“How do you know it was this guy?”
“I tried to get out of it. I said no to writing her the prescriptions one day. This guy showed up a couple hours later with prints of the pictures. He didn’t say much, just handed them to me, smiled and then walked away.” Dr. Stephens was shaking his head now. “My license would have been revoked if I was caught writing the prescriptions, but I couldn’t stop. The pictures were proof. What could I do?”
Devin was thinking through Dr. Stephens’ dilemma as they reached his car and Brent’s van. In the dark, he could see the back of the van still open and an empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s on the ground next to it. He put the empty bottle in the back of the van and closed the door. He pulled out the keys to his Mercedes and opened the passenger door for Dr. Stephens.
“So he’s got pictures of you. You want to get them back and then we call the police?”
Dr. Stephens got into the passenger seat and closed the door. Devin walked around to the driver’s seat and got inside. He started the car but sat waiting on a response.
“There are rumors that he’s got pictures of hundreds of people. Not just with Jezebel either. The rumor is that he would sit in his little van at The Place and snap pictures of anyone who left the shade open.”
“That works in our favor, doesn’t it? The more pictures they find, the more people they’ll question if they don’t believe the accident scenario.”
Dr. Stephens was nodding in agreement. “Yes it does work in our favor, but Edward Digby has a lot of enemies. If we don’t call the police, we may not have to answer any questions at all.”
Devin had been right from the start. Dr. Stephens wanted to get rid of another body.
“But what about the pictures? Do we break into his office and steal them?”
Dr. Stephens laughed. “Do you know how many times his office has been broken into? Probably a half a dozen times this year alone. No one ever finds them. The rumor is that he keeps them with him.”
“In his van?”
“That’s what the rumor is.”
Devin pulled onto the driveway and drove back toward Turner Road. In the car, it only took thirty seconds to get back. When he stopped at the road, he could see a van just across the street, which said:
Ashwood Safe Ride
Don’t Drive Drunk – Ride Safe
634-518-0111
“That must be his van.” Devin said.
“Yeah, I expect it is.” Dr. Stephens was kicking himself for not having thought to get his keys before they came up here. “We go back, grab the guy’s keys, see if we can find anything, and then we can figure out what to do.”
Devin nodded. “But first, we take care of Jimmy.”
“Of course.”
Devin made the turn onto Turner Road. Dr. Stephens’ car was only a few hundred feet from his driveway. He did a three-point turnabout and stopped behind it. He let Dr. Stephens out. “I’ll follow you back, if you don’t mind.”
Dr. Stephens nodded and got into his BMW. In their cars and without conversation, the drive back to Devin’s house was over quickly.
Dr. Stephens asked Beth to find some rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs to clean up Jimmy before he used the surgical glue on the wound. The bleeding had mostly stopped, but the skin was torn, not cut, which wasn’t ideal for the surgical glue. It was going to leave a nasty scar, but it should get the job done.
Jimmy regained consciousness shortly after they left to go get the Dermabond, but he was still very groggy - probably the alcohol. He didn’t speak much and didn’t seem to be aware of what happened. Once they had his scalp glued, Brent and Devin put one of his arms on either of their shoulders and led him up to one of the guest bedrooms. They put a towel down on the pillow to keep the blood from getting on the linens, but would probably have to throw them out anyway. In the warmth and comfort of the bed, Jimmy passed out immediately.
Once they had Jimmy taken care of, they reconvened in the living room. Now they needed to figure out exactly what they were going to do with Edward Digby.
*****
The call came over the radio a half an hour ago. Tim from HomeGuard security was requesting a courtesy check to 153 Turner Road for an alarm. The homeowner responded to his call, but he requested it anyway. This was why police hated home security. While they were checking up on these false alarms, something real might be happening elsewhere.
Officer Reynolds took the call mostly because he saw that address on Devin’s driver’s license earlier tonight and figured he had just been a bit drunker than he thought. Too drunk to disarm the alarm, apparently. It’s nice to go on a call where you know that you’re not in danger sometimes.
