Blood on the Tracks (Sydney Rose Parnell Series Book 1)

by Barbara Nickless

  I took a breath and rang the bell. Act One of my subterfuge. From inside, a dog unloosed an artillery of deep-throated barks. A sharp command from a female voice, and the dog immediately quieted. A house with discipline.

  The woman who came to the door was in her early twenties, with long blond hair and an open, pretty face. She was six or seven months pregnant and dressed in loose-fitting sweats and a Broncos hoodie.

  A muscular pit bull/grizzly bear mix strained against her legs where she held him by his collar. She jerked the collar hard and said, “Ogre, sit.”

  Ogre sat. But he didn’t look happy about it.

  The woman took in my uniform coat. Her gaze flicked past me to the Denver Pacific Continental truck at the curb then back to me, settling on my black eyes and bandaged cheek.

  “Can I help you?”

  I lifted her newspaper—a peace offering—and showed her my badge. “I’m Senior Special Agent Parnell with the Denver Pacific Continental Railway. Are you Mrs. Kane?”

  “I’m Sherri Kane, yes.”

  “I need to talk to your husband. Is he home?”

  A crease marred her pretty forehead. “He’s watching Dora the Explorer with our daughter. It’s the only show she’s allowed. Could you come back in half an hour?”

  Very disciplined.

  “I’ll be as brief as I can.”

  The crease deepened, matched with a frown, and I thought she might refuse. Cross a mother bear by threatening her child’s happiness, and it likely won’t go well. But I needed Jeremy Kane off-guard and tired.

  “It’s official business, Mrs. Kane.”

  She shook her head and sighed. Her ponytail danced. “Let me just put Ogre in back,” she said. “He’s not big on company.”

  A minute later and the dog was barking at me from behind the Beware of Dog sign. He looked like he hadn’t had his breakfast yet.

  Sherri Kane returned to the front door and unenthusiastically waved me in.

  The house opened into a living room with cheap, new-looking furniture—matching sofa and love seat, oak coffee and end tables, and a curio cabinet filled with ceramic animals. Sherri led me through the room and into a hallway. At the kitchen she paused to turn off the stove, then went down a short flight of steps to the family room. A man and a girl two or maybe three years old sat with their backs to us, snuggled together on a couch watching Dora on the small TV.

  “Jeremy,” Sherri said.

  The man glanced over his shoulder, saw me, and got to his feet. He was tall and athletic looking, with bright-blue eyes, sandy red hair, and a trim beard. Like his wife, he had an open, friendly face, which I decided on principle to mistrust.

  The little girl hung with the television show.

  “I’m sorry,” Kane said. “I thought it was our neighbor again, back for more coffee.”

  “I’m Special Agent Parnell with DPC,” I said.

  “The railroad?” Jeremy Kane’s brow furrowed much as his wife’s had. But he came around the couch and offered his hand. He walked with a slight limp. “What’s this about, Officer?”

  “I’m here at the request of Tucker Rhodes.”

  Kane blinked. “Tucks? Why didn’t he come himself?”

  “He’s not free to do that, Mr. Kane.”

  I watched Kane connect the dots. Hobo. Railway cop. “Damn, he’s not under arrest or something, is he? Not hurt, or anything?”

  “Why would you think he’d be under arrest?”

  Kane flushed. “Well, trespassing, I guess. No secret about him and trains.”

  “Mr. Kane, could we talk in private?”

  Kane and his wife exchanged glances.

  “Um, sure. Honey, can you take Haley to our bedroom? She can watch TV up there.”

  Sherri gave me her angry mommy face, but she scooped up the little girl with another cheery swish of her ponytail and pushed past us. Haley watched me over her mother’s shoulder with dark, liquid eyes as she and Sherri climbed the stairs and disappeared into the hallway.

  Kane clicked off the TV. “Get you some coffee?”

  “No. Thanks.”

  He gestured me toward the couch.

  “What’s going on with Tucks?” he asked after we sat down.

  “Mr. Kane, Elise Hensley came to visit you a few days ago.”

