Touched By Blood

by Craig Buckhout

  He stopped in mid-sentence when he saw Malone being pulled to his feet.

  “Ah, Shit!”

  Rene arrived about that time, at a run and saying, “Ah man, I wanted him.”

  To Wells, Nick explained, “Yeah, he went through the sheetrock, room to room. I thought he was just going to try to run the perimeter, but somehow he had another car here.”

  “Yeah, and he probably would have made it past us, too, maybe even gotten completely away.”

  Two of the Santa Clara cops had Malone between them and were escorting him to a cage car idling in street. He was staring at Nick like he wanted to cook his internal organs in a port wine sauce with garlic mashed potatoes on the side, and as Malone passed-by he said, “What comes around, goes around.”

  Nick turned away from him without comment and back to Wells. Any interview of Malone was starting to look iffy.

  “Hey, can I get your guys to impound both cars and have them towed to our warehouse?” Nick asked. “They need to be processed for prints and other evidence.”

  They say you don’t hear the one that gets you, which is a good thing since Nick heard the shot cook-off from somewhere behind him. He hit the ground anyway, right next to Rene and Wells, just in case more bullets were about to be loosed his way. In that event, he wanted to be able to hear those, too. When he was finally able to look out toward the street, which was the direction the shot came from, he could see Malone on the ground and everyone else pointing their weapons all over the place, a sure sign they had no idea who shot what, from where.

  Nick got up and ran to Malone. By the look of things a bullet had torn out his throat and severed his spine near the base of his skull. He was definitely dead.

  When things started to settle down and he had a minute to think, he wondered who the hell killed Malone? And from the talk on all the radios around him, a lot of others were asking the same thing. The Santa Clara officers came up with the only plan they could; organizing a systemic search of the likely areas the shot could have come from.

  It came to him then, that he needed to warn Ellen and the officers protecting her. The murderer, or was it one of the murderers, was capable of making a long range kill. They needed to take that into account.

  He was about to phone her when he heard an officer summon Wells over to room 6. Wells looked back at Nick and said, “You may as well come along, too.”

  The inside of room 6 looked like the scene of a Baghdad terrorist attack. Furniture was turned over, big chunks of sheetrock and fiberglass insulation were scattered about, and there was a gaping hole in the wall common to room 7. Adding to this image were three fatigue cloaked cops, crowded around the one king size bed, all with their backs to the door.

  “What do you got?” Wells asked.

  The officers then stepped aside enough for Nick to see a man, slight in build, with long blond hair, and of something less than manly bearing, handcuffed and face down on the mattress.

  “They’re too tight. My hands are going to sleep,” he cried.

  “Quit your whining, you little prick,” one of the officers shot back. “They’re as loose as they’re getting.”

  “Come on, they hurt bad. I can hardly stand it. I didn’t do anything. I was just here is all. I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

  “With what?” Nick asked.

  The blond raised his head and twisted it around until he could see Nick.

  “With anything. I didn’t have anything to do with anything. Are you the one I can talk to about getting these things off me? You can’t all be a bunch of thugs. Somebody around here’s got to be the head thug or something.”

  They all looked at one another at this point and started laughing, which just lit Blondie up all the more.

  “Oh yeah, sure, go ahead and laugh at someone in pain. I hope your pathetic little dicks fall off. You …”

  “Gawd almighty, shut-up will you?” Wells shouted. “Get his ass up somebody; he’s giving me a fucking headache.”

  They lifted him completely off the bed and set him on his feet right in front of Nick.

  “So, is it you I talk to?” he asked.

  “That depends if you’re going to talk or whine. If you’re going to whine and snivel, you can sit in jail. If you tell the truth, maybe we’ll help you out.”

  “Ask me whatever. I’ll tell you the truth, cross my heart. Come on; just ask me so I can get out of here.”

  “Not here, at the police department,” Nick told him. Then he turned to Wells. “Can I also get someone to transport this guy to San Jose?”

