Read Online The Fifth Victim by Beverly Barton - Free Book Online

he could to rein the boy in, to make a man of him, and all to no avail. As much as Jim hated to admit it, Jamie was a total failure as a human being. He blamed himself and Reba. They had spoiled him rotten. Given him anything and everything he’d ever wanted. But nothing had been enough; nothing made him happy for very long.
    The only thing he’d ever wanted that they hadn’t allowed him to have was a life with Jazzy Talbot. At twenty he’d wanted to marry the girl, but Reba’d had one conniption after another just at the thought.
    “She’s nothing but a little white-trash whore,” Reba had said. “And that aunt of hers is as crazy as a Betsy-bug.”
    Jim didn’t kid himself into thinking that if they’d let Jamie marry Jazzy, things might have turned out differently. The marriage wouldn’t have lasted. Nothing was permanent in Jamie’s life. He wanted variety, excitement, and challenges. But most of all he wanted what he couldn’t have. That’s why he still wanted Jazzy so damn much. He’d put that poor gal through hell more than once.
    Jim lifted the receiver from the phone on his desk, dialed the number, and waited.
    She answered on the fifth ring, her voice groggy with sleep. “Yeah?”
    “Jazzy, this is Jim Upton.”
    “What do you want?”
    “Reba’s concerned because Jamie left his welcome-home party and hasn’t returned. By any chance is he there with you?”
    Jazzy laughed. “I assume the new fiancée is not in the room with you.”
    “No, she and Reba have retired for the night.”
    “Jamie’s not here.”
    “Do you have any idea where he is?”
    “I might.”
    “Would you mind telling me?”
    Jazzy sighed. “He came by to see me at Jazzy’s Joint. We talked. I told him to get lost. And Jamie being Jamie, he didn’t take it well, so he latched on to the nearest woman he could find to make me jealous.”
    “He picked up someone in the bar?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Do you know—”
    “I think her name was April or Amber. She’s been in a few times, but I don’t know her personally. I’d say he’s probably with her.”
    “Thank you, Jazzy. And…I’m sorry.”
    “Sorry for waking me?”
    “Yes, that, too, but mostly sorry that Jamie never had the backbone to stand up to his grandmother and marry you despite her protests.”
    Jazzy was silent for several minutes. “Tell that new fiancée of his to run as far and as fast as she can.”
    The dial tone buzzed in Big Jim Upton’s ear.

    Jacob had sacked out on the cot in his office at the courthouse instead of going home. After tossing and turning for nearly an hour, he’d finally fallen asleep sometime after midnight. When the ruckus outside his office door woke him, he punched the button on his digital watch to light the face. Four-twelve.
    “I want to see Jacob right now!” a man’s voice shouted.
    “But he’s sleeping,” Deputy Tewanda Hardy informed the irate man. “He’s worn to a frazzle.”
    “Dammit, woman, get out of my way. I need to talk to Jacob.”
    Jacob lifted himself into a sitting position on the edge of the cot, ran his hand over his face, yawned heavily, and rose to his feet. He’d recognized the man’s voice. Mayor Jerry Lee Todd. What the hell had put Jerry Lee into such a panic?
    By the time Jacob took a couple of steps, the office door swung open and Jerry Lee stormed into the room, Tewanda hot on his heels.
    “Sorry, Jacob,” Tewanda said, “but the mayor insisted on seeing you immediately.”
    “It’s all right,” he told his deputy. Tewanda was his only female deputy and one of the best, if not the best, he had. She was taking courses at UTC in Knoxville to get her degree, so he arranged her schedule so she could work nights. Her dream was to become a lawyer, and Jacob had no doubt she’d make a good one. Already she knew as much about the law as he did. Maybe more.
    “You’ve got to help me,” Jerry Lee said.
    “What’s wrong?” When Tewanda flipped on the overhead light in