Final Judgment

by Marcia Clark

  He was waiting on the curb when I pulled up, and he had his cell phone already programmed to Waze. “I’ll navigate. It’ll be fastest if we take the 14 Highway.”

  I headed for the 101 Freeway north. “How’re we going to pry this guard open?”

  Alex tapped his cell phone and studied the directions. “Um, tell him your boyfriend probably killed a guy and you’d like to see if he buried the body nearby?”

  I glared at him. “You’re a laugh riot.”

  He sat back and stared through the windshield. “Give me a minute. I’ll come up with something.”

  We spent the better part of the next two hours trying to come up with a believable story. But it was hard to make up a story when we didn’t know why Niko had called the guard or what he was doing at a private airfield in a little desert town. We still hadn’t settled on a plausible story when I got off the freeway and turned onto the road that would lead us to the airfield. “I hate to say it, but we’ll just have to play it by ear.”

  Alex raised an eyebrow. “You mean, wing it?”

  I shot him a dagger for that terrible pun. “Apologize. Right now.”

  He sat forward and pointed to a sign up ahead. “That must be it.”

  It was. As I got closer, I saw that it said TEHACHAPI AIRFIELD. I followed the arrow on the sign to an open gate. “That security guard isn’t exactly working overtime.”

  “Then again, how many people are dying to get into this place?” Alex said.

  A fair point. I pulled in and drove slowly toward the hangars. They were all pretty small. “Must only be for single engines.” Alex nodded. I kept rolling forward, looking for signs of life. The place looked deserted. “Where is this security guy?”

  Alex was scanning the area, too. “Maybe it’s his day off?” After a few seconds, he said, “Wait! That looks like an office, doesn’t it?”

  I looked to my right and saw a little shack with windows on three sides. “Must be.” I drove toward it and parked far enough away to give us a running start if things got hairy. I’d been relatively calm during the drive. The effort to come up with a story had distracted me. But now, my palms had started to sweat, and I could feel my heart racing. I tried to act nonchalant. “Let’s see what happens.”

  Alex hesitated, one hand on the door handle. “I wish I knew what we were in for.”

  He didn’t get nervous often, but he was now. I looked at him. “Me too.” I tapped the steering wheel. “So what the hell are we going to tell this guy?”

  Before Alex could answer, a bowlegged man with a potbelly who looked to be in his fifties exited and came toward us. He was wearing a khaki security guard uniform.

  I swore under my breath. “Shit!”

  A few seconds later, he was standing at my side of the car. “What can I do for you folks today?”

  I opened the door, and as I got out, I said the first thing that popped into my head. “My boyfriend’s buying a Cessna, and I wanted to rent him a hangar as a birthday present. Can you tell me what your rates are?” Not bad considering I’d come up with it on the fly. So to speak.

  He scratched his head. “Usually around two seventy-five a month. Another hundred for the tie-down gear. But we can’t handle anything bigger than a single engine.” He gestured to the fleet of hangars behind him. “As you can probably see.”

  I put on my most charming smile. “I can. Would you mind showing me one?”

  “Sure,” he said. “Come on. I’ll give you a ride.”

  We followed him to the back of the guard shack where a golf cart was parked and got in. He drove across the field to a hangar at the far end. He parked, and as we moved toward it, I had an idea. The guard unlocked the padlock on the door and pulled it up. I didn’t know how hangars were supposed to look, but there wasn’t that much to see. Just a bigger version of a garage, minus all the broken toys, bikes, and junk that’s usually piled inside.

  I took a few seconds to look around and act interested. “You know, I’m a little worried that my boyfriend may already have found the one he likes. It’d be bad if I chose the wrong one.”

  The man shrugged. “I think they’re all pretty much the same.”

  I gave him a conspiratorial smile. “So do I. But my boyfriend can be a little . . . picky.” The guard returned my smile. Good. This had to work. “His name is Niko. If you don’t remember his name, I can show you his picture. Maybe you can let me see which one he looked at?”

