A Shot to Die For

by Libby Fischer Hellmann

  The overcast thinned as we drove north, and strips of blue sky appeared between the clouds. My cell didn’t have any service either, so we stopped at a gas station on Route 70 to use a pay phone. I bought a Reese’s bar and took it outside. The climate was different up here. Not just cooler; the air was lighter and somehow fresher. I’d heard black flies were a problem in summer, but they must have been seeking more attractive targets, because they didn’t bother me.

  Jimmy came back to the car, looking solemn. “There’s been a development.”

  I pitched my candy wrapper into a trash can.

  “The police found some prints on a green pickup that had been abandoned in the Forest Preserve in Illinois.”

  “In the bed of the truck?”

  He looked surprised.

  “I was there when they found them,” I explained.

  “Well, then, you might be interested to know who they belong to.” He hesitated. “Billy Watkins.”

  The guy who worked at Mount Olympus. And owned a Bolt Action Remington rifle.

  “There’s more.” He looked troubled. “The deputy staking out the Flynn house said Kim took off a couple of hours ago. He followed her as far as Route 39. She’s headed north. The sheriff’s department is looking for her.”

  Route 39 was the highway we’d taken coming up to Star Lake.

  “Jimmy, does she know about the fishing cabin?”

  “A lot of people do. Luke’s been coming up here since he was a kid.”

  ***

  Heading into Star Lake, we drove through winding country roads marked with letters instead of names. The legacy of the lumber industry was ubiquitous, and nearly all the buildings were some variation of wood or log cabin. Jimmy studied his map only once, but he drove like he knew where he was going. Eventually, we turned down a dirt road. It hadn’t rained this far north, and the tires kicked up dust. We made a left onto a side road so thickly wooded it was little more than a trail. A hundred yards beyond was a large clearing, and in the middle of the clearing stood a cabin.

  I’d been expecting a small, shabby place, the kind of cabin you see in books about Abraham Lincoln. I was wrong. The structure was built with Scandinavian scribed logs, but the “cabin” was as large as my house. Glass windows and sliding doors hugged three sides of the building, and the bottom half was supported by fieldstone. The walk to the front door was lined with peonies and scrub roses, and I thought I saw a solar panel on the roof. Stands of conifers and cedars flanked the property.

  I caught a glimpse of a picnic table through a cluster of reeds and bushes and, beyond that, an expanse of water almost as blue as the sky. I got out of the car and started toward the lake.

  “Ellie. Don’t trespass. Wait here. He knows my car.”

  But I was already cornering the house. As I reached the backyard, I tripped on a large rock in the grass and lost my balance. I fell to my knees and threw out my hands to steady myself. As I straightened up, a voice growled, “Don’t move.”

  Without moving my head, I looked up. Luke Sutton stood over me, aiming a shotgun at my chest.

  His voice was angry and rough. “Why are you here?”

  “I—I came with Jimmy. He’s out front.”

  He eyed me suspiciously. Then he shouted. “Sack—you out there?”

  Jimmy’s voice came back. “I’m here, Luke.”

  “Go back home. I don’t want to see you.” His face hardened. “Either of you.”

  There was no reply from Jimmy. Luke kept the shotgun trained on me. My heart was pumping wildly.

  “I told you. Get out.”

  I swallowed. “No. We—I—wanted to talk to you.”

  “What about?”

  I looked up. “A lot of things,” I said lamely.

  “So talk.”

  I started to gesture toward the gun, but as I did, Jimmy appeared around the back. When he saw Luke, he froze for an instant but recovered quickly. “Luke, that’s not going to help.” He walked slowly toward his friend.

  Luke looked from Jimmy to me and back. “Stop it, Sack. Don’t come any closer. I’ve had enough.” He swung the shotgun toward Jimmy.

  “I know you have, Luke,” Jimmy said quietly. “So have I. That’s why I’m here. I want to help.”

  He seemed to consider it. Then, “Sure.”

  Jimmy took another step forward. Luke waved the gun. “I told you. Stop. Drop your weapon.”

