The Sam Prichard Series - Books 9-12 (Sam Prichard Boxed Set 3)

by David Archer

  “I’m not hundred percent sure of anything, but the one cop who knew something about it said that’s where Lemmons stashed her. Unfortunately, that was Officer Driscoll and Marty just shot him. I don’t know how soon we’re going to be able to talk to him, so I’m trying to figure out any other way possible to find her, and I’m kinda grasping at straws.”

  “Wait a minute, Marty shot one of these cops?”

  “Yeah. I guess Driscoll was the one who went out to my cabin and tried to kill Marty. Somehow Marty got a gun and came out looking for him. Lucky for Driscoll, Marty isn’t really all that good a shot.

  Sam could tell she was confused, but all she said was, “Okay, I understand. Let me put Herman to pounding on this, and I’ll call you back as soon as I get a result.”

  “Thanks, Babe,” Sam said. “I love you, and tell Kenzie we should all be back home soon.”

  He ended the call and dialed a number Ron Thomas had given him. Ron answered on the fourth ring.

  “Hello?”

  “Ron, it’s Sam. Is Karen still with you?”

  “Yeah, just a minute.” Sam heard a bit of shuffling, and then Karen came on the line. “I thought you’d like to know that Driscoll isn’t dead, just got nicked on his ear and shoulder. In a strange twist of fate, the shooter was Marty Fletcher, and I’ve got him with me now. I’m driving the pickup truck he was in, which I assume is probably stolen, and doing everything I can to try to figure out where Tracy might be held.”

  “Well, why don’t you just wait a little bit?” Karen asked. “I’ve been back and forth on the phone with the DA again, and she’s issued warrants for Monica, Wright, Driscoll and Slocum. I’m sticking to our deal with Forsyth; as far as anyone knows, he volunteered to work with us when Monica told him to get rid of us. She went down the hall and arrested Monica personally, and already sent out the order to pick up the others. I’m having Forsyth brought to her office to corroborate my story.”

  “Good,” Sam said. “Maybe Driscoll will give up Tracy in the hope of leniency. What do you want me to do now?”

  “Why don’t you bring Marty and come on over to the DA’s office? Since he’s the one who actually saw the video first, he’s going to be an important witness.”

  “Uh-huh,” Sam said. “Think there’s any chance he might get immunity over shooting Driscoll? Any half-assed lawyer could probably get them off on self-defense anyway, don’t you think?”

  Karen chuckled. “Just bring him,” she said. “I’ll twist the DA’s arm for that immunity, I think we can swing it.”

  Sam cut the call and looked over at Marty. “Well, this may all work out after all,” he said. “Friend of mine, a homicide detective, thinks she can get you immunity on the shooting, because they’re going to need you to testify against the cops who killed those kids.”

  Marty slowly turned his face to look at Sam. “You mean they’re really going to go after them?”

  Sam nodded his head. “They are,” he said. “One thing you need to know, though, is that one of those cops has turned informant against them. It was Forsyth, the one who never touched those kids.”

  Marty’s red-rimmed eyes looked at him for a moment, then he nodded. “He was the one who wanted to call for help, right?”

  “Right. It’s a long story, but it turns out there was an assistant district attorney involved in all this, and she actually told him to kill me and my friend in homicide. That’s when he came to us and told us everything, so he’s working with us now. You and I are going to go to the DA’s office right now and help to get all this straightened out.”

  Sam made another turn and realized that he was about to go right past the convenience store where Marty had tried to kill Driscoll. He glanced into the parking lot as they drove slowly past and was delighted to see Slocum in handcuffs, bent over the back of the squad car. An ambulance was there, and he assumed that Driscoll was inside it. He focused on the road ahead, and made a slight detour into Arvada, where he locked up the Chevy truck and put Marty into Karen’s Ford before going on to the DA. He retrieved Marty’s tablet from under the seat as he drove.

