Reckoning for the Dead

evidence downtown at headquarters, we found a reference to Millstone that we thought you should know. You ready to hear it?”

Jessie didn’t answer at first. She took in a deep breath and felt a wave of nausea. She had blocked out so much of that time period from her mind. As a kid, all she wanted to do was be left alone. And for her own sake, the foster-care folks had purposefully kept her isolated from the headline news during that time.

And after she’d gotten older, she had deliberately avoided anything having to do with Millstone, as if it had never happened. She still felt that way, but now she had to know how all this connected to any link she might still have to family.

“Go ahead. I’m ready. Tell me what you found out.”

An hour later

After the lengthy call from Sam and Harper, Jessie had a hard time controlling her anger. She tossed her dinner without eating it. And her mind wrestled with the idea of what her next move should be, but all she had on her mind was confronting Chief Cook once and for all.

How much of what Sam and Seth had told her did Cook already know? And why had he made contact with her, only to stonewall her once she got to La Pointe? She knew he’d deliberately lied about there being two DNA samples tested by his state crime lab. Sam had discovered that. Had he also lied about the Tanner interview? She still had missing pieces to the puzzle, but she had one last shot at finding out the truth.

Jessie grabbed her rental-car keys, checked her Colt Python, and put it back in the holster she carried at her waist under her windbreaker. By the time she got outside, the sun had just drifted below the horizon. It would be dark soon.

When she pulled out of the motel parking lot, she might’ve missed the headlights coming on as she turned toward the police station, but with her hinky radar switched to hyperdrive, she hadn’t missed those headlights at all. She’d picked up a tail again. Someone had been following her since she got to the island, and that old hinky vibe had jump-started a whole new surge of adrenaline. With all that was going on, she’d had enough.

As she drove the speed limit, careful not to spook the sneaky bastard, she made a call on her cell.

“This is Jessie Beckett,” she said as she looked in her rearview mirror. It was too dark to see a face, but a man was driving the truck that followed her.

“Where are you, Chief Cook?”

“None of your business. You still in town, Ms. Beckett?”

“I thought you’d know that . . . since this is your town, Tobias.” Before he found a new way to insult her, she didn’t give him a chance. “I have a pretty good idea who killed Angela DeSalvo. And if you have any curiosity at all, you’ll meet me in thirty minutes.”

She eyed the mirror one more time as she made a turn, with the truck still with her and not far behind.

“Where?”

When she told him, the chief schooled her in how to cuss, but he didn’t say no.

“I’ll be there in thirty. And you better be on the level, or I’m locking you up and throwing away the key.”

With a smile on her face, Jessie ended the call without saying anything more. And when she shifted her gaze to the rearview mirror, the truck was still with her.

If she was going to meet the chief in thirty minutes, she had to move quick.

Thirty minutes later

Right on time, Chief Cook pulled his squad car into Sophia Tanner’s driveway. Jessie had parked on the road, not wanting to frighten the woman. Living alone on the island couldn’t be easy for a woman. When the chief saw Jessie, he shut his patrol-car door and walked over to where she stood.

“Thought you’d be inside, scaring that poor woman. Are you blowing smoke . . . or do you really know who killed Angela DeSalvo?”

“I have a pretty good idea, but before we go inside, I’ve got a question for you.”

The chief didn’t bother to give her the go-ahead. He crossed his arms and cocked his head, waiting for the bullshit to flow, like he was expecting it to. And Jessie sure hoped she wouldn’t disappoint him.

She stepped back toward her sedan, twirling her car keys on her finger. “Why did you have someone following me ever since I got to the island? What was that about?”

“Following you? What are you talking about?”

When Jessie popped her trunk, she and Chief Cook stared down at a man, tied up hands and feet in Flexicuffs with a gag in his mouth. He was bawling like a baby and was red-faced as a beet. And he didn’t have a stitch of clothes on, except for some seriously neon red plaid boxers.

“Now you see, I would’ve figured this guy for briefs. He one of yours?”

“Jesus, Tyrell, what the hell are you doin’ in there?” Chief Cook glared at the man once his initial shock wore off.

“Yeah, that’s his name. Tyrell Hinman. You see? I knew you could help me with this.” Jessie fished the man’s ID out of her windbreaker pocket. “He’s one of your deputies, isn’t he? I saw him the day I was at your station. He got me coffee, the sneaky, arrogant, son of a bitch.”

“Is that so, Tyrell? Were you following her?” Cook leaned into the trunk and asked the man directly. When the guy only shrugged and had a hard time staring him in the eye, the chief turned to her. “I swear, Jessie. I have no idea why Tyrell would do such a thing, but I’m getting to the bottom of this, so help me God.”

Jessie wanted to believe him, but there was still so much more he needed to explain.

“Until you find out what’s going on, Tobias, I think I’d leave God out of this.”

Once Jessie had gotten a good look at who’d been following her, she recognized him. But the night she’d chased him on foot, he was in civilian clothes, and she hadn’t seen his face. Nothing fit until she saw him tonight, after she’d pulled a fast one on him.

She’d run a red light and left Tyrell pinned between two cars. And after she turned a corner and flipped off her headlights, she played cat and mouse with him in the dark. It didn’t take much for her to lose him and flip the tables, tailing him for a change. After he gave up, he pulled into a parking lot to use his cell phone. That was when she walked up to his car and showed him the business end of her Colt Python.

When she aimed the muzzle square between his eyes, she had one question.

“What are you . . . a boxers or briefs kind of guy?”

Now she had Chief Cook’s full attention, even with one of his deputies half-naked in the trunk of her car, all bug-eyed and whining.

“Like I said, I have a pretty good idea who killed Angela, but you and me gotta talk before we go inside. I figure if I give you what you want, maybe you’ll give me what I need.”

After the chief nodded, she asked, “What do we do with him?”

Chief Cook grimaced and looked down at his deputy, saying, “Tyrell? You’re an idiot.”

He slammed the trunk closed, with Tyrell yelling and pounding his fists as they talked.

“Why did you lie about there being two DNA samples? Mine wasn’t the only one.”

The chief’s face was dimly lit from Sophia Tanner’s porch light, but even in the dark, she saw that she’d surprised him.

“And that other sample had a 95 percent probability of matching mine. Do you have any idea how scared I was that the sample belonged to Danny Ray Millstone? After all he did to me, the idea that he could have been my father tore me up. And you kept your mouth shut even after you admitted checking into the Millstone investigation. Why did you lie about all that?”

“Look . . . you don’t understand.”

“Apparently, I don’t. Explain it to me.”

Tyrell had been banging on the trunk until they started talking. When he got quiet, Jessie knew he was listening, too. The jerk!

“I did look into the Millstone case. And when I made the connection to you, I wanted . . .” Cook stalled and avoided her eyes.

“Wanted what, Tobias?”

“I wanted to be sure before I said anything. I knew that wasn’t something you’d want to hear. And speculating about something like that would give you some sleepless nights. I didn’t want that for you, but I guess