The Prey Bites Back: A Jesse Watson Mystery Book #8 (27 page)

“It’ll be worth
it. I mean, what can they do to us? We solved their case for them.”

“I don’t think
they’ll see it that way.”

“Oh, come on,
Billy, they’re not going to do anything to us. They’ll see it as a gift on our
part. We came up with the murder weapon… so to speak.”

“A gift?”
Jonathan laughed. “They’ll see it as withholding evidence, so be prepared for
repercussions. I hear trouble knocking at the door.” He put his hand to his
ear.

I looked
around, listening for the sound of someone knocking, and then realized he was
speaking metaphorically. “You had me going there for a minute, Jonathan. I’m
out of it. Must have been that Xanax I took. You know, lasting effects.”

“Perhaps you
should stay away from drugs, Jesse. Your mind ain’t on the job.”

Jonathan was
right. My mind was somewhere else, but I didn’t know exactly where. I was a wee
bit light-headed and feeling very carefree. I glanced over at Billy, thinking
how sexy he was and how much I wanted to be alone with him. I wanted his naked
body, his lips, his hands caressing my…

“Oh, God! All I
can think about is sex. It has to be a side effect from that pill. It’s an
aphrodisiac! I get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about crawling in the sack
with my man.”

Billy slipped
up close and snuggled me. “You don’t hear me complaining. I like it!”

Jonathan pulled
out his cell phone. “Geez… get a room.”

“Wait! Don’t
make that call yet. I just thought of something. Shouldn’t we move the car back
to your house, Jonathan? That way we can say it was in the backyard the whole
time, if someone should ask. At least this will be one charge they can’t pin on
us. The car would have been in plain sight the whole time. We didn’t try to
dispose of it.”

“I was just
thinking the same thing. We’ll look guilty as sin if the sheriff sees this car
in Beth’s garage. Let’s do it. It’ll be one less thing we have to explain.” He
looked at Billy. “I’ll drive
Preston
’s car, you drive mine, and Jesse can
drive your truck.”

We moved the
SUV back to Jonathan’s house, parked it out back, and waited a half-hour so the
snow could accumulate on it as if it had never moved. Then, Jonathan made the
call.

“Hmm… voice
mail. Sheriff Hudson, this is Jonathan Blackhawk. We have physical evidence
that proves Dakota Stone killed Gavin Preston. Come to my house as soon as you
get this message. I’m also alerting Captain Trainum. Thanks.” He looked back at
us. “One more phone call to make.” He touched the screen and waited. “Voice
mail again. Where is everybody? Hello, Captain Trainum, this is Jonathan
Blackhawk. You need to get over here. If you forgot where my house is, just
follow the
Greene
County
police
cars. We’ll be waiting.”

Jonathan put
his cell phone back in his pocket. “It’s done, now all we have to do is wait.
Shall we go inside where it’s warm?”

The three of us
slipped off the latex gloves and shoved them in our pockets. We walked through
the garage, down the long hallway, and to the den where Lu Ann was sitting,
watching TV.

“Ah, you’re
back.” She got up, walked over to Jonathan, and gave him a kiss. “Is everything
all right? You had me worried there for a minute.”

“The cops will
be here soon.” Jonathan went on to explain about finding the wine bottle. “We
brought the SUV back. We didn’t want the cops to think we moved it.”

“That was
smart. It’d be a little hard to explain why it was sitting in Beth’s garage.”

“Yeah, we
thought about that, so we brought it back.”

“Let’s go to
the kitchen and I’ll fix some coffee.”

We followed Lu
Ann to the kitchen, took off our coats, and then sat down at the table. We
talked about how this was going to go down, but in all honesty, no one knew how
Sheriff Hudson was going to take the news.

“When he finds
out
Preston
’s car has been sitting in your backyard
all this time, he’s not going to be happy, and when we show him the wine
bottle, he’s really going to be mad.”

“Maybe not,” Lu
Ann said. “He’ll be glad to finally have the evidence he needs. Oh, he might be
mad at first, but he’ll get over it.”

