The Last Jeskey - Chapter 26

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 26

 

(Day 5 – Monday)

 

Pamela

 

It might not have been entirely kosher, but when you’re in a backwoods area like ours, the entire legal community gets to know each other pretty well.  Over the years, we’ve all become pretty close friends.  Dale Murphy, the D.A., had one person who worked for him to prosecute the cases, Les and I were the other side of the legal equation for the area, providing the defense.  But that didn’t mean that we couldn’t be friends.  In the middle, between us, sat Judge Reinhart.  As I said, it might not be entirely kosher, but Les and I often had not just Murphy and his wife over for dinner, but Reinhart and his wife as well.  Of course, since Reinhart was the only big judge in the area, who was going to complain about it?

After a long day of driving to get Freaky resituated, Reinhart and his wife Greta came over to our place for a barbeque.  Dale Murphy and his wife were there as well.  Except for Dale’s assistant, it was the entire legal community for the area.  We did that once in a while.  Les and I had enjoyed other get-togethers at Murphy’s house and Reinhart’s house too.  This time it was simply our turn.  While Les cooked ribs on the grill, the rest of us sat outside on the patio enjoying beer, or wine, or whatever.  We were simply comfortable.  All of us.

“What’s the paperwork I saw this morning about you being someone’s advocate?” the judge asked me.  “And did my eyes deceive me when I saw the name Jeskey?  That kind of threw me more than her first name.  Not to mention, who in their right mind would name their daughter, Freaky?”

“What?” Greta asked, clearly not believing it.

“Believe it or not,” Dale interjected, “there’s a girl out there named Freaky.  I heard about it as part of the Roxie Simmons case.  I didn’t know she was related to the Jeskeys though.  What’s that about?”

“And why would she need an advocate?” the judge asked.

I did my best to begin filling them in on Freaky’s tragic story.  All of it, including the mutilation part.  As I talked, they all seemed to close in around me as the seriousness of my story reached them.  Even Les left his barbecue as much as he could to listen to it one more time.

“And that’s it…so far,” I finally finished as I sat back in my seat.  I saw everyone else sitting back too, as if they were relieved it was finally over.

“The poor girl has gone from one nut house, to another,” the judge noted.  “And now she’s in a real nut house.”

“And all she wants is to go home,” I told him.

“Where there’s not only a danger from Gary Jeskey, but she’s got no way to support or take care of herself,” the judge realized.  “And she can’t seem to understand modern life away from that farm.”

“That’s about the size of it,” I agreed.  “We can’t let her go home, and there’s literally nowhere else to put her.”

“Not to mention,” Les added, “She literally needs the psychiatric help.”

“Such a shame,” Greta said.

“Yeah,” her husband, the judge, agreed.

“While Pam was away today,” Les told everyone, “I started making inquiries into the farm that Clive Jeskey owned, along with the one he inherited from his father.  I was just trying to get a feel for any money that might be there since Pam and I figured that Brian, or Freaky now, should someday inherit those properties.”

“And?” the judge asked.

“And I found out pretty quickly that things happened there that, as a lawyer, I’m not really happy about.”

“Such as?” the judge asked.

“Such as, I was surprised to see how fast both Clive’s farm and the one he inherited from his father, were sold.”

“Both of them?” the judge asked.

“Within a few weeks of Clive’s death,” Les confirmed.

“Wait a minute,” the judge said.  “As I see it, Brian should have inherited both those properties.  Or he would have.”

“But Brian was declared dead,” Les reminded him.

“Of course,” the judge agreed.  “That would explain it.”

“Except that,” I threw out, “even Detective Benson said they were surprised at how fast Brian Jeskey was declared dead, and his kidnapping case was dropped.”

“Why was he declared dead?” the judge asked.  “They didn’t have a body, did they?”

“No, they didn’t.  According to Benson, Brian just disappeared, and they had no idea what happened to him.  They originally assumed he was kidnapped.  It’s my guess that since Clive and his wife were murdered, and the big safe they were transporting went missing, someone assumed that Brian had to be dead too, and had the case dropped.”

“And how long after that were the farms sold?” the judge asked.

“Just a couple of weeks,” Les supplied again.

The judge shook his head.  “I don’t have all the facts, but it sounds…odd.”

“Too odd,” I agreed.

“Who bought the farms?” the judge asked.  “Did you find out?”

“A land development company,” Les told him.  “Both those farms are now big housing developments.”

“Houses!  From good farmland.”  The judge shook his head.  “It happens too often.”  He looked back up at Les.  “How much land are we talking about?”

“Clive’s father’s farm was almost two thousand acres.  The farm Clive bought was just short of three thousand.  So all totaled, it was close to five thousand acres.”

“Five thousand acres, all turned into housing sites,” the judge said.  “And how much money did that developer pay for it all?”

“Four million,” Les told him.

“Four million, for five thousand acres?” the judge said.  “Somebody got an awfully good deal.”

“And they got it fast,” Les reminded him.  “Too fast.  When I looked at that, the first thing I thought was that maybe the land developer had murdered Clive, just so he could get all that land.  I guess that’s still possible.”

“Who the hell okayed that deal?” the judge asked.

“I don’t know,” Les admitted.  “I just looked into it a bit today.”

“And you found out all that?”

“It’s public record.”

“Yeah.  It would be.  Okay,” the judge said.  “There’s a few things that bother me, and the top of the list is that Brian Jeskey, or Freaky now, may have been cheated out of an enormous amount of money.  I have no idea how much money that developer made on all that property, but I can imagine at least ten or twenty times what he paid for it.  Possibly much more.  I can’t help but wonder if someone, somewhere, hasn’t investigated this already.  But then, as you said, why would they if Brain was dead, despite nobody finding his body.  And now that we know Brian didn’t die, and we know where he is, what now?  Can Freaky legitimately claim any of it?”

“That’s why I went looking in the first place,” Les reminded him.

“Yeah,” the judge agreed.  He turned to me.  “Pam, I may have a few provisions for that advocacy paperwork of yours.  I’ll think about it between now and tomorrow morning.  And more importantly, we may not be the most influential area in the state, but I’m not without some very influential friends.  Tomorrow, I think I’ll make a few phone calls and see if I can’t put a bug in someone’s ear to just take a quick look at this situation.  In fact, maybe I’ll start making a few calls tonight when I get home.”  He looked at the beer in his hand.  “If I’m not too drunk.”