Uncover Persona - Chapter 16

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Her phone buzzed. The text message read, "Are you sure you want to do this?" She growled deep in her throat. That idiot was getting cold feet. She was going to have to take care of this problem herself.

"I'll be right there," she wrote back.

"Oh my God!" Janice shouted and handed the piece of paper she had been scouring for the last hour to Harold.

"What?" He looked at the paper.

Janice reached over and pointed to the middle of the list. "Francis Connor Chase."

Harold raised an eyebrow, "Frank?"

"Yep. "Janice picked up the phone and called one of the techs. "Find out what Francis Connor Chase's mother's full name is? Call me right back." She slammed down the phone.

"How much do you want to bet? Frank turns out to be our Junior."

"But we checked him out before. His father's name is Walter Edward, not Francis Walter, or Walter Francis, so how can he be a junior?"

"I've got a feeling about that, "Janice said with a smile. "Let's go to Woodmont." She grabbed her purse and cell phone as they headed out the door.

Janice's phone went off just as they got to her car.

"Carter. Ha! I knew it. Thanks, Tony. What's that? You're sure. Thanks again, you're the best." She got into the driver's seat of her car and looked at Harold's expectant face.

"Frances Connie Willington Chase is Frank's mother's name. He's a junior."

"I didn't think you could do that on the female side like that."

"I don't think you can legally, but you sure can give your son a nickname like 'Junior' if you want to," Janice said and put her car into reverse.

"Or it might have been something that Kenton and Damon came up with. CChiefhe Chief and update him."

"I've got a feeling we are getting ready to catch our murderer. We just have to be able to figure out how to convince him to confess."

"What makes you think Junior is who killed Kenton? I thought we decided it was Damon Butler?" Harold asked, giving Janice a confused look.

"I had the guys in the lab match the ring we found in the casket with Carol Butler's ring.

"The markings on both rings matched exactly, but they didn't match the dent in Kenton Jenkins' head exactly. I had Tony check that, too. It just told me that there's a little variation.

"It appears that the ring that hit Kenton's head had a gap in the middle of the diamonds like it had been broken or cut open and put back together." She came to a stop at a street light.

"Remember, Terrell told us that Damon had bought the other ring with the tracking device for Junior.

"They wouldn't have matched exactly to start with because they were custom made, but I think that Junior must have figured out about the tracking device and taken it out."

"You think he killed Kenton because he was having an affair with Damon?"

"No, I still don't think his intention was to kill Kenton, but I think when Kenton fell in the pool, he saw his opportunity to get rid of him and just walked away.

"It probably didn't even occur to him that he had left a dent from his ring in Kenton's head."

"And how do you think we can get him to confess?"

"I'm not sure. But we could threaten to go to his father and tell him about his affair with Damon.

"Emily said Walter Chase is a big homophobe. He'd probably cut Frank out of his will if he found out he was gay."

Harold sighed and gritted his teeth skeptically. "I don't know, Janice."

"Well, let's get to Woodmont and see if he's even there. We'll go from there."

"Okay, but it has to be by the book. We don't want this worm to get away on a technicality if he is the murderer," Harold said sternly.

"Got it," Janice said with a grin. "But, I'm going to enjoy making him squirm."

Damon made his way through the laundry room and into the kitchen. Opening the refrigerator door, he called, "I'm here, Babe. Where are you?"

He pulled a beer out of the refrigerator and went through to the living room. He stopped short when he saw Junior in a kitchen chair in the living room, bound and gagged. "What the..."

"Welcome to the party," Cecelia Chase said. She tossed her blonde head to one side and leveled the nine-millimeter at him.

Damon dropped his beer on the white carpet. "Shit."

"Yes, you are a piece of shit," she said in an even tone.

"What...What's going on? What are you doing here?" Damon asked, moving his hands in the air by his shoulders.

"Don't you mean, how did I know?" Cecelia asked. "How could I possibly have figured out that my perfect husband is a lying, cheating queer?"

Damon didn't know what to say. He looked at Junior, who was crying. "How did you get him tied up? You're not that strong," he said and moved toward her.

