Page 52 of Justice for Daesha

“Had to try one last time. I’ll talk to you later tonight?”

“You can bet on it, beautiful.” He watched her grab her bag and open the garage door. She stopped there and gave him a little wave before she closed it behind her.

He gathered up all his dirty clothes and put them in the basket in the bedroom, then carried them to the back of the Jeep. It would be a long night without her, but they needed to test the waters. They’d be choppy without her, he was pretty sure.

Two hours later, the washer and dryer were humming along. As they worked, Amos worked too. He dug a little deeper into the Kelsos. A few years back, there had been an accusation of inappropriate behavior lodged against Mr.Kelso by a young intern, but an investigation turned up nothing. His business had been in trouble once when it was discovered they were hiring undocumented aliens. What business?

More digging, and up popped a website. Kelso Holdings,LLC. What was that? It appeared there were several companies under its umbrella, and when he finally found the list of them, he wasn’t surprised at all. Sure enough, listed there, with a few others, were KelsoCustom Percussion, K-Fabuleuse, and KelsoPerformance. The sons hated their father. They believed he’d killed Dorinda. But they wouldn’t buck him because he actually owned their businesses. In a panic, Amos checked down the list. Thankfully, CheekyDonuts didn’t appear there. That would’ve been a mess for sure. Still, he sent a quick text to Daesha:Please tell me Kelso doesn’t have any interest in your father’s business.

He got one back almost immediately:No. None.

Thx. Love you.

YW <3U2

That made him smile. He was in the clear on that one.

In another hour, all the clothes were finished and either folded or hung up, and Amos was still prowling around on the computer, although his prowling had deteriorated into watching videos of cute puppies and soft porn. Not together, of course. Just whatever happened to drift by.God, I’m so pathetic, he thought with a chuckle. He wondered if she was finished with rehearsal yet and checked his phone. Nothing.

There were a couple of coffee mugs in the sink, so he washed those. He was reaching for a towel to dry his hands when his phone rang, and it was Daesha’s ringtone, Nickelback’s “Here Without You.” That was pretty appropriate for a Thursday night too. “Hey, babe.”

Her panicked voice shot out of the phone. “Amos!”

“Babe, what’s wrong?” He’d never been one to be afraid, but fear coursed through his body in a flood.

“Somebody left a note on my windshield! I’m scared!”

“Are you alone?”

“No. Gary and Barry are standing here with me,” she answered, but it came out as more of a whimper.

“Call the police. I’m on my way. And get in the car and lock the doors, you hear me?”

“Yeah, okay.” She started to cry.

“Put Gary on the phone.”

There was a shuffling sound and a male voice said, “Hey, Amos. She’s okay. We won’t leave her.”

“Thank you, and please, don’t.”

“Barry’s calling the cops now. You coming?”

“You bet. I’ll be there as soon as I can get there. Tell me where I’m going.”

“We’re at the VFW lodge in Shepherdsville. They let us use it.”

“On my way. Please, don’t leave her.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, my friend. See you when you get here.”

Amos hung up and scurried around. He didn’t have time to pick up anything, just his wallet and keys, and that was fine. It would take him about thirty minutes to get there after he finally got on the road. It had been raining just a little, so he drove as fast as he dared.

The little VFW hall was kind of out in the middle of nowhere, and there were four cars there when he pulled up, one of them Daesha’s. The fourth was a BullittCounty Sheriff’s Department cruiser. As soon as he got out of the Jeep, he saw Daesha flying toward him. When she hit him, she almost knocked him down, but she was safe in his arms. That was all that mattered. “Baby, you okay?”

“Yeah, just scared. I told the deputy he’d want to talk to you about this.” When she finally turned loose of his neck, they walked hand in hand back to where the cruiser sat. “This is AmosFletcher. He’s a KDCI agent.”

“Hey, man, haven’t seen you in a while!” The deputy was laughing as he shook hands with Amos.

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