Her Last Breath - Debt Collector 9 (A Jack Winchester Thriller)

by Jon Mills

  “The town wasn’t always bad, Mr. Winchester. There are a lot of good people who live here. Honest, hard-working folks that would give you the shirt off their backs to help you.”

  “So what’s changed?”

  “The lack of jobs in the area probably contributes, but drugs. I saw Jenna a few weeks ago and she was telling me that she was astonished at the kind of drugs that were making their way into this area. She said most folks didn’t know the half of it. A big part of the problem is that motorcycle gangs are buying up properties and turning them into crack houses. It’s big business,” Beth said. She sipped at her coffee. “And the problem is that most aren’t aware. These aren’t places of ill repute where junkies hang out. No, they are your typical suburb households, with a couple and several kids living there. On the surface everything looks fine, but behind the scenes they are storing drugs and distributing them out to the sellers.”

  He smiled. “For someone that runs an inn, you know a lot.”

  “To stay afloat in this day and age, it behooves a person to keep their ear to the ground. Jenna has always been a good source of information. Even if others don’t agree.”

  “Is that why they fired her?”

  “They fired her because she wanted to print the truth.”

  “About?”

  “The corruption in the sheriff’s department, the mayor’s office and what some key individuals are up to in this town.”

  He paused, then poked at his bacon. “This key information wouldn’t involve escorts, would it?”

  She got this big grin on her face. “Now you’re getting warmer.”

  A voice bellowed from beyond the room. “Beth, where are you?”

  Her eyebrows shot up and she looked off into the hallway. “I must get going. Ed doesn’t like me wasting time in the mornings. Not that we have much to do except make the beds and do some grocery shopping for the evening.”

  As she was getting up Jack asked her, “Did Jenna ever mention anything about a Karl Fraser?”

  “No. But I know him. Everyone does. Dirty pervert spying on guests up at that lodge. He tried to get a job here after he had done time for that incident. I told him where to go. I run a clean house here and there is no way in hell I would allow a filthy swine like that to taint our legacy.”

  For a woman in her early sixties, she had one heck of a mouth on her. He liked her. She was feisty and didn’t worry about speaking her mind.

  “So he would have left a résumé here?”

  “He brought one in but I refused to take it.”

  “Do you know if he lives locally?”

  She leaned back on her haunches. “You think he’s responsible for those five women?”

  “I think Jenna took an interest in him. I need to rule him out.”

  “So you are here to look into the murders then? What are you, an investigator?”

  “Not exactly.”

  He sighed.

  She ran a hand over her face. Ed was still calling for her. She glanced that way. “Hold on a minute here. We might still have a copy of his résumé. Ed said he had swung by a few days after I saw him, but he told him that he had to speak with me. Can you believe the nerve of that man to think he could circumvent me?”

  “You do the hiring?”

  She nodded. “And the firing.”

  With that said she shuffled away, and he finished off his breakfast. While he was waiting for her to return, his phone started buzzing. He tapped to answer and there was a woman on the other end.

  “Jack, it’s Meghan Palmer.”

  “Oh hey, thanks for getting back to me. I was hoping you would call. How did it go last night?”

  “Not exactly as expected. Deputy Larson knows about the fight.”

  “You told him?”

  “Someone else did. I had no choice but to explain.”

  Jack sighed. The last thing he needed was some cop riding his ass.

  “Listen, would you be around this morning?”

  “Um, I have a few errands to run, but after that…. Why?”

  “I was hoping we could meet to discuss the last time you were with Jenna. I have to travel up to Green Bank later, maybe you can come along?”

  “Uh, I don’t know about that. I don’t mind speaking on the phone or meeting locally but… no offense but I don’t know you and…”

  “With the disappearances, and all…”

  “Exactly.”

  “Sure.” He glanced at his watch, it was just after nine. “Name a place?”

  “Dories Lounge, at ten o’clock.”

  “I’ll see you then. And Meghan. Thank you.”

  A few minutes passed and Beth returned with a single piece of paper in hand. It had been folded. “Here it is. He lives in Green Bank.”

  “Beth!” her husband yelled again. She smirked. “Hope you find what you’re looking for, Mr. Winchester.” She hurried out of the room leaving him alone. He glanced down at the résumé. It was littered with odd jobs, mostly handyman positions. The longest employment he’d had was with the lodge which had ended last year. If he wasn’t mistaken that was in the middle of when the five women began showing up dead. Jack took a sip of his coffee. A crisp morning breeze blew in through the window. It was cooler than the day before. The rain had taken most of the humidity out of the air. As he scanned the résumé, he heard gravel spitting. Jack glanced up and through the dining room window, he saw a police cruiser coming up the driveway.

  “Oh great,” he muttered, more trouble with the law. He certainly didn’t want them slowing him down today. There was too much to be done.

  Now whether it went against sound judgment or not, Jack double-timed it up to his room, snatched up the voice recorder, the phone, his keys and some extra money and exited via the window. He slid down the drainpipe and ran at a crouch towards his vehicle. Once inside, he started the engine and rolled out of there. His heart was pumping as he peeled away. As he drove, he kept his eyes on the rearview mirror to make sure that Larson wasn’t following him. He had an hour to kill before he would meet up with Meghan; he figured he could stay out of trouble until then.

