by B J Bourg
I could see that the man on the left was obviously Ricky Bradberry, but I didn’t recognize the man on the right. Amy, on the other hand, was pointing furiously at the screen.
“That’s Trevor’s friend—or co-worker. It’s the kid I almost shot.”
I cocked my head to the side. “You almost shot a kid? Why didn’t I know about this?”
“I told you—remember? I thought he was breaking into my house, but he was delivering my car. He works with Trevor.” She leaned closer to the monitor. “What in the hell is he doing with Ricky Bradberry?”
“That’s Ricky’s other son,” Bill said flatly. “His name’s Lenny—he’s the good one.”
“Why didn’t you mention anything about Lenny coming here with Ricky?” I challenged.
“That’s because you didn’t ask,” Bill retorted. “You only asked about Junior. If I’ve learned anything in my sixty-four years, it’s that you never volunteer information to anyone. You answer what’s asked of you. You tell the truth, nothing but the truth, so—”
“Can you keep rolling the tape?” I asked, cutting him off. I stole a glance in Amy’s direction. She was studying the screen with great interest, and I could almost see the wheels turning in her head.
Bill nodded and hit the play button. We all watched as Ricky and Bill began talking to each other—no doubt bartering over the pistol that Bill had placed on the counter. After a few minutes, Bill snatched up the pistol and walked to the far end of the counter. Ricky followed him toward the back of the shop and they both disappeared into the dark shadows of the same doorway we’d just accessed to get to this tiny office.
Although I couldn’t see Lenny’s eyes in the footage, I had noticed him watching Bill closely when the old man put the jar in the safe, and now he was eyeing his father and Bill as they disappeared through the back door of the shop. As soon as the two men disappeared into the darkness, Lenny jumped over the counter and immediately went for the safe. He didn’t even have to manipulate the dial. The safe had been left unlocked, so all he had to do was turn the handle and it opened.
“That son of a bitch!” Bill muttered as we watched Lenny remove the jar of potassium cyanide. Lenny shoved it into his front pocket and pulled his shirt down low, then returned to the customer side of the counter. He began wandering around the showroom area, lifting a tool here, plucking the strings on a guitar there—much the same as Amy had done while I was talking to Bill earlier.
When Bill and Ricky reappeared, Lenny ambled up to the counter and stood there fidgeting while the two men completed their transaction. His right hand kept dropping to his pocket, and I imagined he felt as though there were a giant “Guilty” sign taped to his forehead and an arrow pointing to the cyanide.
“I never would’ve guessed Lenny stole something from me.” Bill shook his head and leaned back in his chair. “Now, Junior…I knew I had to keep an eye on that boy. He’s been troubled since he was young, but not Lenny. He’s as decent as they come.”
I was surprised, too, because all of my money had been on Junior, especially since Lenny had been offshore. As I wondered if both brothers were in on the murder, I handed Bill a flash drive and asked him for a copy of the surveillance film showing Lenny stealing the cyanide. He nodded and went to work, again having to talk himself through the process.
After about ten minutes of fumbling with the controls and cursing, he was finally able to download the footage. He was still bitching about Lenny when he handed me the flash drive. I thanked him for his time and Amy walked out into the cool evening air. It was a little after six o’clock and the sun was merely a dull red glow to the west.
I stepped inside my Tahoe and waited for Amy to get in before I fired up the engine. As I headed south, I began considering our next move. Apparently, Amy was wondering the same thing, because she asked if I was going to release Junior.
“Oh, God no,” I said, “he’s still our prime suspect.’
“But Lenny stole the poison,” Amy countered. “We don’t even know if Junior knew about the poison.”
I thought about that for a second. We did possess information that Junior knew about the poison, but that information had come from Lenny. I suddenly shook my head as another thought occurred to me. “Lenny might’ve stolen the poison, but there’s no way he administered it. According to his wife, he’s been offshore since before New Year’s Day.”
