Fallout (Joshua Stokes Mysteries Book 2) (22 page)

Just as the elevator door was about to close, they saw Metcalf and Emma walking toward Joshua’s room. The doctor pointed toward Joshua and Hook in the elevator; however, they must have thought the doctor wanted them to hurry because they both hurried toward him. That was all they saw before the elevator door closed. James laughed and bent over Joshua’s shoulder. “It feels a little like we’re Butch and Sundance when they made their great escape! If only we was on horseback and not boots and rubber tires,” he chuckled.

Joshua had to smile at Hook’s enthusiasm. It reminded him of time they put a frog into their teacher’s desk and the teacher sent them to the principle’s office to receive their punishment. Instead of going, they hid from the principal by dodging him through the hallways. When the elevator opened on the ground floor, Hook guided the wheelchair toward the emergency room, which was located at the back of the hospital.

“Where the hell are you going?” Joshua asked.

“Out the back way, dummy; Cook and Calvert are at the front entrance. I pulled my truck around back and parked near the Emergency Entrance. They won’t be looking for me back there. We’ll make good our escape,” Hook grinned.

“I can handle my deputies. We could’ve gone that way.”

“Could’ve but we ain’t; it’s a long way from the front entrance around to the back.”

“You lazy scoundrel.”

“Yep, that’d be me. I ain’t gonna walk no further than I have to,” Hook replied. By then they had wheeled out the back entrance and made it to his pickup. He unlocked it and helped Joshua into the passenger side. As soon as James got in, Joshua asked if he had any whiskey with him.

“Does a cat have a climbing gear, of course I got whiskey,” he said reaching into the glove box and pulling out a pint of bourbon that he handed to Joshua. Joshua opened it and took a long swig. The whiskey burned going down, but it felt good and tasted even better. He lit a cigarette then rolled the window about half way down. As they pulled out onto the highway, Hook asked, “Well, did you see it?”

“See what?” Joshua asked.

“The other side… I’ve always heard that when somebody dies they enter a tunnel and see a bright light. I also heard that their kinfolks and loved ones are waiting on them when they cross over. What exactly did you see when you died?” Hook asked curiously.

“Not a damn thing that I can remember, but I had one hell of a dream or maybe it was a memory. It was of my mama and one of those Dixons. I haven’t talked to you in a while, but I’ve found out a lot of information on that bunch. They were some screwed up sons-a-guns. All the way back to the beginning from what I’ve found. One of 'em; the one that owned the mortuaries, liked having sex with dead people, and if what they say is true, he had sex with farm animals before that. A real sick puppy if you ask me.”

“There are a lot of sick puppies in our world, Josh. As long as there have been people and animals, shit like that has gone on. When they was teenagers, I caught Danny Logan and Lee Phillips fucking one of my goats. They had her front feet hobbled and had her tethered right up to the edge of the creek, so that she couldn’t run off. I threatened to shoot 'em if I caught 'em doing that shit again - it was the damnedest thing I ever saw. Every time they stuck it in her and pushed her forward, she’d back up to keep from going into the water. I have heard a lot and seen a lot, but I’ve never known of anyone having sex with a dead person. It’s hard to say which is the sickest though.”

“Yeah, both are pretty damn sick, alright.” Joshua agreed.

“Let’s change the subject,” Hook suggested. “What about that fishing trip we’ve been planning; are you still tied up with that Mexican killer you was working on?”

“Well, I thought that one was over with, but now they say he turned and is headed back this way. It beats all I ever seen. Never in a million years would I have thought he’d do that. He got almost to the border, and then turned back. It’s kind of a lets wait and see where he shows up next sorta thing, right now.”

“I still want us to go over to Ferriday, Louisiana and stay about a week. It ain’t no piece from Natchez. It’d be a good little vacation for the both of us.”

“We’re still going, Hook. I need to get away, that’s for damn sure.”

They had made it to Fairview by then and James suggested they stop at Uncle Joe’s Café and a get a bite to eat. “I can hear your gut a rumbling from here,” Hook said as he turned in and parked near the front door.

“Do you think you can walk it from here?” he asked Joshua.

Joshua gave him a dirty look and said that of course he could. They got out and went inside. Instead of going to the bar and sitting on a stool as he normally did, Joshua seated himself in a corner booth with his back against the wall and stretched his legs out on the bench seat. As weak as he felt, he did not want to take a chance on anyone sneaking up behind him. Joe came through the swinging doors from the kitchen. He acted surprised to see Joshua and James there.

“What brangs the two of you in here ta’day,” Joe asked cautiously, as if he thought it strange for the two of them to show up at his place in the middle of the afternoon.

