The Sin Eater

by Lee McIntyre

  “So who’s the trustee?” Adam said.

  The doorknob turned, but the bolt held it tight. “Governor, are you all right in there?”

  Adam looked at Tugg, who simultaneously released the bolt and snatched the door open, then yanked the tall, astonished man into the room.

  “That’s it. No more visitors,” Tugg said. He slid the bolt home, then slammed the intruder onto his back next to the Governor.

  The man gave a confused look at Tugg, then recoiled in horror when he saw Adam. It was Steve Carnap.

  Chapter 74

  “I can get your daughter back,” the Governor pleaded, looking at Adam.

  “I thought you said you didn’t know where she was.” Adam was almost done lashing the Governor’s feet to the legs of a hard wooden chair. His hands were already zip-tied behind him, but Adam cinched more nylon cord around his chest and down through his hands, just for good measure. No gag this time. They wanted him to talk.

  “You almost done over there?” Tugg said.

  Tugg already had Steve Carnap completely trussed like a prize steer, in a chair a few feet away.

  Peter Beauchamp still lay on the floor behind the desk and seemed to be unconscious.

  Adam walked over to the lawyer. “Okay talk.”

  Steve Carnap started crying like a baby. “I have no idea what’s going on! I’m just here for the event!”

  The Governor’s voice was acid. “You were the goddamned mastermind, Steve. Don’t deny it.”

  Carnap sat shaking his head, still blubbering.

  “Does he know where my daughter is?” Adam said.

  The Governor flushed red and glared at Carnap. “Ask him.”

  “I thought you just said you knew.”

  “I did not.” The Governor held his mouth firm. “I said I could help you get her back. But we’ll need his help.”

  Tugg stepped in close to Adam and cupped his hand next to his mouth. If he didn’t want them to overhear, why was Tugg speaking in such a stage whisper? “You know, in an ideal situation we could start taking shots at the knee, go back and forth between them, until one of them talks. But with a 40 caliber, there wouldn’t be much knee left. Plus we can’t afford the noise.”

  What was Tugg doing? If he didn’t know what to do, why was he working it out in front of them?

  Finally, the penny dropped.

  “But in this situation I think we need something quicker.” Tugg’s eyes were bright.

  “Like what?” Adam whispered back loudly.

  Carnap eyed them nervously. Apparently he wasn’t so out of the loop that he didn’t care what happened next.

  “Well, I see two lamps on two different wall switches over there. I can cut the cords with my knife. And I’d bet my ass there are some paper clips over in the desk drawer.”

  The Governor sat up. “Look, I’ll talk. I’ll tell you anything you want to know. In fact, there was a conspiracy.”

  A dark river of hate poured into Adam’s soul. Now he admits it?

  Tugg raised his voice. “Shut the hell up. We already know that. Now we need to know where his daughter is.”

  Adam burned to hear the whole story from the Governor, but Tugg was right. Keep it simple. Get the information about Emma and get the hell out of there.

  This was already taking too long.

  “So what’s the paper clip for?” Adam said, egging him on.

  “Oh, you don’t know this one?” Tugg was back to his stage whisper. “You leave the lamp cord plugged in and attach it to a paper clip. Then you shove it in his urethra. You can hit the wall switch whenever you like.”

  Carnap looked over in horror. “That’s torture!”

  Tugg turned toward him. “In Turkey, they just call it damn good police work.”

  “Okay I’ll talk,” Carnap said.

  “Adam, go get the paper clips.”

  “I said I’ll talk!” Something had broken loose in Carnap. He was stamping his feet and bucking back and forth in his chair. He looked seconds away from pissing himself.

  Adam walked over to Carnap and leaned in close. “Do you know where my daughter is?”

  Carnap nodded. “She’s on her way home to her mother.”

  Adam whipped around and felt his sinuses clear. “You fucking liar.” He reached into his jacket and took out the Glock. “I will kill you right now.”

  Tugg took a step toward Adam and put a hand on his arm. Cool down, he mouthed.

