A Crying Shame: A Jesse Watson Mystery Read Online Free

never seen either one, but was sure they existed because she’d seen the
real estate tax bills. She asked Carl if they could spend their vacation at the
house in Florida once, but he refused. He claimed it
made him sad… memories of his dead parents and all that bull. I think he’s full
of crap. He probably made the whole thing up. He’s a cheating husband. If they
cheat—they lie!”
    That last little tidbit about cheating husbands was ignored.
    “Having more than one place and each being so far apart, does
create a problem,” Jonathan said as he sipped his coffee.
    “Yeah, that’s a lot of ground to cover,” Robert added.
    “We’ll worry about that later.” Billy turned to me and said,
“Call Claire and find out all you can about those other two places and then
search the net for anything else you can find. Check and see if the sheriff has
called her. I’m sure that by now he’s called the D.C. Police Department and
they’ve already been to Carl’s house. That deputy was right. If Carl’s there,
I’m sure he told them that his wife knows he has the kids and that it was
prearranged. Call me as soon as you talk to Claire.”
    “Are you taking your truck? You know the phone in it isn’t
working right. You don’t have a cell phone and mine isn’t charged enough for
you to use. How will I reach you?”
    Billy rattled off each of his brother’s numbers as I quickly
wrote them down on a notepad.
    “Jonathan’s driving my truck while I catch a few winks, and
Robert will be riding with Daniel. I’ll call you as soon as we get to D.C. Give
us about two hours.”
    “What if I call Claire and she says the cops went to Carl’s
house and he wasn’t there?”
    “We’re still going to his house to see for ourselves,” Billy
replied as he got up from the table and headed to the front door. “He could be
hiding.”
    I wrapped my arms around his neck and gave him a quick kiss.
“Be careful. Call me the minute you have the kids.”
    “You know I will,” Billy said. “Take care of my little
warrior.” He patted my stomach.
    “Your little princess is going to be fine,” I said. I blew
him a kiss as he walked out and closed the door.
    Athena and Thor jumped up from their spot by the fireplace
and ran up to me. They both looked as if they knew what was going on and they
didn’t like it one bit. Thor barked at the door and Athena howled behind him. I
knew they were going to be my shadows until Billy returned. I shooed them back
over to the fireplace as I sat down on the sofa, thinking about what my next
step would be. I looked around the house.
    Even though this was once the house Billy had shared with his
first wife, Ruth, and their two boys, it was now our home. Most women would
freak out at the idea of living in some other woman’s house, but not me. I
didn’t have a problem with the past memories of this place, because Billy and I
were going to make new ones. The way I see it, this was Blackhawk land and
belonged to the woman who loved her man enough to keep her family going, and to
make each day as happy as it can be. Ruth relinquished that right a long time
ago when she left Billy. I, on the other hand, was ready to dig in.
    Billy and I live at Number Two, Bear Mountain Road in Albemarle County .
A graveled driveway leads to our secluded, two-story log cabin, and our home is
surrounded by woods and wildlife. I love the privacy and spectacular views.
Mountain tops line the sky.
    Like so many other places in this rural area, Bear Mountain Road is a private road leading into a
large area of private, family homes. In this case, all the homes were part of
the Blackhawk Compound. There are seven such homes, and each sits on several
acres of land. There’s one house each for Billy, his three brothers, and two
sisters, and at the end of the road is the home of Chief “Sam” Standing Deer
and Sarah Blackhawk. Billy said his folks planned it that way. I can’t blame
them. They have a big family and this