When the police department searched her house, they found the evidence that Georgia used in her attempt to blackmail Jack Wallace. That alone wasn’t sufficient evidence to tie her to the murder because she could’ve easily said she was holding it for Georgia. But when coupled with the pair of shoes they found in her garage that had minuscule drops of blood on them, things started to look up.
That wasn’t the only thing interesting they found in Wanda’s garage. They found a pair of snips that had brake fluid on them. After some digging, it was discovered that Wanda’s grandfather, and then later her father, owned an auto repair shop many years prior. In fact, it was so long ago that only the oldest citizens remembered it. Adrian’s grandfather had told him about it so the search team knew to look for any tool sharp enough to cut brake lines.
“I still can’t believe she crawled beneath his car in the winter and cut the lines,” I had said to Adrian when he stopped over after the search was concluded.
“That’s how much she hated him.” Adrian shook his head.
Adrian, the best partner on the planet, snuck me into the station so I could watch the interrogation through a monitor in the equipment room. Captain Reardon was too busy playing the role of bad cop to know that I was in the station. When faced with the evidence against her, Wanda Honeycutt confessed to everything but the vandalism. She was adamant that she didn’t do it and we couldn’t prove differently so unfortunately that part of the case was still open.
“Georgia was going to replace me,” she said tearfully. “I didn’t have a choice. No one could take care of her like I did.” Her voice and expression switched rapidly from sad to angry. “That was the thanks she was going to give me after everything I did for her after that bastard broke her heart. She was going to take him back and start a new life that didn’t include me. She thought I was too old to do my job.” By that time Wanda’s eyes were protruding from her sockets and veins were popped out on her forehead. “They both got what they deserved.” Spittle flew from her mouth and her small, balled-up fists pounded the table angrily.
“I don’t think she’s sane,” I told Adrian once we left the station. “I don’t see her doing hard time. Do you?”
“Probably not, partner.”
“Thank you for today, Adrian.” I reached over and held up my fist for a bump. “It means a lot to me.”
“Anytime.”
I got out and entered through the back of the salon and found Josh waiting for me upstairs with his hands on his hips. I wisely kept my mouth shut, but he honestly looked like a pissed off Diva – not unlike those reality housewife shows he seemed to be addicted to watching.
“Where have you been?”
“Um…”
“Was that Adrian I saw bringing you home? Were you at the police station after you’ve been put on leave for a week?”
“I…”
“Gabe, what am I going to do with you?” Josh asked.
The best thing to come out of my injury and downtime at work was getting to spend it with Josh, who insisted I come home with him for a few days so he could look after me once I had been released from County General. I wanted to bristle and say that I didn’t need to be babied, but I saw something in his eyes that cautioned me to keep silent and accept his offer. It wasn’t the warning look I received when I returned from sneaking off to the police station with Adrian. No, that look was softer and affectionate. What kind of dumbass resisted Josh’s hard-to-obtain affections?
Josh packed a bag for me, grabbed Buddy’s dishes and toys, and moved us into his house. I worried that Buddy and Diva wouldn’t get along. I had visions of Buddy chasing her through the house and making her miserable, but he completely ignored her. True to her name, Diva wanted no part of being ignored. She would puff up on the back of the couch in hopes of getting his attention, but he continued to ignore her in favor of playing with Jazzy the ferret. Diva would even jump in front of him and hiss in hopes of getting his attention, but he continued to play hard to get until she gave up. Only then did he press his nose to hers to introduce himself.
I thought my dog might be onto something with his tactics and took mental notes for the next time Josh baited me into an argument. I think he wanted to push me to see if I’d run off or stick around. I had no intention of running from him and it was past time for him to realize it.
I spent those days at Josh’s house soaking up his affections and resting. Adrian and Sally Ann visited frequently, as did Josh’s salon employees, who I learned he loved and treated like family. When Josh was busy downstairs, I entertained myself with television, movies, or coloring in the adult coloring book full of swear words that Sally Ann gave me when I was first released from the hospital. Hell, even I learned new words that I didn’t know and did my damnedest to teach them to Savage.
Josh wasn’t impressed when he came home the second day of my stay and Savage squawked out, “Fucknugget,” as loud as he could. I tried to shrug like I didn’t know where he’d heard it, but it wasn’t very convincing when I was doubled up in a fit of laughter.
“Oh, it hurts,” I said, in between peals of laughter.
“It’s going to hurt really bad if you keep it up,” Josh said, trying for fierce, but failing miserably as he fought back laughter.
“Fucknugget,” Savage squawked again.
“That’s enough out of you, Savage,” Josh said firmly before turning on me. “I can’t have him talking like that when he’s down in my salon.”
“Really, Josh? I seem to recall the ladies laugh hysterically when Savage confessed that he liked big cocks and couldn’t lie.” I looked at him pointedly and he ignored me in favor of turning his ire back to the bird.
“Bad bird,” Josh said to Savage.
“Up yours,” was Savage’s reply. Damn, I loved that dirty bird.
My favorite part was the nights, of course. Josh curled into me and I had never slept better in my life, except the first night when he had been instructed that he needed to wake me every two hours. He didn’t exactly follow the script when he asked questions like, “Who’s your daddy?” or “How many cocks do you see?” as he pulled down his brightly colored bikini briefs to flash me.
Josh seemed to enjoy sleeping next to me just as much, except for one night when he woke us both from thrashing around in the bed. I recognized that he was having a terrible nightmare and carefully woke him up. His eyes had been wide with fright before he closed them in relief that it had only been a bad dream.
