Middle River Murders (28 page)

Billy’s cell phone rang. He snatched it up and left the room.

We were right in the middle of a thunderstorm and now wasn’t
a good time to be talking on a cell phone, but I let it go. The call could be
about Mom. Normally, I would give my
get off the
phone, it’s
lightning and thundering outside
speech, but not this time.

Claire walked over to the bay window in the dining room,
peered out and then said, “I thought you said that Athena was afraid of
storms.”

The rain was still coming down hard making visibility almost
impossible. Thunder echoed through the hills as lightning lit up the sky.

“She’s terrified of them. That’s why she usually wants to
come inside when a storm comes up. She’d never be out in this mess unless she
had a good reason to be. We need to find her.” I looked around for Billy, but
he was still out of the room taking a call.

“Billy,” I called to him. I started to walk out of the room,
but stopped when the sheriff’s deputies showed themselves.

“We’re finished in here,” one of them said to the sheriff.

He motioned for them to leave and then said, “My guys have
evidence that needs to be processed, so I’m going to be leaving. I’ll keep you
informed of what we discover. In the meantime, don’t stop looking for your
mother. The more we have out there, the better our chances will be.” He looked
directly at me and said, “Do what you have to do, but don’t do anything you’ll
be sorry for, Jesse. Let my guys do their jobs. Please stay out of their way.”

The sheriff and his men turned and walked out into the storm.
They got into their cars and pulled out of the driveway. The sheriff turned
left while his men turned right.

I wondered where he was going, but didn’t think anything of
it at the time. My mind was preoccupied.

Billy walked back into the kitchen.

“That was Jonathan. He was just checking in. I filled him in
on everything and told him to be on the lookout for your mom’s van. He said
he’d get the tag number from his contact and then pass it along to Daniel and
Robert. They’re still out searching.”

“I want to search
Dogwood
Valley
,” I said. “I think Mom’s being held
here. All we need to do is find Athena.”

“How do you suggest we do that?” Randy asked.

“Just listen for her bark,” Cole suggested. “I’m sure Jesse
will recognize her own dog’s bark, won’t you?”

“Yes, I will,” I said, wondering why Cole was still here. I
thought he would’ve left with the sheriff. So I asked him. “Aren’t you on
duty?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

“Jesse!” Claire said, embarrassed by my attitude. “I’d think
you’d be grateful for his help.”

“I am,” I replied in a submissive tone. “All I meant was… ah…
I’m glad you’re here, but don’t you have other people to look after?”

“I do, and I am,” Cole said. “I’m here to assist you in your
search.” He looked at his watch. “Actually, I was off-duty as of ten minutes
ago. The sheriff agreed with me that it would be in our best interest to have
someone close to the family to help out. So I’m all yours for now.”

“You mean he left you here to keep me out of trouble, huh?”

“You and your husband,” Cole corrected as he looked over at
Billy. “You see, the sheriff’s afraid you’re going to get yourself killed.
Naomi Kent is a dangerous woman.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled
out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it, handed it to me and said, “Here’s
a printout of what she looks like.”

I took the paper and looked at it. My mouth dropped open as I
passed it to Billy and said, “Cole, she’s a dead ringer for her daughter. They
could pass for twins.” Then I snidely remarked, “I wonder if she’s got half a
finger missing, too.”

“It’s odd that you should say that,” Cole said. “That’s a
copy of a rap sheet you’re holding. If you scan down and look under the heading
of distinguishing marks, you’ll notice it says she’s missing half of her little
finger on her right hand. It’s hereditary. Her daughter had the same genetic
defect.”

“Why does she have a rap sheet?” Claire asked. “Was she a
criminal before she came here?”

“Oh, she’s had a couple of run-ins with the law, but nothing
serious until she was arrested for her husband’s death. Her profile was already
in a data base and when she was arrested, she consented to give a
DNA
sample. They had to let her go; the case was closed,
and she collected her husband’s life insurance. As far as she was concerned, it
was good riddance to her husband and hello to a new life. Too bad she got away
with it. But she won’t get away with murder this time.”

“I thought he was killed on the job,” Billy said.

“He was a truck driver. Now a man who spends most of his time
on the road is going to make sure that his truck is safe to drive. The accident
report stated that his brakes failed. They found a small cut in the brake line.
The police believe his wife did it. She had the perfect opportunity, because he
parked his truck at home.”

“How would she know how to cut the lines?”