“Wait a minute—you spoke to his wife?” Amy asked. “What exactly did she say?”
“Well, according to her,” I said slowly, “he hasn’t returned at all. He left before New Year’s Day and hasn’t been home since.”
“Hmm, I’m not so sure about that, and that makes me suspicious of her. Lenny was at my house on Wednesday, so there’s no way he’s been offshore since the end of December.”
“Are you sure it was him?”
Amy hesitated, took a breath. “If it wasn’t him, he has a twin.”
“According to Ricky, he only has two sons, and Junior looks nothing like Lenny.” I ran a hand through my hair as I approached the Mechant Loup Bridge. It separated our town from the rest of the world, and it was always a pain in the ass when it broke. Thankfully, that didn’t happen often. I turned to Amy. “Do you think his wife lied?”
“If she did, then she’s in on killing Katrina. But why would Lenny, his wife, and Junior want her dead? What do they have to gain from her passing?”
“Like I always say, find the motive—”
“Find the killer,” Amy interrupted, nodding. “And how does this involve little Rose Murdock? How on earth is she tied to this mess?”
Other than her being on Katrina’s bus, I had no clue how she factored into this case, so I just shook my head and kept driving. The activity in town was winding down for the night. Traffic was lighter than usual for a Friday night, and I knew it was because most of the locals were out searching for the missing teenager. I was a transplant in this little town, but I loved it like it had been my only home. Most of the people stayed to themselves, but they banded together and fought like hell when tragedy struck.
“You know,” Amy said, “there is a way I can find out for sure if that was Lenny Bradberry at my house.”
“How would you do that?”
“I could ask Trevor. He didn’t say Lenny’s name, but he did say the kid worked for him.” Amy raised an eyebrow when I didn’t respond right away. “What do you think? I don’t have to say what it’s about. All I have to do is ask for the name of the kid I almost shot. He’ll get a kick out of it.”
I actually loved the idea. We needed to know Lenny’s whereabouts, one way or the other. If it was possible he was onshore Wednesday, then it was possible he was also onshore when Katrina was poisoned—if, indeed, that was how she died.
Amy pulled out her phone and called her boyfriend. The conversation was brief.
“That kid I almost shot—what’s his name?”
Pause.
“That’s what I thought. Did he get off the boat with you?”
Shorter pause.
“Did he go back offshore, or is he still around?”
Pause.
“No reason. I was just wondering if I’m out of the woods yet. I figured he’d go straight to the police station and make a complaint against me. It hasn’t happened yet, so I was hoping he went back offshore and that he would forget about the whole mess. I can’t afford to get fired, because I’m going to have a hefty insurance bill on that Lexus.” She nodded, then said she’d see him later. “Yep, it’s definitely Lenny Bradberry and he did get off the boat with Trevor. Either his wife lied to us or he lied to his wife.”
“What did Trevor say when you asked if Lenny went back offshore?”
Her lip curled up into a snarl. “He was being a smartass. At first, he said it wasn’t his turn to babysit Lenny, but then he said Lenny works on his boat. So, if he’s home, Lenny’s home—unless Lenny was doing some work on the boat while it was in port to make extra hours. He said that wa
s quite possible, considering Christmas just passed and Lenny’s got small kids.”
“He stole the poison, so he clearly has the intent to kill. He was in town, so we now know he has opportunity. But”—I turned up my hands while holding on to the steering wheel—“where in the hell is he and does he have Rose?”
CHAPTER 45
7:30 p.m.
Mechant Loup Police Department, Mechant Loup, Louisiana
60 hours missing…
After having stopped at the police department to spend another hour interrogating Junior—we got nowhere with him—Amy and I were forced to release him to his father. I paused to have a brief conversation with Melvin on our way out the door. He said he’d attended Katrina Murdock’s autopsy and the doctor had indicated poisoning as a cause of death and had ruled the manner of death a homicide.
