The Prey Bites Back: A Jesse Watson Mystery Book #8 (23 page)

“Hear what?”
Helene stood up, walked over to the kitchen sink, and set her empty cup down.
“I don’t hear anything.”

“That’s just
it. I don’t either. I don’t hear thunder anymore. I guess that means the storm
has passed.” I got up from the table, walked over to the front door, and opened
it to look outside. “Yep, and the rain has quit, too. It sure is getting cold
out there.” I closed the door. “Maybe it’s going to snow. Nah, it’s too early
for snow.”

“Don’t bet on
it. Here in the mountains it can start snowing at any time. Remember the year
it snowed before Halloween?”

“I’m going to
bed. I’m beat.” Helene walked back over to the table. “How about you, Minnie? I
know you’re tired. It’s been a very long day.”

Mom got up to
leave, but stopped. “Hey, the red light isn’t on anymore. It’s green now.”

We all looked
at the keypad, and a second later, Billy’s cell phone rang.

“Hey, Jonathan,
I see the red light is off. What’s going on? Okay. Let me put you on speaker
phone, so I don’t have to repeat myself. The women are ready for bed, and so am
I.” Billy looked at us and said, “Wait, don’t leave just yet. Jonathan has some
news. Go ahead, Jonathan.”

“You’re not
going to believe this, but the cops just busted the psycho twins. According to
State Police, the driver, psycho twin number one, Dakota Stone, threw her cell
phone out the window doing almost eighty on the interstate, and it hit the
windshield of the car beside her. The man in the car lost control, and slammed
into her, forcing her car into the guardrail. After that, it was like a domino
effect.”

Mom, Helene,
and I were dumbfounded. We just stood there with our mouths hanging open. The
news didn’t seem to faze Billy. It was as if he expected that it would end
badly for Dakota and Olivia.

“How did you
find out?”

“The dot on the
screen stopped moving, and usually when someone stops on the interstate that
means they’ve either had a flat tire or an accident. No one just stops on the
interstate without a reason, unless they’re a fool, so I called my state trooper
buddy, Wally, and he filled me in on what happened. No fatalities, but seven
people were being transported to either UVA or
Martha
Jefferson
Hospital
… and two of those seven folks are our psycho
twins—Dakota Stone and Olivia Swales. Wally said they don’t think the Swales
woman’s going to make it. She’s pretty bad off.”

“At least
they’re not going to be able to hurt anyone anymore. I hope the cops handcuff
them to their beds.”

“I’m sure they
will, Minnie.”

“Oh, God, I’m
going to get blamed for this.”

“You? What did
you do, Jesse?”

“I was the person
she was talking to just before she threw the phone out the window.”

When I said I
was going to get the blame, I didn’t mean by the cops, but by Dakota. If she
survived and Olivia didn’t, she would hate me even more, and be determined to
get revenge. All I could do was hope the cops put her away for a long time, but
if they didn’t, my nightmare was just beginning. She would come after me with
everything she had, and I feared that my family would suffer the fallout. The best
way to get back at a person is to hurt someone they love.

“You don’t have
anything to worry about, Jesse. She’s finished. She stole a car and caused an
accident, and if anyone dies, she could be held accountable. Once the cops
start digging around, I’m sure they’ll find something else to charge her with.
She’s been a very bad girl, and Sheriff Hudson knows it. He won’t quit until he
gets his answers. I think we can all sleep well tonight.”

“I hope you’re
right, Jonathan, but if they cut her loose, she’ll be coming after me. How am I
going to sleep knowing that? If she wants retribution, someone in our family
might die other than me.”

“Forget about
her. All is well.”

Unfortunately, I
had a nagging feeling that all was not well and never would be as long as
Dakota Stone was still alive.

Chapter 12

I tossed and turned all night
long, and when I did get some sleep, Dakota’s face haunted my dreams. I knew
that if she was released from the hospital and wasn’t taken to jail, she’d be
heading my way, coming after me or Billy or Mom, or worst, my children. She
wasn’t going to run again until she had gotten even with me.

