Deadly Revenge (Pearl River #3)

Chapter 69

69

Jenna leaned into Max, and he wrapped his arm around her waist. Flashing red and white lights from the ambulances strobed the sky. No one died tonight. Phillip was the first one arrested, and Sebastian and his three men were critically wounded, but barring complications, they would live to stand trial.

“Your dad seems okay,” Max said.

She shifted her gaze to the ambulance where medics checked her dad. “He’s a tough bird.”

Max laughed. “I can’t believe he managed to topple his chair into Sebastian.”

They both turned as Nathan and Alex approached.

“It’s been a good night’s work,” Alex said.

“Yeah,” Jenna agreed. “If we can get through the picnic with no one getting hurt, it’ll be a good weekend.”

They all bumped fists. “Don’t do it tonight,” Alex said, “but first thing in the morning, write up your report.”

“It is morning,” Jenna said.

“You know what I mean.” Alex smiled. “Tomorrow—excuse me—today is a big day for us, you two in particular. Why don’t you try and get some sleep.”

“I won’t argue,” Max said.

“We’ll take Dad home.” Jenna glanced toward her dad again. She could have lost him tonight. She breathed a prayer of thanks. “I hope to get him to spend the night at my house.”

Alex and Nathan looked askance at her.

“What? You think I can’t talk him into it?”

“What do you think?” Alex said with a laugh.

She could try, and she did try, but her dad was adamant that he was sleeping what was left of the night in his own bed. When they reached her house, she turned to Max.

“Why don’t you sleep in the spare bedroom? I know it’s more comfortable than the sofa.”

“I’ll take the sofa—it sleeps pretty good.”

It was two before Jenna actually made it to bed, and she was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. Hammering jerked her awake. Was she dreaming? No. The hammering continued. The clock on her dresser showed 5:00 a.m.

She grabbed her gun and eased out of her bedroom. Max stood at the front door. He put his finger to his lips then peered through the peephole.

He blew out a breath and holstered his gun. “Hold on, Mr. Darby!” He turned to Jenna. “Key?”

Jenna holstered her gun and hurried back to her bedroom and grabbed her keys. In the hallway she tossed them to Max. He unlocked the door and swung it open. “What’s wrong?”

Darby didn’t wait for an invitation and barreled into the house with his dog. “Someone tried to poison Bear.”

“Is he all right?” Jenna asked.

“Yeah. I trained him as a pup to not eat anything except what I gave him. About half an hour ago, Bear started barking something fierce. Woke me up, and I knew right then someone was on my property—that’s the only time he barks crazy like that.”

Darby stopped to get a breath and swayed. He pressed his hand against the wall to steady himself.

“Let’s go to the kitchen where we can sit down,” Max said.

“Appreciate it.”

Jenna reached to take his arm, and the older man pulled away. “I can make it on my own.”

Max hid a grin. He was an independent old cuss. They sat around the table, Darby taking the seat Max usually sat at—against the wall where he could see if anyone came through the doors.

Jenna yawned. “Would anyone like coffee?”

“Appreciate it,” Darby repeated.

While she made a pot of coffee, Max filled a bowl with water and set it on the floor.

Bear looked up at Darby, and after he nodded, the dog cautiously approached the bowl and looked back at his owner. “Go ahead,” he said. “That’s why he ain’t dead.”

Max watched as the dog lapped the water. “Tell us exactly what happened.”

“Mind if I wait on the coffee? That’ll give me time to straighten out my mind.”

His story, his timing. “Sure.”

When Jenna handed him a steaming mug, Darby’s brow wrinkled. “Your dad ... have you found him?”

“We have, and he’ll be all right.”

“Good.” His forehead smoothed, then he sipped the brown liquid and nodded. “That’s good—tastes almost as good as my perked.”

Max locked his fingers on the table and leaned forward. “What happened, Mr. Darby?”

The older man took a deep breath and released it. “Like I said, Bear was barking, and after he quit, I waited a bit and watched out the window to make sure nobody was there. When I finally walked around the house, I found a pack of ground beef at the side of the house.”

He took another sip of coffee and stared into space, the muscle in his jaw working furiously. “The sorry no-goods had put poison in it.”

“How do you know?”

Darby looked at Max like he’d lost his mind. “You find a bunch of ground beef on your property with white powder all over it—what are you going to think?”

He hadn’t mentioned the white substance. “Did you bring it?”

