Dead Madonna

by Victoria Houston

“No. He canoed it last summer when we were having that drought and the water was down. Said he had to portage five times. I am so sorry, I should have remembered that, Doc. We’ve had so much rain this spring and summer—”

  “Lew, it was not your fault.”

  “I know but—”

  “Lewellyn …” He affected the sternest tone in his repertoire, the one he’d used on people who refused to floss. “Okay, Doc.” He could hear her smiling. “Later.”

  It wasn’t until three in the afternoon that the soreness eased and Osborne felt like he’d rejoined the living. He decided to stop by Lew’s office and see if she had made it in. Marlene was on the switchboard and, as he entered, said, “Doc, have you been out to check on the chief? I left two messages in the last half hour and she hasn’t called in. Tried her cell phone, too.”

  “That definitely won’t work—it’s at the bottom of the creek.”

  “Right—I forgot.”

  “My hunch is she took some ibuprofen and is getting a much-needed nap,” said Osborne. “That’s what worked for me. Are these urgent messages? Should I drive out there?”

  “Oh, no, I just wanted her to know that the Wausau boys dropped off a preliminary report—that young Dan guy said they really didn’t find anything more than the checks and the fake drivers’ licenses. He was going to stop by the Chamber and take a look at the equipment they have there. He thinks Curry may have been printing the checks there during off-hours. He also said he would be checking in with the pathologist doing the autopsy on Hugh Curry. Anything unusual, he’ll leave a message on her voice mail. Otherwise he’ll email the report first thing Monday morning.

  “Oh—and I wanted Chief Ferris to know that Ray stopped in this morning. He said he was in touch with a buddy of his who fishes that stream where it enters Loon Lake. The guy’s got a flat-bottomed skiff that can make it up quite a ways. They’re gonna see if they can maybe locate those kayaks.”

  “Ray does have his virtues,” said Osborne. “You heard he was kind enough to canoe up and get us last night?”

  “You think he needs much of an excuse to be in a boat?” Marlene winked. “Hey, Ray’s got a heavy date tonight—that blonde from Duluth. My niece, Laura, who’s been working the night switchboard, calls her ‘sniper girl.’“

  “You mean Gretel?”

  “Yep, Gretel with the guns,” said Marlene with a chuckle. Then her eyes turned serious. “You know she was in the Army and saw active duty in Afghanistan. That’s where she got her training and she sure knows her stuff. Laura’s so impressed, I won’t be surprised if she enlists. Ray better not fool around with that gal.”

  “Really? She was in the military?”

  “You haven’t been reading the news, Doc,” said Marlene. “Today’s Army is different from when you and I were growing up. I must have half a dozen friends and relatives with daughters who’ve enlisted—some are career military and love it.”

  “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” said Doc. “I’ve always known women to be better with shotguns, and Lew is no slouch with a handgun.” Then he slapped a hand on the counter in front of the dispatch window. “Before I leave, I think I’ll take care of something Chief Ferris and I have been puzzling over, Marlene. Would you have a minute to help me play that CD we got from Universal Medical Supplies—the phone call that Nora Loomis overheard?”

  “If you don’t mind waiting a few minutes, Doc. Laura’s due in to relieve me. That way I won’t have to worry about the switchboard.”

  Sitting across from each other in Lew’s conference room, Marlene played the Universal Medical CD three times—twice for Osborne and a third time for herself. “That caller has quite a lisp, don’t they,” said Marlene, tipping her head as she listened.

  “Less a lisp than a defined sibilant ‘s’ sound,” said Osborne. “Distinctive, but the connection isn’t good enough to get the full range of the voices. Darn. I thought I might hear more this time. Oh well.” He checked his watch. “Gosh, it’s been awhile. I’m beginning to worry that Lew feels worse than she told me she did.”

  Picking up the phone in the conference room, he tried Lew at home again, but no answer. “I’ll wait an hour and try again, Marlene.”

  “You’re right to worry, Doc. When she called in this morning I could tell she wasn’t feeling great—and she’s never willing to take it easy like a normal person, y’know.”

  “I would drive out there but you know what a private person she is, Marlene. I hate to go without calling ahead.”

