by Laina Turner
“Presley, I’m not sure I can rearrange my trip to get there.”
“I wasn’t calling because I expected you to do that. I just thought you should know. Well, Katy did, too. She pushed me to call you.”
“You need to tell the police about him contacting you.”
This was the Cooper I knew and loved. Always wanting to do the right thing.
“I know, I know. But I want to hear what he has to say first. I wouldn’t feel right turning him in and not listening to his side of the story.”
“Just be careful. He’s an escaped convict and whether he’s innocent or not, right now he’s guilty and a fugitive. You’re breaking the law by knowing where he’s at and not turning him in. It could get you in a lot of trouble.”
“I’ll be careful, I promise,” I said and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Let me see what I can do to arrange things here and fly to Alkon. I’ll call you back.”
“OK.”
“What’d he say?” Katy asked when I got off the phone.
“That I was breaking the law by not telling the police where he is. But I couldn’t tell whether he thought there was a possibility Dirt was innocent.”
“I didn’t even think about that,” Tobey said. “What should we do?”
“We’re not going to do anything until we talk to him, Tobey.”
“But…”
“She’s right, Tobey. We owe it to him to hear what he has to say,” Katy said.
“We owe it to ourselves to stay out of jail. And why would you owe anything to him?”
“We’ve known him for a long time and I, for one, mean to hear what he has to say,” said Katy.
“I can understand where you two are coming from, I guess, it’s just hard for me to not still be a little worried about convening with a convicted murderer.”
I heard the door open and looked over to see Chris walk in. I glanced at Katy and could see her stiffen with anger. I didn’t think I had ever seen her so mad before. I figured I better make sure to keep her and Chris on opposite sides of the room. She looked like she could rip him apart with her bare hands and I didn’t blame her one bit.
“What’s going on?” he asked. He looked at us warily like we might be trying to stage an intervention or something. An intervention to being an asshole might be nice if there were such a thing.
“Dirt wants us to meet him tonight,” I said bluntly.
His eyes grew wide. Whatever he’d been expecting when coming over here, it hadn’t been this. I imagine he thought we were going to gang up on him for hurting Katy.
I gave him the rundown of the story and he just sat there in shock I think.
“Are we going to meet him?” he finally asked.
“Yeah, I think we should. At least hear what he has to say.”
The more I kept saying it as I recounted Dirt’s request, the more I felt that maybe he really was telling the truth. What I couldn’t for the life of me figure out was why? Why would anyone admit to a murder they didn’t commit? That part just didn’t make sense.
Chapter 14
It was nine thirty and we once again were at Katy’s getting ready to head out to talk to Dirt.
“Should we take one car or two?” Tobey asked.
“Two. I’m not riding in the same car as him,” Katy quickly answered, meaning of course, Chris.
“Two it is,” I said.
“I want to kill him, Presley,” Katy said once we were in the car and headed to the bridge. Chris and Tobey followed us.
“And he would deserve it.”
“I haven’t told my mom yet that the wedding’s off. Hell, I haven’t even told Chris yet. He may be stupid, but surely not so stupid that he thinks I would still marry him after this latest revelation.”
Chris had tried to talk to Katy earlier, but she had very clearly told him to get the hell out. Telling me she just needed some time before hearing his excuses, which I understood, but when you were getting married in a few days, time was of the essence.
“My mom’s going to freak and she’s going to want to kill him. I guess I should be thankful I didn’t get to Saturday. Obviously, I would have been making the biggest mistake of my life. Right here, Pres, turn!” Katy interrupted herself as I had almost missed the turn to the bridge.
“Wow, how’d you spot that? It’s completely overgrown. I would have driven past it.”
“I don’t know. It just looked familiar.”
The short road through the field to the bridge wasn’t actually a road. This had been our shortcut years ago. It was just a tractor path. My car was jolting from side to side in the big ruts.
“It should be right up here, “Katy said.
“We’ll make it if my car doesn’t break,” I said, as we hit a particularly large bump. “Kias aren’t exactly made for off–roading,” I joked.
“There he is.” Katy pointed ahead to the clearing before the bridge where Dirt stood outside his car.
We all pulled up and got out and I could feel the tension.
The last time we had all been together, Dirt had a gun on me and was threatening to kill Cooper.
“Thank you for coming,” Dirt said, finally breaking the ice but not the tension.
We were just sort of staring at him. I was sure no one knew what to say. I almost felt bad. Uncomfortable silence was the worst.
“You said you had something to explain to us?” I said, cutting through the silence.
Dirt nodded. “I didn’t kill the senator,” he said, letting those words sink in.
“Dirt, it’s not like we don’t want to believe you, but it seems pretty far–fetched that you would have admitted to a murder that you didn’t commit. I mean you had a gun on us and threatened to kill me and Cooper,” I said. “If you didn’t kill the senator, how did things get to that point?”
“I know, Presley, and I’m sorry. I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I wasn’t in my right mind.”
