All About the Money (A Jesse Watson Mystery Series Book 7) (20 page)

“I hope this is what she really wants, for the child’s sake,”
I remarked. “Kaleb deserves to have someone love him.
Savannah
sure has enough money to provide for
him, so that won’t be a problem, and she works at home, so she’ll have plenty
of time to spend with him. It could turn out to be the best thing that ever
happened to her… and him. She can spend her days raising the child she always wanted.”

“Your attitude has changed,” Billy said. “You’re not angry
with
Savannah
anymore.”

“No, I’m not. So… she told a few white lies to save her
image. I can understand that. She’s sincerely distraught over McCoy’s death,
and she wants to do the right thing by Kaleb. I just feel bad for Russell. It’s
going to break his heart when he finds out about Cole. He adores
Savannah
.”

“He’ll survive. He’s a man-pig, too.”

I had to laugh at Billy’s reference.

“So… you no longer think she drugged him,” he said. “You
think he tried to kill himself.”

“I don’t have a clue as to what went down, but I can tell you
this, somebody had better come clean before I lose my mind.”

“What else is on the mind you still have?”

“What makes you think I have something on my mind?”

“I can tell,” Billy said, reaching over and putting his hand
on my leg in a soothing way. “I know when something’s bothering you. Is it
about the gun thing?”

“I want you to know I understand about your lapse in
judgment. You wanted information you wouldn’t be able to get from the police,
so when Jonathan suggested you have Deanna run the ballistics for you first, it
sounded like a good idea. There was plenty of time, because the gun wasn’t
going anywhere. The mistake was getting Deanna involved. I’m sure there was
someone else who could’ve helped us. You have to understand that when a
man-pig’s lust takes over, nothing good ever comes out of it. Jonathan cheated
on Lu Ann, and now he won’t be able to keep his sin to himself. He’ll tell her,
and she’ll send him packing. I can see it coming.”

“Yeah,” Billy admitted. “Things did get a little fouled up.
We could’ve handled it better.”

“On the plus side, we’re about to bring down a killer… or
two.”

“Yes, we are, aren’t we? I feel good about that. Next time, I
won’t take such a roundabout way of doing the job.”

“And you don’t think throwing the gun back into the woods is
roundabout? Why don’t we just take it to the sheriff and tell him where we
found it? The worst they can do is arrest us for trespassing. I got a bad feeling
about this one, Billy. If something doesn’t stick to us, we’ll be mighty lucky.
We’re not going to come out of this smelling like a rose, no matter how you
look at it.”

“Let me think about this for a minute,” Billy replied as he
turned onto Rt. 33. “Your idea has merit. Why not end this right now? We’ll
give the gun to the authorities and let them sort it out—like we should’ve done
right from the start.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more. Too bad we’ll miss seeing
the look on Bruno’s face after he’s confronted with the evidence.  We won’t get
to tell him that we know the truth about him and his rotten sister, and their
killing spree.”

“Who says we have to miss it?” Billy winked. “After we turn
in the gun, we’ll go over to his house and tell him what we did. We’ll tell him
that we know everything. We’ll accuse him of murder, and that way, we’ll get to
see firsthand his reactions to the allegations. He won’t be able to hold back
his emotions if we lay it on heavy enough.”

“We can’t do that. It’ll give him a head’s-up, and then he
might flee. How long do you think it’ll take the Greene County Sheriff’s Office
to get the ballistics back on the gun, and then get a warrant? Huh? Too long,
that’s how long. Bruno will be in another state by then.”

“You’re getting very wise, `ge ya.”

“I have you to thank for that, my hero.”

Billy pulled out his cell phone and punched the speed dial
key for Sheriff Hudson, and then hit the speakerphone key, so I could hear the
conversation.

“Hello, Mr. Blackhawk,” Sheriff Hudson said. “I was just
getting ready to send a couple of my men out to bring you and your lovely wife
in. I think you have something for me.”

Billy quickly rebounded from the shock and replied, “Yes, we
do, Sheriff Hudson. We’re on our way to turn in a gun we recovered, so please
don’t shoot us when we walk in carrying it.”

“We’ll be ready,” the sheriff replied, and then abruptly hung
up.

