A Taxing Death (Jill Quint, MD, Forensic Pathologist Series Book 5)

by Peche, Alec

  With that last comment, the kayak rental company van pulled up and loaded their kayaks. They jumped in the backseat for the ride back to the car. A little over an hour later, they were at Nathan’s house with Jill explaining the latest news on the case and the plan for that evening. He looked resigned and even started making subtle stretching moves, and both Jill and Marie burst out laughing.

  "What are you laughing at?" he asked.

  "We chatted about what your reaction would be to the trouble ahead tonight," Jill said. "Marie won the bet as she said you would start stretching the moment you heard that the suspects might visit your house tonight and that was what you were just doing."

  "What did you think I would do?" Nathan asked Jill.

  "I just thought you would be mad," said a chagrined Jill.

  "I am mad at the two suspects, but not at you. What's the schedule tonight?"

  "The four officers are due to arrive by six. They wanted plenty of time to scour your property in daylight. They would also like you to turn off the audible and light effects of your alarm system, but it's your decision whether to comply with that request."

  "I can do that, we got sufficient warning from your system yesterday and with police at the house, we have even less to worry about," Nathan said. "That reminds me; you need to do something about your alarms when you're asleep. You need to have an audible alarm at least inside your house. You have that expensive system, but if I hadn't been reading late we would have missed the opportunity to prevent getting murdered in our own beds."

  "I agree and I'll call the alarm company tomorrow to get an audible alert in my kitchen, my bedroom, and my lab. Since I seem to have a continuous supply of maniacs intent on murdering me, I need a better alert system."

  "Good. Should I plan on making dinner for the police?" Nathan asked, moving on now that he felt confident that Jill would improve her own security. Last night was the third attack on her property and so it was better to be prepared for the next killer trying to get at Jill.

  "I don't think so. I mean the lieutenant did not ask us to feed them so I would think they would grab something on the way here. Besides they want time when they first arrive to assess the situation, so we should probably plan on a late dinner and then you could ask them if they want to eat with us."

  "Okay. We'll either be having Chilean Sea Bass for dinner or a pasta dish if the officers join us as I don't have enough Sea Bass for seven people. Let me go make the adjustments to my security system before I forget. Is anyone covering your house tonight?"

  "No, but I have my system set to notify me if there are intruders, so that will be enough of a warning to get our local sheriff over to my house."

  "You know you two are really calm given that sometime in the next twelve hours, two killers are projected to show up and try to murder you," Marie observed.

  "I am more worried about what to feed potentially seven people than the two killers. They have no history of knives or guns and the Taser has a fifteen foot range so I think I can win against those odds. After the two attempts on my life in Breck, it's much easier to be prepared for what comes your way; my competence has been tested and I'm around to talk about. If I'm wrong, we will have four Highway Patrol officers here for back-up. A guy doesn't get many opportunities to use the martial arts with the serious purpose of maiming someone. If I get to take these two guys on, it will be better than a competition for my evaluation of my hapkido skills."

  Jill just shook her head and said, "I'm going to take Trixie outside to play fetch and the officers should be arriving at any time."

  Marie sat in Nathan's kitchen drinking a crisp white wine he had poured for her. "I'm going to miss you guys when I head back to Wisconsin tomorrow. As always, you have been a great chef. I'll also miss the intellectual challenge of gathering data on someone. I do that in my everyday job but it's not life and death like it is on these cases with Jill. Next time I'm here, I want to go back to Yosemite. It's such a beautiful place and I feel like we only saw the smallest part of the park."

  "I know what you mean. Jill and I visit the park every four months or so and hike a different part of Yosemite. There's so much beauty in that park," Nathan said as he glanced over at a computer monitor in his kitchen. "It looks like the Highway Patrol is here. I'm going to go find out how many people are here for dinner."

  Marie joined him and went outside to meet the officers.

  They arrived in two black Ford Crown Victorias, the kind of car that hid on overpasses waiting to catch unsuspecting speeders. After introductions were made, the three civilians stood looking at the cars with the same concern.

  "I don't have any garage space that could hide these cars but I do have two tarps that we could throw over them and then I have some old rusty farm tools that we could lay on top of the tarps so that it looks like the cars have been sitting here for a while," Nathan suggested.

  "If necessary we could shovel some dirt on top of the tarps to make it look old," Jill contributed with a gleam in her eye.

  "Dr. Quint, it sounds like you don't have much affection for our Highway Patrol cruisers by the fact you want to throw dirt on them," replied one of the officers.

  "Please call me Jill and I'm not threatening you. I'm just telling you my fantasy is to swing a sledgehammer at those gumballs you call police lights on top of your car."

  The officers chuckled at that and said to Nathan, "Mr. Conroy, we'd like to tour your property and have a demonstration of your security system. After the tour, we'll borrow those tarps that you mentioned and allow Jill to shovel some dirt on them for therapy."

  "First things first gentleman, call me Nathan by the way, are you joining us for dinner or have you already eaten?"

