Officer Jones

Chapter 46

The Hastings Inn shrunk in the rear-view mirror as Gwen and I drove off in the Rockfield Gazette van.

Jones lived in a remote north section of town not far from the restaurant. The drive would only take five minutes. I sat in the passenger seat, unable to take my eyes away from Gwen’s long legs as she alternated between gas-pedal and brake.

Her attention was split between the road and the cut just above my left eyebrow. She reached her hand over to gently wipe a spot of blood, and asked again, “Are you okay, JP?”

“I’m fine,” I responded curtly.

“What’s wrong? This was your idea, if you remember.”

“Nothing,” I said. But I think jealousy had gotten the better of me. When I saw her in the restaurant with Jones, images filled my head of Stephen DuBois taking Gwen Delaney to swanky Manhattan restaurants, while I ducked bombs in some war torn country nobody ever heard of.

“I’ve known you since you were five years old, JP-I can tell when something is bothering you.”

I decided to evade. The more things change… “What do you guys talk about on a date?”

She smiled. “We don’t talk, JP. We’re at that great stage of the relationship where it’s just sex, sex, sex.”

I suddenly understood the term “acid reflux.”

Our arrival saved me a response. Gwen turned off her lights as we drove up Evergreen Street. We then came upon a long, sloping gravel driveway.

She stopped the car in the middle of the dark, lonely road and explained the battle plan. “About fifty feet down the driveway it splits like a fork. The left leads to Kyle’s house, but we will take the right to his neighbors’ home, the Walkers. They are on vacation, so we will park at their house and walk through the wooded area separating the homes”

We continued down the driveway-the only sound coming from the small rocks being kicked up by the van’s tires.

When we arrived at the Walkers’, Gwen parked the car and hastily searched the backseat. She cursed herself for leaving her jacket in Jones’ car when he’d brought her to the restaurant. I had driven the van to Hastings. We stepped out into the night, feeling the cool chill of autumn. I offered her my jacket, but she refused, proving we still had enough stubborn pride between us to fill a small country.

I leaned on my cane, trying to catch my breath. I looked at Gwen. Actually, I hadn’t stopped looking at her. “I can’t believe he went for the bait.”

She looked at me with surprise. “What do you mean you can’t believe it? You said you were a hundred percent certain.”

“I was, but I didn’t factor in you wearing that dress.”

She blushed, but recovered to remind me, “That’s nice of you to say, JP. It’s one of my favorites-Stephen bought it for me for my birthday one year.”

Suddenly I found the dress less appealing. With no time to waste, we moved into the wooded area. Gwen took the lead, knocking away thin tree branches that were camouflaged by the dark night.

I watched her glide through the light forest-no small feat in stilettos-gracefully moving tree limbs out of the way. She bounced over an embankment, but then disappeared like a trap door had opened beneath her.

I ran as fast as my injured leg would allow. When I arrived at the top of the embankment, I looked down to see that Gwen had gone “ass over tea kettle” into a patch of poison ivy. My fright dissipated and I began to laugh.

“Shut up!”

“I didn’t say anything,” I said with a guilty smile, and reached out my hand to her.

She refused, choosing to struggle to her feet. She almost regained balance when her shoes slipped again on the wet ivy. I instinctively reached out and caught her.

It felt like no time had passed since the last time I’d held her in my arms. I remembered it vividly-it took place in the small closet on the Upper West Side that Gwen referred to as her apartment, after I’d returned from Bosnia. This is where I had longed to be since that day.

“Thanks,” Gwen said in a hushed tone, and pulled away. Just like that, the moment faded sadly away. “We better hurry,” she urged.

You wait for a moment for fifteen years and it only lasts five seconds. But that’s life in a nutshell-a few monumental moments, surrounded by a lot of mundane time where we wait for the next fleeting moment of grandeur.

I placed my suit jacket over her bare shoulders. This time she didn’t fight me.

We evaded one last branch and arrived at a manicured lawn that led to the back of Jones’ abode. It was a modest one-story, ranch-style house. All lights were off and it appeared deserted. It seemed like a place where a large attack dog would let out an angry stream of barking at intruders, but none did.

Gwen moved to a screened-in porch area. Just outside of it was a barbecue, which she frisked through, only to come up empty. “Dammit!”

“What is it?”

“I talked to a girl named Holly who briefly dated Kyle. She works at the bowling alley here in Rockfield. It never got serious, but she did come here on a couple of occasions and told me the extra key was hidden in the barbecue.”

“Did she give you any inside information on Jones?”

“According to her, he was weird.”

“That’s not a real scoop.”

“Agreed. A real scoop would be finding a way in.”

“When I get in a tight spot, I think of what Carter would do and then I scale it down to something I’ll get less years in prison for.”

“Breaking and entering into a police officer’s house is going to get us locked up for a long time, either way.”

She had a point, but I’d made a career of tuning out the voice of reason, and this time would be no different. My eyes adjusted to the dark as I searched for an opening.

“So what would Carter do?” she asked.

“He would set an explosive device on that window over there,” I said, pointing at the window closest to the screened-in porch.

“Your friend is a piece of work.”

“He’s the most loyal man I know. He’d die for me.”

“If he doesn’t kill you first. What’s the scaled down version?”

“See that window? I think it’s cracked open just enough that one of us could fit through.”

Gwen volunteered. “Give me a boost and I think I can get in.”

“I was thinking about going.”

“I’m younger than you, JP. This is not a job for a decrepit old man.”

“Only by six months, three days, and four hours.”

She smiled. “I’m impressed … but I’m still going.”

There was no time to argue. And pride aside, she was likely the only one of us who would fit. I anchored myself with my cane and after removing her shoes, Gwen climbed on my shoulders. I boosted her up and she tried to squeeze through the window.

She was three-quarters of the way in as I held tightly to her ankles. She slithered a little more and I started to lose my grip. I held on as tightly as possible, but it was no use. She broke away from my grip and disappeared through the window with a scream, followed by a loud thud. Then everything went silent.

The silence was frightening. I had no idea how far the drop was, or if the paranoid Jones had some type of booby trap set up. I visualized an oversized bear trap with sharp metal claws.

“Gwen? Gwen? Are you okay?” I shouted in my loudest whisper.

No response.

My stomach sank.

“Gwen!”