Kelly nodded.
“Well that’s not enough, doc,” Zach said. “So what do you think, Kelly? Should we kneecap him or just shoot him in the head?”
“What?” the doc asked, his eyes widening.
She smiled. “He’s screwing with you, doc.” She shook her head at him and Zach winked.
“Look. If the attorney was aware of Jack’s story. Why didn’t anyone look into it?”
“I just told you.”
“The meth. Right.”
“He killed an entire family, Ms. Armstrong. Do you know what he did to the kids and female?” He proceeded to tell her and she nearly threw up in her mouth. “Now do you really think the cops are going to waste valuable time following up some outlandish story about a woman that doesn’t exist, a kidnapping and an automobile accident that didn’t happen?”
“But it did.”
“Do you have the vehicle? A body?” He shot back.
He had a point. Without any of that, it was nothing more than hearsay and going by the text Dalton sent, the teen who had told him was too nervous to come forward. Hell, even if he did, without a name of who was behind it, the police would just be spinning wheels. More than likely the statement would just end up in a report and be filed away never to be looked at. In the eyes of the law once an individual had been sentenced, it took a new defense team and substantial evidence to get things reopened. They didn’t have the time, resources or evidence. All they had was circumstantial at best.
“Do you think I can get a copy of that report you gave to the attorney?”
“It’s confidential.”
“So is this meeting but…” Kelly lifted her phone and showed him that she’d been recording it. “It could go public.”
He balked. “You said this was off the record.”
“It is for now. So… you think you can find that report?”
Grossman sighed and downed the remainder of his coffee. “Swing by my office tomorrow and I will give you a copy but after that, we are through. I don’t want to see you, hear from you or speak to you. And I certainly don’t want my name mentioned in an article. You understand?”
“You got it, doc.” Kelly slid out of the booth as did Zach. “You’ve been very helpful.” She threw down some change and headed for the door.
“Think he’s telling the truth?” Zach asked, looking over his shoulder.
“No, but there’s not exactly much we can do.” Kelly shouldered the door.
“Of course there is. We could torture him.”
“Zach.”
“I’m kidding,” he snorted as they made a mad dash for the SUV. Rain beat against her brow, matting her hair to her forehead. As soon as they were inside, Kelly looked back at the restaurant and saw Grossman on his phone. Calling his wife? Or someone who had paid him?
Zach drove out of town on Southside Drive. Off to their left was the Susquehanna River. Rain fell harder as they discussed the case. They hadn’t made it five minutes out of Owego when headlights lit up their vehicle from behind. Zach squinted. “Asshole has his high beams on.” Zach brought the window down and tried to indicate to the driver but it did nothing. Seconds later they both lurched forward as the large 4 x 4 truck slammed into the back of them, causing their SUV to swerve erratically. Zach managed to keep the tires on the slick road but before he could slow down and pull off, the truck slammed into them again.
“Speed up!” Kelly said.
“I’m already over the speed limit.”
The SUV let out a screech as he swerved to the hard shoulder only to have the truck behind perform a pit maneuver and send their SUV into a spin. Kelly held on for dear life as the world around them flashed before her eyes. Fortunately, Zach managed to stop the vehicle before it flipped or crashed into the steel guard rail. The truck roared past them with its lights off so they couldn’t see the license plate. Zach panted hard, leaning against the steering wheel. “What the heck just happened there?”
“That looked eerily similar to the one that crawled past the restaurant earlier on.”
“Shit, Kelly, they don’t pay us enough to do this. I say we call it a day. Fuck Winchester. By the sounds of his history he deserves to be where he is.”
“This story is bigger than Winchester. We can’t leave now.”
“You can’t. I can. I’m meant to be on vacation!”
“No one told you to come here.”
“Oh that’s right, just throw it back at me,” he said as he fired up the vehicle and slowly rolled out of the hard shoulder. “I’m just saying, a good reporter knows when they are getting too close to the story. Right now, that was close. Too close for comfort. Let’s speak with Dalton and see if we can’t get in and talk with Winchester about the case and then head back to San Francisco.”
“Or we can call the police,” Kelly said.
“Police? As if anyone in this county would give a damn. They’d ask too many questions.”
He made a good point.
They drove on, shaken up.
As Dalton sat alone in the restaurant that evening waiting for Kelly to return, he placed a phone call to Karen to check on her and the baby. She didn’t answer so he left a voice mail.
“Hey, just me. Hope you’re okay. Will try again tomorrow.”
After hanging up he noticed a brown sedan pull into the lot. He didn’t think anything of it until four men ambled in and the other guest on the far side of the room left. All of them looked like they had stepped out of a bodybuilding event. Their leather jackets and jeans looked several sizes too small. Two sat down across the table, one slid in beside him and the fourth took a seat on a stool by the bar. The owner and waitress disappeared into
