Free Searching for a New Home by Karen Ward

smiling and shaking
hands with the prosecutor. What is going on? Where did the judge
go?
    Smiling, Jacob walks over to the Defense
table, grabs me around the waist and swings me around. "It's over,
you're free!" he says happily.
    I have to place my arms on Jacob's shoulders
to keep from falling. I am dizzy with relief. "I'm really free,
it's over?"
    "You're really free. Come on, let's go get
some lunch and I'll explain everything to you." says Jacob.
    Jacob and I are joined at the restaurant by a
tall, good looking man he introduces as Tom Christenson. Jacob
tells me Tom is a private investigator and had a lot to do with
what happened in court today.
    After we are seated and have placed our
orders, Jacob looks at me and says, "Jana, when you left the hotel
that morning in Casper, you were followed not only by Frank Gibbons
but also by a man named Sam Willard. Have you ever heard of
him?"
    "No. I'm confused. Should I know him?"
    "I didn't think you did. Evidently Sam was
following Frank and not you. Anyway he trailed you and Frank for
the whole time. Tom found surveillance video from several of your
stops along the way that showed both Frank's blue pickup and Sam's
dark four door sedan.
    When you stopped at The Bullet Trap in
Bozeman you gave Sam the perfect opportunity to blame you when he
murdered Frank which was his intention all along. Both of you
played right into his hands with the argument inside the
restaurant. Sam watched you practicing with your Glock at the
Bullet Trap and he watched you put it in the console of your car
when you left. Tom here found video of him breaking into your car
when you stopped for gas and taking your Glock out of the console.
That was the evidence the prosecutor needed to ask for the
dismissal. He had to have an explanation how your gun got into
somebody else's hands. Anyway, our theory is that Sam is the person
that yelled at Frank and distracted him when he was attacking you
in the parking lot. Frank was trying to get to his truck and his
weapon when Sam shot him with your gun. He then tossed the gun in
some bushes where it was found by the police linking you to the
murder. He left the scene before anyone came out of the
restaurant."
    "So that dark sedan really was following me?
What made you check it out?"
    "Billy Bragg also mentioned a dark sedan
driving by the restaurant real slow. Billy is the one that stole
your blue tooth headset out of the console. He also said he didn't
see a gun in the console when he was in your car. That's when we
decided to look further" explains Jacob.
    "And where is this Sam person now?"
    Tom picks up the story "Sam isn't a nice
person. He is wanted by the FBI for several murders and they have
been searching for him for years. He is still on the run somewhere.
We are still trying to locate him. Until we know for sure where he
is, don't leave the ranch alone. We don't think he is after you,
but the truth is, we don't know for sure what he is after."
    After lunch, Jacob shakes hands and says
goodbye to Tom and then after a stop at the courthouse to pick up
my Glock and the twenty thousand dollars from the sale of my house
we head for the airport in Butte.
    ******
    Sam Willard slides down further in the seat
of his car. He knew Jana Bowen's trial for the murder of Frank
Gibbons was this morning and he has been waiting for them to exit
the courthouse. He recognizes the man that is with her. He is the
famous lawyer that represented that movie star, Barry Farrady, a
few years ago. If he remembers correctly, he has a ranch near Cody
Wyoming. That must be where she has the money hidden. That is the
only reason Gibbons would have had for following her. He had
searched Frank Gibbon's pickup at the restaurant in Dillon before
he and the blonde came outside so he knows the money was not in the
truck.
    No problem, he will mosey on down to Cody
Wyoming and find the money wherever she has it hidden. He has all
the time in the world.
    ******
    Jacob changes his clothes on the