The Deadliest Sins

by Rick Reed

  “How old were you, pod’na?”

  “Second grade. I had no idea what drugs were back in the day,” Jack said.

  “Wanted to be part of the gang, huh? Be accepted.”

  “Hell no,” Jack said and smiled. “I had a crush on Cathy Scheidel. I think I would have smoked a dog turd to get her attention.”

  “Ain’t love grand?” Liddell pulled to the curb in front of the convent.

  They got out of the car, and Jack retrieved Shadow. The dog sniffed the air and dragged Jack to the front door of the convent, trembling and straining at the new collar and leash Freyda must have bought.

  Jack didn’t have to knock before the door flew open and the boy dropped to his knees, throwing his arms around the dog. Shadow knocked Joe to the ground and jumped and tromped and licked any available part of the boy’s face and arms.

  Liddell caught up and said, “There’s no doubt this is Joe’s dog, pod’na.”

  “Joe, we need to talk again.” Jack said. “I hope this isn’t an imposition, Sister?”

  Joe led the way inside, and Shadow ran behind him, dragging her leash.

  “I hope this isn’t an imposition, Sister?” Jack said.

  “Nonsense, Jack. He could hardly keep his pants in a chair after we talked to Mrs. Rademacher. I would have gone to get the dog myself, but I don’t drive anymore. Eyesight is the first thing to go as you age.”

  “That reminds me,” Liddell said and went back to the car, bringing the bag of dog food back.

  “Bless her,” Sister Aquinas said.

  “Can we run to the store for you, Sister?” Liddell offered.

  She waved the offer away. “I’ve got the donated food from the foodbank. If this isn’t a charitable case, I don’t know what is.”

  Jack said, “Sister, I know I don’t have to tell you how important it is that you keep Joe inside. I have sort of a friend at Immigration that is searching the database for his family. Maybe there’s someone in the US. You’re the only one besides me and Bigfoot that know he’s here. I don’t want anyone...”

  “You don’t have to go on,” the sister said. “There’s a little fenced courtyard between the convent and the church where the dog can do its business. No one can see in. It’s too cold for them to go out and play. I’ll take good care of them. You just do what needs done.”

  Jack and Liddell left Shadow with his boy, and an admonition to Sister Aquinas not to call anyone else. She wasn’t too happy with being given orders by a once delinquent student, but she agreed.

  She stopped Jack at the front door. “You should come back to church, Jack. You need Him more than He needs you.” She uncharacteristically hugged him. “You’re a good man, Jack. He knows that.”

  In the car, Jack called Captain Franklin. “Captain, I need something, so I’m going to tell you something.” He explained what he wanted and why. Franklin agreed to get it done without asking questions.

  “You think that’s necessary, pod’na?” Liddell asked, put the Crown Vic in gear, and pulled away from the curb, headed south on First Avenue.

  “Better safe than sorry,” Jack said.

  “Captain Franklin is in the circle of trust now?”

  “No,” Jack said. “I don’t trust him to keep Joe’s location to himself.”

  “Right,” Liddell said. “Some patrolmen are going to be pissed at having to pull guard duty all day and not know why.”

  “Pissed about what?” Jack said. “I didn’t put a guard on Joe at the hospital, and Joe left without anyone noticing. Besides, it’ll be overtime pay.”

  Sergeant Walker was inside the detectives’ office when Jack and Liddell arrived on station.

  “Let’s see what you’ve got, Jack,” Walker said.

  Jack handed Walker the evidence from the roof he’d wrapped in the latex gloves. “I didn’t have evidence bags with me.”

  “Didn’t I teach you anything when we were partners?” Walker asked.

  “No,” Jack said. “You didn’t.”

  Liddell said, “We just peeked at the driver’s license, Tony. The picture looks like our dead guy. Good thing Jack found it, since nothing came back on the fingerprints.”

  “You want a copy of everything here and the originals sent to Whiteside?” Walker asked.