  The guard frowned. For a second, I thought he was going to say no. But instead, he said, “I’m not great with names. Let me see that photo.” I pulled up a picture of a smiling Niko and showed it to him. The guard gave me a sad look. “I hate to break it to you, ma’am, but he already rented himself a hangar.”

  I feigned upset. “No. You’re kidding! I don’t believe it. Which one?”

  He pointed to a hangar two slots to the left. “That one right there. Got it just a few weeks ago.”

  A few weeks ago. The paperwork would show exactly when, but I knew it was right around the time Tanner had gone missing. This was feeling more ominous by the second. I memorized the location of the hangar as I put on a hangdog expression. “Well, hell. I’m going to have to dream up something else to get him.”

  The guard led us back to the golf cart and dropped us off at my car. “Sorry about that. Does he golf?”

  I sighed. “No, just likes to fly.” I got out and moved toward my car. “But thanks for your help!”

  He waved to us and motored back to the guard shack. As we drove off, Alex asked, “We’re coming back tonight, aren’t we?”

  “Oh yeah. Most definitely.”

  I had to know what the hell Niko was doing with an airplane hangar. And why he’d never told me about it.

  FORTY-FIVE

  We headed into town to do some shopping. For picklocks, electric drills, and bolt cutters—though Alex doubted we’d be able to find cutters heavy-duty enough to get through the padlocks he’d seen on the hangars. “For once, I wish I would’ve brought my car.”

  He always kept a completely stocked toolbox in the trunk of his car. I offered an alternate suggestion. “If all else fails, we could roofie the security guard and steal his keys.”

  I’d been kidding, but Alex seemed to be giving it some thought. “That’d be a great Plan B if we could find someone else to do it for us.”

  “Someone else . . . who’d immediately point the finger at us.” I pulled up to the mom-and-pop-style hardware store Alex had found on the app AroundMe. How did we live before we had these little pocket-size computers?

  He gave a reluctant nod. “Let’s hope they’ve got a decent selection of picklocks.”

  Actually—a bit alarmingly—the little place did. I’d expected to find electric drills and even bolt cutters, but they had entire sets of picklocks. Alex had a field day deciding which one to get. “We probably only need this twelve-piece set. Those padlocks are pretty simple. But we’d be safer getting the twenty-six-piece set. Why take chances?”

  I agreed. “I have no desire to make a second trip up here.” Tehachapi was nice—if you were into miles of nothingness.

  As we moved toward the cashier, Alex said, “I assume you have flashlights in your car.”

  I stared at him. “No. Why would I?” I held up my cell phone. “I have this.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Because that won’t be worth a damn in a big, dark hangar.” He muttered something that included the word ridiculous and headed back to the shelves.

  After Alex made his purchases, we found a little diner, where we lingered over an early dinner and waited for the town—and hopefully the airfield—to shut down. The manager of the diner kicked us out at eight p.m., which I took as a sign that it was late enough to go scope out the area.

  I drove down the road to the airfield slowly. If it was still open, I didn’t want the guard to see us. I wouldn’t be able to explain why we’d come back after finding out Niko already had a hangar. But when I reached the gate, I
saw that we were in luck. It was closed. I pointed to the padlock. “Want to take your new toys for a spin?”

  He scanned the area. “Kind of. But I think the fewer locks I mess with, the better. The fence is low enough to climb over. Just drive a little farther away so we can stay out of range of the camera.”

  I hadn’t seen one, but now that he mentioned it, I noticed an old-school surveillance camera mounted on a fence post just behind us. I didn’t see any lights that indicated it was working. “I’m not sure that thing is even on. But no reason to risk it.” I drove around the perimeter to an area where there were some bushes and cacti I could park behind.

  I climbed over the fence first, and Alex handed me his tools, then joined me. We paused and looked around to make sure we didn’t have company, then hurried to Niko’s hangar. Alex took a pick out of the kit, and I used the flashlight on my phone to illuminate the padlock as he went to work. He jiggled it this way and that, but it didn’t budge. I glanced around behind us. We were clearly visible from the road. If someone drove by, we’d be in big trouble.

