by A W Hartoin
I gripped the side rail. “The note mentioned Grandad? Just him?”
Cheryl blew her nose. “Yes. He talked about Ace a lot and in that note. He said that he had organized it all. He said it was Ace’s fault.”
“But you didn’t try to kill him,” I said.
“I was so depressed at Judith’s death. She understood me. No one loved me like Judith, except Walter,” she sobbed.
“Cheryl, please. Why didn’t you try to kill my grandad?”
She laughed bitterly through her tears. “At least in that I was seeing clearly. Ace had nothing to do with it. Your father had been born and Ace was home on leave.”
Thank God for that.
“Do you still have the package?” I asked.
“It’s in my room at Jennifer’s.”
Betsy came back in. “We need the bed and they want her. I can’t do anything.”
“That’s okay.” I pushed stop on the recorder. “We’re done.”
“I’m going to prison for the rest of my life,” said Cheryl.
“Yes,” I said, feeling oddly sick to my stomach. Cheryl was guilty as sin as Aunt Miriam would say. There was no getting around that, but she was a victim, too.
“Thanks for telling me about him,” I said, picking up the recorder.
“Will you find out who he was?” she asked.
“Someone will.”
“He wanted me to hurt Ace, didn’t he?”
“I think so.”
She wiped her dripping eyes. “I don’t know why I didn’t see that.”
“You saw what you wanted to see.”
“And it was all a lie from the beginning.”
I shivered in spite of myself. “All the way back to Vietnam.”
“Tell Barney I’m sorry. I wanted to punish him for his father’s sins. Tell the rest of them, too. They won’t believe it, but it’s true.”
“They might surprise you. They’ve surprised the hell out of me on this trip.” I left and the uniforms came in. Trevino and Bennett were waiting in the hall, looking almost alert.
“Did you get it?” asked Bennett.
I handed him the recorder. “Yes, and your investigation is just beginning.”
“What do you mean by that? She confessed,” said Trevino.
“Listen to the tape. I’m going home.”
“Give me a snapshot.”
“She was incited by someone,” I said. “Did you find a package in her room with a picture of a bullet?”
Trevino got on his phone and started asking about the evidence.
Raptor walked up with Grandad and said, “Barney wants to see you.”
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see Barney. I was just dead on my aching feet. “Okay. But just for a minute.”
Grandad took my hand and we followed Bennett through the hospital. They were keeping Barney overnight for observation and he surprised me by being wide awake.
“Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” I asked.
“Adrenaline,” he said. “Won’t be sleeping for a while.”
Janet rushed over and hugged the breath out of me before going into the ugly cry. “You saved my Barney.”
“Raptor would’ve done the same,” I said.
Janet flung herself at Raptor and hugged her so hard she squeaked. “I didn’t do anything. You captured Cheryl.”
“I saw her and I just…”
Barney smiled. “Went crazy. Don’t mess with the tiny wife.”
Janet crawled into bed with him and snuffled into his shoulder.
“I hear you went to get Cheryl’s confession,” said Barney.
“I got it,” I said and then gave him a quick rundown. I went light on the details, but Barney got increasingly tense and so did Bennett.
“I don’t like the sound of that,” he said.
“Ace was really the target,” said Barney. “What a crazy thing to do.”
Trevino walked in. “We have the package. Ace was the intended target.”
We all looked at Grandad, who was completely unperturbed. “An elaborate plan that didn’t work.”
“It could’ve worked,” said Raptor, clearly shaken.
“But it didn’t and now we know.”
Barney patted his wife and then sat up. “You need to get out of town. Right now.”
I yawned. “We’re leaving on Sunday.”
“I don’t think that you should wait,” said Bennett.
“You’re just trying to get rid of me.”
“Yes, but I’m worried about Ace’s safety.”
It made sense, but I wasn’t keen on leaving Barney, Robert, and Big Mike. “I just need to sleep.”
