With His Dying Breath (25 page)

“Okay, let me know if you see either of them.”

“JJ still at the precinct?”

“I told her to stay put. I hope so.” Cain knew JJ sometimes did not follow directions well.
Please baby stay where you’re safe.

W
ilson was extremely concerned for the safety of his client. The two men bounced down the long flight of stairs like two teenagers.

“Oh,” Cain said, “I’ll pay for that tomorrow.”

“Get in the car, old man,” Wilson said with a laugh in his voice.             

For the first time in a long time, Sammi sat in the movie theatre laughing at the romantic antics of the onscreen couple. For a fleeting two hours, she forgot her sorrow and allowed herself to be transported into fantasyland unaware of the approaching danger.

Every police officer in River Town patrolled shopping areas for her white Mercedes. No one
knew she had sold her luxury automobile for a smaller used SUV. No one but Cain, Bill Fritz and his prison cell mate.

Sammi left the theatre feeling refreshed and light-hearted. She checked her watch and had twenty minutes to meet Bill at the vacant building.

As she drove toward Macon’s downtown area, she saw a fire blazing and sparks across the sky. She was unable to turn onto Third Street to reach the vacant office building.

Well, what to do now
? She pulled out her cell phone just as Bill’s name popped up in her caller ID.

“Hi Bill, what’s going on downtown?” she asked.

“Some building’s on fire. Police are blocking off the whole area.”

“Where are you now?”
She asked stopped in the middle of the street.

“Well, thought I’d run by the office and hang up the keys since I won’t be needing them tonight
. Sorry I didn’t call before now.”

“Well, I’ve had my phone off.”

“Sammi, I hate to ask you this but do you mind just running by the downtown office?” Doesn’t seem to be the traffic jam over here.”

“No problem. Be there in just a few minutes.”

“I’ll meet you outside,” he lied. I’ve got you now.

* * *

“JJ, honey, I’m sorry but I’ve got to get back to work. A major fire is threatening downtown Macon so they’ve called everybody into detour traffic and evacuate buildings. You okay?”

“
Of course. Please be careful.” She gave him a hug and a kiss.

“Thank you
, Jessica Jane, I will call you later?”

“
You better,” she said forcing a beautiful smile.

Every police office on patrol across the entire county including River Town reported to the downtown
fire to secure the area.               JJ was antsy as she sat in Detective Marabell’s office within earshot of the radio. She heard the distress calls coming into the dispatch desk. Every police officer on duty was to report downtown. Not one was looking for Sammi or Bill Fritz.

             
“I can’t just sit here.” She said. “I’ve got to do something.” She saw a Saturday newspaper and found the Brockton Real Estate display ad. Running her finger down the list of agents, she saw a number for Bill Fritz and punched it in her cell phone.

             
“Brockton Real Estate.”

             
“May I speak to Bill Fritz? I thought this was his cell number,” she said.

             
“Who’s calling?”             

             
“This is JJ Matthews. He’s been helping me with a project.” She lied, but she didn’t feel bad about it.

             
“He’s not in. The board says he’s showing property downtown.”

             
“There’s a big fire downtown. Are you sure?”

             
“No, that’s just what the board says. He could be anywhere.” The agent on floor duty obviously had no interest in his whereabouts.

             
“Any particular building or area of downtown? I really need to talk to him tonight. No one answers at home.” She lied again.

             
“Hold on,” the agent said pulling up commercial properties on his computer. “We’ve got two buildings on First Street, two offices on Cherry Street, a vacant building off Third and the list goes on and on. There must be thirty or forty listings in the commercial area. That’s just our listings. In the multi-list must be hundreds.”

             
JJ asked for the number of the downtown office. The agent said the phones had been transferred to the agent on duty. “That’s why I answered. I’m the one on duty,” he said.

             
“Well, thanks anyway.” She just couldn’t give up. She sat at Detective Marabell’s desk flipping through the paper and saw the Skinmore comic strip.

             
It had four frames. The first frame showed Gumdrop sitting on a downtown curb looking at his friends, the turtle and the cat. There was no caption.

             
The second frame showed a sports car speed by spraying water over them. A sports car? Water spraying? The balloon over the cat’s head said, “I hate the dark.” The response by Gumdrop was “Open your eyes! The turtle said, “Not me. I like living in a shell.”

             
The third frame showed the three walking downtown by an office with the numbers 005 visible on the left edge of the frame. 005?

The fourth frame showed
the turtle and the cat sitting on a downtown curb with the letters “Br” visible on the far right side of the frame.

JJ stared at the frames again
. She flipped back to the Brockton Real Estate advertisement. The telephone number for the downtown office was 555-5005.

JJ’s heart started beating faster. She reviewed the clues again.
The cat hates the dark. The cat hates the dark. The cat is Sammi. Sammi asked JJ last night at Evelyn’s if they could leave a lamp light on. “I hope you don’t mind, JJ, but I just don’t like being in the dark.”             

             
Sammi pulled into the off-street parking lot where employees enter a side door to the downtown office              .

