by Alex Kava
Rumor was that the maintenance crew had shut off the air-conditioning in the whole building over the long Labor Day weekend, not expecting the return of ninety-degree weather. Yet, Grace couldn’t help wondering if Judge Fielding had purposely shut it off in his own courtroom, hoping to make them all sweat. It wouldn’t be the first time. Fielding loved to make attorneys sweat…sweat and wait. That combination today couldn’t be a good sign, though Grace tried to remain optimistic. As optimistic as a prosecutor could be with the humidity threatening to turn her usually straight, short hair into something worthy of a Chia Pet. She knew she’d need more than optimism today.
She glanced across the aisle at Warren Penn from the high-priced law firm of Branigan, Turner, Cross and Penn. No sweat visible there, either. How did he manage it in that three-piece suit? She had hoped to see his client, the defendant, Jonathon Richey, in shackles and an orange jumpsuit, reducing the city councilman to the cold-blooded murderer he really was. Instead, Richey wore a steel-blue suit and crisp white shirt with red-and-blue tie. The slick politician didn’t look affected in the least by his arrest or the allegations against him. In fact, he looked rather smug, and Grace worried that some old-boy network had already taken care of the outcome of this case. Judge Fielding had a reputation of protecting his inner circle. Could he do it in front of a crowd of spectators and under the scrutiny of the media?
Beneath her own jacket Grace could feel her silk blouse sticking to her skin. She glanced down at it to make sure it didn’t look as bad as it felt. What a day to wear silk. The blouse had been a birthday gift from Grandma Wenny, who had been trying to dress Grace in pink since she was six years old, although her grandmother had reassured her that this was fuchsia, her German accent making it sound like some erotic, slightly naughty color. Thinking about that made Grace smile.
She watched Judge Fielding, looking for signs that they’d be proceeding soon. He flipped over another page and started at the top with his index finger. Geez. This was only the bail hearing. At this rate, she couldn’t imagine how long the trial would take.
She reached to rub the knot still gathered at the base of her neck. The three-day weekend had been too short. Her husband, Vince, insisted they could live with the stacked boxes everywhere. Easy for him to say, he was leaving for Switzerland tomorrow morning. Sure it was business—a new client insisting on meeting his American account rep face-to-face. Grace and Emily would be left to live with the chaos. But the boxes weren’t the cause of the knot at the back of her neck.
She loved their new house, although it was far from new, a century-old Victorian with plenty of character and enough space for them to convert part of it into a mother-in-law suite—or in this case a grandmother suite—for Grandma Wenny. The renovations were a pain in the neck—yes, maybe even a partial cause for the very real pain in her neck. There’d been workers tramping in and out of their house, leaving mud and sawdust and holes where walls once were. Still, Grace knew all of this was the easy part. The real work, the real challenge, would be in convincing Grandma Wenny to leave her South Omaha home, the small drafty two-bedroom, mouse-infested bungalow where she had lived for over sixty years, where she had raised three children and one granddaughter, a granddaughter who had pledged—actually pinkie-swore—to take care of the stubborn old woman.
“Ms. Wenninghoff,” Judge Fielding bellowed, grabbing her attention.
“Yes, Your Honor.” She stood up casually, resisting the urge to wipe her damp forehead.
“Please continue,” he told her as if they’d been waiting only a few minutes and as if she had been the one holding them up.
“As I was saying and as you can see from the arrest warrant, Mr. Richey was arrested at Eppley Airport. Mr. Richey is a flight risk and, therefore, should be denied bail.”
“Judge, this is preposterous.” Warren Penn drew the word out so slowly it sounded like four words instead of one. He also took his time standing up, then moved out from behind the defense table as if he required additional room to make his statement. Grace guessed it was more for the benefit of towering over her.
