by Gen Griffin
Rollins frowned. “Pretty serious fight.”
“I felt awful,” Gracie said.
“What happened next?” Smith pushed her onward.
“Cal took David's truck and went home. He said it was our choice what we did but he wasn't happy about it. David and I went to bed.”
She hoped this was the end of it, but Smith gestured for her to continue.
“You want to hear about the whole weekend?” She asked him.
“Every detail,” Smith replied.
“Okay.” Gracie shrugged and hoped they couldn't see how nervous they were making her. This interview wasn't going well at all. They didn't believe her.
“David and I went and got Cal's truck when we woke up Saturday morning. Cal showed up a couple of hours later and he and David spent almost all day trying to get it running right. I think David said there's something wrong with the electrical system?” Gracie shrugged. “I cleaned the house. At one point, my brother stopped by and he got mad about David and Cal getting into a fight over me. He didn't know David and I were together either, but he took it a lot better than Cal did.”
“Your brother?”
“Yes,” Gracie nodded. “He's the Game Warden in Callahan County. His name is Addison Malone.”
“What happened after your brother showed up?” Smith seemed determined to hear every detail of the weekend.
“Cal got his truck fixed and he left. David and I took showers, and we went into town,” she said. “We went to Canterville though, not Possum Creek.”
“Why Canterville?” Smith asked. “I thought you were from Possum Creek.”
“I am, but I didn't want to run into people we knew and Canterville has a Walmart.”
“You went to Walmart?” Rollins asked.
Gracie nodded.
“You went to Walmart and then what?” Smith pressed the issue. He seemed bothered by something.
“We went out to dinner at a local Italian place; it's called Italiano’s. Then we went home, watched a couple of movies, and went to bed.”
“What movies?” Rollins asked, seemingly out of left field.
“Gone with the Wind and Grease,” she said with a shrug. She had no idea why they would care what movies she had watched. “We have kind of weird taste.”
The officers didn't comment, so she went on.
“Sunday morning, I slept in until eleven when my Mom called. I lied my ass off and told her I was still up at school having a great time. We had lunch at David's house and then he drove me back here.”
“That's a long drive for one person to make twice in less than 48 hours,” Smith commented.
“David loves me.” Gracie smiled prettily at him, willing him to believe her. “Oh, and if you need proof that David brought me back to school, we got written up for a public display of affection by my RA on Sunday night.”
Lieutenant Smith actually laughed. “You violated the family-friendly dorm policy?”
“Evidently,” Gracie shrugged her shoulders. “I forgot it was a social night. We came right into the dorm still making out. I think there are something like 100 witnesses.”
“Shouldn't be too hard to find someone who remembers seeing you come back then.” Lieutenant Smith shook his head.
“And Monday?” Rollins asked. “Anything interesting happen to you yesterday?”
“No sir. I went to class. Everything was back to normal until y'all showed up.”
“How did you feel about the comments Mr. Parker made about you online?” Rollins asked her. “I do assume you are aware of them?”
“My roommate showed them to me on Sunday when I came back to the room after being written up,” Gracie admitted with a shrug. “It kind of stung and it was embarrassing, but whatever. He didn't put my name on it. Not that many people even knew about our date. At least I never slept with him. I'd be more embarrassed if I had done anything with him and then he'd said nasty stuff about me.”
The officers sat and watched her for a moment. She felt exhausted. She'd had no idea lying was such hard work. Her nerves were on edge.
“Miss Malone, I assume you can give me phone numbers and last names for everyone who can verify your whereabouts this past weekend, correct?” Smith asked.
Gracie nodded.
“Then do it.” He handed her a pencil and miniature notebook he had extracted from one of his pockets.
She scribbled David, Cal, and Addison's information down and handed it back to him. “Anything else?” she asked.
“Yes,” Rollins said. “We'll need you to come down to our office tomorrow to give an official statement.”
Gracie grimaced.
“Is there a problem with that?” he asked her.
“Am I a suspect in anything?” she asked him bluntly.
“Not yet,” Smith was frowning at her. “But we'll be in touch, and we need that statement in the meantime.”
Gracie felt like crying again as they let themselves out of the room.
Chapter 7
“What movies?”
David scowled as the cop on the other end of line asked another question. He wracked his brain trying to remember what movie Gracie had put in before he'd left to get rid of frat boy's body.
“Uh, that old John Travolta movie, Grease, and shit. What was that other one?” He frowned into the phone, glad Officer Smith couldn't see him through the phone as he walked over to the DVD player and tried to figure out which cases had the least amount of dust on them. Gone with the Wind was sitting on top of the TV. “Gone with the Wind,” he said.
The cop made a clicking noise. “Then what?”
“We went to bed, slept in late and then I took her back to school.”
“Mr. Breedlove, how do you feel about your girlfriend dating other men?” The cop asked. It was the third time he'd rephrased that question and David was getting tired of the interrogation.
“Like I already told you the first two times you asked, officer, it was her decision.”
He had a bred in dislike of cops, and this one was getting on his last nerve.
Frat boy's family definitely had big money to make the cops go all out on missing person’s investigation. David sighed and wished he could reach through the phone and strangle the officer on the other line.
