by Ann Mullen
“You’re being silly, Jesse. They see us all the time.”
“We’ll build you a nice, big home with extra bedrooms, in case Claire or Jack wants to bring their families for a visit. You’ll have plenty of room for them to stay with you, if you want,” I said, trying to encourage her along. “We’ll put in lots of windows upstairs, so you’ll have a fantastic panoramic view. Wouldn’t that be great? It’s so beautiful there when that cherry tree blooms.”
“If I was going to move, I wouldn’t pick a house that had an upstairs. We’re getting too old to be climbing those stairs every day.”
“No upstairs… then how about one with a Cathedral ceiling?” Helene was doing her bit to encourage Mom. “Yeah, and a split-level on each side for bedrooms.” She looked at Billy. “Would that be called a tri-level?”
“I like that idea, Helene,” I added. “Who says you can’t have plenty of room if you don’t have a second story?”
“I kinda like it, too,” Mom said. “But I’m still going to have to discuss this with Eddie.”
“Eddie loves you, Mom. He’ll do anything you want.”
“As soon as this mess with Dakota Stone is over, we’ll get started,” Billy chimed in. “We’ll have you in your new home by Christmas.”
“Good luck on that,” Mom said. “You won’t even be able to lay the foundation pretty soon. It’ll be too cold. Winter’s just around the corner.”
“You leave it to me, and I’ll make it happen. You made the right choice, Minnie.” Billy walked over and gave her a hug. “Welcome to the reservation.”
Lightning reared its ugly head and the room lit up like a solar flare. A clap of thunder silenced us all. It was a loud, rumbling noise that seemed to go on forever.
Athena came running up to us from wherever she’d been hiding, and started prancing around. When she finally stopped, she just stood there trembling.
Billy looked at Helene. “Did you give her one of those pills?”
“Yes, I did as soon as you asked me to.”
“This might be a two-pill moment. I have a feeling this storm’s going to be worse than the last, and you know how bad that one was.”
“Yeah, Mae got struck by lightning.”
For a moment, I had visions of Dakota Stone sneaking around, looking for ways to kill us… and then getting struck by lightning. Wouldn’t that be ironic?
I had no idea how quickly my thoughts were going to turn into reality.
Chapter 11
The rain was steadily coming down, but that wasn’t bothering any of us as much as the dangerous lightning. The thunder, although loud, was tolerable, but that lightning was a real killer.
“The guys shouldn’t be out in this mess,” Mom said. “It’s too dangerous. With all these trees around, no one should be out there. If Dakota’s still hanging around, then she’s crazy.”
Billy leaned over the table and took a picture of one of the photos of Dakota and Olivia with his cell phone. “I’m going to send this to Mason and get him to check your house for one. You never know. She might’ve been there, too.”
“Why would she go to my house?”
“She’s sending us a message. She wants us to know that she can get to any one of us at any time.”
“I just don’t get it, Billy,” I said. “Why leave something so incriminating? It proves she’s been in our house.”
“She’s trying to intimidate us, so we’ll leave her alone. She thinks that if she causes enough fear, we’ll back off, but I’ve got a surprise for her. She’s going down.”
We sat at the table, drinking coffee, and waiting to hear back from someone. If the storm hadn’t come up, Billy would be out there searching with the guys, but since it had, he wouldn’t leave us by ourselves.
“I’m worried about Jonathan and the guys,” Mom said. “Call someone and see what’s going on. I won’t be able to sleep until I know they’re home, safe and sound.”
To appease Mom, Billy picked up his cell phone to make the call, but as he held it in his hand, it rang. He looked at the screen and said, “It’s Mason.”
All of us started asking questions at the same time, so he got up from the table and walked down the hall. When he came back, he said, “Mason found the same photo on your dresser, Minnie.”
Mom gasped.
“The good news is, Kaleb has been found and he’s all right.” Billy looked at Mom. “She left him at your house.” He waited for the news to sink in, and then added, “Mason said he’s surprised the kid wasn’t hurt, because he got into a few things.”
