In a Bind

by D. D. VanDyke

  After checking through the window, he opened the door. “Evening, Carol. Kerry.”

  Carol Conrad strode in and looked around the living room, Kerry Lindquist trailing her with a salesman’s smile on his face. She nodded toward us seated at the dining room table before turning to Mike. “Deputy, I’d like a moment of your time, please.”

  “Of course. Come in. Sit down. We were just finishing dinner. Would you like some dessert? Coffee?”

  “Coffee would be welcome.” Carol glanced our way again. “May we speak privately?”

  Mike looked at Kerry, and then at us at the table. “Of course.” He began to close the French doors between the dining and living room.

  “Kerry, do what you’re good at and keep the ladies entertained, will you?”

  “Sure, Carol,” he smirked, stepping around a frowning Mike to join us at the table. The doors closed as he sat down, and I caught a whiff of strong women’s perfume he carried in from Carol. “Hey, Linda. Alice. Cally, wasn’t it?” He gave me a long stare.

  That scent…it was the same as I’d caught before.

  Alice stood and began to clear plates into the kitchen, wrinkling her nose at the newcomer. Linda glanced at Alice, glared pure poison at Kerry and walked off down the hallway in a huff to enter a room – I assumed her bedroom – on the right.

  That left me with Kerry, who grinned like the cat with the proverbial canary. “Long time no see. Our last meeting was fun, huh?”

  I couldn’t figure this guy out. Two murders, the town up in arms and still as cocky as ever. It grated on me. I decided not to play his game. Instead, I ignored him and slipped the envelope with the piece of perfumed love letter on it from my pocket, the one I’d taken from Frank’s desk, and opened it.

  Identical scent to Carol’s. My cop sense made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I closed the envelope and replaced it in my pocket.

  Rising quickly, I left Kerry sitting there alone and followed Linda down the hall. When I entered her bedroom I didn’t see her in there, but I heard movement across the hall, so I opened that door. It turned out to be Mike’s bedroom, done in masculine autumn colors and dark woods. A gun safe stood open to one side, with Linda next to it holding a 12-guage, loading shells.

  Adrenaline screamed through me and I clawed for my Glock, but she was mentally prepared for mayhem and I wasn’t. With two quick strides she was on me, slamming the butt of the shotgun into my gut and driving the air from my lungs. I gasped on the floor for a moment before the lights went out with an explosion of pain in my head.

  When I came to, I heard yelling. The room whirled and pitched around me and I desperately wanted to vomit, sure sign of a concussion. My reaching fingers found an empty holster and the holdout .38 at my ankle was gone as well. The cop’s daughter was smart, I could see that. She’d even closed the gun safe.

  I lay on my back trying to get my head together. Unsteadily I patted my pockets, looking for my phone to dial 9-1-1 before realizing Deputy Davis was the local response force. In my bludgeoned, confused state of mind I drew out the letter again. Checking it again seemed important, an anchor point to hold onto.

  The inch of stationery I’d cut off Frank’s love letter fell out onto my face and I breathed deep of the perfume and I realized not only was it the same as Carol was wearing, but it was the same scent I’d smelled when I sat next to Linda…the same scent that hung here in the room.

  Like a jostled jigsaw puzzle in my mind the pieces rearranged themselves and fell into place. Linda must have been Frank’s most recent local conquest, an innocent, obsessive girl who’d probably never even had a serious boyfriend, much less a lover like Frank. But she’d seemed fine when I first met her, and she’d implied she was seeing Kerry…

  My mind was wandering. Get up, Cal, I told myself harshly. Get up! My body didn’t want to obey me. My muscles had turned to rubber and my eyes still saw at least three of everything, but I managed to roll over and work my arms under myself. More indistinct yelling drifted down the hallway from the front of the house, but no loud bangs from the shotgun or any other weapon, so maybe I wasn’t too late.

  Once I’d managed to rise with the help of a sturdy nightstand, I shoved my hand down the front of my jeans to the inner pocket where I kept my ultimate holdout, a tiny .22 derringer. It wasn’t much, but it was a hell of a lot better than nothing.

