Trouble in Paradise: A Violet Darger Novella

by L. T. Vargus

  “And if we figure out who was driving the car Micaela got into…” Darger snapped her fingers. “We need to go talk to the shop owner. See if she watched the surveillance video, like Owen thought she might have.”

  Loshak nodded in agreement.

  “Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER 20

  As soon as the shop owner spotted them coming through the door, she began shouting and waving her hands in the air in a gesture Darger interpreted as shooing them away.

  “We just have a few questions,” Darger said, but the woman continued her tirade.

  The boy appeared then, an exaggerated frown on his face.

  “Oh. It’s you again. Halmi says that having police around all the time is bad for business.”

  “We know,” Darger said. “We just want to know… the day the police came and took the video, did she see what was on it?”

  The kid translated Darger’s question, and the woman rolled her eyes as she responded.

  “She said yes. They had to watch many videos to find the right one.”

  “And what did she see?”

  There was more translating back and forth.

  “She saw a girl walking down the street. She stopped right out front of the store and a car rolled up. She talked to the driver for a minute and then got in the car. And then it drove away.”

  “Did she see the driver?”

  Darger’s heart thudded in her chest as she awaited the answer. But the boy shook his head.

  “No.”

  “What about the car? Did she recognize the make or model?”

  This time the woman shook her head as she spoke, a universal answer that required no translation.

  “She just says it was a car.”

  But the woman was still talking and gesturing with her hands.

  “A drawing?” the kid said.

  “What?” Darger asked, confused.

  “I don’t know, hold on.” The kid listened intently to what his grandmother was saying. “She’s saying something about a drawing of a reptile.”

  And then the woman held up her arm. She pinched her fingers and thumb together and made a slithering movement with her arm.

  The skin on the back of Darger’s neck prickled at the woman’s pantomime.

  “No wait, not reptile,” the boy said. “Serpent… err… snake. There was a snake drawn on the side of the car.”

  Darger inhaled sharply.

  “That means something to you?” Loshak asked.

  “Yeah. Sully’s next-door neighbor has a car with a cobra painted on it.”

  CHAPTER 21

  They stood in the shade of one of the shop awnings, laying it all out.

  “So the neighbor probably sees Micaela around the house. She knows him as her dad’s neighbor,” Darger said. “That would explain her trusting him enough to get in the car and give her a ride. He wasn’t a stranger.”

  “Right,” Loshak agreed. “And so maybe after he gets her in the car, he tries to make an advance. Thinks it’ll be reciprocated. Or maybe he’s just a plain old sicko, and he’s already got devious thoughts in mind.”

  Darger continued to the obvious conclusion.

  “There’s a struggle. He accidentally or intentionally kills Micaela. Panics. Hides the body for a while, then realizes he has to do something with it.” Darger chewed her lip. “I can’t imagine him putting this whole cover-up together, though. He didn’t seem very bright.”

  Loshak screwed up his face.

  “Yeah but the frame job wasn’t exactly James Bond villain material.”

  “Still, he’s moving awfully fast. As soon as we started questioning the Sully-as-murderer story, he changed gears. Planted the evidence on Owen’s boat. Like… almost immediately. It’s as if he knew the Sully story wasn’t going to stick.”

  “Guys?” Spinks said.

  “Maybe he found out Mrs. Bakker saw someone in Sully’s yard near the gravesite after Sully’s time of death, realized he’d fucked up,” Loshak suggested.

  Spinks cleared his throat in dramatic fashion.

  “I hate to interrupt your hypothesizing, as it is truly riveting, but I think you should see this.”

  He waggled his phone.

  Darger was worried it was something in the press. Maybe a story pinning the murder on Owen already. That would be bad.

  But when he turned the screen around, she found it was one of those “people finder” sites. The kind that gives you a basic background check on someone. Name, address, date of birth, court appearances.

  This page was dedicated to one Hendrick de Haas.

  “OK. What am I looking at?”

  “Take a gander at the relatives and associated people.”

  Darger scanned the names there. Gertie de Haas. Peter de Haas. Martin Beethoven.

  “Wait,” she said. “Beethoven? As in Chief Beethoven?”

  “They’re half-brothers.”

  “No way.”

  Spinks waggled his eyebrows.

  “Yes way.”

  “That answers a lot of questions, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes it does,” Loshak said.

  There was a pause as they digested this newest bombshell.

  “Do you think the chief helped him cover it up from the start?” Darger asked.

  “Who knows? But it explains how the video footage got ‘corrupted.’” Loshak made air quotes with his fingers. “How the evidence got planted on Owen’s boat. Whether they did it together, or whether Hendrick just passed on the information to his brother so the police would know exactly where to look, it doesn’t really matter.”

  “I guess this means we can’t go to the police with this.”

  “No. The chief is in too deep… if he accepts his brother as a suspect, he implicates himself.” Loshak stroked his chin. “No, we’re going to have to catch Hendrick red-handed.”

  “How do we do that?” Darger asked.

  “We need him to take us to the scene of the murder.”

  Now it was Spinks’ turn to raise his eyebrows.

  “How?”