  Thirty minutes later, he was seated at a conference table in the DA’s office, in the beginning of a meeting that lasted nearly three hours. Indie called him once, telling him that Herman had found no property in Lakewood that was connected to Jerry Lemmons. Sam relayed that information to everyone else in the room, which somehow even included Ron, Jeff and Mike. Three other ADAs were there helping to take notes, and Sam watched David Forsyth as he admitted to being terrified after what he’d seen. Sam and Karen both swore that Forsyth had voluntarily offered to help them after Monica Purvis told him to kill them, so the DA granted him full immunity on the murder charge.

  Marty was also given immunity, since the DA said she could understand his fear. She did warn him, however, that taking the law into his own hands was always a mistake. He apologized several times, but hearing the whole story of how he had discovered the video and his terror of what might happen if it were discovered was enough to satisfy everyone there. Arrangements were even made to return the pickup truck he had “borrowed.”

  Slocum and Wright had been arrested and were currently sitting in the county jail. Driscoll had also been arrested, but he had been taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital where he was undergoing surgery to reattach his left ear and remove a bullet from the joint of his left shoulder. The doctors said it would be at least another twenty-four hours before he could be questioned, and Sam almost had to be restrained.

  “Mr. Prichard,” the DA said to him, “I understand your concern about Ms. Jensen, but there are certain protocols I have to follow when a suspect is wounded. We have to defer to the doctors on this, and there’s nothing else I can do. I’m sure Ms. Jensen is probably uncomfortable, but I doubt another day will cost her her life.”

  Sam stared at her. “Is there anything else you need from me at this moment?”

  “Just your signature on your statement,” the DA said. Sam scribbled his name and then stormed out of the conference room.

  By the time Sam stepped out the front door of the building, it was a little after eight PM and the sun was getting low in the sky. The DA had announced that Sam would not be facing any murder charges, and the word had spread quickly through the police department. A couple of officers standing in front of the building congratulated him and shook his hand as he walked toward the parking lot.

  He climbed into Karen’s old pickup truck and started it up, then took out his phone and called Indie.

  “Sam? How’s it going?”

  “Well, I’ve been cleared on the murder charges,” he said. “Driscoll had surgery, and the doctors say we won’t be able to question him about Tracy until sometime tomorrow afternoon. How far away are you? I think it’s safe to come home now.”

  Indie giggled. “We’re at the Holiday Inn in Boulder. Your mom charged the room to her office credit card, so we wouldn’t be that easy to find. I doubt they’d think of checking your mom’s boss’s card, right? I’ll get us checked out and we can be home in a couple of hours.”

  “Good,” Sam said with a smile. “I’ve missed you.”

  “Ditto,” Indie said.

  “It’s just frustrating about Tracy. I wish I had my phone, I could at least call Heather and let her know there’s a good chance we’re going to find her mom tomorrow.”

  “I’ve got her number,” Indie said. “I grabbed our notes before I left the house last night. Want me to give it to you?”

  Sam grinned and shook his head. “Baby, I should’ve known you’d have it. Yeah, what is it?”

  Indie told him the number, and Sam ended the call and dialed it immediately. The teenager answered the phone cautiously. “Hello?”

  “Heather? This is Sam Prichard.”

  “Oh, yes, Mr. Prichard! Mr. Prichard, did you find my mom?”

  Sam grimaced. “Well, not yet,” he said. “We did get to the bottom of the trouble she and Marty were in, but it turn
s out there was a police detective involved and he apparently locked her up somewhere. We’ve got one guy who knows where she is, but he got hurt today and had to have surgery. We won’t get to talk to him until tomorrow, but I’m sure your mom will be all right until then.”

  Sam could tell the girl was crying when she spoke again. “Oh, please find her,” she said. “My stepdad just sits and stares at the wall, he doesn’t know what to do without her, and neither do I.”

  “I can understand that,” Sam said. “I don’t know what I’d do if my wife was missing like this, but I promise you I’ll do everything I can to bring her home by tomorrow. Just hang in there, okay?”

  The girl promised her that she would try, and said goodbye to Sam. He put the phone back in his pocket with a heavy heart.

  Sam headed for home. In the morning, he would see about getting the corvette out of impound, but it had been an awfully long day and he was ready to relax with his family.

