Free The Equalizer by Midge Bubany Page B

if she had a boyfriend and she told him Kohler molested her, the boyfriend was definitely a suspect.
    After showering and changing, I gave Ralph a quick call to brief him how the interview went. He said he’d review the tape and would contact Ms. Kelly and her boyfriend, if she had one, and set up interviews. Shortly after, I received a text that he’d set them for 1:00 p.m.—the same time I was talking to Ronny Peterson’s parents.

 
    Chapter 8
    P eterson’s two-story house was on Eighth Street, a couple blocks north of Kohler’s. More and more of early twentieth-century homes in this area were refurbished, Peterson’s included. A round, middle-aged woman who stood about five feet tall let me in the front hallway. Dark circles underscored her red, puffy eyes. When I introduced myself, she said she was Ronny’s mother but to call her Ellen. She showed me into the living room and introduced an older, heavier version of Ronny as her husband. He stood as I moved across to shake his hand. Like his son, Mr. Peterson was five-foot-seven at most.
    “Ron Senior,” he said.
    “Sorry to meet you under these circumstances,” I said. “You both have my deepest sympathy on your loss.”
    “Just find the maniac that killed my boy,” he said.
    “We’re doing our best, sir.”
    As Senior went back to his Lazy Boy, he gestured for me to be seated as well. I sat on a high-back chair and Ellen the sofa.
    “He shouldn’t have even been out there,” she said, dabbing at her eyes. “He was supposed to be at the dentist, so when Naomi Moberg came by to tell me he’d been killed, I didn’t believe her.”
    Senior waved his finger at me. “I think they walked into something bad going on out there—a drug deal, or something.”
    “We’ll certainly look at all the possibilities,” I said. I thought of the drug stash and paraphernalia in the storage garage that could be their son’s.
    Ronny’s clone came in and sat down on the other end of the sofa. Senior introduced him as their son, Kevin.
    “I lost a brother too.” I said.
    Kevin nodded.
    “Then you know how we’re suffering. Our boys were eleven months apart and were always very close,” Ellen said.
    Kevin put his arm around his mother.
    “I know this time is very difficult for you all. Thank you for taking time to answer my questions this afternoon.”
    I pulled out my small recording device. The family sat quietly as I recorded the date, time, place, and those present, then placed it on the coffee table.
    “Did Ronny mention anyone he was having a conflict with?”
    The three Petersons looked at me blankly, as if they didn’t understand my question.
    “The more information we get, the faster we can solve the case,” I said.
    “You think our Ronny was a target?” Senior asked.
    Your son was an asshole, so yeah, could be. “We don’t know what happened out there, so if you can give us any information as to who he may have had problems with, we’ll be able to make more informed decisions.”
    “People liked Ronny,” Mrs. Peterson said, “He was a good boy.”
    Kevin pointed at me. “Snake.”
    His parents’ heads whipped toward their son.
    “Do you mean Nevada Wynn?” I asked.
    Snake was the street name for a known drug dealer—an all around bad guy. I’d heard he’d moved to Minneapolis when the multi-agency task force turned the heat up on the dealers and traffickers doing business in the county. His name had been mentioned in connection with Pierce Redding the guy Ronny had a fight with.
    “Yeah, that’s his name.”
    “Tell me about it.”
    “All I know is Snake and a buddy of his didn’t like Ronny for some reason and picked a fight with him last summer.”
    “What was it about?”
    “I guess he looked at them wrong, or something.”
    Or something. “Ronny buy from him?”
    “What do you mean buy ?” Mrs. Peterson asked.
    “He means drugs, Ma,” Kevin said.
    Mr. Peterson stiffened. Mrs. Peterson shook her head. “Ronny didn’t