When Ghosts Come Home(81)

Janelle and Winston locked eyes for a long moment. She squinted against the bright light of his flashlight, his weapon pointed squarely at her chest. He lowered his gun slowly, bringing it down to aim once again at the figure in the bushes, a person whose identity he was pretty sure he now knew.

Winston kept his eyes locked on the area beneath the window that was bathed in light, but he could hear Janelle unlocking and then opening the window.

“Jay,” she called out. “Jay, what did you do?”

“Come out of those bushes, Jay,” Winston said. “This isn’t a big deal. Nobody got hurt. Nobody has to. Just show me that your hands are empty.”

The boy lifted his hands above his head over the top of the shrubs.

“Keep them up, and come on out,” Winston said. He could hear the siren from Glenn’s cruiser growing closer. The bushes began to move, and then the boy stepped out into the open. Winston was surprised at how young he looked, at what a kid he actually was, and he couldn’t understand how he’d mistaken his fleeing figure for a man’s.

“Jay, I want you to keep your hands in the air,” Winston said, “and I want you to turn around and walk backward toward me.”

The kid did as he was told. Over the kid’s shoulder, Winston could see Janelle watching the scene from the window.

“What did he do?” she asked. “He lives here, Sheriff. That’s my little brother. He wasn’t breaking in. He’s only fourteen.”

“Keep coming,” Winston said, doing his best to block out Janelle’s face and her voice coming from the open window.

“What did he do?” she asked again, but by that time Jay had walked backward all the way to Winston, and Winston had holstered his gun and flashlight and removed his handcuffs from his belt. He closed his fingers around Jay’s narrow wrists and clasped the handcuffs around them. He picked up his radio where he’d tossed it on the ground. “Suspect in custody,” he said.

Winston turned Jay around so they were facing one another.

“You’re under arrest on suspicion of arson,” he said. “You have the right to remain silent—”

“I’m calling Ed,” Janelle hollered from the window. More porch lights and floodlights had come on in the houses around them, and the yards were suddenly lit up as if it were early morning.

Winston finished reciting Jay’s rights, and then he led him around through a little gate to the front yard, where Glenn was waiting for them, his cruiser parked out by the road.

“I didn’t do anything,” Jay whispered when he saw Glenn’s cruiser, the lights still spinning in reds and blues atop it.

“Okay, Jay,” Winston said. “Let’s just get ahold of Mr. Bellamy. And then we’ll find a lawyer for you.”

“He wants to ride through here at night and scare my sister? He’ll see.”

“Okay, Jay,” Winston said again. “Please don’t say anything else until we get ahold of Ed.” Winston led Jay toward the top of the yard, where Glenn stood, the back door of his cruiser open and waiting.

In the distance, Winston heard the sound of another automobile coming toward them, and he listened as it grew closer. All the adrenaline that had abated once he’d handcuffed Jay now flooded back into his bloodstream. He could feel his body reactivating to a threat he feared was on the way.

Bradley Frye’s truck careened down the dark, quiet street and screeched to a stop in front of Glenn’s cruiser about thirty yards away. The truck Englehart had been driving pulled in behind him. Frye burst from behind the wheel, his gun already in his hand. Englehart climbed out of his truck too, and Winston could see that he was still holding the rifle he’d fired earlier. He left the driver’s-side door open and took up a position behind it. Frye pounded across the yard toward Winston and Jay. He stopped ten feet from them and raised his pistol, pointing it at the boy. At the top of the yard, Winston saw Glenn draw his pistol and point it at Frye’s back.

“Give him to me,” Frye said.

Winston held on to Jay’s forearm. With his free hand, he laid his fingers on his .38 where it sat holstered on his belt. “Put that weapon away, Brad. And go home. There’s no reason for you to be here.”

“I told you,” Frye said. “I told you they’re wild. And you ain’t doing a damn thing about it.”

Through the woods behind them, Winston heard the curl of a fire truck’s siren as it pulled into Plantation Cove. At the sound, Frye turned his head while keeping his eyes on Jay. He hollered over his shoulder to Englehart, “Get back over there, Billy. You get that under control.” Englehart scrambled back into his truck and turned it around and drove back up the road.

“You get out of here too, Brad,” Winston said. The tips of his fingers remained on his pistol. Winston saw that Frye’s eyes were wild with anger and nerves, and Winston feared that Frye was capable of doing just about anything.

“Give him to me,” Frye said again. He moved his pistol from Jay to Winston. Winston drew his weapon and pointed it at Frye.

The only sounds Winston could hear were his own breathing and the rumble of Frye’s truck where it idled in the road. Behind him, Winston heard the door to Janelle’s house open, and then he felt Jay tear loose from his grasp. He didn’t turn to see where Jay was running; instead, he watched Frye swing his pistol around and draw a bead on Jay as he sprinted toward Janelle and the open front door.