AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No. ” Like an animal, Nadine’s lips curled back from her teeth and her eyes glittered with malicious glee.
“Who would he have told?”
“No one. He didn’t do it. ”
“You’re saying the Mackay cousins framed him?”
“That’s exactly what happened. ” Nadine’s teeth snapped together.
“Why would they do that, Mrs. Grace?”
“They always hated Johnny. He was always smarter; he always did what was right. They hated him for it. ”
“Was James Dawg Mackay aware Johnny was also the biological son of his father, your brother Chandler Mackay?”
“That’s a lie. ” Nadine nearly screamed the word, hatred burning hard and bright in her eyes.
Chaya watched her carefully now. “Mrs. Grace, we have a recorded statement of your son bragging about those crimes. Just as he admitted to being the son of Chandler Mackay, your deceased brother. DNA testing from blood collected after his death and compared to James Mackay’s, proves this to be the case. Are you stating, for the record, that your son was not conceived in an incestuous relationship between yourself and your deceased brother, Chandler Mackay?”
This was the part Chaya hated. The part she had argued and fought Cranston over for days before leaving for Somerset.
Nadine was silent. She drew in a hard, deep breath.
“I want to call my lawyer now,” she stated.
Chaya flipped off the recorder and placed it back in her briefcase before standing. Sheriff Mayes followed suit, his expression granite hard as he glanced at Nadine Grace, then to Chaya.
“You do that, Mrs. Grace,” Chaya told her softly. “And when you do, perhaps you had better warn him to advise you on your rights should you lie under oath. Because the next time we question you, you will be under oath. ”
“There won’t be a next time,” Nadine spat back at her.
Chaya smiled and walked back to the front door, where she put her boots back on before straightening and staring back at the other woman.
“There will be a next time, Mrs. Grace. I’d contact that lawyer if I were you. You’re going to need him. ”
She didn’t give the other woman time to protest but stepped out of the house and moved toward the sheriff’s cruiser. Natches was still sitting on the other side of the street, staring at her, his expression hard but thoughtful as she and the sheriff got back into the cruiser.
“Would you like to tell me what the hell was going on in there?” Sheriff Mayes asked her carefully, coldly. “No matter what he did, Agent Dane, she was still his mother. And you showed no respect for that. ”
No, she hadn’t, and it didn’t sit well with her, but she knew Timothy’s suspicions and she knew the evidence he had amassed so far. At this point, she couldn’t afford to worry about respect.
“Sometimes, Sheriff, we all have to do things we don’t particularly like, as you reminded me yesterday,” she finally answered, glancing at him as he reversed out of the driveway and passed Natches’s jeep. “Have you ever had to arrest a friend? Did the fact that he was your friend sway you from your sworn duty to arrest him?”
He spared her a brief, flinty glance. “No, it did not. ”
“The fact that she’s a mother can’t sway me from mine, and there’s a difference between her and Clayton Winston,” she informed him. “Johnny Grace killed an innocent soldier, stole those missiles and their guidance chips, and negotiated a rather low price for them. The money is missing, and pertinent information regarding the whole deal is missing. He had another partner. Nadine Grace was lying for her son; Clayton Winston didn’t. And I want to know what she was lying about. ”
“And you think it was his mother helping him?” He clearly didn’t think it was, but then neither did she.
“What I think doesn’t matter. I have a clear set of questions for each person I’m interviewing. Those recordings will be transferred to DHS, where they will be gone over by the experts there and determinations made as to who will be pulled into formal interrogation. DHS won’t let this go. ”
Sheriff Mayes wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t letting it go either, but he clearly wasn’t saying anything more.
“Who’s next on your little list then?” he finally asked.
“Wenden Frakes,” she answered.
“Shit,” he breathed out. “Johnny’s uncle. ”
