The Prey Bites Back: A Jesse Watson Mystery Book #8 (15 page)

“It sure looks
that way,” Billy replied. “And I’m betting she was the one who killed Mae. She
dressed up like a nurse, went in and bumped her off, and then went her merry
way. No one thinks anything about a nurse going into a patient’s room. It was a
perfect disguise.”

“But
Preston
was at the hospital when Mae was murdered,” I said. “We
saw his face in the photo.”

“Maybe he was
Dakota’s lookout,” Helene suggested. “Yeah, he kept watch while Dakota killed
Mae. It all makes sense now. Cunning woman.”

“She just
didn’t plan on us being so smart,” Mom added. Out of the blue, Mom looked up at
me and said, “It’s time to tell Billy about the shampoo. Maybe there really was
something wrong with it. If Dakota is capable of murder, putting poison in
shampoo ought to be right up her alley.”

I was hoping
Mom would forget about the bottle of shampoo and her idea that it was tainted,
but I was wrong. She had opened the flood gates and it was now time to come
clean. I looked up at Billy and said, “Mom thinks Dakota put poison in your
mother’s bottle of shampoo. I tried to tell her there was nothing wrong with
the shampoo except the smell, but she’s convinced otherwise. I was going to get
it tested, but I forgot about it, what with my being in jail and all.”

“You saw how
Dakota reacted when you doused her with it,” Mom said, defiantly. “She knew
there was something wrong with it, because she was the one who put the poison
in it. It was probably the kind of poison that’s absorbed through the skin.
Yeah, that’s how it worked.”

“It wasn’t
poisoned,” Billy said.

Surprised, I
asked him how he knew about the shampoo.

“I’m an
Indian,” Billy confessed. “I have excellent hearing. I heard you talking about
it when you thought I wasn’t listening, and after your little fiasco with
Dakota went down and you were thrown in jail, I went through your purse and
took the bottle. I gave it to my friend at the lab and she checked it out. She
sent me a text a couple of hours ago and said it was clean. She explained that
sometimes, because of equipment malfunction at the factory, the mixture isn’t
just right and can cause the odor you smelled, especially if it’s dandruff
shampoo… which is what Mom’s was.”

“Why didn’t you
say something?”

“Why didn’t
you?”

Hmm. Snared
like a rabbit in a trap. What could I say? I should’ve confided in Billy from
the start, but I was afraid he’d go off if it turned out to be true. The
Blackhawk boys would’ve taken matters into their hands and busted into Dakota’s
shop, killing the evil witch on sight. They take care of their own. Kill one of
them and you might as well have killed the President. They’d come after you
with a vengeance, and wouldn’t stop until they got justice. I would’ve done the
same thing. If someone killed my mother, they might as well have killed me,
because I’d put their lights out and take great pleasure in doing so. I would… I
was getting riled just thinking about it.  

“Well, I sure
am glad it wasn’t poisoned,” Mom said, interrupting my thoughts and bringing me
back from that eerie place. “I’d hate to think she was poisoned. What a waste.
Life is too short as it is.” Relief washed over Mom’s face. She had obviously
been visiting the same place I had—that place in the back of your mind where
you never want to go because the Devil and all his disciples live there. They
taunt you, trick you, and make you do things you don’t want to do. However, the
bad side of a person also dwells there—the side that can be so easily led
astray. Yep, it’s a mighty scary place. I go there often and not because I want
to.

Jonathan walked
in, closed the door, and said, “It’s time to go.” He looked over at Mom. “How’s
that pill working for you, Minnie?”

“What do you
mean by that?”

“Ah… nothing. I
was just wondering if you were okay. You had a bit of a tantrum earlier, and I
thought you might be having side effects from the drug. That’s all I was
saying.”

Mom rose from
the chair and walked up to Jonathan. “I have all my wits if that’s what you’re
asking. I’m sane enough to know what’s going on here, and I’m willing to help.
You want me to drive, or hand you the ammo? I’m quite capable of doing both. I
can even shoot Dakota if I have to. I can’t watch if you’re going to skin her
alive, but I can hand you the knife.”

