Killer Swell nb-1

by Jeff Shelby

  “I’m not asking you to,” I said.

  “Plus, I hate Carter.”

  I grinned. “You say you hate Carter, but you really don’t.”

  “Most of the time, I’m pretty sure I do.”

  “He doesn’t hate you.”

  She pointed at me. “If there is a me and you, that is your first official lie during the new me-and-you era.”

  I waved a hand in the air. “Most people have trouble with Carter. I’m better than most.”

  That earned an outright laugh. “If you do say so yourself.”

  “And I do.”

  We sat there looking at each other, the remnants of lunch dirtying the table between us. She may have been a pain in the ass, she may have been unreasonable, and she may have been hardheaded. She probably thought I was all those things, too. But I enjoyed being with Liz. She knew me differently than other people did, and I liked the intimacy of that. I struggled to feel comfortable with many people in the world, but with her, it happened easily. And to top it all off, she had never been unattractive. I was a sucker for blue eyes and black hair, and her blue eyes and black hair were better than most.

  “Okay,” she said finally.

  “Okay?”

  “We’ll try the me and you thing.” She aimed a finger in my direction. “Try not to screw it up.”

  “Same to you,” I said.

  55

  After lunch, Liz headed back to her office. She said she would check on Charlotte Truman and see if anything popped up. I didn’t think that it would, but I felt better that the investigation would be thorough.

  I decided to drive up to La Jolla to the Criers’ home. When I arrived, Ken and Marilyn were sitting on the stone steps that led to their front door. Ken wore his usual sharply creased khakis with a bright-red golf shirt. Marilyn was wearing yellow walking shorts and a white tank top.

  Ken waved at me as I got out of the Blazer. “Noah.”

  Marilyn folded her hands in her lap and said nothing.

  I waved back. “Did I catch you at a bad time?”

  Ken shook his head. “Just getting some air.”

  Marilyn looked at me, hopeful but skeptical.

  “I thought I’d fill you in on something,” I said, leaning against one of the pillars that bordered the steps. “And tell you what the police are telling me.”

  They exchanged anxious glances with one another and then looked back to me.

  I told them about my encounter with Randall and my conversation with Charlotte Truman. I left out the part about Kate using again and softened Randall’s blackmail into simply pleading with his wife to cover for him. I didn’t see how either of those two facts would help them anyway, and I didn’t see the point in upsetting them further. I finished by telling them what Liz’s thoughts were.

  Ken leaned back on his hands. “So basically they are going to wait out Costilla?”

  I nodded reluctantly. “Most likely. They will do some more checking based on what I learned, but there’s really nothing else to go on. And, I’ve got to admit, Costilla’s a good fit. Motive. History.”

  Ken shook his head and let out a long sigh. Marilyn put a hand on his arm, glancing at him. He tried to smile, but only got halfway there.

  Marilyn looked at me. “What is your honest opinion, Noah?”

  I shrugged. “I think that what the police are saying makes sense. I haven’t found a whole lot to contradict their idea.”

  Her jaw tightened, and she shook her head. “What is your opinion? Are they right?”

  “I’m not sure what I think,” I said. “On one hand, like I said, Costilla is the best suspect. There is no reason to believe that he didn’t do it, particularly with what we know about what he knew.”

  “But you’re not sure,” Marilyn said.

  I didn’t want to get caught up in a discussion about what my thoughts were. Their daughter had been murdered, and I didn’t want to give them false hope. The facts were the most important thing. Maybe not the easiest to live with, but the facts were where the answers would be found.

  “I’m not sure,” I said carefully. “But the only reason I say that is because I’ve tried to keep an open mind. Anybody and everybody’s a suspect, you know? The police hypothesis is better than anything I’ve come up with.”

  Ken leaned forward, his forearms on his knees, a look of angst and exhaustion on his face. “Is there anything else to look at?”

  “Do either of you know anything about a key that Kate had with her?”

