Biloxi Sunrise (The Biloxi Series Book 1)

by Jerri Ledford

  “Okay. I’ll call you.” Dana hung up before Jack had a chance to say anything else. His heart pounded in his chest like a boom box. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do.

  Dana turned off the highway, and adrenaline pulsed through Jack’s veins. He pushed a little harder on the accelerator. If she got away from him now, he might never find her.

  He spotted the car just as it took a left off the road. If he’d been a second later, he would never have seen the car turn, and he might never have found her. He drove slowly past where she had disappeared and caught sight of her taillights as they vanished behind an old, run down house.

  Jack drove ahead another quarter mile then found a turn off. He pulled into the narrow opening, only to find a dead end. At one time, it might have been a road, but it had long since grown over. He pulled the car as far into the overgrowth as he could then slipped out and pushed the door together, careful not to make the lock click into place. He didn’t want to do anything that might alert Dana to his presence.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  Kate used her GPS to find the property Conner told her about, but she drove right past it. She realized her mistake and backed up. The house, which sat a little ways back from the road, looked like it might fall completely down with a good gust of wind. It couldn’t be occupied.

  She drove on, parking a little ways up the road, and then hiked back to the house through the woods. She peeked in the windows. Empty. She poked around the outside of the house. Nothing. Time to talk to the neighbors. She jogged to the nearest one, about a half mile further down the road than where she’d parked.

  An elderly woman answered the door wearing a housedress that looked like something straight out of the 50s. Her white hair was perfectly coiffed. She probably went to the hair dresser every week and had it trimmed and set, then shellacked into place so it would withstand life until the next week.

  “Can I help you?” The woman peered through a screen door, as if the flimsy mesh would protect her from the woman standing on the porch.

  Kate flashed her badge. “I’m Special Investigator Kate Giveans. Would it be okay if I ask you some questions about the property down the road, Ms.…?”

  “Jones. Oletha Jones. You want to know about the Campbell place? No one lives there now. Are you related to the Giveans that live out in Long Beach?” The little old lady pushed open the front door and stepped out onto the porch. She motioned for Kate to sit in one of the rocking chairs.

  Kate wished for air conditioning as she eased herself into the rocking chair. “No ma’am. I’m from up around Memphis.”

  “Oh. The Giveans are good people. It’s a shame. I miss O’Dell Giveans. I wish I could find her phone number.”

  “Ma’am.” Kate tried to steer her back in the direction of useful information. “You said the Campbell place is empty. How long has it been since you saw someone out there?”

  “Well, yesterday I suppose.” The woman’s head dropped forward. Kate thought she might have fallen asleep. “Yes, it was yesterday.” She hadn’t fallen asleep. She must have just been trying to remember.

  “Ms. Marlee has been back in town for a while. She’s been out there off and on for the last few months. I saw her drive that shiny black car over there yesterday. She must be doing real well for herself. She’s got two cars, you know. Sometimes she drives the shiny black one. Other times she drives that dark gray one. Both of them are pretty nice cars. She says she’s a doctor, so I suppose she can afford it.”

  Interesting. Marlee had two cars. One of them was probably the one she’d been driving when she ran Kate off the road.

  “Do you ever see anyone with Marlee when she comes through?”

  “Oh, no. She’s almost always alone. The only time I’ve ever seen anyone else is the first time she came out here. Gosh, that was awhile back. She had someone with her that day. I remember because I was out on the ditch doing some weeding. I was surprised to see her back in town. It’s been so long.”

  “She comes back often?”

  “No, not really. After that horrible tragedy with her parents, she stayed away for a long time. I heard she spent a lot of time in Searcy, you know that mental hospital? I hear witnessing her parents being slaughtered nearly drove her insane. It’s a testament to what a strong, sweet person she is that she ever managed to move on with her life, much less come back here.”

  Goosebumps crawled down Kate’s arms. Marlee had been here more than one time. She exhaled deeply at the thought of what that could mean.