That was something everyone agreed on. Trevino was seriously disturbed by the package and insisted on Grandad leaving separately from me and Raptor. He took him out the service entrance and drove him back to The Ornery Elk in an unmarked car. Raptor and I went back with Wallace, who hadn’t so much as twitched since we left her in the truck.
Raptor drove us through the intense darkness that made up the South Dakota night. The sky was so big and so dark it felt heavy and foreboding.
“So…” said Raptor.
“So?” I asked.
“How worried are you?”
I glanced behind us to make sure we weren’t being tailed, but it seemed like we were the only ones driving at two o’clock in the morning. “I don’t know yet.”
She gave Wallace a little scratch. “What will make up your mind?”
“Whatever happens next.”
Chapter Twenty-five
I COULDN’T OPEN my eyes. They absolutely refused to open.
“Mercy.”
“What time is it?”
“Ten to six,” said Grandad.
“Sleeping.”
“Open your eyes, sweetheart.”
“Tried. Can’t.”
I did try. I really did. It was Grandad and I always tried for him. But it was like that time in second grade when I got pink eye from Joey Stottlemeyer, along with everyone else who stood within two feet of that kid. Joey was like Pigpen from Peanuts, except his cloud was disease, not dirt. I owe all my childhood immunity to Joey. He also got my mom banned for half the year after she was caught trying to spray him with Lysol after my second bout with strep. It was the best school year of my life.
Grandad shook me and none too gently. “Wake up.”
“I am.”
“Open your eyes.”
“Not gonna happen.”
There was a rush of warm breath on my ear and Raptor said, “I spit in your lemonade.”
My eyes popped open. “Did you really? Jeez, Raptor.”
She laughed and jumped back under her covers. “I knew that would get you up.”
“Did you? Seriously?”
“No.” She did not look innocent.
“What did I ever do to you?” I asked.
She flopped back and snuggled down. “We don’t have time to get into that.”
“How come?”
Grandad tossed a pair of jeans at me. “Get dressed. We’re leaving.”
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Home.”
“Now? Right now? I’ve slept a whole three hours. Give me a break. We can go tomorrow as planned.”
Grandad thrust his phone under my nose. “No, we can’t.”
My eyes wouldn’t focus and I wished I had pink eye. People left you alone when you had pink eye. “What is it? The hospital? So what?”
He gave me a cup of the world’s strongest coffee and said, “Look at the picture, Mercy.”
I looked after a few mind-clearing sips. It was the Sturgis Hospital, but it wasn’t a picture. It was video of the ER parking lot and entrance.
“Is that me and Raptor?” I asked.
“Yes, it is.”
Raptor climbed onto my bed and we petted a snoring Wallace together as we watched the video replay several times. It was short, only about forty-five seconds of us pulling in and pa
rking, then walking in the entrance. Not so interesting except for the car that pulled in to park twenty seconds after we did. Whoever was driving didn’t get out. They sat there in shadow.
“The license plate is covered in something. I can’t make it out,” I said.
“Does this mean something?” asked Raptor. “It’s just a person in a car. Maybe they’re picking someone up.”
“I don’t think so.” Grandad changed the video. This time it was of what looked like a man in a rain poncho, getting out of the car and going to my truck. He looked in the window and tried both doors.
“Oh, crap,” said Raptor.
“Oh, crap indeed,” said Grandad and he changed to another video. Raptor and I were walking out of the hospital escorted by Bennett. The cop watched us get in and drive away before lighting a cigarette and hanging out at the entrance. The car was occupied and didn’t move. After Bennett went inside, there was movement in the car.
“What’s he doing?” asked Raptor.
“Talking on his phone,” I said.
Grandad nodded. “At that exact time, a call came into the hospital and a man asked for my room.”
“What did they say?” I asked.
“Trevino told the staff to tell anyone who called that they couldn’t connect to my room because I was not to be disturbed.”
“So they’d think you were still there.”