  “I know what you mean,” Marlene said with a nod.

  Osborne checked his watch. He would wait just an hour and try Lew again.

  CHAPTER 31

  Osborne had just decided to stop by Erin’s house, a block away, and wait there before trying Lew again when Ray’s smiling face appeared on the steps leading up to the entrance to the police department.

  No tasteless T-shirts today. This was Ray in what he liked to call his “sua-vey” mode: trim black slacks—which Osborne guessed had to be brand-new since he’d never seen them before—and a crewneck, long-sleeved black pullover. Waving to Osborne, he held the door for Mallory and Gretel to enter.

  “Doc! We’ve been looking for you,” said Ray. “You’ve met Gretel, right?”

  “Yes, indeed,” said Osborne shaking her hand. “And don’t you look like the movie star, Mr. Pradt. So, Gretel, I understand these two have roped you into their business plan?”

  “We’ll see,” said Gretel, with a light laugh. “I’m taking one of the DVDs back to Duluth to share with our sales team. It could fit with some of the hunting products that we carry in our consumer catalogs. I was telling Ray and Mallory that we sell night-vision type camcorders that hunters can set up to watch the deer that come to their feeders during the night. FawnCam could be a natural addition to that line.” “And Marlene tells me you saw active duty?” “I did,” said Gretel. “Been back for a year now—” “Hey, Gretel, that … reminds me,” said Ray, interrupting. “What … do you do … if you miss your mother-in-law?”

  “Oh no,” groaned Mallory. “Gretel, I warned you.” “I don’t know—what?” said Gretel. “Reload. Try again.”

  “That’s a pretty tasteless joke to tell someone like me,” said Gretel. And she wasn’t smiling.

  Mallory caught Osborne’s eye, not a little amused. A moment of awkward silence, then Ray raised both arms and said, “All right, all right—I know a lot of other people who’ve found that funny.”

  “It’s just that when you’ve been in combat …” said Gretel. She gave a sad smile. “I wish I could find it funny.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Ray. “I am—very, very sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” said Gretel. But it wasn’t okay and they all knew it.

  In a move to rescue Ray, Mallory piped up. “So, Dad, we’ve got the FawnCam all set up for you and Chief Ferris. We thought you two could follow us out to Ray’s place and watch some of the video from yesterday and this morning. Got a couple good views of the wolf.”

  “You’re kidding,” said Osborne. “And the fawns are still alive?”

  “Alive and filming,” said Ray.

  “The views are from a distance,” said Mallory. “You can see that the fawns are alongside the does waiting for the wolf to leave …”

  “Ray, Mallory,” said Gretel, “if I go with you two, is my car safe parked on the street? I have a trunk full of … merchandise, you know?”

  “Let’s not take a chance,” said Ray. “I’ll drive with you. Mallory, Doc—meet you at my place?”

  “You okay with all this?” Osborne asked his daughter as the door swung closed behind Ray and Gretel.

  “Dad, give it up will you? I am very okay. I understand why Ray’s attracted to her—she’s blonde, she’s pretty, and she can shoot better than he can. Of course, now that we know she has no sense of humor … Dad, what’s wrong?” Mallory laid a hand on his arm. “You’ve got something on your mind.”

  “It’s
nothing. Lew and I hit some rapids and got tipped out of our kayaks last night. We’re both limping today—and I haven’t been able to reach her. Got a break in the homicide investigations that she needs to know about—”

  “You want to try now before we get in our cars?”

  Walking over to the counter in front of the switchboard, Osborne asked Laura to try Lew’s home again. Still no answer. “All I get is voice mail,” said Laura. “Want to leave a message?”

  “Yes, let her know I’ll be at Ray’s in about seven minutes—and ask her to please call me as soon as she gets the message.”

  Osborne followed Mallory back towards Loon Lake Drive. Halfway there he almost turned back, thinking it might not be a bad idea to drive by Lew’s place after all. He had the excuse of making sure she felt up for fish fry with everyone. But he decided to wait one more half hour. He needed to stop by the house to change clothes before going to dinner anyway. If she didn’t answer by five thirty, he would definitely drive out to the farm.