  For the first time, Kane looked uncomfortable. His long fingers drummed the legs of his jeans. “Yeah. She wanted to let me know Tucks was on his way back to town.”

  From upstairs the floor creaked and then came the murmur of the TV.

  “Some reason she came by instead of calling?”

  He shrugged. “She said Tucks had gotten his hobo beads stolen. She wanted to see if Sherri would make him more. She’s going to surprise Tucks with them.”

  That sidetracked me. “Sherri makes hobo beads?”

  “Yeah. It lets her stay home with Haley and still make a little money. She sells them at boutiques and craft fairs. Amazing what people will pay. But of course she doesn’t charge Tucks for his.”

  I filed this information away. “Does Elise come by often?”

  “Sure. Usually when Tucks is in town. Elise and Sherri aren’t the best of friends, but Sherri knows I need to spend time with my old buddies. She’s good about it.”

  “But this last time Elise came alone.”

  Another affable shrug. “Sherri and I tell her to come as often as she can. Watching out for Elise is just something we do. Tucks likes to know she’s being taken care of.”

  “You stay in touch with any other guys from your platoon?”

  He blinked at the change in topic. “My squad, sure. A few others.” He kept drumming his fingers. Still friendly but growing cautious. “What’s this about?”

  “Mr. Kane, did Elise’s visit upset you?”

  Another blink. “Um, no. Of course not.”

  “But she came to talk to you about Habbaniyah, isn’t that right?”

  Kane’s eyes dropped and his fingers stopped their fidgeting. His body twitched once then went still as a mannequin’s. The only thing that gave him away was his Adam’s apple sliding up and down as he swallowed.

  “What do you know about that?” he asked in a soft, careful voice.

  “Before I worked for the railroad, Private Kane, I was a Marine with Mortuary Affairs. I processed the bodies of Haifa and Resenko.”

  His eyes came back up, taking me in. “Yes.” He nodded to himself. “I remember you now, even with those shiners. We used to talk about you. The lady with the yellow hijab.”

  “What did Elise want, Mr. Kane?”

  For the first time I saw his intelligence shining through the friendly demeanor like lamplight cutting through fog. A premed student, I reminded myself. Probably good with a knife.

  “I always figured you hated us for what happened,” he said. “Are you really here as Tucks’s friend?”

  “More as an interested party. And I need to know, Mr. Kane. Why did Elise want to talk about Habbaniyah? And who else did she talk to?”

  Another bob of his Adam’s apple. “Special Agent Parnell, I don’t think I have to tell you anything. You’re not regular police. You have no authority here. I don’t know what dirt you’re trying to dig up, but you tell Tucks that if he wants to talk to me, he needs to come himself.”

  Hoping I wasn’t doing something that Cohen would rightfully want to shoot me for later, I said, “Elise was found dead in her apartment yesterday morning. Rhodes is under arrest for her murder.”

  Kane went white. “What?”

  “Where were you Friday night and Saturday morning, Mr. Kane?”

  “Me? What?”

  He stood so suddenly that his knee caught the flimsy coffee table, flinging it over. Books and coffee mugs and magazines spilled to the floor. Overhead, footsteps thumped on the floor. Sherri.

  “Does she know?” I asked. “Does your wife know about Habbaniyah?”

  “What? No.” He looked at me in panic. “You can’t think I had anything to do
with—with Elise being killed. Oh, my God. And poor Tucks. Not another one.”

  Sherri appeared at the top of the stairs. “Another what?”

  Jeremy looked at her, eyes wild. “Sherri, no. Go back with Haley.”

  But Sherri came on down the stairs, a matriarchal elephant. She looked at the toppled table and then at her husband.

  “Jeremy? What’s going on? Why are you—what’s wrong?” When he didn’t answer, she whirled on me. “What did you say to him?”

  Kane found his voice. “Elise is dead. She thinks I killed her.”

  For a moment, the room was utterly still. Ogre’s tags jingled from the backyard as he paced the fence. Upstairs, Dora the Explorer and her friends sang, We did it!

  Sherri shoved her face into mine.

  “Get out of our house,” she whispered harshly. “Get out!”