  Adam lowered the gun.

  “It’s the truth,” Carnap said.

  Tugg kept his body between them, then turned back to Carnap. “Why should we believe that?” he asked. “How would that help your plan?”

  “It wasn’t my plan to look for a cover-up. It was his!”

  Tugg and Adam looked over at the Governor, while Carnap kept talking.

  “All I’ve been doing this whole time is trying to help you and Kate get Emma back,” Carnap whimpered. “I swear it.”

  The sound of his wife and daughter’s names in this pig’s mouth made Adam’s eyes flash. Maybe he should kill him.

  “Oh, come on!” the Governor broke in. “You were the one who set up the whole Indian thing, Steve. Your hands aren’t clean.” The Governor turned back to Tugg and Adam. “He tried to blackmail me. Once I made him my trustee, he started to funnel all the money from the Indian placements into my investment accounts. By the time I found out, it was too late. He said if I didn’t go along, he’d go to the media. I’d be finished.”

  “Go along with what?” Tugg said.

  The Governor squirmed helplessly in his seat. “He wanted me to appoint him Lieutenant Governor, then resign. I was going to have the press conference next week. I had to do what he said.”

  “Including kidnap my daughter?” Adam yelled.

  “That was his idea,” Carnap broke in. “He was trying to do everything he could to cover up the Indian money.”

  “You were the one who put all that goddamned money in my account, so I needed to cover it up. Christ, Steve, it was about to blow up whether you went to the media or not. All that money! Why in the world did you have to designate all those Indian kids special needs?”

  “Well you were the one who found out about the nanny’s brother,” Carnap said.

  “So I was set up,” Adam said. “How?” Blood rushed up his neck. The gun seemed to weigh fifty pounds.

  “Must have been the state database,” Tugg said. “It wouldn’t be hard.”

  “But how did they know about killing those skinheads all those years ago?” Adam said.

  “That was just serendipity,” said Carnap. “It fell into our lap. His lap.”

  Tugg looked at his watch. Their chances of escape were rapidly evaporating. If Emma was really safe, maybe it didn’t matter.

  “So you didn’t know about that till after Rachel died? Till after you killed her?” Adam said.

  “Nobody killed anybody!” the Governor said.

  “That’s true,” Carnap agreed. “We didn’t do that.”

  Adam lifted the Glock. “Fucking liars. I say we waste ’em both.”

  “Whoa, calm down.” Tugg held his hand out and pressed on Adam’s arm. “Be careful how you hold that.”

  Adam took a breath and lowered the gun again. “Look, Tugg, I know we were fucked since about ten minutes ago.”

  “Yeah, just about.”

  “So, what happens next? We shoot it out with the cops? I don’t think so.”

  Tugg was silent for a minute. “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t see us leaving here under our own power. But first, there’s one more piece of information I need from the lawyer. In private.”

  Tugg broke away, grabbed the Governor’s chair and dragged it to the far corner of the room where he turned it toward the wall. As he walked back toward Adam and Carnap, Tugg took out his Glock.

  “My friend is right,” Tugg said as he approached Carnap. “We’re cooked anyway, so to hell with the noise. I’m gonna put a couple of shots in
your knee till you tell us what we want to know. After that, I don’t care what happens.”

  Carnap’s whole body tensed, as Tugg approached. Now he was pissing himself.

  When Tugg got to the chair, he lifted his foot and kicked Carnap in the shin. The tall man cried out and doubled over.

  “You don’t strike me as a man who’s used to much pain. Let’s see if we can change that.” Tugg gave a quick nod to Adam, who lifted his gun to Carnap’s chest.

  Tugg put his gun to Carnap’s knee and leaned in. His mouth was practically on Carnap’s ear. “Where is his daughter?”

  Adam could just make out the words. He repositioned his gun at Carnap’s head.

  “I told you, she’s on her way home.”

  Rivulets of sweat were coursing down the lawyer’s face.

  “Why would you do that? Why now?” Tugg had put his finger on the trigger, so Adam did as well.

