“Okay, but you have to be careful.”
“Of course.” He loosened his grip on her to bend down pick up a shiny, flat pebble from the beach. He stood back up to skim it across the water. The surface rippled as the stone bounced toward the horizon and eventually sank into the icy depths of the lake.
“I'll be back before you know it.”
“You better be.”
Jenny reached up and kissed Roy on the cheek, his stubble scratching her soft lips. She moved her hand to his lower back and massaged him affectionately. For one, long moment, she thought she had made a horrible mistake. He didn't move or speak.
Finally, he reached out to find her hand. She felt a deep sense of relief as he held it tightly in his own. It seemed they had made it past their disagreement from earlier in the day. Maybe this was heading somewhere after all.
Chapter 21
Jenny watched from the kitchen window as Isabelle waved goodbye to Roy from the deck. Isabelle had taken a real shine to him, and Jenny was grateful for it. Roy was a good man, and he had come into their lives at just the right time.
When Roy's truck was out of sight, Jenny continued to watch Isabelle, who remained on the deck, Roy’s dog on guard at her side.
Isabelle patted the dog's head and led her down to the lake. The light was beginning to wane, but neither the child nor the dog had any intention of coming inside the cabin just yet.
It had only been recently that Roy allowed the dog into his home at all. He rationalized his decision, stressing that the nights were becoming colder and that he didn’t want her shivering outside all night.. Isabelle was over the moon.
Jenny felt a tugging at her heart strings. She loved that little girl. It was inevitable. Isabelle was adorable.
Jenny was finding it more and more difficult to rationalize taking her niece away from her life in Ombrea. She was happy here, with Norma and now Roy and her faithful, four legged friend to support her. And the freedom of the outdoors was something that Jenny could not provide in the city.
At least, she thought, if they could prove Joey’s innocence, Isabelle wouldn't have to move away. She could go back to living with her father, and her life, for the most part, would be as it once was. She would have to come to terms with the loss of her mother, but Jenny knew from experience that time would help to heal those wounds. And Jenny would be there for her. She had a lot of lost time to make up for.
Jenny cried. It had been an especially rough few days, and she was desperate for a resolution. She was homesick. She missed her life and her job and the freedom of a solitary life.
Still, she had warmed up to her hometown over the past couple of days, recognizing its drawbacks, but allowing herself to see the goodness in it as well. Roy, Isabelle, Norma and now after so many years she had her brother back.
Thinking about Roy sent her heart spinning. Ever since he had taken her hand at the lake, it felt like she was floating on a cloud. She wished it didn’t have to end.
* * *
Roy pulled up in front of the Dale house just as dark was setting in. He made a point of dropping in on Norma on the way by, so the elderly woman wouldn't call the police when she saw someone snooping around the house.
He packed a flashlight and a spare. If the army had taught him anything, it was to be prepared.
Roy scanned the property but saw no sign of another vehicle. He opened the gate slowly, the creak of the old wood echoing in the silence of the night, and then he closed it quietly behind him. If he were followed, the old gate would alert him to the intruder.
Roy cut across the garden and stepped up onto the old porch. He paused, aware that the shadows of the garden made easy hiding spots for anyone who might have come before him.
Satisfied that he was alone, he pulled at the yellow, crime-scene tape and located the padlock that secured the temporary front door. Adam had given him the key with the promise that he would have it returned to him by morning. He was risking his job, but Roy was a reliable man and Adam trusted that Roy would have it under his mat by the time he woke.
Roy closed the makeshift door tightly behind him. The house was deadly quiet, the strong smell of wet smoke difficult to bear. He lifted his shirt sleeve to cover his nose as he took a look around. With his flashlight beam he searched the floor, careful to watch where he was stepping. The ground was littered with soot and debris, and he did his best to avoid stepping on anything sharper falling through a hole in the damaged floorboards.
Roy carefully ascended the staircase, doing his best not to make too much noise. He used his flashlight beam to scan the upstairs landing as he climbed. If anyone were waiting at the top, he wanted to know ahead of time.
The smell of smoke was less intense in the upstairs hallway, allowing Roy to drop his sleeve from his face and keep his extra hand on the Swiss army knife he had tucked into his belt.
Roy knew his way to the master bedroom and headed there immediately, his heavy footsteps muffled by the hall carpet. He pushed the door open and used his flashlight to scan the room. If someone had been in the house before him, they hadn't moved anything, not that he could see, anyway.
Roy got to work quickly. He checked through the wardrobe and chest of drawers, pulling everything aside in search of anything that might lead them to the identity of the killer. All that turned up was a lottery ticket from last weeks draw. Joey's signature had been scribbled along the bottom. A lot of good winning the lottery would do him now.
He scanned the carpet, careful to step around the blood stain still staring garishly up at him. He had seen casualties in the army, but the sight of blood still made him recoil and his stomach churn. Nothing stood out that he hadn’t noticed before.
