The Safe Place: A completely addictive and gripping crime thriller by L.A. Larkin

Author:L.A. Larkin [Larkin, L.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800197084
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2021-11-08T16:00:00+00:00

Ruth scrolled back to her previous message.

Please, Marky. Let the cops deal with it.

Thirty-Three

The last place Jessie thought she would end up was at Weird Bill’s. Yet here she was, about to turn onto Hilltop Loop Road, on her way to the rear entrance of Bill’s property. Very few people knew there was a second entrance to Bill’s lot. He didn’t put up signs. There was no gate and the vegetation was thoroughly overgrown. The route along the loop road enabled her to avoid Lake View Drive, where she lived. There was bound to be a deputy staking out her house.

Jessie’s plan was going well until she hit a roadblock across the loop road of yellow bollards and horizontal posts. She checked her local news app and found that a tree had fallen across the loop road. Jessie took a chance that she could drive around the tree. She shifted the horizontal posts out of the way, drove through, then put the posts back in position. Finding the entrance wouldn’t be easy. She drove slowly and very nearly missed it, then reversed. The hubcap nailed to a tree was the giveaway, like a round eye watching her. It made her shudder.

The driveway was overrun with creepers and ferns and within seconds she ran out of track. Jessie relied on the gradient to help her find her way to Bill’s shack on the shore. After ten minutes she grew worried. There was no sign of habitation. She switched off the rumbling engine and listened. She hoped to hear a powerboat, or the lapping of water, or even Bill’s cranky voice. What she heard was the splutter of an engine that didn’t want to start. Grr ruh ruh. Grr ruh ruh. She moved her head to try and work out from which direction the noise came. A little to the right, but mostly straight ahead. Grr ruh ruh. Grr ruh ruh.

“Start, you son of a bitch!” The reedy voice was Bill’s.

As a precaution, Jessie took from her glove compartment her poppy’s antique revolver. It wasn’t loaded. She didn’t even know if it could fire, but it might make Bill think twice about firing at her. Her arrival would be unexpected, and she was unsure how Bill might react. Would he even remember offering her a place to lie low? The guy was so out of touch, he didn’t even own a phone. She hadn’t been able to call him.

Jessie left Bartie in the shaded pickup and walked down the slope. She found Bill leaning on the hood of what looked to be an old Ford from the 1960s. Jump cables trailed from the Ford’s engine to Bill’s pride and joy, his 1950s Cadillac. It took a while for him to notice her and by the time he raised his shotgun, she was already aiming the Colt Model 1877 Lightning revolver at him.

“Hey, Bill, you invited me here, remember?” she said.

“What you doing pointing your pappy’s gun at me for?”

“Because you’re pointing a shotgun at me.

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