  Squeezing my eyes repeatedly, I managed to walk unsteadily to the door and out into the hall, taking deep breaths and holding the weapon in front of me. The corridor rolled left and right like a funhouse as I kept my right hand glued to the wall to steady myself. Another wave of nausea washed over me and I leaned over to gag and retch as quietly as possible.

  An explosion from ahead stunned my ears and I forced myself upright to stagger forward. When I entered the dining room I saw Linda with her back to me, the 12-guage in her hands, its barrel smoking. Kerry lay flat on his back on the floor, a gaping hole in his chest and his eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling.

  Above him and in front of Linda stood her father Mike, his hands out in a calming gesture. “Put the gun down, honey. It’s all right. It’s gonna be all right.”

  Linda said, “The heart of man is desperately wicked, Daddy. They’re all wicked.”

  “I know, baby girl. I know. I’m not blaming you for what you did, but you can’t shoot anyone else, okay?”

  “And then this…this whore walks right into our house like she owns the place. She thinks the town is her personal whorehouse!” Linda pointed the shotgun at Carol as her voice rose. “You whore of Babylon! You slut! You seduced Frank and you seduced Kerry. You ruined both of them for me, when you already had your own man. How’s anyone supposed to keep a man with someone like you around stealing them?”

  Carol said, “So you murdered Frank for what I did?”

  “Shut up, Carol,” Alice hissed. “You trying to get us all killed?”

  “Yes, I killed Frank. At least he loved me. You he never loved.”

  “Then why didn’t you tell everyone?” Carol continued.

  “He said it had to be a secret. That no one would accept a mismatch like us to be…married. He said to go out with Kerry, to fool everyone. And then I did it with Kerry too…I don’t even know why. I think he drugged me.” Linda burst into tears, the shotgun wavering for a moment.

  The whole time Mike kept his eyes on his daughter, as did Carol Conrad, who seemed calm and formidable as ever, even staring at the barrel of a shotgun. Alice, though, couldn’t stop herself from flicking a glance in my direction.

  Linda noticed.

  Shit.

  The scene froze to a slow-motion crawl for me, fight-or-flight chemicals within my body desperately trying to have their way with me as Linda swung the shotgun my direction. I could see Mike begin to leap toward her and I had time to feel pity for him as I did the only thing I could to save my own life and theirs.

  I fired.

  The crack of the first tiny shell sounded pathetic after the roar of the shotgun, but a neat hole appeared on Linda’s chest. The big weapon in her hands continued to swing toward me and I fired again, this time striking her in the notch of the collarbone at the base of her throat.

  Linda wobbled as the shotgun drooped and went off again, blasting a hole in the cabinet close enough to my ankle to pluck at my jeans with its fistful of lead projectiles. Half a second later and she’d have blown my foot clean off, I thought as I watched the young woman let go of the weapon and collapse into her father’s arms.

  I pointed at Carol and yelled, “9-1-1, ambulance, NOW!” After shoving the derringer into a pocket I helped Mike ease Linda to the floor.

  “Oh,” she rasped as blood bubbled from her wounds. “It hurts.”

  “I know, baby, I know,” Mike said with tears on his face. “Just hang on. The ambulance will be here soon.”

  I said, “Alice, is there a first-aid kit anywhere? Maybe in the squad car?”

  “On my way.” The woman’s
no-nonsense manner stood her in good stead now as she grabbed Mike’s keys from his pocket and ran out the front door to the driveway.

  Mike and I put pressure on Linda’s wounds, and I was happy the rounds were so small. A .22 to the brain or heart will kill instantly, but with hits anywhere else the target had a fighting chance to live. It wasn’t pretty, but with the help of the sheriff-issue medical supplies we kept her alive until the EMTs showed up and transported her to the closest trauma facility, Emmanuel Medical Center down in Turlock.

  Mike and Alice followed the ambulance in the squad car, leaving me and Carol to hold the fort until another sheriff’s unit and the coroner showed up.