It was still
dark when I woke up covered in sweat, drenched with the strong odor of fear.
Everyone was still asleep, so I jumped in the shower, and was in the kitchen
making coffee when Helene walked in.

“You’re up
mighty early this morning, Jesse. Couldn’t sleep?”

“I had
nightmares about Dakota all night. It was awful. I can’t wait to find out what
happened to her. I sure hope Sheriff Hudson has her in his jail. I’ll sleep
better knowing that she isn’t out running around killing people.”

“Jonathan said
she was taken to UVA or Martha Jefferson. I would think the Charlottesville
Police would be in charge of her arrest. Why don’t you give Captain Trainum a
call? He’s your buddy, isn’t he?”

“Somewhat… but
if I call him this early in the morning, he won’t be for long.”

An hour later,
the house came to life. Everyone, except Billy, was awake and ready for
breakfast. The kitchen was buzzing with chatter when he walked in dressed in a
white T-shirt and lounging pants, his long, dark hair hanging loosely down his
back, still damp from his shower.

“Don’t you look
handsome,” I said as I jumped up and gave him a kiss. “I hope I didn’t keep you
awake last night. I didn’t sleep well.”

“No, you
didn’t. I went out the minute my head hit the pillow, and slept like a baby.”
He looked around the kitchen table. “Good morning, everyone.” He went over and
kissed Maisy and Ethan, and then told Ethan to stop feeding his bacon to the
dogs.

“But they like
it, Daddy.”

“I’m sure they
do, son, but it’s not good for them. That’s why they eat dog food. It’s made
just for them and has all the nutrition they need. Bacon clogs their arteries.”

“What about
us?” Maisy chimed in. “Should we be eating bacon?”

“Probably not.”
Billy chuckled, while making his way over to the coffee pot. “Probably not.”

As I poured his
coffee, I noticed something weird. The marble bowl with its little masher
thingy that Helene used to grind up herbs or whatever else she needed to mash,
had a small mound of white powder in it. The first thing I thought of was
cocaine. I poked Billy, pointed to it, and whispered, “Is that what I think it
is?”

He looked at
the bowl, licked his finger as if he was going to taste it, but I stopped him.
“No, please. We don’t know what it is. It could be anything… poison.”

He got Helene’s
attention and waved her over. He pointed to the bowl. “Do you know what this
is?”

“It’s Athena’s
doggie downer. I can’t get her to take the pill, so I mash it up, scrape it
onto a slice of cheese, ball up the cheese, and then she woofs it down. Geez,
with all the commotion, I guess I forgot to give it to her. I’m sorry.” She
smiled after a second. “What did you think it was?”

Billy and I
looked at each other and grinned. “We thought it might be cocaine, a present
left by
Nancy
when she paid us that visit.”

“I’ll put the
lid on it and clamp it shut. Athena might need it today. The weatherman
predicts another storm starting about
midday
. He
called it ‘thunder snow’, and said we could get a few inches out of it.”

“Thunder snow?
Never heard of it. Sometimes, I think they make that junk up.”

“No, it’s for
real, Grandpa Eddie.” Maisy explained. “It’s like getting a thunderstorm with
lightning and everything, except instead of rain, it snows. I think it sounds
cool.”

“Global
warming.”

“That’s right,
Grandma. I read about it in class. Mrs. Baker also said we’ve been polluting
our planet. She said we should recycle more, and that people shouldn’t throw
their trash out their car window. Then, she told us about this commercial where
this Indian guy is crying because the river has trash floating in it.”

The breakfast
conversation started with global warming and ended with designer clothes, the
adults avoiding any discussion of what the day might hold. When the kids
finished eating, Helene took them to get cleaned up, leaving us to plan our next
move.