“I don’t think
that will be necessary, Minnie,” Billy interjected with a grin. “We’ll handle
everything from here on out. You just stay put and help Gator.” Billy looked
over at Gator, and then back to Mom. “We need all the eyes we can get.” Billy
glanced at Helene for a second to let her know she was to stay as well.
“Mason’s watching out for Lu Ann and the kids, and Eddie’s resting in the
trauma room. Right, Jonathan?” He looked over at Jonathan for assurance.

“Yeah,”
Jonathan agreed. “Eddie’s resting.”

“Is he alone?”
Mom asked, looking at Jonathan. “What if…”

“He’s safe,
Minnie,” Jonathan replied. “Nobody’s getting in here. You can go stay with him
if you want to, but I can assure you he’s all right. He’s probably asleep by
now.”

“Did you give
him one of those pills, too?”

“Yes, I did.”

“I’m going to
sit with my husband if anybody wants me.” She glanced over at me. “Are you
going with them?”

I didn’t say
anything, afraid of the lecture that was sure to follow, but instead of a
sermon, Mom simply said, “Well, you’d better wear some of that black paint on
your face, or you’re going to stick out like a sore thumb.”

We decided to
wait until it got dark before venturing out on what was sure to be a very tricky
mission. All kinds of things could go wrong when trying to dump a body, and if
we got caught, we’d spend the rest of our lives in prison. But I knew that
wasn’t going to happen. These guys were pros. They’d done stuff like this
before. For them this was a cake walk.

After a quick
meal, Billy and I were taken to the suit-up room where we could choose the
proper attire for the night. The place was stocked with T-shirts, pants, boots,
jackets, and socks—all in black. Everything was black, right down to the belts.

Once we had
suited-up, it was time to gear-up. That’s what Shark said when he led us to
another room down the hall. The door made the same clicking noise as the rest,
but instead of opening up, Shark had to slide a keycard over a dot on the wall.
The door opened and he waved us in as if he were showing off his prized mare.
“Pick your weapon of choice.”

A gun
enthusiast would be in hog Heaven in a room like this. We had just stepped into
an armory. Every weapon you could possibly imagine was stocked here, and not just
one or two of each either. There were dozens of guns I’d never even seen
before. It was the paradise of arms.

“I want one of
each,” I said as I turned around to look back at Shark. When I did, I froze.
There on the wall behind him was the gun of my dreams. “I want that one!”

Shark smiled
and declared, “We have one in the Hummer already. We never leave home without
it. Can you handle one of those?”

“Never had the
chance.”

He looked at
Billy for approval, and then after a brief moment he looked back at me and
said, “If we need it tonight, you’re our man. But don’t get your hopes up. That
baby is our last resort and we only use it when all else fails.”

I was beside
myself. I’d never had the opportunity to even get close to a rocket launcher,
let alone fire one. What if I couldn’t do it? What if I shot it in the wrong
direction and killed one of us, or all of us? I had a lot of what ifs, but I
wasn’t going to let that stop me. My self-esteem returned and I now knew I could
handle it. I wouldn’t let the guys down. If they trusted me with a weapon like
this, I would come through for them. What am I talking about? We weren’t going
to blow up anything.

While everyone
else was safely tucked away at Jonathan’s fortress, the four of us were
cruising down Rt. 29 with a dead guy wrapped in plastic in the back of the SUV.
The fact that we had a body in the car didn’t seem to faze the other three
occupants, but me—I was terrified, not by the fact that I was about to become
involved in a major crime, but because I didn’t see anything wrong in what we
were about to do. The guy was dead… and we weren’t the ones who killed him. We
were just going to give him a proper send off, and let the true villain take
the blame. What ever would Dakota do when she discovered his body? I’d love to
see the look on her face.

