London Carter Boxed Set: Books 1 - 3

by BJ Bourg

  “Good…I found that information for you. The guy who stole my guns was Jarvis Griffin. His address was on Tunnel Lane off of Highway Fifty-One.”

  I jotted the information down and thanked him. After flipping my phone shut and turning to my computer, I tried to find that database program, but couldn’t. A shadow fell over me and I looked up to see Gina Pellegrin.

  “What’s going on?” Gina asked. “Corey said there’s been some major development in the case.”

  I stood and nodded to my seat and handed her the note I’d jotted. “Can you look up this name in that database I’m supposed to have access to but don’t? I’ll fill you in on what’s going on while you do it.”

  She plopped into my chair and her fingers danced across the keyboard. “Go ahead…fill me in.”

  I told her about Zeke Hadley’s stolen gun and my suspicions that Major Ronald Day had recovered the gun back when he was a detective and had scratched off the serial number and planted it on Lenny James’ body. “If I can talk to Jarvis Griffin, I bet he’ll verify he never scratched the serial number off that stolen revolver and that Detective Ronald Day recovered it at the same time he recovered the snub-nose.”

  “Um,” Gina said, leaning back in the chair, “you won’t be able to do that. Jarvis Griffin’s deceased.” She pointed at the screen. There was a large red “D” beside Griffin’s name.

  “Are you sure?” I asked.

  “Positive. Look at the address. He would’ve been about thirty when he died.”

  I leaned back against the wall of my cubicle, feeling deflated. “Shit, I needed him. Can you see how he died?”

  Gina continued hacking away at my keyboard. After several quiet moments, she pointed to the screen. “He died in a car wreck. He was driving drunk and hit a cement flood wall in 2002. There were two other people with him and they both died as well.”

  I shook my head, and we joined the others in the conference room. Captain Chiasson had just hung up one of the many phones they’d set up in there and shook his head. “That was the last one on my list. What about y’all?”

  Sally, Rachael and Melvin all shook their heads.

  “He didn’t check into any motels in the state,” Rachael said.

  “I checked over a hundred apartment complexes and none of them have even heard of this Kenny James,” Melvin said. “Shit, I never even heard of him.”

  I looked at Sally. “Anything?”

  She frowned and shook her head.

  “Well, it looks like we’ll be making a road trip,” I said.

  Melvin threw up his hand, waving it in the air. “I want to go on a road trip!”

  “If I have to be in the car with someone for ten hours,” I joked, “I’d rather it be Sally than you.”

  “Oh, now you want to hang out with me?” Sally chided. “I remember that not too long ago you weren’t into cops and—”

  “Hey, can we just forget about the past and go get packed?” I asked. “We have a long trip ahead of us.”

  Gina sneered. “Why does she get to go with you?”

  “If it hadn’t been for her, we wouldn’t even know about Mr. James.” I stood to leave, but Captain Chiasson lifted a hand.

  “Can you hold up a minute, so I can have a word with you?” he asked.

  I nodded, and he waited until we were alone to close the conference room door. “Look, Gina told me about your conspiracy theory, where you think our superiors, including the sheriff himself, know more than what they’re saying about what happened that night twenty years ago.”

  “At this point, I think it’s a little stronger than a conspiracy theory.”

  Captain Chiasson shook his head. “I’m betting you’re right, but if you have anything less than a videotape catching them in the act, you’d better be careful who you say that to. If the sheriff finds out you’re going around saying that, he’ll have you fired and he’ll find a way to have you arrested.”

  I studied Chiasson’s face, my jaw set. He threw his hands up and hurriedly said, “I won’t say anything, but, if asked, I’ll deny knowing anything about your theory. I have a wife and kids to think about and only seven years left before retirement.”

  “Well, if I get concrete evidence proving the sheriff and his henchmen hit the wrong house and wrongfully killed Lenny James and his baby, you can bet I’ll be going to war with him…and you won’t want to be on his side.”

