The Slowest Death

by Rick Reed

  “Not a problem,” Jack assured him. “Do you have Crime Scene on the way?”

  “I put a call in to the sheriff, but he’s on vacation. Florida, lucky guy. We have a couple of guys do our forensics, but I need the sheriff’s approval to call them in overtime like this.”

  Jack didn’t think that would apply to something like a murder, but he said to Stevens, “You did right following policy, but I think you should go ahead and call them, give them a heads up.” Jack knew the crime scene guys would probably come out anyway.

  “Okay.”

  “And check the guns’ serial numbers,” Jack said. “Run them through the system for stolen, and call ATF. They will find the registered owners of the guns.”

  “I’ll have to touch them to do that.”

  “It’ll be okay to lean in the car and try to see the serial numbers,” Jack said. “You need to put that in your report.”

  “Okay,” Stevens said.

  Liddell had been writing on a business card and handed it to the deputy. “This is the serial number for the Beretta 9mm Crispino was carrying. The other is for a Glock .45 that we think was stolen from our first victim. He was a cop.”

  “Sonny Caparelli,” Deputy Stevens said. “I knew him. He was a good guy.”

  “The other .45 is probably Sully’s. You’ll need to run it through ATF.”

  “I’ll do that right away and get back to you,” the deputy said. “Anything else, detectives?”

  “One more thing,” Jack said. “I’m going to call Sergeant Walker. He’s in charge of our crime scene unit. He can help you, and since our cases overlap we would like to have someone observe the scene here. Is that okay with you?”

  “Sure. I’ll take care of them personally.”

  “And one last thing,” Jack said.

  * * * *

  Liddell drove east on New Harmony Road while Jack finished talking to an already stretched-thin crime scene sergeant.

  “I didn’t think the deputy would give the GPS to our crime scene,” Liddell said.

  “Why? I let him keep it until Walker’s people can take it. It’s a perfectly reasonable request.” The last favor Jack had asked of Deputy Stevens was that he monitor the GPS and sign it over to the EPD crime scene techs when they arrived. He reasoned with Stevens that, except for this one, the murders had taken place in Evansville. It was more likely the killer would be heading back toward Evansville and that was why the GPS should be given to EPD.

  “I’m not disagreeing with you, pod’na.”

  “We still don’t know how the killer is getting around,” Jack said. “Sonny’s truck was left several blocks from that scene, keys in the ignition, and money under the seat. His gun and phone were missing. No clue as to what the killer was driving.”

  “Judge Knight was in his own car. Fire Department said the keys were still in the ignition. We don’t know if anything was taken,” Liddell added. “We don’t know how the judge got to where he was killed or even if he was killed there. We don’t know if the killer had a vehicle there to leave in. The judge was meeting someone where he was killed, would be my guess.”

  “Tunney may be right. The killer might have been working with Sully. That would explain why Marty’s Jeep was found. The killer could have left in Sully’s car.”

  “We’re back to where…?” Liddell asked.

  “Back to headquarters,” Jack said. “We’re missing something that should be obvious. I’ve had the feeling the answer is staring me in the face, but this guy doesn’t quit. He’s keeping us off balance reacting to his actions. I wish we could turn this around, but I don’t have a clue as to how,” Jack said. The truth was, Jack felt defeated. The guy with the monkey carvings was beating them. He wasn’t after money, as Tunney had said. It was pure and simple revenge. The killer was someone who had crossed paths with the victims, or the victims had crossed the killer. Jack couldn’t get Touhey out of his head. Big Bobby. Little Bobby. Yankowski. Sonny and Sully working for Big Bobby? And why did Crispino want witness protection? What did he know? The killer even had the mob scared.

  Chapter 42

  Mindy couldn’t get the image of Sully shooting that kid out of her mind. She was sure Sully was going to kill all of them. She couldn’t do the kids any good if she was dead. It had been hours ago, and she hadn’t called the cops, but what would she say? If she ratted Sully out he would kill her for sure. He’d track her down and what he did to those kids would be nothing compared to what he’d do to her. He had a real sadistic streak.

