepped into a pair of panties, hooked her bra, and pulled a dress over her head. She combed her hair and once again considered the result in the mirror. I’m half strung out, she thought this is as good as it gets. Slipping into her shoes, she grabbed her purse and car keys and ran downstairs.

Whoa! said a heavy woman who sat smoking at the breakfast table tapping her ashes into her cold coffee cup, her gray hair coiled in a sloppy bun on top of her head. She looked Susan up and down. Where’s the fire? Mary was Jack’s older half-sister who’d never married and watched Jack and Susan’s kids, who were busy munching breakfast cereal. Susan suspected Jack had hired Mary to watch both the kids and herself. She resented Mary, but there was nothing she could do about her since she was part of the Haven family business.

Going out, said Susan. I’ll stop by the market while I’m out. Do we need anything?

Mary shrugged and stubbed out her cigarette. I reckon we’re about out of coffee.

That's all?

I suppose, said Mary.

See you later then. Susan opened the screen door and headed for her car.

Mary reached for her cell phone and dialed a number.

"Yeah?" answered a man’s voice.

She’s on the way, Mary said.

"Good. I’m on it," the voice answered.

***

The ramshackle mobile home was nestled securely in thick trees at the top of a steep dirt and rock drive halfway up the side of a small mountain. Few knew it was there, and that’s the way Jack Haven wanted it. A rickety set of trailer steps led to the door, where a large German Shepherd lay in the shade of the steps out of the morning heat.

The dog perked up when Susan parked in the small clearing in front of the trailer. Recognizing her car, he stretched slowly and ambled over to greet her.

Opening the door, she wrinkled her nose at the odor coming from the trailer. Thank God there aren’t any neighbors! I don’t know how Pete deals with the odor.

Hi, Thor. She greeted the dog with a scratch of the head then climbed the rickety steps and knocked on the door. Hearing motion inside, she waited until an eye peered out at her from the corner of a window shade.

The door opened. Susan! What are you doing here?

Hi, Pete. Can I come in?

Yeah…quick, before somebody sees you. What are you doing here?

The door closed behind her and she considered the man standing in front of her. About her height and age, bone thin, Pete showed the ravaging effects of cooking and using methamphetamine. His partially deformed teeth grinned at her as he clasped his chemical stained hands.

What do you need, Susan?

I’m sick, Pete. Nobody will give me any. She gently traced the line of his cheek with her finger. I need some, Pete.

How you payin’ for it?

Same as last time, Pete. Same as every time before.

I see, he said, opening a container, then taking a syringe out of a drawer and preparing it.

Could I have a little extra to take with me? Just to take the edge off later? she asked eagerly.

Sure, he said as he injected the vein in her arm. Now, relax a few minutes.

She could feel the effects of the drug moving through her system. Feeling better, she needed to finish with Pete so she could enjoy it.

Get on with it and get it over with, you piece of shit, she thought as she crossed to the table, hiked her dress up around her waist, and lay back on the table spreading her legs and rubbing her hand seductively between them. This is what you’re looking for, Pete. This is want you really want, she said. Come and get it.

Pete did.

***

Hidden eyes watched her car as it headed up the driveway, climbing the hill to the trailer. The owner of the eyes was across the road climbing carefully on foot among the trees until he reached the edge of the clearing, arriving in time to watch her knock on the door. He saw Pete answer her knock. Thor ignored him as dogs ignore other familiar things and returned to his spot under the steps. Circling to the back of the trailer he peeked through the space left where the kitchen blind didn’t quite meet the window frame. He could see Susan lying on the table and used his cell phone to video her in her compromised position. Moments later more video was taken of a naked Pete and Susan committed to their activity. He shook his head and took a moment to review the quality of the video.

Excellent! he thought. This was going to get complicated. He scrambled back down the hillside to his car.

***

Susan sat up and looked at the naked man sitting in a chair holding a cold beer can. She loathed him. Ironically, she needed him just as much as she hated him. Looking down at herself, she rearranged some clothing and smoothed her dress back into place. Thanks, Pete. I have to go now.

He looked up and nodded. ’Til next time then.

’Til next time. She picked up a plastic bag he’d prepared for her and opened the door. The dog barely acknowledged her as she left. Even the dog doesn’t care what I do, she thought as she climbed into her car. I must have reached a new low. With those thoughts bouncing around in her mind, she drove away.

***

Pete rose and chucked his empty beer can into the kitchen sink. It was time to get back to work. He stood staring at the kitchen table thinking about what had just happened there. He reached down and picked up a small gold cross and chain from the tabletop. Damn, Susan lost her cross. The chain must have broken. Examining it, he could see where the links had separated. Maybe I can fix it for her he thought absently and stuck it in his shirt pocket.

Chapter 1

Saturday, June 3rd

A pair of laughing dark brown eyes contemplated the boy standing beside her. Sondra hadn’t had much time to spend with him while school was winding down for the summer, and now she wanted to make up for lost time.

He wasn’t looking at her. His eyes were riveted on the river, watching the current swirl around the rocks and move on downstream, his thoughts a million miles away.

Earth to Quinton, she said with a smile. Where are you? She studied his face. It was as though he hadn’t heard her. She took his arm and snuggled up against his elbow. QT? Are you listening?

Sho’ Ah’m listenin’. He looked down at her smiling face. He gently traced the outline of her left cheek with his finger. Ah’m always listenin’ to yuh.

Sondra frowned. Didn’t seem like it. Seemed like you were sad about something. There’s nothing to be sad about today. School’s out! One more year to go, then a whole lifetime! She dropped his arm, twirled around, and jumped in the air. C’mon! Dance with me!

Right here? In de woods?

Where else? What better place? We came to celebrate and there’s nobody around to see us! she bubbled.

Sondra Lively, Quinton Thomas’ vivacious sixteen year old girlfriend, had suffered kidnapping and humiliation along with Quinton at the hands of Mad Dog Lincoln, the local leader of the Raven Claws street gang when Lincoln attempted to intimidate Quinton