South River Incident (32 page)

“I’m hungry, and I have to
use the bathroom,” I hissed. “The food can wait, but if you don’t let me use
the bathroom, I’m going to pee all over this pretty bed.”

Cole patted the gun
strapped to his hip and said, “Go ahead, but just remember, if you try anything
funny, I won’t hesitate to shoot you. To be honest, I relish the idea. Since I
was told not to kill you, I guess I could just shoot you in the leg. It’ll hurt
so bad, you’ll wish you were dead.”

I slid off the bed and
turned my back to him, tilting my head sideways. “Well, I can’t pull my pants
down with my hands tied.”

Without warning, the
bedroom door burst open and Larry Hudgins walked into the room.

My mouth dropped open. He
was indeed my worst nightmare. I had forgotten all about him. The last I had
heard, he was supposed to be incarcerated, awaiting trial, along with his
psycho son and lesbian, murderous wife. The three of them had been charged with
a string of counts relating to the abduction and murder of Helen Carrolton (our
first big case), and they also had charges against them for the abduction and
attempted murder of yours truly...
me
... and Rose Hudgins.

Poor Rose... she was the
best of the lot. She had no idea her family was involved in a murder—the death
of a young woman at the hands of her own mother. When she found out, it was too
late. Her family was willing to do anything to save themselves even if it meant
killing her. They tried, but thanks to me, a little luck, and my trusty Jeep, I
saved the day and our lives. The rest of the bunch was sent to jail. So what
was he doing out?

My bladder let loose.

He smiled a menacing smile
as he glanced down at my jeans. “I see you recognize me. Your fear shows.” His
laugh was loud and scary. He was in control, and we both knew it. I had
destroyed his life and now he was going to destroy mine. “What comes around, goes
around, Miss Watson. All we need now is that Indian. Then everything will be
perfect. I can’t wait to watch the two of you die a slow and painful death.”

“You’ll never capture him.
He’s too smart for the likes of you.” I was petrified, but I wasn’t about to
succumb to the indignities of lowering myself to his way of thinking. I knew
that Billy would save me. “You’ll lose in the end.”

Larry Hudgins exploded. His
face turned red as if he was holding his breath. His eyes bulged. “It doesn’t
matter who wins or loses. Don’t you understand? You destroyed my family, and
you killed my Rose. She was the only one who was ever worth anything. Because
of you and that stupid Indian, she’s dead.”

“If I’m not mistaken, you
were the one who tried to kill her.”

“I panicked. I was trying
to protect my wife. I was confused at the time and I made a mistake.” 

“I have no idea what you’re
talking about,” I uttered.

“Of course, you don’t,” he
lashed out. “You go in and do your thing, but you never follow-up. You put
people in jail, and then you’re finished. Don’t you ever wonder what happens to
those people and their families? Don’t you read the papers?”

“Not too often,” I replied.

“Well, you should,” he
blasted me. “If you’d taken the time to do what you were supposed to do—investigate
and follow up—you would have found out that Rose took a bottle of sleeping
pills and died from an overdose, four days after she was released from the
hospital.”

“I didn’t know,” I sighed.
“I’m so sorry.” I was overwhelmed by sadness. Momentarily, I forgot about my
current dilemma, and reflected on my memories of Rose. She didn’t deserve to
die. She was a victim of circumstances. She was a good person.

“There was never any doubt
in my mind that I would seek revenge on you and Billy Blackhawk, but I had to
figure out a way to do it,” he continued. “Being in jail does tend to put a
cramp in one’s style. So I enlisted the help of my old buddy Clayton Tyler.
Imagine my surprise when I found out you were nipping at his brother’s heels.
He secured my release and together, well, as they say... the rest is history.”

“Yeah,”
Tyler
stepped
forward, “after talking with Larry, I knew if you could cause that much trouble
for my pal, it was only a matter of time before you’d be snooping around in my
business. You were hot on the trail of my brother and eventually it would lead
to me. People like you don’t give up... you just hang around and cause
problems.”

“Why did your brother kill
that woman?” I asked. “I know it didn’t have anything to do with her writing a
bad check.”

