Page 3 of Killer Moonshine

“How much have they had to drink, Robey?” asked Saint, following him inside. Brax turned to the team at the table and waved them over.

“That’s just it. The bartender said he asked for water, then a ginger ale. Said his stomach was botherin’ him. I ain’t never seen him drink more than a few beers.”

When they got to the man, he was on all fours, howling in pain as he vomited up blood and water.

“Call 911, Robey. He needs outta here fast,” said Saint. “Hey, mister. I’m gonna try to help you. Can you tell me what’s hurting?”

“M-my stomach, my whole body,” he said, coughing and shaking.

“He’s yellow,” said Marilisa quietly to Saint. He looked up at her and nodded.

“He is. Are you on any medications for iron deficiency, jaundice, anything like that?” he asked the man.

“I’m not on nothin’,” he said. “I don’t take drugs. I drink a bit now and then, but not to excess.”

Brax, Saint, and the others tried to make him comfortable until the ambulance arrived. The problem was that getting to The Well from the roads was rough but taking him through the bayous would take too long.

As they loaded him onto the ambulance, the EMT looked at Saint and shook his head.

“This is the third one this week. Something weird is going on. Their livers are destroyed, stomach lining is completely gone. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Let us know if you hear anything,” said Saint. As the ambulance left, the bar began closing down, and Saint and Brax realized that the others had left with Stephanie and Marilisa.

“I think we need to tell the leadership team about this,” said Brax. Saint was off in space, thinking about letting Marilisa go. “Saint?”

“Yeah. Yeah. The leadership team. Let’s go.”

“Okay, we’re slammed at the bike shop right now. There’s a huge show coming up in a few months, and the guys need to focus on the bikes. Let’s make sure we cover for them where we can. We’ve also heard some whisperings of a group of bikers that want our bikes exclusively. Problem is, we’re not sure we want their business,” said Ghost.

“Lovely,” frowned Miller. “Let us know how we can help with that when the time comes.”

“You know we will,” nodded Ghost.

“We’ve got some security details working with Pork, Kegger, and Vince. Eight new security systems were installed in the last five weeks, which is keeping everyone busy,” said Nine. “But we’ve got something else we think we need to take on.”

“This sounds like something we won’t want to take on,” said Wilson.

“Hear me out first. There have been about a dozen cases of people coming into the emergency room with bleeding from the rectum, vomiting blood, iron deficiencies, all sorts of things. One of those has died, and his spouse asked us for help.”

“I thought we weren’t going to take these kind of cases, murders, that sort of thing,” said Angel, staring at the other seniors.

“We thought so, too,” said Nine. “But this one is personal. Most of you know Maggie, who works at the General Store. She and her husband are good people and have worked for us for years now. Maggie is always there when we need her, and Duckie does odd jobs around the store and our other businesses. They’re both in their seventies, or they were.”

“What do you mean?” asked Miller. “I saw them a few days ago.”

“Maggie said Duckie started to feel sick two days ago. She said he’d had a few drinks the night before, but nothing excessive. He woke up in the middle of the night with excruciating abdominal pain. She wanted to bring him to the clinic here, but he refused.”

“Why?” asked Wilson. “I’ve known Duckie for years. I would have handled him.”

“He didn’t want us to know he’d been drinking,” said Nine. “And we’re pretty damn sure he was drinking something he shouldn’t have been.”

“Why do you think that?” asked Rafe.

“He died from a formaldehyde overdose that started as methanol,” said Nine, staring at the room of men.

“Shit. He drank from a still,” said Baptiste.

“Yep. And we already know it was an illegal one because there are no legal stills in the state of Louisiana. We’re doing this for Maggie,” said Gaspar. “Everyone cool with that?” The entire room echoed the response at the same time with the same sentiment.

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