by Carolina Mac
BLAINE LIT UP a smoke and sat on the porch steps while Lexi and Hoodoo ran around the super-sized backyard. All the flower beds and the vegetable plot that Carm wanted had been marked, dug up and fertilized, but nothing was planted yet. She was waiting patiently for Blaine to find the time to take her to the nursery.
Misty came out the door with two mugs of coffee and sat down beside him. “I heard we found Doctor Rodriguez.”
Blaine inhaled her perfume and his heart did a little thump. She was beautiful and sweet and sometimes he thought he loved her. “Travis and the boys got her, thanks to you, sweetheart, and they took down the trailer park asshole who kidnapped her. Good job all round. Ginny will give her statement today.”
“Is he the same guy killing people and throwing them in the river?”
“I think he has to be because he had the old man’s Cadillac, but I don’t know how we’ll prove it unless we get a confession, or if evidence turns up in his trailer.”
“Must be something valid in his trailer,” said Misty. “I could smell the blood. There has to be evidence. There’s a lot of somebody’s DNA in that trailer.”
Blaine’s cell rang, and he had no time to comment. “Good morning, Sheriff Sanchez, although a call from you makes me nervous. Every time you call you have a floater for me.”
“Yeah, and this time ain’t no different, young fella. Skinny lady came my way from farther north and I thought you might want her.”
“A woman?”
“Yep. A mess of a woman—scary skinny. Drugs. If I had to guess, I’d say meth-head.”
“Do you think she might have been high and just fallen in the river and drowned?”
“Could have. We can do the autopsy here and send you the report, but I figured y’all would want the hat-trick.”
Blaine smiled. “Ship her to the morgue at DPS and I thank you for the call. I have a suspect in custody, so I’ll copy you on anything I get from him.”
“I’ll send you a copy of the statement we took from the jogger who saw her floating. He was just running the trail along the river and happened to see her. Nothing there.”
“If I’ve got the right guy in the hospital, Sheriff, there should be no more victims.”
“I’ll drink to that.”
Blaine stood up to follow Misty into the house for breakfast and to fill Jack in on the new floater when Ackerman called. “Special Agent Ackerman, what’s up?”
Misty went inside and left Blaine leaning on the porch railing.
“You know goddam well what’s up. I could have you charged for interfering with my case.”
“I didn’t interfere. I was home sleeping in my bed. Travis found her, and he’s her bodyguard. He was doing his job, sir.”
“I’m sending a forensic’s crew to Cherokee Trailer Park this morning.”
Blaine raised his voice. “Don’t. That’s my scene—a triple murder scene that you own no part of.”
“You can’t give me orders, kid.”
“I have priority on this one. All you’re gonna get is a statement from Doctor Rodriguez to close your kidnapping case.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“Uh huh.”
Blaine pressed end and made a call.
Shell Gas Station. Giddings.
BILLY-DON took a leak in the men’s pisser at the back of the store. He stared at his reflection in the mirror wondering if his boys looked like him. Dark hair once, but now turning gray at the sides, dark eyes and good looking—he’d always known he was a stud—fuckin chick magnet all his life. Couldn’t keep them away with a stick.
He washed his hands under the hot water faucet, dried them slowly on paper towels and wrapped his head around his plan. Farrell had sent him to Huntsville, and blood or not, the kid would have to pay for the years Billy-Don had lost. Billy-Don Donovan always got even. Always.
He’d spent hours on the computer in the library researching his oldest son and knew everything about him. He didn’t need to know a lot of the shit that had turned up—the fact that Farrell was a fuckin cop on the violent crime squad made him sick. All he needed was the address—and he had that baby memorized.
He grabbed a bottle of orange juice from the glass unit at the back of the store, picked up a local map at the check-out and went back to the truck. He poured over the map for a few minutes till he had it down, drank half the juice and lit up a smoke.
He smiled. Wouldn’t be long now.
Cherokee Junction.
