Page 46 of Tom's Chance
“And I believe you.” She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. Since they had been distracted, he and Duane had ordered an extra coffee and he handed that to her now.
“It’s black, but still warm.”
“Thank you.” She took it and took a healthy sip. “Okay let’s sit down, and I’ll try to piece together as much as we have so far. If you answer all my questions now, you won’t have to come into the station.”
“Okay, I guess.” Tom looked at Duane and they both exchanged confused looks.
“Okay, based on witnesses, traffic cameras, and cameras on the side of the businesses in town this is what Jim, and I have come up with so far. Two women were seen and heard drinking together in Gunny’s. It was bad, I’m mean bad enough that RJ cut them off and Jake threatened to kick them out.”
“Who’s RJ?” Duane asked.
“Jake Cogburn’s wife. Gunny’s daughter.”
“Okay, please continue.”
“Anyway, Jake said he overheard these two women saying that how you, Stolls, treated them, you needed to pay for not dating them.” She shook her head and held up her hand. “I’ll get to it. One of them left, drunk, and it wasn’t five minutes later when witnesses said she came running back in and grabbed the other one and dragged her out of the bar. Lessthan twenty minutes later the call from that on-board service called it in.”
“Who were the women?” Tom asked, and clenched both his teeth and hands into fists.
Sparrow wouldn’t look at him as she looked at her notes. “One was Melissa Gallagher, the other was the woman you know as Leslie Warren.”
Tom sucked in his breath, and he looked at Duane in wide-eyed shock. “Those are the two women I had you run the names of. Do you remember? From that dating service?”
“Shit, now I do.”
“Do you still have the reports?”
“Probably on my computer at work, which happens to be at Erin’s Way. I remember that I told Tom to contact the police and have his date with Leslie with plenty of witnesses. I was the one that told him she had at least seven warrants out for her arrest for identity theft.”
“After I arrested her, it turned out to be eleven. All felony charges. I have no idea how she got out on bail.”
“What about Melissa?” Tom asked as he pulled out his phone and accessed the text messages from her. He passed the phone to Sparrow. “This is the only interaction I had with her before you arrested her at Kora’s after she assaulted me. You’ll see at the end, the day is different, and she said she would hunt me down. What I did next was probablycowardly of me, but maybe that’s why this accident happened.”
“Enlighten me,” Sparrow barked out as she did something with his phone, and as she passed his back, said, “I just sent that conversation to my phone.”
“Okay, I have nothing to hide.”
“Good, now enlighten me to what happened that day she was arrested.”
“You just saw the text where she was coming to find me. I was on my way to Kora’s anyway, I needed to fuel up before heading to a ranch. I saw Lorissa in the bakery, she was leaving, but Melissa found me, somehow, and she opened the door and started screaming my name. Lorissa was right there, and I thought I could prove I wasn’t interested by taking Lorissa in my arms and kissing her. Then all hell broke loose.”
“How?”
“As I kissed her, Melissa dug her nails into my arms and spun me around, slapped me across the face, the fire truck pulled up outside, Seth Falco rushed in demanding I come to him because he had animals from a fire.”
He shook his head sadly and sipped his coffee. It was hard to swallow due to the lump in his throat. “He had Baby and Rose from the Bickers fire.”
“Fuck me,” Sparrow said and shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I worked that fire. What happened next?”
“Lorissa stepped up to the plate and rushed after Seth while I dealt with Melissa. I had called Jim the second she slapped me, and Jake and Stone were in the bakery and stood by so she couldn’t get away. I saw through the window Lorissa take the boxes with the animals, put them in her truck, and drive way. As soon as she pulled out, the fire truck left, Jim arrived, and I pressed charges. Jake and Stone were my witnesses, along with Kora Falco.”
“Good, I’m sure Jim got their statements. Can you tell me how you met them?”
Tom shook his head sadly. “My office workers think I’m alone and lonely. They took it upon themselves to sign me up for a dating app. I never knew about it until they told me I had a date. Melissa Gallagher was the first one. The text messages I showed you was in regard to our first date. After the text exchange, when I told her I wasn’t interested, I figured it was over. It was two weeks later that they, my workers, set me up with Leslie Warren. You know how that ended.”
“Yeah. Have there been any more dates from that site?”
“No, and I told my office manager that if it doesn’t work out, she had to take my profile off the site. I don’t know whether she has or not. I haven’t had time to ask. Anyway, before I tried to avoid Melissa by kissing Lorissa, that’s when Lorissa and I started dating. No, that’s not right. I asked her out ona date, but we went to talk to Mrs. Bickers, then when we were at the steak house for our date, I got the call that she had passed.”
