The Prey Bites Back: A Jesse Watson Mystery Book #8 (22 page)

“Say hello to
your girlfriend, Olivia, for me. I didn’t know you were a lesbian, but hey,
that doesn’t bother me if you like women instead of men. To each his own—isn’t
that what they say?”

I thought I
heard someone in the background say something, and then Dakota laughed. “My
girlfriend’s waiting on me, so I’m going to have to say goodbye. I’ll check up
on you in a few months… after we get settled in.”

She
disconnected before I could say anything else.

I looked around
at everyone. “I recorded her confessing to a whole bunch of crimes, but it
won’t mean a thing if she’s not apprehended. We have to catch her before she
makes her getaway. She’s good at changing her identity. She’ll go into the abyss
and never be heard from again.”

Billy picked up
my cell phone.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m sending
this recording to Sheriff Hudson. If he had any doubts about who killed
Preston
, this should clear it up. I just hope he doesn’t believe
the part about Cole. We know she was lying.”

I didn’t want
to say it, but I felt compelled to. “Billy, I had some doubts about what
happened that day, too, and it wasn’t because I was jealous or anything. Those
days are long gone. If you send that recording, it just might light a fire
under the sheriff’s butt and cause Cole a whole lot of grief he doesn’t
deserve. You might want to rethink that text.”

“I knew she was
a lesbian,” Helene said, giggling. “That’s why she hates men.”

“You did not!”

“Come on,
Minnie. Don’t tell me you didn’t think the same thing.”

“She’s not a
lesbian, Helene.” I said.

“She said she
was.”

“No, she didn’t,
she laughed, remember?”

“Yeah, so
what?”

“Coming out of
the closet or being exposed, isn’t something someone laughs about. I think there’s
a side to this story we haven’t considered. Maybe we’ve been looking at this
all wrong. I was thinking about a movie I saw where two women meet on a plane,
talk about how they hate their husbands, and then make a pact to kill them off.
They don’t know each other, so there’s no connection between the two. Dakota
kills off Olivia’s husband, and in return, Olivia kills off Dakota’s husband.
Then, the two hook up and run off together.”

“Hmm… now
that’s a thought.”

“There’s no
information on either one of them that goes any further back than five years
ago. It’s as if their lives started then. I say, what happened five years ago?”

Billy smiled.
“That’s my `ge ya. I think you might have something there.”

“Yeah, but it’s
going to be hard to track down. We don’t know where they lived at the time they
met. We don’t even know what state they lived in. They could’ve come from
Canada
for all we know. It’d be like looking for a needle in a
haystack.”

Billy handed my
cell phone to me. “Call her back and see if she answers.”

“And if she
does, what do you want me to say to her?”

“Oh, I don’t
know…” Billy paced while trying to come up with something, and then he stopped.
“Lie to her. Tell her we have
Nancy
’s cell phone. If she takes the bait, I’m
sure you’ll be able to put a spin on the story.”

Helene got up,
walked to the kitchen to refill her cup, and then looked back at us. “If she
answers, tell her that our guy is tracking the
GPS
in
her car… that he locked on it when he traced her cell phone to the hotel. He
hacked into their cameras, and saw her get in her car. Boom! She’s busted.”

Mom grinned. “Forget
about telling her we have
Nancy
’s cell phone. Tell her that
Nancy
didn’t die.”

“Ah, you ladies
are so devious.” Billy smiled again, and then looked back at me. “Make the
call, Jesse. We don’t have a thing to lose.”

Billy’s cell
phone beeped, signaling an incoming text. After reading the message, he
laughed, and then looked over at Helene. “You should be a detective. Gator did
exactly what you just said.”

“You mean you
can actually do that?”

“Yep, but it
means hacking into DMV to get the VIN number, and then hacking into the
carmaker for the
GPS
code. Easy as pie, if you know what
you’re doing, but you have to be really good not to get caught. Gator and Mason
are two of the best hackers you’ll ever meet. She’s on I-64 heading east.”

“I’d love to be
able to do that.”

“Do what,
Helene, be a hacker?”

“Yeah, Minnie,
just think of how much fun that would be.”

“With my luck,
I’d get caught and wind up at Gitmo, getting tortured by two big, burley
military men.”

Helene laughed
so hard at Mom, coffee shot out of her nose. After she regained her composure,
she wiped her face and was still chuckling when she asked her how she knew
about Gitmo.

“I watch the
news. I know all about that place.”

“All right,
everybody be quiet. I’m calling Dakota.”

Billy got
another text and stopped me. “Hold off a minute. Let’s see what we have here
first. Hmm… Dakota jacked a car from the hotel parking lot. Gator says it’s
registered to one of the guests.”

“How does he
know that,” Mom asked. “Did he hack into the hotel’s computer, too?”

“Yes, he sure
did. The car wasn’t registered to
The Body Shop
, so he compared the
owner’s name to the guest list at the hotel. The car belongs to Ray Forester—a
white Toyota Camry. I told you he was good.”

“I got plenty
to tell her now, so can I make the call, or is there anything else?”

“Go ahead.”

“She won’t
answer,” Helene said, recovering from her coffee blast. “She’s probably already
dumped the phone.”

I made the call,
and much to everyone’s surprise, Dakota did answer.

“Hello, Jesse. I
sure didn’t expect to hear from you so soon. What can I do for you?”

“First thing
you might want to do is dump the stolen car. Ray Forester wants his white
Toyota Camry back.”

We heard a
noise in the background like a glove box being opened, and then papers being
shuffled around.

“Got you
thinking, haven’t I? By the way, how’s the weather on I-64? Is it still storming
there? It sure is here. I’m telling you, this storm is the worst I’ve seen in a
long time. It’s a real killer, but fortunately for
Nancy
, it didn’t kill her. That’s right, she’s still alive. I can’t
wait to hear what she has to tell the cops. My… my… what a mess you left
behind. She’s going to lead them straight to you.”

