The Devil's Dwelling (28 page)

“Hold off Mona. She can’t get far. She just turned down a dead end street.”

Sally was trying to turn around in a driveway when I pulled behind her.  Mona jumped out, yanked Sally’s door open and pulled her out of the rig.

“What are you doing?” She twisted and turned trying to free herself from Mona’s grip.

Mona pushed her up against the side of her rig. “Seems you didn’t show up for court.”  Mona said while fastening her cuffs to Sally’s wrist behind her back.

“I thought you were arresting me for shoplifting.  Okay, take me to court but can I take my stuff home first?” 

“Leave you stuff in your car and we’ll have Ace tow it home.” I told her while I locked it up and put the keys under the fender for Ace.

We dropped Sally off at the courthouse and called Ace to haul her rig in.  Sally wanted Ace to haul her rig to her house.  Ace is good about hauling cars and collecting later. 

We made our way back to the office.  Charley was there to pick up another file.

“Did you already pick up Billy Bob?”  I asked with a surprised look on my face.

“Yeah, he was under a car.  I slapped my leg chains on him and pulled him from under the car.  He tried to stand and fell on his butt. He put up a fight but with ankle chains you can’t do much fighting.  I cuffed him and took him to the courthouse.”  Charley seem pleased with her first apprehension.

THIRTY-FOUR

Mona and I decided it would be nice of us to drop by the Assisted Living Home and visit Mr. Sinclair.  The lady at the desk told us he was in room 110.  She buzzed his room and told him he had guests.  We made our way down the long hallway.  The place was clean and people were playing board games, watching TV,  others were outside playing shuffle board. 

“When I get old I wouldn’t mind living here.” Mona said as she glanced in every room.

We knocked at Mr. Sinclair’s door.

“Come in.”  Mr. Sinclair was setting in a big recliner watching TV. “Ladies this is a surprise.  How’d you know I lived here.” 

“We checked around and found out.”  I looked around the room.  “Mr. Sinclair this is a very nice room.”

“Not as nice as my apartment but the jerk in the brown van must have put the bomb in your apartment.  He said he was there to check your thermostat. I let him in and went about my business.”  Mr. Sinclair pushed his recliner back and stretched out his legs.

“How’d you like the flowers?”  He asked with a smile across his face of deep furrows.

“What flowers?”  I asked looking around the room.

“The roses I sent you before the bomb blew the apartment to smithereens.” He looked pleased with himself.

“Mr. Sinclair, you sent the roses?  You’re my secret admirer?”  I was relieved and frustrated.

“I know I should have told you.  I admire the way you bring in all the bad guys.” 

He smiled.  “I wish I could be doing your job but my days are behind me.  Now I just watch a little TV and enjoy the folks around here.”

“That’s nice of you Mr. Sinclair.”  I gave him a kiss on the forehead and smiled and looked at Mona.

“You have a nice day. Mona and I have to catch some bad guys.”  I made my way to the door where Mona was standing.

“Thanks for visiting. I hope you can come again.” His thin wrinkled hand with a road map of leins waved as I closed the door.

I called Sheriff Reagan and told him about the brown van and the information Mr. Sinclair had given me. 

“I’ll keep an eye out for an old brown van.” I told Sheriff Reagan. 

I called the phone number on the gardener’s truck.  A lady with broken English answered the phone.  She told me Mr. Martin sent them a check monthly to take care of the lawn service.  She said they have been taking care of the Martin’s yard for years.  That’s another dead end. 

“Mona, there’s got to be something we are missing.  Let’s take a ride over to the Oasis and talk with Curly.”

We walked in the bar and saw Curly and Marty setting at a table.  I pulled my Glock out and motioned to Mona. Mona took her 38 from her holster. We had Marty in our sights.  We walked around the table.  Marty spotted us, jumped up tipped the table over and ran for the door.  Mona fired a shot in the air hitting the only light in the bar.  There was instant darkness.  “Damn, who turned the lights off?”  Mona yelled firing a couple more shots.

We scrambled around the bar knocking over tables. The bartender fetched his flashlight from under the counter and turned  it on and shined it in my face. “It’s you. What are you doing back here?”

Marty was gone and Mona was also gone.  “Mona, where are you?”  No answer.

I ran outside just in time to see Mona running a foot race with Marty.  Marty was in the lead.  Mona stopped in her tracks leaning over holding her knees trying to catch her breath.

“Where’d he go?”

Mona pointed around the corner. “I lost him. I think I need to start jogging to get in better shape.”

The maroon Chrysler came sliding around the corner. Marty fired a couple shots out the window.  I gave him the finger and Mona fired at his back wheel missing her target.

“We also need to do some target practice.”  I was laughing by now wondering how this little Marty could evade two bounty hunters. He not only can elude us he enjoys tantalizing us with his driving skills.

We drove past the Martin house. I was trying to negotiate in my mind what the black sedan, the white sedan, the brown van, Natasha, the murdered women and I have in common.  Natasha and I both have red hair.  We are about the same age. We seem to frequent the same massage parlors, with me following her right after she leaves.  But what does that have to do with murder? Why was there a bomb in my apartment?  Why was there a bomb in my rig and why was the second bomb in my rig?