  “Might as well,” Jack answered. “I’ll call her and make the arrangements to have it picked up.”

  “I’m embarrassed that we didn’t check the roofs, Jack,” Walker said.

  “I’m surprised we got as much done as we have. It’s not every day you have a mass murder. Don’t blame yourself, Tony,” Jack said.

  “I’m not, Jack. I’m blaming you. But I forgive you, since you found it,” Walker said and left.

  Jack asked Liddell, “Do you blame me, too?”

  “You are the lead investigator on this, pod’na. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.”

  “And shit rolls downhill,” Jack said.

  Jack and Liddell went back to the detectives’ office and spent the rest of the daylight going through the files Sanchez had given them on the other cases. This time they went slowly, page by page, photo by photo, keeping in mind the information on this driver, Chad Perkins, and the one identified by St. Louis, Hank Brown.

  It was dark again. Another day of running around like a chicken with its head cut off, gone but not a waste. This time they had something to show for their pains. The wallet and the phone would yield results. He could feel it. There comes a point in every investigation when you get a sensation in your gut that spreads into your throat. It was like riding a zip line, or bungee jumping, or facing down a gunman. The exhilaration of nearing the prize.

  * * * *

  Coyote was feeling an exhilaration of his own. The detectives had led him to the boy. The kid was hidden at the convent a block from where Coyote was staying all the time. His drill sergeant when he was in basic training in the service had given him some wise pieces of advice to take with him to Vietnam. One piece was “Keep your knife sharp and ready,” and the other was “Chance favors the prepared.” He was prepared, and it was pure chance that had prodded him to follow the detectives instead of finishing his business with the old woman in the Coffee Shop.

  His original plan was to kill her and use it to draw the detectives away, but Murphy had shown up before he could put the plan into effect. It was still broad daylight at the time, and his odds of getting away were slim. Not bad, but still a risk. When Murphy and the big one showed up, he’d considered taking them out as well, which would have surely slowed down any pursuit, but he still wouldn’t have known where the boy was being kept.

  Now that he knew for certain where the boy was, he could do things a little more to his liking. Darkness was an old friend. He’d be finished here and on his way to Indianapolis, where he would take a few weeks off to plan the next mission. Miles had better come through with the information.

  Chapter 36

  Jack put the last file folder back in the box. “I’m going to call Angelina and see what she’s come up with on Perkins.”

  Liddell’s head was down on the desk.

  Jack said, “Why don’t you go home and get some rest. I’ll be leaving shortly.”

  Liddell raised his head and rubbed at his eyes.

  “Tomorrow is another day. Be back in here at five.”

  Liddell was stuffing files inside his desk drawer when his phone rang. He answered and put it on speakerphone. “Angelina,” he said.

  “We were just about to call you,” Jack said.

  “Chad Perkins. Two arrests for car theft. One for drug trafficking,” Angelina said.

  Liddell said, “Sergeant Walker ran his prints through IAFIS and AFIS. Why didn’t we get anything?”

  “Because Chad Perkins is in the Witness Protection Program. He turned state’s evidence on the traff
icking charge. The two auto theft charges were dismissed. I guess it was part of the deal. Chad dropped off the radar two months ago. They were expecting him to testify in a federal case. Guess he won’t be there. His fingerprints are flagged in the system by WITSEC.”

  Jack asked, “If his fingerprints are flagged, why didn’t they contact us when we made an inquiry?”

  “That, I didn’t ask. Let me text someone?” Angelina said. She came back on the line and said, “My friend says they contacted EPD but got no response.”

  “Who did they contact?” Jack asked. It was the first he’d heard of this.

  “Double Dick was contacted yesterday,” Angelina said.

  “What the hell?” Jack said.

  “My friend said there’s a note on Chad’s file that says several messages were left yesterday for Dick, asking him to contact them immediately. Dick is apparently the main contact person on their list since he’s commander of the Investigations Unit. He hasn’t called them as far as my friend knows.”