  Chapter 14

  The day wasn’t going as planned. Deputy Larson had shown up at the inn expecting to find Winchester and bring him in for questioning about the previous night’s incident. Larson made a call in person last night but he wasn’t around. He was going to return later that evening, but he got snowed under with paperwork and figured that Winchester wasn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.

  Even though Meghan and Bonnie had come to his defense, he couldn’t believe the nerve of the guy. First, he broke into an apartment, then he got involved in a brawl within hours of getting released from custody. Was he looking for a one-way ticket to jail?

  He cast his gaze around the room after he got no answer and Beth Robertson had let him inside. A small duffel bag sat on a table, a hard drive off to the right of that and a packet of cigarettes beside his bed. The window was wide open, and the drapes were blowing in. She quickly crossed the room and closed it.

  “Looks like we might be in for some more rough weather before this week is out,” she said as he gazed around.

  “He was here?”

  “Like I said, he was here only minutes ago. Maybe he’s gone for another run.”

  “A run?”

  “He was out this morning running.”

  “Oh, I bet he’s gone for a run,” he said under his breath. He wasn’t stupid.

  Beth peered out the window. “Yep, doesn’t look like his car is here.”

  Larson joined her and glanced out. Sure enough the Shelby he’d seen on the way in was gone. He smiled and exited the room with Beth on his heels.

  “Deputy, Mr. Winchester brought to my attention that Jenna Whitmore has gone missing.”

  “That’s not confirmed.”

  “But shouldn’t you at least be looking into that?”

  “We are.”

  “Like the way you are looking into the Gr
een Bank Five?”

  He continued down the stairs with his mind occupied by the next person he was going to see that morning — Aaron Gance. On a good day he didn’t like swinging by that garage, but if anything would rile him up, it would be this.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Robertson.”

  “Deputy, Mr. Winchester strikes me as someone who is trying to help. Shouldn’t you be out there hunting down whoever is responsible for the death of those women, instead of bothering him?”

  “Thank you,” he repeated and let himself out. If he had stopped to engage with her, he wouldn’t have got out of there. She was notorious for flapping her gums and holding people hostage with her endless conversations, which were mostly rumors that she’d heard. Outside he got back into his cruiser. His radio was crackling, and he heard Ethan come over the line.

  “Larson, any luck with Winchester?”

  “Negative. He’s not here.”

  “You spoke with Gance this morning?”

  “I’m on my way over there.”

  “You want some backup?”

  He was about to say yes but then figured that he could deal with it himself. If he was going to make headway in the department, he needed to demonstrate he could handle situations as they arose. He hadn’t had any problems bringing in Aaron for the last assault when he had thrown Bonnie through a window. Aaron spent time in prison for that — though it definitely wasn’t as long as he should have got. Since then he had been putting on an act, trying to make out he was going clean by working at his brother’s garage. That was just a farce. He knew he was still dealing drugs and pimping women out, he just needed evidence, and that was something he was short on.

  No, it wasn’t Aaron who posed a danger, it was his older brother Merle. Merle had one hell of a temper on him and had already done time before setting up his garage. Unlike Aaron, he shied away from drawing attention to himself, at least nowadays. He was smart, cold and calculating. He knew when to play or fold his cards. According to those in the department, long before Aaron got a taste for criminal behavior, Merle was constantly in trouble with the law. Mostly small-time offenses but it soon increased to car theft and drug dealing for a notorious biker gang. Rumor had it that he was still the main contact for the flow of drugs coming into the county and getting into the hands of youngsters, but the department had yet to prove that. Since he’d been busted over eight years ago, he had done his time, come out and had been leading a fairly peaceful life as a mechanic, though Larson knew that looks were deceiving. His name had come up numerous times but no matter how many times they raided his home or the garage, they had always come up empty-handed.

  It was frustrating, but one of these days he was going to catch him red-handed and hopefully Aaron would be there at the same time. Nothing would give him more pleasure than putting away the Gance brothers. They were a stain on society’s ass.

  As he drove the winding streets towards the Gance garage, his thoughts drifted to the days after Aaron was released from prison. Ethan and several of the others in the department had told him to watch his back. They had warned him that busting him for beating up a woman was going to do him more harm than good.

  Since Aaron had got out, all manner of weird shit had started to happen. He found his cruiser’s tires deflated. His driveway had been spray-painted with obscenities and a vehicle had nearly knocked down Kerry. He was pretty sure Aaron was behind it and that’s why he’d been riding him hard since he’d come out, making sure that he was meeting with his parole officer and spending his time working. Most days he would roll past the garage just to see if he was there. Many times he’d locked eyes with him standing outside smoking a cigarette. Aaron would toss him the bird. It was when a mysterious fire started in his cruiser after he’d parked it outside his home that he began to think that Aaron wasn’t going to let up until someone got hurt. The problem was that without witnesses, there was absolutely nothing Larson could do about it. It was all hearsay. They would have thrown it out of court if it even made it into court. His lawyers would have had a field day.

