Fifteen Coffins

by Tony J. Forder

  Before doing that, she had to figure out exactly what she had got herself into.

  Relieved to find Sonia already seated inside the diner, Sydney took in the view through the window out onto the lake. Tall pines encircled the man-made body of water, beyond which the mountains loomed majestically as if surveying their bounty. Smaller, but similar to Pinecrest, it was a favourite area for locals but one which was off limits to tourists unless they were also guests of members.

  After apologising to Sonia for being tardy, Sydney ordered a BLT and fries, plus a chocolate chip milkshake. The two chatted amiably for a few minutes, neither pushing the other on the reason for the meeting until they were finished with their food and sitting back in their padded booth seats.

  ‘First thing I have to say,’ Sydney began, ‘is that so far I’ve got nowhere with your investigation. I’ve been straight with you right from the beginning about this, Sonia. My time is mostly taken up by another case, and if you want to go with a different agency all you have to do is say the word. I promise I will attend to your issues as soon as I have resolved my own. But if you decide you can’t wait, then of course I understand.’

  After a few moments, Sonia took a deep breath and exhaled gently. ‘For some reason, Sydney, I trust you on this. I told you the day we met that you seem to be as much of a straight shooter as your father, and I get the feeling it will be worth my while to wait for your attention.’

  ‘That’s awfully kind and generous of you to say so. I can guarantee I will honour my commitment.’

  ‘Well, then we’re fine. Except for one small thing.’

  Sydney’s eyebrows angled downwards. ‘Which is?’

  ‘The reason you invited me to lunch today. I know you didn’t call for this meeting to tell me you still had nothing for me. You could have done that much over the phone. So I’m guessing there’s more to it than that.’

  It was Sydney’s turn to breathe deeply. Nodding, she said, ‘You’re right. I have something to discuss with you. Something to ask. I have no idea if you will be so offended by what I have to say that you’ll throw the rest of your drink in my face and storm off. But there’s something I need to know, and you are the only one I can turn to for answers.’

  Sonia’s eyes widened, her nostrils flared. Her reaction was predictable; a woman steeling herself for something dreadful to happen. Sydney acknowledged her guilt at putting fear into the woman’s heart and mind, but she carried on regardless.

  ‘The night my father visited you, the night he died, the night he was somehow run off the road… well, I believe he was murdered. I think whoever was responsible nudged him off that road for a reason. In my view it was a deliberate act, no hit-and-run accident at all.’

  Kasper appeared visibly shocked by the suggestion. ‘Oh, my goodness. How awful for you. You must be outraged at the possibility.’

  ‘More than you can possibly imagine. If I’m right – and I’m pretty sure I am – then somebody thinks they got away with murdering my father. I aim to prove that person wrong.’

  ‘I’m quite sure you do,’ Sonia said, shaking her head in astonishment. ‘But what has that got to do with…’

  A silence fell between them as if a soundproof wall had slammed down across the centre of the table they both occupied. Sonia’s mouth hung open. Her eyes blinked in rapid succession. Eventually she swallowed, looked down at her trembling hands and then back up again.

  ‘But why?’ she asked, those two words revealing genuine disbelief. ‘Why would you suspect Gerry of all people? He didn’t even know your father.’

  ‘I’m aware of that,’ Sydney said. ‘But please, give me a moment to run it by you. How it may have happened. Then you tell me if I’m crazy or not.’

  Her lunch partner nodded, but the concern in her gaze hardened.

  ‘My father drove over to your home as arranged. He spent some time indoors with you while you discussed your problems. What if your husband was parked up down the street somewhere? You did say you thought he’d been watching you like a hawk. So, with the possibility that you’re cheating on him already at the forefront of his mind, he sees my father come, he sees him leave sometime later. Gerry wrongly figures him to be your lover – the one he’s accused you of having. He follows my father. I’m not suggesting he intended to hurt him at that point, but you know your husband, Sonia. Can you imagine him? Can you see him, perhaps a few drinks inside him, talking to himself, cursing you, cursing the man in the SUV ahead of him? Getting heated, riling himself up. Does he have a snapping point like that? Could he possibly have acted without thinking and in a moment of pure rage decided to ram into my father’s car and push him off the road, down the sloping verge?’