“We’re hungry, Uncle Joe, that’s why we’re in here,” Hook replied sarcastically. “Bring us a couple of greasy cheeseburgers and some fries. I’ll have a co-cola with mine. What do you want to drink, Josh?” Joshua said it didn’t matter as long as it was cold and wet. James spied the new jukebox against the back wall and hollered to Joe, who had gone into the kitchen, when did he get the jukebox in. Joe hollered back that if he’d come in more than once a year, he’d probably know.

“Ornery old cuss,” Hook mumbled.

“Yeah, he’s grumpy alright.” Joshua replied. “The last time I was in here he was saying that he might have to shut down if business didn’t pick up.”

“Well, if he wasn’t so damn grouchy, folks might want to come in here. As it is, they don’t want to sit in here and listen to him complain the entire time.”

“That’s just his manner, Hook. He’s been that way his entire life. I don’t see him changing for any reason.”

“I know that” Hook replied. “He ain’t no different than the rest of his kin that was born into the same generation. I know, because I am his kin and he is just like Daddy and them - they’re all grumpy like that. I don’t think there is a fun bone in any of 'ems body. They’re as serious as the day is long… every damn one of 'em!”

“I hear y’all out there bad mouthing me behind my back,” Joe grumbled from the kitchen. “You better watch what you say. I am cooking ye somethin’ ta eats in here.” Joshua and James both chuckled.

“I think I’m gonna drop a few quarters in the jukebox,” Hook said as he stood and went to digging through his pockets for some change. He walked over to the jukebox, dropped a couple of quarters in and picked out some songs. Before he made it back to the table, ‘Simple Man,’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd was already playing. Joshua liked that song very much. Every time he heard it, it reminded him of his mother, his father, and it reminded him of his grandfather for some reason.

“Troubles a come and they will pass,” James sung as he sat down.

“I hope you keeps yer day job,” Joe said as he came toward their table toting two platters. “I hopes you two boys is hungry as you say you is,” Joe said as he set the platters in front of them. “I cooked enough taters to feed a small army.”

“You might have to cook some more, Uncle Joe” Hook chuckled. “‘Cause I is shonuff hungry. I haven’t eat a bite since supper last night!”

“Why? Did Ilene quit your sorry butt and find her a good man?” Joe teased, and then chuckled at his own joke.

“Now, see, if you’d do that onced in a while, Uncle Joe, instead of grumbling all the time, you might have more regular customers.”

“Well, if’n they don’t like me the way I is, they can just kiss my crusty old ass!” Joe exclaimed.

“Hook, he was getting into a good mood, now you done gone and got him out of it,” Joshua complained.

“Where are you two headed this time of day?” Joe asked. “The last time I seen you two out together at this hour of the day, y’all had skipped school and was a dodging the truant officer. Your daddy tore your ass up for that James.”

“Yes, Sir, he did. I didn’t think I was gonna be able to sit down afterward. He told me that an education was the easiest thing in the world to acquire, because all you had to do was show up and listen. ‘You don’t have to hit a lick at a snake to get one’ was what he said. And he said that it was the easiest thing in the world to throw away, if you was just too damn lazy to pay attention.”

“Yep and when you bucked him about going ta school, what’d he tell you. I’ll tell you what he told you, he told you not ta let the door hit you in the ass on your way. If’s you wouldn’t gonna go ta school you wouldn’t stayin’ under his roof.”

“Yes, that he did, Uncle Joe. And I was the only one that finished school, but I ain’t any smarter than my brothers are.”

“I didn’t say they weren’t smart - I said they didn’t have the chances you had, son. They was nearly grown when you come along. Times had changed; school had become important. Folks realized that their young’uns needed an education to make it in the changing world. Farming was no longer the way of life for everybody. Back when I was a boy, there was only two or three thangs a young man could do ta earn a livin’. That was farmin’, workin’ fer the railroad, or turpentinin’. I worked turpentine fer a few years, and then worked the railroad fer twenty-five years afore I retired and opened up this here café.”

Although Joshua had not said much, he was listening. He enjoyed listening to older folks like Joe talk, share their wisdom, and tell their stories.

“You forgot sheriffing, or deputying,” Hook reminded Joe.

“Nah, weren’t many cut out ta be lawmen, not back in those days… I knows y’all gets shot at sometimes nowadays, don’t ye, Sheriff,” Joe said, nodding to Joshua “But, back in
them
days, they’d just as soon as bushwhack a sheriff or a deputy as anyone else. It was dangerous work. Now, I ain’t a trying to take anything away from ya, Sheriff, but you have ta admit, it was more dangerous a few years ago than it is now, wasn't it.”