  As the ambulance’s siren faded in the distance, Carol stared down at Kerry for a moment, and then fished in her purse. I quickly stepped over to pick up the fallen shotgun, but all the tall woman brought out was an elegant flask from which she took a swig, straight. She held it out to me.

  “Thanks,” I said as I accepted it and swallowed a slug of good brandy, and then another, before giving it back. “Dunno about you, but I’m sitting down,” I said, and then did so, placing the 12-guage across my knees. My heart pounded and my head felt like a manic bellringer had decided to use the inside of my skull for practice, but the liquor spread outward from my stomach in a slow wave of numbness that helped.

  Carol sat too, holding the flask and staring at nothing. “He was a son of a bitch, you know,” she said, gesturing with it at Kerry’s body. “I’m not sorry he’s dead.”

  “I’m having trouble understanding what just happened,” I said, raising a hand to the back of my head where Linda had clubbed me with the butt of the shotgun. It came away sticky with blood and I could feel a knot like a lemon back there.

  “I had a fling with Frank a while back. I guess after that ended, Linda and Frank started seeing each other. Then I had an affair with Kerry, but I broke it off when it became clear I wasn’t enough. He was chasing anything in a skirt, including Linda. She was too naïve to see that they were both using her. When Frank was killed, all the gossip came out.” Carol shrugged. “I guess she couldn’t handle it.”

  “You were pretty cool for someone staring down the barrel of a shotgun.”

  “I’m not some shrinking violet.”

  I waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t, so I probed further. “Look, Carol…Frank was being blackmailed before his murder. The money was going to a Chicago address. I’ve dug up a lot of interesting things over the last couple of days, and I’ll hand it all over to the sheriff and to SFPD both…unless there’s some reason I shouldn’t?”

  Carol stared at me. “Whatever do you mean?”

  “So that’s the way we’re gonna play it? You’re either very dumb or very smart, and my money’s on number two. So stop me when I get something wrong. Kerry was a small-time hood out of Chicago. He took a deal, probably with the feds, got a name change and came out here.”

  “I wouldn’t know. And what does that have to do with me?”

  “He came out at the same time as your husband, who also moved out here from Chicago and had his name changed four years ago. They’re connected, with each other and with the mob. I’d bet a months pay on it. How long have you been married?”

  Carol capped the flask and put it back into her purse. I shifted to angle the barrel of the shotgun toward her, but her hand came out empty. “Three years. I met Jerry at a party in Sacramento in the summer of 2001. We were married a year later and I moved out here.”

  “So it’s plausible that you don’t know he’s dirty.”

  “Dirty? How?”

  I sighed. “I could list all the reasons, but I’m too tired.”

  “Listen, Miss…what was your name again?”

  “Cal Corwin.”

  “Listen, Miss Corwin. Kerry was my husband’s nephew. I know he dealt drugs and I suspect he bribed city and county officials to keep them out of his business. He was far too cozy with the biker gang around here. He probably had something to do with that addict’s death out at the quarry and I had suspected he killed Frank in some dispute over money, though now it seems likely Linda did it. If my husband is guilty of anything, it’s of giving Kerry far too much leeway and turning a blind eye toward his misbehavior. That doesn’t make him a criminal.”

  I eased back, feeling like I could go to sleep, so I forced myself to sit upright and grip the shotgun tight. “So everything Linda didn’t do gets pinned on Kerry and the bikers. Murder, the blackmail, the extortion of local businesses. Very neat.”

  Just for a moment an expression of pure venom flickered across Carol’s features, so quickly I couldn’t prove it was there. But I saw it.

  And she knew I saw it. I thought that if she could have killed me on the spot and gotten away with it, she would have.

  “Funny how you’re wearing the same perfume as Linda,” I said.

  Carol shrugged. “Kerry probably gave her some like mine. You know men. Even when they’re pursuing a different woman, they want her to be the same.”

  “No, I don’t think so. Linda sprinkled it on her love letters to Frank.” I stared hard at her.

  “A strange coincidence.”