  Nick heard one of the officers swear under his breath.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  His name was Adolph Dodd, but his friends called him Doll. He was twenty and a half years old, which made Nick wonder at what age someone stops counting the half years. He was wearing a thin white tee shirt over a thin white body, low rider jeans over a pair of Chicken Little legs, and was attractively accessorized with a leather thong necklace dangling a cluster of three or four beads over his sunken breastbone.

  When Nick first walked into the room, which wasn’t much larger than a poor man’s closet, Dodd’s body language told him to turn right around and walk back out. He was scooted as far back in a corner as he could get, with his arms wrapped around himself and his legs crossed; not exactly the, ask me anything posture Nick expected. But the “right to remain silent” speech somehow changed everything. It was like the start of the Preakness, he wasn’t going to stop until he went full circle.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know who would do that to him. I mean I can understand it; he was just a mean, mean man. Sometimes he …but he was nice to me …well as long as I …you know, but even I wouldn’t want to be the one getting one of those looks of his; oh no, uh uh. And the way he talked to people, it was just totally scandalous. So I can see why someone would do something like that to him, but I don’t know who, and I don’t want to know who, if you know what I mean.”

  Dodd grabbed onto his leather necklace and rubbed it back and forth between his thumb and index finger like a string of prayer beads.

  “Okay, okay, let’s see if we can make sense out of this,” Nick stated. “How long have you known him?”

  “Maybe a year. No, wait a minute. It was at the St. Patty’s day thing where I colored my hair this green,” he picked at his hair. “I was wearing these really tight black pants that came down to about the middle of my calf and said ‘pinch me’ on the back. So that makes it, what, a year and a half maybe? I’ve known him almost a year and a half. Yeah, that’s it.”

  “Did the two of you spend much time together or was your acquaintance more casual than that?”

  “Casual, oh no, I usually stayed at his place. I still keep a place of my own, though, I’m no fool. I figured he could turn on me in a second, just like that,” he snapped his fingers. “Never did though, but I stayed right there with him. Pretty much the only time I could go out was when he went to work. I felt pretty much like a …”

  “I have the picture; you spent a lot of time together. And since you spent time together, did you know the people he associated with; you know, partied with, did business with, that sort of thing?”

  “Oh no, it’s like I was a big secret or something. In fact, my friend Felix, his name’s really not Felix, he just calls himself that after a movie, well never mind that either, anyway Felix calls me Carl’s love child. You get it, right; not really his child but me being twenty and a half and all, and him being older and keeping me a secret? So …“

  “I get it, you don’t have to explain.”

  “Okay, cool, you never know, but there was one time, yesterday … yesterday?” His brow wrinkled. “No, the day before when he took me with him. Only thing was he made me wait in the car. See, there you go again, love child. Actually more like a dog if you ask me. So I didn’t really see anyone. Everything was a secret with him; always a secret, always wait in the other room, or I gotta go out and m
eet someone, never this is my partner Doll. Sometimes it made me want to scream.”

  “Where did he take you the day before yesterday, when you had to stay out in the car?”

  “It was in China Town, a bar there on the main street, I forget what it’s called. It looked straight. You can tell. Sometimes it’s hard because you can have gays in a straight bar, so you have to know those kind of things.”

  It was Japan Town; there was no China Town in San Jose, but he didn’t correct him, it would just lead to more confusion.

  “You lost me there at the end but it doesn’t matter. Do you remember anything about the place, anything at all?”

  “Well, there was a restaurant next to it.”

  “There’s probably a dozen in that area, so that doesn’t help much.”

  “Well, the window right next to the door had a Budweiser sign in it; one of those electric ones. It was red.”

  “In the restaurant or the bar?”

  “Oh, I thought you were asking me about the restaurant.”

  “I was asking you about the bar but … never mind. Are you sure it was a Budweiser sign and not some other sign? A Budweiser sign in a Chinese restaurant doesn’t seem right.”

