Blind Conviction (Nate Shepherd Legal Thriller Series Book 3)

by Michael Stagg

  And neither was I.

  BONE

  46

  It was a thirty-minute drive from Dellville to Carrefour on the main highway. I’d be there in twenty. I made calls the whole way.

  I called Sheriff Dushane first. I lost precious minutes as his secretary routed me to him. I told him that Cade was on his way to Ohio, that he was speeding, and that he needed to be picked up immediately. He asked me why. I told him. Sheriff Dushane had known Cade for most of his life. He said he would do it and hung up.

  Next, I called Danny. I told him to look up where Professor Timmons lived and send it to me. Danny said he would get on it. I told him I needed him to be faster than that and hung up.

  I called my mom. I told her Olivia was hurt and on her way to St. Wendolin’s. She didn't even pause to say she loved me as she hung up the phone.

  I made a call to the Michigan State Police, asked for a particular trooper, and wound up in his voicemail. I left a detailed message about the situation and asked that he follow-up.

  The miles ticked by. I was nearing the Ohio border and I still hadn't seen Cade's car or a Sheriff’s.

  My phone buzzed. A text from Danny with the address. I loaded it into an app and an Australian woman told me that I was 12 minutes and 8.3 miles from my destination.

  I crossed the border into Ohio. Nothing on the side of the road. I called Sheriff Dushane. He answered immediately. No, none of his deputies had seen Cade or stopped him.

  I thought about the three men Cade had disarmed. I thought about him casually pounding the MMA wannabe in the gym.

  I thought about an injury to Olivia's right eye.

  I picked up my phone and made a call I absolutely did not want to make.

  The last three miles were the worst. I had entered an upscale neighborhood in Carrefour, Coral Bluffs, which was exactly as pretentious as it sounds when you consider that there’s no ocean in Carrefour and that the neighborhood is utterly flat. It had winding, tree-lined streets, brick walls and iron gates, and—worst of all—a twenty mile an hour speed limit. My Australian guide took me down one street and from there to a lane and then on to a boulevard until I found myself peering past high shrubs that concealed many of the large old homes. Eventually, though, she said that my destination was eight hundred feet ahead up on my right in what turned out to be a cul-de-sac.

  I saw a black Expedition turn into the same driveway.

  Cade.

  I accelerated and shot my Jeep around the curve and past the two brick pillars that marked the long, cement drive. I saw a silver Explorer with the back hatch open parked in front of brick stairs that led into the house. I saw a man with a sport jacket over one arm and a key in the door.

  I saw the black Expedition stop right behind the Explorer and the driver’s door pop open. Cade got out, took off his sunglasses, and threw them in the front seat of his car. As I slammed on the brakes, he started and turned to face me, standing beside his car like a mountain. He shaded his eyes against the sun as I threw open my door.

  A moment later, I saw the flare of recognition in his face, and he turned and ran for the house.

  I decided later that it was a good thing that Cade had gotten there first—if he'd been charging me directly, I never would've stood a chance. As it was, though, since he was trying to beat me to the door, the momentum of his charge was directed away from me. I saw Timmons fumble with the lock and get the door open. We were probably fifty feet away from the brick steps when I launched myself and tackled Cade from behind. We both went down in a scraping tumble to the cement.

  I knew I had no time. I punched Cade square in the back of the head, right on that bump where the skull meets the neck. Then I dove for his neck and tried to wrap up a chokehold.

  I dove too far. Cade let me slip over top of him, then flipped me over his shoulder. As we scrambled to our feet, he hit me square on the side of the head. There was a flash of light and pain as I staggered upright. That was temporary. He hit me with a left hook and then a square right and I went down to my hands and knees.

  “Stay down or help me, Shep,” he said. “But don’t get in my way.”