BECCA FINISHED putting on her makeup and sat down with a second cup of coffee to wait for Harlan. She spread all her cash on the low table in front of the sofa and tried to figure out what she should buy from Jasper for the week ahead.
Harlan came out of the bathroom drying his hair with a towel. “Can’t wait until we see Nate, baby. Maybe we can bring him home today.”
“I hope we can. His apartment is nice and clean for him.”
“Wonder if Mason let the governor woman go?” asked Harlan. “Sure hope he did. Didn’t realize how fuckin crazy my brother was until he snatched her. Never would have believed Mason could do something so nuts.”
“I had a pretty good idea there was something wrong with his head,” said Becca. “I lived with him.”
Harlan nodded. “Yeah, baby, guess you would have an idea. Never thought about it, but he was always, always hurtin on you.”
“Hope they give him the needle.” Becca gathered up all her money, sorted into denominations with the twenties on top. She wrapped an elastic band around the little bundle and shoved it into her purse.
Home of Doctor Rodriguez. West Austin.
TRAVIS SPENT what was left of the night—after the kit was done at the hospital—lying on Ginny’s bed and holding her in his arms while she cried. Neither one of them had slept more than a few minutes.
While Ginny waited for him in a chair by the window of her room, he showered in her ensuite, and did the best job he could on his appearance, with no shaving kit and no clean clothes. One last glance in the mirror, he shrugged then walked across the thick bedroom carpet and took her hand. “Ready?”
She shook her head but accepted his hand and stood up. Together they walked downstairs to the kitchen.
Isabel hugged Ginny and cried tears of her own, then thanked Travis for his efforts in finding her employer and her best friend. “What can I make y’all for breakfast,” she asked, “We should celebrate.”
Ginny smiled. “You’re right, Isabel, I should be celebrating instead of crying and moping like I’m doing. I’m alive and I’m back home.” She turned and smiled at Travis. “How about waffles?”
“Sure.” Travis checked the time on his phone and said, “Ackerman will be here for your statement around ten. He wanted to come earlier, but I backed him off.”
“I’d like to back him off permanently,” said Ginny. “If I have to tell the whole story, I’m afraid I’ll lose it in front of a bunch of suits.”
“I’ll be here to intervene, even though I bet Ackerman will try to get rid of me.”
“Thank you so much for staying with me, Travis. I couldn’t have made it through the past few hours without you.” Ginny sipped her coffee then asked, “I didn’t ask how you knew where I was?”
“Blaine’s girlfriend, Misty Mulligan is a psychic. He doesn’t like to ask her to help unless we’ve turned over every stone, and we had. Isabel gave me some of your personal items, and Misty did her thing.”
Ginny’s dark eyes widened. “Wow, is all I can say. I’ve never believed much in the occult or clairvoyance, but if it saved my life, I’ll have to rethink it. I want to thank her.”
“I’ll arrange it.” Travis grinned. “Maybe we can all go to Tulley’s. Miss Misty is a huge fan of crab cakes.”
“I’ll buy her all the crab cakes she can eat.”
Coulter-Ross Ranch. La Grange.
JESSE AND FARRELL had been hunkered down in the office since dawn waiting for a break.
Farrell returned
from the kitchen with fresh mugs of coffee for each of them and a plate of apple cinnamon muffins Rosalie had baked. “Mom and Jack are sitting at the harvest table getting hyped on caffeine,” said Farrell. “Seems like we’re all waiting.”
“Did Charity eat her breakfast?”
Farrell grinned at Jesse. “I’m sure she did. All the kids are watching her like little hawks.”
“She loves being with the kids,” said Jesse, “we belong here.”
“Course you do. Annie’s a natural born mother.”
Jesse’s cell rang once, and he grabbed for it. “Morning, Sheriff. Got something for me?” He picked up his pen and started scribbling on a yellow pad. “Yep, I’m getting that down. Get the clerk’s statement and send it to Ranger Headquarters, would you?”
“Somebody saw Billy-Don?” asked Farrell.
“He bought a map and some juice in a gas station in Giddings a few minutes ago.”
