Faye Kellerman - Decker 11 - Jupiter's Bones

by Jupiter's Bones

Decker let out an absent chuckle as he sorted through the ring. 'Be nice if I could keep a train of thought.'

  'Probably has something to do with sleep deprivation.'

  'No doubt.' Decker unlatched the key from the ring and handed it to Martinez. 'Either of you know how to work my electronic Filofax?'

  'Haven't a clue,' Martinez answered.

  'I can figure it out,' Webster said. 'That's why Bert and I make a good team. I can do the Filofax, and he pulls me down to the ground when someone's shooting at me, and I'm standing like some frozen squirrel'

  But Decker wasn't listening. He was distracted by familiar faces in the distance. Dunn and Oliver were trying to get past an army unit's worth of security personnel. Martinez saw them, too.

  'Bert, go rescue them,' Decker said. 'We'll all compare notes, then I'll explain how to use my Filofax.'

  Five minutes later, they took positions beneath the feathery boughs of one of the many elms. Decker sat huddled in his wrinkled brown suit, sucking on a cigarette. His four non-smoking homicide detectives waved away his smoke.

  'How can you puff on that thing at...' Marge looked at her wrist. 'At eight forty-five in the morning-'

  'Seven forty-five,'' Decker said.

  'Oh that makes it even better.' Marge was irritable from lack of sleep. They all were drained and tense. With careful deliberation, Oliver gave them a step-by-step recap of their night up at Central City. Before they had returned to Los Angeles, they had once again grilled Benton the farmhand in the Central City jail. This had been done at five-thirty in the morning.

  'It wasn't one of my best interviews,' Marge said.

  'Doesn't matter,' Oliver said. 'Benton slept through it.'

  'Not true,' Marge said, 'He talked. He said he didn't do it - over and over and over and over and over-'

  'He was talking in his sleep, Margie. Just like I'm doing now.' Oliver stifled a yawn. 'Since we rushed back here, someone should go back to the Order's ranch and do evidence search in the house and premises now that it's light outside. See if we can find a kill spot for Nova.'

  Decker said, 'I'll send someone else up. Right now, Strapp wants both of you here.'

  'I'm touched,' Marge said.

  'If SWAT decides to raid, they'll need your input since you've both been inside.'

  'You mean it's not my charm?'

  "Fraid not.'

  Marge clutched her hands into fists. 'When are they going to raid?'

  'I don't know even if it'll happen let alone when," Decker said. 'In the meantime, as soon as McCarry's done with his boss and the architect, Brass'll want to talk to you.'

  'What's he like?' Oliver asked. 'McCarry?'

  'Uptight and nervous - like all of us. He seems fairly competent... as if he'd like to do a good job. For himself, for the bureau. The feds got Wacko Waco to live down.'

  'Where's Strapp?' Marge asked.

  'With the police chief and McCarry.'

  'They've excluded you?' Marge asked.

  'When they called the meeting, I excused myself, claiming I had to be ready in case Bob called,' Decker said. 'Too many friggin' people on this task force.' Another drag on his smoke. 'Too many people, too many opinions and too many meetings.'

  Oliver couldn't help it. This time, he let go with a full-mouthed yawn. 'Do you know if they've scheduled any meals or naptime into our watch period?'

  Webster muttered, 'Good luck with that.'

  Marge turned to Martinez and Webster. 'What have you two been up to?'

  Bert filled them in. When Martinez was done, Oliver said, 'So Asnikov was a bust.'

  'The Loo doesn't think so,' Webster said. 'We're getting a subpoena for Asnikov's files just as soon as he explains how to use his electronic Filofax.'

  Martinez said, 'Did we tell you that we found out Pluto's real name? It's Keith Muldoony.'

  'Muldoony?' Decker squinted with bleary eyes. 'Irish?'

  'Could be,' Webster said. 'But Pluto was a dirt-poor Appalachian white... orginally from West Virginia. I thought most of them were English stock.'