  “No, honey, it’s okay.” Kane took his wife’s arm, tried to pull her back.

  She shook him off. Eyes still on me, she said, “What is she talking about, Jeremy? Is Elise really dead? How can she think that—”

  Gently he took her arms again. “Sherri. Be quiet, okay? This is important. I need you to go back upstairs and wait with Haley. I’ll take care of this.”

  “No.”

  “It’s about the war, honey. Okay? Marine stuff. Agent Parnell doesn’t really think I did anything. It’s about Tucks, okay? So, please, go upstairs. Everything’s going to be fine.”

  Sherri shook him off again, took a step back. Her face flushed and she seemed about to argue, but then abruptly she turned and hurried back up the stairs, her hands holding her pregnant belly.

  Kane watched her go. “She knows stuff happened over there. And she wants to support me. She really does. But to be honest, she’d rather not hear about it.” He turned back to me. “She likes things to be nice. To be . . . orderly. It’s why she doesn’t like Elise. Elise couldn’t let stuff go. Sometimes I was almost jealous of Tucks. He shouldn’t have told her things, but Elise wanted to know. She wanted to understand.”

  “You haven’t answered my question. Where were you?”

  He knelt on the ground, started gathering the books and magazines. “I was at work. I’m a stocker at Costco. I was there all night.”

  “I’ll check that.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “What did you mean, ‘another one’?”

  “Guy from our squad was just arrested for taking a baseball bat to his wife. But I didn’t mean it that way. Tucks isn’t like that. No way he could have—have hurt Elise.”

  I helped him right the table. “Why not?”

  “Tucks had enough killing in the war. He came home, he couldn’t go hunting with his dad anymore. Hell, he can’t squash a spider. He might freak out a little sometimes. Anyone would, they went through what he did. But, he’d hurt himself before he’d hurt her.”

  “They’ve got a lot of evidence against him.”

  “I don’t care what they think they have. I’ll bet everything I own on Tucks.”

  We returned the books and magazines to the coffee table. Kane carried the empty coffee mugs to the kitchen and came back. He stared blankly at the coffee stain on the carpet.

  “What’s this got to do with Habbaniyah?” he asked.

  “Maybe nothing. Who else did Elise talk to, Kane? Who might have felt threatened by what she knew?”

  “If Elise talked to anyone else, she didn’t tell me about it. What does Tucks say?”

  “He doesn’t know, either.”

  “The only other guys who know what happened over there, besides you and your CO, are Crowe and Sarge.” He sank back to the couch. “Shit. We took an oath not to tell anyone. Not anyone. Why did Tucks have to go and tell Elise?”

  “Your sergeant didn’t ride with you guys. Who was the fourth member of your team?”

  “Dave Tignor. He was back home with his folks in Omaha. Killed himself a couple of months ago. What about your CO?”

  “You didn’t know?”

  “Know what?”

  “He’s dead.” The words, so rarely spoken, made me wince. “Do you know who gave the original order?”

  “None of us knew that. Except your CO. And maybe Sarge.” He looked up at me, panic on his face. “Do you really think Elise was killed because of Habbaniyah?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

  “If Rhodes goes to trial, the whole story will come out, won’t it?”

  “Probably.”

  “Things won’t be nice for Sherri then, will they?”

  “No.” I looked around at the clean, tidy house, the carpet now splotched with coffee. I remembered what Bandoni had said about having seen the best liars the world has to offer. Maybe Kane was one of them.

  But I was starting to warm up to him. To trust him, even. Could be I was more like Bandoni than I wished, going with my gut and watching the eyes.

  “You guys look like you’re doing okay,” I said.

  “You think?” He snorted. “We’re barely hanging on. Sherri’s stayed with me, but it’s been a bitch of a ride. She thought she’d be a doctor’s wife by now.”

  “She loves you.”

