”Really? How?”
”When I went over the bank, I hit my head on the steering wheel. It knocked me out, but this voice kept telling me to wake up. It was your voice. You woke me up before I drowned.”
She leaned over and kissed me softly.
”I’ll always be there when you need me, babe,”
she said. ”Always.”
I closed my eyes with the taste of her mouth lingering, and somehow managed to drift off to sleep.
June 17
2:30 p.m.
I was so sore the next morning I could barely get off the couch, so I spent the day at home, looking out the window, worrying and wondering. I got hold of Jack a little before noon, but I didn’t tell him anything about Junior Tester. He’d been invited to play baseball for Martinsville in the Coastal Plains League over the summer and was having the time of his life.
He said he was still hitting the ball great and had talked to several big league scouts. I promised him I’d make it up there to see him play sometime soon.
Sam Wiseman called at two thirty in the afternoon and told me he’d called the Cocke County sheriff’s department and learned that Tester had taken a week’s vacation.
”I called his house, but nobody answered,” Sam said.
”Are you planning to go down there?”
”I ran it by my supervisor. He said since you didn’t see the driver and don’t have a tag number, it’d be a waste of time.”
”What if the front end of his truck is banged up like you said at the hospital? What if it has paint on it the same color as my truck?”
”You know how it is around here. We’ve only got five investigators to cover three shifts. There’s been a string of burglaries we’re working, and the boss wants me to keep concentrating on that. He said he can’t let me go chasing around Cocke County on a case I don’t have much chance of making.”
”This is bullshit, Sam. What about my family?”
”What about them?”
”Can’t you spare anyone to look out for them? At least for a few days.”
”We barely have enough road deputies to cover patrols. Besides, you haven’t exactly. .” His voice trailed off without finishing the sentence, but the tone alarmed me.
”I haven’t exactly what, Sam?”
”You haven’t exactly made a bunch of friends around here over the years, you know. Not many people here are willing to go out of their way to help you.”
”So you’re telling me that the sheriff’s department won’t help me because I’m a defense lawyer?”
”I’m telling you we only have five investigators to cover three shifts, we don’t have enough patrol deputies to provide security for one family, we have a lot of other cases, and you’re accusing a law enforcement officer of a serious crime with no real evidence to back it up. I’m afraid there isn’t much I can do.”
”So what the hell am I supposed to do? Wait for him to come back?”
”Maybe you ought to buy a gun.”
”I already have guns. I was hoping you guys would do something so I wouldn’t have to use them.”
”Sorry. Like I said, we’re not going to be able to do anything right now.”
”Thanks, Sam. Thanks for nothing.”
I hung up the phone, walked into the den, and sat down at the computer, as angry as I’d ever been in my life. It didn’t take me long to find Junior’s address and phone number on the Internet. MapQuest gave me directions to his house. I printed the directions and memorized the phone number, something that had always come easy for me. Once the numbers were in my brain, they stayed there for years. I spent the rest of the day trying to think of the various situations I might run into if I actually did what I was thinking of doing.
At eleven thirty p.m., after the evening routines were all finished and Lilly had gone to bed-in our room again-I asked Caroline to sit down at the kitchen table. I told her about my conversation with Sam Wiseman and that the police weren’t going to help. Finally, I took a deep breath.
”I’m going down there,” I said.
”Where?” Caroline said.
”To Newport. To find Junior.”
”When?”
”Tonight. Now.”
”No, you’re not.”
”Yes. I am.”
”No, you’re not. No way.”
”I’m going, Caroline. You can’t stop me.”
”And just what do you propose to do when you find him?” Her voice took on some intensity, and she stood up. Neither was a good sign.
”I’m not sure, but I can’t just sit around here. The police aren’t going to do anything, so I have to take care of this myself. Sit back down and talk to me.
Try to be rational.”
”Rational? Did I just hear you say rational? You’re talking about going out in the middle of the night to an insane man’s house to do God knows what and you’re telling
I stood up and started towards the bedroom with Caroline right on my heels.
”He’s a police officer, Joe,” she said. ”He’s going to have a gun, you know.” The words were staccato and her voice had a tone I’d only heard a couple of times during all the years we’d been together.
”Keep your voice down. Lilly’s sleeping.”
”Don’t tell me to keep my voice down. Wake up, Lilly! Your dad’s about to do something insane! You better kiss him goodbye, because
Lilly stirred and groaned, but she could sleep through a hurricane.
”Leave her out of this,” I said. I walked into my closet and grabbed up a pair of black jeans, a navy blue hooded sweatshirt, a pair of old combat boots, and a black stocking cap. Then I hurried back out to the kitchen and started to change clothes. Caroline was hovering like an attack helicopter.
”I have to
He staked us out. He stalked you. He followed me and ran my truck into the lake. He tried to
What do you want me to do? Sit back and give him another chance, because I guarantee you he’ll try again as soon as he finds out I’m still breathing. Or maybe he’ll try to kill you next time. Or Lilly. Hell, maybe he’ll wait until he gets a shot at all of us at the same time. Three for the price of one.”
”I don’t care, Joe. I-”
”Yes, you do. You care. You care about me and you care about Lilly and you care about living. And as much as you want to think we should be civilized right now, as much as you want to deal with this
”So you’re going to hurt him?”
”I’m not planning to kill him, but I’m not going to give him a hug, either. I have to let him know if he comes after any of us, there’ll be consequences. I have to show him that I’m willing to cross the same line he crossed.”
”I’m going with you.”
”No. You have to stay here with Lilly. We can’t leave her here alone. I promise I’ll stay in touch.
I’ll-”