  "West VirginiaT Dunn said. 'Now that's a surprise. I spent some years in Fayetteville North Carolina, on the base. I can usually spot regionalist speech.'

  'Ditto,' Webster said. 'He fooled me, too.'

  Oliver said, 'You know, that makes perfect sense to me - Pluto being a country boy. I saw him slaughter a chicken. He just whacked its head off without a moment's hesitation. Then he offered to help Benton clean up the bird shit in the coop. I should have guessed that he'd once lived on a farm.' He thought a moment. 'A guy like Bob... he would never have done that.'

  'Oliver, I could see Bob killing a chicken,' Marge said. 'He shot Pluto in a heartbeat'

  'Shooting is urban,' Oliver said. 'Whacking the head off a squawking chicken with a single ax blow is pure country. And talk about spray. Can't picture a guy like Bob getting dirty.' Marge said, 'If he killed Nova, he sure as hell got spray.'

  'Not if he shot him first and carved him later.' Oliver paused. 'Maybe he wore galoshes and a slicker.'

  'How did Pluto's name even come up?' Decker asked. Martinez said, 'We' d reached a dead end with Asnikov so I brought him up to keep the conversation going.'

  Webster said, 'Old Reuben claims that Pluto's from a large, uneducated family. However, he managed to graduate from community college.'

  'Psychology major,' Martinez added. 'He became the family's local hero because he got a job in a hospital.'

  'Wore a white coat,' Webster said. 'That impressed them all.'

  'Pluto worked in a hospital?' Decker eyes darted from side to side. 'What did he do?'

  'Asnikov thought that he worked as an orderly.'

  'Pun. orderly?'

  'They wear white coats, Loo,' Webster said.

  'You mean Pluto was the guy who emptied the bedpans?' Oliver grinned, deepening the sags under his eyes. 'How fitting.'

  'I've been thinking,' Martinez said. 'Maybe Bob resented Pluto because the little guy had pulled himself up by the bootstraps.'

  'So that's why Bob gunned him down?' Webster made a face.

  I've heard of stranger reasons,' Marge said. 'Also, Pluto graduated college while Bob was kicked out.'

  Decker said, 'You can't compare Southwest U with a local community college. In the smugness and prestige department, Bob had it way over Pluto.'

  Martinez said, 'According to Asnikov, the Order was founded with just Jupiter, Pluto and a few followers. Bob came in later.'

  Oliver said, 'I could see a guy like Bob, who thinks he's hot stuff, resenting being pushed around by dirt-poor, white trash like Pluto.'

  Marge said, 'But Bert just said that Pluto wasn't white trash. That he went to college.'

  'But he started life as white trash,' Oliver said. 'Origins are everything.'

  'I don't buy it,' Webster said.' Why would Bob - even hating Pluto and being jealous of him - just open fire and cause himself all this mess. On the surface, Bob seems like a sensible man. There's gotta be another reason for him lashing out.'

  'I never met Bob,' Martinez said. 'But I assume the man has charisma.'

  Decker nodded. 'Fair assessment.'

  'Loo, if there had been a legitimate struggle for power in leadership, who do you think would have won the vote? Pluto, Bob or Venus.'

  'Hard to say,' Decker answered. 'Pluto was acting as the leader. But Venus and Bob weren't interfering in Pluto's quest for power.'

  'If Bob had chosen to challenge Pluto, would it have been a head-to-head competition?'

  Decker thought a moment. 'Don't know. But they certainly were peers as far as rank went.'

  Martinez said, 'But you don't know if Bob would have won a popular election.'

  'What are you driving at, Bert?' Decker said. 'Shooting the enemy was the only way for Bob to take control?'

  Martinez said, 'Maybe he could have won an election, but maybe he didn't want to wait to find out. So he took control the fastest way he saw fit.'