“That’s what I
said, Lu Ann. If it wasn’t for us, he’d still be spinning his wheels.”

“Well, I
wouldn’t tell him that. You know they don’t like it when someone else does
their job for them. They see it as interfering—obstruction of justice. He’s
liable to lock you up.”  

“I’m ready for him.
I can handle anything he throws my way… and if he gives me a hard time, I’m
going to sock him… and Frank Trainum, too! I’m tired of them pushing me around.
I’m going to give them a piece of my mind.”

“No, you’re
not, Jesse. You don’t have much to spare right now.” Jonathan looked at Billy.
“Maybe you should take her home. I can handle this one.”

I was getting
riled up. “You’re out of your mind. I’m not going anywhere. Why do y’all always
try to shut me out? I’m a big girl. I’m not afraid of the cops. If anything,
they should be afraid of me. I’m dangerous, too… when I want to be.”

“Your mouth is
going to get you arrested. I’m taking you home and putting you to bed.”

Lu Ann looked
at my eyes. “What did you take? You’re not acting like your old self.”

“That’s just
it. She is acting like herself… on Xanax.”

“No wonder
she’s acting like she’s drunk.” Lu Ann looked at me. “Maybe you should go
splash some water on your face. You’ll feel better. Come with me. I’ll take you
to the bathroom.” 

“I kinda do feel
a little drunk, but I think I can make it to the bathroom by myself.” I got up
and hurried to the bathroom. I thought for sure I was going to puke before I
got there, but I didn’t. I went to the sink, turned on the facet, and splattered
my face with the cool water. After I was convinced I could hold it together, I
walked out of the bathroom and went back to the kitchen. I saw Jonathan and
Billy standing at the front window.

“They’re here,”
Billy called out.

I walked over
and stood between them.

“I don’t like
the looks of this, brother.”

“Me, either. I
don’t think they’re too happy with us.”

Cop cars were
flying up the driveway, driving with a vengeance, skidding sideways with their
lights flashing and sirens blasting. They were in a real hurry, and most likely,
ready to do battle.

“They’ll get
over it, and we’ll be rid of Dakota Stone once and for all…and we’ll be free to
go on about our business.”

“Yeah, in about
five to ten years.”

“That’s not
funny. Is he serious, Billy?” I looked from Billy to Jonathan. “Tell me you’re
not serious.”

“I’m not
serious, but this isn’t going to go smoothly. I can promise you that. Who do
you think can yell the loudest, Billy? Sheriff Hudson or Captain Trainum?”

“I’d say
they’re both about even.”

Sheriff Hudson
yelled to his men and motioned for them to follow him as he made his way
through the accumulating snow to the front door. He rang the doorbell, and when
Jonathan opened the door and let him in, I whispered, “And the yelling begins…”
I smiled at the sheriff.

“You can wipe
that smile off your face, Mrs. Blackhawk. This isn’t a social call.” He looked
at Jonathan and then at Billy. “Okay, what’s this all about? Got another dead
body for me?” He looked at his men and said, “Okay, search the house.”

“Whoa… wait a
minute.” Jonathan stepped in front of the line of deputies. “There’s nothing in
here to see. It’s in the backyard.” He looked at the sheriff. “Unless you have
a search warrant, your men aren’t going to traipse through my house.”

Sheriff Hudson
motioned for his men to halt, and then turned back to Jonathan. “Show me what
you got, and this better be good. You dragged me away from…”

I walked over
to the sheriff. “Shouldn’t we wait for Captain Trainum? This is his
jurisdiction, isn’t it?”

“He’s not
coming. He has his hands full with…” The sheriff hesitated.

“With what?”

“That’s none of
your business, Mrs. Blackhawk. I’m in charge here, so show me what you got. I don’t
have all day.”

“Are you mad at
me? What’s with this Mrs. Blackhawk? I thought we were on a first name basis.”

The sheriff
gave me a stern look. “Now you’re starting to tick me off, Jesse.” He
emphasized my name. “Okay, so what’s in the backyard?”

