Chapter Forty-One
Jimmy Joe cruised by an old, one-story, white farmhouse that sat on a deserted road and did a quick visual check of the property. The place looked maintained but a little shabby. He figured old people might live there. The place had that kind of look.
The house wasn’t large; it was white and framed with green shutters. A rolled up garden hose still lay attached to the front of the house. Small easily maintained shrubs had been planted under a large picture window. The carport was attached to the house and had a cement floor with wrought iron posts. He could see a small chest freezer had been pushed up against the back of the carport and an older red PT Cruiser was parked in front of it. No animals that he could see. Of course they might have cats. Lots of old people had cats.
Jimmy Joe pulled into a side road that led to an empty cotton patch. He backed Orley’s car up and headed to the house. This time when he drove by, he saw a short, round, older woman walk out of the back door and get something out of the freezer. He was right! God damn he was smart. He should have been an FBI agent or something.
He would find somewhere to park the car, and then walk back. The old woman was about to have company, he thought grinning.
He soon found a turn-off that ran alongside a small creek, parked the car, and scouted around. It looked like someone used the place for fishing. Old silver vegetable cans that some folks used for worms, lay scattered along the creek bank.
Jimmy Joe got out of the car, took a cigarette from his shirt pocket, and lit up. Leaning back against the car, he inhaled deeply. Feeling the nicotine course through his lungs, he sighed.
He glanced at his old Timex and grinned. He’d bet money that Lucy’s dad was sitting by the phone waiting anxiously for his call. Stupid bastard.
He flicked the cigarette away, straightened up and started walking toward the old lady’s house.
He strode casually up to the back door before drawing his pistol. When an old woman answered the door, he stuck the gun in her face and backed her into the house.
“Get back into the house, old woman,” he snapped, glaring at her.
“What do you want?” She asked, her face etched with fear.
“Anyone else here?”
She wet her dry lips and answered faintly, “My sister is in the bathroom.”
“Oh yea? Taking a shit, is she?”
She gasped at his crude language and turned pale but remained silent.
He motioned her with the gun and pointed toward the living room. “Come on, move, I don’t have all day.”
The woman went ahead of him and hurried into the living room, her eyes darting to the bathroom door.
He pointed his gun at the sofa and raised his eyebrows.
She sat with her hands clasped in front of her and swallowed down bile that was rising in her throat. Hearing the toilet flush and the facet turn on and off, she watched the bathroom door open and her sister walk out.
“Did I hear company, Dorothy?”
Mary stumbled when she caught sight of Jimmy Joe with the gun pointed at her. “What do you think you’re doing, young man?” She demanded.
“Mary, don’t say anything. Please come and sit down,” Dorothy urged, patting a place beside her on the couch.
“Yea Mary, sit down and shut the fuck up,” Jimmy Joe said, waving the gun in her direction.
The old woman jutted her chin out and glared at Jimmy Joe. “There’s no cause to use that kind of language, young man.”
His chest swelling with rage, Jimmy Joe thought about popping her right then, but hesitated. He had to use the phone and he didn’t feel like listening to any old woman squawking.
He stalked up to her and pressed the barrel of the gun against her cheek. “Get your ass over by your sister and sit down.”
Ridged with anger, Mary stomped over and sat down.
“Now listen up, old broads. I’m going to use your phone and you two are going stay the fuck quiet. Or else I’m gonna do something you might regret. Do you understand?”
Dorothy nodded, scared, eyeing the gun. Mary narrowed her eyes and watched him silently. She hadn’t been a teacher for thirty-six years for nothing. He didn’t scare her at all. She had faced down bigger men than him.
Jimmy Joe fumbled in his shirt pocket for the number, eyeing the women distastefully. He thought old people useless. With their frugal ways and God-fearing attitude, old men and women thought every single person alive should revere them.
The only older person he had revered was his mama. Now she was dead.
He sat in an old green chair beside the phone and picked it up. Soon, he would have Lucy back and he was going to make her wish she were dead.
