Free Marcie's Murder by Michael J. McCann Page A

said, looking at her cigarette. “Daddy didn’t raise no quitters .”
    Their father had been a man of very high moral s tandards , true enough . Their mother had died when Billy was eight and Pricie was five , from a stomach infection of some kind. James Askew was an insurance investigator based in the town of Tazewell , responsible for all claims within the county. W hen his wife d ied , he decided it was necessary to get off the road and stay at home with his two small children, so he requested a demotion to sales. Within a month one of the salesmen in the company’s three-man office in Harmony died from a heart attack and James was offered the position. They left Tazewell and moved into a small rented bungalow on Maple Street in Harmony while James sold insurance policies door to door .
    In his previous responsibilities , James had investigated a number of disability claims filed by coal workers living in Harmony and the surrounding area, and had disallowed several . It made him very unpopular in town and the children suffered as a result. Unlike James, who was passive in the face of hostility, Billy learned very quickly how to defend himself with his fists. By the time he reached high school , he was known as a quiet, hardnosed kid who never backed down from a fight and never stopped hitting until the other kid stopped moving or someone pulled him off . He and Pricie had few friends.
    Billy was a high school freshman when his father was hit by a car on Bluefield Street driven by a man who had a long-standing grudge against James for disallowing a claim for a back injury that had cost him his job in the mine. The man had contended his injur y occurred at work but James prove d the man had hurt his back in a bar fight the weekend before. The ruling cost the man a great deal of money and he ’ d never forgiven James. He ’ d threatened him several times and finally, drunk at the wheel, was driving through town when he saw James crossing the street ahead of him. He floored the accelerator and ran him down . James died on the way to hospital.
    Billy and Pricie left Harmony after the funeral to live with their mother’s older sister in Richlands. The woman was very religious and took in the children through a sense of duty to her deceased younger sister, but she was unable to hide her dislike of them . When Billy heard that the man who ’ d run down his father was acquitted of manslaughter by a jury including people whose claims had been investigated at some point by James Askew, the news drove him deeper into himself. It also strengthened his resolve to fight his way out of any corner in which life cared to pin him. He was damned if people would end up treating him the way they’d treated his father.
    Billy finished high school in Richlands , and one day shortly after graduation met a n acquaintance of his father’s while coming out of the Richlands police station . Billy explained he ’ d just applied for a job there .
    “If you want to be a cop,” the man said, “you should apply back in Harmony. They’ve got an opening right now.”
    Billy wasn’t sure how to respond.
    “My cousin’s the sergeant there,” the man went on, oblivious to Billy’s hesitation. “He knew your dad. He’d put in a good word for you.”
    Something clicked inside his head. He hated Harmony and everything it stood for, but what better way to balance the books than to return as a cop?
    “Would you call your cousin?” he asked the man. “Tell him I’ll be down in the morning for an interview?”
    “Sure enough,” the man replied, surprised. “Be glad to.”
    Billy Askew was hired as a patrol officer a week later . After s ix years the sergeant retired and Askew was promoted to replace him. He was young, smart, and tough, and he stood out head and shoulders above the other two patrol officers who applied for the position. He remained a sergeant for the next fifteen years until the c hief’s job opened up. He applied for that