With His Dying Breath (18 page)

             
“I don’t know. 

             
“Have you been to the police?”

             
“No, don’t think I have anything to confess to.” Blake had always been able to wiggle out of a bad situation.

             
“That was a long time ago. Why now?”

             
“There’s a story in a magazine that manipulates the events and places blame on me. The caller told me to get it. That it was a warning before he went to the authorities and gave the real story. I bought a few off the rack and then just subscribed to it. There’s no names or city mentioned but the caller told me that if I didn’t turn myself in, he would go to the police.”

             
“My goodness. You don’t think you need to?”

             
“Do you think I’m guilty?”

             
“Well, no. I’m probably the one who destroyed my dad. He just never accepted you and me, our child who was his only grandchild he and my mom never got to see. It was like he grieved himself to death. You know, basically, he lost me, his business he had built from the ground up. He lost that land, his inheritance, his only grandchild and his wife ‘cause Mom was never the same, hating me, too. And Daddy was still a young man.”

             
“I know.”

             
“I destroyed my father’s life because of you and I can’t do it anymore. My mom doesn’t want anything to do with me. I just don’t want to live like that anymore.” She stood to leave. “You’ll have to work this out yourself, Blake. You’re married, I’m married….”

             
“But what about ….?” Jenny cut him off.

             
“That’s none of your concern. You made your choices and I’ve made mine. I need you to leave me alone. Please, Blake, leave me alone.”

Blake was stunned as she left the restaurant in tears. He walked out to her car
, and she left as if the building was on fire. He ran after her but she was shaking her head no, no, no.

             
She quit her job at the beauty shop and locked herself in her house. She avoided everyone. She would not go to the door for anyone or anything until she noticed JJ in her driveway of their small duplex.

             
“What’s that little b…. doing here?”

             
She flung the door open and startled JJ who had turned to get back in her car.

             
“Jenny, I’m sorry to bother you. Could I talk to you for a moment?”

             
“Well, for a moment. I was just getting ready for a bath.” She was in her bathrobe with a disheveled appearance.

             
Curiosity got the best of Jenny since the two had never been close so she stepped out on the porch to talk to her. JJ saw inside for a moment and was surprised to see how unkempt the house was and so dark and dreary. It smelled like your grandmother’s house. She hadn’t known her grandparents since they died when she was little but she’d been with Sara numerous times to visit her grandparents. Dark, dingy, musty, dirty—that old people’s smell. It was the smell on Dr. Early.

             
“Jenny, I just want to say how sorry I am about Mr. Brockton. I know that you were good friends for a long time.” 

             
“I guess it’s no secret, so, yes, we were very good friends since I was your age. I miss him very much! But is that why you’re here?”               Jenny’s voice was almost a whisper as she looked over her shoulder.

             
“Yes, well, actually no. I’ve been caught up in the middle of Mr. Brockton’s murder investigation. Me! A seventeen year-old girl! And it has really baffled me,” JJ exaggerated her concern. “I’ve been getting calls on my cell phone, warning type calls. So I started to record them. Would you mind listening to them to see if you can identify the voice? We caught a woman who gave one warning. Did you hear about that? She was caught snooping around the real estate office.”

             
“Yes, I heard about her. Shouldn’t you leave the detective work up to the real detectives?”

             
“The woman had said she worked there but she didn’t. She had jimmied the locks to get in evidently to look for something, money, keys to houses. We don’t know because her lawyer won’t let her talk.

             
“Again, don’t you think you’re out of your league a little bit? Shouldn’t the cops be doing this?”

             
“I don’t think they’re doing much. Well, from outward signs. Dad has been writing the news articles but they’re getting shorter and the police aren’t giving him much to go on. I’m not sure exactly but I think they’ve hit a dead end.” JJ was grasping at straws to enlist Jenny’s help

             
“Why do you think I’d know who was calling you?”

             
“Well, they started coming in while I’m at the beauty shop so I thought it might be one of your clients somebody that might not get their hair done there but maybe their nails?”

             
“Well, I haven’t even been down there in almost a week,” so it wouldn’t be my customer. Besides, they know that trashy wife or mistress or whatever she is since she wasn’t legally married to him did it. They just don’t want it to be,” she said as JJ quickly interrupted.

             
“Well, I don’t want to get into that because I, as well as lots of other people in this town, know that she didn’t do it.”

             
“Maybe not,” she said, thinking back to the conversation about Blake’s anonymous call. “I’ll listen to it if he doesn’t take too long.”

             
Jenny pushed play on her phone. ‘I’ve told you to be careful. Now this is my final warning, be very careful.’

             
“Does it sound familiar to you?”

             
“Well, kinda, it sounds like a man’s voice, kinda, you know raised several octaves to sound like a woman. Which is it?”

             
“That’s just it, I don’t know.”

             
“Play it again,” Jenny asked. “I have heard that voice before. I just don’t know where.”

             
“I saw Blake the day before his murder and he had gotten a call or two, as well. Some kind of warning.”

             
“Really?”

