Eyes in the Sky

by Debbie Burke

  More people queued up behind her. Tawny squeezed Gloria’s hand and moved past.

  Tillman remained beside the widow, his hand cupping her elbow, bending to murmur introductions in her ear.

  Tawny retreated to the far edge of the gathering to stand by a massive landscape boulder. That morning, she’d made a hurried trip to the mall for funeral clothes, choosing a long-sleeved, dark gray sheath. The dress blended with the rock. Protective coloring.

  Mimi, Arielle, and Judah had attended the service. As soon as they got home, they disappeared inside the mansion. Tawny wished she could hide out with them.

  Rochelle positively glowed in the role of hostess, swirling among guests in a floor-length, off-the-shoulder black gown. She air-kissed cheeks, offered champagne, and directed people to long buffet tables.

  Thankfully, she was too preoccupied to bother with Tawny.

  Across the crowd, Tawny spotted Esther, one of the few people she recognized. The office manager snagged two glasses from a passing server then joined Tawny.

  “You look thirsty.” She handed over a champagne flute.

  “Thanks.” They clinked glasses. “Nice to see a friendly face.”

  Esther chuckled. “Welcome to the Who’s Who of Billings.” She nodded at a cluster of people. “There’s the Sheriff, Chief of Police, Mayor, and their Honors the judges.” She shifted to another group. “That’s the rest of their Honors and the presidents of MSU and Rocky Mountain College.” She leaned close to Tawny’s ear. Years of smoking had roughened even her whisper. “Everyone’s asking where the hell Steve is.”

  Tawny peered down at the shorter woman. “You haven’t said anything?”

  Esther’s wrinkles furrowed. “Of course not. But nobody can stop rumors from flying.”

  “Have you talked to him since…?”

  The office manager gulped champagne before answering. “He called me after you guys left yesterday afternoon. Wanted to pick up the Wicked Pony but the boss already changed the alarm code.”

  “What’d you tell him?”

  “I texted Tillman. He said under no circumstances was Steve to set foot on the property. He told me to have the janitor leave the statue in the alley outside the parking lot fence and Steve could pick it up there.”

  “Did he?”

  “Yeah, the janitor told me he had to help Steve lift it into his trunk because he bunged up his knees pretty bad when he leaped over the bannister.”

  Tawny shook her head, remembering the heavy bronze crashing down the stairs, through the wall. How the sharp hooves punctured the leather couch in the waiting room.

  Esther read her mind. “I told the boss, if that statue had hit Steve, he’d need to clean up the blood himself.”

  Good old Esther, blunt as a baseball bat.

  “You wanna know what he said?” The woman drained her glass. “Says he’s played basketball with Steve, guy has fast reactions, and the boss knew he’d get his thieving ass out of the way in time.”

  Tawny wondered about the sarcastic rationalization. Tillman had taken a terrible chance if he’d really depended on Steve’s fast reactions. More likely his temper had gotten the best of him.

  Esther went on: “The boss changed all the computer passwords and he’s got a geek looking for any back door access that Steve might have left open.”

  “What a mess.” And Steve had slept with his partner’s wife and underage daughter. Tawny chewed her lip to avoid letting those secrets slip. Esther was a trusted employee but it wasn’t Tawny’s place to share Tillman’s family problems.

  Esther’s chuckle sounded like coarse sandpaper on wood. “I gotta call contractors tomorrow to patch the hole in the wall.” She waved for a refill at a passing server carrying a bottle wrapped in a linen napkin.

  “What’s going to happen to the practice now?” Tawny asked.

  “It’s gonna be ugly,” Esther said. “Busting up a partnership is like divorce, no fun.” She moved toward the buffet table. “Come on, let’s get something to eat.”

  They strolled to the queue.

  “If I lived up here on the Rims,” Esther said, “I’d never stop looking at this view. The whole city of Billings spread out at your feet.”

  A speck in the wide sky caught Tawny’s attention. A drone hovered above the crowd, moving back and forth. Tillman had bought Judah a new one to replace the original that had been shot down in the ravine. The boy stood at the end of jutting promontory and maneuvered the craft, concentration intense.