“She’s waiting on more tests, but she’s fairly certain the cyanide killed Katrina.” Melvin wiped his grimy face. He’d been working hard and I doubted he’d had a bath in days, but neither had I. “I also heard back from Jennifer Duval. She got the results from the vomit, the sugar container, and the jar—they all tested positive for cyanide. She used some technical terms when she was explaining everything to me, but I told her to just put it in a report and fax it to the police department. There’s no way I’d remember all the details.”
I thanked him and waved for Amy to follow me. Before we could make it out the door, he called after me.
“Oh, did you check the jail cell?”
I turned slowly and shook my head. “Why?”
“Laura Murdock bonded out of jail.”
I groaned. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with Laura Murdock, but we were hungry and tired, so we headed for the scene. A thousand thoughts were going through my mind as I parked behind a news van on the shoulder of Old Blackbird Highway. Light was shining from under the open tent and a dozen people were sitting around tables eating. I shoved the gearshift in park. I didn’t see Laura and I hoped she wasn’t out there trying to kill any more innocent teenagers.
“What’s going on with you?” I could see Amy staring sideways at me. “You have a strange look on your face.”
“I want to talk to Trevor.”
“Trevor?” she asked. “Why?”
“For starters, he works with Lenny. Second, if Lenny planned to kill his mom for the purpose of using her bus to kidnap Rose, then he must’ve had a plan about where to bring her. We haven’t found her yet, so she’s someplace we haven’t looked.” I turned to face her. In the dark, her eyes looked dark and spooky. “What if he stashed her on the boat?”
“What boat?”
“The boat Trevor works on.”
Amy sucked in her breath. “You think?”
“It’s one of the only feasible places we haven’t searched yet.”
“I’ll call him right now!”
While Amy called her boyfriend, I headed straight for the Murdock home and knocked on the door. I was surprised when Susan answered my knock. She looked happy to see me. “Come on in.”
I followed her inside and scanned the room. A television droned in the background and I thought I could hear Seth yelling from across the house, probably playing some “shoot ’em up” video game. I spotted Laura sitting at the dining room table, her head in her hands. I crossed over to where she sat and she looked up when she felt my presence. I could see that her face was streaked with tears.
“Anything?” Her voice had lost its gusto. “Do you have any idea where my little girl is?”
I shoved my hands in my pockets. “We’re still working on it and we’ll never stop until we bring her home, this I promise.”
“But how long will it take?” she asked, reaching across the table to hold Ronnie’s hand. He looked ten years older than the last time I’d seen him. “How long do we have to suffer?”
“I don’t know ma’am, but I’ll die before I stop searching.”
She scrubbed at her eyes. “I just want you to know how sorry I am about what I did.” Her voice quivered as she spoke. “I promise I won’t do anything to jeopardize the case again. I…I’m going to be patient and I’m going to just sit here and wait for you to tell me you’ve found my daughter. I’m going to trust you, so please don’t let me down.”
I couldn’t make any promises and I wasn’t feeling very optimistic, so I only nodded and said I needed to get back to work.
Once Susan and I had made our way to the food tent, we each grabbed a plate and joined Amy, who was wolfing down some meatball spaghetti. After swallowing the mouthful she was chewing, she shot a thumb over her shoulder. “Trevor’s going to be here soon. I told him you needed to meet with him in person.”
“Did you say anything about the boat?”
She shook her head, took another bite of food. “I didn’t want him inadvertently saying anything to Lenny if Lenny called him.”
I thanked her and began eating my own food. I’m sure it was the best spaghetti I’d ever eaten, but at the moment I couldn’t even taste it. I was too worried about Rose.
CHAPTER 46
“What’s this all about?” Trevor Blackley asked when he had arrived at the Murdock home and met with Amy and me. We were sitting at the far corner of the open tent where we had a little privacy.
“We think Lenny is responsible for killing his mother,” I said.
Trevor gasped. “What?”