  I shook my head, trying to see one of everything again. Then I saw swirling lights and heard a siren blast and the squeal of tires on the driveway. Cade let loose with a roar of anger and pain, lowered his shoulder, and tried to run right over top of me. I put my head down and dove at his legs to tackle him. He blocked it with one arm and punched me in the back of the head with the other. It was like getting hit by a truck. I felt a burning pain shoot down my right arm and my vision went gray.

  I heard a voice say, “Freeze, assholes,” but Cade kept going, throwing me to the side. So I did what offensive linemen do when they get beat and the linebacker is running free for the quarterback. I spun on the ground and kicked him in the knee.

  He went down.

  I dove onto his back and held on. I hooked my legs in, wrapped my elbow deep around his neck, and squeezed as hard as I could, trying to choke him out.

  I forgot that one of the reasons chokeholds work so well in modern MMA is that there are rules. Cade wasn’t bound by any of those. He reached up with one free hand, grabbed a handful of my hair, and pulled. I slipped that way and squeezed harder. He yanked again and I felt myself slipping off.

  I heard the same voice say, “I warned you.”

  Then I heard a crackling and my whole body seized up in pain, and I pretty much lost track of everything for a while.

  47

  I’m told that it only takes a couple of minutes to recover from being tasered. I can tell you that it felt more like a couple of years. By the time I realized that I was no longer in agonizing pain and could move my limbs, the Chief Detective in Charge of Serious Crimes for Carrefour, Ohio, Mitch Pearson had just put a set of cuffs on Cade and was looking down at me, saying, “Do I need to do the same thing with you, Shepherd, or are you going to behave?”

  “No problems here, Officer,” I said. I sat up, still on the cement. I wrapped my arms around my knees and found that my suit pants were torn, my jaw hurt, and my right arm burned from my neck to my fingertips. I should have kept an eye on Pearson as he put Cade into his car but, honestly, I was just trying not to throw up.

  A second car had arrived behind Pearson. Neighbors were making their way down driveways. I saw Timmons peeking out at us from behind the curtain in his bay window.

  Once he had Cade secured in his car, Pearson came back to me and squatted down.

  “You want to tell me what this is all about?”

  “In your jurisdiction, the man in that house just assaulted Cade’s sister and put her in the hospital.”

  Pearson straightened. “Olivia?”

  I nodded.

  He scowled.

  “There’s a concern the attack could’ve left her blind.”

  Pearson’s expression became truly dark. “You don’t say.”

  “We don’t know for sure yet. We haven’t seen her. But that’s the word.”

  “Okay.”

  “You’ll also want to talk to Sheriff Dushane.”

  Pearson cocked his head. “About?”

  “There’s a high likelihood that the man in there also attempted to commit a murder in Ash County. My guess is that, between you and the Sheriff, you can leverage his crime in your jurisdiction into a confession to the crime in the other one.”

  Pearson nodded. “And here I thought it was a slow week.”

  “Oh, and when you talk to Dushane, tell him to call Trooper Stern over at the Michigan State Highway patrol.”

  “A lot of demands today, Shepherd.”

  I shrugged. “Do what you want. But Stern’s running a cell phone check. My guess is that this guy’s phone is going to verify that he was within 1.3 miles of the crime scene.”

  “That’s a pretty broad radius.”

  “He doesn’t know that though.”

  Pearson looked at the window and the curtain fell back into place. “Who is
this interstate criminal?”

  I moved my jaw back and forth and learned that was a mistake. “A geology professor.”

  Pearson stared at me now. “You’re shitting me.”

  “I’m not.”

  Pearson motioned to two other officers to watch his car, then went to the front door. A woman let him in. A short-time later, Pearson was leading Timmons out in cuffs. A woman was crying. All in all, it was quite a spectacle.

  Once Timmons was loaded, Pearson came back. “You okay to drive?”

  I nodded.

  He extended a hand and helped me to my feet. Of course, he squeezed my hand as hard as he could but, hey, the guy was trying.

  “Thanks for the call, Shepherd. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Wait, you’re not taking Cade in too, are you?”

  “I assume you’re not going to press charges for assault?”

