The Secrets of Ethan Falls

by J. W. Lucas

  “What?”

  “I’m sure there must be a quality art supply store in the area.

  “Not around here, maybe Rutland,” she answered.

  I want to give you some money tomorrow morning and I’d like you to get him the best assortment of art supplies that you can find. I don’t care how much it costs. `

  “Yes, I can do that,” she said with a perplexed look on her face.

  “Great, thank you. Are you hungry?”

  “Not really. I think I want a drink though. I have some wine, but I don’t have any hard liquor. Would you like a beer?”

  “Sure. I don’t feel like eating either,” I said.

  She came back from the kitchen with a glass of wine and my beer.

  “Let’s go to bed early tonight and sleep!” I said.” I’m not sure that I can keep up our honeymoon pace anymore today!”

  “Yeah, I think our nap this afternoon did me in too,” she said as she curled up on the couch with her head on my lap. “But it was soooo nice!”

  We finished our drinks and went to bed at seven-thirty. For a change, we slept through the night.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I woke up a little before eight and after a shower and shave I went downstairs to find Mandy in the kitchen fixing a full breakfast.

  “Good Morning sleepy-head!” she said after a kiss. “I was up at 6:30; I hope my shower didn’t wake you.”

  “No, I slept soundly. What are you going to do after breakfast?” she asked as she presented me with a plate of scrambled eggs, sausage, orange juice, and coffee.

  “Wow, I could get used to this. Thank You!” I said eyeing the banquet she had prepared.

  That’s my plan My Love, and your plan for the day is?”

  “I want to check in with Lindsey and see how the Judge is doing. Then I’m going to give Damien a call and see how we can set something up to work with the Vermont authorities.”

  “OK,” she said, “I looked online a little while ago and saw that there’s a good art supply shop up in Rutland. It’s a bit of a drive, but I don’t mind doing it if you still want me to get some supplies for Yo-Yo.”

  “That would be great, thanks.”

  I finished breakfast, gave Mandy some money for the art supplies and called Lindsey.

  “Well, Good Morning! And how was your weekend? I’m dying to know,” she asked with a hint of a giggle.

  “It was great. You were right. Mandy’s the one.”

  “I knew it!” She said almost shouting. “I am so happy for the both of you. My women’s intuition was right!”

  “How’s the Judge progressing?” I asked.

  “He seems stronger every day. They’re moving him from ICU into a private room this morning, and he walked a little yesterday, which is really encouraging. My hope is that he’ll be strong enough by the end of the week to be discharged and get out-patient treatment.”

  “Are you going to be able to manage him at home?”

  “His case worker is setting me up with the Visiting Nurses and if need be, I’ll hire a private duty nurse for the first few days and see how things go.”

  “Great. If you need any help, please let me know.”

  “And what are your plans Daryl?”

  I told her about my meeting with Damien Costigan and our plan to work with the Vermont authorities in the investigation of the Sheriff’s Department. She was quiet for a minute.

  “Are you sure you know what you’re getting into?”

  “Yes, I have a plan that I think will lead us to who killed Susan Peterson and shot your husband,” I explained.

  “Oh My God Daryl, please, please, be very careful with those people. After everything that has happened this week I am really scared for all of us.”

  “You just concentrate on your husband Lindsey, and I’ll deal with the rest. By the way, do you think the Judge is up to a visit from me this afternoon?”

  “I’ll ask him first thing this morning. I think so, he asked about you yesterday and I told him you went home for the weekend. I didn’t tell him about Mark Savage getting killed and I also didn’t tell him about your Mandy.”

  “Well, looks like the Judge and I have a lot to talk about. Please call me if he feels up to my visit.”

  “I will, talk to you later,” she said and hung up.

  I called Damien and luckily caught him at his desk.“Good Morning Boss, how was the wedding?” I asked.

  “Hi! It was actually very nice. The kids cleaned up good, and the inn gets four stars in my book. Really nice and exceptionally accommodating. By the way, Kent is a pretty little town, and your Mandy is a doll. Maggie couldn’t stop talking about her and you as a couple all weekend!”

  “It is a nice town and thank Maggie for her kind thoughts. I think Mandy’s very special.”

  “Boss, I have a few more things to run by you.” I said, changing the subject.

  “Fire away my boy!” he said.

  I briefed him on the idea of a Federal Grand Jury and he readily agreed to work on that with the Vermont Federal Court. He said he could have two of his technology agents available to me with eight hours’ notice. I offered to foot the bill for their overnight stay and meals and after a little pushback from him, he agreed. My ulterior motive was to have them stay at my hotel in the thought that if the Abbot Deputies returned to their favorite haunt in the bar it wouldn’t take long for them to suspect that they were Feds. I wanted to start applying pressure on the Sheriffs.

  He told me that he had assigned three of his interns to do the research I wanted, and I told him I also needed profiles of Captain Carpa, Detective Manning, and Sheriff Hunter’s and County Exec Donnelly. I asked him to make it a priority to have the Vermont US Attorney assign an assistant to contact me to work on getting the search warrants I had in mind.

