Jack knew a slew of criminal lawyers, but he was not sure who to call or even if he wanted somebody at this point. At least Cal knew enough not to give him the usual line that things would go easier with him if he started talking.
Sam Jeffries had not yet decided what he was going to do with the gun. He wanted to let things play out for a bit. He was disappointed that he hadn’t gotten the chance to shoot Felton, but that had been a long shot from the start. At least he had gotten in a few final blows. Now he had the opportunity to get Tobin, the prick who’d gotten Felton out of jail—for money—so he could kill Sam’s daughter. It was a dangerous game. He’d have to beat Tobin in his own bailiwick—the courtroom. But he had nothing left to lose. He’d lost too much already. And it would be such sweet revenge to outwit the now infamous Jack Tobin.
His crew at the scene had already called and informed him that they had found a pup tent and some clothes, food, and a credit card with Jack’s name on it.
So he was staying out there waiting for Felton. How do I spin this? Or can I? I’ll just wait and see what else they come up with. In the meantime I’ll work on Tobin.
He made his first move while Jack was sitting in the interrogation room.
He made sure nobody was in the observation room before walking in and tapping Cal on the shoulder.
“You can take a break, Cal.” Cal didn’t need any prompting. He left immediately.
“How are you doing, Jack?” Sam said when the two men were alone.
Jack didn’t know what to make of the situation—Sam Jeffries being nice to him. Something was wrong.
“Fine.”
“Listen, I’ll have you out of here in no time. We just need to finish up some paperwork. Cal didn’t bust your balls too badly, did he?”
“No. We had a nice conversation.”
“A little one-sided, I’m sure. I want you to know that I’ve got people scouring those woods for Felton’s gun. They’ll be out there until dark and if they don’t find it, they’ll be back again tomorrow morning. If we find the gun, I’ll call you right away.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that. I’m surprised that you’re even talking to me.”
“You did a job and you did it to the best of your ability. I’ve got an obligation to do the same thing. I don’t hold you personally responsible for my daughter’s death if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“It is. I don’t know that I wouldn’t hold you responsible if our roles were reversed.”
“You wouldn’t. You’d be angry in the beginning like I was but eventually you’d get to the same place.”
“I hope I would,” Jack replied.
“Let me check on that paperwork and I’ll get you out of here.”
Sam was back minutes later.
“Everything is in order, Jack. I’ve just got a statement for you to sign. It contains the things you said at the scene.”
“I’m not going to sign anything, Sam. You know what I said and I know what I said and there are plenty of witnesses if you need them. I’m just not going to sign anything.”
“I understand. You’re free to go. You can pick up your stuff at the front desk They recovered some stuff of yours in the woods, too, including a credit card. You ought to be more careful with things.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jack said. “Is Danni still here?”
“No, she left an hour ago.”
As soon as he left the station, Jack called Danni to make sure she was okay. He didn’t get an answer so he left her a message letting her know that he was out.
“I’m just calling to let you know I’m okay and to make sure that you are as well. Talk to you soon.”
Jack had an ominous feeling. Sam Jeffries had been too nice. Things had gone too smoothly. He knew that if they didn’t find Felton’s gun, however, he had some problems. If the cops were going to quit looking for the gun at dark, he was going to be out there with a flashlight. The gun had to be there somewhere—unless somebody took it! Jack wasn’t ready to consider that possibility yet. He wanted to search for himself first.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Danni hadn’t sat out on her back porch in the evening for over a week. She loved to sit out there at the end of the day with a cup of decaf—no caffeine after six—and listen to the sounds of the evening. It was still pleasant this time of year when the sun went down. There was a cool breeze, fireflies were out, the crickets weren’t too bad. It was peaceful and serene. She looked out at the woods and let the tension release itself from her body.
She’d gone about the task of waiting for Felton’s assault with the precision of a professional. Now that the danger had passed, she could finally acknowledge how stressful it all had been and take the necessary time to let it go.
She’d called Henry as soon as she left the station and talked to both him and Hannah and given them a synopsis of what had happened. The decision was made that Hannah would head back to school immediately. The semester was not yet lost. Hannah could still bone up and take her exams. Worrying about exams was a whole lot easier than worrying about the threat of a serial killer.
“How’s Jack holding up?” Henry asked, surprised to learn that Jack and Danni had been together when the police arrived. When they had actually started talking to each other again was still a mystery to him. It didn’t matter though. He’d find out soon enough.
“I haven’t talked to him since we went to the station. They split us up after that. You know, police procedure and all that stuff. He left a message though saying that he was fine.”
“There aren’t any problems, are there?”
“Well, Jack said Felton had a gun and so far they haven’t found the gun. I don’t think it’s a big deal, but at this point, I don’t know.”
“I’ll head straight for Oakville after I drop Hannah off, just in case.”
“Good idea. I’ll see you when you get here. And Henry—”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for taking care of my baby.”
