The Last Jeskey - Chapter 12

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 12

 

(Day 2 – Friday)

 

Sheriff Cobb

 

My deputies finally finished inside the house.  The haul of guns we had found in there seemed to be huge, but the reality of it was that there were five men who lived in that house, and they all hunted.  I didn’t want to think about what they did with all the handguns, but no doubt they used them for murder.  They probably used most, or all of those rifles for murder too.  No proof though, except maybe the clothes I had gotten from Freak.  And if we didn’t find any bodies or proof of other crimes, more than likely all those guns from the house would have to be returned to Dave and Gary Jeskey.

Amanda came back into the house after putting Freak’s bloody things in the car.  We were just waiting now for one of my men to bring back something big enough to cut the locks on those false-wall hiding places in the barn.

“What now Sheriff?” Amanda asked.

“Other than waiting for those bolt cutters, nothing.  I’d send a bunch of you out into the woods to start searching for anything else, but somehow I think that’s going to be a much bigger effort.  Too much for right now.  My first priority is getting into the places we found in the barn.”

“What about her?” Amanda asked.  “Not to mention, I just carried practically every stitch of clothing she owns out to the car.  What are you going to do with her?”

What was I going to do with her.  That was my big problem.  “I still don’t know,” I told her.  “We’ve got nothing to hold her on, and I get the impression she doesn’t exactly want to leave.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Amanda agreed.  “But how’s she going to take care of herself?”

I shrugged.  “Dave and Gary are still around.  Although I can tell you that Dave is going to jail for a bit just as soon as we can find him since he attacked Lowrey and ran off.  Still, I guess it will be up to Gary to take care of her now.  According to Dave, Gary disappeared last night some time and hasn’t been back.  He doesn’t have a clue where he is, and he didn’t seem to care.  Said Gary is a grown man.  He can take care of himself.”

“So she stays,” Amanda realized, she sounded sad about that, and I couldn’t blame her.

“For now,” I agreed.  “But someone’s going to have to drag that girl into the real world, and something tells me it isn’t going to be easy.”

“No,” Amanda agreed.  “She’s too…set in her ways.”

“Brainwashed!” I told her.  “That’s how I’m looking at it.  My wife thinks so too.”  Amanda nodded and walked away.

Out of the corner of my eye, I kept a watch on Freak as she went around picking things up from where my deputies had made such a mess of the place.  I kept one deputy out front on Gary watch, just in case he showed up.  I wanted to know as soon as possible.

The deputy finally showed up with the biggest pair of bolt cutters I had ever seen, and most of my deputies followed me into the barn.  The deputy had to struggle like crazy with those cutters since the lock and chain were so big, but he finally got it cut.  The chain was pulled free and the deputy turned the handle and pulled.  A three-foot section of the wall at the back of the horse stall swung open.  Someone had done an awfully good job of disguising that door.  If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it.  I led the way inside.  It was dark just inside the door, but my flashlight noticed a light switch against the wall.  I flipped it and a row of lights lit up that went from one end of the barn where we were to the very back.  And inside that space…the mother-load!

Shelves seemed to stretch along the outer wall from one end all the way back.  And those shelves were loaded with things.  There were stacks on those shelves of drugs of all sorts.  And further back, what I could only guess were stolen items.  Everything from jewelry to paintings.  It looked like the Jeskeys had been busy.

“I’m guessing this is enough to arrest Gary Jeskey?” Deputy Russ said.

I looked up and down the inside of that hidden space.  “Yup!  All the drugs pretty much cements it for Gary and Dave both.”

“And what about Freak?” Amanda asked.

That of course, was another problem.  I didn’t answer.

When we finished on that side, we all trooped over to the other side of the barn to another horse stall and found the little hidden door there.  Once we got inside, it was like being hit over the head with a lack of reality.  Guns!  Lots of guns.  All kinds of guns.  Enough to start a small war.  Maybe a big war.  I found boxes of explosives too.

“Leave it all!” I told my guys.  “With this much, I’m calling in the state crime scene people.  It’s too much for us to handle now.”

I walked out of there.  Once out of the barn I pulled my phone out and made a call to a number I had programmed in, but had figured I’d never call.  I told them what we found and tried to imprint in the guy’s tiny imagination just how much we had found.  The guy laughed but said he’d pass on the message to someone.

My next call went to the D.A.  Dale didn’t seem to completely believe me either.  He wasn’t exactly happy about the fact that I had called in the state crime guys.  I suggested that maybe we could get them to pay for all the DNA we needed to have tested.  Suddenly he seemed to be a lot happier.  He authorized the arrest of both Dave and Gary Jeskey right on the spot, not that I figured I needed any authorization for it.

I sent half my men back to the station to tend to business, but I hung around with five others that included Amanda, just because Freak was there.  Dave never came back.  Gary never showed up either, but the state crime scene guys rolled in halfway through the afternoon.  I showed them the side of the barn with the drugs.  They didn’t seem all that surprised by any of it.  But when I showed them the side with the guns, the lead guy walked out cursing.  He turned to me and told me that I was going to be considered a hero for finding all that stuff.  Shit!  I wasn’t even going to get a thank you from anyone, and I knew it.  I stood there and listened as he called his boss and told him they needed another truck to hold all the evidence.

It was nearly seven o’clock at night before they all cleared out.  It was time for us, including me, to leave.

“And Freak?” Amanda asked.

Yeah, she would have to remind me.  I headed back into the house and found Freak sitting in a chair hugging her long hair.  “We’re going,” I told her.  Then I decided to give her the option.  “Do you want to go with us?”

She seemed suddenly afraid.  “No!” she said.  “Please no.  I can’t take any more of that!  I want to stay here.”

I nodded.  “I don’t know where Gary and Dave are.  I don’t know if they’ll be back.  Are you going to be okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” she assured me.  “Sometimes all the guys go away for days at a time.  I don’t want to leave!”

“Fine.  Tell you what though, I’ll have someone check on you tomorrow.”

“I’m fine,” she told me.

I touched the brim of my hat and lightly pushed it down.  “Bye then.  And good luck.”

“Was that wise?” Amanda asked as we headed back to the car.

“She wants to stay, and according to the D.A. we can’t hold her,” I replied.

That night, I filled Natalie in on everything that happened that day.  Naturally, she was more interested in Freak than in all the contraband we had found.  “If we can ever get our hands on Dave and Gary,” I told her, “she’s going to be all alone out there.”

“Will,” Nat said.  “She’ll have no way to get any food or anything.  Not to mention, you left her with practically no clothes to wear at all.  What’s she going to do?”

“I don’t know I admitted.  “And before you say anything else, yes, I am concerned about it.”

It was almost five minutes later before Nat said anything else.  “Will.  What if I checked with some of the women’s shelters.  There’s none here in this county, but maybe I can get her into another one.”

I considered that.  “Do it!” I told her.  “That sounds like about the best idea I could imagine.”

“Of course, it would only be temporary,” she said, “but maybe it will do until we can find something better for her.”

“Nat,” I said, “do it.  I’d much rather see her in one of those places than anywhere else, and I’m getting tired of worrying about her.  I’ve got bigger issues to deal with right now, but she’s taking up all my time.”

“I’ll talk to my boss tomorrow,” she agreed.  “I’ll let you know what I can set up.  If, I can find any place to take her.”

“Yeah.  And if I can get her off that property again.  She didn’t seem too fond of modern life.”

“No,” Amanda agreed.  She didn’t.”