  “Anything else I can do for you my boy since you apparently think Boston doesn’t have any crime problems of its own?” he asked sarcastically.

  “Hey, I’m sorry Boss; I know I’m asking a lot of you.”

  “I’m just kidding Daryl. I owe you a lot. I’ll get right on this and check in with you late this afternoon. In the meantime, you just be damn careful up there.”

  “I will, and thanks,” I said and ended the call.

  I called County Attorney Petrone and his secretary put me through to his office.

  “Daryl! I’m sure you heard about Mark Savage getting killed.”

  “I did Dan.”

  “And what do you think about Donnelly insinuating that Mark Savage killed the girl and shot Judge Moran?”

  “He didn’t do it, Dan. They’re framing him.”

  After a pause, he responded, “I agree. Do you have any thoughts on who did?”

  “I do Dan, we need to talk. Outside of your office.”

  “When and where?” he asked after a few moments of hesitation. “I’ll drive up and can be there in about an hour. Give me your cell number and I’ll call you to meet me in the parking lot,” I said.

  He agreed and gave me his number. I hung up just as Mandy said she was ready to leave. She gave me her spare key to the deadbolt on the front door and asked me to lock up when I left.

  “Daryl, please be very careful today and come home to me in one piece,” she said as she gave me a long kiss. “On my way back from Rutland I’m going to stop at Susan’s parent’s house. Wish me luck.”

  “You’ll do great. Just call me if you need anything,” I said.

  I went upstairs, strapped the Sig Sauer and clips on my belt, grabbed my suit coat and headed out to Ethan Falls. I arrived at the courthouse and called Dan. He came outside about five minutes later.

  “What’s with all the cloak and dagger Daryl?” he asked as he slid into the seat.

  “Dan, I think your office may be bugged. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole place isn’t wired,” I explained as I pulled out of the lot. I expected him to act shocked, or at least surprised, but he wasn’t.

  “What makes y
ou think that?” he asked.

  I told him about the County Exec’s comment to me that he seemed to know what we had talked about during our meeting at the court house.

  “You didn’t tell Donnelly about my visit, did you, Dan?”

  “Hell no, of course not!” He exclaimed in anger. “I can’t stand that self-serving son-of-a-bitch.”

  “I knew that Dan. I just needed to hear it from you.” I told him that the only logical way anyone would have known what we talked about was electronic eavesdropping and not just the phones being tapped.

  After a minute to consider that, he spoke. “You know, I’ve had an uneasy feeling the past few months. It seems that Hunter and Donnelly knew as much about my cases as I did. And I must tell you, I’ve come into work in the morning and noticed that some of the files on my desk weren’t as I remembered leaving them.”

  I asked him who had keys to his office. “Just me, my secretary Amy, and of course Billy Barnum. As the building Super he has master keys. Even my assistant attorneys don’t have a key to my private office, and I religiously lock it every night when I leave.”

  I asked him to show me where Dr. Greene’s office was, and I drove following his directions.

  I filled him in on my theory that one or more of the Sheriffs were involved in Susan’s murder and the shooting of Judge Moran, and now the death of Deputy Savage. I asked him about the Sheriff’s reported large drug seizures and the disposition of the evidence.

  “I honestly don’t have a clue, Daryl. I have four cases sitting on my desk, all reporting seizures of heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine. All the cases were transferred to the Superior Court; all the accused are from out-of-state and were out on bonds. All of them failed to appear for their next Court date.”

  “Have you been in contact with the State prosecutors on that?”

  “They contacted me and asked what the hell was going on. Two of the four were Spanish speaking and gave addresses in Brooklyn and the other two gave addresses in Jersey.”

  “What bonds were they out on?”

  “Prior to arraignment all were set at fifty-thousand, and they posted them.”

  “And let me guess, Freedom Bail Services was the bond agent.”

  “How did you know that?” he asked.

  “Just a hunch. Are there any other bond agencies in the County?”

  “Yeah. Federated Bail Services, that’s a national company, and Bob Allen, he’s a local independent,” he explained. “Why?”

  “Are they doing much business with the Sheriff’s arrests?” I asked.

  “Some. But now that I think of it, I can’t recall any drug arrests when Freedom wasn’t the bondsman.”

  “How are bond forfeitures handled? I mean if the case is bound over to the Superior Court and there’s a non-appearance the Court will issue a re-arrest won’t it?”

  “Sure. But as it turns out the Sheriff’s Office manages the bond forfeitures by submitting them to the County for collection after ninety-days of non-appearance or re-arrest.”

  “You mean to tell me that the County supposedly files for the forfeiture actions?” I asked incredulously.

  “And let me guess again. None of those were Freedom Bail Services.”

  “That’s right. How did you know that?” he said. I didn’t answer.

  “Do you know anything about the Freedom people? Are they national, state-wide or what?” I asked.

  “You know, I’m not sure. I‘ve only seen cases that they’ve had in Abbott County.”

