Checkered Past (A Laurel London Mystery Book 2) (7 page)

Chapter Seven

The tires of the Old Girl shrilled with each turn. I wasn’t letting up on the gas. And I kept both hands on the wheel. Willie Ray wasn’t going to get away from me. I’d get my answers and I’d take pleasure in turning him in.

“Right on I-25. Right on I-25,” the tracker GPS blurted out of my phone.

“I’m on I-25!” I yelled back to my phone.

I jerked the wheel right and skidded through the stop sign avoiding the tractor with the mower on the back. The driver of the mower took his hat off and said a few unnecessary words. Didn’t he realize a criminal was on the loose?

“Right on River Road,” the tracker said.

I yanked the wheel a sharp right and ran the stoplight. I floored the Belvedere and kept my eye on the empty pavement. Images of catching Willie Ray played in my head and I rehearsed the tongue-lashing I was going to give him. The curvy road headed straight out of town and I knew exactly where he was going. He wasn’t going to the secret spot; he was going to our spot.

Just as I had the Old Girl up to a decent speed, a construction worker waved a big stop sign in the middle of the road.

“Stop! Stop!” he screamed; the sign in one hand, his other sticking straight out in front of him. “Stop!”

I skidded to the left, then slid to the right before the Old Girl came to a complete stop. Thank God I did, because the cement truck rolled across the road toward the river where the state was pouring the new parking lot for the future casino boat coming to Walnut Grove.

I had heard they’d started construction, but didn’t realize they were already pouring the concrete. I didn’t take this road much since I had been fired from Porty Morty’s, which was a little bit away from the casino site.

“Can you please have them hurry?” I asked and grabbed my fake FBI badge out of the glove box.

Months back I had used my incredible criminal skills to make a fake badge. I was finding it coming in pretty handy.

“Sorry lady.” The guy shrugged.

The tracker showed Willie still heading out of town on River Road and I still had time to catch the fool.

Finally I had the Old Girl going and almost up to a reputable speed for a chase when I passed by Derek’s mechanic shop on the left. My heart dropped when I saw him head first under a car. He pulled out from under the car. His eyes caught mine as the Old Girl flew by.

Derek was a side mechanic in Walnut Grove. His first love was fixing up old cars. His first job was at the Gas-N-Go with Baxter and Clyde. He watched Baxter with a close eye and learned many of his skills from him. Derek also took vocational school classes while I was bored to death in English class at Walnut Grove High.

Trixie gave Derek the shop and he started his own business; it wasn’t until years later when he decided he wanted to be a cop.

The squeal of tires shrieked behind me. I glanced in the rear-view mirror. Smoke poured out of two big exhaust pipes sticking up over the cab of Derek’s red-neck truck. He was gaining speed.

“Right point two miles ahead,” the tracker said. “Target stopped.”

I sucked in a deep breath. Did I continue going after Willie Ray or keep going? Did I want to keep Willie Ray to myself to give him a good beating or did I turn him in and let the cops take care of him?

Derek was gaining speed. His windows were rolled down and his arm was flailing out of it. His horn blared in the wind; I kept going.

The tracker had stopped exactly where I knew it would. My chest pumped up and down with anticipation of coming face-to-face with the ghost of my past.

Willie Ray and I didn’t have a lot of money, but we spent our time together. He was good to me. He knew all the right words to say—he told me I was pretty and he promised to give me the world. I wanted his words to be true. I wanted the love he promised.

Trixie did her best to show affection, but it was an orphanage with a lot of kids and only one Trixie. I acted tough. I didn’t need her to waste her love and her comforting words on me. When Willie Ray was transferred to the home, my heart melted.

I’ll never forget him standing in the foyer with handcuffs on. He had been transferred from a Cincinnati boy’s home where he created all sorts of havoc. Willie Ray was right up my alley. He even wore a tattered leather jacket with a pack of smokes in the pocket. He didn’t care what people thought of him.

Rebel Without a Cause
became a favorite of ours. He had stolen the video reel from the Walnut Grove Library along with the projector and screen. It was one of the most romantic nights of my life. That was where he was leading me. To the very same spot where he stole my heart.