“And you were alright with it?” Smith asked.
“What choice did I have?” David asked. “It's Gracie's life, her decision. She wanted to see what else was out there.”
“But you still consider her your girlfriend?”
“She still is,” he said.
“But she went on dates,” the cop began.
David cut him off. “She went on a date but nothing came of it. She got left on the side of the road because she didn't have sex with him. You know, I'm pretty sure the idiot who left her on the side of the road gave her a better reason not to date other guys than anything I could have done. The guy probably did me a favor. Now, unless you have any more questions?”
“No,” Smith said calmly on the other end of the line. “I think you've answered all of them for now. I'll be in touch, Mr. Breedlove.”
“Why couldn't she have gotten the dumb cop?” he muttered as he heard the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. David tossed the cell phone onto the couch, walked over to his front window and saw Kerry Longwood standing in his front yard looking very self-righteous. “Jesus Christ, what now?”
Chapter 8
“What do you want?” David snarled as he jerked open the front door to his trailer a moment before Kerry raised his hand to knock.
“I need to ask you a few questions,” Kerry said. He felt incredibly nervous. David was a good head taller than he was, and while he probably didn't outweigh him, David was all muscle and Kerry was mostly Starbucks Lattes and blueberry wheat muffins.
“About what?” David asked crossly.
“Don't you, 'about what' me,” Kerry said sharply. He tried to pull himself up to his full five feet six and a half inches. “I know what y
ou did.”
David loomed in front of him menacingly, the tattoos on his arms and chest rippled.
Kerry had done the research the Sheriff had told him to before he had headed this way. There were five 1980's model Toyota trucks registered in Callahan County. One belonged to a woman, the second had been crushed by a junkyard four months ago after blowing it's head gasket, the third was in Louisiana with its oil rig working owner and number four belonged to an outrageously fat man who could not have been the guy Kerry had seen throwing the body out of the truck bed Saturday night.
Truck number five belonged to David Breedlove.
It briefly crossed Kerry's mind that he should have brought backup, but who was he kidding? All his backups were David's buddies. He couldn't count on them to do anything but try and screwball his investigation.
Ian, he actually believed, was David's cousin. Ian was also Sheriff Chasson's chosen one when it came to the deputy position Kerry knew should rightfully be his.
Sheriff Chasson had known what he was doing when he assigned the Gomez murder case to Kerry. If he couldn't solve the crime, it would give Chasson the justification he needed to boot Kerry out of the Sheriff's Department. It was discrimination to skip over the best qualified candidate for a position because you were dating the other candidate's Momma. It was perfectly legal to send the on-trial deputy who hopelessly gummed up a murder investigation packing on down the road. Kerry knew he had to solve this case or he would be handing out his resume door-to-door in record time.
He frowned at David, who was staring him down like he was a bad joke. Kerry's right eye began to quiver hard.
“Why are you on my property?” David snarled at him.
Kerry noted that David's teeth were slightly crooked as he took an involuntary step backwards. His eye twitched and he fell off the porch with an audible thud. His head bounced hard against the transmission that was laying in the dirt just below the porch. The impact knocked the air out of him, and everything faded to black.
The last thought that went through Kerry's mind was to wonder whether anyone would even bother trying find his body after David disposed of it.
Chapter 9
“You have got to be kidding me.” Addison stared down at Kerry's prone body. The trial deputy was lying flat on his back in David's front yard.
“He fell off the porch.” David leaned back against the trailer as Ian went as far as to prod the unconscious Kerry in the ribs with the toe of his thick, muddy work boots. “Cal took out the fucking railing Friday night when he threw me through it.”
“Did you call Sheriff Chasson?” Ian asked Addison, who in turn looked to David.
“I didn't call anyone but you,” David told Addy.
“I tried to call Uncle Frank, but he didn't answer,” Addy said. “I think he went fishing.”
“Probably, that's what Momma said they were doing tonight.” Ian shrugged when Addison and David stared at him. “What? Momma's a grown woman. If she wants to date the Sheriff, let her.”
Addison pulled his cigarettes out of his pocket and frowned at Ian. “If she becomes wife number four, that'll make you and me cousins.”
“Yelch, I hadn't thought about that.” Ian gave Addison a once over and then grinned. “Oh well, could be worse.”
“Yeah, like I could have a dead deputy in my yard.” David grumbled, looking less than amused.
“He's not dead.” Addison lit the cigarette and inhaled the smoke with a blissful expression on his face.
“You can see he's still breathing,” Ian chimed in, running a hand through his coppery hair. His hazel eyes were twinkling with laughter.
“Not my point,” David said.
“Do you think we should do something?” Ian nudged Kerry's shoulder with the toe of his boot.
“Call whine-1-1 and have them send world's slowest Whambulance?” Addison asked.
“Ah hell. It'd be quicker to drive him to the hospital ourselves. That damned thing will get lost three times before it gets here,” David said.
“Normally I would,” Addison scowled at Kerry, who appeared to be peacefully asleep. “But this overqualified, under-talented idiot has Uncle Frank so petrified he's gonna sue the department's pants off that he's become a stickler for procedure.”