  I didn’t pursue the bondsman issue and after a few minutes of silence Dan asked, “What’s your interest in Dr. Greene?”

  “I read in the newspaper that Greene allegedly did an autopsy on the girl. Apparently, he’s the County Medical Examiner?”

  “He is. I know he’s made some death pronouncements over the years, but I can’t recall him ever doing any autopsies. The old man can hardly see! There’s no way he did an autopsy on Susan Peterson,” he said.

  “What do you know about his assistant, a Middle Eastern guy, I think his name is Farhan?”

  “Not much. I recall about a year or so ago there was an article in the local paper that he relocated from Iraq. I think he was either a doctor or medical student, but his educational background couldn’t be verified, so he couldn’t be certified in this country as a physician. It said he joined Dr. Greene as a medical assistant. I do know that he’s been involved with the refugee resettlement program that our churches run.”

  “That’s Greene’s office right there,” he said, pointing to a large Victorian house about a mile from the village green. I pulled over and took a few photos with my cell phone.

  “What’s that for?” he asked, obviously surprised at what I was doing.

  “I need a premises description for a search warrant affidavit.”

  “A search warrant for what?” he asked, raising his voice.

  “Any records of a post-mortem exam that he may have done on Susan Peterson, and records of prescriptions or dispensing of controlled drugs given to patients who were clients of the refugee resettlement program,” I explained.

  “Are you out of your mind? Do you think that an Abbot County judge will sign a search warrant for Horace Greene’s office?” he said as he laughed.

  “Who said anything about a County search warrant?” I countered.

  “Obviously Daryl I’ve underestimated you. Level with me. On what authority are you acting?” I waited a few seconds before I answered.

  “A Federal Grand Jury.”

  Dan Petrone was dead silent as we drove back toward the Court House. I pulled over to the curb in the village green in front of a storefront that displayed the Abbot County Sheriff’s Department sign and took two more pictures with my cell phone. He finally spoke. “Not there too?”

  “Yeah, I need some more info first, whether they have surveillance cameras, and if they keep case records there.”

  “I honestly don’t know Daryl. I think they have some cameras, but I doubt that they keep records there. How are you going to find out what they have?”

  “If we must, we’re going to ask Sheriff Porky Hunter,” I said with a grin.

  As we neared the courthouse, I asked him to point out building superintendent Billy Barnum’s house.

  “There, the small cottage on the hill,” he said pointing to my right. Billy’s house overlooked the Courthouse grounds and was situated next to what looked like a small park. I couldn’t help but notice the large radio tower and antenna on the side of his property.

  “What’s with the tower?” I asked, craning my nexck to get a better view.

  “That’s Billy’s. He’s a ham radio guy. He was an electronics technician in the Navy and he once told me that’s when he got interested in radios. A few years ago, he invited me up to his house to see his station, shack I think he called it. Well, it wasn’t a shack! He had a half-dozen radios, some computers, tape recorders, it looked like NASA Central, but it was all Greek to me. He said that he had talked with stations all over the world and the walls in the room were covered with postcards he said verified his contacts. He’s a wizard when it comes to electronics.” I pulled to the side of the road and stared at the antenna. I don’t know much about radios, but what I was seeing was impressive.

  “Dan has Billy ever done any electrical or phone work at the Courthouse?” I asked.

  “Sure. We installed new phone system about six or seven months ago and Billy worked with the installers every night for about a week. Why do you ask?” I didn’t answer, but it only took Dan a few seconds to read my mind.

  “Daryl, you don’t think Billy……?”

  “I don’t know Dan, but we need to get some electronics techs to look at the building when no one’s around.”

  “Daryl, I wouldn’t know who to call to do that, and I don’t know how we could get Billy out of the building during the day.”

  “I have some people we can use, and we would be going in late at night.”


  “Oh no! Do you mean those Federal black bag guys exist?”

  “Yeah, they’re real and they’re very good. You’ll help me with that, right Dan?”

  “Of course. But we can’t let Donnelly know what we’re doing, he said raising his hands in a slowing motion.”

  “No! Donnelly’s not to know anything,” I said emphatically as I pulled into the courthouse lot and dropped him off.

  “I’ll be in touch Dan as soon as I can formalize a plan.”

  I drove out of the courthouse lot, turned into the small park next to Billy’s house, go out and looked at the tower. The main antenna was huge, and I noticed about three feet under it was a smaller antenna pointing at the court house. It looked like the microwave antennas that I’d seen all over Boston, especially on the high-rise office buildings. I zoomed in on the antenna with my cell phone and snapped a couple pictures. I looked down to the courthouse and my eye caught a similar antenna tucked in a corner eave of the roof. The line of sight between the two was straight and unobstructed. I zoomed in and photographed it. “Damn!” I said out loud. If this was a microwave link as I thought it was, this was sophisticated. I made a mental note to ask the FBI techs what we would need to learn if my suspicions were correct. I drove back through the center of the village and pulled to the curb just before the Sheriff’s sub-station. There was no activity and no one on the street. I didn’t see any surveillance cameras on the front of the building.