When the Tiger Kills: A Cimarron/Melbourne Thriller: Book One

by Vanessa Prelatte

  “Who the hell is that?” he'd shouted to Rafe.

  “Friend of Tyrell Lewellen's. Name's Brody. Some sort of government agent, I think. Don't know what branch.”

  There was no time for anything else, for the chopper set down just then, and Rafe had leaped out the door and sped toward the reefer truck. Sokoto sprang out right after him, heading toward the duo on the hill.

  When he reached them, he saw that Brody was lying sideways across the trunk of the other man, his huge bulk effectively pinning the other down. One crutch lay to the side. The other was still in Brody's hand, however, and was resting across the suspect's throat.

  Brody waited until Sokoto was standing directly over them; then he deadpanned, “I've fallen, and I can't get up.”

  Sokoto had to suppress a grin upon hearing the classic line coming from the lips of someone as massive as Brody. Carefully keeping his face and his tone bland, he responded, “I'll give you a hand up in a minute. I have to check on the suspect first. Is he conscious?”

  “Yeah, but he's not very talkative. I'm afraid that the place where the crutch landed might have something to do with that. I was just attempting to get up and sort of move it when you arrived.”

  Brody's tone was innocence itself, and Sokoto answered in kind. “Yeah, it's unfortunate that you happened to land the way you did. Must be uncomfortable for the guy. Why don't you hand that crutch to me? I'll take over from here.”

  Brody obliged, lifting the crutch from the other man's throat and handing it over to Sokoto, who placed it carefully on the ground near the other crutch, well within Brody's reach. Crouching down and taking out his handcuffs, Sokoto said, “How about trying to roll off him now?” Brody scooted aside and Sokoto quickly flipped the suspect over, pulled his arms together behind his back, and fastened the handcuffs securely around his wrists.

  Eddleston and Garrone arrived just then and assisted Sokoto in getting the prisoner to his feet. Brody rolled over onto his side, got up on his good knee, and reached for his crutches while Sokoto was listing the charges and advising the suspect of his rights.

  “Vaughn Makella, you're under arrest on suspicion of assault and battery, attempted murder, unlawful detention, and kidnapping. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense. Do you understand?”

  Vaughn Makella just sneered at him and responded scornfully, “My name is Michelangelo, and I don't answer to anyone but the goddess. I don't need anybody's help except hers. She'll take care of me.”

  “Great. I just hope this goddess of yours is a member of the Bar with a license to practice law in the state of Colorado. Oh, and by the way, it would also help if she has a good background in criminal law and lots of trial experience. Otherwise, I just can't see her being of much use to you.”

  Makella did not rise to the bait, but kept his mouth shut and refused to utter another word. Brody, who had gotten to his feet in the meantime, followed the officers down the hill toward the waiting paramedics, who had finished with Lee and loaded her aboard the rescue helicopter.

  After the paramedics had checked on Makella's condition, Ty said, “He in urgent need of medical care?”

  “No. He actually did a good job of treating the wound on his shoulder. The bleeding has stopped, and he's in no immediate danger.”

  “Then he's not setting foot in either of my birds. Turning to Sokoto, he said, “You can take him back in one of the black and whites. I don't want him anywhere near the victim or my wife.”

  Sokoto nodded. “Agreed.” He took Makella by one arm, and with Eddleston on the other side, walked the suspect over and hustled him into one of the waiting police cars. Ty watched as the vehicle pulled away, then turned to Rafe. “You going back in one of the other cars?”

  “No. Sokoto and I talked it over while the paramedics were doing their thing. He's going to take Makella through the booking process and try to get a statement out of him. I'm going in the helicopter with Lee. We'll get her to the hospital, and then I want to take her statement as soon as possible. What about Dawn?”

  Ty looked over at the helicopter he had piloted in, which Dawn had re-boarded after the paramedics had gotten Lee safely aboard the other. “I'm not sure what she wants to do next. We'll talk it over when we get back to the city.”

