The Last Jeskey - Chapter 48

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 48

 

(Day 13 – Tuesday)

 

Sheriff Cobb

 

“You look like hell!” my wife said as I walked back into her hospital room the next morning.

“Gee thanks!” I said as I plopped my weary body down in the chair.

“What happened?” she asked.

“I no sooner got home last night,” I said, “when my damn phone rang.  To make a long story short, Freaky killed Gary last night.  Shantel hit him over the head with her guitar and Freaky grabbed his gun and shot him in the face.  And to make matters that much worse, I’ve got another dead deputy.  Gary shot him before he broke into the house.  I’ve been up all night with this mess.  I haven’t even been to bed yet.”

“How are those women doing?” Nat asked.

“I think Lisa and Shantel are more than a bit rattled by what happened.  Scared too.”

“I don’t blame them,” Natalie said.  “I would be too.  And Freaky?”

“As far as I can tell, shooting Gary in the head didn’t affect her much at all.”

“You know,” Natalie said, “that psychologist we talked to at that behavioral center said he was struck by how little Freaky seemed to care that Bo, Ben, and Steve had been shot and killed right in front of her.  And that was beside the fact that Freaky always seemed to defend them all anytime anyone tried to criticize what they’d done to her.  She told everyone over and over that she was so grateful to them because without them she wouldn’t be alive.  Maybe there was more hatred in her than we thought.”

“Could be,” I agreed.  “Who knows.  For now, she seems to be dealing with what she did just fine.”

“You didn’t arrest her did you?  I would think it was self-defense.”

“No.  It was clearly a case where Gary had gone in with the intention of killing her, and I’m sure the other two as well.  I’ve been so busy since then that I haven’t even called the D.A. yet to let him know what happened.”

“You might want to do that soon,” Natalie suggested.

“Yeah.  I’ll get to it, along with a thousand other things.  He can wait a few minutes.”

“Who was the deputy that died?” she asked.

“Paul Shultz.”

“I don’t think I know him.”

“He’s young.  Very young.  In fact, I’m pretty sure he still lived with his parents.”

“So at least he doesn’t have a wife and kids,” she noted.

“No.  At least there’s that.  Not like Simpson.  He had a wife and a young boy.”

“I heard,” she said.  “When’s the funeral?”

“I don’t know.  I haven’t had a chance to do anything with any of it yet.  And now I have to tell Paul’s family that he’s gone.  Before this happened, I’ve been trying to spend as much time as I can right here with you.”

“Thanks,” she said.  “I appreciate it.”

“Since you’ve been in here,” I said, “I think it’s the most time we’ve spent together in a long time.  I like it.  Not that you’re hurt.  I just like getting to spend a bit of time with you.”

She held out her arms and I moved in for a hug and kiss.  When she pulled away she slapped at my chest.  “Will Cobb,” she chastised.  “There’s a family out there wondering why their son hasn’t come home from work yet.  Don’t you think they deserve to know sooner rather than later?”

“Yeah,” I agreed.  “I guess sitting in a chair with you for the rest of the day is going to be out for now.”

“Will, I’m fine.  I’m getting better.  I’ll be out of here in a few days.  You’ve got a job to do, so go to work.  And give my condolences to the family.”

“Yeah.  Sure,” I told her.  I leaned in and kissed her again.  “See you later.”

“Go to work!”

Back in my car, I called the station and got the address for where Paul Shultz lived with his family.  As I headed there, I couldn’t help but think that I had just gone through this for Simpson.  But with Simpson, Russ had already done the notification deed.  This time I was going to have to do the dirty work myself.  But that’s what they paid me the big bucks for.  And I wished they really did pay me some big bucks.  Lately, things had been more than my little salary was worth.

The Shultz house was in one of those decent residential areas where we rarely needed to send a deputy out at all.  That wasn’t the case today though since I was there.  I parked in front of the house and was heading across the front lawn when one of the deputy cars pulled up and parked behind my car.  I waited where I was and saw Amanda get out.  “What are you doing here?” I asked as she walked up to me.”

“Russ assigned me to arrange the funerals for both Simpson and now Paul.  Since you’re here now, I take it nobody has told them yet that he’s dead?”

“Not that anyone told me,” I said.  “Stay here or come with me, the choice is yours.  It’s gotta be done though.”

She followed me to the front door where I knocked.  “Sheriff,” she said as we waited.  “You know you look like hell.”

“Thanks,” I told her.  “You’re the second one who’s told me that in the last hour alone.”

The door was opened by an older man.  He let us inside, and everything went downhill from there.  When the crying had mostly subsided, Mr. Shultz asked, “How did it happen?”

“He was shot in the line of duty,” I told him.  “More than that, I’m afraid I can’t say.  The investigation has just started.”

He nodded then said, “Paul called us last night and said he’d be spending most of the night out at the Jeskey place guarding some women in case Gary Jeskey showed up.  I’ve heard time and time again that the Jeskey bunch are all big trouble.  So was it Gary who shot him?”

It sounded to me like Paul had said a bit more than he should have, but really, there was no big secret as to what Paul was doing out there.  “When we arrived last night, we found Gary’s pickup parked in the middle of the road leading to the Jeskey farm.  It looks like he parked it there then cut through the woods and fields and snuck up behind your son.”

“And shot him.”

I nodded.  “Unfortunately.”

“Do you think there’s any chance of finding Gary?” he asked.  “According to Paul, you’ve been after him for some time now.”

“We found him, in a manner of speaking,” I admitted.  “Rest assured, your son’s murderer is dead.”

“Did you shoot him?”

“Me?  No.  It wasn’t me.  Someone else.”

“At least you got him.  Paul would have been proud to know that one of his friends avenged his death.”

“Yeah.  There is that,” I said, even though that hadn’t been the case at all.  He didn’t need to know that though.

As Amanda and I were walking back to our cars I said, “I need to talk to those women out at that farm again, especially Freaky.  Want to come?”

“Sure,” Amanda agreed.

“We’ll stop at the station then and drop off your car, you can ride with me.”