  Jimmy stopped. “I didn’t bring one, Luke. You can search me.”

  Luke ran his tongue around his lips.

  “Luke, listen. Whatever’s going on, we can deal with it. I’m your friend.”

  Luke swung the shotgun back to me. “What are you doing here?”

  “I—I need to know the truth.”

  “Why? So you can put it in your next video?” he spit out. “Poor little rich boy murders his sister, maybe a few others, too?”

  “No,” I said softly. “Because I’m—I care about you.”

  A moment of absolute stillness followed. I heard the coos of birds, the plop of something riffling the water. A cloud that had been covering the sun broke apart, releasing a ray of light that shot into the lake. Luke slowly lowered the gun and laid it on the ground. Straightening up, he went to the picnic table, sat down, and cradled his head on his arms. Jimmy sat next to him. I slid onto the bench on his other side. The afternoon sun danced on the lake. The only thing I heard was the distant chirr of insects.

  I wasn’t sure how much time passed before Luke pulled himself together. But the sun was arcing toward the west when he raised his head and took a long breath.

  “You okay, pal?” Jimmy asked.

  “I’m just so fucking tired.” He ran a hand over his hair and beard. He looked at Jimmy, then at me, his eyes softening as they passed. Despite everything, my heart skipped a beat.

  “Those DNA tests you’re doing?” He looked at Jimmy. “You’re not going to need them. I can tell you what’s on Annie’s clothes.” He took another breath, as if fueling himself with courage.

  “Chip’s semen.” He paused. “And it’s his blood on my baseball shirt.”

  Jimmy made a show of not reacting. I sat very still.

  “He was—abusing her. He’d been doing it for a while. But I didn’t know.” He looked dazed, disoriented. “Oh shit. I didn’t want to know. But all those years—oh God. I knew something was wrong. But Jesus. He was my older brother.”

  “What happened the night Annie died?” I asked.

  It came out slowly. “I was working at the airstrip. Mom and Dad were at the races. They had a new horse at Arlington and wanted to see him run. They were going to spend the night there. They did that a lot. Chip and Annie were home.” He bit his lip. “I should never have left.”

  “Why?” I breathed.

  “I knew something was wrong. Chip and Annie were barely speaking. It’d been that way for a while. At the time, I remember thinking—oh God—rationalizing that it was just a fight over things. That maybe Annie was ‘borrowing’ some of Chip’s things like Chip did with me. He’d take my records. Sometimes my clothes.”

  “The baseball shirt.”

  He nodded. “I figured Annie was doing that to Chip. And that Chip was pissed off. But then she called me right after supper. At the airstrip. Asked if she could come by. She wanted to talk. I told her sure.” He blinked. “She never showed up. I waited, but she never came.” He shifted. “But you have to understand. She never said anything. Not one fucking word.” He gripped the edge of the table. “I—I might have been able to do something. But I didn’t know.”

  Jimmy cut in. “Annie never asked anyone for help. Don’t you remember the summer I tried to teach her to waterski? She wouldn’t let me. She always had to figure it out for herself.”

  “Thanks, but that won’t cut it. I was her older brother. I was supposed to be there.”

  “You were seventeen,” I said.

  “I should have called. At least found out where she was. Maybe that would
have helped. But I figured she blew me off and went out with her friends. You know, found something better to do.” A strangled sound came out of his throat.

  “What happened then?” Jimmy asked.

  “When I got home, Chip wasn’t in bed. Neither was Annie. I thought Chip had gone to the Sugar Shack, you know?”

  “The Sugar Shack wasn’t known for checking IDs back then,” Jimmy said to me.

  “I figured Annie was sleeping over at a friend’s,” Luke went on. “I was wiped out so I went to bed. But a couple hours later, I woke up. Someone was beating down the door. Shouting. Yelling. It turned out to be Chip. He was falling down drunk. I mean, Chip had been drinking for a while, but this was over the top even for him. He went into the bathroom and threw up. Eventually, I got him into the shower. Then I asked him where Annie was.”

