Roberts keyed his radio to summon the coroner.
“Why don’t you come with me?” Jenkins placed a hand on Simmons’ shoulder. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to miss a chance to explore this house.”
The Man in Black stood watching as the police moved over the house, searching in cupboards, behind priceless art, and pulling up carpet. In one spot, behind a beautiful oil painting of a lovely young woman, he spied a wall safe.
“Well, well,” Jenkins murmured, removing the painting before going to work on the safe. With fingers crossed, he turned the handle, and the door to the safe opened. “Sam, I think you better come over here. I just found a wall safe, and it’s pretty full…stuffed manila envelopes and a long steel box.”
“Hot damn, son, I think you just hit the jackpot!” Simmons whistled through his teeth.
“I sure hope there’s info on all the kids she killed and the abortions she performed.”
“It wasn’t even locked? The house is left open and a safe filled with God knows what is just closed and there for anyone to help themselves. She wasn’t too fucking bright.”
“I think that goes without saying, Roberts,” Jenkins laughed
One by one, the articles in the safe were removed and carried to the long dining room table. When the safe was empty, the three men pulled out a chair to go through all the envelopes and the steel box.
“Do you mind if I have a look?” Simmons asked, showing his badge.
Roberts glanced over at him, a wide grin on his face, as he pushed a stack of envelopes across the table. “The old ‘Badge for a Day,’ huh?”
“Gotta do it by the book, my friend,” Jenkins laughed.
They sat quietly going through page after page of the stacks of legal pads.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Sam whispered.
“What did you find?” Jenkins asked as both he and Simmons leaned forward.
“A list of every girl who had an abortion performed here and what was done with the aborted fetus. All the experiments done and in what term the girl was in when she had the abortion.” He sat back in his chair, breathing deeply. He then lit up a cigarette.
“I’ll go hunt up an ashtray for us.” Simmons pushed back his chair.
“How could any person be this cold and callus toward another human? Especially when that human is a defenseless little baby?”
“These people were out to make a lot of money and a name for themselves. They couldn’t give a shit less about the pain they were causing others.”
“It goes against all we’ve been taught about right and wrong and how we’re supposed to treat our fellow man.” He inhaled deeply, letting the nicotine sooth his frayed nerves. “How someone can harm a child is beyond me. Although we’ve both worked cases where mothers have killed their children and fathers have bludgeoned them beyond recognition. But this? Deliberately cutting off limbs to see if they could attach another one and make it work! Or remove perfectly healthy organs just to experiment on them?”
Simmons set a saucer down on the table. “This is the best I could do. Hope you don’t mind, I grabbed us each a soda out of the fridge.”
Roberts looked at Jenkins and they both looked at Simmons.
“Phil,” Todd Jenkins tried to stay angry, but the little boy look on Simmons’s face was making it very difficult, “this is a crime scene. You can’t just help yourself to whatever you want to drink. Christ, you’re as bad as Butch Coby.”
“How so?” He lifted the tab on top of the can.
“Oh well, they’re already here and removed from where they were originally. Putting them back would only compromise the scene more.” Roberts opened his can of soda and lifted it to his dry mouth.
“What were you saying about Butch Coby?” Simmons asked.
“He was telling me about when he and Willie Coby were in this house and he swiped a couple cans of soda, too. Which reminds me, he mentioned that they were both scared out of the house by the sound of a loud bang that all but shook the house.”
At that exact moment, all three men jumped to their feet as a loud bang sounded from somewhere in the house.
Roberts and Jenkins both had their weapons drawn and Simmons stood empty handed.
“Sounded like a loud gong,” Roberts whispered.
“Sheriff Roberts, Detective Jenkins, that was Reynolds who made that loud banging noise. There’s a huge gong in the hallway leading down to the lake.”
“Tell him we said thanks for scaring the piss out of us,” Roberts said.
The young deputy simply nodded before walking away.
Roberts pulled the steel box forward and lifted the lid. He drew in his breath as he spied all the stacks of money. “Good God, there must be thousands of dollars in here.”
Jenkins lifted out one of the stacks wrapped tightly with a thick rubber band to shuffle through the bills. “I would say you’re right almost all these bills are hundreds and a few fifties.”
“Must have been one hell of a lucrative business,” Simmons said.
“And to think it’s been rumored that one of our own presidents was said to pay visits to this house.” Jenkins shook his head.
“He did,” Roberts told them,” his name is on a lot of the medical charts.”
“No, shit?” Simmons’s mouth fell open. “If his name’s on the medical charts as the one who did the experiments then…oh my God!”
“Yeah, makes you wonder what else our so called great leaders were involved in,” Roberts said.
“Reynolds,” Roberts called out.
“Sheriff?” Reynolds came forward.
“I need you to stand guard over this box and all the papers on the table here.” He closed the box lid.
“Yes sir.”
“Let’s go upstairs,” Roberts looked around. “I want to check out those beds and toys you told me about, Todd.”
“Yeah and in one of the rooms is a roll-top desk I want to see,” Jenkins said as they walked toward the stairs.