He punched in the number and settled back to enjoy himself. Lucy’s daddy would be waiting to hear from him. He had the power over someone that lived in a big house and drove new cars. This made him feel very good about himself.
***
Jason Stewart sat alone in the kitchen and listened as police and FBI scurried around the living room doing whatever they were doing. The system was in place, ready for Jimmy Joe’s call. He had no idea what they could be doing or why they were so busy.
The FBI had told him to agree with whatever Jimmy Joe said. Keep him talking. Set up a meeting for a trade, anything so they could track the call.
He didn’t trust the police or the FBI anymore. After all, it wasn’t their daughter whose life was on the line. This was just a case to them. At the end of the day, they could go home and have everything normal, their family safe.
He thought about Sherry and about what she must be going through. She knew what was happening, but she was so far away, and needed to be far away, he reminded himself.
Jason poured himself a glass of milk from a carton in the refrigerator. His stomach felt tight, as if it would never release the tension coursing through his blood. He froze the moment he heard the phone ring.
The French door opened, and a cop stuck his head in and gave him the thumbs up. This must be it. He picked up the phone, then nodded at the cop. “Hello?”
“This is Jimmy Joe. Do you have a piece of paper?”
“Is my daughter all right?”
“She’s alive if that’s want you want to know,” Jimmy Joe said, cradling the phone to his ear, his hand holding the gun on the two older women sitting across from of him.
“I want to talk to her.”
“No. Write down this address, if you still want to trade, that is.”
“Look, I--”
Jimmy Joe interrupted him. “No! You look. If you want to see your daughter alive, you will shut the fuck up and let me talk.”
“Please, I just want to speak to my daughter.”
Enraged at the interruption, Jimmy Joe snapped. “Listen you rich asshole. You ever want to see your daughter alive, you’ll shut the fuck up and listen.”
The chief of police rolled his hand, motioning him to keep talking.
“Please, let me speak to my daughter,” Jason begged.
Infuriated, Jimmy Joe pointed his gun and shot the two old women across from him, then screamed into the phone.
“Did you hear those shots? You just killed two old women. It’s your fucking fault they’re dead. The deal is off. Your daughter is dead, man. And you have to live with that.” Slamming the phone down, he pushed the gun back into his coat pocket. Walking over to the old women, he looked down. Blood was coursing from their bodies. The one that had talked back to him was still alive, moaning low in her throat. He pointed the gun at her head and pulled the trigger. Bending down he touched the blood, rolling it between his fingers. It was warm and sticky. Feeling a high he’d never experienced, he grabbed an end table to keep from falling. He smiled and stalked out of the house, throwing an unconcerned glance back at the old women bleeding on the floor.
***
Jason cradled the phone in his hands and looked blankly at the cop, then for the first time in his fifty-two years, he fainted.
Chap
ter Forty-Two
“Who did he kill?” Casey asked, sliding into the booth across from the chief.
“A couple of sisters over in Pigett. Dorothy Amans and Mary Clemmons. Mary’s a retired schoolteacher, Dorothy’s from Florida. When Dorothy’s husband died last spring, Mary moved in with her. Both very nice, Church-going women. Look’s like he just wanted to use the telephone.”
“Fingerprints?”
“All over the place. He didn’t make any effort to hide his prints.”
“And he’s got Emma,” Casey said, looking away from his boss.
“I know,” Andrew said, watching his deputy. “Casey, I know you and Emma have been keeping in touch since they flew home. Is there anything you need to talk about?”
“I--” Biting his lip, Casey took a deep breath, “I love her. I’m not sure how it happened. I know it shouldn’t have happened with the case and all, but it did. I think that from the first moment I saw her, I knew she was the one. And now she’s with that crazy, fucked up asshole Jimmy Joe Walters.”
Andrew took a toothpick from the dish and glanced at Casey. “Fate is a funny thing, Casey. I believe love finds a way. If you hadn’t met her now, you’d have met her eventually. And we will get her back from Jimmy Joe.”
Unable to speak, Casey nodded.
