The Prey Bites Back: A Jesse Watson Mystery Book #8 (26 page)

The hospital
was a buzz of chaos. The snow had caused numerous accidents, and victims were
being brought in one right after the other. It was non-stop. Hospital staff was
running around shouting orders, while others were wheeling patients to
different destinations for treatment. Billy walked up to the woman manning the
desk and asked about Dakota Stone, and was told that she couldn’t have
visitors. Then he asked about
Savannah
.

“Are you
family?”

“Yes, she’s my
wife’s sister.” He pointed to me as the lies flowed. “We were told that she’s
awake now, and my wife wants to see her. It’s been such a trying time for us
since this happened. We’ve been so worried.”

The lady
punched keys on the computer, and then said, “Room three-sixteen.”

Billy grabbed
my hand and we speedily headed to the elevator. When we got to
Savannah
’s room, there was a policeman standing at her door. After
a brief conversation and a few more lies later, he allowed us to enter.

Savannah
looked awful. She was covered in bandages
and her face was badly burned. Her hair had been singed off to the roots. But
she was alive… and awake.

“Come on in,”
she said in a barely audible voice. “Don’t let… my looks fool you. The doctor
says… I’m going to be okay. I’m lucky… to be alive.”

Russell Shank
was sitting in a chair by her bedside. He’d once had a crush on
Savannah
, but it was short-lived, like all of his past crushes. However,
she was one of the few he had kept on as a friend. He stood when we walked into
the room, held out his hand to Billy and then to me, and asked us how we were
doing.

“We’re doing
well. How about yourself?”

We exchanged a
little small talk, and then
Savannah
spoke up. Her voice sounded scratchy. “The
doctor said I was lucky the firefighter got to me… when he did. The dryer had
protected me… from the flames… but the heat was unbearable. I had to get out. I
balled up… and gave the door a kick… crawled out… and that’s when the flames
got me. God… this has been a nightmare. I hurt… all over.”

I walked over
closer and lightly touched her shoulder. “You survived. That’s what counts.
It’ll take a little time to get back to normal, but then everything will be all
right.”

“When I came to
this morning… all I could think about was Kaleb.” She looked at Russell.
“Russell told me… that Cole’s taking care of him. Have you seen him?”

“No, but if
Cole’s taking care of him, I’m sure he’s fine.”

“I was so
afraid he’d… died in the explosion.” She looked back at Russell. “I don’t
remember much… after that woman knocked me out. I remember waking up… and
realizing I was in a dryer… and then I heard an explosion. I panicked when it…
started getting so hot.”
Savannah
closed her eyes and dozed off.

“She’s in and
out of it,” Russell whispered.

“Has Cole been
here?”

“He came earlier
this morning, but she was still unconscious. He’ll be back, I’m sure.”

“We hear you’re
Dakota Stone’s attorney.”

“She’s crazy,
Billy, but everyone deserves representation. They have her up in the
psychiatric ward. She’ll be lucky if she isn’t permanently committed to a nut
house. She has a lot of issues.”

“You can say
that again. We’re still trying to find out who she really is.”

Russell had a
strange look on his face. “What are you talking about?”

Billy explained
what we knew of the woman and all that had transpired since we’d met her,
ending with saying that she was a danger to our family. “She’s out for blood.”

I added my
account. “I was talking to her on the cell phone when she had the accident.
She’s going to blame me for the death of Olivia Swales, and she’ll be looking
for revenge. She has to be stopped.”

“I think she
has been. She’s handcuffed to her bed, and the minute the doctor says she can
go, Captain Trainum’s hauling her off to jail. I talked with him this morning.”

“Did he tell
you what the charges were?”

“The list is
long, but at the top of it is murder. Gavin Preston’s body was autopsied this
morning. I spoke with the medical examiner and he said the COD was poison, but
there’s no way they can lay this on the Stone woman without proof that she
actually did it. Trainum’s hoping to pull a few rabbits out of his hat.”

I smiled. “Meet
the rabbits.”

“What?”

“Just before he
died, Gavin Preston told us that she poisoned him with antifreeze.”

“Hearsay. Prove
it.”

“Don’t tell me
you believe that woman.”

“I didn’t say that.
All I said was prove it.” He looked at Billy. “Without proof, she’s going to
walk on the murder charge, if one is even filed. Trainum knows it. He’s
scrounging for evidence, but as it stands right now, he won’t be able to charge
her with murder. He’s threatening to, hoping to get a confession out of her,
but that’s not going to happen. And if he does get a confession, I’ll file a
diminished capacity claim.”

“I don’t
believe it. You’re taking her side.”

“Look… I’m just
telling you like it is. She’ll get a slap on the wrist for the accident, but
without hard evidence, she’ll walk. I’m just doing my job. When she called me,
I had no idea how deep this went. She paid me a retainer, so legally, I can’t
back out now. The judge would have my butt. I could lose my license to practice
law.”

“She’s not
mentally incompetent. She knows exactly what she’s doing. She’s acting.”

“That may well
be, but if she is, she’s doing a good job. She’s got the doctors convinced. Heck,
she even had me convinced. That’s why she’s in the psych unit. So… that’s where
this is headed. No evidence, no conviction.” He winked at us. “Get the
evidence, or walk away.”

“How are we
supposed to do that?”

“I don’t know.
Snoop around. That’s what you guys do best. Bring something to the table, or
she walks. Find the container laced with antifreeze… with her fingerprints on
it.”

“Yeah, right,
I’m sure that went up in flames when the bomb went off.”