  Alex took out a second pick and tried again. Still no luck. I was starting to get nervous. “We need to make this happen soon, Alex.”

  He glared at me. “Does it look like I’m playing tiddlywinks?”

  “Sorry.” I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself.

  But the second pick didn’t work, either. Now I was seriously getting worried. I watched as he worked with the third pick and prayed it would be the charm. It wasn’t. “Maybe it’s time to try the bolt cutters.”

  He lifted the heavy padlock. “They’ll be useless on this thing.” He picked up the drill.

  I’d never noticed how loud those things were. I glanced over my shoulder again—and saw headlights in the distance that hadn’t been there before. Were they getting closer? It sure looked like it. “Alex, someone’s coming! We’ve got to bail!” I turned off the flashlight on my cell phone.

  And at that moment, the padlock popped open. With my heart hammering in my chest, we slid open the door, hurried inside, and closed it as quietly as we could. Alex had been right. The cavernous space was so pitch-black, I couldn’t even see him, and he was standing next to me. But I could hear him breathing—fast and hard. My breath was just as labored. We stood there in the dark with our backs against the door, listening. Sure enough, seconds later, we heard the sound of a car engine approaching. I whispered to Alex, “If this place has a guard on night shift . . .” We’d be screwed. Alex had left the open padlock in the door. It’d take a guard two seconds to see it’d been broken.

  He looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes. I thought he was praying, but he whispered, “I wish I could blame you for this one.”

  As the car drew closer, I thought my heart would burst through my chest, it was beating so hard. But just when I thought the car was going to enter the gate, the sound of the engine began to recede. It was passing by. I was so light-headed with relief, my knees almost buckled. We leaned back against the hangar door and caught our breath. When the sound of the engine faded into the distance, Alex turned on his flashlight.

  I’d expected to see a small single-engine plane. But all I saw was an SUV. A black Denali. Alarm bells immediately went off in my head. “Who pays for a hangar to store a car?”

  Alex nodded. “And up here in the middle of nowhere?”

  As we moved closer, I noticed it was covered in dust and dirt. Did it even belong to Niko? Maybe he was storing it for a friend? Maybe his buddy who had the café in Soledad Canyon. What was his name? Mark Kennar. But why keep it a secret? “I’d like to find out who it’s registered to.” I tried the driver’s side door. It was locked. “Shit. Do any of those picks—”

  Alex brandished a slim piece of metal and slid it into the space between the window and the door. I heard a click, and he tried again. It opened. “It’s scary how easy that was.” Alex hit the button to unlock the other doors and walked around to the passenger side. He reached inside and opened the glove compartment. Other than an old travel-size package of Kleenex, some loose change, and gum wrappers, it was empty. I glanced around inside the car. “I probably shouldn’t do this, but . . .”

  Alex climbed in. “But we’re going to.”

  If there was trace evidence—even small drops of blood—we might be destroying it right now. But I had to know. As carefully as we could, we began to search, examining every inch with our flashlights. Now that the car’s dome light was on, my cell phone flashlight, with its pointed beam, worked well. Inside, the car was somewhat dusty but not enough to say it’d been sitting untouched for months. Weeks, maybe. I was nervous as we pored over seats and floors, searching for any traces of blood.

  But after half an hour, I was ready to give up. It was weird that he’d store some random SUV here, but maybe it was just a dirt-biking thing. Tehachapi seemed the kind of place where dirt biking would be huge. I got out and went around to the back of the SUV and lifted up the door. I shined my flashlight around the rear cargo area. It didn’t seem dirty enough for a car that carried dirt bikes. Then again, Niko was a neat freak. I was reaching up to pull the door back down when something in the right side well behind the back seat caught my eye. I leaned in and picked it up. When I saw what it was, my stomach lurched.

