Free to Kill

by Julie Mellon

  Katie had leaned forward in her seat as the chief talked. The look of excitement on her face showed she had made a connection to something else in the abduction investigation. “Chief, was Tim’s wife Lily Owens? The woman Jack Downing killed?” Michael’s eyebrows shot up. He had completely forgotten about the mention of that accident. Claudette had gloated about it the night Jenny disappeared.

  When the chief nodded, Katie asked to see the metal pieces that had been collected from the room under the church.

  “Well now, our evidence room is in the basement of the courthouse. We can’t access that until morning,” Chief Davidson said. Seeing Katie was about to erupt, Michael took her arm and made arrangements with the Chief to meet him at eight in the morning at the courthouse.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Katie was piping mad when they got in the car to head back to Smyrna. “The evidence is right there. We need to get into the courthouse and prove that it’s him.” Michael let her rant for a few minutes until she finally settled down.

  “It’s eight at night. We can go home, lay out all that we know, make a timeline and get a few things organized. We can discuss why you want to go see the iron pieces and what we need to look for in order to identify them to a specific maker. There are things we can do before going off half-cocked and getting one of us hurt again.” Michael’s quiet, reasoning voice calmed Katie a little, but she took offense at him bringing up her mistake of running into an uncleared room. They finished the ride in silence.

  When they got home, they did exactly as Michael suggested. They commandeered the office and spread out the case files on the table. Andy and Lucy joined them, having booked overnight rooms so they could stay close and be part of the action the next day. Lucy began by researching Owen Owens and all that the horse world had to say about him. There was a documentary done on him when he retired which demonstrated his style of iron working and how he personalized each piece. Linder Owens, the son who had taken over for him, was part of the documentary and talked about how he altered the process and the ways he had changed the signature he put on his pieces. By the end of the documentary, all four agents were staring at the computer screen with rapt attention.

  At ten, Caroline came in with a tray of cheeses and crackers and various sodas, with a glass of sweet tea for Katie. She let them all know that the house was locked and alarmed for the night and that everyone else was going to bed. At midnight, the agents called it a night and headed up to bed themselves.

  Ten minutes before eight the next morning, all four agents converged on the steps of the courthouse. Fifteen minutes later, the Chief pulled in with Tom Fuller. The six of them made their way through security and down to the basement. Tom unlocked the cage doors and they all signed in. Removing the boxes labeled for the investigation, they took it through to the room in the back, which held long steel tables with bright lighting. It reminded Katie of the autopsy suite where Elaine had been taken.

  Without breaking the seal on any of the bags, each agent picked a bag and began examining it through the clear plastic. Chief Davidson and Officer Fuller stood to the side, watching. The seconds stretched into minutes as each agent searched for anything to identify as Tim Owens’s signature. They looked in the places the documentary had mentioned, though the closest item to anything horse related was the Scold’s Bridle. None of them found a signature, even after exchanging the pieces between themselves.

  Katie began pacing, gnawing an already raw thumbnail. The others explained to the chief and Tom what they were looking for. They jumped in with fresh eyes to begin looking. Katie pulled out a chair and grabbed a pencil and a sheet of paper. Pulling the Pear of Anguish closer, she began to sketch it. The others in the room stopped to watch. Finally getting the basic shape down, Katie began to fill in the intricate decorative detail, which was repeated on all of the pieces. Suddenly her hand stilled. “That’s it,” she said. Looking up into blank faces, she laid the paper down and in the corner drew an O then put a T through it at a forty-five degree angle. “The design is his initials over and over again along the edges of each piece. From the spacing, I think he has a stencil with four of the symbols which he presses in the hot metal then leaves a space and sets the next set of four.”

  Everyone acknowledged that they saw the similarity, but it was Michael who said, “We need to find something else with this signature that we can tie to him. Otherwise this could be contested by a defense attorney.”

  Katie assigned Lucy and Andy to begin searching Tim Owens’s online presence. Any social media, any other items from the horse farm that might be public knowledge about the brother’s signatures on their pieces, etc. She sent the chief and Tom to the horse farm to talk to Owen and Linder Owens. She and Michael headed to R&R Construction to see if they could locate the job site that Tim was working on.

