Biker Boys Are More than Tough

Today we’re interviewing Old Buckles, a character from Buried Biker, the third book in the Jesse Damon Crime Novel series by KM Rockwood.

Thanks for stopping in today. Is that what you want to be called? “Old Buckles?”
Yeah. That’s what everybody calls me.

And you’re not going to share your real name with us?
Nah. If people call me by that, it’s a “real” name, ain’t it? And that’s what pretty much everybody knows me by. Only exception I can think of is court and things. And when I’ve got a drivers license, which isn’t all the time. Then they want to use your legal name.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Not a whole lot to tell. I been a biker ever since I got my first Harley when I was seventeen. Hung around some guys who worked on their bikes. They helped me customize it, change the appearance, give it a new paint job. Turned it into a real chopper.

How did you manage to get an expensive motorcycle when you were seventeen?
That’s not something we need to go into. Let’s just say I got it.

Were they part of a bike club?
Not then. We formed a club—Predators MC. One guy designed colors for us, you know, to put on the back of our vests and jackets.

MC?
Yeah. Motorcycle Club. That goes way back to at least the Yonkers MC in 1903. Although an Ohio club claims they’re older. But they started out on bicycles.

So, do you spend a lot of time riding a motorcycle?
Not really. Truth be told, I spend more time locked up than I do out on the street. I guess you could say I’ve been doing life on the installment plan. Especially these last twenty years or so.

Why is that?
I dunno know, really. I mean, as soon as I get released, I head for a party somewhere. And the next thing you know, I’m doing things that can get me locked up again. I know they ain’t gonna give me parole any more, but when I’m locked up, I pretty much cooperate—ain’t no point in getting in trouble in prison—and I get my good time. I usually work, too. In the commissary. That pays a dollar a day and five days a month industrial time, which is like good time, only for working. Then I get a mandatory release, but I’m still under supervision. So they catch me again pretty quick for something stupid. And I pick up another nickel—five years—and I’m off the street again.

Doesn’t that bother you?
Huh?

Do you like being in prison?
No big deal. My daughter Kelly, she takes my trike—I ride a trike these days. I got in a bad crash, and I’m a little crippled up. No sense of balance—and puts it in her garage ‘til I’m out again. I don’t really mind it, though. Seems like I’ve spend most of my adult life there.

Tell us about Kelly. Is she your only child?
Yeah. She’s a great kid. Woman, actually. She works a decent job—drives forklift at a steel factory, and she’s raising two kids. My grandkids.

Did you and her mother raise her around the Predators?
Yeah. At least I did. Her mom did a lot of drugs and kind of wandered off. Not that I didn’t do my share of that, drugging and drinking, but I tried to keep things together for the kid ‘til she was old enough to be on her own. And she’s her own person now, takes care of herself. She don’t go with that being a biker chick with some old man telling her what to do.

But wasn’t she assaulted by some of the bikers?
That’s what I have to find out in this story. I mean, she’s got this boyfriend Jesse—he’s not a biker, you might think he was a bit of a wuss, but you’d be wrong. He did his time in the same prison where I’ve done most of mine, straight time on a murder conviction. I got to figure out who did this to my little girl, whether Jesse had a hand in it or not. And when I find out, they’re gonna answer to me. Even if it means I go back to prison.

Have we seen you before?
Not directly. But this is the third story about Jesse, and Kelly’s been an important part of his life. So she’s been there, and of course I got mentioned a few times.

Anything else you’d like to tell us?
Nah. Just read the book if you want to find out what happens.

Bikers have their own code of ethics.

The cops have decided Jesse wasn’t the one who raped sometimes-girlfriend Kelly. But can he convince Kelly and her father’s biker buddies that he had nothing to do with it? And since he’s already on parole on a murder conviction, he’s the first obvious suspect when the real rapist turns up dead.

BUY LINK

On parole for a murder conviction, Jesse is the first suspect when Mitch, a forklift driver at work, is killed. Will Jesse be able to figure out what happened, or be sent back to prison?

After nearly twenty years in prison on a murder conviction, Jesse Damon has been released, a home detention monitor strapped to his ankle. Determined to make it and mindful of his parole restrictions, he struggles with life outside prison. He finds a job on the overnight shift at a steel fabrication plant and a few people who treat him like anybody else. Especially Kelly, a woman who works in the shipping department. He seems to be making it. Until Mitch, forklift driver on the shift, is found murdered in the warehouse. The investigating detective isn't fussy about his methods to gather evidence. If Jesse isn’t going down for this, he has to figure out who killed Mitch and why.

Paroled on a murder conviction, Jesse Damon shows up at a funeral home to pay his last respects to his foster mother. He quickly finds out she was murdered, and he’s the prime suspect.

Jesse’s life is getting complicated fast, what with a group of religious fanatics in saffron robes opening a tabernacle in the abandoned pizza parlor over his apartment, problems at work, and Kelly’s custody battle with her ex. It’s a lot to deal with while he tries to find out who really killed Mrs. Coleman and get the cops off his back.


To read more about these books or purchase, please click on their titles below.

Steeled for Murder
Fostering Death