  Without hesitation, Sonia Kasper shook her head. It was firm. It carried conviction. Sydney’s shoulders sagged as Sonia spoke. ‘Gerry may be a lot of things. No, check that. He is a lot of things. He’s mean, he can be nasty to the point of ugly. He likes to dominate, especially around women. He’s a man’s man if you know what I mean. Sure, he has his wild side, and for all of those reasons I don’t want to live with him anymore. But there is no way he did what you are suggesting, Sydney. I don’t believe it. I won’t.’

  ‘How can you be so certain? With a man like that. How can you?’

  ‘Because it’s not all about the act itself. It’s also what comes afterwards. You asked me if I could imagine him doing those things, and in truth I can see Gerry doing anything in a moment of madness in which he has lost control of his emotions. But what I also know about him is that he would not be able to live with it. It would grind him down and chew him up inside. He is a terrible bully at times, but he also has a conscience. That’s who he is. That’s how I can be so confident.’

  Sydney put her head down. It had all been supposition on her part. A series of deductions based upon Gerry Kasper having been outside his wife’s home at exactly the time Sydney’s father happened to arrive. Or at the very least, when he left. Not an impossibility, but all the more implausible every time she looked at it from a different angle.

  She had no idea if someone had killed her father or not. Her inability to accept the incident report, to conclude that her father had been sent hurtling to his death following an accidental collision, after which the driver of the other vehicle had fled the scene, was surely symptomatic of her more reasonable refusal to accept his absence from her life. Was it not enough to feel a burning rage towards whoever was responsible, without convincing herself that something more unbearable lay behind it?

  Enough, Sydney!

  The thought rang out so violently inside her head that for a second she imagined she had cried the words out loud. They echoed for the longest time.

  Enough. Look at the pain you have already caused this poor woman. Look at the state you managed to get yourself into over this man. Investigators went over the scene and came to the conclusion you have lived with these past few weeks. The time has come for you to deal with it. Accept it for what it was and then move on.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said in a hushed voice. Her eyes flickered and met those of Sonia Kasper. ‘Please forgive me. I hope you will come to understand that this is me not at my fully functioning best. It’s been hard for me to come to terms with what happened to my father that night. I think because I regarded him as indestructible, I have a hard time believing I lost him to something as arbitrary as a mere road accident. I was looking for something that wasn’t there, and in my desperate need to assign blame and track down the person responsible, I latched upon a man who fell across my path quite by chance.’

  Sonia waved across the waitress before rising to her feet. Face tight and lips a thin straight line, she peered down at Sydney for a long minute. Then her body relaxed, and she lost her harsh creases. ‘You’re buying lunch, right?’ she said.

  ‘Yes.’ Sydney nodded. ‘Of course.’

  ‘Well, then I guess I’ll get the next one.’

  Sydney thought her own body might fold in on itself a
t any moment and slump in a heap onto the floor. She held out her hand. ‘Thank you for your understanding,’ she whispered, afraid of a break in her voice encouraging the shedding of tears.

  Sydney was happy Kasper had come around. The woman had sounded sincere, and genuinely believed in her husband’s innocence. Sydney wasn’t so confident. In her opinion, Gerry Kasper was more than a bully. There was another whole layer of nastiness beneath the surface, suggesting that in the right circumstances he was capable of being a dangerous man. That much had been clear from the look in his eyes at the truckstop. Sydney decided to keep that little nugget to herself as she apologised once more.

  ‘Honey, you didn’t have your head on straight,’ Sonia said. ‘That’s all this was. Let’s chalk it up to grief and put it to one side. You call me when you have news for me, okay?’

  ‘Okay.’

  Kasper gave her a look of concern. ‘Regards your father’s death, do you have anyone else in mind other than Gerry?’

