Watson Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  World Castle Publishing, LLC

  Pensacola, Florida

  Copyright © Kathi S. Barton 2021

  Paperback ISBN: 9781953271990

  eBook ISBN: 9781955086004

  First Edition World Castle Publishing, LLC, April 12, 2021

  http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

  Licensing Notes

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.

  Cover: Karen Fuller

  Editor: Maxine Bringenberg

  Prologue

  Wats leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. He loved being able to work for himself, but he’d been working much too hard. The family alone was keeping him hopping. Thinking of the conversation he’d had with his cousin Shawn today, he wondered what was going to happen to him when he figured out that life could throw you a curveball without any notice.

  “I’m going to take some time off.” Wats asked him what he was going to do that for. “I’m thinking if I don’t get my home in order now, I’m going to be sitting here with an empty house when I’m sixty years old. Not that it’s old, but the house is so empty, it’s like living in a tomb.”

  “All right. Not that I think you’d need time off to buy some furniture, but I hope you get it done the way you want it.” Shawn told him he was going to fill it with things he loved that he picked up at estate auctions. “Why? I mean, great, but why?”

  “When was the last time you were at my parents’ home?” Wats said he didn’t remember. “Yeah, well, it’s all steel and glass. I don’t know if Dad even likes it. Anyway, I’m going to get things that speak to me. Dad is going to go on this trip with me. He’s thinking he is going to love living in the condo. At least his brothers are close by, and he can walk to town if he wants. We’re going to have some fun getting to know each other.”

  “Now, that I can get behind. What is your dad doing with his home?” Uncle Hank hadn’t been in his house since Penny had been arrested. They all called her that now, and it was fun. “My dad is going to sell his as soon as he gets it emptied out. It seems none of them were very thrilled about returning to their homes.”

  “Dad is donating the house to the city. I haven’t any idea what they’re going to do with it—it’s really run-down—but he gave them the property there too. That’s about fifty acres. I’m thinking they’re going to tear the house down then put in something equally ugly.” No doubt. Wats told him about North’s dad running for mayor. “He’d be really good at that. With as long as this family has lived here, he’d know just about anything and everything about the town.”

  Wats sat up when his phone rang. He thought he’d put it on the service, but he might not have gotten it right. There was a learning curve on just about everything he did lately. Saying his name, Wats waited while the person at the other end calmed down enough to speak.

  “My grandfather is gone.” Wats didn’t know what she meant—gone as in missing or gone that he’d died. “He’s not here. I came in this morning to stay with him while I finished up my classes, and we had a nice breakfast. Then when I went to the university to see about the classes I would need, I came home, and someone had been in here. There is blood all over the place too.”

  “Did you call the police?” There was a long pause, and Wats asked her again. “I don’t even know who this is or what your grandfather’s name is.”

  “My grandda is James Oliver. My name is Rayne Oliver. Why do you think he had your phone number in his phone marked as police?” Wats said that he didn’t have any idea. “I’m going to call the police now. I’m so sorry to have bothered you.”

  “It’s no trouble. I’m on my way there with my medical bag. When we find him, I’ll be able to see how he’s faring.” He didn’t want to say anything about him maybe being dead. Lots of blood could be scary enough. “I’m going to call my cousins in too. All of us can look for him.”

  Wats called the others and told them what was going on. He also mentioned how his number was listed as the emergency number. He called North last, as his number had been busy when he’d called him the first time.

  “He’s with me at my house.” Wats turned his car around and headed toward North’s home. “As for the blood, I don’t know. There wasn’t any there when the two of us left there a few hours ago.”

  “She said there was a great deal of it.” Wats parked in the parking lot of the store he was nearby and tried to catch his breath. “What should I do? Go there and find out what is happening or just go back to my offices?”

  “Why don’t you go and see if you can talk to Rayne in person? Then perhaps bring her to my house. I don’t think she should be driving if she’s that upset.” Wats told him he’d go out there now. “Be careful, Wats. Since we have no idea what the blood is from, someone might still be in the house.”

  “Well, thank you very much for that thought.”

  He made his way to the house carefully. There didn’t seem to be any cars along the way that were parked without anyone in them. Nor did he see any indication of trouble. By the time he was pulling up in front of the house, there were two cruisers there, and a young woman on the front porch rocking in the rocker set out there.

  “Your cousin called here. He told me that my grandda was with him.” Wats told her he’d take her there if she wanted to go. “I do. I hope you don’t mind, but I have to wait on the police. They’re doing their thing in there now. I was terrified.”

  Wats checked her over. He told her he didn’t want anything to be wrong with her and checked not just her blood pressure, which was just a little high, but her temperature too. When he was able to give her a clean bill of health, he sat down on the porch in front of her.

  “I’ve known your grandda for a while. When I was in med school, he was one of the free patients that, as students, we were to work with. He’s a very healthy man for his age.” Rayne told him he didn’t sit around on his duff like a lot of people his age. “I think I remember him being about eighty? I could be wrong.”