Billy and I looked at each other for a split second.

“What do you make of that?” I asked. “How did he find out?”

Billy shook his head and kept driving. A few minutes later,
both of us glanced back at each other and said, “Deanna.”

“She’s trying to get back at Jonathan,” I said, sizing up the
situation. “He walked away, and maybe she didn’t want him to. This is her way
of getting a little revenge. I wonder what else she’s got up her sleeve.”

Billy just shook his head again, and I knew right then and
there, this wasn’t going to end well for us.

A woman scorned… is a bad thing.

The sheriff wasn’t kidding when he said
they’d be waiting for us. Four of
Greene
County
’s
finest, with guns drawn, surrounded the truck when we pulled in the parking
lot. Billy wasn’t fazed by their actions, but I almost wet my pants. He shut
off the truck, and then both of us raised our hands. We didn’t make another
move, until a deputy told us to get out of the car.

“Don’t you think this is a little overkill?” Billy asked,
with his hands still raised. “It’s not as if we’re criminals. We’re just here
to turn in evidence.”

Sheriff Hudson walked out the front door and motioned to his
men, saying, “Take them inside and show them to my office.” He pointed to one
of the other deputies and said, “Find the weapon.”

“It’s on the front seat,” Billy said. “Sheriff, we came here
on our own accord. You don’t have to treat us this way.”

The sheriff didn’t respond, instead, he followed behind his
men as they ushered us inside. The deputies holstered their weapons once we
were seated in the sheriff’s office. Sheriff Hudson walked in the room and
closed the door. He wasn’t smiling.

“What’s going on here?” I whispered to Billy.

“It’s obviously a mistake,” he replied. “They’re just trying
to rattle us with their scare tactics. That’s the way they operate.”

“It’s working,” I said. “My hands are trembling and my
stomach is in knots.”

“Oh, there’s been no mistake made,” Sheriff Hudson announced
as he walked over behind his desk and sat down. He shook his head as if to
emphasize his annoyance with us, and then started his monologue. “You two have
been flying under the radar for way too long, but this time you’re off the
charts. You’ve really gone and done it, and I can’t let you slide on this one.
I’m charging you both with obstruction of justice and withholding evidence to
start with, and I’m sure a few more charges will be added before this interview
is over. Just because you have a license to snoop around, you can’t go around
taking the law into your own hands. This has to stop, so I’m putting an end to
it right now. Your days of running wild are over.”

A thought occurred to me, so I spoke up. “Why didn’t your men
pat us down? If we’re so dangerous, why didn’t they check us for weapons?”

The sheriff almost laughed when he looked at me and replied,
“I can tell you’re not holding. You’re wearing shorts and T-shirts, and we’ve
already searched your truck and your purse. You know, you should never leave
your purse in the car, even if it’s locked. There’re so many thieves out
there.”

“You searched my purse?”

“It was in plain sight.”

“That’s not right.”

“Just to make sure we’re on the same page, Mrs. Blackhawk.
You don’t have any weapons on you, do you?”

“You never know,” I snidely remark. “I could have a knife
hidden in my bra.”

“Do you want me to get one of my female deputies to take you
to another room and strip search you?” he asked in a very serious manner.
“Because I will if you imply you’re armed.”

“No, that won’t be necessary. I’m not armed.” I shut up.

“This isn’t the time to make jokes,” Sheriff Hudson replied.
“You have serious charges against you. You’re both going to jail. As I said, I
can’t just let this go. I have a job to do.”

My stomach did a flip flop as my worst fears were quickly
becoming a reality. Billy and I had stepped in it this time, and we were going
to pay for it dearly. Sheriff Hudson was going to throw the book at us.

“Look, Sheriff,” Billy started. “You know what we do, and how
we do it. Sometimes we cross over into a gray area, but we never break the
law.”

“You did this time, pal, and you’re going to pay for it. I’m
tired of trying to rationalize your actions. You seriously hindered our
investigation. I have people I have to answer to.”

“We were a little slow in turning in the gun we found,” I
said in a low voice. “But we’re here now. I don’t understand why you’re so
mad.”

