Fifteen Coffins

by Tony J. Forder

  The pair sat at a table shared by two other men. The back of a small hotel and restaurant in Jamestown housed the room they were in. Jubb owned an equal share in the place and often used it to hold private functions. The four had enjoyed a fine dinner, together with beer and wine, the cocktails were flowing and they were getting down to the reason he had called the meeting.

  ‘About as serious as a heart attack,’ Weekes replied. He stopped clawing at his cheek and clenched his fist instead. ‘This area is still in recovery. As mayor, you stood up in front of your people and took all the plaudits for the rapid and final resolution to the tragedy. And although you were the focal point, both the sheriff’s office and my police department were right alongside you milking the applause. Nobody wanted to lose their children that way, but it happened, and we delivered a swift and righteous justice. It brought closure in an instant. Something we made work for us.’

  ‘And you’re saying Sydney Merlot and Dexter Muller can undo all that?’

  ‘You better believe it, Chauncey. Everything we took credit for may be stripped away, undone for all time. Worse still, potentially proven to be the unjust slaughter of another innocent Moon Falls child. On our watch, and at our hand. And all while we allowed the real killer to slip out the back door.’

  ‘Jesus H Christ!’ Jubb said through a clenched jaw. He took a moment to gather himself. ‘How in God’s name is it that we’re only now hearing about Muller’s claim?’

  ‘Because he made his statement to the sheriff, and it looks as if Lowe sat on it. I only found out about it myself yesterday.’

  ‘Sat on it? Are you telling me Benton Lowe never shared it with either Sonora PD or the FBI?’

  ‘That’s exactly what I’m telling you. Leastways, that’s what it looks like. My department wasn’t aware, and nobody from the Bureau has ever mentioned it nor asked any follow-up questions as far as I know.’

  Jubb slammed a balled fist down on the table, causing crockery and cutlery to jump. The room was dimly lit, but he saw alarm on the faces of his guests. ‘What the heck is wrong with that idiot sheriff? Didn’t he think that was something all of us needed to be aware of?’

  ‘Apparently not.’

  ‘Constitutionally, Lowe doesn’t have to pass that information on to PD,’ Shane Jennings said. He worked as a criminal prosecutor for Tuolumne County, and was one of the mayor’s most trusted allies. He spoke soberly and with authority as usual. ‘Nor you, for that matter, Chauncey.’

  ‘Screw the constitution!’ Jubb barked. ‘Does he have any idea how appalling this will look if word leaks out?’

  ‘If it’s any consolation, Lowe has as much of a reputation to lose as we do, not to mention his job. I’m betting he would’ve sent the Merlot woman away with a flea in her ear.’

  The fourth member of the group shook his head and tapped twice on the wooden surface to snare their attention. Chase Ebben wore a concerned frown. ‘I wouldn’t be so sure of that if I were you,’ he said. A reedy-looking individual who looked as if he’d struggle to bench press fifty pounds, Ebben had a way of getting people to listen with subtle inflections. ‘Our sheriff spent some time sitting outside Merlot’s home last night. I think he may be having second thoughts.’

  ‘How can you possibly know that?’ Jennings asked.

  ‘Because I spent even longer there. Saw him come, saw him leave.’

  ‘And you were there why?’

  ‘Keeping an eye on things after Weekes here told me what was going on. It’s my job.’

  ‘That’s good to know, but it’s hardly conclusive,’ Jubb said. ‘What the sheriff did or did not do is the least of our problems. Guys, all we need is for the media to get a hold of this and we are screwed. To the wall. Might as well clean out our drawers and pack up our boxes.’

  ‘Damage limitation is called for,’ Weekes said, nodding at the others. ‘We shut them down before the press gets wind of anything.’

  ‘The kid’s father is doable at a push. But how d’you plan to shut down an FBI agent, Sergeant?’

  ‘There are ways.’

  The room fell silent as that veiled threat hung in the air. No one was going to touch it directly.

  ‘I hear your first attempt at that didn’t go too well,’ Ebben said. His eyes sparkled, lips twitching as they curved upwards.

  ‘Mea culpa. I sent an idiot to do a man’s job.’