The Man in Black watched them ascend the stairs and could feel his anger rising.
“They have no right to be in this house touching things and snooping into private affairs. There will be nothing in this house that will remain a secret after they are through. All those years she worked by his side. All the children she helped him to destroy, and for what? He never found the cures he was searching for.” He walked to the stairs to watch their movements.
“It was never about cures.” The thoughts continued to run through his mind. He wanted to be famous. That is what the ego does for those who reach too high. They forget they are supposed to be doing good and as the years go by, they realize they have fallen prey to their ego. He was already the president of the United States of America. Only that was not enough to feed his ego. He had to have more. It is men like him who make it so easy for us to stay strong and rule the universe. They want to be God and instead they fall under the power of the Master Satan great ruler of all.”
He continued up the stairs.
Standing on the landing, Simmons pointed straight ahead. “Look, there’s the desk the Coby boys told you about.”
“Yeah, that should be the one. Let’s go check it out and see if what they said about there being no footprints in the dust is true.”
All three men stood in the doorway staring at the floor where no prints led up to the brightly polished roll-top desk.
Without warning a loud bang sounded all but shaking the house off its foundation.
Sam turned already on his way down the stairs. “When I get my hands on that little shit Reynolds, he’ll be lucky if he still has a badge!”
But as they looked over the banister, they could see Reynolds along with the other deputies standing at the bottom staring up at them.
“Reynolds, aren’t you suppose to be guarding the evidence on the table in the dining room?”
“Yes sir.”
“Does this look like the dining room to you?”
“No, si
r.”
“Then I suggest you get back to where you were told to be.” He watched the young deputy turn back toward the dining room. He didn’t usually talk to his men this way, but the unexpected noise was a little more than he could put up with right then.
At the sound of a slamming door outside they continued on their way down the stairs.
“That will be Parker. So as soon as he gets through with the body and all the pictures are taken we’re still going to go over this house. Whoever or whatever is trying to scare us out of here is wasting its time,” Roberts said.
“Yep, she was strangled all right,” Parker said. “I would say about four hours ago by the rigor that’s already set in. Surprises me that she didn’t die years ago from the looks of her. Hell, she’s got to be over a hundred. I’d say more like a hundred and ten or more!”
“Old and evil she was,” Simmons quipped.
Jenkins walked across the floor to pick up the picture from where it had been placed on the couch. After he had re-hung it on the wall, he stood back, staring at the beautiful girl in the picture. “Whoever she was, I must admit she sure was a looker.”
“You never know, she could be the old woman when she was young,” Sam offered.
“No one could look that good and turn out to look that bad.” Simmons nodded to the body being removed onto the stretcher.
One of the deputies began snapping pictures of the body, the papers, the steel box and surrounding area.
“Let’s finish up here,” Roberts told them.
“I have to admit, I’ve sure had my fill of this place.” Simmons grinned, following behind as the two officers continued through the house.
Suddenly, Jenkins saw something out of the corner of his eye. “What the hell was that?” he said, looking around.
“What?” Roberts stopped walking.
“Someone just walked by me, but there’s no one around.”
“This place is getting to you, old buddy,” Simmons said starting to walk on.
“Bullshit! I saw someone walk by me.”
“Where were they going?” Roberts glanced around the room.
“I guess they would have been walking toward the stairs.”
“Then let’s go back upstairs. Maybe we missed something we were supposed to see,” Roberts told him with no trace of humor in his voice.
At the stern look on Jenkins’s face, Simmons swallowed what he was about to say.
“In police work the officer investigating the scene has to go on gut instinct or a feeling that something isn’t right and he needs to take another look. Maybe your feeling of seeing someone walk by you was no more than a feeling that you need to take a closer look at a place you were just at.”
“When you put it like that, it makes sense.”
Moving through each room, they checked closets and anything that looked big enough for someone to hide in. When they came to the closet with the slatted door, Sam pulled it open and stood back, a large grin on his face. “Like this place here. I bet someone stood right in this closet and watched what was going on in this room.”
“That’s an eerie thought,” Jenkins said, rifling through the few coats and shirts hanging there. “And what do we have here?” He continued moving through the closet, closely followed by the other two.
When they came to the large gong and the rubber mallet, they stopped.
Sam tapped the gong just to get the effect of the tone. “Does that sound like the noise we heard earlier?”
“Sure sounds like it to me,” Simmons said banging the mallet hard against the gong and then put his hands to his ears as the sound resounded throughout the narrow enclosure.
“I’m betting every deputy—not to mention the coroner—are going to be laying in wait for you,” Sam told him, moving quickly down the hallway.
“What I want to know is why the hell didn’t Reynolds tell us you had to go through the closet to get to the hallway where the gong is? That young deputy just said the gong is in the hallway.”
“The thing I want to know is who hit the gong earlier?” Sam said. “You told me the Coby boy said they saw a woman’s face at the upstairs window after they ran out of the house, so that solves that mystery, but this one is still in question.”
“Somebody was in this house and rang that gong,” Simmons said, following behind the two officers and trying to keep in line with the light from the flashlight Jenkins had found on top of a dresser near the closet.
