by Carolina Mac
“I have Jody.”
“That’s what I’m saying. You’re alone.”
Nine Hemlock Way. Elgin.
Misty and Moonbeam were chatting and drinking wine in the living room when we returned from the motel search.
“Hi, Mist. We’re zeroing in on our killer.”
“Wonderful news. Forest and I are just checking on y’all. We wondered how Jody was enjoying his new position as your assistant?”
“I like it, Misty.” Jody sat down in a chair opposite Misty and chatted to her. “I like field work better than office work. I found that out in a hurry.”
“That’s because you have a natural affinity for the outdoors.” Misty smiled at him as if they shared a secret.
Jody nodded and smiled back. “I guess that’s what it is.”
“He’s doing okay, Mist,” I said. “He’s quite handy on his laptop.”
“I’m glad y’all are working well together.”
After Misty left, I unwound from the stressful trip to Junction. I tossed in a load of laundry and had a quick nap. When I woke up, I checked the time and called Chief Calhoun before he left the office.
“Hi, Chief, I’m back from Junction. Calling to give you an update.”
“I’ve been reading your reports, Gillette. You have been making some real progress finding the killer.”
“I have him now, Chief. I have solid evidence of him being inside the McConnell trailer in Junction and I’m hoping to arrest him tonight.”
“Remember what we talked about,” said Calhoun. “It would be best to have Farrell back you up on the arrest.”
“I’ll be talking to him later, sir.”
“Keep me in the loop, young lady.”
“Copy that, sir.”
Moonbeam and I had a lovely quiet dinner, just the two of us, and we relaxed after dinner until it was time for me to pick Jody up and head for the roadhouse.
“Please be careful, dear. Arresting killers can be dangerous.”
I patted the weapons on and in my belt and showed Moon my confident cop face. I had to admit to myself, I was a little nervous about making the arrest without Farrell.
Maybe he’ll make it in time.
Jody tapped on the patio door at ten to nine and startled me. Pete saw who it was and growled. My nerves were on edge a tiny bit and so were Pete’s.
“You ready to go for it, boss?” Jody grinned and showed me his dimple.
“I am. With or without Farrell, we might have to grab Harrison. Farrell’s right, we can’t leave it too long or he’ll be gone and we won’t get him.”
“I can take him,” growled Pete.
Calamity Jane’s Roadhouse.
Passing by the Value Inn Motel on the way to the roadhouse, I noticed some of the pickups belonging to the Harrison Paving guys were parked in front of a few of the units.
Jody was watching too. “All of the guys aren’t at the motel yet, boss.”
“Some of them could be at the roadhouse with Clay Harrison,” I said, “or some of them might still be in transit.”
“Uh huh. Might be. Are we going to watch him for a while first or march right in there and arrest his murdering ass?”
“Which would you prefer, Jodes?”
“I say we wait an hour or so to see if Farrell shows up to give us backup.”
“Good plan. I’d feel more confident if Farrell was with us.”
In the roadhouse parking lot, I cruised up and down three rows before finding a spot to park the truck. I killed the engine and Pete growled his disproval. “I can’t see a damned thing from here, Gilly. Get me a better spot.”
“There are no better spots, Pete. The lot is almost full.”
“I want to sit in the load bed then,” he growled.
“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with you being loose.”
“No, he can’t be loose,” Jody chipped in.
“He can be loose if I say he can be loose,” I snarked back at my assistant.
“Okay. He’s your dog, boss. If you don’t care if he’s lost, I sure don’t.”
“Don’t jump out of the back unless you have to, Pete. I’m trusting you not to get me into trouble.”
“When have I ever done that?”
Jody shook his head. “Bad move, boss. That dog is nuts, and I’m not used to him talking. Creeps me out.”
“Get used to it. Pete is with us for the long haul.”
We walked around the huge building to the double front doors and the bouncer on the door let us in.
“Welcome to Calamity Jane’s.” He grinned and I smiled back at him. Friendly place.
