Matt and Williamson were covering the door from the outside. They were able to hear the whole conversation from George’s listening device in his belt buckle. Matt couldn’t believe it when the gunshot went off. He signaled for Williamson to move in.Matt heard one of his men in the rafters yell, “Sheriff’s department nobody move!”Williamson cracked the door open. “They’re heading for the door.” Williamson kicked it the rest of the way open. “Sheriff’s department! Stay where you are!”Matt rushed behind Williamson to back him up. He aimed his shotgun at the Joneses. Williamson had a glock. The Joneses had their guns drawn, but they weren’t pointing them at Matt or Williamson. “You got no moves, Jones! Put the weapon down!” Matt ordered. D.J. slowly put his pistol on the ground, but Dex still had his. “Don’t do anything stupid, kid,” Williamson said seriously.Matt glanced around. George was nowhere to be seen. Goldman had turned over a st
It was 10:13 p.m. David laid in bed waiting for Danielle to come back upstairs with whip cream. They started their online show at 10:45. David and Danielle had been having sex and filming it for an online site for two years.The 2008 crash had really hurt David's financial management business. They had struggled to pay their household bills. They had also got behind on the mortgage. They had tried to refinance, but their credit score was shot because of late payments on credit card minimums and other bills. David did accounting for the local church, but that didn’t pay enough.Out of desperation, Danielle had started looking for a job online. She came across a Craigslist ad that asked for couple’s to have sex on camera. The site splits half the proceeds with the talent. The more live shows they did, the more they got paid. David hadn’t wanted to do it. He had been afraid of the wrong people finding out, and then their reputations would be in the gutter. Danielle had told him that they
Matt quietly sat in the passenger seat in Williamson’s truck. They were almost back in town. The Joneses had gotten back in their Escalade and left. Lawrence and Dalton tailed the Joneses to make sure they left town. Goldman took George back to Garvey’s. Matt thought about his next move in the investigation. The static of Williamson’s radio on his dashboard interrupted Matt’s thoughts. “Officers respond. We need officers to respond to 112 Oak Avenue,” a female voice said over the airwaves. It was Patty, the switchboard operator. Matt grabbed the receiver. “This is Sheriff Kirby. What’s going on, over?” he said and clicked off the button. “Home invasion, Sheriff. The suspects are gone. Wife dead, husband badly injured,” Patty said. “Shit,” Williamson said and pressed on the accelerator. “What was the address again?” Matt asked with a furrowed brow. “One-one-two Oak Avenue, David and Daniell
David and Danielle were buried in the town cemetery. David’s brother decided to have a graveside funeral. Dalton received so much comfort food from the community that he invited everyone to his house for lunch after the service. Jodi approached Dalton in the kitchen. “Hi,” she greeted. “Hi,” he said back. The poor man was still in shock. “I’m sorry about your brother.” “Thank you.” “You know, they were friends of Jackie and me.” “I do. David told me that he and Danielle had become good friends with the famous Garvey twins.” Jodi flinched at the comment. Regret fell on Dalton’s face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. Hell, I don’t care what these old crows say about you two. David and Danielle were fond of you and that’s all I need to know.”Jodi smiled. “Do you need help cleaning their house out?”Dalton gave her a faint smile. “No, Jodi. I’m not going to touch that house
Matt tucked his shirt into his pants. Jodi put on a pink satin robe and tied the sash into a bow. She kept facing the mirror, watching him getting dressed.Matt zipped his pants and then bent down to pick up his gun holster. He put it around him. He glanced up at her and caught her looking at him through the mirror. “What’s wrong?” he asked as he fastened his belt. She turned her head. She had to do it. It was for the best, the best for him. “We can’t do this anymore,” she spat out.He smiled. “Jodi, I promise I won’t come here in the middle of the day like this again.” Jodi squeezed her eyes shut, willing to black out what she was about to say next. “No, I mean, it’s over. I don’t want to see you anymore unless it’s by accident.”Dead silence.She slowly opened her eyes and turned around to look at him. Matt’s jaw was tight. His eyes were almost as big as quarters.“It had to end sometime. We both knew this couldn’t last forever,” she pushed out of her mouth.“Did we?”She could te
It was 9 p.m., and Jackie and Trina were working the bar. They got overwhelmed with the drink orders, so Tommy pitched in to wash dirty glasses and beer mugs. Jodi was supposed to be downstairs by eight to help Daniel in the kitchen. Jackie asked Barbara to do what she had to do to find out where Jodi was and to get her butt to the bar.The phone rang. Jackie grabbed the receiver, “Garvey’s, Jackie.”“Jackie, it’s Barb,” she said.Jackie looked down at the base and saw she was calling from the front desk. “Barb, where the hell is Jodi?”“I think you better go check on her. Something is wrong.”“What do you mean?” Jackie asked.“I knocked on her room door. All I heard was music. She didn’t hear me. I came back downstairs and rang her room. Jodi answered. I told her y’all needed help. She said, sorry, she was taking a personal day and hung up.”Jodi always handled life by the seat of her pants, but when it came to Garvey’s she was the first one on deck – next to Jackie. “What the hell?
The weekend had been hell for Matt. He had barely slept or ate. When he had slept, it was on an old cot in the station’s basement. He couldn’t bear going home to an empty house with nothing but his thoughts. His thoughts of Jodi. Telling her – admitting to her - that he loved her and her not responding. Her silence in that moment was worse than the things she had said before that moment. Matt shook his head like he could shake away the memory and the feelings of that rejection.He looked at his watch. It was almost 7:30 on Monday morning. Patty would be coming in to start her shift on the switchboard. The student receptionist would be coming in at eight and Williamson would be coming in to relieve Goldman, who had worked the night shift. Dalton was on leave.Matt sat in his office going over case notes. Matt and Williamson had tried the phone number they had gotten from D.J. Jones days ago. It was disconnected. They had run the plate numbers that Dex gave them of the truck that took J
After Matt and Williamson caught Lawrence up to speed, they headed to Matt’s house. Williamson didn’t run the siren or the lights because Matt didn’t want to cause a panic while the kids were catching the bus or walking to school. He also didn’t want to attract attention from the adults who were going to work. It was 8:34 a.m. when they pulled up in Matt’s driveway. Goldman stood in front of the door facing out towards the street. He didn’t move when Matt and Williamson got out of the cruiser. They brusquely walked to the front porch. Matt jogged up the porch steps. “I’m here. Now, what the hell is going on, Goldman?” “Please, keep your voice down, sir. We don’t want your neighbors to come out of their houses and get a glimpse of this,” Goldman said seriously. Matt noticed his stiff demeanor. Goldman had not moved an inch since they arrived. “What the fuck are you talking about?” he asked in a lower tone. “What is it?”