  Jimmy winced.

  “He wouldn’t answer. Then he said he didn’t know. I went downstairs to make a pot of coffee. While it was brewing, I decided to call one of her friends to make sure she was there. I was just picking up the phone when Herbert showed up.”

  “Herbert Flynn.”

  He nodded. “Scared the shit out of me. Just kind of appeared. I saw his shadow in the outside light.”

  “He didn’t ring the bell?” Jimmy asked.

  “Herbert always came around to the kitchen. The cook or the maid would let him in. Anyway, when I opened the door, he looked me up and down. Then he glared. I mean, if looks could kill….I asked him what was going on. I mean, it was probably around three in the morning by then.” Luke faltered. “He—he looked furious. But pale. And he was trembling. Actually trembling. He asked me if I knew where Annie was.”

  Jimmy’s head came up.

  “When he said, ‘Do you know where your sister is,’ I got scared. It was three in the morning. Why would Herbert ask me something like that? I told him I thought she was at her girlfriend’s house. But that I was just going to call and make sure.” He hesitated. “I remember he looked like he didn’t believe me.”

  “Maybe he didn’t know what to believe,” I said.

  “I think—maybe at that time—well, who knows?” Luke shrugged. “Anyway, then I asked why he was asking. He mumbled something, but I didn’t know what he meant. I kept asking him. Finally he told me to come with him. I followed him down to the pier. That’s when I saw her. In—in the water.” He started to blink.

  We waited.

  “She was floating facedown. Her hair was all spread out around her. And she was naked. Her skin was so white. The moonlight.” His voice cracked. “For a minute, I thought maybe it was a joke. That she’d roll over, and grin at me. ‘Fooled you, Luke.’” He swallowed. “It didn’t happen.”

  “What did you do?”

  “We pulled her out of the water. Herbert tried to give her mouth to mouth but nothing happened. I tried, too.” A sob came out of his throat. “I—I’m not sure what happened next. I know I called my father. He told me not to do anything else until he got there. They must have flown down the highway—they got home before dawn. Herbert was gone by then.”

  “He left?” Jimmy asked.

  Luke nodded.

  “When?”

  “I don’t remember times. I do remember Chip came downstairs after his shower. He looked like shit. He didn’t say much. He kept rolling his shoulder. I remember that.”

  “Rolling his shoulder?”

  “Like it hurt. When I asked him, he said he must have pulled a muscle on the boat that afternoon.”

  “What happened when your father got home?” I asked.

  Luke looked toward the lake. “He—it got confusing. He was on the phone a lot. Mother collapsed. Our doctor came. The housekeeper—it wasn’t Mrs. Baines then—was there, too.”

  “What about the police?” Jimmy asked. “When did they get there?”

  Luke looked blank. “I—I don’t remember exactly. Maybe the next morning?”

  “Your father didn’t tell you to call them first thing? Even before they got home?” I asked.

  Luke shook his head. “No. He specifically told me not to do anything until he got there.”

  Jimmy and I exchanged a glance.

  “I do remember that Father talked to Chip first, then to me.”

  “What did he say?”

  Luke shifted his gaze. “He came into my room. I’d been lying down, not sleeping, of course. It was impossible to sleep. Anyway, he came in and sat down on the bed, and said something to the effect of ‘We’re a family, son. And we’re going to stick together. That’s the most important thing. I’ll take care of everything.’”

  I frowned. “That’s all?”

  “That’s all I remember.”

  I rubbed my forearm with my other hand. “What did he mean?”

  “I didn’t know. Not then. But after it became clear the whole thing was going to be pinned on Herbert, and then an ‘intruder’….” He looked at both of us in turn. “I started to figure it out.”

  Jimmy looked down.

  Luke clasped his hands on the picnic table. “We never talked about it again. Mother grew more and more reclusive, and then she just….” His voice trailed off. “I just—well—tried not to think about anything. I smoked a lot of weed. Did some drinking myself. But it weighed. Eventually, I left.”