“Like what?”
“Mainly, the cabinet under your sink.”
“That’s where I keep my cleaning supplies. Please tell me he didn’t drink any of that stuff.”
“No, he didn’t, but he found the booze. An empty bottle lay on the kitchen floor, and Mason said he smelled of bourbon when he found him in your closet.”
“He’s only three years old, right?” I asked.
“No, he’s four,” Mom replied. “Just old enough to get into something he shouldn’t.”
“Mason called the sheriff the minute he found Kaleb. The rescue squad came out, picked him up and took him to the hospital to have him checked out.”
“What’s going to happen to him? Savannah’s in the hospital, so who will look after the boy?”
“As soon as they give him a clean bill of health, Cole will be taking him home with him.”
“Bless his heart,” Mom said. “Cole’s a good man.”
“Yes, he is,” Billy said. “I’m just wondering where Kaleb was when Cole went by the house earlier.”
“He could’ve been hiding under the bed for all we know. I’m sure he was scared. Who knows what that woman did to him? She could’ve terrorized the poor kid.”
“He’s been found and he’s going to be all right. We know he’ll be safe with Cole.”
“Yeah,” Helene said. “If you can’t be safe with a deputy, then who can you be safe with? Cole knows how to take care of Kaleb. I just hope Savannah survives to be with her son.”
Billy’s cell phone went off again and he automatically got up and started walking down the hall. The three of us wanted to hear the conversation, so Helene told Mom to go listen, but Mom refused.
“He’ll tell us when he gets back. Don’t be so impatient.”
In the meantime, in between the thunder, we could hear the sound of sirens. They seemed to be getting louder and louder. Helene, Mom, and I stared at each other, wondering if the cops were coming here.
After what seemed like an eternity, Billy walked back into the room. We waited with baited breath to hear what he had to say.
“That was Jonathan, and those sirens you hear are coming this way. We’ve had a fatality on the property over by the stable at Mom’s house. A woman was struck and killed by lightning, and it wasn’t Dakota Stone.”
“Well, then who was it?”
“We don’t know, yet, but Gator and Lu Ann are looking into it. Jonathan sent them a picture of her face from his cell phone, and he sent one to me. She looks pretty bad, but if anyone wants to have a look… maybe one of you will recognize her. I have to warn you that it’s rather ugly. Jonathan thinks she must’ve been leaning up against a tree or sitting under it when it when lightning struck the tree. She got thrown a few feet. Her body’s mangled, that’s why he just sent a pic of the face, which has some pretty bad burns.”
Before we had the opportunity to have a look, Billy’s cell went off. A few seconds later, he said to us, “Lu Ann went to The Body Shop website and she’s pretty sure the woman is Nancy Woodward, the nutritionist.”
“That’s her name!” Mom said. “I couldn’t remember it before, but now that you’ve said it, I remember. I can’t believe it was her. She’s such a nitwit. I’m sorry to be so rude for saying that, but the woman ain’t real bright. I can’t believe she’s part of Dakota’s gang.”
“Oh, she’s the best kind. She’s expendable.”
“She might’ve planted those photos, Billy, but I don’t think she could pull off a kidnapping. She’s just not smart enough.”
“Don’t be so sure, Minnie. It doesn’t take a lot of brains to snatch and grab, just speed and the element of surprise. Stick a gun in someone’s face and they’ll usually cooperate, especially when a child’s involved.”
Helene waved her hand. “I’ll bet that Nancy woman did it all—the kidnapping and that stupid photo-planting stunt. If she’s as dimwitted as Minnie says she is, she’d make the perfect patsy, and we all know patsies can do a lot of harm before they stumble over their own feet. Leaving those photos… I’m still trying to figure out what that was all about.”
