Justice in Mystic Grove

by S F Bose

  “Not usually. Are you Rose’s husband?” I asked.

  “Yes. I see you had the police waiting for her,” he replied. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Newmont and Sam standing behind me.

  “Eric O’Ryan, this is Sam Nolan and Deputy Ron Newmont. And you are?” I asked the bald man.

  “I’m with Mr. O’Ryan,” he replied, not giving his name.

  “Okay, Mr. O’Ryan, why don’t we go into Sam’s office?” I suggested. O’Ryan nodded and turned to the bald man.

  “Wait out here, Jeff,” he said.

  “Eric, at least let me join you,” Jeff replied.

  “I’ll be fine,” O’Ryan said. He turned and followed Sam and Newmont into the office. I glanced back and saw Jeff shake his head before taking a seat on the couch.

  When Neville brought one of the reception area chairs into Sam’s office, I gave him a grateful smile.

  Sam and Newmont remained standing until Eric O’Ryan dropped his bag next to the chair in the middle and sat down. Then they both sat down. I closed the office door.

  “Relax guys. I’m not armed,” he said. His brief smile was humorless. Eric was thirtyish, had sandy hair, and wore dark-framed glasses.

  Shaking my head, I sat to Eric’s left and turned my chair to face him. Flip sat next to me, but his eyes never left Eric. On the other side of the room, Newmont also turned his chair to face O’Ryan. I fished my cell phone out of my pocket and activated the voice recorder. Then I set the phone on the edge of Sam’s desk.

  “Where’s Rose?” Sam asked.

  “Rose has gone away for a while, Mr. Nolan,” Eric replied. “She told me about her interview with you. She left feeling that you in particular suspected her of Steven Meagher’s murder.”

  “I’m sorry she felt that way. Where did she go?” I asked.

  Eric gave me a disgusted look. “I have no idea. Today, Rose called me at work to let me know she was going to disappear until you find the real killer. There is a problem though.”

  Sam stared at Eric. “What problem?”

  “Rose didn’t tell you the truth yesterday.” he replied. “And when you hear the truth, it will probably reinforce your belief that she killed Meagher.”

  “You’ve got our attention, I said.

  Eric almost looked bored. He crossed one leg over the other. His hands rested lightly on the arms of the chair.

  “When Rose saw Meagher leave the Tipsy Cow, she thought he might be up to something. So she followed him out to his cabin. It was in the country near Petersburg. Eventually he turned up a dirt road that seemed to disappear into a forest.”

  “Meagher didn’t realize he was being tailed?” Sam asked.

  Eric shook his head. “No. She lagged back and relied on a broken taillight on his van to track him. When he took the dirt road, she kept going straight and parked on the side of the larger road. She took off her jacket and pulled on some gloves. Then she grabbed some extra clips for her Glock and jogged back to the dirt road. She followed it into the forest.”

  “She followed a van on foot?” I asked.

  “It was safer than driving her car on the dirt road. Besides, Rose could easily run a marathon if she had to. Fortunately, she didn’t have to go far. There was a fork in the dirt road and she followed the tire tracks to the right. The road ended in a clearing. She saw a cabin fifty feet to the right. Meagher had parked his cargo van across from the cabin. Rose also saw another car parked on the other side of the van, but she could only see the very back of it. It was red.”

  “What did she do then?” asked Sam.

  “She took some photos of the cabin and vehicles with her cell phone. Then she lay down on the edge of the clearing where she had a decent view of the cabin. Some trees, grass, and bushes gave her good cover. Rose unholstered her weapon and turned off the sound on her cell phone. Then she settled in and waited.”

  I shook my head. “Why didn’t she tell us this yesterday?”

  Eric glanced at me. “She didn’t trust either one of you.”

  For the first time, Newmont spoke. “Did she kill Meagher?”

  “No, she didn’t,” Eric replied. His voice rose in anger. “But you don’t believe me, do you?” He stared at Newmont who just watched him.

  “What happened next?” I asked.

  Eric flicked some lint off his suit pants. “She saw two guys dressed in black exit the cabin. They had their faces covered.”

