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Authors: Sharon Sala

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Blood Stains (32 page)

BOOK: Blood Stains
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Franklin shuddered. This wasn’t Sally. He didn’t know this woman at all.

“They won’ let you…. You can’t. They won’t give you my ashes.”

“Sure they will, Frankie. I’m your daughter. Your blood kin. I can do whatever the hell I choose with your body, you worthless piece of shit.”

Then she stood and, for a moment, the urge to kick him was so strong that she had to force herself to step away.

Franklin’s eyes glazed over as she waited for him to take his last breath.

All of a sudden Bodie was behind her, taking the rifle out of her hand.

“Let go, Maria. Let go.”

She swayed; then her fingers loosened.

The gun slipped from her to him without hitting the floor.

“He’s not going to hurt anyone else. The police are coming. Hang on with me, baby.”

She slipped an arm beneath his shoulder, but when she felt him stagger, she knew she couldn’t keep him upright.

“You need to sit down.”

“Yeah,” he said, and slid onto the floor, the rifle still in his hand. They could hear the distant sound of sirens. If they hurried, maybe he wouldn’t bleed to death.

“I’ve got this,” he said. “Sam is outside somewhere…probably behind the house. He has to be hurt or he would be in here. See if you can find him.”

She stopped in front of the gunman. Her father. “Is he dead yet?”

“Yeah. He’s dead.”

“Good,” she said, and then ran through the house to the back door and out into the night.

But Bodie had lied. He could see the faint rise and fall of the man’s chest. What was weird was, he knew him. Franklin Sheets. Hotshot criminal lawyer with an eye on the district attorney’s job.

Surprise. Wasn’t going to happen now.

“Hey, Sheets. Can you hear me?” Bodie said, and then scooted closer, wanting the man to see his face.

Franklin moaned. Someone was calling his name, but the pain in his chest was so bad. He just wanted to close his eyes until it went away.

“Sheets!” Bodie yelled, and kicked the bottom of Franklin’s shoe.

The motion jarred Franklin into a few seconds of lucidity as he opened his eyes.

“Somebody call 911. I’ve been shot.”

“I did, but you’re gonna die before they get here.”

Franklin moaned. This wasn’t how he’d expected the night to end.

“She shot me.”

“So did I. It’s gonna be a race to see which bullet kills you, but I’m hoping it’s mine.”

Franklin blinked. Everything was turning into one solid blur as he began to mumble.

“You…sworn t’ protect and serve.”

“Except when you mess with what’s mine,” Bodie said softly. “At that point, all bets are off. You’re a cold-blooded, snake-in-the-grass bastard who doesn’t deserve so much as a flower laid on your grave. The day she tosses your ashes into the river, I’ll be standing beside her watching them sink.”

Franklin shivered. He could already feel the swirling water of the Arkansas pulling him down, pulling him under.

Epilogue

S
am was released from the hospital the same day Becky started her summer vacation. The bullet Franklin Sheets had fired had missed every vital organ, except for nicking a lung, which had collapsed. He’d been unconscious when Maria discovered his body, and was still out when they’d loaded both him and Bodie up and whisked them off to Saint Francis.

Finally he’d healed enough to be released. He and Becky hadn’t lived under the same roof since they were both in their teens, but they were going to do it again now, at least for a while, despite every argument he could make.

She wasn’t going to take her cruise down to Mexico as she’d planned earlier in the year. She was taking Sam back to his cabin at Lake Eufaula, and whether he liked it or not, she wasn’t leaving until he was able to manage on his own.

Bodie’s wound had been a through-and-through, and he’d recovered much faster. And while he had yet to be cleared for full duty, he was at home on medical leave, enjoying his time with Maria and the fuss his family was making over the both of them.

It wasn’t until his family had finally gone home and he had Maria back all to himself that he saw another side of the woman he loved.

What they hadn’t talked much about, but what he knew was impending, was the dispensation of Franklin Sheets’ estate. What surprised him then was Maria’s immediate claim on his property as his only heir.

He would have expected her to want that kept under wraps, not set herself up to be quoted in the papers and mentioned for days on end in every media outlet in the state.

What he
had
expected, though, was her desire for revenge, which, once again, reminded him to never piss her off. He just couldn’t have predicted how it would play out.