  ‘I don’t know anymore,’ Sydney replied, shaking her head in the hope of clearing a way through the fog of confusion. ‘I wonder if it’s connected to another case entirely. Or if I’m completely wrong and it was exactly what it appeared to be.’

  Thirty-Three

  Chauncey Jubb was about fit to burst. The Moon Falls mayor shifted restlessly behind the wheel of his shiny new Silverado pickup. Less than a couple of feet away, sitting in the driving seat of his own GMC Sierra, Chase Ebben was bringing him up to date with the Sydney Merlot situation.

  ‘Our pet cop is getting cold feet,’ he told Jubb.

  The Mayor bristled. ‘Fuck him. Andy Weekes will dance to my tune or he’ll find himself guarding the Oak Valley Community Bank. Did he have words with the sheriff?’

  ‘He did. Lowe insists he sent Dexter Muller’s statement to the FBI.’

  ‘So what’s Weekes beefing about?’

  ‘The guy says he doesn’t feel comfortable with this aspect of the plan. When it was a simple matter of getting under the Merlot woman’s skin, he was okay with that. But what Peavey did angered him, and he’s not happy about the way we’re handling this.’

  Jubb shook his head, jowls quivering like a pink blancmange. ‘Tell that prick to sack up. I don’t give a damn about what he is or is not happy with. Remind our bought and paid for police officer that he is in this with us, right up to his fat neck.’

  Ebben quickly hid a smirk behind his hand. But not quick enough.

  ‘What?’ Jubb challenged. ‘You got something to say to me, Chase? You think because I got several flabby chins I can’t talk shit about another man’s weight issues? Are you also in need of reminding about who holds the balance of power here?’

  The mayor saw Ebben’s eyes flatten and turn dull, as if a thin film of ice had coated them with a membrane of contempt. The man said nothing, staring back until it was Jubb who grew uncomfortable and blinked and glanced away first.

  ‘All right,’ he said, adding an edge of gruffness to a voice that otherwise bordered on weak. ‘I may have stepped over the line there. I’m sorry.’

  Ebben shook his head and made a vapid indication with his hand. ‘No need to apologise, Chauncey. There are only friends here.’

  Jubb wasn’t so sure about that. He’d previously witnessed the way Ebben turned on a dime when somebody pushed the right button; from friendly to savage in the blink of an eye. His chief of staff and fixer had a heart so cold, Jubb didn’t even want to think about what he was capable of.

  The mayor had called the meeting, keeping it to the two of them this time. Ebben had not required an explanation as to why. Parked up off the road close to the entrance to New Melones Lake, it was quiet there after dark, the whisper of a breeze the only sound other than the constant din of insects droning somewhere in the undergrowth. Staring out across the lake, Jubb saw moonlight kissing the still surface of the water, reflecting back its silvery light. On any other evening the sight would have made him relax. It was going to take more than a great view to inspire that in him at that moment.

  ‘So, the Merlot woman,’ he pressed. ‘You think you can apply enough pressure to ensure we see the back of her?’

  Ebben cleared his throat and coughed into a clenched hand. ‘I guess we’ll find out. We’re not dealing with some ordinary civilian here, remember. Bitch does what she does for a living she’s going to have a hard outer shell. Might be difficult to break through that. Whatever her own people said to her doesn’t seem to have held her back none, though. The day after the four of us met up, she spoke to the Rains boy.’

  Jubb’s mouth became instantly dry. ‘What about?’

  ‘I got close enough to use my parabolic listening kit. That baby’s good for three-hundred feet. It was a bit scratchy, but from what I picked up I’d say she and Baxter are fixating on how come Rains was shot three times yet somehow survived.’

  ‘And how exactly did that happen, Chase?’

  ‘I don’t know. But if bullets miss vital organs and arteries, your survival chances are better than fifty-fifty.’

  ‘So they have something to follow up on.’

  ‘They think they have.’

  ‘Her and Baxter, you say?’

  ‘Yeah. Merlot visited the Rains’ place with the sheriff, but it’s her and Baxter who are dug in on this. Like I said before, he’s going to need dissuading.’