I jerked the wheel to the right on the old gravel road, rocks spitting out from underneath my tires. Next to the two dead trees on the left was where I needed to park. I threw the car in park, grabbed my Colt Defender out of the glove box and jumped out. Derek wasn’t too far behind.

“Laurel!” I heard Derek’s boots hit the ground running. “Stop! Don’t go without me! Put the gun down.”

I walked at a fast steady pace with the gun to my side. My eyes scanned the area for Sally Bent’s car. The tracker said he was here somewhere.

“Laurel!” Derek called out again, this time closer. “He is not worth it. Let the cops take care of it. Let me!”

As I got closer to one of the trees, I saw a piece of paper stuck in the tree with a knife. His knife.

“Mother. . .” I spat out a few curse words that would make Lucifer blush. He had taken the small tracker and stabbed the knife through it. The note read:
not time yet.

I yanked the knife out of the tree and slipped it into my pocket to use on him later.

“What the hell?” Derek asked from behind me.

“I’m going to kill him,” I warned.

“No you aren’t.” Derek took a couple deep breaths. “You are going to kill yourself if you don’t stop acting so crazy. Let the police find him.”

He bent down and picked up the note.

“How did you know he was here?” He held the note up.

“I tracked him.” I bit the corner of my lip. “I’m going to tell you why I was at the bank and you can’t go all cop on me.”

“Fine,” he agreed. He shifted on his right. His white tee shifted and gave a hint of the muscles underneath. His blue eyes waited patiently for me to start talking.

“Years ago, I found out Sally Bent had been keeping in contact with Willie Ray in prison. Louie had slipped and told me how she went to see him, wrote notes to him and everything. He even told me she had slept with him the night before my. . .” I couldn’t bring myself to say wedding. “You know.” I rolled my hand in the air. “Anyway, Sally was in The Cracked Egg and when our eyes met she mouthed ‘Willie Ray Bowman escaped.’”

Derek sucked in a big breath. His head tipped back. He crossed his arms across his body.

“This was all before the leather pouch appeared in my car, so I knew she had something to tell me.” I shuffled my foot and knocked around a rock. “I went to the bank to see if I could talk to her, but Pepper Spivy went all nuts.”

“And . . .” He pointed to the ground between us.

“The guy I picked up from the airport is an FBI agent looking for Willie Ray and he is an old friend of Jax Jackson’s. The FBI has asked Jax to help locate Willie if he is in Walnut Grove.” I cleared my throat.

“Jax Jackson doesn’t know about you and Willie?” he asked.

“He knows Willie was an orphan, he knows we skipped school.” I motioned between us. “But I didn’t tell him the full story about the Nashville thing.”

I could never bring myself to say the word marriage. After the whole Nashville thing, I swore off marriage forever.

“Jax asked if I would help.” I pointed back to the car. “He gave me the file on Willie and all the evidence against him. I took a tracker from the office because I know Sally Bent is harboring him.”

“And you
want
to talk to him?” Derek asked a great question.

“No. I want to shoot him.” I put the gun in my waistband. “And I was right. I saw Sally Bent’s car at Lucky Strikes. You know as well as I do, Bud and Sheila McKay would keep him safe or give him money to get him out of town.”

“Yeah, they crossed my mind when I heard he had escaped,” Derek said.

“When I saw her car, I knew he was in there. I popped the tracker on the roof of the car and put a bug under the bar. Sheila knew I was in there looking for him,” I sighed. “She wasn’t bending. His cigarettes were in there. The TV was on his favorite show. Everything added up. My phone chirped the car had been moved and led me here.”

“He’s toying with you. Just like when we were teenagers,” Derek reminded me of all the conversations where he begged me not to get involved with Willie Ray.

“I don’t want to hear that,” I warned. My eyes narrowed. “Where is he hiding out?”

There were so many out of the way places he could go and not be seen, but not in Sally Bent’s car.

“I have no idea. But I do know when your little boyfriend came to see me, he made it clear he expects me to keep an eye out and turn Willie in.”

“Can you do that?” I asked. Derek wasn’t a snitch, especially on one of us. Orphans.

“I’m on vacation this week.” He held his hands in the air letting me know he was going to see where this situation with Willie Ray took us.