“He’s on his way here for me,” said Farrell. “Better tell Mom.”
Saint David’s Hospital. Austin.
BECCA PARKED her pink Chevy pickup in the visitors’ lot. On the long drive into the city, she and Harlan had decided that she would go in alone, see what she could find out, and if she got to see Nate, she would find out when he could go home.
“Good luck, baby,” said Harlan. He lowered his window and lit up a smoke.
Becca felt a little shaky as she walked through the double glass doors and crossed the huge lobby to the reception area. Two people were in front of her asking questions, and she fidgeted with the zipper on her purse while waiting for her turn. When the way was clear, she took a step closer, “Could you tell me what room Nate Wall is in?”
The volunteer senior citizen looked through the list of patients on her computer and shook her head. “We don’t have a patient by that name.”
“Are you sure?” asked Becca. “I think he’s been here a few days.”
The old woman peered through her bifocals and scanned the list again. “No, I’m sorry, Miss, no one by that name is a patient here at Saint David’s.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Becca went back to the truck and told Harlan. “He’s not at this hospital.”
“What the hell?” Harlan hollered, “Did Mason lie to me?”
“Don’t know, sugar, but he’s not here.”
“I’ll kill that fuckin Mason if he ain’t dead already.”
Home of Doctor Rodriguez. West Austin.
ISABEL SHOWED Special Agent Ackerman and one of his dark-suited colleagues into the sitting room off the foyer. “Please have a seat, gentlemen. Doctor Rodriguez will be with y’all shortly. Could I offer you coffee or some sweet tea?”
“No thank you, ma’am,” said Ackerman, answering for both of them.
Travis finished his coffee in the kitchen, letting Ackerman settle in for a few minutes, then strode into the room with Gene Wyman at his side and offered his hand. “Good morning, sir. Doctor Rodriguez will join us in a moment, but first I wanted to make it clear that I will be present during the taking of her statement, as will Mr. Wyman, head of her State security team.”
Ackerman shook his head. “That won’t be possible, Major Bristol. That’s not the way I run my operation.”
Travis sat down on the sofa and Gene took one of the wing chairs near the stone fireplace. “Doctor Rodriguez has requested that we be present, and we aren’t leaving.”
Isabel placed a coffee tray on the table and filled cups for all the guests.
Travis was adding cream to his when Ginny entered the room wearing a dark blue track suit and no makeup. She sat close to Travis on the sofa and took his hand.
“I’m happy to see you’re safe and back home, Doctor Rodriguez, and I’m truly sorry for what you must have suffered.”
Ginny nodded and said nothing.
Realizing he was not getting private time with her, Ackerman put his recording device on the corner of the coffee table and said, “Shall we begin?”
For the next hour, Ginny recounted all the details she could remember, about the abduction in Johnson City, the days in the small motel room, her time spent in Mason’s trailer, and her attempted escape to the river. Some of the hours when she was drugged were completely missing and she estimated how long she was out of it each time.
“Thank you for an accurate and detailed statement,” said Ackerman. “I don’t get too many of those.” He gave Ginny a smile but didn’t get one in return.
After Ginny finished, Travis gave a brief recap of the take-down on route seventy-one.
Ackerman turned off the recorder and thanked them both for their time.
Isabel showed the Feds out, then removed the coffee tray and left Ginny and Travis alone.
Tears rolled down her cheeks and Travis pulled her close. “It’s over now. All finished. Do you want to lie down?”
“Just for an hour or two until I stop shaking. Would you come up with me?”
Travis escorted her upstairs and sat down on the side of the bed.
Ginny couldn’t seem to settle. She paced to the window and back to Travis. “Never again do I want people to know who I am or where I live. I’m going to announce that I’m dropping out of the race for Governor.”
Coulter-Ross Ranch. La Grange.
FARRELL SAT WITH NEIL at the harvest table in Annie’s kitchen. The ranch was their home and had been since the day Annie and her team rescued them from a life of living hand to mouth on the streets of San Angelo.