  It took them thirty minutes to find out that Tim hadn’t show up for work that morning. They both wanted to head straight to his house, but Michael’s coolheaded approach took over. He checked in with the chief and discovered that he and his deputy were on their way back to the station with news. The four of them joined Andy and Lucy, who had taken up residence in the conference room of the police station. Once they were all there, Tom Fuller placed several pieces of decorated metal on the table. All were adorned with the four-pattern symbol found on the ones in the lair.

  “Linder confirmed that they were Tim’s marks. He said Tim had been out recently using the kiln but he wouldn’t say what he was making. Linder knew it wasn’t for horses, he had never seen anything shaped like that used on a horse. That’s not all. The flower symbol we found on the heads of the screws isn’t a flower. It is a central O representing the father with four intersecting O’s that look like pedals. It’s sort of been the family crest since Owen had all his children.” Tom’s report was clear and concise, not adding any embellishment or leaving anything out.

  Andy spoke up. “We found that symbol on the family’s website. Apparently he used to use a larger version to stamp once on the inside of whatever he was making. There isn’t anything to indicate when or why he transitioned to the four-pattern symbol.”

  Katie next told them that Tim had not reported for work and asked Chief Davidson to get an arrest warrant for him. The chief left the conference and went to his office to get started. It took two hours, but finally the warrant came through and the four agents headed out with the chief and five officers.

  “Remember, everyone,” Chief Davidson said, “Tim is an experienced hunter and there are likely weapons in that house. I don’t want any casualties today. Let’s be careful.” As they all pulled on Kevlar vests and surrounded the house, the chief pulled out his cell phone and dialed Tim’s number. The house phone was being monitored and recorded.

  Tim answered on the third ring.

  “Tim, we have your house surrounded. We know what you did. Now, I don’t want anyone getting hurt, so why don’t you just come out here and let us have a chat?”

  “I wondered how long it would take you to figure out it was me. Once you found the tunnel, I knew it would only be a matter of time.” Tim’s voice was slurred and thick. He had been drinking for a while. “Those bitches deserved more than what they got. I didn’t get to finish cleansing the last two. They were liars as well as the other stuff they did. Barbie pretending to die on me, HOW DARE SHE!” he roared through the phone. “They are all as evil as my Lily. Pretending to love me but sleeping with someone else the whole time. You know, after she died, I couldn’t even look at those kids. Who knows if they were even mine. God punished her for me. But he gave me the power to give justice to others. No, Chief, I ain’t coming out there. I ain’t done nothing wrong. But I’m tired of living like this. There is too much evil in this world.” The phone line stayed open as everyone heard the unmistakable sound of a gun discharging.

  The agents threw a stun grenade through the window and breached the door. Inside, they found the body of Tim Owens, still clutching his glass of moon
shine in one hand and his pistol in the other. The only thing odd about the sight was that the top half of his head was missing.

  EPILOGUE

  The following Saturday, Katie drove herself to Billy Sheppard’s house. He was once again sitting on the porch stringing beans. She got the batch of chocolate chip cookies from the passenger seat, the ones she made using her mother’s special recipe, and approached the house. Billy looked up, and once again his hand froze in motion.

  “I brought you some cookies, Billy. I thought we could have an informal, off-the-record chat.” Katie sat the cookies down beside him.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, girl.” But his hand reached into the tin of cookies. As he took the first bite, he sighed and closed his eyes. “I haven’t had these in nearly thirty years. Never could figure out what your momma did to alter the recipe.” Suddenly, his eyes snapped open and met the green-eyed gaze that was so like his cousin Charlene’s.

  Katie’s steel voice said, “Why don’t you start at the beginning, Cousin Billy?”

  About the Author

  Julie is a native of Central Kentucky. After receiving her degree in English, she chose a career in higher education finance. Fifteen years later, she decided to allow her inner creative genius loose and began writing. She has been an avid reader her entire life, with a special love for mysteries, so she thought it fitting to make her first novel one of suspense. Growing up as an Army brat, she has lived in several states and foreign countries. To this day, she enjoys traveling to new places and experiencing new cultures. When at home she is likely to be found enjoying a few extreme sports, such as: rock climbing, scuba diving, or whitewater rafting. Her willingness to enter into activities of mortal peril is balanced by her commitment to ensure the quality of life for animals through her service with various dog rescue organizations. She now lives in Middle Tennessee with her three dogs, Ginny, Holly and Luna.

  You can find more at: http://juliemellon.com

  Or you can follow her at: https://www.facebook.com/jlmellonauthor