CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
After getting the all-clear from the doctor, they were able to leave the hospital. But JJ wasn’t satisfied. He needed answers before he went anywhere. Was Tish the target, or was Dena the target? He had to know. He wasn’t comfortable with this. Something didn’t sit right with him.
When he found out Chief Goslin was still at the hospital, he tracked him down to the driver of the SUV’s hospital room. But there was an officer guarding the door and he wouldn’t allow him inside. But he did notify the chief, and he came out.
“I thought you two would be gone by now,” the chief said when he saw JJ and Tish standing there.
“Have you interviewed him yet?” JJ asked him.
“I asked him some questions, yes.”
“And?”
“And his name is Danny Walls. That’s about all I could get from him.”
“Who was the target?”
“I haven’t gotten to that question yet.”
JJ knew Bill would drag this shit out until the man asked for a lawyer and shut it all down. “I want to talk to him,” JJ said.
“Now you know good-and-well, Judge, that I can’t let you do that.”
“I need answers. I need to know if this lady was on his target list. I have to know that.”
“That lady,” the chief said with consternation in his voice, “is going to cause you to lose this election. You do realize that. Or do you, JJ?”
Tish’s heart dropped. Whether she realized it or not, everybody else seemed to.
But JJ continued as if he hadn’t even mentioned any election. “Just a few questions and I’m out of there.”
The chief couldn’t believe it. “You want to kill your career for her,” he said, stepping aside, “go right ahead.” He had hoped such stark language would wake up the judge, but it only seemed to embolden him more. Because JJ didn’t hesitate. He put Tish in front of him and they both went into that hospital room.
The officer on the door looked at his chief. “Risking his career for her? What’s his problem, Chief?”
“That four-letter word that’s everybody’s problem.”
“Lust?” the officer asked his chief.
“No, you idiot! Love,” the chief said.
“Love? Judge Plenty Time Brant? And in love with somebody like her with a criminal record? That don’t even sound right, Chief.”
The chief had no answer for his younger officer. It was weird to him too. He went into the hospital room.
JJ and Tish were already at the driver’s bedside. The driver, Danny Walls, was pretty banged up, but was as feisty as they come. “That’s the bitch that jumped on my back,” he said.
JJ wanted to beat his ass right then and there, but he needed answers first. “Who was your target?”
“Who do you think? It wasn’t that fat bitch I hit, that’s for damn sure.”
“I was the target?” Tish asked. She sensed it all along. But she needed it confirmed.
Danny was happy to oblige. “Yeah, your ass was the target. And I had you dead to rights. But your sugar daddy showed up like some gotdamn batman and blew it all to hell.”
“But I don’t know you,” Tish said.
“I don’t know your ass either,” Danny fired back. “So what?”
Tish wanted to kick his butt too. But she contained herself. They needed answers! “Do you know the guy that broke into my motel room?” she asked.
“Knuckles? Yeah I know that stupid jerk. That’s why I was called in, because he botched it. He was supposed to take you out when he broke into your room.”
“Why?” JJ asked him. “Who hired Knuckles? Who hired you to kill her?”
When he looked away from them, they both knew that somebody had hired him, but it wasn’t as easy as naming a name for him.
And JJ, a former lawyer who knew all the angles, decided to pounce. “You could turn state’s evidence. Get yourself and your family in witness protection if it runs that deep. And get the fuck out once and for all.”
Danny looked at the judge. “What you mean turn state’s evidence?”
“You know what I mean. Give us the man that hired you. Be willing to testify against him in court. And you’ll get off scot-free.”
Tish could tell Danny had never even thought to snitch. But he wasn’t above it either. “They’ll put it in writing?”
“Absolutely. If it runs deep enough.”
“Not here it doesn’t,” Danny said. “But he handles shipments for one of those Medellin cartels. And those bastards don’t play.”
JJ was astonished. Even Tish had heard of those cartels out of Columbia. “This involves Columbia?” JJ asked him.
“Not directly, no. But like I said, he handles some of their shipments. It don’t be the big stuff, but they don’t play if you don’t pay up. They don’t care what amount it is. They’ll use you as an example.”
“Who are we talking about locally?” asked JJ.
Danny hesitated again, but then he spoke up. “Mo Lugar.”
Tish was shocked. “Big Mo?”
JJ looked at her. That name rang a bell for him too.
Danny nodded. “Yeah, that’s the one.”
Tish was still in shock. “The man that owns Big Mo’s gas station?”
“I said yeah, damn!”
It was only then did JJ realize where he’d seen that name before. When Tish was before him! In her court documents. “Isn’t that the service station that your boyfriend robbed?” he asked her.
She nodded. “That’s the one, yes.” She looked at Danny. “Why would Big Mo want me dead?”
“Because Shake took his product and he couldn’t pay out of pocket for that much smack. He had to put a second mortgage on his house to pay them for what Shake stole. He almost lost his shirt behind what y’all did. And his life.”
JJ was confused. He remembered her file. “But her boyfriend had stolen cash from that service station. It was in the police report.”
“Both of them cops were as crooked as a curved road,” Danny declared. “They put into evidence a few thousand bucks, claiming that was what Shake stole. Then the cops sold the product that Shake and this bitch really stole to all of Mo’s competitors, and those cops pocketed the proceeds.”