  She was certainly glad she’d put some warm clothes on before Sully told her to go outside if she was getting sick. She wanted out of the room. Away from him—from what he was doing—from what he was going to do. She really was feeling queasy when she told Sully she was going to get sick. That part wasn’t a lie. And she didn’t have a plan when she snuck his car keys off the table and headed out the door. But once outside, the frigid air shocked her out of a half-focused dream state where nothing was real and yet everything was too real. She felt—knew—she would have to get as far away from Sully as she could. As fast as she could.

  She realized she was driving in the direction of her home as she passed The Old Mill Restaurant. It was a place where she and Sonny had eaten dozens of times. Sonny loved it. Said it reminded him of Danny-O’s Bar in Boston, “where the faces never changed and the beer never got stale.” Danny-O’s was a stereotypical cop bar, where emergency lights scrounged from a wrecked cop car sat above the bar’s mirror. Mindy had worked there. That’s how she met Sully, who introduced her to Sonny. Sonny wasn’t rich, but he’d been her ticket out of the crummy walk-up apartment she’d shared with two other girls. He’d been her ticket out of Boston.

  New Harmony Road merged with Diamond Avenue heading east. A plan was developing. She knew she couldn’t go anywhere near her house, the house she had put her time and love into. Sully had seen to that. Sonny too, to a certain degree. If Sonny hadn’t gotten greedy they would still be living the good life. The life Sonny had promised her. She wasn’t a young woman anymore, and she didn’t know anyone in Evansville. Still didn’t. All her friends were still in Boston and all of them were Sully’s friends as well. Damn him!

  She wanted to ditch Sully’s car. Maybe go to the airport and park in the long-term lot. She could take the next flight out to anywhere. Sully would think of that. It was late and there might not be any flights. She couldn’t sit in the airport all night.

  She turned North on Highway 41, passing Dress Regional Airport, passing several motels near Interstate 64. She wanted some out-of-the-way place. Somewhere she could hide out for tonight. In the morning, she’d drive to the Louisville airport or go west to St. Louis. She had enough cash for a room, and she’d stuck a credit card in her pocket before Sully had rushed her out of her bedroom.

  She turned east on I-64 without choosing one way or the other. Near Lynnville she saw a Red Roof Inn billboard advertising forty-four dollar room rates. Perfect. She would use Sonny’s last name to check in. These kinds of places never checked ID. Sonny always said, “Cash is king.” She felt a lump in her throat at the thought of Sonny and cheap motels. He had been married when they met. He’d taken her from her apartment and put her up in a string of motels, each successively cheaper than the last. When Sonny got divorced she thought he’d ask her to marry him, but he never did. He said they had it made. They didn’t need a piece of paper to be loyal to each other. He was right in some ways. Wrong in others.

  Tears ran down her cheeks, not from sadness or grief, but from anger—at herself. Why had she kept a relationship going with Sully? Sonny had been good to her, but she knew he couldn’t protect her if push came to shove. Big Bobby always got what he wanted, and he thought everything was his.

  She swiped at the tears blurring her vision and almost missed the exit for the Red Roof Inn. She swerved at the last minute, slowed down o
n the exit and followed the signs. She found a space behind the building where big construction trucks were gathered, and parked behind one of them.

  Out of habit she reached behind the seat for the purse that wasn’t there. Instead, she felt the handles of a duffel bag and her heart leapt. She lifted the bag. It was heavy. She set it on her lap and unzipped it. She didn’t need a light to smell the money, to feel the bound stacks of one hundred-dollar bills she remembered Sully taking from her safe.

  The panic she had been feeling was replaced with exhilaration, and tears of gratitude filled her eyes. She threw her arms up to the car’s ceiling and let out a whoop. She’d not only stolen Sully’s car, she’d stolen the money he planned to give Big Bobby to buy their lives. She would be able to go anywhere and no one could trace her. Sully could go to hell. When Sully didn’t give Big Bobby the money, the blame would fall on Sully. He could tell any story he wanted, but he’d still be dead. She was alone, but she was alive and free. She had one more thing to do. Sully had left his cell phone in the car along with that detective’s business card.