“Not
necessarily.” Russell hesitated. “Talk to Jonathan’s wife. She’s a profiler. She
could probably give you some insight as to where the evidence might be, if
there is any. A serial killer always keeps something from their victims. Maybe
she has something in her suitcase.”

“You think
she’s a serial killer?”

“I didn’t say
that. I’m just giving you a place to start. Talk to Lu Ann.”

“You know more
than you’re telling us.”

“She’s my
client. I can’t divulge aspects of the case, unless it comes out in court. Do
your job, and let me do mine.”

“She’s
confessed something to you, hasn’t she?”

“That’s all I
can tell you. The rest is confidential and was said under extreme duress. She
wasn’t coherent when she was brought to the hospital. When I first talked to
her, all she did was rant. Half of what she said is suspect. I’m going to talk
with her again after I leave
Savannah
, but I won’t be able to share.”

“Well… thanks
for the advice, Russell.” Billy looked at me, and then shook Russell’s hand.
“I’m glad I’m not in your shoes. I imagine this is hard on you, what with us
being friends and all. You do what you have to, and we’ll do the same. No hard
feelings.”

“Glad to hear
it.”

“Tell
Savannah
that Minnie will probably come see her now that she can
have visitors. She’s been worried sick about her.”

“I’ll be sure
to tell her.”

Billy and I
turned and walked out of the room.

“What next, kemosabe?
Where do we go from here?”

“To the truck
first. We have a date, remember?”

“Oh, you bad
boy.”

The wind had
picked up and the snow had gotten heavier. Once we were seated in the truck,
Billy started it and then sat there for a minute, thinking.

“What’s on your
mind? What happened to our date?” I looked around at the people getting in and
out of their cars. “I guess we’ll have to wait. Too many people around.”

“I was just
thinking about what Russell said about finding the evidence.”

“And…”

“Something
Preston
said has got me wondering.”

“Wondering
about what?”

“If I told you
that I had been giving you wine with poison in it, and then I set the bottle
down in front of you, what’s the first thing you’d do?”

I thought for a
second. “I’d grab the bottle and head for the hospital.”

“Exactly, but
Preston
didn’t go to the hospital, he was way too sick by that
time. He knew it was too late to save himself, so he came to us. He wanted to
do the right thing. I think the bottle might be in his car.”

“And we still
have the car, don’t we?”

“We certainly
do.”

Billy put the
truck in gear, backed out of the parking space, and drove to the garage exit.
Once he paid the parking fee, we were on our way back home. The going was slow,
and I was getting antsy.

“Can’t you
drive any faster?”

“I could, but
I’d rather make it back alive.” He wiped the inside of the windshield with his
hand, and then reached over to turn up the defroster. When he looked back up,
the traffic had come to a stop. He had to hit the brakes to keep from running
into the car in front of us. The truck skidded, but finally came to a halt just
in time.

He wiped his
forehead with his hand. “I need to slow down. That was close.”

“We’re crawling
as it is, Billy.” I reached over and touched his leg. “You’re doing fine. If
I’d been driving, I probably would’ve hit that car. We’re excited because we
think
Preston
took the wine bottle and it might be in
his car, but it might not be, so forget about being in a hurry.
Preston
’s SUV might not have anything in it at all. I’m sorry I
tried to rush you. I should know better.”

“We never
searched it.”

“I’ll call
Jonathan and ask him if anyone searched
Preston
’s car.”
I took out my cell phone and hit the speed dial number for Jonathan. A minute
later, I disconnected and said, “The car wasn’t searched. Jonathan’s meeting us
at Beth’s with her house key.”

It took us
forty minutes to make the twenty minute drive. The snow was still coming down
harder than ever, and as predicted, the roads had been a mess. When we pulled
up to Beth’s house, Jonathan was already in the garage waiting for us.

“Have you
searched the car?”

“No, I just got
here.” Jonathan aimed the keypad, hit the button, and unlocked the doors and
the hatchback. “What are you looking for?”

“A bottle of
wine.”

Chapter 14

The bottle we were looking for
lay on the floorboard of the passenger seat wedged underneath the seat. The
pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall together, and we now had the
evidence we needed to put Dakota Stone in prison for the murder of Gavin
Preston. Without thinking, I went to grab the bottle.

“Don’t touch
it!” Jonathan yelled, and then grabbed my arm. “Fingerprints, remember? You
need gloves.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out two pairs of latex gloves
and handed us a pair. “I’m sorry, Jesse. I didn’t mean to yell at you, but we
don’t need for the boys in the lab to find your prints on that bottle. You
could be implicated, and we sure don’t want that to happen. Are you okay?” He
hugged me. “I’m just looking after you.”

“I know you
are. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I know better than to touch evidence. I
guess I was just too excited to think straight.” I looked at Billy. “What do we
do now?”

“We call the
sheriff.”

“He never asked
us where
Preston
’s car was. I mean, we already told him
Preston
came to us, so why didn’t he ask about the car?”

“I don’t know,
but I wasn’t about to bring it up. I knew he’d get to it sooner or later. He’s
got a lot going on, just like we have. Let’s look a little closer before we
call in the cavalry.”

The SUV was
clean. The only thing we found was the wine bottle, but that was all we needed
to bring down Dakota Stone. She was going to fry for killing Gavin Preston.

Jonathan looked
at Billy. “So who do we call, Sheriff Hudson or Captain Trainum?”

“I say we call
both.” I had recovered from the shock of having Jonathan yell at me. “We don’t
want to leave anyone out. They might think we’re hiding something.”

Billy winked at
me. “Oh, that time has come and gone. We have been hiding something—this car. I
guess we’ll have to answer for that also.”