Roy dropped to his knees on the side of the bed that didn't have blood on it. He laid low on his stomach and shone the flashlight beam under the bed. He turned onto his side so he could shine the beam toward the end of the bed.
That was when he saw it. He recognized the Ombrea Police Service badge immediately. Not wanting to tamper with the evidence, he dug around in his pocket until he found a clean, white handkerchief. He reached out and wrapped the soft fabric around the badge, and pulled it carefully out from under the bed.
Roy held the badge in the palm of one hand and shone the light down on it. The number was clearly visible. It was not Joey's badge, he knew that for sure. He knew his partner's number as well as he knew his own.
He placed the new evidence gently on the nightstand while he did another sweep under the bed. There didn't seem to be anything else there.
If he was a betting man, he would say that what he had just found belonged to Chief Cartright. It could have come off when he was undressing for a roll in bed with Chloe or maybe during the struggle the day Chloe had been killed.
Chief Cartright hadn't come back to find his badge because he had already arrested Joey for the crime. People trusted the Chief. Roy and Joey with their colored pasts in Ombrea held very little credibility compared to Ombrea’s former Citizen of the Year.
This badge was as good as a smoking gun. Chief Cartright was going down.
Chapter 22
When Roy stepped back outside, he thought he felt something strange in the wind.
He padlocked the makeshift door behind him and slipped the key into the back pocket of his jeans for safe keeping.
Darkness had really set in while he was in the house. Roy kept his flashlight beam steady on the ground as he dropped down off the wooden porch and made his way along the crooked garden path. He paused suddenly in his tracks.
The garden gate, his trusty alarm system, hung wide open. It swayed in the wind, but he hadn't heard it creak when it had been opened. He cursed himself for not having been more aware. He couldn't say for sure if the gate had simply blown open or if someone had pushed it open upon entering the property. And he was sure he didn’t want to find out.
Roy turned to look at the house behind him. He didn't see anyone. And he didn’t want to stay longer t
han he had to. He had what he needed for the investigation. He needed to get the hell out of there.
He cut through the garden and walked swiftly to his truck. He still had the badge wrapped up in one hand, so he slipped the flashlight between his teeth while he hunted for his truck keys. He almost had his set of keys out of his pocket when he saw something shining on the ground beside his truck.
He gave up his search for a moment to duck down to his knees. He took the flashlight out of his mouth and reached the shiny object.
It didn't take him long to find the shards of glass. He stood back up quickly, looking his truck over for damage. Sure enough, the back window on the right-hand side had been popped out. Someone had used the time he had spent inside the house to go through his vehicle.
“Damn it,” he hissed.
There was nothing worth stealing inside the truck, apart from a few tools and some spare coins for coffee. He doubted that whoever had broken in had taken anything of real worth.
An old army buddy had instilled in him the need to always check his vehicle if it looked to have been tampered with, so Roy dropped back to his knees and checked the undercarriage with his flashlight. Next, he lifted the hood and checked the engine to see if that had been messed tampered with. Nothing seemed out of place, as far as he could tell. It would be safe to drive back to the cabin at the very least.
Roy looked back up at the house one more time. In the stillness of the night, it was oddly haunting. He climbed into his truck and slamming the door closed behind him, he stretched over to put the package containing the badge inside his glove compartment where it would be safe until he could show it to Jenny.
Roy was already cooking up a plan. And Jenny was going to be an important part of that plan.
As he turned over the ignition, he saw a retreating figure who, caught in the headlights, quickened their pace to escape from view.
Roy reached into the back of the truck and found his black windbreaker. He pulled it on, zipping it right to the top. Next, he unlocked the glove compartment and reached for the police badge. He unzipped one of the front pockets on his jacket and secured the package inside where it wouldn't fall out or be lost in the chase.
The figure had a decent head start on him. Roy raced across the dirt and into the cover of the dense woods circling the Dale property. He was quite familiar with the land around the house and made assumption on the intruder’s route based on that knowledge. He pushed on, branches whipping at his face and body.
Somewhere up ahead, a night creature screeched. Roy took it as a sign that the animal had been startled and turned toward the noise. It didn't take him long to hear the crash of footsteps through the underbrush on the hillside a few yards ahead of him.
Roy knew he must be gaining on the other man. The thudding of footsteps and snapping branches was getting louder as he hurried to his left. He could make out the faint sounds of the water running through the creek on his right. He was further along the Dale property than he thought.
A twisted root took him suddenly by surprise and he lost his footing. The slope, still slippery from last night's rain caused his feet to move out from under him. He reached out frantically for something to hold onto, but each branch he found was too fragile to hold his weight. He had no other choice but to hit the ground hard. He cried out in pain, his back aching as he lay on the cold, wet ground. His right ankle throbbed where he’d caught the root.
He fumbled with the pocket of his coat and found the badge still tucked safely away.
He could still hear movement ahead of him, but it was becoming more distant. The stranger was getting away.