“Evidence.”

The sheriff
didn’t say a word, instead he motioned to his men. They all turned and headed
out the front door to the backyard behind him. We grabbed our coats and
followed.

“Whose car is
this?” After a second, he shook his head and sighed. “This is the car Gavin
Preston was driving, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is,
Sheriff Hudson, but before you go off the deep end, there’s something you need
to see.” Billy led him over to the passenger side of the car and pointed to the
wine bottle on the floorboard. “I’m sure you’ll find Dakota Stone’s
fingerprints on the bottle and antifreeze residue on the inside. Here’s the
evidence you need to put that woman away. This proves she killed Gavin
Preston.”

The sheriff
signaled to one of his men. “Bag it, tag it, and get it to forensics. Take
Peters with you and make sure you maintain chain of custody protocol.”

His deputy
complied.

The sheriff
looked back at the three of us. “My… my… my. How convenient. Where’d you get
the bottle? I know you didn’t get it from
The Body Shop
. You couldn’t
get in. It’s still a crime scene.”

Jonathan
grinned. “Give us a little credit, Sheriff Hudson. The bottle has been there
the whole time. Nobody noticed because it was stuck under the seat, and even if
we’d seen it, we wouldn’t have thought anything of it at the time.”

Billy held up
his hand. “Okay… we made a bad judgment call when we moved the body. We admit
that, but you can’t let your anger at us stop you from getting to the truth.”
He pointed to the bottle again. “There’s your proof.”

“Yeah,” I
added. “We found the proof, so you owe us.”

The sheriff’s
face turned blood red and the shouting started. “I owe you nothing! You’re
renegades, all of you! This time you’ve gone too far! I’m sick and tired of
trying to keep you out of jail! I’m done with covering your butts! All you do
is give me grief!” He turned and walked around the car. A phone call later, he
returned and started in on us again. “I called a tow truck, and you better hope
those forensic guys don’t find one hair from either one of you in that car,
because if they do…” He looked directly at me. “You better start making
arrangements. You’ll need someone to take care of your kids while you’re in
prison.”

Sheriff Hudson
was madder than I’d ever seen, and this time he was serious about sending us up
the river. We’d crossed the line so many times he had just plain had enough.
The only way to save ourselves was to convince him that we were doing the right
thing. We just went about it wrong. He knew we lied about
Preston
asking us to take him back to
The Body Shop
. Heck,
even I wouldn’t fall for that one. We moved the dead body to lay blame on
someone else, and now we were offering up the murder weapon. I could see why he
was aggravated. If I could get him to calm down, perhaps we could keep things
under control… and stay out of jail. I had to convince him to see the situation
from our perspective.

Sheriff Hudson
was an old softie when it came to crying women, so I brought out the big guns.
I started crying. “I can’t believe you’d do that to me. My kids need their
mother, and now you’re going to put me in jail because Dakota Stone killed
Gavin Preston. You’re an awful man.”

Billy walked
over and put his arms around me. I buried my face in his jacket and cried
harder. “We’re going to jail, Billy. Our kids are going to grow up without us,
all because of that man.” I pointed to the sheriff. My nose was running and I’d
cried so hard that I was getting the hiccups. I looked at the sheriff. “I did
it all… just keep my mama out of jail… please. She’s… innocent.”

I couldn’t read
the look on Sheriff Hudson’s face, and that really bothered me. Was he buying
any of this, or was I wasting my time? I had to keep trying. I ran over to him,
threw myself in his arms and pleaded, “Please don’t send my mama to jail, I beg
of you. Put me in jail instead. I’ll confess to whatever you want, but just
leave my mama alone.”

The sheriff
gently pushed me away. “You had me right up to the point where you said you’d
confess to anything. I know you better than that. Wipe your face. You look like
a mess.” He pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to me. “Go over there and
stand by your husband before I slap the cuffs on you right here.”

I took the
handkerchief, wiped my tears and my nose, and then handed it back to him.

“Keep it.”