  Captain Chiasson pursed his lips. “If you get that concrete evidence, I’ll stand by your side.”

  I nodded, before I hurried out the door.

  Sally was waiting in the parking lot and asked, “Where do you want to meet?”

  “I’ll meet you here in an hour and you can drive. I just want to run to the hospital and see Bethany before we set out.”

  CHAPTER 35

  “Tennessee?” Bethany bolted up in bed, then gasped in pain. Face twisted in agony, she gingerly slid back down. “Why are you going to Tennessee?” she asked through clenched teeth.

  When I explained what was going on and who Kenny James was, she frowned. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would this guy wait twenty years to exact revenge? He’d be slower, weaker, have poorer eyesight. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “I’m just as fast and strong today as I was twenty years ago,” I contended.

  “Maybe so, but will you be able to say that in twenty more years? This hero of yours, wouldn’t he have to be in his late fifties, early sixties? While he might be able to still get around good for his age, there’s no way some old grandpa shot Captain Abbott in the cemetery and then disappeared before we hit that abandoned schoolhouse.”

  “He’s not my hero,” I muttered. “I just own two of his books.” I sank into a nearby chair and brooded over this commonsense revelation. “Why do you always have to piss on my parade?”

  Bethany reached out a hand and stroked my arm. “I’m sorry. I guess it’s just the investigator in me. This case is like a giant puzzle and my mind’s constantly working…trying to stick pieces here and there…evaluating what fits and what doesn’t. The first thing I do when I get a new piece is try to explain why it doesn’t fit. If I can’t do that, then I start looking at why it does fit. I’ve found that by approaching my cases this way, I tend to put fewer pieces in the wrong place.”

  “I knew there was a reason I liked you,” I said with a smile.

  “Wow, a guy who appreciates me for my mind.”

  “And a lot of other things.” I stood and squeezed her hand. “I have to meet Sally Piatkowski at CID.”

  “Why?”

  “Like I said, we’re going to Tennessee to find Kenny James.”

  “But why? Like I said, old as he is, there’s no way he committed these crimes.”

  “Yeah, but I still want to check it out to be sure. Maybe he’ll lead us to someone who is capable of doing it.”

  “Why don’t you just call the police up there and ask them to check him out? It’d save you a lot of wasted time.”

  “We think the police up there might not be as open-minded as we are about his possible involvement. While he might not be my hero, I’m sure a lot of those Tennessee cops hold him in high regard.”

  Bethany was silent for a moment, thoughtful. “Tell me again why Sally’s going with you?”

  “Well, she’s the one who broke this wide open, so it’s only right that she gets to go.”

  Bethany faked a pout. “I don’t know if I like that.”

  “If you hadn’t gone and got yourself shot, you’d be coming with me.”

  “But do you even need to go? There’s no way Kenny James did this, so why not let Melvin go instead of you? That way you can stay here in case another attack takes place.”

  “I think Kenny might be able to shed some light on what really happened during that raid, and I don’t want anyone screwing that up. Kenny should know if his brother was ever involved with drugs and he should be able to tell us if Lenny James ever owned any guns. By the way, listen to this…�
� I told her about Zeke Hadley’s gun and Jarvis Griffin.

  “I knew they were dirty!” Bethany shook her head. “There’s got to be someone out there who knows something…someone willing to talk.”

  “Until we find that person, we’ll have to try and backdoor this case.” I turned to leave, but stopped by the door. “One last thing…be careful who you talk to about our suspicions. Captain Chiasson said the sheriff doesn’t take kindly to being questioned.”

  CHAPTER 36

  Tuesday, August 23, 2011

  It was something after midnight when Sally and I walked into the lobby of the Smokey Inn in Pigeon Forge. It was our last hope—all the other hotels and motels in the area were booked solid.

  “What can I get you for?” the clerk, an elderly lady with thinning hair and a salt-and-pepper mustache, asked from behind the cluttered counter.

