Janita and Von didn’t delay. They hurried behind him as he went to his five-car garage on the side of his house, grabbed the keys to his Maserati Quattroporte, and tossed them to Von.
Von was surprised and thrilled. “Me?”
“You said you preferred a Massi. Drive,” he ordered as he and Janita got in on the backseat.
Von drove alright. They all jerked backwards when he sped out of that garage so fast that it felt as if they had just been launched from a cannon. And it got even faster from there.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Hawk and Janita got out of that Maserati feeling as if they’d been on a wild circus ride the way Von drove them there, but Von bounced out from the driver’s seat like a young man living the dream. They all headed for Greta Jacobs’ front door.
“Is that her car?” Janita asked as they walked past an older model Toyota Corolla.
“I have no idea,” Hawk said. He didn’t know what his secretary drove. He didn’t know anything about her personal life nor the personal lives of any of his staffers. Which, now that he thought about it, was a shame.
He rang her doorbell, got no answer, and then knocked vigorously on her front door. But still no answer.
While Janita looked through the windows around front, Von went to the side. “Hawk!” he yelled out.
When they heard him call, they hurried around to the side of the modest home too. Von was at a sliding glass door. “It’s unlocked,” he said.
Hawk quickly slid it open and then the three of them walked inside what was a kitchen area. He and Janita had their guns drawn.
“Greta?” Hawk called out. “Greta, it’s me, Hawk.Greta?”
But he got no response at all. From what they could see in the kitchen, everything was neat and tidy and orderly. Nothing looked out of place. But when they walked out of that kitchen, through her smallish dining room, and then into the living room, that was when everything changed.
Greta Jacobs was leaned back in a recliner with a tray of food on her lap. She looked as if she was taking a nap. And that would have been their conclusion. Until they saw the bullet hole in her forehead.
“Ah man!” Von said as soon as he saw her. He quickly turned away. That was the part of the job he couldn’t stomach.
Janita couldn’t stomach it either, but instead of turning away from it, she held her revolver with both hands, and began looking around.
Hawk went over to Greta and felt for a pulse. There was none. And by the stench she might have been dead for more than one day. He tightened his grip on his revolver, too. “DeVontay?”
Von reluctantly turned back around. “Sir?”
“Keep an eye on your sister,” Hawk said as he began walking toward the back of the house.
Von knew not to even try to contain Janita, but he refused to let her out of his sight as she looked around the kitchen, the dining room, and then back into the living room. But Von remained in the kitchen, checking for false doors in the walls and even beneath the cabinets. After what happened at Ellen’s Boutique, he was taking no chances.
But when Von was still in the dining room and kitchen, Janita was once again checking out the living room. And that was when she saw it. Or at least she thought she saw it. Until she got up closer. “What the?”
At first, she frowned. She had to have seen it wrong. Had to! She even went even closer to that fireplace mantel for a better look. When she realized she wasn’t seeing things, she called for Hawk.
Hawk, who saw nothing in those backrooms, rushed back up front. “What’s wrong?”
Janita looked at him. Then she motioned toward the various pictures on the mantelpiece. “Look.”
Hawk looked. At first, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. Just photos of Greta with various people. But then . . . He frowned. And he leaned in closer.“It can’t be,” he said with a perplexed look on his face as he reached near the back of those picture frames and grabbed the one both he and Janita could not believe.
But while they were staring at that picture, the sliding glass door in the kitchen opened again, and Shelly walked in, along with Eagle Records chief of security Bob Lassiter.
“Hawk!” Von called out. “Shelly and some man just came in!”
Shelly smiled.
“What man?” Hawk asked as he and Janita hurried to the kitchen. When they made it into the kitchen, and Hawk saw Shelly with Lassie, he exhaled. “You scared the shit out of me, Von.”
