Secret Prey ld-9

by John Sandford

She was in the very pit of the night when her subconscious picked up the sound of a car rolling to a stop outside the house, a subtle change from those few cars that simply tolled on by. In her dreams she thought, Lucas?though when awake she’d never remember the thought. But she was there, just rising to the cusp of consciousness, when the front window blew out.

  SKEEEEEEEEEEEE.

  The explosion shook her out of bed: she was up in an instant, not quite awake, but on her feet and moving; and as she moved, the smoke alarm in the living room went SKEEEEEEE.

  She lurched into the hallway toward the living room; she was first aware of the light, then the heat, then the realization that she was staring into a fireball.

  "No! No!"

  And all the time: SKEEEEEEEEEE.

  Weather moaned, registered her own moan as though she were standing out-of-body, then ran back down the hall to the bedroom, snatched up the bedside telephone and punched in 911. She got an immediate answer, and said, "My house just blew up. It’s burning, I’m at…" And she dictated the address and said, "I’ve got to get out."

  "Get outside immediately," the cool voice said. "Just drop the phone and-"

  And the kitchen smoke alarm triggered, a slightly lower, less energetic note than the first, but just as loud: SKAAAAAAAAAAA.

  She’d dropped the phone, almost stumbled over a pair of loafers on the dark floor, slipped them on, hit a light switch, was rewarded with lights. She padded back down the hall. The fireball seemed to have receded, or to have pulled back within itself: the flames were confined to the front room, to an area not much longer than her couch. There wasn’t yet much smoke, although the fire was roaring ferociously.

  Weather moved in three quick steps to the kitchen, pulled a fat semiprofessional fire extinguisher from under the sink, pulled the pin as she walked back to the living room, aimed the nozzle at the flames, and squeezed the trigger. Whatever kinds of chemical were in the extinguisher blew out in a fog, and the fire seemed to cave in, but just for a second, and then it was back: no matter how much of the chemical estinguisher she poured on, the fire would only retreat and spring up on another perimeter.

  SKEEEEEEE, SKAAAAAAAA…

  She stepped closer, working the chemical, felt it slackening in force. To her right, she felt the photo of her parents and grandparents staring down from the walls, black-andwhite and hand-tinted photos she’d grown up with, memories she’d imported from her former home in the North Woods. With the extinguisher chemical almost gone, she tossed the container behind her, turned to the wall, and started pulling down the photos. Behind her, the fire burned with new authority, and she could feel the heat on her back and legs. She ran with the photos to the kitchen, fought her way back into the living room, tore open the low buffet, and took out a half-dozen photo albums and a box of photos she’d always meant to put in more albums.

  And that was all she could do. The fire was growing quickly now, and she ran through the kitchen, well out onto the back lawn, dropped the albums, ran back inside-the smoke was heavy now, and she coughed, staggered-found the framed photos, and carried them through the smoke out back.

  SKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, AAAAAAAAA.

  She could hear sirens: the nearest fire station was no more than three quarters of a mile away. She started back inside one last time, unaware that she was panting, that her hair was frizzing and uncurling with the heat, that she’d taken spark burns on her hands and arms, that she’d walked on broken glass and cut her feet. She felt it all as discomfort, but she wanted to save the last things, some dishes her mother gave her…

  She couldn’t reach them. The rug in the living room hadignited, and thick gray smoke was rolling through the house. She staggered back through the door just as the first of the fire engines arrived. She ran around the house as the firemen hopped off the truck, and yelled, "The front room…"

  THE NOISE NEVER STOPPED: SKEEEEEEEEEE, SKAAAAAAAAA.

  Weather sat on the curb and watched the fireman knock down the front door.

  And after a minute, she began to cry.

  TEN

  Ten o’clock in the morning was an early hour for a man to be recalcitrant, Lucas thought, especially if he wasn’t a cop, but Stephen Jones was recalcitrant.

  "Of course I’d like to help, but I have the damnedest feeling that if I talk to you, it’s going to find its way into a gossip column."

  "Not from me it won’t," Lucas said.

