by Laina Turner
“But he does love me; I know he does.”
This girl just didn’t get it. “Amy, you need to turn around now and just go home.” I tried to be firm, but I didn’t think I was getting through to her. She just didn’t seem to be aware of how this looked.
“No,” she said.
This was going to be a pain. “Fine, but you’re coming with us.”
Anna and Jared looked at me. “What are you doing?” Jared asked.
“I can’t have her wandering around screwing this up. Look at her, she is beyond reason over a stupid guy. We can’t let her make more of an ass of herself.”
“But what if she did kill Solange?” Anna whispered.
“I heard that. I didn’t kill anyone,” Amy said. “I promise I didn’t.” She got out of her car and locked it. She obviously wasn’t taking any chances of me changing my mind. “I just need to see James so he understands how much I love him.”
“You’re right, this poor girl needs a pep talk about how to find the right guy and not stalk them,” Jared said.
“I’m not stalking him!”
“I know, he really does love you,” Jared said sarcastically. “Honey, you need a reality check.” He put his arm around her as we walked back to my car.
“Sure didn’t take much to convince him,” Anna said.
“Yeah, you know Jared. He likes to play Henry Higgins to the poor Eliza Doolittle’s of the world.” We got back to the car, and Jared pulled up his Google map to give me the rest of the directions. We were only a few miles away, and Lorraine had been right. This was out in the middle of nowhere.
“So, what’s the plan?” Amy asked.
Good question. What was the plan? I had no idea. “Jared, this was your idea. What’s our plan?”
“Simple. Drive to the cabin and confront him.”
“You think he will just come out and tell me why Sheila has been out to visit him and why he hasn’t returned any of Willie’s calls?”
“Speaking of Willie, he’s calling again,” Anna said, pointing to my vibrating phone. They all looked at me questioningly.
“I think this time I better answer. I need to find out what he wants. He wouldn’t keep calling if there weren’t a problem.”
Anna and Jared shrugged.
“Hello,” I said, waiting for a pissed off Willie to be on the other end.
“Why the hell haven’t you been answering your phone?”
And I wasn’t disappointed. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb with me. You have been avoiding my calls for the last few hours.”
Wow, he was mad. “What makes you think I’ve even been awake? Do you realize what time it is?”
“I know exactly what time it is, and I know you haven’t been sleeping, unless it’s in the car with Jared and Anna.”
How the hell did he know that?
“I stopped by and the doorman told me the three of you had left,” he said, as if reading my mind. “Where are you?”
Well at least he wasn’t one hundred percent clairvoyant. “I think you’re going to be mad.”
“I’m already mad. Now, where are you?”
“Why have you called me so many times?” I thought maybe I could change the subject.
“If you answered the first time, I wouldn’t have had to call so much. Where are you?”
I figured I was going to have to tell him because he wasn’t going to stop until I did. I sighed. “Fine, but you can’t be mad. Or I won’t tell you.”
“Presley, just tell me.”
“We are on our way to Crivitz.”
“What?!”
“I heard that,” Jared whispered. “You want to turn right at the next road.”
“Presley, what are you thinking?”
“We want answers and figured the best way to get them is to go directly to the source.”
“And you’re right, but that’s my job. You could be putting yourself in danger.”
“Willie, I know you’re angry, but James isn’t a threat to me or anyone else. Even Sheila, who isn’t the nicest person on the block, isn’t someone we need to be afraid of.”
“Maybe not, but Peter Green is.”
“I knew he was involved somehow!”
“Had you answered your phone you would know.” He paused for a few seconds, making me feel guilty, though I wasn’t exactly sure why.
“Well, are you going to tell me or just hold it against me?”
“If I didn’t think you might be in danger, I wouldn’t tell you, just to make you wonder.”
Now he was starting to be less angry; I could tell by his tone and his attempt at being a little playful. “Danger? How am I in danger?”
“I found a witness that puts Peter close to your building the day before the break-in, and a couple of the doormen remember seeing him loitering around the building that week. I am sure he is the one who ransacked your condo. We also found his prints at Silk from the second break-in. This gets us closer to proving his involvement.”
“That’s great, but I’m still not sure what this has to do with me driving to talk to James.”
“Because I think Peter Green is headed there as well. I went back to talk to the bartender at Rookies tonight, and he told me Green had just been in and said he was only stopping in for one beer because he was headed to Wisconsin. The bartender said Green stopped in looking for Steven.”
“If he was looking for Steven, why do you think he is on his way to see James?”
“It’s too much of a coincidence.”
“It’s that place right there,” Jared whispered in my ear.
“Are you there already? Have you been driving while I’ve been telling you not to go there?”
“Yes,” I said sheepishly. “I understand your concern, but we’re already right here. The only car I can see in the driveway is James’s black Mercedes.”
“What are you planning on doing exactly? Walking up to his front door, and knocking on it at this time of the night expecting him to be at all happy to see you?”