  Ray had rigged up the video monitor so everyone sitting around his kitchen table could get a good view. “So let’s check out what’s happening right now,” he said, pushing a button on a remote control. The trunks of pine trees came into view and the camera moved slowly, slowly towards one. Then it stopped, looked round and moved towards more trunks.

  “This isn’t real exciting, Ray,” said Mallory. “Show them the wolf.”

  “All right,” he hit another button, “the best way to do this is to rewind to interesting sections.” Osborne felt his patience in short supply as he watched a lot of tree trunks, a path through more trees, a long pause down by the small lake that fronted Lew’s farmhouse and, finally, an approach to the deer garden. “Over there!” said Mallory, pointing at a dark shape along one edge of the garden—”See the wolf?”

  Everyone leaned forward, intent on the shape as it loped along. Then it was gone.

  “Ray,” said Mallory, “can you play the film from half an hour ago? I thought I saw the wolf just as we were leaving to come into town—see if you can find that sequence.” The film spun back then forward, minutes turned into mini-seconds.

  “Wait! Back up,” said Osborne. “What was that?”

  “Looks like a person,” said Gretel, leaning forward. Ray backed the tape up and ran it in real time. The phone rang suddenly. Ray hit pause then reached for the phone on the counter. Waiting for Ray to get rid of the caller, it registered with Osborne that the digital readout in the lower left corner of the screen was showing the current date with a time of 1:11 p.m. “Doc, it’s for you,” said Ray, handing him the cordless phone. “Marlene. She said it’s urgent.”

  Osborne took the phone. “Yes—did you hear from Chief Ferris?”

  “No, Dr. Osborne. But we have to reach her ASAP. I think you should drive out there right now if you can—” Osborne couldn’t remember hearing Marlene sound so agitated.

  “Has something happened?”

  “After you left, I decided to listen to that 9-1-1 call that we got from Gwen Curry. It was nagging at me that I’d heard that lisping sound somewhere before, and recently, too. Dr. Osborne, I am sure she’s the voice, the one with the ‘s’ sound that we heard on the Universal Medical call—the one you thought was a man. That’s Gwen Curry!”

  “Marlene—you’re sure?”

  “Dr. Osborne, I hear voices all day every day and I know that is the same person on both those calls. Chief Ferris needs to hear this but I just tried calling her again and still no answer. This can’t wait—”

  “I’ll take care of it right now, Marlene.” Osborne turned to the group, the phone still in his hand, but before he could say a word, Mallory was pointing at the screen where Ray had started up the tape again.

  “That’s no deer, that is a person … I think. But what a strange shape. Who is that chubby person, Dad? Is that a friend of Lew’s?” asked Mallory.

  Osborne couldn’t speak. The shape was too familiar. He was on his feet. “That woman—that’s Gwen Curry! And the call just now from Marlene makes me think she’s the one who killed DeeDee Kurlander and Nora Loomis, not her husband! And now—now she’s trespassing on Lew’s property? She’s stalking Lew!

  “I have to get out there. Lew hasn’t been answering her phone!” He was on his feet and running for the door.

  Ray threw the remote onto the kitchen table, saying, “Take your car, Doc, but let me grab my gun.”

  “Mallory—call Laura on the switchboard.” Osborne’s voice was hoarse. “Tell her to get Roger and Todd out there right now.”

  In less than a minute, Ray had his rifle and was standing beside Osborne’s car. He put up a hand and spoke loud enough that everyone could hear. “Slow down, folks. Stop right where you are. Doc, you, too,” he said, grabbing Osborne’s sleeve before he could open his car door. “We don’t know what we’re walking into, so let’s all of us take a minute to think this through—”

  “You’re wasting time, Ray. What the hell else can we do!” demanded Osborne.

  “I can tell you right now the last thing that should happen is all of us barging in there. Let’s not set off someone we already know isn’t thinking straight.”

  “Ray’s right,” said Gretel. “I’m no law enforcement professional myself, but I’ve done enough firearms training with people who have to be prepared to deal with situations like this and they always worry about hair-trigger reactions. My suggestion?” Gretel gave an apologetic shrug. “Take it slow, see what you’re dealing with.”