  Captain Penrose stepped forward at that point. “If she's up to it, I'd like Detective Cimarron to come in to headquarters before she heads to the hospital. There's an item we retrieved from the search of Vivian Zarafin's house that I need her to identify, if possible.”

  Ty shrugged and jerked his head toward the helicopter where Dawn was waiting. “Go ahead and ask. It's up to her.”

  As Captain Penrose went over to talk to Dawn, Ty said to Rafe, “You'd better get moving. They're waiting to take off.” He paused for a minute, then added, “Take care of my sister-in-law.”

  “Count on it. In the meantime, you take care of my partner. See you later.”

  Rafe turned and walked to the waiting helicopter, which took off as soon as he boarded. Ty watched it rise smoothly into the air and begin its flight back to Mountpelier. He was still watching it when Captain Penrose returned and addressed him.

  “D.C. is agreeable to returning to headquarters and seeing if she can identify what we found at the Zarafin residence. As soon as you're ready, then, we can head back to town and get the process started. I'd like to ride along with you in the helicopter, if you don't mind. It'll save time.”

  In answer, Ty simply nodded and proceeded back to the chopper. While Penrose climbed in via the side door, he crossed to the other side and got into the pilot's seat. A glance at Dawn told him she was in no mood to talk, so he merely took her hand in his and held it for a moment. Then he got the bird into the air once more.

  *****

  At the hospital, Rafe waited as patiently as he could while Lee was taken through the admitting process, had her head injury checked out, and had her overall condition evaluated. At one point there was a scream, and he saw Maya Shilltoe push her way past a nurse who had tried to block her way into the cubicle Lee had been assigned in the emergency room. Rushing to Lee's side, she threw her arms around her, sobbing the whole time.

  After Lee had assured her friend that she was okay, the nurse firmly escorted Maya out. Then they got the news that the doctor wanted to keep Lee overnight for observation. Before she allowed them to take her to her own room, however, Lee had insisted on visiting Will in his. At first, the medical personnel had balked, but when Lee had threatened to get up and walk out, they had capitulated and permitted her a brief visit with Will in his room. Rafe had waited with Naomi Preisinger just outside the room, trying to give them a little privacy. After Lee had spent just a few minutes with Will, the nurse in charge had insisted on taking Lee to her own room. Detective Noritaki joined them at that point, as Rafe had requested, and after Lee had been settled into her own room, Rafe was finally able to take her statement.

  He took her through the entire story, beginning with the afternoon that she and Will had left to go on their camping trip, up to the moment she had lost consciousness in the back of the reefer truck. She faltered then and said hesitantly, “I'm surprised that my mother isn't here. Didn't anyone notify her?”

  Rafe exchanged a glance with Noritaki before saying, “About that, Lee. There's something I have to tell you.” As gently as he could, he told her the truth about herself and about Vivian Zarafin.

  When he had finished, Lee was silent for a minute or two. Then she said slowly, “So you're saying that my real name is Marina Cimarron, and that the detective who was there when I woke up – the one who said her name was Dawn – is my sister? Are you sure?”

  “As sure as we can be without the DNA results, which we're expecting in a day or two. However, there's really n
o question in any of our minds. Vivian Zarafin herself admitted the truth about your identity, and we have fingerprint evidence substantiating her assertion.”

  “What will happen to her? My moth... I mean Vivian.”

  “That's up to the DA's office. I'm not sure how they'll proceed.”

  “What about my sister? Can I see her?”

  Rafe was a little surprised that she had accepted the news about who she really was so easily, but he was relieved as well. It would make it a lot easier on Dawn when she was informed that her sister had accepted the truth and wanted to see her. So he said, “Now that I've taken your statement, you can see her as soon as you want to. She had to remove herself from the case officially when it came out that she had a personal relationship with you, but she's followed all of the developments since then as closely as possible, and when we got the lead on where Makella was holding you, she made sure that she was on the scene and as involved as protocol allowed. If you'd like, I'll contact her immediately, tell her that you'd like to see her. She's over at headquarters right now, looking over some evidence removed from the Zarafin house with Captain Penrose, the lead detective on the case.”

