Death at Dawn

by Arthur Day

  Billy smiled and held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t bother son. This is so far off the main trail that nobody else is going to find it unless we show them the way. There’s no body in it so probably we’ll just need to get the sheriff and his techies back here. It does narrow the field though, doesn’t it? Whoever put the four-wheeler over this cliff had to have knowledge of this area. This is not something he would stumble upon by accident and come out alive. See what I mean?” He pointed towards where the ravine narrowed into the small opening they had seen originally. “See there where he threw some branches across the ravine and then some leaves. Mother nature took care of the rest.”

  Ted nodded. “The driver had to be local and not only that, but he had to have spent a lot of time in these woods.”

  “Atta boy. You’ll be a star detective yet, mark my words.”

  Ted blushed and that made him look even younger. “Guess we should start back then,” he said quietly.

  Billy nodded and turned back towards the slope that they had just come down. He felt every bit his age. No matter where you go, he thought you can’t escape man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. He put his arm around his young partner. “Guess we should.”

  McCALL 2014

  We drove in silence most of the way. I kept seeing Dianne as she was the night before at the club. That memory got mixed up with thoughts of Doug Worth, what he might have seen and what he knew about his cousin Pam.

  “Does anyone know what was in Pam’s will?” Dianne asked.

  Lost in my thoughts and taken aback by the question I looked at Dianne. “I really don’t know. I don’t even know who her lawyer is unless it’s the same one we had when we got divorced. I haven’t heard anything, so I assume that I am not in whatever will she left.”

  “Maybe you should check just in case the will points at someone we haven’t thought of yet.”

  “Good point,” I told her and made a mental note to call the lawyer to see if Pam had drawn up a new will through that firm or changed the one we had as man and wife. I had never even thought of the will, so intent had I been to find out who had killed Pam, but Dianne was right. It might have some bearing.

  “Just saying,” Dianne responded. “You’ve been so quiet I thought maybe you found out something or had a problem that you needed to discuss.”

  “Uhh no,” I replied hastily. “Nothing like that. Just not much to say right now.”

  “I get it,” said Dianne.

  I doubted that and looked sideways at her sitting relaxed looking out the window as we turned onto the Lake Road and headed towards the cutoff to Mays Corners. Who was the woman she had been with the night before? Were they married? Dianne had never mentioned anyone else in her life but of course she had to know some people. She had to have friends and not just me. I felt my whole body stiffen up as I thought of what I had seen. It wasn’t that Dianne had lied to me, but I felt somehow betrayed as if I’d bought a new car and gotten it home only to find that the engine was a six and not an eight that I had specified but I had specified nothing about my relationship with Dianne and she, in turn, had made no promises to me. I wondered what would happen if I just casually said “Hey I was at the Cock’s Nest last night and saw you there.” Would she want to talk about it or would she get mad and that would be the end of our friendship. I decided it was not worth the risk as we pulled up on the shoulder next to a large corn field.

  There were several sheriff’s’ cruisers and two pickup trucks parked just ahead of them. I could see several deputies milling around beside the car and there was Buckmaster off a few paces talking on his cell phone. He saw us pull up and held up a finger in a “wait” sign.

  “Hi Michael, Dianne,” he walked up to us as he put his cell phone back into his jacket’s left pocket. “I see you got my call.”

  “So, you found the vehicle used to get Pam to the spot where we found her,” MJ said.

  “We did. An old-timer named Billy Black and one of the kids from the police auxiliary found the wreck at the bottom of a ravine. They’re guiding the lab techs and their equipment there as we speak. We’ll see if they can find prints or anything that might give us a DNA sample, but Billy said the wreck looked pretty clean, but no one’s been near it thanks the kid who wanted to tape off the whole area.”

  “Any other news sheriff?”

  Buckmaster looked at Dianne. “Your partner called this morning with something that might be worth checking.”

  I looked at Dianne who shrugged in some embarrassment. “I didn’t see you until you picked me up to drive here and I forgot all about it,” she told me. “I went clubbing Last night and talked with a friend I’ve known since childhood. She works as the senior aide for Senator Mazzumo the state senate majority head and she said that a Jacob Warren called, claimed to be a friend of the Pease family, and asked all sorts of questions about Pam. He apparently knew that Mazzumo and Julia Pease had been friends for years. Not much I admit but I called and left you and Buckmaster a message anyway.” She looked up at the black clouds rapidly covering the sky. “I hope your team brought a tent. Looks like a lot of stuff might get washed away.”

  Buckmaster nodded his head. “They’ve had to bring the lab into the field before; they have a tent and their own generator. They had to take three vehicles so there’s probably a pretty well defined trail to the scene by now.”

  I turned to Dianne. “What information did your friend give to this guy?”

  “Not a lot. They learn not to give out personal information over the phone and this woman is very good at her job.”

  I’ll bet, and what job would that be I thought a bit spitefully and then pushed such nastiness to the back of my mind. At least I knew what Dianne had been doing in Hartford the night before.

  “She did confirm to Warren that Pam often spent time up here during the summer months since he seemed to know that already.”