  “Do you ever talk to her when she comes back out here?”

  “Oh yes. Once in a while she’ll bring me something. When she came back the first time she just stopped here and talked for a while. She’s such a sweet girl. Bless her heart, she went through such a terrible thing. And life wasn’t good to her before that, either. Her parents weren’t good people. Her father was an alcoholic. I suspect her mother was too, but she didn’t get out of the house much. Once in a while I might see her at the grocery store in town, but not very often.”

  The older woman rocked her chair steadily back and forth. “I remember the last time I saw her in the store, she had bruises on her face. I just knew that man had hit her. I told Henry about it. Henry was my late husband. He said we should stay out of it. A man and wife don’t need anyone butting into their business.”

  Kate thanked the woman for her time and started to leave. She wanted to check with the neighbor on the other side of the property before heading back into town. She stepped off the bottom step onto the path back to her car, and the old woman spoke from the top of the porch.

  “You know, John…That’s my son. John said there had been some movement going on around the Campbell’s barn, too. I’m surprised it’s still standing. And since it’s been neglected for so long, the woods are starting to take the land back, but John goes up there once in a while hunting. He said he’d seen her shiny black car up at that barn a week or so ago. I can’t imagine how she’d get that up there. Is she moving back in? Maybe she’s trying to build a house out there? It would be so good to have her back all the time.”

  Not as good as you might think. Kate didn’t let the thought slip past her lips. No sense in scaring the nice old lady. There was no doubt, if the woman knew what Marlee was capable of, she wouldn’t want her anywhere near. “I don’t know, ma’am. But thank you for your time.”

  Kate walked to the other neighbors wondering how long Marlee had been playing this game. Did she use the family property as a place to kill people or dispose of bodies?

  The second neighbor’s house was an old-style farm house with a wraparound front porch. Kate knocked at the screen. The interior door stood open, but Kate could only see darkness beyond the screen.

  “Yeah?” A tall, skinny woman appeared on the other side of the screen.

  Kate introduced herself. “I’d like to ask you about the property next door and one of the people that used to live there, Marlee Campbell?”

  The woman standing inside the door looked as if she’d swallowed a whole lemon.

  From behind her, Kate heard a man’s voice. “That whole family is rotten.”

  Kate couldn’t agree with him more.

  “Why do you say that Mr.…”

  “Whitmeyer. And I said it ‘cause it’s true.” The man stepped out on the porch. He was lanky and looked as if he’d spent a lifetime working outside. “The parents was drunks. Never took care of their property or their young ‘uns.”

  Kate asked about the barn.

  “Yep. It’s back there. I ain’t been back there in a while, but I keep seeing that girl going back there in her fancy car. Can’t figure that one out at all.”

  “What’s the easiest way to get to it from here?” Kate hoped there was a road that didn’t go past the Campbell house. No such luck.

  “You can go around by the old Campbell house. There’s a road there, but it’s pretty grown over. Or you walk up that path out back. It’ll take you up to the ridge, wh
ere the pond is. You’ll see the barn from there.” The husband shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans and spit tobacco juice into the dirt in front of the porch.

  Only one way to find out what was going on in that barn. Kate had to check it out.

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  Jack picked his way through the thick woods that stood between him and the house he’d seen Dana’s car disappear behind. He moved slowly, stealthily, stopping every few steps to listen for any sounds out of the ordinary. He kept hoping he might hear Leslie’s voice.

  The trees gave way to a small clearing. And the house. Sunlight reflected dully on its dingy windows. He dropped to a crouch, tried to stay below the tops of the weeds growing in the clearing, and slinked closer to the house. He hadn’t seen any place to hide near the house.

  A few feet away, he rose up slightly and checked his distance. He’d have to take his chances running the last few yards to the nearest wall of the house.