  He paused for a minute, then added, “I know for a fact that she'll want to see you as soon as possible. You know, the rest of us had given up hope that we'd ever find you alive, but not Dawn. She had her doubts from time to time, but in her heart she always believed that you were out there somewhere, and that she'd find you again. She never had you declared dead, even after all these years.”

  “Truly?”

  “Yeah. Take my word for it: She's been waiting for this moment for sixteen years.”

  *****

  At headquarters, Captain Penrose allowed Dawn to review the items that had been taken from the Zarafin house. Indicating a stack of journals, he said, “She wrote it all down, D.C. Everything, from the moment it all began. Vivian was camping with her husband about a mile away, and she decided to go wading in the stream nearby. When she heard the sound of a child crying, she immediately made her way toward the sound. She found Marina at the edge of the stream, sitting on the bank and sobbing. She picked the baby up and went to check on your mother, only to discover that she was dead. It was then that the idea came to her to just take the baby away with her. She waded back up the stream to where the motor home she and her husband were traveling in was parked, with Marina in her arms. No wonder the search dogs were unable to get the scent.”

  “What about Marina's sweater? Why did she remove it?”

  “She looked puzzled when we asked her that. According to her, Marina wasn't wearing a sweater when she found her. I guess that Marina had pulled it off before Vivian found her. In any case, she never noticed it. When she got back to the camper with the baby, her husband said that they had to notify the police at once. But Vivian refused to consider it. She'd been trying to have a child for years, without success, and she'd gotten it into her head that since she was the one who found Marina, she had the right to keep her. When her husband wouldn't go along with her at first, she got hysterical and threatened to commit suicide. He gave in after that, thinking that he'd give her a little time to think it over before trying to talk some sense into her.

  “They weren't from around here; they were from New Mexico, and they had come to Colorado for a vacation. So when he couldn’t persuade Vivian to give up the baby, the husband, whose name was Laurence, just started driving toward home. They were out of the area long before the first responders arrived on the scene. And on the way back to New Mexico, Laurence started considering all the ramifications of the situation. Apparently, he was desperately in love with Vivian, and her inability to have children had had a terrible effect on her. She was severely depressed, and it got even worse when they were turned down after they tried to adopt.”

  Captain Penrose waited to see if Dawn had any questions, but when she said nothing, he proceeded, “When they got near their home, they checked into a motel and started looking at the news, trying to find out any information about a missing child from Colorado. Well, as you know, it was a big story at the time. The fact that the rest of your family was killed and that you were the only survivor was well-known. As the days went by and the search for Marina was called off, Vivian began to think about how they could pull it off – keep the baby without any repercussions. She pointed out to her husband that they were already in trouble because they hadn't called the police immediately, as they should have. They'd crossed state lines too, so there was a possibility that they could be charged with kidnapping. Gradually, she brought him around to her way of thinking. The baby's parents were both dead, so why shouldn't they step in and raise her?”

  “How did Marina handle all of that?” Dawn interjected. “I can't believe that she would have just meekly gone along with a couple of strangers.”

  “Well, according to the journal, Marina was inconsolable at first. Wouldn't stop crying. And she got really upset when Vivian started to call her by the new name she'd originally chosen – Anna. Marina kept insisting that her name was 'M'rena Lee'. So Vivian compromised and decided to call her Leanne.” He paused for a moment, then said gently, “Kids that young – it doesn't take long for them to forget. Within a relatively short period of time, she had adjusted to the situation and accepted that Vivian and Laurence Zarafin were her parents.”

  “What about documents? They would have needed to produce a birth certificate when she started school,” Dawn pointed out.