“They were having an affair
and when he tried to break it off, she started running her mouth. She
threatened to go to the police. You see, Miss Watson, we have a good system in
operation and I’m not about to let some stupid woman interfere.”
Tyler
shoved
his hands into the pockets of his pants and started rocking back and forth,
grinding on my nerves, as he continued with his story. “Doug can be a real pain
sometimes, but I need his store. I need all my stores. I have very expensive
tastes, and when you add all those dinky little establishments together, they
make for a hefty income. My distribution center distributes more than just...
(rock... rock)… shall we say... (rock... rock)... products for the general
public.”
Tyler
’s shoulders started doing some kind of dance to the
beat of his rocking body. “I told him to get rid of her.”

It was all I could do to
keep from laughing at Clayton Tyler. He looked ridiculous bouncing around and
acting tough, trying to inflate his ego while Larry Hudgins, a man twice his
size and obvious intellect, stood by waiting for Tyler’s spastic fit to pass. I
reined in the need to laugh myself to death. Instead, I opted for a more sane
approach.

“What about Mary and Roy?
Did they threaten your little operation? Is that why you killed them?”

“They got greedy,” Clayton
replied, slowing down his dance routine. “It’s simple, Miss Watson. My brother
got rid of his problem, but you wouldn’t leave him alone. Then Larry asks for
my help, and you and your boyfriend’s name pops up in the conversation. While
all this is going on, I’m right in the middle of a kidnapping operation I’m
trying to run. I had to do something to get
Roy
to straighten up. Then it came to me. Why not kill
Mary and make it look like you did it. I could rid myself of another
incompetent, and Larry could get his revenge. If I had to, I could kill
Roy
later,
which of course, it turned out that I had to. He was beyond redemption. I
arranged the whole thing to look like a kidnapping gone bad, and you and your
boyfriend were to take the fall. That way, you’d be off my back, and Larry
could have his revenge. But it didn’t work out quite the way I had planned. You
didn’t go to jail, and that really jerked my chain. So I sent a few of my
people to throw some fear into you before the grand finale. The picture was
just a ruse. Unfortunately, you turned out to be more of an adversary than I
had expected.”
Tyler
paused and then smiled, his mood becoming more
relaxed. “I was impressed when you killed Laura and Brad. That took a bit of
courage.”

“That’s where I came in,”
Larry said, his manner calm. “Clayton and I agreed it was time to take matters
into our own hands. At first, I wanted you and your boyfriend locked up. I
wanted you to know what it felt like to be in jail for something you didn’t
do.”

“That’s bull, and you know
it,” I hissed, cutting him off, my anger and pain beginning to get the best of
me. “You were guilty as sin. You deserved to be in jail. You tried to kill your
own daughter, the same daughter you now seek revenge for. I’m confused.”

He ignored my statement,
his snarl revealing a sign of his unhappiness at being the recipient of my
accusation. “Instead of seeing you rot in jail, I’d rather see you die, and I
want you to suffer. Before I’m done with you, you’ll be begging me to put you
out of your misery.”

The tone of his voice and
the demonic look in his eyes gave me reason to believe this was going to be the
end. He wanted revenge and would stop at nothing to get it. He had me locked up
in his own private jail cell, and I was afraid that it wouldn’t be long before
his men captured Billy. I had confidence in Billy, but he was just one man
against an army of killers.

At the snap of Clayton
Tyler’s finger, one of his cronies walked in carrying a folded pile of clothes.
At the same time, the temperature in the room felt like it had dropped ten
degrees. The man was Chicky, the
EMT
who had tried to attend to me that terrible night.
Tyler
motioned
to the guy, and then turned his attention back to Hudgins.

Larry Hudgins’ mood
changed. “I’m going to give you the opportunity to cleanse your soul before you
go to meet your Maker. That is, if you have one,” he said, his cold, dark eyes
finding their way into that secret place where I kept all my fears hidden.
“While we wait for your boyfriend to arrive, I thought you might like a bath
and some fresh clothes. Chicky will see to your injuries. You don’t mind
wearing some of Rose’s clothes, do you, Miss Watson? You’re about the same
size, and I think it’s only fitting that you should die in the same clothes
Rose was wearing when she died. Don’t worry, they’ve been washed.”