  19

  Indie, Kenzie and the grandmothers all rolled in just before eleven, and found Sam asleep on the couch. Kenzie decided there was simply no sense in that, so she ran over and threw herself on him, giving him a hug that woke him with a smile. He sat up and held her tight for a moment, then wrapped one arm around his wife.

  Indie let Kenzie wind down for a few minutes, letting the excitement of seeing her daddy help the child burn up her last burst of energy for the day, and then walked her up the stairs to her bedroom. She was back down only a few moments later, and announced that Kenzie had gone right to sleep.

  The four adults sat and talked for a little bit, while Sam brought them all up to date on his adventures. It was obvious that he was frustrated, and finally it boiled over.

  “Kim,” Sam said, “I want you to tell Beauregard that the next time he sticks his nose into one of my cases, he’d better have more information. I don’t know which three lives he felt I needed to save, but Marty is okay, and I hope to bring Tracy home tomorrow sometime. Assuming they were two of them, I sure would like to know who was the third.”

  His mother-in-law looked at him sheepishly. “I know, Sam,” she said. “Sometimes he just drives me crazy. Like tonight, we were on the way here and all of a sudden he pops up and says, ‘Tell Sam he isn’t done.’ I mean, what is that supposed to mean?”

  Sam stared at her for a long moment. “Can you talk to him whenever you want?” Sam asked.

  She shook her head. “Not really,” she said. “Well, I can talk to him, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to answer me. He only talks when he wants to.”

  Sam’s mother, Grace, turned around and looked at her. “Kim, now you know that’s not true. You know how to make him talk.”

  “Whoa, whoa,” Sam said. “Mom, what are you talking about?”

  “She’s full of it,” Grace said. “She can go into that weird trance of hers whenever she wants, she just hates to do it.”

  Sam turned back to his mother-in-law. “Kim? Is there a way you can ask him point-blank questions?”

  Kim was giving Grace what could only be called a nasty look. “Well, there’s a way, but it’s really—it’s just really uncomfortable.”

  Sam sat there in silence for a moment and counted to ten in his head. “But you love me, right? So, you help me out with this, right?”

  Kim frowned at Grace, then turned to face Sam with a sigh. “I guess I can try,” she said. “No promises, though, he can be pretty cantankerous when he wants to be.” She settled back into her chair and got comfortable, then turned to Sam again. “What do you want to know?”

  Sam’s eyebrows shot up. “The same thing I wanted to know all along,” he said, “I want to know where Tracy is.”

  Kim rolled her eyes, then leaned her head back and closed them. Just a moment later, her face seemed to go slack. They all watched her as her breathing deepened, and a minute passed in silence. She took a deep breath all of a sudden, and her eyes popped open. They rolled around for a moment, and then focused on Sam.

  “Samuel,” she said in the deep, southern drawl that meant Beauregard had taken control. “Your work is not yet finished, son. You have saved two of the three lives, in Mr. Fletcher and Officer Forsyth, but you must still save the woman. You are not done.”

  Sam felt the eerie chill down his spine that always came whenever he was face to face with Kim’s subconscious alter ego. “What is that supposed to mean? And don’t give me any of your vague hints, I want you to spell it out, this time.”

  There was something about the look in Kim’s eyes that made Sam feel as if he were being scolded, and then that voice continued. “The woman is still in grave danger,” it said. “You cannot wait until tomorrow, you must find her before sunrise.”

  Sam gave an exasperated gasp. “And just how the hell do you propose I do that? Can’t you just tell me where she is?”

  “Samuel, it does not work that way. Where I exist, there are only thoughts, and sometimes they reach me. I know that she is in danger, but I do not know what kind of danger it is. I do not know where she is, only that you must find her before it is too late. I do not know how you will find her, but I know that you already possess the knowledge that can lead you to her.”

  Sam shook his head. “I already possess…What are you talking about? I don’t have the slightest idea where to look for her, except that it’s supposed to be in Lakewood.”

  “Then I suppose you must consider what you know about Lakewood and this man who took the woman. Somehow, you already know what you need to know; now all you must do is find out what it is that you know.”