  Esther cocked her head to the side. “Watch out. Here comes your biggest fan.”

  Tawny followed the woman’s signal and saw Rochelle moving toward the buffet table, pausing to speak to guests, but getting closer. Tawny didn’t want another confrontation. “I’m not really hungry. Think I’ll go say hi to Judah.”

  Esther gave a knowing nod as Tawny slipped out of line.

  A yarmulke perched on the boy’s bald head. As she approached, Tawny asked, “Hey, Judah, do you use bubble gum to keep that yarmulke on?”

  He glanced up for an instant and grinned, but immediately went back to staring at the screen. “Look at this.” He held the console up for Tawny to see.

  Without her readers, she could only make out a blur on the screen, rocks forming a dark crevasse. Something protruded from the crack. “What is it?”

  Judah manipulated the controls, zooming for a closer view. He let out a strangled choke. “I think it’s a leg.”

  ****

  Tawny carefully picked her way down the steep trail. As she slid on loose pebbles, she was glad she’d taken the extra minutes to run back to Tillman’s suite to change out of heels into sneakers.

  Tillman and Judah had already climbed a hundred feet down the cliff. By the time Tawny reached them, Tillman straddled a crevasse, bent over, reaching into the dark gap between two giant boulders. Judah stood to the side, lower teeth biting his upper lip.

  Tillman straightened. Dirt dusted the silk sleeves and front of his black suit. “He’s dead.” Now his lower teeth chewed his upper lip, the tic shared by father and son. Tillman took a long breath. “It’s Zepruder.”

  Tawny gasped.

  The image of the bronze statue crashing down the stairs toward Steve flashed before her eyes. Then Tillman’s disappearance from the bed in the middle of the night. Had he…?

  No! She couldn’t let herself think that.

  She moved a step closer to study the body jammed between rocks, neck twisted sideways at an unnatural angle. Milky blue eyes stared up at her. Dried blood matted his blond hair.

  Earlier, Esther had pointed out the sheriff and police chief among the guests. Those two men were watching from above. Tillman waved to them and they started down the escarpment. They stumbled and caught themselves, awkward in formal funeral clothes and hard-soled, shiny shoes that slipped on the talus.

  High on the ridge, more people noticed the activity below. In minutes, a crowd gathered to peer over the cliff. Tawny caught a glimpse of Rochelle’s pale, stricken face before she darted away. Had she…?

  Stop it! Tawny ordered herself. Steve’s death might simply be an unfortunate accident.

  But even as she tried to convince herself not to jump to conclusions, her imagination had already raced miles ahead.

  Tillman squatted beside the body, somber. His dark stare locked on her. She knew he recognized her suspicion and the conclusions she couldn’t prevent herself from drawing.

  The wheels in his brilliant mind raced in a blur lightyears ahead of her. He would already anticipate accusations, interrogation, his arrest, then hearings and motions for the defense, then the trial…

  She looked away, ashamed her doubts showed, yet unable to trust in his innocence.

  Down on Zimmerman Trail, flashing lights appeared, a fire rescue rig in the lead, trailed by sheriff’s vehicles. As they climbed the steep road, lights disappeared and reappeared in the winding switchbacks, bringing with them impossible questions she and Tillman would soon have
to answer.

  Their lives were forever tangled with past and current traumas. The loyalty that bound them together couldn’t be torn apart. She owed him and would for the rest of her life.

  In that bizarre moment, hanging on the sheer side of the Rimrocks, trying not to look at Steve Zepruder’s dead body, she realized she loved Tillman enough that she would do anything for him.

  Anything. Even lie.

  She caught a glimpse of Judah, moving from one foot to the other. His gaze flicked between the corpse and his father, wavering between horror and fascination.

  “What do you want me to tell them?” she asked.

  Tillman glanced at his son also. His eyes looked harder than obsidian, harder than steel prison bars. When his deep baritone rumbled, she felt the ground slipping beneath her. “Tell the fucking truth!”

  Chapter 20 - Arrest

  Once the deputies arrived, Tawny never had another chance to speak to Tillman. A detective immediately took him and Judah inside the house. Rochelle had also disappeared. No sign of Mimi or Arielle.

