by Susan Harper
The four of them, as well as little Kristopher, loaded up in the patrol car and headed for Atlanta where they were met by Jefferson about an hour north of Atlanta at a gas station. Patrick frowned; he was much more by the books than Jack, so he did not like the idea of Jack dragging both Jefferson and Felicity along to go check in on their witness. “They’ve done this sort of thing before, Patrick,” Jack assured him, but Patrick was already nervous enough bringing Jack since he had been pulled off the case.
“Just be careful, all right?” Patrick said. Naomi and Kristopher were both waiting patiently in the patrol car for him to head into downtown.
“You know me,” Jack teased, and Patrick rolled his eyes before climbing back into his car.
Jefferson took the driver’s seat of his own car while Jack sat in the passenger’s seat to give directions; Felicity sat in the back, jotting down notes in her sleuthing notebook. They headed into Atlanta toward the home address Patrick had managed to look up for the PI Edgar had hired. “What’s this guy’s name we’re going to see?” Jefferson asked.
“Jimmy Neuget,” Jack said. “Basically, from what we learned from Naomi, Edgar had recently hired a private investigator to look into Lilly’s missing persons case. Not long before Edgar had been killed, this Jimmy guy contacted him and told him he’d had a breakthrough on the case. We don’t know what Jimmy found, but we’re pretty sure we found our killer’s motivation.”
“So, this Jimmy guy is probably in trouble too?” Jefferson asked.
“Which is why we’re going to go get him right now,” Jack said. “And, if we’re lucky, he’ll agree to ride back with us to Senoia to talk this whole thing out.”
“And hopefully, Patrick will get a warrant out on Sonny,” Felicity said.
“You think this Sonny guy did it?” Jefferson asked.
“I know he did,” Felicity said confidently. “Now, we just have to prove it, and something tells me that if we can prove Sonny had something to do with Lilly’s disappearance, then we will be able to prove he was responsible for Edgar. And I’m pretty sure this Jimmy guy has some sort of evidence against Sonny regarding Lilly, which is why Sonny decided to silence Edgar.”
“And if we can do that, we might just save Monte and Dawn’s wedding this weekend,” Jefferson said. “We’re in countdown mode now.”
“Don’t remind me,” Felicity moaned.
They pulled up in a small subdivision not far from downtown Atlanta. It was late in the evening in the middle of the week, so they were all assuming that the man was home. “This the right place?” Jefferson asked.
Jack double-checked the address and nodded. “This is it. Let’s get this guy out of here before Sonny, or whoever, comes here to cover up his tracks.”
They all climbed out of the car and headed up the short driveway. Felicity frowned as she looked around; all of the neighbors had perfectly cut grass. Jimmy’s was a bit overgrown, yet his house seemed like the most well-kept one in the neighborhood apart from the yard. “Something happened here,” Felicity said, and the finality of her tone caused both Jack and Jefferson to pause and glance back at her. Felicity looked at them and then past them, and she frowned, her cheeks feeling slightly flushed. “Guys, the front door is propped open.”
Jack waved at them to stay back and he hurried up to the front door, his gun at the ready. “Mister Neuget! Mister Jimmy Neuget, are you home? My name is Officer Jack Hudson. Your door is open?” he called into the house. “Sir, I’m coming in.”
Felicity and Jefferson remained back for a moment, watching Jack as he slowly pushed the door open with his foot, his sidearm held up as he creeped into the house. Felicity felt her heart starting to race on Jack’s behalf, and after a moment, they heard Jack call out, “Guys! We have a problem!”
Felicity and Jefferson exchanged glances for a moment before hurrying into the house. They searched for Jack and found him in a room toward the front of the house—an office. Felicity’s stomach started doing flips when she saw a man lying face down on his desk, blood covering the floor. “Is he dead?!” Felicity exclaimed.
“He’s dead all right,” Jack said. “And he’s cold. He’s been dead for at least a few days based on the smell. Maybe longer.” Jack shook his head as he located the man’s wallet sitting out on the desk. He pulled out a driver’s license and looked at it, then at the body. “This is Jimmy Neuget, the PI.”