“And Big Mo couldn’t say anything because he would get arrested for running drugs through his gas station,” said Tish.
Danny grinned a yellow-teeth grin. “Whatta you know. She ain’t so stupid after all.”
JJ couldn’t hold back another second. He grabbed Danny by the catch of his shirt and punched him several times. “You call her anything but Miss Payton again, and I won’t stop next time,” JJ warned, and then released him.
Danny was bleeding from the impact of those licks, and he looked at Chief Goslin angrily. “You saw what he just did to me and you’re doing nothing? I thought you was a cop!”
“That’s what you get for thinking,” the chief said. Then he looked at JJ and Tish. “Okay guys, let’s wrap this up. I’ll get an arrest warrant and contact the Jacksonville PD. Then I’ll go pick up Mo Lugar and bring him to this jurisdiction for processing. We have to let JSO handle that Knuckles fellow, since his crime happened in J-ville, but this asshole and Big Mo whoever he is will have to answer to my jurisdiction. What they tried to do to this lady and did do to Miss Lamb will give them plenty time. Unless, as you said, this asshole number one turns state’s evidence. But you have got to leave now.”
“Leave?” Danny was livid. “He just punched my lights out. I’m bleeding over here! I’ll tell what he did to me!”
“What did he do? You got your ass banged up when you decided to take it upon yourself to try to end somebody’s life. You’d better hope that young lady in surgery pulls through. That’s what you need to worry about,” the chief said.
Then he looked at JJ. “Don’t worry about his clown,” he said as he shook his hand. “You’ve got your own shit to worry about,” he added, as he glanced over at Tish.
Tish already felt awful. Because everything his campaign manager said and everything that chief was saying was true. JJ was losing altitude just by being with her.
Then the chief leaned into JJ. “I want to have a quick word with you.” He looked at Tish. “Excuse us,” he said as he and JJ walked across the hospital room.
Danny looked at Tish. “You saw what they did to me. But you’re a liar too, aren’t you? Bitch.”
Tish looked at Danny, and he suddenly became everybody in the world that was always downing her. And she couldn’t help herself. The street in Tish came out and she reached over and punched him as hard as she could across his nose, breaking it.
Danny screamed out in pain as blood poured from his nose. He tried with all his might to get out of his shackles as he screamed.
Tish wasn’t smiling, but she was satisfied. “Who’s the bitch now?” she yelled at him. “Bitch!”
Across the room, JJ saw when Tish struck Danny, but instead of being concerned, he nodded his seal of approval. What that prick put her and Dena through, JJ was pleased she stood up for herself. Because those days of people treating her as if she was less than any of them were over. It was a wrap. JJ was going to see to that.
But the chief hadn’t seen anything. It was only when Danny screamed out in pain did he realize that gal had probably done something to his prisoner. Which didn’t faze him either. He tried to kill her. She had every right, in the chief’s eyes, to slap the shit out of him if she so wished.
Then JJ returned his attention to Bill. “What’s up?”
“You’re what’s up,” the chief said. “Or at least you used to be. I’m just worried about you, JJ. And so is everybody else around Scottsdale. This isn’t like you. I remember when Sylvie and Logan were gunned down in that restaurant and how devastated you were. But you rallied and made a comeback. Now you get hooked up with this girl. Why? She’s pretty. She has a nice figure. I’ll give her that. But that’s par for the course around here. You didn’t give a second glance to all of these other pretty gals around here, but you’re going all out for her? Why?”
JJ was offended, but he knew how to mask it. “Why do you think?” he asked his long-time associate. He wouldn’t call him a friend.
“I don’t know!” He had to lower his voice. “It’s just not like you, that’s all I’m saying. When I tried to set you up with a young lady right around that gal’s age, you told me you didn’t date younger women.”
“I don’t.”
“She’s nowhere near your age, but you’re dating her! I would say more than dating her. You act like you love that gal. That convicted criminal. What’s up with that?”
JJ stared at Bill Goslin. He’d declare on a stack of Bibles that there wasn’t a racist bone in his body. And it probably wasn’t. But he was loaded with elitist bones. She wasn’t good enough for JJ. That was what he and Artie and everybody that stared them down in that country club were actually saying. That the best lady he’d ever been with; the lady that made him laugh and feel alive again; the lady with morals and principles and who treated everybody with respect, wasn’t good enough for him. But somebody like his ex-wife, who like a vampire bled him dry, was a queen of the ball in their eyes. But it only proved to JJ just how little his so-called friends and associates truly thought of him. That they didn’t give a damn about him.
“Why her?” the chief asked, going even further in his disapproval.
“She’s not good enough to be with me,” JJ said. “Right?”
Bill nodded. Finally, his face seemed to say, he was getting the point. “Absolutely right!”
“If she’s not good enough to be in my presence, then I’m not good enough to be in your presence. Goodbye, Bill,” he said with a finality that took the chief by surprise as he left his side.
“Come on, Tish,” JJ said as he reached out his hand to her.
Tish, glad to get out of there, too, hurried and placed her hand in his hand. But as they left, she glanced back at the chief. He looked so angry, as if she’d done something terrible to him. When, in truth, she’d never even had a conversation with him.