by A. E. Howe
“So who did Dave get mad at?”
“Some guy.”
“What guy? Come on, you’re pissing me off,” Chavez said. We were doing a great job going back and forth with our questions and it was beginning to rattle Billy.
“Some guy! I don’t know. Dave did some work for the guy. Said the guy was an asshole and kicked him out of his house. Later, he laughed about the guy’s wife shooting at him. Why don’t you ask him?” Watching and listening to him, I was pretty sure that he didn’t know that Tyler was dead.
“It would be easier to talk to him if he wasn’t dead,” Chavez said with a heavy dose of snark.
Billy looked stunned. You could almost see the gears in his head working this one over.
“So you see our problem. Your little threesome is now a onesome.” Chavez leaned forward and captured Billy’s eyes with his. “I think this will play out in one of two ways. One, you’re a murderer or had something to do with their deaths or, two, you’re going to be the next victim. Either case, for your own good, I’d suggest you tell us everything you know about the three of you.” Chavez finished and leaned back.
“Why would anyone kill me?” Billy asked in a small voice.
“I don’t know, Billy. Why would someone kill your pal Gibson? Why would they kill Timberlane?” I asked him.
“Maybe the same person didn’t kill both,” Billy squeaked.
“It’s possible, but unlikely. I think it’s safe to say they’re related. And besides the way in which they were killed, there is one other common link between Timberlane and Gibson. You.”
“I don’t know anything!” Again too fast, an obvious lie.
“I don’t believe you,” I said.
“They did stuff. I wasn’t a part of it. I was just… there,” he said lamely.
“Tell us about this stuff they did,” Chavez shot back.
“No.” Billy stood up. “I don’t know anything about their murders.”
Chavez stood up too. “Listen to me carefully. What you do now is important. Talk to us. Tell us what we need to know and you can save yourself a lot of grief. If you don’t cooperate, then we can’t help you.”
“I got to think. I don’t want to talk anymore.”
“I don’t think you have a lot of time, Billy. One way or another we’re going to figure things out on our own, in which case we aren’t going to feel very generous toward you. Any crimes that you might have committed, we’ll prosecute to the full extent of the law. Or whoever is going around killing your friends is going to realize you’re next on his list.”
“You could be lying about everything. Just trying to trap me.” He was scared and becoming petulant.
“True. Or we’re telling you the truth and your window of opportunity is closing.” Chavez took out his card. “Call me if you want to talk and aren’t dead.”
“You need to tell us everything you know, the sooner the better,” I said, also handing him one of my cards.
He looked back and forth at us.
“Last chance,” Chavez said.
“I’m not talking. Not now,” Billy said. He was twitching anxiously. I was pretty sure that the first thing he was going to do when we left was score some drugs.
Chapter Seventeen
Back in the van, Chavez and I compared notes.
“We’re on to something with this one,” Chavez said. “I’ll get one of my guys to sit on him. Won’t be 24/7, but enough to put some pressure on him. Hopefully our killer won’t hit him before he talks to us.”
“He was pretty scared.”
“They did something that he’s afraid to admit. Unfortunately, he’s been around the block enough times that he knows how to clam up. The problem is we don’t have anything on him right now. I’ll tell my guy to keep an eye out and try to get him carrying enough drugs to threaten him with some serious jail time. That might loosen his tongue.”
“You rethinking Henry Laursen as the murderer?” I asked nonchalantly.
He looked over at me. “Maybe. But all the evidence is still pointed directly at Laursen. It makes it hard for me to make a case for someone else to be the murderer. Don’t you agree?”
“Yes,” I said reluctantly. “But I find it hard to believe that Henry did it. The motive is too thin. For killing Tyler… maybe. Thinks he’s a scumbag and has to give him money he doesn’t think he should have, gets in a fight with him and is mad enough to kill him. Maybe. But Gibson? He didn’t see Gibson do anything. In Henry’s eyes, Gibson’s guilt was based on association with Tyler.”
“I agree. But he had the means and opportunity for both and a motive, however thin, for committing both murders. Maybe when he was torturing Tyler he learned something that put Gibson in his crosshairs,” Chavez said.
I’d thought about that too. It was a possibility, and all I had to fall back on was that he was Cara’s father and therefore he couldn’t have done it. That logic wasn’t going to get me very far with Chavez.
“Have you checked in with your girlfriend, Cara, today?” Chavez quietly dropped this little bomb. I didn’t know what to say.
“Secrets seldom stay secret. I had one of my guys keeping an eye on the co-op last night. He saw the two of you walking hand in hand. Very romantic.”
“I’d say it’s not what you think, but it probably is,” I said lamely.
“You insulted my intelligence. And showed you weren’t very clever,” he said in a calm, disappointed voice.
“I wasn’t trying to be deceptive. I—”
He held up a hand to stop me.
“Of course you were trying to deceive me. But you thought it was for a good cause. I’m not sure that I disagree with you. I don’t want to clear cases by putting the wrong person in jail. I want to solve murders by putting guilty people in jail. Henry?” He shrugged his shoulders. “Evidence says yes. Instinct says no. So I want to keep my mind open and keep digging. Hopefully, you’ll prove useful.” He said this in an easygoing manner. I began to relax.