“This guy was our only lead!” Jefferson roared. “He might have had something on Sonny!”
“Don’t touch anything. This is a crime scene,” Jack warned. “I have to call this in to the Atlanta department… Great, Chief is going to find out I was here now…”
Felicity and Jefferson stepped out of the office, eager to get away from the gruesome scene, while Jack called Patrick who was already up at the Atlanta station. He put Patrick on speakerphone and explained the situation. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Patrick’s voice rang out on the phone. “Listen, Jack, don’t you dare touch that crime scene unless you really want to step on some toes. I’ll talk to the Atlanta chief about letting you in on the crime scene; I’ll tell him it’s related to a Senoia case I’m working, and I’m sure he won’t mind letting my partner scan the scene with his boys. But, I swear, don’t you touch anything until they get there, got it?”
“Got it,” Jack said.
“Give me a minute and I’ll call you back,” Patrick said, and they hung up.
“We better wait out front,” Jack said. “Some boys in blue can get pretty territorial over crime scenes.”
The three of them waited outside on the front porch, and it was only a few minutes before two patrol cars pulled up next to Jefferson’s car and began taping off the area. An officer approached, asking for Jack, and put out a hand and let him know he could look over the crime scene with them. Jack thanked the man and shook his hand. “You mind if these two come with us?” Jack asked, nodding in Felicity and Jefferson’s direction. “She’s a PI, and he’s her…partner…”
Well, that’s kind of a lie, Felicity thought, although she had been paid once for her investigative services, so she supposed that somewhat made her a professional. Not really, but she went with it. The officers working the scene were friendly enough and only asked that Felicity and Jefferson not mess with anything without asking first. Two of the officers came inside with them while the other two remained out front to keep watch on the crime scene. Felicity and Jefferson remained at the door of the office while Jack and the other two officers took pictures and checked every inch of the room for prints.
“So, you’re Patty’s new partner, huh?” one of the officers asked Jack.
“Patty?” Felicity muttered to Jefferson. “No wonder he left Atlanta.”
“No kidding.” Jefferson smirked.
“Hey, Felicity, come here a second,” Jack called, and Felicity stepped slightly over to where Jimmy’s body was slowly being sat up in his chair to be removed from the scene as the coroner was now on the way. “Look at these wounds. Look familiar?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Just like what was on Edgar.”
“Same sort of aggression too,” Jack said. “Multiple, unnecessary stab wounds.”
“Did you guys find a weapon at your other crime scene?” one of the officers asked.
“No,” Jack said.
“Dang, there’s not one here either,” the officer said. “I was hoping the guy who did this was stupid enough to leave it behind.”
Once the body was removed from the scene, Felicity was granted permission to look around. She opened up his desk and located a file of interest. “Jack! I found Lilly’s file!” she exclaimed. She opened it up and began rummaging through it. “Whoa, Edgar sure was paying an arm and a leg for this guy’s services. He went undercover at the women’s shelter…” Felicity pulled out a jump drive. She showed it to the officer in charge of the scene, and he nodded and booted up Jimmy’s computer. She found an audio recording on the file, so she turned up the computer’s vo
lume.
What she assumed to be Jimmy’s voice came through the speakers. “So, what did you do?” he asked with a laugh.
“Man, that stupid ho,” a familiar voice sang.
Jack’s head shot up. “That’s Sonny,” he said.
Sonny continued speaking on the recording. “She thought she could just up and leave with my baby. Let me tell you something, once you knock a ho up, she’s yours. She becomes your property. Naomi was practically already mine before she started carrying my baby around since her stupid mama was one of my sluts. Her mama belonged to me, so that meant Naomi did too. I made her my girl; she should have counted herself lucky.”
Felicity huffed. She had not even met this Sonny guy, but she wanted to break his nose.
Jimmy’s voice interrupted. “So, Edgar just took off with your girl, man?”
