Authors: Jamie Hill
Jake paused and looked at Roland Watkins. “You said you didn't know him, Watkins.”
“I don't,” the lawyer insisted.
“Tuttle, the invisible man.”
Jake smiled to himself. “Well, Mr. Tuttle's mail is forwarded to a post office box. This is a photo of the man who got the mail from that box yesterday.” He held up the picture, and everyone squinted to see it. “Here, Chief.” Jake handed it to his boss. “Recognize him?”
The chief merely glared at the photo.
“It's his son,” Jake told the others. “Nick Taylor, a man who—again, coincidentally—works at Starlight Music with Devon Watkins, Roland's son.” He nodded toward the lawyer.
“It's a perfectly legitimate business,”
Taylor
said. “I told you, I knew Watkins.”
“I'm sure the business is legit,” Jake agreed. “I'm sure they also use sophisticated digital recording equipment, like the player found in Joss's ceiling.”
“Oh!” Joss murmured, putting it all together.
“You can't prove a thing,” Watkins muttered.
“That's where you're wrong, Watkins. You see, I fancy myself a pretty good detective. I'm no Sam Spade, of course, but I didn't have to be. The evidence in this case just fell into my lap. David Taylor and Edward Cooper were old friends. In fact, I saw in the chief's bio, which I read online today, that he used to work as an insurance investigator before he joined the department. That was about twenty-five years ago.” He looked at his boss. “You worked with Cooper, didn't you?”
“I told you we were old friends,”
Taylor
muttered through gritted teeth.
“Yes, and Miranda told me so much more than that. She admitted to drugging Joss's teabags with Psilocybin mushrooms, which made her daughter gravely ill, in fact, almost caused her death. Miranda told me,
'David said it would be okay.'
So the only thing left to wonder is why. Why bother with the scare tactics at the house? You obviously didn't want Joss to inherit the money. The only way to keep that from happening was to kill her. There would have been easier ways to accomplish that, so either we're looking at a very stupid bunch of crooks—”
“No one wanted to kill her!” Miranda cried, rising to her feet. “We just wanted to frighten her a little. The Voodoo Priestess who sold me the mushrooms in
New Orleans
assured me they were safe in low doses.”
“Shut up,”
Taylor
snarled.
“A Voodoo Priestess?
This just gets better and better.” Jake shook his head.
Joss looked at her. “You know how much tea I drink. You could've killed me!”
“I wanted you to come home,” her mother sobbed, dropping to her knees. She inched her way to the front of Joss's wheelchair, crying and talking at the same time. “David promised me this would work. We just wanted to scare you out of the house, so you'd come home to me of your own free will. I couldn't have you stay here.”
“Because she might discover the truth?”
Jake asked. He inhaled, plastered on his poker face, and bluffed to see what would happen. “I saw Edward Cooper's medical file. He was sterile. He couldn't be Joss's father.”
Joss stared up at him, and Jake prayed he'd deduced correctly. Miranda soon confirmed it. “David said it would be better this way. Edward had much more money. The weekend they came through town on business was a blur to him. He spent the whole time passed out, drunk. He never knew what happened.”
“You mean, he never knew if you slept together or not,” Jake said. “But while Edward was passed out, you had sex with David.”
“Don't say another word,”
Taylor
commanded.
“It doesn't matter, Miranda,” Jake told her. “We know the truth now. You lied about the identity of Joss's father, to her and to Cooper. You were thrilled when he left his estate to her. What you didn't know, is that Taylor and Watkins had no intention of letting her inherit the estate. They set up a phony charity and sat back while you poisoned your daughter to death. You'd take the fall, they'd be clear to inherit the estate.”
“You're crazy,”
Taylor
muttered, “and you can't prove a thing.”
Jake's cell phone rang. He checked the screen, snapped it open.
“Gilford.
Yeah, go ahead.” He listened for a minute then said, “Okay, thanks.” He closed the phone and smiled like the Cheshire Cat. “Devon Watkins just confessed that he and Nick Taylor were planting things in the mansion, setting up the digital player to go off every night and, most interestingly, putting more drugs in Joss's teabags. She was getting double doses.”
“Oh my God!”
Joss looked down at her mother sniveled at her feet.
Jake turned to
Roy
. “I'd like you to place Mr. Watkins, here, under arrest, along with Joss's mother and father. Attempted murder is the first complaint. That ought to hold them while we figure out the rest of the charges.”
“I'll have your badge for this!”
Taylor
exploded,
his face beet red.
“No, Sir, I believe I'll have yours.” Jake stared at him defiantly.
Taylor
's eyes widened. He let loose with a string of expletives.
Roy
stepped forward.
“My, my, my.
In front of your daughter and her mama.
You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Taylor
glared, started to speak again then appeared to notice Miranda and Joss watching him. The fight left him, and he dropped back into his chair.
“I'll take care of this one,”
Roy
told the uniformed men. “You get Watkins and the elder Ms. Wheeler, please.”
“Joss, no!”
Her mother clung to her legs. “Baby, don't let them do this! You know I never meant to harm you!”
“You need to go now, Miranda,” Jake pried her off Joss. “Your daughter needs her rest. She's been very sick, you know. She almost died.”