  'What he has isn't
real control, Bert. The minute he steps outside, he's a dead man.'

  'But maybe that's good enough for him. Because now - at this moment - he's king of the mountain. Sounds to me like typical psycho thinking. Impulsive - act now, pay later.'

  Oliver said, 'The man is attention-starved. He not only has control over the Order, but now he has the press. You got the press in your palms, you've got control of the entire country.'

  'Jupiter's dead, Pluto's dead, Nova's dead...' Martinez ticked them off with his fingers. Then he stroked his mustache. 'I think Bob not only likes control, he likes killing people.'

  Webster said, 'So you're saying that all of a sudden, Bob discovers homicidal urges?'

  'Who said he just discovered them, Tom?' Martinez said. 'Could be he's always had 'em. We know from Europa that Bob got a thrill out of cheating-'

  'It's not the same thing as murder.'

  Decker wasn't sure about that. Criminals loved the thrill of the notorious. He was warming up to Martinez's ideas - a psycho killer in a cult. Because sects like the Order were magnets for disenfranchised people who longed for a guru to lead them into a new life. Breaking ties with family and former friends. No outside communication. No one keeping track of their whereabouts. Perfect prey for a predatory person...

  'Look at Jonestown... look at Heaven's Gate... look at Waco.

  Their leaders talked their members - supposedly rational human beings - into mass suicide, killing themselves and, in the case of Waco and Jonestown, their kids as well. If leaders could get their members to do that, surely they could justify a couple of murders that were "necessary for the good of the community."'

  'What a field day for a psycho,' Martinez said. 'Imagine a closed-door cult with lots of potential victims, and lots of privacy to do your dirty work. Tailor-made for a serial killer. Who knows? Maybe Bob disguised his murders as sanctioned killing - you know, like human sacrifices disguised as rituals or rites.'

  Marge said, 'You know, we've worked Homicide in this area for what... four years-'

  'I've worked this area for twelve years,' Oliver said.

  'About three years after the Order started,' Marge said. 'I take it you've never heard of human sacrifices?'

  'No, but how would I know?'

  'It's a valid point,' Decker said. 'As long as the privileged attendants kept their members under lock and key, we wouldn't have any idea who's even inside those buildings, let alone what was going on.' He stared at the compound. 'Bob could have been murdering people for years, burying the bodies on the grounds, and we wouldn't know the difference.'

  No one spoke.

  Softly, Decker said, 'Who knows what's under those rows of vegetables?'

  Marge said, 'Now you're just being gross.'

  'But it makes some sense, Margie,' Oliver said. 'Because who's going to stop Bob?'

  'Jupiter for one,' Webster said. 'Unless you think he was a homicidal maniac, too.'

  Oliver arched his eyebrows. 'A cult of serial killers-'

  'C'mon!' Webster said.

  'Suppose there were killings and Jupiter didn't know,' Decker said. 'Maybe every time someone disappeared, Bob blamed it on Asnikov.'

  'Just like yesterday,' Marge pointed out. 'Andromeda and Lyra disappeared and who did they blame? Asnikov!'

  'Even if I accept that premise,' Webster said, 'which isn't exactly straightforward...'

  Decker smiled. 'A few logical leaps-'

  'Why would Bob ruin his perfectly quiet, psycho serial killer setup and start murdering in the open like he did with Pluto. That certainly blew his cover.'

  'Things were closing in on him,' Martinez said.

  'Also, psychos have a self-destructive need for attention,' Decker said. 'Oliver said it perfectly. Guru Bob is one attention-starved boy. Maybe he got a hint of the attention with Jupiter being gone, and he got hooked.'

  'Loo, the idea is to get attention without getting caught.'

  "Then you're anonymous,' Martinez said. 'That's no fun.'

  Decker paused for a moment. 'Let's back this up from the beginning. What precipitated this whole ordeal?'

  'Jupiter's death,' Martinez said.

