Chapter 7 #2
All they did was take him back to his cell.
His room had been tossed, and his bed needed to be remade.
Not having the energy to do anything like that, he simply laid down on his mattress and went to sleep.
If there was any cover there for him to put in, he couldn’t reach it and did without.
Tomorrow, they told him they were going to ask him more questions, and that would be all.
He thought that he should have just stayed in bed the morning of the meeting with the townspeople and not thought about what it would be like to be chief of police.
By the next morning, he felt as if he’d not gotten a bit of sleep.
He’d been worried to death over any kind of jail time he’d be spending and what was going to happen to his family.
Not that he cared all that much for his family, but he did worry about how, without his wife’s money, he was going to make it in the world once he was out of jail. If he got out of jail.
Breakfast was donuts and coffee, not his favorite breakfast in the world, but he ate it so that he’d be able to get through the day.
There was a whole new set of agents talking to him today, so he wasn’t prepared for their line of questioning.
It was about the meth in the sublevels and how he’d handled himself there.
He’d not. He’d fucked it up like he had the other part of the building and told them that.
That must not have been a good answer because one of them popped him in the back of the head and told him to shut up, whining.
“I’m not whining, but finally telling you the truth.
I was there in the sublevels, but the amount of bodies down there made me sick, so I made sure that my men went down.
I don’t know who I sent because I hadn’t bothered to learn their names yet.
For all I know, they could have been stealing the meth while they were down there and making a killing off of the stuff.
” He was hit again. “I’m telling you the truth, damn it.
I don’t know what else you want from me. ”
For the next few hours, he answered the questions as truthfully as he could.
Sometimes he’d have the answer to their questions, but most of the time he didn’t.
He didn’t know who was in charge, and he didn’t know who had moved the bodies down there.
For that matter, he didn’t know the names of the officers who had moved any of them on the upper floors either.
He’d just ordered it done, and someone had done it.
If he was honest, he told them, there were times when he didn’t even know who had been in charge of calling the feds for him. He’d done none of that.
He ate because they told him to do so, and he went to the bathroom when it was all right with them.
He answered so many questions that his head was spinning around in knots.
Once, he was ready to beg for one of them to just arrest him so that he could get out from under their questioning, but of course, that wouldn’t happen.
As soon as he was released to go back to his cell, he dragged his sorry ass back there and fell into the mattress that was still on the floor.
Daniel was going to prison. They’d made that perfectly clear to him. How much time he was going to spend there was up in the air, but they told him that he’d be lucky if he were to be out by the time he was drawing social security. That was still forty-plus years away.
~*~
Gleason was doing well on his investments. It was something that he worked on daily, and it was paying off for him. He, like the others, had an investment broker, but there were times when he wanted to do it on his own. Just buy low and sell high.
Today, he’d been able to net himself a hundred grand. It has terrified him to spend his money on a not-so-sure thing. But he was learning, and according to David, the only way to learn was to take chances.
It didn’t always pay off. A couple of times, he’d lost more than he had gained.
But he kept at it so that he wouldn’t lose out on money that he could ill afford.
He was still a multimillionaire, but he was worried that if he messed up badly enough, he’d be broke again, and didn’t want that to happen to him.
It was nice having money and a beautiful house.
He also had a newer truck than he’d had when they’d been working the ranch, but that wouldn’t have taken much to make happen.
The truck he had now wasn’t older than he was but the one he’d had before was something that his grandma had driven around town when she had to go shopping or something.
It had been nearly as old as Kinsey. He remembered the truck that grandda had had and the accident that his brothers had been in one day.
Had it not been for the age of the truck, they both would have been killed.
As it was, a semi rammed them from behind and shoved them up under another semi in front of them.
It had been touch and go there for a while whether or not either one of them would have gotten out of the mangled truck.
But once they were out, Kinsey had to spend a couple of months in the hospital to help with the bruising all over his body.
To this day, he has trouble with his right ankle, where it got stuck under the brake pedal when he was trying to save Wylie.
He still thinks about what the truck looked like after the accident, and his body shivers.
They were both very lucky, and he thought about how he would have lost them daily.
He smiled at Hailey when she came into his office.
“I’m not bothering you, or anything, am I?
” He told her what he’d been thinking about.
“I was with Meggie the other day when she was talking about it. I shudder to think what would have happened to them had they been in a newer car. She said that the only thing that saved them was the steel that was used over the plastic that would have been used nowadays.”
“I think that is why I’ve never bought a new car yet.
I just keep thinking that I’m safer in the older models.
” She said that she had an older model, but only because that’s all she could afford.
“We can get you something to drive around while you’re waiting for your car to be given back to you.
I heard that was how they were figuring out who some of the bodies were. ”
“It is. The agent in charge of me said it might be another month before they could release it back to me. He’s been kind enough to let me go there and see what I might need out of it.
There was nothing that I’ve needed so far, so I think I’m all right.
” He nodded as he watched the screen in front of him.
“What would you like to do for dinner tonight? The cook is off, so we have to do for ourselves. And I don’t want pizzas or subs. ” He laughed hard.
“I didn’t think you would. I’m sort of tired of it myself.” He closed his computer and looked at Hailey. She seemed to be in a really good mood today. “How about we go to Scotties Den? We’ll have to eat early. I think they close at seven.”
“They close at five this week because the kids are out on summer break starting today. I had no idea that school was over.” He said that he’d not either and asked her how she’d found out.
“Mae has one of her grandsons working in the yard with her husband. He’s picking up sticks so the mower doesn’t run over them and pitch them far.
She told me once when she was working at a home, one flew into the house and damaged one of the large picture windows.
I told her that we’d pay him. Even if you don’t want to, I can cover that. ”
“I’ll pay him, that’s a wonderful idea.” He asked her what she needed. “I’m assuming it was just about dinner?”
“Yes. I forgot. Mae is off tonight, and we’ll have to get by on our own.
” She came further into the room. “What do you think about a fish fry? There is one about forty-five minutes away from here, and that sounds good. Instead of having it on Friday, they have it on Thursday night. It’s supposed to be run by some older women who like to get together and cook for people.
It can’t hurt to try it, and it’ll be something different. ”
“That sounds fantastic.” He was excited now. “My brother and his wife love seafood and get it every chance they get. I like it well enough, but not enough to drive all the way to Columbus for. But a fish fry sounds really good.”
“Good. We should leave here by five if we want to get there by six. I guess that’s when they have the best seating. After six, they’re so busy you might have to wait in line for hours before getting in.”
“We’ll leave here soon. Just to get ahead of the crowd.” She said that would be even better. “Good. I’ll get dressed now, and we’ll head up that way. I guess you’re talking about the one in Stockport?”
“Yes, that’s it.” He got up from his desk and made a move to the door.
When she moved out of his way, he bumped into her and nearly took them both to the floor.
As it was, he held onto her until they were both steady.
He took a moment to look into her eyes and at her mouth. “Are you going to kiss me?”
“I was thinking about it. Would you be terribly upset if I did?” She shook her head, and he lowered his mouth to hers. So as not to overwhelm her, he kissed her as gently as he could before stepping back from her. “I’ve fallen in love with you, Hailey. What do you say about that?”
“That while I don’t know what love is, I think that I have the same feelings for you.
” He kissed her again, a little more aggressively than before.
When he lifted his head, he smiled down at her.
“I could get used to that. But I want to take it slowly. I still might end up in jail for giving false information to the police.”