“I need to
check in with Jonathan for an update, then we’ll go from there. If Dakota and Olivia
are in custody, I think it’ll be safe for Minnie and Eddie to go home and pack
up their stuff. Just the essentials, Minnie.” He looked at Mom. “And before you
argue with me about it, I want you to stay with us until your house is
finished. We’re going to get on that right away.”

“But…”

“No buts, Mom.
It’s the only way you can be safe. Even if those women are in jail, they might
get out. We can’t take any chances.”

Mom looked as
if she was going to protest, but she didn’t. “If that’s what you want, Billy.”

“It is.” He
looked at Eddie. “I hope you don’t mind, but we can’t protect you if you’re
going to be living out there in the middle of nowhere. You have no security,
and your neighbors live too far apart to be of any help.”

“I agree.
Minnie and I talked about it this morning, and I like your idea, but we’re not
going to let you do it for free. You’re giving us the land, so we want to pay
for the materials and your time.”

“We’re family.
You can pay for the materials, but you won’t pay us for our time.”

“Case closed,”
I said, beaming with joy. “I’m so happy, and the kids will love having y’all so
close by.”

“All right,
here goes. I’ll put it on speaker, so nobody misses anything.” Billy pulled out
his cell phone and punched in Jonathan’s number. “What have I missed, brother?”

“Olivia Swales
died last night, and Dakota went crazy when she found out. They’ve been keeping
her sedated. She’s strapped and handcuffed to the bed.”

“What about
injuries?”

“Minor. They
were going to release her to the police, until she went nuts.”

“What about
Savannah
? Have you heard how she’s doing?”

“Minnie… she’s
not doing so well. She was knocked out and then drugged before she was even put
in the dryer. The explosion… well, it busted both eardrums, and she has burns
from the blast heat. The one good thing I can tell you is that she doesn’t have
any broken bones.”

“How much?”

“How much,
what?”

“How much skin
was burned off? If it was only a little, she should be all right.”

“It wasn’t a
little.” Jonathan paused. “She can’t have visitors, Minnie. I know you want to
see her, but you can’t just yet.”

Mom sighed.

“Recovery will
take time, Mom.” I hugged her. “All you can do is pray for
Savannah
, and hope she gets better soon.”

Jonathan spoke
again. “Dakota could be faking her craziness. She managed to be lucid enough to
call her lawyer. Thanks to Gator, I got to hear the conversation. I think she’s
just smart enough to pull off this insanity thing. She almost had me believing
her story.”

“Who’s her
lawyer?”

“Russell
Shank.”

“She’s smart,
that’s what she is.” I winched at the thought. “Oh, God. Russell’s the best.
He’ll get her off, and then who knows what’ll happen next. We’re doomed. She’ll
go free, and the rest of us will go straight to jail. No passing go.”

“So far, all
they can charge her with is reckless endangerment for throwing her cell phone
out the window and causing an accident, and reckless driving. The man and woman
in the other car came out of it okay. They’re both fine, just a little shaken
up, and they’ve already given their account of the accident to the police.
Don’t you just love a good eyewitness? Anyway, I had a chat with our friend,
Captain Frank Trainum. You know he got Josh Mealphall’s job, right?”

“Yeah, we
know.”

“Trainum said
they fingerprinted both women, and if Dakota’s print shows up on that
detonator, there’ll be a string of charges to follow. She’ll do hard time. Olivia
died, so she’s in the clear. They can’t do anything to a dead person.”

“I don’t know
about that. She might end up being the fall guy for Dakota. With Swales dead,
Dakota can blame her for everything. When Gavin Preston’s autopsy comes back,
they’ll know the cause of death was poison, but Dakota can say Olivia did it.”

“Dakota will
say nothing. Even though
Preston
was poisoned, there’s no evidence linking
her to his death, only our word, and hearsay won’t cut it. He told us she
poisoned him, but where’s the proof?”

“Hey, are they
allowed to fingerprint you without your consent?” Mom asked. “Don’t you have to
be under arrest or something?”