Free All About the Money (A Jesse Watson Mystery Series Book 7) by Ann Mullen Page B

own hands? She might decide to
seek help some other place and hire a hit man. Do you think she might do that?”
    “I don’t know, but I do know that people will do almost
anything to protect themselves. For example, take your mother. Who would have ever
thought she was capable of killing anyone?”
    “That was self-defense, and you know it.”
    “Right, but who’s to say that Flo won’t seek out Downer, blow
him away, and then claim self-defense?”
    I had to laugh. “That’s ridiculous,” I said. “Blow him away?
You’ve been watching too much television.”
    Billy laughed. “I’m not the one who watches all those crime
shows.”
    “I figure I can learn something from them.”
    “Like how to get yourself killed? Real life doesn’t always
end on a high note like it does in the movies. A crime isn’t solved in an hour,
like they are on television. That’s a joke. Too bad it doesn’t though. ”
    After we were on the road again, I asked, “Not to change this
interesting lecture on the ills of believing what you see on television, but
where are we going? You just passed the Sheriff’s Office. I thought we were
going to talk to him.”
    “I didn’t see his SUV out front. We’ll call instead.” Billy
pulled out his cell phone and made the call. “Hello, Sheriff Hudson. This is
Billy. How’s the investigation going? That’s right… Flo Garner.”
    The conversation was short. From the way it sounded, Billy
wasn’t getting anywhere with the sheriff. When he closed his cell phone, he
glanced at me and said, “They don’t have anything yet, but I did get some news
about Savannah .”
    We were coming to the intersection at Rt. 33 and Rt.29 when
Billy had to swerve to keep from hitting a car that tried to pass us. He
managed to regain control of the truck and brought it to a stop just in time.
We looked around to find the car, but it had disappeared into the heavy
traffic.
    “Where’d he go?” Billy asked, irked. “He could’ve killed us.”
    “Was he trying to run us off the road?”
    “I don’t know, but he almost did.”
    “I didn’t even have a chance to see what color the car was.
It all happened so fast.”
    “It was a red Dodge Charger,” Billy said as he turned right
at the light. “I caught a quick glimpse of the front end as he zoomed past us.
Idiot.”
    “Do you think it was a bad driver, or someone trying to send
us a message?”
    “I thought of both the minute it happened.”
    Billy’s cell phone beeped. He picked it up and flipped it
open. “Hello, brother,” he said. “What do you have for me?” Billy listened, and
then said, “I want you to find out who owns a red, Dodge Charger. The first
three letters on the plate are ZMK. Sorry, but that’s all I have.” A few
minutes later, Billy closed the phone and said, “Jonathan’s been doing some
checking for me.”
    I was surprised that Billy even got a look at the license
plate, but then again, he’s very observant. I should’ve known he would see more
than I did. He has eyes like a hawk... as they say.
    “You have good eyes,” I said. “I barely saw the car, let
alone the license plate.”
    “I’m an Indian. We don’t miss much.”
    I laughed, and then said, “Maybe we should add Jonathan’s
name to the front door of our detective agency. He works with us on just about
every case.”
    “He likes to help, but he wouldn’t want to be committed.
Putting his name on…”
    “I was just kidding.”
    Billy smiled. “He ran a background check on Downer Rhodes for
us. He’s got a layout of his house, including the security system, which will
be just what we need if we decide to bug his place like Flo suggested.”
    “I don’t think I like her plan. It seems too risky, and if we
do get anything on him, we can’t use it in court.”
    “That’s why I’ve come up with a better plan. Jonathan says
that Downer lives at 56
Jack Rabbit Road . We
got lucky on this one. It just so happens that the property next to