  “Of course not.”

  Pearson nodded. “Then he’ll only be looking at misdemeanor trespassing. He should be out in an hour.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  Pearson shrugged. “Take it up with the prosecutor.” Then he climbed into his car and the officers drove away.

  It took me longer than I care to admit, but I was eventually able to limp to my car. My arm was still burning as I drove away.

  I headed downtown to bail out my friend.

  On Sunday night, Cade and I were sitting in Olivia's hospital room, arguing.

  “It was lucky and you know it,” said Cade.

  “Did you make it up the stairs?” I said.

  “Two more seconds and you were done.”

  “Did you make it up the stairs?”

  “Even when you had me by the neck, you couldn’t hang on.”

  “See, because I don’t remember you making it up the stairs.”

  Olivia shifted in her bed. “All I know is, if I got tased by Pearson, I wouldn’t be running around bragging about it.”

  The woman had a point. We both shut up.

  There was a knock on the door and we all turned as Sheriff Dushane entered the room. “Hello, Olivia,” he said and placed a vase of flowers on her table.

  Olivia reached over to the end table and slipped on her half-mirrored glasses. “Hello, Sheriff.

  He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “How are you, dear?”

  “Good. I feel fine.

  “How much longer are they going to keep you?”

  “Just until tomorrow. There's no damage. They just wanted to monitor the swelling, all things considered.”

  “That makes sense. You can't be too careful.” He patted her hand. “I'm glad.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re a ways from Dellville, aren't you?” I said.

  He did a double take when he saw my face, then pointed at Olivia. “Looks like the two of you should switch places.”

  I shrugged. “I fell.”

  “That’s what I hear.” Sheriff Dushane smiled. “I was just with Mitch Pearson.”

  “Lucky you,” said Cade.

  “He did say the two of you had become close lately.”

  “Very funny.”

  “I sat in on the interrogation of Eli Timmons.”

  “How did that go?”

  “I think you're going to find that you have a day off coming tomorrow.”

  “Oh?”

  Sheriff Dushane nodded. “I know that you all don’t get along with Pearson very well, but he was masterful today. He turned the vehicular assault against Olivia here into leverage about what happened to Abby Ackerman at the Quarry.”

  “And?”

  “And he spilled the whole thing. Turns out Timmons was so anxious about the meeting with Wellington that he couldn’t wait and wanted to meet Hamish at the Quarry to find out what happened. Timmons walked right in halfway through the concert and went around to the abandoned stairway knowing he could catch Hamish on the way back to his car and thinking that no one would see them there. So Hamish comes back after the concert, but before Timmons can say anything, Abby catches up to Hamish. She hadn't known that Hamish was going to be there with Wellington and, when she saw them, she puts two and two together and she lights him up about how he can't go behind his family's back and that an oil well doesn’t work with the type of wholesome food his family is trying to bring to market. One thing leads to another and Hamish yells at her and he leaves. Timmons is sitting in the bushes and hears the whole thing and he can see his deal evaporating.”

  “What was his deal?” I asked.

  “Oh, right. So you know Hamish met Timmons at the Diamond Mine Casino during a diamond hunt?”

  “Yes.”

  “Apparently, they get to talking about where Hamish’s land is and Timmons does research and figures out the Mack farm might be sitting on a huge oil find. Timmons becomes convinced of it and tells Hamish he’ll let him in on a secret if he splits it 50-50. Hamish agrees, Timmons tells him, and they pay for ultrasonic testing. That confirms they’re on the right track. They both figure it’s going to be huge.”

  “So after Hamish’s fight with Abby, Timmons is thinking. Then he hears her talk to Hamish on the phone and he sees his whole deal might be evaporating. So he doesn't even think twice. He comes out of the shadows and tries to get her attention because he wants to convince her to listen to Hamish because he knows what he's doing. Abby’s startled though, and she backs up and Timmons watches her tumble head over heels down the stairs until she flips right off it over into the weeds and rocks.”