  ‘Seems to me he always did,’ Jubb said with a sour grunt. ‘I looked the guy up online. Surprised I hadn’t heard about him before, but I guess at the time of the shootings he was one vox pop opinion lost in a sea of them. The man shot his mouth off and had way too much to say for himself for my liking. But with him having left the profession, we lack the kind of official leverage needed to keep him quiet.’

  ‘Well, now he has an ally. And so does she. I think that upped the ante.’

  Jubb mopped beads of sweat from his brow with a square of handkerchief taken from his jacket pocket. Used the time to think more about which direction everything appeared to be heading.

  ‘Okay, Chase,’ he eventually said. ‘You keep eyes and ears on the pair of them. On the Rains home, too.’

  ‘No action?’

  ‘Not yet. We don’t want to react too soon.’

  ‘How about Copping?’ Ebben asked, a cool glint in his eyes.

  ‘You want to tangle with that lunatic at this point?’

  ‘I’m not saying that. Though it would increase the opportunity for me to have some fun.’ He grinned for a moment. ‘No, I was wondering if you wanted coverage on their place, too.’

  ‘You can get it done?’

  Ebben coughed up a laugh. ‘This is me you’re talking to here, Chauncey.’

  ‘You sure you ain’t spreading yourself too thin? I mean, I know you have guys who also have guys, but the number of people you’re monitoring is rising every day it seems to me.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it, boss. I can’t do it all myself, and I have to rely on other people. They’re pros, though. They’ll come through for us.’

  ‘Do they know what’s at stake?’

  ‘Of course not. They know what I tell them, which ain’t an awful lot. So what are we going to do about Baxter? Has Jennings figured out an offer yet?’

  ‘Shane is my next call. By tomorrow he’ll have put together the right package. He has to figure out the man’s financials first. You okay to head over there with Shane when I say so?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘Dexter Muller’s place, too?’

  ‘Of course.’

  Jubb puffed out his cheeks. The situation was not as he would have liked, but Ebben had contained it pretty well so far. His confidence had increased knowing they had eyes and ears on all of the main players. Especially Merlot. He had moved some pieces into place. With a bit of luck, they would know precisely who she spoke to and exactly what was said. He nodded to himself and decided he had one final thing to discuss with his security advisor.

  ‘You sniff out anything that looks as
if it’s turning on us,’ he said, ‘you have my full authority to act in any way you see fit. Let me caution you, though. I know what you’re like, Chase. Inside you, beneath that armour of respectability, lies the beating heart of a pure psychopath desperate for some heavy-duty action. That’s all well and good, and it’s been of considerable use to us in the past, but I’m also trusting you to use sound judgement. You only consider a final solution if you have explored and exhausted all other possibilities first. In particular when it comes to Merlot. She is still an FBI agent. Anything happens to her, especially after everything she has been saying over the past few days, they are going to look at this town and all of us in it real hard. We don’t need that kind of heat.’

  ‘But equally you don’t need any of them digging too much deeper, right?’

  ‘It’s a fine balance. It calls for some fine judgement.’

  ‘Which I happen to have in spades.’

  Jubb winked. ‘I think we understand each other, Chase.’

  The look on Ebben’s face disturbed him, but he’d rather be working with the man than against him. At that precise moment, he pitied both Duncan Baxter and Sydney Merlot. If push came to shove, neither would ever hear Chase Ebben coming.

  Thirty-Four

  Sydney spent the remaining hours of Sunday lost in a fog of thought. Although she had pretty much concluded that Gerry Kasper was not responsible for her father’s death, she could not automatically rule him out of breaking into her home. Still, he did not strike her as the kind of man for whom subtlety was a go-to weapon, and in her estimation he was more likely to confront her in person as he had at the truck stop diner than sneak around her house while she was either out or asleep in her bed. There was also the break-in attempt at Duncan Baxter’s place to consider, which was another reason to dismiss Kasper from any list of suspects.