  “He’ll be ninety-three on his next birthday. Which is coming up. He’s all I care about in the world now. My parents are both gone. I don’t have any sisters or brothers. No aunts that I want to be around either.” She laughed. “The last time I was here, he and his sister, my aunt Carol, had this big to do about him living alone. Christ, he’s a few years older than her and looks like he could be her kid. Not really, but Grandda is in really wonderful shape.”

  Wats told her about the house that was going to be built for him and how his cousin, North, was going to make sure he was going to be all right living out here alone. Rayne told him she had planned on living with him until she graduated next year, then she was hoping she could get him to move in with her.

  “I’ve had a little house since my parents died. It’s not much, but it’s a damned sight better than this is. I guess North, as you called him, saw what he was living in here.” Wats told her how he’d only just bought the house a few weeks ago. “The banker that was holding the place didn’t want to do anything for him. Told my grandda he’d be better off in a nursing home if he didn’t like this place. Grandda lost Grannie here. He doesn’t want to leave without going to her, he told me.”

  By the time the police were finished up with the house, they’d discovered that
a raccoon had made its way into the house when it had been attacked by something larger. The blood was all animal blood. It was confirmed it was a raccoon when they found his body in the bedroom that Grandda used.

  “I think he’s been feeding the poor thing. Grandda is allergic to cats and doesn’t care for dogs. They’re too big for him to handle, he told me. But this little raccoon made his way into his heart, and he’s been taking care of him. I think it was making the loneliness more tolerable.” Wats thought that was the nicest thing he’d heard in a while. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to stay here now. At least not tonight.”

  “I have a condo you can stay in. I mean by yourself. With your grandda. I’ll be someplace else.” Wats let out a long breath. “I have a furnished condo the two of you can stay in. I’ll bunk with my dad. He’s close to where you two can stay.”

  “I don’t want to put you out.” Wats assured her she wouldn’t be. He was enjoying spending time with his dad. “If you’re sure?”

  “I am sure. You gather up some things for him to wear, and tomorrow we’ll come back here to see what we can salvage out of the bedroom. After that, North is going to take care of getting something more livable in here for the two of you.” Wats hoped his dad didn’t mind him staying with him a few days. “You get some things, like I said, and I’ll make a couple of calls. That way, by the time you’re finished here, I can have my arrangements made as well.”

  As he figured, Dad was happy to have him. North said he was his hero for doing this. All Wats had wanted to do was go to bed and not wake up anytime soon. It was stressful being the worrier of the family. Taking Rayne to his brother’s house, then to the condo, was about all he could handle this evening. Going to his dad’s condo, Wats was thrilled that he didn’t seem to mind him rushing off to bed and let Wats go without bombarding him with questions.

  As soon as his head hit the pillow, Wats knew he wasn’t far from sleep. When a phone rang somewhere in the place, he had to catch himself from getting up and answering it. Being dead tired as he was, he didn’t think he could make a sound decision on whether or not he liked chocolate ice cream or vanilla. Or even both, for that matter.

  Thinking briefly of the list he’d brought from his office, Wats wondered if any of the others would help him out with it. He needed someone to work for him to answer phones. To clean up after him and his patients. Also, Wats needed to get laid.

  Laughing a little, he rolled to his side and smiled. Tomorrow was going to be a brand new day, and he was going to try his best not to be running all over town again. Yes, he thought as slumber took him under, tomorrow was a brand new day.

  Chapter 1

  Wats didn’t want to be there. He supposed no one wanted to be there that was related to his mother. But if he had to do this, he thought whoever had come up with this plan of doing it via a remote location was brilliant. Wats had been called in as a witness, and to him, not having to see his mother or any of his aunts was the best news he could have had today. Things so far, he thought, were going according to plan.

  “What the hell is going on? Where is my son and husband?” Wats didn’t bother answering his mother, as he was told he didn’t have to. “Watson Wilkerson, you had better be thinking about how much punishment you’re going to get when I get out of here. And once I do, you can also bet I’m not going to go easy on either of you. Why the hell aren’t you in here where I can see you?”

  “Because I have no desire to see you. Just shut up, and this will be over soon.” He knew as soon as he told her to shut up that it would piss her off. Not that he cared. Not anymore. “Besides, I’m only here so I can testify, then I’m gone.”

  “You had better keep your mouth shut on things you think you know. Or I swear to you, Watson, I’ll make you wish you’d never been born. Just as much as I wish that daily. Where is your father? Why isn’t he working on getting me out of here?”

  Done with her, he watched as the camera spanned the room before it centered on the jury. They were there after the venue had to be changed three times to make sure the women were put in prison.

  “Hello, ladies and gentlemen.”

