The Last Jeskey - Chapter 18

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 18

 

(Day 3 – Saturday)

 

Sheriff Cobb

 

Despite my busy day, it looked like I’d be able to manage to go home earlier than I expected, even though I wasn’t able to leave the station until it was already dark.  That was what going home early usually meant for me.  Early though didn’t happen very often.  I was glad this time because I had a lot on my mind to think about, and enough had happened all day that I needed to digest it all.  The top of my list being Dave Jeskey’s death.  Why did he have to try and run like that?  But the accident had been purely his fault.  I couldn’t blame myself at all.  Well, I could since I had been chasing him, but it was my duty to catch criminals like him, and he was clearly trying to evade the law.

And then there was Wendel Cramps and what he had seen.  I had a report of a murder, but no dead body to go with it.  Tomorrow I needed to check to see if anyone other than his sister had actually missed Tom Simmons.  I as betting nobody had.  I hated murders like that.  Nobody cared.  Well, in this case Roxie certainly did.  She cared enough that she had murdered the three people involved.  Go Roxie!  Scratch that.  I was the county sheriff.  I wasn’t supposed to think like that.

And then there was Freak.  I forced myself to stop my thinking about her right there and then.  It would do no good.  She was somewhere better right now than she had ever been.  I needed to concentrate on the things that were actually my job.  Like catching the last Jeskey, Gary.  Make that almost the last Jeskey.  I forgot about Freak.

Forcing myself to stop thinking about her made me start checking my mirrors like I was supposed to be doing when I was driving.  There were headlights behind me, but nowhere else.  I had no doubt those lights behind me were there for a good reason.  It was one of the busiest roads in the area.  I was just one of thousands of people who used it every day.

I turned off the road following my usual route toward home.  A few seconds later, I glanced in the mirror and saw that car that had been behind me turning the same corner.  Must be someone who lived out this way.  I made my next usual turn and was about to turn into the next block, my street, when I saw that car still following me.  Okay, it was a residential area.  He lived here.  Just to be safe, instead of turning into my street, I kept going two more blocks then turned again.  I went halfway up the street, brought my car to the side of the road, and stopped.  What the hell?  That car made the same turns.

I put my finger on the light switch, intending on showing him some flashing lights as soon as he passed me.  What surprised me though was when he not only kept coming, but he slowed down and came almost to a stop right next to me.  I got a brief glimpse of a man wearing a bandana across his face and some kind of baseball cap…and a gun pointing at me.  As I ducked, there was a gunshot, and my side window blew out.  I got stung by broken glass.  I immediately heard the roar of an engine.  When I looked up, all I saw was the rear lights of the car as it sped off.  It turned before I could even get my car in gear.  I hit the lights and the siren and followed.  I turned where it turned and saw no sign of it.  I slowed down and carefully checked each of the cross streets, but still saw no sign of it.  Damn.  I had lost him.

Had it been Gary Jeskey that shot at me?  He was the only one I could think of who would want to kill me that bad.  I wanted to believe it was Gary, but the truth was it all happened so fast, and it was dark, and with his face covered, I never had a chance to get a good enough look at him.  Whatever car he was driving though had sounded like it had a big engine.  Maybe a muscle car of some sort.  There was one other thing I realized about that car.  Gary Jeskey, like all his brothers and his father, drove a pickup truck.  None of them would probably be caught dead driving a regular car.  They were all truck people.  So had it been Gary Jeskey, or someone else?  Like I said, I wanted to believe it had been Gary.  I just had no proof.  The story of the Jeskeys in a nutshell.

I called in what had happened as I drove the rest of the way home, watching the lights of the cars behind me very carefully.  I never saw a single car behind me in the few short blocks I had to drive.  I wished I hadn’t noticed that car that had been following me earlier.  But then, if I hadn’t, maybe I’d be dead right now.

Hadn’t Dave Jeskey said that Gary was planning on killing not just me but my family as well?  Maybe Gary had been trying to follow me home to see where I lived.  That fact, and the fact that the car had gotten away scared me to death.

As soon as I parked in my own driveway, I called the station again and made arrangements for an all-night watch on my house.  I was going to have to assign people to keep a watch over Natalie during the day as well.  In fact, that protection for Nat was going to have to stay with her until Gary Jeskey was caught and behind bars.  Only then would I be able to breathe safely again.