  Double Dick, as commander of the Investigations Unit, was the main contact person for a couple of things. No one knew a moron was running the insane asylum. He wondered what else Dick had screwed up.

  “I told my contact that Chad was driving a truck full of illegals when he was killed. He said it didn’t surprise him.”

  “Thanks, Angelina,” Jack said.

  When Jack hung up, Liddell asked, “Why wouldn’t Dick call Witness Protection back?”

  “He was probably too busy doing interviews,” Jack said. “But we know he didn’t call them, because the name of our driver would already be on television.”

  Jack was punching in the buttons for Captain Franklin’s phone when his own cell phone rang. He didn’t recognize the number. “Murphy,” he said into the phone.

  “I was just messing with you yesterday, Detective Murphy. You didn’t have to go to my sergeant and get me in hot water,” the voice said angrily.

  “You did it to yourself, Officer Hurt.”

  “Hell I did,” Hurt said. “I just got a call ordering me to work some chicken shit detail. I know you have it in for me, but you’d better back off. I’ve got friends.”

  “You failed to patrol your sector the night the murder was committed,” Jack said. When Hurt tried to talk, he continued, “Just shut it, patrolman. I can have the dispatch records pulled and produce witnesses that you never drove past the area where a suspicious vehicle was reported, or past the Coffee Shop. We even have video to back it up,” he lied. “And I don’t like you calling me to chew me out. You’ll know when I come after you. If you pull something like that again, I’ll have you spayed. Are we clear?”

  “Spaying is for females, Murphy,” Hurt said smugly.

  “Exactly,” Jack said and hung up.

  “Not in a good mood, pod’na?” Liddell asked.

  “He’ll be the next Double Dick if he gets any rank at all, Bigfoot. You mark my words. That asshole is nothing but a mistake waiting to happen.”

  “I’ll type up the report on Chad Perkins,” Liddell offered. “Go home to Katie. Marcie and the baby are already asleep.”

  “I’m going to call Captain Franklin,” Jack said. “You call the ICE Queen.”

  Captain Franklin stuck his head in the office. “With me,” he said to the men.

  * * * *

  The fluorescent lights overhead flickered and hummed as the detectives followed the captain down the hall.

  Liddell whispered, “What’d you do now, pod’na?”

  Captain Franklin used a key fob to unlock the doors. His mood was pensive and he said nothing as he led them to the conference room.

  “Why do I feel like we’re going to get a spanking?” Liddell said quietly.

  Captain Franklin turned. “None of that in there, gentlemen. Don’t say anything you don’t have to. Understand?”

  “Got it,” Jack said.

  “Oui mon, Capitaine,” Liddell said under his breath.

  Jack entered the room first. Chief Marlin Pope, Deputy Chief Richard Dick, Assistant Deputy Director Toomey, and US Marshal Pete Swaim were seated at the table.

  Jack and Liddell took seats near the door.

  “I won’t keep you. I just wanted us all on the same page,” Toomey said, and cast a sideways glance at Deputy Chief Dick. “You should remember Marshal Swaim.” He didn’t give them a chance to answer. “Part of the US Marshal duties is the Witness Protection Program.”

  Jack didn’t know that, but he knew what was coming next.

  “Chad Perkins, the driver you’ve just identified, was in the program,” Toomey said.

  “You’re shitting me?” Jack said convincingly. He didn’t want to get Angelina in trouble in case she’d broken any federal laws to get the information for him.

  “It seems,” Toomey continued, “that WITSEC tried to hand that information off to Deputy Chief Dick and, for whatever reason, the information was delayed getting into the hands of the investigators. I know the Evansville Police Department doesn’t operate like the Department of Justice does. And I know you think we’re all a bunch of paper pushers and glory hounds. But I want to dispel that notion right now.”

  Dick was staring straight ahead with his hands clasped in his lap like a pouting child.

  Marshal Swaim said, “When no one called my office back, we knew there was a snafu. This happens sometimes.”