  ‘You’re right about Peavey. That fool is a liability. You should have asked me.’

  ‘I thought perhaps we’d go for the less nuclear option to begin with.’

  ‘I can be very persuasive when I have to be.’

  Jubb waved a hand in the air to stop the chatter. ‘You hold on there, Chase. Our police officer here is right. There’s no need to press the big red button just yet. Merlot is not going to go to the media. She may attempt to influence Sheriff Lowe, perhaps even her own agency, but SAC Doman will work with us on this. He won’t want to be tainted with failure in relation to this particular investigation. If we can get Muller to back off, then I’m sure Merlot will as well.’

  ‘Why take the risk?’ Ebben asked, glancing around the table. ‘Ensuring the man doesn’t talk has to be better than hoping.’

  ‘We should consider buying him off,’ Jennings suggested.

  Jubb spent a few seconds mulling that over before replying in an even manner. ‘The man believes his son was killed in error, and that the boy is unjustifiably regarded as a monster. What amount of money pays for his silence?’

  ‘I have no clue. I can come up with a legal confidentiality agreement. We determine the maximum we’re willing to go to, and I’ll low ball him initially and work my way up if I need to.’

  ‘It’s an idea,’ Weekes said. ‘Still gives us options if he’s not prepared to listen and play ball.’

  ‘You have another problem,’ Ebben said, his voice flat and low this time.

  Jubb wasn’t sure he liked the way his chief of staff excluded himself, but he nodded for Ebben to continue.

  ‘Merlot has already involved a third party. Guy by the name of Duncan Baxter. He was a teacher at the school. He retired in the summer.’

  ‘In what way is he involved?’

  ‘That I don’t know. Merlot also visited the Copping residence and spoke with the youngest son, Mitchell, and the mother. Baxter went with her. We have to assume he knows what she knows, and that he’s a party to it somehow.’

  ‘They went to the Coppings’ farm? Did you even consider leading with that one, Chase?’

  ‘It’s not as harmful as it sounds. They were in and out within thirty minutes.’

  ‘Did they learn anything while they were there?’

  Ebben shook his head. ‘Not a whole lot.’

  Jubb nodded, quickly running through the permutations. ‘Okay. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of this Baxter fellow. Check him out for me, Chase. I want to know everything there is to know about him by lunchtime tomorrow. By the way, why did they want to speak with the Copping kid?’

  ‘Supposedly to ask some general questions about Kevin Muller, his friends, the school.’

  ‘You get all this from Michael?’ Weekes asked.

  ‘Yeah. The boy’s father is not a happy man. He regards the interview as a violation of his son’s civil rights, and was ready to do something about it there and then. I put a lid on things, but this Baxter character is going to be a problem for us.’

  ‘As if we need another,’ Jubb complained. ‘All right, you know what you have to do. And make sure Copping stays muzzled until we get a handle on this.’

  He adopted a don’t ask-don’t tell policy in respect of how Ebben went about his job. As the mayor’s chief of staff he was part advisor, part fixer, part security and intelligence officer, and part wingman. If he used questionable methods, that was his business alone. Deniability was the key, and when Ebben was asked to become involved, no request or instructions were ever written down or recorded. If something needed to get done it got done. If Ebben
said he was going to take care of a problem, he was given a free rein to achieve the desired objectives. Even so, to Jubb’s mind the man was way too eager to get involved in this.

  ‘What do you think, Chauncey?’ Weekes asked, turning to him after a lull in the conversation.

  That was the cop’s way. Not only did he seldom soil his own hands when things got tough and dirty, his opinions were as rare as hens’ teeth. Jubb gave it a few moments longer before reaching a decision.

  ‘Shane, you focus on Muller and put together that non-disclosure document. I’m pretty sure we won’t be able to buy his cooperation, but let’s test the water at least. As for this Baxter fellah, teachers are always complaining about their pay, so let’s see how much his loyalties are worth. When you’ve figured out a suitable package for each of them I want you to go with Chase.’ He turned his gaze towards Ebben. ‘You’ll be there to observe and witness conversations and document exchanges. You hear me?’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘As for Merlot, let’s hold off on any action for the time being. For any number of reasons, she is not insignificant, so if anything were to happen to her we’d all come under immense scrutiny. But do keep an eye on her.’