“No sheriff.  We’ll drop your car at the station, and you can ride with me.  You’re the one who looks like hell.”

“Point taken,” I agreed.  “You’re not another one who’s going to be after my job are you?  Cause if you are, that’s fine.  You and Russ can duke it out together.”

“No Sheriff,” Amanda said with a slight grin on her face.  And Russ isn’t after your job.  He’d never get it, and he knows it.  You’ve been around too long and there’s too many people who like you.”

“Thanks,” I told her.

“Russ is looking for a sheriff position somewhere else.”

“Nice of him to tell me,” I noted.

“I want his job.”

I looked at her.  Yeah, she could definitely fill the bill.  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I told her.  “If Russ ever finds a job somewhere else.”

It wasn’t long before I was sitting in her car and letting her drive.  I closed my eyes for the brief bit of rest it might bring me.

“What do you need to talk to the women about now?” Amanda asked.

So much for the chance to close my eyes a bit.  “Follow up to get each of their stories on what happened last night.  You can take one or two and I’ll do the others.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to wait a day or so?” she asked.  “I’m guessing you haven’t been to bed, and I doubt they got much sleep either.”

“Normally you’d be right,” I told her.  “But everything that happened is pretty clear already.  We just need the paperwork to show we did our jobs.  Besides, there’s another reason I need to talk to Freaky.  An important one that I haven’t gotten to, and I should have.”

“What’s that?”

“The first time Freaky showed us those hiding places in the barn we were a bit too overwhelmed by it all for me to get a chance to talk to her later.  Then she showed us another hiding place in the house, and later that big one under the pump.  Both times we were overwhelmed by the amount of money in them.  Both times I never had the chance to sit down and talk to her afterwards about the most important thing.”

‘What’s that?” she asked.

“Are there anymore.”

Amanda was mercifully quiet for a while and I chanced closing my eyes again, but all I could think about was Freaky and the fact that she had shot Gary.  With Gary dead now, that left Freaky as the sole remaining Jeskey…as far as we knew.  The Jeskey clan had always been big trouble.  Huge trouble!  I was guessing it was something in their genes.  The psychopath gene.

Since Freaky was a Jeskey too, I couldn’t help but wonder if she had inherited that gene as well.  I remembered that so far, Freaky wasn’t acting overly worried or remorseful about shooting Gary.  And Natalie had told me earlier that even though Freaky was forever grateful to Bo and his boys for the fact that she was alive, she hadn’t shown any kind of remorse or sorrow that they were gone.  Did that mean that she was another psychopath like the rest of them?  I could only hope not.  I was guessing though that time would tell.  But then all those Jeskeys had always been really good at hiding what they had done.  If Freaky was that way, there was a good chance nobody would ever know.

As we approached the farm, I noticed that someone had taken the time to move Gary’s truck out of the middle of the road.  I saw it parked next to all the other Jeskey pickup trucks in front of the house.  I briefly wondered what was going to become of them all.  I put that thought out of my mind.  Not my business, and I didn’t really care.  As I got out of Amanda’s car, I noticed that the false water pump bunker was still open.  Nobody had bothered to close that up yet.  It needed to be closed and locked for a while, but just then I didn’t care about that either.

We went up onto the porch and knocked.  The door was opened soon after by Shantel.  “Sheriff,” she said.  “Come on in.”

Amanda and I went inside.  “Anybody get any sleep last night?” I asked.

“Not much,” Lisa said from her seat at the table where she was sitting with Freaky.

I walked over to see what they were doing.  “What’s up?” I asked as I leaned over the table and saw a piece of paper with a few numbers written on it.

“We’re learning a tiny bit of math,” Lisa told me.  “Freaky, show him.”

Freaky didn’t exactly look happy.  “I hate math, and I hate numbers!” she said rather vehemently.  “This is supposed to be men’s business.”

“Freaky…  What did we say about all that?”

Freaky closed her eyes.  “It’s women’s business too.”

“Now show the sheriff please what you just learned.”

Freaky sighed and spread her fingers out.  If I count this finger, plus this finger,” she said as she pointed to her fingers, then that’s two fingers.  And if I add those two fingers to the other three, then that’s five fingers.  My whole hand.”

“We’re just starting,” Lisa explained.  “She doesn’t know any numbers past number five yet, but we can still do a bit of adding with just that much.”

It seemed overly stupid to me, but I didn’t really care.  “We need to talk to each of you about last night and get your individual stories about it.  It’s just routine, so don’t worry.  This was a crime of self-defense.  None of you have any reason to worry about anything at all.”

“Worry?  I ain’t worried about anything,” Shantel said.  “I broke my guitar over that bastard’s head, and I’d do it again every time!”

I nodded.  “Amanda, why don’t you take Shantel first.  I’ll talk to Freaky.”

“Can I get out of doing all this number stuff?” Freaky asked me.

“For now,” I told her.  “Let’s go out to the porch to sit where we can talk alone.”

The two of us went outside and sat in some of the wooden Adirondack chairs that graced most of the front porch.  “Freaky,” I said.  “I know you told us most of what happened already, but I need to go over everything again…for our records.  Do you understand?”

All I got out of her was a shrug as if she didn’t care.

“Now what exactly happened last night?” I asked.

We were sitting listening to Shantel sing,” she said.  “Oh, it’s probably nothing, but while she was singing, we heard this little bang, but none of us knew what it was.  Shantel didn’t even stop singing so we didn’t worry about it.  Then all of a sudden, Gary rushed into the house and pointed a gun at us.  Gary pointed the gun right at me, right close to my face and started talking about getting revenge against me and then roasting me over a fire again so he could eat me.  I just knew that Gary really wanted to not just hurt me bad, he wanted to kill me too.  All the way this time.  And then there was this big crash when Shantel hit him with her guitar and broke it into lots of pieces.  Gary fell down and seemed to be sleeping.  Shantel used some of her guitar strings to tie him up.  When Gary woke up, he was shouting about revenge and stuff, and killing me and…I shot him.”