“I’ll tell you why I’m so mad, Mrs. Blackhawk. You might be
private investigators, but that doesn’t give you the right to act like cops.
You don’t have that authority. I don’t see a badge pinned to either one of your
chests.”

“We were just doing our job,” Billy said. “We were on a case.”

“And what case would that be?”

“You know what case,” Billy replied. “You were there.”

“You’re talking about the night Wynona Rhodes shot her
husband.”

“That’s right,” I said. “We were the ones who got the
evidence against her for you.”

“And your job should’ve ended there. It was our job to find
the weapon, not yours. Your curiosity got the best of you, and now it’s coming
back to bite you in the butt.”

“Your men should’ve found the gun, but they didn’t,” I said.
“We had to do it for you. You should be thanking us, instead of hassling us.”

“Don’t, Jesse,” Billy whispered, silencing me.

“Listen to your husband, Mrs. Blackhawk. You might want to
stop before it’s too late.”

“From the way I see it, it’s already too late. You have your
mind set. You want to put us out of commission, so you’re throwing a bunch of
trumped up charges at us.”

“Trumped up, huh? Well… let me see if I got this right.” He
shuffled through a stack of papers on his desk until he found the one he was
looking for. “You illegally searched the woods at the
Rhodes
’ residence, found the gun, and then instead of
turning it in right away, you took it upon yourselves to have a forensic tech
run a ballistics test on it in their lab. Is that not correct? Stop me when I
say something that isn’t true.” He continued without giving us time to defend
ourselves. “Do you think I’m stupid?”

“Of course not, Sheriff,” I said. “We were just trying to get
to the truth, and if you remember, Billy was the one who told you that Bruno
had possession of the gun. When your men didn’t recover it, we went looking for
it ourselves. We were just trying to help. Doesn’t that count for something?”

“It would have if you had followed the law, but you didn’t.
You took matters into your own hands, and that’s not how it works.”

“We might’ve gone about it the wrong way,” Billy admitted.
“But now you have the weapon that was used in the murder of two people. I’m
sure it’s all there in the report Deanna Gates gave you.”

“Let me ask you this, Sheriff,” I said. “Why did Deanna rat
us out? We didn’t twist her arm and make her do it. She was more than eager to
help.” I lied. I didn’t know what Jonathan had said to her to get her to help
us, but if we were going down, I fully intended to bring her down—just for
turning us in. “Didn’t she break one of your laws? I’m sure she didn’t go
through proper channels.”

“She said she was coerced,” Sheriff Hudson offered.

“That’s bull, and you know it!” I snapped. “If that was true,
then why didn’t she hit the alarm? I know there must be a red button somewhere
in that place. You can’t even get in without an ID tag.”

“You can hold it right there, Mrs. Blackhawk. I know about
Jonathan’s relationship with Deanna, so you’re not fooling anyone.”

“Past relationship,” I corrected him. “And none of this is
Jonathan’s fault. We begged him to get her to help us, so he was bound by
family ties.” I figured there was no reason for all of us to pay for one little
egregious error. “And please call me Jesse. Mrs. Blackhawk sounds so formal
after all we’ve been through together.”

“I’m not blaming anyone but the two of you, Jesse,” he
replied in a sarcastic manner. “I’m laying this at your feet. You’re taking the
fall for this one. You did the crime...”

“But…” I started to say.

“I’ve had two hours to think about how I was going to handle
this,” Sheriff Hudson said. “Because you see, two hours ago, Bruno Michaels
turned himself in. We let him go after he made a statement to the fact that he
hid his sister’s gun in the woods to protect her, but after we went to his
house and questioned him, he got scared. He went back to get the gun, and guess
what? It was gone. Then I got a call from Deanna Gates. Imagine my surprise.”

“It was all for show,” I said, seeing through his façade.
“You’re trying to intimidate us. That’s why you got your men to throw down on
us in the parking lot, and that’s why you’ve been threatening us with jail time
for the last fifteen minutes. You want something from us, or you would’ve
already locked us up. What is it?”

“Don’t think you’re going to bargain your way out of this
one,” the sheriff said. “There will be no bargaining here, Jesse.”

I changed my tune. “Just tell us what you want. We’ll do
anything to smooth things over with you, Sheriff. We were just trying to get to
the truth.”