Roy struggled to sit up. He cursed under his breath as his back roared with pain. He rubbed at his ankle with both hands. It had already started to swell, but he didn’t think it was broken. He pulled himself to his feet in the darkness and prepared himself for the long, painful walk back to his truck.
* * *
Jenny anxiously checked the clock one more time.
It was very late. She thought Roy would have returned a long time ago. She didn’t expect him to find anything useful, but didn’t tell him so. He was a lot more positive than she was about their chances of solving this mystery.
Jenny had tucked Isabelle into bed an hour ago. The dog had been adamant about sleeping at the foot of the bed, his weight pinning Isabelle's feet to the mattress. Jenny didn’t have the heart to discourage it.
“Come on, Roy,” she muttered under her breath as she pulled aside the kitchen curtain and stared out at the still lake. “Where the heck have you got to?”
The cabin at night was eery without his presence. She wished they’d had the good sense to leave Isabelle with Norma for the night. If anything went wrong she could help without having to worry about her niece.
And if Isabelle was with Norma and Roy returned empty-handed and without incident, she could think of a few things they could do alone in the cabin.
She imagined him taking her again as he had done last time, only more playful this time. She’d let him toy with her, play with her. She’d get on her hands and knees in front of him and crawl across the bed away from him, teasing him.
“Come get me,” she’d say, wiggling her ass from left to right and tempting him to slide his massive shaft into her.
She loved the sensation of him cumming inside her. She hadn’t been able to get that memory out of her mind since it had happened. It was a crazy thing to do, she knew that, but she didn’t care.
If something happened, if he made her pregnant, it would only mean that it was meant to be. It was God’s will. That’s what she told herself as she imagined him cumming inside her again.
She loved the wetness of it. The messiness. The raw animalness of it. His cum pouring into her pussy, filling her womb, getting deep into her body to places where it’s traces could never fully be erased again.
She imagined gripping his cock tight in her hand and licking it like a lollipop. She’d like to lay him on his back and lick his cock, but not suck it. Just lick it, taking her time, toying with it, forcing it to get slowly to the point of no return, and then, when the time came, let him cum on her face. The naughtiness of it aroused her.
She also imagined sitting on his face. She wasn’t sure if she’d be confident enough to do it in real life, but in her mind, the thought of sitting on his face and squirming her soaking wet pussy all over his mouth drove her wild. She’d gush on his face, dripping all over him, and he’d drink her juices and beg her for more.
Then she’d lean forward, over his cock, and sixty-nine him until she had a mouthful of his delicious cum. She’d swallow every drop.
She also imagined lying him on his back, his cock sticking up out of him like a pole, and then she’d squat over him, and sit right down on it. Only, instead of allowing him to slide into her wet, trembling pussy, she’d position herself so that it was her asshole that landed on the tip of his cock. She’d be all lubed up and he’d slide right into her, impaling her with such a feeling of pleasure that she’d reach orgasm just from the feeling of his cock sliding in and out of her asshole. Using her thigh muscles, she’d rise up and down on his pole of a cock, causing him to fuck her ass at exactly the pace and speed of her choosing. And as she bobbed up and down, he’d look at her and watch her reach the point of climax, her pussy squirting and orgasming right in front of him and spilling on his belly.
She got hot and bothered just fantasizing about all the naughty, dirty things she wanted to do with him. For too long, she’d thought of herself as a good girl. The truth was, she was bad, and she had very naughty fantasies that she craved making a reality.
A sudden movement outside the window caught her eye. She pressed her palms down flat on the wooden countertop as she leaned forward to see better. She searched the area for any sign of what it had been. Just then she saw a ghostly figure moving along the tree line. She watched as the figure moved within the cover of the trees. Whoever it was did not want to be seen.
When she dared to lean forward again, she found the figure was still watching the house. The figure stared straight at the cabin. She couldn't be sure it was a man, but she had a sense that it was. And it felt as if he knew her. Her body begin to shiver despite the warmth of the fire in the living room. She wished Roy would come home.
Even after the figure disappeared from sight, she could sense that she was being watched.
Jenny closed all the curtains in the cabin and locked the doors and windows. She stopped in to check on Isabelle and the dog, finding them both soundly asleep. Not much of a watch dog, she thought to herself.
She sat at attention in the front room wishing like hell that Roy would come through the door before someone else did.
Chapter 23
Roy cursed each bump and dip along the road, the pain from his fall growing worse with each passing mile.
He almost forgot to drop the key back to Chief Miller and turned the truck around and up the stretch of road that led to the small house beyond the fire station. He couldn’t wait for this night to be over.
He was dying to get back to the cabin so he could show Jenny the badge. In the morning, they could talk strategy.
Adam was still up when Roy dropped down from his beaten up truck with a heavy sigh and half limped his way to the front door of the home. He knocked twice and waited.
Chief Miller was dressed in a red shirt and boxer shorts when he opened the door. His television remote was still in his hand, and the sounds of a hockey game came from his living room.
“Evening, Roy.”
He raised his brow at the sight of Roy's disheveled appearance.
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