“What you’re doing is very foolish. You’re walking a very thin line between helping someone you care about and obstructing justice,” he said, not telling me anything I didn’t already know. “And the temptations for you in a situation like this could be very great.”
I felt like a kid being shamed by his parents. “I understand.”
“Let me ask you a question. Could you be convinced of Henry’s guilt?”
“If I saw clear proof, yes.”
“What would you consider ‘clear proof’?”
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly.
“Fair enough. And let me be honest with you. If I suspect for even one minute that you are interfering in any way with this investigation, I will have you barred from having anything to do with it. And if I find out you tampered with evidence or did anything else illegal, I’ll have you arrested and charged. Are we clear?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Take me back to my car. I’ll check over the reports and let you know if there is anything interesting in them. I should have a preliminary autopsy report by now and copies of witness interviews. You can come down to the office later and help me look through CCTV footage.”
I dropped him off and went to see Cara. At least I didn’t have to sneak around anymore. Apparently I wasn’t very good at sneaking around anyway.
She answered the door looking tired, but she seemed cheered up at the sight of Mauser.
“You’re a tonic for everything that ails me,” she said, ruffling his ears and encouraging him to lean into her. She scratched him for a few minutes. I tried not to be jealous of the big goof. He did have a way of making you smile whether you wanted to or not.
“Mom’s not dealing with this. We did find a lawyer that both Mom and Dad could agree on. Hopefully he’s meeting with Dad now.” All of this poured out of her as we sat down in the living room. “I need to go back to work on Monday. What am I going to do?”
I could see her mother in the backyard, puttering a
round with some wood project. Cara followed my gaze.
“Exactly. She’s told me half a dozen times that we don’t have to worry because everything will work itself out. When I asked her why she thought that, she said that Dad had built up enough good Karma for a dozen people. She’s taking denial to a new level. The only saving grace is that no one else in the co-op believes Dad did it either. We had a dozen people come by with food for us. Do you want some gluten-free lemon cake?” She smiled a little. “Oh, and Karen Gill came by to tell us about the detectives that had been at her house asking questions. She thought you were very nice. I didn’t tell her that I knew you.”
“Did she say anything else?” I thought it curious that she came by.
“Actually, she asked me questions more than anything,” Cara said.
“Questions about what?”
“Why the police suspected Dad. If it was true that Timberlane and Gibson had been harassing women.” Cara looked at me oddly. “Why are you interested in Karen?”
“It’s probably nothing. Do you know her very well?”
“A little. She’s been active in the co-op since she came here about six years ago. More of a guy’s girl than a girl’s girl, if you get my drift.”
“How’s that?”
“You know, a bit catty where other women are concerned and maybe a little too flirtatious with men.”
“Chavez found out that we’re friends,” I said, changing the subject.
“How’d that go?”
“Better than I had any right to expect.”
“I’m sorry I got you into all of this.”
“The sad thing is that I’m grateful it brought us back together.” I reached out and took her hand.
She looked down at the floor. “I was a little unfair before. Not being a cop wouldn’t guarantee that you wouldn’t have to deal with crap.”
“I told you then that I understood. There’s a lot of baggage that goes along with dating a deputy. And I appreciate the fact that you thought enough of me that you wanted to make sure it was something you were comfortable with before we got too involved.”
“I think you’re giving me more credit than I deserve. I can be a little selfish. I’m afraid of sharing my guy with his job, or worse, to take a chance of losing him. But now I’m watching my mother and father and I’m seeing what I should have seen before. Life is dangerous. And you can’t be like my mom. You can’t pretend it’s not, or think that because you do everything right that you don’t have to fight for the good things in life when the bad times come knocking on the door.”
She had moved over next to me and now she leaned against my shoulder. “I’m willing to give us a shot if you are. This is quite a test for you since my family is in the middle of such a mess right now.”
“I’m not worried. I’m glad that I have the chance to help you all through this.” I leaned into her and we sat there supporting each other until Mauser came over and tried to sit on my lap. You can’t ignore him. I pushed him off and got up.
“I need to go meet Chavez and look through a million hours of video footage from banks, minute markets and traffic cameras. As much footage as we can find from the couple of miles around the park.” She nodded and walked Mauser and me out to the van.
The shadows were getting long and the temperature dropping as I drove back to our motel. I fed Mauser his dinner and took him for a long walk. Walking a normal dog is relaxing and gives you a chance to think; walking Mauser gives you an opportunity to have your arms pulled out of their sockets. Every smell is the best smell he’s ever gotten a whiff of and you only have two options—follow him and the scent or get pulled to your knees. I made up my mind right then that I was going to set aside some time to work with him. It was only fair to the dog that someone take the time.
I called Dad when we got back to the room.
“Larry, hey!” he answered, sounding weirdly upbeat. “How’s it going in Gainesville? Chavez should be a good guy to work with.”
“He is, actually.”
“And how are things going with your girlfriend?” He couldn’t resist ribbing me.