“Exactly,” Sonny said. “Apparently, she was his daughter or whatever, but that don’t mean nothing. Like I said, she was my girl since she had my baby. That’s just the way it works. This creep snatched her up out of my house in the middle of the night and hides her somewhere. I don’t know where, but I couldn’t find her. I haven’t even gotten to see my kid, and man, the amount of money I lost not being able to ho her out…whatever. Her mama wouldn’t tell me where they took Naomi either.”
“Who was her mama?” Jimmy’s voice asked.
“Lilly. She wouldn’t tell me nothing. She was getting too old for the game anyway. Can’t sell a wrinkled chick for as much, you know? I broke her neck and buried her in the crawlspace of my house.”
The whole room of people jumped. They had a confession on tape that included the location of the body. “Holy crap,” the officer in charge said with a smirk. “We got to call this in.”
“Wait,” Jack said frantically. “Listen, I know you don’t know me from Adam, but this tape only has a confession of Lilly’s murder. A friend of mine and Patrick’s is in jail for the murder of Edgar Uldridge. We have got to try to get Sonny to confess to his murder.”
“Look, Jack,” the officer said. “I get that, but we need to take this guy in before he tries to bolt. We can worry about your Senoia case once he’s in jail.”
“Wait, please,” Felicity said quickly. “You don’t understand. Our friend is getting married this Saturday, and he’s been wrongfully accused of killing Edgar. Now, I’m sure it’s obvious to everyone in this room that Sonny is responsible, but we have got to prove that right now, or we’re about to ruin what is supposed to be the happiest day of our friends’ lives. I know you have to call this in, but let us call Patrick. Sonny trusts Patrick. We’ll tell Patrick to call up Sonny and schedule a meeting with him tonight.”
The officer hesitated, but after a moment, he reluctantly caved. “Call Patty, but you better call your chief first,” he said.
Jack sighed, but he knew he and Patrick would need to run this plan by the chief beforehand anyway. He dialed up the Senoia station and asked for Chief Morgan. The man had quite a few words for Jack upon learning that he had been working Edgar’s case, but they agreed it was ultimately a discussion for later before Jack laid out their plan. He placed the chief on speaker so everyone could hear it. “Let me call the Atlanta chief and have him request a search warrant since we still don’t have the murder weapon,” Chief Morgan said. “We’ll have Patrick set up the meeting with Sonny, but while Sonny is away from his house, we’ll send Patrick with the Atlanta police to search the premises for a weapon and for a body under the crawlspace. Jack, you make contact with Sonny. Tell him Patrick sent you. It’ll put him on edge, so you’ll have to step with caution. Wear a wire, and see what you can do about getting a confession out of him. This is a risky game, Jack. And, so you know, when you get back to Senoia, when you and I talk, you are screwed.”
“Thanks for the words of encouragement, Chief,” Jack said.
“Any time, Jack,” the chief said and hung up the phone.
Felicity took a deep breath. “You ready for this, Jack?”
“For Monte, you better believe it.”
Chapter 13
Jefferson pulled up outside of the bar where Sonny had agreed to meet Patrick. Jack sat in the passenger’s seat while Felicity sat in the back, nervously tapping her fingers. “Do you think he’ll even show?” Felicity asked, but before Jack could answer, the man’s phone started ringing.
“It’s Patrick,” Jack said, putting the phone on speaker. “We’re at the bar, Patty.”
“Very cute, Jack,” Patrick groaned. “We’re digging around Sonny’s house now. He left about ten minutes ago, so you should expect him at the bar in about fifteen minutes.”
“Find anything?” Jack asked.
“No murder weapon, but I’m about to call Naomi… We found Lilly’s remains,” Patrick said. “Or at least, we assume it’s Lilly.”
Felicity gritted her teeth. This Sonny guy had played the part of a redeemed villain, but he had really just been playing everyone. “Dang,” Jack said. “At least she’ll be able to get some closure now.”
“That’s the hope,” Patrick said. “Now, if you want to clear Monte’s name in time for his wedding this weekend, you need a confession.”