Let’s get a table and settle in for an hour as observers.”
“Observing is what I’m good at.” Jody smirked.
He isn’t too confident for a shifter.
“Pick a table where we can see Harrison,” I whispered.
Clay Harrison and three of the paving dudes were hunkered down in a booth about halfway back next to the dancefloor.
Calamity Jane’s was an old roadhouse decorated with mementos of the wild west and pictures of Calamity herself. Old sepia posters of Wild Bill Hickock, the man Calamity set her sights on back in the day, were plastered on the dark paneled walls. One big poster looked familiar—the one with Wild Bill’s last poker hand—aces and eights.
Country music blared out of the speakers and half a dozen couples were two-stepping around the highly polished dancefloor.
“Looks like a fun place,” said Jody. “Makes me want to dance.”
“We can dance later if you’re still in the mood. Right now we’re working.”
We’d been sitting in our booth for about forty minutes sharing a pitcher of Coors when my heart stopped beating altogether.
“What are you looking at, boss? You went pale. I noticed your face even in this dim light.”
“Andrea came in with three friends and they’re sitting in a booth near the back.”
“She can’t be here.” Jody set his glass down and hopped up. “I’m going to tell her to go home.”
“You can’t do that. She doesn’t even know you.”
“You do it then. We can’t let Harrison see her.”
I blew out a long breath. “Too late. He’s asking her to dance.”
“No.” Jody spun around to look, turned back and offered me his hand. “We have to dance too to hear what he’s saying to her.”
“I can watch them from here.”
Jody shook his head. “Not good enough. Come on, Gilly. I’m not a bad dancer.”
Jody spun me onto the dance floor and he had been a little too modest. He was a great dancer. Hard to believe he was half animal, although I had heard of dancing horses and elephants.
“I don’t want Harrison to see my face,” I whispered to him and buried my face in Jody’s neck. “Keep me turned away from him.”
“The floor is crowded. He won’t notice you.”
The song ended and we hurried back to our booth so Harrison wouldn’t see us. “What the hell are we going to do?”
“Did Andrea go back to her table?” asked Jody.
“Uh huh. She’s laughing with her friends now.”
My cell signaled a text and it was Farrell.
“Booking some thugs at headquarters. Can’t make it, Gilly. Sorry. Love you.”
“Farrell can’t come.” I leaned across the table so Jody could hear me. “We’re on our own.”
“Go lure Andrea into the ladies’ room and warn her off,” said Jody.
“Okay, I’m doing it.” I hopped up and worked my way through the crowd. It was after ten and the place was packed. When I got to Andrea’s table her friends were sitting there, but she was gone.
Maybe she’s in the washroom.
I ran to the washroom and checked and she wasn’t there. I ran back to her table of friends and she still wasn’t there.
“Where’s Andrea?” I asked.
One of the girls glanced up and asked, “You know Andy?
”
“She’s my neighbor. I watch out for her.”
“She’s dancing with a guy. Second time he asked her. She thinks he’s creepy, but she’s too nice to refuse.”
“Thanks.”
I did a thorough push-through of the dancefloor, checking all the couples as I went. Didn’t matter if Clay saw me now. As soon as I laid eyes on him I was arresting his sorry ass.
He wasn’t in the roadhouse and neither was Andrea. I hoofed it back to our booth and grabbed Jody on the way by our booth. “They’re both gone. Move it.”
We ran to the parking lot and Pete wasn’t in the back of the truck.
“What a goddammed fuckup,” I hollered. “My dog is gone.”
“I told you not to leave that stupid dog in the load bed.”
Propelled one hundred percent by adrenaline—reaction time zero—I spun around and rammed my fist into Jody Smith’s gut as hard as I could.
“Get in the goddammed truck, you dumb fucker. We have to find them.”
Jody grunted as he climbed into the passenger seat. “Do you have to be so fuckin physical, boss?”
“I fuckin do. Shut up.”
“Shutting up, boss.”
Value Inn Motel. Route Ninety-five South.