Just before he made the turn onto Devin’s driveway, he saw Edward Digby’s familiar transit van. It had the drive safe logo on it tonight. He wondered if there was even a point to trying to disguise the van, it seemed like damn near everyone recognized it regardless of the logo on the side. Still, it was odd that it was sitting beside the road at just after midnight on a Sunday morning.
He stopped the patrol car and shined his spotlight on the van. It didn’t look like he was inside. Just to be sure, Officer Reynolds got out of his car and shined his flashlight through the windows. There definitely wasn’t anyone inside. If this had been any other car, he would have called it in. Since it was Edward Digby though, he assumed that he was probably off somewhere taking pictures of people doing what they ought not be doing, but that wasn’t his problem right now.
He got back into his cruiser and made the turn into Devin’s driveway. Just as he reached the fork leading to the house, he saw another familiar van. This one was Brent’s. It was perhaps more recognizable than Digby’s was. Again, Officer Reynolds stopped the car and checked inside. Again, it was deserted. Devin said earlier that he was out drinking with BrentandJimmy. Maybe they had all come back here to continue? But why stop at the fork instead of driving up to the house?
Lots of people do lots of strange things. That was one thing you learn quickly in his line of work. Aside from just sitting there, nothing about it seemed out of the ordinary. It didn’t seem to merit any further attention.
Officer Reynolds got back into the squad car and continued toward the house. When he reached the front, he saw a Mini, a BMW and a Mercedes all sitting in front of the garage. When the Bryant’s throw a party, they clearly attract a higher class of people than when he did. He shined his spotlight over the back yard, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary there either - just some random unfinished construction.
He rattled into his radio that he was on scene at 153 Turner Road, got out of the car, walked to the front door and rang the doorbell.
*****
The ring of the doorbell caught them all by surprise. Devin quickly ran to the door and looked through the peephole. Officer Reynolds knew that he did this. When you look through your peephole at night, you block the light coming out of it. Everyone knows when you do. He whispered back to Beth, Brent and Dr. Stephens, “It’s a cop!” But not just any cop, this was the one that had stopped him earlier tonight.
Dr. Stephens made a gesture for him to open the door. Devin was planning to do so anyway. Nothing had happened, no need to arouse suspicion.
Devin opened the door, trying to remember the name on the ticket from earlier. He was almost certain it had said Reynolds and committed to it.
“Officer Reynolds,” He said, as jovially as possible, “What brings you here?”
Officer Reynolds was happy that Devin remembered his name. So few do. He looked over the room before responding. He could see Dr. Stephens, Beth and Brent all sitting in the living room with coffee cups either in hand or nearby. Looking further, he could see the kitchen door was missing a window.
“HomeGuard security requested a courtesy check.” He responded flatly. “Is everything okay here? I see your kitchen door has a broken window.”
“That? Yeah, Jimmy slammed it a bit too hard when we got here. He had a bit too mu
ch to drink.”
“He wasn’t driving was he?”
Devin laughed. “No. I don’t think he could have in his condition.”
“I don’t see him. Where is he?”
“He’s in the guest room sleeping it off. Beth wanted to leave him in the yard, she’s afraid we might have to burn the bed when he’s done with it, but he is a friend.”
Officer Reynolds smiled, remembering something from earlier. He turned to Beth, “You’re one cold, hard bitch, aren’t you?”
The room was silent for a moment. Beth’s eyes grew huge in surprise at his statement. Officer Reynolds immediately regretted his lack of decorum (and it was this very lack of decorum that assured he would always remain Officer Reynolds. Not Sergeant Reynolds or Lieutenant Reynolds, because all too often, he spoke before he thought).
Devin’s laugh broke the silence. He turned to Beth. “You called while he had me beside the road. He heard the ringtone.” Devin fumbled for his phone. Once he found it, he played the ringtone ‘Cold hard bitch, Just a kiss on the lips and I was on my knees’.