  * * * *

  “Detective Murphy?” Mindy said.

  Jack recognized the voice immediately. “Mindy. Are you okay? Where are you?” He motioned for Liddell to slow down and he put the call on speakerphone.

  “I’m not saying,” Mindy said. “I’m okay. As okay as I can be, I guess, considering Sully was going to kill me.” She’d started to call him at the Red Roof Inn but had changed her mind and drove on to Louisville. She needed time to think of what she was going to say.

  “But you’re someplace safe?” Jack asked. “Are you hurt? Do you need help?”

  “I’m not hurt,” Mindy said. “But you gotta get to The Peaks Inn and help those kids. Sully’s got two kids there. He’s gonna kill them. I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner but I was out of my mind scared.”

  Jack hesitated to tell her they had Zack and Dayton. Or that they had reason to believe Sully was dead. But he’d have to tell her exactly that to get any answers from her.

  “Mindy, I’m not going to tell you to come in to talk to me. I know you’re scared. You had every reason to be. Sully was a dangerous man.”

  “What are you saying, Detective Murphy? You got Sully?”

  “The kids are alive. Sully’s dead. You don’t have to be afraid. We’ll get you home.”

  There was a long silence. Jack said, “Did you hear me, Mindy? You’re safe now. The kids are safe. We found them. But I need you. You’re the only one who can help me find out what the hell is going on.” He waited.

  She said, “You’re a nice guy, Detective Murphy. My Sonny always said good things about you. He said you were tougher than anyone he knows and he knew some pretty tough guys.”

  “Sonny would tell you that you could trust me. You don’t have to tell me where you are.”

  Silence again.

  “Mindy?” Jack said.

  “I’m thinking,” she said. “You tell me something.”

  “Okay,” Jack said. “If I can.”

  “Did Sully kill Sonny?

  How do I answer this without frightening her even worse? “I think Sully was indirectly involved,” Jack said. “Sonny would have told you, a case is never over until we know everything. Right, Mindy?”

  Quiet.

  “That’s why I need to talk to you. You may have answers.”

  “Yeah. That’s something my Sonny would say, too. He was a good detective, wasn’t he, Detective Murphy?”

  “The best, Mindy. He would be proud of you for helping me. He would tell you it’s your duty, wouldn’t he?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “But I still ain’t going to tell you where I am. I’ve got to make a clean start. If Sully didn’t kill Sonny, the guy that did is probably working for Big Bobby. Big Bobby will never quit until I’m dead.”

  Liddell had pulled off the shoulder and was giving Mindy’s phone number to dispatch.

  “I’ve heard about Big Bobby Touhey,” Jack said. “I’m not positive he’s behind this, but I do know that Sully and a guy named Crispino worked for him. Was Sonny working for Big Bobby?”

  “That’s what Sully told me. Sully’s an asshole. He was supposed to be Sonny’s best friend. But he was just using Sonny. He was using me. He’s a liar.”

  “Mindy, do you have any idea who killed Sonny?” Jack asked. “Now that you know Sully’s been killed, do you have an idea who else it could be?”

  “Did Sully die like Sonny?” she asked. “I hope he died slow. Slow and painful.”

  “He was burned alive,” Jack said, and was glad to tell her the truth at least about this one thing. Mindy was a gold-digging bitch, but she didn’t deserve to die for it.

  “Good. Good. He went straight to hell!”

  “That he did, Mindy. Who do you suspect did that to him?” Jack asked.

  “Sully has so many enemies it could be any of them. I mean, he did very bad things. I think he killed some people.”

  “For Big Bobby?” Jack asked, and saw that Liddell had turned on a digital recording device.

  “Unh huh. When he was a cop,” she said. “Sonny told me they done something really bad and that’s why we had to leave Boston. Sully made Sonny help him get rid of a body and… Hey, didn’t that judge get burned up too?”

  “Judge Knight,” Jack said. “Did you know him?”

  “I never met him, but Sonny knew him back in Boston. Sonny took a lot of his police stuff to him here too. He seemed to trust him. Sully told me about him getting killed. I asked Sully if the judge had anything to do with all of this but he just told me to mind my business. Nobody tells me nothing.”