“Neighbors said that many times when her husband worked on
his truck she would be there to watch. She probably learned from watching him.
How else would she know what to do? I’m sure that she’s probably not
mechanically inclined.”

“That’s a farfetched notion,” Frank spoke up. “I hate to say
this, but I can see why she got off. All they had was conjecture.”

“That’s true.”

“And it wasn’t enough to put her away,” I hissed.

“That’s so sad,” Claire said. “Why would she kill her own
husband?”

“For the money,” Cole answered. “She got a huge insurance
check.”

“She’s an evil woman,” I said, angrily. “She needs to be put
out of
our
misery!”

The room was dark, musty and damp. Screeching noises and the
rustling of paper were a dead giveaway that she wasn’t alone in this
godforsaken place. Was that the sound of a rat she had just heard? She shivered
at the thought. How did this happen? One minute she was in the comfort of a
safe and secure home and the next she was locked up in the basement of an old,
ratty-tatty house… filled with horrible smells and creepy insects. A spider had
crawled on her leg a few minutes ago.

She was exhausted, hungry and the rope was beginning to cut
off the circulation in her hands. She had been tied-up, slapped and yelled at
for what seemed like hours before she was blindfolded, driven to parts unknown
and then thrown down a flight of stairs, descending into a nightmarish pit.

She was sure that her ankle was broken. She heard the bone
crack when she fell. The pain was awful, but not nearly as bad as it could’ve
been. The real pain came when she realized that she may never be found. She
could die in this terrible place, never to be heard from again.

Why did she go with that deputy? She should’ve known
something was wrong. She had learned from the best and the first thing she
should’ve done was to question why one lone officer would come to arrest her.
Rarely did they ever operate alone in matters such as this. There were always
two of them when an arrest was made.

The air in the room was getting thin and it was all she could
do to breathe. She lay back against the wall and prayed, but she knew it was
too late now. No one was coming for her. No one knew where she was. She would
die alone.

A terrible storm played havoc outside as the hours slowly
passed. By nightfall, she knew the end had come.

A dog’s bark was the only true sign of life outside the walls
that confined her.

She closed her eyes for the last time and waited for her Lord
to take her home.

The storm raged on as the rain beat against the bay window.
Afternoon had passed and between that and the fact that the sun was covered by
dark, angry clouds, the room was as bleak as the sky. I reached over and
flipped on the switch to illuminate the dining room.

“We need to split up and take a name,” I said.

“That’s a good idea,” Billy agreed. “Where’s the list?”

“I left it in the truck,” I replied. “Will you go get it? I
would but you know I’m scared to death of lightning.”

“I’ll go,” Billy said as he turned and walked to the utility
room door.

“Be careful and hurry up,” I called to him as he walked out
into the dangerous storm.

I walked over to the door to watch. As scared as I was of the
storm, I would stand out in it all night long if I could have my mother back. I
would do anything to get my mother back... even if that meant that I had to
kill Naomi Kent. Actually, after seeing the shambles that my mother’s bedroom
was in, I’d relish the thought of inflicting harm on that woman.

Billy went to the truck and retrieved the papers and my
handbag. When he got back inside, he was soaking wet.

“I brought your purse in just in case.” He smiled. “I don’t
want to go back out there until I have to. It’s terrible outside. Lightning
fills the sky.”

“What list?” Frank asked as Billy grabbed a towel from the cabinet
and dried himself.

“We got a list of the women in the Stanardsville Social Club.
We were going to scope out these women, but things have changed.”

“They certainly have,” I said. “Now that we know Naomi Kent’s
prints were found in the police car, we can be pretty sure that she’s the one
we’re after. There’s no doubt in my mind!”

“Why bother with these women, if we know
Kent
is the one?”

“Since Naomi, if she’s the one, targeted some of these women,
I think we can safely say that others might be in danger. Naomi Kent may be
lurking around her next victim’s house.”

“We need to catch her before...”

“What about Mom?” Claire asked.

“I’m pretty sure she’s locked Mom up somewhere and left her
to die, moving on to her next victim,” I said. “What we need to do is find Mom,
and the only way we’re going to do that is by finding the
Kent
woman.”

“But how are we going to find her? We don’t have the
slightest clue as to where she could be.”

“If what Billy says is true, she’ll go after someone else and
we have to figure out who the next victim will be.”

“That’s like looking for a four-leaf clover in a field of
grass!”