“Mr. Richey,” he continued in the same drawn-out manner, “is a businessman. He was simply making a business trip. This trip has been on his calendar for months. I have his appointment calendar and phone logs available for Your Honor.” He waved a hand at the pile on the defense table but made no effort to get them. “Jonathon Richey,” he went on, “not only owns a local business here in Omaha, but he’s a city councilman. He’s a deacon at his church and president of the downtown Rotary Club. His wife, two of his three children and all five of his grandchildren live within this community. Mr. Richey certainly does not pose a flight risk. Taking all this into consideration, Your Honor, I’m sure you’ll agree that Mr. Richey should be released on his own recognizance.”
Grace watched Judge Fielding nod and start flipping through the papers again. This was ridiculous. He couldn’t possibly be buying any of this crap. Not unless he was looking for an excuse. She glanced over at Richey. Was there some under-the-table deal already set up? He still looked too calm, too cool for this sauna. Grace rubbed her neck again and was disappointed to find it damp.
“Your Honor.” She waited until she had his attention, then she pulled out an envelope from her file folders and stepped out from behind the prosecution table. “If I understand correctly, Mr. Richey owns a business that specializes in commercial and residential computerized heating units.” She looked over at Warren Penn, waiting for his nod of confirmation. “I have his United airline ticket that was confiscated at the time of his arrest.” She made her way forward to hand over the envelope with the ticket inside. “I’m just wondering, Your Honor, what kind of heating business Mr. Richey might have in the Cayman Islands.”
She heard the crowd behind her hum and whisper and shift in their seats.
“Mr. Penn?” Judge Fielding was now looking over his glasses and down his nose at the defense attorney. To Grace’s disappointment, Warren Penn didn’t flinch.
“Mr. Richey meets with his clients, often in a designated place that the client requests.”
Grace wanted to roll her eyes. That Fielding was even considering this was crazy. But here he was again, flipping over papers as if he had missed something in the documents he had already examined.
She turned back to her table and noticed Detective Tommy Pakula sitting two rows down, shifting in his seat, impatient and ready. He was dressed for court, a collared shirt and tie, jacket and trousers, just in case she needed to call him today. Instead of calling him, she reached down behind her chair and pulled up the duffel bag.
“Your Honor,” she said, bringing the bag out in full view of Judge Fielding, but more importantly in full view of the courtroom, “there is one more thing Mr. Richey had in his possession when Detectives Pakula and Hertz arrested him at Eppley Airport. He had this travel bag with him. If he was not fleeing the country, perhaps Mr. Penn might explain this.” Grace unzipped the bag and turned it upside down, allowing the stacks of hundred-dollar bills to fall out onto the table.
This time the room erupted. Several reporters clamored out the door. Warren Penn shook his head as if, of course, he had an explanation for this, too. Grace scanned the room, and now she noticed that Jonathon Richey’s smug look was gone.
“Okay, okay,” Judge Fielding yelled, ignoring the gavel. He seemed pleased that his voice could still silence a room.
“Your Honor,” Warren Penn began, but was interrupted when Fielding put up a hand.
“Bail denied.” He stood even as he added, “Court is adjourned,” and then escaped, not giving Warren Penn the opportunity to explain or argue.
Grace ignored the defense table as she repacked the duffel bag. The crowd had already turned into a crescendo of voices, shuffling feet and creaking chairs. She wouldn’t need to worry about being accosted by reporters. They’d spend their energies on Richey, the price of being such an upstanding member of the community.
�
��Better make sure it’s all there.” She looked up to find Detective Pakula.
“Thanks for being here,” she told him. He nodded, and she knew Pakula well enough to leave it at that, not to make a big deal of it.
“I found a witness who might be willing to testify against Richey.”
“Might?”
“He needs some convincing. Doesn’t wanna open his mouth if there’s a chance he’ll walk.”
“He won’t be walking,” Grace said, finally shoving the last of the money into the bag. She knew where Pakula was going with this, and she didn’t want to hear it.
“You know that and I know that. And that’s what I’m trying to tell him.” Pakula looked around, making sure no one was within earshot. “Our credibility’s not riding too high right now with that asshole Barnett on every fucking talk show claiming the OPD framed him.”
