Dropped Dead, page 17
“Did you see him go in that cabana at any point?” I said.
After a moment, she nodded. “Do you think Jack… ” She stopped and got up from the couch. She paced in front of the window, her eyes toward the floor. She stopped and turned to the window.
“Lynn?”
She had tears in her eyes.
“Can you call him?” I said.
Lynn rubbed her face with both hands and wiped away her tears. “What am I supposed to say? Ask him if he tried to poison Ted?”
“No,” I said. “Tell him you know what happened to Ted. But don’t mention anything else. Don’t mention my name.”
“What? But what if he—”
“Don’t say anything else,” I said. “Just leave it at that.” I got up from the couch. “Just give me about twenty minutes before you call him. I’ll be back.”
My phone rang when I backed out of Olivia’s neighbor’s house. I knew who it was before I answered.
“Hi, Jack,” I said.
“Henry? What the hell’s going on?”
Of course, I acted surprised. “Going on with what?”
Lynn just called me. She said she knows what happened to Ted. She was hysterical, crying into the phone, and—”
“Where are you?” I said.
“I’m going over to her house, see what this is all about.”
“Oh, good.”
“Good? Why? What do you know about this, Henry? What the hell's she talking about?”
“You sure you don’t know what she’s talking about?” I said.
I heard a click and looked at my phone’s screen.
Jack had hung up.
Lynn’s car was out in the driveway and Jack was parked right behind it.
I had parked the Jeep out on the street and walked up to Lynn’s front door. I knocked but she didn’t answer. I turned and looked back toward the street when I heard Mike Stone’s Crown Victoria pull in the driveway behind me.
Another sheriff’s vehicle pulled in behind him, pulled over, and parked on the grass.
The door still hadn’t opened, so I knocked again and pulled out my phone at the same time. I dialed Lynn’s number.
Jack answered her phone. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he said.
“How about you open the door, and let me in and we can talk,” I said.
“How about you tell those officers who just walked around back of this house to get lost first. Then maybe I’ll let you inside.”
I covered the mic on the phone with my hand and turned back to Mike. “Can’t they hold up back there?” I said.
Mike gave me a nod and walked around the corner after the officers.
“I’m serious, Henry,” Jack said. “Those officers come inside this yard, Lynn’s blood’ll be on your hands.”
“Jack, don’t,” I said. “Just listen to me. Open the door, okay?”
I heard his heavy breathing through the phone.
A moment later the front door opened. Jack stood behind the glass storm door and had Lynn in front of him. The muzzle of his gun was inches from her face. He pushed open the door and pulled her down the steps, his arm wrapped around her neck.
“Let her go,” I said.
Jack laughed. “I gotta give you credit. I don’t know how you did it. But I give you credit. Better than the sheriff's office could ever do, right?”
Mike Stone walked around from the back of the house. He had his gun drawn and pointed toward Jack. “Drop the gun,” he said.
Jack shook his head. “How about this?” He gave me a nod with his chin. “Why don’t you let me and Henry talk.” He turned to Mike and the two officers. “You three can get in your cars and get lost.”
“Jack, it’s over,” I said. “There’s no way you’ll—”
“Over?” he yelled. “It’ll be over for Lynn if the three little pigs don’t get out of here.” Jack’s face was a bit twisted, his eyebrows tight over his eyes.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Mike said. He kept his gun on Jack.
Jack rolled his eyes. He looked at me and nodded his head to the side toward Mike. “This guy’s the hero, right? The shooter up on the roof?”
I looked at Mike and knew he wasn’t going anywhere.
“Jack, just let her go,” I said. “Time to give up.”
He shook his head. “How the hell’d you figure it out?” he said. “I guess I made a mistake and underestimated you. A guy drinks as much as you do… “
“I can handle my booze pretty well,” I said. “Unless I accidentally drink the poison someone left for his brother.”
Jack had a smirk on his face.