  Jack asked the expected question, “Why did you get a hit on his fingerprints and we didn’t?”

  Swaim explained, “Your department ran the fingerprints, and ICE ran them again. You both got nothing. The system flags any inquiry into one of our protectees, and we are notified. You won’t get anything unless we want you to get it. We take the security of our program seriously. We have never had a witness compromised and killed.”

  “How did Perkins end up driving a load of illegals and getting himself killed?” Liddell asked, and Swaim’s face flushed.

  “I didn’t say one or two hadn’t run off on us,” Swaim said. “Before you ask, Detective Murphy, Perkins wasn’t working undercover. He was supposed to testify in court, and we think he got scared and ran. We don’t know why he was driving for the people he was supposed to testify against.”

  “You mean you don’t know why he wasn’t dead before now?” Jack said.

  Captain Franklin cleared his throat. That was his signal to drop it.

  “The people we protect are felons. Most are assholes who never learn a lesson. Perkins was working for traffickers in drugs, weapons, and now humans. We turned him. We got him a job and a place to stay. But he considered regular work beneath him. I guess he went back to work for them because the money was better. He was going to get killed sooner or later. If I can speak plainly,” he said, “I wanted to kill him myself when he was first unloaded on us. If the guy you’re after wasn’t a murderous psycho, I’d shake his hand for saving the government a bunch of money and trouble.”

  “Do you think his people killed him. Killed all these people in the truck, too?” Jack asked.

  “No,” Swaim said. “They’d lose too much money. They could have just killed Perkins and called it a day.”

  “I still don’t understand how we weren’t told this until now. You say you tried to notify us. What happened?” Jack asked, knowing the answer but wanting to twist the knife a little more.

  Dick kept quiet, but Jack could see his neck muscles working.

  “I guess it doesn’t matter now,” Swaim said. “No real harm done.”

  Toomey wasn’t satisfied with that. “I hope I’m not coming off like I’m scolding any of you.” He cast a sideways glance at Double Dick again.

  Chief Pope said, “Not at all. We screwed up. We’ll do better next time. I’m sure no one sat on the information on purpose.”

  “How are we going to avoid miscommunications
in the future?” Toomey asked. “And I mean both ways, Marshal.”

  “I admit my people should have followed up in a timelier fashion,” Swaim said and handed business cards around the table. “You may not have been told, Jack, but I’m part of the overall USOC task force. If you ever need assistance, don’t hesitate to call me. My personal cell is on those cards.”

  “Any other questions?” Toomey asked the group.

  Dick was silently fuming.

  Pope said, “From this point forward I will be the direct contact person for any information coming in from USOC or any other federal agency. I’ll be solely responsible for any glitch in the communications, Director Toomey. In this current situation, I’m making Detectives Murphy and Blanchard my second and third in command. Jack is the lead detective on this. I’ve already provided you with their direct numbers. Anything you have to say to me, you can say to them.”

  “Do you have anything to say, Jack?” Captain Franklin asked.

  Jack stood and said, “I’m just happy to be here.”

  “That’s all. You’re dismissed,” Pope said and asked Toomey and the marshal to stay.

  Jack and Liddell left.

  Outside the conference room, Liddell smirked and said, “I’m just happy to be here?”

  “I was,” Jack said. “Happy to see Dick squirming. I’m a little concerned at how everyone keeps information from us though. Angelina’s having a hell of a time getting useful information or a picture of Cody Coté. We’re supposed to catch this guy, but the Feds keep all the information we need compartmented.”

  Jack and Liddell went back to their office. Jack called the Crime Scene office and talked to Sergeant Walker. “Anything jump out of that wallet or phone?”

  “Nada,” Walker said. “I’ll call you if I get anything usable. It’s still early days.”

  Jack told him about the US Marshal and Dick’s screw-up. Walker was unaware of the WITSEC procedures, but he wasn’t surprised either.

  Jack hung up and called Lieutenant Sanchez’s personal cell and put him on speakerphone for Liddell.