Page 62 of Justice for Daesha

“Yeah?”

“Hey, somebody still in the parking lot?”

“I am, and there’s one other cruiser here,” Jack replied.

“I want them to take Alex to Mr.Wilkerson’s house and pick him up. He may be useful.”

“Got it. I’m on it. Tell him to get his ass out here.”

Amos hit END. “Alex, see Jack.”

“Got it!” Alex disappeared out the door just as Jesse reached the front.

“Stand up, fellas,” Jesse ordered of the Kelso brothers. “We’re goin’ for a little ride.”

* * *

The only remotely positivething Amos saw when he pulled up was the navy blue Mercedes sitting outside the building. Ainsley had been right?they were there somewhere. He stepped out of the car, pulled his Glock, checked it, then slipped it back into its holster. A quick glance told him Jesse was doing the same. There were three first responder vehicles parked around the corner, and that made him feel a bit better.

The SRT officer met him at the corner. “TrooperNolan Boyd, agent. Your plan?”

“I’m going in, and I’m taking these three with me. This is one of their parents, and they may be able to get a lot more out of them than I could.” The trooper nodded at him, but he felt a tug at his sleeve.

“Do Ihaveto go in there? I really don’t want to. It smells terrible,” Ainsley whispered.

“Pull up your big girl panties and let’s get on this,” Amos growled as three SRT officers helped the Kelsos with Kevlar vests. “This ain’t no time for pullin’ that pussy card. Let’s go.” To Amos’s surprise, the front door wasn’t completely closed, and he opened it and stuck his head inside.

Silence greeted him, and for a split second he thought they’d made a mistake. And then he heard a voice.

“I can’t believe you wouldn’t take care of this! You had every opportunity, but you just passed on it. Really, Marshall, do I have to doeverythingfor this family?”

Amos recognized it?Lucy Kelso. And the voice that replied was Marshall’s.

“Honey, please… This is getting you nowhere. Just let me go and I’ll take Daesha with me. Come on, sweetheart, you really don’t want to hurt her, do you?”

“OfcourseI don’t want to hurt her!” Lucy screamed. “But she has to be stopped. That agent what’s-his-name has to be stopped. If they dig too deeply, they’ll find out about our miscreant sons and your tenure will be over.”

“They’re not miscreants, Lucy. They’re men who loved a woman, and you ended that for them,” he heard Marshall say.

“I didn’t mean to end it! It was an accident! I just went over there to talk to her, but she wouldn’t listen! Then she started to fight with me, and I just… It just happened, okay? I didn’t mean for it to, but she slapped me, so when she turned, I hit her with that block. And she still wouldn’t stay down! She just kept getting back up!”

“But I don’t remember seeing you all scratched up from the fight,” Marshall said.

Lucy’s voice was filled with rage. “Ofcourseyou don’t! Like always, you weren’t here! You were off in Washington, doing whatever, or whoever, it is that you do when you’re there!”

“I’ve never been unfaithful to you, Lucy. Never. We’ve had a lot of good years. Why do they have to end this way?”

Amos and the three brothers were growing closer to the sounds of the voices and when they turned the corner, there they were. Lucy stood in front of Marshall, who was tied to a chair, his wrists and ankles bound. And she had a gun. Before Amos could stop him, Ainsley cried out, “Mom! What the hell are you doing?”

“Trying to clean up your mess, you idiot. You three are an embarrassment to this family. You’re going to cost your father his position in Washington. You realize that, right?”

“No, Mom. But this will do it. So put the gun down and we can talk, okay?” Benson said, his voice almost a whisper.

“And you!” Lucy railed at Amos. “You started this! If you’d left everything alone, it all would’ve been fine!”

“No, Mom, it wouldn’t, because you killed Dorinda. You took her from us. You broke our hearts. And now you’re trying to hurt Daesha, and she hasn’t done anything wrong. Don’t you see what you’re doing?” Chance pleaded.

“Me? Don’tyousee whatYOU’REdoing? You brought them here. It’s all your fault!” With a shaky hand, she pointed the gun at Chance. “I should kill all three of you. That would take care of the problem, now wouldn’t it?”

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