Sheriff Taylor had talked with Joe’s father early that morning. The elder Mr. Banning confided that he thought Joe would never be willing to serve prison time. If we found him, his father would try and talk him into surrendering, but he knew his son well enough to know it was not likely. Sheriff Taylor said that our principal objective was to apprehend him without fatalities. If necessary, we’d take him down by using a sniper in a helicopter or call for help from a Phoenix PD swat team.
“Did Joe’s Father say anything about why he tried to kill Graham and me?” I asked.
“Mr. Banning talked with Joe on the phone the day after the confrontation at Joe’s cabin. Mike, I know it’s crazy, but Joe was furious that you killed his dogs. His dad doesn’t admit Joe did the shooting yesterday, but he said that if it was Joe, shooting at Graham must have been a mistake, but he hates you for murdering his dogs. He probably thought you were in the Explorer with Sean like when you came to his cabin.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“We have so many deputies assigned to the Banning search, we need for you to man the front desk and take incoming calls this week,” Chad said to Sean once we were back in my office.
Sean looked chest-fallen at being excluded from the investigation. “Yes sir,” he said and left.
“I know you’re protecting him. He’ll get over the letdown, but he’s done a good job,” I said.
“Sheriff Taylor doesn’t want you in the field either. Both you and Sean are targets if Joe Banning is the sniper; the sheriff wants you both here in the building until we find Banning.”
“What’s the latest on Graham? I’d like to visit him at the hospital.”
“The sheriff’s orders are that you’re not to leave the building. Graham’s in the ICU; no visitors permitted. They’ll transfer him to the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix by helicopter as soon as he’s stable. There is brain damage, but no one knows how much yet.”
“Is the Zackary Cantor case still mine?” I asked. I was annoyed that Sheriff Taylor had not told me to my face that I was restricted to the office.
“Sure, you can work on it from your office. The sheriff said for me to expect a demotion if I didn’t keep you out of trouble. I also promised Margaret to keep you safe.” Chad was clearly uncomfortable. I’d been his direct supervisor and partner until a few months ago. I’m no longer in his direct chain of command, and in this case, he was following instructions directly from Sheriff Taylor.
Chad left to supervise the manhunt, promising to keep me informed.
On my desk was a note to call the assistant DA who was assigned to Mathew Andrews’ bail hearing. I had serious doubts that Mathew had killed Dr. Cantor, and he certainly did not take the shot at me last night. When I explained my reservations about the case, the assistant DA recommended that we release him. There was some risk that he would flee, but our current case was too weak for trial. The defense would certainly bring up last night’s shooting as proof that someone else was involved. If I had doubts, a jury would too. I agreed that Mathew would be released this morning.
If Joe Banning actually killed Dr. Cantor, it was very likely he’d been hired to do the job. I couldn’t picture Amanda Brandt paying twenty-five thousand to a hunting guide to do something her boyfriends could have taken care of gratis. That left me without a prime suspect who had hired Joe.
I decided to call Mrs. Cantor and see if she could come up with other suspects with a grudge against her husband. No one answered at her Flagstaff home. When I checked with the Forest Highlands guards, they said she had just left for the airport. I tried her cell and she answered.
I updated her on the case including the shooting last night. I explained that we would release Mathew later this morning.
“I heard about the shooting last night on the news. I understand that there’s a major search for that hunting guide and for his blue Mazda, but I can’t see any motive for him to kill my husband,” she said.
“Yesterday evening, Mathew was in jail and Trevor had an alibi,” I said. “While we don’t have strong evidence against Joe, he’s our best suspect at this point. That’s why I called. Have you thought of anyone else we should investigate— anyone with a grudge against your husband?”
“Zack was very well liked. It might be connected to the drug situation you mentioned, but Zack certainly didn’t know about the prescription abuse. He would have told me.” I could hear the sound of an airplane; she must have been standing on the tarmac ready to board her private plane.
