Harvest Of Evil

by William Lehman

  Tonia looked at Mr. Bivens and said, "You may want to sit down sir, we have some bad news for you."

  "I wondered why a Federal law officer and a preacher would have 'official business' together with me," he said as he set on one of the couches along the side of the room.

  "Sir, I regret to inform you that your son has died," Tonia said with as solicitous a tone as she could muster.

  Bivens turned a little pale, and said "I see, car accident?"

  "No sir, I'm afraid it was a little more involved than that."

  "OK, why is he here?" he said, nodding in my direction.

  "Sir, how much do you know of your son's activities, and friends?" I asked.

  "Not as much as I probably should, Tony and I haven't gotten along very well, in the last few years," replied the elder Anthony.

  "Do the names Charles Alberts, George Geisendanner, and Michael Snedker mean anything to you, sir?" I asked. I saw him wince a little at Charlie and Michael's names.

  "I've never heard of this Geisendanner, but I recognize the other two boys all right. Charlie and Michael have been over here so often I sometimes feel like they're fostered to us. The boys have been inseparable since high school. Are they OK?"

  He knew before I said it, I could tell, "No sir, I'm afraid they're also gone."

  "What about Paul Meyers? Charlie, Mike, and Tony usually don't go anywhere without Paul."

  "Sir, Paul wasn't with them, but do you have a way to contact him? He may be able to help in our investigation," I said.

  "Yes, of course, Paul lives in the Delta Gamma Mu Fraternity house with the boys." He sounded sort of vague like it was starting to sink in.

  "Do you have his home address and contact information too, sir?"

  "Yes, certainly, let me look it up for you," he said pulling a PDA out of the desk. "Ah, here it is," and recited it to me.

  "Thank you, sir, I would also like to ask you to let me have access to Anthony's room, so that I could look for any clues that might be there to help figure out who might have killed him."

  "Well, I really should ask my attorney first. If you could give me a few more details of what you might be looking for…"

  "Sir, Tony was killed in the performance of a Federal crime. We have reason to believe that there was at least one more individual involved, and we believe the murder may have something to do with their illegal activities."

  "I see. Could you give me a few minutes to talk to my attorney?"

  "Certainly, sir."

  As soon as he walked out, I pulled out my cell and got on the phone myself. I called the duty Federal judge and asked for a telephonic search warrant. This one was a slam dunk, the judge gave me the blessing over the phone, faxed the warrant to the home office, and emailed me a copy to my Blackberry. When Tony Sr. came in, he had an abnormally bland expression on his face, his eyes were tight and his body language was closed.

  "Officer Fisher, upon advice of my attorney, I am afraid I must refuse to allow you to see my son's room. When and where can I claim my son's body?"

  "Sir, I am afraid you will not be able to claim the body for a couple more days, there are still some tests to be run on it, and it is evidence in a capital crime. When you do arrange to claim the body, I recommend you do it indirectly, through a mortuary. You will not want to view the body. Also I think you need to read this, sir," and handed him my Blackberry.

  "I see," he said after he read the warrant. "Why did you ask permission, if you had this?"

  "I didn't have this when I asked for permission, I asked for and received the warrant while you were talking with your lawyer, sir."

  "This says 'evidence relating to the crimes of: Production of Narcotics with Intent to Deliver, Homicide, and First Degree Aggravated Murder by Magic' what was Tony involved in?!"

  "Sir, your son appeared to be involved in a marijuana growing operation, and appeared to have been killed by the use of magic, such actions done by person or persons unknown. I was there when it happened, please believe me when I say that you do NOT want to see the remains. I'm a combat vet, and the only reason I didn't lose it, was that I was too damn scared that I was next."

  "Maybe you should tell me everything," Tony Sr. said.

  "I'm sorry sir, but I can't do that. Until this investigation is concluded there are several things that I cannot discuss."

  "You mean, will not!" He snarled at me, suddenly red in the face.

  "Yes sir, I do. You admit that you have been very close to some of your son's friends. Some of them may become suspects in this crime. You are not a suspect, however I must require that you not discuss this with anyone except Mrs. Bivens, and, if needed, your attorney."

  "You can't do that!" he shouted.

  "Sir, I regret to inform you that I most certainly can, and that violation of this instruction will result in your being charged with Obstruction of Justice in a Federal Capital Crime Investigation. Sir, you should talk with your attorney if you doubt my word. Oh, by the way, is your son left- handed?"

  "No, what's that got to do with anything?" He couldn't decide whether to be puzzled or angry. "OK, you don't have to wheel out the big guns, I get the point. I assume you will want to look at Tony's room now?" He sounded resigned now.

  "Actually sir, I just intend to seal the room for now, an evidence crew will be here in about thirty minutes to do the actual search." With that, I called Lt. Murphy to get an evidence crew out here ASAP. We spent the next half an hour waiting around for the lab boys to get to us. It was an uncomfortable half an hour. Tony Sr. seemed to be nervous about something, and he smelled of fear, like he had something to hide, but I had no idea what. I'll have to look into this some time.