  “Timmons panics for a moment but then realizes that Abby is moving and he isn’t sure what to do. He hears someone coming and he figures he’s going to get blamed, so he hides again. It’s Archie and he’s angry and he’s standing at the top of the stairs yelling at Hamish over the phone. Timmons stays hidden and listens to the rest of Archie's conversation and hears that they’re arguing about Abby and the well. Before Archie storms off, Timmons sees him grabbing the rail and realizes it’ll prove that Archie was there. And once Archie leaves, he realizes he has an out and that no one knows he was even there.”

  Sheriff Dushane shrugged. “And I think that’s when his thoughts turned. He knew that, even if it was an accident, there’s no way Hamish would partner with him if he had hurt his fiancée.”

  “You got him to admit all this?” I said.

  “Most of it. Some of the details he didn’t realize he was even admitting. He also might have been under the impression that Pearson would recommend a lighter sentence.”

  “Pearson won’t do that. He can’t do that.”

  “Like I said, he was masterful. So Timmons goes down and he picks up the rock and he tries to finish the job.” Sheriff Dushane shook his head. “He had trouble doing it, I think. He kept saying that Albion-Scipio thing like a mantra. Pearson convinced him that we all understood, that it was far too much money to just let go, that anyone else would have done the same. I think one swing was all that he had in him. Fortunately.”

  “How’d he leave?”

  “He climbed the side fence to the Quarry rather than go back through the crowd, walks about half a mile, then catches an Uber over on Stone Street. He went back and picked up the car at one o’clock the next afternoon when the lot was full of swimmers.”

  I nodded. “That’s consistent with what Danny found on the video. It took some time because he was wearing a baseball cap and trying to blend in the crowd, but we saw him slip through the courtyard to the back part of the Quarry about ten o'clock. And then he never came back out.”

  “I can’t believe he admitted all this,” said Olivia.

  “Like I said, Pearson is good at his job. He’s a better interrogator than, oh, let’s say an angry gym owner.”

  “Cade just got carried away,” said Olivia.

  “I wasn’t talking about him.”

  Olivia stared, then looked down. “Oh, right.”

  “Confronting a suspect as he gets in his car is never a good idea. Leave it to us next time.�
��

  “I was angry. What he did to her...she could’ve been...” She shrugged.

  “I know. Leave it anyway.”

  “So was it a full confession?” I asked.

  “Full enough for your purposes.”

  “I’ll give Archie the good news. I have to call Stritch too.”

  “I already let Stritch know.”

  “Before me? I'm hurt.”

  “He is the prosecutor for my county, Nate. I have to work with him.”

  “I suppose you do.”

  Sheriff Dushane put a hand on Cade's massive shoulder. “Well, it's been electrifying, boys.”

  Cade stared in a way that would have intimidated just about anyone except his pee wee football coach.

  Sheriff Dushane smiled. “I mean it. You guys give me a jolt every time I see you.”

  “Cop humor is the best,” I said.

  “Amps me up every time.” Sheriff Dushane put on his hat, gave Olivia another kiss on the cheek, and made his way out. He paused at the door, looked back at Cade, and said, “That's two.” Then he left.

  Sheriff Dushane went back a ways with all of us, all the way to grade school, but I had no idea what he was talking about. “What did he mean?”

  “Who knows?” said Cade.

  Olivia just sat behind her glasses and stared.

  I think.

  48

  On Monday morning, T. Marvin Stritch dismissed the case against Archie. It actually took some convincing; for a few minutes he had some screwball accomplice theory in mind, but eventually he saw the wisdom of accepting the confession of Timmons and closing the case. I think two things put it over the top. First, I told him I’d made the same mistake, that I’d been just as wrong in my conviction that Wellington had done it. Second, I suggested that dismissing a case was not the same as losing it, so his undefeated streak would remain intact. Five months later, Eli Timmons entered a plea for attempted manslaughter, which I imagine Stritch counted as keeping the streak alive. Hard to say.