by Gen Griffin
Most of all he would remember that it hadn't worked. Even as the ambulance broke every traffic law known to man on its way to the hospital in Baker County, Addison knew that they would never arrive in time to save Jerry. Jerry Walker had been dead the moment he'd hit the ground.
Chapter 65
“Well, well, well. Look who finally found his way back to dry land.”
“What are you doing here?” Ian stared at the baby blue Audi that was blocking the entrance way to the otherwise deserted boat landing and wished he was dead.
April Lynne was dead. He was going to jail for burglary at best and murder at worst. Katie wasn't going to have any problems convincing a judge that he didn't deserve any custody whatsoever of Hannah Mae. Even Frank wasn't going to be able to save him this time.
It was hard to believe that he'd been on top of the world just a few short days ago with nearly 10K in his pocket and April Lynne at his side. Now he was soaking wet, half-frozen and Kerry was looking at him as if he knew every horrible secret Ian was hiding.
“I could ask you the same thing.” Kerry leaned against the window frame of his car. He'd rolled the window all the way down despite the godawful cold weather.
“I took my boat out for the day.”
“And came home without it,” Kerry pointed out snidely.
“I had to take a shit. I thought I'd beached it good. It floated away.” Ian jammed his hands down into his wet pockets. It had taken him hours to make his way back to land after he'd wrecked Addison's precious bass boat. Never in a million years would he have expected to find Kerry, or anyone else, waiting here for him. If he'd known that Kerry was waiting for him, he would have crawled away through the bushes rather than walked down the pavement in plain sight.
“You've got a warrant out for your arrest,” Kerry smirked at him. “I never thought I'd see the day you were brought to justice. I can't wait to see you locked up in a little bitty cell to rot.”
Ian frowned at him. “Ain't no one put out a warrant for me. Frank wouldn't have let them go to the judge. Besides, if that were true then why aren't they waiting here for me? Why is it just you?” Ian looked down at Kerry contemplatively for a moment. “Hell, how did you know to come here? My truck isn't even here. Ain't nothing around here.”
“I've been following folks around ever since I was able to get back behind the wheel,” Kerry said. “I should have done it years ago. I've learned a lot about the backroads and shortcuts of Callahan County lately. This is the boat landing everybody uses when they don't want to be seen. It's also the second closest landing to where you wrecked Addison's boat. I figured you would walk or swim the extra half mile and come out here so you could avoid anyone who might be waiting for you at South Cypress. I was right.” Kerry gloated at Ian, shooting him a wide smile.
“You were right,” Ian acknowledged. “Good for you.” He turned at began to walk away from Kerry.
“You're under arrest.” Kerry started his car and drove it forward just far enough to keep Ian from getting around it. “I said you're under arrest.”
“If I'm under arrest, then call Addison and tell him to come arrest me.” Ian stopped walking and turned back to Kerry. “I ain't surrendering to you. You can't chase me down and force me into your car in that wheelchair.”
“Suit yourself. Addison will probably beat your ass and bury you in the swamp.” Kerry laughed with bitter cheeriness. “I don't think he's going to forgive you for this one.”
Ian glared at Kerry. “She's my damned wife. He ain't got no right to her. He slept with my wife so I wrecked his bass boat. Big freaking deal. Like any judge is going to send me to jail for trashing my wife's boyfriend's boat. Hell, they'll probably side with me.”
“Katie's sleeping with Addison?” Kerry looked startled.
“Oh, did they leave that part out of the warrant?” Ian asked mockingly.
“You've got a warrant out on you for killing April Lynne Hale,” Kerry informed him. “Addison dug up her body.”
Ian was so stunned by the news that he stumbled and nearly fell over. He had to catch himself on the hood of Kerry's Audi. “What?”
“You killed April Lynne. Everybody knows it.” Kerry smirked at Ian. “You're busted, Ian. The only reason no one is waiting here to arrest you is because Jerry Walker dropped dead when he saw April Lynne's body being brought in off the water. They're all either still up at the hospital or busy drowning in paperwork.”
