No Place to Die (Sam Leroy Book 3)

by Philip Cox

‘We’ll find it,’ said Duvall.

  Hightower looked at Leroy. ‘Will Maybeline have to find out?’

  ‘Only if it’s relevant to the enquiry. Otherwise, I won’t be telling her. It might make it to the newspapers, but just to Southern California ones. Unless the story gets syndicated. Look, here’s my cell number. Call me if you recall anything else; things might come back to you over time.’

  ‘Is that it?’ Hightower asked. ‘Are you done with me?’

  ‘I think so, for now. We may need you to make a formal statement, but we will endeavour to protect your privacy if we do.’

  Leroy and Duvall got out of the car, leaving a stunned Hightower in the back. As they left, Duvall leaned back in. ‘Sir, you may like to know that it looks as if you were drugged with the sole purpose of taking those pictures and blackmailing you. They didn’t steal anything, did they?’

  Silently, Hightower shook his head.

  ‘Okay. It looks like you were drugged, that’s why you don’t recall anything. And if you were drugged, then you wouldn’t have been physically capable of fornicating, as you put it. If that makes you feel any better.’

  He looked up at her, nodded, but staring into space.

  Leroy and Duvall walked back to their car. She took one more look back up to Hightower’s house. It looked as if he was still sitting in the back of his gleaming black sedan.

  ‘Poor guy,’ she said, opening her door. ‘Pastor Martyn?’

  Leroy nodded. ‘It’s time we went to church.’

  Chapter 33

  The Church of the Holy Gospel was a rather grand affair, its traditional Gothic building standing out amongst the eclectic mix of homes on the street. A massive parking lot, again well blacktopped with neat white lines painted on the surface, lay the other side of an immaculately maintained grass verge. A large, freshly painted white notice board proclaimed the name of the church, and that Pastor Martyn West was the Rector.

  The church building itself was set back some way from the street; a porte-cochere in matching brownstone brick stood in front of the building. Entry to the church appeared to be through two large dark-stained wooden doors, set in an alcove which was decorated with three ornate pillars.

  About a dozen vehicles were in the parking lot; Duvall parked next to one of them. There was nobody about as they walked over to the heavy oak doors. Duvall pulled at the shiny brass handle and opened the door. The doorway led directly into the nave of the church, onto the thick purple carpet which ran from the door between the rows of pews to the three steps leading up to the chancel, and the altar.

  They took a few steps along the carpet, looking around for someone. Leroy could hear muffled voices coming from somewhere, but could not make out where from. Eventually, the sound of a vacuum cleaner started. They crossed through the pews to the direction of the sound, and came across a tiny lady vacuuming the carpet. She switched off the machine when she saw them coming.

  ‘Can I help you?’ she asked.

  Duvall did not feel it necessary at this stage to show identification. She merely asked where Pastor Martyn was.

  The lady looked up at the large clock over the entrance doors. ‘Right now, he’ll be in the Bible Study Group.’

  ‘And where would that be?’

  The lady pointed over to the other side of the church. ‘In that room there. The South Room.’

  Leroy and Duvall thanked her and walked along the edge of the chancel to a large brown closed door. Sure enough, the room had South stencilled in gold on it. Leroy knocked twice on the door and opened it.

  Inside, a dozen or so chairs were arranged in a circle. Woman of varying ages were occupying the chairs; each had a book - a Bible - open on their lap. One of the women was reading aloud from it. There was one man in the room: dressed in a suit and clerical collar, he was obviously Pastor Martyn. He looked up at Leroy and Duvall. ‘Please, come and join us.’

  ‘Pastor Martyn?’ Leroy asked.

  ‘I’m Pastor Martyn,’ came the confirmation. ‘Let me get you good people a chair,’ he said as he got up.

  ‘We just need to speak with you for a few moments.’

  Pastor Martyn frowned and glanced back at the group. Duvall was in uniform so there was no hiding the fact that they were police. ‘Very well,’ he said. Turning back to the woman who was reading from the Bible, he gestured for her to carry on. Leroy and Duvall backed out of the room as the pastor followed. Back in the nave, he gestured at the empty pews. ‘Please, take a seat.’ He nodded over to the now closed South Room door. ‘Our weekly Women’s Bible Study Group. Studying the Second Book of Timothy.’ He paused and took a deep breath. ‘Now, how can I help you?’