  Guests milled nervously, unable to leave because of deputies stationed at the entrance to the estate. Tawny tried to blend in among them, hoping to delay being singled out for questioning.

  She worried about the effect Steve’s death would have on Mimi, who was already depressed and might attempt suicide again. Tillman probably anticipated that, too. He’d make sure she wasn’t left alone. If he could.

  As much as Tawny prayed Steve’s death was an accident, she knew in the burning depths of her stomach that it wasn’t. She dreaded her own inevitable interrogation by detectives, knowing she couldn’t truthfully provide an alibi for Tillman.

  Should she claim they’d been together all night?

  No, she was a pitiful liar. She couldn’t hold up under interrogation. Tillman knew that, which is why he’d demanded that she “tell the fucking truth.”

  He would have to account for himself. And she couldn’t do anything to help him. Dear God.

  She sat on a stone bench and closed her eyes. A vision of the Wicked Pony crashing down the stairs toward Steve replayed in her mind.

  Tillman claimed not to care that Steve and Rochelle were lovers but Tawny still wondered. He was furious with his partner’s theft. Most of all, Steve had violated Mimi, Tillman’s precious child.

  His motives to kill Steve were overwhelming.

  But Rochelle also had reasons to hate Steve: her lover seduced her own daughter. Tawny had witnessed firsthand the woman’s toxic jealousy. She’d even been concerned that Rochelle might harm Mimi in retaliation. Steve’s betrayal gave Rochelle a strong motive.

  After half an hour, the sheriff escorted Gloria Withers and her family to the waiting funeral limo. The extended black Suburban slowly drove out the long driveway. Tawny felt relieved they’d been allowed to leave. Kemp’s family already had enough grief without being tangled in another death. But the rest of the nervous funeral guests remained blocked from their cars by a deputy guarding the roped-off parking area.

  Esther worked through the crowd, carrying two glasses of champagne to join Tawny on the bench. “Jeez, what a cluster.” She offered a glass.

  Tawny took it but didn’t dare drink for fear of throwing up. She wished for antacids but doubted they could quell the churning.

  Esther jerked her head toward a commotion near the driveway.

  A tall, lanky woman with layered gray hair was arguing with a deputy. “You can’t detain me. I’m an officer of the court,” she shrilled. More people joined her protest.

  “That’s Judge Eve Landes,” Esther muttered. “The only three cases Tillman ever lost were to her, way back when she was still a prosecutor.” She gulped champagne. “Happened about fifteen years ago. Bing, bang, boom, three defeats in two weeks. Tillman thought Kemp was going to can him. So what does he do? He pays her a visit and offers her a job. Figured if she was good enough to kick his butt, Tillman wanted her on his side.”

  “What happened?”

  “She joined the firm, lasted a year, they had a big blow up, then she started her own practice. A few years ago, she got appointed to the bench. When he appears before her, she still likes to remind him how she beat him.”

  “Bet he loves that.”

  Esther tilted her head. “He calls her a ‘sore winner.’”

  A group of people stirred, moving to a point of land overlooking the ravine, apparently prompted by activity below. Tawny and Esther walked to join them. They watched as the coroner zipped Steve’s body into a bag. Six deputies hefted the litter up the steep trail to the driveway. There, it was loaded into a Yellowstone County vehicle. Moments later, it drove away.

  Esther nodded to Tawny’s untouched champagne. “You gonna drink that?”

  Tawny handed the glass over.

  The office manager downed it and ran a hand across her mouth, smearing lipstick. The watery redness of her eyes said she’d been putting a serious dent in the free liquor. “Kemp was a real gentleman. His farewell shouldn’t be ruined like this.”

  Tawny nodded.

  Esther focused her glassy stare on Tawny’s face. In a husky undertone, she said, “Can’t say the same for that weasel Zepruder. Lousy jerk tried to make the boss think I was embezzling.”

  That was news. “What happened?”

  “Seven, eight months back, I was making collection calls. Steve hears me and says don’t worry, he’s taking care of it for his own and Kemp’s clients. Kemp was out, recuperating from his first surgery. Steve made it sound like he was pitching in to help his poor sick partner. Mr. Magnanimous.