  “Yeah I know. That’s why I remember it. Weird, huh.”

  “And getting weirder by the minute. So what time was this anyway; that you went with Malone and stayed out in the car?”

  “It was around 9 PM I think. Didn’t I say that?”

  “You said a lot of things but not that. How long did Malone stay inside this bar?

  “It seemed like forever because I had to pee really bad, and he knew it. But oh no, he just stayed in there, drinking and being secretive and everything while I waited outside about to explode. He bought me something to eat later and was nicer to me, so I guess that was all right.”

  “Okay, let’s change directions for a second here. How long were you and Carl staying in the motel?”

  “Well, you see, we went there the night before last and got the room, but he told me to stay in it and he’d join me later. Little did I know he meant almost a day later. You can only watch so many MTV reruns. So I stayed in it for two nights and he stayed in it for only one, and that would be last night.”

  “The night before last, about what time did you check in?” Nick asked.

  “Right after we went to that bar, I mean right after he went to that bar and I stayed outside like a dog. We ate after that and then sorta, well sorta hung out for a while, and then he left. That was cool, though. You can only do so much of that, too.”

  “Okay, so as best as you can remember, what time did he leave the motel Thursday night?”

  “Well, probably at least 11:30, maybe a few minutes after that.”

  “And you’re sure this was on Thursday night?”

  “Yeah of course, because after he left I called Felix and Felix was saying how nervous he was because the next day he was supposed to meet someone after work and if it worked out they were going to Bodega Bay for the week end.”

  “How about before 9 o’clock, was there any time when the two of you weren’t together?”

  “Well, let me think about that. Thursday, Thursday. Well I know he got home about seven that morning because he woke me up and well …”

  “You can skip the and well part. Just go on after that,” Nick said.

  “Oh, well, okay that’s cool if you don’t want to hear about that, but I don’t mind telling you.”

  Nick held up his hand to stop him.

  “Okay, I’ll skip that part. Well after that part happened, he went to sleep until maybe noon. It could have been as late as one o’clock. Oh yeah, it was past noon because I made myself a tuna sandwich and was already done eating it when he got up. I remember because he got mad I didn’t leave any for him. So after that we just sort of hung out, not doing anything or anything, watched some TV, that sort of stuff. Oh, now I remember; he got a call late in the afternoon and said he had to go out for a while. He was gone maybe two or three hours then came back. After that we just hung out some more and then went to that bar in China Town.”

  If Dodd’s timeline was accurate, Malone could have killed St. Claire and he could have cased Ellen’s house, but killing Fontaine would have been pretty difficult. He would have had to move pretty fast to pull it all off, and the timing would have had to be perfect.

  “Okay, let’s talk about Friday. What time did Malone show up at the motel on Friday?”

  There was a knock on the interview room door. It was Fanucchi.

  “Sorry, I hate to interrupt you but Al’s on the line. He says he remembers something important. Terrie’s here, too.”

  “Terry, who’s Terry?” Dodd asked. “I know a Terry.”

  “Not this one.” Nick told Dodd to just sit tight and left the room. As soon as he stepped outside he came face to face with Terrie.

  “Hey, I gotta talk with you about Ellen Banks,” Terrie said.

  “Why, what’s happened? She okay?”

  “Relax Nick, she’s fine. I just have to talk with you about protecting her. The Chief wanted me to touch bases with you.”

  “All right, ah, give me a couple of minutes, Al’s on the phone.”

  “Take your time and be sure and say hi for me.”

  Nick picked-up the phone and jabbed at the blinking light.

  “Hey big guy, how you feeling?”

  “It’s worse here than being in lock-up. They’re starving me to death; say I have to lose at least forty pounds. Can you believe that? I come in here because some shithead shoots my ass, and all I hear is diabetes this and heart disease that. You gotta bring me Chinese; prawns in walnut cream sauce and pork fried rice. That’s all I want. I’ll never ask the Department for anything ever again, I swear.”

