“And you probably have my jewel, too,” he continued. He was more or less ranting at this point. At least he was talking and not shooting at me.
“That explains a lot,” Wineski said in my ear.
“Your dog ran away from you,” I said in an effort to get him on some kind of regular track, or at least on some track where we were talking about the same thing.
“He got lost,” Jasper said.
“He ran away from you. You abused him.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Sam knows that. And you know it, too.”
“What, he told you? You’re crazier than me, lady.”
“Debatable,” Wineski said. “You need to somehow tell me where you are.”
“And just what jewel do you think I have that belongs to you?” I asked.
“The one I lost. I just bet you found it and kept it for yourself. It’s valuable, you know.”
It came to me what jewel he meant. It was the one that Sam found by the bus stop.
“Why did you wait so long before you came to demand your dog?”
“I missed him. I needed him. I jest didn’t know how much. Turns out…a lot. And… paybacks are best served cold, they say. I figured that you had forgot all about those murders. You almost caught me that one time. But I got away. So I hid out for a spell. And I waited. I waited for the right moment. Just the right time to come back. Mama said I needed Andy to come home.”
“Hard for me to forget three murders,” I said. “I don’t give up easily.”
“I got that part. You jest didn’t know when to quit. And my getaway…that was something, wasn’t it? Got clean away, I did.”
“So why is now the right moment for you to exact your revenge on me?”
“Missed my dog a lot in the last few weeks. Like I said, I had to have him back. Needed him. Needed to end this thing, you know, once and for all. You wouldn’t understand.”
The man was insane but correct. I didn’t understand. I was completely missing something important here. Our conversation was going in circles. He had eluded the Norfolk police and my own inefficient investigative prowess for so many years. Why would he come back now? Apparently, he never saw the real heart and brilliance of Sam. Sam was just something for him to take out his frustrations on. It made no sense to me.
“You have to tell me where you are,” Wineski interjected.
“I’m sending the GPS coordinates to your phone,” Rogers said, using my voice. It was a dangerous thing for her to do, use my voice and give out that info. I was glad she did. I had a bad feeling that Jasper Connelly would stop talking any minute now and fire a few more shots at me. Multiple shots would give him a clear advantage with hitting me, despite his drunken stupor.
My wounds were hurting badly, and I felt enough weakness to know that I was losing blood. I was surely running out of tactics to stall whatever it was that Jasper had planned. Maybe that thought was giving him too much credit. Planned. I was beginning to doubt Jasper had any plan at all. I also had serious questions about what Jasper’s next action would be except that he might get lucky and shoot me dead. I was running out of time. That was easy to deduce.
“So, you believe that killing me and taking Sam back would end it all?”
“What?” he said as if he was completely confused by the question.
“You said that you have missed your dog these last few weeks and you needed him back, and that you had to end this thing.”
The gun was pointing directly at the ground at this point. He stared at me with a wild glare. There seemed to be no reason, nor emotion, nor anything behind the glare of his eyes. Just empty. Perhaps he was in a trance. I had no idea. But,it was time to act.
“Yeah, I said that already.”
“End what thing?” I said and moved a few inches back.
“Stall him, Clancy,” Wineski’s voice sounded desperate. “I’m en route. Be there in about fifteen minutes.”
I knew I didn’t have fifteen minutes.
Jasper looked down and shook his weapon back and forth in some erratic gesture.
“It all has to do with family honor,” he said. “I’m the last of Pearl’s gems. It was my obligation to end it. Eye for an eye. Blood vengeance, it is. Like what they teach in the Bible.”
I had to act now.
I moved as quickly as my pain would allow. I side-stepped to my right and as I did, I grabbed my 9mm from my back with my right hand. The pain in my left shoulder area was intense. His gun came up and fired as I dropped to my left knee. Despite the horrible pain, I used my left hand to steady my weapon. I fired as many rounds as I could.
The last thing I remember was the heat and the deep pain of his bullet hitting me while I got off a few rounds before I blacked out.
Chapter 55
I opened my eyes reluctantly. After I made a slow scan of my surroundings, I came to the conclusion that I was in a hospital room. The bed was uncomfortable, I was cold, and there was more light than necessary in this enclosure. Easy deduction. Hospital room for sure. I had been there before.
My head hurt and my eyes were fuzzy. That is to say, my vision was fuzzy. Since I wasn’t looking in a mirror, my eyes could have been fuzzy as well.
I raised myself from the prone position to see if there was any more bedding at the foot, bedding that I could pull up to ward off the fact that I was freezing to death.
“Easy there, babe,” a familiar voice said to me.
Immediately there was a figure standing beside my bed. I blinked several times to see if that would enhance the blurred image. Slowly the figure of Rosey Washington came into better focus. He was as handsome as ever. More importantly, he was a friend.
“Know where you are?” he said.
“Specifically, no. Generally, I have a vague notion.”
“You’re alive.”
“Got that part. Or else…nah, you’d never make it as an angel.”