“If Joe killed your husband, we suspect he was paid to do it. Have you recalled who referred your husband to Joe Banning as a guide?”
“Since Joe is a local, I can only guess that it was someone else local who got them together. Maybe it was one of the guards at Forest Highlands or one of Zack’s golfing buddies. If someone paid for Zack’s murder, I think it must have been related to the DEA investigation. What’s new on the drug situation?” she asked.
“It’s still one of the important leads we’re investigating, but the Scottsdale police verified that Amanda and Trevor were at home last night. They couldn’t have taken the shots at Deputy Graham and me. That causes me to doubt their connection to your husband’s death as well. Your husband was killed by an expert marksman who waited in ambush.”
“The more I’ve thought about Amanda, the more I’m convinced she was the only person who could have made fake prescriptions in my husband’s name. Zack trusted her and had complete confidence in her nursing skills, as did the other doctors at the clinic. To me she seems earnest and straight-laced, not likely to become involved with illegal drugs. It’s just that I can’t think of another answer. I know my husband was not mixed up in it either directly or in response to blackmail.”
“What about Dr. Boatwright? Wouldn’t your husband have trusted him in a medication matter?”
There was a sharp intake of breath. “He was absolutely not involved. He’s a doctor; he would never be mixed up in that sort of disreputable business. How can you even mention such an idea?”
“Dr. Boatwright inherited many of your husband’s patients, and he’s been in a tight financial situation paying off college loans. He wouldn’t be the first young physician to get involved in prescription abuse.”
“You are completely wrong. Amanda is unlikely, but Steven is totally impossible. You’re looking in the wrong place. Zack and Steven were good friends.”
We continued the discussion for a few minutes, but my comment about Steven Boatwright had soured the conversation. Mrs. Cantor planned to spend two weeks in LA at her sister’s house. I didn’t like the idea she was going out of state, but I had no grounds to ask her to stay in Arizona. She wanted to be away from the state while she made up her mind what to do next with her life. She promised to call if anything occurred to her that would help my investigation.
It was time to focus on the motive. Joe Banning’s twenty-five thousand dollars came from someone. However rustic Joe seemed, he used an Internet site in his hunting guide business. It was possible someone hired Joe without ever meeting him in person. Joe’s phone number was on the site as was his e-mail address. Since we had not found a computer among Joe’s possessions, I wondered if he checked his e-mail at the public library or one of the Internet cafes in town. If he had been hired anonymously and paid in cash, it would be nearly impossible to find out who hired him unless he cooperated. From his dad’s comments, I thought Joe might not expect to be taken alive.
Clearly, whoever was involved in the drug scam had benefited because the DEA had closed the case when Dr. Cantor died, but I needed to consider who else had a motive. Dr. Boatwright benefited because he inherited many of Dr. Cantor’s patients, and the death had opened the way for him to pursue Mrs. Cantor. Had Mrs. Cantor benefited in some way? If she were disenchanted with her husband, a divorce was much easier. I had heard no hint of trouble in their relationship, but their strange sex lives could easily have brought complications of which I was still unaware. Had
there been other patients besides Mathew with a grudge against Dr. Cantor? If so, none were mentioned when I interviewed the clinic’s staff.
I called the Flagstaff public library and found that Joe Banning had a library card. The head librarian, Mrs. Chesterfield, remembered Joe because he’s a giant bear of a man. She also knew he was wanted for assaulting a law enforcement officer.
“Joe seldom checks out books; he used the public access computer terminals for about half an hour several times a week. He was in Monday for a few minutes to check his e-mail.”
“You didn’t think to call us?” I asked.
“He came in first thing in the morning. I’m not really a newspaper person, and I don’t watch much TV. I didn’t realize he was wanted until one of the staff mentioned it an hour after he left.” It sounded like a lie. She was probably sympathetic to a local man she knew who appeared to be in a little trouble with the cops over a hunting matter. Now she would certainly know he was wanted for questioning in a homicide.