“What?” Ian stared at Kerry in horror.
“Cal's Daddy fell out stone cold dead,” Kerry said. “He took one look at April Lynne's body and he had a major heart attack and died. I heard it all over my police radio.” Kerry tapped the face of the device that had been bolted into the dashboard of his civilian vehicle. “Jerry Walker's dead. They're saying he couldn't handle seeing his niece being brought back out of the bayou dead the same way her daddy was twenty years ago. I guess April Lynne's daddy died in a boating accident? I don't know. It was before my time.”
“April Lynne's father drowned on the bayou,” Ian didn't recall too many of the details even though April Lynne had occasionally talked to him about her father's death. “They found him a few days later. The gators had gotten him.”
“I don't know if the gators got April Lynne or not, but Jerry couldn't handle seeing her dead. He had a massive coronary and died on the spot. Addison and all them are still up at the hospital as far as I know. Sullivan Briggs interrupted Judge Collins at his kid's birthday party in Canterville to get a warrant for you. He got a warrant for Frank Chasson's house too. I overheard him telling Mooney that he thought you had killed April Lynne in the Sheriff's house. That was pretty stupid, Ian. How dumb do you have to be to kill April Lynne inside the Sheriff's house?”
“I didn't...”
Kerry cut him off. “You may have gotten away with killing Casey, but you won't get away with killing April Lynne. You're screwed. You might as well surrender and come in quietly. Don't make this worse for yourself.”
Ian stood there numbly. He couldn't believe everything was falling apart so quickly. How in the hell had Addison found April Lynne's body? Addison should still be stranded out in the bayou. It should have taken him hours and hours to get back to town. How had he beaten Ian back to dry land?
“Just give up, Ian.” Kerry stared up at him through the window of the Audi. “Maybe you can get a good lawyer and plead out to avoid the death penalty.”
“The death penalty?” Ian's heart dropped from his chest down into his stomach. He felt sick.
“What do you think they're going to do to you?” Kerry asked him. “You can't run. You can't hide. You have nowhere to go. You might as well just turn yourself in. Maybe the judge will have mercy on you if you cooperate.”
Ian sucked in a gulping breath. He needed a car. He had to get back to Frank's house and get the money that they had stolen out of the safe at Walker Hardware. With Joe and April Lynne gone, he was entitled to almost twenty grand. Twenty grand was enough money to start a new life on if he could get out of town. Hell, maybe he could take the whole thirty-six thousand. Lowery didn't really need the money. He'd probably understand that Ian had to go on the run before Frank got home from New Orleans or Sully got around to searching Frank's house.
Frank's house was almost fourteen miles away from the landing he was currently at. It would take him all night to walk home. Ian didn't have all night. Even if Kerry was telling the truth and Jerry Walker was dead, Jerry being dead would only keep Addison entertained for so long and then he would come after Ian. Ian needed to be long gone before that happened.
He needed a good running car and he needed it right now. He frowned at Kerry. The other man was still in a wheelchair. He wasn't paralyzed but he still had months of rehab ahead of him before he'd be able to walk on his own feet.
“Okay,” Ian said the word so softly that he wasn't sure he'd even heard himself speak.
“Okay?” Kerry looked at him questioningly.
“
You can bring me in,” Ian told him. He walked over to the back door on the driver's side and pulled on the handle. It was locked. “I'm done for. Open the door and I'll get in. You can drive me to the Baker County Jail.”
Kerry clicked his unlock button. “You're making the smart choice,” he told Ian.
Ian slid into the backseat of the Audi. The leather seats were pleasantly warm after the bitter chill of the air outside.
Ian began stripping off his wet clothes. He dropped his jacket and shirt on the seat beside him as Kerry began driving back towards town. They would have to go through Possum Creek in order to get to Baker County. Ian took his time completely unlacing his boots and pulling off his miserable wet socks. All the while he listened to Kerry gloat about how he was finally going to serve time for his crimes.