  *****

  Eventually the crime lab boys showed up. We share them with the other Federal agencies in the area, but fortunately, I had enough horsepower due to the nature of the crime to get them out here quickly. Usually we have to do all of the crime scene stuff ourselves, but now that it may be a 'Murder by Magic', all sorts of resources became available. I turned over the search warrant to the lab team, and we went on to our last stop of the tour, Michael Snedker's parents' house.

  *****

  Michael's folks lived in an area that was, if possible, even more exclusive than the Bivens'. Mercer Island beach front property is ridiculously expensive. When you have neighbors like Paul Allen and Bill Gates, you pay for the privilege. We drove up to another gate much like the one at the Bivens', pushed the button and waited. And waited.

  About five minutes later, someone came on the speaker, "Yes, can I help you?"

  Tonia took the lead again. "Reverend Smothers and Officer Fisher to see Mr. and Mrs. Snedker." We both held up our ID's to the camera.

  "Come on in, I'll meet you out front." Said a male voice from a speaker grill below the camera.

  We drove through the gate as it opened, and up a drive to a large two-story house half cut into the hill side and overlooking Lake Washington. A really nice place, but not nearly as pretentious as the Bivens estate. As we pulled up front, there was a late middle-aged man waiting by the front door. We both got out of the car, and he walked up to meet us.

  "Reverend Smothers, Officer Fisher, how are you? I'm Bob Snedker."

  "How are you sir? Can we come in? I'm afraid we have some bad news," said Tonia with an almost invisible mental wince. I could tell she was getting really tired of this job.

  "Certainly, my wife is out by the boat shed closing up for the night, just give me a minute." He turned toward the back of the house and shouted, "Honey, can you come up here please?", then turned back to us and said "Please come in."

  As we were entering the living room a couple of seconds later, a woman who was obviously Mrs. Snedker walked in. She looked a lot like Michael had looked through the surveillance gear before the spell or whatever it was hit. She looked at us and turned to her husband with a smile. "You didn't tell me we had company, Bob, I look a wreck." She turned back to us and held out a hand. "Hi, I'm Pat
, glad to meet you, sorry I wasn't here when you got in."

  Tonia took her hand and said, "Good evening Pat, I'm Reverend Tonia Smothers, and this is Officer John Fisher of the Federal Park Service Police. Folks, you might want to sit down."

  Pat and Bob exchanged worried looks, Bob quirked an eyebrow and sat down looking at Tonia and me. "OK I'm sitting, what seems to be the problem?" Pat had sat down next to him and grabbed his hand while looking at us like we were a pair of rattlesnakes that had mysteriously appeared in her front room.

  Tonia looked at them and said, "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your son Michael is dead." Pat's grip on Bob's hand got a whole lot tighter, I think I heard a knuckle pop.

  Bob looked at us. "How did it happen?"

  "Sir, we're still investigating that, right now we're treating it as a 'Murder by Magic'," I replied.

  "I see, how is it that you are involved, Officer Fisher? My son didn't spend a lot of time out in the national parks, I'm afraid."

  "Well sir, we don't just patrol the parks. I witnessed your son's death during the course of a stake-out in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest region, I'm afraid."

  "Can you tell me anything more than that?" Bob wasn't looking good, and Pat was now crying silently.

  "I'm afraid all I can tell you is that your son appeared to be involved in a marijuana growing scheme, that there was an unexplained dead body found at the site, and that your son and his associates were killed by what may be magic. That, and I strongly recommend that you not claim the body in person when we can release it, it's sort of bad." Gods that sounded lame, even to me. Sometimes I hate my job, I would really rather be catching bad guys right now.

  "Who was with him, can I ask that?"

  "Charles Alberts, George Geisendanner, and Anthony Bivens were there. They're all dead too, I'm sorry to say."

  Pat started crying harder, sobbing, "Oh God, poor Katherine."

  Katherine, now there was a name I hadn't heard yet. "Pat, who is Katherine?" I asked.

  Pat looked up at me. "It's Tony's mom, she's had a health problem for a while now anyway, and this is going to just tear her up."

  "We stopped at the Bivens' house before coming here, but we didn't meet with Katherine, just Anthony Sr."

  "Oh, I see," Pat said with an odd tone in her voice.

  This was something else odd going on with the Bivens, I wonder what that tone of voice meant. Well, worry about it later, I thought. "Folks, I would like your permission to go through Michael's room and dorm to see if I can find anything that might help solve this case. Also, could you tell me if there was anyone that Michael spent a lot of time with?"

  "Well, there's Paul Meyers, the whole lot of them, Charley, Paul, Tony, George, and Mike are inseparable. And there is Shauna, Mikes girlfriend… OH SHIT!" Bob had a horrified look come over his face, "no one's told her, have they?"

  "No sir, this is the first we've heard of any friends other than Paul. I can come by in a couple of days to look at Mike's room and get contact information for Shauna, if that would be OK?" I so didn't want to be the one to tell 'Shauna' the news.

  "Yes, certainly." It looked to me like Bob didn't want to be the one to tell her either, I don't know what was worse, his not quite getting it to sink in yet that his son was dead, or the fact that he was going to have to break it to the girlfriend. I only knew that I didn't want to get drafted for the job.