“Let him talk. Sooner or later he’s going to screw up, and when he does I’ll be there to nail his ass. Only next time it’ll be for good.”
“You and me both.”
Grace knew the Barnett appeal had been eating at Pakula as much as it had been at her. In the last several months she had gone over and over the case against Barnett, hoping there was something, anything they might use. Five years ago, she had put her heart and soul into prosecuting Barnett, convinced that it was, indeed, Jared Barnett who had coerced seventeen-year-old Rebecca Moore into his pickup that cold afternoon in the dead of winter, probably promising her a warm ride home from school. But instead he drove her to a remote place where he raped and stabbed her repeatedly before shooting her through the jaw, shattering her teeth.
There were others. Four women, killed in the same manner, all within two years. Grace and Pakula were still convinced that Jared Barnett was the killer in each case. But other than circumstantial evidence, Rebecca’s case was the only one they could actually connect to Barnett. That connection was Danny Ramerez and his eyewitness testimony, testimony that he saw Rebecca getting into a black pickup being driven by Jared Barnett the afternoon she disappeared. It had been testimony so convincing, so descriptive, that the jury hadn’t hesitated to convict him. Then suddenly, after five years, Danny Ramerez confessed he hadn’t even been out that afternoon. Without his testimony, Barnett was free. It was as simple as that.
What wasn’t simple was the amount of criticism leveled at the police department and the prosecutor’s office. So much so that even a recent string of convenience-store robberies had the media impatient for a resolution.
Grace glanced at the defense table, noticing that Penn and Richey had started to make their way out the door, taking a good portion of the crowd with them. That’s when she saw him.
Jared Barnett stood in the back row, waiting his turn to get out the door—standing and waiting as if he were just one of the spectators.
“Speak of the devil,” she said to Pakula and he followed her gaze.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered. “I saw him outside on the steps one day last week, too. Just can’t stay away, can he?”
Grace had seen him, too, only it was in the coffee shop across the street from the courthouse, and then again right outside her dry cleaner’s. She tried to convince herself it was Jared Barnett’s way of thumbing his nose at them, at them all. Not that he had singled her out. But just as he got to the door he looked over at her, and he smiled.
CHAPTER 2
7:30 p.m.
Logan Hotel—Omaha, Nebraska
Jared Barnett listened for the elevator, waiting for the grind and scrape of metal, the whine of the hydraulics. Where the hell was he?
He stayed in the shadows and leaned against the wall, ignoring the avalanche of plaster his shoulder set loose. No one had seen him enter the building. No one except the skinny crack whore with dirty-blond hair and eyes so glazed over she’d never remember what day it was, let alone his face.
At the end of the hall someone was cooking spinach. God! He hated that smell. It reminded him of his stepfather who’d forced him to eat everything off his plate, and if he didn’t, the bastard shoved his face into the green glob of shit. He couldn’t help thinking the stench belonged here. It was a perfect addition to the dog piss on the carpet and the cockroaches skittering in and out of cracks and under doors. It also seemed the perfect place for Danny Ramerez to call home.
He shifted his weight from his left foot to his right then switched the sacks of takeout to his other hand. The food would be cold, though it didn’t matter much. He was hungry and he loved Chinese food, even cold Chinese food. Although he was getting tired of holding the bags. He had thought about setting them down, but the fucking roaches would be all over them in seconds.
Jared checked his wristwatch, needing to squint to make out the time in the dim light. Ramerez was late. Why the fuck was he late? He had followed him three nights in a row and could probably set his watch to him. Now, all of a sudden, the bastard was late. But then he heard the elevator, the screech and then the whine. He was on his way up.
Jared stayed in the shadows, waiting. Reaching the sixth floor took forever, a noisy journey of squeaky pulleys and wobbling metal. He was glad he had taken the stairs up. Finally the doors opened.