  “Now, the way they handled that was really clever. Had a little bit of luck, too. Turns out that Laurence came from a small town just a few hours from where he and Vivian were living at the time. He knew that an old friend of his worked in the Bureau of Vital Statistics there. He went up to the old hometown one Friday and met the guy at the office. Took him out for a few drinks. Then Laurence told the other guy that he'd left his jacket back at the office. The other guy let them both back in after hours, when everyone else had gone home. Then Laurence produced a flask and persuaded his old friend to have a few more drinks. He slipped the friend a Mickey, and when the guy passed out, he searched for and found where they kept the blank birth certificates. It was a small town, and sixteen years ago they were still doing everything by hand. They didn't start recording births electronically on the computer until almost five years later. So Laurence made out the birth certificate, forged his friend's signature, and used his notary seal to make it all official. He then made a copy, which he inserted into the proper file, and waited for his friend to wake up. When his friend had recuperated enough to walk, Laurence helped him home and put him to bed. Then he drove back to his own house with what looked like a perfectly genuine birth certificate.”

  Penrose paused for a moment. Taking a sip of water, he continued, “Well, they couldn't show up at their own residence claiming that Vivian had just given birth to a two-and-a-half year old baby. So Vivian rented a car and took Marina with her to a little town she'd once visited in California, while Laurence went home and put their house on the market. He told the neighbors that they had spent only a few days vacationing in Colorado before deciding to spend some time in California, and that they had liked it so much that they had decided to relocate there. He was self-employed, and she wasn't working at all, so it was easier for them than for most couples. After he put their house on the market, Laurence drove back to California and rejoined Vivian. He then stayed in California and watched Marina for a few days while Vivian went back to New Mexico to arrange the details of the move. She told the neighbors that they had discovered that it would be cheaper for them to buy new furniture than to pay a moving company to move their existing stuff, so she held a moving sale and disposed of just about everything except for their clothes and a few other personal belongings.

  “They found a house they liked in California and settled down there for a few years, but Marina kept coming down with all sorts of childhood ailments, and Vivian decided that they needed to move back here to Mountpelier. Her husband t
ried to convince her that it was a crazy idea, but she insisted. She'd gotten it into her head that Marina was like a plant that had been uprooted from its native environment and would thrive better in the area where she'd been born. She pointed out that plenty of time had passed, and there was no reason for anyone to make a connection between their six-year-old daughter and a child who had gone missing years before - one who was presumed to be dead. So Laurence gave in. They moved back here, and Marina's health improved, so they stayed. And the rest is history.”

  Dawn took it all in for a minute; then she said, “Rafe told me that Vivian kept the dress Marina was wearing the day she disappeared. I'd like to see it next.”

  Captain Penrose reached into an evidence box and pulled out an item carefully marked and wrapped in protective plastic. A tiny, bright pink sundress.

  “Now, we need to go on the record for this, D.C.”

  Dawn nodded and waited while he turned on the recorder and went through the proper procedure for interviewing a witness. After he noted the date, the time, and the identities of those present, he began formally, “Detective Cimarron, can you identify this object?”

  Dawn felt a shiver travel down her spine as she reached out, her hand hovering just over the dress. The years rolled away, and she was twelve again, watching her mother as she worked on the sewing machine in the corner of the living room at the ranch house. It still stood there, untouched now for sixteen years.

  Dawn nodded. “Yes, I can identify it. This is the pink sundress my sister Marina was wearing on the day that she disappeared.”

  “Are you sure about this?”

  “Positive. My mother...” She paused for a second or two, swallowing hard and struggling to maintain her composure. Missing only a beat, she continued, “My mother made the dress herself. We actually chose the material for it together. And if you look closely at the inside of the back yoke of the dress, you'll see that the initials VC have been embroidered on the seam. Those initials stand for Vana Cimarron. My mother always marked the clothes she made that way.”