  I pulled out the envelope with the piece of scented paper again and took a deep sniff. “You’re a very expensive woman, Mrs. Conrad. Thousand dollar shoes, at least twice that for the outfit and, what, ten grand for that rock on your finger? But this perfume…I think you can get it at any mall department store for under fifty bucks. That means you wore it on purpose. Why? To stir up trouble, to provoke Linda?”

  Carol remained silent and composed, with eyes of ice.

  “And then there’s the question of why you brought Kerry here.”

  She shrugged again and sniffed. “I didn’t feel like being alone with the town so unsettled, so I asked him to come along.”

  “Your excuses are getting weaker and weaker. I think bringing him was one more thing to provoke Linda. You wanted a blowup, something to divert attention from yourself and your husband. Something to mess with Mike Davis’ mind...and you succeeded beyond your wildest dreams, didn’t you?”

  Just then, two vehicles pulled up in front of the house and Carol stood, looking down her perfect nose at me. “Miss Corwin, you can say whatever you like to whomever you want. My family has money and connections in Sacramento, and my husband has resources as well. We will defend ourselves vigorously against any allegations of wrongdoing, and if you think to slander or libel us publicly, expect to be served with a defamation lawsuit. Now, I’ll be going home.”

  “If I were you I’d stay to give a statement to the sheriff’s department.”

  Carol flicked a hand at me in contempt. “I’ll speak to them on the way out. I suggest you put down the murder weapon or they might think you had something to do with Kerry’s death. As it is, you’ve already shot a distraught young woman. Well done.” With that, she marched out.

  I realized she had a point and set the weapon on the floor before some trigger-happy deputy came in and misunderstood. I wasn’t worried about being implicated in Kerry’s death, nor did Carol’s parting dig bother me. Mike and Alice’s testimony would put me in the clear. I knew I’d done the right thing, legally and morally. Linda might have shot someone else, and though I’d been willing to kill her, I was extremely glad she’d survived. Clearly, she needed psychiatric help.

  I stuck around to give my statement to the other deputies after washing my hands and rinsing most of the blood out of my hair. Then I called Davis, who told me that Linda would be fine.

  “We good?” I asked him.

  “Yeah. Of course, Cal. You did what you had to do.”

  “I’m sorry it came to that…and I should have figured it out sooner.”

  Davis snorted ruefully. “How could you be expected to, if I didn’t notice what was right in front of my face in my own town?”

  “Sometimes it’s hardest to see what’s closest to us. Listen, Mike, do you mind giving me the combo to your
gun safe? My weapons are missing. Linda must have stashed them in there.”

  “Sure.” He gave me a sequence of numbers, which I punched in, and found my guns resting there as expected.

  “Any idea where I can stay the night?” I asked Davis as I put them back in their holsters. “Is there a motel?”

  “Sure, but why not stay in the guest room?”

  I thought about it for a moment. “No, I really don’t want to smell that perfume all night.” Lame excuse, Cal. Why not admit you don’t want to be alone in a house where someone recently died? It shouldn’t matter, but it did.

  Davis went on, “Alice says you can stay with her if you like. She’ll be coming back to town while I stay here at the hospital.”

  “That would be better.”

  “She’ll come by the house in about an hour, then.”

  “Okay. Thanks, Mike. Sorry about Linda.”

  “Really, it’s okay. Oh, I almost forgot. You know what Carol came to talk to me about?”

  Her speech at the rescue mission sprang to mind and I made an educated guess. “She wanted a commitment from you to join the new police department. Knowing you’d be the first town cop would make the proposal more likely to be passed.”

  “Not just the first cop…she wants me to be Chief of Police!”

  “And you like that idea.”

  “A nice raise, a new building, people working for me. Why wouldn’t I?” he asked.

  “You’d have a lot more freedom to go after the crime around town. You’d be Bartlett’s peer instead of his subordinate. I get it.”

  “You don’t sound convinced it’s a good idea.”

  “Why do you care what I think?”

  “You’re the closest thing I’ve had to a partner in a while. And as an outsider, maybe you see some things I don’t.”

  I rubbed my face. “Even the Chief of Police answers to someone – the mayor and the city council, some of whom are in the Conrads’ pockets. All she’s doing is fulfilling that old maxim: keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”