Ian waited until they had gone all the way through Possum Creek before he made his move. As Kerry slowed down to a stop at the otherwise completely empty four-way stop outside of town, Ian took one of his shoelaces in both of his hands. He lunged forward with the shoelace, putting it over Kerry's head so that it went across his neck and then he pulled back, choking Kerry against the headrest of his own vehicle.
Kerry struggled to scream and fight his way loose, but he was injured and he couldn't get the leverage he needed to pull free of Ian's improvised garrote. Within minutes, Kerry was unconscious and Ian had taken the first step towards ensuring he wouldn't be seeing the inside of a jail cell anytime soon.
Chapter 66
“Dad's dead.” Cal had said those two words ten times in the last thirty minutes and they still didn't seem any more real. “How can Dad be dead?”
“Cal...”
“How can he just die like that?” Cal demanded. “He was fine this morning. He was fine yesterday.”
“He had a heart attack,” David said numbly. “It happens. I'm going to take Momma and Pappy home now. You should go home too.”
“I'm waiting on Gracie. She's downstairs with Addison and Katie. They went to the emergency room. I don't remember why. I'm sure they told me.”
“Addy broke his ankle again,” David reminded him.
“Right. That. Addison broke his ankle when Ian stole his boat after killing my cousin and burying her in the swamp.” Cal clenched his fists. “I'm going to break that little bastard's neck if I ever get my hands on him.”
“Sully went to go get a warrant for his arrest. Why don't you refrain from committing any more murders and just let the law do its job for once.” David closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall. “Hell, Ian might be dead at the bottom of the bayou. We don't even know if he's still alive.”
“Are you okay?” Cal asked him abruptly.
“Am I okay?” David cracked one eye open and shot him a skeptical look. “The only man who was ever really a Dad to me just died in front of us after I spent my afternoon digging up a corpse out of a shallow grave. No. I'm not fucking okay.”
“I feel like I'm living in a nightmare and can't wake up,” Cal said. “We're supposed to sign custody papers on Kimber tomorrow morning. I hadn't even told Momma and Dad yet. I meant to but I forgot when we found out the store had been robbed. I should have told Dad that we were adopting Kimber. He was about to be a grandpa. He would have been excited, you know?”
David nodded even though this was the first he had heard about Gracie and Cal adopting Kimber. “He wanted grandkids pretty badly.”
“He did. He's already bought toys for them. He keeps them in the attic in that big wooden toy chest he built for me when I was a kid.” Cal was struggling not to cry. “How can Dad be dead?”
“I don't know.” David stood up straight as Loretta Walker came out of the hospital room with a handful of tissues pressed against her cheek. She had asked them to give her a last moment alone with Jerry before he was taken down to the morgue.
“You ready to go home?” David asked her.
Loretta took one look at David and then burst into a fresh round of tears. He wrapped his arms around her with the knowledge that there was nothing he could do to fix this.
Chapter 67
“Are you sure you don't need me to keep her for an extra night?” Kristy eyed Katie doubtfully as she cradled Hannah Mae in her arms.
“We're okay,” Katie said.
“Really?” Kristy eyed her skeptically. “You just told me that Ian burned down your house and then stole Addison's boat. Now he's missing and there's a warrant out for his arrest in the event that he's not dead.”
“It's not-.”
Kristy cut her off. “You're pale and shivering despite the fact that you have the heat cranked up so high in this house that I'm about to sweat to death. Studmuffin has his leg in a cast. The bedroom that you said is going to be Hannah Mae's is still half-full of boxes and David isn't here to finish cleaning it out because Cal's Dad and his cousin both died today and David's got to go deal with all that first.”
“To be honest, April Lynne probably died yesterday...” Katie sank down into the couch. She was exhausted and there was no lying her way out of it.
“To be honest, I'm glad that bitch is dead. Sorry, not sorry.” Kristy sat down across from Katie on the loveseat and cast a sideways glance at Addison. He had fallen sound asleep in David's recliner and nothing short of a nuclear bomb or an F5 tornado hitting the house was likely to wake him.