  “I knew you changed after that,” Jimmy said in a low voice. “I thought it was just Annie.”

  I interjected. “That’s when you enlisted?”

  He nodded. “I didn’t care where I went or what I did. Even if I lived or died.”

  “Instead of dying, you became a fighter pilot.”

  Luke shrugged.

  “And then you went to Montana.”

  “It was a thousand miles away.”

  “Why did you come back?”

  “There comes a time—well, I thought, maybe, I could start over. It had been almost thirty years. I was an adult. I missed the Midwest. And I wanted to start the airline. I couldn’t do that out there.”

  “Didn’t you wonder why no one ever told you the truth?”

  “No.” It came out fast and firm. “I wouldn’t let myself. I didn’t trust my memory anyway. Until the other day. When you came to the house with Jimmy.”

  I frowned. “Me?”

  “It was what you said when we were walking. About the bloodstains.” He looked over. “That there must have been a sharp object involved.”

  “Well?”

  He sighed. “Chip had a fishing knife. A Green River. It was a five-inch filleting knife. He bought it at the bait and tackle shop up here. It was his favorite possession. He always carried it. Even at home.”

  I sucked in a breath.

  “I remembered not seeing it after Annie died. It just—kind of disappeared.”

  Jimmy folded his arms.

  “Once you mentioned the bloodstains, I realized they could have been caused by the knife. So I tried to figure out when I’d last seen it. That’s why I came up here.”

  “To find the knife?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “I was pretty sure it was gone. But I did want to check with Norman Desmond, see if he remembered when he sold it to Chip. See if the timing fit.”

  “I talked to him.” I recalled our conversation. He’d told me nothing.

  “He mentioned that.”

  “Well? Did the timing work?”

  Luke ran a tongue around his lips. “Perfectly. Norman sold it to Chip about a year before Annie died. Like I said, it disappeared after that. But the night of the murder, when Chip was favoring his shoulder—”

  “You think it could have been a knife wound?” I cut in.

  “Annie was a fighter. She never gave up. Even when it was just a game.”

  I got up and started to pace. “So pinning the murder on Herbert Flynn, throwing suspicion on him, that was all a cover-up by your father?”

  Luke didn’t say anything.

  “And when no one could come up with any evidence, your father came up with th
e Sharon Percy theory.”

  Luke nodded.

  “Which, except for the Flynns, suited everybody’s purposes,” I said. “Until Herbert Flynn came back.”

  Jimmy’s brows lifted.

  “Once we got the note, everything changed. It was like a time warp.” Luke looked at Jimmy. “Flynn claimed he finally had the evidence that would exonerate him and prove who really killed Annie. But if we wanted him to stay quiet, we had to pay him an enormous amount of money.”

  That must have been what Herbert was doing at the ice house. Looking for the clothes to blackmail the Suttons. Maybe he saw Chip stash them in the ice house. “Why did he wait so long?”

  “My father can be very persuasive. He has ‘resources.’”

  “The carrot and the stick,” Jimmy said.

  “It must have been a hell of a carrot,” I said.

  “I think it was more like a stick,” Luke said. “I’m sure my father explained in very clear terms what might happen to Herbert or the members of his family if he said anything to contradict the ‘official’ line.”

  My father’s words about Charles Sutton came back to me. He didn’t care who got in his way.

  “So Herbert fled Lake Geneva,” Jimmy said.

  “And put his family through more anguish,” I said.

  Luke blinked.

  “But then Irene got sick, and Herbert came back.”

  Jimmy rubbed his hands together, all business now. “All right. I’ve heard enough. Let’s get you out of here.”

  “Why?” Luke asked.

  “You have to come back to Lake Geneva and tell the sheriff’s deputies everything you just told us. And I don’t want you running into Kim Flynn.”

  “Kim? Why would Kim be coming here?” Luke spread his hands.

  “She took off a few hours ago. My men say she’s heading north.”

  “Why here?”

  Jimmy and I exchanged another look. “Because she thinks you’re responsible for her problems,” I said. “And she might have orchestrated Daria’s murder.”