Friday Night Frights (Jack and Ashley Detective series Book 1)

by R. D. Sherrill

  Since she doubted Jack would just roll over and spill the beans about his misleading her the whole time, Ashley knew a bit of trickery would help get the information she wanted. She would have to be cunning since he was almost as intelligent as her – almost.

  The smell of Chinese food greeted Jack when he returned to the hotel just after sundown Thursday evening. The plates were already set at the room’s small dining area with candles burning, giving the place a hint of ambiance.

  “What is this?” Jack asked.

  He sat down his briefcase as he looked at the surprise dinner. Then, giving Ashley a wry look, he did his best Dustin Hoffman impression.

  “Are you trying to seduce me, Ms. Reynolds?” he laughed.

  “Please, if I were going to seduce somebody, it wouldn’t be anyone who worked for the government,” Ashley said, rolling her eyes as she motioned for Jack to have a seat at the table. “I just figured we both have to eat. Hope you like Chinese.”

  Not to look a gift horse in the mouth and given he had skipped lunch, Jack accepted her generous offer, woofing down chicken fried rice like a starving man. Between bites, Jack revealed their agenda for tomorrow.

  “You ever heard of Seymour?” Jack asked as he took a second serving of the shrimp with lobster sauce. “It’s a small town up in the Panhandle.”

  “I can’t say I have,” Ashley responded.

  The small towns in Texas, Ashley knew, were too numerous to memorize, even for someone with her steel trap mind.

  “Bone up on it honey because that’s where we’re going tomorrow,” Jack revealed off the cuff, seemingly more interested in the food than the briefing. “Where did you get this stuff? It’s delicious! I should have been eating this all along. Screw the health food.”

  “Um, why Seymour?” Ashley wondered. “Care to share that little detail?”

  Jack paused from his attack on the Chinese food long enough to give Ashley a straight answer.

  “Try the Seymour Iron Eagles,” Jack said. “Pretty good name for a football team, don’t you think?”

  “So, how do we know that’s the one?” Ashley questioned, remembering there were several possibilities as to the Eagle mascots.

  “We don’t know for sure,” Jack replied. “I just got a feeling that’s the one, is all.”

  “A feeling? You have a feeling? What kind of detective work is that?” Ashley asked, a bit surprised by her partner’s lack of logical thinking.

  “Don’t worry sweetheart. My hunches are always right,” Jack replied in a cocky tone. “Besides, we'll have agents at all the other schools. We’ll just be covering Seymour. Let me rephrase that; we'll be discreetly covering Seymour. Our guy can’t know we’re around or he’ll bolt.”

  “Understood,” Ashley responded. She sat, still giving Jack a questioning look, prompting him to lay down his chopsticks and look her in the eye.

  “I want to be the one to get this guy just as bad you do,” Jack declared with sincerity. “I’ll stake my reputation that his next target is in Seymour. If I’m wrong you can tell me you told me so but I don’t think I have to worry about that. He’s going there. I can feel it”

  Just as was the case in much of their dealings, Ashley felt that Jack wasn’t telling her all he knew. However, the certainty in his voice was reassuring enough to convince her Seymour might be the killer’s next stop.

  With their destination apparently set in stone, it was time for Ashley to put her plan into action.

  “Care for a drink?” Ashley asked as Jack settled back on the couch with remote in hand, apparently planning to watch a game on television.

  “A drink?” Jack responded, a bit taken aback by Ashley’s invitation. “I didn’t figure a straight-laced, prim and proper girl like you partook of the demon rum. I figured you for a complete teetotaler.”

  “I don’t drink the demon rum,” Ashley shook her head. “I do, however, wet my whistle with some good old tequila from time to time. And, wouldn’t you know it, I just happened to have salvaged a bottle from my house.”

  “Tequila? Isn’t that like drinking rusty nails?” Jack wondered. “I hear tale that you folks eat the worm out of the bottom. Honey, where I come from, worms are for fishing, not eating.”

  Walking back to the kitchen, Ashley pulled out a chilled bottle of tequila along with all the trappings, including shot glasses, salt and lime.