“It was a pleasure. We had fun. And Hannah had her cultural experience.”
Danni laughed. “Good. I’ll see you soon.”
As she sat on her porch that evening thinking about the events of the day, Danni heard a loud noise from the woods on her far left. It was a quarter moon so there was some light in the backyard and she thought she saw a figure emerge from the thicket.
Calm down, she told herself. The danger has passed. Still, she checked to make sure she had her Glock with her.
The figure moved closer. Danni fingered her weapon.
“Is somebody out there?” she yelled forcefully.
“It’s me,” came the reply. She recognized the voice immediately. It was Jack.
Thirty seconds later he was standing on the porch, dressed in jeans and a black tee shirt and carrying a flashlight.
“What were you doing out there?” she asked.
“Looking for Felton’s gun.”
“All the way over there? Felton’s body was straight out from this porch.”
“I circled around. There are SWAT team guys out there. Sam told me that he was pulling everybody off when it got dark so I was going to do my own search. Then I find he didn’t do what he said he was going to.”
“‘Sam?’ Is that what you said? You guys are on a first-name basis all of a sudden.”
“Yeah, well, we had a fairly long conversation this afternoon. He was calling me Jack and I was calling him Sam. It was a little strange, really.”
“Very strange. Don’t go trusting him, Jack. The man isn’t himself. I don’t care how he acts.”
“I hear you. He already didn’t do what he told me he was going to do, and I’m not sure why.”
“Would you like a cup of decaf?”
“Sure.”
Danni went inside and returned a minute later with a cup for Jack. Jack watched her the whole way.
“Have I told you lately how beautiful you are?” he asked.
Danni smiled.
“No, you haven’t.”
“Well, you are.”
“Thank you, Jack.”
Jack just sat there looking at her for the longest time.
“What happened to us, Danni? I know we started too fast and I know I was too intense, but I really thought we had something.”
Danni took a sip of her coffee and looked away toward the quarter moon.
“We did, Jack. We definitely had something. I could tell you that we started too fast and that it was too intense and maybe I didn’t feel as strongly as you did. I could tell you that we had different perceptions. You know, perception is reality, and we had two different realities going on. But what gets in the way of all that is truth. There is always an absolute truth even if neither of us sees it.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I know. I’m going to tell you something—something I didn’t admit to myself until just recently, although I think you’ve always known. It wasn’t about us starting too fast or you feeling more than me. It was my fear. I can’t have a relationship with you because I can’t trust, and without trust I can’t open my heart. I thought it might be different with you, but it wasn’t and it had nothing to do with you, so don’t beat yourself up about it. I just run up against a brick wall and I can’t get through it. That’s the truth.”
“Can’t we work on it together? Can’t I help you?”
“I’m sorry, Jack. The only way anything is ever going to happen is if I get through that wall myself. At least I now see the problem. I’m not lying to myself anymore.”
“We can still be friends.”
“Of course we’ll always be friends but not close friends. I’m not going to do that to you and I won’t allow you to do it to yourself.”
Jack smiled at her. “I still think you’re beautiful.”
“That’s just your perception.”
“No. It’s the truth.”
Danni had another unexpected visitor at midmorning the next day. She was just getting ready to go out and run some errands when there was a knock at the front door. When she answered it, Sam Jeffries was standing there.
“Do you have a minute, Danni? I want to talk to you about something.”
“If you can make it quick, Sam. I was just heading out to run some errands.”
She turned and walked back toward the kitchen. Sam followed her.
“It will only take a few minutes. I just want to tell you a few things we found out about your boy Tobin.”
“He’s not my boy. And stop using that term. It’s offensive.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. I thought he was your friend at least.”
“Just get to it, Sam.”
“All right, we found some things in Felton’s possession that are very interesting.”
They were once again sitting at the little table in the kitchen. Danni wasn’t offering any coffee this time. Sam pulled out some papers from his jacket pocket. He handed some of them to Danni.
“This is a claims bill that Tobin was planning on filing on behalf of Felton. They were going to ask the Florida legislature for twenty million dollars.”
Danni scanned the document. “So? It’s my understanding that every prisoner who has been wrongfully imprisoned for an extended period of time files a claims bill—especially people on death row. They might ask for twenty million but they’re not going to get it. What’s your point?”
“Take a look at this.” Jeffries gave her the other papers in his hands. As she perused them, he kept talking. “That’s a contingency fee agreement giving Tobin one-third of whatever Felton recovered from the legislature. This guy is a fraud. He’s making money on these death penalty cases. Maybe Felton wouldn’t have gotten twenty million but if he got five, Tobin’s payout is over a million and a half. You hit one of these babies every couple of years and you’re making a lot of money for very little work. He’s motivated to get people off because there’s a payoff at the end and not for the noble reasons that he pretends. He’s a phony.”
“You said that already.”