“I’ll be way gone
by then.”

“Oh, honey,
she’s already awake. She took an indirect hit and was revived. You can thank
Jonathan for that. He gave her CPR until the ambulance arrived. Just thought
you’d like to know.”

“You’re lying.”

“You might want
to send one of your buddies over to
UVA
Hospital
and have her killed. Oh, that’s right, you don’t have any
friends left except Olivia Swales. You killed off all the rest. Well… except
me.”

“We’re not
friends.”

“We’re not? Now
that hurts my feelings. I thought we were pals, best buds and all.”

We heard some
kind of racket, tires screeching, and then the line went dead.

I disconnected
and looked around at everyone. “Sounds to me like she tossed the phone out the
window. I guess she didn’t like what I had to say. That’s too bad. I’ll miss
our conversations.” I rolled my eyes.

“And those
tires we heard squealing was probably her getting off the interstate,” Billy
said. “I bet she’s on her way to
UVA
Hospital
to tie up loose ends. Good going, `ge ya.” He kissed my
forehead. “You put doubts in her mind about
Nancy
being
dead, and now she can’t flee while there’s still a witness left behind. She has
to kill Nancy Woodward. I told you she’d make a mistake. When she comes back,
the cops will be waiting for her.”

“Throwing her
cell phone out the window was pretty stupid.” Mom rubbed her forehead. “I don’t
get it. Why didn’t she just call the hospital and find out the truth? That’s
all she had to do.”

Helene looked
at Mom. “The hospital won’t give out that information over the phone, Minnie. No…
she has to go there to find out anything. I think Billy’s right. She’s coming
back to tie up loose ends. If
Nancy
had died, she’d be free and clear to make
a run for it, but now that she thinks
Nancy
might be
alive, she has to do something to shut her up. She’s coming back to kill her.”

Billy picked up
his cell phone. “I’m going to call Sheriff Hudson and tell him about Dakota
calling Jesse… and I’m also going to tell him she’s on I-64.” He looked around at
the three of us. “He’ll want to know how we knew she was on I-64, so I’m going
to say she told Jesse. We don’t want to tell him the whole truth about this
one. It wouldn’t play well for any of us.”

I smiled. “Tell
him she’s driving a white
Toyota
, and that she bragged about stealing it
from the parking lot of the Omni Hotel where she’s been hiding.”

“Before I call
the sheriff, I have one thing to do first.” Billy lay his phone down, picked up
mine, and made a call to Jonathan. “Hack into Jesse’s phone and retrieve her
recorded calls. That’s right… yes… permanently delete them from her phone.
Okay… that’s fine. Do whatever it is you do. Yeah… I’m getting ready to call
the sheriff and tell him where she is. I will. I’ll let you know.” When the
call was complete, Billy handed me the phone. “It’s done. The calls you
recorded have been downloaded to a secure place in Jonathan’s system, and deleted
from your phone.”

Mom rubbed her
eyes. “Hurry up and call the sheriff, Billy. I need to know if it’s safe for me
to go to bed. I’m bushed.”

Billy called
the sheriff, put the phone on speaker, and then laid it on the table.

“I hope you
have something for me, Blackhawk. I’m pretty busy at the moment.”

“Then, I’ll get
right to the point. Dakota Stone called Jesse about thirty minutes ago. She
told her she was on I-64 in a white
Toyota
,
heading east. She’s making a run for it like we said she would.”

“Why would she
tell Jesse that, unless it was a lie to throw us off-track?”

“She might be
lying, but I don’t think so. You know how Jesse can be when it comes to riling
someone up. Dakota didn’t stand a chance against my woman.”

“I agree
there.”

I smiled.

“Dakota bragged
about stealing the car from the Omni, where she’d been staying. However, she
got quite upset when Jesse told her that Nancy Woodward wasn’t dead. She’s
coming back, Sheriff.”

“But Nancy
Woodward is dead.”

“Yeah, and
Dakota heard that on your police scanner, but Jesse convinced her that the
initial report was wrong, and
Nancy
is still alive.”

“All right,
Billy. I’ll check it out, but you’d better be right. The State Police don’t
take kindly to wild goose chases, and neither do I. Waste our time and people
die.”

“I don’t think
it’ll be a waste of time, Sheriff.”

“Okay… I’ll
contact Captain Trainum and let him know she might be coming his way.”

“Who?”

“Your old pal, Frank
Trainum.”

My sister,
Claire, and I were the first to meet Frank Trainum a few years ago when her
scumbag ex-husband, Carl, kidnapped her kids and took them to D.C. to the house
where they had lived. In the middle of the night, Billy and his brothers
rescued the kids and brought them home safely, and then Carl mysteriously
disappeared, leaving a dead body in his basement. Claire and I found the body.
That was our introduction to Detective Frank Trainum. He didn’t particularly
care for me, but that changed somewhat when he fell in love with a woman named Alexandra
and moved to
Charlottesville
.

“What happened
to Captain Mealphall?”

“Misfortune. His
guys botched a big case and someone had to take the fall, so he was asked to
retire. That better not happen to me, Blackhawk. If this turns out to be a load
of crock, I’m not going to be happy. Get my drift? I plan on being re-elected
in the next election, and you’d better not mess it up for me by… ”

“Just check it
out, Sheriff.”

The call ended
abruptly when the sheriff disconnected.

Billy looked at
us. “I guess all we can do now is wait and see what happens next. I sure hope
they catch her, because if they don’t, the sheriff’s going to be out for blood.”

“Do you hear
that?” I asked, looking around at everyone.