  They both looked at one another, then back at me, shaking their heads.

  “Emily gave me a key that Kate left at her place,” I told them. “She didn’t know what it was for. I have someone working on that now. But it may be nothing.” I paused. “I’m also going to try and locate this other woman that Randall may have been involved with. Honestly, though, I don’t expect her to be involved. Randall’s pretty much been cleared.”

  Ken nodded sadly, and Marilyn lowered her eyes. It was clear to me that their daughter’s death would gnaw at them for years. Their body language and facial expressions indicated a unique pain known only to families of murder victims.

  Marilyn sat up suddenly and stared at her husband. “Why did you do it?”

  Ken looked startled. “What?”

  She stood, and I could see that the rims of her eyes were red.

  “You arranged this whole goddamn thing,” she said, waving her arms wildly. “With the police and the government! I said I didn’t like it. It was too dangerous for her!”

  Ken’s face fell a little. “She was going to go to jail, Marilyn.”

  “At least she would’ve been alive,” Marilyn said, crying now. “At least I could’ve gone and seen her!” A loud, violent sob forced its way out of her mouth, and she ran into the house.

  Ken ran a hand over his face, his eyes glassing over. He stood and looked at me. “Sorry.”

  “No, don’t be,” I said, feeling awkward. “It’s hard. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to give you any real answers.”

  He nodded, the tears in the corners of his eyes clearly visible now. “Let us know what you find.” He turned and walked into the house.

  I left the Criers’ home with the same hollow feeling I’d been carrying around since seeing Kate’s lifeless face in the trunk of that car. I despised that feeling. I refused to let that be the only way I remembered Kate.

  Whoever had taken the old Kate away from me was going to pay.

  56

  I drove to the hospital to see if Carter could improve my mood.

  He looked better. There was color in his skin, and the tube had been removed from his chest, leaving a lone IV line trailing into the back of his right hand. There were a couple of bandages in different spots and he was maybe a tad thinner, but he looked like Carter again.

  “Please tell me you brought me some real food,” he said, sitting up. “I can’t eat this crap anymore.”

  “Sorry. Want me to get you something?”

  “Hell, yes. The next time I see a tray come in here with covered things on it, I’m gonna jump out the window. Seriously.” He looked at me. “You alright? You look like shit. And I don’t mean from Costilla’s beating.”

  I shook my head and sat on the edge of the bed. I told him about going to see the Criers and Marilyn’s explosion at the end.

  “The problem is,” Carter said, “I have a hell of a time feeling sorry for them.”

  I looked at him. “Hey. Their daughter’s dead. Easy.”

  He shrugged. “I’m sorry. It’s hard for me to look at them as anybody other than the people that made you miserable.”

  “Your loyalty has its faults.”

  “No, it doesn’t. I feel badly that their daughter is dead, but it doesn’t make me like them any more than I ever did.”

  I didn’t feel like having the conversation with Carter. He was grumpy and tired of being in the hospital, and regardless of his feelings for the Criers, I didn’t want to ha
sh it out there.

  “How do you know Charlie?” I asked, moving us away from the subject.

  “Charlie? Just a guy I run into now and then,” he said.

  “He’s creepy.”

  “Yeah, a little, but he’s alright.”

  “Think he’ll be able to get me anything on that key?”

  “If he can’t, no one can.”

  I hoped that he could. I didn’t know if it would lead to anything, but at the very least, it would be a closed loop in the mystery.

  “You know yet when they are going to release you?” I asked.

  He rolled his eyes and made a face at the door. “I wanted to leave today. I feel fine. But they want me here for one more night.”

  “Your charming personality, no doubt.”

  “Man, I have tried to piss off every person that walks in here, hoping they’ll kick me out,” he said, clenching his fists. “They keep telling me how they can’t believe I’ve recovered this fast. And I’m like, I know, sign the goddamn release papers.”