“Yeah, he’s our prime suspect in that case, and we also believe he might have kidnapped a young girl.” I paused and watched the color drain from his face.
“Lenny Bradberry?” His voice was incredulous. “Are you sure?”
I nodded and watched the color drain from his face.
“That can’t be right. I…I spend nearly every day with him. There’s no way he’s a killer.”
“I understand you’re the captain of the vessel on which Lenny works.” I looked to Amy, who had provided that information. She nodded and Trevor confirmed that he was the captain of the motor vessel, Sea Nightmare. He described it as a fast supply vessel that was fifty feet long.
“I just came off my second hitch as captain,” he explained with a touch of pride. “I work for a small family company. They run two vessels, and I’m the youngest captain who’s ever worked for them.”
“Well”—I shot a glance toward Amy and she nodded—“we suspect he might be holding the girl captive on your boat, on the Sea Nightmare.”
“What?” I thought Trevor would faint. He stammered before finally stringing together an intelligible sentence. “Are you sure? I mean, this sounds ludicrous. There’s no way he would ever do something like that—at least, not the Lenny I know. I mean, if he did, that would be the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. I just can’t believe it. This would be absolutely horrible. If…oh, wow, if Lenny did do something bad like that—kidnapping a girl and putting her on the boat—it would reflect poorly on my performance as a captain and…and that would be horrible. It would…it could mark the end of my career. I could get busted back down to mate. I’d probably never make captain—”
“Are you kidding me right now?” Amy asked, propping her arms on the table. “We’re talking about a missing girl and you’re worried about your career?”
“I mean, it sounds bad when you say it like that, but I haven’t even been captain for two months yet. This could ruin me. I didn’t know he was a bad person. He seemed like a stand up guy, you know?”
“It’s easy to spot a piece of shit, Trevor,” Amy said. “You just have to recognize the signs.”
I was pondering my options during Amy’s brief exchange with her boyfriend. “Where’s your boat docked?” I asked.
“Down in the Port of Lower Chateau. It’s in a private slip at the end of the port.”
“How many people work on the boat with you?”
“I’ve got eight crew members, not counting myself.”
“And what do y’all do on the boat?”
“We haul cargo and supplies between diffe
rent ports and oil rigs up and down the coast and into the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. We used to haul personnel, but we’ve been moving strictly cargo and supplies since the oil field tanked last year.”
I nodded thoughtfully. An idea had crawled into my brain and squatted there, and I didn’t like it one bit—except that if I was right, Rose might still be alive.
“Out of your crew, who would know the most about Lenny? More than anyone else? Who’s his closest friend? Who hangs out with him when y’all are offshore?”
“That would be me.” He frowned. “I first met him in town two years ago. He had a job when we first met, but then they laid him off. When my company was hiring again, I got him on the boat with me. We’ve been working together for over a year. I figured I knew him well. He’s always been a straight shooter. He’s never done anything that would make me think he was dangerous.”
“Did y’all spend any time on any of the offshore rigs?”
“Yeah.”
“Did he ever meet with anyone on the rigs?” I asked. “Someone who might’ve come by boat from another country?”
Amy’s brow furrowed. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and I was almost certain I saw her ears perk up. Trevor’s face was expressionless, and I was certain he didn’t know where I was going with my line of questioning.
“No, sir, not that I know about.”
“Did y’all ever travel into, or close to, Mexican waters?”
He nodded, his expression turning curious. “We’ve been all over Texas and along the Mexican border. Why? You don’t think he’s smuggling drugs on my boat, do you?”
“No”—I shook my head for emphasis—“worse. I think he’s taken to smuggling young girls…right into Mexico. It’s the perfect setup and it’s the perfect way for someone like Lenny to make a lot of money in a short amount of time.”
Trevor gasped out loud, but didn’t utter a word. He was so shocked I didn’t think it was even possible for him to speak.
“When are y’all scheduled to go offshore again?”