“Yes.”
After the call, the car drove off. Trevino had gotten surveillance camera video from an ATM, showing the car, both license plates obscured with mud, headed in the opposite direction from The Ornery Elk.
“Doesn’t Trevino ever sleep?” I asked.
“Good cops don’t, not when it’s happening,” said Grandad and I could see where Dad got his work ethic.
“I don’t know if we should leave everyone here,” I said. “Maybe it’s a false lead.”
“Trevino doesn’t think so, and neither does Chuck.”
“You called Chuck?” That was going to be fun. He already worried when he didn’t have a reason to.
“Trevino called the STLPD and was sent over to Nazir. He told Chuck. Everyone agrees. We need to go home,” said Grandad. “It’s about us.”
“You mean you,” I said.
Grandad tucked a lock of hair behind my ear and said gently, “I went to the hospital. That guy stayed at the concert and tailed you. I can’t understand why he didn’t make a move when you went to your truck.”
Raptor balled up my blanket in her hands. “Darren sent bodyguards with us.”
“Thank goodness. I’ll have to buy him a good bottle of scotch. Now get dressed.”
“I don’t know. What about Big Mike? Where’s he at?”
“He stayed in Spearfish with Robert and Janet’s with Barney.” Grandad pulled me out of bed. “They’re not the targets. They never were. Trust me. I have a feeling.”
Raptor handed me my clothes. “That decides it. You’d better go.”
“How are you doing?” I asked.
She seemed surprised I’d ask. “I’m fine. Did you tell him about Hunt?”
“Hunt?” asked Grandad.
Barney had told Robert about Blankenship’s mystery visitor, who was asking about me, and he told Raptor. No secrets among friends, I guess.
“You should’ve told me or Chuck,” said Grandad.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” I said.
“It is now.”
I didn’t fight it. I got dressed and we left within ten minutes. Aaron drove with Wallace on his lap. He asked no questions and I was grateful for his silence.
I slept until eleven and only woke up because Aaron stopped at a rest stop. We climbed out and I carried Wallace to a tree. The poor pug was so stiff she couldn’t squat and peed on her own feet for a change. I took her into the bathroom and washed her while Grandad paced outside.
“You don’t think he followed us?” I asked when I came out.
“No. I’ve been watching, but your father was always better at spotting a tail than me,” said Grandad.
Aaron poured us cups of a cinnamon-laced hot chocolate and gave out sausage rolls with extra mustard. We ate at a picnic table under racing clouds with an injured pug lying on the table, snorting and accepting tidbits of sausage.
“Your phone’s buzzing,” said Grandad as Aaron pushed another roll on him.
“I know,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow.
“It might be Mom.”
Aaron pulled my phone out of my pocket and slapped it on the table.
“You’re getting more bossy all the time.”
He just poked the phone and managed to stuff an entire roll in his mouth. It was quite impressive really. I picked up the phone and reluctantly answered the plaintive buzz. “Hello.”
“Thank goodness,” said Spidermonkey. “I was starting to think my sources were wrong.”
Grandad watched me intently.
“Oh, hi. I’m coming home right now.” I stood up and walked off by an odd red sculpture that looked like a pile of used railroad ties. “Sorry. Grandad was right there.”
“I see, but we need to meet soon.”
My chest tightened and I instantly felt the pain in my ankles that had been easy to ignore a moment ago. “Has something happened?”
“A few things, but nothing like what you’ve been dealing with,” said Spidermonkey.
“Is there anything you can’t find out?”
“I hope not. I’d be a terrible hacker if there was. You should’ve brought a bodyguard home with you. I’m sure Mickey could’ve spared one.”
I snorted. “I’m not getting a bodyguard. Forget it.”
“I don’t like the idea of someone plotting against Ace and now you.”
“I’m not crazy about it either,” I said. “When do you want to meet?”
A soft voice whispered something and Spidermonkey said, “Loretta and I would like to take you and Chuck to dinner tonight, if you’re up to it.”