  A piece of art hung from the wall behind Jones’s desk. The print was colorful and maybe even beautiful, though it resembled a woman hacked up with a pizza cutter. Lucas, who knew almost nothing about fine art, suspected it was a Picasso.

  "And the thing is, if it does, I’d be severely damaged…"

  "I can assure you it won’t happen," Lucas said patiently.

  Jones rubbed the back of his neck and said, "All right. If somebody absolutely pushed T-Bone up against the wall, when the only option was kill or be killed, he’d kill. But this situation isn’t like that. He’s already got a lot of money, and he’s good enough that he could go somewhere else in a top job. So I don’t see it."

  "Assume that somehow, we don’t know how, he was pushed to the wall. Emotionally, psychologically, or maybe he gambles and we don’t know it."

  Jones shook his head. "Even then… he’s the kind of guy who’d always figure he could recover. Always get back. The thing is, he grew up poor. Did you know that?"

  "No."

  "Yeah, some cracker family down south somewhere, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama. He made it all on his own. He’s a guy who figures he can always do it again. I don’t think he’d…"

  His voice died away.

  "What?" Lucas asked.

  "You know… If you come at this from another angle… We’re talking about whether he’d cold-bloodedly kill someone because he’d lose money or his job; and I don’t think he would. But I can see him killing somebody if the other person had something on him," Jones said. "Blackmail, for instance. If Kresge had something really serious on him, and threatened to use it, for some reason, I can see Bone killing him for that reason. Not to keep it from being used, but because the threat, or the extortion, would… besmirch his honor." He mused over the thought, then jerked his head in a nod: "Yep. That would do it. That’s the only way I see Bone deliberately killing somebody. But it would have to be deadly serious, and it would have to be deadly personal."

  "What about Terrance Robles?"

  "I don’t know him well enough to answer. I really don’t."

  "Susan O’Dell?"

  "Susan couldn’t do it. She’s crusty and calculating and all that, but she’s got a soft interior."

  "I’ve seen a deer that would disagree with you," Lucas said.

  "You mean the hunting? That’s cultural," Jones said. "People from out there, out on the prairie, farmers, have a whole different attitude toward the life and death of animals than they do the life and death of people. I really don’t think she could kill anyone. I’m not even sure she could do it in self-defense, to be honest with you. Nope. You’re barking up the wrong tree with Susan."

  "Wilson McDonald."

  Jones frowned. "I can see him killing somebody, but it’d be in hot blood, not cold blood. If he was drunk and angry, he might strike out. He’s got a violent streak, and he can be sneaky about it. But as for pulling off a calculated killing… I don’t think so. Actually, I think he’d be chicken. He’d start imagining all the things that could go wrong, and, you know, being thrown in prison with a bunch of sodomites. I don’t think so."

  "What about the moral equation-would it be…"

  "Oh, it wouldn’t be a moral problem for him. He’d just be chicken. Wilson McDonald’s a classic bully, with all the classic characteristics of a bully: he’s a coward at heart."

  Lucas met Sherrill in the Skyway off city center, and she was shaking her head as she came up. "They’re all innocent," she said. "What happened with Louise Freeman?"

  Louise Freeman was the gossip men
tioned by Bone’s attorney friend Sandra Ollsen. "She and her old man went to New York," Lucas said. "She’s back on Friday. I talked to Jones instead."

  "How about Black? Did he get anything?"

  "Haven’t talked to him yet. He’s supposed to call when he’s done talking with Markham. So: You’ll take Bennett, and I’ll take Kerr."

  "Why don’t we go over to Saks first," she suggested. "You can buy me something expensive."

  "I’ve got about twenty dollars on me," Lucas said.

  "So let’s go to the bank and you can take out a bunch of money."

  "Give me a break, huh? I don’t-" The phone in Sherrill’s purse buzzed, and Lucas said, "Probably Black."

  Sherrill fished the phone out of her purse, said, "Hello," listened, and passed the phone to Lucas. "Dispatch, looking for you."

  Lucas took the phone: "Yeah?"

  The dispatcher said, "Lucas, a woman named Andi Manette is trying to get you. She says it’s about a personal friend of yours and it’s extremely urgent. You want the number?"