  “That famous Carter charm must be working. They love you too much to let you go.”

  “Bite me,” he said, shooting me a dirty look. “I want out.” He took a deep breath and dropped back on the pillow. “What’s the story with you and the Ice Queen?”

  “I’m not sure you’re in the mood to hear about it,” I said.

  He waved his hand around the room. “If I’m gonna have a heart attack, this is as good of a place as any.”

  I laughed and started to tell him, but my cell phone rang in my pocket. I pulled it out. “Hello?”

  “Who’s this?” the voice asked.

  “Noah Braddock. Who’re you?”

  “Just checking,” he said. “It’s Charlie. I’m calling about your key.”

  “Right. What can you tell me?”

  “That it’s ready to be picked up, dude,” he said, that hissing-laughing sound making its way out of his throat and through the phone line.

  “Great. Did you find out what it belongs to?”

  “Um, sir, your key is ready,” he said again. “The cost is one fifty and I’ll be at my desk the rest of the day. I can show you what you need to know.”

  I started to ask him again if he knew anything, but the line went dead. I closed up the phone and looked at Carter. “Your buddy, Charlie.”

  “What’d he say?”

  “That my key’s ready. Wouldn’t tell me if he found anything.”

  Carter chuckled. “He’s a little paranoid, Noah. A few irons in the wrong fire, you know? Is he charging you?”

  I stood. “For the third time. Said it was going to cost me one fifty to pick up my key.”

  “If he’s taking your money, then he knows where to stick that key.”

  I walked to the door. “He goddamn better, because if he doesn’t, he’s not gonna like where I’m gonna stick it.”

  57

  Charlie was in exactly the same pose I’d found him in before. He was in the middle of lighting a cigarette when he saw me coming.

  He lifted his chin and blew out a huge puff of smoke. “You made it.”

  “You told me it was ready.”

  He sucked on the cigarette and brought his feet down off the ledge of his cart. “Yeah, sorry about that. Phones are dangerous, though, man. Never know who’s listening.”

  “Right.”

  “Fucking government controls everything,” he said, rummaging around in the drawer of the cart. “You think they don’t know exactly what we’re doing every minute of the day?” He tossed his ponytail over his shoulder and grinned sideways at me. “’Specially a guy like me.”

  “Sure.”

  He looked at me for a moment, then shrugged as if I didn’t understand and he didn’t care either way. He produced a small white envelope from the drawer. “Here it is.”

  “What exactly can you tell me, Charlie?” I said, trying to remain patient.

  He held the envelope up in his hand, wiggling it as his smile widened, his cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth.

  “I’m gonna pay you based on what you tell me,” I said. “You tell me where that key goes, one-fifty’s yours. You tell me nothing, you get nothing.”

  He pulled the cigarette from his lips and looked hurt. “Dude, you’re Carter’s friend. I ain’t gonna jack you around. Shit, I was pretty sure I knew where this little girl went when you showed it to me this morning.” He handed over the envelope.

  I opened it. It contained the key and a small slip of paper with the number seven scrawled on it. I looked at him.

  “Amtrak station,” Charlie said, kicking his toe on the ground. “You know the old depot?”

  “Yeah.”

  “One of the lockers there,” he said, breathing out the cigarette smoke. “I can’t tell you exactly which locker, but it’ll be one with a seven in the box number. Seventeen, twenty-seven, one-oh-seven, something like that. Look for an empty lock and that baby’ll open it.”

  “How do you know it’s a seven?” I asked.

  “Has to do with the serial number on the key,” he said, then grinned again. “I could tell you how it all works, but then I’d have to kill you.” When I didn’t laugh, the grin disappeared. “Hey, man, if it doesn’t open a locker there, come back and I’ll give you your money back. Like I said, I ain’t gonna jack around a friend of Carter’s.” He shrugged. “But it’s gonna open one.”

  I pulled the money from my wallet and handed it to him. “I believe you. Thanks.”