  “I’ll get by tonight; extra sauce on the prawns.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about. Hey, you hear the one about the two Polish bear hunters? Well they’re out driving through the forest on opening day of hunting season and come upon a road sign that says bear left, so they turned around and went home.”

  Nick heard Al start to laugh and then bellow out in pain from his broken rib.

  “Serves you right. Fanucchi said you had something for me.”

  “Yeah, I remembered something. When I went around the back of the cottage, I saw this guy running right at me. Only he was back lit, so I couldn’t see anything but a silhouette. Then he pops me, and I get a couple off at him. The thing is, even though I didn’t see his face or much else, I saw enough to be pretty sure it wasn’t Malone. He wasn’t big enough.”

  “You sure?” Nick asked.

  “Eight on a scale of ten. Maybe getting tagged like that screwed-up my memory, but I don’t think so.”

  “It’s good enough for me. Anything else?”

  “Just don’t forget the food, oh, and if I die in here make sure the medical examiner checks me for malnutrition.”

  Terrie, who was sitting on the edge of Nick’s desk said, “Don’t forget to tell him hi for me.”

  “Hey Al, Terrie says to say hi.”

  “Yeah, yeah, it’s a sympathy hi. The good looking ones only say hi to you when you’re in the hospital. You and her still …”

  “Al says hi back,” Nick said to Terrie and then hung-up.

  “Good, he’s a nice guy, but he could use to lose some weight. So is there anything more we need to do to protect Ellen Banks?”

  “Nah, she’s pretty well covered. Only thing is that from time to time she may have to go out on a job, and I don’t think we’re prepared for that. Maybe if she can get us her schedule we can come up with some way to protect her.”

  “Are you sure she’s still in danger?”

  “I’m not sure of anything. I thought this Malone character was good for it, but Al may have just shot that theory all to hell. As for Ellen, I’m pretty convinced that she doesn’t know anything important about the murders. It’s just that the killer may think she does; that he
r sister told her something.”

  “Okay, I’ll stop by and see if I can get a schedule from her. Now how about at night; is she covered then, too?”

  It was a question he was hoping she wouldn’t ask.

  “Yeah, don’t worry about it, it’s taken care of.”

  “What a motel or something? Maybe we could do roll-bys.”

  “Nah, not necessary, our perp will never find her.”

  She gave him a funny look. “Okay, if you say so.”

  “Oh, and tomorrow she won’t need anyone on her place. She won’t be there, so maybe just the car. If she changes her mind, though, I’ll call the Watch Commander. Now I better get back in there before my witness’ vocal cords tighten up on him.”

  She gave him another funny look. “Sure Nick, no problem.”

  When Nick walked back into the room, Dodd was sitting with his eyes closed, cross legged on the chair with his forearms resting on his knees, and the index finger and thumb of each hand touching to form a circle.

  Nick closed the door but Dodd still didn’t acknowledge his presence. So he kicked Dodd’s chair and said, “Hey, let’s finish this thing up so we can both get out of here.”

  Dodd smiled, opened his eyes and said, “I was in a good place …floating.”

  “Yeah, well, welcome back to earth. Let’ see, I think we were just getting to Friday. Yeah, that’s right. I don’t think you answered the question about what time Malone got back to the motel on Friday.”

  “That’s a good question. Oh, I know. Where’s my cell phone?”

  “On my desk, why?”

  “Well, I had just finished talking with Felix so the number should be there along with the time. See Felix was telling me that he and his friend were on the way to Bodega Bay and that was where they filmed some famous movie a long time ago.”

  “You don’t have to explain all that. What’s Felix’s telephone number?”

  Dodd gave the number to him.

  “Have you talked with him since the call on Friday?”

  “No, that’s what I was trying to tell you. He was going to call me when he got back on Sunday.”