“Well, the house isn’t dark. Maybe he is still up. Listen, there are four of us; we’ll be fine. I’m not turning around at this stage.”
“Presley, I’m only about thirty minutes behind you. Just wait.”
“You mean you’re on your way here, too?”
“Of course. As soon as I realized what you guys were up to, I didn’t want to take the chance anything could happen to you.”
“Okay. We’ll wait,” I said and hung up the phone.
“So was he mad?” Anna asked.
“Of course he was mad,” said Jared. “But, how mad was he?”
“Average mad, but not livid. The amount of mad that I think he will get over in a while.”
“How did he know where we were going?”
“The doorman. You heard me tell him we would wait for him. So I guess we wait.” We sat in silence for a while, tired of talking and just plain tired. I was surprised that Amy was keeping quiet. Maybe Jared had said something that was finally getting through to her. I kept glancing at my phone to check the time, and the minutes were slowly creeping by. Finally it had been about a half hour, so I knew Willie should be getting close. I was glad he was going to be here. This was a very remote location, and it was a little creepy, especially at this time of night, or morning, whatever you considered it. The moon shone through the trees and cast an eerie glow on the cabin. There were lights still on in the cabin, and I thought I had seen someone moving about. I assumed it was James, but couldn’t tell for sure.
“Shouldn’t Willie be here by now?” Anna asked.
“Any minute now.”
“Good. I’m getting tired.”
So was I. Those Red Bulls were wearing off, and it was way past my bedtime. I yawned, which triggered everyone else to yawn. They truly are contagious. “We still have to drive back at some point. Did you think of that?”
“I am now. Wasn’t there a motel back by the gas station
?” Anna said.
“I think so,” Jared said.
“I see headlights. Let’s hope it’s Willie,” said Anna.
I hoped so, too. I didn’t want some stranger coming up behind us and wondering what we were doing here. The car slowed, and I expected it to pull in behind us. Instead it went around us and then sped back up. I watched it pass hoping they thought we were just random folks on the road and considering they just kept on going whoever was in the car must have not given us a second thought. “That’s not Willie’s car.”
“Then who the hell is it?” Jared said. “It’s almost four in the morning.”
“I think that’s Sheila’s car or maybe Steven’s. I know it was at their house when I went to meet them.”
“What would they be doing here?” Jared asked.
“Isn’t that the whole reason we drove here? To find that out?” I said. The black Jag was trying to navigate the potholes in the dirt driveway to James’s cabin without much luck. The car finally pulled to a stop and the driver got out, it was Steven. What was he doing here? I expected Sheila not him. Another set of headlights came into view, and this time the car pulled in behind us. Finally, Willie. I saw him get out of the car and walk up to us, and I rolled down my window. “Fancy meeting you here.”
He smiled, but I could tell he was still annoyed with me. Rightfully so, I supposed. “Anything exciting happening?”
“Actually, yes. Steven just got here about three minutes before you did.”
“Really? That’s interesting.”
“That’s what I thought. What do you think he’s doing here?”
“I have no idea, but I’m about to find out.”
“You’re not going to hurt him are you?” asked Amy from the backseat.
Willie looked in the window to see her sitting in the back with Jared. He looked at me. “It’s bad enough you brought your friends, but what the hell is she doing here?”
I rolled my eyes, “I know, right? She had my place staked out and followed us all the way here from Chicago. She refused to go home. Said she would keep following us, so we thought if we couldn’t get her to go home, it would be better if she came with us.”
Willie shook his head. I wasn’t sure if in amusement at the logic or frustration at the fact we were all here when I was sure he didn’t want any of us interfering. “I need you guys to all wait here while I go check things out.” My guess was frustration.
“No way, pal,” I said. “I didn’t drive all this way to sit in the car. I came to talk to James. Besides, don’t you think it better if I try to see what’s going on? He might be more inclined to tell me than you.”
“Nice try, but no.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“No you’re not,” he said firmly.
“Yes, I am,” I said with my hands on my hips glaring at him. I meant it when I said I hadn’t come all this way to take a backseat. He could do his thing, but I wasn’t going to sit and wait in the car while he did it.
Our eyes locked on each other’s, and neither one of us wanted to back down.
“Fine, you can come. But the rest of your friends stay in the car, and you do as I say.”
I wanted to gloat, but thought better of it. “I promise. You guys stay here and watch Amy.”
“Don’t let anything happen to James,” Amy said.
“We won’t, Amy. Relax. We’re just here to talk.”
We walked away from the car toward the house at the top of the driveway. “I wonder about that girl,” Willie said.
“No kidding. She is obsessed and not in a good way.”
We walked quietly up the drive. There were lights on in the cabin, which made sense, since Steven had just gone in. At least if James had been sleeping, Steven was the one to wake him up and not us. As we got closer to the cabin, we could hear voices.
“Stay here,” Willie whispered.
“I told you, I’m going with you, and I mean all the way,” I whispered back.