  ‘How about me?’ Weekes asked, stepping up after the allocation of jobs was apparently over. Jubb smiled as he spoiled the man’s evening.

  ‘You can have words with Benton Lowe. Find out where he stands as far as the woman is concerned. I hear they go back a long way, and even if he does have a lot to lose he may eventually start to waver. I don’t want him anywhere near this thing.’

  ‘He has the authority to do so if he decides to go that way,’ Weekes argued.

  ‘Goddamnit, man!’ Jubb exploded, before calming himself. He wiped a hand across his florid face. ‘You’re a cop. He’s a cop. Kind of. Figure it out. Find out what he knows and which way he’s leaning. If it’s towards Merlot, then walk him back on that as far as you can. At least until we’re all able to meet with him to discuss it.’

  ‘In fact,’ Ebben interjected, ‘tell him exactly that, Weekes. That we all need a conversation before he does anything stupid. He’s not going to want to upset the mayor, is he?’

  The four were agreed. Jubb called a halt to the meeting and thanked them all for attending. He hung back with Ebben until the two of them were alone in the room.

  ‘Chase,’ he said, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder. ‘I need you to have a clear mind on this. I meant it when I said for you to watch Merlot but not to interfere directly. Same way I want you to handle Baxter. Approach with caution in both cases is what I’m basically saying.’

  ‘Of course. I understand what needs to be done, Chauncey.’

  ‘I hope so, Chase. The situation is febrile. We can’t have her running off at the mouth, but neither can we afford to remove her from the picture if we don’t have to.’

  ‘I have the matter in hand. You don’t need to worry.’

  ‘Worrying is my job,’ Jubb said. He winked at Ebben. ‘On the other hand, I trust your judgement. If you get a sense that this will spiral out of our control without affirmative action, then you do what you think best. You hear me?’

  ‘Of course. I never assumed otherwise.’

  Jubb slapped his friend on the arm. ‘You’re a fine man, Chase. You and I have come a long way, and we are going places far beyond our wildest dreams, my friend. Being the mayor of this pissant town is only the first step. We can’t afford any hiccups along the way. Is that understood?’

  Ebben nodded. It was all that was necessary.

  Twenty-Four

  ‘I don’t like the way we left things between us,’ Benton said. They were out on the deck, a slice of pie each, steam from mugs of hot coffee rippling the air. ‘I wanted to both apologise to you, and talk about this case of yours.’

  Sydney was surprised. Not especially by his appearance at her home, nor his apology. More that he had come to her prepared to discuss Dexter Muller’s claims. Benton Lowe, the man, was the type to reconsider his actions and accept fault where it was due. Benton Lowe, the sheriff, was a law enforcer who relied upon the support of his deputies and the votes of the local community to keep him in that high-ranking elected office. The fact that he was willing to speak with her about it suggested he harboured doubts of his own.

  She responded with a warm smile. ‘I’m happy you came, Doc. I don’t like falling out with anyone, least of all my best friends. I do understand that what I had to say caught you unawares, and that my decision probably disappointed you. It may even have hurt you. But I hope you realise why I couldn’t turn my back on it.’

  ‘I do. You wouldn’t be you, Syd, if you failed to follow through on something this important. To be clear and above board, I am willing to talk to you about this in a better frame of mind than I was in before, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to end up agreeing with you. Not about any of it. Okay?’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Then let’s get to it. You begin while I have me some of this pie.’

  Sydney left her own slice untouched, but sipped some coffee to moisten her throat. It had been a long day and she was feeling exhausted, but this was more important than rest. ‘Leaving emotions aside, and also ignoring our friendship and our respective jobs, I want to lay it out as I see it. From everything I have learned about him, Kevin Muller had the kind of child-like nature that made him susceptible to coercion. A kid who’d be easy to manipulate into pulling on what he would have regarded as a costume and then playing a joke on someone at the behest of a person he perhaps looked up to, or at the very least wished to please.’