  It was a Sex Addicts Anonymous chip. Just like the one that’d fallen out of Tanner’s pocket. And it took very little effort to imagine how it’d gotten there. Like most SUVs, the back seat folded down to create a bigger cargo space. It’d be much easier to get Tanner’s body into the car if the back seat were down. The chip must’ve fallen out of Tanner’s pocket when Niko lifted him into the SUV. And after he’d disposed of the body, when he’d pushed the seat back up, the chip had fallen into the well.

  I showed Alex the chip and told him how I thought it’d gotten there. “The only way that theory doesn’t work is if the car belonged to Tanner.”

  Alex shook his head. “No way. This thing is so not his style. And besides, he didn’t rent this hangar.”

  No, he hadn’t. Niko had. At just about the time Tanner had gone missing. It wasn’t proof beyond a reasonable doubt—but it was proof enough for me. And I was sure that if the cops got their hands on this car and started swabbing, they’d find the fibers, hairs—and probably even blood—that would be proof beyond a reasonable doubt. I felt sick. “He did it, Alex. Niko killed Tanner.”

  Alex nodded. “It doesn’t look good.”

  So now I knew. Or at least, I was pretty sure. Was there any way to keep the cops from finding the car? We’d already created a reason for suspicion by breaking the lock, although when we talked about it at the diner, Alex had said he could put it back together well enough so it wouldn’t be obvious unless someone really yanked on it. And I couldn’t think of a way to dispose of the car without pointing a finger right at Alex and me. Not now that the security guard could identify us. In any case, I had no idea where to put the car that would keep it out of the cops’ hands. The ocean? I’d have to find a cliff to drive it off. I didn’t know where that might be. A lake? It’d have to be remote enough to be sure no one would see me do it. I didn’t know of any lakes that’d fit that bill. No doubt this was why Niko had hidden it here in the first place.

  But if we found the car, the cops would, too—eventually. Especially now that the cops were looking hard at Niko. And if they did, they’d probably get enough evidence to convict him. I couldn’t possibly wipe down the car well enough to get rid of all the little pieces of hair and fiber and . . . whatever. But I could get rid of one piece. I pocketed the SAA chip.

  Alex was staring at me. “We need to get out of here, Sam.”

  I nodded. “But first, let’s take some photos.” I wasn’t sure what I’d do with them. I just knew I’d regret it if I didn’t. Alex and I took photos from every angle, inside and out, including the license plate and VIN. Then we did our best to wipe down the areas we’d touched, crept out, and quietly slid down the door of the hangar. I
stood guard while Alex put the padlock back in place. It actually looked pretty good from where I was standing.

  Then we hurried back to my car. I didn’t stop to think about what I’d just learned until we were rolling down the freeway and Alex asked, “What are you going to do, Sam? Are you going to confront him?”

  That queasy feeling came rushing back. “I don’t know.”

  FORTY-SIX

  I was filled with questions about the Denali. “I can’t see him secretly buying a car and hiding it just in case. He must’ve already had it.” And if he’d had it before he met me and was keeping it in storage somewhere, I wouldn’t expect him to tell me about it. He might not even have remembered he had it. Being rich means you can forget things like that.

  Alex added, “You mean he already had it when he killed Tanner?” I nodded. “I think you need to slow your roll. You mean if he killed Tanner. I’m with you, it looks bad. But Niko might be hiding the Denali for someone else.”

  The car behind me flashed its brights, distracting me. I looked at my speedometer. I was already doing seventy-five miles per hour. Who was this nutbag? I changed lanes and let him fly by, then processed what Alex had said. “The person who really did kill Tanner.” I couldn’t keep the note of doubt out of my voice.

  Alex tapped my shoulder. “Hey, Skeptismo. Aren’t you the one who says keep all possibilities on the table until you can’t? Until we know more about that car, we can’t rule that one out.”

  I supposed that was true. “So how do we find out more about that damn car?”

  He said, “There is an easy way to do that.”

  I knew he meant asking Dale. But that would mean sharing the most damning evidence against Niko yet. I trusted Dale, but . . . it made me nervous. “I’ll think about it.”

  “You could call him now.” His voice was impatient. “It’s after ten o’clock. He’s probably home.”