They both had mugs of coffee in front of them and Farrell was focused on finding out exactly what his younger brother planned to do when they got to the park in Austin. Farrell didn’t want to be caught off guard my some crazy ‘Neil thing’ happening in front of his eyes when he wasn’t prepared.
“All I want to do,” said Neil, “is first, find out if it’s her.”
“And if it is?” asked Farrell, “Then what?”
Neil took a drink of his coffee and set the mug down. “If it is her and she doesn’t tell us to beat it or anything, then we’ll make a plan to meet somewhere and talk. I don’t want to talk in the park with a bunch of people around.”
“Okay, that sounds reasonable. Let’s get ready to go.”
When they were ready, Annie walked them to the door and hugged them both. “Good luck, boys. I love you.”
Route Seventy-One South. La Grange.
BILLY-DON DONOVAN sat behind the wheel of the jacked black Ford pickup and waited. The driver’s side window was down and heat from the dry August day poured in and soaked him in sweat. He reached over the console and picked up the gun Charlie had stolen from the convenience store. He held it in his hand feeling the balance, then chambered a round and set it down on the passenger seat. He lit up a smoke and waited.
The spot he’d chosen for surveillance was an unused two-track leading into a rancher’s field. The truck was hidden by trees and bushes, yet he could see the gate at the end of the Coulter-Ross laneway. Insects swarmed and buzzed in the bushes inches away from him and he ignored them. His focus was on one thing and one thing only.
A few more minutes passed, and then it was time. The red Silverado drove out the lane and made a right turn onto the highway.
Billy-Don turned the key.
AS SOON AS the boys left the ranch in Farrell’s truck, Annie and Jack got ready to follow them to Austin.
Jesse escorted them to the door with Charity in his arms. “Please be careful, Ace. We want you back home with us.”
Annie kissed Jesse, then Charity. “Be good for Daddy.”
“Do you think Donovan will be following the boys?” asked Jack.
“Blaine does,” said Jesse. “He called this morning and he’s going to the park just in case.”
Blackmore Agency. Austin.
EVEN THOUGH HE’D barely slept because of the capture of Ginny’s kidnapper, and the middle-of-the-night phone calls he’d had to make, Blaine was asleep long enough to have a nightmare about Farrell�
��s father gunning him down.
After he showered and dressed, Blaine filled his mug from the carafe Carm had ready for him and sat by the window trying to shake off his uneasiness for the day ahead. No way he would let scum like Billy-Don Donovan kill his brothers. His cell jangled on the table beside him and he answered. “Morning, Chief, I heard from Travis, and Ginny gave her statement to Ackerman this morning. I told him to stand down on our crime scene in the trailer park, but he might need encouragement from you in that area.”
“I’ll certainly give it to him. We need evidence against Mason Wall to convict him on the old man’s murder at least.”
“Wall?” asked Blaine, “did you say his last name was Wall?”
“Yep, his prints showed up and Sue brought the report up to my office. He was in the system for a couple of D and D’s a while ago.”
“That’s the same last name as the dead car-jacker that Jesse shot.”
“What? Is the kidnapper one of the car-jackers?” asked the Chief.
“Jesus, Chief, this is so fuckin weird.”
“It is weird, but we’ll connect all the dots,” said the Chief, “at least you will. My first priority today is Farrell. I want him covered off in case his father tries to get close to him. I’ve been fretting about it since you hinted that might happen.”
“I wouldn’t betray a confidence, but I don’t want my brother dead either,” said Blaine. “I’m going to the park with the junkers. I’ll cover him.”
“I’m going to surround the park with Rangers out of uniform, just to be sure. Donovan might be long gone, and he would if he was smart, but those guys rarely are. That’s how they got themselves a ticket to Huntsville in the first place.”
City Park. Downtown Austin.
BECCA CIRCLED the park once, found no open spots and tried again. On her second pass she spotted an empty meter and pulled the pink truck into the spot. Harlan stood beside her while she fished a couple quarters out of her purse and fed the parking meter.
“Where does your buddy usually sit?” asked Harlan.