I had forgotten about Gary being tied with the steel guitar strings.  That fact would do more than muddy the waters.  If he was tied well enough, there was no real need to kill him.  Freaky could go to jail for that.  Damn!  Was that another sign of those Jeskey psychopath genes coming out?  I decided not to press that issue…for now.

“Thanks Freaky,” I said.  “There’s just one other thing that I needed to ask you about.”

“What?” she asked.

“You showed us those hiding places in the barn, and then later you showed us the hiding place under the old water pump.  I need to know, are there any more hiding places that you know of?”

I watched as she seemed to consider that and think about it.  Then she said, “Maybe.  But I’m really not sure.  I’ve never actually seen where it is.”

“But do you think you can find it?”

“Maybe,” she said again.  “I don’t even know if there’s anything there.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because it’s where they always punish me.  Since I’m in the ground and I can’t turn my head that far, I can’t see what they’re doing behind me.”

“Behind you?”

“Yeah.  Once in a while, after they bury me, I can hear them doing something behind me for a while.  But I have no idea what.”

“And where is this place?” I asked.

“In the woods.”

“Where in the woods?”

“I told you.  Where they punish me.”

“And where is that?”

She shrugged.  “Deep in the woods.  That’s all I know.”

“If we take you there, do you think you can find it?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Do you think you can at least try?”

“No!” she said firmly.  “I never go into the woods.  Bad things always happen to me there.”

“Bad things?  Like what?”

“The only time I ever go into the woods is when they take me and punish me.  Bad things!”

“Yeah.  I can see that.  But Freaky, they’re all dead now.  They can’t hurt you.  And we’ll be with you every step of the way.  You’ll have nothing to worry about.”

“There’s still the bears,” she said.  “Lots of bears.  Especially there.”

“Okay,” I said.  “We’ll bring some guns, just in case.  Will that do?”

“Maybe!” she replied.

“How long a walk is it?” I asked, trying to get some idea about it.

“We never walked.  They always stuck me in the back of one of their trucks and drove me there.”

“It’s that far?”

She shrugged again and I was guessing she didn’t really know.  Could she even find it?  I figured it was worth a look anyway.  And if she couldn’t find it, at least we’d have a general area as to where to start another search.

When I went inside, Amanda had already finished with Shantel and was just finishing up with Lisa.  When they were done, I told Amanda, “We’re going for a bit of a ride.”

“Where to?” Amanda asked.

“The woods.  Freaky is going to show us her punishment spot.”

“That might be a good idea,” Lisa said.  “She needs to see it and come to grips with the fact that she’s never going to get punished there again.  I think that will help her a lot.”

That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but I couldn’t argue with it.

“Yeah,” Shantel agreed.  “And because of that, we all need to see it so’s we can talk to Freaky about it later when she needs.”

It sounded like Freaky was having issues that I didn’t know about.  I ignored that possibility though.  I had other more important things to think about.  “Okay,” I said.  “But please stay out of the way.”

“Not a problem,” Lisa told me.

All three women stuffed themselves in the backseat of Amanda’s car and we took off.  Freaky pointed us to a different road leading into the woods than the one I had followed.  I couldn’t help but notice that the woods were dark and thick, with areas that were blocked with vegetation and other areas between the trees that were fairly open.

“I think it’s somewhere around here,” Freaky suddenly said.

Amanda kept going, but she drove slower.

“Just past here I think,” Freaky said.

“Where?” I asked, not seeing anything.

“Stop!” Freaky said.  Then she pointed to the thick bushes at the side of the road.  “I’m pretty sure it’s right there.  You’ve got to open it up.”

I looked and didn’t see anything.  “Open what?”

Freaky got out of the car and I went with her.  She walked up to one of the trees and started poking around.  “I think it’s here somewhere,” she said.  “I’m pretty sure this is where they always go.”

I noticed that most of the vegetation in that area was dead.  That clued me in.  I took a closer look at the tree and found a hidden gate latch.  I flipped it and chanced pulling on it.  The entire large section of bushes between two of the trees swung open like a gate, revealing another road.  As I kept pulling,  I noticed that the bushes that the gate was made of were brushing the ground.  They would pretty much erase any tracks showing where it was.  Once again, Bo Jeskey’s handwork had been ingenious.

We got back into the car and followed the new road.  We kept going and going.  I was fairly sure we were no longer on the Jeskey property, but that fact didn’t matter much.  It was all woods, and I was betting that nobody ever came out here, not even to hunt.

“Here!” Freaky suddenly said.  “This is it.”

We all got out and looked around.  “See,” Freaky said.  “That’s the tree where they hung me from last time.”

I looked and saw a thick piece of rope still hung over one of the big branches.

“And here’s where they keep burying me,” Freaky showed us next.

I looked.  There was a rough hole in the ground.  I could easily imagine someone being shoved in there and buried with nothing but their head sticking out.

“Sheriff….” Amanda called.

“Yeah?”

She wasn’t looking at the hole in the ground.  She was about twenty feet away staring over the side of a hill.  I went to take a look.  I couldn’t believe what I saw.  “Holy mother of….”  I stopped myself right there.  The entire area was filled with vehicles.  It looked like one big junkyard.

I started walking down the hill for a better look, when something snapped in the dirt under my feet.  I stopped for a look and saw something white sticking up from the leaves that covered the forest floor.  That something white though was pretty easy to identify.  It was a bone.  A leg bone from a human.

We had found the Jeskeys dumping place for not just the vehicles, but all the bodies.

“There’s a bear over there,” Amanda pointed out.

I looked.  She was right.  “There’s another one over there,” I showed her.

I didn’t say it out loud, but it looked to me like the Jeskeys had dumped the bodies out here and simply let the bears eat them to get rid of them.  Identifying any remains was going to be nearly impossible.  There was one other fact about it that hit me as well.  Dead bodies that had been left to the bears to dispose of meant that those bears were probably used to eating human flesh.  No wonder there were a lot of bears in this area.  And if they were used to eating human flesh, that made every one of them a maneater.  They would all be far more dangerous than anyone thought.