  Duvall introduced herself and then Leroy. She explained he was from the LAPD and they were working together on a case. The expression on the pastor’s face changed slightly when LA was mentioned.

  Leroy began the conversation. ‘John Thomas Hightower. He’s one of your… your church?’

  Pastor Martyn nodded. ‘J.T? Yes, he is one of our flock. As are his wife and family.’

  ‘We’ve just come from Mr Hightower. I’m interested in a conversation you and he had a couple of weeks back.’

  ‘A conversation?’

  ‘Yes, concerning a trip he made to Los Angeles.’

  ‘Officers, the conversations I have with my flock are private and confidential.’

  ‘Sir,’ said Leroy, ‘Mr Hightower has already told us about his visit to LA, about the photographs, about the blackmail, and about going to you to confess.’

  Martyn coughed. He looked around then spoke in hushed tones. ‘J.T. came to me because he needed to confess and be forgiven. He had had sexual relations with those two girls. He confessed, we prayed together a while, read the Holy Bible a while, and he asked the Lord for forgiveness.’

  ‘Okay,’ Leroy said. ‘It looks like Mr Hightower had nothing to be forgiven for. The most likely scenario is that he was drugged. Something like Rohypnol.’

  ‘Is that what they call roofies?’ the pastor asked. ‘The date rape drug?’

  ‘Something like it. Probably not Rohypnol itself. He told us he was probably drinking only mineral water. For the last few years, Rohypnol has contained a blue dye, which would obviously show in a glass of water. But there are other sedative-type drugs out there which could have been used. In fact, the most commonly-used date rape drug is alcohol.’

  ‘J.T. is teetotal. He doesn’t touch it.’

  ‘And, as we told Mr Hightower, assuming he was drugged he wouldn’t have been capable of anything, if you get my drift.’

  ‘Mm... mm; yes, I see.’ The pastor looked uncomfortable.

  ‘Now, according to Mr Hightower, after you had both prayed for forgiveness -’

  ‘Prayed for forgiveness for him,’ Pastor Martyn corrected.

  ‘Prayed for him to receive forgiveness, you asked where he had been staying in LA, and that you would see if you could do anything to help. You said if God was willing to forgive a sin of the flesh, then he should not be paying for it for ever. What did you mean by that?’

  The pastor looked even more uncomfortable.

  Leroy asked, ‘Do you know a private investigator called William Kirk?’

  Pastor Martyn frowned. ‘William Kirk?’ he said vaguely.

  Leroy was starting to lose patience. ‘Sir, I am leading a murder enquiry. William Kirk was found dead in Los Angeles. Shot in the head and decapitated. Hightower’s name is in his diary. Kirk appears to have retraced Hightower’s steps.’ He paused a beat. ‘So, over to you.’

  The pastor’s face blanched at the word dead. He ran both hands through his hair. ‘Oh my God, my God. I had no idea. What..? Tell me what happened.’

  ‘That’s what I’m trying to establish. Now, tell me about you, Hightower and Kirk.’

  Pastor Martyn swallowed and took another deep breath. ‘J.T. told me about the pictures and the blackmail plot. I know… knew William - Bill - Kirk as a private investigator, have done for
several years. I asked if Bill could help somehow. He suggested as you rightly surmised retracing J.T.’s steps as exactly as possible in the hope that the miscreants who so wronged J.T. would approach him.’

  ‘That would be a risky strategy,’ said Duvall. ‘It would mean allowing himself to be drugged and not recalling the event.’

  ‘We discussed that, but Bill said he would be going into it forewarned. If he was unable to avoid taking the drug, then at least the next morning he would know what had happened the night before, even if he couldn’t remember it. Do you understand what I mean?’

  ‘I get it,’ said Leroy. ‘So the three of you set up this venture. I guess none of you thought of going to the police?’

  ‘J.T. was adamant not to. He said they had told him if he did, the pictures would go on the internet.’

  ‘I see. So, the following morning, how was Kirk going to confront them?’