“Except for the part where her father is still at the top of everyone’s murder suspect list, Cara and I are getting along fine,” I answered, irrationally irritated that he seemed so… happy. I was much more used to hearing him when he was in a foul mood, about to be in a foul mood, or just getting over being in a foul mood. I wasn’t sure how to take him sounding like Florida’s version of Andy Griffith.
He didn’t answer and for a minute I thought the call had been dropped. “Dad?”
“Do you know the real reason I asked you to become a deputy when I ran for sheriff?” he finally asked.
Because you wanted to control me, I almost said, but I bit my tongue. More diplomatically, “I figured you just wanted me to follow in your footsteps.”
“No, I asked you to join the department because I knew you were smart and clever and would be a damn good deputy.”
“Have you been drinking?” It wasn’t a very nice thing to say, but it came out before I could stop myself.
“No… Well, a little… Not that much. Forget it. Put Mauser on.”
The next few minutes consisted of me holding the phone next to Mauser’s head while trying not to hear the ridiculous baby talk coming from the other end. Finally Mauser raised his head and gave Dad a short gruff bark. Figuring it was time to end the conversation, I said, “I need to get some sleep.”
“I might go talk to this attractive major from Broward County. She smiled at me a couple times during a seminar and made a point of telling me she was going to check out the specialty drinks at the bar tonight.”
“Now you’re just grossing me out.”
“Ha! Stay safe,” he said and disconnected.
I wondered if I should have told him about Matt. It wouldn’t be fair to tell him when both of us were out of the county and couldn’t do anything to follow up. On the other hand, was it fair not to tell him? I was coming to the conclusion that secrets aren’t all the fun they’re cracked up to be.
I stopped by the front office and asked Mrs. Perkins if she’d mind looking in on Mauser. You’d have thought I’d given her a winning lotto ticket. Then I grabbed a bite to eat and headed over to the sheriff’s office where Chavez and I tried to destroy our eyesight by looking at hours upon hours of oddly lit, grainy CCTV footage.
We were looking for anything that was familiar—a car, a person or someone carrying a sign that read I’m on my way to kill someone, or alternatively I’m going home after killing someone. But we found nothing. I made a dozen notes of odd cars or people doing something out of the ordinary, like running past or turning away from a camera. When we had a clear suspect we could come back and recheck the footage.
At three o’clock I headed back to the motel. Mauser was sleeping soundly and Mrs. Perkins was nowhere to be found. I got a hot shower and went straight to bed.
Chavez, who apparently never slept or took a day off, called me at eight o’clock the next morning to let me know that he had some of the preliminary crime scene reports, if I wanted to take a look. I stumbled out of bed, dressed, took care of Mauser, then left him in Mrs. Perkins’s capable hands for the day.
Chavez let me use a desk in a conference room to go over the reports. Or at least the reports that he didn’t mind me looking through. I was confident that he was keeping some evidence back. Any lead investigator on a homicide would. He didn’t know how much he could trust me and, honestly, I hadn’t proven very trustworthy so far.
After I’d had a chance to go through everything he’d given me, he came in and sat down.
“So?” he asked.
I sighed. “Nothing rules Henry out.”
“Exactly. No extra fingerprints on the knife. The knife can’t be ruled out as the one used to cut the rope. The rope found in his truck superficially matches the rope around my victim’s neck. Without blood evidence, and there were no cuts on the victim or Henry,
there is no chance of matching blood. DNA is going to take weeks, maybe months. That leaves us with a big question mark where Henry is concerned.” He tapped a large pile of interviews. “And none of the potential witnesses gave us anything beyond the facts we already had.” He turned his hands palms up. “What do I do?”
“Honestly, I would let the suspect go. Work on other suspects while I wait for the DNA tests to come back. He’s unlikely to flee. You might find a new suspect or the DNA might confirm contact between the original suspect and the victim. Also, you give Henry, your prime suspect, time to do something stupid like get drunk at a bar and run his mouth, go after someone else or try to get rid of evidence you didn’t even know about.”
“Exactly what I was thinking. He remains a person of interest. I will tell him not to leave the county without notifying me and you can rest assured that I will be watching him.”
“I want you to be watching him. The killer was targeting him too,” I said with all sincerity. Chavez nodded his head.
It was one o’clock before I left the station and called Cara with the good news. After checking on Mauser and feeding him lunch, I picked up Cara and her mom and drove to the county jail. By four o’clock, Henry was home.
“Thank you,” Cara said, hugging me.
“He’s not out of the woods yet. Until we know who the killer is, your father is going to be the prime suspect. Plus, the killer is obviously focused on your father. I’m convinced that the murderer is someone from the co-op, or someone with intimate knowledge of it.”
My phone rang with a number I didn’t recognize. Standing there with Cara, I was tempted not to answer. But I’m not really good at ignoring a ringing phone. She told me to take it the second time I looked at the screen.
The voice on the other end of the line was hushed and breathless.
“What?”
“I need help. Like now.”
“Who is this?” Something told me this wasn’t a sales call.
“Billy!” he said in a shouted whisper. “You gave me your card. You’re a cop, right? But not from around here?”