“Then there’s a lot to talk about.”
“There is.”
I glanced back at the table. Grandad refused another roll and scooted to the end of the bench, eyes on me. I went behind the bathroom. “Give me a hint.”
“I’m beginning to think your English professor is right about you being a Bled. All of this can’t be a coincidence. Your father wasn’t the detective assigned to the murder in your mother’s dorm. He was added later.”
I peeked around the corner. Aaron was trying to head off Grandad, but it wouldn’t last. He had that Watts determined look I knew so well. “Why was Dad added?”
“The Bleds contributed large amounts to DA Linz’s campaign and Linz made the request for your dad to take over. I’m sure The Girls were behind it. They put two charming people together and let nature take its course.”
“And it did.”
“Indeed.”
“Thanks. I’d better go,” I said.
“Don’t you want to ask about your grandad?”
“What about him?”
“One might say that The Girls fell in love with him, too. Ace was one of four detectives that worked the Bled break-in. It was high-profile case, but Ace was the only one requested for the break-ins at Prie Dieu and Josiah Bled’s house.
“Grandad’s a great guy.”
“Mercy. Ace was a good detective, but not gifted like your father. In fact, Leo Frame was the lead on the Bled Mansion and he was top notch. He had a closure rate just under your dad’s. He didn’t get asked to dinner. The Bleds never met Frame’s family.”
“I don’t know what to say. I feel kinda guilty, but I don’t know why.”
“You don’t need to feel guilty. You need to find out why Ace struck a nerve.”
I leaned against the back wall of the building. “I don’t have the energy for this.”
“Since when aren’t you interested in your family’s connection to the Bleds?”
“Since there’s someone after my grandfather. The
past doesn’t seem so important.”
“If I had to guess, I’d say that’s all about the past.”
“The past just can’t stay back there.” I sighed and squatted to rub my ankles. “I wish it would.”
“If you’re up to it, I found out something else while you’ve been away.”
“I’m afraid to ask,” I said.
“The DH8 on Stella’s portrait stands for the notorious House Prison on Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8 in Berlin”
“Why does that make me feel sick?” I asked.
“Because the House Prison was used by the Gestapo for the interrogation of special prisoners.”
“And Stella was there.”
“It seems so.”
We hung up and my phone immediately buzzed again. Mom. I couldn’t deal with it. Stella in the hands of the Gestapo. How did she survive?
“What’s that face about?” asked Grandad as he walked stiffly around the building.
“Chuck’s not thrilled.”
“Why’s that?”
“He thinks he should’ve come up to drive home with us.”
Grandad held out his hand and helped me up. “He’s a worrywart where you’re concerned and I don’t blame him.”
“I do. It’s annoying.” I put on a good show and Grandad bought it. I wanted to ask why The Girls chose him and not Frame to bring into their world of privilege and protection, but he wouldn’t tell me. Maybe he couldn’t tell me. Maybe he didn’t know.
We walked back to the truck and climbed in with Aaron behind the wheel, looking almost sharp and hawkish.
“What do you know?” I asked my partner as we drove out of the rest stop. I hadn’t told him about Grandad being the intended target.
“Everything,” said Aaron, surprising me. I was expecting the usual ‘Huh?’
“How do you know?”
“Morty.”
“Are you worried about that guy at the hospital?”
“No.”
Enough about that, I guess. Aaron wasn’t much for discussing, but I kinda wanted to talk about it. I was a little rattled and not just about Stella. I’d had plenty of stalkers. They were usually harmless. Chuck arrested or scared away the ones that got aggressive. I was used to it. Dad once said that getting comfortable was a dangerous thing and I was comfortable. That guy could’ve been following me around Sturgis the whole time and I wouldn’t have noticed. The Hunt thing, now that I paid attention to. I just wasn’t in a position to do anything about it when I found out. I could now, but my phone had lost its signal.