  ‘J.T. said a young man - Chinese, he said - called on him in his hotel room, showed him the pictures, and made his demands. A large sum of cash that day, then instalments monthly afterwards.’

  ‘So what was Kirk going to do?’

  ‘He was going to challenge the man, and demand the return of J.T.’s money.’

  Leroy rubbed his face. ‘Jesus.’

  Pastor Martyn sat up. ‘Detective, please.’

  Leroy held up his hand. ‘I apologise.’ He paused a beat. ‘How was Kirk expecting to do this? Would he have been armed?’

  ‘That is something we discussed. I know he carried a weapon here. If he had driven, he said he would have taken his own gun.’

  ‘Over several state lines? That would have been risky if he had been stopped.’

  ‘Possibly. We didn’t get that far. J.T. flew to LA, so Bill booked the same flight, same airline, therefore couldn’t take his gun.’

  ‘So he was unarmed?’

  ‘No, in our discussion about this, he said he had somebody out there whom he could contact to get a weapon once he had arrived.’

  ‘Okay. It’s still out there,’ Leroy said more to Duvall than the pastor. ‘It was never recovered.’ He turned back. ‘And when was the last time you heard from Kirk?’

  ‘He called me the morning he left here. He said he would call to update me once the matter had been settled. He anticipated two or three days.’

  They all turned as the South Room door opened and the women filed out into the church. The Bible Study Group meeting had clearly finished. The pastor looked even more uncomfortable.

  ‘Is there anything else you need to tell me, sir?’ Leroy asked.

  ‘No.’ The pastor shook his head slowly. He was clearly in a state of shock.

  ‘If anything comes to mind,’ Leroy said, handing him his card, ‘my cell phone’s on there.’

  Silently, Pastor Martyn nodded and took the card. ‘I need to pray now for Bill’s soul,’ he said, sadly. ‘And for forgiveness for myself. I sent him there.’

  ‘No, he chose to go there. And you didn’t kill him. If that helps,’ Duvall said.

  ‘Not really.’ He looked up at Leroy. ‘What about his body? He was single, no family…’

  ‘That’s for the Coroner’s office to arrange. There is also the question of formally identifying his body, so I’m afraid they may be in touch with you, or Mr Hightower.’

  Leroy and Duvall left the pastor sitting silently in the pew. They joined the throng of Bible students leaving the church, and walked back to their car.

  ‘Oh. My. God,’ said Duvall once they were out of earshot of the others. ‘Is that guy serious? He sends a private dick to LA to say “please can I have J.T.’s money back? Please?”’

  ‘Looks like it. So naïve. The guy obviously doesn’t live in the real world. Or on the same planet as the rest of us.’

  ‘But what about Kirk? What was he thinking?’

  ‘He was probably thinking I’m being paid by the hour so the end result doesn’t matter. Of course, it did for him.’

  They got back into the car. ‘So what now?’ she asked.

  Leroy checked his watch. ‘I think I have all I came here for. Thanks for all your help, Sally. I’m booked on a 4pm flight tomorrow. While we’re driving back to Birmingham, I’ll see if I can change it to this evening, head back then.’

  Duvall looked over to him. ‘That’s such a rush. Why not rebook on a morning flight? It’ll be mid-afternoon when we get to the City. Let me show you some of Birmingham; we can have dinner, maybe.’

  Leroy didn’t need much convincing. ‘You’re on, Officer Duvall.’

  ‘Sweet.’ Duvall started the engine and pulled away.

  Back inside the church, Pastor Martyn was kneeling in front of the altar, sobbing.

  Chapter 34

  Leroy got back to his hotel room just after three. His first job was to call the airline, and managed to rebook himself onto the next day’s 9am flight. Then he called Ray Quinn. Quinn was at home.

  ‘I was at the Desk going over the case notes, then the Lieutenant came out and told me to take some of my hundred or so hours I was owed. Said not much was going to happen with the case while you were out there, so he could save the department a few dollars. Sorry, Sam.’

  ‘Jesus. Not your bad, Ray. I’m not surprised, though: he hinted at that when he agreed the this trip. He probably waited till I was in the air, too. You at home now, then?’

  ‘Yeah, but I took the case notes with me. Looking through them now.’

  ‘Good man, Ray. Come up with anything?’