  “Could she tell if one of them was Meagher?” I asked.

  Eric shook his head. “Neither one was Meagher.”

  Sam leaned forward. “Did she feel she knew them?”

  “No. Let me tell the story okay?” Eric snapped. “The first guy came out and went toward the car. He was carrying something in his right hand but Rose couldn’t make it out. He stopped by the car and looked around. The second guy followed him and used a mop to wipe down the porch. He also used it on the dirt in the clearing to get rid of footprints. When he got to the car, he tossed the mop back toward the cabin. Then he went on the driver’s side of the car. The first guy shouted something and the trunk lid popped open. The first guy stood by the trunk doing something and then slammed it shut.”

  “Did Rose say what he shouted?” I asked.

  “No, she couldn’t make it out. Then the first guy seemed to hear something. He stood behind the car and scanned the forest from left to right. After a while, he went to Meagher’s van and went in front. Rose said it looked like he was searching for something. Then he jumped out and walked around to the passenger side, which she couldn’t see. But she said the van rocked,” Eric said.

  “The guy went in the back of the van?” Sam asked.

  Eric nodded. “That’s what Rose thought. After a while, he reappeared, walking around the back of the van. Rose said he shouted something else and waved his arms, but again she couldn’t make it out. He also kicked the back of the van. Then he returned to the car. Again, he stopped at the back of the car and looked around. He turned in a full circle and then stopped when he was facing where Rose was hiding. She thought he had seen her and flattened herself on the ground. When she looked up, he was walking around the far side of the car. Then the car backed out and roared down the dirt road near her. Rose flattened herself again, but thought it could have been Larissa Meagher’s red Cadillac ATS.

  “Was she positive?” I asked.

  “She said when she saw it, her first thought was ‘Larissa’s car.’” Eric replied. “But she wasn’t positive.”

  “After the two men left, what did Rose do?” asked Sam.

  “She stayed flattened to the ground until she couldn’t hear the car’s engine anymore. Then she sat up and waited for a while longer. She still thought Meagher might come out of the cabin.”

  “Then what?” I prompted.

  “Rose stood and circled through the woods to the back of the cabin. She had her gun out,” Eric replied. “She crossed the smaller clearing in back to the cabin and waited. When she didn’t hear anything, she crouched and moved to the front of the cabin. She went up the steps to the porch and found the door ajar. When she eased inside, she saw a lot of blood and a body on the living room floor. Rose said there was smeared blood on the floor at the front of the cabin by the door. There was more smeared blood between the door and the living room. And there was a blood pool by the body. She skirted the blood and went into the living room.”

  “Meagher was dead?” asked Sam.

  Eric nodded. “He was. He was lying on his back in the middle of the living room. His head and face were bloodied. Rose was sure he was dead but checked his pulse just in case. She couldn’t feel any heartbeat. Then she lost her balance and put her hand on his chest to steady herself. That’s when Meagher moaned. Rose jumped and fell backwards on the floor.”

  “Trapped air in his lungs pushed up over the vocal chords when she pressed on his chest,” Sam said.

  Eric nodded. “After she jumped up, she realized that’s what happened. But for a moment… An
yway, she looked around the cabin and said it was a mess. Couch cushions were on the floor, an ottoman was flipped on its side, a coffee table was off to the side, books had been pulled off a bookshelf, and drawers were pulled out of a small dresser.”

  Newmont asked, “Why didn't she call the police from the cabin?”

  Eric emitted a short laugh. “From the cabin? Seriously? Think about it. Meagher blackmailed Rose for a year and a half. Then she found him dead in his cabin. She knew once the police found out about the blackmail, they’d try to pin his murder on her. So she finally did the smart thing and left the cabin.”

  “You don’t think she should have followed Meagher out to the cabin?” Sam asked.

  “I don’t. She put herself at risk and gave you guys ammunition against her,” Eric replied.

  “What did she do next?” I prompted.

  “Rose decided to stay off the road. She cut through the woods to her car and drove toward home. On the way back, she called 911 anonymously.”

  “From her cell phone? We didn’t get any reports of a 911 call,” Newmont replied.