Dr. Stephens and Brent both laughed at this. Beth, on the other hand, was mortified. “You told me you changed that!”
Hearing the anger in her voice, Officer Reynolds wanted to cut this as short as he could. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean you any offense.” He said. He then turned to leave when he remembered Edward Digby’s van. “You guys haven’t seen Edward Digby poking around out here, have you?”
Everyone was shaking their heads except Devin. “Who?” He asked.
“Eh. You’d know him if you met him. A local private eye. I saw his van up on the road.”
“No. I haven’t seen him.” Devin said.
“All right.” Officer Reynolds replied, this time turning completely and stepping outside. “Join me for a second, Devin?”
It was a question, but it didn’t seem like one he could answer no to. He stepped outside with him and closed the door.
“Apologize to her for me.” Officer Reynolds said.
“I will. I think you just caught her off guard. Some things you don’t expect from a man in uniform.”
“And you must have one huge set of brass balls to go from her calling you an hour ago telling you to get your ass home to having a bunch of friends over.”
“Trust me,” Devin said, “I’m going to regret tonight for a long, long time.” He had never spoken a truer statement.
Officer Reynolds got into his patrol car and drove away. A lot of what just happened didn’t make sense to him, but that was true of a lot of things you see in his line of work. He learned that you need to leave it behind when you drive away. It will eat you up if you don’t.
Inside the house, the group watched through the curtains as Officer Reynolds’ taillights faded down the driveway. Dr. Stephens voiced what they all were thinking, “Well this certainly complicates things.”
Everyone there knew this was true, but Brent and Beth didn’t know just how true yet. While Dr. Stephens and Devin hadn’t actually worked out exactly what they were going to do with Digby just yet, they had more or less agreed they were not going to get the police involved. They hadn’t yet had a chance to pass this on to Brent and Beth.
Devin found the appearance of the officer particularly unfortunate because he had given the situation some thought on the way back with Dr. Stephens. How often does it happen that someone falls dead on your property inside forms you have already set to lay a foundation? And not ten feet from the cement and the mixer to make it happen? It seemed like this was a gimmie. Just pour the concrete and the problem would be solved. The problem now was that Officer Reynolds clearly knew that Digby was, at the very least, in the area. If he didn’t show up for a couple of days, the search would most certainly lead them to Devin’s house. And him with freshly poured concrete…
“They have to find the body.” Devin said after that thought. “Not here.” He followed, as he saw everyone looking to him with concern. “Anywhere but here. They need to find the body though. If they don’t, Officer Reynolds and friends are going to be searching here for him. That search will start where Reynolds saw his van.”
“How about The Place?” Dr. Stephens suggested. “If I’ve heard the rumors about him being there all the time snapping photos, a lot of others probably have too.”
Devin was nodding. “That seems right. We just take his van over there and leave him in the driver’s seat.”
“But he was strangled. How do we explain that away?” Dr. Stephens asked.
“We won’t need to. As long as he’s not here, they can think what they want.”
The others didn’t seem completely convinced, but it didn’t really matter. Right now, they needed to get Digby’s van off the road before anyone else saw it. Brent’s van too. The empty cars all over the place were attracting far too much attention. Devin still didn’t trust Dr. Stephens and especially not enough to leave him with Beth. He suggested that Dr. Stephens drive Brent to his van and then take him on to Digby’s. Beth wasn’t particularly happy about being left alone with two corpses and Jimmy unconscious, but she knew the situation and reluctantly agreed.
“I guess I’ll go get his keys.” Devin said, as he made his way out the kitchen door.
This being the second body he had handled tonight, Devin didn’t feel much of anything as he did so. He took care not to look into the corpse’s eyes as he rummaged through his pockets, but aside from that, he may as well have been rifling through his junk drawer. He found them in the first pocket he checked, which was the front right pocket, and was happy to be able to cut the search short.
