Bluest of Grey Skies

Chapter Fifteen

"Stay on track here, Jones," Chapman warned him with a glare.

"Right, of course. I had a thing with Ruby a while back, sweet thing she is, and I was told to distract her once I was at the station."

"When did you arrive?"

"About quarter after ten, after the call was made. Saw Bobby storming outta the front doors seeing red and let me tell you it doesn't take him much to get angry. Ain't never seen him quite like that and I've known him my whole life," he sighed and shook his head at Chapman's silent warning not to go off track once again. "I got there and started talking to Ruby, flirting and what not because she's easy to be like that with, if you know what I mean."

"Jones," Regina said in a tone that made him flinch. "That's my deputy you're talking about."

"Right," he laughed nervously. "I was told to distract her and I did it in the only way I knew how."

"And you tried to talk her into giving you a blow job in the storage room," Regina said with a sour taste in her mouth. "What about your love for Milah? Hmm? Does she know you're going around flirting with other woman and trying to persuade them into sucking you off?"

"Hey, I was there on orders to—"

"Distract the dispatcher," Chapman interrupted. "We got that part. Continue, Jones."

"She shot me down and was trying to get me to leave the station when Bobby came running in, covered in blood, the sheriff's blood. He was freaking out, panicking, screaming at Ruby to get him clean clothes as he stripped down right there in the middle of the station. She took off, muttering something about there being an old uniform somewhere in the storage room and Bobby continued freaking out. Again, something I ain't ever seen him do in all the time I've known him. Before I had a chance to talk some sense into him, to calm him down, Gold came in."

"What time was this?"

"Had to have been almost eleven," Jones replied and Chapman nodded. "He started yelling at him while he stood there in his goddamn briefs and there was a lot of back and forth, mostly Gold calling Bobby an imbecile and a weak fool for not remaining calm after he had taken care of their current problem. Told him to man up and write a report, to claim it as an accident in case the feds came sniffing around later. He got angrier when he realized that Ruby wasn't there and told me to go and find her and bring her out to him.

"Caught her eavesdropping and knew she knew what was going on. I knew what was coming next and we already had one dead sheriff and the last thing we needed was for the dispatcher to turn up dead too. It'd raise too many concerns with the fine people of Storybrooke."

Regina was listening to his account of that day carefully and so far it aligned with what Ruby had confessed about what had happened the day Sheriff Graham was killed. She swallowed, her mouth dry, because this was going to be the final nail in the coffin that would put Bobby Gold behind bars. At least the first nail into the coffin that would seal the Gold family's fate once and for all. Robert Gold was behind the murder and he would have that added to the lengthy list of charges she knew the federal agents were already building up against him.

"Gold was striking Bobby half to death with his cane and knocked him out cold before he turned his attention on Ruby. She claimed at first not to know what was going on, but it was clear to him and to myself that she was lying. The poor girl was terrified and on the verge of tears and Gold threatened he'd make sure she met the same fate as the sheriff if she so much as uttered a word of the truth to anyone."

"And her grandmother," Regina replied and Chapman shook his head at her. "Ruby confessed yesterday, Killian. She told me everything."

"Of course she did," he muttered and rolled his eyes. "He threatened her and her grandmother and forced her to start the report, telling her what to write down. She was shaking the whole time and Gold was furious for many reasons. Scared the shit out of me to be honest with you. Reminded me of when he found out about Milah and I and how he came after me and took my hand as a punishment for taking his wife from him."