“I talked to the Chief of Police in Indiana and he said Jimmy Joe became enraged when the father was questioning him about Emma.”
Casey felt nauseous and looked down at the booth. The small café was deserted for the most part. Just a couple of old timers sitting at the counter.
“Did he say anything else?”
The sheriff felt bad for what he was about to say and he chose his words carefully. “Jimmy Joe said Emma would die.”
Casey swallowed a lump in his throat and jumped up. “I’ve got to find her.”
Andrew nodded in sympathy and watched as his deputy hurried away.
***
Disgusted, Emma listened as Bonnie and Orley thumped away in the bedroom. The back of the closet shared a wall with the bedroom and they’d had been at it most of the day. Sticking her fingers in her ears, she hummed softly. She would’ve thought they were both too drunk to even think about sex, but no, apparently that was the only thing Orley did think of when he was drunk.
She took a deep breath, she wondered where in the hell Jimmy Joe was?
He’d been gone a long time. She was sick with worry over what her parents were going through and Kerry. She tried not to think about Kerry. The one thing she’d decided was, she was never going to tell Jimmy Joe anything that might help him.
He’d probably kill her, she figured. She was only twenty but what choice did she really have? She couldn’t let him get to Kerry. No matter what happened.
She began to think about everything she’d miss if he did kill her. Too many things to consider, dying at twenty.
She was going to fight back, that much she had decided. What ever happened, she would fight back.
Closing her eyes, she tried not to listen to Bonnie and Orley in the next room.
***
Jimmy Joe slammed the car door and tore out of the dirt road. He’d had enough bullshitting around – it was time for action. He had driven to Pigett to throw the police off his tracks but now he had a two-hour drive back to the cabin which really pissed him off. Glancing down, he noticed splatters of the women’s blood all over his shirt and jeans. Perfectly good clothes ruined. Who would have thought that dried old women like them would have that much blood?
Well, he might as well leave his clothes on until he dealt with the sister. She was young and was sure to have more blood then them two old bitches. He felt no remorse. They were pretty old, probably would have died soon anyway.
Now that he had a chance to think about it, one looked a little like his mama. Grey hair, sweet face. And that fucking bastard had made him shoot them down like dogs. Even more reason to make Lucy and her whole family pay.
He slowed down when he saw a police car pull out in front of him. That asshole would be pretty freaking surprised if he knew who was driving right behind him, he thought. He ought to ram him right off the road, but no, that wouldn’t be very smart. First things first, and the first thing he was going to do was to shoot that bitch’s sister right in the head.
Chapter Forty-Three
As soon as Emma heard Jimmy Joe shouting, she sat straight up. Something had gone horribly wrong. He was screaming about killing someone. She sent up a quick prayer that he wasn’t talking about her.
She heard the bed squeak as Bonnie and Orley crawled out and headed into the living room. She pressed her ear against the closet door. All three of them were in the living room now. Jimmy Joe’s furious voice carried into the closet. He was screaming about killing two old ladies in some town. He told Bonnie he’d come back to kill Emma and then he was going after Lucy.
Bonnie looked horrified at Jimmy Joe, her whole body shaking. She stared at the blood splattered across the front of his clothes. It made her feel like puking. “How could you kill two sweet little old ladies?” Bonnie cried.
“How in the hell do you know they were sweet?” Jimmy Joe demanded. “They could’ve been real old bitches.”
Pissed that she was questioning him, Jimmy Joe started toward the closet, Bonnie stood in his path. “Please Jimmy Joe, don’t kill her.”
He shoved her aside, reached in and jerked Emma out, throwing her against the wall. He pointed the gun at Emma’s head and grinned, “Ready to die, bitch?”
Speechless, Emma swallowed hard. Turning her head, her eyes pleaded with Bonnie.
Bonnie grabbed Jimmy Joe’s arm and swung the gun away from Emma. “No Jimmy Joe, you ain’t killing her.”
“Who do you think you are, bitch?” he roared, backhanding Bonnie with the gun, sending her sprawling and bleeding onto the floor.
