Kill Shot (32 page)
The coastline was beautiful and she wished Oz was with her to enjoy the thrilling sights. She shook her head and took a deep breath to banish the thought. Wasn’t it Oz and her fear of being in the box that she was trying to get away from?
Having the all-powerful Oz make every decision set her teeth on edge. Didn’t she want to make her own choices for a while?
She pulled into a roadside park to drink a soda and snap a few photos.
Maybe she wasn’t fleeing from Oz. Maybe it was her inability to step up to the challenge.
She started her car and headed in the direction of her dreams.
#
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Oz stood up when the prisoner was brought into the visiting room of the jail. The guard helped the prisoner into the chair and glanced at Oz to see if he wanted him shackled, but Oz shook his head. The guard left them together.
“Hello, Mr. Jobe.” He took a seat in the chair across from him. “Are your medications being administered correctly?”
“Yes, thank you.” Jobe looked pale and weary.
Oz cleared his throat. “Mrs. Jobe was adamant that you take your pills on time to prevent breakthrough pain from your rheumatoid arthritis.”
“You’re correct.” Jobe eyed him with more interest.
“You must love your wife a lot.”
“Of course I do.”
“I understand that,” he said. “Because I also love someone. Someone I’d die for.” Oz and Jobe stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment.
“Do you have children?” Jobe asked.
“I hope to one day.”
“When you do, you’ll understand that the mother of your child is the most important person in the world. You can forgive a lot because she has given you the most valuable gift you could ever hope to receive.” Jobe smiled his thin-lipped smile. “Immortality.”
“A son,” Oz said.
“A son to carry on my name. Trey is the third Hobart Jobe and I hope he will live up to it.” The old man coughed a deep racking cough.
Oz looked around for the guard, but Jobe waved him away.
“It’s alright. I won’t be around to see Trey grow up, but he will be given the best education and privileges. He will want for nothing.”
Oz sent him a wry smile. “Except his old man. Having your father around sometimes means more than wealth and privilege.”
“No choice in the matter,” Jobe said, a wheeze in his voice. “I’ve got a couple of years, at best.”
“Just between the two of us, Sir, you contracted with Phillip Luka to kill Jason?”
“Just between the two of us, Officer, I did, but when your little photographer was taking pictures so close to where Jason and Laurel were meeting, I was afraid she might have captured something to involve Laurel.”
“So you called Luka off Jason and got him to go after the photographer?” Oz tried to keep the edge out of his voice.
Jobe sighed. “That was a mistake. I didn’t mean for her to get hurt. I should have just offered her money for the photos. That’s what she agreed to in the end.”
“And then Luka was arrested.”
“That’s when I decided to take matters into my own hands.”
Involuntarily, Oz’s gaze fell on Jobe’s somewhat misshapen hands, folded quietly on the table. The knuckles were enlarged and knobby but his nails were immaculately manicured. When he glanced back at Jobe, he found him with an amused smile on his face.
“Jason wasn’t expecting me to act. He was such a smug, egotistical bastard. Of all the men Laurel amused herself with he was the worst. He actually thought he could take her away from me.” Jobe’s voice died away in a dry chortle.
“Mr. Jobe,” Oz said. “Did you think we wouldn’t notice that your grip is too weak for you to have fired the gun that killed Jason Best? That you can no longer even sign your name, let alone drag a one-hundred-eighty pound man a distance of over a hundred feet to hide his body behind a dumpster?”
Jobe’s expression turned grim. “You might figure it out, but what’s the point? You have your confession and I’ll be dead before the case comes to trial.”
“I truly admire what you’re trying to do, sir,” Oz said. “But, I can’t let you get away with it.”
Jobe leaned closer so that only Oz could hear. “Yes you can. I’ll make it worth your while to lose whatever evidence you think you have and let me finish what I’ve started.” He leaned back in his chair, looking very tired. “If you won’t do it for yourself, think of the one you say you’re in love with. I’m sure there’s something you could give your special lady to make her dreams come true.”
#
Laurel Jobe answered the door to the penthouse. She looked tired, but it could have been because she wore no make up and her hair was pulled back in a loose pony tail.
She stood in the partially opened doorway, looking up at Oz with a wary expression. “What a surprise,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d be the recipient of any more of your unannounced visits, Officer.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, Ma’am,” Oz said. “Were you on your way out?”
The stroller stood close to the door and young Hobart Jobe the third stood close to his mother.
“I was getting ready to take Trey to the park. Lissa’s off every other Sunday.”
“Where is your chauffer?” Oz asked.
Laurel shrugged her shoulders. “Beats the hell out of me. Javier left without notice. I think having all the police around made him nervous.”
“I’ll walk with you, if you don’t mind,” Oz said.
She eyed him briefly and then turned to get her bag.
Oz lifted Trey into his stroller and was fastening a harness when Laurel turned back.
She smiled at him, the wariness momentarily lifting from her expression. “You’ve got a way with kids. Trey usually doesn’t like it when strangers touch him. He always makes a big fuss.” She gestured to the door and Oz pushed the stroller out into the foyer as she locked it behind them.
“I like kids,” Oz said. “I hope to have a couple of my own someday.” He guided the stroller into the waiting elevator and Laurel pushed the button for the ground floor.
“You’ll be a great father,” she said.
Silently, they crossed into the park, each with their own thoughts.
Oz was thinking about Micki photographing a bride in this park just a few short weeks ago and how they’d come to be back together again. At least he hoped they were still together.
“Mrs. Jobe,” he began.
“Laurel, please,” she said.
“Laurel,” he said. “I met with your husband this morning.”
She turned to him. “You did? How is he?”