I was too shocked to speak.
I glanced at the clothes that had been placed on the bed and thought, was he
serious? What kind of sick game was he playing? My stomach churned as I read
the words
Piney Mountain Grill
on the folded T-shirt. I felt like
crying.

Larry Hudgins said nothing
else. He turned and left the room. Following his departure, Clayton Tyler
rocked, danced, and bounced his puny, skeletal body behind his idol. It was
obvious to me who was in charge. Clayton Tyler might be the one with all the
power, but for some reason, Larry Hudgins ran the show. Was I wrong? I could
have continued to debate the pecking order, but at the time, my mind was on
other things like… how many people am I going to have to kill to get out of
this? Silently, I chastised myself for thinking such a thing, but truthfully,
that’s what it had boiled down to. Billy and I, most likely, would be killed;
Cole would not get out of this unscathed; and what about Mom and Claire? Would
Larry Hudgins’ revenge end with the death of Billy and me? I didn’t think so.

“I want a bath and a meal,”
I demanded, looking at Cole and then at Chicky. “You heard him. He wants me to
cleanse my soul.”

Cole, who had not said a
word or moved a muscle since Larry Hudgins walked into the room, was the first
to react. “Don’t be giving us no mo’ orders Miz Watson,” he said, trying to
imitate the accent of a Southern slave. “Cuz we’s be movin’ fast’n we kin.”

Chicky and Cole seemed to
get some inner-buddy-thing going as they laughed and made fun of me.

I took advantage of Larry
Hudgins’ offer. I wanted to get cleaned up, put food in my belly, and have my
pain relieved as much as possible. Nothing was ever mentioned about food, but I
figured if Hudgins was going to clean me up, surely he would feed me.

I’d been soothing my soul
in a hot, bubbly tub for almost thirty minutes, planning my next move, when
Cole came into the bathroom with his gun drawn. He looked like a cowboy.

“Haven’t you been soaking
long enough?” he roared.

The bedroom door slammed.

“What was that?” I cried. I
grabbed a towel from the stack sitting by the tub and covered my body. “Was
that Chicky leaving?”

“Yes,” Cole whispered,
pressing a finger to his mouth. He put his gun back into the holster. “He’s
going to fix you some food so we don’t have long to talk. Listen carefully.
Regardless of what you might think is going on here, I can assure you
everything’s under control. You’re safe. It’s a long story, one that I’ll tell
you all about at some other time. But for now all you need to know is that my
department has been working with CPD trying to nail Clayton Tyler. A couple of
hours from now this will all be over. I’ll get you out of this. I promise.”

“Someone mentioned that you
were monitoring the CPD calls on your scanner the night Laura and Brad broke
into my house. I thought that was a little strange. It’s been eating at me ever
since.”

“Forget about it. We have
bigger worries.”

“What about Billy?”

“I promise you, Jesse, I
would die before I’d let anything happen to either one of you. Please believe
me. I overheard
Tyler
talking on his cell phone and I think his guys are
closing in on Billy. We can’t leave him behind.
Tyler
would kill Billy in an
instant if you escaped.”

My heart did a somersault
at the mention of Billy being harmed. “They will never get the upper hand on my
Billy,” I protested. Tears welled in my eyes. Billy was a bull of a man. Nobody
was going to get the best of him. Nobody would bring him down... I hoped.

“Jesse, I know Billy’s a
tough man, but
Tyler
sent six of his best guys. They will get him. You
need to prepare yourself for what you’re going to see.
Tyler
’s men
will probably beat the crap out of Billy, and then drug him to keep him under
control. That’s the way
Tyler
operates. I’ve seen it firsthand. Concentrate on what
you’re going to do once he gets here. We need a plan so we can be ready at a
moment’s notice. Hurry up and get dressed. We don’t have much time.” He turned
his back to me, leaving me to the privacy of my tears. “Just in case anything
happens to me, I want you to know I have a gun strapped to my left ankle and
the keys to my Jeep are under the driver’s floor mat. No matter what happens,
you have to save yourself.”