Billy had a look of recognition on his face when he turned to
me and said, “Bruno Michaels is innocent. Why else would he turn himself in?
The cops had nothing on him.”

“I was just thinking the same thing,” I agreed. “He could’ve
just kept his mouth shut. He didn’t have to come here.”

“Excuse me,” Sheriff Hudson loudly interrupted. “You can talk
all you want later, but for right now, here’s how it’s going to play out.”

Billy and I stopped talking and waited. Our heads were on the
chopping block, and the axe was raised. Then, Sheriff Hudson delivered the
blow. He pulled a piece of paper from the stack on his desk and handed it to
Billy. “Show it to Jesse, since she’ll have to sign it, too.” He hesitated only
for a minute before continuing. “It basically says that the two of you have
been very, very bad, and that I caught you. And… to avoid an arrest and a
guaranteed prison sentence, you’re going to surrender your license to me
personally, for one year, and you’re going to promise not to practice whatever
you do for that entire year. If you fail to live up to your end, the deal is
void and you go to jail.”

It didn’t take long for Billy and me to grasp the full gist
of the matter at hand. We were going to lose our license as private
investigators, so we wouldn’t be able to work for a whole year… at least not
doing what we do. We’d have to get a job at Burger King… if there were any.
Jobs are hard to come by these days.

“I know you’re wondering if I can do this or not,” he
continued. “Let’s just say it’s in one of those gray areas you were talking
about. If you notice, the letter’s hand-typed, and that’s the only copy. I’ll
destroy it when the year is up. You don’t have to sign it. You can get up and
walk right out of my office, but be forewarned, if you do, my men will arrest
both of you on the spot. It’s your choice.”

“This basically is a gentlemen’s agreement,” I said. “We have
to promise to be good, and you promise to drop all charges if we are.”

“Yes,” he replied. “You see, Mrs. Blackhawk, private
investigators are supposed to stay within certain boundaries of their
profession, but sometimes they forget what those boundaries are. This is my way
of reminding you.”

“Four months,” Billy said. “My family is large. They must
have food.”

From the tone in Billy’s voice, and the way his Cherokee talk
was coming out, I knew he had gone into his serious mode. He was doing some
heavy negotiating. He knew we weren’t going to walk away unscathed. We had to
give up something.

“My needs are many. I must provide for my family.”

“Six months,” Sheriff Hudson stated emphatically. “But you
knew that already. You knew I’d be flexible on the time, because I know you
have to earn a living. Six months, it is. You’ll just have to tighten your belt
for awhile.”

“Your generosity is a welcome to my family.”

Enough. I wanted details. I wanted to know exactly where we
stood when it came to what we could and couldn’t do. “You’ll have to be a bit
more specific on this one here.” I pointed to a paragraph on the paper. “I’m a
little confused. What is our limit of contact?”

“It means you can’t do anything when it comes to
investigating. No stakeouts. No clients. Nothing.”

“Can we still go to our office?”

“That’s up to you.” The sheriff picked up the phone, pressed
a key and said, “Bring in Mrs. Blackhawk’s purse. She needs to get something
out of it.” Then he handed me a pen. “You’ll need this.”

A deputy entered the room carrying my purse. “Here you go,”
he said as he handed it to me.

I took the bag from him, and dug around in it until I found
my wallet. I took out my license and then handed it to Sheriff Hudson. I hated
to let go of it, but I didn’t have a choice. We’d made a deal with the devil,
and it was time to pay up. I say devil, because failure to comply meant we
would surely be sent to Hell—that’s what they say prison is like. I’ve also
heard that going to Hell would be a vacation compared to what it’s like to do
time in prison. I don’t know what it’s like in Hell or prison, and I don’t want
to find out. I surrendered my license without a fuss.

Billy handed his license to Sheriff Hudson, and then both of
us signed the paper.

“You can leave now,” the sheriff said. “We’re done here. I’m
comfortable that we’re not going to have a problem. Look at it this way. I
could’ve filed a formal complaint with the Department of Justice with what I
have on you, and then you’d be surrendering your license to them. We’ll just
keep this among friends.” He smiled.