  Darger studied the reporter for a moment, the gears turning in her mind.

  “I have an idea.”

  CHAPTER 22

  They waited until dark before heading over to Hendrick de Haas’ place. Parked down the street, Darger could just make out a bit of the crime scene tape still cordoning off Sully’s yard.

  “You’re sure this is going to work?” Spinks asked.

  “No. But the fact that Hendrick asked if the press pays for stories at least leaves the door open that he’ll talk to you,” Darger said from her position in the back seat. “The more important question is whether you’re sure you want to do this or not. If we’re right, if he killed Micaela, you’re walking into a murderer’s lair.”

  The reporter’s white teeth seemed to glow in the darkness of the car as he turned to grin at her.

  “Don’t you worry about me, Agent Darger. This isn’t my first rodeo.”

  Loshak drummed his fingers against the center console.

  “Are we worried about the fact that he might have seen Spinks with us at the scene?”

  Spinks waved a hand.

  “Don’t worry about that. I’ll tell him I’m shadowing you for a story, which isn’t even a lie. And that I’m trying to get all the angles. Then I can let it slip that you’re known as kind of a cowboy, known for chasing down your own wild theories.”

  Loshak smirked.

  “Yeehaw?”

  “That’s good,” Darger said. “That’ll give you a chance to talk about how we have a source that claims to really know what happened. That even claims to have an idea of where Micaela was killed. But we’re keeping it from the police until we know for sure.”

  A sly smile spread over the reporter’s mouth, and he nodded.

  “You want me to get a look around Hendrick’s place before I spill the beans, though. Right?”

  “Right. I personally don’t think he killed her there.
I think the car or some other location is most likely, but keep your eyes peeled for anything that seems off.”

  “And your nose,” Loshak said. “If you smell bleach or peroxide or any cleaning products.”

  Spinks rubbed his palms together.

  “Alrighty. I think I’m ready.”

  “Break a leg,” Darger said as he climbed out of the driver’s seat.

  They watched him saunter up the street, turn up the driveway. He paused in front of the door and knocked. Waited. There were lights on inside, so they were pretty sure Hendrick was home. Finally, the door opened.

  Darger held her breath, praying the plan would work. Silently begging Hendrick to be willing to talk. To let Spinks inside.

  A few seconds later, Hendrick stepped back and waved the reporter in.

  “This is it,” Loshak said, his voice just above a whisper. “He’s in.”

  “How long should we wait?” Darger asked.

  Loshak glanced back at the house and then met her eyes.

  “I’m ready when you are.”

  Darger nodded. She checked the dome light of the rental again, made sure it was off. She put her hand on the door handle and slowly opened the door.

  Slid one foot down to the pavement and then the next. Slipped out. Nudged the door closed.

  She and Loshak crept down the street, staying in the shadows as much as possible. When they reached Hendrick’s driveway, she checked the street for traffic. Empty. They sidled up to his car.

  Loshak took out a penlight and aimed it at the car. Illuminating tiny swaths of the exterior and interior.

  “He’s had it detailed.”

  “How can you tell?” Darger asked.

  Loshak pointed the narrow beam at a tag dangling from the rearview that read, “Punta Detailing and Carwash.”

  “So he didn’t kill her in the car. If he had, there would have been so much blood he wouldn’t dare take it to a detailing place.”

  “But he was worried about trace evidence,” she said.

  They squatted there in the dark for a few seconds.

  “Now what?” she whispered.

  “My money is still on Micaela being killed somewhere else. Somewhere isolated. The question is, where?”

  Darger’s eyes swiveled over to the house, hoping for a glimpse of Spinks. It made her nervous that he was in there alone, and they had no way of knowing how it was going.

  “We’ll have to hope our plan works.”

  CHAPTER 23

  Darger and Loshak returned to where they’d parked to wait for Spinks’ return. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Darger spotted the lanky form moseying back down the street.

  He climbed inside and let out a whistle.

  “How’d it go?”

  “That dude is an absolute reptile.” He shuddered. “The snake car suits him. Once I suggested that he could be an authority on the case, to shape the narrative, he couldn’t wait to tell me all about Micaela and her dad.”

  “Do you think he took the bait?” Darger asked.

  “Oh yeah. Dude has a terrible poker face. His eyes practically bugged out of his head when I told him the two FBI agents thought they were closing in on where Micaela was murdered, and that once they sent the evidence there to the crime lab, we’d know for certain who killed her. He let out a gulp so big he sounded like a Saturday morning cartoon. Then he said, ‘Good. That’s good.’ All nervous-like.”

  “Any chance he killed her in the house?” Loshak asked.

  “I doubt it. The place is an absolute sty. Dirty food containers. I’d expect him to have cleaned up more if it was. But I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” Spinks said. “What’d the car look like?”

  “Clean as a whistle. Too clean. He was cleaning up, but only after trace evidence.”

  “You really think that little nudge I gave him will send him running for the scene of the crime?”

  Loshak let out something between and laugh and a scoff.

  “If he was smart, no.”

  “Dude’s only smart in like a lizard kind of way.” Spinks crinkled his nose. “You know. That cold-blooded, kill-you-before-you-kill-me-way. Without hesitation.”