“Hey, be careful with that kind of theology. I’ve been watching your backside for a few years now.”
“Guardian angel?” I said and smiled. My head hurt. “I’m cold. Any blankets around this place?”
I closed my eyes and could hear him moving around the room, shuffling in the small cabinet-closet, opening a drawer, and then opening the door to the room and leaving. In a few minutes I heard my door open. I opened my eyes. Rosey had a handful of blankets.
“I brought you several since they don’t make them so thick in these places,” he said as he plopped the blankets down on my feet and ankles. I watched him spread two of them on top of me. He took the others and put them on top of a cabinet next to a door that I guessed was my bathroom.
“Did I hit him?” I said.
“Can’t say, but something hit you,” he said. “More than once.”
“Where’d you find me?”
“Didn’t. Wineski found you.”
“Just me?”
“Apparently so. Who else was with you?”
“The guy who shot me twice.”
“I counted three wounds,” he said.
“I had only two in the left side of my torso.”
“And one in the head.”
“Yikes. Didn’t know about the head wound. Explains the headache.”
“You know who shot you?”
“The first two hits, for sure. That third wound, well, I can guess. There’s a viable suspect.”
“Same felon.”
“Bet on it.”
“He got a name?”
“Jasper Stone Connelly. By your line of questioning, I can guess that my assailant was nowhere around when my limp body was discovered.”
“You were alone in the street. Bleeding, I’m told.”
“So, you weren’t there, I take it.”
“Wineski and some uniformed officers. He said he got a call that he thought was from you. He also said that you didn’t speak directly to him more than a couple of times, but he could hear you talking to whoever, this Jasper guy
, I guess. Took him a second or two to figure the danger you were in.”
I smiled as I remembered it was Rogers who had called him and alerted him.
“Yeah, that’s who I suspect called as well,” he said. “You think he’ll be suspicious of anything?”
Rosey knew about Rogers’ magical powers. I had finally shared my guarded secret with him a while back. My smile no doubt gave away my suspicion.
“He’ll ask some questions, probably. I hope I can divert his inquisitiveness.”
“Of that, I have no doubt.”
“How long have I been here?” I said.
“Brought in yesterday. I came over last night after I checked in with Rogers and she filled in the gaps for me.”
“So, if Rogers filled you in on those gaps, then you already knew it was Jasper Connelly. You testing my lucidity?”
“Wow, that’s a big word for a Boston U grad.”
“I can spell it, too.”
“Yeah, I was just checking on your perspicuity.”
“You learn that word at Oxford?”
“Can’t say for sure. Just know it wasn’t something I picked up from SEAL training.”
“You stayed here all night?”
“It’s what guardian angels do.”
“Yeah, like you would know what angels do. Thanks for staying.”
“Glad you came around. Nurse said you lost some blood.”
“Probably more from the head wound than the torso hits,” I said. “We need to get outta here and get on the trail of Jasper Connelly.”
“You mean find the trail of this Jasper guy. He’s had a head start on us.”
“There was no sign of anyone else being in that street with me?” I said, somewhat desperate for even a small clue concerning Jasper or Sam.
“I can speak to that,” Wineski said as he opened the large wooden door to my room. “Glad you’re still with us.”
“He only winged me,” I said like one of those wild west movie heroes.
“Yeah, right. Winged you three times,” Wineski said as he sat down hard on the foot of my bed, missing my right foot by mere centimeters. His heavy frame supported a good two hundred and fifty pounds. That side of the bed sank, and I thought I might roll off. His large body stopped my fearful fretting as well as any possible slide to the floor I might experience.
“She got her story straight?” Wineski said to Rosey.
“Can’t answer that, but at least she’s coherent.”
“More than she usually is, I hope,” Wineski said. “So, Evans, did they get the slugs out?”
“It was not that serious.”
“Serious enough for a transfusion and a doctor’s order for two weeks of bed rest,” Wineski said.
“Where’d the blood come from?” I said.
“Two donors,” Wineski said as he looked over at Rosey and nodded.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said.
“Finally have some decent blood running through those Virginian veins,” Rosey said.
“Good, strong stuff,” Wineski added. “Maybe even some genetic gray matter to help that hard-headedness which has accompanied you from the beginning of your life.”
“Like there’s no hard-headedness with either of you, huh? It’ll take more than a couple of vials to alter my disposition. Speaking of blood, did you find any blood in that street besides mine?”
“Yeah. It’s being processed in the lab. We’re waiting to see what turns up,” Wineski said.
“You find anything else?”
“Like what?” he said.
“Like anything. Clues, leads, confessional note.”
“You must be delirious. We found blood.”
“That means I hit him before I passed out.”
“Who’d you hit?” Wineski said.
“This is a test again? You know I hit Jasper Connelly. And he confessed to all three of those park murders. You probably heard that as well.”
“Yeah, I heard enough. That crazy guy who came back for the dog.”