  He shoved the money in his pocket and squeezed the cigarette between his fingers. “Anytime.”

  As I walked away, I couldn’t imagine another time that I might need Charlie’s help, but I guessed it wouldn’t hurt to be in with a key guy.

  58

  The old Santa Fe Depot was downtown, a couple of blocks east of the harbor on Kettner. A Mission-style building with wide arches, built in 1915, it represented the old part of San Diego that seemed to be disappearing with the tremendous growth. It had undergone several renovations and now hosted not only the Amtrak trains that ran the coast, but also the trolley that connected the Mission Valley area with downtown San Diego and the Mexican border.

  The station was filled in the early summer evening, primarily with tourists looking to ride out to the stadium or down to Tijuana. The noise of the hustle and bustle echoed off of the hundred-foot ceilings and worn wooden benches.

  It took me half an hour of looking before I hit pay dirt. It was the next to last locker bank that I had left to look at. I had looked at seven others in various places in the station, none of them matching the key in my hand.

  When I shoved the key in locker fifty-seven, the lock clicked, the key turned, and I opened the small metal door.

  A brown paper bag had been squashed into the small, square receptacle, the top of the bag folded and rolled over. I pulled the sack out and nearly dropped it on the floor, its weight surprising me. I gathered the package under my arm and walked over to a nearby bench.

  The first thing I saw when I opened the bag was money. Still wrapped in bands. I didn’t count it, but I guessed it to be near the half million Costilla had told me he was missing.

  A manila envelope was folded in half, slid in next to the stacks of money. I pulled it out and opened it. A piece of yellow legal paper was folded into quarters.

  I unfolded it. I saw Kate’s name signed in the middle of the page, and I froze. My stomach dropped and the hair on my neck stood at attention. I stared at her name for probably five minutes before I read what was above it:

  I’m putting this here because I’m in danger. This isn’t my money but I’m taking it. The person that I’ve taken it from won’t miss it, I can promise you that. But it’s not him that I’m afraid of. It’s my husband that I’m afraid of. He doesn’t love me and I don’t love him. We’ve done things to hurt each other, both of us. But I want the marriage to end and he doesn’t. Appearances. So I’m putting this here so it will be safe even if I�
�m not. If I get out, then no one will ever see this. If I don’t, hopefully someone will figure all of this out.

  I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life-too many, in fact. Ones that have embarrassed me, ones that have embarrassed my family, ones that have screwed up everyone’s lives. I don’t want to do that anymore.

  I’m doing something now that I hope will let me start again. Something good and something bad. The something bad is taking this money. The something good is helping to catch the man who this money belongs to. I know this doesn’t make sense, but if you are reading this, then something’s probably happened to me and maybe this does make sense.

  I am almost done with what I have to do and then I can escape and start new. Leave the past behind. There’s nothing good in my past to go back to, so I want to go forward. Only forward. I hope I’m able to do that.

  I read the letter three times, a cold knot settling in my gut. Kate had been afraid of Randall. She’d put it on paper, just in case. She’d taken Costilla’s money so she could get the hell away from him and try to rebuild her life.

  But the thing that hit me the hardest was that she wanted to leave all of her past behind.

  A past that included me.

  It could have been Emily telling me that Kate mentioned me on her wedding day. Or perhaps it was Ken’s comment about Kate possibly looking for me. Or maybe it was me getting caught up in years of missing Kate and hoping she’d felt the same.

  The letter crushed that hope with the force of a hammer to the chin, and it hurt badly.

  A person sliding in beside me startled me. So did the gun in my ribs.

  Ramon smiled, sitting at my side. “You’ve found Mr. Costilla’s lost package. He will be very grateful.”

  Beyond Ramon, I saw the thick-headed man that had driven me to my meeting with Costilla in Tijuana. The outline of a gun under his shirt was well defined.

  “You’ve been following me?” I asked, feeling ridiculously novice.