  Carnap’s eyes were bulging. His mouth formed a circle, but no words came.

  “If you don’t tell me, I’m gonna take the shot.”

  “No, please! I’m begging you.”

  Adam’s shoulders felt like a crossbow.

  Suddenly Tugg stood upright and spoke in a full voice. “Okay, you asked for this.”

  “State police! Open up now!”

  Adam gave Tugg a look of sheer terror as his whole body tensed.

  “Don’t shoot me!” the Governor screamed from the corner. “I’m in here too! They have guns!”

  “Shut up!” Adam shouted.

  His gun was digging into Carnap’s temple.

  “Adam, get your finger off the trigger.” Tugg’s voice was low and urgent.

  “You’re the one who made them take my daughter,” Adam screamed across the room.

  “Adam, stop squeezing the gun!”

  Two shots rang out as the brass erupted onto the carpet.

  “Don’t shoot me! Don’t shoot me!” The Governor was wailing as his chair tipped over and dumped him against the wall.

  Carnap’s body slumped forward.

  His face was gone.

  “Put your weapons down! We’re coming in!” The door leapt on its hinges.

  Tugg aimed his Glock across the room.

  The Governor squirmed on the floor, kicking his feet as if he were trying to tread water on dry land. “No! No!”

  Tugg squeezed the trigger. Two bullets ripped into the moose head on the opposite wall.

  As the door burst open, Tugg dropped his weapon, then reached over and knocked the gun out of Adam’s hand.

  Chapter 75

  Peter Beauchamp’s head hurt like a motherfucker.

  “Hey, here’s another body. No, he’s moving!”

  Bright lights assaulted his eyes.

  His ears were ringing.

  “Don’t move him. He’s in shock.”

  The air smelled heavy. Like fireworks.

  “Watch the brass. Forensics.”

  Had he been shot?

  “Don’t we already know who the shooter was?”

  “Can’t tell. Both guns were discharged.”

  Peter’s head felt full of broken glass.

  “How many casings?”

  “Four.”

  “How many slugs?”

  “Two so far. Both in the victim.”

  “Keep looking.”

  They were rolling him somewhere. He was on a bed with wheels.

  If the Governor didn’t hurry, he was going to miss his speech.

  Chapter 76

  Adam swore that his feet hadn’t touched the ground since the cops had cuffed him and dragged him from the room.

  It was cold in the parking lot. They’d taken his jacket before they left the Lodge. They had Tugg duck walking in front of him wearing both cuffs and leg irons. Four cops were on him; Adam had only three.

  “I killed him,” he heard Tugg say.

  “We already read you your rights, so just keep talkin’, pal,” said one of the state troopers.

  “I also killed Rachel Norwood. And those skinheads when we were kids. My friend is completely innocent. He didn’t kill anybody. I compelled him to come here. I threatened his life.”

  What the fuck was Tugg doing? Going for an insanity defense?

  They pushed Tugg into the nearest squad car and slammed the door.

  “Somebody find my daughter,” Adam said to the cop on his left shoulder.

  “Was she in there?”

  “No, she’s with CPS.”

  The cop squeezed Adam’s arm and hustled him hard down the hill toward another squad car. Looked like they had separate rides.

  In the distance, down by the lower parking lot, Adam heard a familiar sound.

  The cop cradled his head and shoved him into the back seat.

  When Adam turned around he saw it. Eighteen motorcycles were lined up like a gauntlet in the lower parking lot.

  And every one of the bikers was holding up a patch.

  Chapter 77

  Denial.

  Anger.

  Bargaining.

  Depression.

  Someone had forgotten to tell him about boredom. Or isolation.

  It had been two weeks.

  Is Emma out yet?

  Are they ever going to let me talk to Kate?

  Adam listened to the passing traffic on the street below his cell on the sixth floor of the Portland Justice Center. If he bothered to get off his bunk, he could look out the window and play his game of counting motorcycles on 4th Avenue. But what was the point?

