Sharon, Lynn and Sheilah had finished lunch and were cleaning up after themselves when the phone rang. Sheilah picked it up. “Soaring Eagle. Sheilah speaking.” She listened and then stiffened. “Yes, David, we’ve been on pins and needles waiting to hear from you. Yes. She’s right here.”
Sheilah held the phone to Sharon but she shook her head and backed away. Sheilah sighed. “David, she doesn’t feel well and can’t come to the phone. Please tell me you got your man.” She listened and then said, “Thanks a million, David.”
She hung up and turned to the eager, curious duo. “Well, this Morrison character is safely stored in Tallahassee. Federal agents will come with David to bring him down tomorrow to confront Cassidy.” She laughed. “David says Morrison is denying everything and threatening to sue for false arrest and slander to his character.”
Lynn reached and grabbed Sharon in time to help her sit down. Keanu had walked in just at that moment. He tenderly gathered Sharon in his arms and carried her to the back room where he deposited her gently on the couch. She lay down and closed her eyes.
“What’s wrong with Sharon?” a concerned, quavering voice demanded.
Everyone spun around to see Leland balancing precariously on two metal crutches.
“Leland! You’re walking,” Lynn exclaimed reaching to hug him.
Jacob Nesbitt, Leland’s father, chuckled. “He’s flying you mean. I could almost swear that his feet don’t touch the ground half the time. He could hardly wait to show all of you, especially Sharon.”
“What I really want to show Sharon is this picture.” The beaming boy held a picture for Lynn to see. It was one that Mr. Nesbitt had taken of Sharon standing beside Leland on his horse. “I had it enlarged and framed so Sharon won’t forget me,” he said.
“Leland, my man, how could she forget you?” Keanu grinned and lightly punched him on the shoulder. “You’re the best, ole boy.”
They all turned as Sharon moaned and tried to sit up. Leland couldn’t wait and swung in front of Sharon. “See!” he yelled, “I’m walking.”
“Wh --what?” Sharon spoke groggily.
“Son, give her time. She just woke up. She’ll be glad to see you and listen to you in a few minutes.” his father cautioned him.
“Aw, Sharon, I’m sorry. I’m so glad to see you and share my good news with you.”
“I am thrilled to see you, Leland, and know that you can walk with the crutches. It won’t be long until you will be riding by yourself and we can go on that trail ride. I’m looking forward to that.” Sharon said weakly but trying to appear strong for Leland.
“Oh, me, too,” Leland bellowed. “I can hardly wait and I know we’ll have a great time. You know, you all helped me to do this good. I won’t let you down.”
“We have to go, son. You’ll be back again soon. Goodbye all.” Mr. Nesbitt called.
“I’m so embarrassed,” Sharon moaned, “why did I sort of pass out like that? It isn’t like me.”
Jake cleared his throat gruffly and said, “It’s the body’s and mind’s way of resting when you’ve been under pressure or tension.”
Lynn told Jake and Keanu of David’s call about bringing Morrison down to Pasco County to be questioned and for him to confront Cassidy.
“Will David bring him here?” Keanu asked eagerly.
“Not with you ready to tear him apart,” Lynn laughed. “There’s no reason to bring him here. Morrison will be taken to Dade City to the sheriff’s facilities where we will go when they’re ready for us.” She turned to Sharon. “And you, little girl, will feel better if you go upstairs, take a relaxing shower and lie down for awhile.”
“This is one time I’m not debating the issue. I feel tired and plain yucky. I’m so sweaty I know I’m not pleasant to be around.”
“To see, or rather to smell, ourselves as others do,” Keanu joked holding his nose.
“A poor quote on a good Scottish phrase,” Lynn giggled.
“You know I’m teasing Sharon. Do you want me to help you upstairs?”
“No, thank you, Keanu, but I agree. God bless you all. I’m rich with family and friends.”
Three hours later Sharon had come downstairs and was talking to Sheilah and helping her with the stable records when Lynn came in followed by David.
“Hey! The conquering hero,” Sheilah called out.
