Page 63 of Justice for JoElla

Mouthing the words wasn’t working. She couldn’t understand him. Instead, he took her hand, flattened it, and wrote three words in succession?Lance,Anton,brothers.Just as he could tell the realization had hit her, a voice called out, “JoElla? JoElla, I know you’re in here somewhere. Might as well come out. I’ll find you.” Brandon shook his head at her, but the glare she gave him told him she wasn’t going to be listening to anything he had to say. She flattened his palm and wrote,Fucking stay here. “JoElla, don’t make this take longer than it has to.”

JoElla stood and Brandon tried to drag her back down, but it was no use. Her mind was made up, and there was no changing it. Horrified, he watched as she moved carefully and silently through the maze of machines toward the sound of Lance’s voice. Regardless of her instructions, he did the same, shadowing her from a distance, and he stopped when she stepped into the light, careful to stay in the shadows until he had to move.

“What are you doing here?”

Brandon heard Lance chuckle. “I’m going to finish what I started.”

“I know you and Warmuth are brothers,” she countered.Damn, I wish you hadn’t led with that, Brandon thought.

“Took you long enough to figure it out.”

“Yeah, well, I try to keep you out of my mind as much as possible.”

“But you haven’t been able to, and that’s your downfall. You know, if you’d just gone down the first time, this wouldn’t be necessary.”

Fuck, I never got a chance to tell her about the gunshot wound. She had no idea what he meant. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Ididgo down.”

“Not the way you were supposed to. I still can’t believe one of those fucking gang bangers didn’t do the job, but I wanted to do it myself anyway.”

“I’m really confused, Lance. You got what you wanted?you got me off the force. I know that was your main goal. That wasn’t hard to figure out. But why have you been helping Anton?”

“Because he was useful to me.”

“Useful? He’s about as useless as tits on a boar hog.”

“He had his uses. Oh, he’s outlived them now, but he’d been very useful to us, to me, for a good while.”

“But why Burton and Emma Case? They had nothing to do with anything except their grandson was killed and their daughter was missing.”

“You’re wrong. They’d been talking to you. And anybody who talked to you, I wanted them out of the picture. I couldn’t let you solve this case. Didn’t you wonder why the things that seemed to move it along always happened when you weren’t around?” Brandon thought about it. He was right. She was nowhere around when the Cases were found. She was out tracking down information when Warmuth was arrested. “I had Anton go to northern Kentucky and make himself visible so somebody else would find that woman’s parents and you wouldn’t be present.” When he stopped speaking, he started to laugh. “Stupid bitch! All the guys at the PD wanted you gone. You were too much of a go-getter. They were terrified you’d wind up police chief!” Lance laughed even harder. “You! Police chief!”

“And there’s a good chance I would’ve,” JoElla said, her voice as dispassionate as any Brandon had ever heard.

“And I couldn’t let that happen. So now, I’ve got a good collar on a serial killer, which will make me look good, and you’ll be out of the way once and for all. Shame those fucking gang bangers didn’t do what they were told and I had to shoot you myself.”

“Whaaa… What are you talking about?”

“That gunshot wound in your arm. That was me, stupid. I’m the one who shot you. Didn’t you wonder why all the ballistics reports from that shooting suddenly disappeared? Why they never figured out which slug hit you? Because all the reports were gone, and all the evidence too. That was me?I did that. Plus I knew the direction the bullet had taken, and they didn’t find it. I went to the warehouse later, found it, and dug it out.” Lance stood there and shook his head. “I just wanted you gone, and you wouldn’t go away. I kept an eye on you. I knew where you were and what you were doing. And then RoyBillings had to stick his nose into everything. I think he’ll be my next casualty just for spite. Now, put the gun down. Nice and easy.”

Brandon’s mind screamed,Don’t do it! Don’t put it down!Instead, he watched in horror as she leaned down and placed it gently on the ground. He couldn’t just sit there and wait, so he rose and moved silently toward JoElla. “There. Go ahead. Kill me. But leave Roy and his family alone. He was always kind to me, and he just wanted to help me by hiring me. He wasn’t trying to do anything against you.”

“And yet he hates me.”

“He hates you because of the way you act. You’re an asshole, Lance, pure and simple. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but everybody hates assholes.”

Lance lifted his weapon and leveled it at JoElla. “Guess there’ll be one less hater in a minute. Any last words?”

“Yeah. Go fuck yourself.”

“Good enough for me. Bye, JoElla. I’ll see you in hell someday.” And that was Brandon’s cue.

He leaped from the shadows and hit JoElla squarely in the right shoulder, but not before he heard the gun ring out. There were more sounds, and voices, and the next thing he saw was JoElla’s worried face. “What the fuck, Fox? Why did you do that?”

“I couldn’t sit there and let him kill you.” Brandon coughed. Why did he feel like he was choking?

A voice he recognized asked, “You okay?”

“No. He’s hit. I need some help here. Call nine one one. Brandon? Brandon, stay with me. Listen to me. Open your eyes.”

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