             
“Yeah, I had stopped for a salad and he came in Johnny’s Burgers while I was there. I swear it was not planned. We were not having an affair as everybody in town thinks.”

             
“Jenny, I don’t believe the gossip. I know you are a good person.” Jenny desperately needed a friend and a shoulder so JJ was there to supply hers. “I think somebody is out there trying to destroy our little town and the people in it. I just don’t know who or why. Not yet, anyway?”

             
“I’m sorry, JJ. Maybe I’ve underestimated you. I thought you and Sammi were real tight.”

             
“Mrs. Brockton, well Sammi, lost her mom and dad at a young age, and she knows what it’s like not to have a mom. I guess we just kind of bonded, you know.”

             
“I don’t see my mom either, and she lives about thirty miles away,” Jenny had tears in her eyes. She paused.               “JJ, if I tell you something,” Jenny began talking very slowly. “If I tell you, will you use it to help find his killer? That is if Sammi is innocent.”

             
“Of course, I will, we both know the real murderer needs to be caught.”

             
“Well, okay,” Jenny whispered to keep from being overheard. “Blake told me he was more or less being blackmailed. He didn’t use those words. But somebody was threatening to go to the police about some things.”

             
“What things?” JJ wanted Jenny to say specifically what the blackmail was about. Jenny moved JJ to the far end of her porch.

             
“I can’t go into it right now. It’s just too depressing but it involved the wreck that he was in several years ago and my dad. That’s about all I want to talk about right now.”

             
“Your dad?”

             
“Yes,” she said, “My dad died of a heart attack but after years of grief and that’s what I don’t want to get into. The sadness and the stress finally got to him.”

             
“I’m so sorry, Jenny, for your loss.” JJ did not press the issue since she knew most of the story.

             
“Well, yeah, thank you.” Jenny stood up as she saw her curtains move and knew she needed to go back inside.

             
“Maybe we can get together again, Jenny,” she said. “We miss you at the salon.” For the first time in several weeks, Jenny smiled.

             
“Well, one other thing. Blake said it had something to do with some magazine story, he was reading.”

             
“Oh, okay. Jenny, did you tell the police what you just told me. No, I’ve been too upset, really. Things aren’t good between me and Jess either.”

             
“I’m sorry, Jenny. I’m hoping everything will work out good for you.”

             
“Like I said, use it to help find the killer.”

“
I will.”

             
“JJ, I really need to lie down now. Stirring all this up has given me a headache. Why don’t you come back another time? I’ll call you when it’s convenient,” she said. JJ left her house knowing she would never get that call.

             
“Bye, Jenny, take care of yourself.”

             
Disappointed that Jenny did not completely recognize the voice, she backed out of the driveway as Jenny’s male visitor stepped out from behind the front door.

             
“That was close,” he said.

             
“Were you listening to us?” Jenny asked.

             
“I heard a little bit. She’s that kid who works at the beauty shop, huh? What’s her connection to Samantha?”

             
“Well, she’s trying to get that tramp off. They have some kind of special connection.”

             
“Why did you tell her all of that about Blake?” He was rather upset. She walked in the house and closed the door.

             
“I don’t know actually. She and I have never really talked. That last conversation of me and Blake has been running through my head since his funeral.”

             
“Well, you said you two were close, I mean, you and Blake.”

“We were
but mostly a long time ago. Did you hear what she said about me being a good person?”

             
“I did.

             
“Do you think I’m a good person?”

             
“You gotta be kidding. You’ve slept with half the men in this town, married or not, and you run around on your own man. You’re a slut, a pill-taking slut.”

             
“Well, not anymore. I want you to leave now. I really want to make up with Jess and he doesn’t need to find you here. He’s been good to me, and he deserves better.”

             
“You’re pushing me away? Cutting me off. You think you can do me like you did Blake? Don’t think so, slut!” His voice was loud and his eyes pierced like a demon. Jenny was frightened.

             
“You saw what happened to him. You want him back? Well you can join him in the ground.”

             
He had not acted like this before, and she did not know what to do. She eyed the door and knew she had to get out of her house. She did not have strength to fight him. Her back was still to the door. She kept backing up. She only had on her bathrobe, but the look in his eyes was terrifying. The grasp on her arm was painful. She kept backing up.

             
The outer storm door squeaked as it opened, and she turned toward it to escape. It was Jess.

             
“What’s he doing here?” he asked Jenny. She couldn’t speak. The man gathered up some papers on the coffee table.

             
“Hey, Jess. Don’t get so uptight. Jenny’s been doing my nails for three years now. I’m just concerned about her. Thought she might have a kit here.”

             
“Jess, it’s nothing.” She had been lying for so long, now it came easy to her.

             
“Well, I don’t think it’s good for anybody to be here when I’m not home. You understand. You stay away from my wife.”

             
Jenny loved the way Jess came to her defense at just the right moment. She doesn’t know what might have happened if he hadn’t come home when he did. Jenny broke down in Jess’ arms and he was so glad, he didn’t ask the first question.