I looked around for Freaky, but she was nowhere near us.  I saw her, Lisa, and Shantel looking at a pile of bushes back behind where that hole was.

“I’m going to get the rifle from my trunk,” Amanda said as I headed for Freaky to see what she was doing.

“Good idea,” I told her.

I went over to see what the women were looking at.  “Is this where you heard them doing something?” I asked Freaky.

“I think so,” she said.  “I couldn’t ever see though.”

I started looking around with her, and I finally found another one of those gate latches.  I pulled and immediately noticed that while everything moved, it was very heavy.  With a bit of effort though, a much larger section of bushes than the one that formed the gate hiding the road swung out.  But behind those bushes wasn’t another road.  What we found instead was a cave.  A cave with a rather large opening.  And inside that cave, was a truck.  A truck with a flatbed.  And on that bed was something large that was covered completely with a tarp.  It was all strapped down like it was ready to go down the highway.

I climbed up on the back of that truck and pulled up the tarp at the back.  Under the tarp, I found exactly what I was expecting to find.  One ginormous safe.

 

The Last Jeskey - Chapter 47

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 47

 

(Day 12 – Monday)

 

Freaky

 

I was starting to get used to leaving the farm…as long as I knew I could come back.  Once again I was in the back seat of Ben’s big green truck.  The deputy outside had shown Lisa how to program some kind of thing in the car that would show us how to get to a bookstore so I could buy myself some more books to read and work with.  I wasn’t sure how that was going to work, but I did want more story books, even though I knew that Lisa was only going to use them to teach me more about reading and writing.

Lisa was also holding onto that money stuff for me too.  That was good.  Money was men’s business.  I didn’t say that to her though because it seemed like every time I mentioned men’s business and women’s business she got mad.  Unless it was for the things that she and Shantel had declared were what women’s business was supposed to be.  It seemed like those were the things that I always got mad over.

“I’m glad that Natalie is going to be alright,” Shantel said as Lisa drove the truck.

“Me too!” Lisa agreed.  “It’s such a shame.  And she had been shot in the arm by Gary once before.  This time Gary came a lot closer to actually killing her.”

“Do you think Gary shot her because I showed the sheriff where his hiding place was?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Lisa said.  “I guess it’s possible.”

“I remember,” I said, “that the guys used to talk about something called revenge once in a while when they were mad at someone.  I think I know what revenge is.  I think it’s like when someone does something to you that you don’t like, and you want to do something bad to them in return.”

“Something like that,” Lisa agreed.

“Vengeance is mine, sayeth the lord!” Shantel announced.  I didn’t know what she was talking about…as usual.

“Revenge is men’s business, and I’m glad!” I said.

“You’re glad?” Shantel asked.

“Yes,” I said.  “Because I just don’t understand it enough.”

“I think revenge needs to be for women, not men at all!” Shantel declared.  “There’s more than a few people who have made my life a living hell that I’d like to get a bit of revenge on.”

“Didn’t you just say that vengeance belongs to the lord?” Lisa said.  “That’s pretty much the same thing.”

“True,” Shantel agreed.  “But that don’t mean I don’t want to get some for myself!”

“And I agree with you.  “I’d love to get some against my husband for the things he did to me, but….”

“Yeah, I know.  You’re still conflicted.  You still love him.”

“How would you get revenge?” I asked.  “They’re men.”

“That, Honey Pie, is the whole damn problem.  They’re men, and they’re a whole lot stronger and meaner than we are.  But that don’t mean I wouldn’t like to shoot every one of them as dead as can be.”

“How about you Lisa?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Lisa replied.  “Sometimes I wish I could just shoot my husband.  But…”

“Love is a bitch!” Shantel finished.

I saw Lisa nod.  “Something like that.”

“For my money,” Shantel said.  “Shoot the bastard!  He hurt you bad, over and over again.  If’n he hurts you, then you deserve to hurt him right back!”  She turned around and looked at me.  “That, Honey Pie, is revenge.”

Why is it that all the stores have so much stuff in them?  The grocery store had more food than I could ever imagine, the clothes store had more clothes than I ever dreamed of, and now this bookstore was packed all over the place with books.  How could anybody ever read that many books?

While Shatel looked around, Lisa led me over to the children’s book section.  While I pulled some out and looked at the pictures, Lisa was looking at other books not far away.  When she came back to me she had two books in her hand.  “Did you find any that you’re interested in?” she asked me.

I pulled out a few.  “These have real nice pictures,” I told her.

She took one of the books and turned it over and pointed at some words on the bottom.  “This book costs six dollars and ninety-five cents.  I know we haven’t gotten to reading and writing numbers yet, but can you tell me if you have enough money to buy it?”

“I don’t have any money.  You have it.”

“But that money is your money, and you need to learn to keep track of it.”

Shantel walked up then.  “I think we need to get her a purse.  Let her carry her own damn money.”

Lisa nodded.  “That may be a good idea.”  She pointed at the words on the book again.  “Do you remember how much money you had?”

“Five,” I told her.

“Yes, but that’s five twenty-dollar bills.  That means you have a hundred dollars to spend.  This book only costs six dollars and ninety-five cents.  So is that more than the hundred dollars you have?”

How can everything be so frustrating.  “I don’t know!” I told her.

She nodded.  “Okay.  We’ll get there.  Soon!  Let’s find you some good books we can work with.”

Lisa helped me buy three more story books to read and according to her, I was also buying the two books that she had.  What I didn’t know until we got home was that both of those books were all about teaching me to read and write.  Not fun!  I’d rather just let her read the stories to me.

That night, we were sitting in the house listening to Shantel play her guitar and sing for us.  It was one of the nicest things I could ever think to do.  I know Lisa was enjoying it just as much as I was.  Over top of her singing, we suddenly heard a muffled bang.  Not too loud.  Not even enough to make Shantel stop singing.  It was just enough that we noticed it.