  “Yeah.” He gave a rueful headshake. “I had two ambitions for my twenties. I mean, outside of marrying Sherri and raising a family.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I wanted to become a surgeon, like my dad. And run some marathons. That’s it. Two things that I could work hard for and actually do. I wasn’t asking for the moon. Wasn’t asking for any favors or any help. But instead I got all patriotic. Dropped out of school and signed up. Came home with a pin in my leg and a traumatic brain injury that has done fuck-all with my memory. That and the joy of seeing Tucks burn all over again, every goddamn time I close my eyes at night.” He glared at me. “That sound like I’m doing okay?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “They tell me I’m a hero and thank me for my service. You ever try taking that to the bank?”

  “Every day.”

  “How’s it working for you?”

  I laughed, then we fell quiet, lost in thoughts of loss.

  “You didn’t go back to school because of your memory problems?” I asked after a time.

  “Oh, I’m going back. It’ll be the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but Sherri and I are together on this. We’re just trying to save enough money so that I only have to work part-time once I finish my undergrad degree.” A bleakness settled over his face like the arrival of winter. “The stuff about Habbaniyah comes out, it’ll be all over. They could court-martial us, right? Because of—”

  “Are you in the reserves?”

  “No.”

  “Then, no,” I said. “They can’t court-martial you. Tell me how to find Sarge and Crowe.”

  “Crowe, it’ll take a while. Last time I saw him was after Tucks’s fourth surgery. He calls every blue moon. Travels a lot. He’s from Detroit, but says living there is worse than being in Iraq. I don’t have a number for him, or an address. Best I can do is give you his sister’s number.”

  “You ever give that number to Elise?”

  “Nah. She never asked.”

  So chances were good that Elise couldn’t have tracked him down, either. “What about Sarge?”

  Jeremy glanced at the watch on his wrist. “You want to talk to him right now?”

  “He lives around here?”

  “Moved to Denver maybe three months ago. Met a girl in California, and she dragged him here. See him every couple of weeks.”

  “And he’s never said anything about Elise?”

  “No. But Sarge is pretty closemouthed, even with me. He’s never uttered one word about Habbaniyah.”

  “So he wouldn’t have appreciated Elise’s efforts to get everyone to confess.”

  Kane shot me a glance. “No. But he wouldn’t have killed her, either.”

  “Okay. No time like the present, then.”

  Kane grabbed a cordless phone from the kitchen, punched in a
number, and pressed the speakerphone button. I heard a man’s voice, then realized it was a recording. Kane disconnected.

  “Sometimes after Saturday night he’s pretty hung over. I go over and make him coffee, throw him in the shower. He has to be at work by noon.”

  “You. Not his girlfriend.”

  “Sarge and Amy break up and make up every couple of weeks. When she’s around, she usually needs waking up, too.” He stood. “You up for driving over there? He’s only fifteen minutes away.”

  “You lead,” I said. “I’ll follow.”

  Sherri met us at the front door, her eyes wet and red. Kane kissed her and told her he was going to Sarge’s, that he’d be back in an hour.

  “Is she going with you?”

  “She needs to talk to him.” He touched her cheek with a gentle finger. “You about done with those beads for Tucker?”

  She turned her face into his touch. “Almost.”

  Kane spread his open hand across her belly as if for good luck then pushed out the front door, heading toward his truck. I moved to follow him, but Sherri stepped into my path.

  “If you’re looking for dirt Elise might have dug up,” she said, “there’s a lot of places to look besides my husband.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She glanced over her shoulder. Kane was unlocking his truck.

  “Elise was nosy,” Sherri said, turning back. “Poking around, stirring up a hornet’s nest of trouble. She didn’t worry who might get stung.”

  “Sounds like you know something.”

  She looked down. When her eyes came back up, fear sparked the defiance in her green eyes. “Look, my husband’s a good man. And Elise was nothing but trouble. You think you’re some hotshot investigator? Maybe you ought to look at whoever she upset and not bother those who tried to help her.”

  “A name or two would get me started.”

  “I don’t know names. Just those people Elise hung out with. Those tramps.”

  “She made trouble for them?”

  “She made trouble for everyone.”

  “Okay.” I pulled out my car keys. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “You do that.”

  I gave her my card. “Call me if any names come to you.”

  Sherri Kane’s eyes stayed on me as I opened the door and walked down the driveway. From behind his sign, Ogre cranked up his bark.