“Bingo,” I said.
“Men do stupid things,” Wineski said.
“Said that many times myself. Sometimes the answer’s in plain sight,” I said.
“Just have to know where to look,” Rosey added.
“You alone out there?” Wineski said.
“At the time of the shooting, yes. Prior to that, Sam was jogging with me.”
“But there was someone else, someone told me where you were.”
“Where I was?” I decided to play dumb to see where this might go.
“GPS coordinates,” he said.
“Oh, that. It’s a computer program. Once I make a call, it locates my position.”
“And tells the person you called where you are?” Wineski was snooping now.
“If I call and do not speak directly to the computer program, the program automatically will reveal to the called person my location.”
“Do you know how stupid and futuristic that sounds to an old battle-weary character like me?”
“Be that as it may, it got you to my location.”
“You say you were jogging with Sam. So, where’s the dog?” Wineski said.
“I have no idea,” I said. “Best guess is that Jasper took him.”
Chapter 56
I escaped from the hospital after the doctor had told me he would release me the following day. Enough is enough. Rosey aided my cause. We used the staff elevators and got away without so much as a holler or a yelp from anyone. Maybe they were glad I was leaving. I never would confess to being a model patient. Good riddance, they would likely tell you.
Still weak from my recent blood loss, I collapsed in my apartment. I figured that one night’s rest in my own bed would benefit me greatly before I hit the trail after Jasper. My singular problem was that I had no idea which direction Jasper had dragged his bleeding carcass. I had to conclude that Sam was with him, captured or otherwise. Obviously, he had tricked Sam and subdued him. It was my default position for the moment. I held the firm belief that Sam would have eaten him for lunch given the opportunity.
Not only did I want to bring Connelly back for those multiple murders, I wanted my dog back. Both reasons were important, but Sam held the top position without question.
Rosey helped me to the couch despite his vigorous disapproval of my moving about. I needed to converse with Rogers without yelling.
“Bed rest means resting in the bed, not on the couch talking with a computer.”
“Shut up and help me,” I said. “I need those pain meds you grabbed as we escaped my medical prison.”
I tried to walk but I was too weak to move far on my own. Rosey finally picked me up and carried me to the couch. I noticed that it was entirely too easy for him to lift me and walk. Handsome and strong. No wonder Rogers was enthralled by the man. I was beguiled myself.
He placed me gently on the couch as if I were simply a pillow that he had carried. He made me tea with a spoonful of honey and set it down on the table beside me. Quite the gentleman. Handsome, strong, and caring. He handed me the pain pills along with the tea.
“Tea?” I said.
“Herbal concoction. Better than java for what ails you.”
“And you know this because…?”
“Me, sweetie pie,” Rogers said.
“You got anything on my newly discovered nemesis, Jaz?”
“I still have found nothing on his sojourn in the eastern part of North Carolina. He apparently left a clean trail. Nothing I can trace.”
“Where would you go if you were injured and you needed some time to heal?” Rosey said.
“Home would be the first thought for me, but I’d have to know a safe place to hide would be waiting there if it were me.”
“As in remote,” he said.
“For starters. I could think of a place or two around my home that might suffice.”
“But home’s the first choice,” he said.
“Likely.”
> “And he’s probably wounded. You hit him somewhere to cause the blood loss. A wounded animal desires refuge and time.”
“Home is not eastern North Carolina,” I said.
“Yancey County,” Rogers said.
“Both parents are dead. Brother is dead. No other siblings we know of,” I said as I was thinking out loud.
“Any other family around Yancey County?” Rosey said to Rogers.
“I shall check. Maybe there’s some trace of another relative who might provide sanctuary for a wounded beast. Give me a few minutes.”
“This tea is good,” I said as I sipped on the hot brew Rosey had made.
“Naturally.”
“You now in cahoots with Rogers?”
“Nah, just sure of myself.”
“You never have lacked for confidence.”
“No brag, just fact.”
“I’m hungry. You up to fixing some food?” I said.
“You’re hard to keep satisfied. High maintenance, no doubt. Whattaya want?”
“I really don’t care as long as it’s thick, juicy and pink on the inside.”
“You don’t usually eat that stuff.”
“I need protein and some stamina-providing food.”
“Going somewhere?” he said, no doubt realizing what I had in mind.
“That depends on what Rogers discovers. But the short answer is yes, I am.”
“That mean you won’t leave while I go out and kill the fatted calf?”
“Promise. I shall remain and wait for my scrumptious supper. Then, all bets are off.”
“And if Rogers discovers no relatives in Yancey County for the illusive Jasper, where to then?”
“Yancey County.”
“So it’s Yancey County or bust, huh?”
“You got it.”
“If you’re going west from here no matter what, why not leave now? What are you waiting for?”
“Nourishment and the off-chance that Rogers will find some thin slice of a clue. Always good to have a bona fide lead.”
“But you’re usually more than willing to go looking on a blind trail,” Rosey said.
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