A few minutes later though, the door suddenly burst open, and Gary rushed in with a gun in his hand.  He pointed the gun at Shantel first and Shantel screamed.  Gary moved the gun over toward Lisa.  I could see how scared she was.  “You two stay put and don’t move!” Gary said in the most threatening voice I had ever heard.

Then he turned the gun toward me.  “And you!” he said.

All I could think of was all the rules I had broken, including showing everyone where their hiding places were.  I just knew he was going to kill me then and there.

“This is my farm now, not yours!” he said.  “And nothing here is yours to give away.  All of it is mine!  For what you’ve done, I’m going to take you and roast you like a pig again, but this time I’m going to do it until you’re really dead!  And then…I’m going to eat you!”

The guys had scared me many times in my life, and there had been a lot of times when they had pointed a gun, not just at me, but they had pressed it against my face.  But this time I was more afraid than I had ever been.  I just knew that he was about to really do that to me.

But then there was a horrendous crash, and I saw Gary fall to the floor along with pieces of wood all over the place.  Shantel had come up behind him and hit him on the head with her guitar, breaking it into nothing but pieces.

“Come on Honey Pie,” Shantel said.  “Help me find something to tie this bastard up with.”

“Is that Gary?” Lisa asked, still obviously frightened.

“That’s him,” I said, staring down at his unconscious body.  I reached down and took the gun that was still in his hand.  I watched as Shantel used one of the strings from her guitar to tie his hands behind his back, and then she tied his ankles with another one.  Gary was just coming awake again when Shantel said, “We might better get that deputy to call the sheriff now.”

“I’m gonna kill you!” Gary shouted as he started struggling as hard as he could.  He rolled all over the place trying to get free, but he couldn’t.  “I’m going to show you the most important part of men’s business that there is.  Revenge!”

I looked down at him and said, “Shantel and Lisa explained to me that you’re wrong.  Revenge isn’t men’s business at all.  Revenge is women’s business.  And as you’ve told me all my life, I’m a woman.”  With that, I pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger.

 

The Last Jeskey - Chapter 46

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 46

 

(Day 12 – Monday)

 

Pamela

 

Monday morning, Lester and I made our way through the county hospital up to Natalie’s room.  Will was inside sitting in a chair.  Even from across the room, he looked awful.  Natalie was asleep in the bed.  Will got up quietly and led us out of the room so we wouldn’t disturb her.

“How is she?” I asked.

“The doctor says she’ll be fine.  She just needs a bit of time.”

“What happened?” Les asked.

From what we’ve been able to piece together, it looks like Gary Jeskey was parked just up the road and across the street.  We think he had been there for a few hours, just waiting for Nat to come home.  Nat says she had stopped at the store before going home and had her hands full of things when she got out of the car.  The deputy got out of his car to help her with the door.  Gary had a rifle in the car with him and shot the deputy first.  My deputy’s dead by the way.”

“We heard,” Les replied.

“His second shot caught Nat in the back and the bullet went entirely through her side.  She was lucky.  Very lucky.  She’s in  a lot of pain though.”

“I believe it,” I said.

“You’re sure it was Gary?” Les asked.

“Pretty sure,” Will replied.  “He was using a small red car.  An older model.  I’m guessing it was the one he was driving when he shot Nat the first time outside your office.”

Les nodded.  “Most likely,” he agreed.  “Will, you know that when you arrest Gary, we can’t defend him.  We know Natalie and you too well.  Conflict of interest.”

“I don’t really give a damn,” Will said.  “I may be the county sheriff, but at this point, I just want to put a bullet in his head.”

Les put his hand on Will’s shoulder.  “I understand,” he said.  “But don’t!”

Will simply didn’t look happy.

“What about the deputy?” I asked.  “He had a family, didn’t he?”

Will nodded.  “Simpson had a young wife and a kid.  A boy.  I had to have Russ give them the bad news last night.  I haven’t had time to visit them myself, but I need to do that…today!”

“I’m glad it’s not me,” Les told him.

Will nodded.  “The worst duty in the world.  It’s possible that when Gary shot him, he may have thought he was killing me instead.  He sure didn’t waste any time though before he fired his second shot at Natalie.  She said it all happened so fast she didn’t know what was happening, and then she was falling down, and she doesn’t remember a damn thing after that.  My neighbor heard the shots and went to check.  He called it in.”

“We heard you found more money out at the Jeskey place,” I said.

“Yeah.  I was still at the station with it when it happened.  I wish to hell I was with Nat instead.”

“Of course you do,” I told him.

“How much money was there?” Les asked.  I could have hit him for asking a question like that.

“I don’t know, and I don’t give a damn,” Will replied.

I didn’t blame him for that answer at all.  “When you left Freaky and her friends, I guess they were all good?”

He gave me a nasty look.  “They’re fine!” he said.  “If they hadn’t found that money then Nat would have been home with me, and none of this would have happened.”

“Easy Will,” Les said.  “You said Gary was just sitting across the street.  The minute either of you walked out of the house he would have shot you.  You could be dead instead of your deputy.”

“Maybe!” Will replied.  “Just maybe.  I’d just be happier if my entire life didn’t revolve around Freaky so much.  Nat’s either.  Especially now.”

“But you did find all that money,” Les reminded him.

“Another headache!” Will said.  “Russ is dealing with it though.  If I’m not careful, he’s going to have my job.”

“Don’t worry,” I told him.  “There’s not a chance of that and you know it.  Everyone here in the county loves you.”

“Except Gary.  He’d just love me to be dead.”

“True,” I said.  “So find him.”

“We’re trying.  I can promise you that.  We’re trying.”

“I guess I better go out and check on Freaky later then,” I told him.

“They should be fine,” Will said.  “Leave them.”

“Will, they need some things still.”

“They’re driving one of the trucks out there.  They can get around by themselves.”

“Oh?  Did Natalie give them some money too?”

“Hell if I know,” Will replied.  “I don’t think so, but I guess you’ll have to check.”

“Don’t worry, I will.”

“I ain’t worrying about Freaky or any of her friends right now.  I’ve got enough to worry about right here!”