“Yeah, probably,” Joshua admitted. He’d heard many stories about how lawmen in the late eighteen hundreds up through the nineteen forties were murdered just for setting foot in the wrong part of town. Many had gotten away with it too.

“I is glad y’all stopped by taday,” Joe said. “Taint been a soul in here all day I knowed, excepting Gypsy. She comes in nearly every mornin’ ta check on me. I know that was what she’s a doing. She don’t never get much, just sets and talks a while…”

“I’m glad we did too, Uncle Joe.” Hook said. “I need to do this more often-we need to do this more often, don’t we, Joshua.”

“Yes, we do.” Joshua replied. “I have enjoyed it, but we need to be going. I have a lot of
Sheriffing
to do before me and Hook can plan our fishing trip.”

“Fishing trip, huh,” Joe said it as if he was mulling it over. “I ain’t been a fishing since the last time you and me went, Sheriff, and that was a long time ago; too long.”

“Yeah, it has been awhile. That was probably the last time I went fishing too.”

“Well, damn then, it sounds like we all need to go fishing,” James said with a grin.

Feeling obligated, Joshua said, “We’ll make a plan and go before long.” Just as he said it, the beginning of the ‘Time in a Bottle’ song began playing, and it gave him pause to think about how fast time was flying by. He had so much he wanted and needed to do. He felt that time was passing him by and he would never finish what he’d set out to do.

“Don’t worry, Sheriff,” Joe said as if reading his thoughts. “You’ve got plenty of time. You’re a youngster still. Quit worrying on it; buckle down and get ‘er done!”

James and Joshua finished eating and then loaded up and headed toward the river. Joshua breathed a sigh of relief when they turned into his driveway. He saw three or four squirrels running and playing in the yard and when they became aware of them, they swung off the moss and wisteria vines they were climbing and ran away. He felt comforted when they drove up to the front of his cabin; he was glad to be home. Joshua realized at that moment that his cabin, his home, was as much a part of him as his right arm. He would rather live nowhere else in the world than where he lived.

It had been Joshua’s experience that if a person was accused of something they were guilty of, he or she would first play the victim. They would play it to the point of resorting to tears and if that didn’t work, they became defensive and then angry. The more pressure you put on them, the angrier they became. At first, they would act nonchalant as if, ‘you’ve lost your fricking mind - I wouldn’t do anything like that’ before all the other rigmarole started. The blond haired, blue-eyed boy setting in front of him was not any different from any other liar or thief that he’d had to deal with.

After an uneventful night sitting on his back porch smoking and drinking with his feet propped on the railing, Joshua still could not go to sleep. The thirty hours sleep he’d had while in the hospital had undoubtedly caught him up on his rest. The early morning call informing him that Jody Miles had been found dead in his home by his neighbor had led them to bring Jody’s grandson in for questioning. The neighbor had told them that the grandson was the only person he had seen at Jody’s house in the last several weeks.

When the team arrived to process the scene and remove the body, they discovered that much of Jody’s personal possessions were missing and that someone had attempted to set fire to the home by dousing the area around the bed with kerosene. Why it did not burn the entire place down was one of those mysteries that go unexplained. Joshua usually chalked those up to Karma. Karma has a way of biting people in the ass when they least expected it. If the house had burnt down, Jody’s murder probably would have gone down as an accidental death and his
murderer
would have gotten away with it.

The boy had done gone through the ‘you’ve lost your fricking mind’ stage and now played the victim. His blue eyes were filled with tears that threatened to spill over. Joshua could tell the tears were not for his grandfather - the tears were because he had been caught and now faced going to jail for the rest of his life. The boy’s tears did nothing but piss Joshua off. He suspected that the boy had probably been toting his grandfather’s possessions out one at a time and pawning them or selling them to support his drug habit.

He wasn’t exactly sure what had gone down, but if he had to guess, the grandfather had probably threatened to call the law if he kept on taking stuff and when he caught him stealing again and tried to call them, they struggled over the phone and things turned ugly. The boy probably killed him in anger, and after he realized what he had done, he tried to start the fire to make it look like the old man died in the fire. However, twenty-one stab wounds constituted a crime of passion, not an accident!

The psychologist for the state had already interviewed the boy and assessed him as having narcissistic tendencies. However, that did not mean that boy could not control his actions. Joshua did not like interrogations; he tended to get too angry. That was why he elected to observe and not participate. He wanted to jerk the boy up by the neck and make him own up to what he had done, but they had to follow procedure. That was why he had not objected to two of the lead detectives in the sheriff’s office doing the investigation. He, several of his deputies, and Metcalf were observing from behind the two-way mirror.

“He’ll break soon,” Paul Calvert mumbled.

