Free Dumping Grounds (Joshua Stokes Mysteries Book 1) by Lila Beckham Page B

was hired to replace one of the deputy’s who was killed in a shootout back in November. That too, was a very trying time for Joshua. It was the first time in his 30 years as sheriff that he had lost deputies to such violence. The shootout followed a high-speed chase through the Wheelerville Community.
    The chase was between a Mobile County Sheriff’s Officer and two teenage boys suspected of mercilessly beating and robbing the couple that ran a small grocery store in Mount Vernon, Alabama, just north of Mobile.
    When Gary Latham, who was the passenger in the car the deputy was chasing, reportedly began firing on the deputy, the chase turned deadly.
    Gary Latham and Michael Williams were once good boys. However, they had gotten on drugs and into no telling what else. Then the boys had just gone rotten to the core. Latham’s parents were pillars of the community; therefore, his association with the lower classed Williams was blamed for his wrongdoings.
    Williams died in the shootout; some suspected that Latham had killed him, either intentionally or accidentally. Then panicked, and struck out through the swamp where the shootout took place and headed toward Mississippi.
    Jackson County Mississippi deputies finally apprehended him several hours later.
    Stokes did not know for sure what all had taken place during the shootout. All he knew was that by the time he got into the swamp where his deputies had chased the two suspects, two of his deputies were dead, another one wounded, and Michael Williams, who was a good sixty feet away, through dense undergrowth, was also dead.
    Latham had gone solo and was on the lamb, reportedly heard running through the swamp as soon as the gunfire ceased.
    There were probably 300 law enforcement officers from surrounding towns and counties, converging on the swamp by the time Joshua got there. He was all the way up on Roberts Road, in Turnersville, when the chase began and that was a good twenty miles as the crow flies. He knew it was at least thirty miles driving.
    Latham was convicted; he would probably spend the rest of his life in prison. After all, he had participated in the murder of three people, two of them sheriff’s deputies. Joshua felt no pity for Latham, only his folks. They were good people.
    Deputy Davis’ pleas were ignored though. Joshua’s mind was made up and currently on more pressing matters.
    “Davis, I am not going to the hospital, so you may as well just cease your arguments right now. You are not going to change my mind. That goes for you too, Cookie,” the Sheriff informed them.
    “But Sheriff”
    “No butts’ about it, Davis; I said no and I meant no, plain and simple,” Stokes stated, “Now, if that is all y’all come to do, you can go ahead and leave. I’m tired. I just want to sit here a spell, drink a couple of bottles of booze if that’s what it takes, until I can relax enough to get some sleep. Is that clear?”
    “Yes Sir,” they mumbled simultaneously, turning to leave.
    “Cookie,” Stokes called to his deputy.
    “Yes Sir?” Cook questioned turning back toward Joshua.
    “I’m going to need another patrol car. Tell them boys at the garage to get that underway; meantime, I’ll drive my truck if I have to go anywhere.”
    “Yes Sir, I’ll see to it as soon as possible.” Stokes poured himself some more liquor, lit a cigarette, and then propped his feet back onto the railings of the porch.
    The squirrels were back to running and playing through the moss in the trees, but now, a lonesome dove had perched somewhere nearby, and was making himself heard.
    Joshua had read somewhere that doves mated for life. Maybe it was searching for its mate by cooing the mournful call into the surrounding forest…
    Its sad and lonesome call left Joshua feeling sad and lonely too. He thought about Kathy, suddenly wishing she were not a married woman. He sure could use some female companionship to soothe his aching loneliness right now.
    He closed his eyes