  He could see Dana walking around inside. She looked agitated, running her hands through her hair, pulling at it. Then weaving her hands right and left, up and down in wild gestures. Her muffled voice came through the window as she spoke to Leslie, Jack assumed. He still hadn’t seen Leslie or heard her voice.

  He inched toward the house. Dana quieted. He hurried, fear gripped at his soul. When he stopped beneath the window he could hear Dana inside, moving something. An occasional grunt punctuated her effort. He pushed himself into a crouch and peered inside.

  Dana pulled Leslie across the floor by handcuffs shackled to her wrists. Jack’s heart froze at the sight of his sister, unmoving, at the mercy of some woman that looked more like a wild animal than a human being. Was Leslie alive?

  She had to be. Dana wouldn’t chain Leslie to the floor if she were dead.

  He watched until Dana finished. Then she disappeared. The side door opened and his heart almost leapt out of his chest. He glued himself against the house, edging toward the back. If Dana came around the house, he had nowhere to hide.

  After a few second, he heard a car door slam and the engine grumble to life. He relaxed slightly. He hoped she would be gone long enough for him to get to Leslie and get her out of here.

  Jack watched until the taillights disappeared and then ran to the front door. He turned the knob, but it held. Locked. He pushed and jiggled at the knob. Nothing. He stepped back and slammed his shoulder into it. The rotten jamb gave way in a shower of splinters. He hurried to where he’d seen Dana chaining Leslie to the floor.

  THIRTY-NINE

  “Arrrgh!” Kate wanted to pitch the phone as far into the field as she could. Or stomp on it. Either option would be as effective as trying to call Jack. For the last ten minutes she’d been dialing his number every few seconds. Every time, it rolled straight to voicemail or it rang five times before rolling to voicemail. “This really isn’t the time for you to be ignoring me, Jack.”

  Kate stopped when she reached the ridge. She drank in deep gulps of air. The hill leading up to the ridge hadn’t looked as steep from the Whitmeyer’s yard. The muscles in her legs burned. Looks can be deceiving.

  She was at least half a mile from where her car sat. It was uphill most of the way. It had taken her almost fifteen minutes at a steady pace to get this far. But as she caught her breath, she spotted the barn a short distance away.

  She approached cautiously. When she checked earlier, Marlee’s car hadn’t been anywhere around the house, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t up here. Kate edged around the barn, gun drawn, listening to every chirp and screech of birds and insects. Nothing out of the ordinary.

  The barn was actually in much better shape than the house. It wasn’t as dilapidated, though it had been weathered gray a long time ago. Kate reached the doors. The two main animal doors were padlocked into place, but a smaller, man-sized door was unlocked. Kate pulled the door open quickly, her gun leading her way into the darkened barn.

  Inside, an almost new BMW sat in the center of the open space where hay was probably once stored. The dark gray sedan shined even in the dim light. But the front end and passenger’s side were banged up pretty bad. Kate looked closely at the dents in the side. Blue paint that matched the color of her Mustang clung to one of the dents.

  So Marlee hadn’t been bluffing. She’d tried to kill Kate, or at the very least, injure her severely. She’d just about succeeded on both possibilities.

  Kate poked around but found nothing more so she stood beside the door she’d entered through and listened. Nothing out of the ordinary. She slipped back outside, her gaze constantly roaming. Something glinted in the sun at the edge of the woods.

  Kate held her gun out to her side and followed the glinting light. She was out in the open and didn’t want to be surprised if Marlee showed up.

  She neared the spot where she’d seen the light and caught her breath. Something stank. And she recognized that odor. Fear gripped her heart as she located the light’s source. A necklace. Still attached to the body of a badly decomposing body. A woman, but her face was gone, probably eaten away by scavengers. Maggots, flies, wasps, and other carrion insects busied themselves with what was left.

  Kate reached into her back pocket for her phone. She pulled it free and heard gravel crunching somewhere in the distance. She jammed the phone back into her pocket and ducked into the brush.