  “Couple months later, Tillman calls me in and wants to know about a quarter of a mill in receivables that’s more than a hundred and twenty days past due. You know how he jumps on you with both feet? ‘Where’s the damn money?’ he’s yelling. I say, Steve told me to back off. All of sudden, Tillman gets real quiet and he’s giving me that look. You know the look I mean.”

  Tawny raised her eyebrows. “Only too well.”

  “Next thing I know, an auditor waltzes in, tells me to take a hike. Banishes me from the office. Well, that makes me pretty damn nervous. The only reason to boot me out is because they think I’m embezzling. First time off I’ve had in ages and I’m too worried to enjoy it. Bought a pack of smokes, even though I hadn’t touched one in fifteen years.”

  Tawny noticed Esther’s fingers jittered on the stem of the empty glass, as if she still longed to hold a cigarette.

  “Then one night, Tillman shows up at my apartment, asks me to come back to work. I tell him I didn’t like how he’d treated me, booting me out of the office. I was insulted. He puts his hand on my shoulder and says, ‘Esther, I know you’re clean.’ I ask him, who’s the thief? He says, don’t worry, he’ll take care of it. He knew but wouldn’t tell me. But, by then, I was pretty sure it was Steve who’d tried to throw me under the bus.” Tears rolled down her lined cheeks.

  Tawny chewed her lip over another secret Tillman had kept. He’d distrusted Steve yet didn’t warn her. If she’d known, she wouldn’t have had a drink with him at the Northern, and would never have allowed him in Tillman’s house near his children.

  Esther grasped her arm. “Tawny, I don’t know what to say to the cops. Tillman could have killed Steve with that statue. If we tell them about that, shit, we might as well slam the jail door closed on him.” She squeezed tighter. “We’ve got to help him.”

  ****

  The funeral guests were finally permitted to leave after the coroner determined Steve Zepruder had been dead for at least twelve hours.

  The same twelve hours earlier when Tawny had awakened to realize Tillman wasn’t in bed with her.

  She shivered as the sun dropped low in the west. Muscle spasms tugged at the base of her skull and pulled on her shoulders like twisting, tightening cables. Means, motive, opportunity chanted in her brain over and over.

  Under the deserted canopies, catering employees packed up then drove away. Soon, onl
y deputies and crime scene techs remained. She watched them search the area, scurrying like ants up and down the trail.

  She’d given a brief statement to a deputy about being with Judah when he spotted the body on the video screen of his drone. Without her glasses, she couldn’t really say what she’d seen, just blurry color variations.

  Later, she knew more questions would probe deeper. Where had she been last night? Where had Tillman been? She dreaded the inevitable.

  Esther had offered her a lift back to the Northern but she couldn’t leave until she talked to Tillman.

  Curiosity tortured her as she wondered what was going on inside the mansion. When dusk fell, lights appeared in windows. Detectives must still be questioning him.

  Where was Mimi? Who was taking care of her?

  A side door opened and the tall woman who’d argued with the deputies emerged. If there were a female face on Mount Rushmore, it would belong to Judge Eve Landes.

  After her earlier impatient demands to be released, Tawny wondered why she was still there.

  The woman spotted Tawny and approached with long purposeful strides. Uh-oh.

  “Mrs. Lindholm?” The judge extended her hand. “I’m Eve Landes. Tillman asked me to talk to you.”

  “Is he all right?”

  He wanted me to prepare you, Mrs. Lindholm. He’s being arrested for suspicion of homicide in the death of Steven Zepruder.”

  Tawny’s legs buckled. She lurched sideways and caught herself on a landscape boulder. “Oh God.” Her dread had come true.

  The judge steadied her arm.

  Tawny’s breath felt ragged. “Did he confess?”

  “He’s invoking his right to remain silent.” She regarded Tawny with serious gray eyes. “Tillman wants you to have representation before you’re questioned. I’ve called a colleague in my former practice, Devin Guilford. He’ll be with you when you speak to the detectives. Your interview will take place tomorrow morning.”

  “What about Tillman? Who’s representing him?”

  “I am. I’m stepping down from the bench.”