“It’s in my truck.”

“Good. I’ll have it analyzed.” He turned to Jenna. “Unless you have someone local who can run the test.”

She shook her head. “TBI would be quicker.”

“Be surprised if it isn’t rat poison.” Darby’s jaw clenched as he rubbed Bear’s head. “If they’d killed him ...”

“Why is someone targeting you?”

He dropped his gaze to the coffee mug gripped in his hands. Neither Jenna nor Max spoke, letting the silence weigh on the old man. When he raised his head, tears glistened in his eyes. “I overheard something I shouldn’t have.”

When he didn’t continue, Max said, “What was it?”

Darby cleared his throat. “Slater and Nelson were talking to Carter in the mayor’s office. One of them, not sure who, said, ‘We have a problem—Donelson says he’s coming clean about the dam.’”

Darby turned to Max. “You two probably don’t know but Earl Donelson, Todd’s father, was on the city council back when this dam project was hatched. His grandfather had a farm in the valley, and Earl was supposed to talk him into selling.

“But the old man refused and he was influencing a whole slew of others. He threatened to take the case to the Supreme Court if he had to. He meant to block the building of the dam.”

Max frowned. “Why was that such a big deal—people can’t stop a project like that—the state just condemns the land and takes it.”

“’Cause Earl was going to testify that the dam wasn’t needed.”

“I’m sure Carter could bring in experts saying otherwise.”

“Mebbe so, but the way they were discussing it, Earl was also going to spill the beans about how Carter and his cronies had bought up a bunch of land in the valley. If the dam didn’t go through, they would’ve lost a passel of money.”

Darby sat up straighter and crossed his arms over his chest. “Next thing I know, Earl’s dead.”

Jenna leaned forward. “But he accidentally shot himself climbing out of a deer stand, right?”

“If you believe that, I got some rocky ground I’ll sell you to grow corn on.”

“He didn’t?” Max said.

“Naw. I heard Harrison Carter say he’d take care of the problem—that he’d heard Earl was going deer hunting that weekend. Next thing I know, I’m going to a funeral for the man.”

Max rubbed his thumb around the rim of his mug. It was an interesting story, but he couldn’t imagine confronting Carter with it or getting a search warrant to look for proof that it was true. “How does this play into the deaths of the Slaters and Nelson?”

Darby drained the last of his coffee. “Don’t suppose I could have another one of these?”

Jenna picked up the mug. Darby locked his gnarled fingers together and massaged the heel of his hand with his thumb while she poured his coffee.

He was stewing. Max could tell, and he left Darby alone. Jenna set the mug in front of him. “I didn’t ask if you wanted cream and sugar the first time.”

“Black is good.” Darby unlocked his hands, and his fingers shook when he picked up the cup, sloshing hot liquid. “Ahh!” He jerked back, almost dropping the cup.

Jenna jumped for the cup while Max grabbed paper towels. “Did you burn yourself?” she asked.

“No ... at least not bad.” He took the paper towel Max offered and dried his hands. “Sorry for being so messy. I’m just jittery.”

Max handed him another towel. “That’s easy to see. What are you not telling us? Maybe getting that off your chest will ease your nerves.”

He hunched over the cup. “I did something a month ago and didn’t know it would end up with people dead.”

His voice was barely a whisper.

Jenna knelt beside his chair. “What did you do?”

He turned toward her. “It’s coming up on the twentieth anniversary of when Earl died, and Todd caught me when I came to town for groceries.”

“That was a month ago?” Jenna asked.

He nodded. “That’s about the only time I go to town unless I have a doctor’s appointment. Anyway, he was asking me what I knew about his dad’s death.”

Max sipped his coffee, ignoring that it was cold. He didn’t want to stop the man once he’d started talking. “Why did he think you knew anything?”

“Todd is smart.” Darby sighed. “You see, I quit right after Earl’s accident , and he’d come to the house off and on over the years, asking what I knew—he didn’t believe for a second his dad shot himself.”

He gave Jenna a tiny smile. “He’d walk down like you did and crawl under the wire, but I never told him anything.”

“Why talk to him this time?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it was because he reminded me it’d been twenty years. Maybe I just got tired of carrying the burden of knowing. Maybe it was the whiskey he gave me while we sat in his truck. All the maybes in the world won’t change that what I told him sent him over the edge—made a killer out of him.”