  “We were hoping to get a couple of rooms.” I pulled out my wallet.

  The clerk shook her head before she started punching into her computer. “We only have one room available…a king on the second floor. The party just cancelled.”

  I looked at Sally. She shrugged, the makings of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “I’m cool with it if you are.”

  I hesitated. “Um, do y’all have any cots?”

  The clerk raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

  “You know,” I explained, “a roll-away cot.”

  “No, we don’t have any cots left.” The clerk looked from me to Sally and then back again. “Even if we did, why would you want one? You afraid of her?”

  Sally giggled. I blushed.

  Suddenly, the front door burst open and a lady walked briskly to the counter. “Are there any rooms available in this Godforsaken town?”

  Before the clerk could open her mouth, I shoved my credit card across the counter. “We’ll take it.”

  The clerk broke into a toothless smile. “Sorry, ma’am, the last room in this Godforsaken town has just been rented.”

  The woman stormed out of the lobby, leaving behind a tirade of choice words, and the clerk took my information and gave us the swipe card to our room. “Enjoy your stay,” she said pleasantly.

  We carried our bags up the two flights of cement stairs and stopped outside our door. Leaning against the metal railing, we stared out at the busy strip of highway that passed in front of the motel. A cool breeze blew in from the not-so-distant mountains, and I heard Sally sigh. “This place is so beautiful.”

  I nodded and, after spending a few more minutes admiring the nightlife along the highway, we turned and entered the room. It was modest, with a king-size bed, a television table holding a twenty-five-inch television, a round table with a squared-back chair and a small nightstand. Across from the entrance was a lavatory, complete with coffee pot and hairdryer, and to the right was the doorway to the bathroom. I dropped my bag near the round table and stared at the bed. “Um, what’ll we—”

  “I call it. I get this side,” Sally said, and plopped to the left side of the bed, nearest the bathroom. She rolled onto her back, smiling up at me. “I want to be the first one in the bathroom in the morning. I can’t let you see my morning face.”

  I wondered how Bethany would feel about me sharing a bed with another woman and, for a fleeting moment, I thought about crashing on the floor. Sally must’ve seen me eyeball the floor because she shook her head. “Don’t even think about it. We’re both adults…professionals…and we’re both single. There’s no reason we can’t crash in this giant bed for a few hours to recharge our batteries, me on one side and you on the other. We’re on the job. It’s not like we took a vacation together to the Bahamas.”

  “I guess you’re right.” I dropped my shoulders in resignation. “There’s no reason to get all worked up over this situation. We close our eyes for a few hours and then we get back to work…and we never speak of this to anyone. You know how our coworkers are—if you look at someone too long it means you’re sleeping with them, and neither of us needs that grief.”

  “Grief?” Sally frowned.

  “You know what I mean. We don’t need to hear their jaw-jacking over something that never happened.”

  “I guess so.” Sally grabbed her bag and went into the bathroom to get ready for bed.

  I took the opportunity to call Sheriff Burke to let him know we’d made it and where we were staying. After twenty minutes of back and forth, I was finally able to end the conversation and call Bethany. She was fit to be tied.

  “They released me a few hours ago,” she complained. “I could’ve gone with you if you would’ve waited!”

  “I didn’t think they were releasing you today.”

  “Neither did I, but all the tests came back good, so they said I could go. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they did that just to screw me out of going up there with you.”

  “Yeah, no shit.”

  “Think about it…we could’ve saved the department money by renting only one room and we could’ve spent another night together…away from here, in a romantic location, with no early-morning interruption, no time schedule, nothing to interfere with our time together.”

  I smiled. “Yeah, that does sound nice. Maybe we can find another excuse to come up here.”