“No hero. Just a humble guy doing his job,” David said smiling at Sharon.
“David, can you ever forgive me? I’m so ashamed of myself. There’s no excuse except my fear caused me not to think, and ---”
“Sharon, hush. I do understand. Let’s drop it. The most important thing to do now is to break this drug ring and find who is responsible. Hopefully we’ll find the one responsible for threatening you. Do you feel up to facing Morrison and seeing what his reaction will be?”
“No!,” Lynn spoke firmly. “Sharon’s been through too much. She shouldn’t be expected to face that monster.”
“Lynn,” Sharon said gently, “I have to face him some time and find out the truth. Are we going now, David?”
“No. We’ll wait until tomorrow. The officers have a lot of paper work to do and procedures to follow to make sure he doesn’t slip through any cracks. They won’t want us around until tomorrow.”
“I’m going with you,” Keanu shuffled his feet and was fidgeting around. “I don’t want any arguments. You girls are going to be my sisters and I insist on being with you. You need your brother.”
“Sisters,” Sheilah yelped. “How do you figure that?” David grinned. Keanu had already told him the good news.
“Sean and Megan have been talking to me and they want to adopt me. Sean wants to send me through college because I told him I was interested in being an attorney.”
“Lynn, Sharon, why wasn’t I told anything about this?” Sheilah demanded.
“Don’t be hurt, Sheilah. No one outside the family knew. Dad wasn’t sure Keanu would agree to it. Too, he didn’t think it was a good idea for the information to get out to the wrong people and maybe have Keanu attacked because he would be in Sharon’s family.” ” Lynn soothed Sheilah while Sharon was hugging Keanu.
“It’s okay with me if you want to come, but you have to promise me something.” Sharon looked Keanu straight in the eyes.
“What’s that?”
“You must promise that you won’t jump on Morrison or Cassidy and beat them up. Will you promise to keep quiet and allow the police to do their duty and handle questioning? David has an on going investigation and we mustn’t interfere with his work.”
“I promise I won’t touch them unless they make a move toward either of you girls. I can’t promise that I won’t say anything because I want to tear them apart with my bare hands.”
David laughed and slapped Keanu on the back. “We’re together on that, my friend, but common sense must prevail.”
The next morning, after chores were done and Lynn had made arrangements for trained volunteers to take the classes, David drove them to Dade City. Keanu sat up front with David and Lynn and Sharon rode in the back. David parked in the lot outside the Sheriff’s offices. He turned to talk to the young women. “Sharon, I don’t know how the Sheriff will handle this, but I do know he’ll want you to identify the man as the same Herman Morrison that you saw at the Rest Best Motel in Midway. Are you sure you’re ready for this?”
“I sure am. I’m getting more angry by the moment thinking of how they manipulated Jeremy and ruined our lives, and no telling how many hundreds of other people’s lives. I wondered why Morrison was glaring at me that day at the motel. I had never heard of him, but he probably thought I knew all about his criminal behavior and was afraid that I had come to spy on him. Maybe in his twisted mind he thought I might blackmail him. I want him taken off the face of the earth, but first I want him to tell me how he knew Jeremy.”
“That’s my girl. Go get ‘em, bulldog,” Keanu laughed.
Walking inside they stood in front of a bullet-proof window to tell the dispatcher why they were there. She called for a deputy to take them through a security door to an interrogation room.
On the way down the hall Sharon felt prickles of icy shivers tap dancing on her spine. She glanced around to see Morrison at the end of the hall glaring at her. She began to tremble so violently that Keanu looked to see what she was looking at. She buried her face against his shoulder and whimpered. David quickly stepped between Sharon and Morrison reaching out to pull Lynn to his side thus effectively blocking Morrison’s view of Sharon. Morrison laughed as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
“Hello, folks,” a deep voice welcomed them. Sharon looked to see a man as tall as David and a bit heavier standing by them wearing a business suit and tie. His steel-gray eyes and pepper and salt hair gave him a distinguished appearance. He exuded a warmth and friendliness that immediately assured Sharon that he was in charge.