Oz looked down at her. “He’s in very good spirits for a man facing first degree murder charges.”
Laurel’s eyes filled with tears. “Hobart is so brave.”
“Brave?” Oz asked. “He’s being charged with killing your boyfriend in cold blood. It was pre-meditated. Don’t you have any feelings about that?”
“Of course, but Hobart is my husband. He was acting out of love. He thought he was protecting me.”
“From what? Jason was your hired hand. Couldn’t you fire him as your trainer, like you did with Randal Knox?”
Laurel shrugged. “I tried to break it off several times, but with Jason it was so much more. He was deeply in love with me. He wanted everything.”
“Jason wanted you to leave your husband?”
“Yes, he thought that there would be a divorce settlement and that he would have me and be able to spend the rest of his life living in luxury.” She shook her head.
“He didn’t know about the pre-nuptial agreement?” Oz lifted the corners of his mouth in a brief smile when Laurel gasped in surprise.
“How did you know about the pre-nup?” she demanded. “No one knows what’s in it except for Hobart and me.”
“Your husband told me.” Oz enjoyed her discomfort for the moment. “He said you would walk away with nothing if you’d chosen to leave him, including custody of the child.”
She twisted her hands together and pursed her lips. “I can’t believe that Hobart told you about that.”
“He also told me that he hired a sniper to murder Jason in the park that Monday.”
Laurel made a sound in her throat. “I wish I’d known. That would have been so much easier.”
He shook his head. “For your husband to murder your lover?”
Laurel nodded. “For it to have been done from a distance. Or, as a random shooting. I could have left Jason sitting on the park bench and someone could have walked up and shot him. Very anonymously.”
“Is that how you planned it?”
She met his steady gaze.
“Your husband told me,” he said.
“He did?”
Oz nodded. “He also offered me a lot of money to cover it up.”
“Thank God!” Laurel heaved a huge sigh. “He told you what I did?”
“Some of it,” Oz said. “I know he didn’t shoot Jason. Your husband couldn’t have fired the shot that killed him and he couldn’t have dragged the body any distance.”
She shook her head. “No, Hobart would never have done something so distasteful.”
“Did you pull the trigger or was it someone else?”
“It was Javier’s cousin, Israel. He was supposed to walk up and shoot Jason in the park on that day, but he saw the photographer and she took his picture. I didn’t know anything about the sniper Hobart had hired.”
“And when the next opportunity presented itself, this Israel popped Jason and shoved him behind the dumpster?”
Laurel was nodding her head absently. “It was too close to home. He should have done it somewhere else.”
“But you paid him anyway?”
“I paid Israel and that weasel Javier. It was he who arranged everything. He nearly peed his pants every time you showed up at the penthouse.”
“I see,” Oz said. “Laurel Jobe, I’m placing you under arrest for the murder-for-hire of Jason Best.” Oz removed the handcuffs from his belt and cuffed Laurel’s hands behind her.
“What? I thought you said that Hobart was giving you a lot of money to cover up what I did?”
“No, Ma’am,” Oz said. “I said he offered me a lot of money. I didn’t say I’d taken it.”
Oz read Laurel her rights and called for a patrol car to take her down to the station. He called Lissa from the front desk and asked her to come and take charge of young Hobart Jobe the third until his father could be released from custody.
#
It was dark when Micki got back to the city. Oz was probably asleep. She drove to his apartment and parked on the street a block away. Taking her camera case, she left her other bag locked in the trunk.
The lights were off when she unlocked the door. Micki smiled when she stepped inside. It was so quiet, she wondered for a moment if Oz had gone out.
She placed her camera case and purse on the coffee table and took a deep breath. If Oz had gone out to spend an evening with Fawn, then Micki had made the wrong decision. She closed her eyes tight, not wanting to think about Oz holding another woman...kissing her.
“God, Micki, you could have called.”
Her eyes flew open as he flipped the lights on. Oz was in his boxers with his Glock dangling from his hand.
Relief washed over her as she stood grinning foolishly at him. She couldn’t think of anything to say that would express how she felt. Relieved that he was standing ready to shoot an intruder. Grateful that he wasn’t seeking solace in the arms of another woman.
Oz set the gun on the table and gave her his little one-sided grin. “So, you’re home?”
Micki nodded as tears pricked her eyes. “Almost.” She took a running leap into his arms, glad that he caught her and glad that he held her so tight. “Now I’m home.”
“I hope so.” His lips caressed her hair. “I really hope so.”
“Let’s go to the bedroom,” Micki said.
“No problem.” Oz slipped his arm under her knees and carried her to his bed. “We need to talk.”
“That sounds ominous.” She took in Oz’ somber expression. “You’ve been hiding something from me.”
“Just waiting for the right moment to tell you.”
“This is the right moment?”
“As good as any,” he said. “Let’s get in bed.”
They curled up together on the bed, facing each other. Oz reached out to take her hand and kiss the ring he’d placed on her finger.
“You know that I love you very much,” he said.
She nodded, her hair making a scrunching sound against the pillow. “Yes, and you know that I love you, don’t you.”
“Yes, but it’s been kind of scary with you taking off like you did. I didn’t know if you were coming back or not.”
“You knew I’d be back.”
He frowned, his gaze held a trace of sadness. “Not really. Micki you’re the scariest person I’ve ever known. There’s something burning inside you, something that I can’t reach.”
She sighed. “I’ve been trying to find out what it is myself.”
“What I have to tell you may help you make that choice.” He kissed her gently. “And I don’t know if you’ll want to stay with me or go off exploring again.”
Her stomach twisted as she took in his serious expression. “Tell me,” she whispered.