“Frank?” David blinked. “The same Frank who sometimes lets the criminals go home over the weekend as long as they promise to come back for arraignment just so he doesn't have to staff the jail?”
“Same Frank,” Ian sighed and flicked the Sheriff's star on his lapel. “He's pretty much told me that the badge is only temporary too. He says Kerry will sue the piss out of Callahan County if I get hired over him.” He stopped as Addison gestured for him to shut up. “What?”
“Unless we can document that he's incompetent.” Addison was waving one finger in the air. “Ian, call the whambulance. Use the official system.”
“You mean, call it through dispatch?” Ian asked.
“Absolutely,” Addison had gone back to his truck and was digging around behind the seat. “Tell them that the highly incompetent Deputy Longwood has fallen off a suspect's porch and knocked himself unconscious on a transmission.”
“10-4.” Ian headed for his cruiser with a bounce in his step.
“Wait, hold on. Suspect?” David followed Addy. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Don't worry about it. It’s a bunch of delusional bullshit.” Addison yanked a digital camera out of the truck. He began snapping pictures of Kerry, who was beginning to stir, as well as the porch and the transmission.
“What delusional bullshit?” David demanded.
Addy sighed. “It's nothing. Don't worry about it. The motherfucker's nuts.”
“Addison, if I'm being investigated for something then I need to know about it.” David's mind kept flashing back to the conversation he'd been having with the State University cops moments before Kerry had pulled into his driveway.
The camera flashed a few more times and Kerry groaned.
“He's convinced you're a murderer.” Addison frowned at David. “Saturday night, Ian and I got the bright idea to play a little trick on clueless over there. We got him out in Johnson's cow pasture, let his cruiser sink and left him there all night.”
David could hear sirens in the distance as the ambulance approached the house. Wonder of wonders, it must have been sitting at the unmanned fire station just down the road. He gestured for Addy to hurry up and get to the point.
“When Johnson found him in the morning, he had a dead body with him, and he was swearing up down and backwards you were the one who dumped it.”
David gawked at Addy uncomprehendingly. “No way.”
“I already told him he was barking up the wrong tree, but he's convinced you did it. I told him you were too busy screwing my sister to be running around dumping dead bodies, but he won't listen to me.” Addison shrugged as the ambulance pulled up to the driveway and Ian waved it down towards the house.
Kerry groaned again, this time mumbling something about school and Mommy.
“He thinks I murdered someone?” David was almost too stunned to speak.
“He's stupid, David. Don't worry about it. We all know he's just blowing air out his ass, right?” Addison winked at David and walked over to make sure the ambulance crew handled Kerry with proper protocol.
Chapter 10
Kerry saw the light. It was a really bright light and it seemed to be coming towards him. It wasn't peaceful like all the people on the Discovery Channel special on near death experiences had said it was. Actually it was somewhat painful. It felt like someone was pulling his eyes open by the eyelashes.
The light got closer and Kerry realized someone was, in fact, pulling his eye open. He blinked and tried to jerk away, but a thick arm held him in place. The light began to distance itself.
“Relax.” A melodic woman's voice came out of the bleak surroundings.
Kerry realized he was lying on a white bed in a white roo
m with white walls. An immense black woman was leaning over him, peering into his eyes. She was holding one of those little medical flashlight gadgets doctors use to check your eyes and ears.
“I'm not dead,” Kerry said, vaguely amazed.
She laughed. She was wearing scrubs printed with cartoon characters and had on a name tag that identified her as Dr. Marie Daugherty.
“Nope, you're not dead at all,” she informed him with a laugh, then turned serious. “It's a mild concussion. We're going to keep you here overnight, but if all goes well, you should be free to go in the morning, Deputy Longwood.”
“I, wait. No. Where is here?” He suddenly realized he had no idea where he was, or how he had gotten here.
“Baker County Memorial Hospital,” she said calmly. “You were brought here in an ambulance. That nice blonde boy, I think he may be the Game Warden? He said you'd fallen off a porch and hit your head on some kind of car part.”
“Blonde. Game Warden. Addison,” Kerry put the puzzle together automatically and then sat up ramrod straight, unaware of the IV he had in in his right wrist until it yanked painfully in his vein. “Oh no!”
“What's wrong?” Dr. Daugherty asked, frowning at his sudden movements.
“My suspect!” He began to struggle to get out of the bed, pushing aside medical equipment and ignoring the dizziness he felt as he struggled his way out of the sheets.
“Will just have to wait,” Dr. Daugherty said. She pushed him gently but firmly back down onto the bed. “You are in no condition to be going anywhere.”
“But, I was about to question a murderer. I was going to bring him down to the office so he could confess. I was about to solve my first case and get hired on full-time officially. Not to mention getting a really bad guy off the streets. I've got to go. He could flee the county now that he knows I'm on to him.” Kerry tried to push his way back up.
“I'm sure the other officers will take care of your suspect for you until I clear you to leave,” she said.
Kerry shook his head miserably. “They don't think he did it. They're all friends with him and don't believe me when I tell them I saw him ditch the body.”