  Sam rolled his eyes, exasperated. “Well, hell,” he said. “What did you mean about me having to find her before sunrise? Can you at least tell me that?”

  Kim tilted her head to one side, and her eyes bored into Sam’s own. “If you do not find her before the sun rises over this city, she will not be survive. I do not know exactly what will happen, but something at that time will cause her death.”

  Kim shook suddenly, and a second later her eyes opened. She looked around as if confused, then focused on Sam.

  “Did he come?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” Sam growled, “but he left me just as much in the dark as I already was.”

  “Sam,” Indie said, “think! What could you possibly know about any connection between Lemmons and Lakewood?”

  “I don’t know!” Sam said, exasperated. “He never mentioned anything about Lakewood at all, and the only one who knows anything is Driscoll, and he’s in the freaking hospital under anesthesia!” He sat for a moment, and then got to his feet. “I’m going down to talk to him,” he said.

  “Sam, they’ll never let you get near him, not this late at night.”

  Sam grinned at his wife. “Who said I was going to ask permission?”

  He stalked out the door and got into the truck, then headed for St. Joseph’s Hospital. It took him nearly twenty minutes to get there even with the light nighttime traffic, and he had to go in through the emergency room entrance.

  Driscoll had been in surgery a few hours before, but he should have been out of recovery by the time Sam got there. That meant he’d be in a regular room, but since he was a suspect in multiple murders, Sam knew he’d have no trouble finding the right room. He’d just look for the one with a cop on guard outside.

  He found it ten minutes later, on the third floor. A uniform officer was sitting in a chair beside the door, and he looked up with a smile as he recognized Sam.

  “Hey, Sam,” he said. “A little late to be coming to visit anyone. What’s up?”

  The cop was one Sam knew pretty well, a guy named Larry Wyant. Larry had been a close friend of Sam’s old partner, Dan Jacobs, and Dan had brought him to Sam’s house during a few of the barbecues he’d thrown after his retirement.

  “Hi, Larry,” he said. “Yeah, it’s late, but I need to talk to your guy in there. He’s the only one who knows where a woman is being held, and I need to find her as soon as possible.”

>   Larry frowned. “Sam, I’m not supposed to let anyone in.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Sam said, “but this is kind of urgent. I’ve been told that if I don’t find her before morning, it may well be too late, and I promised this lady’s little girl I’d bring her home safe. All I need is a few minutes, I just need him to tell me where she is, and then I’m gone. I promise.”

  Larry chewed his cheek for a second, but then he grinned. “Okay, but just a few minutes. Come on.” He turned and opened the door into the room, and then he suddenly froze. “Oh, crap,” he said, and Sam leaned around to look past him.

  Driscoll was lying on the bed in the room, but something was obviously wrong. His eyes were wide open, and his face had a bluish cast, but what caught Sam’s eye instantly was the fact that the entire bed and part of the floor were covered in blood.

  Larry and Sam entered the room cautiously, but it was clear that Driscoll was dead. Somehow, he had managed to break a glass quietly enough that no one had heard it, and used the sharp edge to cut his own throat. Since he was not considered to be in any danger after his surgery, he hadn’t been connected to a monitor, so no alarms had gone off to alert anyone.

  “Jesus,” Larry said. “I just checked on him like half an hour ago, and he was sleeping just fine!”

  Sam pointed at the broken glass. “Looks like he woke up and realized what was going on, and decided he didn’t want to face what was coming. He killed himself to get out of going to prison.” Sam looked at the cop. “You better notify the nurse’s station.”

  Larry nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “And you better go on. I don’t really want to explain that I was breaking rules and letting you in to talk to my prisoner.”

  Sam took one last look at Driscoll, then turned away without another word. He made it to the elevator without being seen and hurried back out to the truck.

  He looked at the clock on the stereo and sighed. Sunrise was less than six hours away and he had no idea how to find Tracy. As much as he refused to believe that Beauregard was really an old civil war ghost, he couldn’t deny that he’d been right on many occasions; Sam felt a sinking in his heart as he thought about Tracy, about her daughter and how he was going to live with himself if he failed to find her in time.