  "We have a cooler filled with sub sandwiches that we brought with us, but we haven't eaten yet," replied another one of the officers clearly hopeful of something better.

  "Would you like to join us then? I'll be making pasta, salad, and garlic bread, with ice cream for dessert. I also have the perfect wine to go with this food but as you're on duty I suppose you can't drink."

  "We would be happy to join you if you have enough food. We'll want to survey this property first if you don't mind."

  "I'll take you on a tour and then I'll work on dinner."

  An hour later, the tour was complete and Nathan had set up his alarm system to feed into the cell phones that the officers carried. Nathan had also provided the men with a sofa and bedroom where they could stay as they rotated shifts. Nathan loved cooking, so despite his earlier complaints, he enjoyed making dinner for everyone. After dinner was finished, the officers established their posts and duty rotation and they checked in with Lieutenant Moss and updated the local Sheriff who was aware of the operation.

  With all the usual routines of eating, cleaning the dishes, and conversing, everyone including the officers settled into a feeling of nervous anticipation. Would the killers attack tonight or would they have to go through this routine for the next week? Was Jill's house vulnerable? Jill and Marie stayed awake until nearly midnight which was beyond their normal bedtime, but finally the lack of sleep from the previous night caught up with them and they went to bed.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Allen and Jerome returned from their road trip to look at mailbox companies and target locations with ideas and a need to do more research. Allen studied the science of building explosions and building implosions to deduce what it would take to have a sideways blast at the auditorium. He had decided that leaving a maintenance cart outside the auditorium wall was the only way they could avoid detection.

  Jerome was studying the land in and around Nathan Conroy's house. He could vividly picture the road leading up to Conroy’s property and they had a few places to park the car. Now looking at the map, he could get a better visual of the pluses and minuses of each of the three locations they had scouted out on their road trip. Jerome settled on the one farthest away as it had bushes they could pull the car behind. It was a farthe
r walk, but it was more about staying undercover than proximity. He had two plans for entering the property depending on whether the gate was open and the nighttime lighting in the area. If it was open they would enter through it as long as the lighting was poor. He also had a plan for the backside of the property as well as a third option if necessary. Consistent with a Spanish style house, there was a six foot stucco wall that gave the image of a Hacienda on three sides and it appeared heavy foliage created the fourth wall. If the gate was closed, they would follow the wall to its end and enter through the trees and bushes and whatever else was growing there. Studying the blueprints of the Conroy house filed with the County building Department, the quickest route to the bedrooms was through the front door and then down a hallway to the right. One problem was determining which bedroom the esteemed Dr. Quint would be asleep in. His first guess was the master suite followed by the next biggest bedroom. He then worked out a game plan to test for an alarm system including cameras that might alert the occupants to their presence. Satisfied with his tactical plan to kill Dr. Quint, he printed out a copy to share with Allen.

  "Allen, do you want to go over the kill plan for Dr. Quint and then we can split up and get some sleep before meeting tonight?"

  "Sure, I finished my research on the bomb preparation. I know how to build one that will work on the side of the building, so we just need to wait for the components to finish arriving and I'll need to get a maintenance cart for use. I should have enough supplies that I'll be able to build a small practice bomb to try out before the real thing."

  "Excellent. I think we would be at risk for discovery if we had to go inside the auditorium after getting through security. I was also dreading the roof approach. Now, about tonight. Here is a map of the property and the house and this is what I think we should do," Jerome explained the plan he worked out and some decision points they would have to make as they went and they both agreed they would worry about security cameras as they got closer to the house as they assumed they had set off a silent alarm when he picked the door lock at Dr. Quint's house. Her vineyard had been so dark that unless they had made the visit under a full moon, they wouldn't have been able to see any security monitors. They split up soon after that.

  While Allen tried to retain a cool persona around Jerome, he was in reality deeply passionate and excited about the night's mission. The stupid doctor only thought she had to move her residence elsewhere and she would escape him. She represented much of what was wrong with the current society. She had a license to be a doctor issued by the false government. She then worked for that false government. She had outed the bad politicians in that Northern California town, but everything else that she did worked to limit the powers of good people like Jerome and him. He would have to thank her for making them think of an alternative way to strike at the Department of Revenue because next to killing Dr. Quint, he had the auditorium explosion to be proud of next week. He and Jerome would become legends in the movement for ending the lives of people who were against the principles of sovereign citizens.

  At midnight, the two men met up each with their bag of supplies to carry out their mission. Again in all black apparel with black grease marker covering the skin of their faces, they loaded up the car to make the journey to Jill Quint's temporary home. Allen had wanted to tell Jerome to drive faster, but by maintaining the speed limit, they wouldn't be stopped for speeding. They headed for the parking area that they had designated for the night's job. Keeping with the plan to put Dr. Quint to death with nitrogen gas, they had a small full cylinder with a mask and each was armed with a Taser. Like the defibrillator, the two Tasers had started out as what any civilian could purchase, but Allen had modified them to have greater distance reach. While many sovereign citizens believed in the right to bear arms, both Jerome and Allen had an unexplained aversion to killing someone with a knife or gun. They considered their own methods as effective, but humane and bloodless. They didn't need the violence of murder; they just needed the person gone.