In a swirl of movement, Orley had Jimmy Joe slammed against the closet door. “You touch Bonnie more one time Jimmy Joe and I’ll kill you,” Orley said, putting his thick arm under Jimmy Joe’s chin and raising him a foot off the floor. “You used to be my best friend but I love Bonnie now. If you want to kill that bitch, kill her out in the woods. Not in here.”
Violently, Jimmy Joe kicked his foot at Orley’s leg. Grunting in pain, Orley lifted Jimmy Joe higher. “You do that any more Jimmy Joe and I’ll snap your neck like a chicken.”
Jimmy Joe realized that against Orley’s strength, he was helpless. He stiffened and met Orley’s eyes.
“You gonna stop?” Orley asked, loosening his arm.
Jimmy Joe gave a slight nod and felt Orley release him. Orley turned his attention to Bonnie, “You all right, Bonnie?”
“You should’ve killed him,” Bonnie whispered, glaring at Jimmy Joe.
Fiercely, Jimmy Joe turned to Emma. “I decided not to kill you now. I want you to think about your precious family, ‘cause I’m through fucking around. I’m gonna go right into your house and shoot your fucking mom and dad and take my Lucy back. Then I’m gonna bring her back here and show her what happens to people who piss me off.” Aiming his gun, Jimmy Joe pointed it at Emma’s head. “Click, you’re dead and as soon as I make Lucy pay, she’s dead too.”
He grabbed his fatigues off the back of a chair and stalked into the bedroom to change. Emerging, he walked over to the wood stove and reached into the bottom tray. Pulling ashes out, he smeared his face. Without another word, he turned and marched out.
Orley grabbed him by his coat and growled. “You ain’t leaving us here with no car.”
Jimmy Joe’s face was red with anger. He reached for his gun, but Orley forced his hand away from his pocket. “I’ll take you into town and drop you off. You can steal a car there.”
***
Two hours later Jimmy Joe was headed toward Indiana in a stolen white Toyota. They had driven around until they found a car parked, the engine running, at a gas station. Someone’s carelessness probably saved a life, Orley figured watching Jimm
y Joe squeal off. Jimmy Joe had wanted him to steal a car from someone’s house, but Orley wasn’t having it. He knew how Bonnie felt about killing and he loved Bonnie.
***
Jimmy Joe was pissed. Hours wasted because Orley promised Bonnie he wouldn’t let anyone else get killed. The first one he’d kill when he got back was Orley, then Bonnie. She might be his sister, but he’d had it with her and Orley. Then it would be the sister’s turn. He was looking forward to that. First, he had to get Lucy back.
Chapter Forty-Four
Weak from relief, Emma slid to the floor of the closet. The bastard would’ve killed her if Bonnie hadn’t intervened. Wiping her hand across her cheek, she wasn’t surprised to find tears. She had never been so frightened in her life. She sat on the floor of the closet and tried to control her breathing. After a few minutes, she realized the cabin was unusually quiet. She scooted over to the door and pressed her ear to it, listening intently.
Orley must have left with Jimmy Joe. The cabin was unnaturally still. Maybe everyone had gone, but she didn’t think so. She had a feeling Bonnie was somewhere in the house.
Orley definitely wasn’t around. When Orley was around, he was either belching or farting. Now was the time to try to escape, Emma thought.
“Bonnie?” Emma called. “Thank you so much for helping me. You saved my life. I was really scared he was going to kill me.” Not receiving an answer, Emma closed her eyes and sent a prayer up to heaven, then yelled, “Bonnie? Are you okay?” Nothing. She tried again, “I hate to ask, but I need to go to the bathroom. Bonnie, I really have to go. Please. You know how it feels when you have to go real bad.”
“I promised Jimmy Joe I wouldn’t let you out,” Bonnie finally said, sounding scared.
“I’ll go right back in. Jimmy Joe won’t have to know anything, I promise.”
Emma heard the door unlock, stood up, and waited. Very slowly the door opened wide enough for her to see Bonnie standing in front of her holding the largest rifle Emma had ever seen.
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