             
She waited for about ten minutes before calling him on her cell. “No service. Great,” she said thinking the tall buildings were blocking her signal.

             
She noticed the door ajar and stuck her head in.

             
“Bill, are you here?” she called out. It was dark inside so she left the side door open where a security light provided some illumination. She noticed the lights in the back office on.

             
“Sammi, back here,” he called out. Sammi had an eerie feeling and hesitated to go in to the dark space. She called out to Bill, but something came down on her neck. She passed out cold.

* * *

JJ grabbed her purse and told the dispatcher. “I think I know where Sammi is. I’m going to check it out.”

Before he could ask where, she was out the door. She backed out of the parking spot and headed south down City
Boulevard.

She could see the flames of the fire
in downtown Macon. What she did not see was a police car of any kind. They’re all at the fire. He did this so he could get Sammi alone. She doesn’t know he’s her brother. But why isn’t she answering her phone?

JJ stopped at a traffic light and sent a text to Sammi. “It’s Bill Fritz.”

Another traffic light. She sounded a loud grunt and used the time to text her dad, “S in trbl at RE DT office.” Just as the light changed, she dropped her phone before sending the message.

“Breathe, Jessica Jane, breathe,” she told herself.
She took Riverside to avoid the road blocks set up by the police and parked two streets over from the real estate downtown office. While running by the store fronts, she paused long enough to send the text message to her dad. She turned down the next block and slowed as she approached the real estate office. She saw three vehicles in the side parking lot. She only recognized the red sports car that she had seen leaving the school.               JJ put her phone on silent and eased through the side door on her belly.

* * *

When Sammi came to
, Bill Fritz held a gun about two feet from her face. It took a moment to realize the situation. Her deceased husband’s best friend and another man she did not know had taken her captive.

             
“Bill, why?”

             
“Why? Don’t you know me? Take a close look. My name isn’t Bill, stupid. I’m your brother. You don’t even recognize your own brother?

             
“Kyle?” Sammi could barely make him out due to her half-shut eyes.

             
“Yes, I’m Kyle, your long lost brother. But hey like the prodigal son, I’m back.”

             
“Kyle, why?” She asked again.

             
“You didn’t even know me. But then you never even checked on me all the years I was in prison. You were too high and mighty. You never once wrote me or came to see me in the past twenty-five years.”

             
“Bill, uh, Kyle, I was just a kid back then. My life hasn’t been rosy either. Things happened to me, too!”

             
He laughed, “Don’t I know it. I’ll admit you’re a tough cookie. You survived that rape and became even more popular. I thought for sure it would send you over the edge.”

             
The unknown man laughed and said, “Yeah, tell her about that!”

             
“Rape? How did you know about that? You were in prison then.”

             
“Who do you think set it up? He was a cousin to my jail buddy here who helped me kill your precious parents. You were so vulnerable back then just a trusting fool.”

             
“They were your parents, too.” Sammi was terrified trying to appeal for sympathy and keep him talking.

             
“You are so dense. I was adopted. They couldn’t have kids and got me from a slut on crack. But, I was still the apple of their eye until you came along and you spoiled it all. I’ll never forget the day my so-called mother told me she was going to give me a sister. The witch finally got pregnant and nothing else mattered, especially after you got in school and was the star of everything. They gave up on me just like my real mom did. All because of you.”

             
“Yeah,” the jail buddy agreed with Kyle.

             
JJ could hear the brother’s account of his excruciating childhood. She pushed record on her cell phone. Who’s that other guy, she wondered.

             
“It took me years to set it all up but I knew you’d come back to Macon. I knew about you and your Aunt Pat. Your precious Aunt Pat spent all the money on you. Not one penny, not one on me and my defense.”

             
“You confessed, Kyle. You didn’t have a defense.”

             
“Shut up. You don’t have a say in this.”

             
“Yeah,” seemed to be all the buddy could say.

             
“Well, you have nobody now. No husband, no aunt, nobody. How does it feel to be alone in this world?”

             
“Yeah.”

             
“You murdered Aunt Pat? Why? She was already an invalid from a stroke.”

             
“Yeah, she’s a tough ole bird, too. But she had to go. Now you’re going to join her.”

             
“Kyle, please.” He backhanded her face.

             
“I said shut up.” He continued his twisted fabrication wanting her to know how smart he had been in his charade. “I knew you’d return to the area. I just had to get myself set up to work it out. A little facial and dental surgery thanks to your tax dollars while I was incarcerated in one of your finest prison hotels, some colored contact lenses and expensive looking clothes can fool anybody. I fooled you for almost three years! And you think you’re so smart!”

             
“I still don’t understand,” Sammi said, wincing in pain.

             
“My buddies in the prison forged the right documents and wall certificates. When I got out, I got a job tending bar at fancy parties taking lessons from all those smoozers yapping about this business deal and that million-dollar deal. I learned to talk the talk and walk the walk. Fooling Blake was the easiest part. I don’t know what you ever saw in him.”

             
JJ crawled a little closer and lodged under a desk. His back was to her. She could see through an opening for computer cables. He had Sammi’s hands and feet bound to an office chair. She could not see the other guy. JJ stuck her finger through the opening and wiggled it.               Sammi caught the movement from the corner of her eye.