  They arrived at the property to find the lighting average and the gate closed. The house was shrouded in the darkness of everyone being asleep. The two men walked the side wall which went on for longer than they expected. They reached the end of the wall and it did bump up against heavy foliage, but there was also a wire fence that would keep dogs in and deer out. Putting their hands on top of the wall, they used it as leverage to scale over the wire mesh.

  "Let's head for the front door," Jerome directed. "We want to follow the back fence to the left side stucco wall that way when we reach the front of the house our entry is closer to the left side wall. The lighting looks okay and I think we can stay hidden in the shadows."

  Allen nodded and did a fist bump with Jerome as they continued to follow the fence walls to their destination. They reached the front door of Conroy's house and Jerome pulled the pick set out of his pocket to unlock the door. They silently moved inside and closed the door. Off to the left, they could see the nightlight in the kitchen. As planned, they silently moved down the hall careful not to make any sounds from footfalls. They headed to the master bedroom, Tasers in their hands for self-protection if they came upon anything unexpected in the silent house. Their eyes were adjusted to seeing in the dark and even without the nightlight they could follow the hall to the bedroom where Jill Quint lay asleep and where she would hopefully die in a few minutes.

  Moving silently, Jerome opened the door to the master suite and stood there and listened. He heard no sounds. He looked at the forms in the bed. There appeared to be a man with his head turned away from the door and a woman with long blond hair sleeping on her side with her face tucked into his back.

  Jerome looked over at Allen and they each gave the thumbs up signal. Then Allen held his hand out and did a silent 3-2-1 countdown with his fingers to fire the Taser at each person on each side of the bed. They aimed and fired simultaneous streams to both sides of the bed. There was a popping sound followed by the start of flames beginning where the two people had lay in the bed.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Marie, Jill, and Nathan sat in their pajamas in Nathan's office watching their two suspects move up the property, through the front door, and down the hall to the master bedroom. There were two officers out of view of the door's entrance into the master bedroom. There were also two officers who had come up behind the suspects after they fired.

  The popping noise and distraction caused by the fire covered their movement.

  The Highway Patrol had brought two fake blow-up officers with them that they used as decoys in patrol cars to slow down speeders. They placed the dummies in Nathan's bed, with both faces turned away from the door and a blond wig on the second officer. In dim light, on their sides, with the wig, and covered by the bedclothes, they looked very realistic. What they didn't think of was what would happen when the electric current of the Taser hit the dummy. There was a wee bit of a balloon popping sound followed by a bigger ignition of flames as the dummies and their clothing caught fire.

  Above the noise, the officers yelled at the suspects to drop their weapons. The two suspects turned to fire at the two officers, but before they could get a stream off, they were jolted from behind by the two rear officers. They dropped to the floor with their bodies shaking with spasms as the officers quickly handcuffed them and pulled them from the burning room by their feet. Nathan and Jill rushed in with buckets of water to throw on the bed, while Marie had stayed behind in the office to call the Fire Department. The flames were soon out after they dumped about six buckets on the bed. The room would have smoke and water damage, the mattress destroyed, and the two dummies would never again serve as decoys.

  The Highway Patrol had decided they needed an actual attempt made on Jill's life in order for them to arrest the two suspects, charge them with attempted murder, and deny them bail. Their suspects were too good at vanishing into the vapor and if they had simply arrested them on a burglary charge while the case was sorting itself out, they m
ight have been able to get out on bail.

  Ten minutes later, both the fire department and Deputy Davis were on the scene. The mattress was taken outside and hacked into pieces to make sure there were no embers still active inside. The firemen were a little taken aback when they heard what caused the fire. They were finished a short while later and packed up to leave. Deputy Davis had spoken with the Highway Patrol who had waited for an escort to take the two suspects back to Sacramento; she then came over to speak with Jill, Nathan, and Marie.

  "Just saying that my shifts go a lot faster when there is action at your property. I also rank high with my fellow deputies since I seem to be the one that is on the scene when someone tries to murder you. Have you thought of just retiring to your vineyard, growing grapes, living a calm non-violent life?"

  "Are you kidding? My sole reason for everything I do is to make your shifts go faster and keep your skills sharp with your gun. I bet you never had an opportunity to shoot real people until killers started stalking me."

  "I was perfectly happy keeping my skills up by visiting the shooting range."

  They were soon interrupted by the Highway Patrol. Their escort had arrived and they were heading back with the suspects to the Sacramento County Jail. They had two additional cruisers as they wanted to make sure they were not accosted by any sovereign citizens on the way. Jill did not envy the officers as these two suspects would be particularly trying to interview.