“Not only did he assault a deputy, he’s wanted for questioning about a murder. You should have called even if he’d been gone for an hour.”
“You’re right officer,” she said. There was no regret in her tone. I wondered if she was one of Joe’s many relatives.
The fact Joe was in town Monday proved he had stayed in the area after he ran from his cabin. Sheriff Taylor considered him the prime suspect, but I still did not. It was not surprising that no one from the Flagstaff Police had thought to check the Flagstaff Public Library; it was just an accident that I had. However, I had proved that Joe had stayed in Flagstaff, and that would confirm the sheriff’s suspicion of him.
After that call, I contacted the assistant DA who I had been working with when Mathew Andrews was the prime suspect. I asked her what it would take to get me a warrant to gain access to Joe Banning’s Internet e-mail accounts. She needed to know more details like the e-mail service he used and his e-mail address, but she didn’t expect it to be difficult. I had his business e-mail address from his web page, but I wanted to make certain that there were not others.
I still had the list of Joe’s relatives that Sheriff Taylor had handed out this morning. I started calling his closest relatives. His sister gave me his personal e-mail address, [email protected], and I called to add to the warrant request. It was about noon when the assistant DA called back. The warrant was being served on Yahoo, and they were willing to provide assistance once she faxed it to their attorneys. His e-mail accounts would be available by 2:30. She gave me a Yahoo name and password where the e-mail accounts’ contents would be transferred for my review.
Since Amanda was an insider at the clinic, she was one of the few people who could have gotten the signed prescription forms. I still considered her as the prime suspect with Trevor or John Nordstrom, his army buddy, doing the actual shooting. Even though Trevor had an alibi for the attack on Graham and me, John might not. If stopping a drug investigation by killing Dr. Cantor was their original motive, the plan went off target when the sheriff’s department concluded that his death could not have been a hunting accident.
I suspected that last night’s shooting was an attempt to stop or to misdirect the investigation. There had been news reports last week that the police were looking for a blue Mazda in connection with the search for Joe Banning. If the shooter wasn’t Joe, he might have even rented or stolen a Mazda to misdirect the investigation. I did a quick computer search for recently stolen Mazda. Two had been stolen in Phoenix in the past three days. One of those was a four-year-old blue Mazda taken from the Metro Center parking lot in north Phoenix yesterday at noon.
I had just started reviewing Amanda’s financial records when Chad Archer stopped by to update me on the progress in the search for Joe Banning. He brought takeout Chinese. He didn’t want me to go out of the building for lunch.
“Joe’s family might have covered for him when the charge was hunting without a permit and a scuffle with a deputy, but they’re honest folks. No one believes they’ll help him now that he’s wanted for the murder of a deputy,” he said as he passed out the Cashew Chicken and Broccoli Beef.
“Have the Flagstaff cops learned anything?”
“They’re close,” he said. “They’ve brought in his youngest sister, Ada Flukes, for further questioning. She refused to talk with them when they went to her house until she spoke to her attorney. A local cop who knows her thinks Joe has been to see her and that she helped him. We expect to get the full story once we grant her immunity. We should have something this afternoon.”
“I did a little checking on things from here in my office as you suggested. Joe Banning was in the Flagstaff Public Library using its free Internet access on Monday at 9:30. That proves that he didn’t flee town last week as the local cops thought.” I enjoyed watching Chad’s expression at the news. His right hand dropped the chopsticks, splattering a little sauce on his shirt.
After a few seconds of speechlessness, Chad asked, “How the hell did you think to check that? He went to the goddamn public library – Mike, you continue to astonish me.”
“I should have access to his e-mail information this afternoon at 2:30. Stop by and see who he’s been writing to if you have a chance.” I smiled at his expression when I failed to explain. We enjoyed our lunch. The expression of amazement remained on Chad’s face for the rest of the meal.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
At 1:30, Mr. Patel came to my office. I’d forgotten about the arrangement I’d made for him to identify Trevor from among a group of men in the reception area. I briefly wondered if my head injury had addled my brain, but I chalked up the forgetfulness to the excitement of last night. Of course, Mr. Patel had seen no one in the reception area that he recognized; Trevor had not come to see me as he had promised. I told Mr. Patel that I would need to make other arrangements and thanked him for being a good citizen.