  “The problem with you is that no one’s taught you how to properly drink it,” Ashley said with a grin. “Think of this as Tequila 101.”

  With that, Ashley set the pace, licking the salt off her hand before shooting a shot of tequila and taking a big suck out of the quartered lime. Unbeknownst to Jack, the straight-laced girl who sat before him had drunk many a fraternity boy under the table back in college. Her ability to hold her liquor was a thing of legend back on campus. Pound for pound, Ashley could drink with the best of them. Her ability to withstand tequila was unexplainable even to her. It was like she was immune to its intoxicating properties.

  Jack followed suit, taking a suck of the lime and licking the salt before shooting the tequila.

  “I haven’t done that in a while,” Jack announced after knocking back his first shot. “Not bad though. Not as bad as I remembered anyway.”

  “Bad? That’s delicious,” Ashley declared with indignation. “It’s the taste of Texas.”

  “Wait right there,” Jack said with a devilish grin as he went into the bedroom and returned with a bottle of Jack Daniels. “If you want to try something that’ll make you swallow your tongue, try a little of this. It’ brewed over in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Go ahead, it’ll grow hair on your chest, sweetie.”

  “My chest is just fine without hair, thank you,” Ashley replied as he poured her a shot of whiskey.

  “Here’s to catching the killer.” Jack proposed before belting back the dark liquor, letting out a satisfied sigh.

  The taste caught Ashley’s breath as it burned all the way down her throat. The kick from the whiskey was stronger than what she’d remembered from her rare whiskey-drinking days.

  “Smooth,” Ashley hissed, trying to find her voice, which had been temporarily stolen by the burn of the liquor.

  “Ride ‘em cowboy!” Jack laughed as he saw Ashley’s eyes get big from the burn of the whiskey. “The more you drink, the less it hurts.”

  “Drinking shouldn’t hurt,” Ashley countered as she got her voice back. “Well, at least not until the morning anyway.”

  What followed was a chess game between the pair as they sat at the table swapping drinking dares for the next hour. Ashley insisted they focus on the tequila bottle, knowing her advantage didn’t cross over to swilling Tennessee whiskey. Her plan would fail if she passed out before pumping Jack for information, so she needed to cling to a sliver of sobriety in order to keep herself focused on her goal. It worked for Delilah; it should work for her.

  With the tequila bottle nearly drained and her lips already starting to feel numb, Ashley decided it was time to press her advantage. She knew Jack was primed since he had stumbled over furniture on his last trip to the bathroom. His eyes had also taken on a bit of a glaze, meaning he was ripe but not too ripe. In Ashley’s professional opinion, Jack was just drunk enough. However, Ashley was surprised when Jack began the inquisition with an odd question.

  “Have you ever killed a man, honey?” Jack queried as he cut his eyes her way before answering his own question. “But of course you haven’t. You’ve barely been out of the office. I doubt you’ve been in any shoot-em-ups or showdowns in your time.”

  “Well, no I haven’t killed anybody,” Ashley admitted. “I’ve never even had to pull my gun. What about you?”

  Jack toyed with his empty shot glass as he considered his answer.

  “Not yet,” Jack declared with a cold tone that leapt out at Ashley even in her buzzed state. “You ever want to kill someone? I mean, deep down, have a burning place in your stomach wanting to see someone dead?”

 
; Ashley didn’t respond at first. His question caught her off guard since she had planned to be the one asking the questions. Now she was being hit with some deep philosophical conversation.

  “For instance, if you ever found the man who killed your parents, would you just bring them in or would you settle it yourself?” Jack asked. “Or, for that matter, the man who killed your friend? Which would you do, bring them in dead or alive?”

  Jack’s question dug at Ashley, tearing her between her sworn duty and her animal side which demanded an eye for an eye.

  “I have to admit I’ve thought about it. I’ve thought about it a lot over the years,” Ashley began. “I mean the pig that killed my parents doesn’t deserve to live. What kind of animal stabs someone in their sleep and then tries to burn up their kids?”

