The Secrets of Ethan Falls

by J. W. Lucas

  At dinner we feasted on spaghetti and homemade meat sauce that Mandy and Lindsey had cooked up late in the afternoon. After the women cleaned up, the Judge and Lindsey retired to their bedroom. Mandy and I watched TV, and my yawning finally got to her by eight pm.

  “I’m sorry Honey; I haven’t had much sleep in the past twenty-four hours.”

  “Well, my love,” she said, “I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is we’re going to bed. The bad news is that you aren’t going to get any sleep for the next half hour. You okay with that?”

  I leaned over and gave her a kiss. “Yeah, that’s okay. Just don’t take it personally if I fall asleep.”

  Chapter 20

  I slept until ten on Thursday morning and after I showered and dressed I went out to the kitchen to find that Mandy had left me a note that the Moran’s had gone up to Ethan Falls for a doctor’s appointment, and she had gone over to Lennox to do some shopping. I made myself a coffee and went out on the deck. I saw that the local farmers were out haying the lower meadow, and I saw Erik coming down the hill on the Gator. I walked down the steps to the backyard and he pulled up to me.

  “Good Morning,” he greeted me. “Bernie and I have been watching the news stories on Ethan Falls. Sounds like you cleaned house!”

  “Yeah, it turned out to be more than I planned on. At least we got the guy who killed Susan Peterson, and two of the deputies are probably the ones who shot Judge Moran.”

  “I have to tell you, I’ve enjoyed having your girl Mandy around here. She pestered me to teach her how to drive the Gator and once she got the hang of it, you would have thought she was ready for NASCAR! And then she wanted me to teach her how to fish!”

  “How did that work out for you?” I asked.

  “Bernie and I took her up to the lake for a couple of hours to get her out of the house and she caught three smallmouths before we got one! “And when we were packing up the Gator she saw the shotgun and asked why I was bringing it. I told her that we had bears roaming this time of year. Now she wants me to teach her how to shoot! “

  “I told her I’d have to run that by you, but I’m telling you, Daryl, you better marry this girl or Bernie and I are going to disown you!”

  I just smiled and didn’t respond. Erik went about his chores and I went in and checked the news on my laptop. There were a lot of stories about the action in Ethan Falls, and as I scanned through them, I could see that the press was doing a lot of speculating and embellishment of what had happened.

  One article caught my eye, and it said that there were unconfirmed rumors that I had been brought in from the Boston Justice office to oversee the investigation of Judge Moran being shot and that led to breaking open the whole scandal of the County officials. Not what I wanted the world to know I thought.

  Just before noon, I got a call from Bellington Captain Dan Monroe.

  “Daryl, I wanted to fill you in on something about the incident at the Medical Center. Tom Hines worked his ass off reviewing hours of video and came up with a still frame of the guy that was with Carpa’s brother. He emailed it to me. Late last evening Jack Merrill sent out a confidential email with a photo of the guy that was killed on the rooftop at the compound. One of my night detectives saw it come in and noticed that it was the same guy in the hospital photo.”

  “Man, that’s a stroke of luck. Any ID on the guy?”

  “Not yet. Merrill’s team sent his photo and prints down to Washington and copied the New Jersey State Police Intelligence Unit. One of the guys that were arrested is starting to talk a little, and he said he thought the guy was from Newark.”

  “Dan, all of this is somehow related to these guys that came out of Jersey.”

  “I know Daryl, it looks that way. We’re working with the Jersey cops to try to find John Carpa’s brother. I have a warrant for him charging attempted murder, and a few other felonies related to the gun he had. I’ll keep you posted.”

  The case was progressing just fine without me I thought as I switched on the TV and sprawled out on the sectional in the family room. Mandy came home in the early afternoon and chatted about her shopping, and after she put her goods away, she curled up next to me.

  Lindsey called her and said that she and the Judge decided to stay the night at their house, but they would be back down here in the morning. I wasn’t too comfortable with that, given Carpa and his brother were still on the loose, but I let it go.

  Friday was a quiet day, with no updates on the case. On Saturday morning I got a text from Captain Jack Merrill asking me to call him.

  “Daryl, thanks for calling. John Carpa’s been arrested. He was trying to talk his way through the Customs inspection point between Maine and New Brunswick. He was using a driver’s license with his true name, Giovanni Carpanara. When the Customs agents ran his name through the National Crime Information Center they got the murder warrant hit. I had entered his true name as an alias. They’re holding him without bond, and we’ll start the extradition paperwork Monday morning.”

  “Great work! Any word yet on the ballistics tests?” I asked.

  “No, but I spoke with the Crime Lab boss, he said he’s authorized his guys to work the overtime to get the tests done. He said he should have something for me by noon tomorrow. I know that’s Sunday, but I can call you when I get the results.”

  “Absolutely Jack. If the guns and bullets match like I think they will, I can back out and let you take it the rest of the way.”

  “Thanks, Buddy! You know the damn paperwork is the hardest part of any case,” he said with a laugh.

