Last Chance Road: A Jake Caldwell Thriller by James L. Weaver

Author:James L. Weaver [Weaver, James L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781639779079
Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing
Published: 2022-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

The swirling red-and-blue lights bounced off the houses and trees as police cars descended on the Wilkinson residence. Neighbors gathered on porches and the sidewalks, jackets and blankets wrapped tightly to ward off the night’s chill and the faint drizzle that fell from a blackened sky. Their faces were curious and fearful as they stared at the Wilkinson house, likely able to pick up from the number of cars and flurry of activity this wasn’t a medical emergency. This was something much worse.

Bear dispensed his few resources to start canvassing the neighbors, one cop to the right and another to the left. Jake searched between houses and in backyards for any sign of Daisy. In one backyard, he nearly had a heart attack when he discovered a crumpled form dressed in white lying at the bottom of a window well before he realized it was an empty bag of grass seed mixed in with fallen leaves.

He returned to the Wilkinsons’, his brow covered in sweat and mist to find Bear on his cell in the front yard. Bear raised his eyebrows in a question, and Jake shook his head. “Nothing.”

Bear clicked off the call. “Placed an APB out on Daisy, and my crew’s canvassing the neighborhood to see if anyone heard or saw anything.”

“Anything interesting since I left?”

“Darla was shot in the chest and abdomen. Chester took one in the leg. Hit his femoral artery and he bled out. Found another bullet hole in the cabinet behind him.”

Jake’s brows pulled together. “Not exactly tight grouping on the shots.”

“It’s weird. Bad time for me to be short-staffed with three people dead at roughly the same time. You think whoever killed them took Daisy?”

Jake chewed on his bottom lip. “I’m hoping she fled the scene. Bedroom window was open. She told me at the park earlier today that she snuck out by climbing down the trellis. Maybe she did it again when she heard the shots fired.”

“Maybe she didn’t close it after this afternoon.”

“Maybe, but it would’ve gotten pretty cold in the house. Someone would’ve noticed an open window.”

Deputy Dawson jogged up the sidewalk with a notepad in hand. He was a slight, baby-faced man with owl eyes. “Bear, neighbors thought they heard some popping noise a few minutes after six.”

“Thought?” Bear asked.

“They were in the kitchen making drinks and getting ready to watch one of those NCIS shows. At the time, they thought it was gunshots from the TV. Now they’re not so sure.”

“They didn’t take a look out the window to investigate or anything?”

Dawson gave a couple of quick jerks of his head. “No, but it might give us a time everything went down.”

“We don’t need a time. We need someone who saw something.”

Dawson looked to Jake and dropped his eyes. “Someone reported a suspicious guy sitting on the front porch with Daisy earlier. They pointed you out specifically, Jake. Sorry.”

Jake waved the thought away. “Nothing to be sorry about, man. I was there eating a burger with the girl.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.