  Jack said. “Did Sonny tell you about the body he and Sully got rid of?”

  “I know it was for Big Bobby. Some young girl. Younger than me even. Sonny had nightmares for a long time. He’d wake up yelling about her. “She’s burning! She’s burning!” he’d say, just like he was seeing it all again. He’d be soaked to the bone and shaking.”

  “How long ago was the girl burned?”

  Mindy said, “Sonny got the job in Evansville a few months, maybe half a year later. I was glad we were moving because Sonny was drinking all the time and had those horrible nightmares. It was so bad I thought he was gonna kill himself. I mean, I told him he didn’t kill the girl, so he didn’t have to feel responsible. But you knew Sonny. He always took the world on his shoulders. He was a good man.”

  “He was like that,” Jack lied. “We all miss him.”

  “They got the guy that killed her. Did you know that?” she asked.

  “Did you know the killer?” Jack asked. “Did Sonny or Sully know him? Was it one of their acquaintances?”

  “I didn’t know him. Sonny said it was a CI of Sully’s. That’s a confidential information person.”

  “You said he had bad nightmares. Did Sonny work that girl’s case?” Jack asked.

  “Yeah. How come you’re asking all these questions? Are you thinking Sonny had something to do with killing her? I told you they got the guy. He confessed.”

  Jack backpedaled. “I’m not saying that, Mindy. I just figured he’d catch that kind of case. He worked some serious stuff in Boston. Right?”

  “Yeah. He worked it. He said it made him sick having to do it after he’d helped get rid of her body and all. The newspapers was all over Sonny, but he refused to talk to them. He said they were a bunch of sad—, sad—”

  “Sadists,” Jack helped her.

  “Yeah. That’s what Sonny said. I know you can take care of yourself, but you better watch out for Big Bobby. He’s a psycho. He’d kill you for saying something against him. Don’t matter you’re here and he’s there. That kid of his was crazy too.”

  “Do you think Sully killed the judge?” Jack asked.

  “Nah. Sully was surprised as I was. He woul
d have bragged about it if he had. He wouldn’t have told me if he killed Sonny though. He needed me to get in the...”

  Jack waited for her to finish the sentence but she was quiet. He could hear her breathing in the phone.

  “Get in the what, Mindy?”

  “You searched my house, didn’t you?” Mindy asked.

  “He needed you to open the safe? Is that what you were going to say?”

  “Yeah. Sonny had this big safe hidden in the closet. He kept his treasures in there. That’s what he called those guns. Treasures. Like they was made out of gold.”

  “You said Sully needed you to open the safe, Mindy. What did he take? There were guns still inside,” Jack said. He had to be careful how he worded the next questions. He thought she was lying, but he didn’t want to trap her in one. She had to have some wiggle room.

  She was quiet.

  Jack asked, “Was it money, Mindy? Is that what we’re talking about?

  “You probably already know about the money, Detective Murphy. My Sonny said you was smart as a tick.”

  Sharp as a tack, Jack thought, but didn’t correct her.

  “Yeah, there was a bunch of money. Sully took it all. I didn’t even know it was in there. I swear to God I’m telling the truth.”

  “I believe you,” Jack lied. “Do you know how much money Sully found in Sonny’s safe?” Your safe.

  “It was a bunch, I can tell you. Filled a big bag with it. Sully probably has it hidden somewhere,” she said. “Um…Did you find Sully’s car?”

  Jack now knew Mindy had Sully’s car. She wouldn’t tell him where she was. She was lying about the money. He could hear it in her voice. “The killer must have taken Sully’s car,” he said. “I thought maybe you had taken it. You were running for your life, Mindy. It would make sense.”

  She didn’t deny it, which was as good as an admission. He could hear her breathing speed up. He’d hit a nerve. Probably not a good thing.

  “Do you know how Sonny came by the money you said was in the safe?” Jack asked. She didn’t answer. “There was a bunch of jewelry there too,” Jack added. Still no response. “And the house and boat. That’s a lot for a policeman, Mindy.”