“Sharon, this is Sheriff Howell. Sheriff, this is Sharon Donnelly, and Keanu Rodiquez. You know Lynn.” They shook hands and exchanged comments.
“What do you want us to do, Sheriff?” David asked.
“I would like for Sharon to identify Herman Morrison, if she can.”
“I sure can. I saw him glaring at me in the hall, and he’s the same man that was manager at the Rest Best Motel in Midway. What a scary coincidence that I’d stop there for the night and just a few minutes after the murder.”
“He must have had quite a scare himself when he realized who you were. He didn’t know whether you knew anything about their business or not and probably thought his goose was cooked,” the sheriff grinned.
“I told Chief Warren about seeing my husband on the street one working day with three men, one short and two tall. I now know that one of the tall men was Cassidy and I recognize Morrison as the short man. He had a hat pulled low on his forehead and the sun was in my eyes or I might have gotten a better look at him. Of course he didn’t know that I couldn’t identify him then. Too, my husband was so angry that I looked at him more than I did the men with him. I remember that Jeremy ran after him calling his name.”
“I can tie him in but the noose will be tighter if I can get Morrison and Cassidy to acknowledge each other,” Sheriff Howell explained.
“Yes, Morrison is a cool customer. Cassidy is getting real nervous and might break with the right push,” Vincent Belasic spoke softly behind them. He had joined them so quietly that they had not heard him come in. Sharon felt that her neck was cracking as she smiled up at the tall, handsome deputy. Standing well over six feet, blonde wavy hair, sea blue eyes and deep dimples, he looked like a teddy bear, but they all knew what a diligent worker he had been. In fact, the sheriff had commented that Belasic was making a first class detective.
The sheriff placed a hand on Sharon’s shoulder and explained, “I’m going to have John Wayne Cassidy brought in a room adjacent to this one. When the light is on in that room, this one will appear dark. The window you see here is a mirror on the other side.”
Sharon nodded. “Then I’ll have Morrison brought in with Cassidy. They haven’t seen each other since Cassidy’s arrest, and I don’t think Cassidy knows we have Morrison in custody. We can observe them and hear what they’re saying without them knowing we’re listening.”
Sharon looked over her shoulder when Keanu got up from where he was seated and stood near the door leaning one shoulder against the wall and crossing his ankles. “Are you okay, Keanu?” she whispered. “Remember, be quiet.”
“Everything’s copasetic.” Sharon looked suspiciously at him because he had acquiesced too easily. She turned around because Cassidy was led into the room and seated at a long, metal table.
Cassidy stared at the mirror but finally shrugged his shoulders, leaned back in the chair, put his feet up on the table and his hands behind his head. He looked mighty sure of himself but they could see a nerve twitch at the corner of his mouth. Satisfied he was alone, Cassidy began to hum to himself. He hadn’t shaved and his thin, ferret face looked even more like an animal.
The door opened and Morrison was led in and made to sit down. The officer quickly left. Cassidy’s mouth was open.
“Hank! When did you get here? Why and how did they get you? Oh, Lordy, huh oh the jigs up ain’t it?”
“Shut up, you fool. I told them I didn’t know you. They’re probably listening to us.”
“You said you didn’t know me?! Well listen good, old friend, old buddy, old pal. I’m not going down on this alone when you’re the one that told me what to do. That is you told me after the Boss gave you the orders.”
“I didn’t tell you to bomb that car. All I told you to do was follow Jeremy’s wife to be sure she didn’t know about us or what was going on. Neither did I tell you to shoot at her.”
“Yeah. I did follow her and tried to protect us by making sure she wouldn’t talk.”
“How could she tell anything she didn’t know, you idiot?”
“Stop calling me names. I’ve only done what you told me to do like I took care of the spy at the motel after you figured out who he was. I just followed your orders. You’re the idiot. You wouldn’t tell nobody else the Boss’ name and you’ll go down as the only one responsible for dealing in drugs, laundering money, dealing in stolen property and murder.” Cassidy was almost shouting by this time. He sat smugly looking at Morrison and then gasped horrified when Morrison leaped across the table and wrapped his hands around Cassidy’s neck. Small, wiry Morrison attacking tall, thin Cassidy.