“You knew all about Ted and Olivia all along,” I said. “And when you met Conrad, you thought you had the perfect plan. You even knew Olivia wouldn’t be able to resist a good line of coke after all those years.”
“Once a cokehead, always a cokehead,” he said.
“But you couldn’t afford Conrad, so you told him about Ted’s formula. You knew it was worth millions to the right people. But you and Conrad were too stupid to know it wasn’t even the right one. Those formulas in that notebook you took from Olivia weren’t worth the paper they were written on.”
“How do you know it was fake?”
I stared back at him but didn’t answer. Ted told you about the setup to see if LJ would turn around and sell it. But he was smart enough to know he couldn’t trust you enough to tell you it wasn’t the real thing. But it was too late once you figured it out.”
Lynn tried to wrestle herself away from Jack. “Please, just let me go!” Her voice cracked.
Jack pulled her tighter, her neck inside the bend of his arm.
Mike took another step closer to Jack. “Let her go!” he snapped. “I’m telling you right now.” He took a quick glance at me from the corner of his eye. “I find it hard to believe this is all because his brother and his ex-wife slept together?”
“He was sleeping with her long before she left me,” Jack snapped. “My brother knew how to keep a secret, that’s for sure.”
“I’m going to pull this trigger if you don’t let her go,” Mike said.
The two officers came up around the other side of the house, both with their guns drawn.
“Jack, there’s no good way out of this,” I said. I looked at Mike and hoped he wasn’t going to take a chance and pull that trigger. “So what about Conrad?” I said to Jack. “Why’d you kill him?”
“He was sloppy.”
“You mean... after he got Olivia to snort the cocaine laced with fentanyl?” I said.
Jack started to step back toward the door. He dragged Lynn along with him, then switched the gun into his other hand and kept his arm around her neck from behind. He reached back to open the door with his free hand and kept his eyes on me and Mike. “Don’t do anything stupid,” Jack said. “Or she’s dead.”
“Jack, please,” Lynn cried. “I didn’t do anything!”
Jack took another step back into the open doorway.
A gun appeared behind him from the darkness inside the house and was pointed at the back of his head.
“Drop the gun.”
Alex stepped out from behind the wall, her Glock pressed up against his skull.
Mike rushed forward, held his gun on Jack, and pulled Lynn away from him with his free hand. “There’s nowhere to go,” he said to Jack.
Lynn slid down to the ground and crawled down the steps and away from Jack.
Jack spun around, took a wild swing at Alex with the gun still in his hand.
But she ducked low and came up with a punch and caught him where a man never wants to be hit.
Jack’s eyes rolled back, and Mike tackled him to the ground.
The two officers jumped forward and helped Mike to his feet, pinned Jack down, and slapped the cuffs on him, and one officer read him his rights.
Sirens screamed in the distance and grew louder as they drove closer.
The officers lifted Jack to his feet, dragged him away, and threw him in the back of the sheriff’s vehicle.
Lynn got up off the ground, threw herself into my arms and cried. I held her and looked back at Alex and smiled. “It’s good to have you back on your feet,” I said.
Thank you for reading Dropped Dead. If you enjoyed the story, please leave a review wherever you purchased it. If you’re ready for more, the adventure continues with the next book in the series, Dead Luck. Find out more by visiting: GregoryPayette.com
Also by Gregory Payette
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HENRY WALSH MYSTERIES
Dead at Third
The Last Ride
The Crystal Pelican
The Night the Music Died
Dead Men Don’t Smile
Dead in the Creek
Dropped Dead
Dead Luck
A Shot in the Dark
JOE SHELDON SERIES
Play It Cool
Play It Again
Play It Down
U.S. MARSHAL CHARLIE HARLOW
Shake the Trees
Trackdown
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Murder at Morrissey Motel
STANDALONES
Biscayne Boogie
Tell Them I’m Dead
Drag the Man Down
Half Cocked
Danny Womack’s .38
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