  Eric shrugged. “No, she stopped in a small town and called 911. She used a payphone and tried to disguise her voice. She said it was a bad connection and the operator kept asking her to repeat what she said. Rose thought the operator was trying to stall while the police came, so she left.”

  “Was she in Crawford county?” asked Newmont.

  “Don’t know,” Eric replied. Newmont wrote something in his notebook and Eric continued, “She returned home and we talked about what had happened. Then she went to the beauty parlor. She didn’t want to attract attention by cancelling.”

  “So you were really home sick that day?” I asked.

  Eric glanced at me and nodded. “Oh yeah, I was. I’d had the flu for days and was just starting to feel better. That part was true.”

  “The police found a shamrock earring in the cabin. Was that Rose’s?” asked Sam.

  Eric O’Ryan nodded. “Yeah, she realized she’d lost it when she was getting ready to go to the beauty parlor. She thought when she fell back, somehow the earring came off.”

  “Eric, how tall are you?” Newmont asked suddenly.

  “How tall am I? Why?”

  “Humor me. How tall are you?”

  “I’m 6’ tall,” Eric replied.

  “Okay,” Newmont said. “Let me explain how bad this situation is. We have both evidence and corroboration by your wife that Meagher was blackmailing her. She also admitted telling him if he tried to hurt her family, she’d kill him. A witness observed her following Meagher as he left the Tipsy Cow. Now you tell us she’s on the run, so to speak, until we find the real killer. In addition, you’ve confirmed for us that Rose was in the cabin the day Meagher was killed. However, there is one remaining issue. The coroner estimated that the murderer was between 6’0 and 6’2” tall. Since Rose is 5’4” tall, she would have needed an accomplice to kill Steven Meagher.”

  We all looked at Eric. It took him a minute to react and then he laughed. “You think I killed Steven Meagher? What a joke! I’d like to see you try to prove it. To be clear, I did not kill him. I knew this would happen. I’ve just given you the honest story of what happened out at that cabin and you don’t believe me, do you?”

  Sam shrugged. “It could be the truth or it could be a tall tale. You don’t have any evidence.”

  Eric laughed again, reached into his suit pocket, and took out a flash drive. He stood and handed it to Sam. “Prepare to feel stupid. You’ll find all the blackmail calls and recordings on that drive. There are still photos of the cabin, Meagher’s van, and a part of the red car. More importantly, there are two cell phone videos showing the two guys coming out of the cabin. Look for the ‘Cabinmurder’ and ‘Cabinmurder2’ files.”

  “Rose made videos? That took nerve,” I said.

  “She did,” Eric replied and looked proud.

  Sam glanced at Newmont and then connected the flash drive to his laptop. Newmont and I moved behind Sam’s chair as he clicked on a file. Eric sat back in his chair.

  Seconds later a soundless video started playing. Rose panned left to right from Meagher’s van, the back portion of a red car, to a wooden cabin on the right. Then she turned the cell phone so her face was visible and said something. After that, the first video ended.

  “Why no sound? What did she say?” asked Sam.

  Eric shrugged. “She turned the sound off on her cell phone in case she got any calls while she was watching the cabin. She forgot that the volume control muted the audio on the video.”

  “Did she tell you what she said at the beginning?” I asked.

  “It was just a short intro saying she was at Meagher’s cabin in Crawford County,” Eric replied.

  After watching the video a second time, I shook my head. “I wish she had zoomed in. Is that a Cadillac ATS?”

  “Impossible to say. You can’t even see the tires,” Sam replied.

  “Rose took the first video standing up. For the second video, she was laying on the ground,” Eric said.

  Sam clicked on the second file and they saw a ground level view of the cabin. Tall grass and flowers swayed back and forth in the foreground. Sam clicked to make it full-screen. Despite the swaying vegetation, we could see two people exit the cabin. As soon as I saw their stature and body movement, I knew they were men.

  The first guy came down the porch steps fast. He was tall and had a medium frame. He was dressed in black from head to foot: black hoodie, ski mask, cargo pants, gloves, and boots. He stopped near the back of the red car and scanned the woods.