Billy smiled. “Oh, I know what it’s about. Dakota was leaving a calling card. She wanted us to have something to remember her by while she’s sitting on a beach in California… or wherever it is she’s headed to next.”
I added my opinion. “Dakota isn’t the kind of woman who gets her hands dirty, nor would she take a chance of getting arrested for such a petty crime as trespassing. She gets her underlings to do her dirty work. If they don’t live up to her expectations, she gets rid of them… like she did Gavin Preston. Nancy Woodward was nobody to her, but I bet she didn’t plan on this.”
“She won’t care.”
“No, she won’t.”
“I bet it sure put a snag in her plans. Perhaps, Nancy Woodward wasn’t finished. She might’ve had other orders to carry out.”
“I guess Dakota will just have to do it herself.”
My cell phone vibrated and then rang. I looked down at the screen and then back up at Billy. “The Body Shop.”
“Answer it. I’ll see if Gator can trace the call.” He walked over to the kitchen and whispered into his phone.
I put my finger to my lips, touched the answer icon, and then hit speaker. I also hit the record button. “Jesse Blackhawk here. What can I do for you, Dakota? Want me to go out and kill someone for you?”
“My, aren’t we cheerful?” she replied. “No, not today. I just wanted to say goodbye and tell you what an experience it was to have known you and your family.”
“I hope it was pleasant.”
“How’s Eddie doing, by the way? That old man must be pretty strong to survive that kind of beating. Most men his age would’ve died.”
“Oh, he’ll live to fight another day, and so will I, but thanks for your concern. It’s so touching.”
“I told Gavin to kill your mother, but he let me down. He let me down in so many ways. What’ll you do with a man who isn’t committed?”
Mom’s face was getting redder by the minute. I knew she was about ready to grab the phone and scream at the woman, so I held up my hand to keep her from saying or doing anything.
She slumped back in her chair and didn’t say a word. She knew how important this call could be.
“Preston wasn’t a bad guy until he met you. You poison everyone with your insanity. What’s wrong with you? Did your father sexually abuse you as a child?”
I was trying my best to rile her, but she remained unflappable.
“Poor Nancy. Too bad she was too stupid to get out of the storm. What do you do with someone who’s smart enough to do all the things she’s done for you, yet too dumb to get out of the rain? I tried with her, I really did.”
“How do you know what happened to her? She was only found thirty minutes ago.”
“Jesse, you’re so naïve. I know everything. I do have a police scanner. Doesn’t everyone?” She laughed. “I know about your security system, which I must say is very impressive.”
“Then you knew she’d get caught.”
“Not if the timing was right, and it was. I didn’t, however, expect her to go and get killed.”
“I guess that means you’d better leave town in a hurry.”
“I know about your friend Savannah.”
“What about Savannah, other than the fact that you stuffed her in your dryer?”
“That was unfortunate, but necessary.”
“We found the kid.”
“Of course you did. I told Nancy to leave him, but she wouldn’t. She was afraid he’d hurt himself if he was left alone, so she took him too. I made her take him back. He was getting on my nerves. All that crying…”
“You’re a sick b…”
“Your ex-boyfriend, Deputy Cole James, murdered Savannah’s husband. Did you know that?”
“You’re such a liar. He killed McCoy in self-defense.”
“Yeah, that’s what they all say, but she knows the truth. Why don’t you ask her?”
“I don’t have to. I know what happened. You’re just trying to stir up trouble, but it won’t work. You’ve misjudged me. I’m not as gullible as you think.”
“Don’t you just hate Cole for dumping you for Savannah?”
“It didn’t play out that way and you know it.”
“Did you know Billy was seeing his ex-wife, Ruth?”
For a second, that was like a slap in the face. Anytime someone tells you your husband is cheating on you, it hits a nerve. I bit my lip and remained calm. I knew she was lying about that little tidbit. She was trying to turn us against each other.
“Yeah, we’ve got a threesome going on. Can we talk about something else?”
Helene snickered, and I gave her the evil eye.