  "Oh, by the way, was Mike left-handed?"

  "No." a slightly puzzled reply.

  "Do you know if Paul is?" I asked casually.

  "Yes, I've played tennis with him, he has a wicked left backhand," Bob replied, still puzzled.

  "Thanks, I need to put an evidence seal on Mike's room before we leave. Would that be OK?" I asked.

  "Sure, it's right this way." Bob led me to Mike's room, and I sealed it, emphasizing to Bob that they needed to stay out of the room until I could come by to look through it. Then I went back to the front room, collected Tonia who was comforting Pat, and we got out of there before the scene got any worse.

  Once we got back in the car, Tonia looked at me, and as she started the Mustang, said "OK, what's with the left-handed thing?"

  I looked blandly at her. "Someone killed a man, and buried him in the pot field. That someone was left-handed. Neither Mike, Anthony, George, or Chuck was left-handed. George and Chuck were carrying guns right-handed, and Mike and Anthony were right-handed according to their parents. Hence none of them did in the victim. Paul on the other hand IS left-handed. I think I need to find Paul. SOON."

  On the way back to the office, I thanked Tonia for getting me out of the mess with the Alberts, and told her that I owed her a drink. She suggested that she could use one right now after this evenings' ordeal, but I had to give her a rain check. I needed to go find Paul.

  *****

  When we got to the office, I got back in my own rig, checked in with Cencom, and told them that I was on duty, but not available. Then I went out looking. Paul wasn't at his frat house, which was the address that Tony Sr. gave me, and they hadn't seen him in about five weeks. I stopped long enough to seal the rooms of Mike, Anthony, George, and Chuck and then got back on the road. I had Paul's home address, which was over in Bremerton, so that was the next stop. By now it was 19:30 so it was faster to drive around than to take the ferry across the Sound, so I headed south on I-5. An hour later I was in Bremerton. This was pretty much old home week for me, I had grown up in Poulsbo, just up the road a bit. Paul's parents' house was on Oyster Bay, a nice place, but nowhere near up to the standards of his buddy's parents' places. I stopped about seventy yards down the road from the house, turned off all the lights, and got on the phone. The Meyers picked up the phone on the third ring.

  "Hello, Meyers residence." A male voice.

  "Is Paul Meyers there please?" I asked.

  "Who is this?"

  "My name is Officer John Fisher, of the Federal Park Service Police."

  "I'm sorry, he's out, could you give me a number that he could call you at?"

  "Sure, (360) 555-0199."

  "Thanks, I'll be sure he gets the message." Now the voice was hurried. CLICK.

  About thirty seconds later, someone came out of the house, and ran to a newer Acura, jumped in and fired it up, and burned rubber getting out of the driveway. As they did, I got on the radio. "Four X-ray Fifteen, cencom, stopping in the 3500 block of lower Oyster Bay, Bremerton with a black Acura, stand by for plate. This is a felony stop, request emergency traffic. Request backup by BPD."

  "Cencom, Four X-ray Fifteen, understood, contacting BPD. Break, all units, emergency traffic."

  By the time we had made this exchange, the Acura had pulled out, and I could get a plate. "Four X-ray fifteen, Cencom, plate, Washington charley sierra mike one seven three."

  "Cencom, Four X-ray Fifteen, received, BPD is three minutes out."

  I pulled in behind the Acura, as I turned on the lights, and hit my light bar switch. The Acura pulled over immediately. I pulled in behind it angled out, drew my pistol, aimed it at the driver's side of the Acura, and shouted, "Driver, turn off the car. Drop the keys out the drivers window." The driver complied, and about this time the first BPD car came around the bend ahead of me, lights flashing. It stopped five or six car lengths in front of the Acura, the officer inside out-assed the car with an AR-15, and leveled it at the Acura across the hood of his car. I let him get set, and then started in again, "Driver, place both hands on the roof of the car, do it now!" He did. "Driver, using the right hand only, reach out and open the car door from the outside." He did. "Driver, step out of the car, facing away from my voice, pull your shirt up with your right hand only, and turn slowly all the way around. Do it now!" He got out of the car. He was young, about twenty to twenty-four years old. This had to be Paul. "Driver, face away from my voice, place both hands on top of your head, and walk backwards towards the sound of my voice. Do it now!" Again he complied. When he got close to me, I grabbed his hands an
d cuffed him, put him on his face on the pavement, and asked him, "Is there anyone else in the car?"

  "No, sir."

  I got on the radio to BPD. " Four X-ray Fifteen, Bremerton, do you see anyone in the car?"

  "Four Charles twenty-five, Four X-ray fifteen, negative."

  "Copy, I have the driver, please clear the car." The Bremerton officer slowly approached the car, rifle at the ready. He took his time, checking the car, by the time he got up to it, two more BPD officers had arrived, and they were covering the car too. After a few minutes, he grabbed his mike and said "Clear".

  "Received, Four X-ray Fifteen, Cencom, clear emergency traffic." I said over the radio. It's important to not have 'emergency traffic' on for any longer than you have to, because no one else can use the radio until it clears. "We're done here, one in custody."