“I guess I’m going to have to see where he strikes next.” I looked out in the distance. Clearly I could see me lying on the blanket Willie had put on the ground for us to eat and watch the movie; the veggies he had stolen from Curly and Bo Dean’s garden were so crisp and fresh.

My heart sank.

Chapter Eight

On my way back into town, I decided to turn down Fifth Street and take a left on Main. Trixie Turner was going to be livid when she found out Willie had decided to escape from prison and Jax was looking for him. And I wasn’t so sure Jax hadn’t gotten to her first.

He was making pretty good time going around town and putting together the pieces of Willie Ray Bowman’s life here. Including me.

The orphanage was located on the outskirts of town to the west. The old home was gorgeous in its day and Trixie was hard at work trying to restore it. She had bought all sorts of
Better Homes and Gardens
magazines,
Southern Living
, and
Cottage Homes
. If the house design were up to her, she’d have a hodgepodge of items. Me, I wanted to keep it simple. Neutral colors and leather furniture. Trixie, she had other thoughts. A green kitchen, blue family room, pink bathroom, the more colorful the better.

She even went as far as ripping out pictures from the magazines and taping them on the wall. I never knew what design ideas I was going to come home to.

The old house had a big wrap-around porch with wicker style outdoor furniture and big puffy cushions. These were the first items Trixie bought when we moved in. She loved sitting on the front porch with a big glass of iced tea. It might be spiked with a little moonshine, but not enough to get Trixie tipsy. She claimed it was to add flavoring.

“Well I’ll be.” My jaw dropped and my heart sank at the sight of Sally Bent’s car. “That no good sonofabitch.”

With the handgun tucked neatly in my pants, I marched around the back of the house where the kitchen was located because if I knew Willie Ray and Trixie like I thought I did, she was fixing him up a good home-cooked meal and they couldn’t hear me pull up from back there.

The sound of his voice not only stopped me in my tracks, it stopped my beating heart. I closed my eyes and swallowed. The last time I had heard his voice was the night before I was to board the Greyhound Bus. Trixie had kicked him out of the orphanage and he snuck in to kiss me goodnight and make promises that made me believe I was finally going to have my happily ever after.

The thought of it stirred anger in me. I crept up the few steps to the back porch. The door was open and the screen door was shut. I could hear every word, every laugh coming out of Trixie’s mouth.

Jax obviously hadn’t gotten to Trixie yet and she definitely hadn’t seen the news. Of course she hadn’t. The only channel she watched was the SyFy channel, which made her believe aliens were watching us.

 “You big piece of shit.” I pushed open the screen door with my foot and glared down the sight of the gun. I had a clear shot right to his heart just like he’d put a clear shot right through mine.

“Baby.” He stood up from the table with his hands in front of him. He shifted his weight. His Wranglers were a little baggy, but I knew what was underneath. The black tee hung in all the right places over his muscles. He had a way of looking at you, but not straight on. He tucked his chin, lowered his gaze, his thick brows hooded. His eyes danced with amusement. His chiseled jaw line highlighted when he grinned.

He was toying with me.

Even with our past, I found him disturbingly handsome. The big house had been good to him. He had beefed up a little. His hair had grown out on top, making his very loose curls hang a little on his forehead. He was hot in a bad boy, James Dean way.

In fact, we used to joke how he was my James Dean and I was his Marilyn. And we see how both of them ended up. Dead.

“Baby.” He put his hands out. The hands that gave me so much pleasure, so much comfort when I didn’t think I had a family who loved me.

I could feel the power of his gaze and how the hunger in him arose without warning.

I jutted the gun when he took a step.

“Don’t you dare,” I warned. “You are a criminal and I’m going to turn you in.”

“Laurel London,” Trixie spat. “You put that gun down. We have company.”

I ignored her. I kept my eyes on the prize.

“I’m not going to give this two-timing, bank robber, FBI killer any leeway.” My eyes narrowed.

“I’m none of those, baby.” He tapped the table with his finger, all cool and collected.

“You cheated on me with Sally Bent. I’m no one’s second place and I’m certainly not a backup plan, so you mosey your little ass on over to Sally’s to hide while I call the FBI.” I shoved the gun forward. “Go on, Trixie. Call the police.”