  Buckmaster frowned. “We’ll see what we can find out from the various state and federal data bases. I have his picture from an old driver’s license and will send it to your phones. If you find out anything about this man let me know ASAP.”

  The first large drops splattered down on them and banged on the roof of their car as Dianne and I climbed in and turned around to head back to Lake Compton.

  By the time we turned off the Compton Road to get to Pam’s house the rain had become torrential and even the wipers on their fastest speed could not keep up with it. Water streamed down the windshield in waves and the sound from the roof was a cacophonous parody of a West Indian drum band. I brought the car up as close to the front door as possible and we made a dash for it but by the time we burst through the front door we were both soaked. “Wow,” I said as we stood in the front hallway with water dripping from us and puddling on the wooden floor. “You look like a drowned rat,” I told her and grinned to show that I did not intend to insult her.

  “I’m sure I do,” Dianne replied running her hands through the strands of her hair. “So do you.”

  “Yep. We both need some dry clothes. I have some upstairs, but you never left any here. My clothes would be way too big, but Pam has clothes here. You could raid her closet and see if any of those will do for a while until we can get yours dry. I’ll get a fire going and that should dry everything out in short order.” I walked down the hall towards the back porch where dry seasoned wood had been stacked.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me,” Dianne replied and headed for the stairs to the second-floor bedrooms.

  I got a fire going, took off my clothes and hung them on the fire screen that I had moved back a respectful distance from the flames. I went to the head of the staircase. “Can I come up for some clothes and get yours to dry?” he called up. I looked to my right out the hall window, but the rain had not let up. If anything, it was coming down harder.

  “Come on up,” her voice floated down the stairs.

>   I went up. The door to one of the side bedrooms was closed and a small pile of her wet clothes was on the floor in front of it. I walked into the main bedroom, took off my wet underwear and found pants and a shirt in the closet. There were sounds of Dianne moving around in the bedroom next to mine and when I came out she was waiting for me dressed in some of Pam’s old clothes and looking like the modern version of the scarecrow in the “Wizard Of Oz”.

  “Hi there, scarecrow,” I said.

  “Shut up and deal,” Dianne replied and laughed .

  “I don’t know about you, but I could use a drink. How about it?”

  “Absolutle,” Dianne responded. “Make it a stiff one.”

  We went down the stairs and into the kitchen. The area still had power, a minor miracle in itself so I put ice into two glasses and then went back into the hall where I poured Jack Daniels for us both.

  “So, what do you think of it all?” I asked once we were seated in the living room with steam rising from the clothes in front of the fire.

  Dianne looked at me. “What do we know so far?” She held up one finger. “Someone killed Pam.” She held up another finger. “That person raped her, killed her and then brought her to the place where you might find her. He couldn’t know you would walk up there or, if you did, when you would do so. You didn’t know until you started out that morning. Placing the body there meant something to him and he wasn’t thinking of you when he took her there. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have it in for you, but he is obviously obsessed with Pam and her life and he may have stalked her for a long time even when she was married to you.”

  “Right. Maybe I’m putting too much importance on finding her there. So we are looking for someone with extensive local knowledge who knew Pam before she met me and knew about our spot because she knew it and talked about it before we met.”

  “Right. The ATV at the bottom of the ravine may be linked to this person or may be simply someone who either drove it or pushed it over the edge for reasons that have no bearing on this murder. We hope that the CSI team will turn up more definite evidence so that we can say that this was the vehicle used by the murderer.”

  “Now wait a minute.”

  “Think about it. Right now, it is just a wreck. It could have been there since Pam was killed or for weeks before. We don’t know yet.”

  “Okay. I agree.” I took a pull from my glass. This was not what I wanted to hear but instinctively I knew Dianne was right. Not enough evidence on the face of it to link the ATV and Pam. Yet. I hoped that the techs would turn up something to link the two.

  Dianne held up a third finger. “We know the type of knife used in the murder. Not a big-ass Bowie type knife but one with s thinner blade, maybe a smaller kitchen knife or a throwing knife.”

  “We know that whoever put the machine into the ravine probably did not do so by accident. He would have notified the police and filed a claim for insurance. Those machines are not cheap. He or she had to have knowledge of this area. That narrows the field of suspects considerably, I would think. He had to be someone local or at least someone who had been here and probably lived here at some point in his life.”

  “Agreed.” I looked out the window. Across the lake there was a hint of light. It seemed like the front had moved through, but rain still pounded on the roof overhead and the wind had even picked up a bit. “We should spend the night here. There may be more rain and wind coming at us. I doubt you’ll have many customers tomorrow morning. There are multiple bedrooms upstairs. You can choose the one you want. There’s some hamburger in the fridge. Paul must have left it. How ‘bout I make burgers and a salad a little later.” I looked at her glass. “Time for another round for sure.” I collected her glass and went back into the hall to the impromptu bar.

  “Thanks MJ,” Dianne said as I disappeared with her glass. “Did you stock the bar or did Pam?”