Looking more closely at the keys, one was very clearly to the transit van, but there were a bunch of others. Two were for other cars of different makes and models, one had the familiar shape of a post office box key, two more were the distinct shape of house keys, but one stuck out as particularly odd. It was a double-sided key, only about an inch long, but with a lot of cuts for tumblers. Devin had only seen one like it once before and that was for a small floor safe that his father had kept his valuables in. Did Edward Digby have a similar safe somewhere? Maybe even in his van?
As Devin walked away from Digby, he stopped and picked up his camera. If there really was a safe in the van and if this really was the key to it, and if there really were all of the photos that Dr. Stephens suggested inside, they would almost certainly be digital. He would need some way to look at them if this was the case.
He went back into the house and walked through to the garage. He stopped at his golf club bag and unzipped the topmost pouch. He found his golfing gloves inside. He took them out and slid them into his pocket. If he was going to be driving the van of a dead man, he was going to do his best not to leave fingerprints. If they managed to somehow dig themselves out of this situation, the less evidence he left behind, the better.
He joined the others back in the living room. “All right,” he said, “let’s do this”.
Chapter 15
The drive passed in silence. Dr. Stephens dropped Brent off at his van. Brent started it up and drove off toward the house. He then drove to Edward Digby’s van and dropped off Devin. He made no effort to wait for him and Devin could hardly blame him. He didn’t much care for being seen with the van either, but someone had to do it.
Devin slid his golfing gloves on. Still thinking about the unusual key, Devin didn’t immediately open the driver’s door. Instead, he opened the back of the van. He quickly saw what he was looking for. Just behind the driver’s seat there was a small safe mounted directly to the floor. He stepped inside the van and walked up to it. It was an odd, crouching walk, as he was bent over at the waist to avoid the low roof. His theory was correct. The key opened it right up.
Inside were three small boxes of the type you would keep business cards in. Each was just over two inches high, three inches wide and perhaps eight inches long. They had clamshell type tops, which hinged in the back. He slid one out and opened it. Inside were do
zens of memory cards - perhaps as many as fifty. There were alphabetical index tabs separating them, the last of which was ‘G’ in the one he opened. Each card was in a small, clear, zippered pouch with writing on the front. The first one he pulled out said Abernathy, Jesse. He didn’t need to look at the pictures to know what would be on it.
Digby’s orderly filing system was going to make Devin’s job here much easier than he expected. He thumbed to the ‘B’ tab and flipped through envelopes until he found one that said Bryant, Devin. He put this one in the camera just to be sure. It was what he expected - pictures of him and Jezebel having sex. He hung his head down. He could hardly believe he fell for it. Obviously, she saw him as nothing more than a dollar sign. He wondered if she was even pregnant at all.
Devin put that box back in the safe and pulled out the rightmost box. He thumbed down to the ‘S’ tab. He found a couple of Stephens’ listed, one of which was the honorable Thomas Jefferson Stephens, but he didn’t see Dr. Stephens or Ulysses Stephens. The more he thought about it, the more he wondered why he was looking. It would serve the bastard right if he left them there. Despite the thought, he slid this box back in and pulled out the first one again. This time he flipped to the ‘D’ section. There he found what he was looking for. Not one, not two, not three, but four different pouches with Dr. $ written on the outside. Jesus Christ, he thought to himself, why didn’t he stop after the blackmailing started?
Devin thumbed through the rest of the pouches in each of the boxes just in case he might recognize a name. He found one he recognized only a few spaces away from the ones with Dr. $ on them. In the ‘C’ tab, he found one that said Elliot Carvey. He recognized this name from seeing it on the door to the building he walked into for work every day. Wesley Jackson and Elliot Carvey made up the Jackson & Carvey portion of his law firm. He slid this one into his pocket as well. He wasn’t sure if this was something he would ever tell Elliot Carvey about, but it was certainly something that his friend would appreciate, nonetheless. Perhaps, compensate? He hated himself for thinking it, but he could probably turn that little memory card into a huge pile of cash if he were so inclined. Maybe even parlay it into a partnership.
In the Shadow of Angels Page 14