The woman stopped struggling and allowed the officer to lead her away. Jake and Joss watched as the three were led off.
“I need to lie down,” she admitted. “I feel horrible.”
“I'm not sure lying down's going to make that feeling go away, but we'll give it a try.” He wheeled her back to her room.
“I can't think about this yet, Jake. I want to sleep, mull it over in my mind. I might have some questions for you.”
“I'm not going anywhere,” he whispered and placed a kiss on her cheek.
Epilogue
One week later, Joss was released from the hospital. Jake picked her up, prepared to take her to his house, but first she had a request.
“Why did you want to come here?” He parked in front of the mansion.
“I need to see it, one more time.”
They walked, hand in hand, to the front door. Jake unlocked it and faced her.
She smiled at him. “This is where we met, remember?”
“Of course I remember. It seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago.”
“To me, too.”
She stepped inside and looked around. “I never felt a connection to this house. Even going through my father's personal things, I never felt anything.”
“He wasn't your father.”
“I don't have a father.” She sighed and shook her head. “It still doesn't seem real. I'll never claim that man who's sitting in jail for trying to kill me.”
“He's going to be there for a good, long time. He and Watkins are both looking at ten to twenty-five years. Even if the judge is lenient and gives them the minimum sentence, ten years is a long time.”
She turned to him and smiled, slipping her arms around his waist. “Where will we be in ten years?”
He lovingly pulled her body against his. “Ten years?
Probably sitting in the bleachers at a Little League game, watching our son.”
“Or our daughter.”
“Hell, yeah!
Our daughter can play if she wants to. She's going to be strong and beautiful, like her mama. She can be anything she wants.”
Joss buried her face in his chest and sobbed. “Mothers,” she whispered. “I still can't decide what to do about mine.”
He rubbed her back gently. “You know how I feel. She made a mistake, but she never intended to kill you. Taylor and Watkins dreamed up that plan. Your mother was used.”
“Seems she liked being used,” Joss muttered. “All those years, I thought she was a waitress who fell for the wrong man. Instead, she was just a whore!
Until she got lucky—getting pregnant with me and convincing Cooper to pay her off.”
“Don't judge too harshly. She made a good life for you and became a nurse with the money he gave her.”
“I can't forgive her for what she's done, but I can't stand to think of her in prison.”
“Maybe she could benefit from probation and counseling.”
“She'd have to agree to stay away. I don't want her anywhere near us.”
“That might make her miserable, but I'm sure she'd do it to avoid prison. She insists she loves you, Joss.”
“I know.” She sighed. “Maybe someday it won't hurt so much. Maybe then, I'll let her back into my life. Only if we're sure she's changed and not a danger to our children.”
“Our children,” Jake mused. “I love the sound of that.” He kissed the top of her head then pulled away. “So, what are we doing here?”
“I wanted to prove to myself that this house won't haunt me, before I sell it. Strange, it doesn't look scary anymore, Jake. It just looks sad.”
“Sad and lonely.
Like it could use some children running around to lighten the mood.”
They looked at each other, smiles spreading across their faces. “You think?” she asked.
“It's your call. You've got some bad memories here. I wouldn't want to start our new life with that hanging over us.”
She glanced around. “It's a lovely house. It actually feels right. Get rid of the animals, of course. Think how wonderful this place could be.
Soft blue mini-blinds instead of heavy drapes, all new furniture.”
“I agree. It has the potential to be a beautiful home. There'll be lots of work, and it'll be pretty expensive.”
She grinned. “Good thing I'm loaded, with nothing but time on my hands. I think old Edward would like to see his house turned into a loving, family home, don't you?”
“I definitely do. I'm sure he'd be quite pleased.”
She looked thoughtful. “With some effort, the rose garden out back might be the perfect place for a spring wedding.”
“Get all this done by spring?” He raised his eyebrows. “My back hurts just thinking about it.”
Taking his hand, she pulled him up the stairs. “
You putting
off our wedding?”
“Hardly!
I just didn't know it hinged on doing a bunch of hard labor first.”
“You're such a
guy
,” she teased.
He whined, playing along. “Why are we going up here?”
“To see what needs to be done in the bedroom.”
“I can think of one thing.”
She glanced back at him, batting her eyelashes.
“Only one?
Where's your imagination, Detective?”
Jake chuckled. “Listen! Hear that?”
“What?” She paused.
“The quiet.
Beautiful, blissful quiet.”
He cupped her butt, shoving her up the stairs. Joss squealed, and they bounded up the steps together.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jamie Hill was born and raised in a beautiful, mid-sized town in
Midwest
,
USA
. At various times she wanted to be a veterinarian, teacher, cheerleader, TV star or a famous singer. The one thing she
always
wanted to be was a writer. Starting at about age ten, she penned romance as she envisioned it in one spiral notebook after another.
When she's not working at the day job she loves, Jamie enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and watching movies (the scarier the better!) In her 'spare time' she can often be found writing, editing, or doing something more mundane like housework. After that, she's probably taking a nap. She loves to hear from readers, so feel free to drop
her a
line.
Website
: http://www.jamiehill.biz/