  Jack nodded his head in agreement as Ashley explained her view on vengeance. Her mood, becoming animated, told Jack she had indeed given the idea a lot of thought prior to his question being asked.

  “Yeah, Jack, I’ve thought about it more than I should, even fantasized about how it would feel to kill whoever did it,” Ashley continued. “But then, after I thought about it I realized, if I were to do that - hunt down and kill him like a dog - then I’d be no better than him.”

  Ashley reached down to pull her badge off her hip, showing it to Jack.

  “This also means something,” Ashley said, brandishing the ranger badge. “It means I took an oath to uphold the law, not to break it. My father took the same oath. I figure if I were to kill someone for vengeance, that’d just soil his memory.”

  Jack sat back on the couch and gave Ashley a stern look through his slightly inebriated eyes.

  “You know this is Texas,” Jack pointed out. “They use the death penalty all the time, a heck of a lot more than Tennessee. All you’d be doing is saving the state a bunch of money trying the piece of crap for murder.”

  “I’m not judge, jury and executioner,” Ashley responded, her speech slurred as she tried to enunciate her words around the effects of the liquor. “I’m just a cop, nothing more.”

  “Even if you could get away with it?” Jack pressed. “With nobody knowing? No one the wiser?”

  “I’d know,” Ashley replied plainly. Her answer ended Jack’s line of questioning.

  Ashley seized the lull in conversation and jumpstarted the discourse. She was upping the ante.

  “Tell me the real reason you’re on this case,” Ashley pressed. Her directness took Jack by surprise. “And, don’t give me that crap about it just being the luck of the draw. You asked for this case. Why?”

  “It seems like you’ve taken my advice already,” Jack said, realizing Ashley had spoken to someone in the bureau. “Frankly, darlin’, this is a case that has to be solved and solved now. We can’t just go on letting a killer stalk the ball fields. Make no mistake; this guy won’t stop until someone stops him. Like they say, if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.”

  “Well, if you can do it yourself, why did you hand-pick me?” Ashley demanded, her question getting a long look from Jack.

  “You sure did do your homework, didn’t you?” Jack responded. “Two reasons. First, as bad as I hate to admit it honey, you’re sharp as a tack when it comes to detective work. I’ve studied your career. You’re good, real good.”

  “And second?” Ashley wondered as her head began to spin from the combination of tequila and whiskey.

  “Second, is I thought we thought alike,” Jack declared. “I’m not so sure about that now.”

  Jack’s reference bounced around in Ashley’s mind. His choice of conversation minutes earlier about being judge and jury was starting to make sense when compared to her suspicions. It was time.

  “Why did you make multiple trips to Rock River?” Ashley asked, cutting to the chase, her tone one of an inquisitor rather than a fellow drinker. “And, what’s your connection to Jimmy Granderson? What haven’t you been telling me? Why did you go back to Rock River the night you dropped me off? And don’t you dare tell me that it’s above my pay grade because, I swear Jack, I’m drunk enough to slap your face.”

  “He was my son,” Jack revealed somberly. “Jimmy Grandson was my son. Alright? Is that what you wanted to hear? You already knew it anyway. You’re a smart girl.”

  The possibility had occurred to Ashley after she found the Knoxville connection but the idea seemed so far-fetched it had been hard to fathom until Jack admitted it. On a professional level, implications were immense. Jack had knowingly pushed himself into a case involving a blood relative, obviously using his rank to his advantage while keeping their kinship a secret. If it were to ever become known, Jack’s career in the bureau would be over.

  “I’m going to need the worm for this,” Jack said, gesturing for the tequila bottle, unceremoniously taking out the worm and swallowing it. “That’s just nasty.”

  Ashley was a captive audience as Jack began his confession, sharing the whole truth with her for the first time.

  “We were young, his mother and me,” Jack said as he looked off in the distance. “We had a thing and well, during that thing, she ended up getting pregnant. It happens. The funny thing is, I didn’t know. She didn’t tell me.”

  Jack explained that her family moved away early in the pregnancy and that he didn’t have a clue about her being in the family way until a mutual friend broke the news to him that she had just had a baby.