  Behind him, a second guy backed out of the cabin with a mop. He swept the mop back and forth on the porch, down the steps, and over the dirt in the clearing. He was tall but had a larger frame and bulky look. He was also dressed mostly in black: a black jacket, sweater, black pants, gloves, ski mask, watch cap, and running shoes. However, he also wore a red, orange, and yellow scarf wrapped around his neck.

  We watched as the second guy reached the car and tossed the mop back toward the cabin. It dropped short in the dirt. He hurried toward the driver’s side of the car.

  “The first guy is holding something in his right hand,” Newmont said. Sam and I leaned in but I couldn’t make out what the guy held in his right hand.

  We saw the first guy’s mouth open as he evidently shouted something. The trunk popped open and he moved to it, lifting the lid. He bent over the trunk and put something inside. Then he slammed the trunk closed.

  We watched the first guy do everything Eric had detailed. The swaying grass and flowers didn’t obscure the view. When the guy came around the back of the van, his mouth opened in a soundless yell and he waved his arms. Then he kicked the back of the van.

  “He was definitely angry about something,” I said. Sam and Newmont nodded.

  The eerie thing was when the first guy stopped as if he had heard something. We watched as he turned in a circle until he faced Rose’s hiding place. The camera went dark as she put her phone down. A short while after that, the video ended.

  “If you transfer that file to a cell phone, you can zoom in, but it doesn’t help. Those guys were covered from head to foot. Here… look.” Eric took his phone out and located the second video. He handed the phone to Sam.

  When Sam ran the video, he could swipe with his fingers to enlarge the view. However, all we saw were close-ups of well-concealed men. Sam did stop the video and zoom in on the first man’s right hand.

  “He kept whatever he was holding close to his pants’ leg. I still can’t make it out,” said Sam.

  “Me either,” Newmont agreed. “Maybe the team in Madison can work some video magic.”

  “Do either of you recognize those men from the way they walk or anything?” I asked Sam and Newmont. Both shook their heads.

  “No, there’s nothing that stands out,” Sam replied.

  “They also may not be from around Mystic Grove,” Newmont said.

/>   “Good point,” I agreed. “They could be from anywhere.”

  “So this proves Rose told the truth, right?” Eric asked.

  Sam shook his head. “It supports the story you told us. But it doesn’t prove that your wife wasn’t working with those guys.”

  “What are you talking about? She’s not in the video,” Eric replied angrily.

  “Perps have been known to video their crimes,” Sam replied.

  “My wife isn’t a perp!”

  “Eric, where did Rose go?” asked Newmont, returning to his chair.

  “I have no idea. If I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” Eric replied.

  “Okay, I’d like to take your statement over at the station,” Newmont said.

  Eric stood and went to the office door. He opened it and said, “Jeff? Can you join us please?”

  Eric’s unhappy friend entered the office. “Gentlemen,” he said to Sam and Newmont. “Ma’am,” he said to me.

  “This is Jeff Mueller, my attorney,” Eric said and smiled. I thought I heard Newmont groan. “I’m a lawyer myself, but you know the old adage ‘A lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client’.”

  “Very apt,” Jeff agreed.

  Eric smiled and slapped Jeff on the back. “Jeff, I shared the information I showed you earlier. These people seem to think that Rose either worked with the two guys in the video or that I helped her to kill Meagher. Now the deputy wants me to make a statement at the station. I’d like to decline and go home.”

  Mueller looked at Newmont. “Is my client under arrest?”

  “No, he’s not. However, his wife is now a person of interest in a homicide and is evidently on the run. I was hoping your client could help us reach his wife so we can question her,” Newmont replied.

  “Eric, do you know where Rose is?” Mueller asked.

  “No, I have no idea where she is,” Eric replied and looked sad.

  “Deputy, my client declines to make a statement or be interviewed. We’re done here,” said Mueller and the two men left Sam’s office. We heard the front door chime as they left the office suite.

  “I hate lawyers,” Newmont muttered.

  “I don’t think he knows where she’s at,” I commented, dropping into a chair and turning the voice recorder off.