“Relax. I just want to look in the window. I will be right back.” He walked up to the cabin, a couple feet down from the window.
“You better,” I muttered to myself.
Willie flattened himself against the outside wall and inched his way to the window. I could still hear voices, but I couldn’t tell what they were saying, though one sounded female. Could it be Sheila? I saw Willie peer into the window, but couldn’t tell by his body language if he could see anything or anyone. After a few seconds, he slid back down the wall and crept back over to me.
“Well?”
“Well, we have a bit of a problem.”
“Why? Who’s in there?”
“Shelia, Steven, and James.”
“Sheila? Where is her car?” I looked around but didn’t see her car, only James’s and Steven’s.
“I don’t know, but that’s not the issue here. She has Steven and James at gunpoint.”
“What!”
“Shhh,” Willie said in a stern whisper. “C’mon.” He led me back down the driveway, and we jogged to the tree line out of direct sight of the cabin. He pulled out his cell phone as he walked, punching in a number. “Damn!”
“What?” I whispered.
“Don’t have a signal.”
“I had one a few minutes ago when I was talking to you.” I pulled out my phone. It had one bar. I handed it to Willie. “Here, try mine.”
He dialed and nodded his head and gave me thumbs up. I assumed that meant it was ringing. Yay for AT&T.
“This is Detective Landon from Chicago. I need to get a hold of whoever is on duty. I spoke to Sheriff Thompson yesterday. Sure, I understand. Have him call me when he can.” He hung up and turned to me. “We are on our own for now. The entire department is on the other side of Crivitz at a four-car accident, but they’re sending a car over.”
“What should we do?”
“I want you to go back to the car. I will not have you involved in this with Sheila holding a gun.”
“But…”
“No buts. This takes it to a whole new level. Go back to the car.”
“I understand your concern, but you need my help.”
He looked at me, and I could tell he knew he was fighting a losing battle. “You better promise to do exactly as I say.”
“I promise.” And I even meant it.
He sighed.
“So what’s the plan?”
“I think we are going to have to walk right in there and talk her into surrendering. I don’t think there is any other way without backup.”
“Well, then what are we waiting for?” I said with false bravado. It wouldn’t do for Willie to think I was scared. We walked back up the drive to the front door and could hear voices arguing. “Should we knock?”
“Yes. I don’t think it would be safe to just barge in. No telling what Sheila will do.” He lifted his hand up and knocked.
“Who the hell…?” we heard Sheila exclaim.
Chapter 25
Wow, it’s like Grand Central Station around here,” James said wryly. Willie and I added to Sheila, James, and Steven, making five people and one gun, two, if you counted the one I was sure Willie had somewhere on his person—all in a small cabin at four in the morning. Not exactly where I thought I would find myself. I should be in bed sleeping and was more than a little annoyed that Jared had got me into this mess, though I was glad I was here for Willie’s sake, even though he might not agree.
“What are you two doing here? Can’t you just leave my family alone?” said Shelia, seeming irritated that we showed up, though seemingly not surprised.
“Shelia, I would love nothing more than to leave your family alone, but first you will have to give me the gun.”
“Ha!” She snorted. “Speaking of guns, I’m sure you have one on you somewhere. How about you put it on the floor and slide it over here to me.”
Willie reached inside his jacket to his shoulder holster and pulled out his gun, set it on the floor, and nudged it ove
r to Shelia.
“Is that the only one you have on you?” she asked suspiciously.
“Yes, Sheila, this is the only one.”
“Shelia, for God’s sake, why are you doing this?” James said.
Sheila turned her attention from us back to James, which was fine with me, as I didn’t like having a gun pointed at me.
“Because, James, she had everything that should have been mine. She had you, she had money, and she wasn’t even a real part of the family.”
Until right that minute we had thought it was Peter who had killed Solange. And, while we knew Sheila had paid Peter to try and get Solange in trouble for smuggling illegal goods, we thought he was trying to double cross her and pin the blame for Solange’s death on her. Instead it now seemed we were way off base.
“But Sheila, she loved you,” James said. “She was your sister.”
“Adopted sister. She just loved doing better than me in everything. My life would have been perfect if she hadn’t been around.”
“You are so crazy. She never did anything intentionally to hurt you,” James said.
“Don’t call me crazy!” Shelia screamed. She took a deep breath to calm herself. “That bitch had the audacity to try and have a relationship with my daughter. The one thing I could do she couldn’t, so she had to take over.”
“Solange didn’t try to have a relationship with Amber just because she couldn’t have children and wanted to take the pleasure of being a mother away from you,” James said. “She pleaded with you several times to meet with Amber and get to know her. You could have had that, too, Shelia. You’re the one who kept turning Amber away.”
“Because Solange already beat me to her. I was tired of always being second to that bitch. Everyone liked her better.”
Our childhood fears and thoughts always seemed to follow us. I almost felt bad for Sheila that she was still bitter over things that had happened twenty or more years ago.