Jonathan took
the back way to
The Body Shop
. When he pulled up to the tree line at the
far side of the parking lot, Gator’s voice came through on the wireless gadget
I had in my ear. He was telling us that he was ready to disable the alarm
system. We were set to go.

My heart
pounded in my chest like a drum in a marching band. I was sitting in a parking
lot with Billy, Jonathan, Shark, and a dead man, getting ready to add to the
list of laws we’d already broken. And getting caught this time would be bad…
really bad. Having a dead body in your possession was a sure fire way to spend
eternity in prison.

I silently
prayed that everything would go as planned and we would be able to get away
untouched, but sometimes things don’t turn out like you want them to. There was
a rock in the road, and we were about ready to trip over it.

Chapter 9

The only lights visible in the
pitch black darkness were the ones in the front of the building. This aided us
in our quest to slip in the back, dump the body, and then flee the scene. But
lugging a dead body around is no easy feat. It took all three of the guys to
haul it from the car to the drop point. My job was to hold open the door.

Once inside, we
knew something was wrong. There wasn’t a light on in the whole place, and after
a quick search, not only did we discover there was no one home, it looked as if
the occupants had moved out.

“Dakota doesn’t
live here anymore,” I said after going from room to room in the upstairs living
quarters. “There’re only a few articles of clothing left in the closet. A woman
like her would have a whole wardrobe full of nice clothes.” I aimed my
flashlight over to the makeup vanity. “A bottle of perfume and a hand mirror…
you know she would’ve had more junk than that.”

“They’re on the
run,” Jonathan calmly replied.

“Yeah,” Billy
added. “Everything started falling apart especially after Dakota found out her
boyfriend wasn’t the man she thought he was. She knew he would eventually be
her downfall, so she took care of the problem and then took off.”

“I kind of feel
sorry for Gavin,” I said. “Not that I liked the guy or anything, but she used
him and when he became a liability, she poisoned him. He’s dead and now she’s
free to start all over again in a new place…
new city
.”
I glanced around at the guys in a room only lit by our flashlights. “We have to
find her.”

“We have to
finish the mission,” Shark said. “We need to clean up our mess.”

“And how are we
going to do that?” I asked, huddled next to Billy. “There’s nothing to clean up
but a dead body downstairs. Look around, Shark.” I used my flashlight to scan
the room again. “Everything looks normal. The furniture’s still here. I mean,
even the beds are made. The only thing missing is Dakota, Olivia, and some of
their belongings. They left just enough behind to make people think everything
was copasetic. When people start showing up tomorrow they’ll just think the shop
is closed, and after a week or so, somebody might call the police… or they
might not. Gavin Preston’s body could go unnoticed until he’s nothing but a
pile of bones.”

“Oh, that’s not
going to happen,” Shark said. He looked around at the three of us while holding
his flashlight under his chin. “Anyone got a cigarette?”

“Are you
kidding?” I asked. “You’re going to take up smoking now?”

“We’re going to
torch the place,” he said, and then chuckled at me.

“With a
cigarette? Are you nuts?” I was confused. “A cigarette will take forever. Plus,
you know they’ve done something to cigarettes. Now they’ll go out if you lay
them down and not puff on them. Why don’t we just use the rocket launcher? I’ll
be more than glad to go get it and do the deed.”

Shark laughed
at me. “We’ll break off the filter. The tobacco will burn just fine without a
filter. I don’t smoke, but I have friends who’ve told me this. Ah… a slow burn
will do the job. A rocket launcher will have the cops on our backs before we
even get out of the parking lot. No… we need something slow and quiet.”

“We’ll set the
fire up here on the second floor so that the place will be in flames before it
reaches ground level, Jesse.” Jonathan said. “That’ll give the fire department
plenty of time to respond, and the first thing they’ll find is
Preston
’s body. We’ll leave it right by the back door.”

“Okay,” I said.
“I have a pack of cigarettes in my purse. I do smoke on occasion.”

“Where’s your
purse?”

“In the Hummer.”