  She waited. The crunching stopped, but a car door didn’t slam. Cautiously, she picked her way through the woods. The ground sloped downward, and Kate felt certain she was heading in the direction of Marlee’s family home. Would she ever be able to find her way back to her car?

  She stepped behind a thick stand of trees and looked for the best way around them. Gravel crunched again. Close. On the other side of the trees that shielded her.

  Kate pressed her back into a tree, and the car stopped a few feet away. Again, no sound of a door closing, but she heard footsteps. Running. Close. She held her breath and tried to remain perfectly still. Then they faded as the runner got farther away.

  Kate released her breath and risked peeking out from around the trees. She couldn’t see anything. She moved around to the far side of the stand of trees that shielded her, and looked in the direction of the runner. Dana disappeared down an embankment.

  The woods quieted again. Kate followed Dana, moving slowly, making as little noise as possible. She’d only gone a few hundred yards when she spotted Jack’s car, partially hidden in the thick brush that covered what used to be the road to the barn.

  She gasped. Jack was here. Likely poking around inside the old house. And Dana knew it. But Jack probably had no idea she was headed right for him.

  FORTY

  Marlee turned the car onto the barn road and nearly ran into the back of Jack’s unmarked car. The road had long ago been overrun by weeds and Jack had managed to get his car deep into those weeds. If she’d glanced away for even a second, she would have slammed right into it because it wasn’t visible until she was right on top of it.

  Cursing, she swerved her own car deeper into the underbrush. Branches and saplings scratched at the paint job on the car. Not that she cared. When this day was over, she would pull the other car out of the barn and drive away. The damage from where she tried to run Kate off the road could be repaired.

  Marlee finally managed to get around Jack’s car and finished the short drive to the barn. She hadn’t been surprised to find Jack’s car out here. She knew Jack followed her. She knew he watched as she dragged Leslie into the house and chained her up. And she knew that by the time she got back to the house, Jack would be inside trying to free his sister so he could save her.

  He would fail.

  Marlee had been matched against smarter opponents than him in the past and had won. She would win again this time. She always did.

  She slipped quietly from the car and jogged back to the house. She’d been gone less than three minutes. Enough time for Jack to get inside, but not enough to free Leslie.

  She picked h
er way around the debris that littered the floor inside the door. In the front room, she could hear Jack, trying to get Leslie to come to.

  “Leslie?” Jack’s voice. Quiet, even though he didn’t know she was back in the house. “Leslie?” More urgent this time.

  Marlee spotted a pipe laying in the floor. Almost eighteen inches long and made of lead. She wasn’t sure how it had ended up in the house, but she was certain it was exactly what she needed to deal with Jack.

  She hefted the pipe, felt the cool metal in her palm. Tested the weight with a gentle swing. Yep. Perfect.

  Inching closer to the door leading into the front room, Marlee could hear Jack moving around. When she reached the doorway she risked a peak around the frame.

  Jack leaned over Leslie, his back to the door. His hands went to her neck. Probably checking for a pulse. Leslie still hadn’t regained consciousness.

  Marlee eased into the room, taking quiet steps as she drew closer to where Jack knelt beside his sister. She gripped the pipe tightly with both hands.

  “Hang on, Sis.” He rolled her carefully onto her side. “You hear me, you gotta hang on. Lisa needs you. I need you.”

  Marlee inched closer. Raised the pipe high above her head. Jack had lost. He didn’t even know she was there.

  “Come on Sis.” He tapped Leslie’s face lightly with an open palm. “We can get through this.”

  “Aww, how sweet.” Marlee stepped and swung at the same time. The lead pipe connected with the side of Jack’s head just as he spun around. Surprise contorted his face as he collapsed on top of Leslie. Marlee dropped her arms to her side as he lifted his head weakly.

  “You…” Whatever he started to say died on his tongue as his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out completely.

  “Yeah. Me, Jack. And you weren’t smart enough to figure it out.” Marlee pulled a pair of handcuffs from her back pocket and went to work.