“What other choice do we have?”

“I’m guessing she’s the one who went after Daisy at the
hospital. Now I’m wondering if she might’ve paid a visit to Gabe at his house.”

“Sheriff Hudson has a man over there now,” Cole said. “She
won’t get close to him unless she goes through one of our deputies.” Cole
grinned. “And you know how hard that would be.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Your guys are big. It would take a mighty
strong person to bring one of you guys down.”

“Or a tiny person with a gun,” Randy surmised. “That’s all it
would take. You don’t have to be rough and tough to pull the trigger.”

We all glanced at each other.

“Suppose the suspect disposed of your mother…” Frank started
to say, but stopped before the rest of the words were out of his mouth.

“Frank!” I yelled. “Don’t say that!”

“I’m sorry. What I meant was, suppose
Kent
ditched your mother.”

“Tell us what’s on your mind,” Billy said.

“Let’s face the facts. She killed her and got rid of the body
or she locked her up in a remote place, hoping she’d never be found. We need to
search places we think she might have locked up your mother.”

“And where do you suggest we start?”

“The first place I’d check would be Kansas Moon’s house. It’s
isolated and there’s no one there anymore.”

“Now that’s a good idea.”

“We need to check on Gabe Clark, too. He could be her next
victim. If Gabe is all right, and we still haven’t found your mother, then I
say we check out the women on the list. Time is running out.”

“Frank has a point,” Cole said. “We can check out the women
on the list later. Right now I think we have to check out the most likely
place.”

“And that would be...”

“Gabe’s or Kansas Moon’s house.”

“The more time that passes, the worse our chances get of
finding your mother,” Randy said. “Speed is a necessity.”

Randy tried to comfort us as Billy, Frank and Cole looked
over the list. His intentions were good.

“I think I’d feel better if I called the house,” I said to no
one in particular. I reached into my purse and retrieved my cell phone. After
punching the number, I walked off to the side and waited for someone to answer.

I was talking to Sarah when Cole’s cell phone went off. From
the look on his face, I could tell something had happened.

“Sarah, let me call you back later,” I said. “Something’s
going on.”

“Sure,” she replied. “Jesse, don’t worry about the kids.
They’re doing fine.
Geneva
just fed Ethan and we were
discussing how far technology has come over the years. She was impressed with
the fact that man had developed an electric breast pump.”

“Hey, it could’ve been a woman.”

“I never thought of that.”

“I have to go, Sarah. I’ll keep in touch.” I closed up the
phone the minute Sarah said good-bye and then walked over to Billy.

“What’s going on? What did I miss?”

Everyone closed in on Cole.

“That was Sheriff Hudson on the phone. He said Gabe Clark was
attacked by a woman he claims to be Naomi Kent. She must’ve come through the
woods, because she slipped in the back door of the basement without being
seen.”

“Is Gabe all right?” I asked.

‘He’s not dead, is he?” Claire asked.

“He’s going to be all right. He’s in an ambulance and is on
the way to the hospital.”

“What did she do to him?”

“She stabbed him several times with a kitchen knife.
Fortunately, none of the wounds were fatal. He has a knife wound to the arm,
leg and his left side.”

“She meant business,” Claire said.

“She was out to kill him,” Cole said. “She would have, too,
if he hadn’t managed to hit the security alarm before she got a chance.”

“See, I always said that everyone needs a security system in
their home,” Claire said.

“When the alarm went off, not only did it alert the Sheriff’s
Office, but it was so loud inside the house that the deputy on duty heard it all
the way out in his car.”

“I’m sure glad he’s going to be okay,” I said. “Did they get
her to tell them where my mother is?”

“I’m afraid that she got away.”

“What?” I asked, raising my voice. “Are you serious? Are you
saying that she slipped through their grasp? I don’t believe it! They had her
and they let her get away.”

“Just calm down, Jesse. She fled the minute the alarm went
off. The deputy didn’t even see her.”

“Why didn’t he run after her?” Claire exclaimed. “He just let
her run off into the woods! She could be in custody right now, but no, your
guy let her get away! What kind of police force do you have here? That deputy
should be fired. There’s no excuse for this. What’s wrong with your people?
Don’t they know what their jobs are?”

“At the time, saving Gabe’s life was highest on his list of
priorities.”

“I guess that was the right thing to do,” I said.