“If I can’t get the confession, do you think the Senoia police will release Monte based on what we have found?” Jack asked.
“Probably so,” Patrick said. “But, you never know how slow they’ll be about that. Monte was found at the scene of the crime, so it will be difficult to convince everyone to move his release along quickly. At the very least, without a confession, a judge might settle on a lower bond amount that Dawn can actually afford.”
“We don’t want Dawn forking out ten grand or twenty grand or whatever it is over nothing,” Jack said. “We will get the confession. So, you found Lilly. Did you find anything else I can use when I confront Sonny?”
“Yeah,” Patrick said. “Moron has been keeping records of all the money his girls owe him. There’s plenty of evidence here to send him to prison. There’s no doubt he’s been using the battered women’s home as a front for a prostitution ring. He’s been using and manipulating Atlanta’s most desperate women into thinking he’s there to help only to trap them. And it gets worse, Jack.”
“How could that get worse?” Felicity hissed.
“He has a list of potential future recruits from the boys and girls home where he works,” Patrick said. “He’s been targeting kids for years to get them started early. Boys and girls.”
Felicity had to bite her lip to keep from screaming. “Kids! He’s been pulling kids into this crap!” Felicity shrieked.
“Easy, girl,” Jack said. “We’ve got him. Oh, shoot, Patrick. I see him walking in the bar.”
Felicity looked up, and she spotted the man Jack was talking about. She simply could not believe the sort of perverse operations this man was dealing with. And the fact that he was using good organizations to create a supply for himself, well, that just made it worse. Jack hung up after finishing his conversation with Patrick and turned to look at Felicity and Jefferson. “This guy could be dangerous,” Jack said and nodded toward the next parking lot over where some Atlanta officers were seated in an undercover vehicle. “My back is covered, so there’s no reason for you two to get in the middle of this. Stay in the car.”
“Yes, sir,” Jefferson said with a smirk.
Felicity merely crossed her arms as Jack climbed out of the car and headed towards the bar. Felicity crawled over the center console and plopped herself down into the passenger’s seat. “Geez, I’m getting too old to climb around in a car like that,” she griped as though she was older than she actually was. “I’m wishing we were in the car with the cops,” Felicity said. “They can hear what is being said since they have the receiver for the wire Jack is wearing.”
“We’ll know soon enough if he manages to get Sonny talking,” Jefferson said.
“No, we won’t!” Felicity abruptly exclaimed and smacked Jefferson in the shoulder, pointing toward the bar. �
��We won’t because Sonny is climbing out the back window! Jack’s been made!” She glanced toward the parking lot where the two officers were still sitting in their car; the window of the bar was on the opposite end of the building, so the officers couldn’t see Sonny’s escape. “He’s going to bolt!”
“Don’t you dare—” Jefferson started to say, but Felicity was already hopping out of the car.
She waved her arms frantically in the officers’ direction, worried that Jack probably hadn’t realized that Sonny had bolted, as she darted down the alley in Sonny’s direction. She didn’t have time to wait to see if the officers had seen her frantically trying to alert them. All she could think about was poor Monte sitting in a jail cell on his wedding day. Felicity and Jefferson both darted down the alleyway, and they spotted Sonny attempted to climb a gate. “Oh no you don’t!” Jefferson called out, lunging forward and grabbing the man by his pants, yanking him down in one swift motion.
“Nice,” Felicity said as Sonny scurried to his feet.
She and Jefferson stared him down; Sonny had his back to a corner and he glared at them. “Who are you two?” he snapped. “What’s your problem, man? Are you a cop or something?”
“No, I’m a party planner,” Jefferson said, and Felicity rolled her eyes at him for speaking like this was some big reveal.
“Beat it!” Sonny snapped and started toward the gate again, away from Felicity, but Jefferson blocked his way.
“Did you kill Edgar Uldridge?” Felicity asked.
The man spun around and glared at her. “Why, did you know him or something?” Sonny asked, and then this wicked look appeared in his eyes. “Do you know where Naomi is?”