“So why would you admit to a murder you didn’t commit? And if it wasn’t you, who killed him?”
“I was in deep with Palazzo, that much was true. I screwed up big time. He wanted me to kill the senator to clear up my debt and I refused. I had made some bad decisions, but I wasn’t about to go that far.”
“Then who did?” I broke in impatiently.
“I’m getting to that. Simon. Garrison had Simon kill him.”
That left us all speechless. Simon was Garrison’s son who supposedly had a dislike for his father’s nefarious ways. Simon had been having an affair with Helen, the senator’s wife. Chris had also been having an affair with Helen, though she had just been using him. It was quite the love triangle.
“Did Helen know Simon killed her husband?” I asked.
“She sure did. In fact, that’s why Simon agreed to do it. To get Tom out of the way so he could have Helen without having to go through a messy divorce. Tom wanted Helen’s money and wouldn’t have gone away easily or cheaply. In his position, he couldn’t afford a divorce, financially or for what it would do to his political campaign.”
“So how did they get you to take the fall for that?” I asked.
“They threatened to hurt Katy if I didn’t.”
I turned and looked at Katy and then back at Dirt, not really understanding.
“Wait a minute. You had something going on with Dirt? And didn’t tell me?” Christ said to Katy in disbelief.
“We weren’t together at the time, and don’t forget you were sharing Helen with Simon. And who knows who else you were doing? So I don’t think you should be one to judge what I do or don’t do.”
Some things were coming back to me from that weekend when the senator was killed. I remembered Katy with her low cut blouse at dinner and thinking it was Chris she was trying to impress, but apparently it had been Dirt.
“Why didn’t you guys say anything?” I asked, not understanding why they would want to hide it.
“I wanted to, but Katy wanted to keep it under wraps.
”
This whole time, Katy had stayed silent and I wondered what she was thinking.
“How did they know about Katy then if we didn’t even know?” I asked.
“She came out to visit me once in Vegas when I was there doing some work for Garrison and they saw us together,” Dirt said.
“You really admitted to killing Senator Daniels to protect me?” Katy finally spoke. “Why didn’t you just go to the police?”
“I was afraid to. You don’t know these people, Katy. I couldn’t be sure you were safe unless I did what they wanted.”
“But why would you do that for me?”
I thought the answer was pretty obvious and wasn’t sure why Katy didn’t see it.
“Because, Katy, I love you.”
“You asshole. You were supposed to be my friend,” Chris said in an outburst and made a move towards Dirt. Katy quickly stepped in front of him.
“You!” she said, poking her finger in his chest. “You have no right. Not then, not now, not ever.”
“Katy, I can explain…” Chris started to say.
“I don’t want to hear your explanations. We’re done. Wedding off and I hope to never talk to you again after this.”
Good for Katy, I thought. It was about time she told him where to go.
Turning toward Dirt, she said, “What do you want us to do? I’m assuming you broke out of jail and have been sticking around here because you want something.”
I could see the way he was looking at her that she was what he wanted. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it before.
“I’ve got to clear my name. I can’t spend the rest of my life in jail.”
“Why now? Aren’t you afraid they will still come after Katy?” I asked.
“Yes, but there has to be a way to fix this. I just wasn’t thinking clearly back then. After the time I’ve spent in jail I’ve been able to think about the situation. I know I’m just missing something. Something that can be the way out of this. To keep Katy safe and clear my name.”
“Dirt, I think you should turn yourself in and tell the truth. Let them sort it out,” I said.
He shook his head vehemently. “They’ll just lock me back up. They’ll never believe me or investigate on my say so. Especially after I’ve already confessed. We need to find evidence to prove to them I didn’t do it.”
“And how do we do that?” I asked.
“I have an idea,” he replied.
Chapter 15
I had stopped at Betty’s the next morning to pick up some muffins for Katy and us bridesmaids. We were all meeting at her house and she was going to break it to them that the wedding was off. We had a long day ahead of us and nothing was as fortifying as Betty’s muffins and a gallon of her strong coffee.
I was waiting at the counter for Betty to finish boxing my order when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned to look and saw it was Officer Schultz.
“Coffee and muffin stop, Officer?”
“Actually, I came to talk to you.”
“Me? How’d you know I was here?”
Officer Schultz pointed over to the corner where a couple of his officers were sitting and drinking coffee. “They saw you come in and called me.”
That made me nervous. Obviously, he had been looking for me.
I tried to joke. “You could have just called.”
“I would have eventually. Sit,” he said, sitting himself down on one of the stools and wanting me to do the same, to which I complied, even more nervous than before.
“Am I in trouble?” I again tried to joke. A bit of a nervous habit so I wasn’t at all surprised when he didn’t even crack a smile. This was definitely serious.
“Has Dirt tried to contact you or Katy?” he asked and my heart started beating rapidly, wondering if he knew of our meeting with him last night.
“No.” I shook my head, hoping my facial expression wasn’t in contradiction to my answer. “Why?”