“Of course you do,” I told him.

We left him and headed back to our car.  I wondered again if Nat had given Freaky and her friends any money.  Without that, having a vehicle to drive wouldn’t do them much good at all.  And the way Nat and I were working things so far, if either of us had given them some money, the other would know about it.  For that reason alone I felt sure that Nat hadn’t given them a dime.  If they had a truck to drive now, why hadn’t she?  I needed to check.

Once we got back to our office, I got on the phone.  My first call went to Judge Reinhart.  “Have you heard about Natalie being shot?” I asked.

“Yes!  Have you heard how she’s doing?”

“We just left the sheriff at the hospital.  He said she’ll be fine, but she’s hurting quite a bit right now.”

“If she got shot, then I have no doubt she’s hurting.  Damn Jeskeys.  I hope the sheriff finds him soon!”

“We all do,” I agreed.  “And the best news for Les and I is that we can’t defend him.  Conflict of interest.”

“Damn!” the judge swore.  “We’ll have to bring in someone from outside.”

“I’ll have to leave that to you,” I told him.  “Judge, before Natalie was shot, did she ask you about giving Freaky and her friends any more money?”

“She never contacted me.  Why would she?  You and she were the trustees, not me.  And you mentioned something about Freaky’s grandmother from Knoxville too.  That’s your job, not mine.”

“Yeah,” I said.  “I just thought in light of all the money they found out there Saturday…”

“What money?” he asked.

“They found another one of the Jeskey’s hiding places.  Evidently a good one, and it was filled with money.  Some guns too I heard, but mostly a lot of money.”

“How much money?”

“I only heard a lot.  I don’t think the sheriff has been able to process it yet.”

“He’s got other things to worry about right now,” the judge said.  “And if it was a lot, then maybe keeping quiet about it might be the best thing.”

“True,” I agreed.  “I’ll keep my mouth shut from now on.  Okay, I was just wondering, that’s all.  I’ll call Stella down in Knoxville and check with her.  I guess she should know that Natalie will be laid up for a bit anyway.”

“You three are the trustees, and you’re Freaky’s advocate.  You don’t need to check with me.  It’s not my place.”

“Yeah, you’re right.  Thanks.  See you.”

My next call went to Stella Harper down in Knoxville, Freaky’s grandmother.  “Hi Stella,” I said once she had answered the phone.  “This is Pamela McGregor.  How are you?”

“I’m fine Pam,” she said.  “But if you’re calling about something to do with Freaky, then I think it would be better if you talk to my daughter Kathy instead.”

“Kathy?”

“I think she’s going to have to take over handling anything to do with Freaky from now on.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Kathy and I decided it might be better to keep my husband as far from the Freaky situation as possible.  I think he was under the impression that we could find and bring back Brian, but after actually meeting Freaky, that’s clearly not the case.  Kathy on the other hand seems to be fascinated with Freaky.  I think it has something to do with the fact that Freaky looks so much like her mother, Hailey.  And Kathy and Hailey were always very close.”

“Okay,” I said, still wondering about that situation.

Stella gave me Kathy’s phone number.  As I hung up, I remembered the conversation I had overheard in the car after they had met Freaky.  Jim Harper had considered Freaky to be some kind of monster.  I also remembered that I had gotten the impression that Jim hadn’t been happy about the money situation.  Why wouldn’t he be?  He had gotten all that insurance money that should rightfully belong to Freaky.  Was he afraid we would take that money away from him?  I guess now that Brian could be proven to be alive, that was possible.  But of course, even if it did belong to Freaky, should we try and take it away?

I dialed the number that Stella had given me for Katherine, her daughter.  “Kathy?  This is Pam McGregor.  Your mother asked me to contact you about being one of the trustees for Freaky’s money.”

“Yeah,” she replied.  “Mom and I kind of thought it might be better.  Dad’s not too happy about things.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“I think that dad feels that he should have gotten a piece of all the money Clive’s farms were sold for.”

“Him?  Why would he think that?”

“Who knows?  Maybe just because of all the heartache and distress my sister’s death caused the family.”

“There is that,” I agreed, although I wasn’t sure about how that would go in court.

“I’m not sure that Mom is happy about Freaky either,” she told me.

“She’s not?  I got the impression that she was delighted to see Freaky.”

“Yes and no.  Like Dad, I think they both thought that somehow they could bring back Brian.  Dad especially seems to be…uh…disgusted with the situation.”

“And your mother feels the same?”

“Somewhat,” she confirmed.  “But me…I’m delighted I think.  Especially after seeing her.  I just feel really sorry for her and all the things she’s had to go through.  And she doesn’t seem to know anything!”

“No, she doesn’t.  That’s why we arranged for the teachers.”

“That was a good idea,” Kathy told me.

“Thanks,” I said.  “Listen, Kathy, I’m sure you haven’t heard, but Natalie was shot on Saturday.”

“Shot!  Is she dead?”

“No.  She’s going to be fine.  The deputy with her died though.  But Natalie and the sheriff had just spent a good part of the day out at the farm with Freaky.  They found some more money, and from what I hear, it’s a lot more money.  Nobody knows yet how much.”

“So Freaky could be rich?” she asked.

“Could be.  It’s too soon to tell yet, and we have to be very careful about who that money might belong to.”

“So what do you need me to do?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I said.  “Except…for now anyway, Natalie and I decided that all the trustees for Freaky’s money need to be in the loop about every dollar we give them.  Once the money is fully straightened out, we think we can just give them an allowance, but we’re not there yet.  All this is just too new.  Not to mention, it’s been filled with too many things happening.”

“So you need to spend some money on her?  Do it!  And while you’re at it, buy her a washing machine at least!  Geez!  The way she handles that is beyond the dark ages!”

“True,” I agreed.  “We haven’t gotten that far though.  I just wanted to see if you had any objections to me giving them some money to work with.”

“Of course not.  How much?”

“Any suggestions?”

“A lot!”

“Okay.  I’ll think of something and let you know.”

