“That’s right, and I found him in the basement, chained to the chair. I’d already asked my lawyer to file divorce papers because I was leaving Dirk for him. I pretended that I didn’t know Cullan was downstairs, but I was going to leave with him tonight. I was already packed.”
DB looked shocked by what he was hearing, and to be honest, so was I. Cullan Watts was a small guy and looked like he’d lived in his mom’s basement since birth. On the other hand, Kelly Kirkwood wasn’t much shorter than me in her heels and was a stunningly beautiful woman.
“So he came home and was discussing the shooting?”
“Yes,” she shouted, shaking her arms in the air. “Who does that? Those poor children. He was so excited that it’d happened and wanted to congratulate whoever it was. I couldn’t stand for it, so I told him to get naked and meet me in the bedroom.”
“Who tied him to the bed?” DB asked, rubbing the back of his neck.
Yeah, today was definitely one of the weirdest days of my life, too.
“I did. I went in and blindfolded him, and then I tied him to the bed because he was kinky like that.” Someone gagged behind me, and seeing as how Ned Dahl was the only one sitting there, I didn’t have to guess who. “Then, right in front of him, I rang the Police and asked for you to come. Two minutes later, this gentleman showed up.”
“And where’s Cullan?” I asked, searching as much as I could see of the property from my chair.
“Oh, he’s waiting for me in the basement still. I unlocked him as soon as I hung up to your dispatcher, but we decided to keep him there in case Lord or King come over. Such stupid names, you know,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Who calls their kids that?”
Standing up, I moved next to DB. “Where are Lord and King?”
“Um,” she frowned, thinking hard. “Well, King will be at his property, or maybe even at his other property? It’s hard to tell these days because they’re always talking about going to the blue house instead of his nice pretty one. Lord might be there, too, but they said he’d gone missing.”
There was nothing in her expression or body language to say that she knew otherwise, so I was starting to think that the shooting at the school really had tipped her over the edge with her already-in-the-process-of-becoming-her-ex-husband.
After we got the location of the second property from her, we walked outside to regroup. While we’d been getting the details from her, Palmerstown P.D. had turned up, so we walked out to see Judd, Kapono, and another deputy called Kai Wright standing talking about something in a small huddle.
“What are we going to do about Cullan Watts?” Garrett asked as we joined them.
“He’s coming in tomorrow to answer some questions for us,” I told him distractedly after noticing Kapono’s body language change as soon as he saw Governor Dahl.
“Governor, Sheriff Judd Bailey, from Palmerstown Police Department,” DB introduced, pointing at each man as he got to them. “That’s Detective Kapono Ortiz and Sheriff’s Deputy Kai Wright.”
I’d always wondered how a politician acted when cameras weren’t on them, so I watched his response closely.
And he proved any doubts I still had wrong by shaking each man’s hand and smiling at them like he genuinely meant it. “Nice to meet y’all, but call me Ned.”
“Another one of our deputies is talking to your men at the moment, but I’m sure Keir will join us soon,” Judd replied, jerking his chin in Keir’s direction.
Kapono seemed to find the ground interesting, and it got me wondering. Where was the confident, relaxed guy I’d been dealing with over the last couple of days?
“So you came all this way to talk to the mayor, Governor?” Kai asked. “Just to let you know, I haven’t been inside the house to see the nightmare that met y’all, but I’ve heard about it and don’t feel jealous I missed out.”
I think we all would’ve laughed, but it wasn’t a mental image any of us would be getting rid of anytime soon.
“My motto is: if I’ve got time to shit and eat, I’ve got time to drop by a corrupt mayor, especially after a bastard fires his gun near a scho
ol,” Ned replied, his voice hardening on the last part. “When I took the job, I did it to help the whole state, not just the areas that’d benefit me politically, and that includes small towns like yours.”
Judd’s eyes opened wide at how frank and open Ned was.
“Appreciate it, Governor—” Judd started, but Ned cut him off.
“Name’s Ned, son. If you see me anywhere, you greet me by that name.”
I felt my lips twitching at the thought of bumping into him at a gas station and just shouting his name. But he wanted what he wanted, and that was to stress he was one of the people.
“Okay, thank you, Ned. We appreciate your help with this. This case has been nuts for all of us in both towns, and what happened today never should have even been contemplated by whoever did it. Shooting at a school is one of the most disgusting things someone can do, so it’s safe to say we’re all pissed. We want the person or persons responsible locked away so that our towns and children are safe.”
“I can understand that and wholeheartedly agree. Whatever we can do to help you, consider it done.” Then, almost like he had lasers in his eyes, he focused on Kap. “My baby girl’s been spending a lot of time in your area recently, so I’ll be coming around a lot if she decides to settle here permanently.”