“Just curious. We’ve had a couple reports of him being in town driving the same car you told us about. I’m just surprised he hasn’t reached out.”
“Your order’s ready, Presley,” Betty called out from the counter.
“That’s all,” he said, and I moved to get up.
“Do you really think Dirt killed the senator?” I asked.
Officer Schultz shrugged his shoulders. “I wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t confessed.”
“Yeah, me, too.”
Telling the other girls what had happened with Chris and that the wedding was off had not been easy for Katy. She had done a good job of holding herself together, but the emotion of explaining the story once again had taken its toll.
The other girls had finally left and Katy and I were just sitting on the couch, watching reruns of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Mindless entertainment and proof that some people were crazier than we were. Though, I did have to admit I easily got sucked into the show.
Chapter 16
My phone rang and it was a number I didn’t recognize, which normally I wouldn’t answer, but with everything going on I figured I should.
“Is this Presley?” the voice of an older lady asked, making me wonder if it was one of my mom’s friends calling for some reason.
“Yes, this is she.” I thought it would be a good idea to use proper etiquette in case it was a friend of my mom’s.
“This is Edna. I caught you snooping around the house next to mine with that young gentleman.”
I smiled, I remembered perfectly well who she was. What I didn’t know was how she got my number. I hadn’t given it to her.
“I might have some information that is of interest to you.”
“OK.”
“I hate talking on the phone, so if you want to know, I’ll be home all day.” And then she hung up.
I sat there dumbfounded.
“Who was that?” Katy asked.
“Remember that hilarious old lady I told you about who was giving me and Tobey a hard time when we were looking for Jeff West? That was her.”
“What did she want?”
“To give me some information, but only if I come to her house.”
“Then let’s go. Why not? It may be nothing, but it’s not like we have anything to do right now, since the day should have been full of wedding errands and this will be a good distraction for me,” Katy said, sounding a little better. It seemed like Dirt’s revelation about going to jail to protect her took some of the sting away from the whole Chris thing. Gave her something more to think about.
“OK. I just wonder how she got my number.” A thought I was still mulling over when we pulled up in front of Edna’s house.
She was sitting on her front porch, presumably waiting for us.
“It’s about time you showed up. I could be dead by now.”
I started laughing. “I somehow think you’ll live for a while.”
We joined her on the porch where she had a tray set out with lemonade and what looked to be ice tea, glasses and ice in a glass bucket. Clearly, she had expected me to hop right on over. She must have known my curiosity would get the best of me.
“Have a seat and help yourself to drinks. I’m not going to wait on you.”
“Is this ice tea?” I said, pointing at the dark liquid.
“Yes, but be careful, it’s strong.”
I poured some ice tea, and Katy got some lemonade, then we sat down in the chairs facing Edna.
“Edna, before you tell me what you brought me here for I have to ask—how did you get my number?”
“You think you young kids are the only ones who can use the Internet? Not hard to track down anyone these days.”
Wow. I was impressed. My mom, who was younger than this woman, didn’t even like email.
“What? Did you just Google me?”
“Facebook. Your phone number’s on there. You should probably change your privacy setting. It’s not really safe for a young lady to have her phone number where just anyone can ge
t it. There’s a lot of crazies out there.”
“You are absolutely right. I didn’t realize my number was visible, but I’m glad it was, or you wouldn’t have found me so easily.” I took a sip of the ice tea and promptly spit it out, choking.
“I told you it was strong.”
When she had said strong, I thought she meant ice tea strong. Not strong because it tasted more like a Long Island ice tea. There was alcohol in this drink and it wasn’t for the fainthearted. I noticed she had a tumbler half full on the table next to her. It took my appreciation of her to a whole new level. She was my kind of woman.
Taking a much smaller sip this time, the alcohol only making my throat burn slightly, I asked her what it was she wanted to tell me.
“Someone else came looking for Jeff.”
My interest perked up. “Who?”
“I’m getting to that. Some pushy, large man.”
I took another careful sip of the iced tea, and while it was getting easier to drink, I decided if I had any more, I would probably fall asleep. It was that strong. Edna had drained half her glass and it didn’t seem to faze her at all.
“And he didn’t give a name?”
“He said he was looking for Jeff. That Jeff had some important documents he needed. He got very belligerent when I told him Jeff was gone and he needed to leave. He didn’t like that answer. He was very uptight, wringing his hands, very nervous.”
I thought for a minute, then had an idea of who it might be. The very nervous, wringing hands part tipped me off. I took out my phone and went to the browser. Pulling up Mills and Associates, I went to the agents tab. I clicked on the image of Jonathan Mills and then blew it up a little and handed my phone to Edna.
“Is this the guy?”
“Yes. That’s just a better picture than what he looked like when he was here. He seemed about five seconds from a heart attack or stroke or something.”
I turned to Katy. “Why do you suppose Jonathan wanted to talk to Jeff?”