“Tell me you at least made good on your sex life and screwed his brains out?” Kristy pointed at Addy.
Katie made a face at her. “No.”
“Ugh. Seriously?” Kristy rolled her eyes at her little sister. “What are you waiting for? Marriage?”
“Commitment?” Katie suggested. “My divorce to finalize?”
“Your divorce to get filed?” Kristy clucked her tongue in disapproval. “If I were you, I'd have jumped his bones the first night.”
“I'm not you,” Katie said. In her own mind she silently added: and this is why I don't have three kids with three different baby daddies.
“Are you sure you don't need me to take Hannah Mae until shit calms down around here?”
“Nothing ever calms down around here,” Katie said. “I'll be fine.”
“You sure?”
“I'm sure.” Katie forced a smile that was much cheerier than she actually felt. “I'm good. I have a place to stay, food, water, electricity and good friends. What more do I need?”
“A car that hasn't been towed to impound as evidence in a crime spree?”
“Ugh, well...there is that,” Katie admitted. “But I've been sitting here doing the math. Living with Trish and David will actually be cheaper than living on my own with Ian was. I should be able to save up a down payment for a new used car within a couple of months. Until then, I'll either ride with one of them or walk to work. I need the exercise.”
“You run five miles a day. You don't need the exercise.” Kristy stood up. “I need to get back to the house before the kids drive Mom crazy. If you need anything, call me.”
“Will do,” Katie promised even though she had absolutely no intention of calling her sister for help. She set Hannah Mae down in her playpen and then followed Kristy to the front door. She opened it just in time to see an all too familiar light blue Audi creeping down the street.
“Oh for the love of Jesus and all things holy,” Katie muttered.
Kristy wrinkled her nose. “What?”
“Kerry Longwood is stalking David,” Katie explained as she raised her middle finger in salute. She couldn't see Kerry through the car's tinted windows but it slowed down directly in front of the house and then sped away abruptly as another familiar vehicle turned onto the street. “Oh goody. Looks like we're getting company. That's Sully's Jeep.”
“Mmm... Him, I want to see.” Kristy fluffed her hair and quickly adjusted her bra so that her breasts were nearly in her throat. She grinned at Sullivan as he parked the Jeep in the driveway behind Addison's Dodge and got out. He returned Kristy's smile with one of his own and a quick hug.
> “How're you today?” He asked her.
“I'm good. I'd ask you the same but I've already heard all I want to hear about dead bodies.” Kristy trailed her fingers down his chest and then sighed. “Shame I have to be a responsible parent. Otherwise, I'd ask you if you'd had dinner yet tonight?”
“Give me a rain check on the dinner invite,” Sully told her. “Pick a night when you have a babysitter and I don't have to go serve a warrant. We can go up to Beauton. Maybe have dinner at The Grill and go dancing?”
Kristy beamed at him. “It's a date.”
“Sounds good to me.” He held the door on Kristy's ancient Mustang open for her and then closed it behind her. He leaned in the window and talked to Kristy for another couple of minutes before he headed up to the porch and Kristy backed out of the driveway in a cloud of exhaust.
“She'll hold you to the dinner invitation,” Katie warned him as he jogged up the steps.
“I plan on making good on it. I hung out with Kristy and her friends for a few hours the other night after you and Addison took off to go do whatever you and Addison do. Kristy said she hoped y'all were having sex because the tension between the two of y'all is ridiculous. I agreed with her. We got to talking. She's fun. It's not often you get that kind of brutal honesty in a girl who draws hearts in her eyeliner.”
“Kristy's unique,” Katie acknowledged as she held the door open for him. “Be gentle with her. She falls in love with every loser who comes along. Kind of like me, actually.”
“Addison's not a loser,” Sullivan told her. “Though, if we're going to talk about losers, was that Kerry's car that sped off when I turned onto the road?”