  “Well maybe if you talk nice to him and promise him a bottle of booze like I did, Jacob Meisner will give you a hand!”

  “For all the work you got him to do for us you owe him a case!” he said.

  “Get me his address and consider it done. Talk to you tomorrow.”

  Mandy came into the family room. “I heard you on the phone. More business?”

  “Yeah, but I think tomorrow I’ll get the last information I need and I’m out of this.” She gave me a kiss and a long hug.

  “That’s what I’ve been praying for my love.”

  “Hey!” I said, “What’s going on with your parents coming down to visit?”

  “It looks like they’ll be down next Saturday. I talked to my mother yesterday, and she sounded more comfortable about us. She said she and Hansel have been watching the news out of Ethan Falls news and have been Googling up a storm. She said they’re amazed by your career.”

  “Damn Google!”

  At one-thirty Sunday afternoon, it all ended with a call from Captain Jack Merrill.

  “Daryl, the ballistics are done. Both weapons were used to shoot Judge Moran.”

  “Thank You, Lord,” I offered.

  “And Daryl it gets better. We got a hit on the pings we were doing for Pasquale. It located him in Miami. The FBI down there found him in a hotel and they raided his room and caught him with a hooker at two this morning. I woke Dan Monroe up when I got the news and he’s ecstatic.” I was quiet for a moment.

  “One more thing Daryl. The forensics lab examined the sexual assault evidence taken from Susan Peterson’s body. There is no evidence that she was raped.”

  “Daryl, I have to ask. How did you know that when you were talking Eddie Peterson out of shooting Manning?”

  “I wasn’t sure about that, but I had to tell Eddie something. I remembered that Dr. Greene said the detectives had him undress Susan when he did the post-mortem. It struck me then that there hadn’t been a sexual assault.”

  “Well Daryl, I found some comfort in knowing that her killer hadn’t violated her.”

  “Then it’s over Jack! Thank you and your men for your support and cooperation.”

  “No, Thank You, Daryl. You built our case for us. Don’t forget you invited me down to your place.

  “We’ll set something up Jack. Maybe we can get Dan Monroe and his wife to join us,” I said.

  �
�His wife? Daryl, you mean his fiancée, don’t you?”

  “What?”

  “His fiancée. That pretty lawyer gal from the Medical Center.

  “Kaitlyn Mason? Jack, I saw her rings. She’s married!”

  “No, my friend. She’s divorced. Been a few years now.”

  “Jack, I definitely will set something up for you guys to visit. We all have a lot to talk about!”

  Late Sunday afternoon Mandy's mother called her, and I saw that she was in the kitchen on the phone for almost a half hour. She came into the family room and handed me the phone. "My father would like to talk to you Daryl."

  "Mr. Simmons, this is Daryl, Hi!"

  "Daryl, I'll get right to the point. Mandy's mother and I have been concerned about your whirlwind relationship with our daughter. And after learning what you do for a living, we felt that she was making a mistake.”

  "I'm sorry you feel that way, Mr. Simmons."

  "But after seeing how you've protected her this past week and watching the news about what you did in Ethan Falls, we were wrong about you."

  “I didn't answer, and I looked up at Mandy who had that "What?" look on her face.

  “Can we assume Daryl that your relationship has long-term implications?"

  "Yes, it does," I responded.

  There was a long pause on his end of the phone, then he said, "If those implications are marriage, then you have our blessing if that's what you two decide. We've never heard Mandy be this serious about anything in her life, and we have to respect that she's not our little girl anymore.”

  "Thank you. I'm hoping that you and Mandy's mother can come down to Stockbridge next weekend. I'd like to celebrate some things with all of you."

  "Yes, we'll be down Daryl. Please tell Mandy that her mother will call her during the week. Nice talking with you." I handed the phone back to Mandy. "WHAT?” she said.

  "Your Mom and Dad will be coming down next weekend to celebrate with us.

  “Celebrate what?” she asked.

  "You achieving your MBA. And our engagement if you say yes you'll marry me."

  She looked stunned.

  "Your father said that if we decide that we want to get married down the road, he and your mother give their blessing."

  She didn't say anything and after a few moments, I filled the void.

  "I remember that you said that you didn't want to talk about marriage for at least a year, and I'm not sure why that's so important to you. But you didn't say anything about waiting to get engaged. I want you to be my fiancée.

  "You lawyers are always looking for loopholes! Daryl, in less than a month I’ve seen that your life is full of violence, and so many people rely on you to help them get through it. I want to wait a year to get married to be sure that I won’t disappoint you by being scared for you all the time and crying about it. I want you to feel that I can give you the love and support that you need. All your money is every girl’s dream, but not mine.”

  “Mandy, we’ll be fine. We can wait for a year, but I want you to know that I’m not letting you go. Will you be my fiancée until we get married?”

  “YES! I would love to be your fiancée and not your girlfriend!”

  “Is it too early for a nap?” She asked.