“I hope so,” said Deputy Cook.

“Well, y’all let me know when he does,” Joshua said as he turned and headed toward the door. He had other things he needed to be concentrating on instead of hanging out there watching a punk ass kid tell boldfaced lies.

“Will do,” he heard Calvert say as the door closed behind him.

He walked across the courtyard to his office. It was unlit and cool beneath the shade of the large oak tree near the window. As he looked around, he decided his office lacked personality. There was nothing on his desk, which disappointed him slightly. He figured Sandy would have brought over the photos he’d asked her to print out and leave them on his desk. He reckoned he would have to go to her to get them.

Joshua walked back across the courtyard to the records room. Sandy greeted him with a huge smile and a ‘Hey sweetie, what can I get for you today.’ Had she forgotten that soon, Joshua wondered? He asked her if she had time to make copies of the photos he had asked for. She grinned at him and said that sure, she had and she would get them for him. She disappeared for a moment and then returned with a folder that contained the photographs he had requested.

“I was going to leave them on your desk, Sheriff, but when I heard you were in the hospital, I decided to hang onto them for safekeeping. I knew you said that you did not want anything to happen to the originals. I intended to sleep with them if I had to,” Sandy winked and smiled. “You look good. I’m glad it was nothing serious.”

“I just needed a good rest, I reckon” Joshua said as he opened the folder and looked at the photos. The only way to tell the new photos from the originals was that the backs of the newest photos were white. “Thanks, Sandy. You’re a real jewel,” he said as he closed the folder and readied to leave.

“I do what I can, Sheriff. Are you having any luck with the unsolved files you took home with you?”

“I think they’ve led to more questions than answers,” he replied honestly.

“It would be great if Granddaddy could fill you in on all of those. He is senile now, and hardly knows anyone anymore…”

“Are you talking about Detective Jernigan?”

“Yes, he is my great-grandfather, but as I said, he wouldn’t be any help. He organized all of those files himself. I think that is one reason he lived so long but also the reason his mind went - it was just too much information to keep up with. His old brain got so full it exploded and turned to mush,” Sandy chuckled. “I didn’t mean that in an unkind way, Sheriff. I love my granddaddy very much and I am glad I was old enough to remember him before his mind went.”

“I hate to hear that,” Joshua replied. “I sure would have loved to talk to him.”

“He has his bad days and worse days, if you know what I mean. Sometimes, he thinks he is back on the force and doing detective work. He walked away from home several times… that is why he is in the rest home. My granddad tried to keep him, but he couldn’t watch him twenty-four seven and both of my parents work. Mom’s a nurse, and dad runs the hardware store. I am too young to take on that kind of responsibility, but I visit him every month, sometimes more. Most of the time, he doesn’t know who I am. That is always disappointing, but I keep going…”

“Cherish them while you have them,” Joshua said solemnly. “They won’t be here forever. I know I miss mine,” he said, realizing how much he truly missed his folks, even his father, although he had never really been close to him.

Sandy gave him a sympathetic look.

He smiled. “I’m getting old Sandy. It slips up on you before you know it.”

“You’re not old, sugar. You just need to take a deep breath and reorganize your thoughts, get 'em in order, that’s all. Go somewhere with a fifth of good whiskey, get comfortable, and then drink until you’re mind is numb” she said, her face showing wisdom beyond her years. “If I wasn’t working, I’d go with you and show you how,” Sandy grinned.

Joshua chuckled, “We might just have to try that if I can’t do it on my own,” he said, slapping the file on the edge of the counter and turning to leave.

“See ya, later gator,” Sandy said to his back.

What is it with these younger women, all of a sudden wanting to bed me he wondered as he walked to his patrol car? He laid the file on the seat and then walked to the jail to see how the interrogation was going.

Just as he walked into the viewing-listening room, he saw one of the detectives escorting the blond haired boy out of the room. Cook and Calvert appeared happy.

“What’s up?” Joshua asked.

“He confessed!” Cook chirped, grinning from ear to ear. “He tried lying, begging, and then crying. He finally owned up to what he done when they began laying photographs of his dead granddaddy on the table in front of him.”

“Good,” Joshua replied. “It’s one less lying, thieving, murderer off the street.”

“They’re sending him to Searcy Mental Hospital first so he can be evaluated before trial. He’s liable to get off on the condition of being crazy,” Calvert said solemnly, “If so, he will kill again.”

“Well, let’s hope they find him fit to stand trial,” Joshua stated. “That boy ain’t crazy; you can tell that by looking in his eyes,” Joshua said and then told them he was headed out, “If you need me, call me on the radio.” Joshua decided it was time to return the photos he borrowed from Vivian.