  Benton agreed. ‘I’ll give you that. From everything I learned about him, Muller was a malleable teenager and eager to be friends with people.’

  ‘So it is possible that the actual gunman carried out the act, exchanged clothing with Kevin and gave the boy his instructions. He would have been told to ignore all warnings to stop, that it was merely part of the game. That explains why forensics would have found Kevin’s hair and fibres and DNA on the clothes he wore, GSR on the gloves. It also tells us why he failed to stop when ordered to do so.’

  ‘Sure. Except that we found only his trace evidence on the inside of the gloves and clothing. If somebody else previously wore them, then later removed and handed them over to Kevin, we would have discovered a secondary forensic source.’

  Sydney was ready for that argument. ‘The real gunman could have worn some form of protective clothing beneath the items he stripped out of and passed across to Kevin.’

  ‘That sound likely to you, Syd?’

  ‘It sounds possible, and as far as I’m concerned that needs to be the starting point.’

  Benton nodded, sucking on his teeth. ‘I guess I’ve accepted that. It’s why I’m here.’

  ‘Fine. So, if not Kevin Muller then who? That’s the next obvious question. I have spoken to two teachers, neither of whom believe Kevin had it in him to do this terrible thing. In fact, one of them insists the boy was incapable of pulling off something on such a scale. I have also been given the names of three other students at Moon Falls High School who fit the profile in every conceivable way. It’s my personal and professional opinion that these boys ought to be interviewed in connection with the massacre.’

  Benton set down his plate. Drank some of his coffee, which was losing heat rapidly. He used his tongue to work out some of the berry pits from between his molars. Took a long, drawn-out breath before replying.

  ‘Syd, I gave Dexter Muller’s theory a lot of consideration. Earlier today, I even asked Isaac what he thought about it. We both decided it was possible. But that doesn’t make it probable, nor even close to being likely. Even so, the possibility means it’s worth reinvestigating to a certain extent. Now, despite your many years in the job, you’ve never been an elected officer of the law, so let me tell you any official reopening of this case will result in a stampede of boots in my office that will keep me desk-bound for about a month. The mayor,
city council, even the commissioner. Not to mention the school board and local business owners. I’m answerable to the people of this county.’

  ‘Are you saying they won’t want to know the truth?’

  ‘Come on, Syd. That’s not what I’m getting at, and you know it. You may never have been on this side of the fence, but you know how the game is played. Sure, the people want truth and justice every bit as much as you or I. But there are a lot of people who do not wish to have their toes trampled on in an effort to get there, not when they believe we already have and that the whole sorry incident was put to bed two months ago.’

  Squinting at him, Sydney said, ‘Of course I see that, Ben. I do. But what exactly are you saying? Are you telling me it’s too much effort, not worth the effort, or that you fear the result of that effort?’

  ‘The latter. Which I hope you knew before you asked. Thing is, you go poking the bear around here, the bear is inclined to poke back. And it’s got much bigger paws than I do. The FBI, my office, the Sonora PD, and the Tuolumne county coroner have all agreed that Kevin Muller was solely responsible for the deaths of fourteen fellow students. That’s not a hornet’s nest I’d be stirring up, we’re looking at a nest of tarantula hawks here.’

  ‘So whatever you do needs to be done with great care.’

  ‘Exactly. I guarantee that within an hour of my opening the case again, each of those departments I listed will be either on the phone to me or standing in my office making demands. In all probability, they’ll suspend me from my job before I managed to squeeze myself past them. You think when they appoint my temporary replacement they will choose a person with their own mind, or somebody who will follow their lead?’

  Sydney realised for the first time how tough a position Benton was in. Even if he were fully committed to reexamining the evidence against Kevin Muller – which she suspected he was not – the likelihood of him surviving in post long enough to do so was small. And the same would go for every honourable deputy in the department. It was how local politics worked. Popularity around voting time was the driving force behind every campaign, and neither she nor Benton would find many supporters willing to back their play. Picking off the scab to make a wound raw again was not something people willingly embraced, and the truth would undoubtedly get lost amidst the furore.