The Prey Bites Back: A Jesse Watson Mystery Book #8 (21 page)

Lightning
reared its ugly head and the room lit up like a solar flare. A clap of thunder
silenced us all. It was a loud, rumbling noise that seemed to go on forever.

Athena came
running up to us from wherever she’d been hiding, and started prancing around.
When she finally stopped, she just stood there trembling.

Billy looked at
Helene. “Did you give her one of those pills?”

“Yes, I did as
soon as you asked me to.”

“This might be
a two-pill moment. I have a feeling this storm’s going to be worse than the
last, and you know how bad that one was.”

“Yeah, Mae got
struck by lightning.”

For a moment, I
had visions of Dakota Stone sneaking around, looking for ways to kill us… and
then getting struck by lightning. Wouldn’t that be ironic?

I had no idea how
quickly my thoughts were going to turn into reality.

Chapter 11

The rain was steadily coming
down, but that wasn’t bothering any of us as much as the dangerous lightning.
The thunder, although loud, was tolerable, but that lightning was a real
killer.

“The guys
shouldn’t be out in this mess,” Mom said. “It’s too dangerous. With all these
trees around, no one should be out there. If Dakota’s still hanging around, then
she’s crazy.”

Billy leaned
over the table and took a picture of one of the photos of Dakota and Olivia
with his cell phone. “I’m going to send this to Mason and get him to check your
house for one. You never know. She might’ve been there, too.”

“Why would she
go to my house?”

“She’s sending
us a message. She wants us to know that she can get to any one of us at any
time.”

“I just don’t
get it, Billy,” I said. “Why leave something so incriminating? It proves she’s
been in our house.”

“She’s trying
to intimidate us, so we’ll leave her alone. She thinks that if she causes
enough fear, we’ll back off, but I’ve got a surprise for her. She’s going
down.”

We sat at the
table, drinking coffee, and waiting to hear back from someone. If the storm
hadn’t come up, Billy would be out there searching with the guys, but since it
had, he wouldn’t leave us by ourselves.

“I’m worried
about Jonathan and the guys,” Mom said. “Call someone and see what’s going on.
I won’t be able to sleep until I know they’re home, safe and sound.”

To appease Mom,
Billy picked up his cell phone to make the call, but as he held it in his hand,
it rang. He looked at the screen and said, “It’s Mason.”

All of us
started asking questions at the same time, so he got up from the table and
walked down the hall. When he came back, he said, “Mason found the same photo
on your dresser, Minnie.”

Mom gasped.

“The good news
is, Kaleb has been found and he’s all right.” Billy looked at Mom. “She left
him at your house.” He waited for the news to sink in, and then added, “Mason
said he’s surprised the kid wasn’t hurt, because he got into a few things.”

“Like what?”

“Mainly, the
cabinet under your sink.”

“That’s where I
keep my cleaning supplies. Please tell me he didn’t drink any of that stuff.”

“No, he didn’t,
but he found the booze. An empty bottle lay on the kitchen floor, and Mason
said he smelled of bourbon when he found him in your closet.”

“He’s only three
years old, right?” I asked.

“No, he’s four,”
Mom replied. “Just old enough to get into something he shouldn’t.”

“Mason called
the sheriff the minute he found Kaleb. The rescue squad came out, picked him up
and took him to the hospital to have him checked out.”

“What’s going
to happen to him?
Savannah
’s in the hospital, so who will look after
the boy?”

“As soon as
they give him a clean bill of health, Cole will be taking him home with him.”

“Bless his
heart,” Mom said. “Cole’s a good man.”

“Yes, he is,”
Billy said. “I’m just wondering where Kaleb was when Cole went by the house
earlier.”

“He could’ve
been hiding under the bed for all we know. I’m sure he was scared. Who knows
what that woman did to him? She could’ve terrorized the poor kid.”

“He’s been
found and he’s going to be all right. We know he’ll be safe with Cole.”

“Yeah,” Helene
said. “If you can’t be safe with a deputy, then who can you be safe with? Cole
knows how to take care of Kaleb. I just hope
Savannah
survives to be with her son.”

Billy’s cell
phone went off again and he automatically got up and started walking down the
hall. The three of us wanted to hear the conversation, so Helene told Mom to go
listen, but Mom refused.

“He’ll tell us
when he gets back. Don’t be so impatient.”

In the
meantime, in between the thunder, we could hear the sound of sirens. They
seemed to be getting louder and louder. Helene, Mom, and I stared at each
other, wondering if the cops were coming here.

After what
seemed like an eternity, Billy walked back into the room. We waited with baited
breath to hear what he had to say.

“That was
Jonathan, and those sirens you hear are coming this way. We’ve had a fatality
on the property over by the stable at Mom’s house. A woman was struck and
killed by lightning, and it wasn’t Dakota Stone.”

“Well, then who
was it?”

“We don’t know,
yet, but Gator and Lu Ann are looking into it. Jonathan sent them a picture of
her face from his cell phone, and he sent one to me. She looks pretty bad, but
if anyone wants to have a look… maybe one of you will recognize her. I have to
warn you that it’s rather ugly. Jonathan thinks she must’ve been leaning up
against a tree or sitting under it when it when lightning struck the tree. She
got thrown a few feet. Her body’s mangled, that’s why he just sent a pic of the
face, which has some pretty bad burns.”

Before we had
the opportunity to have a look, Billy’s cell went off. A few seconds later, he
said to us, “Lu Ann went to
The Body Shop
website and she’s pretty sure
the woman is Nancy Woodward, the nutritionist.”