“Fine.  And Pam….”

“Yes?”

“I’m thinking of driving up there next weekend to see her.  Do you think there’d be a problem with that?  I’d like Freaky to meet my kids, especially since they’re all close to her age.”

“Kathy,” I said.  “That might be a very nice idea.”

“Great!  See you then.”

I ended the call and went to find my husband.  “Les, I’m running out to the Jeskey farm.  I’m going to give those women a few dollars to work with.”

“Fine,” he said.  “Be careful!  We don’t know where Gary is.”

“True!” I agreed.  “See you later.”

I got into the car and made my first stop at the bank, then I continued on to the Jeskey farm.  When I got there I couldn’t help but notice the deputy that was not just parked there, but he was walking around in front of the house.  “Checking on the girls?” I asked him as I headed for the front porch.

“The sheriff decided that just driving by once in a while isn’t good enough,” he told me.  “We’re keeping a deputy here all the time now until we can find Gary.”

“Good idea!  Thanks,” I told him.

I continued on to the front door and knocked.  Shantel answered it.  “Miss Pam.  How are you?”

“I’m fine Shantel, how are you?”

“I’m great!  I got to church yesterday, and it was faaantastic!”

“Good,” I said.  “I’m glad.

“Hi Pam,” Lisa called from the table where she was sitting with Freaky.

I went over to see what they were doing.  “You’re writing!” I said.

“Yeah,” Freaky replied.  “And it’s hard.  Did you know that the word elemenopee isn’t a word?  It’s just a bunch of different letters.”

I looked at Lisa a bit confused.  “Elem…”

“From the alphabet song,” she told me.

I wasn’t sure I understood, but as long as they were working with Freaky I considered it a good thing.  “You all know that Natalie got shot, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Shantel said.  “One of the deputies told us.  That’s bad!”

“Real bad,” Lisa agreed.  “How is she?”

“Hurting, but getting better,” I told her.  “The real reason I’m here right now though is to bring you some money.”

“Oh happy day!” Shantel declared.

“It’s not much for now, but there’ll be more later.  We’re going to be setting you up with an allowance soon, but we’re not there yet.  Especially after they found more money.”

“The sooner the better,” Lisa told me.

I nodded.  “We’re trying,” I told her.  I opened my purse and pulled out the three hundred dollars I had gotten from the bank.  “There’s three hundred dollars here,” I told them.  “A hundred for each of you.  It’s not much, but it should get you through for the rest of the week…hopefully.  Let me know if you run into anything and need more.”

I started to set the money on the table when Lisa asked, “Is that all in twenties?”

I was confused.  “Yes.  Why?”

“Okay Freaky,” she said.  “Counting time.”

“No!” Freaky wailed.  “I hate counting.”

“Tough!”  Lisa took the stack of bills from me.  “Now count!” she said to Freaky.  She laid out one of the twenties.

“One,” Freaky said.  Lisa put another one with the first.  “Two,” Freaky counted.  Lisa went all the way to five, then she took that stack and pushed it toward Shantel.  Then she started again, having Freaky count to five.  Lisa took that stack of money and pulled it over closer to her, then she started with the remaining hundred dollars.  Again, Freaky counted to five.

“How many?” Lisa asked again.

“Five,” Freaky said.

Lisa pushed the money over right in front of Freaky and said, “This money is yours.  All yours and only you can spend it.  But Freaky, you’re going to have to learn to keep track of how much you spend, and how much you have left.”

“Why?” Freaky whined.  “Why can’t you do it?  Besides, that’s men’s business.”

“No it’s not, and you know it!  We discussed all that.  Now, you want more story books don’t you?”

“Yes,” Freaky said.

“Then you’re going to have to buy them yourself…with that money.”

I watched as Freaky looked at Lisa.

“It’s so hard!”

I watched as Lisa leaned over and hugged Freaky lightly.  “It will get easier,” Lisa told her.  “I promise.”

 

The Last Jeskey - Chapter 45

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 45

(Day 11 – Saturday to Sunday)

 

Freaky

 

Writing is hard!  Lisa made me sit down at the table with her and she handed me a pencil and this weird thing that I was supposed to use to sharpen it.  She showed me how to do it then sat there and watched.  It wasn’t really hard, but all I could think about was how much easier it would be to just use a knife.

When I had the pencil ready, she showed me what the letter A is, and showed me how to make it.  Then she had me draw a whole line of them in a row.  Before we went any further, she opened that story book and started going through the words on the pages, pointing out every time there was a big letter A.  Before long, I was turning the pages and finding them myself.  Then it was back to drawing the letter again.

That was when the cop came in and said he was leaving.  Once he was gone, Lisa made me go back to writing the big letter A again.  It didn’t take long before I wanted to sharpen the pencils again, just to stop writing.

Big letter A.  Big letter B.  Big letter C.  That was all we did, but as far as I was concerned it was more than enough.

“Come on,” Shantel said.  “We got wheels, and since Miss Natalie isn’t going to take us to church tomorrow, I want to make sure we can find it ourselves.”

It would mean I would have to leave the farm again, but I figured that would be better than sitting there and learning how to write.  A few minutes later, I was alone in the huge back seat of the truck while Lisa drove, and Shantel was sitting next to her.  The scenery leaving the farm was beginning to look familiar.  Somehow, Lisa managed to drive straight to that church place where we had heard Shantel sing.

“I wish we had some money,” Lisa said.  “It would be nice to be able to go out to eat again…like normal people.”

“Sure would,” Shantel agreed.  “And we don’t even have any money for the collection plate at church tomorrow.”

“That’s right!” Lisa said.  She looked at Shantel.  “Do you still want to go?”

“Are you kiddin’?  Nothing’s gonna keep me away.  I’ll feel bad about it, but it’ll have to do…for now.”