“It’s worth saying twice.”
Danni wouldn’t admit it to Sam, but the documents did trouble her. Jack wasn’t doing anything illegal, but these documents showed that he was profiting from his work and not telling anybody about it, which made him exactly what Sam said he was—a fraud.
“Why are you showing me these things, Sam? Why do you want to involve me in this?”
“I care about you, number one. I really don’t know your relationship with Tobin, and I want to make sure you’re not taken in by this guy.”
“And number two?”
“I figure Tobin had to be pretty pissed off when Felton killed his opportunity for a payday by killing my daughter. He might have had a little vendetta of his own.”
Danni was starting to get where this was going. “Are you suggesting that the loss of a fee was a motivation for murder? That’s outrageous. The guy was sitting out in the woods trying to protect me.”
“That’s what he told you. Felton had a cell phone on him. Tobin called him two nights before he was killed and again just before he was killed.”
“So you’re suggesting Jack lured him out there to kill him?”
“Why else would he be calling him?” Sam said.
“I don’t know but why would he be out in the woods?”
“Why not? I don’t know what he told Felton to get him into the woods but killing Felton behind your backyard is a perfect alibi for Tobin.”
“It’s just too crazy, Sam. How do you explain Jack coming directly to my house, concerned for my welfare? If he’d committed the murder, he would have gone directly to the body and put a gun in Felton’s hand and said Felton had tried to shoot him—not run to my house. How do you explain that?”
“I think what you just said was Tobin’s original plan. What he didn’t plan on was me showing up. I think he heard me barreling through the woods as soon as that gun went off and decided he might not be able to get to Felton’s body before I did. I was there pretty fast. So he went to your house, great guy that he is, to check on your welfare.”
It was an incredible story but as a homicide detective Danni knew that the stories behind some murders were sometimes pretty incredible. So far, she wasn’t buying any of it, not with Jack. She knew Jack, or at least she thought she did, and this was not the person she knew. And she didn’t trust Sam. He’d been through too much.
“Let’s follow this logically, Sam. If Tobin was going to plant the gun but didn’t or couldn’t, what happened to the gun? I mean, he was at my house right away. I was with him right up until the time we went to the station. You guys had him empty his pockets at the station. I’m sure somebody did a pat down.”
“They did.”
“So where did the gun go that he was supposedly going to plant?”
“The only thing he could have done was throw it away as he was running toward your house. He’s right-handed so he probably threw it off to his right. I didn’t piece all this information together until this morning so I didn’t know enough to have somebody check that area before today. We had nothing to keep Tobin so we let him go late yesterday. I suspect that if he threw the gun away, he would have been back last night to retrieve it. You didn’t happen to see him last night, did you?”
So that’s why Sam is here. He’s looking for this last little piece of information to incriminate Jack. Danni hadn’t bought anything so far, but now she recalled seeing that dark figure coming out of the woods from the left as she sat on her porch. That would have been Jack’s right if he was running from the woods toward my house. She remembered him saying he was looking for the gun and she remembered asking him why he was all the way over toward the left, nowhere near the body. What was it he said? He was there because Sam told him the police were going to stop looking for the gun at dark. What else did he say? “I had to circle around because Sam sent a SWAT team out to the scene.”
“Sam,
did you send a SWAT team out to the scene last night?”
“No.”
“Did you tell Tobin you were quitting the search at dark?”
“Hell, no. He’s a suspect. I wouldn’t tell him anything. Now, did you see him last night or not?”
Danni had to answer the question. Thomas Felton’s case had caused her to do things she never would have done before, and she regretted them. Now Sam Jeffries had asked her a question. She could lie and say she hadn’t seen Jack last night or she could tell the truth. Lying meant making her own decision about Jack’s guilt or innocence. Telling the truth meant letting the police, the state attorney, and possibly the judicial system make that decision.
She thought Jack was innocent, but she wasn’t absolutely sure.
“Did you see him last night or not, Danni?” Sam asked for the third time.
“I did.”
“Where was he?”
Danni got up from the table and walked to the back door that led out to the patio. Sam followed her. She pointed to her left.
“I saw him coming out of the woods over there. He told me he was looking for Felton’s gun. He said there was a SWAT team up by the scene.”
“One last question. I can check this out on my own but your answering the question will make my job easier. Did Tobin call you anytime in the last two days?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I’d like to see the number in your phone.”
“Sure.” Danni opened her cell phone and pointed to Jack’s number.
“Did he leave a message?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t erase it. I’m going to need that phone eventually.”
“Then you’d better get a warrant.”
As she heard the words leave her mouth, Danni realized that giving Sam Jeffries any information had been the wrong decision.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Sam Jeffries had one major obstacle left in his quest to try and make Jack Tobin pay for the murder of his daughter, Kathleen. He had to convince the new state attorney, Robert Merton, to prosecute Tobin for the murder of Thomas Felton.
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