  'Right,' Decker said, 'Jupiter dies - is maybe poisoned to death. My take? Someone wanted him incapacitated, but alive. Because while Jupiter was alive, that person could get away with things that he couldn't do if Jupiter was dead.'

  'Like killing people?' Webster was incredulous. 'Y'all think that Bob was murdering people and Jupiter turned a blind eye?'

  Decker said, 'Seeing Bob in action, I think it's possible that Russo was using Jupiter as a shield for his dirty work. Could be Bob had convinced Jupiter that his victims were enemies of the Order and had to be destroyed.'

  'Why would Jupiter believe Bob?' Webster said.

  'Because why would Bob lie? If the old man had been kept isolated, getting his information from only his gurus-'

  'To believe Bob, the old man would have to be crazy-'

  'Maybe he was. Remember the video tape? Jupiter talking about breaking them in his land. We thought he was referring to outside people like us. Maybe he talking about his enemies within the Order.'

  'Even if Bob could convince Jupiter that the killings were necessary, don't you think that Venus or Nova or Pluto would have stopped him?'

  'Two out of the three people you just mentioned are dead,' Decker pointed out. 'Maybe they tried to stop him and Bob took umbrage.'

  Marge looked wan. 'This is making me sick. I'm beginning to think that maybe Andromeda and Lyra were Bob's latest victims.'

  Decker shrugged in a noncommittal manner. But it wasn't convincing.

  Webster was still skeptical. 'Y'all are jumping around a bit...all this speculation.'

  Oliver said, 'You got anything better to do with your time?' 'Actually, he does,' Decker answered. 'He can go get a subpoena.'

  'As soon as you get us the judge's phone number,' Webster retorted.

  Decker frowned. Another thought came to mind. He said, 'Look at Nova. That wasn't an ordinary murder. That was a showpiece! Whoever killed him really enjoyed himself. Arranging the body in skull and crossbones. Bragging about what he had done. Typical of an organized serial killer.'

  Webster said, 'Shooting Pluto in the open certainly wasn't organized.'

  'But it was effective,' Oliver countered. 'Bob realized his days were numbered, so he didn't care anymore.'

  Martinez said, 'You know, if Bob is this sadistic, pleasure-seeking murderer, I think he'd enjoy taking the whole cult down with him -going out in a perverted blaze of glory.'

  'Y' all just creating fantasy-'

  'No, we're creating a scenario, Tom,' Oliver said.

  'Okay,' Webster said. 'Suppose I bought Bob Russo as a serial killer. Suppose I even bought that Bob killed Nova and Pluto because they were a threat to his power base. Why in Mother Mary's name would Bob decide to kill Pluto in the open like that?'

  'He cracked under the strain,' Martinez said.

  Webster waved him off. He looked at Decker. 'Are you going to explain the Filofax or not?'

  Decker said, 'You push the enter button, then type in the name-'

  Marge's cellular burst into a shrill ring. Startled, she pushed the button and connected the line. 'Detective Dunn.'

  Through the receiver came a fierce, whispery female voice. 'You've got to get us out of here! He's gone completely insane!'

  Marge snapped her fingers to get Decker's attention. Her heart was beating like a boom box. 'Venus, is that you?'

  'Listen carefully! Because I only have seconds to talk before he shows up.' She dropped her voice. It was barely audible. 'If you don't do this right, we'll all die! You hear me? Because he's booby-trapped the doors and windows. The back door from the garden to the kitchen is probably the easiest to defuse. Because he's been going in and out of it. So he has to set up something that's easier to arm and disarm. Got it?'

  'Got it-'

  'Right now, he's working on electrically wiring the outside fe
nces. So you don't have much time. Now there's a hole underneath the fence midway between...'

  Static!

  Frantically, Marge punched a roam button, hoping to find a suitable frequency to let her air waves in. But it didn't do any good. The phone was dead.

  Marge swore.

  'Venus?' Decker asked.