With nothing else to do, we drove home.  Shantel and Lisa worked on clearing out all the guys’ stuff from their rooms, except Gary’s things.  Shantel decided to take the room that had belonged to Ben and Steve.  Lisa said that she would take Gary and Dave’s room, despite all of Gary’s things being still in there.  The surprise though came when they both told me that I had to take Bo’s bedroom.  The biggest room.  What did I need a bedroom for?  Or a bed for that matter?  I had been sleeping in there already, but I stayed on the floor.  What if Bo came home and caught me?

“Honey Pie, you is sleepin’ in a bed tonight, if’n I have to tie you to it!” Shantel told me.

I wasn’t sure if she was kidding or what, but when bedtime came, the arguments started again.  And once again Lisa laid another of her biggest arguments at me.  “Good girls sleep in beds!” Lisa told me.  “And so do you!”

That wasn’t what I had been told.  Did it count that there were five guys who told me that I was supposed to sleep on the floor, and only two women who said otherwise?

I started out the night sleeping in the bed, then moved down to the floor.  They were going to have to settle for being happy that I had at least slept in the bedroom instead of by the back door.  How do people sleep in those bed things?  They’re so uncomfortable!

The next day, Shantel got everyone up early.  She seemed awfully excited about going to that church place.  Once we were up, I was subjected to all of Lisa’s new rules once again.  Good girls clean themselves every day.  Good girls shave their legs.  Good girls brush their teeth every day.  Good girls comb or brush their hair every day.  Good girls try to always look pretty.  I was supposed to remember all that, and all those letter things that people used when they were writing?  Who did they think I was?

Before going out the door, Lisa brushed a bit of what she called blusher on my face.  The brush was nice and soft, but I had no idea what she had done it for.  Then we all got into the truck and Lisa drove us to church.

“We’re not the only pickup truck here,” Lisa noted as she stopped the truck next to another one in this big area filled with cars and trucks.

“There may be more trucks than cars,” Shantel agreed.

As we walked from the truck to the door, I noticed that most of the people going in had skin like Shantel.  That reverend guy was standing outside the door shaking hands and talking to the people as they went in.

“Shantel!  You came,” he said.

“You better believe it Reverend,” Shantel replied.  “I been wantin’ to get back to church for a long, long time.”

The reverend took a moment to hug her, then he turned to us.  And it’s Freaky and…uh…”

“Lisa,” Lisa told him.

“Right!  Sorry.  Welcome, both of you.”

We went inside.  I was surprised to see so many people there, most of them sitting in the chairs, but a few were moving around talking to other people.  A few people came over and said hello to Shantel.  Some of them nodded towards Lisa and me, but nobody said anything.  I figured that was good.

And then the reverend guy walked up in front of everybody and began yelling at us, but nobody seemed to mind.  He yelled and everybody seemed to agree with him and shouted back how right he was.  I couldn’t figure any of it out, but I noticed that Shantel seemed to be awfully happy about something.

And then this big group of women stood up together at the front and started singing.  I thought it was the most incredible thing I had ever heard.  A whole bunch of women, all singing together, and that reverend guy was playing that piano thing at the same time.  Everybody in the church was clapping and singing along with them, and some of them were standing and moving their bodies around to the music too.

And then the reverend guy left the piano and started yelling at everyone again.  And the people seemed to like it.  I was going to have to get Lisa and Shantel both to help me figure out what he was talking about, not to mention what was going on.

And then the reverend guy yelled something about wanting to do something a bit different, and something about putting someone on the spot.  And then he looked right at Shantel and waved his arms.  “Shantel honey, come on up here.  Let me introduce you to everybody here.”

Shantel got up and walked up front.  She looked embarrassed.  Why?

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the reverend guy said.  “This here is Shantel.  Shantel grew up in a church just like this one.  She grew up knowing the grace of God.  But she left that church and she left that grace behind to consort with sinners of the very worst sort.  Shantel rubbed elbows with the very devil himself!  But let me tell you, she knew the error of her ways and has fought and fought hard to get herself back into God’s good graces, and consequently, God has led this brave young woman right here to our church.  Give me an amen!” With that, I heard everyone in there shouting amen…whatever that meant.

“Now ladies and gentlemen,” the reverend continued.  “I want you to know that while Shantel here was living and consorting with the devil himself, God never abandoned this poor soul at all.  No!  You know how I know?  I know because when Shantel was born, God gave her a gift.  A wonderous gift.  A mighty gift.  And when I met Shantel a few days ago, I was taken completely by surprise by that gift.  So surprised that I want to put Shantel here on the spot, and ask her to share her gift with you.  Would you like that?  Would you all like to hear a bit of Shantel’s gift?  Give me an amen!”  The people had been shouting amen a few at a time, but once again everyone there shouted that word back.

And then the reverend said, “Would you all like to know what this wonderous gift is that God gave this poor woman?  Would you like to know?”

I heard a lot of people shouting yes.

“Let me tell you,” the reverend guy said.  And then he screwed his face up into the funniest face you could imagine and said.  “Shantel can siiiiinnng!”  While people were shouting different things, the reverend said.  “Shantel, will you share a bit of your gift with the people here today?  Let them hear that golden voice of yours that God himself gave you.  Will you sing for us?”

“You want me to sing?” Shantel asked as if she couldn’t believe it.

“Oh heavens yes,” the reverend said.  “Show us the glory of your voice.”

“Me,” Shantel said.  “Singin’ in church again.  O happy day!” she shouted.

The reverend stopped and stared at her.  “I was gonna have you sing what you sang for me the other day, but do you know Happy Day?”

“Reverend, what kind of gospel singer from a church choir doesn’t know Oh Happy Day.”

With that, the reverend made a mad dash for his piano and started playing, and a moment later, Shantel opened her mouth and began singing and clapping and moving around.  And then all the women from the choir got back up front and began singing with her.  And all the people were standing and clapping along with them and singing and moving around too.  The entire place was going crazy.  I had never had so much fun in my life!

When it was over, everyone shouted and clapped their hands.  Shantel came back to sit with us and I saw Lisa hug her.  Shantel looked so happy I couldn’t believe it.  And then that reverend guy started yelling at us again.  Why did he do that?

I was never going to figure this world out.