Justice Lost (Darren Street #3)(51)

I watched him for a few minutes and saw him begin to fool with his phone again. Suddenly, country music filled the air. He liked it pretty loud, because I could hear it clearly from where I was floating out in the river. The song that was playing was “’Round Here Buzz” by Eric Church. Perfect, I thought, but I wished I’d bought one of the sets of binoculars I’d seen that had a video camera with audio capabilities. It would have been great to have a video of the district attorney smoking dope on his patio and listening to that particular song by Eric Church.

A few seconds later, I heard a small dog begin to bark excitedly, and I saw movement to Morris’s left. A figure approached him carrying a handgun with a silencer attached to it. It was so clear through the binoculars, it was like watching a movie, and it played out as though in slow motion. Morris started to rise from the table, but the handgun belched a small amount of fire and smoke about a foot from his face, and Morris went straight over on his back.

“Oh, shit,” I said quietly. “Oh, shit. Somebody just shot him.”

I watched the figure who shot Morris in the head run straight toward me. At the same time, I looked back to the kitchen to see whether Morris’s wife had heard or seen anything when another figure in dark clothing and wearing a mask walked up behind her and shot her twice in the back of the head. The second figure turned and disappeared. I trained the binoculars back to where the first person was running and noticed a large bass boat with no running lights sliding along the water from my left. It pulled up beside Morris’s dock just long enough for the person who shot Morris to jump into the boat. That person was followed about five seconds later by another I assumed to be the one who had shot Gwyn Morris. The bass boat’s engine roared to life, and they were gone. There was one other person in the boat, the driver. It had to be a man because I’d never seen a woman that large. I’d also never seen a woman who wore two pearl-handled pistols in holsters tied to her thighs. All three of them were wearing ski masks, and there wasn’t a single thing about the boat I could identify, other than it was fast. It took off with a deep-throated roar and was out of sight in less than a minute.

I sat there, stunned, not knowing what to do. I’d just witnessed the murder of the district attorney and his wife. I was almost certain the sheriff was driving the boat, both because of his size and because of the pistols, but I couldn’t tell anyone. If I called 9-1-1 and reported it, even from the prepaid cell I was carrying, my voice would be on the tape, and someone would recognize it because I was certainly about to become a suspect. I sat there and looked at the patio for several more seconds. The dog continued to go crazy, and pretty soon a neighbor’s porch light came on and I heard a voice call out.

I pulled up the anchor and headed back toward the dock where I’d rented the boat. I knew it wouldn’t be long before the place was crawling with cops.





CHAPTER 28

I drove home quickly and sat down on the couch. I was trembling and my mind was racing. I knew I’d be at the top of the list of suspects, and I figured the cops would come knocking around 6:00 a.m. I turned on the television and watched it mindlessly for a couple of hours. My phone ringing brought me out of the trance.

“Have you heard?” It was Claire’s voice.

“Heard what?”

“Stephen Morris is dead.”

I knew it, of course, but I had to act like I didn’t, so I didn’t make a sound. I wanted her to think I was in shock.

“Darren, are you there?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m here. Did I just hear you say Stephen Morris is dead?”

“You did. And so is his wife.”

“His wife?”

“Yes. Where were you tonight?”

“Here. I’ve been here going over these organizational charts and working on the acceptance speech you wrote for me. Hold on a second, Claire. Why are you asking me where I’ve been? How did they die?”

“The best information I have, and it comes from a solid source, is that somebody shot Morris while he was sitting outside his house on the patio. They shot his wife in the kitchen.”

“So they were murdered, which means I’ll be a suspect.”

“That would be my guess, yes.”

“Fantastic. What effect will this have on the election?”

“Unless they indict you and convict you by Tuesday, I guess you’re the new district attorney general.”

“I didn’t want it this way.”

“Neither did I. How will you handle the police when they come?”

“I’ll be more cordial to them than I’ve been in the past, but I won’t tell them much.”

“They’re going to be all over this, Darren. It’s embarrassing for them.”

“Morris lived in the county, didn’t he? He had twenty-five acres out on the Tennessee River.”

“You’re right,” Claire said. “The city won’t even have jurisdiction. The sheriff’s department will be investigating.”

“That’s just perfect.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because that’s like the fox investigating who killed the hens. I’d bet my right arm the sheriff had something to do with this.”

“Why? Why would the sheriff want Morris dead?” Claire said. “It seems to me he’d want to keep him on so they could keep their games running.”