  The arraignment had gone by in a blur and Adam had just tuned out after that. One thing about being taken into custody, he’d finally gotten that criminal lawyer. Just a public defender though. What was the point of spending all that money on a fancy lawyer if they’d caught him red-handed? Better to leave Kate as much as he could in their anemic savings account. His attorney told him that due to the complexity of the charges, the next several months would probably be taken up with squabbling over preliminary issues that had to be settled before they could even set a date for trial. The attorney also told him that Tektel had fired him. Duh. You get arrested on four counts of murder and it tends to hurt your employment record.

  One good thing about being accused of a quadruple homicide though: they gave you your own cell. He would have preferred to be with Tugg, to talk it out. Tugg always had a way of making Adam feel better, not to mention the obvious security advantages. If they ever opened that cell door, this was Jefferson High School all over again, this time with murderers. Adam supposed he wasn’t in any physical danger until after the trial, but what would happen after he was sentenced? When he went to the State Penitentiary in Salem?

  There was some irony for you.

  Maybe if he was lucky, Kate could get an apartment in “Death Row” and wheel down the street past The Longlane Home to see him every day. If he was very lucky, maybe he could get a cell with Tugg.

  He’d bet the Governor would get a private cell.

  Adam heard a metallic sound out in the hallway. Keys turned in his door. It was Caswell. The good guard. The one whose sister had a kid in the system.

  “Hey, G. You got ten minutes.”

  Adam sat up on the bed. “Ten minutes for what?”

  Caswell held a cell phone. “She’s already on the line. Keep your voice down. I’ll be back.”

  “Which hospital did you say you were in?”

  “OHSU.”

  “And the baby’s gone? Just like that?”

  Adam sucked in a shuddery breath. He could feel the prickles like cat’s claws working their way up his neck.

  “That’s not what I said. I’ve got cervical incompetence.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Just what it sounds like.”

  "Can they treat it?

  “Yes, they gave me a cerclage.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  Adam caught his breath and tried to steady his voice. “Y
ou’re only four months pregnant!”

  “Yeah, I know. But don’t panic, all right? They’ve got me on strict bed rest right here in the hospital for the rest of the pregnancy.”

  “For five months? You’ll never walk again. Your muscles will be shot.”

  “Adam, what choice do I have? I’ll probably never walk again anyway. But I can do physical therapy. Keep the muscles supple. Remember Christopher Reeve?”

  “Yeah. He’s dead.”

  “Well, I’m not going to die. I’m going to have this baby, and I’m going to walk again, too. In the meantime, it’ll give me a chance to lie here and think. Oh, Adam, this was all my fault.”

  Adam’s stomach was still tense from the adrenalin, but at least his peripheral vision was back. He sat on his bunk. “What do you mean your fault? How could this be anyone’s fault?”

  “You don’t understand. I brought this on myself.”

  “Stop talking that way! These things can happen to anyone. You can’t help it that you’ve been under so much stress, not to mention the MS, but for now just lie there and rest. Stop blaming yourself. Try to think positive thoughts.”

  Adam had yearned for this conversation so many times over the last few weeks, but this wasn’t the way he’d imagined it. Why were they being so sharp with one another? There was so much to say, why couldn’t he say it? Kate sniffled through the phone. The guard would be back soon. He’d better get to it.

  “So have you heard anything about —?”

  Kate broke in. “I’ve been so worried about you being in jail. Have they hurt you? Are you safe?”

  He’d better deal with this first. “I’m fine. They’ve still got me at the Justice Center and I’m in some sort of protective custody, all alone. My lawyer says there’s some sort of issue about jurisdiction for the trial. It could be a while. They won’t send me to Salem until after sentencing.”

  A cell door slammed in the hallway.

  “Have you seen Tugg?” Kate said.

  “No, they’re keeping us separated.”

  “I heard he confessed to everything.”

  “Yeah, he did.”

  “So why don’t they let you out?”

  “Because it doesn’t work quite like that.”

  Finally both of their minds went to the same place.