  Sally opened the bathroom door right at that moment, dressed in a thin T-shirt and very short shorts, and I quickly threw my finger to my lips. She nodded her understanding and tiptoed across the floor. She shoved a tuft of wet blonde hair over an ear and eased onto the bed. Leaning her back against the headboard, she pulled her sleek and tanned knees to her chest and squirted a handful of body lotion into the palms of her hands. She began applying the lotion to her right leg first, rubbing from the ankle to the knee—using long, deliberate strokes—and then she moved to her left leg.

  “Hey, are you there?” I heard Bethany ask over the phone.

  “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “Well? Did you?”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t hear the question—did I what?”

  “Did you all find Kenny James?”

  “Not yet. We’re going out to Bear Mountain Road in the morning. The sheriff wanted us to visit the house tonight—catch him by surprise—but I think a more diplomatic approach will get us more information. If he is Captain Assassin, like the media dubbed him, I’m not just interested in catching him, I’m also interested in finding out why he’s doing this. Sure, he’ll have to pay for his actions and nothing justifies murder, but if the sheriff and his cronies hit the wrong house and killed an innocent baby that night, they’re going down.”

  “How’re you going to make that happen?”

  “I’m not real sure.” I glanced at Sally again. She had straightened her legs and was now applying the lotion to her upper thighs, using the same slow and deliberate motion. When she caught me looking, she smiled coyly. I quickly adjusted my eyes, cleared my throat. “Well, Beth, I think I’d better get some rest. It was a long drive up here.”

  “Oh…okay,” Bethany said, sounding disappointed. It was clear to me that she wanted to keep talking. “You sound distracted, distant. Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah, everything’s great. I’m just fried. I didn’t exactly get a lot of sleep this morning.”

  “I don’t know how you even fell asleep in that tiny chair,” Bethany agreed.

  “Yeah, it certainly wasn’t my granddaddy’s recliner.”

  “It was nice of you to be there. Having you with me helped to make my situation more bearable. Plus, it was so romantic of you to sleep by my bedside.”

  “I was glad to be there.” The fingers of guilt began to tug at my conscience like a nagging child pulling at his mother’s dress, begging for a candy in line at the grocery store. “Well, I guess I’d better get to bed.”

  “Hey, London…”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re not feeling any weirdness over what happened last night, are you?”

  “None at all.”

  “You’d tell m
e if you did?”

  “Yeah, absolutely.”

  “Okay.” She sighed. “Will you call me in the morning?”

  “Absolutely. I’ll call you as soon as I wake up.” I flipped my phone shut and carried my bag into the bathroom. When I was done showering, I stepped out the bathroom to find the room cloaked in darkness. I grounded my bag outside the bathroom door and shut off the light. I felt my way to the bed, using the sound of Sally’s soft breathing as a guide. When I reached the bed, I eased under the sheets—trying not to shake the bed too much—and lay there motionless. I remained on my back for several minutes. My muscles began to relax. My eyes closed. My mind gradually faded to black.

  Just as I began to doze off I felt Sally move beside me. The bed shifted as she turned onto her side. Her hand brushed against my leg and it inched upward to my chest. My heart began to race. She slowly moved her bare leg over mine, the touch of her cool skin sending shivers reverberating up and down my body, and her hand began to explore my chest.

  CHAPTER 37

  I peeled my eyes open, but shut them as sunlight bled through the curtains and blinded me. I turned away from the window and eased them open again.

  I gasped and jerked to a seated position when I saw Sally Piatkowski lying naked beside me. The events of the previous night came flooding back, and I groaned and sank back to the soft mattress, cursing myself silently. Sally stirred beside me and stretched like a lazy kitten that had just eaten a hearty meal.

  Her blue eyes sparkled when she opened them and saw me staring at her. “Good morning.”

  Although guilt tugged at my heart as I thought about Bethany lying alone seven hundred miles away, I couldn’t help but smile. “I…I thought last night was a dream.”

  “It sure felt like a dream,” Sally agreed. “Even better than I’d anticipated.”

  “Oh, you were anticipating what happened last night?”