  They went silent for a while, just sitting and watching in the dark.

  Darger was about to suggest they set up a watch rotation when she detected movement at the front of Hendrick’s house.

  “Is that him?”

  The screen door pivoted open and Hendrick appeared on the front porch.

  “I knew he wouldn’t be able to wait.” Spinks almost giggled. “This guy has no chill.”

  “What’s he carrying?” Loshak asked.

  Darger squinted, waiting for Hendrick to pass underneath the glow of one of the streetlights on the way to his car. It was red. Vaguely rectangular. A gas can.

  “Looks like he’s got a little light arson planned for tonight,” Spinks said, inserting the key into the ignition.

  “Let him get into the car, and then switch places with Darger,” Loshak said.

  “You know, for the record, I’m an excellent driver.”

  “You’re not trained in tactical driving.”

  “Trained.” Spinks chuckled to himself. “You feebs love to think you’ve got the corner on all that spycraft stuff. I don’t have a shiny badge to flash when I want information. I have to survive on my own shrewdness and my charm. I trained on the streets.”

  “Just trade places.

  “Yes, boss.”

  Hendrick secured the gas can in his trunk and then went around to the front of the car. He fired up the engine. The headlights came on. He tore out of the driveway in reverse and then screamed off into the night.

  Darger and Spinks swapped seats. She put the car in gear and took off after the snakemobile. She kept her own headlights off until she reached the main road.

  They followed the car through the night. Around and over the winding roads of Willemstad.

  Loshak tracked their position in a navigation app.

  “OK, there’s a big resort coming up here.”

  “That’s where he works,” Spinks said. “He mentioned that when we were talking.”

  They zipped past the hotel. A few hundred feet later, the pavement ended, and the road narrowed.

  “Pull over,” Loshak said.

  Darger followed his instructions.

  “What is it?”

  “This is a dead-end road.” He held up his phone and showed Darger a flash of street view. “Only thing at the end of this lane is an abandoned house.”

  Darger stared at the screen.

  “You think that’s it? You think he took Micaela to that house and killed her there?”

  “It would make sense. If he works just up the road, he would know the area. Know that this is a place you can go for some privacy.”

  Darger instinctively checked her holster and noticed Loshak doing the same.

  “What’s the plan?” Spinks asked.

  “The plan is that you stay here, with the car. If we’re not back in fifteen minutes, call this number.” Loshak pulled Vinke’s card from his pocket. “And then we have to hope that Vinke is still willing to do the hard work of swimming upstream.”

  “Swimming what?” Spinks said.

  “Never mind.” Loshak eased his door open. “Just hold tight until we get back.”

  The air was still thick with humidity, even at night. Darger and Loshak crept through the dark, treading carefully. Something landed on Darger’s cheek and she swatted it away.

  She caught a glimpse of a flashlight up ahead as they rounded a bend in the road. The beam swept over the ground, swaying back and forth as it advanced. She nudged Loshak, and he nodded to acknowledge that he’d seen it too.

  The road ended, just as the map had said it would. Scrubby grass replaced the gravel. They could move faster here, their footsteps muffled by the foliage.

  Darger heard the telltale slosh of the gas can off to the left, somewhere beyond the hulking shape o
f the abandoned house. They veered that direction, more details of the structure coming into focus as they got closer. Crumbling cinderblock. Peeling paint. Vines that snaked all the way from the ground to the roof. When they reached the outer wall of the ruin, they squatted down and peered through one of the empty windows.

  There was a scraping sound and then Hendrick appeared, dragging an old metal barrel from the backyard up to a door at the rear of the house. He bent down and stuffed something into it. It looked like a blanket or rug maybe. Gray or cream and splotched with stains that looked black in the moonlight.

  Blood.

  Next came a small bundle Darger thought might be clothing. Probably what he’d been wearing the night of the murder.

  She leaned in so that her face was almost touching the side of Loshak’s head beside her.

  “He’s going to torch it all.”

  He held up his phone and gestured to a tangle of bushes and vines behind their vantage point, which she took to mean he was going to text Spinks from a concealed position.

  He scuttled off, and Darger resumed her observation of Hendrick.

  He’d stopped adding items to the barrel and was inspecting one corner of the house now, shining his flashlight on what appeared to be bloodstains on the wall. He studied it for a long moment before splashing some gas on the surface. He returned to the barrel and dragged it further inside the house, dousing the container and its contents with more gas. When he started patting his pockets, Darger realized they were out of time. He was trying to find his matches.

  She swiveled to look at the place in the bushes where Loshak was supposed to be texting Spinks. Saw nothing but darkness.

  It was going to be too late, even if Spinks had already made the call. By the time the cops arrived, the evidence would be destroyed. Hendrick might be charged with arson, but he’d likely get away with the rest.

  She needed to stop him now.

  CHAPTER 24

  Darger darted around the side of the house, making for the entrance at the front of the building. A dark, hulking shape zipped in front of her, reaching the door several yards ahead. She was so startled she almost stopped, but then she realized it was Loshak. He’d gotten the jump on her somehow.