He had heard of last night’s shooting and commented that he was glad I was still alive. He said that I looked like one of his Sikh countrymen with my bandage.
That reminded me to go by the hospital and have the huge turban bandage replaced with some tape and gauze that only covered the two inches of my head that actually needed it. I borrowed a car for the short trip and decided not to mention the outing to Chad.
As I returned to the Law Enforcement Building parking lot, I saw something that caught my attention. A slight woman was standing at the back edge of the lot next to a bulky man. Their faces were away from me, but what caught my attention was that the man’s left hand was around the woman’s right wrist rather than holding her hand in a normal way. As I drove closer, I realized that it was June from the Research Department straining against the handhold of a man in his fifties.
I skidded to a stop and was out of the car with my pistol drawn in seconds. They turned to look at the sound of the car. The man held a tire iron in his right hand and June in an iron grip with his left hand. Her face showed terror.
“Drop it and put your hands on your head.” I pointed my pistol at his forehead. I would not miss at this distance. I was in no condition for hand-to-hand combat with bruised ribs, a sore back, and a head wound; I was serious about shooting him.
He sneered at me and raised the tire iron to take a swing at June.
I shot it from his right hand. He grunted in surprise and pain, blood spurting from his hand. I took two steps closer and punched him hard in the chin. He released June and slumped to his knees and then collapsed face down. He was used to beating up women and children, but he had a glass jaw.
After he was face down with handcuffs, June hugged me, shaking with fright and crying. Other officers had heard the gunshot, and a crowd soon surrounded us. After a trip to the Flagstaff Medical Center, June’s former husband was booked on a dozen charges that should keep him incarcerated for at least five years.
At 2:30 I signed onto Yahoo using the account information for Joe Banning. His e-mail account popped up, giving me access
to everything that he had retained and all of his current unread mail. I quickly found a folder for his customers. An e-mail from Dr. Cantor explained that the physician had been awarded an elk tag for this year’s autumn hunt in the Kachina Wilderness and was interested in a guide for scouting the area prior to the hunt. It was clear from the e-mail that the men had not previously met, and the text did not reveal from whom Dr. Cantor got Joe’s name.
A second e-mail from Dr. Cantor two days later agreed to the $800 fee and suggested a meeting at a coffee shop in downtown Flagstaff on the Wednesday before the murder. The messages corresponded to Joe’s version of his contact with Dr. Cantor.
I found no other correspondence with anyone connected to the case. There was nothing in the file from Ethan Kearns who had supposedly hired Joe for an illegal hunt for twenty-five thousand dollars in cash; however, that transaction could have been set up by phone.
Since June had gone home after the incident, I called her supervisor and asked her to get a copy of Joe Banning’s long distance calls, suggesting that she contact the District Attorney’s office to assist. I doubted there was a real Ethan Kearns, but Joe was entitled to have his claim checked out. The supervisor agreed to find the phone records, but her tone was remote, and she seemed to be annoyed with me for no reason that I knew about.
I read every e-mail for the past five months retained in Joe’s account; there were only twenty. He seemed to use the account exclusively for business related e-mail; there was nothing personal. The stored outgoing e-mail was also business related, and there were no names on Joe’s contact list of regular correspondents. Why did he take the chance of going to the library after becoming a fugitive if there was nothing important in his account? I wondered if he had been busy deleting e-mails rather than sending them. I phoned the Yahoo system administrator who had set up my access to Joe’s account. When I asked if the service could recover any e-mails deleted in the past two weeks, she said she would try, and e-mail me tomorrow if successful.
The Dead Man at Doyle Saddle Page 16