Three deputies ran into the room to separate the men and place handcuffs on both of them.
“I was a fool to ever get involved with you,” Morrison sputtered. “I suggested the Boss include you as a favor to me because we’d been friends so long. Now we’re all in hot water thanks to your loose mouth and stupid, rash actions.”
Sharon and Lynn were both shaken by what they had observed. David stood between them with an arm around each one. “Where’s Keanu?” he whispered as he looked around to see why the young man had not come to Lynn and Sharon when they gasped.
Belasic rushed out of the room and came back with an angry, red-faced young man. “I found him at the end of the hall asking how to get into that room.”
“I was afraid they’d get away,” Keanu muttered sullenly.
David looked sternly at him. “You wanted to get your licks in. Sharon and Lynn needed you and you weren’t here for them.
“Aw gee,” Keanu looked ashamed. “I’m sorry. I’m so mad at those jerks. I’ve seen their kind all of my life and ---”
“I understand, little brother,” Sharon said hugging him even though she was still trembling. “I’m sure there are enough officers around to do their duty without outside help.”
“Besides, you made us a promise,” Lynn reminded him. “It doesn’t matter that you’re taller than us, we’re older. We’re your sisters and you need to start listening to us.” She laughed trying to help everyone relax.
Sheriff Howell and Deputy Belasic looked perplexed at each other and then at Keanu.
“Our parents are adopting Keanu and he’ll be our little brother,” Lynn said bending her head back to look up at him. “Shee-u. I didn’t realize how much you’d grown just since you came to live with us.”
“Well, David smacked his hands and looked pleased. “It looks as if we have the goods on those questionable friends of yours. Murder, attempted murder, drug dealing, destroying private property, harassment, stalking, and we’ll find much more.”
“But what’s the deal on stolen property that Cassidy mentioned?” Belasic asked.
“I can answer that,” David said. “Over a period of several months, we’ve found stolen cars with evidence that drugs were transported in them. Apparently this ring would steal a car out west, fill it with drugs and drive it across to the east. We couldn’t find any prints except the owners, so, we surmised they were wearing gloves and plastic bags on their feet. That way none of their own cars were involved. If they were stopped, they would get out and run and there’d be nothing to identify them.”
Sharon gulped and wiped the tears from her eyes before they could run down her cheeks. “Sheriff, Morrison is the shorter man I saw with Jeremy and Cassidy that day in town. Do you think Jeremy was part of their group? Why would he even be friendly with low lives such as that when he had more than the average person?”
“I think I can make an educated guess,” Lynn spoke. “Jeremy was spoiled rotten by his mother and was never restricted for anything. He was never at fault for anything that happened. In the military he had to follow rules just like everyone else and had to answer to officers who would not excuse him. He probably got bored and started taking drugs as a defiance. It was exciting and a challenge for him to steal cars and sell drugs. It was his way of thumbing his nose at authority. He was more than likely in deeper than he ever intended to be.”
David continued. “The drugs and alcohol caused his mood swings. He must have felt so sick at times and couldn’t let on.”
Keanu put an arm around Sharon. “We’ve done all we can do for the time being. Let’s go home. I’m sure the sheriff will be in touch as soon as he knows what will be done next.”
Sheriff Howell thanked them and told Sharon he was sorry that she had to be exposed to such happenings. David and Keanu hurried Lynn and Sharon out to the car before they might run into the two criminal again. It was a quiet ride home.
David reined in his thoughts. He wanted so badly to pressure Sharon into making a commitment, but he knew the time was not right. She was trying to sort out her past and, what she considered, her considerable mistakes. He struggled to find the words to reassure her that she was being harder on herself than anyone else was.
Keanu had mixed thoughts. He wondered how the students in Zephyrhills High would accept him next week and he fretted that he might miss out on some of the excitement of the arrests, the investigation and the trial.