  "Oh, Jesus," Lucas said. Andi Manette was Weather’s shrink. "Hang on." He patted his pockets, found a pen and a slip of paper, and said, "What is it?"

  He copied the number, punched the power button, punched it again, and dialed.

  Manette picked it up on the first ring: "Yes?"

  "Andi? This is Lucas."

  "Lucas, I need to tell you something, but I don’t want you running off to help. Nobody needs help."

  "What? What?"

  "Weather was… Somebody firebombed Weather’s house last night. She was singed a little, and has some small cuts, but she’s not badly hurt. She’s going to be staying with us for a while, until this is straightened out."

  "Firebombed! What do you mean, firebombed? Where is she?"

  "The thing is, it would be best if you didn’t go looking for her. She’s pretty freaked out, and having you around, with all the associations, won’t help."

  "Well, Jesus Christ, Andi, what happened? Do I get to know that?"

  "Nobody knows what happened. It’s being handled by the Edina police."

  "You don’t mean just an explosion or something, you mean somebody threw a firebomb through her window."

  "That’s exactly what happened," Manette said. " Somebody threw a firebomb through her picture window."

  "Andi, I swear to God I won’t come after her, but where is she? Tell me that. Just tell me."

  "She’s at my house, taking a nap right now. She’s had a couple of sedatives, she’s feeling better. But we figured that people would let you know, and that I’d better talk to you."

  "Let me know? My God, Andi, I’m probably a suspect. And even… I gotta call those guys."

  "Don’t call…"

  "Not Weather. I’ve got to call Edina."

  "Okay. But please don’t come out, okay?"

  "Okay."

  "Thanks. You know I’m trying to bail this out for the two of you, and I’m bailing as hard as I can."

  "Hey listen," Lucas said. "Thanks for calling me."

  He punched off and Sherrill said, "Weather? Firebombed?" She looked perplexed.

  "Yeah. Last night. Listen, you go after these other guys. I’m running out to Edina."

  He called first: the Chief’s name was Peter Hafman and Lucas barely knew him.

  "Don’t have much to show you," Hafman said. " Somebody walked up last night and pitched a gallon jug of gasoline through the front window. We’ve got bits of the wick, looks like a piece of ordinary cotton cloth, I’m told. There is one odd thing…"

  "What?"

  "The bottle was scored so it’d break easier. Scored with a glass cutter. The guys out here say that sounds like a pro."

  "I never heard of that," Lucas said. "Look, could I come out and talk to your guys?"

  "Come on ahead."

  He rang off and handed the phone back to Sherrill, and it immediately beeped again. She answered and handed it back: Dispatch again.

  You’ve got another call coming in. They say this one is urgent too."

  "Put it through."

  There was a click, and a woman said, "Chief Davenport?" She had a purring voice, a little smoky.

  "Yes, this is Davenport. Who is this?"

  "Did you know that Jim Bone was sleeping with Dan Kresge’s wife? For a long time? And now she’ll get all those options that used to be worthless?"

  And the phone went dead. Lucas looked at it, looked at Sherrill.

  "Now what?"

  "That was our woman, I think."

  "Really? What’d she say?"

  "She said Jim Bone is sleeping with Kresge’s wife. And that she’s gonna get a pile of stock options now that he’s dead."

  Sherrill’s eyebrows went up: "Any more goddamn clues and we’ll have to get a secretary to keep track of them."

  "Jim Bone," Lucas said. "Huh."

  When Weather left Lucas, she’d stayed with the Manettes for a couple of weeks, then had taken over the lease on a small house being vacated by a University Hospitals surgical resident. Lucas had cruised it in city cars a half-dozen times, hoping to get a glimpse of her. He never had, but he knew the house.

  Now he cruised it again, a ranch-style house of stone and clapboard that reminded him of his own house. It looked much the same as it always had, except that the front picture window, which looked out across the flagstone walk, was covered by a piece of unpainted plywood; and the eaves over the window were stained with soot.

  He pulled into the driveway, got out, walked up to the front of the house, and peered through the small windows that flanked the center window. He was looking in at the front room: the place was a jumble of scorched furniture and carpeting, with burned drywall panels hanging down from the ceiling, books scattered across the floor in sodden clumps. He could smell the smoke and the water and the burned fiberglass insulation. No gasoline.