  ‘Not really. There’s one thing, though. It might not be anything, but apparently, a patrol car from Hollywood Division picked up a kid the other night, suspicion of possession. He was on his bike coming down from the Hollywood Hills. While they were interrogating him down at the station, he blurted out that he had been up near the sign, when another vehicle fetched up. He said he hid as he had a bad feeling about things. Said he didn’t see much, but there were a lot of sounds like carrying - something being dragged along the ground - then they left.’

  ‘Interesting. What was he doing up there?’

  ‘Says taking in the view, but they found three cans of paint in his backpack.’

  ‘Up there tagging. Where’s the kid now?’

  ‘He’s been booked, but is out at present. We have his address. You still flying back tomorrow night? How you getting on?’

  ‘I’m done. I have all I need. I’m booked on the 9am tomorrow, again via Atlanta. I get into LAX 2:10 tomorrow afternoon, so you can meet me there.’

  ‘Sure. So what did you find?’

  ‘Hightower was bullshitting me, until you called with the hotel confirmation. It looks like he picked up, or was picked up by, those two girls in the pictures. They must have drugged him, and a third party took those shots. Next morning, possibly the same guy, Asian by all account, visits him, shows him the shots and asks for money. Two grand in cash that day, and then another two each month.’

  ‘Only two, Sam?’

  ‘Come on, Ray. You know what’s gonna happen. After a month or two, it goes up to three. Then four. All with the threat of the pictures turning up on YouTube, or somewhere. Well, Hightower paid the first two grand, then went back home. He’s big in his local church, so went to the pastor there to confess.’

  ‘Confess?’

  ‘Yeah, he was more worried that he’s been screwing those two hookers, if that’s what they were, than the money. Then the pastor gets hold of a private eye down here, who flies to LA, retracing Hightower’s movements exactly, in the hope that the same thing happens to him.’

  ‘Which it did. So this private dick was going to get himself drugged?’

  ‘He considered it a calculated risk, apparently. Charged Hightower appropriately, I guess. He had a contact in LA get him a weapon as he was flying in; planned to confront them.’

  ‘Then it all went wrong.’

  ‘As wrong as it could get.’

  ‘I was looking at the pictures again, Sam, and there’s som
ething about them.’

  ‘I’m sure you were. Just joking. What did you see?’

  ‘The one where one of the girls is kneeling on the bed.’

  ‘The doggy one?’

  Quinn chuckled. ‘Yeah, that one. Well, for the guy, it takes quite a bit of balance, you know what I mean?’

  ‘You seem the expert, Detective. Go on.’

  ‘Where it looks like his right hand is holding her thigh, the other girl has her hand on his arm. Like she’s holding it. And her chin is resting on his left shoulder, so she could be propping his head up.’

  ‘And he’s sandwiched between her body and the other girl’s ass,’ Leroy added. ‘What a way to go.’

  ‘And he had no idea what was going on?’

  ‘No. I think, Ray, that just adds to the theory that both men were drugged. I’m not sure about Rohypnol itself: Hightower didn’t touch the booze so only drank mineral water, according to his pastor. If that’s so, the drink would have turned blue, unless these guys were using an old batch, or another drug. There’s plenty on the market.’

  ‘Or even from over the border.’ Rohypnol, whilst banned in the United States, is legal in Mexico, and is legitimately prescribed by doctors to combat insomnia.

  ‘When we’re done here,’ said Leroy, ‘I’ll call Hobson, get him to do a blood test on Kirk. Maybe there’s something left in his system. No point checking Hightower; it’s too long past now. Any sign of Mets yet, by the way?’

  ‘No, nothing yet. The APB’s still out on him, though.’

  Leroy and Quinn said their goodbyes. Leroy immediately messaged Russell Hobson, asking him to carry out the tests on Kirk’s body, giving the reasons why. He then took a shower and while he was in the shower, Hobson replied, saying okay, but it would be four or five days before any results came back.

  Par for the course, thought Leroy.

  *****

  Leroy and Duvall had arranged to meet outside his hotel at 5pm. He was there promptly, only to find her already there. She had been waiting ten minutes, she said.

  ‘Just got here early. Guess I could have gone up to your room,’ she said, looking up at him.