  “I did the math and knew it had to be mine,” Jack said. “She wasn’t a party girl, plus I noticed she started gaining a little weight just before they left. I mean, you don’t point that out to a girl.”

  Jack explained that after he learned of the possibility, he contacted Laura and confronted her. She admitted the baby was his but made it clear she wasn’t interested in matrimony. Her father, who never liked Jack anyway, was against any involvement between his daughter and Jack and, for that reason, agreed to forego pushing child support payments if he would simply walk away.

  “Like I said, I was young and had my whole life ahead of me. I didn’t want to be a parent,” Jack admitted. “And, seeing even his mother didn’t want me involved, I just dropped out of the scene.”

  Jack noted he would routinely check-in with Laura concerning their son until she met a man and got married. That’s when she called to reveal her husband wanted to legally adopt Jimmy.

  “I was involved with a woman at the time and Laura was married,” Jack declared. “I figured it’d be the best for everyone, including Jimmy, so I agreed to it.”

  Jack said he had resigned himself to forever be out of his son’s life. However, the fact he and his wife were unable to have a baby and their subsequent divorce left Jack reconsidering his decision. While never planning to make contact given the adoption, things changed when Laura left her husband and moved to Rock River. It was during that time they began chatting online, catching up on the lost years. The distance and Jack’s career, however, prevented them from re-kindling their high school romance. That changed when the agent-in-charge job became available in the Texas district. With bitterness still over his divorce and a need for change of scenery, Jack jumped at the chance to re-locate.

  “I guess in the back of my mind I had this idea of someday letting him know he was my son,” Jack admitted, noting he and Laura began seeing each other last summer, explaining his flights to Rock River. “I actually got to meet him, talk to him on a couple of occasions just as his mother’s friend. I remember he was so proud when he got the job as mascot. He thought it was so cool. He was a good kid.”

  Jack refused to submit to his tears. His eyes welled up as he recalled his brief meetings with his son. The sadness in his eyes quickly turned to an unmistakable look of anger as his teeth clenched.

  “But, he’ll never know his dad now because that sick excuse for a human being killed him,” Jack snarled. “That piece of human garbage doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air we breathe. As a matter of fact, it makes me sick to my st
omach knowing his heart is still beating somewhere out there.”

  That was it. Now it was all clear to Ashley. Jack wasn’t in the case as a cop, he was there as an executioner. He was there to seek vengeance for his son. If Jack had his way, the killer would never see the inside of a courtroom.

  “What do you propose to do?” Ashley asked, already knowing the answer.

  Pouring another shot of the whiskey, gulping it down and wiping his mouth, Jack shot her a glare.

  “You know the answer to that too, darlin’,” Jack responded. “I think the question that needs to be answered is what are you going to do with what you know?”

  Ashley sat silently for a moment, realizing Jack had placed his trust in her. His entire career was now in her hands. The night had begun with a quest for truth. Now, it would appear it would end with a quest for trust.

  “Well, Agent Looper, things happen,” Ashley said. “Some things are above my pay grade.”

  Jack sat back with a smile, approvingly shaking his head as Ashley’s response had come as a pleasant surprise.

  “With that said, I can’t be part of what you’re planning,” Ashley said. “If I get him first, we’re bringing him in.”

  “And, if I get him first?” Jack asked.

  “You won’t,” Ashley countered as the pair nodded at one another, coming to a silent understanding. “Besides, he might not even be in Seymour.”

  Ashley was wrong. The killer was already in Seymour.

  EVIL INCARNATE

  Even Richard didn’t know what he was capable of now that the demon was out, let free to roam the Earth like a curse. He had caged his fury for a season but now it was loose again, never to return to its bonds. For as long as he could remember a rage had burned in his belly, a rage he was no longer able to control as it flowed outward like a river of venom. He had denied the beast within for many years. He had kept his rage locked deep inside, letting it fester and gnaw at his heart until there was nothing left. He was now human in name only, the qualities which separate man from the animals no longer existing in him. He had gladly given himself over to a reprobate mind with no hope or desire of a return to sanity. He enjoyed what he’d become.