There was silence on the other end of the line and then a long whistle. “Jesus. What are you going to do? If you pay him now, he’s not going to stop.”
“What choice do I have? If I don’t pay him, he may hurt my nieces.”
“That’s why you’ve spent all that dough on security. If you’d brought some for yourself today, then maybe Cade wouldn’t have gotten so close to you.”
Jason looked to his right and saw one of his billboards in the distance. He glared at his grinning mug as he passed. “Let’s face it, Harry. I can pay for all the security in the world. But if I cross this guy, he’s going to eventually kill me or hurt or kill someone I love.”
Harry didn’t respond, and Jason knew it was an implied concession.
“I’ve got to go,” he said.
“You OK, boss?”
Jason hung up without answering. As he passed another billboard advising any passerby to call 1-800 GET RICH, he grabbed the pint and again pressed it to his lips.
This time, he turned it up and took a long swig, wincing as the brown liquid burned his throat. He couldn’t believe he’d been so stupid.
“Jana’s lying,” he whispered, taking another sip of Jack Daniel’s.
About the money . . . about her relationship with Pike . . .
. . . about everything.
46
He woke up with the glare of the rising sun in his face and the sound of an angry woman’s voice.
“Get up, shitbird.”
Jason turned toward the sound just in time to see a bucket of water being hurled at him.
Drenched, he shot to his feet, which sent a wave of nausea through his body that made him bend over and clutch his knees. “Damnit, Chase. What the hell are you doing?”
“You tell me, drunko! Spending the night in your court clothes on the dock with an empty bottle of Jack and a half-drunk carton of beer,” she yelled. She wore a white tank top, shorts, and a baseball cap, appearing to have just come in from her morning kayak ride. “I ought to push you in the lake.”
“Well, you’ve already ruined my suit.”
“Are you kidding? Even with the lake on you, you reek of bourbon and beer. You smell like a damn brewery.” She put her hands on her hips. “You didn’t fall off the wagon. You jumped.”
Jason took in a deep breath, tried to straighten up, and then bent over again. Finally, unable to control his stomach, he dropped to his knees and hung his head over the edge of the dock, puking into the water.
“Good grief, Jason,” she said.
He threw up again. And then again. “Please go away.”
“It’s 6:15 in the morning, and Nola will be getting up soon. Don’t let her see you like this. She’s got enough on her plate and doesn’t need to know that her uncle’s a drunk.”
Jason gritted his teeth. “Go away, Chase. Please.”
Another round of nausea gripped him, and he vomited again. When it ended, he looked in Chase’s direction, but she was gone.
“Damnit,” he whispered as he beat his fists on the dock.
47
At 9:00 a.m., Jason walked through the doors of the sheriff’s office. A few minutes later, he was shown into the consultation room. Jana wasn’t there yet, but he was told they would bring her in shortly.
Jason waited, trying not to think about his pulsing hangover, which still hadn’t gone away after three cups of coffee and several Aleve. Once Jana was shown in, Jason held his tongue until the officers exited the room. When they were alone, it was all he could do to keep his voice in check.
“I want you to tell me what you did with the $15,000 you took from the bank the day before Braxton was murdered.”
She blinked. “I told you. I gave it to one of Tyson’s men at the strip mall down from Fire by the Lake.”
“All of it or some of it?”
“I can’t remember.”
“Bullshit. You’re lying to me. I want to know exactly what you did with that money.”
She wrung her hands, and Jason couldn’t tell whether it was an act or genuine emotion being expressed. Like everything with his sister, he wasn’t sure. “It was a lot of cash, J. J. I think I took out about five grand.”
“Weren’t you keeping up with it? You owed the bastard fifty thousand, didn’t you?”
“All I could think about was doing a line of coke, OK?”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Well, fuck you then. I don’t care.”
“If that’s the case, then what happened to the rest of the money?”