I stomped the gas and passed every fuckin car and truck in the northbound lane on route ninety-five. My tires squealed as I made a sharp lefty-louie into the Value Inn parking lot and tore past room seventeen.
“His truck’s not here,” said Jody.
“I can see that,” I hollered back at him cranking the wheel and heading back to the road.
“Check the other motels around here,” said Jody. “Maybe he took her to one of those.”
“A sensible suggestion.” I backtracked and cruised through every hotel/motel parking lot in the area and we couldn’t find Clay Harrison’s dark blue Silverado.
“What’s his home address?” asked Jody with his cell in his hand. “Where does the guy live?”
I stopped the truck on the side of the highway, sucked in two calming breaths and pulled up Clay Harrison’s driver’s license. “His home address is listed as Bellavista Crescent in Eagle Lake.”
“Eagle Lake. I don’t know where that is.”
“Punch the address into the GPS, Jody. Tell me how long it will take us to get there.”
“Do we have lights and a siren?”
“Yep. Sure do.”
“Turn them on and we can be there in half an hour or less.”
I flicked on the strobes and the siren that had been installed on my truck at Chief Calhoun’s insistence. We sailed down route ninety-five at one hundred and twenty miles per hour.
Jody hung onto the holy shit bar, his eyes wide.
“If she’s dead when we get there, Jodes, we can never go home. That’s Cynthia’s daughter. Our neighbor. The fallout would be something I couldn’t live with.”
“She won’t be dead,” said Jody. “Keep the faith.”
Route ninety-five intersected with route seventy-one. I took the ramp and pounded the gas. We flew southeast until we hit the Interstate. I slowed as we zig-zagged through the intersection and picked up seventy-one again on the south side of I-10.
“Thirteen miles to Eagle Lake,” Jody hollered when he saw the sign. He was hyped and I hoped to hell and back he didn’t get so crazy that he shifted in the fuckin truck. He wouldn’t be any good to me then.
Eagle Lake.
“Okay. Here we are in Eagle Lake. Find the street, Jody.”
He pointed at a sign. “The map lady is telling us to go into this trailer park, boss.”
“Harrison lives in a trailer park? Shit. Look for Bellavista.”
“I’m looking. There you passed it. What was the number again?”
“Never mind the number, just look for his truck. Dark blue Silverado. See it?”
“It’s dark, boss. Give me a minute.”
“Aren’t you nocturnal for chrissakes, Jody. Use your gifts and find the goddammed truck.”
Jody had his head out the window as I zoomed down the narrow street. “I’m working on it, boss.”
“Where the hell is my fuckin dog? I’ll kill Clay Harrison if he hurt Pete.”
“You can always get another dog.”
That did it. My last nerve snapped and I screamed at my assistant. “Sonny is in that dog. I can’t get another Sonny, you asshole.”
Jody had no clue what I meant.
“There’s the truck. Calm down and park. Block his truck in, boss.”
“I’m doing it. I know my job.”
“A minute ago you sounded like you were losing it, boss. I’m trying to keep you on track.”
“I’m on track. Back or front?”
“I’ll take the back. I can’t kick in any doors.”
I ran up to the front door of Clay Harrison’s double-wide, tried the door and it was locked. The lock was cheap and old and would be easy. I picked it to save time. Casting a spell would take too long, and I didn’t have a minute to spare.
Inside, the trailer was all in darkness, but I could hear Andrea screaming from one of the bedrooms down the hall.
“Don’t touch me,” she cried. “Get away from me. Leave me alone. Don’t touch me.”
Using my flashlight, I ran down the hall and flung the bedroom door wide open. “Get away from her, Harrison. You’re under arrest. Down on your knees. Do it now.”
Naked from the waist down, Clay jumped off the bed where he was straddling Andrea and came straight at me with a knife in his hand.
I fired a shot as he pushed me backwards and the shot went over his head and into the wall.
Andrea screamed.
Clay ran past me, out the bedroom door and down the hall towards the back of the trailer.