Marty’s maroon Chrysler backed out of the garage and headed south. It looks like Marty is staying at his place now. I chased him through town and onto the interstate. We maneuvered throughout the city keeping a close tail on him.  Marty seemed like he enjoyed the chase. That Chrysler has more power than my Honda leaving me in the dust. 

“I wonder if he’s been staying at his place at night?”  I pulled over and flipped a U-turn and headed for home.

“Mona, how about we go by my house. I need to feed Bailey. I had a doggie door installed and he can come in and out the house so I don’t have to make sure I’m home to take him out.” 

“That must be a pretty big doggie door.”  Mona said looking at me, like maybe I’m stupid.

“Big enough for a man to get in if it’s big enough for Bailey.” Mona said.

“I didn’t think about that.” I slapped the steering wheel. “Okay, I’ll close it.  How stupid of me.”

“You might want to start locking the gate there goes Bailey running down the street.” Mona pointed in the direction of the park. “Guess he’s taking himself to the park.”

I stopped the Honda and yelled at Bailey. He politely jogged on to the park. I followed him to the park. He hiked and pooped and ran back to the house.

“He’s not used to pooping in the backyard. It’ll take some training.” Mona laughed.

I pulled in the driveway and noticed tire tracks on the lawn. It looked like someone was backing out and got off the driveway.

“I wonder who’s been in my driveway?”  I said as I parked and hopped out of the Honda.

I called Sheriff Reagan and asked him if I should be concerned. He would be right over and suggested we didn’t go in the house.

We waited for a few minutes.  Bailey kept scratching at the doggie door wanting to go inside. I held him back holding his collar. 

Sheriff Reagan, came flying up parking his SUV across the street.  He waked across the street.

“You didn’t go inside, did you?” He jumped from his SUV Tahoe. “Let me see your house key.”  He held his hand out.

I placed the key in the palm of his hand.

He looked down at the doggie door.  “What a doggie door big enough for a gorilla to go through. What were you thinking?”  He shook his head and started to insert the key into the door lock.  The door swung open.

“Did you close and lock this door when you left home?” He turned to me waiting for an answer.

“Of course I did.” I said with a little sarcasm in my voice. “I’m not stupid.”

He pointed at the doggie door. “You couldn’t prove it by this.”

I could tell Randy was a little put out with me moving into Hayden’s folks house.  And it probably was a bad idea butt…

Randy went inside and within moments he came outside. He was on his phone.

“Get the robot over here immediately. The bomb looks like the one that blow up her rig.  If the guy is in the area he will probably blow up the house.”  Randy looked at me. “I’m glad you called me.”

By this time the neighbors were gathering out front. Momma, Daddy, Kimberly, Winston and Clay were coming up the street.

“What’s going on Sis?” I heard Kimmy yell.

“Are you okay?” Daddy yelled.

“I need to know what’s going on.  I need to call the ladies before they get things all screwed up.”  Momma said as she ran toward me.

“Everyone get across the street or better yet down the street.”  Sheriff Reagan ordered.

He was running yellow ‘caution crime scene’ tape around the perimeter of the yard.

Blaring sirens were heard in the distance.  The bomb squad drove up and immediately started unloading the robot.

“Oh my!”  Momma said, “This is gonna be big news.”  She started dialing her phone. The word would soon be out all over the community.  It might even be on the evening news if Momma has her way about it.

The Sheriff started asking the neighbors if they saw anyone or any vehicles around the place today.

“Sir!” A loud voice came from the back of the crowd. “There was a brown van parked in the driveway this afternoon. I noticed the van when I walked to the park and it was gone when I got back about twenty minutes later.”

“Did you notice anything different about it?” Sheriff Reagan asked.

“Well, it was a 1976 Dodge Ram.” He said pleased with his information.

Mr. Robot was being maneuver by the guy with the remote control. He slowly rolled down the ramp and was heading for my back door.

A deafening bang went off. My house imploded into a million pieces.

I fell to the ground sobbing. “I can’t believe anyone would want to kill me.”

My body was shaking. I’ve got to get a grip Momma and Daddy were running to my side.

“I’m okay, I’m thankful Randy got over here before it went off.”

“Some one in the area detonated the bomb. It looked to be the same type bomb that blew up your rig.” Randy said as he tried to console me picking me up from the ground and holding me close.

I sobbed burying my head in his chest and wiped my eyes with the back of my hand.

Randy called in the bomb investigators and soon the place was surrounded with officials from the county and state.

Randy suggested I go home with Mona and try to rest.  My mind was racing with wonder of who would want to kill or hurt me.

Bailey and I went home with Mona. I was quiet on our drive to her place.  We got to the apartment.  I stepped out of the Honda and looked toward Mona’s apartment.

“Looks like you’ve got me again. I hope I don’t put you in danger.” I looked around the perimeter of the apartment hoping I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

“We’re partners. Who ever is setting off all these bombs could also be after me.”  Mona said while picking up the mess she had left from the night before.

“I need to call Hayden. All he did for me and now it’s gone. I feel really bad.” I picked up the phone and hit speed dial. It rang a few time before Hayden picked up.

“Are you okay?” Hayden asked before I could tell him about the bomb.

“Randy called me right after the bomb went off. We really need to talk. Where are you?”