  A moment of silence after she spoke, then Ray said, “Right. I suggest we take the back way in to the property and I know just how to do it—there’s a logging lane that leads to a deer stand in the woods about four hundred yards from that deer garden, and it’s another hundred yards or so to the farmhouse.”

  “Makes sense to me,” said Mallory. “Dad, we were just out there setting up the cameras. Ray knows his way around—”

  “Okay, but let’s get going,” said Osborne. “Mallory, Gretel, you two take Mallory’s car—”

  “One second, Mallory,” said Gretel as Mallory ran towards her Jeep, “let me grab my rifle from the trunk of my car.” As she hurried towards her vehicle, Ray jumped into Osborne’s car, cell phone in hand.

  With Osborne driving, Ray called Laura back to tell her they were on their way out to Lew’s and would be taking the back road in. “Laura,” said Ray, “tell Roger and Todd to stay on the highway. Do not approach the drive down to Lew’s place until we see what’s happening there first.” He listened intently for a long minute then said, “Right. Tell Todd they need to keep traffic flowing on Highway 47 as if everything is normal. We do not—under any circumstances—want to alert the Curry woman that we think anything is wrong.” Again he listened, then said, “Do I think anything is wrong?”

  Osborne could see Ray struggling with too many answers to that question. He managed to say only, “I’m worried, hon. Real worried.” He clicked off his cell phone and turning to Osborne, said, “What a time to have an amateur on the switchboard. Jeez Louise.”

  CHAPTER 32

  Crouched on their knees in the woods near the tree stand, Osborne, Mallory and Ray waited and watched. They had pulled their cars to a stop halfway down the logging lane. Though the road was well hidden from the fields west of the farmhouse, Ray had insisted they walk in, and no one argued. No noise, no movement was the plan.

  When they got to the deer stand, Mallory had said, “Should one of us pretend we think everything is okay and just walk up the driveway as if to check on her—” “NO!” shouted Osborne and Ray simultaneously. Gretel was kinder. “It’s an option, Mallory, but if things aren’t okay, you might ramp up the odds of getting Chief Ferris killed. Everything I’ve been hearing from you people about this Gwen Curry leads me to think she’s a classic psycho—in which case she has nothing to lose.”

  “Gretel’s got a point. Why would Gwen have snuck in here in the first place? What could she be thinking?” s
aid Osborne, puzzling out loud. “She doesn’t know that I know—not Lew, only me—that she is the one who killed DeeDee and Nora Loomis. So why go after Lew?”

  “But what if she’s hurt Lew already?” said Mallory. “What if she’s been here, done something awful and gone?” “That is exactly what I’m going to find out,” said Ray. “Can you do that without being seen?” said Gretel, worried. “Yes.” The grim determination in Ray’s voice made it clear he would make it happen. “With these dark clothes on I can move through the pines and overgrowth along the lake, then up that berm behind the apple orchard and along the fence. The vines on the fence should cover me good enough I can get within fifty feet of the kitchen window …”

  “Here, Ray, in case you can’t get that close,” said Osborne, handing over the binoculars he’d grabbed from his car. Then Osborne, Mallory and Gretel watched as Ray slipped off, vanishing into the trees.

  At first, the little farmhouse had appeared empty, but as the sun dropped low behind the pines, a light came on. Osborne saw movement in a clump of brush near the lighted window and held his breath. That had to be Ray. He hoped no one in the farmhouse had seen it.

  Gretel tapped him on the shoulder and pointed up. Osborne nodded and reached to hold steady the makeshift ladder that led up to the deer stand as Gretel pulled herself up and onto the platform, rifle under one arm. “Do you have everything you need?” asked Osborne.

  “Don’t worry about me. This gun of mine is a scope-sighted M-14. It’s the best for long-range work and I’m damn good at that. All I need now is a target.”

  From below the deer stand, he watched as she knelt and shifted slightly to the left, to better aim towards the one lighted window. “Dr. Osborne,” she whispered, “that window—am I looking into a bedroom? A bathroom?”

  “No, no, that’s the kitchen,” said Osborne. A sudden murmur of voices from the farmhouse and Osborne shut up. A breeze from the east carried the voices their way. Osborne dropped to his knees, the better to see through the brush as he strained to listen.