Up ahead, they could see daylight. “Thank God,” Jenkins murmured. “I just knew the batteries in this damn thing were probably old and were going to leave us trying to find our way in the dark.”
“We should be able to see some footprints when we get outside. It’s been rainy all morning, so whoever was in the house had to have left prints,” Roberts said.
“I sure hope so,” Simmons murmured, then flushed as both men turned to look at him.
Stepping out into the fresh air, all three looked around the surrounding area, checking for prints, and came up empty.
“Well hell,” Roberts said, “no prints, no evidence of anyone wiping them out. This place has more questions than anyone can answer.”
They continued walking down to the lake where a boat was tied up.
“I would guess that this is how she was getting her supplies. And I would venture to bet today was delivery day based on all the groceries still setting on the table.”
“I sure wish we could get a tip on who that delivery person is,” Jenkins said. “There has to be at least two of them since the boat is still here.”
“Look out there.” Simmons pointed out in the lake. “Maybe those people fishing saw who brought the supplies here.”
“Hello!” Roberts cupped his hands calling into the distance. When they looked in his direction he waved them forth.
“Now if they’ll just come on over here. This place has such a bad reputation, most people shy away from it.”
“No, they’re rowing over here,” Roberts said.
When the couple in the boat reached the shore, they sat, still waiting to see why they had been summoned.
“Sorry to bother you folks and interrupt your day of fishing. I’m Sherriff Roberts and this is Detective Jenkins and a deputy Phil Simmons.”
The couple nodded, and the woman spoke up. “That’s all right,” she pushed her straw hat further back on her head. “It’s been drizzling off and on ever since we’ve been here, and the fish aren’t biting anyway.” She laughed. “Mr. Simmons, my daughter, Pattie Long, is in your class.”
Simmons stepped forward, holding out his hand. “Yes, I remember you from our teacher’s conference. Pattie is one of my best students.”
“The reason we called you over is we’re investigating the mansion here,” Roberts motioned behind him.
“Oh shit,” the hefty man, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt with the words, “If you got a cold beer in one hand and a fishin’ pole in the other, you got it all,” turned to gaze up at the man talking to him. “What’d you do, find a dead body inside?”
“As a matter of fact, we did,” Roberts informed him. “The elderly woman who lived here was murdered sometime early this morning.”
“Oh my God,” the woman whispered, one hand going to her mouth.
“Why’d you motion us over, Sheriff?”
“I wanted to ask if you and your wife might have seen anyone in a boat while you’ve been out in the lake.”
“As a matter of fact, we did,” the woman said. “Two men in a motorboat about…what would you guess, Danny…two hours ago?”
“Yeah, about that. In fact, although I don’t care to get involved in a murder, I recognized one of the men in the boat. It was Harry Lancing.”
“Is this Mr. Lancing a friend of yours?” Roberts watched him to get his reaction.
“Hell no! That worthless piece of shit ain’t no friend of mine. He lives off his brother and I’m pretty sure that’s who was with him this morning in the boat.”
“Did you happen to notice if they were coming from over here?”
“Naw, when we saw them they were out in the middle of the lake.”
“Thank you for your time, folks. I really appreciate your help.”
“Harry and his brother won’t know it was us who told you we saw them on the lake earlier, will they?”
“I’m not going to lie to you, Mr. Long. If this goes to court, which I am quite sure it will, you will both be subpoenaed to tell what you saw.”
“I knew I should have kept my big mouth shut.”
“I’m sure you don’t mean that. Too many good citizens keep what they know to themselves so as not to get involved, and a lot of bad people walk free. You, on the other hand, came forward with what you saw and maybe you have helped to catch whoever did this murder.”
“A lot of bad rumors have been spread about this place and the old lady. So maybe whoever offed her did the rest of us around here a favor.”
“Danny,” his pretty, auburn-haired wife slapped him on the arm, “we don’t know if those rumors are true. That was a terrible thing for you to say.”
Turning away, he tried to avoid eye-contact with the others.
“As much as I hate to admit it, Mr. Long, your wife has a point,” Jenkins spoke up, sorry he had to embarrass him more. “Those of us who’ve lived in this town have all heard the rumors of the old witch who does illegal abortions in the Prescott Mansion.”
“Oh good Lord!” The small woman dressed in jeans and an oversized sweatshirt leaned forward. “She was doing abortions?”
“That’s one of the rumors being spread around. Who knows if they’re true or not.” Roberts stepped back. “I’m not going to keep you any longer.” He looked up at the sky, noting the sun trying to creep out from the clouds. “Looks like it’s going to clear up and be a nice day, so you might want to get back out there and try your luck.”
“Don’t have to ask me twice,” Danny Long murmured, grabbing onto an oar to begin backing them away from shore.
“Good luck to you all,” Mrs. Long called out to them.
Waving them on, Roberts turned to go back to the mansion. “Let’s get up to the car. I want to get some deputies busy with picking up the Lancing brothers.”
The Hay Fort Page 14