"No, but Daddy is." Cecelia's father suddenly stepped out of the bedroom.

"Oh shit," Damon said, shrinking back.

Cecelia's father was a hulk of a man. Junior had told him that her father used to be a professional wrestler who'd become a born-again Christian and devoted his life to God.

Damon had thought he was pulling his leg but apparently not.

"So what are you going to do? Shoot me?" Damon asked. "What purposes will that serve? You'll just end up in jail."

"No, I'm not going to shoot you," she said with a sweet smile.

"You are going to write a suicide note confessing to murdering that scum of the earth Kenton Jenkins and Francis Connor Chase, your lover, and then you are going to shoot yourself."

"You are out of your mind," Damon said.

Cecelia began laughing hysterically, then stopped suddenly. "Yes, I am."

"You won't get away with this," Damon insisted.

"Sure, I Cecelia said. "I'm a very good actress, and I'm very convincing, aren't I, honey." She moved over to Junior and kissed him on the forehead.

"Even Kenton, master of all lies, bought into my game. He thought he was in control of our little side business." She laughed.

"I killed that stupid son-of-a-bitch when I found out he was blackmailing Frank, threatening to tell Frank's dad about their little excursions.

"Daddy Chase would have cut Frank off, which means he would have cut me off, so I had to nip that problem in the bud, but I had to get Kenton to trust me first."

"Apparently, he's very trusting of the people he fucks."

"But I thought you were all about God and Jesus and being a perfect Christian," Damon said, trying to ease away.

Cecelia laughed bitterly and looked at her dad, who was laughing, too.

"Yes, I was a perfect Christian. Perfect for getting people to donate to our causes, just like Kenton was perfect at getting people to invest in fake property deals. Of course, we are our own cause." She laughed again.

"All our charities are owned by us. And Kenton was a good swindler. He made us a lot of money, but he just couldn't keep his dick in his pants."

She shoved Frank hard, making him and his chair fall to the ground.

"What are you talking about? Kenton didn't work for you; he worked for Morgan Chase," Damon said.

He could feel the sweat running down his back.

Cecelia laughed again. "No, he really worked for us," she said, pointing to her dad.

"We own most of the properties Morgan Chase has bought in the last five years, under a corporate name, of course. I recruited Kenton when I figured out what a greedy bastard he was."

"Didn't you ever wonder why this strip-mined land deal was so difficult to close?"

Damon nodded, "It should have been an easy deal."

"Yeah, but Walter didn't want to pay what we wanted for it. That's why we had to create some problems for him.

"We knew he really wanted the land bad because he knew he could make a lot of money on the resort, but he wanted to buy the land for pennies.

"Kenton built up the deal, made the land out to be worth more than it was, got more people to invest in the deal, sweeten the pot for us because he would get a cut of our deal, as well as get a cut from Chase when the resort sold later.

"But, he had to start messing with my husband. We knew Kenton was gay. We didn't give a shit about that."

"I wouldn't have given a shit about him fucking Frank, except when he wasn't getting as much money as he thought he should, he started threatening to go to Walter."

Damon shook his head, confused. "I'm lost here. How'd you end up married to Frank if you aren't a real Christian and are basically a thief?"

Cecelia was suddenly in front of Damon with the gun in his face. "You're just lucky I have a plan, or you'd be dead where you stand."The drive to the gated community of Woodmont was on the far eastern side of Nashville and took about an hour to get to in the later afternoon Nashville rush hour.

Janice parked outside the gated community.

Haro Chiefnvinced the Chief they were onto something with this thing about Damon and Frank Chase and got him to call security at the condos and make arrangements for them to get in. The security guy came to the gate and opened it for them. He held out his hand to Harold as he walked up to them. "Ted Sparks."

"Detective Harold Jones," Harold said, pointing at himself and then at Janice, "Detective Janice Carter.

"Detectives," Ted said with a nod to both of them. "Your boss says you're interested in Frank Chase's place?"

"Yep."

It must be the popular spot today," Ted said as he locked the security gate.

"Why do you say that?" Janice asked.