  “Look, Larson, I’m heading over there. Wait until I get there. I don’t want you getting all up in his face. Hell, we got enough to deal with, don’t go stirring up the hornet’s nest,” Ethan said.

  “We have a job to do. I’m going to do it.”

  “Alright but don’t make this about the past.”

  “You know as well as I do that he’s behind the recent string of events. Now I have multiple witnesses that say he started the fight last night. I might not be able to get him for lighting fire to that cruiser but I sure as hell can take him in for last night. All I need is one thing to put him away.”

  “Larson, there is a brawl every night down at that bar. It’s part and parcel of this town. People like to get liquored up and exchange a few words. The court will throw it out. You know they will. Look, wait until you have more on him before you go wasting our time by dragging him in. Besides, we are still dealing with that domestic from the other night and the hit-and-run. Don’t go looking for trouble.”

  Larson ignored him. He focused on the road ahead. Nothing was going to deter him from at least having words with him.

  “Are you hearing me? The guy has already filed a harassment complaint against you. The department doesn’t need this right now. You want to make a good impression with the chief, this isn’t the way to do it.”

  “So you’re just going to let him think that he can do whatever he likes in this town?”

  “It was a brawl. Who knows if that Winchester guy wasn’t behind it? Perhaps it would be best to track him down. At least we had him in on a B&E.”

  “He came to Bonnie’s aid. There is a restraining order still in effect on Gance.”

  “You don’t get it, do you, Larson? You might have had that couple tell you about the fight, but no one is going to speak out against Gance. You know as well as I do their family’s reach goes beyond Aaron. They have ties with that motorcycle gang. And before you say it… for all we know, they could be responsible for the Green Bank Five.”

  “No. I don’t buy it.”

  “Because your judgment is clouded by a chip on the shoulder.”

  “Yeah, I’d like to see how you would react if you woke up to find your cruiser ablaze. I have a baby to think about. The sooner he is off the streets, the better.”

  Larson gripped the steering wheel tightly.

  “That’s right. You have a baby to think about. So I’m telling you… ease off the gas in your pursuit of Gance. We will get him when the time comes, but it’s not now.”

  “So you just expect me to look the other way?”

  “No. That’s not what we do. But let’s just feel this one out. I’m heading over there. Don’t engage with him until I get there otherwise we are going to have a riot on our hands. And listen, Larson, I’m telling you this for your own good. I know you think I don’t give a shit about being a cop because I’m going to retire soon but it couldn’t be further from the truth. Like a good gambler, you just need to know when to play your cards and when to fold them.”

  Larson sighed as he flicked his indicator on to turn left down the street that led to their garage. “Okay. I’ll wait for you to get here,” he answered. Even as he said it, he couldn’t guarantee that his temper wouldn’t flare when he saw Aaron.

  An hour after leaving the inn, Jack pulled into a parking space outside Dories Lounge. It was a cozy-looking establishment on the corner of 2nd Avenue and 9th Street. Like any diner, it had the typical booths on either side with about ten tables and chairs taking up space in the middle. A bell above the door let out a shrill as he entered. Inside it was stuffy. Ceiling fans were on full blast. A few locals looked his way. Jack noticed Meghan wasn’t there yet, so he slipped into one of the booths and waited for the older waitress to come over. The place had a bit of a funky smell to it. Not bad, just unusual. At the far end was the kitchen. He could see a lone chef working away behind a plume of steam while a young woman
manned the cash register. Outside the window, across the street, was a used car dealership. Some oil-slick salesman was guiding a couple around. A few pedestrians walked by and gazed in.

  A waitress appeared off to his right and handed him a menu.

  “What can I get you to drink?” the older lady said holding a pad of paper and pen. She looked as if she had been working there for decades.

  “Coffee is fine.”

  She shoved the pad into the front of her apron and walked off. Five minutes passed, then ten and he figured she wasn’t going to show. He’d already drunk two cups of coffee when the door opened and Meghan came in. She hurried over and slid in across from him.

  “I’m so sorry, I got held up at a friend’s house.”

  “Can I get you a drink, maybe a little food?” Jack asked, hoping to at least give her a reason to stick around. Since he’d arrived he already got a sense that people didn’t want to talk about what went on in the town.

  “Coffee. Thank you.”

  “So… What can you tell me?”

  She gazed around the room as if making sure that no one else was listening. “Look, Jenna was in contact with me for a few months but I really didn’t want to talk about what I did. It’s embarrassing. I have a kid. I’m a single mother. That job at the bar barely pays enough to pay my rent and groceries for the week. With the kind of prospects that this town offers, I certainly am not going to get anywhere.”

  “But selling your body?”

  She frowned. “Are you here to judge me?”

  Jack flung his hands up. “Meghan, I’m the last person to judge anyone for their decisions. Trust me. But I’m just wondering if that’s the only option you felt you had?”

  She stared back at him before biting down on the corner of her lip and fiddling with a packet of sugar in front of her.

  “Do you know how much I make at that bar a week? Bearing in mind I don’t work every day because they don’t have enough people coming in to warrant it.” She paused. “About three to four hundred bucks.”