  As his mother was told to shut up several times, he was asked questions by the state-appointed attorney for his mother. The man looked like he’d gone a couple of rounds with someone bigger than him. Wats knew that the day before yesterday, he’d been caught unawares, and Christa, Booker’s mother, had knocked him around before the prison guards had gotten their Tasers out and used them on her. No amount of begging to the judge had been able to get the man out of being their attorney after that. No one, he had heard, wanted anything to do with the Bitches Four, as they’d been calling them at home.

  “When you were living at home, did your mother provide you with food, money, and any of the essentials one would expect?” Wats had been told to only answer the question with yes or no if he could, but no babbling about things. So he told the man no. “Your mother didn’t make sure you were fed? That you had clothing to wear? I find that hard to believe.”

  Since it wasn’t a question, he didn’t answer him. But Wats did begin to unbutton his shirt below the camera’s view. This was something they all were going to do when called to the chair today. Show off how loving their mothers had been to them all.

  “Mr. Wilkerson, what sort of relationship did you have with your mother? I’m sure that like all young men, you and your mother were very close. Some of the things that are coming out paint a picture of my client of her being something terrible, which is unlikely. Would you agree with that assessment?” He asked him which assessment he was referring to. “That your mother wasn’t as terrible as the papers and others are making her out to be.”

  “Then yes, I would agree that the papers don’t have it right about my mother. She was much worse than any of them can even fathom.” He heard his mother and aunts start screaming how they were going to get him when they were free. It took another ten minutes to get them under control. “As for my relationship with her? I had none. I was there for window dressing, and that’s all.”

  “She loved you, correct?” He heard someone snicker, and he smiled at that. It was his aunt that was making noises. He told the attorney he didn’t think his mother loved anything or anyone. “That is a bold statement. Love between a mother and child is something that is cherished.”

  Wats wasn’t sure why the attorney was going on about his and his mother’s relationship. He wondered why he wasn’t talking about how his mother had plotted with the rest of them in killing his Aunt Holly. Or how they made it impossible for her and everyone else around them to live without fear. Even to ask about the deaths they’d caused and written about in their daily diaries. When he looked over at North, he told him it was time to bare it all.

  “My mother was a manipulative bitch that should never have had children. Actually, she tried not to have them, right up until she needed one. Tina would beat me, yes, beat me or have someone else do it with a whip right up until she was arrested and put in jail.” Standing up, he pulled his shirt off over his head, not bothering with the other buttons, and showed the jury his back. “This is how my mother got what she wanted. Do you see these scars? They’re from a lifetime of being cornered about grades, the women I dated, or my hanging out with my cousin when she disapproved of him. And when I got too big for her to beat on her own, she hired people to do it for her. Ribs, arms, and legs were beaten so badly I can’t stand to have anything touch me there. The last time she had someone beating me was when I, at the age of twenty-nine, decided I’d had enough dancing around her and that my life was just that—my life. She didn’t like that, as you can see.”

  “You mother fucker. I should have aborted you right along with all the other creatures I got caught with. But we had to do better than Holly.” He could hear someone telling her to shut up—it sounded to him like it was Penny. “I will not shut up. This is my time to tell the w
orld that I wanted the best, and I, by God, got it at all costs. No one tells me no and lives to do it again.”

  The sound of the gavel banging had him smiling. He could imagine the new judge trying to regain control of the women. Wats wondered not for the first time since this started if anyone would ever get control of his mother and aunts. When they didn’t want to hear the answers you gave them about something, they simply pretended you didn’t say a word. His uncle Clayton had figured that out when visiting the jail they were being held in.

  A break was called to take the women back to their cells. He was asked, politely, to return in an hour, and he said he’d be there so long as he didn’t have an emergency. They’d approved him being able to leave when he’d been summoned here today, as he had a practice. The judge, he’d forgotten his name, looked like he was ready to call it a day even though it was only nine-thirty in the morning.

  “Did you hear about the trial for Fran and Phoenix? Well, Fran’s trial anyway.” Wats said to Booker that he’d not as he dug into his breakfast. He’d not been able to eat before leaving the house this morning. “The judge has decided that since the two of them were together when Phoenix shot the judge, he’s going to have them both judged in federal court. They’re being taken away in the morning. I think that will make Amy sleep better at night. There is no way they’ll be able to cover that up. Judge Wessex was well respected, even by those that she sent away. Because she was fair to everyone.”

  Lorinda Wessex had been murdered when Amy’s sister, Phoenix, had pulled a gun from one of the officers trying to untangle a fight in the courtroom several weeks ago. Wats had done all he could for her while in the courtroom, but she passed a few days later from it. Her daughter Charlie was just like her mom.

  After breakfast, they sat around the restaurant and talked. They had been getting together with their dads at least once a week since their mothers had been arrested. Wats had been staying with his dad for the last few weeks since his condo was being used by Rayne and her grandda James. They’d be moving out soon, he realized, as the house that was being put on the land for James was nearly finished. The rest of them had even pitched in and made sure that the double wide, all that James wanted, was furnished as well.