             
“I set up the art auction, all of it. Even arranged for you and Blake to meet, the weasel. You, two, suited each other just fine. Almost like Kevin.” He was sitting on a desk waving the gun around.

             
“Kevin? What about him?”

             
“He was easy to take out. When the two of you got engaged, it messed up the plans for a little while. So I had to improvise. I needed you in River Town.”

             
“I whacked him good.” The buddy finally said a sentence, JJ thought.

             
“Oh, Kyle, you’ve done enough killing, enough murdering.” The word came easier for her to say. Kyle stood up, pointed the gun at her and then sat down.

             
“Yeah,” he sneered. “That explosion was good. I only wanted that to take the focus off Blake’s murder, to give me more time. I really didn’t mean for anybody to die, I called in a bomb threat, but still it worked out pretty good. Huh? Had the cops running in all different directions. I sent those slick detectives on a wild goose chase,” his wicked laugh sent chills down JJ’s spine. “And that cartoon, I got that from a movie they showed us in prison. And all those clues I passed to Cain Matthews, it was funny to watch,” he laughed. “I just didn’t think a kid would figure it out. But I knew she had when she started snooping around the office.”

             
But she did, and she’ll catch you now, too. Sammi knew JJ was in the room.

             
“What about Madelyn? Why did you kill her?” Sammi knew she had to keep him talking.

             
“She just got in the way. Came in early and found me let’s just say in compromising clothing. I really liked her, too. Really knew the business. If it hadn’t been for her running the place, I wouldn’t have gotten this far.”

             
“What about Lois,” doesn’t she deserve better? You know you’ll be caught. Everyone is on to you.” Sammi stared at his evil eyes. How did I not notice them before now?

             
“I’m just down here doing some work. My buddy will dispose of your body and no one will ever know. They’ll just think you’ve skipped town or maybe we’ll fake your suicide. Probably better, huh,” he turned to his friend.

“Yeah.”

              “They’ll be showing up here any minute. I’m sure somebody is looking for me.” She stared him in the eye.

             
“Every cop in town is at the fire. Three blocks away and nobody suspects a thing. My buddy took care of that.”

             
“Yeah,” he smiled at Kyle as they did a high five. “You think you have it all, don’t you? Well, I’m here to take it all away. You’ve always had everything you wanted now it’s my turn. I’ll get the business, your house, the properties and all that money, all of it. I’ll have everything.”

             
He held the gun a little closer to her head. Sammi knew it was just intimidation. He had a lot more to brag about.

             
“Kyle, just think about it. I don’t have anything anymore. Nothing. Blake was a bigamist and I’m not entitled to any of it.

             
He laughed that wicked laugh again. “All that was forged, too. I thought you would’ve researched the paperwork after what Wylene told you at that coffee shop. You’re so stupid to believe everything you hear or read in those gossip papers. I was the one who had the new will made out. It’s as phony as you are. That hick firm with those pitiful lawyers. They thought I was Blake Brockton. I almost laughed in their faces it was so easy. Never asked for identification, nothing. I just limped in, signed my name, well signed his, and that was it. Every time I was in there, that silly girl in the office kept talking about her dog and going on vacation. How she hated to leave him alone. I knew then that dog had to be in the plan.”

             
“Oh.” Blake really did marry me.

             
“I knew he’d left everything to you. He adored you. He just didn’t know you. Even quit fooling around with anybody else which was good for me since I got his girl. But we need to take care of her ‘cause of that voice recording.” He motioned to his buddy about the next killing.

             
“Are you talking about Jenny?” He was faithful to me!

             
“Yeah, she’s pretty pitiful.”

             
JJ knew someone needed to warn Jenny if that other guy left the room.

             
Kyle continued bragging about his charades. “I had to get everything in my name just in case some fool jury acquitted you of his murder if I didn’t get you here.”

             
JJ eased under another desk cubicle and was only about six feet from Sammi. Please Sammi keep him talking.

             
“Something happened a few months ago, Blake changed.”

             
“Well, I caused that, too. I made up so much crap that he just went crazy trying to decipher everything. He was so self-absorbed in his business relationships and being blackmailed, that he never suspected a thing about me. Kept taking me into his confidence, telling me stuff. Now shut up. Blake Brockton thought he was God. Well, now everyone knows he wasn’t. I’ll be more powerful than he ever thought about being.”

             
JJ saw that Sammi had worked her hands free. She slung her hair out of her eyes. JJ took that as a clue. She took a quarter from her pocket and tossed it toward the front of the office. It hit the glass front doors, making a loud sound. The buddy ran toward the door, and JJ clobbered him with a stapler. Kyle turned quickly to see what happened.

             
Sammi’s bound legs flew forward tripping him up, and JJ grabbed the gun as it slid passed her. JJ held him at gunpoint while Sammi untied the rope around her feet and stepped on his back. It was over.

             
“You won’t shoot me,” he said smugly. “I dare you to. You’re just a kid who has never even shot a gun.”