“I hope to hell Jody is ready for him when he comes out.” I flicked on the bedroom light as I ran out of the room and hollered to Andrea, “Get dressed and lock yourself in my truck. It’s out front. Do it now.”
Sobbing, she said, “Okay.”
I tore down the back hall and out the door in time to see Jody shift into a huge black wolf.
Clay Harrison was running flat out down the street at the rear of his trailer heading for a wooded area. A few leaps and bounds and Jody caught up to him easily.
Jody pounced on Clay and took him to ground. I couldn’t see from where I was, but Jody’s growling and snarling was scarifying even from a distance. He was probably ripping Clay’s throat out. Yikes.
Clay Harrison was screaming and then he wasn’t. The night went silent.
I took it as a sign and ran around the trailer to my truck. I tapped on the window for Andrea to let me in and as soon as she released the locks, I slid behind the wheel and gazed at her over the console. “Hey, you okay?”
“Sort of.” She was still crying.
“Not dead is sort of okay,” I said. “I’m calling Moonbeam to come get you. I’ll have to stay here and wait for the crime scene people.”
“Okay,” she sniffled, then sobbed again. “I was so scared.”
“He’s dead and there’s nothing to be scared of anymore. Close your eyes and rest.” I pressed Moon’s number and woke her up.
“Hello, dear, are you all right?”
“I’m fine, Moon. I need you here at the crime scene to pick up Cynthia’s daughter. She got into a bit of trouble.”
“Oh my. Should I bring Cynthia?”
“Absolutely not. Andrea can talk to her mother when she gets home. She’ll have to go to Elgin hospital first and have a kit done.” I turned to Andrea and confirmed. “He raped you, right?”
“Sort of. Almost. I think you got to me in the nick of time, Gillette.”
“Okay. Even better.” I reached over and patted her arm. “Everything will be okay soon, Andy. Moon is coming to get you.”
“Thank you, Gillette. Your job is harder than I thought. You have to catch horrible people. Thank you for saving me.”
“Welcome.”
“Come on, dear. Everything will be okay. You’re safe now.”
“Thank you for driving all the way down here to get me, Moonbeam. You must have been in bed sleeping.”
“That’s okay. I’m here to help Gillette any way I can.”
“I’ll meet y’all at home, Moon. Petey is lost so keep an eye out for him. He may come home on his own.”
“Oh no. Pete can’t be lost. What about Sonny?”
“I’ll find him. I promise.”
As soon as Andrea left with Moon, I ran down the road to where I’d seen Jody take Clay Harrison down. There was no sign of either one of them.
“Aw, shit, Jody. What does that mean?” I did a walk-about and didn’t see them. I called. “Jody, where are you?”
“In the woods, boss. Get my clothes. I can’t come out of the trees.”
“Okay. Be back in a minute.” I ran down the street to Harrison’s trailer, shone my flash around on the ground until I found a pile of clothes where Jody had shifted. I picked them up, shook off the dirt and ran back to Jody.
“Here you go, Jodes. Where are you? I can’t see you.”
“Just leave them on the ground there, boss. I’ll get dressed and meet you at the truck.”
“Where’s Harrison’s body?”
“What’s left of him is here beside me.”
“Okay, you’ll have to show the medical examiner when he gets here.”
“I’d rather you showed him.”
“Yeah, I bet you do.”
I ran back to the trailer and while waiting for Jody, I showed the crime scene dudes the bedroom where the attack had taken place.
“This is the home of a serial killer so look for souvenirs of this other kills,” I said.
“Copy that, Ranger Hart. You got the killer?”
“Uh huh. He’s dead. His body is in the woods.”
“Good work. We’ll see how many unsolved we can link to this guy.”
“Thanks. It would be nice to close those old cases and let the victims’ families know the killer has been caught.”
Jody met me at the truck and he looked a little wild and weird. His after-shift look was something to see. “Wait here while I deal with the medical examiner then we’ll go home and have a beer.”