She’d kissed his mother goodbye with tears in her eyes, hugged his father and remarked again, for the umpteenth time, how much he and Bodie looked alike, and told them she couldn’t wait for them to come back. She’d stood on the porch waving goodbye and holding his hand, and the moment they drove out of sight, she morphed back into a hard-ass.

She strode back into the house and was already on the phone with the lawyer she’d hired when he walked inside and closed the door.

From what he could glean from her side of the conversation, her legal connection to Franklin Sheets had finally been proven through up-to-date DNA. Franklin was unmarried. He had no other next of kin. The estate had to go through probate, but though he’d died without a will, no one else was making any kind of claim on his wealth except for the daughter he’d tried to kill.

Maria held up a finger at Bodie, as if to beg for a couple more minutes.

He sat down in the easy chair next to the sofa where she was sitting so he could watch her face.

“So…you have the full extent of my wishes recorded? Good. When can I come in and sign it?”

She jotted down a date and time, and then scooted forward on the edge of her seat.

“One more thing,” she said. “About my father’s ashes…when can I claim them?”

Bodie’s eyes widened. Holy crap. She’d been serious.

“Tomorrow? Perfect. And you’ll notify the crematorium? Thank you. You know where to send the bill.”

She hung up, then sat for a moment without moving, without seeming to breathe.

“Maria?”

She jerked as if she’d forgotten he was there, then looked up, her expression still blank.

“Hmm?”

“Talk to me.”

“Right.” She tucked her hair behind her ear as she gathered her thoughts. “Here’s the deal. Franklin Sheets was a son of a bitch. We both know that. But he was my biological father, and I have a right to his estate.”

“I don’t care about any of that,” Bodie said.

“Well, actually, neither do I. Or not the way you might think, anyway. I’ve made arrangements for everything to be liquidated. A foundation has been set up that will be run by a bank of lawyers, with all the earnings and benefits going to the John 3:16 Mission.”

Bodie started to smile.

“Sheets would hate that.”

“I know,” she said, and then leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. “Tyrell already knows this, but there’s a full-ride scholarship in his name for any college or trade school he chooses to go to. It was his willing ness to tell what he knew that tipped the scales in our favor. I want him to know it was appreciated.”

Bodie’s smile turned into a full-fledged grin.

“He’ll love that.”

“I know.”

“As for the devil’s spawn, I get his ashes tomorrow at three o’clock. Will you go with me?”

“Yes, but you’ll have to drive.”

“I know. I just need you to navigate the way to the bridge. I want to find the deepest part of the Arkansas.”

“You’re really going to do it, aren’t you?”

There wasn’t a trace of anger, a twinge of fury, even a frown across her brow, when she answered.

“Yes. But not for me. For Mommy.”

“Then I’m your man.”

Maria looked at him then, her gaze fixed on the face of the man who was her heart.

“You were always my man. Even when I didn’t know it.”

Maria stood on the bridge, holding a burlap sack in one hand and the box bearing her father’s ashes in the other. The wind that had been blowing earlier had suddenly calmed.

She opened the box and unceremoniously dumped the clump of gray, dusty ashes into the sack, then tossed the box in after them.

The sun had gone behind a cloud, as if God refused to waste daylight on what was left of this man.

Bodie’s hand was on her back as she swung the sack over the side and sent it sailing.

End over end, then oddly flopping about, as a small puppy might have done in struggling to get out.

It finally settled on the water without a sound, floating along with the current. As they watched, the river water began soaking the coarsely woven burlap, causing it to sag, then slowly sink beneath the surface.

She stood without moving, without speaking, watching intently until the sack and its contents were gone.

At that moment the sun came out from behind its cloud, the rays hitting the water in such a way that it appeared as if a million tiny diamonds had just been tossed into the flow.

“Ready to go home?” Bodie asked.

Maria nodded.

They walked back along the bridge to where they’d parked, got in their car and drove away, while deep within the dark, muddy water, the sack and its pitiful contents went about the business of sinking into the ancient mud below.

ISBN: 978-1-4268-8430-6

BLOOD STAINS

Copyright © 2011 by Sharon Sala

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, MIRA Books, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

MIRA and the Star Colophon are trademarks used under license and registered in Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries.

For questions and comments about the quality of this book please contact us at [email protected].

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Table of Contents

Epilogue

BOOK: Blood Stains
12.01Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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