“That’s her
name!” Mom said. “I couldn’t remember it before, but now that you’ve said it, I
remember. I can’t believe it was her. She’s such a nitwit. I’m sorry to be so rude
for saying that, but the woman ain’t real bright. I can’t believe she’s part of
Dakota’s gang.”

“Oh, she’s the
best kind. She’s expendable.”

“She might’ve
planted those photos, Billy, but I don’t think she could pull off a kidnapping.
She’s just not smart enough.”

“Don’t be so
sure, Minnie. It doesn’t take a lot of brains to snatch and grab, just speed
and the element of surprise. Stick a gun in someone’s face and they’ll usually
cooperate, especially when a child’s involved.”

Helene waved
her hand. “I’ll bet that
Nancy
woman did it all—the kidnapping and that
stupid photo-planting stunt. If she’s as dimwitted as Minnie says she is, she’d
make the perfect patsy, and we all know patsies can do a lot of harm before
they stumble over their own feet. Leaving those photos… I’m still trying to
figure out what that was all about.”

Billy smiled.
“Oh, I know what it’s about. Dakota was leaving a calling card. She wanted us
to have something to remember her by while she’s sitting on a beach in
California
… or wherever it is she’s headed to next.”

I added my
opinion. “Dakota isn’t the kind of woman who gets her hands dirty, nor would
she take a chance of getting arrested for such a petty crime as trespassing.
She gets her underlings to do her dirty work. If they don’t live up to her
expectations, she gets rid of them… like she did Gavin Preston. Nancy Woodward
was nobody to her, but I bet she didn’t plan on this.”

“She won’t
care.”

“No, she
won’t.”

“I bet it sure
put a snag in her plans. Perhaps, Nancy Woodward wasn’t finished. She might’ve
had other orders to carry out.”

“I guess Dakota
will just have to do it herself.”

My cell phone
vibrated and then rang. I looked down at the screen and then back up at Billy.
“
The Body Shop
.”

“Answer it. I’ll
see if Gator can trace the call.” He walked over to the kitchen and whispered
into his phone.

I put my finger
to my lips, touched the answer icon, and then hit speaker. I also hit the
record button. “Jesse Blackhawk here. What can I do for you, Dakota? Want me to
go out and kill someone for you?”

“My, aren’t we
cheerful?” she replied. “No, not today. I just wanted to say goodbye and tell
you what an experience it was to have known you and your family.”

“I hope it was
pleasant.”

“How’s Eddie
doing, by the way? That old man must be pretty strong to survive that kind of
beating. Most men his age would’ve died.”

“Oh, he’ll live
to fight another day, and so will I, but thanks for your concern. It’s so
touching.”

“I told Gavin
to kill your mother, but he let me down. He let me down in so many ways.
What’ll you do with a man who isn’t committed?”

Mom’s face was
getting redder by the minute. I knew she was about ready to grab the phone and
scream at the woman, so I held up my hand to keep her from saying or doing anything.

She slumped
back in her chair and didn’t say a word. She knew how important this call could
be.

“
Preston
wasn’t a bad guy until he met you. You poison everyone
with your insanity. What’s wrong with you? Did your father sexually abuse you
as a child?”

I was trying my
best to rile her, but she remained unflappable.

“Poor
Nancy
. Too bad she was too stupid to get out of the storm. What do you
do with someone who’s smart enough to do all the things she’s done for you, yet
too dumb to get out of the rain? I tried with her, I really did.”

“How do you
know what happened to her? She was only found thirty minutes ago.”

“Jesse, you’re
so naïve. I know everything. I do have a police scanner. Doesn’t everyone?” She
laughed. “I know about your security system, which I must say is very
impressive.”

“Then you knew
she’d get caught.”

“Not if the
timing was right, and it was. I didn’t, however, expect her to go and get
killed.”

“I guess that
means you’d better leave town in a hurry.”

“I know about your
friend
Savannah
.”

“What about
Savannah
, other than the fact that you stuffed her in your dryer?”

“That was
unfortunate, but necessary.”

“We found the
kid.”

“Of course you
did. I told
Nancy
to leave him, but she wouldn’t. She was
afraid he’d hurt himself if he was left alone, so she took him too. I made her
take him back. He was getting on my nerves. All that crying…”

“You’re a sick
b…”

“Your
ex-boyfriend, Deputy Cole James, murdered
Savannah
’s
husband. Did you know that?”

“You’re such a
liar. He killed McCoy in self-defense.”

“Yeah, that’s
what they all say, but she knows the truth. Why don’t you ask her?”

“I don’t have
to. I know what happened. You’re just trying to stir up trouble, but it won’t
work. You’ve misjudged me. I’m not as gullible as you think.”

“Don’t you just
hate Cole for dumping you for
Savannah
?”

“It didn’t play
out that way and you know it.”

“Did you know
Billy was seeing his ex-wife, Ruth?”

For a second,
that was like a slap in the face. Anytime someone tells you your husband is
cheating on you, it hits a nerve. I bit my lip and remained calm. I knew she
was lying about that little tidbit. She was trying to turn us against each
other.

“Yeah, we’ve
got a threesome going on. Can we talk about something else?”

Helene
snickered, and I gave her the evil eye.

“Thanks for the
photos. I’ll remember you always.”

“You want to
know why I am the way I am, don’t you?”

“It’s not top on
the list of my priorities, but if you need to tell me, I’m listening.”

Billy waved and
gave me the thumb’s up. They had traced the call and we now knew where she was.
He mouthed the words,
“Omni Hotel,
Charlottesville
.”

“We could talk
more, if you’d like. I can come to the Omni, or you can come here.”

“God, it’s
about time your trace went through. I was beginning to think I’d have to talk
to you all day. No, I’ll have to pass, perhaps another time.”