  He stepped back, and as he turned to leave, noticed a woman watching from next door: she wasn’t hiding, and didn’t pretend to be doing anything else. She’d come outside to watch him. He headed toward her, dug out his identification.

  "Hello. I’m Deputy Chief of Police Lucas Davenport from Minneapolis; I’m a friend of Weather’s."

  The frown on her face eased a bit, and she tried on a smile. "Oh, good. I’ve been trying to keep an eye on the place since last night."

  "Thanks. I, uh, I’m on my way to talk to your police chief out here, and I thought I’d take a look… Listen, do you know if anybody saw anything last night? Or heard anything?"

  "Nobody in my house heard anything until the fire engines, but Jane Yarrow across the street heard the window break. She said she didn’t know it was a window breaking until later. She just heard something. And then she heard a car door slam, but she didn’t get up until she heard the sirens. And that was about it-nothing like this ever happened here before."

  The Chief was out when Lucas arrived at Edina, but he was routed to a Detective James Brown. Brown was a tall, shambling man with a shock of white hair; he wore a rough tweed sportcoat with suede elbow patches, a blue oxford cloth shirt, and khakis with boat shoes. He looked like a professor of ancient languages.

  "NottheJames Brown?" Lucas asked.

  "Why yes, I am," Brown said modestly. "This is my disguise: keeps the groupies off."

  "Excellent strategy," Lucas said. He dropped into a chair beside Brown’s desk.

  Brown looked down at a file open on his desk, sighed, and said, "I understand you have a personal relationship with Weather Karkinnen."

  "Had one; she broke it off," Lucas said. "I can’t prove to you where I was at three o’clock this morning, ’cause I was home in bed, alone. But…" He shrugged. "I didn’t do it."

  "And even if you did, that’s a pretty goddamn unbreakable alibi," Brown said.

  Lucas said, "Hey… I didn’t do it."

  Brown sighed again and asked, "The chief told you about the scoring on the bottle?"

  "Yeah. He said it looked li
ke a pro job."

  "That’s what the fire guys say. You get a regular bottle, it might bounce, it might not even break. But with the scoring, it explodes when it hits the floor. Very fast, very efficient. What we think is, the bomber came in from the north, idled to a stop in front of the house, got out, leaving the car door open, walked up to the front of the house with the jug, flashed the wick with a cigarette lighter, and heaved it through the window. The whole thing, I timed it, would be ten to fifteen seconds, walking, from the time he got out of the car to the time he got back in. Then he rolled off down the street, around the corner, four blocks down to the highway, and back to Minneapolis. He was on the highway before Ms. Karkinnen even called 911."

  "Who owns the place?"

  "A couple named Bartlett-they’re down in Florida. They’d rented it to a doctor for the past eight years, and then to your friend. Strictly an income property for them."

  "Any reason they might want to torch it?"

  "Nothing obvious-it’s a good neighborhood, they could probably sell it for a lot more than they’d ever get from insurance. And they’re pretty reputable people."

  "Shit," Lucas said.

  "All that stuff that was in the paper last winter… The LaChaises…"

  "Yeah. That’s what I’m afraid of," Lucas said.

  Brown tapped his desk: "But one thing doesn’t fit with that. Whoever did this wasn’t trying real hard to kill her. I mean, if it was a pro job. They didn’t even come close. She was in the back bedroom, ran out when she heard the window break, saw the fire, called 911, and if she hadn’t tried to save her pictures, she wouldn’t have been hurt at all."

  "She was hurt?" Lucas sat up, angry now. "I was told she wasn’t…"

  "Not bad, not bad," Brown said. "She got a couple of small cuts on her feet from broken glass, and her hair was singed, and she got some small spark burns on one hand. But she told us she has some operations tomorrow and she expects to do them."

  Lucas took it slow driving back to Minneapolis, pulling threads together. Black checked in on Lucas’s car phone: "I had to do some psychotherapy on this Markham asshole, but the bottom line is, he thinks O’Dell couldn’t do it."