"A woman who said she was Frank's wife showed up a little while ago. She said she'd forgotten her pass to get in the gate. I had never seen any women at that condo, so I called Frank. He started flipping out but said to go ahead and let her in, so I did."

"Was she alone?" Harold asked.

"No, she was with a big guy. He looked like he might have been her dad or older brother."

shit!" Janice said. "Let's get over there."

"Come on," Ted said. "It's just a few buildings over."

They quickly walked to the condo. Ted pointed to the ground floor unit. "This is the one."

Janice heard someone cry out. She motioned for both men to get flat up against the side of the house. She pulled out her Glock and moved slowly toward the window. There was a little opening where the curtains came together in the middle. She peeked in.

She saw a tall blonde woman with her back to the window. She watched as the woman smacked Damon Butler across the face with a gun.

She moved over to Ted and Harold. "The woman has a gun, and she's apparently holding Frank and Damon hostage."

"Crap, "Ted said. "I thought I saw Damon's car come in."

Janice looked at him. You know Damon Butler?"

"Sure," Ted said. "He's been living here ever since Kenton moved out."

Janice and Harold looked at each other. There was more drama to this than they realized.

"Do you have a master key or anything to get us into the condo?" Harold asked Ted.

"No, and if she's reset the alarm, it'll go off if you try to open the door with a key or if you pick the lock."

"Jesus," Harold said and let out a heavy sigh.

"Let's call in backup. This could get ugly." Janice quickly put a call in to dispatch.

We have a hostage situation," she told them and gave them the address. "Send the closest uniforms you have right away, no sirens."

Janice peeked in the window again. "The dad is making Damon write something, pretty much forcing his hand. Oh, fuck! It looks like they are going to make Damon shoot Frank."

He looked at Janice, "You ready to go Hollywood?"

Janice rolled her eyes. She hated it when he called busting into a house going Hollywood. "Let's do this. And try not to get me killed."

"Sure, you try not to get me killed, either."

They moved to the front door.

"Ted," Janice said. "Go around back and make sure no one leaves out the back."

"Got it," Ted said and ran around the side of the condo.

"On three," Harold said, pulling his gun into position. He set himself up to get a good kick at the door.

He looked at Janice and mouthed, One, two, and then, on three, kicked in the door.

"Drop the gun," Janice yelled, pointing her gun at the man who was trying to force the gun into Damon's hand.

"What the... "Cecelia's father said, turning to see Janice pointing her gun at him."

The man paused for just a second and then let go of Damon, who let go of the gun.

Cecelia turned and ran toward the back of the house with Harold chasing after her. Ted was ready and grabbed her as she ran out the back door.

Harold quickly cuffed her and pulled her back into the house. He pushed her down on the couch. The sound of doors slamming resounded as backup arrived. The uniformed police officers immediately rushed into the house with weapons drawn.

"Cuff him," Janice said, pointing to the large man. Harold had moved to Frank Chase and helped Damon sit Frank's chair upright and untie him. Damon ripped the duct tape off Frank's mouth.

"Oh my God," Frank cried. They were going to make you shoot me."

Damon looked up at Janice, "She killed Kenton, and she was going to kill us.

"Why?" Harold asked.

"She said that Kenton worked for her and her father, but he'd gotten greedy and started fooling around with Frank."

"She was going to make our murders look like a murder/suicide so she could get my money," Frank said with tears rolling down his face.

Janice walked toward Cecelia. "Cecelia Chase, you are under arrest for the murder of Kenton Jenkins and the attempted murder of Damon Butler and Frank Chase."

"You'll never convict me. I'm crazy!" Cecelia screamed.

"Fine," Janice turned to a uniformed officer. "Make sure they both get their rights read to them, and everything is by the book.

The officer nodded, "Yes, Ma'am."

Janice went back to Harold and looked at Damon and Frank, who were hugging each other. "So, whatcha think about my hunch?"

Harold laughed, think you might have been right this time, even if Frank wasn't the killer."

Janice laughed too, "Damon wasn't either, but we'd have never found out who the real killer was if we hadn't decided to check this place out."

"True," Harold agreed, "Too true."