“Besides, the deputy never saw her, didn’t know which way she
went, and couldn’t be sure that she even ran off into the woods. His first
responsibility was to the injured person.”

Claire started to say something, but I stepped up and stopped
her.

“Forget it, Claire. The deputy did what he was supposed to
do. We can’t blame him. Suppose he ran after her, but she got away, and then
Gabe died. How would you feel?”

“But…”

“Police have rules to go by for a reason. I’m not happy that
she got away, but I’d rather have her on the loose than to have Gabe dead.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“I know I am. The sheriff and his men will find her, but they
can’t bring Gabe back to life.”

I looked at Cole and said, “She’s the killer and she’s on the
loose. She failed to kill Daisy at the hospital and now she’s failed to kill
Gabe. She’s probably really mad.”

“You can bet on that.”

“If Mom is still alive, I bet she’ll go back and take her
frustrations out on her. I’m going with the idea that Mom’s still alive, but if
we don’t get on the ball and find her, she won’t be for long.”

“I agree,” Frank Trainum said. “I think you’re absolutely
right. We know Naomi Kent is responsible for at least one death.”

“She’s killed more than one!” I said, loudly.

When I get scared, my voice goes up a notch, and the more
scared I get, the louder my voice gets. I was petrified. I knew Mom’s time was
running out. If she was still alive, she wouldn’t be for long if Naomi did as
we expected and went back to the scene.

But where was the scene?

“Once she’s arrested, we’ll be able to pin the other deaths
on her, I’m sure,” Cole said. “But for the time being, she’s still out there
and she’s dangerous. We have to remember that and we have to be careful.”

Everyone started to speak at once, but Billy put a stop to
our talk when he raised his hand and said, “We need to get on the road and look
for her. Let’s put our heads together and come up with something.”

“We don’t know where to begin,” Claire said as she started to
cry. “It’s hopeless. We’ll never find her.”

Billy held up the copies we made of Daisy’s list of club
members and said, “We have a start. Let’s get on the road and start looking. As
I see it, we have only four names to check out. Since we don’t suspect them
anymore, they may be the ones who are in danger.”

“Naomi might be headed to one of their houses right now,”
Cole said. “If that’s true, we might be able to snag her.”

“I agree with you,” Frank said. “It’s our only lead. Naomi
Kent is on a mission to kill and she hasn’t accomplished her goal, so she’ll
take it out on someone.”

“Our best bet is to check out the women on the list who we
think might be in danger,” Cole replied.

“Randy and I will take the first one on the list,” Frank
said. “Billy and Jesse can check out the second one and Cole can have the
third.”

“I’ll call my brothers and see which one is the closest to
the last one on the list.”

“Are you and Randy familiar with the area?” Cole asked Frank.

“No, but I’m sure Claire is. She lived with her mother in
Dogwood
Valley
for a few months. I’m sure she has some familiarity with the general area,
don’t you, Claire?”

“I know enough to be of some use. If we get lost, we can
always call Billy or Cole.”

She started to cry again.

Cole walked over to her, put his arm around her shoulder and
said, “I promise you we’ll find your mother.”

“How can you promise that, Cole?” Claire cried. “We don’t
know where to look and we don’t even know what kind of car that crazy killer
woman is driving. We have no clues.”

She shrugged off his attempt to comfort her and walked over
to Randy.

Billy came over to me and said, “What is on your mind, `ge ya?
I can tell you have thoughts. You must share them with me. We will not let this
woman get away.”

Billy’s accent took on the characteristics of his Cherokee
language as it sometimes does when he’s extremely worried.

That worried me.

“I just want my mother back!” I said, holding back my tears
as long as I could. Finally, I couldn’t hold them any longer. “I’m sorry,” I
said as I sobbed. “I can’t stop crying.”

Billy wrapped his arms around me and said, “Cry later, `ge ya.
Let’s go find your mother.”

His words shook me, yet gave me the courage to get it
together. I stiffened up and turned to face everyone.

“You heard the man. Let’s get this posse on the move! Let’s
get out of here right now!”

Billy and the guys put their heads together to decide who
would go where to check out the addresses on the list.

As I stood by the kitchen counter, I looked up and noticed
that the rain had stopped. Since night was setting in, it took me a while to
realize that the thunder had also stopped and the storm had passed.

I was just about to open my mouth to speak when I looked
through the front windows of the living room and saw the flashing lights of an
ambulance followed by three
Greene
County
police cruisers heading up the road.