  “Pam but I guess she never got rid of the Jack, maybe in a fit of optimism,” I replied as I put ice and liquor in both glasses. That thought brought me to a standstill in front of the bar and I felt tears filling my eyes. It was as if, just for a moment, Pam and I were standing side by side looking out over Manhattan relaxed, happy and together and then the emotion overtook me, and I turned away so that Dianne would not see me. We had had our differences, and, in the end, those differences had outweighed what we had in common, but it should never have ended this way. I felt a gentle touch on my arm and found Dianne standing beside me.

  “I’m sorry,” she said softly. That was a stupid question for me to ask. We’ll find whoever did this.” She squeezed his arm slightly, turned and walked back into the living room. I followed her feeling slightly foolish. Pam and I had not seen each other in several years so it was silly to suddenly go into an emotional meltdown. I handed Dianne her drink.

  “Yeah. Me too. I’m thinking that the murderer had to have shown up in Pam’s past somewhere and it could not be just anybody because they had to know Pam, know about this spot that Pam and I shared, and known about a place to dump the ATV when they were finished with it. I’m thinking the sheriff won’t come up with any DNA or finger prints. Whoever this guy is he has thought this through thoroughly. When Pam and I were together up here, I met family of course and some friends who lived or summered around the lake, but I can’t think of anyone who hated Pam or me so maybe we need to go back further. Maybe we need to concentrate on people she knew or might have known before we met.”

  “Easy to say but harder to do,” Dianne retorted. “Search your memory and then search it again since that will be the best clue we have. We will need to talk to people, co-workers or friends, whom she knew back then.”

  “Agreed. I’ll start by writing down everyone I can think of from that time. We both worked at separate jobs so there will not be a lot of people that we had in common and I can’t think of anyone we both knew who came from this part of Connecticut.”

  Dianne looked thoughtful. “I know. This isn’t going to be easy. Maybe it was someone that she knew but you didn’t.”

  “Maybe.” I said. “I found a box of her correspondence a day or two ago. I’ll go through it again and see what turns up now that we’ve refined our search somewhat.”

  It was later in the evening and we had finished dinner and washed the dishes. We sat in the living room each wrapped in their own thoughts. It was a comfortable silence between two people who knew each other well enough that neither of us felt we had to say anything

  Dianne suddenly sat forward. “We might have the answer right in front of us,” she said. “What do we know about this Warren person that Eve told me about? He was looking for information about Pam. Maybe that would be a good person to look at more closely.” She looked excited as if we might have found the key to unlock the mystery. It was my turn to put on the brakes a little bit.

  “We’ll need more than that.”

  “Yes of course we will, but at least we have a name and a photo. Maybe this man is in one of the databases other than the Department of Transportation.”

  We sat in silence for a moment thinking over what a search for Jacob Warren might reveal. I had a feeling that I had heard that name before, but I couldn’t remember when or where or what the context was. Very frustrating. “Somewhere, somehow I know the name Jacob Warren,” I told her.

  By this time we were both slightly drunk. “When you remember let me know,” she replied and waved her glass in my direction.

  I grinned and raised my glass in her direction. “We’d better spend the night here. I don’t think either of us is in any condition to drive.”

  “So noted,” Dianne said with mock solemnity. “I chus tink you’re right,” she intoned and tried to get to her feet. Her balance was off, and she collapsed back into the chair. “Ooops,” she giggled.

  I did not do much better for, though I was able to get to my feet, the world around me tilted
precariously and I almost collapsed into the fireplace. Silly me.

  We made it up the stairs to the bedrooms. I gestured sloppily towards the king-sized bed. “S’all yours.”

  Dianne bowed and almost fell on her face until I caught her. “Whoaa. Steady there, lady.”

  “I’m as steady as a tree,” she announced trying hard not to slur her words. She walked over to the near side of the bed and got under the covers fully clothed. A moment later she brought Pam’s pants out from underneath the covers and dropped them on the floor.

  I sat on my bed in one of the small side rooms and, somewhat unsteadily, got out of my pants and shirt. I sat there for a moment staring out the window. The rain had gone and there was a full moon illuminating the lake turning it into an obsidian palace between shores of darkness. Beautiful, I thought, and brought the covers over me. It was a hot summer night though and I didn’t think I would keep the covers on.

  I had no idea what time it was but only that it was still dark. I had to pee, but I could hear someone moving out in the hallway in front of the bedrooms and the bath, so I lay in bed for a moment. Silently Dianne’s slim figure appeared silhouetted by the night light from the bathroom Pam’s shirt moved about her waist and she disappeared back into her bedroom.

  “Sleep well, I called out softly.

  “Night,” was all she said and then there was silence.

  Light flooded through my eyelids the next morning. I was momentarily disoriented and lay there for a moment trying to remember where I was and why I was there. A cool breeze drifted through the open windows throwing shadows from the curtains onto the ceiling where they danced around like faeries. The sheet was balled up at the foot of the bed and I was lying there in my underwear. I got to my feet and went down the stairs to get our clothes from the screen in front of the fireplace. I slipped mine on and went back up the stairs with Dianne’s.

  She was fast asleep and snoring softly. She too had thrown off her covers during the night and was lying on top of them. The shirt she was wearing had ridden up to her breasts. Between her legs just below her pubic bush was a small, flaccid, uncircumcised penis.