“Thanks for the photos. I’ll remember you always.”
“You want to know why I am the way I am, don’t you?”
“It’s not top on the list of my priorities, but if you need to tell me, I’m listening.”
Billy waved and gave me the thumb’s up. They had traced the call and we now knew where she was. He mouthed the words, “Omni Hotel, Charlottesville.”
“We could talk more, if you’d like. I can come to the Omni, or you can come here.”
“God, it’s about time your trace went through. I was beginning to think I’d have to talk to you all day. No, I’ll have to pass, perhaps another time.”
“Say hello to your girlfriend, Olivia, for me. I didn’t know you were a lesbian, but hey, that doesn’t bother me if you like women instead of men. To each his own—isn’t that what they say?”
I thought I heard someone in the background say something, and then Dakota laughed. “My girlfriend’s waiting on me, so I’m going to have to say goodbye. I’ll check up on you in a few months… after we get settled in.”
She disconnected before I could say anything else.
I looked around at everyone. “I recorded her confessing to a whole bunch of crimes, but it won’t mean a thing if she’s not apprehended. We have to catch her before she makes her getaway. She’s good at changing her identity. She’ll go into the abyss and never be heard from again.”
Billy picked up my cell phone.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m sending this recording to Sheriff Hudson. If he had any doubts about who killed Preston, this should clear it up. I just hope he doesn’t believe the part about Cole. We know she was lying.”
I didn’t want to say it, but I felt compelled to. “Billy, I had some doubts about what happened that day, too, and it wasn’t because I was jealous or anything. Those days are long gone. If you send that recording, it just might light a fire under the sheriff’s butt and cause Cole a whole lot of grief he doesn’t deserve. You might want to rethink that text.”
“I knew she was a lesbian,” Helene said, giggling. “That’s why she hates men.”
“You did not!”
“Come on, Minnie. Don’t tell me you didn’t think the same thing.”
“She’s not a lesbian, Helene.” I said.
“She said she was.”
“No, she didn’t, she laughed, remember?”
“Yeah, so what?”
“Coming out of the closet or being exposed, isn’t something someone laughs about. I think there’s a side to this story we haven’t considered. Maybe we’ve been looking at this all wrong. I was
thinking about a movie I saw where two women meet on a plane, talk about how they hate their husbands, and then make a pact to kill them off. They don’t know each other, so there’s no connection between the two. Dakota kills off Olivia’s husband, and in return, Olivia kills off Dakota’s husband. Then, the two hook up and run off together.”
“Hmm… now that’s a thought.”
“There’s no information on either one of them that goes any further back than five years ago. It’s as if their lives started then. I say, what happened five years ago?”
Billy smiled. “That’s my `ge ya. I think you might have something there.”
“Yeah, but it’s going to be hard to track down. We don’t know where they lived at the time they met. We don’t even know what state they lived in. They could’ve come from Canada for all we know. It’d be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Billy handed my cell phone to me. “Call her back and see if she answers.”
“And if she does, what do you want me to say to her?”
“Oh, I don’t know…” Billy paced while trying to come up with something, and then he stopped. “Lie to her. Tell her we have Nancy’s cell phone. If she takes the bait, I’m sure you’ll be able to put a spin on the story.”
Helene got up, walked to the kitchen to refill her cup, and then looked back at us. “If she answers, tell her that our guy is tracking the GPS in her car… that he locked on it when he traced her cell phone to the hotel. He hacked into their cameras, and saw her get in her car. Boom! She’s busted.”
Mom grinned. “Forget about telling her we have Nancy’s cell phone. Tell her that Nancy didn’t die.”
“Ah, you ladies are so devious.” Billy smiled again, and then looked back at me. “Make the call, Jesse. We don’t have a thing to lose.”
Billy’s cell phone beeped, signaling an incoming text. After reading the message, he laughed, and then looked over at Helene. “You should be a detective. Gator did exactly what you just said.”