Danny Ramerez looked smaller in this crappy light. Jared watched him walk down the hallway, one of those jerky walks with quick little steps. Ramerez was at his door with the key in the lock before Jared started down the hall after him.
“Hey, man,” he said and Ramerez nodded without looking up. “How ya doing, Danny?”
This time Ramerez did a double take, his eyes getting wide as he recognized Jared.
“I brought us some takeout,” he told him, wanting to calm his worries and holding up the bags. “Chinese.”
“What are you doing here?”
“What are you talking about? You didn’t think I’d come by and say hey?”
Ramerez finally got the door opened, but now he hesitated.
“You did me a big favor,” Jared said, this time with a smile. “I just wanted to buy you dinner and say thanks.”
Ramerez was studying him, meeting his eyes as if looking for the truth there. Then suddenly he looked away and shrugged. “You don’t owe me anything. Your redheaded friend already paid me. Even threw in a laptop computer.”
Jared smiled again; it didn’t take much to buy off someone like Danny Ramerez. He understood him all too well. That’s why he couldn’t trust him. “Hey man, it’s just some kung pao chicken and chow mein. A few egg rolls. It’s no big deal.”
He let Ramerez think about it while he stood there pretending it was no big deal, still not making any attempt to leave. Finally Ramerez shrugged again and waved him into the small apartment that looked like a cross between a rummage sale and a garbage dump. A pile of clothes covered a threadbare recliner, and Jared could smell what had to be dirty socks or rotten eggs. Magazines and comic books were stacked on the floor. A collection of beer bottles and cans shared the shelves with discarded take-out wrappers and foam containers. A cardboard pizza box lay open on the coffee table with two pieces left, the toppings suddenly skittering out of the box.
Ramerez started shoving things aside as if to tidy up for his guest. While he moved stacks and collected trash, Jared pulled out an oversize, black trash bag from one of the take-out bags and began laying it over the scuffed linoleum floor in the middle of the room. Ramerez glanced at him a couple of times before he stopped.
“What are you doing?”
“I don’t want to make a mess,” Jared told him.
Ramerez laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”
He came over to take a closer look, examining the plastic and even walking onto it, stepping carefully as if looking for a trap. But, of course, he didn’t see it. He was still looking down at the black plastic under his feet when Jared whipped the knife out from the same take-out bag. All it took was one slash up under and across the throat, so quick that Ramerez saw his own blood splatter the plastic. He grabbed at the wound, his f
ingers slipping into the gaping flesh as if attempting to hold it together. His wide eyes met Jared’s, shock and realization contorting his entire face before he finally crumpled onto the plastic.
Jared looked around the room and decided on the recliner. He shoved the clothes off, checked for cockroaches, then grabbed the other take-out bag and sat down. Danny Ramerez wasn’t going anywhere. There was no big hurry to take out the trash. Jared Barnett pulled out a plastic fork and the container of kung pao chicken and began to eat.
Wednesday, September 8
CHAPTER 3
7:00 a.m.
Omaha, Nebraska
Melanie Starks quickened her pace. The sun peeked over the bell towers of St. Cecelia’s Cathedral. The days were already growing shorter. Summer was almost over but was making one last grand stand. It was only the beginning of her walk, and already Melanie could feel her breathing becoming labored. The air was thick and heavy with moisture.
She studied the horizon in the opposite direction. Having cursed sunrises for years she almost hated to admit how much she enjoyed them now. But this morning’s sunrise gave her a bad feeling, even a sudden chill as a trickle of sweat made its way down her back. The sun was barely able to squeeze through the storm clouds that were gathering, a gravestone-gray sky streaked bloodred. It was an eerie combination, and she could hear her mother repeating one of her silly superstitions:
“Red sky in morning,
Sailors take warning.
Red sky at night,
Sailors delight.”
The weather only seemed to fuel her restlessness, to ignite her disappointment, her frustration…Oh, hell, she should call it what it was—her anger. Yeah, that’s right. She was angry, pissed off. Jared hadn’t been back two weeks and already things were changing.